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Using Motion Templates in Apple Final Cut Pro, Part 1 

By Jan Ozer

After shooting, color-correcting, editing, sweetening the audio, and performing other similarly time-consuming project tasks, it's intimidating to think about adding customized animated text...

Developing Drop 

By Ellen Wolff

Software tools for visual effects include such hall-of-fame names as Autodesk Maya, Side Effects Software Houdini, and Pixar RenderMan, but with each passing year, VFX studios worldwide are expanding the standard toolkit to meet increasingly ambitious production challenges...

Seven Ways to Inspire Your Team 

By Michelle LaBrosse, Chief Cheetah, Cheetah Learning

While your project isn't building a cathedral--although your clients may act like it's the most important thing ever created--it is crucial to get a good handle on teamwork so your production's pieces come together in a collaborative and cohesive manner...

Up in the Air Step by Step 

By Ellen Wolff

The signature image from Paramount Pictures' Up in the Air shows actor George Clooney framed in an airport window, gazing out at the tarmac. The shot depicts a meditative moment that any airline traveler can relate to...

Recreating a Classic 

The visual effects team for Smoke & Mirrors New York (SMNY) recreated the classic Beatles Abbey Road album cover and then brought that moment to life for 30-second and 60-second spots promoting the MTV videogame The Beatles: Rock Band...

Creating a 3D Graphics Package 

By Ken Carlson, creative director of Big Machine Design

The NFL Network called Big Machine Design (BMD) in early summer and asked us to create a new look and feel for its Sunday football coverage, known as NFL GameDay ...

Your Virtualized Future  

By Dan Ochiva

Although rumor and speculation grew on the Web over the past few months, it was only this past week that Google finally unveiled the details of its Chrome operating system...

2012 Step by Step 

By Ellen Wolff

Director Roland Emmerich was famously destructive in the civilization-in-peril movies The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, so when he called 2012 the biggest visual effects movie he's ever done, that's saying something...

Coloring a New Dimension 

By Siggy Ferstl, senior colorist, Company 3

About a year before Colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld here at Company 3 performed the color-grading work on Disney's 3D feature G-Force, a group of us under him started preparing for the industry's movement toward 3D production...

Law Abiding Citizen Step by Step 

By Ellen Wolff

There's no doubt about how sophisticated the bad guy is in Overture Films' Law Abiding Citizen: He's able to unleash a guided missile against his victims. Within the quiet setting of a cemetery, a missile locks onto a moving SUV and destroys the vehicle in a massive explosion...