Why Is design so hard to teach?

Posted on November 9, 2009 and filed in Design, Ideas, Inspiration

graphicdesign2

Many of you have been asking for tutorials on how to learn design. I took a stab at a design tutorial called “The Art Of Making Things Look Less Crappy Over Time.” This went a part of the way to help explain my specific process, but something was still missing. I started wondering WHY design is so hard to teach and to learn. It comes down to two things…

1. Learning design takes a TON of time. Abandon all hope in learning design quickly. In fact, there is a reason that there are a ton more “How to learn Photoshop” videos than “How to learn Design” videos. It’s because teaching and learning design is a time consuming process and can’t usually fit in the span of a tutorial.

2. Design is subjective. Different people have differing opinions of what looks good. This makes learning design a very personal, solitary journey. Design processes are forged on a per person basis. What works for me probably won’t work for you. Sure, there are rules to follow, but when it comes down to it, everyone has to follow their own sense of what looks “right.”

So, how DO you learn design. It all comes down to making a ton of mistakes and figuring out what looks good to you. You will also find tricks along the way that will help get you to a good design quicker than you used to. Remember, there are no right ways, just your way!

Here are some sites to help you get started on your journey
Graphic Design – The New Basics
Graphic Design Week Wrap-up
The Grid System
50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory

Posted in Design, Ideas, Inspiration | 28 Comments

Five Second Project, “Start With A Photo”

Posted on November 9, 2009 and filed in Five Second Projects



Update:
The deadline for this project has passed. The winners will be chosen this week. Stay tuned.

Photo600

This one should be fun. You must use photos you have taken to make your animation for this weeks theme. Use a photo as the main element in your animation. Why not try something you haven’t done before. Cut out a person or elements from photos. Or, maybe composite something into a photo. Whatever it is, just make sure to take a photo and incorporate it in to your entry.



What Are Five Second Projects?
We all want to make cool shit for our reel right? Sometimes you just need a theme to get you started… Some rules to fight against. Use the theme “Start With A Photo” to make a five second motion piece and link it in the comments of this blog post. Please be sure to post a link in this post’s comments to ensure me seeing it. If your new to five second projects, why not check out last week’s theme here.



Rules

  1. 1. The animation can’t be longer than nine seconds. FIVE SECONDS is highly recommended!
  2. 2. The animation must fit the theme.
  3. 3. Only submit animation. Any and all animation forms are accepted (stop motion, hand drawn, cg, 3d, motion design, etc… ). Unmodified, videos will not be accepted, however.



Why Should You Enter? Check out the video…



How Do I Enter my Video?

  • 1. Create a five second animation based on the theme, “Start With A Photo”.
  • 2. Upload your video to Vimeo. Don’t forget to add a link back to this blog post.
  • 3. Post a link to this posts comment thread and I will add it to the Channel.
  • 4. Deadline is Sunday November 22nd



It’s really great to see so much participation. Tell a friend about the five second projects and get them involved too. Don’t forget to push yourself to try something new every week. What about a new piece of software or technique you have wanted to try? Take control of your creative output and Make Cool Shit!



Check out the entries below or visit the Vimeo Channel.

Posted in Five Second Projects | 205 Comments

Winners for “Spooky Scary”

Posted on November 5, 2009 and filed in Five Second Projects

Announcing the winner for the latest Five Second Project, “Spooky Scary”. As alwyas there were a ton of great entries, but this quick narrative speaks to what is truly scary in our industry… Software Crashes. The spot has some great subtle camera moves and animation that really make it shine. Check out the pupils. Great work! Check out the winning piece by Rickard Bengtsson. He wins a full version of mocha from Imagineer Systems.

Winner

The random winner of a copy of mocha for After Effects and mocha Shape for After Effects is… EJ Hassenfratz. Here is his submission. Thanks again for everyone who entered. The work here is getting better and better every theme. It’s really fun to watch all the entries roll in. Also don’t forget to thank our sponsor, Imagineer Systems.

