Adobe® After Effects® CC Classroom in a Book®

Adobe® After Effects® CC Classroom in a Book®

by Adobe Creative Team
Released June 2013
Publisher(s): Adobe Press
ISBN: None

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Book description

The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe After Effects CC

Classroom in a Book®, the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, offers what no other book or training program does–an official training series from Adobe Systems Incorporated, developed with the support
of Adobe product experts.

Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book contains 14 lessons that cover the basics, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you.

Purchasing this book gives you access to the downloadable lesson files you need to work through the projects in the book, and to electronic book updates covering new features that Adobe releases for Creative Cloud customers. For access, go to www.peachpit.com/redeem and redeem the unique code provided inside this book.

“The Classroom in a Book series is by far the best training material on the market. Everything you need to master the software is included: clear explanations of each lesson, step-bystep instructions, and the project files for the students.”

Barbara Binder,
Adobe Certified Instructor
Rocky Mountain Training

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. How to Get Your Lesson Files
  3. Copyright Page
  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. Accessing the Classroom in a Book files
    7. How to use these lessons
    8. Additional resources
    9. Adobe certification
  6. 1 Getting to know the Workflow
    1. Getting started
    2. Creating a project and importing footage
    3. Creating a composition and arranging layers
    4. Adding effects and modifying layer properties
    5. Animating the composition
    6. Previewing your work
    7. Optimizing performance in After Effects
    8. Rendering and exporting your composition
    9. Customizing workspaces
    10. Controlling the brightness of the user interface
    11. Finding resources for using After Effects
    12. Review questions
    13. Review 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 an animation preset
    7. Previewing the effects
    8. Adding transparency
    9. Rendering the composition
    10. Review questions
    11. Review answers
  8. 3 Animating Text
    1. Getting started
    2. About text layers
    3. Creating and formatting point text
    4. Using a text animation preset
    5. Animating with scale keyframes
    6. Animating using parenting
    7. Animating imported Photoshop text
    8. Animating text using a path animation preset
    9. Animating type tracking
    10. Animating text opacity
    11. Using a text animator group
    12. Cleaning up the path animation
    13. Animating a nontext layer along a motion path
    14. Adding motion blur
    15. Review questions
    16. Review answers
  9. 4 Working with Shape Layers
    1. Getting started
    2. Adding a shape layer
    3. Creating custom shapes
    4. Creating stars
    5. Positioning layers with snapping
    6. Incorporating video and audio layers
    7. Applying a Cartoon effect
    8. Adding a title bar
    9. Using Brainstorm to experiment
    10. Review questions
    11. Review answers
  10. 5 Animating a Multimedia Presentation
    1. Getting started
    2. Animating the scenery using parenting
    3. Adjusting an anchor point
    4. Masking video using vector shapes
    5. Keyframing a motion path
    6. Animating additional elements
    7. Applying an effect
    8. Creating an animated slide show
    9. Adding an audio track
    10. Zooming in for a final close-up
    11. Review questions
    12. Review answers
  11. 6 Animating Layers
    1. Getting started
    2. Simulating lighting changes
    3. Duplicating an animation using the pick whip
    4. Animating movement in the scenery
    5. Adjusting the layers and creating a track matte
    6. Animating the shadows
    7. Adding a lens flare effect
    8. Animating the clock
    9. Retiming the composition
    10. Review questions
    11. Review 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. Feathering the edges of a mask
    6. Replacing the content of the mask
    7. Adding a reflection
    8. Creating a vignette
    9. Adjusting the color
    10. Review questions
    11. Review 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. Animating pin positions
    7. Recording animation
    8. Review questions
    9. Review answers
  14. 9 Using the Roto Brush Tool
    1. About rotoscoping
    2. Getting started
    3. Creating a segmentation boundary
    4. Fine-tuning the matte
    5. Freezing your Roto Brush tool results
    6. Changing the background
    7. Adding animated text
    8. Outputting your project
    9. Review questions
    10. Review answers
  15. 10 Performing Color Correction
    1. Getting started
    2. Adjusting color balance
    3. Replacing the background
    4. Removing unwanted elements
    5. Correcting a range of colors
    6. Warming colors with the Photo Filter effect
    7. Review questions
    8. Review answers
  16. 11 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. Repositioning layers
    8. Adding a text layer
    9. Working with Cinema 4D Lite
    10. Creating 3D Text in Cinema 4D
    11. Review questions
    12. Review answers
  17. 12 Working with the 3D Camera Tracker
    1. About the 3D Camera Tracker effect
    2. Getting started
    3. Tracking the footage
    4. Creating a ground plane, a camera, and the initial text
    5. Creating realistic shadows
    6. Adding ambient light
    7. Creating additional text elements
    8. Locking a layer to a plane with a null object
    9. Animating the text
    10. Adjusting the camera’s depth of field
    11. Rendering the composition
    12. Review questions
    13. Review answers
  18. 13 Advanced Editing Techniques
    1. Getting started
    2. Using Warp Stabilizer VFX
    3. Using single-point motion tracking
    4. Using multipoint tracking
    5. Creating a particle simulation
    6. Retiming playback using the Timewarp effect
    7. Review questions
    8. Review answers
  19. 14 Rendering and Outputting
    1. Getting started
    2. Creating templates for the Render Queue
    3. Exporting using the Render Queue
    4. Rendering movies with Adobe Media Encoder
    5. Review questions
    6. Review answers
  20. Index
  21. Production Notes
    1. Typefaces used
    2. Team credits
  22. Contributors
  23. Lesson and Update Files

Product information

  • Title: Adobe® After Effects® CC Classroom in a Book®
  • Author(s): Adobe Creative Team
  • Release date: June 2013
  • Publisher(s): Adobe Press
  • ISBN: None