After Effects of Concussion #4

Controversy surrounding Postconcussion Syndrome (PCS) dates back to the 1800s. 150 years on, contention still surrounds the lingering symptoms of insomnia, dizziness, irritability, depression, cognitive impairment and so on that affect between 30 and 80 percent of Americans following a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), or concussion.

The present day billboards of personal injury attorneys seeking auto accident victims as clients hark back to the late 19th century, when railways became a popular means of travel. During that time, railway accidents, and the number of physicians reporting on conditions such as “Railway Spine”, increased dramatically. Present day conditions of PCS and whiplash present similar symptoms, with etiology that is still the subject of debate. With billions of dollars of claims at stake, courtroom adversaries can pick and choose from a range of conflicting studies and theories.

History

In his book Post-Traumatic Neurosis, physician Michael Trimble notes that:

“In the nineteenth century and before, legal cases involved with personal injury were mainly to do with material injuries, such as loss of a limb or an eye, where objective evidence was unmistakable and quantifiable. With the advent of ‘concussion of the spine’ the situation changed, and the concept that the injured were victims of at best ‘shock’ and at worst spinal anaemia or meningitis became prevalent.”

In the late 1800s, the dominant theory involved organic lesions of the spine and brain. London surgeon John Eric Erichsen gave famous lectures in 1866, later republished in book format in 1875 as On Concussion of the Spine: nervous shock and other obscure injuries of the nervous system in their clinical and medico-legal aspects, in which he opined:

“The primary effects of these concussions or commotions of the spinal cord are probably due to changes in its structure. The secondary are mostly of an inflammatory character, or are dependent on retrogressive organic changes, such as softening, etc., consequent on interference with its nutrition.”

This view was challenged in the 1880s by London and Northwest Railway surgeon Herbert Page, who asserted that one of Erichsen’s spinal concussion cases was potentially suffering the effects of syphilis instead, and pointed to a lack of post-mortem data in the majority of spinal concussion cases. Dr. Page proposed that fear and shock played a role, suggesting psychological rather than organic causes in the large number of people who had been in relatively minor accidents yet remained symptomatic afterwards.

Among the many train crash victims was Charles Dickens, famous author of A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations. Dickens’ carriage did not go over the bridge, but was too close for comfort, dangling. He described “two or three hours work afterwards around the dead and dying surrounded by terrific sights”. Dickens suffered from symptoms including weakness and anxiety and being “not quite right within,” which he attributed to “the railway shaking.”

Later, Oppenheimer moved from the theory of “Railway Spine” to “Railway Brain”, like Erichsen attributing symptoms to an organic cause. Pioneering French neurologist Charcot suggested manifestations of hysteria instead. After World War II, as cars became popular, whiplash injuries multiplied, resulting in similar clusters of symptoms.

The Present Problem

According to the CDC, there were 2.5 million emergency room visits, hospitalizations, or deaths associated with traumatic brain injury, the majority of which were concussions, or “mild TBI”, in 2010. These numbers are understated, as they do not include those head injuries which did not involve a trip to the hospital. While causes vary and include falls, auto accidents, assault, occupational accidents, and sports, some of these, such as auto or occupational accidents, result in litigation.

Injury claims in the U.S. cost billions of dollars each year. Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center indicated that despite medical advances which allow people to remain on the job, the number of Americans claiming disability has increased more than 6 fold.

Her report points to the fact that changing standards put more weight on self-reported pain and discomfort. Auto accidents follow a similar trend where the cost of claims is rising while the overall severity of injuries is declining.

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud estimates that fraudulent claims cost $80 billion per year in the U.S. In a litigious society with so much money at stake, plaintiffs are often portrayed negatively by the media. In particular, those who are injured in ways that are not obviously disfiguring frequently are subject to great scrutiny and accusations of fraud. Types of fraud can include malingering, falsely assigning real symptoms to a compensable cause, or misrepresentation of diminished capacity following injury.

Diagnosis of PCS depends largely on self reporting. An observed loss of consciousness is not necessary, and common symptoms such as headache, irritability, loss of memory and the ability to concentrate, dizziness, and sensitivity to noise or alcohol do not lend themselves to objective, verifiable measurement. Some of these complaints are also highly prevalent in the general population.

Some explanations allow for the legitimacy of reported symptoms, while largely dismissing organic causes. Instead, other theories offered include psychogenic causes. Symptoms such as insomnia, dizziness, headache, and cognitive impairment can overlap with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies have found premorbid depression common to almost half of those who develop PCS. Another study found that mild TBI was not a risk factor for PCS after adjusting for PTSD and depression. PTSD was found in other research to be the strongest predictor of PCS. (PTSD could also offer an explanation for what Dickens described following the train wreck).

