Every couple weeks we will showcase the tutorials from the past weeks so you can brush up and hone your After Effects skills to learn some new tricks and broaden your horizons when it comes to our favorite application.

42 Crazy Awesome VFX Breakdowns

So, one of my favorite things to watch on the internet are VFX Breakdowns.  Being able to see the steps that were taken to create that amazing matte painting, a complex roto shot, or a full CG environment.  These breakdowns give us a little glimpse of what the big studios as well as freelancers go through to get their shots to look perfect

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All Access Pass To Club Tuts – AE Plus

Learn how to create this awesome looking  club promo equipped with some awesome lighting and typography moving to the beat of the music.

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Drop Some 3D Into AE Days 1 & 2

Eventually you are going to run into a situation where you are going to need to integrate some 3d elements into your After Effects work flow, whether it is created by you or not.  Knowing how to do this, and the correct work flow is essential to becoming a well versed mograph and AE artist.  This isn’t really an advanced tutorial, or a beginner tutorial, but more of a beginner’s look at integrating 3d and AE.

Link to Day 1 Link to Day 2

Understanding Linear Workflow

Quite possibly one of the most useful tutorials in this list, but also (depending on your outlook) one of the most boring… haha, this tutorial shows you how understand linear work flow for better compositing when dealing with certain kinds of file formats and camera RAW imagery.

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36 Awesome Files By Rerendered Artists!

You know we here at VideoHive merged with Rerendered a month or so ago, so I thought it was just fitting to compile up a list of some of my favorite Rerendered files that got ported over from the previous site.

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A Delightful Swirl of Audio

Trapcode Form really is a wonderful thing… There are so many possibilities with this plugin, you can never run out of cool animations to make.  In this tutorial Robert Iagar shows you how to use the AudioReact parameter to create the pulsing effect of the particles.

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The Birth of a Logo Days 1 & 2

With this tutorial you will be creating the Big Bang, except with logos and type in stead of planets and matter.  Use individual characters as particles, and create an awesome looking logo reveal.

Link to Day 1 Link to Day 2

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So that’s it guys, the last two weeks over at AEtuts+. If you want access to these project files to experiment with, and full downloadable tutorials and materials that you check out the Plus Membership option available. On Plus you get exclusive access to tutorials like the Sniper Scope tutorial a couple weeks ago, and you can get that being just a free user, and its $9 a month! Oh, and one more reason… you get access to PSDTuts+, NetTuts+, VectorTuts+ and all the other Plus content across the Tuts+ platform as well! So what are you waiting for… check it out!

Ustream Live iPhone Streamer

Thought only to be a concept for the, at least, further off future than present day… You can now stream live from your Ustream.tv account!  This is a breakthrough in online video and personal media syndication, and Ustream is at the forefront of it!  The application allows most of the functions of the Live Broadcast window including polling, auto record, sharing on social media sites, viewing chat, chatting and social stream, managing videos, and tons more.  You can also tune into channels and watch shows from your phone too!  The app uses the iPhone OS 3.1 and is only supported on 3G and 3GS phones… oh yeah, and did I mention its free?

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iTimelapse Pro

I was lucky enough to scoop this app up when it was free for a few days at the initial release, and it couldn’t be any cooler.  It essentially is a photography app that you set it up to take pictures at certain intervals throughout a certain period of time.  Usually you would take those pictures into an editor and time them correctly to create a time lapse movie, but with this app, you don’t even have to transfer to your computer!  Its all available to do on you iPhone!  You can render your videos directly to your phone, and then publish to Youtube, Facebook or whatever to show all your friends!  Price on this one is $2.99 but I highly recommend it if you are fascinated by time lapse photography.

iVideoCamera

Now, this is kind of an iffy app right now, but I can tell that it is going to be great down the line.  What iVideoCamera does, is utilizes your iPhone’s still camera to record 3 frames per second (I know… there is an update on the way), and then you can save that to Youtube, Myspace, Facebook… whatever.  The limitations on this are pretty bad though; 160×213 frame size, and a minute long of video only allowed.  Obviously if you have a 3GS iPhone you don’t need this, and the quality on the 3GS is phenomenally better, but its just a matter of time before Laan Labs cracks through and figures out how to make this a must-have app.  Right now it is only $0.99, but personally I would hold off until the next update to see if it gets any better.

