The February 2023 (23.2 and the 23.2.1 patch) After Effects release officially includes support for OpenColorlO (OCIO) color management that enables you to work natively with the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) in After Effects. There were several stability and performance fixes as well; see Fixed issues in After Effects.

Import 3D Model still in beta; see Welcome to 3D Model Import in After Effects! If you want a short rundown on 3D in AE, Tim Kurkoski of the After Effects team commented on the 4 renderers — Mercury 3D, Cinema 4D renderers+ Draft 3D. Other major features in beta include: Properties Panel, Startup and Repair Preferences, and Effects Manager.

For more on ACES in AE, check out Silverwing Fx Quick-Ish Tip: Finally Aftereffects Native ACES.

Chris Zwar continued his discussion of AE and color management here on PVC in his video and article, Color Management Part 15: Logarithmic video files, in which he explains what log files are, why they were invented, and why you can’t ignore them. If you don’t deal with log footage correctly, then it will look flat and washed out!

And in After Effects: Using Deadline for a Render Farm, Chris shared his broader thoughts on render farms, the Deadline app, and After Effects.

Meanwhile, Premiere Gal explained what’s New in Premiere Pro! Fix HDR Color (version 23.2 update!). She’s also released several more videos on the use of A.I. tools to create video.

VideoRevealed covers the new Safe Mode Launch in Adobe Premiere Pro. It also covers what settings are new in this mode (as in the AE beta), like bypassing plug-ins to troubleshoot stability issues, as well as the exposing the misconception that Premiere deletes media files.

Back in After Effects, check out Startup and Repair (Beta), a feature now available for development, testing, and feedback. The Startup and Repair panel can be used to quickly diagnose and troubleshoot issues with After Effects preferences without having to make changes in your set preferences or starting over from the scratch. For details see Feature Focus: Effect Manager & Startup and Repair by Adobe’s Brian Carter. If that’s too futuristic, check out How To Stop After Effects From Crashing from Motion Array.

Jake In Motion posted Make ANYTHING tiny! // After Effects Tilt-Shift Tutorial. This effect became a craze in 2008; see Tilt-shift photography meme.

Cinecom.net posted This FREE A.I. Tool Will Change Deepfakes Forever. Tools used in this video: Swapface, Deepswap, Faceswap. See also Zaba Labs on Now You Can Live Deepfake Anyone. See the new TikTok filters at the bottom of this roundup!

Cinecom also challenges us with an After Effects Skill Test: Are you (actually) good? Further, they say 90% of Visual Effects is made using THIS. For more on noise, you might see the AEP roundup Fractal Noise in After Effects — but don’t miss the definitive Fractal Noise: Advanced analysis of After Effects most versatile plugin by Chris Zwar, right here on PVC.

Ben Marriott shared 10 Quick After Effects Techniques I LOVE.

Chris Salters on Twitter showed us how to crack open a MOGRT like a pistachio to reveal the delicious AEP file inside, by renaming it to .zip.

Just learned how to crack open a MOGRT like a pistachio to reveal the delicious AEP file inside!
Renaming a couple of things to .zip makes the whole process way too easy. #postchat #aftereffects #mograph pic.twitter.com/yPhCtIsLha

— Chris Salters (@SeeSalt13) February 6, 2023

How To Create A Counting Effect in After Effects by Motion Array comes with a collection of 17 counter presets for numbers, percentages, and money.

Boone Loves Video shared 2D Map Flyover with Depth of Field (NO PLUGINS!), with the project file available for download.

10 Amazing Expressions You NEED To Know In After Effects from Motion By Scott covers Wiggle, Time, Posterize Time, Loop Out, Math Round, Value To Fixed, Opposite Math, Random, Maintain Scale While Parented, Delay, and Expression Controls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nsKeUUlg4o

Make Your After Effects Projects Pop with a Sunburst Background – Adobe After Effects Tutorial from 7 Minute AE Tutorials shows you how to use the built-in AE preset. To explore manual methods of the past (and walk to school 10 miles in the snow), see the AEP roundup Sunbursts or radial rays in After Effects.

Olufemii posted 10 Easy After Effects Transitions 2023. Nice and slow, see, that’s the way to do it. Nice and slow.

SonduckFilm explains, What is Brutalism? Create Brutal Motion Graphics in After Effects. In this tutorial, he explores the mid-20th century utilitarian aesthetic movement that shunned decoration in favor of exposing and celebrating the raw materials used to construct the design.

