Hot Software How-Tos
How To: Limit the access of your Facebook apps with FB-Secure
Like everyone, you're on Facebook. And, also like everyone, you'd like to control the access your Facebook apps have BEFORE you even install them. Well, you can, with a sweet little Firefox add-on called FB-Secure. Take control of Facebook app privileges before they read your secret diary.
How To: Use the Puppet Tool and DuIK Tools in After Effects
This is a quick little tutorial for someone who wants to learn how to do better puppetry or puppet effects in Adobe After Effects. Use the Puppet Tool and the DuIK Tools on your next animation project using inverse kinematics.
How To: Set up the eye controls for your facial animations in Blender
Part of what makes an anthropomorphic animation convincing is being able to make the eyes move realistically. This tutorial shows you how to set up and customize the eye controls for your animation project made using the Blender animation software.
How To: Create a walk cycle for your animation in Blender
So you have your figure, all mapped out and rendered. And now you need to make it walk. This tutorial shows you how to set up a walk cycle in Blender by arranging your various poses in the correct sequence for a realistic stride.
How To: Password Protect Google Chrome with Rohos Mini Drive
Get Google Chrome Download and install Google Chrome.
HowTo: Make Your New Year's Cell Phone Pictures Look Like They Were Taken With a Good Camera
If you missed our tips on taking top-notch photos New Year's Eve, you may want to tune in for Lifehacker's tutorial on making your smartphone pictures look like they were taken with a quality camera. Below, learn how to:
How To: Use the Falloff Lighting tutorial in After Effects to illuminate a corner
So you've mastered the basics of using the Falloff Lighting plugin for Adobe After Effects, and now you're ready for some of the more advanced concepts. This tutorial shows you how to illuminate an object in a corner using this plugin.
How To: Use the Camera Mapper function in After Effects
Camera mapper is a function in Adobe After Effects that lets you take a static, 2-D image and turn into a dynamic 3-D shot. Create a zoom feature and make it look like you have a camera panning through the picture!
How To: Use the Aged Film plugin for After Effects to give an antique feel to film
You can take a piece of completely modern digital footage and give it an aged, antique feel! You will need the Aged Film plugin for Adobe After Effects, which lets you create the sepia tone and flickering, variable speed look of antique film clips.
How To: Use the Depth Cue in Adobe After Effects
Upload your footage to Adobe After Effects (make sure it has been set to 3-D), and then apply the effects you want, such as fog. Then, you can use the Depth Cue setting to change the depth of your picture to really make it look 3-D.
How To: Make your film look like it was taken using a Super 8 in After Effects
Take a thoroughly modern clip of digital film, and then send it back in time! This tutorial shows you how to use the Aged Film plugin for Adobe After Effects to make your clip look like it comes stright from the 1970s.
How To: Create a dynamic, 3-D moving filmstrip in Adobe After Effects
Love the look of animated 35mm film? It can be tricky to really replicate this effect, but it's nevertheless possible. This tutorial shows you how to use Adobe After Effects to create your own clip of 3-D animated film footage.
How To: Use FreeForm to simulate flowing cloth or ribbon in After Effects
You can use the FreeForm plugin to create the look of cloth blowing in the wind - like an animated ribbon, or a banner waving in the wind. The key is in designing the displacement map to get a truly realistic effect.
How To: Use the FreeForm plugin for Adobe After Effects to create a liquid pour effect
You can simulate the look of fluids using the FreeForm plugin for Adobe After Effects. Play around with the color, viscosity and opacity of your liquid, and animate a container filling up as well. This tutorial covers everything you'll need to know!
How To: Use displacement maps to create a staircase in Adobe After Effecs
This tutorial shows you how to take a 2-D image of a Persian rug and turn it into a fully 3-D staircase using the displacement mapper in Adobe After Effects. Displacement mapping is a versatile, helpful tool for any 3-D animator.
How To: Create a freeform terrain to fly over in Adobe After Effects
This tutorial shows you first how to create some basic outdoor terrain in Adobe After Effects. Then, create a camera effect which makes it look like your camera is slowly flying over the terrain using the FreeForm plugin for After Effects.
How To: Use loops and beatmapping in Sony Acid Studio
This tutorial shows you how you can use two features of Sony Acid - loops and beatmapping. These can give you a good deal more versatility, especially when you are working on a remix. This tutorial shows you how to use both.
How To: Create retro-style motion graphics for a sweet 1960's look with After Effects
Yeah baby! That's right, 1960's, retro style motion graphics. You want em, you need em and this tutorial with Angie Taylor of Red Giant TV shows YOU how to get them by using PlaneSpace, Text Anarchy, Trapcode Echospace and Warp! Shagadelic baby! Create retro-style motion graphics for a sweet 1960's look with After Effects.
How To: Create Favicon icons with png2ico's free icon software
Are you tired of using other people's services to create Favicon icons for yourself or your clients? This tutorial shows you how to use a nifty (and free) little program called png2ico to do it yourself! Download the software here.
How To: Create cool animation, line drawing & art FX with free Sony Vegas Plug-In
Tired up straight-up video images? Make your videos pop by giving them an array of cool treatments. Make your video look like a cartoon, or a line drawing, or a watercolor painting or just really bad dreams! With a selection of cool, free Sony Vegas effects you can do it all. Download the free FX plug-in here .
How To: Create a black & white 'cookie cutter' effect using Sony Vegas
Lights, camera and coolness! You've seen this effect in several music videos and it's time for you to learn the trick yourself. Using Sony Vegas you can create a slick 'cookie cutter' effect (essentially slicing up the screen with a B&W bar). Impress friends and family and rock your home music video world!