.So that’s all that’s really new on the video app front, keep checking up on these to get the updates and utilize the new features that they will be coming out with, especially the iVideoCamera app… I have a feeling that it has a lot of potential that will be realized here in the near future.

Obviously Heroes has to make this list.  Now, I know a lot of you may have lost hope in this series after Season 2, because, well it sucked.  But since, they have actually done pretty well with the series, creating some stunning effects, and introducing more and more powers… and oh yeah… the story isn’t too bad either.  To tell you the truth, I watch this for the powers and and that kind of stuff.  I used to get all giddy and call my friends and be all “Holy **** did you SEE that?”, but now I just enjoy it by myself and a nice tasty beverage and brainstorm as to how it was made.  This show is the source of a lot of experimentation in After Effects and 3D, and rightly so, because the studio that heads it, Stargate Studios, is damn good at what they do.

Just like a lot of the stuff on SyFy, it is blatantly obvious that they half-assed the visual effects in some of the shots on this show, and although it makes it look cheesy in parts of the show, I enjoy it thoroughly.  As an aspiring visual effects professional, I enjoy noticing that the environments weren’t lit correctly in 3d or that the light wrap on an actor is the wrong shade.  These things really help me to know what NOT to do in a production environment, and therefore make me more aware of my work.  Now, as for the show… it is very entertaining, in an off-the-wall XFiles sort of way, with a ton of CG.  SPOILER ALERT! It’s just too bad they killed off the hot blond in the second season.

So by now, you are probably thinking… “Wow, Topher really has horrible taste”, but no sir, you are wrong.  I enjoy magic, and sci-fi and those mystical creatures in a non-Napoleon Dynamite type of way… so sue me.  I think it’s fun, and I can admit when a show’s VFX suck.  This one’s first season REALLY SUCKED.  Second season, eh… not so bad.  It’s another show like Sanctuary that you can have fun watching and picking it apart, especially on the CG end.  There are a lot of visual flaws in lighting, interaction with real life and things like that, but use a show like this to your advantage.  The second season was a lot more advanced than the first, so we can only hope the third will stay on course and start to exceed some expectations.

The Stargate franchise has been around since 1996 starting with their first movie, and snowballing into sequels and episodic series over time.  They have been able to catch the attention of the sci-fi community with the crazy space exploration and warfare genre, and with that has to come some radical effects.  Personally I don’t watch the show, but when I have, I have seen that it is flawlessly made, they have the big, big budget look, with a relatively mediocre sized budget in reality.  If you like Star Wars or Star Trek, this is a cool series to check out.

LOST isn’t really CGI-VFX heavy, but they do green screen a lot of their shots, lots of matte painting… and of course they create that Smoke Monster, but I had to include this because it is one of my favorite shows on television, and with it coming back in January, I couldn’t be more excited.  The latest season has had more VFX than all the others, largely in part to the Smoke Monster sequences and plane crashes, but I am sure with this sixth and final season, we can expect them to go all out.

I actually just got done watching the Caprica Season opener, and damn… this is pretty awesome.  Another show that isn’t too VFX-heavy yet, but it has been only one episode in.  If you haven’t heard about it, it’s a prequel to the Battlestar Galactica universe (58 years to be exact), and its seems like there is a threat to the human race on the planet Caprica, filled with terrorist organizations and other races from other planets.  The pilot is really well made, and I look forward to checking out the rest of the series.

Well there we are!  some of the best (and not so great… hahaha) VFX intensive shows on television, and some that you can look forward to after the beginning of the year.  If there are any that I have missed, please let me know in the comments and let us know why YOU enjoy it!

Now, you have to know how to integrate your Cinema 4D renders into your After Effects pipeline… so let’s have a look-see at Nick Campbell’s tutorial on the subject.  I know there are a ton of different tutorials covering this, and that you might think that I am sticking this here because maybe he is my buddy… but this is actually the tutorial that Maxon chose to have on their website for the release of C4D R11.5 over the summer, so what better choice than that of the makers?

Garus Booth is a little new to the tutorial scene, but he has some good content utilizing After Effects and Cinema 4D as well as some Photoshop and Illustrator, but this tutorial I felt gives out some good information about setting up Global Illumination (GI), and also producing a great looking result.  GI is really essential to know how to set up, because you will be using it a lot in your 3D renders.

