Blog - Surfaced Studio

Boris FX Black Friday Sale 2022 - 30% OFF Video Editing, VFX and Motion Graphics Tools

The Boris FX Black Friday Sale 2022 is LIVE! Massive discounts on industry leading VFX, video editing and motion graphics tools and effects!

Boris FX Black Friday Sale 2021 - Up To 55% OFF Video Editing & VFX Plugins!

Get up to 55% OFF industry-leading video editing, motion graphics and VFX plugins!

Boris FX Black Friday Sale up to 60% OFF

HUGE Sale on all BorisFX products including Mocha Pro, Sapphire, Continuum and SilhouetteFX. Get up to 60% OFF for Black Friday & Cyber Monday!

Gigabyte AERO 15 OLED 4K Review

The GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED is a lightweight laptop aimed at content creators. In this review we will look at how it performs for video editing, VFX & 3D

Mivitar Boling P1 RGB Video Light Review

The Mivitar Boling P1 is a powerful, pocket-sized RGB video light. In this review I talk about its specifications and show you what you can do with it.

Zhiyun Crane 3 LAB DSLR Gimbal Review

The Zhiyun Crane 3 LAB is a professional camera stabilizer for mirrorless, DSLR and cinema cameras. In this review I will show you what you can do with it.

DJI Osmo Pocket Review: Sample Footage, Battery Life and Verdict

Hands-on DJI Osmo Pocket review with real-world sample footage, battery performance tests and a side-by-side comparison with the DJI Osmo Action. Is it worth it?

Win a FREE Blender 3D Beginner Course on Udemy

Want to learn Blender? Check out my Blender 3D Crash Course on Udemy for Absolute Beginners! First 30 people will get the course for FREE! Be quick!

Mocha Pro 2019 - Overview & New Features

Mocha Pro 2019 comes with new Essentials workspaces, new Spline Tools, GPU accelerated Removes and much more! Check out all the great new features!

Join the new VFX & Film Making Forums and Win a Free After Effects Course!

The VFX & Film Making Forums are finally LIVE on my website! To celebrate, I am giving away 10 free copies of my Adobe After Effects Beginner Course!

How To Use Adobe After Effects - For Beginners

Learn how to use Adobe After Effects in 2018 with my ABSOLUTE BEGINNER COURSE on Udemy! The course will cover everything you need to create your own awesome motion graphics and visual effects!

How To Use Adobe Premiere Pro - For Beginners

Learn how to use Adobe Premiere Pro in my ABSOLUTE BEGINNER COURSE on Udemy! You will learn everything you need to start creating your own film projects from start to finish!

YONGNUO YN600 AIR - LED Video Light Review

The Yongnuo YN600 Air LED video light is a great, affordable option to get really nice and diffuse light to brighten up your scene. In this review I cover its features and what I like and don't…

Sony Alpha 6500 In-Depth Review

The Sony Alpha 6500 is Sony's top-of-the-line mirrorless camera. I take an in-depth look at its features and what you can and can't do with this camera.

The Best Action Stock Footage For Film Makers - Part 2

What is the best action stock footage? This is a 2 part question: what is the BEST QUALITY and what is the BEST FREE stock footage? Find the answers here!

Intel VFXCreator Giveaway - Win A Massive Gaming Rig

Want to WIN a massive Intel GAMING RIG? Simply tweet to share my Dragon Fire Breath VFX tutorial and you could win a custom rig worth thousands of dollars!

Adobe Premiere Pro CC April 2017 - New Features

Check out the new features of the Adobe Premiere Pro CC April 2017 release. New Essential Graphics & Essential Sound panels and Motion Graphics templates.

DJI Mavic Pro In-Depth Review: Sample Footage, Range and Flight Time

Full review of the original DJI Mavic Pro: 4K video quality, 27-minute flight time, obstacle avoidance and portability. Real sample footage and a full pros and cons breakdown.

Surfaced Studio Website Updates June 2017

Check out the latest updates to the Surfaced Studio website in June 2017. In this blog post I take you through what has changed - and why.

