If you've ever tried to do any texture work in After Effects, you know what a headache it can be. Enter Ray Dynamic Texture by Sander van Dijk. This tool turns texture work into a simple click. To me, this is worth more than the $39.99 price tag, but you can get it for 25% off until March 22.
Check out the demo below:
As I've jumped into the complex world of character animation, Emanuele Colombo has become one of my favorite people to follow. His character animations never cease to inspire or put a smile on my face.
Recently, Emanuele has begun releasing a tips and tricks series for character animation, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at his process. The series has been incredibly helpful as I figure out what workflows, tools, and techniques are going to work best for me.
You can view the full series, as well as additional character animations over on Emanuele's behance page. Make sure you give him a follow on behance, dribbble, or both to show your appreciation and help make progress toward the release of the next video in the series.
If you're into motion graphics and animation on any level, you need to be following Adam Plouff. Adam is an Atlanta-based designer and animator who runs the small studio called Battle Axe. I love following Adam's work because he is the epitome of the "work smarter not harder" expression.
Adam has started releasing beta versions and teasers of some of tools he's developing. I got to play with the beta release of ChemTrails and love it. Recently, Adam's been posting character animation tests for a tool called RubberHose. While it still hasn't been released, he did post a teaser screencast of him using it and it looks incredible.
It looks as if RubberHose isn't far from release, so make sure you head over to BattleAxe.co and subscribe to the newsletter. I can testify that I don't get any useless emails from it and have thankfully been able to play with some of the beta releases he's sent out.