I’m not going to link to just one tutorial on this site, because each tutorial is very miniature in size, but I want you to check out all the little fundamental tips and tricks that he has on his site.  There’s a bunch of stuff on Xpresso and modeling techniques, it will probably keep you busy for hours.

Ahh Super Snail… who doesn’t love this guy?  Andrés Hurtado shows you how he went through and created his awesome little guy with the jetpack in this, more of a making-of, rather than a tutorial.  He might not be holding your hand step by step, but you get to see a great deal of what went into this amazing piece of art.

Probably one of my favorite looking tutorials, this one over at GoMediaZine.com by Barton Damer uses some really simple fundamentals of Cinema 4D to create some really killer looking typographic treatments.  It always is nice to be creating something awesome vs. something that is mediocre looking and teaches you the same thing.

Another one from the Gorilla… well another like, ten from him!  These are Nick’s tutorials on the CS Tools, a free set of plugins that you can download that can help with simple tasks like handheld camera rigs, lighting, and object creation.  These are great to have, and Nick’s ongoing look at how to use them all just makes the process easier to integrate them into your work flow.

Pariah Studios has been killing it lately… well I should say Robert Redman, but you know what I am talking about.  They have a ton of tutorials available, mostly all for Cinema 4D, and this one I felt deserved a spot on the list.  You will probably come to some project down the line where you are going to need some grass in your scene, and photos just don’t cut it in After Effects.  For this, you can use the Hair Module to create some realistic looking grass!

Over at one of our “sister” sites, CGtuts+ has had a ton of content being published, especially on the Cinema 4D side of things.  I figured that I would include a few tutorials to conclude our list, the first of which is “Model, Texture, and Render and Interior Scene with Vray.”  Its a two part tutorial spanning a long line of steps, but when you get to the finished product you will be very happy with what you have achieved.

Advanced Render is a very useful renderer, and when you know how to set it up correctly, it can produce some amazing results for you.  In this tutorial on CGtuts+, Mountaga Kane shows you how to utilize all the new features of Advanced Render 3 that ships with Cinema 4D R11+.

An unlikely place to find Cinema 4D tutorials, PSDtuts+ actually has quite a few utilizing 3D because, I mean… you can’t do EVERYTHING in just Photoshop!  This tutorial is great, because you model this steam punk style type element, and then use Photoshop to add in extra elements like gears and pistons as well as windows, class coverings, horns and all kinds of different gizmos.

Hopefully if you haven’t had the guts to dive into Cinema 4D yet, this might give you the push you need, because not all the tutorials that are out there are boring work flow tutorials, you can actually make some pretty cool stuff!  If you got a favorite tutorial that I should see, or should be featured, link it up in the comments!

Throwboy Pillows

Everyone loves unique things that no one else has.  Pillows fall into that category, like the My Suite Stuff pillows we saw last week, but I found some cool ones from ThrowBoy.com that has Mac icon pillows, speech bubbles and even RSS pillows.  If you got a client couch, it could be a pretty rad addition.

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Swiss Miss Photoshop Fridge Magnets

Now, these aren’t really available for purchase, but if you are handy enough with something like CafePress, or another online publishing company you could make your own, or perhaps make magnets for more of your favorite apps like After Effects, Cinema 4D, Motion, 3ds Max, whatever!  It would probably make that mini fridge from Volume I look pretty damn spiffy.

I Am A Key USB Flash Drive

I hate carrying around a ton of stuff in my pockets so I was stoked when I heard about the key-shaped USB drive that can attach right to your key ring.  Not only is it shaped like a key, it’s sturdy as one, and is also scratch and water proof, so you don’t have to worry about being extra careful with it.

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Nava Design Mini Desk Clock Time Square Mini Jetlag

I don’t know what the they were thinking when they name this thing,  I just know it looks really cool.  I looks like someone took a handful of numbers and dropped them in a tank of water.  The clock is make of a soft metal and has some really great looking coloring to it.  It’s a bit pricey at 120 bones but, if you got the cash to drop, it will no doubt be an awesome addition to the office..

J & D’s Bacon Flavored MMMvelopes

Yeah, I know we try to send everything email based nowadays, but now you won’t have to dread going to the drawer, and mailing off an invoice to that client that you made the slide show for their 50th wedding anniversary.  Why?  Because your enveloped taste like bacon!  That’s why!  The creators of these things are geniuses, and they also have Bacon Salt, Bacon Mayonnaise, Bacon Ranch, Bacon Popcorn, and who knows what else?