FXHome - HitFilm Tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJM4UslJ_50 FXHome creates HitFilm, a video editing and VFX compositing software for indie film makers. Over the years, I…

Adobe After Effects April 2017 - New Features

Learn what's new in the latest release of Adobe After Effects April 2017. New features include the Essential Graphics panel, Motion Graphics Templates as well as the inclusion of the awesome…

Intel Collaboration - VFX Creator Giveaway

In 2017 I worked with Intel to be the face of their VFX Creator Campaign . The campaign aims to introduce film makers and VFX artists to Intel's latest i7…

Mocha Pro 5 Plugin for Adobe In-Depth Review

The Mocha Pro 5 Plugin for Adobe brings the power of Mocha 5 directly into Adobe After Effects. I took the new plugin for a thorough test drive.

Boris FX - Mocha Tutorials

Boris FX is the company behind Mocha, an academy award winning planar tracker used in feature films such as Star Wars, The Hobbit and Harry Potter. In…

ActionVFX Stock Footage Giveaway - Explosions, Fire & More

Win yourself some super high quality action stock footage for your film making and VFX needs! In this giveaway, I am going to give away 2 of the amazing packs from the ActionVFX collection by…

After Effects vs Premiere Pro

Learn about the difference between Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro to avoid wasting countless hours using the wrong tool for the job!

Win a Canon PowerShot G7X and HitFilm 3 Pro

Win a brand new Canon PowerShot G7X and one of 3 HitFilm 3 Pro licenses in my 100,000 YouTube Subscriber Giveaway!

Best Action Stock Footage for Film Making & Visual Effects

Here you can find the best action stock footage elements for your film making and visual effects needs!

What is the Best Computer for Adobe After Effects?

What is the best computer for Adobe After Effects? I discuss the components that are crucial to optimum performance for film making and visual effects.

Resources for Film Makers

I have created a number of pages that list out all the cameras, software and accessories I use to create my own short films and visual effects.

Audio Elite by CreatingFilm - Royalty Free Music Pack Review

The Audio Elite Music Pack contains 250+ songs in 13 genres and offers something for everyone who is looking to take their short films to the next level.

50k Subs Giveaway! Win a Digital Copy of Action Essentials 2 by Video Copilot!

Surfaced Studio has hit 50,000 subscribers on YouTube! In celebration of this epic milestone, I am giving away a free digital copy of Action Essentials 2 by Video Copilot in 720p!

Premiere Pro CC 2014 - Hot New Features

Premiere Pro CC 2014 was released to the Creative Cloud on June 18. In this post I take you through some of the great new features that have been released!

After Effects CC 2014 - Hot New Features

The latest version of After Effects, After Effects CC 2014, was released on June 18. In this post I show you some of the awesome new features!

Magic Bullet Looks Review: Easy Colour Grading in After Effects and Premiere

Magic Bullet Looks from Red Giant makes professional colour grading accessible with one-click presets. See how to use it in After Effects and Premiere Pro with real before/after examples.

How to Create Super Mario Bros Sound Effects for Your Videos

Learn how to recreate authentic Super Mario Bros sound effects in Cubase for VFX short films - power-ups, coin sounds and MIDI sequencing, explained step by step.

VFX Vlog 13 - Adobe After Effects Motion Sketch Tutorial

Learn how to use Motion Sketch in Adobe After Effects to hand animate your elements and control any effect parameter by linking it to a null object

VFX Vlog 15 - HitFilm 2 Plugins Pack for Film Making and Visual Effects

The HitFilm 2 plugins pack contains over 130 effects that you can use in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas or Final Cut Pro to create cool VFX!

VFX Vlog 12 - Converting Audio to Keyframes in After Effects

After Effects allows you to convert audio to keyframes. You can then use expressions to hook any effect you want up to sync it with the volume of the audio

VFX Vlog 11 - Adobe Premiere and After Effects Integration

Learn the best way to work with Adobe Premiere and After Effects Integration. You can replace clips with a composition or copy and paste your elements

Day to Night Conversion – Adding City Lights

When converting a city scene from a day to a night shot, adding city lights into the buildings greatly enhances the realism of the effect.

VFX Vlog 10 - What is your After Effects Skill Level?

