Photoshop CS4 Video & Animation covers a lot of material that can all be done INSIDE Photoshop CS4 Extended. Techniques covered range from basic video editing and animation techniques, to rotoscoping, frame animation, video clean-up/retouching, masking, smart filters & FX, green screen compositing, 3D modeling and animation, and my favorite: 3D stereoscopic FX! (3D Glasses included in disk) – also includes all sample projects and source footage/image files on the DVD.

Sample movies will soon be up on the PhotoshopCAFE channel on Adobe TV.

Don’t forget the best companion DVD to this title is also at PhotoshopCAFE.com!

Learning After Effects CS4 is available by clicking the image above or in the “Published” panel to your right.

Some of the 3D stereoscopic materials I’ve been sharing with you in the recent weeks are included on these DVDs. Look for more info and samples to follow here in my Blog after NAB!

Cheers!
Jeff

“Learning After Effects CS4″ and “Photoshop CS4 Video & Animation”

Here’s my current session schedule:

4/20 Mon 3:30-4:45pm [N254] – Character Animation from Photoshop Layers with After Effects

4/20 Mon 5:00-6:15pm [N254] – 3D Stereoscopic Motion Graphics in After Effects CS4

4/21 Tues 2:00-3:15pm [N254] – Motion Tracking & Stabilization with After Effects CS4 & Mocha for AE

4/21 Tues 3:30-4:45pm [N264] – Green Screen Keying and Mattes in After Effects CS4

4/22 Wed 10am-1:00pm [N260] – Boot Camp: Photoshop for Video & Animation

4/22 Wed 3:30-4:45pm [N264] – Creative Titles with CS4 Production Premium

If you can’t make it to my sessions at NAB this year, then please check back here and I will be posting more info about articles and reviews that are upcoming, as well as more about my DVDs and other training seminars, workshops and conferences that I’ll be appearing.

Here’s a sneak peek at a couple of the projects I’ll be teaching this year… the first is from the Motion Tracking with Mocha & After Effects CS4 session (before & after)…

Motion Tracking – After Effects CS4 with Mocha from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

This next sample is from the 3D Stereoscopic in After Effects CS4 session, which was really just a simple conversion of an existing single camera 3D animation, so it wasn’t originally designed to be a Stereo 3D animation (3D glasses will be provided at the session, but you can get yours for Free – info below)…

3D Stereo Convertion – After Effects CS4 from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

Don’t have Red/Cyan 3D Glasses? Get ‘em here FREE!
Send me a self addressed stamped envelope (letter sized) and I will send you a pair!
(one pair per request)

Jeff Foster
PO Box 187
Ojai, CA 93024

Enjoy!

3D Stereo Anaglyph Coke Can Animation – Photoshop CS4 from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

3D Stereo Anaglyph Model Animation – Photoshop CS4 from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

3D Stereographic Donut Animation – Photoshop CS4 from Jeff Foster on Vimeo.

Don’t have Red/Cyan 3D Glasses? Get ‘em here FREE!
Send me a self addressed stamped envelope (letter sized) and I will send you a pair!
(one pair per request)

Jeff Foster
PO Box 187
Ojai, CA 93024

Here’s the final scene image in stereo 3D:

Final rendered 3D scene created in Photoshop CS4

I started with a 3D Model I brought into Photoshop CS4 (.3ds file type – see Blog post: http://pixelpainter.com/wordpress/?p=53), placed it into position and added a second 2D layer of a stretch of road. I then converted the “road” layer to a 3D Postcard from the 3D menu.

Using the 3D Object Rotate tool, I changed the perspective of the Road layer to closely match the angle of my 3D car model.

After adding a Drop Shadow Layer Style to the 3D car layer to simulate a real shadow (as 3D models don’t cast shadows onto other layers in Photoshop CS4), I then add a black background layer and another scenic image layer and convert it to 3D Postcard as well and position it in place. I add a layer mask to the Road layer and paint out the edges of the road with a large soft brush to create a fade to black…

Selecting the 3D car model layer I open up the 3D palette and select Render Settings and choose the Stereo Type (Red/Cyan). I change the Parallax to 30 and leave the Focal Plane at 0.