Rotating Electrical Outlets

I don’t know how I survive without some of these things.  Seriously… why am I just now finding this?  A rotating outlet?  How many times have you had big clunky plugs for hard drives, phones or whatever that take up two outlets and leave you searching for more power strips just to get all your components attached?  Well no longer will you have to worry about those woes…

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D-Link’s Boxee Box

I love seamless integratability (is that even a word?) between my files and my television.  Now, when I first started trying to do that about ten years ago, it was quite the process.  Now, however there are services and components such as Boxee to make a it very, very simple process.  This box has the ability to hook right into your stereo system, internet, computer and to your TV via HDMI, for crystal clear quality and sound.

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Every couple weeks we will showcase the tutorials from the past weeks so you can brush up and hone your After Effects skills to learn some new tricks and broaden your horizons when it comes to our favorite application.

Learn How To Create an Advanced Jumper Effect

Everyone loves the movie Jumper… haha yeah I know the movie was kind of a crapper, but the effect of disappearing and reappearing using the Jumper’s abilities has always captivated the imaginations of aspiring visual effects artists.  In this tutorial, Tim Babb shows you how to create the effect along with creating a panning effect without still photos or green screening.

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Excellent Explosions and Extreme Extrusions in C4D

Learn how to create a sweep nurbs effect within Cinema 4D and then bring that into After Effects for further tweaking.  You might see in the comments that there is some discussion about this being able to be achieved with Zaxwerks Serpentine, but if you don’t have that plugin and do have a 3D program, this is the perfect way to learn.

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41 Diabolically Awesome Demo Reels

This s one of my favorite subjects to round up, so whenever I get the chance I take it.  Demo Reels are amazing sources of inspiration, and what better to spark creativity, that to watch other inspiring works from our peers in the motion graphics industry?

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Create Your Own Custom Effects!

In this tutorial, more on the coding/technical end of things, Momcilo Stojkovik walks you through creating your own custom effects and also modifying check boxes, color samplers, layer pickers and sliders.  Pretty much anything you would need.

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Add a Vignette With Ease – Custom Effect

This is a widely used little technique, creating some darkened edges on your footage or comps to give it a little more pop or contrast.  Well, now you can download it in custom effect form for easy application and parameter tweakage.

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Distribute Your Layers in 3D – Custom Effect

This is a custom effect similar to the Card Dance or Card Wipe effects.  It lets you obviously distribute the layers in 3D space and manipulate them by spinning and turning them in various ways.

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Countdown In Style With Clockworks – Custom Effect

Now this is radical.  I actually wish that I had this to screw around with a few weeks ago… no longer do I have to mess with expressions, just apply this sweet custom effect to a text layer and go nuts.

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Fix Interlaced Footage With Deinterlacerator! – Custom Effect

This is an updated version of Jorrit’s old Deinterlacing custom effect from a while back with a few more tweaks and a bit more oomph.  Works on any kind of interlaced footage, and rivals most deinterlacing filters, and this one is completely free!

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17 Custom Effects

You know how  roll…  for the “Have It Your Way” week I decided to bundle up all of the custom effects from around the After Effects realm and have them all in one central location for you to review and download!

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Become a Storm Chaser

This is the only two-parter on the list, but what you are going to learn is how to make the effects seen if you were out in the field actually chasing tornadoes.  Now, this is going to be made up completely of pictures, and also you get all of the parameters laid out really easy for the particle systems and other effects.

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So that’s it guys, the last two weeks over at AEtuts+. If you want access to these project files to experiment with, and full downloadable tutorials and materials that you check out the Plus Membership option available. On Plus you get exclusive access to tutorials like the Sniper Scope tutorial a couple weeks ago, and you can get that being just a free user, and its $9 a month! Oh, and one more reason… you get access to PSDTuts+, NetTuts+, VectorTuts+ and all the other Plus content across the Tuts+ platform as well! So what are you waiting for… check it out!

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Okay, done?  Good Now we can get down to business.  Now as for you, significant other, whatever your name may be… you want to get your video geek of a love interest something really good for Christmas, but you aren’t a nerd yourself.  Hmmm how to think like a nerd… it’s hard trust me, you aren’t alone (I am partially writing this so my wife gets some clues as well).  I am going to show you some of the cooler gadgets, tools, and overall gear that you probably would never think about getting as a Christmas gift, but are actually pretty rad.  I am here to help you and guide your way through our realm of the web… hold tight, you don’t wanna get lost!

