the studio

With experience ranging from feature film effects to creative and art direction, design, and writing (not only books but treatments, marketing and technical documents), Mark has tricks such as 2D and 3D design, animation and effects, editing, matchmoving up his sleeve. Work samples and reel to appear on this site forthwith.

THE BOOK

The After Effects Studio Techniques books fill a specific niche that has not been thoroughly covered by any predecessor: the art of compositing seamless, realistic visual effects shots using Adobe After Effects, the most widely available software in the world powerful enough to create them. Neither a substitute for the manual nor a step-by-step guide to simple tricks, this book instead begins at a more advanced level, assuming a basic familiarity either with After Effects or with effects compositing and guides you to more elegant and streamlined usage of bread-and-butter visual effects techniques. It’s about art and science, not about one-button solutions.

READER COMMENTS

• The best compositing book just got 7er - Stu Maschwitz

• Thanks for spending the time to make this book. It has really opened my eyes to things I didn't know about AE, but maybe more importantly, to things I didn't know about compositing and vfx work in general. - Alex Czetwertynski


• This book so completely and unbelievably awesome! Every advanced AE user NEEDS to get it! - Mel Matsuoka


• Finally, someone is actually writing a book on the concepts of compositing using AE. - Mark Holloway


• As a freelancer, I really like the emphasis you place on 'looking' at a scene instead of 'assuming' how things should work... Spot on. - Eugene Pak


• Being somewhat of a grouchy academic, I hardly ever write fan letters. But I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your After Effects book. Not only does it contain fantastic, useful information (the kind my students always want to know), but it's written in a clear, amiable style and organized very nicely. - Ron Saito


• It’s the best book on effects I’ve ever read, because it’s about effects that don’t necessarily look like effects. This is not just something I say to be nice – I really mean it. Far too many books deal with cool In Your Face effects. I find your kind of stuff much more relevant in my job. - Jarle Leirpoll


• I just got through Part I, and was very glad to find that, as advertised, it is not a book for beginners. I especially appreciated tips on how to work more efficiently (project templates, pre-rendering, proxies), and look forward to more workflow tips in the rest of the book. - Jeff Young