Studies have found a link between persistent PCS and potential financial compensation. Evans reports that “on neuropsychological testing, there is a dose-response relationship between an increasing amount of potential compensation and an increasing rate of failure on malingering indicators, particularly in those who have suffered only mild TBI.”

Lithuania served as a testing ground, chosen for the fact that compensation for post-traumatic headache is unlikely there, and because the general population has fewer “expectations of persisting symptoms than in a Western society.” Among emergency room patients with mild headache injuries and loss of consciousness not exceeding 15 minutes, headaches disappeared within a month for the overwhelming majority of Lithuanian subjects- 96 percent of respondents. However this does not necessarily prove that American plaintiffs with PCS are faking.

Litigation Response Syndrome

While prospective studies of emergency room patients in other countries on the surface appear to support non-organic etiology, it is worth noting that studies of neurasthenia have found that cultural factors can influence the manifestation of clinical symptoms. Additionally, a group of stress problems known as Litigation Response Syndrome have been described, the symptoms of which mirror PCS.

People can become “so terrified and emotionally traumatized by the litigation that they appear to have mental disorders,” explains expert Paul Lees-Haley. When plaintiffs are followed by insurance investigators, subjected to intrusive depositions and compulsory medical exams conducted by strangers, must hand over their private medical records to insurance company employees, and are constantly bombarded with medical bills and legal documents, symptoms such as stress, insomnia, anxiety, and dizziness may ensue, but not be attributable to the actual injury.

However, since the litigation, and therefore the symptoms, did not occur prior to the injury, patients could reasonably believe that the injury caused the symptoms. This is also a plausible explanation for why these symptoms are so persistent in U.S., but not in places like Lithuania where litigation is less common.

Due to the subjective nature of the symptoms associated with PCS, and the substantial overlap with highly prevalent psychiatric and medical conditions such as headaches and depression, it is unlikely that the debate will be fully resolved in the near future. Research has increased as a result of the return of veterans with brain injuries and PTSD as well as increased awareness of sports related concussions, which should result in more refined studies of specific subsets of the population with PCS symptoms.

Welcome to Basic Training! #3

Welcome to Basic Training!
In this Free Video Training Series, you'll learn everything you need to know to start using After Effects today. This is not an overview of the software, this is a real training series that covers advanced techniques for Motion Tracking, Color Keying and even 3D Title Design. Of course, we'll cover the basics too.

What Version of After Effects do I need?
Nearly all of the training in this series will apply to After Effects CS3 and the Professional version of AE 6.5 & 7.

Why is it free, are you guys crazy?
Time to come clean. The truth is we want you to buy our DVDs but not all of our products are for beginners, so by teaching you the basics, you'll be in a position to take advantage of our great post production tools. Pretty sneaky :) Oh yeah... and we love you too.

Why should I learn After Effects?
After Effects gives you the power to create amazing visual effects and motion graphics. These skills will surely make you more valuable at work or to a future employer. You will also appear more attractive and confident.


11:12




In this tutorial we will go over how to import and organize footage in the project window. We will also cover footage properties, creating a new composition and using the playback controls.


5:22




In this tutorial we'll cover adding simple effects to footage and using the effects and presets pallete to find specific plug-ins. We'll also take a look at popular and commonly used effects.


13:37




In this tutorial we will cover animating and adding keyframes in after effects. You will learn to use smooth keyframes and add motion blur to animated layers as well as important shortcuts.


13:55




In this tutorial we will take a look at how transparency works in After Effects. From simple color keying to masking and transfer modes. We will also cover using track-mattes with stock footage.


18:59




In this tutorial we will cover several types of motion tracking, including stabilizing a shaky shot, performing a sign replacement and motion tracking video to incorporate motion graphics seemlessly.


6:00




In this tutorial we will cover how speed changes are done in After Effects. We will perform speed changes as well as speed ramps. Additionally we will discuss the difference between frame blending and pixel motion


12:12




In this tutorial we will cover the basics of 3D in After Effects. You'll learn to turn any layer into 3D as well as create 3D lights and cameras. We will also take a look at depth of field and a 3D particle system.


38:11




In this 2 part tutorial we will take a basic to advanced look at creating titles in After Effects. We will also get into powerful camera animation techniques and create a 3D particle systems.


14:32




In this tutorial we will take a look at After Effects scripting which is called expression. This introductory look is intended to demonstrate what can be achieved with this powerful feature.