To progress your skills in After Effects you first need to know what skill leve you are at. Try to answer these questions to gauge where your stand!

How To Export Your Videos From After Effects

Learn how to export your video from Adobe After Effects. This tutorial covers options for quality, output format, file size, and shows how to export audio!

VFX Vlog 9 - How To Find The Best After Effects Tutorials

When learning After Effects, make sure you follow tutorials that are 'at your level'. Here are some tips to help you determine which ones are right for you.

FujiFilm XF1 Hands On In Depth Review

The FujiFilm XF1 is a high quality compact camera with a great looking F1.8 Fujinon lens, HD movie modes and RAW capabilities. See how it does in the field!

Render Order In Adobe After Effects

Understanding the render order in Adobe After Effects is crucial to creating visual effects. Learn how to use masks and pre-composing to solve common issues

VFX Vlog 8 - Best use for VFX, After Effects Masks & Pre-Composing

Visual effects are often misused as storytelling tools. For indie film makers on a budget, there are better ways to tell a good story without visual effects

How to Remove a Moving Object in Adobe After Effects

Learn how to remove a moving object or a person from your footage using Adobe After Effects. This is a step by step tutorial for this basic technique!

VFX Vlog 7 - Best After Effects Plugins and How To Remove An Object

There is a large number of great After Effects plugins available that you might consider to help your film making and VFX workflow.

How To Loop A Video In Adobe After Effects

Learn the different methods you can use in Adobe After Effects to loop a video clip. Set the loop option, use time remapping or expressions to loop a video!

VFX Vlog 6 – After Effects CC & How To Loop A Video In After Effects

What is the Adobe Creative Cloud? Learn how it works and how it can integrate Adobe's products much better (and cheaper) into your film making workflow!

After Effects Rotobrush Tutorial

Learn how to use the rotobrush tool in Adobe After effect to efficiently separate moving elements from your footage so you can add cool VFX to your shots!

VFX Vlog 5 - Fix It In Post, VFX workflow & After Effects Rotobrush Tutorial

Learn why 'fix it in post' is a bad attitude towards film making and VFX. I also show you how you can keep your files organised to improve your VFX workflow

Entertaining, High Quality Visual Effects and Film Making Tutorials

We all hate boring tutorials and therefore Surfaced Studio offers high quallity VFX and film making tutorials with a humorous twist. We like to call it 'edutainment' and try to capture what…

VFX Vlog - Film Making and VFX Tips & Tricks

I migrated my VFX to the Surfaced Studio YouTube channel to give you more chances to ask VFX & film making questions and to provide more regular content

VIDinc 2013 - Australia's Biggest YouTube Event

VIDinc is Australia's biggest YouTube event, including lots of international YouTube superstars. I fly up to Sydney to check out what VIDinc had to offer

VFX Vlog 4 - Best Free Tutorials & Creating Masks in After Effects

How to get started creating your own VFX? I show you the best free online resources to get you started and explain how to create masks in After Effects.

The Digital Show - Melbourne 2013

The Digital Show is the biggest consumer technology event in the Southern Hemisphere. We checked out the latest & greatest from Nikon, Canon and others

Win a Rode SmartLav Lapel Microphone - 20,000 YouTube Subscriber Celebration & Giveaway

Win a Rode SmartLav lapel microphone! Surfaced Studio is celebrating reaching 20,000 subscribers on YouTube - so check out our Rode SmartLav giveaway!

VFX Vlog 3 - Free Stock Footage Resources, Best Software for VFX

What software do you use for film making and visual effects? Where can I find free stock footage for explosions and muzzle flashes? See the answers!

VFX Vlog 2 – What Computer & Camera Should I Get For Making Films?

What computer should you get for After Effects? What camera is best for filming video? Mask feathering, additive blending, video & audio quality tips

VFX Vlog 1 - After Effects Tutorials, Film Making Tips & Tricks

In this vlog I will answer some common film making and visual effects questions relating to Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Cinema 4D and 3dsMax.

Rhino Camera Slider Review

Review of the Rhino DSLR Camera Slider. Read all about the different models, the features and how well the camera slider performs in the field!

Brand New Surfaced Studio V3 Website Launched!