Edit Suite Stuff

USB-Powered Beverage Cooler

There are edit sessions when sometimes we work late into the deep night.  For that we need Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew… now don’t buy us a case of that… we probably have three or four cases in the garage anyways.  What is really awesome is the USB-powered beverage cooler that holds a can of soda and keeps it nice and chilly for when we want to grab it… could be five minutes, could be an hour depending on the amount of concentration and sleep depravity that is brought upon us.

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Awesome USB Drives

This isn’t exactly a specific thing, but USB flash drives are a must, so we might as well have an awesome one instead of that generic looking gray drive we have had for the last few years.  You can check out this list of drives to get some ideas, or just poke your head in at one of the many online retailers of geeky awesomeness throughout the internet.  You will probably find something like humping dog drives and other ridiculous random gizmos.  Come to think of it… anything that can plug into the computer through USB and serves a purpose, minute or not… is fair game, at least for me.

Portable Hard Drives

Speaking of storage, portable hard drives are always a nice little thing to have around the office.  The smaller and more storage the better.  High capacity thumb drives are usually preferred, but it gets pretty expensive if you are trying to get 125GB onto one flash drive.  You can hit up Newegg or TigerDirect for some really good deals every once in a while.

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Video Stuff

Flip Camera

The Flip line of cameras is steadily becoming the go to solution for portable HD recording video cameras.  I have a Flip Ultra HD, and absolutely love it, and for the price that they are at, it’s a steal of a deal as well.  These record direct to disk, and you can transfer the video files directly to your desktop through USB, you don’t even need a cord, there is a plug built into the camera!   This is a killer little camera that really fits anywhere, and is about the size of your cell phone.

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Gorillapod

This is a little something that is good just to have around just in case.  I keep mini tripods in my car, along with my cameras so if I see anything when I am driving around, I can stop and I don’t have to set up a big lunky tripod.  The Gorillapod by Joby however, takes it a step further, and gives you the ability to wrap the legs of this miniature tripod around whatever you want, to let the camera hang on places your normally wouldn’t be able to get a tripod.  Door handles, lamps, car mirrors, my deck’s fence… anywhere you can get the legs around is a possibility.

Hard Camera Case

This is something I don’t really think about often, but a hard case to transport your still or video cameras, flashes, batteries, microphones and other production junk is something you should already have.  Right now, I am carrying my stuff around in a cloth messenger back, and I am realizing my gear getting more and more dinged up as time goes on.  Think about getting one of those aluminum or steel hard cases with the foam that you can customize the shape of your gear so that it fits inside without any wobble.  That way if you are in a hurry, not only does everything have a specific place, but you can chuck it in the backseat without having to worry about anything getting smashed!

iTunes Gift card to buy Production Apps

It kind of seems a little impersonal, but like every person with an iPhone, we are continually buying little apps to enrich our daily lives.  Why not have an iTunes Gift Card that is specifically for production apps like a Slate or pCam?  I mean, some of this stuff is really expensive and we haven’t had a good enough reason to buy it yet… but if we have a gift card, now we actually have an excuse to spend the $19.99 on the Hitchcock story boarding app.

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Home stuff

Blu Ray Player

If you don’t already have one (like me), and are waiting for prices to drop (also like me), an amazing addition to the home theater is a Blu-Ray player.  There are a couple different aspects to take into consideration to make a good decision, and you have to weight them accordingly.  Number one, make sure it has WIFI-enabled, and that it supports Blu-Ray Netflix streaming… this is huge, because some movies when they come out are $40.00 on Blu-Ray and you can subscribe to NetFlix for around $9.00 a month and get as many as you want without having to wait for them in the mail.  Second thing to take into consideration, is obviously the price.  Check online retailers like Newegg and TigerDirect as well as Costco Wholesale (there are more in store), all of these they always seem to have really good deals on stuff, just make sure there is WIFI or Ethernet connections available!

All in one Remote

These are pretty rad.  If you are a home theater junkie like me… or even an aspiring one, you have to get an all in one remote.  No one like fooling around with one remote for the TV, one for the cable, another for the stereo, DVD, Blu-Ray… whatever.  It gets confusing, and forget about anyone helping you, it would take an hour just to explain which does what.  Check out one of these, a Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote.  They are a killer looking, easy to use, perfect solution for that pile of remotes that you will no longer need.

