After Effects CS5 Digital Classroom
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  • Wiley

More About This Title After Effects CS5 Digital Classroom

English

This video and full-color book combo has quite an effect for learning After Effects CS5!

Adobe After Effects is a leading motion graphics and visual effects program that allows you to create and deliver compelling motion graphics and visual effects. This full-color book-and-video training package gets you quickly up to speed using the capabilities of the newest release of After Effects and deciphers even the most complex After Effects tasks. Sixteen self-paced lessons explain how to edit and apply effects for stellar visual and special effects. The supplementary video lessons included with the book are each approximately five minutes long and demonstrate the concepts and features covered in the lesson.

Escorts you through the basics of editing and applying motion graphics and visual effects with Adobe After Effects CS5Deciphers even the most advanced After Effects tasks and makes them less intimidatingFeatures full-color book and video tutorials with step-by-step training that complement the topics covered in each lesson of the bookEncourages you to absorb each lesson at your own pace

Jam-packed with information, this book with videos and lesson files is just like having your own personal instructor guiding you through each unique lesson.

Note: DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file. These materials are available for download upon purchase.

English

Jerron Smith is an animator, editor, and educator. He has worked with Adobe technologies for more than a decade. He teaches Web, interactive, and new media classes at American Graphics Institute.

The AGI Creative Team develops and delivers training programs for creative, marketing, and communications professionals through the American Graphics Institute.