Honorable Mentions

Posted in Five Second Projects | 23 Comments

Scene Breakdown: Closet above bed

Posted on November 3, 2009 and filed in Ideas, Inspiration, Video

Tor Martin Norvik was kind enough to incude a scene breakdown along with his entry for this week’s Five Second Project. Check out the final and then dive into the breakdown to see how it was made. The scene is textured using camera projection and the composite breakdown shows many great effects including subtle ones like a nice exposure pass and a Optics compensation pass. It’s a great way to see how much work can go in to making a great 5 second piece.

FINAL SPOT

BREAKDOWN

Posted in Ideas, Inspiration, Video | 21 Comments

Introducing KeyframeTV: Episode 1

Posted on November 3, 2009 and filed in After Effects, Ideas, Inspiration, KeyframeTV, Motion Design, Reviews, Video, Visual Learning

Welcome to the first episode of KeyframeTV, a discussion about the tools, news and work of motion design. KeyframeTV is made by Tim Allen, Nick Campbell & Pasquale D’Silva. Check out the keyframetv.com site for a full list of credits and show notes.

Feedback
We want to make this show as relevant and helpful as possible to everyone in the industry. But, we need your help. Please drop us your feedback in the comments about the show. This talk show format is new to all of us so, we would love to hear what you think.

Posted in After Effects, Ideas, Inspiration, KeyframeTV, Motion Design, Reviews, Video, Visual Learning | 58 Comments

My Interview with Motionworks Unplugged

Posted on November 2, 2009 and filed in Ideas, Motion Design, News, Video, Visual Learning

motionworkssplitscreen

I was recently interviewed by John Dickinson of Motionworks for his Unplugged series where he interviews people in the Motion Graphics industry. I was honered to be a guest on his great show. We talk a bit about the history of Greyscalegorilla and a lot about my tutorial style and technique. What a great interviewer.

Watch the interview, here.

Posted in Ideas, Motion Design, News, Video, Visual Learning | 7 Comments

How to Export Your Scene From Cinema 4D to After Effects

Posted on October 27, 2009 and filed in After Effects, Cinema 4D, Tutorials, Video, Visual Learning

I made this tutorial to show you how to prepare your renders in Cinema 4D for export into After Effects. Then, I go though the process of importing your render into After Effects using Multi Pass, compositing tags and object buffers. I also show you how to change lights and add textures in AE to finish compositing your 3D scene.

Posted in After Effects, Cinema 4D, Tutorials, Video, Visual Learning | Tagged , , , | 228 Comments

Demo Reel Critiques: Episode 4

Posted on October 26, 2009 and filed in Reel Critique, Video, Visual Learning

Chad Ashley from Digital Kitchen and cgpov.com joins me to help critique four more reels for episode 4 of GSG reel critiques.

In this episode we critique the following reels…

Also, the critique shouldn’t stop here. I would love to hear what you think about the reels or about my critique. If you want your reel reviewed, head on over to the Original Hardcore Reel Critique post and drop a link to your reel in the comments.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window

Posted in Reel Critique, Video, Visual Learning | 50 Comments

Mograph 2 Attractor Project File Download

Posted on October 23, 2009 and filed in Cinema 4D, Downloads

There have been a lot of questions about how Mathieu Martel did this awesome animation for the “Circle and Spheres” Five Second Project. He actually did this animation with ndynamics in Maya. But, I wanted to replicate it in Cinema4D to show you how to set a scene like this up and make it available for download so that you can play around with it. So, download it below, pick it apart and have fun.



Cinema 4D Mograph 2 Attractor Scene File
Attractor2

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILE HERE
Requires Cinema 4D 11.5 and Mograph 2

Posted in Cinema 4D, Downloads | 82 Comments

GSG Speaks at SAIC Chicago about getting a Job in a Creative Industry.

Posted on October 22, 2009 and filed in Design, Ideas, Inspiration, Speaking, Video

Here is the speech I gave at SAIC Chicago about what to learn and how to get a job in a creative field. I do focus some of the presentation on Motion Designers, but most of it is relevant to most creative industries. The main idea is to think of yourself as a business. You need to turn yourself into a great product and then learn how to sell yourself.

The speech gets cut off toward the end, but I only cut off one question. As always, let me know what you think.

Posted in Design, Ideas, Inspiration, Speaking, Video | 77 Comments