Next, I select the Road layer and set the Stereo Type as well, changing the Parallax to 10 and the Focal Plane to -100. This pushes the farthest point of the Road layer back behind the 3D car layer. *TIP: This is best to do while wearing your Red/Cyan glasses so you can make adjustments to the layers in true 3D!

I then make adjustments to the layers to match up the best visual position in 3D space using the 3D Object rotate and move tools. Lastly, I added the PixelPainter logo as a regular 2D layer with transparency, as it remains “floating” above the background layer in the 0 Focal Plane. (try moving your cursor over the rendered 3D image and you’ll see it is on the 0 Focal Plane as well! It will look like you’re cutting right into the 3D model)

Don’t have Red/Cyan 3D Glasses? Get ‘em here FREE!
Send me a self addressed stamped envelope (letter sized) and I will send you a pair!
(one pair per request)

Jeff Foster
PO Box 187
Ojai, CA 93024

Due to popular demand (okay, a few “How’d you do that?” and “Cool animated avatar!” comments) I’ve decided to show you the steps I took to animate my PixelPainter avatar in Photoshop CS4; as well as the last few steps in putting your own animated avatar (GIF) up on your Twitter account. *Tip: It’s really just a matter of persistence – and don’t believe everything you’re told!

I knew that my finished avatar needed to be square so I created a new Photoshop file and imported all the components I needed for my animation. In my case, it’s my company logo, as shown here, but with the designed Text, Arrow and Brush on separate layers in a Photoshop file. Then I scaled them to best fit the new file for the animation.

I opened the Animation palette and selected the Text layer as it was going to scroll across the panel horizontally. I decide that I want the animation to be 3 seconds in length so it’s not too big, so I condense the Work Area bar down to the 3-second mark. I then move the Time Indicator (TI) down to just short of the 1-second mark and set a keyframe for the first position by click on the Stopwatch next to the Text layer in the Animation palette. I then move the TI to the 2-second mark and click-drag on the text layer in the view panel until it goes off the left side and out of view. I can then scrub back and forth with the TI and watch my Text layer move.

I then moved on to the Arrow layer and animated it’s movement onto the “screen” in a similar way, adding keyframes on the Timeline of the Animation palette. I also animated the Opacity of the Arrow layer so it would appear to flash on/off rapidly to indicate a “click” event that starts the animation loop.

Next, I brought int he Arrow layer at the point of the animation where the blue “Painter” text starts to appear and “mocked” some brush stroke movement over time on the Timeline. *Note: I used the term “mocked” here, because to literally have the brush follow the strokes exactly over a 1/2 second period of time would merely generate a nasty blur. I know this because I tried it first!

I then add a fade at the end of my animation so it will appear to loop seamlessly going to white and then starting again in white. I select the Play button on the bottom of the Animation palette to preview the complete animation and make adjustments accordingly. This is a purely subjective process that you will have to spend some time with your own animation.

Once I was satisfied with my animation loop, I selected “Save for Web & Devices” from the File drop down menu. This opens up a new window with it’s own interface and all the tools/settings you’ll need to create an animated GIF from your Photoshop animation.

Obviously, the screen is a lot larger than the image above, so let me point out the important parts to consider…

First, be sure to select the GIF file format and choose “Selective” color. This will force the colors used to a specified amount, based on the most predominant colors in your avatar. Set the number of colors down to 64 to start. You may be able to reduce the number of colors depending on your animation design, and this will make your finished animation smaller in size and load quicker on a web page. Less is more with animated GIF files! Note that this may make your avatar look funny or posterized. Just increase the number of colors until it looks acceptable. But also be cautious of the next step that follows…

Next keep an eye on the lower-left corner of the window as you’re making the adjustments to Color, Dither and Lossy settings. These will greatly affect final file size!

If you know that your animation has to be a specific size for your forum or social community portal, then the bottom right corner is where you can make these adjustments by pixel size or percentage. You can also chose whether or not you want your animation to loop forever or a specified number of times before stopping. These choices too, will affect the final size of your animated GIF.

