80+ Excellent Cinema 4D Tutorial and Best Practices
Layered GFX
80+ Excellent Cinema 4D Tutorial and Best Practices
Layered GFX
One breakthrough that I made when developing my new website was the ability to track when Shadowbox.js was initiated to view an FLV file. Traditionally the standalone JW FLV Media Player that Shadowbox.js utilizes can call the flashvar “callback” with the value “analytics”. Unfortunately it looks like this flashvar is no longer supported and if it was it would not work because Shadowbox.js uses AJAX to load its player and content.
The premise of the solution comes from Google’s Analytics Help article: How do I track files (such as PDF, AVI, or WMV) that are downloaded from my site? The solution is to place a piece of JavaScript code within the HTML link’s <a> tag. Here is an example that relates to calling Shadowbox.js content from a website:
<a href="myvideo.mp4" rel="shadowbox;width=640;height=480;" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/videos/myvideo');">Click here to play my video</a>
Here is the breakdown of what is happening: the video myvideo.mp4 is being called to play in my Shadowbox player at a resolution of 640×480. An onclick JavaScript is also being called at the same time telling Google Analytics to track the page view for the category “videos” for the item “myvideo”. The category does not have to be named “videos” however you will want to choose a name that helps keep things organized because this is what will come up in your Google Analytics Top Content Report.
One last note is that you need to place your Google Analytics Tracking code at the top of your page within your <body> tag and not at the bottom. This is necessary because the tracking code needs to be initiated before the onclick Javascript links can work.
Written by Jeff McIntosh
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/
Harry J Frank from Graymachine.com wrote an insightful article titled “Becoming A Freelance Motion Graphic Designer”. It covers such topics as:
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.
1. Stockmusic.net
A great stock music site with some nice features like “find more like this” links, embedded flash music preview players, and one click download available demos. Tracks sell for $29.95.
2. Revostock
A growing collection of stock music and sound effects. The site offers rollover music previews, extended license options and in depth file specifications. Tracks sell for $10-40 depending on the licensing agreement you choose.
3. Narrator Tracks
A nicely composed collection of stock music in a user friendly format with well written descriptions. Tracks sell for $34.95.
4. The Music Bakery
A well categorized collection of stock music and effects available in different audio formats and lengths. The tracks sell for $34-47.
5. The Beat Suite
An expanding site of music beats that are well categorized and easy to preview with embedded flash players. The tracks sell for $20-60.
Honorable mention: The Best Sites for Royalty Free Music
Written by Jeff McIntosh
1. Ayato@web
Ayato Fujii from Japan is the producer of this fantastic resource and has provided over 50 exceptional After Effects tutorials with step-by-step instruction, screen shots and video previews. A moderate understanding of After Effects is required to complete these tutorials and many of them require third party plug-ins from Trapcode and Red Giant Software.
2. VideoCopilot
Andrew Kramer from the USA is the producer and host of over 70 After Effects all screen-casted for easy reference. Andrew has kindly included the sources files for most of the tutorials however some of them require third party plug-ins or rely on other visual effects software.
3. Layers
The fine people at the Adobe Layers magazine have been posting an assortment of After Effects tutorials and have a collection of about 30 now. The tutorials come as either screen-casts or written documents and will inspire both the begginner and intermediate. Tutorials for CS4 are becoming more prominent on the site and of course the integration of Illustrator and Photoshop are showcased as well.
4. Pixel2Life
This is a portal for an assortment of different tutorials provided by many different designers. The site boasts around 100 tutorials ranging from animation, text effects, video correction and audio. With so much to choose from it is a good starting place for anyone looking for tutorials.
5. CGArena
Despite only having 9 tutorials, CGArena is a diamond in the ruff. It holds many interesting tutorials created by different designers in screen-cast and written form. Some even include the source files so check it out and you might find something you like.
6. Graymachine
Harry J Frank is a After Effects and scripting wizard and has provided almost 2 dozen tutorials that look at the finer details of the program and the third party plug-ins we know and love.
7. Rhys Works
Rhys Enniks is an up and coming designer from the UK who is producing some one of a kind After Effects tutorials. His collection consists of a dozen or so screen-casts and most them rely heavily on the Trapcode Particular plug-in. His tutorilas are getting literally tens of thousands of hits and his site is defiantly worth the click.
8. Designer Today
This is my second least favorite site out of the collection because it lacks thumbnails showing the effect making the site very difficult to navigate. Its collection of over 150 tutorials seems impressive, but once you drill down inside of them you start to realize that a lot of them are outdated. Learn at your own risk.
9. Creative COW
My least favorite place for After Effects tutorials is Creative COW. Its endless pages with poorly designed thumbnails, oddly shaped advertisements, unnecessary text, red coloured headings and blue coloured links make me run for the hills whenever looking for a specific tutorial.
Written by Jeff McIntosh
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.
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)
