At the end of last week I flew up for the day to film Mark Coleran’s first After Effects class for this term. If you haven’t seen Coleran’s work on feature films, you really need to check out his reel to confirm the quality of his work. His work on Bourne Ultimatum, The Island, AVP, and other films is simply brilliant — and it is fantastic he’s sharing his knowledge with fxphd members.
But why in Ottawa? Coleran is currently applying his excellent “fake” UI skills to a real UI project: Gridiron Flow. If you haven’t seen the previews of Flow, it is a fantastic new app which automatically tracks the history of assets you use in creative projects. It’s currently in private beta and will eventually see light first as a public beta. We’re lucky to be involved in the beta here at the fxphd loft in Chicago — and it is definitely a cool product. This product again shows why we’re huge fans of the folks at Gridiron.
I got up at 4am to make the 6am flight to Ottawa from Chicago. Sounds worse than it is….it’s actually not so bad, as the security lines aren’t painful. With all the traveling I’ve been doing in the last several years, I’ve gotten quite adept at unpacking the camera and other gear from my carryon. I end up with 6 trays filled with gear, notebook, shoes, etc, but I can do it faster than the knuckleheads who can’t get one notebook out and onto the tray. Carrying the camera bag, notebook bag, tripod, and Diva kit gets a bit old, but hey…..
I edited most of the class on the plane on the way back to Chicago and we made it available to members the next morning to rave reviews. The course is gonna be a great mix of design and compositing. Needless to say, we’re really excited at fxphd.com to have Coleran joining Mark Christiansen and Danny Princz on our advanced AE course this term.
Interesting part of the trip was that it took longer to get from O’Hare to my house in rush hour than it did to fly from Ottawa to Chicago. Go figure.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:53 pm
It’s very nice to see Mark Coleran this term, he is definitely a great professor and he seems so passionate about what he does. I can’t wait to see more!