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After Effects vs. EffectsLab

S

Serjus

I'm curious, which program would better suit my purposes?
Basically, I like all the effects provided by EffectsLab (muzzle flash, particle effects, optics, light beams, etc.).
I've used after effects before and had absolutely no idea what I was doing or how to do anything at all. Found it extremely confusing. Other video effects I can do with Liquid Edition, like chromakey and image filtering.
So how's the learning curve of After Effects (I despise reading manuals :P )? And what are the capabilities of after effects like as far as what I'm looking for (action oriented effects)?
 
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To me it seems limited. Are there any 3rd party effect filter developers?
I guess it all depends on what you want to do.

I use Combustion and have been getting back into AfterFX... one thing I like about AfterFX is that it has A LOT of 3rd party plugin developers!

But maybe EffectsLab is good for you now to leart the art of VFX. If you don't like mannuals, then I suggest finding training videos. Is that available for FXlab? Are there any tutorials?
 
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After Effects is allows for greater flexibility and power if you ask me. That said, it's also quite a bit more complex and doesn't come with presets for muzzle flash type stuff. It's definitely a program that will take some learning, most likely from a book (there are many) before you can really access its power.

Which is better really depends on your purpose, which you have not yet stated. :) I like After Effects myself but Effects Lab looks like a nice introductory package. It has the benefit of an interface built specifically for DV 'movie type' effects which would probably be useful for someone just starting out.

Do you have a specific purpose in mind and how often will you be using the software?
 
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Right now I'm still a filmmaking noob. I'm just trying to get a grip on my assets beforehand, knowing my capabilities before making my plans. Part of knowing my capabilities is knowing what software I have and what I can do with the software.

After watching the Combustion demo videos, that looks like a fairly easy program to get the hang of, and suits my purpose well.
I have no doubt of AE's power, but I found the layout a bit daunting when I used it before. I'm not a fan of having multiple windows everywhere.
 
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I started with AE a LOOOOOONNNnnnnnggggg time ago. But since I was doing more 3D Max stuff, I figured that I should composit with Combustion since they are pretty compatible. AND a lot of the AE plugins work with Combustion! So that's a big plus. I haven't upgraded to Combustion 4 yet but tere's some cool new things.
Although I use them both now I'm trying to use AE more so I can learn it more.
I use Combustion on some things because I already know how to do it and it would take me 5 times longer in AE to learn how to do it when I can do it in Combustion in 5 minutes.


If you REALLY want to get serious about VFX, I'd say get Digital Fusion 5 from eyeon! That's my goal there!
 
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The bottom line with this type of software is really, whether you despise manuals or not, training is of the utmost importance. After Effects has so much built into it, that without a class, video, or book you'd probably never fully understand how to use the program. Also, it's just good for improving your workflow to properly learn the software. Likely there are a few ways of accomplishing tasks (most of which are probably the "wrong way") training teaches you how to do these things quickly and efficiently.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm the biggest beliver that self-taught people are much more prepared for 'real-world' scenarios, having done all the wrong things whilst blundering through their self teaching, to know how to recover from them when someone else does it down the road (the kind of stuff they don't teach in school...)

As for books, the Adobe line of books is probably the best, or one of anyway, for their products. Check out the Classroom in a Book. There's a book for just about each piece of software they put out. That link is for the after effects book, or click these for: Premiere Pro, Encore DVD, Photoshop CS 2... these are amazon links to each books info, and of course those and more can be found on the Adobe website.
 
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As coot stated, Combustion is a standard in the industry. After Effects is used with Premeire, but Vegas Video has some decent plugin effects.

MAYA, is a great software to use for effect as well as 3D Studio Max. The great thing about 3D Studio Max is it has a great shadow effects built in and comes with "Mental Ray" shadowing built into its render.

Discreet (Owned by Autodesk) has a free 30 day trial of Max8. You can download it and try it. Its fully functional with no watermarks. So you can get some awsome effects off of it.

like Camera Blur, Fire, Water, Explosion, Dust... etc..

Thought it will take more then 30 days to master it, Some people claim it keeps working after its 30 day trial. I wouldnt know, I actually purchased it but I've heard by more then one source it keeps on working after 30s days. If not, I guess you can always reinstall your OS.

good luck.
 
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Different 3D software packages

When I was running ResPower, which is an Internet Render Farm, I had a chance to watch all of the 3D animation packages in action under serious deadline conditions, and had to deal with their problems on a constant basis. (Info: A render farm is a big cluster of computers that allows you to render out your animations faster. An internet Render Farm is one that is online and available 24/7/365 to the general public).

