Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2018 release), First Edition

Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2018 release), First Edition

by Lisa Fridsma, Brie Gyncild
Released December 2017
Publisher(s): Adobe Press
ISBN: 9780134872537

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Book description

Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe After Effects CC (2018 release) choose Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2018 release) from Adobe Press. The 15 project-based lessons in this book show users step-by-step the key techniques for working in After Effects. Learn how to create, manipulate, and optimize motion graphics for film, video, DVD, the web, and mobile devices. Gain hands-on experience animating text and images, customizing a wide range of effects, tracking and syncing content, rotoscoping, and correcting color. Create Motion Graphics templates in After Effects so colleagues can make specific edits in Premiere Pro without accidentally changing other critical settings. Learn to create 3D content with both After Effects and Maxon Cinema 4D Lite (included with the software).

 

The online companion files include all the necessary assets for readers to complete the projects featured in each chapter as well as ebook updates when Adobe releases relevant new features for Creative Cloud customers. All buyers of the book get full access to the Web Edition: a Web-based version of the complete ebook enhanced with video and multiple-choice quizzes.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Where are the Lesson Files?
  4. Contents
  5. Getting Started
    1. About Classroom in a Book
    2. Prerequisites
    3. Installing After Effects and Bridge
    4. Optimizing performance
    5. Restoring default preferences
    6. Online content
    7. How to use these lessons
    8. Additional resources
    9. Adobe Authorized Training Centers
  6. 1 Getting to Know the Workflow
    1. About the After Effects work area
    2. Getting started
    3. Creating a project and importing footage
    4. Creating a composition and arranging layers
    5. About layers
    6. Adding effects and modifying layer properties
    7. Animating the composition
    8. About the Tools panel
    9. About timecode and duration
    10. About the Timeline panel
    11. Previewing your work
    12. Optimizing performance in After Effects
    13. Rendering and exporting your composition
    14. Customizing workspaces
    15. Controlling the brightness of the user interface
    16. Finding resources for using After Effects
    17. Review questions and answers
  7. 2 Creating a Basic Animation Using Effects and Presets
    1. Getting started
    2. Importing footage using Adobe Bridge
    3. Creating a new composition
    4. Working with imported Illustrator layers
    5. Applying effects to a layer
    6. Applying and controlling effects
    7. Applying an animation preset
    8. Previewing the effects
    9. Adding transparency
    10. Rendering the composition
    11. Review questions and answers
  8. 3 Animating Text
    1. Getting started
    2. About text layers
    3. Installing a font using Typekit
    4. Creating and formatting point text
    5. Using a text animation preset
    6. Animating with scale keyframes
    7. Animating using parenting
    8. Animating imported Photoshop text
    9. About parent and child layers
    10. Animating type tracking
    11. Animating text opacity
    12. Using a text animator group
    13. About text animator groups
    14. Animating a layer’s position
    15. Timing layer animations
    16. Adding motion blur
    17. Review questions and answers
  9. 4 Working with Shape Layers
    1. Getting started
    2. Creating the composition
    3. Adding a shape layer
    4. Creating a self-animating shape
    5. Duplicating a shape
    6. Creating custom shapes
    7. Positioning layers with snapping
    8. Animating a shape
    9. Creating nulls from paths
    10. Previewing the composition
    11. Animating layers to match audio
    12. Review questions and answers
  10. 5 Animating a Multimedia Presentation
    1. Getting started
    2. Using Creative Cloud Libraries in After Effects
    3. Adjusting anchor points
    4. Parenting layers
    5. Precomposing layers
    6. Keyframing a motion path
    7. Animating additional elements
    8. Applying an effect
    9. About solid-color layers
    10. Animating precomposed layers
    11. Animating the background
    12. Adding an audio track
    13. Supported audio file formats
    14. Editing audio files in Adobe Audition
    15. Review questions and answers
  11. 6 Animating Layers
    1. Getting started
    2. Preparing layered Photoshop files
    3. About Photoshop layer styles
    4. Simulating lighting changes
    5. About expressions
