I have been editing film and video since the age of 12. Cutting footage, crafting performances and telling stories with VCRs, Steenbecks and NLEs. In 2003, I started expanding my filmmaking skill set and began experimenting with Adobe After Effects 5.5. The first time I opened it up…I expected to see explosion buttons, lightsaber buttons and muzzle flash buttons. Unfortunately not the case at all! This was a brave new world where everything had to be created from scratch so I dove in.
One of many After Effects books written by Mark Christiansen (2002)
I designed a one-take shot in my apartment so I could practice my non-existent After Effects skills. With a locked off DVX-100 and some amazing acting skills (!) I filmed myself and imported the Mini-DV footage into After Effects. I grabbed some free explosions and sparks from Detonation Films and started compositing.
I present to you GOOD MORNING…a 35-second VFX extravaganza from 2003 for your enjoyment!
I wish I knew about Ease In and Ease Out for my wiggle expression camera shake!
It was primitive and rough but looking back I was glad to get my first VFX shot out of the way.
Feel free to share your first VFX shot if you dare in the comments below…
Until next time…
There are 5 comments
Here’s my first go with After Effects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09LVn8PLoy8
Mate, that’s still better than most of us can do 🙂
When we discovered After Effects, my group of school friends all wanted to make our heads explode. No matter the storyline, someone’s head had to explode at some point. Good times 🙂
Here is my first VFX Shot. I too filmed and acted on it. I was following a tutorial from videocopilot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG3bZzoAgvc
Are you working on Deadpool 2?
Thanks for sharing it………….:) 🙂