My Suite Stuff Pillows

The last little addition to your living room is a cute little couch pillow.  Now these aren’t just couch pillows, they are the My Suite Stuff Adobe App pillows.  Personally I am gunning for a PS and AE pillow myself this Christmas, but any flavor really works for whatever primary application your giftee spends time in.

What’s an “API”? A Pink Igloo? A Pig Itching? Not quite.

The Marketplace’s Application Programming Interface (API) allows the development of applications with access to a range of data from all the marketplaces such as the most popular and latest files. More sensitive data such as your account balance, recent sales, and monthly statements can also be accessed securely using your individual API key!

So what? I’m a designer – why should I be interested in geeky code interface stuff? Well, using the API you can develop apps/sites for your mobile, your desktop, or even your blog. Did I mention you can even design and style your applications however you want? Now that’s pretty cool, right?!

Since the Marketplace API was released about 6 months ago, several authors have jumped in feet first to develop some outstanding contributions for the community.

Let’s see what’s been going on…

Envato Marketplace Mobile

by: hagdesigns
link:http://www.hagportfolio.com/envato/

The Envato Marketplace Mobile is a gorgeous site that displays recent & popular files, popular authors, and the most recent blog posts for each Envato marketplace. As well as looking super stylish from the word go, when browsing each of the 5 available marketplaces the site is re-skinned for that marketplace, making you feel right at home.

In addition to browsing the marketplaces’ files and blog posts in such stylish fashion, using your username & API Key, you can securely access your most recent sales, account balance, commission rate, and monthly sales statements. There is even an upcoming feature where you can have your statements emailed to you! How could you top all of this? Well, you can view all of this whilst skinning the site to the Marketplace of your choice! Seriously cool.

Designed specifically for the iPhone, this site works great on most mobile phones and although I will soon be stroking a shiny new iPhone, it even looks great on my old Sony Ericsson K800i!

This site is definitely the top contender right now. Superb work by

Envato Marketplace Items WordPress Plugin

by: Derek Herman (Valen Designs)
link: Down the Foxhole: Working with the new Envato Marketplace Items Wordpress Plugin

For those of you with blogs and/or sites powered by WordPress, this plugin is a MUST have. In less than 5 minutes, you can have a neatly formed grid displaying a marketplace’s popular files or the recently uploaded files from a specific category (i.e. music-players on Activeden, wordpress on ThemeForest or icons on GraphicRiver). You can also display a specific user’s latest files (i.e. Bitfade). You can use the plugin multiple times per page so if you’re torn between two categories of files, you can display both!

As well as being able to promote files, this plugin also provides the opportunity to earn referral money by adding your referral id to the hyperlinks!

Awesome work by The WordPress Ninja

iEnvato AIR Application

by: mpc
link: http://www.blog.mpcreation.pl/ienvato-1-0-released/

iEnvato is a gorgeous little app made with Adobe AIR allowing installation on both MAC and PC! *applause*

This gorgeously-skinned, resizable app, which supports skinning and shortcuts for all 5 marketplaces, displays your 50 most recent sales, which can then be sorted by file name, amount made, or time and date of purchase. There is also a page devoted to statistics, showing your last 50 sales and the income made from each of those sales – a really nice touch for those of us who don’t make 50+ sales a day!

As well as having a slick design, this app also features shortcuts to your author dashboard and chosen marketplace forums, and notifies you of new sales! There is also a very worthy donate button.

Great work mpc, looking forward to more.

Envato Product Sales Web Report

by: jernigani
link: http://www.israeljernigan.com/themeforest/iphone_api_report/

Another really cool site that’s been targeted for iPhone users is Jernigani’s Envato Product Sales Web Report App that focuses more on your account details and sales than on browsing the marketplaces.

With recent sales statistics, monthly sales, earnings statistics, your current commission rate, balance, and total earnings, this site provides a lot of information for you.

But wait, there’s more! All the files you have for sale on the marketplaces are displayed along with all the comments for each file so you can easily check your comments whilst checking your sales stats and balance! Awesome!

This app will soon be for sale on the ThemeForest MarketPlace and there is a considerable list of future plans so keep a sharp eye out for it!

