So I finally jumped in Greyscale Gorilla’s 5 Second Projects competition. Here is my entry/interpretation for the category of “Kick the Bucket.”
Kick the Bucket - 5 Second Project from Michael Szabo on Vimeo.

I guess I can call myself a character animator now.

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Tags: 5 second project, After Effects, Cinema 4D, My Work

My newest tutorial is posted. It shows you how to create an entire space scene in After Effects using primarily the fractal noise plug-in. I got inspired to do this based on part of this tutorial where it showed how to use fractal noise to make a star field and I took it a bit further. Fractal Noise has always been considered one of the most useful plug-ins; I’ve used to create tons of different things from clouds to curtains. Check out the video and you’ll be on your way to creating a scene straight from outer space.

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Tags: After Effects, Check This Out, fractal noise, galaxy, My Work, Tutorials

It would have gone great with my paint splatter web site theme.

Here’s the tutorial.

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Tags: Link, Photoshop, Work that I wish was mine

I was long overdue for a new video that play on my homepage. I haven’t played Guitar Hero in ages, so I definitely need something else. But it’s hard to come up with a self-promotional video with no guidelines. So this one I made in After Effects. I just came up with the idea long ago to animated a file folder opening and moving on its own. It’s all Photoshop and After Effects.

A Look Through My File from Michael Szabo on Vimeo.

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So my latest tutorial creates a design that is a bit hard to describe. It’s a sort of a 3D stroke-light streak-burst-glow-particle-explosion-reveal-animation. That name just rolls off the tongue. Here’s a practical example I made with the technique:

3D Stroke Glow Effect from Michael Szabo on Vimeo.

If I remember correctly I got inspiration from a Ford Flex commercial like this one at some point last year (It’s towards the end):

So check it out here. It is done 100% in After Effects and uses Trapcode 3D Stroke and Particular.

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Tags: After Effects, animation, Look what I made, trapcode, Tutorials

From Anuchai Secharunputong:

Here is where I first saw it.

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Tags: cool, Photoshop, Work that I wish was mine

So let’s see if I still remember how to work this blog thingy.

Here is my updated reel. I removed some car commercial junk that wasn’t going to impress anyone. I added my comic book spot that still hasn’t been on TV and won’t ever be, unless somebody wants me to freelance it for them.

I’ve got an After Effects tutorial idea in the works, but I’m procrastinating on it because things outside of working on computers all day have kept me happily occupied.

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Tags: Demo reel, My Work, Site Updates

Check out visualfxtuts.com for a new tutorials from around the web for a bunch of different applications. There’s some good stuff on there already and it’s going to keep growing. Go check it out.

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Tags: Check This Out, Link

I’d like to add a new song to my demo reel instead of some cheesy number I whipped up in Garageband. Let me know if you know someone who would let me use their music for my reel, if I think it works with my stuff I’ll give the proper credit and all that.

I think music really goes hand in hand with graphics and design. I’d love to give music videos, album art, live-show graphics a try in my next job. A few months ago I went to a concert and recognized a ton of the plugins and programs that the backgrounds looping behind them were made with.

Sad? Ehhh maybe a little.

Let me know if you can help me out.

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Tags: Demo reel, music

So remember when I did a bunch of belly-aching about how all the car commercials I make all the time are so dumb, boring, ineffective?

I recently had some down time at work and got to knock out a project I devised and has been on the back burner for awhile. If I had my way, I would spend most of my work week doing one nice, creative, and clever spot like this instead of a dozen crappy ones:

The Exciting Adventures of Savingsman from Michael Szabo on Vimeo.

 
I don’t really think it’s very hard to come up with something different and creative to sell cars. This is merely a spec spot, so it’s unfortunately never been on television. I really hope it does, but at the rate were going, it might never make it on. It was an even better idea when I thought of it this summer when gas was like $13 a gallon.

Technique-wise, I did the whole thing in After Effects with some initial help from Photoshop. One thing I didn’t do is draw the characters, they were purchased on cartoonsolutions.com. I recommend their products because they are relatively cheap and they give you a bunch of pieces to assemble various poses for your character.

I did however create the Guzzler. I took the image of a standard SUV, a chevy Tahoe I believe, and manipulated the front grill and headlights to look more like a character. I added a wiggle expression to make him shake while idling and a smoke emitter using Particular to make him an evil earth enemy. The rest of the spot comes together using some over-animation principles and lots of bright, flashy color combinations that I’m normally not allowed to use. It was a lot of fun to design and edit. It took about 3-4 days to do, but it could go faster now that I have the technique down.

Overall the concept has been well-received, but unfortunately I can already hear whispers of changing this, tweaking that, swapping out those, and all of a sudden it will end up being a complete downgrade from what I came up with. Oh well, I guess that’s what you get when you willingly allow car salesman make your creative decisions. 
 

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Tags: After Effects, car, Check This Out, comic book, My Work, Photoshop, savingsman