5:21




In this tutorial we will cover the basics of rendering your composition. You can export for video editing applications, flash and DVD. We will also cover helpful render queue tips.

After Effects Tutorial Beginner #2

Top 5 After Effects Expressions for Better Designs

Expressions can seem really scary if you are new to After Effects. It took me a while to be comfortable with expressions to the point that I could write them on my own instead of copying from a Google search. They take time to learn, so have patience with them! There are many useful After Effects expressions that can automate processes and make your animations even better.

According to motion designer and Premiumbeat blogger Sean Frangella, the following expressions are the top 5 to learn in After Effects. These provide a solid base for getting comfortable with AE expressions, but they only represent a small sample of what is possible. If you want to learn more about using expressions try checking out previous post:  How to Use Expressions in After Effects

Feel free to copy and paste these expressions into your own projects. Implement them into your AE workflow often and pretty soon you won’t need to copy them at all!

In the following video tutorial, Sean Frangella shows us how to use all 5 of these expressions along with a few other great tips.

This video was created by Sean Frangella. Along with having an awesome YouTube channel, Sean creates Cinema 4D tutorials here on the PremiumBeat blog. If you want to find some more insightful tutorials from Sean or chat with him, check out his facebook page.

1. Wiggle

wiggle(1,15)

The wiggle expression is by far the expression that I use the most in After Effects. Wiggle expressions do exactly what you might imagine, they wiggle an object across random values. This expression can be used to make your scene seem more organic and natural.

The first number is the number of wiggles per second and the second number is the value of the wiggle. So, a position parameter with an expression ofwiggle(2,30) will wiggle 2 times per second at up to 30 different expressions.

2. Time

time*10

The time expression is perfect for objects with perpetual motion. For example if you wanted to have an object rotate indefinitely you can simply add the word time as the rotation parameter and your object will rotate 1 degree for ever second. The time parameter also works with basic math equations, so if you wanted to have the previous object rotate 30 times faster, you can simply have the expression time*30.

3. loopOut()

loopOut()

The loopOut() expression creates an infinite loop that will last forever. However, unlike the wiggle and time expression the loopOut() expressionrequires keyframes to be present. So if you had an object that rotates in a full circle in the span of 1 second you could add the loopOut() expression and the motion will be repeated forever.

4. seedRandom()

seedRandom(5)

seedRandom() is just a hair more complicated than the previous keyframes, but it completely makes sense after you think about it for a few seconds.

Random numbers aren’t completely random in After Effects. Sure, it may be called ‘random’, but in reality true random values cannot be achieved in javascript and subsequently After Effects. It’s for this reason that “random” numbers need to begin with some sort of base number. When After Effects draws this base number it uses the layer number that can be found on the far left side of the layer in the timeline. Each different iteration of “random” is called a seed so a random seed of 1 is different from a random seed of 2, but if you had similar wiggle expressions (i.e. wiggle(3,2)) with say a random seed of 5, they would actually wiggle in the exact same way.

If you were to change a layer’s order in the timeline from slot 3 to slot 10 it’s random seed would change, thus your wiggle will now look completely different. This isn’t a huge problem, but sometimes a certain wiggle iteration looks absolutely perfect and you don’t want them to change if your project order changes. To fix this you can use the seedRandom() expression. This expression locks random seeds so that your expression doesn’t change if you add in new layers.

5. Math.round()

Math.round()

Math.round() is an expression that rounds up decimal numbers to the nearest whole number. This is perfect for doing countdowns or numbers in the source text. Simply add your normal expression into the Math.round() expression parenthesis in your source text expression box and all your numbers will be rounded up.

If you are really wanting to learn the ins-and-outs of expressions in After Effects, CodeAcademy offers an informative free JavaScript course that’s 100% free and worth checking out.

Have any other expressions that you frequently use?
Share in the comments below.

After Effects Tutorials Begginer #1

Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software. Its main purpose is for film and video post-production. With Adobe After Effects it’s possible to create so great looking visual effects as in “Hollywood style” movies. Adobe After Effects is mainly used to create visual effects for commercials and movies but you can also create image slide-shows, some small videos, transition effects for websites and stuff like that.

It is not difficult to learn by your own. You only need to find some good tutorials and you are ready to start. There are a lot of good tutorials these days, just try to search for them on the Internet. Here is a massive collection of Adobe After Effects tutorials which, in our opinion, are very useful for learning After Effects. They are categorized in these following section for your learning convenience:Beginners, Intermediate users and Advanced users. Enjoy the beauty of Adobe After Effects!