Here is a super quick tip that will definitely come in useful if you save lots of Render Setting and Output Module Templates in After Effects.

Did you know these templates can be exported and transferred to other copies of After Effects?  It is pretty simple to do and will save you loads of time recreating them from scratch.

Open up the version of After Effects that contains the templates that you’d like to export. From the Edit Menu, choose Templates > Render Settings.

Choose Edit / Templates / .....

In the dialogue that opens, there is an option to Save All in the lower left corner. Click here and choose a suitable save location on your hard drive.

Choose Save All

Now follow the same procedure for your Output Modules. The files you’ve saved will use the suffix .aom for output modules and .ars for Render Settings.  Once you have saved both of these files, you can close this version of After Effects and open the version you wish to import them into. Again choose Edit > Templates > Render Settings. This time click the Load button and then locate your saved files. Repeat for Output Modules and you are ready to go.

Loading your saved templates

Nice and simple and definitely one to remember. If any names are the same then those templates won’t be imported, this stops you loading in duplicate templates.

You can also use this method to send your render settings and output module templates to other users. Particularly handy if you need to ensure that staff working off-site, or even overseas, all use the same settings for their projects.

Here’s another quick tip that demonstrates how to slow down your cloth simulations.  This technique can be used with any animation that involves deformation at a point level.   Have fun!

For those of you that are wondering about the mesh I used for the Luxx logo, here is an editor view (unsmoothed).  You can see that I have modelled the shape quite evenly and not taken an extrudeNURBS made editable (click on the image to see full size).  When working with cloth you should always model with this in mind and try to keep your mesh nice and evenly balanced.  The cloth will tend to react more naturally that way.

Luxx Logo Wireframe

This forum post was brought to my attention by a tweet from @sketchbookinc, it is a really handy illustration of polygons, stepping and moving poles. For those of you that are fairly proficient at modelling, then this is a handy reminder. Those of you new to modelling, there are some really good techniques demonstrated here that might stop you pulling your hair out.

Here’s one of the images, but visit the forum to see both. It is definitely worth it and they’re not my images to share, so it is only fair that I send you to the original post to see for yourself.

Polygon Table

It seems the generous guy behind this is Pedro Amaro Santos, so I thank you Pedro for sharing this valuable information.

If you check the forum post, you’ll see it also contains a link to an interactive guide to creating elbows that Pedro has created. This is a great way to look at the different types of rounding you can achieve through SDS modelling and I’d definitely recommend having a look here too.

Creating elbows with SDS

This is what makes the web such a fantastic place, people are so willing to share the knowledge. Awesome stuff, thanks Pedro!