Best of 2019: The Top 10 Tutorials at Toolfarm.com

According to our website stats, these were the Top 10 Tutorials of 2019. It’s interesting that most are technical, not about creating visual effects. There are guides here for comparing 3D renderers. Learn about Apple Metal and how it affects your Adobe video programs on Mac. Learn about removing flicker from timelapse or old footage. Get an in-depth introduction to render farms and network rendering. Learn the ins and outs of adding muzzle flash, smoke, and more, to your action films. How about Python programming for Cinema 4D? Or, resetting your PSR in Cinema 4D. What is PSR? Find out by scrolling below and reading our top 10 tutorials from 2019!

Image credit: Ameer Basheer@24ameer

1 In Depth: 3D Renderers

There are so many renderers available out there, and how does an artist know what to choose? Essentially, renderers really do the same thing. However, they work differently will give different results. This article is, essentially, a breakdown of what the different renderers offer, not reviews, so you can decide which renderer is right for you. It has been kept up with each update of each 3D renderer as well, making it a great place to start if you’re making a decision.

In Depth: 3D Renderers

2 Burning Question: What is Apple Metal?

If you’re on Mac, you may notice an option in your Adobe software for Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (Metal). What is Metal for Adobe Rendering? Click to find out!

Burning Question: What is Apple Metal?

3 Burning Question: How Do I Remove Flicker from my Footage?

Flicker, brightness fluctuation, and strobing is a really annoying problem in video. It occurs when the frequency of the lights and your camera’s shutter speed don’t jive. You might get strobing or rolling bands when shooting under fluorescent lights. You’ll also get strobing bands when filming a video or computer screen. If you’ve done any film restoration, you’ll see flicker there as well. In addition, it can rear it’s ugly head when shooting time-lapse footage.

Burning Question: How Do I Remove Flicker from my Footage?

4 In Depth: Render Farms / Network Rendering / Distributed Rendering

The idea of network rendering, or distributed rendering, is to distribute your render over a network, or farm, of computers, to speed up your render times. This can be done in many different programs with a myriad of different setups, so it isn’t as straight forward and clear cut as I’d like it to be.

Creating the right storage and management can be a challenge but it’s important to get that in place first. There are tons of resources out there but I’m keeping this short and sweet so this will be a page of resources more than actual instructions. This is another one of those articles that keep getting updated as new software is released.

In Depth: Render Farms / Network Rendering / Distributed Rendering

5 C4D Spotlight: Setting Up A Render Farm in Cinema 4D with Team Render

Who wants to render faster? Everyone!! We’ve covered this topic a bit before but with Team Render for Cinema 4D, you can set up a render farm quickly and easily. Here are a couple of tutorials from Maxon
and Greyscalegorilla.

Team Render replaced Net Render in R15 and it’s fully integrated into Cinema 4D very easy to set up. “It allows distribution of frames for animation and buckets for still images to multiple computers on the network.” – Maxon.

This article was originally published in 2017 but updated in 2019.

Setting Up A Render Farm in Cinema 4D with Team Render

6 In Depth: Gunfire & Muzzle Flash

This article focuses on movie making and learning about real weapons so that the visual effects are acceptable to an audience. Making a believable composite is the most important part of convincing your audience that your gunfire is real. I can’t tell the difference between an M-16 and an AK-47 and really only know what I’ve seen in movies. If you’re wanting to make your movie realistic, talk to an expert on guns or even watch some YouTube videos with real weapons so that your guns match with the right muzzle flash. Take notes and then amp it up a bit for your movie for dramatic effect!

This was another article with a hefty update in 2019.

In Depth: Gunfire & Muzzle Flash

7 In Depth: Troubleshooting After Effects Issues and Plug-ins

Even though After Effects is a very solid product, everyone will run into issues from time to time, whether it be from corrupt preferences, random errors, codec problems, and more. Here is a general problem-solving guide on how to troubleshoot some common issues with After Effects.

This is a living guide that will be updated and changed over time. Troubleshooting an extremely broad topic and each issue can occur from a slew of circumstances. This also covers multiple versions of After Effects so the version number is not always stated. This is a guide to help you troubleshoot issues… to put you on the path and doesn’t guarantee that this advice WILL fix your issues.

In Depth: Troubleshooting After Effects Issues and Plug-ins

8 C4D Spotlight: Learning Python to Expand Cinema 4D

This is an article that is a couple of years old but has remained popular at Toolfarm. Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Learning Python will be difficult and I don’t have time. Well, learning just a bit, enough to be dangerous, can expand what you do in Cinema 4D and automate repetitive tasks to speed up your workflow. I promise that I will not get technical in this post. This is an overview of what Python is, why you might want to learn Python, and where you can learn Python for free. And, of course, a bunch of tutorials and free Python scripts!

C4D Spotlight: Learning Python to Expand Cinema 4D

9 Reset PSR: How to Center any Object in Cinema 4D

Another oldie but a goodie! Learn how to add the PSR button to Cinema 4D and how to reset it to center any object in Cinema 4D. This is a quick rundown of how to do it, no fluff.

Reset PSR: How to Center any Object in Cinema 4D

10 Maya Monday: Maya XGen and Interactive Grooming Tutorial Roundup

Maya 2017 Update 3 brought the interactive grooming tools and they’re really powerful! With XGen, you can create natural-looking hair and animal fur. Here are some overviews and examples of what XGen Interactive grooming can do. This article is from 2018 but is still a Toolfarm favorite.

Maya Monday: Maya XGen and Interactive Grooming Tutorial Roundup