A new wave of creation

Taking a link from one of the many Youtubers that provides tutorials on animation software, I was particularly drawn to this one in particular called Hexjibber.  What I found to be unique about his tutorials is that they include techniques and working in more than one Adobe software program.  The playlist that I found was a series that creates some looping animations of special effects that are akin to those from anime.  There are some like waves washing, dust flying, dirt streaks, and even fire.  What makes these so valuable is that he goes through After Effects first to create a template to follow, and then draws over them in Flash.  The specific one I was working in was the tutorial that creates dust and smoke flying, which I wanted to use for creating a race car scene and have them drive past real quickly (still brainstorming how that will fit into my projects...).  The video starts out with applying a series of wave warp effects to some shape layers in After Effects, exporting them as a PNG sequence, importing it into Flash and then drawing over each reference layer to create your own effect.

It really was and is a great way to get more practice in both the technical and artistic side of animation, and it could be a great way for an animation team to create action sequences and special effects.  Members with the more technical knowledge would create the reference layers, and the lead animators would draw over them in Flash.  I love how this series of tutorials encompasses both pieces of software, making it for quite an interesting exercise.  I would have been able to do the drawing part if it weren't for the fact that me and my drawing tablet have a love-hate relationship.

More Helpful Tutorial Sites

As Arturo mentioned in class, Video Copilot and Lynda.com are great sites to help you get more comfortable in After Effects. I'd like to add on to that and give you all links to the YouTubers that I learned from. Go check them out and follow the tutorials that interest you.

Mt. Mograph - Creates really neat and minimalistic After Effects projects. Really simple and quick to follow, plus you'll have something at the end to show for your hard work.

Ch-Ch-Check It - These guys stopped uploading in the last few months, but they've uploaded tutorials regarding After Effects and Photoshop in the past. They have similar attitudes to Andrew Kramer of Video Copilot and they're just really cool guys.

VinhSon Nguyen - This guy is one of the harder YouTubers to follow, especially recently, but I'm sure you can find some tutorials to either follow along to or get inspiration from.

VFX Bro - The VFX Bro is the other half of FinalCutKing (if you've ever seen his vines). VFX Bro goes more into the behind the scenes of the effects.

Howard Pinsky - Howard Pinsky, maybe better known as Ice Flow Studios in years past, has a bunch of Photoshop tutorials, which can really help you out in After Effects.

Sam and Niko - Sam and Niko are best known online as CorridorDigital, an entrepreneurial filmmaking studio out in LA. These guys have been making videos forever and this is their behind the scenes channel. You'll find so many tutorials on how they do their effects, plus they're really chill.

BrandonJLa - Brandon Laatsch, the other half of FreddieW before they disbanded last year, posted all the behind the scenes videos for them including the After Effects tutorials that got me into it.

TrooperFX - Ok so this guy doesn't post tutorials, but his motion graphics are incredibly inspirational.

AcrezHD - Acrez used to post videos, I don't think he has in a while, but he's a great tutorial channel that you should definitely check out.

Hexjibber - Hexjibber is a bridge between After Effects and Flash and if you're really into Flash animation or just Anime style animation, this is the guy to check out.