It’s early, early, early on Dec. 5 and I can’t sleep.  What better way to spend a sleepless morning than in the Labs running through an Adobe After Effects tutorial??  Stay tuned for my creation.

One hour later…here is my 6 second video:

Power of Words from Brett Bearce on Vimeo.

This is the After Effects tutorial from the July/August 2009 issue of Layers Magazine.  It’s a quick tutorial covering type in motion with one camera angle.  I need to sit back and review it more closely to understand what I’ve done.

I was surprised to discover today that I hadn’t been back to the Lab in almost a month!  The perfect opportunity to flex a little Lab muscle came in the form of a Vimeo Weekend Project.  Vimeo is a website similar to YouTube: it’s a place to post videos you make so your friends and family can see your work and so hobbyists can comment on and critique your work.

The Weekend Project challenge:

• Videos must be exactly one minute.
• No camera movement (no dollying, tilting, panning or zooming.) So, leave the Steadicam at home.
• Use original sound.
• No editing whatsoever (no titles, no cuts, no nuthin’)

I thought the perfect plan was a video of Roosevelt, my cat.  After 8 minutes of trying to get him to do anything, I gave up.  But in the process, I discovered some really cool footage I already had.

First, I stumbled on some old footage driving down Skyline Drive on a January morning with my friends Meg and Matt.

Virginia’s Skyline Drive in January from Brett Bearce on Vimeo.

Then I found footage of a sunrise in Durango, Colorado I took a few years ago.

Sunrise in Durango from Brett Bearce on Vimeo.

But I finally settled on Marine 1 departing the White House from this past summer (you might want to turn down your sound)

Marine 1 Departs the White House from Brett Bearce on Vimeo.

When Adobe Creative Suite CS 4 was released, I decided to upgrade to the Master Collection in hopes that one day I’d be able to “get my hands dirty” in Premiere and After Effects.  I’d always worked in Apple’s Final Cut Suite (including Motion), but had heard that After Effects was better in so many ways.

I decided I’d use After Effects to redo the intro sequence (or “front bumper” as I call it) to the videos I create.  Here’s how it turned out:

Brettro “Front Bumper” from Brett Bearce on Vimeo.

(Note: I also created the music to go along with it.)

There’s so much to know and learn and explore in the world of creative media design.  And the crazy thing is, I find almost all of it incredibly interesting!  Between the constantly evolving world of Web design, the rapid “mainstreaming” of video production, and the struggle for relevance of print materials, there’s just so much to learn.

With that in mind, today Brettro launches Brettro Labs.

This is my playground for trying things out, for royally screwing things up, and for learning, learning and learning.  And all along the way, I’ll be posting my trials and triumphs here.

Enjoy.

- B