    6. Duplicating an animation using the pick whip
    7. Animating movement in the scenery
    8. Adjusting the layers and creating a track matte
    9. About track mattes and traveling mattes
    10. Animating the shadows
    11. Adding a lens flare effect
    12. Adding a video animation
    13. Rendering the animation
    14. Retiming the composition
    15. Review questions and answers
  12. 7 Working with Masks
    1. About masks
    2. Getting started
    3. Creating a mask with the Pen tool
    4. Editing a mask
    5. About mask modes
    6. Creating a Bezier mask
    7. Feathering the edges of a mask
    8. Replacing the content of the mask
    9. Zooming and panning by touch
    10. Adding a reflection
    11. Creating a vignette
    12. Using the Rectangle and Ellipse tools
    13. Adjusting the timing
    14. Tips for creating masks
    15. Trimming the work area
    16. Review questions and answers
  13. 8 Distorting Objects with the Puppet Tools
    1. Getting started
    2. About the Puppet tools
    3. Adding Deform pins
    4. Defining areas of overlap
    5. Stiffening an area
    6. Squash and stretch
    7. Animating pin positions
    8. Recording animation
    9. Extra Credit: Act it out with Adobe Character Animator
    10. Review questions and answers
  14. 9 Using the Roto Brush Tool
    1. About rotoscoping
    2. Getting started
    3. Creating a segmentation boundary
    4. Editing Adobe Premiere Pro clips with After Effects
    5. Fine-tuning the matte
    6. Refine Soft Matte and Refine Hard Matte effects
    7. Freezing your Roto Brush tool results
    8. Changing the background
    9. Adding animated text
    10. Outputting your project
    11. Extra credit: Tracking faces
    12. Review questions and answers
  15. 10 Performing Color Correction
    1. Getting started
    2. Previewing your project on a video monitor
    3. Adjusting color balance with levels
    4. Adjusting color balance with Color Finesse 3
    5. Replacing the background
    6. Color-correcting using Auto Levels
    7. Motion tracking the clouds
    8. Replacing the sky in the second clip
    9. Color grading
    10. Extra credit: Cloning an object in a scene
    11. Review questions and answers
  16. 11 Creating Motion Graphics Templates
    1. Getting started
    2. Preparing a master composition
    3. Setting up a template
    4. Creating an image slider
    5. Fading a background image
    6. Adding text properties to the Essential Graphics panel
    7. Exporting the template
    8. Extra credit: Using a Motion Graphics template in Adobe Premiere Pro
    9. Review questions and answers
  17. 12 Using 3D Features
    1. Getting started
    2. Creating 3D text
    3. Using 3D views
    4. Importing a background
    5. Adding 3D lights
    6. Adding a camera
    7. Extruding text in After Effects
    8. Working with Cinema 4D Lite
    9. Integrating the C4D layer in After Effects
    10. Finishing the project
    11. Save multiple takes in Cinema 4D
    12. Review questions and answers
  18. 13 Working with the 3D Camera Tracker
    1. About the 3D Camera Tracker effect
    2. Getting started
    3. Repairing rolling shutter distortions
    4. Tracking the footage
    5. Creating a ground plane, a camera, and the initial text
    6. Creating realistic shadows
    7. Adding ambient light
    8. Creating additional text elements
    9. Locking a layer to a plane with a null object
    10. Animating the text
    11. Adjusting the camera’s depth of field
    12. Previewing the composition
    13. Review questions and answers
  19. 14 Advanced Editing Techniques
    1. Getting started
    2. Stabilizing a shot
    3. Bicubic scaling
    4. Warp Stabilizer VFX settings
    5. Removing motion blur
    6. Using single-point motion tracking
    7. Moving and resizing the track points
    8. Checking for drift
    9. Using multipoint tracking
    10. mocha for After Effects
    11. Creating a particle simulation
    12. Understanding Particle Systems II properties
    13. About high dynamic range (HDR) footage
    14. Review questions and answers
  20. 15 Rendering and Outputting
    1. Getting started
    2. Creating templates for the Render Queue
    3. About compression
    4. Exporting using the Render Queue
    5. Preparing movies for mobile devices
    6. Rendering movies with Adobe Media Encoder
    7. Preparing a movie for broadcast output
    8. Review questions and answers
  21. Appendix: General keyboard shortcuts
  22. Appendix: Customizing keyboard shortcuts
  23. Index
  24. Production Notes
  25. Contributors

Product information

  • Title: Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2018 release), First Edition
  • Author(s): Lisa Fridsma, Brie Gyncild
  • Release date: December 2017
  • Publisher(s): Adobe Press
  • ISBN: 9780134872537