Lloyd Alvarez, the talented and generous founder of aescripts.com, planned to be a doctor. Somehow that didn’t work out and these days he’s an in-demand freelance designer and creative director, working for some of the biggest name companies around. In this up-close and personal chat, Lloyd reveals how a willingness to set aside ego and do the most mundane tasks has lead to a successful career in motion graphics and visual effects. Lloyd shares his love for scripting, introduces us to aescripts.com and explains how scripts can be great time savers and give you edge in your productions.
Lloyd Alvarez
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Another excellent interview again. One of the better ones.:)
You’re welcome Ryan.
Hi John,
Great interview with Lloyd. I’ve been a big fan of AENHANCERS.com since I heard about it a few years ago. I couldn’t believe all the great scripts to help us out for free. I realized early on working in motion graphics that the more expressions you know, scripts you use, and plug ins you own, the more design time you have to experiment with projects. It was experimenting with AE (and now Cinema 4D) that got me hooked on motion graphics and visual effects. Those “wow” moments can slowly be buried by more mundane job related tasks. Anything or anyone that gives me back my “wow” time is a “rock star.” Keep the great interviews coming!
Brett
Gotta have that wow time for sure Brett! Cheers, John.
A guy who is taking his work serious rather than nitpicking his ego beeing a big sheen player in the big biz and a real hard working buddy you can hang around and have a laughter with few beer all night.
He is really reflecting people i’ve met in my life and they’re rare.
Big up! to both of you John and Lloyd. Great to have you on Planet Earth.
Thanks Thomas, great to be here! Best wishes, John.
Here is yet another reason for artists in the NYC area to attend AENY (once a month). Lloyd was the guest speaker at one of the meet ups I attended and if I recall correctly he demo-ed “Zorro”?
Great interview, thank you both. Cool because I was going to ask John and his brother to discuss “fate” on the BOD show. I think I understand your philosphy regarding that now John. You create your own. And although I see the reasoning behind that there is probably more to it. A mental attitude of being open to your own fate and recognizing the direction it is taking you in and not resisting it is a difficult thing to teach and learn. On the other hand it’s possible your fate is set in stone and there’s simply no getting around it. It would be enlightenting to say the least if we could know what Lloyds alternate fate would have been had he gone into the career his father had imagined for him.
Here is a great Alvarez tutorial – Design a Breathtaking Body Shatter Effect – http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/vfx/design-a-breathtaking-body-shatter-effect/
Rock on!
Hi Jim, I always remember what Sarah Connor carved into the table in Terminator 2 – “no fate but that we make” 😉 Best wishes, John.
WOW! I must say I have been intimated about even approaching the use of scripts. When I hear the word expressions I am just now moving past channeling those discussions into the “Charlie Browns’s Parents dialog”. Now I want to give it a try. I have been using actions in photoshop for years and every time I have a redundant task in AE, I think there has got to be an easier way! But then I get into the time lock of either doing it this way, and knowing I can get it done (eventually), or surf the answer online and maybe not find it, or more likely get distracted and end up losing time on a project.
This has been one of my favorite interviews for the topics of timeflow, the hardship and tenacity of success in the field and as always the generosity of the AE community as a whole. Thanks Loyd!! And thank you John,! I wanted to get your ideas on “Avatar” I just sat through it 3 times in a row yesterday, And it is Amazing! Inspiring! Cameron is the da Vinci of our generation! John why don’t you have a forum on your site? I hate to high jack other topic’s, as it seems seedy and unprofessional, well I guess that’s a personal style of mine, so maybe it’s something else ;O)
Merry stuff to you and fair dink um???
Hi James, I’m yet to see Avatar but I hear it’s great. A forum is a good idea and something I’ll definitely look into James. Best wishes, John.
He has a voice of John Mayer. I wonder if he can sing just as well.
What? Oscar Mayer maybe. Is that who you meant?
Cheers, this is great. I seriously agree about the AE community being helpful and sharing knowledge. Right on.
You’re welcome Bran. Best wishes, John.
Right on Mathias. That reminds me, I have to pay a visit to aescripts.com… l8r dude 😉
Imagine all Adobe, without, all of you …
(they (Adobe) don’t even have smart captcha in their blogs, so much for their “bilateral” thinking of serving quality: because big stuffed brains take much longer to respond and cause bloated apps)
They (Adobe) serve ground pizza – so it’s your turn for the toppings … unfair game i’d say.
@James
haha no not the meat company, the musician! When he speaks he sounds like John Mayer speaking.
Such a cool guy! Great interview John, I enjoy that you’re not afraid to make interviews run long as it’s nice to hear the subject speak at length about themselves. Thank you!
As for Lloyd sounding like John Mayer…I don’t know. We need to hear Lloyd sing for us sometime soon.
Merry Xmas!
Thanks Ivar and merry xmas to you too. Best wishes, John.