Envato App

by: Emroni
link: http://emroni.com/EnvatoApp

This slick Envato app not only shows your balance and number of sales but also your rating, your referral/file earnings, AND all your badges! Love it! Super smooth page transitions will also reveal a list of your last 50 sales and the most recent comments made on your items whilst also providing a link to that item comment from the app. Gorgeous and exceptionally clever work from Emroni!

NB: Due to the awesomeness of this app, you have to be logged into your account in either Safari or Internet Explorer whilst using it to provide the extra information not provided by the marketplace API.

Nvator iPhone App

by: DenonStudio
link: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/nvator/id337047746?mt=8

Nvator is a very sleek native iPhone app that allows you to keep a tab on your Envato account wherever you are. Although it’s a relatively new app, Nvator has already got a slick feel to it and boasts several cool features with the promise of more to come! The current version (v1.1) displays your balance, commission rate, recent sales, and monthly sales in tabular and graphical formats! Upcoming features include viewing buyers’ comments, popular items, and more stats! Awesome work by DenonStudio – definitely keep an eye on this one!

Mac OS X Sales Notification App

by: uDesignStudios
linkhttp://salesdonkey.udesign.sk

SalesDonkey is an app for those MAC users out there who want a better way of finding out our account balance than hitting ?R in Safari over and over again.

When minimized, you can decide whether to display your total earnings or account balance alongside the Super Sexy SalesDonkey system tray icon! Once maximized, the app shows your recent sales and, most importantly, how much you’ve made. You can also browse recent comments as well as opening the comment for replying in your browser straight from the app!

Great Little App, Heeee Hawwww!

Envato Sales, Twitter Notification Service

by: danharper
link: http://danharper.me/salesnotifier/

For those of you who user Twitter, which is almost everyone, the Envato Sales Twitter Notification service is a great little app that will send you a message on Twitter every hour on the hour if your balance has changed, keeping you up to date without the need for any other program. For those who don’t use Twitter, what are you waiting for?! This makes it worth signing up for!

Make sure you remember to follow @salesnotifier once you’ve signed up!

Conclusion

There’s some really impressive work beginning to emerge with the use of the Marketplace API, so hats off to all the authors mentioned and those who have apps in the making! For those of you who want to get your hands dirty with the API, here are some links to get you started.

Introduction to the Marketplace API
API Official Documentation
Make An iPhone App Using the Envato API – Nettuts+
Display Anything You Want From The Envato MarketPlace API Using PHP

Nick Campbell rocks the GSGcast, which he hosts live on Ustream, as well as keeping recorded versions for posting to Vimeo and hosting up on the GSG Blog.  He talks about a broad range of subjects, from what tools to use, how to get work in the industry, critiquing demo reels and overall “making cool sh*t.”  If you watch Nick’s tutorials, you are going to want to tune into the GSGCast as well as makecoolsh*t.com, Nick’s other non-mograph, but still awesome endeavor.

Keyframe TV is made up of three digital artists, Nick Campbell (greyscalegorilla.com), Timmy Allen (iamtime.me), and Pasquale D’Silva (pasqualedsilva.com).  They all are motion designers and 3D artists, and what they like to do is just basically discuss the business and talk motion.  In the latest episode of Keyframe TV, they dissected a spot from King and Country for US Cellular, discussing camera mapping techniques, After Effects and 3D workflows, and overall just their guesses as to how it may have been done.  Also they like to breakdown pieces they are currently producing, as well as a Q&A Session toward the end.  This is a unique show, because they record it from Skype, seeing as they are all in different sections of North America, and then Timmy puts it all together later on as episodes.  Seriously, check out Keyframe TV and prepare to be wowed.

Unplugged is the first Skype-based mograph talk show geared towards After Effects based artists that are prominent figures in the community.  To date, there are 14 episodes with the latest featuring Harry Frank, and past episodes have included exclusive interviews with Andrew Kramer, Trish and Chris Meyer, Brian Maffitt, Mark Coleran, and tons more.  John also has another show, The Business of Design, which focuses on marketing and business strategies for freelance designers and small design businesses.

Jerzy Drozda, Maltaannon, George… the man with many names now has his own show over on Ustream.tv.  He talks about all kinds of different subject in After Effects, such as expressions, workflow, and work-alongs with real world projects.  You probably know Malty from his tutorials online, and if you do, you know that his knowledge of After Effects and motion graphics as a whole goes very deep.

