I finally hit publish (and it almost broke my computer)

👋 Welcome to the latest edition of my monthly motion design newsletter, where I bring you fresh tutorials, a sneak peak of what’s coming soon, a handy tip, and a random recommendation!

🥳 New

Phew! I finally finished the first video for my new YouTube channel, Explanimated, where I’m making solutions-focused explainer videos on environmental issues.

I initially was planning a long-form video about food waste, so I got deep into research-mode. 😅 Turns out that the causes and solutions to food waste are complex, and a bit challenging to put together into a succinct and actually interesting video. So, I decided to pivot to a short video to start, but I still have plans to create more videos with all that I learned.

If there’s anything animation-wise that you see that you want to learn, let me know and maybe I can make a tutorial about it! You can always reach me by replying to this email or here’s an anonymous suggestion box.

Check it out

🤫 Sneak Peak

Nothing super specific to share yet, but I’m planning more explainer videos for Explanimated, a new Skillshare class, and more YouTube tutorials.

⚡ Quick Tip

I usually use the Dynamic Link between After Effects and Premiere when combining animations and videos (tutorial on that here). But in the case of my new video (above), the animation was so huge, that it wasn’t working. I instead had to render out the animated segments from Ae and one took 15 hours!

So, the tip today is how to make rendering faster:

Make sure Ae is allowed to use the majority of your RAM (After Effects > Settings > Memory & Performance: decrease the amount of RAM reserved for other applications.
While you're in Settings, make sure Multi-Frame Rendering is turned on.
Even better, close other applications!
Turn on Caps Lock. This tells Ae not to show the preview frame as it’s rendering, which saves resources to actually render.
Make sure your computer storage is not too full (definitely had this problem).

👉 Random Recommendation

I recently finished listening to the audiobook, Meditations for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman. This is hands down the self-help book that I need most. The advise in this book is at the same time totally obvious, super wise, and not commonly said. It’s the kind of advise that’s definitely easier said than done, and having it so clearly articulated is extremely helpful (and a bit comforting knowing that I’m not the only one with these struggles). I especially enjoyed listening to this book because it’s read by the author and his accent perfectly compliments the message.