Plugin and play
Video Copilot founder Andrew Kramer recounts his journey so far, from happy accidents to working with J.J. Abrams
We chat to Video Copilot founder Andrew Kramer about his journey so far
“Since the beginning my goal with Video Copilot has been to deconstruct high-end visual effects and motion design in order to find ways to make it easier to do,” says founder Andrew Kramer. Since 2005 Kramer has been running Video Copilot as a collaborative resource for training, design tools and artists, aiming to show creators just what’s possible. “Video Copilot started as my journey through visual effects and motion graphics was developing,” he explains. “I was somewhat motivated by a sentiment at the time that ‘certain effects could not be achieved in After Effects’; this definitely fuelled some of my early experiments and helped to challenge me.”
This led directly to the creation of Action Essentials, a collection of pre-keyed action elements that is soon to be reimagined and updated. “At the time, the idea of having real VFX elements to composite with your own films was a pipe dream. Especially back in 2005, when stock footage sites were charging $500 for a single clip. So we wanted to make a better collection
that was available to people who didn’t have $500 to spend.”
Eventually Kramer discovered a passion for developing software when he began work on Element3d, Video Copilot’s highperformance After Effects plugin that allows users to create motion design and VFX. “My goal was to design software with practical use-cases that works great and gives users enough control,” reflects Kramer. “We spent a huge amount of time getting anamorphic lens flares to look right for Optical Flares and squeezing out the fast 3d rendering. The software had to feel right and be fun to use.”
Kramer’s off-beat humour and unique voice, combined with the quality of his output, helped to make Video Copilot an increasingly prominent force in the visual effects industry, and it wasn’t long before Hollywood took notice. “Around 2008 I was creating tutorials and that’s when I got an email from someone claiming to be J.J. Abrams. I was a little bit suspicious at first, but after quizzing him on some trivia from his own movies I could confirm it was him.”
He continues: “For me it was all I ever wanted to work on a TV show or movie. I dreamed about working on movies as a compositor or FX artist and he offered me a chance to design the title sequence for his TV show, Fringe. Soon after that I was asked to work on the titles for Star Trek. I have so many great memories of projects we’ve worked on, even some stuff that has never been published. J.J. is such a passionate
“I got an email from someone claiming to be J.J. abrams. I was a little bit suspicious at first, but after quizzing him on some trivia from his own movies I could confirm It was him” Andrew Kramer, Video Copilot founder
filmmaker that it was always a joy to tackle any challenges he dreamt up.”
Even after 13 years of creating, Kramer has lost none of his enthusiasm for Video Copilot and its products. “It’s the excitement of making new things and discovering different ways to work. I feel that the new plugins we have been developing are just fun to play with. Every new project I work on is a chance to learn something new and that knowledge can sometimes lead to unlocking old creative challenges. There is always something new to discover and I always want to find it.”
Video Copilot’s latest plugin is called ORB. It allows the user to create 3d spheres, and includes a number of advanced features from 360° environment rendering to a physically based shader that allows for incredibly realistic texturing. Explaining how his latest creation came about, Kramer says: “I was working on a tutorial and in the spirit of being able to create cool visuals inside After Effects, I was hitting a wall with the built-in sphere plugin. I didn’t want to rig up a bunch of expressions to make it 3d aware, but I also didn’t want people to be left out if I used our plugin Element 3d. So I decided to make a real 3d sphere plugin and give it away for free.
“Everyone likes making planets but we decided to put a full physically based
“every new project I work on Is a chance to learn something new and that can lead to unlocking old creative challenges” Andrew Kramer, Video Copilot founder
renderer into the surface and designed features to help make realistic atmospheres. There was something fun about looking back to the Earth tutorial I made ten years ago and seeing the quality that is possible now. Even though we focused on planets, there are quite a lot of cool things you can do with it.”
When asked what’s next for Video Copilot, Kramer only has one thing on his mind: “More plugins and more tutorials!” Find out more about the company’s plugins and tools at videocopilot.net