In the Right Place, at the Right Time

It was 1992, and the concept of easily creating broadcast-quality motion graphics on desktop computers was a glint in the eye of a few mad dreamers. We saw a demo of a new graphics application called Egg from the Company of Science and Art and became one of the original artist development sites for the industry-standard program now known as Adobe After Effects.

With this new tool in hand, we started a career that has led to our working on film and television opening titles such as Girlfriends, Now and Then, and The Talented Mr. Ripley, plus graphics for trade shows such as CES and Comdex as well as special venues including Times Square and the four-block-long Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas. We continue to do this work today.

By Trish and Chris Meyer

The motion graphics community has been marked by people willing to share what they've learned, and we've tried to continue this tradition by teaching classes, speaking at conferences, writing for magazines such as DV, creating videos ( VideoSyncrasies from Desktop Images), hosting meetings for fellow motion graphics artists (Motion Graphics Los Angeles www.mgla.org), and finally, writing Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. An astounding number of people bought the first edition; thank you for your encouragement and support.

When we sat down to update CMG (as we refer to it) for the latest version of After Effects, we quickly realized...