Zaxwerks Blog

A little while back we hosted an eSeminar. If you haven’t heard, an eSeminar is a live class taught by an instructor, which you watch in the web browser of your computer. It’s a great way to link people together from all over the world, without ever having to leave home. John Dickinson was the instructor and did an outstanding job of showing how he created a promotional spot for the television network he works at.

John took us right from the beginning, showing how every element was built and why he made the decisions he did. As he was building the layers he showed alternate ideas and effects. Many of these alternates happened due to a slight change in one of the parameters. It was really interesting to see how many variations could be done to make the work your own.

John worked in both After Effects and the ProAnimator, showing how to use them together and how to get the best work flow. He showed how to build backgrounds, how to make Mars, how to do the main title and the accompanying text. He showed how to alter the mood and color of a piece. He showed how to set up a logo in Illustrator and how to reuse elements with ProAnimator’s text engine. Of course none of this was done in the usual ways you might think. Everything had a Master’s flair for design and attention to detail, with useful tips flying off John’s silver tounge.

The whole class, which was originally scheduled for 1.5 hours ended up being over 3. At the end the floor was opened to a Q & A session where Zax joined in too, answering questions and revealing secrets about upcoming products. Everyone had a great time and learned a lot.

John promises that he’ll be having another class soon. He’s also promised to create a DVD version of the class so that anyone who wasn’t able to attend would still be able to learn his valuable information. We’ll be looking forward to that DVD.

Thanks John for a great class!