In order of reliability, I'd have to put those packages in this order:

1) Lightwave
2) Maya
3) 3DS Max (distant, distant third).

Lightwave files were typically small, clean, uploaded quickly to the render farm, and rendered without too much tweaking. Maya was the same - except when it came to very big files. The issue there was animators not understanding the 32 bit memory limits (in windows 32 bit, you can't have anything accessing > 1.5 gigs of ram), and piling on the textures past that will make the machines crash).

Max fell down constantly. The files were always corrupting, rendering wrong, polygonal errors, etc. If you want to get let down in a pinch, do your project in Max. This held true for the pros all the way on down to the amateurs.

All three packages have the same basic capabilities, but far different paradigms. For Maya or Max, if you want photorealism, you'll have to use 3rd party rendering packages like Brazil or Mental Ray. Lightwave has the same capabilities built in, but the photorealistic settings make for verrry long render times.

Lightwave is mostly used in the television industry (example: Battlestar Galactica) where deadlines are very, very important. Film productions typically utilize Maya + Mental Ray, although Max is making headway. However, Max's bread-and-butter is still the architectural market and gaming.
 
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I use visionlab studio (FXhome is the maker of effectslab, composite lab, and visionlab.) Composite lab is for green and blue screen and color corecting. effects lab is for laser, particle, optics, and muzzle flashes. Visionlab combines the tow and adds mor features. I'm very happy to own vision lab. the only thing it is missing is a motion tracker :(.
 
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I'm with you, I wish they would add tracking to V-lab and Composite Lab.
Other than that I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Effects Lab and Composite Lab.
Very intuitive and quick to learn, and there's a helpful community and company support always improving the products.
They make the kind of products that make moviemaking fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fhW3B-w23aw&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fhW3B-w23aw&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

Every bit of this was done in EffectsLab and CompositeLab.


Except for the dog, he's real.

Neil
 
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I've only just started looking at Effects Lab and it does a small number of things really well and is easy to learn.

After Effects is a whole other animal... it's got an incredibly steep learning curve (like photoshop)... but like photoshop the more you learn the more you get out of it.

The truth is that After Effects can give you the same level of post production image manipulation as any of the top professional suites.

So, the real questions is do you need a quick, easy to learn, cheap effects package to create fire, muzzle blasts and light sabers... or do you intend to attempt professional post production effects work?

In real terms there is no comparison between After Effect and Effects Lab... in the same way there isn't a comparison between imovie and Final Cut Studio. The each have a purpose and only you can decide if they meet your production needs.
 
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clive said:
So, the real questions is do you need a quick, easy to learn, cheap effects package to create fire, muzzle blasts and light sabers... or do you intend to attempt professional post production effects work?
Click to expand...

I don't mind the price tag, it's one of the ways I am able to keep my feature budget under $1000, although I don't know who gave me the crazy idea I could do that! :crazy: :P
 
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LMAO

Yeap, I'm always looking for cheap effective ways to make films... which is one of reasons I'm looking at effects lab.

I already do my comp work in FCP using Vkey. which by the way is the best keying tool I've ever used.

I'm also working on a new guerilla technique for CGI... but more on that in maybe about three to four months time.

There was a time when AE's 16bit colour environment meant it was the smart way to do comp and online... but now Apple's Color is part of the FCS package I'm much more inclined to do all my colour correction and mask work in that... comp work in FCP and that makes the specialist FX bundles more attractive than ever to me.
 
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clive said:
I'm also working on a new guerilla technique for CGI... but more on that in maybe about three to four months time.
Click to expand...

Certainly looking forward to hearing about this!

As far as software and gear is concerned, being on the tiniest of shoestring budgets, I shop carefully for products and always look to see if I can find something either one tier down, or one generation back.

When I do something successful with any of them I make it a point to treat myself to the next item up, which by that time usually has become one tier down and one generation back. :lol:

Getting high end tools and the knowledge to use them is one of the goals I put on myself at all times.
 
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Hey, I'm pretty much new to this scene as well, but I've gotten a LOT of help with learning After Effects things from videocopilot.net, as Will Vincent already mentioned. Andrew Kramer does an excellent job of taking you step by step through his tutorials in a very easy to understand manner, and can be pretty funny at times. But he has a bunch, around 60 something, free tutorials on After Effects, not to mention the products that they sell that add so much more to the program, like Designer Sound Effects (which includes about 500 sound effects and ambient noises), Action Movie Essesntials (Which includes a bunch of muzzle flashes and smoke elements and other cool stuff), and some other things. Wow, I sound like a commercial for them, but really, it's awesome if you choose to take the After Effects route.
 
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