I just went to my first After Effects user group meeting in Toronto last night and I had a great time. I thought creating a list of all the user groups I know in North America might help people get connected.
Digial Media Artists Los Angeles
The Dallas After Effects User Group
San Francisco’s Motion Graphics User Group
Minnesota After Effects User Group
Motion Graphics Los Angeles (Non-existent)
If you have a link to a group I missed, please post it in a comment.
80+ Excellent Cinema 4D Tutorial and Best Practices
Layered GFX
It is common to need vector images of world maps, countries and globes. Here are links to a load of free map downloads.
A collection of 13 free vector world maps
http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/free-vector-world-maps-collection/
A collection of 11 free vector world maps
http://bestdesignoptions.com/?p=1518
Dot world map
http://qvectors.com/misc-vectors/vector-map-2/
I found a great site today offering over 3500 free sound files and audio loops.
If you have any other great sites for free royalty free music please let me know.
Here is a list of web sites that will help you put together great looking color pallets.
1. Kuler
An great online flash application that allows users to create and share their color mixes.
2. EasyRGB
A website for high tech color mixing and calibration.
3. ColorSchemer Online v2
A place for online color schemes.
4. Instant Color Schemes
Uses Yahoo image search results to find schems.
5. Color Scheme Generator 2
A color scheme creation tool.
6. Color Combinations
Great schemes.
7. ColorBlender
Great UI and color selection tools.
8. ColourLovers
A great place to create and share color schemes.
9. ColorSpire
An online color wheel.
10. Color Explorer
A really solid color harmony creator.
Other Lists:
Aviva
AETUTS is now live and they are hoping to produce 2-3 new After Effects tutorials each week.
ProLost posted a nice After Effects 7 preset called Film Burn.
filmBurn.ffx is an After Effects 7.0 Animation Preset that automatically creates the overexposed “roll-out” effect, where the tail (and the head if you want) of a clip flickers into overexposure. It’s aware of the in- and out-points of your footage layers in the After Effects timeline, so you can experiment with different effects just by trimming your layers differently.
Smashing Magazine just wrote an insightful new article titled “7 Ingredients of Good Corporate Design“. It is a great article that outlines how a logo, typography, colors, brand, quality, community and culture play important roles in business design. These truths translate into many areas of design and are the fundementals of design success.
Little Men Entertainment produces some nice After Effects and Trapcode presets. Here are some free presets that they are giving away.
The web offers a lot of free resources for designers, but they are not all created equal. I wanted to put together my own list of free resources and goodies. If you know of anymore please let me know and I will add it to the list.
Keepdesigning.com (Images and vectors)
Blog.spoongraphics.co.uk (Images and vectors)
Vecteezy.com (Images and vectors)
Videocopilot.com (After Effects projects and presets)
Graymachine.com (After Effects projects and presets)