I’ve used my animated avatars in several Web communities, so I needed several different sizes. This was the easiest way to get all the different sizes from the one larger master Photoshop file.

Twitter Users:
Here’s a tip about getting your animated avatar into Twitter! (remember, persistence is the key – and a bit of patience)

First go to your Settings page in your Twitter account (you must be logged-in of course) and select the “Picture” tab. Click on the Browse button to locate your animated GIF on your hard drive and select “Save”.

More than likely it won’t work on the first try. You will get one of a few different error messages, such as the one shown below stating that “Twitter is over capacity.” It’s probably just their way of discouraging people from using animated GIFs for avatars – or maybe just a bugging infrastructure, but nonetheless – don’t be fooled by the error messages! This is where both persistence and patience come in. Like trying to get a “human” to talk to from the cable company, you have to keep trying… Over and over and over until eventually – Viola! It sticks!!

To see my Twitter profile with the avatar in action, CLICK HERE!

. . .

First of all, let me start this post by stating that I DO applaud Adobe for combining the animation capabilities of Image Ready into Photoshop, starting with Photoshop CS3. I was hoping they would have stepped up to the plate and given us a bit more in CS4, however. Simple things like a little more control of keyframe interpolation. Allow us a little finesse in the control of keyframes, as we have in After Effects (for several versions now). Also, the biggest disappointment is the stuttering layer movement that makes your animations look like a GIF animation from 1998. Opacity fades are a bit more smooth, but move a layer over time, and you may be a bit disheartened.

Let’s take a look at the Photoshop CS4 Animation Panel:

Photoshop CS4′s Animation Panel – showing a 3-layer animation

This is an example of a simple 3-layer animation… a background in motion, along with a mid-ground element and a foreground layer. In After Effects, this would go together quickly with many simple controls to chose from on the Timeline. However, this is a much more complicated process in Photoshop, since there are so many limitations and lack of simple animatible functions and keyframe tools.

For instance, the simple tools that would give you more control over layer animations would be:
• Keyframable Scaling
• Keyframable Rotation
• Keyframe Interpolation controls – more than just Hold or Linear (on/off)
• Smoother motion of layer elements in an animation (perhaps adjustable by frame rate?)

In comparison, let’s take a look at the After Effects CS4 Timeline Panel:

This is the After Effects CS4 Timeline Panel, split & stacked to view the details

Again, there are far more tools for animation on the Timeline Panel in After Effects than there are in Photoshop, such as Motion Blur, Frame Blending, 3D Layers, Graph Editing, and much, much more…
But what I’d like to compare are the “logical”, simple tools that Photoshop should include at minimum, like SOME Keyframe Interpolation control (even just a simple on/off for Easy Ease In/Out) and the ability to animate Scale and Rotation (or any other Transform functions, if they should chose to do so)!

Okay – so how about we take a look at the end results of this simple animation, with a side-by-side comparison video:

*Download a hi-res, non-streaming version of this video clip to really see the difference here: Hi-Res h.264 Movie Clip

Notice the difference between the smoothness of the After Effects animation compared to the Photoshop version? The only thing I did different between them was to use an Easy Ease In/Out on the Keyframe Interpolation in AE CS4… something not available in Photoshop CS4. But the quality of the layers in motion between the two examples is what I’m mainly concerned about. Both were set to 30fps as well.

So why am I so bothered by this, anyway? Why should I care if Photoshop has these tools when obviously, I have After Effects and have self-admittedly stated that I find that workflow much easier to achieve the results I’m looking for?

Well, I’m thinking about the average guy/gal here. You know, “Joe Six-pack & Jane Wine-box”. They probably don’t have the premium suite which includes After Effects, or maybe they’re intimidated by it’s complex UI, that they have to take a nap by merely opening it up and viewing it. Either way, they’re promised something in Photoshop that is still only “barely” there in my opinion.

I don’t think this is asking too much from Adobe – and I’m not trying to circumvent the After Effects capabilities by trying to do everything in Photoshop, or suggest that Photoshop is any kind of replacement for After Effects – only that Adobe considers that if they are going to go down that road by claiming Photoshop’s keyframe animation capabilities, that they NOT take a half-assed approach at it!

