Jack Tunnicliffe is the owner-operator of two successful companies in Western Canada that serve broadcast clients along both coasts. His post-production facility Java Post Production provides editing and visual effects for broadcast TV, commercials and ad agency productions. Caffeine Commercial Productions is an award-winning production company that works alongside Java Post with their commercial and corporate clients. Sounds like Jack also serves up a mean cup of dark roasted brew.

At Java Post, Jack works as the chief colorist and a lead motion graphics artist. He began his career as a camera operator, then moved into producing/directing a range of media from commercials and documentaries to sports broadcasts including Olympic broadcasts for Canada and world host feeds. In 1995, Jack started Java Post with a business partner, one Media 100 workstation, and self-taught knowledge of After Effects and compositing. His talents and company exploded along with the visual effects industry.

I caught up with Jack to hear about a new Canadian TV series, InSecurity, that Java Post produces the color correction and visual effects for. The show went to air in January 2011 as a comedy about a bumbling group of Canadian intelligence agents. Jack walked me through the effects-heavy opening sequence of InSecurity and also previewed an intriguing scene that involves a composited ‘finger screen’. Both segments use a lot of heavy-hitting Red Giant products, and the ones I will showcase are Magic Bullet Colorista II and Red Giant Warp.

InSecurity-Intro from Java Post Production

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In an earlier blog post I mentioned that we were recently interviewed by Veronica Belmont for the web series, Best Job Ever. Usually Best Job Ever interviews people from companies like Google, YouTube, HP, or even NASA, but somehow a small company like Red Giant got on their radar. We must be doing something right! Here’s the interview with both myself and our General Manager, Micah Sharp, talking about what it takes to get a gig at a company like Red Giant.

How to get a job developing for video and animation software: Best Job Ever with Veronica Belmont: Veronica Belmont talks to Red Giant Software’s Micah Sharp and Aharon Rabinowitz about optimizingskills for video and animation, the team mentality that keeps Red Giant developers happy, and how you can get the Best Job Ever.

Red Giant QuickTip #34: Fast 3D Effects in Final Cut Pro

In this tutorial Apple Certified Master Trainer Simon Walker shows you how to improve up your workflow by compositing elements in a virtual 3D space with reflections and glow elements, without leaving the Final Cut timeline.

Check out Simon’s site @ simonwalkerfreelance.com

Related Links:

• Get Red Giant Warp HERE.
• Get Simon Walker’s Weddings & Events for Looks HERE.
• Check out Simon Walkers website HERE.

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Use Coupon Code: NLCS5UP10

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UPDATE 2/28: Whoops! We sent this offer on Thursday, February 24 and had an unexpected problem with the discount coupon code. This newsletter extends our 10% Upgrade Sale until Friday, March 4. The coupon code will now allow you to buy multiple upgrades. We apologize for any frustration you may have encountered. Please contact our Support team with questions OR go shopping now.

After a whirlwind year, Red Giant has finished a big task. We updated 29 products for Adobe CS5 Creative Suite and 64-bit compatibility. We also put together four CS5-compatible Suites that will really knock your socks off (but keep your wallet intact).

That’s 29 products which contain 170 plug-ins. Each has a Mac and Windows side, which doubles to a total of 240 plug-ins, and then we have multiple Adobe host apps… Wow! This great accomplishment took the hard work of every team at Red Giant and — just as important — a lot of terrific support and advice from you, our customers. We always strive to release the best products, and sometimes we had to delay a much anticipated update to make sure it was in tiptop shape.

It’s been a wild ride to the finish line and we appreciate your patience. As a thank you, we are offering 10% off all upgrades for the next 5 days. That’s a 10% discount on individual and Suite upgrades, most of which are $29 and $99 regularly. Go Shopping Now.

5 Day Sale: This 10% OFF sale runs through Tuesday, March 4, 2011 at 11:59 PM PST (California). To find out when the sale ends in your time zone, visit the World Clock Site.

How To Buy: Add the selected product to your Shopping Cart. Enter Coupon Code NLCS5UP10 during checkout to redeem your discount on the page titled Review and Submit Your Order. (Note: The coupon code field appears after you have entered your credit card information and hit Continue.)

NOTE: This coupon works with upgrades only, not crossgrade offers. In order to purchase an upgrade, you must own the original product. The upgrade will ask for your original serial number. Have questions about which products you own? Please contact our Support Team.

I was in Portland a few weeks ago, completely out of touch, but when I checked in with Twitter, I found this great video posted by our good friend Nick Campbell:

Nick Campbell and Benny Monson are old band buddies, and though it’s been a while, both wanted to write and play more music together. So, adopting the same philosophy of creating a deadline to be creative that Nick uses for his 5-Second Projects, they decided to write, perform, record and release one song per month in 2011.

They say they’re not quite sure how it will work out – but by anyone’s account, so far so good.

