Jake's Production Notes

Just finished a motion graphics project for rc aerial photography & cinematography company Got Aerial last week. This was my first project working with the Element 3D plugin for After Effects from VideoCopilot.

First impressions working with the plugin are definitely promising. The biggest issues I ran into depend on what 3d tracker you employ to work with Element. I had some solid tracks with the 3D Camera Tracker plugin that ships with AE CS6, but, too often, the shots proved to be a little too much for the tracker to deliver anything solid due to the constant changes in perspective. Ultimately, I relied on The Foundry’s CameraTracker for most of the shots with very reliable results. The reel title mountain ridge flyover, however, proved to be too much for either the 3D Camera Tracker or the Foundry CameraTracker. For this particular case, I found the best results with PfTrack which provided me with a rock-solid track that I was able to use for both the Element 3D Text and the main title “The Art of Flying” which I created in Cinema 4D. Originally, I had created the title with the Element plugin, but, due to some strange artifacting, I switched to C4D to solve the issue. Overall, it was a fun and challenging project and an excellent opportunity to log my first project run with Element & AE CS6!

Check out the final results below. All footage by Got Aerial LLC and music by Krewella.

Just finished a series of videos for the Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis doctoral program at ETSU’s College of Education. All videography was provided by Jason Jones and Zion Madden of the ETSU Office of eLearning and talent by Dr. Bethany Flora, Dr. Don Good, and ETSU president Dr. Brian Noland. I performed all post-production duties with Final Cut, Audition, and After Effects.

Just finished another pair of documentary vids for the George L. Carter Railroad Museum at ETSU. These videos give a quick tour of the construction of the upcoming Tweetsie Railroad exhibit led by museum director Dr. Fred Alsop.

A book trailer that I put together for Harlequin Publishing is now live! Check it out below:

I found myself in Jones borough, TN with a little time to kill the other morning so I took a walk through Meadowlawn Cemetary and snapped some stills . . .

To check out the whole shoot, follow the link below to my Flickr set

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vfxjake/sets/72157629933693945/

Finally found the time to punch up my mograph reel. Have a look below:

Just found out that the new commercial spots that I re-designed for ETSU Online will start airing next week. Here’s a sample

I was messing around with a design in Photoshop and came up with this!

I’ve been under the gun for the past couple months with several new projects, but I think I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I had the opportunity to do several business profiles in January & early February for Dex One so here are a few of those to pass the time!

I’ll be posting more completed projects soon so stay tuned!

Quick video I did for the ETSU Drumline. Jason Jones & Zion Madden of the Digital Media Services division of the Office of eLearning at ETSU provided videography, international students Giulia Andreazza and Paras Pageni provided the talent, and I performed all post-production with Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Audition, and Premiere.