Welcome to Adobe After Effects NY

Recap for AENY Meeting 2/22/07

Hi everyone-

We wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who showed up to the meeting on February 22. With over 110 people showing up to share their love for After Effects and animation, we made this one of the most successful user group launches in history. Of course we could not have done it with out the room sponsorship from Pratt Manhattan, and the financial sponsorship from Adobe.

Just to recap, we started the night off with some food and drinks where we had a chance to connect with others in our industry. We already knew many of you from our interactions at conferences or through the forums at Creative Cow, and were glad to see you here. Others were entirely new faces and we enjoyed meeting you. Some of you traveled into Manhattan from as far as Philadelphia or Connecticut to join us for the 2 and a half hour meeting. Ah... Nothing brings animators together like food.

Then the lights went down and, after some brief introductions by co-founders Aharon Rabinowitz (Creative Cow) and Dennis Radeke (Adobe), the presentations started. Maxon CEO Paul Babb and trainer Dr. Sassi (from Maxon's Cineversity.com) gave a powerful presentation in Cinema 4D, the 3D package most integrated with After Effects. At one point, Paul showed us an example of how using C4D could save an animator weeks of time by using it with After Effects, as opposed to doing projects in 3D alone. That one got a good few “Oohs.” They also demonstrated MoGraph, the C4D module designed to give motion graphics artists tools for maximum output with very little work. All around, pretty cool stuff.

Following that, we watched Bigfoot’s Eulogy, an animated short by Stephen Neary (Little Airplane) that was a finalist in Adobe’s 2006 Achievement awards. The piece, done entirely in After Effects 3D, had a lot of laughs and a few tears, and demonstrated the true power of After Effects 3D (or 2.5D, if you will). Afterwards Stephen showed us how he set up and rigged his characters, using Photoshop and After Effects. He also showed how scanning your dog can be great for generating textures.

Finally, after Stephen shared some insight into his workflow and fielded related questions, we moved on to the part that everyone loves: Door Prizes!!!!

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors (see below) we gave away thousands of dollars worth of After Effects related prizes. Aharon also demonstrated his inability to throw T-shirts.

If you’ve just come to the website after hearing about the first meeting from a friend, join us for our next meeting on March 29th (not yet confirmed, but hang in there). We’d love to meet you and learn more about what you’re doing and of course, what you’re doing with After Effects!

We’ll be confirming the next meeting date shortly. Stop by our website (aeny.org) to stay updated, or visit the Adobe After Effects New York forum at Creative cow.

Again, thanks so much for your support, and we look forward to seeing you at the next meeting.

Best regards,

Aharon Rabinowitz & Dennis Radeke

Co-Founders, Adobe After Effects New York

Meeting Sponsors: