Mike Afford Media BLOG

Latest news, observations, and the occasional comment

TriCaster studio set for sportdigital

I have recently been working for the German sports channel sportdigital designing a brand new multi-angle virtual studio set for their NewTek Tricaster. I was sent some footage yesterday showing two of the camera angles (more angles to follow when the new cameras arrive..!) and I’m really pleased to see that everything is working so nicely.

The design of the set was inspired by the sportdigital logo, with a lit section running through the middle of the studio, the outer step of the riser as the circle element, and the centre spot appearing as a lit section in the middle of the desk.

Virtual Studio Set for sport digital

sportdigital Virtual Set

If you’re familiar at all with the quirks of virtual studios, and in particular NewTek’s TriCaster, you should be pleasantly surprised to see the talent resting his hands and paperwork on top of the desk. No mean feat as it turns out, since the entire desk is virtual in this case. Also, the talent is reflected in the virtual desk. read more »

Tricaster custom studio set for Intel

I was very pleased to be sent a few grabs earlier this week from INTEL showing a new virtual studio set I designed for them a little while back. Great to see it in action and working so nicely.

The studio set runs on a TriCaster, and has a large ‘virtual’ studio space with a number of monitors that are set up to take either a live input, or a static source. I made a load of different camera angles for them including seated positions for discussions like those shown here, and also a number of standing positions with a desk for demo-ing products.

Virtual Studio Set for Intel UK

image © Intel Corporation (UK) Ltd

Apart from adding some depth of field on the close-ups, there’s a couple of other interesting little touches I’ve incorporated into this set.

read more »

NOAA weather icons

I’ve just added another weather icon look-up table to my weather icon store. This one maps my own 92-icon sets to the weather condition codes for the National Weather Service from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). read more »

Yahoo! Weather Icons

I’ve just added another weather icon look-up table which maps the Yahoo! Weather API codes to my own weather icon sets which you can download now from my store. I have made a number of different icon packs, using my own codes which can easily be mapped to a number of different Weather Data providers. This latest lookup table maps the 48 Yahoo! Weather conditions (plus ‘3200’ for ‘not available’) to the most appropriate condition/symbol from my 92-icon packs. read more »

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Heston’s Christmas Classics

Hestons Christmas Classics for Waitrose TV

It wouldn’t be Christmas without some Waitrose TV graphics, so it’s time to dust off the Trapcode Particular and Starglow After Effects plug-ins, and set about adding twinkles to everything!!
Because let’s face it, everything looks better with twinkles..

First up is a set of graphics for Heston’s Christmas Classics – a four-part series for Waitrose TV in which Heston Blumenthal takes on a Christmas classic and gives it his own special twist. Working with my good pals from Stepping Stone Media I produced a little animating title frame and motion-tracked recipe titles for each of the four episodes. read more »

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Free virtual studios update

I have recently updated all of the virtual studio sets over on my virtual studio sets website. It’s a BIG update, as every single-angle and multi-angle pack now includes a complete set of layers and mattes for every camera position, all in lossless PNG format which means that they can now be used with pretty much any kind of graphics or editing package out there.

Virtual Studio Set free update

Virtual Studio Set free update

The TriCaster-ready Photoshop file is still included as standard, and now includes an extra talent Input layer, which fixes a TriCaster issue relating to overlapping keyable layers. I’ve also included a new (optional) opaque desktop which can be used to adjust (or remove completely) the reflectivity of the desk surface.

As always, the updates to existing customers are completely free to download.

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TriCaster Virtual Newsroom

I’ve recently updated Virtual Studio Set 2 over at virtualstudiosets.com to include an (optional) Newsroom backdrop behind every angle.

Virtual Studio Set with moving newsroom background

Virtual Studio Set with moving newsroom background

The virtual studio set still has all of the same awesome functionality and customization options as before, but now includes a special UV gradient group and a choice of HD newsroom movie loops to provide a stunning animating news room background behind every one of the 6 camera angles.

read more »

New TriCaster Virtual Studio

New TriCaster Virtual Studio

Here’s a sneak preview of the latest virtual studio set (Studio 2 – original name, I know!) that’s about to appear over at virtualstudiosets.com.

It’s a fully customizable semi-circular studio with drop zones for four sections of cyclorama and three optional screens on top. The set comes with a large desk and a smaller table, for news-style presentation or discussion formats. The desk and table can be hidden if required, allowing the set to be used with physical furniture or props.

You can replace the backdrop with any of your own images (16×9 format will work best) or try a pack of pre-made seamless backgrounds which are included with the Studio 2 multi-angle pack, that you can drop straight in, or customize however you like. read more »

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