Of course, you can’t forget about Andrew Kramer.  His blog show has been anticipated for the better part of the last year, when he first announced he wanted to do a Video Copilot show.  These turned out to be more like VLOGs than anything, but you still get everything you expect from Andrew including some awesome tips, short films, behind the scenes footage, sneak peaks at products, and of course his very unique sense of humor.

2012 – Out Now

So you guys have definitely heard about the blockbuster this winter (is it winter yet?) that is 2012.  Roland Emmerich’s crazy destruction movie in which the prophecies of the Mayan calender that predict that the world will end on December 21st 2012, come true.  The two things that I have heard about this move are acting=blah, VFX=absolutely phenomenal.  I have yet to see the movie so I can’t pass judgment myself, but the behind the scenes featurettes that I have seen over the last few months are reason enough to get me out of the house and grab a 9 dollar ticket and see it on the big screen.  Some of the features I am talking about can be found here: 30 Ninjas Coverage of 2012, Vegas In Ruins, Yellowstone Eruption Featurette, & The Special Practical Effects @ Cominsoon.net.

Avatar – December 18th

Easily one of the most hyped up and talked about movies this winter is James Cameron’s Avatar.  This is a movie that he has been developing the concept for, writing, planning and biding his time waiting to make until it was actually possible to conceive what he saw in his mind, to the big screen.  This is going to be an absolutely huge experience, and this is a definite must see in the theaters.  It stars Sam Worthington (Terminator: Salvation) as a paraplegic marine named Jake Sully, who is part of a military operation to gain the indigenous people of Pandora’s (an alien land) trust.  They want to collect a substance worth a ton of money, but the people live above it.  The military creates these synthetically grown beings, called avatars, where they hook Jake up to a machine and he can live through his avatar and gain the people of Pandora’s trust.  After a while Jake decides to fight the military, having a change of heart, and basically all hell breaks loose and awesomeness ensues.  Check out the theatrical traailer here, or this 4-minute BTS feature.

Sherlock Holmes – December 25th

Now, maybe it’s just me, but I am super psyched to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie.  I mean, as badass as Robert Downey Jr. can be, and looking at the trailer for the movie, I don’t see how it could be anything other than amazing.  Basically if you don’t already know… Sherlock Holmes was in Guy Ritchie’s words “the first real superhero” in the thought that, his brain was his superpowers, Watson was his sidekick, and he always seemed to stop all the bad guys from their evil plans.  I don’t know if I will be seeing this on opening day, since it is on Christmas, but I will definitely put a few bucks aside to see it that weekend.  You can check out the trailer over at Apple.com, and a sweet Behind the Scenes Featurette here.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – NY & LA – Dec. 25th, Internationally – Jan. 8th

Terry Gilliam is a brilliant director, and this movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is chuck full of superstar actors, breathtaking visual effects, and some concepts that just blow your mind. The story is of Doctor Parnassus, who made a deal with the devil, Mr. Nick, thousands of years ago to trade his daughter when she became 16 years of age, in exchange for immortality. Well, he didn’t have a kid for a few thousand years, but it is nearing that time, and now Mr. Nick is coming to collect. This movie almost looks like action filled “Across the Universe” with some really good actors thrown into the mix. According to the Official Site, it opens up in New York and Los Angeles on Christmas Day, and the rest of the world on January 8th. Keep and eye on the Official Site, and check out some of the behind the scenes pieces too.

Legion – Janary 22nd

This almost seems like it’s going to be another bang-bang, shoot-em-up film, but I can’t help believing its got some amazing potential to blow up the box office.  It’s about a lone angel that comes down from Heaven to protect a woman and her unborn child, because apparently it’s the only hope for humanity… or something like that.  It’s kind of based on the story of Noah, when God lost faith in man, He flooded the Earth… but this time He is sending Angels to exterminate the human race.  It’s a pretty out there story, but what isn’t these days?  Check out the trailer on Apple.com, or you can see the Red Band trailer here (it’s safe for work).  Sadly, there is no behind the scenes coverage that I could find for this movie as of yet, but make sure you keep your eyes peeled and watch the Official Website as well for more news.

It is definitely going to be a good winter for movies, and I personally can’t wait to have a few really good reasons to hit the theaters.  So my question to all of you is, what movie of all of these are you most amped for, or if I forgot one of your most anticipated… what is it?  Let us know in the comments below!