Adobe After Effects CS5: Learn by Video

Adobe After Effects CS5: Learn by Video

Released November 2010
Publisher(s): Pearson
ISBN: 9780132616430

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Video description

This innovative product from Adobe Press combines an incredible 14 hours of  high-quality HD  video training and a full-color printed reference to teach the fundamentals of After Effects CS5

Experienced instructor Angie Taylor and Adobe Technical Support Lead Todd Kopriva present the video instruction, complete with lesson files, assessment quizzes and review materials. The video is wrapped in a unique interface that allows the viewer to jump to any topic and also bookmark individual sections for later review. The unique Watch-and-Work mode shrinks the video into a small window to allow the student to work alongside in After Effects.

Project files used in the lessons allow viewers practice what they've learned, and interactive review questions help reinforce freshly gained knowledge.

Table of contents

  1. Introduction: Basic Workflow and Interface Tour
    1. Legacy Projects
    2. Missing Fonts or Footage
    3. Collecting Files
    4. Missing Effects
    5. Selecting Items and Live Update
    6. Basic Workflow and Terminology Overview
  2. Interface Tour
    1. The Project Panel and the Flowchart Panel
    2. The Composition Panel and the Layer Panel
    3. The Timeline Panel
    4. The Preview Panel
    5. The Effect Controls Panel and the Effects & Presets Panel
    6. The Tools Panel
    7. Colors, Channels, and Color Bit Depth
  3. After Effects Jumpstart
    1. Creating a Cityscape in 3D
    2. Lip-Syncing Animation with Expressions
    3. Animating Characters with the Puppet Tools
    4. Character Animation with the Paint Tools
    5. Leaving One Color or Changing One Color in a Movie
    6. Creating a Trail of Echoes Behind a Moving Subject
    7. Converting a Movie to Look Like a Cartoon
    8. Removing a Logo from a Moving Image
  4. Setup: Memory, Hardware, and Preferences
    1. Modifying Preferences and Keyboard Shortcuts
    2. Configuring the User Interface
    3. Setting Up After Effects for Optimum Performance with 64-Bit Systems
  5. Creating Compositions and Layers
    1. Creating Compositions and Changing Composition Settings
    2. Creating and Formatting Text in the Character Panel
    3. Controlling Blocks of Text with the Paragraph Panel
    4. Working with Shape Layers
    5. When to Use Solid Layers
  6. Importing, Interpreting, and Managing Footage
    1. Importing Movies
    2. Supported Import Formats and Codecs
    3. Importing Still Images and Image Sequences
    4. Importing Photoshop and Illustrator Files
    5. Importing Projects
  7. Interpreting and Managing Footage
    1. Interpreting Footage Manually and Automatically
    2. Fields and Interlacing
    3. Pixel Aspect Ratios
    4. Trimming Footage and Layers
  8. Basic Animation
    1. Introduction to Animation Terminology
    2. The Five Transform Properties
    3. Working with Motion Paths
    4. Using Motion Sketch to Record Motion
  9. Panning and Zooming
    1. Optimizing After Effects for Easy Animation
    2. Animating in the Layer Panel
    3. Introduction to the Graph Editor
    4. Cool Tricks with the Graph Editor
    5. Saving and Applying Animation Presets
    6. Using the Align Panel for Animation
  10. Animating Effect Properties
    1. Animating Effects
    2. Working with Layer Styles
    3. Applying Basic Expressions
  11. Text and Shape Animation
    1. Applying and Editing Text Animators
    2. Adding Properties to Preset Animators
    3. Working with Imported Text
    4. Applying Multiple Animators
    5. Modifying Preset Text Animators
    6. Building Custom Preset Animators
  12. Animating Shape Layers
    1. Understanding Shape Categories
    2. Animating Shape Layer Properties
  13. Basic Compositing
    1. Alpha Channels and Transparency
    2. Isolating a Subject with a Mask
    3. Track Mattes and Preserving Underlying Transparency
    4. Color Keying
    5. Isolating a Subject with Roto Brush
    6. Motion Tracking and Rotoscoping
    7. Removing an Object with Clone Stamp
    8. Blending Layers with Blending Modes
  14. Effects
    1. Understanding Effect Categories
    2. Understanding Effect Properties (Turbulent Noise)
    3. Creating Cool Effects with Turbulent Noise
    4. Using Compound Effects
    5. Understanding Distortion Effects
    6. Color Correction Tools
    7. Perspective Effects
    8. Using Layer Styles
    9. Effect Presets
    10. Looping Effect Properties and Presets
    11. Brainstorming
    12. Adding Adjustment Layers
  15. Time
    1. Frame Rates
    2. Frame Blending
    3. Time-Stretching and Time-Remapping
    4. Slowing Motion, Freezing a Frame, and Reversing Time
  16. Grouping and Linking
    1. Nesting
    2. Pre-Composing
    3. Changing Render Order
    4. Collapsing Transformations
    5. Parenting
    6. Nulls
    7. Expressions
  17. Introduction to 3D
    1. 3D Layers and Axis Modes
    2. Working with the 3D Tools and Interface
    3. Manipulating 3D Layers
    4. Auto-Orienting in 3D
    5. Cameras and Nulls
    6. Lights and Material Options
    7. 3D Text
  18. Render Order and Troubleshooting
    1. Standard Render Order and the Transform Effect
    2. Collapsing Transformations
    3. 3D Layer Interactions, Shadows, and What Breaks Them
    4. Removing Seams with Alpha Add
  19. Output Options
    1. Rendering and Exporting with the Render Queue
    2. Exporting to Flash Player or Flash Professional
    3. Exporting with Adobe Media Encoder
    4. Using Output Templates
    5. Color Management

Product information

  • Title: Adobe After Effects CS5: Learn by Video
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: November 2010
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 9780132616430