Shot On What? - The Technical IMdB

Have you ever wondered how a certain movie is made from a technical point of view? Have you ever ask questions like what camera did they shoot on? what did they edit on? Did they use this software or that program to edit and do the VFX? I know I have asked that question about several films.

If you wanted to know the answers to questions like those, then I have the site for you! Shotonwhat.com is an awesome database that shows you what tech and software that they used for certain movies. Its kind of like IMdB for film techies.

Through this site I learned about which movies used which software such as After Effects and Maya. After Effects, while not the Hollywood standard based on the data I saw, is still quite popular and used for a good amount of films, including those from Marvel such as Iron Man 2, Captain America, and the Avengers. And Maya... Maya is basically the standard for 3D and VFX in Hollywood (at least thats what it seems like) based on the LARGE list of movies that say they used Maya in Post production.

The only downsides I would say about this site is that not every category for a film is filled in, so some data is still missing. And Some movies might not actually be up there, although Id say a large majority of movies are on this site. Also I wish that this site would specifically explain what each software or piece of gear of was used for on the movie.

But overall, I really love this site because its very cool to see the technical side of things when it comes to movie making.

I definitely recommend checking it out here: https://shotonwhat.com/    

A lesson on Keyboard Shortcuts

Today, I decided to write my blogpost on one of the most useful things in any software: the Keyboard Shortcuts. Abusing keyboard shortcuts can help you maximize efficiency, and help you work a whole lot faster.

The Easy Ones:

Alright, these are the ones that are pretty standard in most programs, so we'll run through them quickly...

Hotkey	Command
CTRL-N	New Composition
CTRL-S	Saves the project
CTRL-D	Duplicates a layer/composition/effect
CTRL-I	Imports a file
CTRL-K	Opens up the Composition Settings
CTRL-ALT-;	Opens up After Effects' Settings
CTRL-R	Enable Rulers
Shift-F10	Reset your workspace to default

Composition Hotkeys:

Here we have a bunch of hotkeys that add or do something to a composition...

Hotkey	Command
CTRL-Y	Creates a New Solid
CTRL-Shift-Y	Opens the Layer Settings
CTRL-M	Add the Composition to the Render Queue (to export)
U	Opens all the parameters that contain active keyframes
P	Opens the Position parameter
S	Opens the Scale parameter
T	Opens the Opacity(transparancy) parameter
R	Opens the Rotation parameter
SHIFT (R/T/P/S/etc.)	Keeps current parameters open, and also opens a new parameter
M	Shows a list of available masks on your layer
Space	Allows you to Click-And-Drag around your composition
Shift-?	Sets the composition to "Fit To Window" view
/	Sets the composition to "100%" view
CTRL-Alt-Shift-Y	Creates a Null Object

General Useful Ones:

These are all around really useful and should be used whenever you can...

Hotkey	Command
`	Hover over a window and click "`" to maximize that window, and hide the other views
V	The basic selection tool
Y	The Pan-Behind tool
Q	The Rectangle/Elipse/Polygon tool
G	The Pen tool
CTRL-T	The Text tool
Alt-W	The Roto-Brush tool
Numpad 0	The "RAM Preview" play button
F4	Shifts between Switches/Modes in the timeline

And there you have it! Now, I didn't want to go into EVERY hotkey that exists in After Effects, that would take forever. These are simply the hotkeys that I find myself using on a day-to-day basis, and think they are essential for people to know.

No pictures today, so enjoy this stock image!

How Language Can Effect Our Life

In my first post I talked about the benefits animation could serve for education. I'm going to follow the same train today, sense I recently found another video that beautifully demonstrates how it can make learning much more enjoyable of a task.

(just copy and paste the link – for some reason blogger could not find the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US7wLCbZ84M

I thought the combination of information and animation made this an incredibly interesting video. My curiosity was sparked by this video and I found this TED Talk that covers the same theory.

I was very fascinated by the research behind how language can effect your lifestyle. Of course this is still a theory and is not fully proven, but in a globalizing world this can help us further understand the cultural differences we face between different groups and ethnicities.