Pixflow shared How to Make Amazing Liquid Blobs in After Effects (No Plugins Required!). In this video, he shows you how to create liquid blobs in After Effects using only shape layers and basic effects. What, no Mr. Mercury?!

Film Riot shows you how they recreated the Quantum Realm Effect From Ant-Man Quantumania (After Effects Tutorial). This whirlwind tour explains the use of After Effects, Element 3D, Trapcode Mir, and stock elements.

Michael Ponch shared How to Motion Track FAST Moving Objects PRECISELY | Easy After Effects Tutorial. This tutorial covers the Mocha AE plug-in from Boris FX, included with After Effects, which is GPU-accelerated, and Multi-Frame Rendering supported. You can use the plug-in to work with complex tracking shots such as shots with motion blur or objects that move off-screen. Michael also shared THE FLASH Cinematic 3D Lightning Effect | FREE After Effects Project, a quick explanation of his project file.

SonduckFilm showed how they Use the Echo Effect for Duplication in #AfterEffects.

The ‘Speed Up After Effects‘ series from SternFX is growing. Recent ones include Multi-Frame Rendering and Speculative Preview and Composition Profiler, where you can learn all about the Composition Profiler, Crop to Region of Interest and Work Area options in After Effects.

The Prolost Beta by Stu Maschwitz is an e-mail newsletter featuring exclusive prerelease things for the cool hunter — Lightroom presets and profiles, After Effects presets, storytelling tools, Apple Shortcuts, and more. It’s stuff not in the store or Prolost blog.

Prolost Beta subscribers just got beta 1 of Prolost Spotwire, an @AdobeAE preset for rendering the wireframes of spot lights. pic.twitter.com/o5PXfBA0CB

— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) January 31, 2023

In Pixel Sorter Effect | After Effects, Ben Baker shows how to use the AE Pixel Sorter plug-in in a practical manner.

Made By Loop runs down 50 FREE After Effects Scripts.

The Studio explains Making the 2023 MKBHD Intro Animation! The sound design has a fun depth effect.

Hollywood Illusion liberated Magic Nodes: Unleash the power of NODE COMPOSITING in After Effects!

The Corridor Crew asks Did We Just Change Animation Forever? What, cartoon filters aren’t good enough?

Jonny Elwyn collected his choices for The Best AI Tools for Video and Audio Post Production. This is his shortlist: Runway.ml, DaVinci Resolve Studio, Descript, Blanc, Colour Lab.ai, Fylm.ai, ElevenLabs.io, Altered Studio. This tops of the list:

Meanwhile, No Film School shared opinion on Dreamix in AI Video Editor Dreamix Brings Generated Video Closer to Reality.

Premiere Gal also contributed 3 Ways to Animate Video Subtitles + New AI tool!

Alex Lindsay says he’s using this AI application, but not for games! If you’d like to get beyond “prompt engineering” interfaces to more easily generate variations, check out Scenario. Scenario is a web based app, with an iOS companion app, that allows users to design custom asset generators. Based on an AI generative model “Stable Diffusion”, Scenario leverages a customization technique, “Dreambooth,” a GenAi “finetuning” program. Scenario apparently allows a wider range of quality fine-tuning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXplN3rlSVc

Alex also noted this very interesting thread (note lady in red dress and blond in orange shirt) on the strange power of the new TikTok beauty and teenage filters (also on Instagram). Here we’re following it with AI Generated Images Are Getting Too Real from bycloud.

I don't wanna be known as the tiktok filter guy, but ICYMI after attacking GenX w teenage filter, tiktok just dropped a new filter to take out Millennials & GenZ. "Beauty filters" are not new, but the precision on this is beyond uncanny. This is psychological warfare & pure evil. pic.twitter.com/2G2FeMfrTC

— memo akten (@memoakten) February 26, 2023

Are we caught in a Library of Babel?

Check out AI Tools: The List You Need Now! by Jeff Foster here on PVC! Jeff says: “We’re just taking a moment to catch our breath a bit in all the AI fury and start compiling a list that we can use for reference by category or all the most popular and useful AI Tools, portals and apps available to create, modify, enhance or edit your projects and creative content (I’ll add in a few that might be just for fun, too.)”

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Please note that these roundups are for quick review and comparison. There is almost always vital information from the originating authors at the links provided — and often free presets, projects, or stock footage too.

@aerich suffers from information overload. Feel free to comment or contribute!