Not Art #28: Haiku I'm Thinking of Finishing One Day

I’ve got a bunch of Haiku started, but I just can’t seem to finish anything. Nonetheless, I’ve decided to publish!

$5 in the Not Art Back Issue Shop, $3 for subscribers, shipping always free.

After Effects Sketches from June 2023

I help strangers on the internet to make things in After Effects. Here are some quick sketches and experiments I’ve made along the way.

Two quick and general purpose tips:

1) There’s no shame in using multiple layers when you need them, and often no real benefit to breaking your back in order to minimize the amount of layers in a project.

2) You don’t have to make stuff you can’t see. Part of that is that you don’t need to rig up things that don’t move during the shot. The lines-and-nodes shot was very quick to make because no part of it responds dynamically to anything. There’s no reason why it should, unless that’s what your experiment is about.

Hey, I won another contest!

This is the story of how I came to own a fancy pen:

The 8-Bit is not terribly expensive in the world of Expensive Pens, but anyone outside of that world would do a spittake. However, unlike almost every other kinda-pricey-to-amateurs pen I’ve ever held, this one is actually very nice to use. My inexpensive Sharpie S-Gels have taken a backseat since this arrived.

Thank you, Pen Addict!

AE Sketch: Spiraling Shape

This came from helping someone animate text similar to the credits of an anime they like.

What I like is They Might Be Giants, so this is Spiraling Shape.

AE Sketches: Macrobinoculars Time Lapse

I recorded a time-lapse of the Star Wars binoculars shot from my last post for someone who requested it. The basic, boring answer to ‘how do I do a shot like that?’ is ‘throw a bunch of shape and text layers around.’

This shot is not my design, the requester shared a photo he snapped of his TV. I’m guessing from Rebels?