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I am a director, motion-graphics and visual effects artist from London UK, living in Berlin. Here’s my showreel.

After Effects Project Files:

Motion Graphics Files:

3D Files:
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Frequently asked questions

1

Can you customise the template for me?

Although I try to make my project files so easy that even a beginner can use them, I can undertake customisation work. I charge a standard hourly freelance rate. If you’re interested in me customising a template for you, then get in touch with me via my VideoHive page.

2

What are Cycore (CC) effects?

Cycore (CC) Effects are a set of excellent effects that come bundled as standard with After Effects CS3 and above. The installation of these FX is however, optional. Most people install them at the time of installing the main application. If you don’t have them installed, you need to go back to your original install disk (or download) and install them to be able to use certain projects. (All my projects that use Cycore FX, state this in the item description.)

To check whether you have Cycore installed, open your copy of After Effects, create a new composition (Composition -> New composition… ) , then create a solid layer (Layer -> New -> Solid… ) , then go to Effect -> Blur & Sharpen. If you see any items in the submenu that begin with CC, such as CC Radial Blur, then you have Cycore installed.

If you are using a demo version of After Effects, you may find that the Cycore Effects are not included.

3

I need a different resolution. What can I do?

Most of my files are created at 1280×720 HD. There’s a reason for this. 1920×1080 is still quite slow and labourious to work with on all but the fastest computers. 1280×720 gives a good compromise between working/rendering speed and resolution and blows upto 1920×1080HD rather nicely if needs be.

The are various ways to change the output size of files. The easiest is in the render queue. Click on the name of the Output Module for your render. This will open up a dialogue box. Check the resize checkbox and then type in your new output resolution.

4

What’s the advantage of a prerender / non-prerender version?

A non-prerendered version of a file is entirely created within After Effects.

Advantages:

• Small to download and to store
• More possibilities for customisation.
• Converts perfectly to different frame rates and sizes.

Drawbacks:

• Generally, longer render times
• Third party plug-ins can’t be used. (unless the end user has them too!)
  
  

A prerendered version of a file links to various pre-rendered elements that are included in the download. These may have been originated in After Effects or any other program, such as a 3D program.

Advantages:

• Generally, shorter render times
• Pre-rendered elements generated by third party plug-ins can be included.
• Pre-rendered elements generated by other software, such as 3D programs can be included.
• Pre-rendered Cycore FX elements can be included (so that users with only a demo version of AE can also use it.)

Drawbacks:

• Less possibilities for customisation.
• Bigger files.
• Converts less well to different frame rates and sizes

5

What’s this business with render level 1-12 etc?

Different computers have different capabilities. To give a guideline about how long my files take to render, I have made a system where I measure the render time on my old Quad G5 Mac (2006). Each 15 minutes of rendering time amounts to one render level, so a 15 minute render is level 1, a 60 minute render is level 4. 12 is the highest. This won’t necessarily bear any relevance to rendering times on your computer, but if you have purchased a project from me in the past that was a level 3 and your computer rendered it in 22 minutes, then you can make a good guess that a render level 6 project will render in around 44 minutes.

If a range of levels is given, that usually means that the render times vary depending on the user settings. For instance, rendering with motion blur turned on or off. Sometimes a project includes a pre-rendered and a non-prerendered version, which may have very different rendering times.

6

I get expression errors when I open the project in a non-english version of After Effects

Yes. Unfortunately expressions written in the english version of After Effects won’t work if you are using it in a language other than english. That’s because expressions refer to effects by their names and of course the names of the effects are different in different languages… for instance, Slider becomes Curseur in French, but the expression is still looking for Slider.

But don’t despair! You can change your After Effects to english. There’s loads of references about this on the web (as most resources for AE are in english). Here’s a couple of methods to do it for PC and one for Mac.

PC:

CS3
Go into the After Effects directory and open the languages folder. Double click After Effects E

CS4
Go to \Adobe After Effects CS4 \Support Files\AMTLanguages
Rename the .txt file (whose name will differ according to which language you use…de_DE for German for example) to en_US.txt (you may want to save a backup of the original file)
Open this file and change the text inside to en_US
Save
Restart After Effects. Now it’s in English!

CS3 and CS4
Right click the shortcut for your After Effects installation
Select Properties
Under Target, where you see the path to AfterFX.exe, add the following text at the very end (behind quotes if present)...
-L en_US
After Effects should now open in english when you use this shortcut

Macintosh:
CS3
Go to System Preferences (this will probably have a different name if your computer is not using english as its main language – it has either an icon of a metallic switch with an Apple logo (OSX 10.4-), or several cogs in a box (OSX 10.5+)
Go to International (again, this will have a different name if your OS does not run in english, but the icon is usually in the top row and shows a blue UN flag)
In the list of languages, drag english to the top. If english isn’t in the list, click the button to edit the list, then drag english to the top.
Now when you start your applications, they will all be in english. Don’t forget to change it back when you’ve finished, otherwise next time you log on, your entire computer will be in english!

CS4
Navigate to the After Effects application. You can do this by Ctrl-clicking on the icon in the dock and selecting “Show in Finder”
Ctrl-click the application and select ‘Show package contents’
In the folder AMTLanguages, rename the .txt file (whose name will differ according to which language you use…de_DE for German for example) to en_US.txt (you may want to save a backup of the original file)
Open this file and change the text inside to en_US
Save
Restart After Effects. Now it’s in English!
Be warned, you may need your serial number handy!

Both:
This script from NAB scripts translates scripts from english into your required language. I have had mixed results with this script… here’s the link. http://nabscripts.com/downloads_en.html Look at script no. 25.

7

I get missing footage graphics in my project (multicolored TV screen / testcard pattern)

After Effects projects usually link to some external assets, whether these be still images, video, audio and so on. When you download one of my projects (or any After Effects project for that matter) it’s very important to keep the project itself and any associated folders together in the same place. Unless you really know what you’re doing, you shouldn’t move any of the folders or files from the original folder which they unzip to.

If you have managed to lose links to external media and don’t want to start from scratch, here’s how to sort it out:

• Highlight the project window. Select File-> Find

• In the window that comes up, check the missing footage checkbox and click OK

• This will highlight missing footage items. Once you have one, you can right-click (ctrl-click on Mac) and select Replace Footage -> File.

• This will bring up a standard dialogue box where you can navigate to the footage and reconnect it.

• Usually, once you reconnect one piece of missing footage, After Effects will find the other ones.

• Keep repeating this process until there is no more missing footage

8

How do I export a Flash Video (FLV) file?

Select the composition that you want to export in After Effects. Then choose File -> Export -> Flash Video (FLV)

This will bring up a dialogue box with all the export options, including whether to use an alpha channel (transparency), whether to include audio, data rate, pixel size and more.

If you don’t want to use After Effects, try googling ‘FLV encoder’. There are loads of free (and pay) FLV encoders for PC.

There is one that I know of for Mac, but I haven’t tried it.