There.
I’ve come down to the point where I actually swore in my blog.
Thanks Adobe.

…/RANT

Jeff

First Impressions: Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended

When I first launched Photoshop CS4 Extended, I actually thought something was wrong since it only took a few seconds to load up completely. Adobe has definitely optimized this app and taken some of the “bloat” out of it to perform the way it does!

My first impression of the new Photoshop CS4 Extended UI was that it looked and felt different for some reason – seemed a bit more crowded but yet unfamiliar. Then I did a side by side comparison using the default Workplace settings to see what was moved/removed when you first launch each version. As I suspected, things HAD moved and the new UI seemed to crowd my screen a bit – and there were some new things to discover as well…

I went on to discover what truly WAS new in this release! A few notable mentions are the new Adjustments Panel (make non-destructive corrections to image layers much easier); Re-editable Masks (adjustable feathering and density-control); Refined Dodge/Burn/Sponge Tool (more natural results); Enhanced Auto-Align (stitches panoramas much better); Content Aware Scaling (*COOLEST FEATURE!! Automatically pics out subject in and image and retains their aspect ratio when scaling wide/tall); Extended Depth of Field (simulated natural DOF effect); Fluid Canvas Rotation (lets you rotate your canvas around to make drawing/sketching/retouching much more natural – especially when using a Wacom tablet!); 3D Layer Editing/Compositing (would still like to play with this some more with a simpler model than what Adobe provided – very slow and tough to manage!); Enhanced Timeline (motion graphics power! We’ll get to that more later in this Blog); Volume Rendering (does 3D volumetric imaging from text, shape or pixel layers); and many, many more improvements and refinements all around.

I will be sharing more details in the days to follow, right here in the Blog!

NOW! –> Read a more in-depth review from Colin Smith here: photoshopCAFE.com/cs4

First Impressions: Adobe After Effects CS4

I have been blown away with this latest update of Adobe After Effects CS4! Not only has the performance improved significantly, but the usability and design features that went into the UI enhancements will shave a lot of time off motion graphics producers’ project development! Not to mention the much-needed/much-improved integration with the entire Adobe Creative Suite of software.

First – lets talk about the “non-sexy” stuff like improved performance and UI features that will rock your world (if you’re into AE like I am, that is!) RAM/CPU/OpenGL usage/allocation management (all fully controllable through the Prefs); XMP Metadata integration (allows you to attach and track metadata tags on all your assets – which are retained throughout the project process and stay with the final rendered movie); Keyword-Searchable Project and Timeline Panels (search for filenames, content or attributes right from the UI); Nested Composition Tracking (creates a graphical mini-flowchart of your composition assets); Enhanced Integration with Adobe Flash CS4 Professional (export layer and timeline data that can be edited in Flash!). Not to mention a leaner application that just runs smoother, previews faster and overall workflow-friendly!

After Effects CS4 Navigation/Quicksearch:

Now – the “sexy” stuff! Import 3D Layers from Photoshop CS4 (you can now import/animate volumetric 3D layers and incorporate into your 3D scenes in After Effects CS4!); New Plug-in Effects, like Cartoon Effect (smother and more control than a “watercolor” effect); Bilateral Blur Effect (retains the hard edges in a live video clip – like “Smart Blur” on steroids); Turbulent Noise Effect (fractal-based noise effects – much more natural than just particle effects for making smoke, fire, plasma, etc.); *INCLUDED: Imagineer Systems’ Mocha for After Effects (yes, they are shipping the complete Mocha for After Effects stand-alone application along with After Effects CS4! Google it if you don’t know how incredible this tracker is!!).

Imagineer Systems’ Mocha for After Effects:

There is so much to this update – it’s so very worth the cost for a serious upgrade! *Warning: Just make sure you’re on an Intel-based machine or it won’t even install!

I will also be sharing many of these new features with examples in the weeks to follow right here in my Blog.

NOW! –> Read a more in-depth review from ME (Jeff Foster) here: photoshopCAFE.com/cs4

*Note: I have also written a couple extensive product reviews on After Effects CS4 for different publications, which I will post links to the articles and reviews as they become available online this month.