The new Surfaced Studio website is finally live! Improved After Effects VFX tutorials search, dedicated gear review, photography and blog sections!

Featured on Mashable!

I got my first big burst of exposure when I was listed besides internet legends such as Freddie W, Final Cut King, VFX Bro and Corridor Digital as one of 5…

Halloween Zombie Video Wins Movie Contest

Zombie Hunter Halloween Video Makes #1 On Indy Mogul's Terror Trials Contest! We're excited to announce that we won the Indy Mogul Halloween video contest!

Brand New Surfaced Studio Facebook Fan Page

A brand new Facebook page for Surfaced Studio! Here you will find frequent updates, behind the scenes and other tips and tricks for VFX, film and music.

Tough Mudder Experience, Melbourne, Australia

The first Tough Mudder event in Australia was run on the 31st of March, 2012 and me and 5 friends decided to be a part of it. This is how it all went down.

Indy Mogul Movie Quest Feature

One of my VFX short films, At War With Your TV, got featured on Indy Mogul's channel in their latest Movie Quest episode!

Pidgeon Project - Project Management Software

Pidgeon Project is a powerful but simple project management tool that works great for personal or small team projects. Rich text editing, multi user support.

Welcome to Surfaced Studio!

I used to run www.surfacedmusic.com but since my main passion has moved over to VFX and film making, I have decided to migrate everything into a new brand: Surfaced Studio. Welcome to the official…

SurfacedMusic now on YouTube

SurfacedMusic now has its own YouTube channel! On the channel I will upload music projects as well as tips and tricks for creating and producing your own music!

Songwriting - Creating Interest

There are a number of simple techniques that you can use to make sure your song captures and holds your listener's attention. In this blog post I will discuss structure, emotional intensity,…

The Sunday Riff - Taking It All

Today's riff is a fast, hard and pumping line in harmonic minor. Notice how the kick drum and the bass add a more driving feel to the basic riff.

The Sunday Riff - A Rugged Shade of Grey

In this series I will share some of my music with you and show you some of the riffs I created. Today's riff is a rugged pattern in harmonic minor.

Composition 101 - Chord Inversions

If all of your chords are basic chords your songs might end up sounding a bit dull. You can easily use chord inversions to give your song a lot more colour and improve the flow of the chord…

Frozen Soundtrack

Celina from Fables in Fashion wanted me to create some atmospheric music to go along with her 'frozen' themed make-up look. In this blog post I take you through the steps I went through to create…

Guitar Composition - Open Chords

I love simple, open sounds and therefore am a big fan of composing songs with open chords. Open chords simply leave a few strings unfretted to ring and add some live and vibrance to your melodies.

Compression part 2 - Attack and Release

In the second part of my compression tutorial I will cover how to use attack and release to control and reshape your audio. I also cover a few common problems as well as some general tips & tricks…

Scales - Harmonic Minor

Harmonic minor is one of my favourite scales to play in. It has a dark and slightly mysterious feel and is great for creating some tension in your music.

Song Creation Part 2 – Composition and Arrangement

In this blog post I cover how to properly compose and arrange your music. Using MIDI during arrangement and looking at creating space and tension within your music give you powerful tools to…

Compression Part 1 - Controlling Dynamics

Compression is a difficult topic in mixing and it pays to understand it well. In this post I will show you one of the primary uses of compression in music production and that is to control the…

Song Creation Part 1 - Conception

Coming up with an initial idea for a song, be it a melody line, a riff or a rhythm can be challenging. In this post I will show you my personal approach to coming up with ideas for new songs and…

Composition 101 - Changing Keys

When changing the key during a song you need to ensure that there is a transition in place that gives the change the desired emotional impact. In this blog post I show you a simple and clean way…

Fletcher-Munson Curves Explained: Why Louder Always Sounds Better

The Fletcher-Munson curves explain why our ears perceive louder music as better-sounding. Learn how equal-loudness contours cause ear fatigue and how to mix at safe monitoring levels.

Song Challenge - The Circle Concept

Skillfully mixing your recorded audio material is an essential step to creating an awesome piece of music. In this blog post I share some audio tracks with you to play around with and practice…