In Depth Articles (44 Tutorials)

In Depth: Freelancing Essentials, Part 1: Creating Your Brand

July 26, 2017

With any small business owner or freelancer, you’ll wear many hats. You will likely be the artist, the marketer, the accountant, the custodian, and more. You’ll constantly be thinking about your current job, your next job, who you can rely on to help you. It’s a lot of work and it’s sometimes exhausting! Not only this, you’ll end up taking on a higher amount of tax burden than someone who works for a corporation. Still, the appeal of being your own boss and working your own hours is very appealing.

This is the first in a series for those who are freelancing and those who want to be their own bosses. Some of the tips will be specific to video and digital media, and others will be more general. Today’s topic is creating your brand, which has to do with marketing, sales, and protecting your brand.

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In Depth: Keying and Background Removal in Photoshop, Part 2: Primatte Chromakey

February 14, 2017

Part 2 of this series on background removal covers Digital Anarchy’s Primatte Chromakey and how to use it with Photoshop for the best workflow possible.

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In Depth: Skin Retouching Part 5: Some New Tools and Tutorials

March 2, 2016

Since I started this series, there have been a couple of new tools on the market for skin touch-up and smoothing, as well as a couple of useful tutorials on the topic. I’ll talk about Sheffield Makeup Artist III, which came out in February, and Boris Continuum Complete Beauty Studio.

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In Depth: Scanimate Animation System #TBT

February 26, 2015

At Half Rez in Chicago last November, Nick Campbell of Greyscalegorilla took us on a historical journey to the birth of television motion graphics with Scanimate. I had seen the retro-futuristic Scanimate animation throughout my childhood on shows like Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but I never realized what this analog wizardry was. If you’re over 35 years old, you have certainly seen Scanimate animation content on TV. Today I’ll explain Scanimate and show you lots of fun examples.

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In Depth: Skin Retouching Part 3: More Plug-ins + Tutorials

January 27, 2015

Welcome to the final installment of this series on skin retouching. I’ve already covered loads of plug-ins available for After Effects and a few NLEs, linked to lots of tutorials and given you several tips on how to touch up skin, keeping your actor as natural looking as possible. This article includes even more plug-ins and some recent tutorials for all sorts of compositors and editing tools.

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In Depth: Skin Retouching and Digital Makeup, Part 1

July 25, 2014

Do you need to make some small fixes to the skin of your actor, like fixing a blemish or blotchiness? Here’s part 1 of a 2 part series on Skin Retouching and Digital Makeup to get you started!

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In Depth: Keying: Pre-Processing Greenscreen Footage for Keying

February 4, 2014

If your greenscreen footage didn’t turn out as perfectly as you had hoped, here are some things that you can do to fix problems and not create new ones.

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In Depth: Motion Stabilization Options, Part 2 of 2

January 31, 2013

Sometimes using a tripod is not an option and you’re forced to shoot hand-held. Maybe you’re shooting in an amusement park, botanical gardens, or a concert and tripods are not allowed in. Unless you have the ability to stand perfectly still, you will likely need to stabilize the footage in postproduction. Motion stabilization is used to smooth footage and remove camera shake.

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In Depth: Noise/Grain Plug-ins for After Effects, Final Cut and Other NLEs, Part 1 of 2

January 3, 2013

Here’s the rundown of noise and grain reduction plug-ins on the market for After Effects and other NLE’s, rated on speed, accuracy and quality, as well as return on investment. This article will focus mostly on grain and noise reduction but also touch upon matching and adding grain and noise.

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