{"id":85,"date":"2018-07-01T04:46:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T04:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joesparks.com\/whyyes\/?page_id=85"},"modified":"2018-10-19T04:19:59","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T04:19:59","slug":"joe-sparks-creative-tools-2018","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.joesparks.com\/whyyes\/joe-sparks-creative-tools-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Sparks’ Creative Tools 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve spent my entire professional life working inside of creative software going all the way back to my earliest experiences as a kid with a Commodore 64 with Koala Pad, to the Deluxe series from Electronic Arts on the Amiga (Deluxe Paint, Deluxe Music Construction Set, Deluxe Video), to VideoWorks from Macromind and Swivel 3D from Paracomp in the later 80’s. I made this graphic below in 2018 to celebrate my initiation into computer graphics, animation, and music creation that began in the mid 1980’s:<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/a>
Hey it’s me in June 2018 with my main tools from the mid-1980’s. I learned the basics of all I would be doing in my career from the Deluxe creativity series from Electronic Arts on Commodore C-64 and Amiga computers. For real’s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fast forward 30+ years later to my main tools of today. I will keep this 2018 Tools Page updated all year. Next year, I’ll start a new page for 2019. If I keep with, I will have this historical archive! (That excites me).<\/p>\n

Below are the tools I use, most important and most-often used first. Some of these I have used for so many years. They are a part of my daily life.<\/p>\n

My 2018 List of Primary Creative Tools<\/h5>\n

Adobe CC 2018<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0My top tools used in Adobe Creative Cloud are After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Audition, Animate, Illustrator. Each one of these are life-long disciplines. You could build an entire career upon any one of these. I have used these tools on and off for decades (I was a beta tester for Photoshop 1.0 in 1990). After Effects<\/strong> is a must-have animation tool for movie-makers (I love it so much I wrote this love song<\/a> to it). Most pro artist-animators and video makers could not imagine living without at least Photoshop. Premiere is my fav video editor. Illustrator is the king of vector editing. Flash\/Animate is a brilliant animation tool, which I used to make my hit show “Radiskull & Devil Doll”. Audition is great for noise reduction and so much video-related audio editing.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/a>
My alter ego having fun with After Effects, making the titles for “After Effects, I Love you” –\u00a0http:\/\/bit.ly\/AFX-ILoveU<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Presonus Studio One Professional<\/a> – This is my main music and audio creation tool. It comes with many AMAZING instruments. All music I have made since 2017 was created in this incredible DAW. I started with v3.0 in 2017, and I have upgraded to v4.0 in June 2018.<\/p>\n

\"Studio<\/a>
Working inside of Presonus Studio One v3.5.5 on the “After Effects..” music<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blender 3D<\/a> – Legendary open-source 3D modeling and animation software. Free to get started. Filled with wonderful tools. Particles, fur, wow. Also includes a video editor, motion tracking, and an amazing user base (which produces models, materials, tutorials, extensions, etc.).<\/p>\n

\"Blender<\/a>
Making myself pop out of a 3D Egg (texture mapped with my American Flag Scarf) in the mighty and powerful Blender 3D.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"JoePopOutOfEgg\"<\/a>
Keyframes from my Easter Egg promo for AFX I <3 U I put together the Egg animation part in a couple of hours on Easter Sunday 2018 (see below). I thought it was a pretty funny promo!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n