How Many Times Have I Taken This Class?

Saturday, January 26, 2008

How Many Times Have I Taken This Class?

Welcome to CSM's After Effects Spring 2008 course.

This course is designed to get you up and running with no prior After Effects experience - if you are already fairly comfortable with AE you may find this class too easy as it is geared towards a beginning user. You should have some experience with digital video, and I consider strong familiarity with Photoshop a prerequisite for this class. If you don't know Photoshop you may want to consider taking CSM's Graphics for Multimedia - Photoshop (MULT 177) class which started on Wednesday January 23 - it should get you comfortable with photoshop by the time we start using it together with AE.

This is not a design class - your grade will be based on your mastery of the program and not your creative abilities. However, the whole point in mastering a program like AE is to do creative stuff with it, so I will be bringing in videos each week to analyze/discuss from both a technical and creative standpoint. If you have something you'd like to discuss, bring it in and we'll take a look at it.

I'll be changing the focus of this class slightly this semester. In the past I have focused on AE primarily as a motion graphics tool - used for things like animated logos and commercial graphics - but this semester I will begin to shift some of the class focus towards visual effects such as you would use in a feature film - masking, greenscreen, etc. We'll still cover aspects of motion graphics though, especially in the first few weeks as you get familiar with the application.

We'll be working with version 7 - the most recent version, part of Adobe's CS3 package - in the lab here. If you have an earlier version at home most of the concepts and techniques we discuss will be equally valid, but the interface changed significantly with the most recent version so you may have to make some adjustments. Projects created with an earlier version can be opened in 7, however once you save the project in 7 you will not be able to open it in a previous version.

The main site here is a public site (divergentshadows.com) which I use to make my class materials available to the general web public. If you are interested in other topics related to digital video, web design, and internet media I encourage you to check out the links at the top. I'm mostly doing this in my spare time, so it's not very complete yet. The video section has a lot of material related to general production and Final Cut pro, while the links page has a lot of resources which I've found to be useful. The rest will come over time , and I'll keep you updated when I add new material.

This page, and the links on the right, are specifically for this class and not linked from the main site so make sure you write down or bookmark the URL. Make sure you look over the syllabus and schedule as well so that you're clear on the requirements for the course.

I'll be posting updates here every week or so, so check back regularly for class and AE related news.

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It Donned On Me?

For the past few years Evan Donn has been teaching classes in After Effects and Final Cut Pro in the Multimedia department at College Of San Mateo. Every semester there were a couple of students who just wouldn't go home when the class was over, staying after with a seemingly endless stream of questions about every imaginable aspect of video production. Many of them returned semester after semester for whichever class Evan was teaching at the time.

In the spring of 2006 Evan taught a new class called DV Workflow which consisted almost entirely of these "irregulars". DV Workflow became essentially an 'everything but the kitchen sink' type of class covering the entire process of video production with an emphasis on producing video for the web.

As part of DV Workflow every member of the class had to produce an episodic video series for the web. This led to various members teaming up to work on each others' videos as well as providing valuable input on the finished videos during class screenings. When the class ended everyone felt that the working dynamic of the group was worth continuing.

Led by Chief Instigator Tony Nguyen they dubbed themselves 'The Evan Donn School of Film' and began holding quarterly screenings of everyone's current work. In 2006 several members of the group attended one of the 48 Hour Film screenings, and they all walked out with the same thought - we can do that.

From that point on the quarterly screenings took on a new direction as 'challenges' were thrown out with criteria similar to the 48 Hour Film Project. This helped prepare the team members for the challenge of building a short film around a character, prop and line of dialogue.

As the 2007 competition drew closer Mr. Nguyen once again took the lead and signed up the team for the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project. Put on the spot to come up with a team name he considered and rejected many possibilities before the ideal name 'donned' on him...

Despite their history the San Francisco competition was the first time all members of the team had worked together on a single project. Everyone jumped right in and the result was our first short film - 'Urgent Care'.

Despite incredible audience reaction to the film, 'Urgent Care' failed to win either the audience or juried competition for San Francisco. However, the team was selected by competition sponsor Visa as one of ten teams from San Francisco to compete in their national "Life Takes" Invitational against teams from New York and Los Angeles.

With only one film in the can, Evan decided the team needed a little more practice before the Visa competition. Unbeknownst to the team, he signed them up for the nearby San Jose 48 Hour Film Project and announced it at the cast & crew party for 'Urgent Care'. Fortunately everyone jumped at the chance to hone their skills and prove that the success of the first film wasn't just luck. The result of that effort is 'Doggie Style', the second official film from It Donned On Me.

In September the team came together once again to complete another 48 hour film for the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational. In collaboration with members of the a capella group "Flying Without Instruments" they completed the fantasy film "EXIT".

In October, 2007 the team completed their fourth 48 hour project, the National Film Challenge, producing "Retreat", an existential tale of a horse seeking enlightenment. After this they took a break from high-speed filmmaking for the holidays in order to prepare for the 2008 season.

In March 2008 IDOM kicked off the 2008 filmmaking season with the International Documentary Challenge, producing our first non-fiction film, "Stick & Pound". Selected as a finalist in the competition, 'Stick & Pound' screened in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival where the team brought home Documentary Challenge awards for Best Cinematography and Best Directing!

After an amazing first year of competition IDOM came full circle, returning for the second time to the 2008 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Challenge and successfully completing our 6th film, "Tail". 'Tail' brought home the award for 'Best Sound Design' as well as being nominated for Best use of Dialoge and Best Cinematography

Just a few weeks later it was once again time for the San Jose 48 Hour Film project. Despite a rough start IDOM pulled together and created 'TwirlyBoy', possibly our strangest film so far.

With seven very different films completed in a years time some would say it's time to take a break, but not IDOM - this is just the beginning as IDOM tackles new projects and goes in new directions in the quest to become the greatest competitive filmmaking team of all time!

Stay Tuned!

Who Is Quang Khoi?

When Quang Khoi and his family immigrated to the United States from Vietnam back in the mid seventies, his mother decided to give all the kids American names. Nobody could pronounce Quang Khoi, so his mother renamed her youngest son Tony. Quang Khoi's mom is a huge movie buff, and her passion for cinema is evident in the fact that she named her children after movie stars. Though it has never been confirmed or denied, word on the street is that her all time favorite movie is Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, and that she named her youngest son after that film's leading man, Anthony Perkins. "Tony" is not so bad, considering that Quang Khoi could have ended up being "Norman Bates Nguyen."

These days, Quang Khoi uses his real name when he is acting in film. When he's behind the camera, he goes by his American name, Tony. Quang Khoi/Tony Nguyen inherited his mother's passion for the movies. He enjoys every aspect of film, from playing character roles on the screen to editing time lines in Final Cut Pro behind the scenes. Mr. Nguyen is very proud to be a part of this year's 48 Hour Film Project. Working with the It Donned On Me team has been such a rewarding experience, and he hopes to continue to work this awesome group of people in future projects.

Blogged Arteries - The Unrendered Files

Saturday, January 26, 2008