Thanks again John for doing these interviews, it was a pleasure to chat with you. As for the John Mayer comparison, let’s leave the singing to him 😉
The pleasure was all mine Lloyd. Best wishes, John.
I have a very specific function that I have been trying to write a script for and having a heck of time trying to do it as I have no idea what I am doing.. Any thoughts on who I may be able to share what I need with?… oh and as always great interview.. great knowledge.. great great great… Thanks for keeping the community together John!
I would think watching the interview again, especially the part about posting, on his site, this type of challenge.But it’s just a guess.
You know James… pointing out the obvious is not going to win you any points in life.. LOL… I was watching the interview at work and seemed to miss the parts that I probably should have been listening to… Thanks for the knock on the head.. I’m home now… HA!
As we come to end of the year and another decade, I take stock of my plan, for as it has been said “if you are playing the game of life without any goals, how do you know what the score is?”. At 50, I have mastered 3 different trades, and am now beginning a 4th. With each new challenge, I am mindful of the personal courage to leave behind success, and begin again. Reinventing myself, for as it has been said ” life is not about mastering a single skill and staying with it. But moving on to other challenges and in the end having succeeded in several challenges.” Nothing I have ever done, came without hardship, competition and a fair group of people, who were quick to underestimate my resolve.
In NYC it is said “they didn’t care enough about him (or her), to tell them the truth.” It is much easier to tell people what they want to hear. For it has been said “to seek critique not compliment”.I simply care enough about you and this community of creatives to help when I can. I am still very much a noob in motion graphics, yet with tenacity, and the helpful support of all these talented people, I hope someday to create material that will inspire legions of creatives. To take back our day rates and rise again to the power our ancestors were so very foolish to bargain away with shwag from Wallmart. Yes! Yes my friend, my goals are lofty! But if you vote for me … :O)… Merry Stuff to you and yours from the City!
Your a good man James.. Back at ya!
It’s funny to finally see a familiar voice:)
Seriously,Lloyd’s scripts are unbelievably useful.I love particularly,what he’s done with kuler.Maltaanon also had some kind of solution through a template,if I’m not mistaken,but Lloyd’s script was just all you need!And Of course BG renderer was a first script I ever used and was and is crazy useful with working under pressure!
Aescripts is the most respected sources to find best scripts online!
Keep on working,bro!Hey Jack,thnx, for wonderful interview
Podcast stops about 8 minutes in. Can’t download past 7 MB of file from iTunes either. (err = 9006) Corrupt file?
Hi Nathan, perhaps my host was having issues. It seems to work fine now. Best wishes, John.
Hi Danny, thanks for that, it’s always great to get feedback and I’m sure Lloyd appreciates it too. Best wishes, John.
Totally enjoyed the interview and will make a deliberate effort to start using scripts
Lloyd, Thanx for being so open and sharing!
Grtz from The Hague.
Nice One John….Unplugged really inspiring…
John how long you practiced after effect before you came to this field?
Hi Siraz, I’ve been using After effects for 14 years. Best wishes, John.
Thanks a lot to share all these amazing interviews with us John, really interesting life stories here, very inspiring!.
Cheers from Barcelona, Spain
Thanks Federico, I’m glad you are finding the valuable. Best wishes, John.
I’ve combed through the scripts at Redefinery.com for the script that links effect properties between layers and I can’t seem to find it. Did you mean it automatically links all the properties of all the effects? Could you point me to this resource? Thanks much.
Hi Andres, I got it on the After Effects CS4 Studio Techniques book by Mark Christiansen. It links properties from one layer to another. Best wishes, John.
Hey !
thanks for this wonderful interview !!!
I am one of the many ” SAVED ” ;)) by BG render !!!
In this FASTER-BETTER-CHEAPER economy time, it s good to bring into our work those noble values of sharing and helping each other!
And like you mention in the interview, I totally agree with you, your precious scripts help us to focus on the creative !!!
Not to mention get back home earlier and have a life !! hahaha!!!!
Life saver!!!
PS > i guess i am the same generation of you guyz! I discovered AE 3.1 on a mac a LONG TIME AGO working in video game in France at the time!
Well my point > It s really great to highlight the HUMAN STORY factor behind the scene type of thing !!! I have always loved the making of / story telling / biography aspect of great characters! and mister Loyd is definitively an inspiring ONE !!
Totaly agree with
Thomas
December 21, 2009 at 6:08 pm | Reply
A guy who is taking his work serious rather than nitpicking his ego beeing a big sheen player in the big biz and a real hard working buddy you can hang around and have a laughter with few beer all night.
He is really reflecting people i’ve met in my life and they’re rare.
Big up! to both of you John and Lloyd. Great to have you on Planet Earth.
Great interview and Lloyd Alvarez has a brilliant attitude. I’m less fearful of scripts now and look forward to doing some investigating!
Nice interview, Thx 4 sharing