English

Starting Up

About Digital Classroom 1

Prerequisites 1

System requirements 1

Starting Adobe After Effects CS5 2

Fonts used in this book 3

Resetting Adobe After Effects CS5 preferences 3

Loading lesson files 4

Working with the video tutorials 6

Setting up for viewing the video tutorials 6

Viewing the video tutorials 7

Additional resources 8

Lesson 1: Understanding Motion Graphics

Starting up 9

Defining motion graphics 10

Digital video basics 11

Understanding video formats 11

Understanding frame rate and resolution 13

Understanding transparency 14

Self study 15

Review 15

Lesson 2: Understanding the After Effects Interface

Starting up 17

Understanding and working with menus 18

Opening an existing After Effects project 18

Understanding the After Effects panel system 20

After Effects panels 21

Primary panels 21

Understanding the workspace 32

Viewing and hiding panels 32

Docking and undocking panels 33

Resizing panels 35

Saving a custom workspace 37

Resetting the workspace 37

Setting After Effects Preferences 38

Changing the default undo levels 39

Enable Auto-Save 39

Self study 40

Review 40

Lesson 3: Media Management—Images, Video, and Audio

Starting up 41

What is Media Management? 42

Projects, compositions, and layers: an overview 42

Creating a new project 43

Importing media files 44

Organizing the Project panel 46

Modifying the column displays 46

Creating folders and subfolders 47

Previewing footage 49

Previewing stills and video 50

Previewing audio 50

Trimming a video clip 51

Importing multiple files 54

Importing Photoshop and Illustrator files 55

Importing image sequences 58

Importing After Effects compositions 60

Locating missing files 61

Using the Interpret Footage dialog box 62

Looping an audio or video file 62

Using Remember Interpretation 63

Using the Collect Files command to consolidate files 64

Self study 66

Lesson 4: Animation Workflow

Starting up 67

Understanding the animation workflow 68

Creating and working with compositions 68

Creating a new composition 68

Understanding composition settings 70

Importing compositions from Photoshop and Illustrator 72

Working with layers 73

Understanding the layer switches 78

Understanding layer stacking order 80

Changing layer names 81

Creating Kinestasis by animating the Anchor Point 83

Animating rotation 86

Using layer parenting to ease repetition 88

Animating position 90

Understanding motion paths 95

Using layer motion blur 97

Adjusting Motion Blur settings 98

Using blending modes 100

Applying layer styles 103

Understanding nested compositions and precomposing 105

Adding nested styles 105

Pre-composing layers 108

Creating a fade-in by animating Opacity and Scale 110

Self study 111

Review 111

Lesson 5: Working with Masks, Track Mattes, and Keys

Starting up 113

Working with masks 114

Creating masks with the shape tools 117

Selecting and manipulating masks 118

Animating the position of masks 121

Creating freeform masks 125

Animating the shape of masks 132

Understanding track mattes 135

Creating track mattes 135

Creating mattes from animated Photoshop files 137

Creating a chroma key 140

Creating a garbage matte 142

Creating a chroma key 144

Refining the matte 147

Self study 150

Review 150

Lesson 6: Working with Text

Starting up 151

Creating text 152

Setting text properties globally 155

Formatting individual characters 158

Animating text properties 164

Saving an animator as a preset 169

Working with text animation presets 170

Modifying animation presets 172

Creating custom text animators 175

Creating a typewriter effect 175

Creating text on a path 178

Self study 180

Review 180

Lesson 7: Working with Audio

Starting up 181

Audio in After Effects 182

Previewing audio 183

Adding audio files to the Timeline 183

Viewing audio file metadata 186

Looping audio files 188

Animating audio levels 190

Working with audio effects 191

Using composition markers to set the beat 193

Naming composition markers 196

Refining the position of composition markers 198

Syncing animation to composition markers 199

Creating keyframes from audio files 203

Self study 207

Review 207

Lesson 8: Working with 3D in After Effects

Starting up 209

Previewing animation with RAM preview 210

Working the 3D capabilities of After Effects 211

Creating 3D layers 211

Using multiple viewports 213

Understanding 3D Transform properties 215

Understanding Material Options 216

Animating 3D layers 217

Creating and using lights 221

Understanding light options 227

Animating light properties 227

Creating and using cameras 231

Understanding camera options 234

Animating camera properties 234

Creating the depth-of-field effect 243

Creating a Rack Focus shot 245

Working with Live Photoshop 3D 248

Importing Live Photoshop 3D effects 248

Animating Photoshop 3D compositions 250

Adding a Glow and Lens Flare effect 254

Self study 257

Review 258

Lesson 9: Advanced Animation

Starting up 259

Animating with effects 260

Applying effects to layers 260

Animating effect properties 264

Saving animation presets 268

Applying and modifying effects presets 268

Time-reversing a layer 270

Using the Motion Sketch panel to capture motion 272

Controlling layer orientation 275

Using the Smoother panel to soften movement 276

Using the Wiggler panel to add frantic motion 277

Create acceleration and deceleration using Easy Easing 281

Changing spatial interpolation 281

Adding easing to keyframes 283

Using squash and stretch to enhance the animation 285

Animating with the Graph Editor 287

Create a strobing effect using hold interpolation 291

Automating animation with expressions 292

Finding expressions 293

Adding expressions to properties 293

Using the LoopOut( ) expression 294

Using the Random( ) expression 295

Using the Time property with expressions 297

Using the Wiggle( ) expression 298

Working with scripts 300

Installing and running scripts 300

Creating scripts 300

Finding additional scripts 301

Using and applying scripts 301

Self study 305

Review 305

Lesson 10: Outputting After Effects Projects

Starting up 307

Rendering files for output 308

Understanding the Render Queue 309

Adding compositions to the Render Queue 309

Adjusting render settings 311

Duplicating jobs in the Render Queue 314

Creating render templates 317

Exporting a project file 319

Trimming and cropping compositions 320

Rendering an individual frame 324

Self study 325

Review 326

Appendix A

After Effects Secondary panels 327

Appendix B

Importable media formats 335

Still images and image sequences 336

Project formats 337

Appendix C

Understanding formats and codecs. 339

Understanding bit rate 340

Understanding spatial and temporal compression 340

Appendix D

Understanding Video Displays 341

Understanding aspect ratio and pixel aspect ratio 341

Progressive display versus interlacing 343

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