James Polits » Resources

FilmFellas: Wisdom from the Pros

James — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 04:40:35 +0000

Part of my philosophy of learning is to seek out those who have lots of experience and wisdom on a topic and learn all you can from them. Study their work and listen to their every word.

This week, I’ve been doing just that. Zacuto—a filmmaking accessories company—produces a web series called FilmFellas. The series concept is a dinner table conversation with professionals in the filmmaking industry. The conversations range from business to passions to education. Each episode is somewhere around 10-15 minutes long.

I watched all of cast 4 & 5 this week and started cast 6. And the first episode of cast 6 (episode 25) is a must see. I was inspired by the candid advice about what is important from seasoned professionals. If you have 11 minutes, you gotta stop and watch it.

iTunes Link: FilmFellas Episode 25: Living Your Passions

Realistic Snow Tutorial in After Effects

James — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:35:19 +0000

The day after Thanksgiving it feels like the world has gone full-tilt into Christmas mode. I try to make a habit of avoiding Black Friday shopping if at all possible. This year, I spent the day relaxing and working on a simple holiday After Effects project. Part the project was creating a realistic layer of falling snow for the background using CC Particle World—a plugin bundled with CS3. (This is key: many of the tutorials out there use Trapcode Particular which is a fairly spendy plugin). It definitely adds a little bit of holiday cheer. And I thought I will share a quick tutorial to make your own snow layer.

Open a new Composition.
Create a new solid layer.
In your Effects & Presets panel, type in CC Particle World and add it to the solid layer.
First, there are a couple settings we need to change to make it easier.
Turn “Grid” to Off.
Under the Particle section, change type to “Darken & Faded Sphere.”

Change “Birth Color” & “Death Color” to white.
Set the Birth/Death Sizes to your liking. I’ve found that starting at .100 and ending at .075 is a pretty good size.
Let’s flip over to the Producer section of the effect. This is where the origin of the particles.
Set Position Y to -0.50 and set Radius X, Y, & Z all to 1.0
Now, on to Physics section. Instead of listing all the properties, I’ll let you just check out the settings listed in the image.

Here is an example of what you can do:

In the case that you are the type of person that needs to play with an original, here is my original project file:
Download Snow Tutorial Project File

If you want a little fly-in lower third that fits great with your snow-theme, check out my Winter Snow Lower Third Pack on VideoHive.net.

UPDATE: After writing this tutorial, I saw a commercial that used this very effect. I’m going to try to locate it and post it here.

Free Motion Template: Clean & Simple Lower Third

James — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:00:32 +0000

A couple weeks ago, I was looking around online for an HD lower third Motion template that I could buy for a project, but I found nothing that was simple. Most of the ones I found were complex or had too many moving parts. So I made this one. And now I’m making it available for FREE!

Download Clean & Simple Lower Third Motion Template

Once you download it, it’s super easy to customize. Just replace the TITLE & SUBTITLE text, drop in your logo directly below the INSERT LOGO layer, delete the INSERT LOGO layer, and you’re good to go.

I’ve also created an Adobe After Effects CS3 version that you could purchase for a small price, but it includes 12 different color variations and compositions ready to export at both 720p & 1080p. You can find this item at VideoHive.net: Clean & Simple Lower Third Pack.

7 Textures From The Outdoors

James — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 04:30:40 +0000

Have you ever had one of those days when you are eating lunch at your desk and you start nodding off to sleep? That was my day today. To fight the lunch time snooze, I decided to take my Rebel T2i and head outside. And the product of that 30 minutes outside is 7 decent textures.

Feel free to use them download them and use them how you see fit. Just don’t sell them or redistribute them. And give credit when appropriate.

I hope you enjoy them!

Expectations Can Kill Creativity

James — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:33:42 +0000

There is no way to get away from expectations. They come from sources all around us: employers, family, friends, and self-imposed. Expectations help us work hard and reach to new levels of excellence. However, unhealthy expectations can kill. My self-imposed expectations often create a stumbling block for me in my creative process. HOW magazine published an article about dealing with unhealthy expectations that stifle creativity. The article was a great reminder to me as I learn and grow in my creative skills. The following quote really spoke to where I’m at:

“It’s great to strive for brilliance, but it’s also important to be patient with our own
growth process.”

I recommend giving this article a read, even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a creative person.

Free Your Creativity: Overcome Unhealthy Expectations: http://www.howdesign.com/article/expectations/

33 Free HTML email templates

James — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:54:48 +0000

I was recently asked about making some HTML email templates for someone I worked with. I promptly declined the task primarily because email programs all render html differntly and I didn’t want to take the time and test them. Also, I hate having to work with HTML tables!

After looking around a little, I came across an article pointing to 30+ Free HTML email templates. The biggest benefit to these templates: they all have been tested in most of the major email clients! So, if you are looking for a quick solution to for fancy emails, these templates will save you a headache or two!

30+ Free HTML email templates via Open Source Hunter

eCommerce Icon Set

James — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:30:43 +0000

Looking for something to add a little polish to your web design? A great icon set can do just that. Not only does Starfish Web Consulting offer this excellent 32 icon set free of charge, but they give you the SVG file for your tweaking pleasure. Make sure you add this one to toolbox! Did I mention that it was free?

Link: [ Glossy eCommerce Icons ]

Church Marketing Sucks

James — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:41:53 +0000

Today is a day they may never write about in history books, but Church Marketing Sucks published an article that I submitted about design-stealing from tutorials. Check out the post!