Dan Sollis : Digital Distortion : Graphic Design, Animation and Compositing

Welcome to Digital Distortion

We're an independent visual effects company producing work for the Film, Television, Music and Video Game industries. Our principle areas of expertise include Editing, Video compositing, Motion graphic design, 3D CG modelling, animation and title design.

News

Trapcode Form 2
(posted 30-08-11)

The new version of Trapcode Form has been released and has a bunch of neat new features. I've done a little test using the new OBJ import support. Go and take a look at it here - and grab the project files too if you want to have a play!

UPDATE: a second, more complex Form 2 demo is now available. This models a galaxy, using an OBJ point cloud generated in Lightwave. As before, project files are available to download for free! Get it here.

After Effects experimentation: 3D Fractal Noise Cloud
(posted 10-06-11)

While playing around in After Effects with the Fractal Noise function, I realised that I could create a three-dimensional fractal by extruding it in Z-space over time. I've built a proof-of-concept demo, which you can view and download from here. It looks pretty cool, with a few caveats,

Updated After Effects script - AutoReplace from Folder
(posted 09-03-11)

I've just noticed that the Autoreplace from Folder script I created a while back, doesn't work in After Effects CS5. A bit of digging revealed that Adobe have finally killed off some deprecated File Dialog functions, so I'm updated it to work with the new methods. I've also added a small but handy feature to allow you to specify the max length of the filename to evaluate for searches (you can limit it to cut off any mangled characters added to the end of file name references by AVID and others).

This is a really handy script if you're conforming an edit in After Effects, so go here and grab it now.

BBC1HD "Cubes" trail
(posted 02-03-11)

Long overdue, but I've finally updated the site with some of our latest (and greatest?) work. Most notably, a motion graphics project we did for BBC1HD. This is just about as complex as it gets for After Effects graphics and it made heavy use of Trapcode Form and Particular to generate some really dense 3D particle effects.

Trapcode Experiments : Form Galaxies
(posted 03-12-10)

A new scene to download and play with. I've just completed a TV ident for BBC1HD which used Trapcode Form extensively. I used some of the knowledge I gleaned from the creation of it to create this new spacey little animation. Take a look and download the project file for free from here.

Experiment of the day: Trapcode Form Cloudscape
(posted 07-07-10)

See it and download the project file for free from here. You're welcome!

Website navigation de-flashed
(posted 24-06-10)

While we're waiting for our Internet connection to be set up in the new office (nightmare!), I've used the downtime to update the DD website to fix a longstanding gripe. When I did the last major rebuild of the DD website in 2004, Flash was such an entrenched standard that using it for the navigation of what is otherwise a pure HTML site wasn't an issue. My, how times change. Mobile Internet browsing *cough* iPhone *cough* has transformed how people access most websites and Flash (which has always been a very CPU-intensive plugin) is most definitely not a good fit for the limited spec of these devices.

As a result, I've rebuilt the navigation for this site in plain old HTML (not snazzy HTML5, though that's on the cards!). Not all the video on site will play on mobiles, but at least you can browse it properly now. The animated rollovers are a casualty of this change, but I hope to restore some of those effects in future using Javascript.

We've moved!
(posted 23-06-10)

Digital Distortion has a new home: 1 Noel Street. It's a bit bigger, though I'm going to miss the views we had from the rooftop of the old office. On the plus side, moving here has encouraged me to finally try out Maletti's (which is pretty much opposite us) and now I have, I can't believe it's taken me this long. Pizza Fantastisco!

Shadow Mapping in Particular 2
(posted 20-01-10)

I've been doing some experiments in After Effects to create shadows from Particular Objects. I've done this using manually built shadow projection comps using special scenes where the light is replaced with a camera.

Find ouf more and download the project files here.

Divergent Outcome
(posted 18-12-09)

My short film - Divergent Outcome - entered in the 2009 Getty Images "MishMash" competition, is now available to view in my portfolio here. As a bonus, I've also uploaded a raw version, showing how it looked before I went to town on it in After Effects and mashed up some pixels.

Resources section updated, ScreamerNet guide
(posted 23-11-09)

I've just spent a couple of days wrestling with Lightwave's Network Renderer - ScreamerNet. It's a clunky old beast and took a lot of research and testing to get it working, so much so I thought I'd share the knowledge I gained in the form of a guide. So here it is: ScreamerNet OSX for Lightwave 9.6 UB

Hope this is of use to Mac 'Wavers across the world - and let me know if you spot any errata. I'm curious to know if the Config files need to be updated if your Content Directory changes - or if can just be overwritten in the terminal.

Particular 2. Now, even more awesome.
(posted 09-07-09)

Just bought the upgrade to Particular 2. It's fantastic, read about it here, watch a quick demo and download the AE project!

After Effects Scripts
(posted 21-05-09)

Or rather "Script" as I've only uploaded one so far, but it is handy. It's designed to be used as part of a RED workflow - particularly when Avid enters the equation.

There's workflow notes too. Go look now!

Fujiya & Miyagi - "Sore Thumb"
(posted 10-02-09)

Our first news update of 2009! It's been a while since we updated our front page. Not that we haven't been busy. In fact, quite the opposite - we've been working our betty swollocks off and updating the site always up being deprioritised. We'll put up more stuff soon. In the meantime, here's a Fujiya & Miyagi video we did post-production on in December last year - check it out - it's really awesome!

Older news stories are archived here