Aside from really enjoying the music, I loved the vintage look and feel of the video – kind of a signature style for the man who brought you ShakeItPhoto and CrossProcess. Obviously I had to ask what he did to get that look. But it turns out it’s no big secret: Nick used the “Basic Fade” preset from his Red Giant Guru Preset Pack, Nick Campbell’s Vintage Film for Looks – an add-on for Magic Bullet Looks.

All around, great stuff. Can’t wait to see and hear what’s next. Though, we do hope you guys can manage to scrape together some cash to rent a garage so that you aren’t stuck playing out in snow much longer (That dog looked mean!).

Author’s note: This post is a combo of both a user story and tutorial. Check out the visuals, and then watch the tutorial at the bottom… it’s worth it.

Recently, I was checking out Vimeo, and I found this amazing Lovett music video, called Eye of the Storm, that is a beautiful blend of both live-action and CGI:

Personally, I’ve never been into the Steam-punk thing, but this is such a great piece of visual storytelling with a great soundtrack, it’s quickly become one of my favorite pieces produced in recent time.

I watched this fantastic “Making Of” video and caught that one of our customers, Wes Ball, of OddBall Animation, headed up the visual Effects.

Trapcode Suite Products used were: Particular, 3D stroke, Starglow, and Shine for atmosphere.

Wes told me he did the lightning with Trapcode Particular and 3D stroke, so I asked him if he would do a QuickTip on that. He was kind enough to oblige, and here it is:

Red Giant QuickTip #33: Particular Lightning Bolt

Wes has taught at fxphd, and if you check out the OddBall Animation website, you’ll find a lot of his company’s work, including some amazing 3D shots Wes is working on for personal projects, as well as a fantastic roto reel. Definitely worth checking out!

I asked Wes, why he uses Red Giant’s products and he said: “The short and sweet answer; Red Giant gets us to final faster.”

Personally, I can’t think of a better reason.

Use Coupon Code: PLANESPACE30

PlaneSpace eliminates the tedious task of managing the individual layers in multi-layer effects in After Effects. The Creator tools automatically create layers that form cubic, cylindrical, and spheroid shapes or complex matrices, while the six Distribute tools arrange 3D layers throughout 3D space into the shape of your choice without requiring keyframes or complicated math.

Watch the four videos below to learn how PlaneSpace can make your life a lot simpler!

Buy Now for only $139.30 (Regularly $199, Save $59.70)

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5 Day Sale: This 30% OFF sale runs through Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 11:59 PM PST (California). To find out when the sale ends in your time zone, visit the World Clock site.

How To Buy: Add the selected product to your Shopping Cart. Enter Coupon Code PLANESPACE30 during checkout to redeem your discount on the page titled Review and Submit Your Order. (Note: The coupon code field appears after you have entered your credit card information and hit Continue.)

As a total side note – Plane space is one of my favorite AE plug-ins of all time. I find it very useful when working on projects with lots of layers in 3D space.

Red Giant QuickTip #32: More efficient encoding with Magic Bullet Denoiser

In this video, Apple Certified Master Trainer, Simon Walker, shows you how reducing noise in your clips not only makes them look better but also enables your compression codec to act more efficiently, reducing the file size of your exported videos.

Hey folks – just wanted to let you know about a maintenance release of Magic Bullet Looks for Windows and Mac users. Here are some of the Features/bug-fixes in Looks 1.4.3:

• Adds a CPU render fallback so users who do not have a graphics card can still use Looks (such as users with Windows computers and GMA integrated cards).
• Sony Vegas support dropped (UPDATE: Read Below)
• Misfire plug-ins have been rebuilt to fix serialization issues customers encountered, especially Final Cut users.
• This update does not affect Avid users on Windows.

You can find the update for both Windows and Mac HERE.

UPDATE FOR SONY VEGAS USERS: Magic Bullet Looks 2 is compatible with Sony Vegas. Read more HERE.

Red Giant has been a fan of the elegant, evocative video art by Jean-Sébastien Monzani since learning about his use of our Magic Bullet products. His portfolio site Simplemoment.com is a constantly evolving showpiece for his video pieces along with his photography, illustrations and graphic design work. Five of his videos have aired on the French cable channel Souvenirs From Earth and he recently authored a book of his artwork.

I recently caught up with Jean-Sébastien to find out about his work, inspiration, and how Red Giant products fit in.

The movie Blindspot uses Colorista II.

Jean-Sébastien introduces himself as a “freelance photographer, graphic-designer, illustrator and video-artist” and uses the term ‘experimental movie’ to describe his video art. He came to storytelling with a background in music and theater and a PHD in computer science but no formal training in visual art. A decade ago, Jean-Sébastien began directing, acting and writing in local theater, while also taking photos of the young amateur actresses he worked with. Many of his movies are shot outdoors using available light as he walks around with the model.

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