How To: Inlay and emboss a textured text logo with Fireworks (CS3, CS4 or CS5)
Lift up your text or push it back down with Firework's inlay & emboss feature. Works for FW CS3, CS4, and CS5. Don't be shy with your words, make them stand out! This same trick can also be used with GIMP and Adobe Photoshop.
How To: Use Dropbox to print from your smartphone or iPad anywhere
Need to print something but you're on the go and only have your smartphone or iPad with you? No worries! This tutorial shows you how to use a little app called Dropbox to print to your home printer anywhere, anytime, with any mobile device. Print THAT!
How To: Download CalCubeTimer for Rubik's Cube solving and create a desktop shortcut
Need a timer for your speedsolving? You needn't buy a Rubik's Cube timer, becasue there's one available on the web for free, and it's called CalCubeTimer (CCT). Get the newest version (0.9.6) here, then see how to create a desktop shortcut in Windows.
How To: Apply, control and manage effects in Resolume 3
Resolume 3 is a powerful program which allows you to edit both audio and video effects. This quick tutorial gives you a brief overview of the general effects feature, how you can apply effects and how you can eliminate effects altogether.
How To: Create fire, smoke and explosion effects using computer visual effects
This tutorial will work for most any 3D rendering program, such as Houdini, 3ds Studio Max or Maya. Learn how you can replicate the dynamic look of fire, smoke and explosions. Create digital fire and other fume effects with your computer.
How To: Replicate the Discovery Channel rebrand cube in Cinema 4D
Love the look of the new Discovery Channel cubic animation? The Greyscale Gorilla is here to help! After several months of experimenting, you can now benefit from his hard earned wisdom! Using Cinema 4D, you can make your own copy of this effect.
How To: Multi-clip edit in post production with Final Cut Pro
So you've filmed your scene using multiple cameras, and now it's time to sync them up into a coherent whole. This tutorial shows you how to take advantage of the multi clip edit feature in Final Cut Pro when you're in post production.
How To: Do different types of fading in Sony Vegas
This tutorial shows you several different types of fades you can use when working with Sony Vegas. Fades can add a little something extra to your web clips, slideshows and other media, and Sony Vegas offers several ways to customize your own.
How To: Use the Cinema 4D HDRI Light Kit Pro from Greyscale Gorilla
Turn Cinema 4d into your own lighting studio! This tutorial shows you how to use the HDRI Light Kit Pro kit of plugins and addons to create unique lighting effects - add your own softboxes, ring lights and other sources to improve your renders.
How To: Kern and typeset in Cinema 4D
Despite a lack of native kerning tools for typesetting in Cinema 4D, it is possible with a little bit of effort. Letters and characters can be spaced individually using Mograph and the plane effector. Another solution is to first kern the entire block of text externally using Illustrator and Photoshop, and then import into Cinema 4D.
How To: Improve renders with Linear Workflow in Cinema 4D
Linear Workflow is automatically activated in new projects in Cinema 4D and is a feature to ensure that lighting falloff is rendered more accurately and realistically on light sources, textures and reflections. Greyscale Gorilla explains the concept in this demonstration video.
How To: Choose the right computer for design and compositing
Increased productivity in Cinema 4D (or other processor-intensive applications) does not always have a linear correlation wtih the speed of the machine that the work is performed on. Nick Campbell of Greyscale Gorilla explains what exactly it is that a fast machine allows one to do, what kind of machine to get, and what kind of work can one expect to do on it.
How To: Create a metallic 3D logo with Cinema 4D and Photoshop
Create a three-dimensional logo in Cinema 4D and Photoshop with realistic lighting, reflection and shadows. The render is created in 3D inside Cinema 4D using Mograph Text and a bend deformer, textured and lit for initial reflections, and polished in Photoshop with blending modes, blurs and curves. Greyscale Gorilla demonstrates in this informative hour-long video.
How To: Add dynamics to concave objects in Cinema 4D
In this tutorial, create concave objects in Cinema 4D such that particle objects behave and interact realistically with the concave object. The automatic setting for objects is configured in a way that simplifies calculation and speeds up rendering time. By changing the automatic setting within Cinema 4D, the physical properties of concave and curved objects are calculated more thoroughly and are rendered more realistically.
How To: Build a glass mesh softbody with dynamics in Cinema 4D
In this 41 minute tutorial, learn how to build a spherical glass mesh with softbody physical properties (and filled with round particles) that enable it to bounce without breaking in Cinema 4D. Nick from Greyscale Gorilla shows how.
How To: Simulate handwriting in After Effects
Learn to animate text in Adobe After Effects CS3 with this video tutorial so that it looks like it is being handwritten. This video tutorial from Matthew Butler shows three different methods of animating in After Effects CS3, the techniques can also be used in CS4 and CS5.
How To: Track a simple object in After Effects
Learn the fundamentals of position tracking in After Effects in this informative 5 minute tutorial from Patrick Carter. This video lesson involves attaching a text object to a moving cowboy on screen to demonstrate the basic transform tracking function.
How To: Take B&W snapshots with the Hold & Resume Spy Photo preset in After Effects
Create an effect in your video where the video footage is converted to black & white, pauses, and resumes playback in regular color. This effect is demonstrated by Aharon Rabinowitz with Spy Photo, a brand new set of free presets for Adobe After Effects.
How To: Simulate snapshots in After Effects with free Spy Photo presets
Simulate the look of snapshots in your After Effects video footage with Spy Photo, a free set of presets that dynamically automate and generate the effect. This 17-minute tutorial from Aharon Rabinowitz of All Bets Are Off demonstrates the features of this cool new addition, which includes camera sound effects and viewfinder overlays.