CineForm customers who plan to use Adobe CS5 products should get improved support with their Prospect HD/4K software. While the CS4 support has a been behind the expected support CineForm does plan to to ship Version 5 CineForm products for CS5 at the time Adobe ships CS5. CineForm may also include new features  in their CS5 version. According to CineForm all Prospect HD/4K customers will receive a no-charge CineForm upgrade to the full version of our Version 5 product for compatibility with CS5 and anybody that purchases Prospect HD/4K v4 from now on will also get this free upgrade. Details of the v5 features are not available yet. Cineform seemed to have already begun working on the integraton of their products in CS5 aftert he CS5 SDK has been released.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman

A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal. Made by Alex Roman (Madrid, Spain)

Credits:

CG: Modelling,  Texturing, Illumination and Rendering: by  Alex Roman
POST: Postproduction and Editing: Alex Roman
MUSIC: Sequenced, Orchestrated & Mixed by Alex Roman (Sonar & EWQLSO Gold Pro XP)
Sound Design by Alex Roman
Based on original scores by:
Michael Laurence Edward Nyman (The Departure)
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (Le Carnaval des animaux)
Directed by Alex Roman
Software used: 3dsmax, Vray, AfterEffects and Premiere.

thirdseventh.com
Making Of Exeter Shot

Compositing Breakdown (T&S)

According to Andrew Kramer the Optical Flares videocopilot.net new lens flare plug-in will be available January 25 2010.

Optical Flares is according to videocopilot.net  capable of building amazing 3D lens flare presets with precise and realistic qualities. The lens flare   presets are supposed to be shared online?

Planned features of Optical Flares lens flare plug-in:

• Auto-position of lens flares
• Real-Time lens flare with with preview of the different lens flares
• Dynamic lens flares
• Possibility to manage lens flare attributes like dust, chromatic aberration and aspect ratios
• Share lens flares with others on videocopilot.net

RED GIANT SOFTWARE did release Mojo. Mojo provides a simple way to make your footage look like an action movie. Modern blockbusters often use a subtle coloring effect to warm up actors’ skin tones while backgrounds and shadows get a cool blue treatment –– but the trick is to do it while keeping your talent in focus. Magic Bullet Mojo gives you this modern Hollywood look in seconds, with easy customizable controls to suit any footage. The three Skin controls let you fine-tune skin tones within the overall Mojo effect. Skin Color nudges the skin tones of actors of any race, eliminating unwanted color casts.

I have been using Mojo the last months during the beta phase and have found Mojo a reliable and really easy to use tool which enhanced my footage quickly.

Chris Zwar shares in his 3-part video tutorial (part1, part2, part3)  how he has done the conference opener for Centrica back in 2006.  Chris After Effects video tutorial gives an general insight into the various processes that he did use from start to end.. Chris did use plugin Knoll Light Factory Pro and you may need this plugin to achieve the best results similar to the look chris describes. A small demonstration project that you can download here.

Via AE Portal News: In his  latest video tutorial “Creating a Tracked Head Wound” Mathias Mohl teaches you more about tracking and replacement using After Effects, mocha , MochaImport and Red Giant Warp. Mathias Mohl composes a wound on a moving head and use the Mocha tracker in combination with his script MochaImport. Instead of a wound you can of course also apply a different effect if you need something less bloody.

3D Serpentine brings big-time 3D effects to Motion Graphics and Video artists. Creating 3D noodles, also called path extrusions, is no longer difficult nor time consuming. Now you can do them live, right inside of Adobe After Effect. If you know how to make a 3D path in After Effects you can create fanciful 3D noodles with the 3D Serpentine plug-in.

Create cool 3D effects like moving film strips (Examples here) , shooting stars, animated marquee signs, swirling tubes, winding helixes, twisting extruded text, arrow pointers and self-tying ribbons.
Zaxwerks has a demo movie for you:  Click Here to watch the 3D Serpentine demo movie

3D Serpentine features

• Auto-Orient
  Powerful Zaxwerks-only auto-orientation technology insures that the 3D objects look good at all points along the path and don’t suffer from the twists and distortions that most other 3D programs have.
• Cross Sections
  For instant feedback, basic cross section shapes are included such as stars, rectangles lines and circles; but you can also use AE’s drawing tools to create any cross section you wish, even ones with multiple parts.
• End Cap Control
  End cap controls give you instant pointed, beveled, rounded or domed ends.
• Importing Custom Head and Tail Objects
  Head and Tail objects can be imported from Zaxwerks ProAnimator or Invigorator, enabling you to use any 3D object as the beginning or end of the noodle.
• Materials and Lighting
  Noodles can be colored by an image or movie. They can be rendered in solid, cartoon, wireframe and hidden line styles. Bump and reflection maps can be used to give the objects texture and brilliance. All 3D Serpentine objects respond to the After Effects camera and lighting.

A older Beta video about Zaxwerks 3D Serpentine

According to Zaxwerks 3D Serpentine works in Adobe After Effects on Macintosh ( Host: Adobe After Effects CS3 and CS4, G4/G5 Power Mac or Intel Mac,  Mac OS X 10.3.9, 10.4.11, and 10.5.2 and higher & 512 MB RAM ) and Windows ( Host: Adobe After Effects CS3, and CS4,Pentium 4 or better,Windows XP service pack 2 or Windows Vista & 512 MB RAM)