Motion Graphics Tutorial Project for Beginners (+ bonus challenge)

[Jemster]

Hi there,

I've just uploaded my first Fusion project-based motion graphics tutorial (to YouTube) – I hope you consider checking it out:



It's pitched at beginners (who are probably rare on this forum!), but it also includes a bonus challenge (involving a disguised password, and some downloadable content) which I hope might interest others, too.

I'd welcome any feedback, or suggestions for future improvements (or content). Although I'm not oblivious to its shortcomings, it's difficult to judge which are the most glaring weaknesses. Thanks!

[intelligent machine]

very cool! Loved the experience scale from newb to Vito haha.
gratias tibi

[SirEdric]

Very cool indeed!
Would love to see a tut for the shimmering sphere coming in at apx 1:00.

Cheers.

Eric.

[Jemster]

Very cool indeed!
Would love to see a tut for the shimmering sphere coming in at apx 1:00.

Thanks for replies, guys.

That's a good idea about the shimmering sphere, I think I'll work on that for my next video.

[Mariosupa]

Nice! This is a great tutorial!
Really nice because it shows also a bit of workflow. Really good for me who is trying to do some motion graphics in fusion (coming from AE). Somehow I'm still trying to do things like in AE but it's definitely not efficient!
Thank you! Looking forward to the next tutorials!

[SirEdric]

By the way...did you know that there are a number of seasoned Fusion artists out there who could be hired on a freelance basis for inhouse Fusion training?
(Ask me how I know...)

[ShadowMaker SdR]

Interesting you should say that Eric. I was thinking the same thing recently with the influx of Resolvers to Fusion, there must be *some* market for people like those artists you're referring to.

[SirEdric]

I definitely do hope so..
I mean...I did that training stuff for years and years back in the eyeon days...

[Jemster]

By the way, I've just uploaded another project-based Fusion tutorial, which will hopefully be helpful to a few beginners (and maybe intermediate users) who stumble across it.

This one has an emphasis on glass and optical effects...



Have fun.

[Chad]

The Blur Amount isn't pixels, it's 1/720th of the normalized width of the input image.

[gez]

That's a really nice tutorial, but I'd really recommend to stay in a scene-referred linear reference colorspace for anything related to optical effects (actually I'd recommend to stick to linear for anything related to digital compositing).

You should check Blender's Filmic OCIO config to avoid the harsh clipping produced by the gamut node / gamut viewLUT when using wide-dynamic range scene-referred linear material. Along with the tonemapping it applies a nice and gentle film-like desaturation towards display white that works great with glows and glares.
Also I'd add that using the "screen" blending mode for the reflections can give you some problems with intense pixel values as it's a display-referred operation. An add would make more sense there as the reflected light gets added to the background emission transmitted by the glass.

There's a lot to gain doing that: you get rid of all the clipping and artifacts and optical effects look more realistic. Flipping to non-linear to keep stuff simpler is probably a bad advice. The opposite is true: everything is easier when you don't have to deal with non-linear transfers

Apart from that aspect, it's a really neat workflow tutorial. It's a good introduction to compositing and procedural effects, and it's a great example of connecting properties.

[Jemster]

Thanks for all those tips, Gez, and sorry I missed your reply until now. That was some good advice: I learned a few things (nice!) and my video would have been better off if I'd corrected those issues you spotted. Oh well.. c'est la vie.
For the record, I completely agree that working in linear colourspace would be the best way to go, especially for a project like that. I was just wanting to keep the video short and simple. But yeah, I guess that's no excuse for teaching bad habits. :-/ Thanks for the feedback.

(And thanks to Chad for pointing out that I shouldn't refer to parameter units as 'pixels', since Fusion is resolution-independent. I have to admit, I do that all the time in my videos. I'm gonna burn in hell).

[Jemster]

Here's another Fusion tutorial video I made, this time about importing an FBX file into Fusion.

I'm aware that 98% of people on this forum are at a level waaay beyond anything I can offer, but in the spirit of sharing - and for any beginners who stumble across this - here it is anyway...

[ShadowMaker SdR]

It's a very nicely done tutorial. Nice little jokes wedged inbetween genuine good info all told in a very concise manner. Well done!

[SteveWatson]

Hi,

I just watched the 2 part game of glows. Really nice.

One idea I had which may or may not work(as I've not actually tried this) but if you had a second 3d merge and rendererer with flat textures and just some of the rings in it you could then create a matte to use as an obscuration layer of your lighting effects(as I type this the idea of just using the Z channel clipped to just be between camera and sun might do exactly the same thing). It might need to be eroded slightly so there is some sort of edge bleed. Just a possible idea, no idea if it will do what I'm imagining it would.