After Effects apprentice : real-world skills for the aspiring motion graphics artist

After Effects Apprentice......Page 2
Copyright Page......Page 3
Table of Contents......Page 4
Introduction......Page 10
Getting Started......Page 11
Pre-Roll: Exploring the After Effects landscape......Page 14
Application window 
......Page 15
Project panel......Page 16
Importing footage
......Page 17
Composition panel......Page 18
Timeline panel......Page 19
Layer panel......Page 20
Other Panels......Page 21
Managing Workspaces......Page 23
Adobe Bridge......Page 25
Lesson 1 – Basic Animation: Building your first animation while you learn a typical After Effects workflow......Page 27
Starting a project
......Page 29
Importing footage
......Page 30
Managing the comp view
......Page 31
Building a comp
......Page 32
Animating position
......Page 34
Adding a background layer......Page 35
Adding a middle layer
......Page 36
Crafting a motion path
......Page 37
Spatial keyframe types
......Page 38
Animating Opacity, Scale, and Rotation......Page 39
Arranging and replacing layers......Page 41
Quick effects
......Page 43
Rendering
......Page 45
Idea corner
......Page 46
importing layered Photoshop and Illustrator files......Page 47
keyframe basics......Page 49
Work Area......Page 50
Anchor Point 101
......Page 51
Pan Behind tool......Page 52
Faux motion control
......Page 53
Graph Editor......Page 55
Panning and zooming time
......Page 57
Editing graphs
......Page 58
Coordinating keyframes
......Page 60
Separate Dimensions......Page 61
Float like a butterfly
......Page 65
Smoother......Page 66
Auto-Orient......Page 67
Motion Blur......Page 68
Roving Keyframes......Page 69
Hold keyframes......Page 71
Tech corner: time display and timecode
......Page 73
Working with layers
......Page 75
Moving layers in time
......Page 76
Trimming layers
......Page 77
Trimming in other panels
......Page 78
Slip edit
......Page 79
Sequence Layers......Page 80
Looping footage
......Page 82
Image sequences
......Page 83
Blending Modes......Page 85
Effects, solids, and modes......Page 87
Effect motion path
......Page 88
Deeper into effects
......Page 90
Saving Animation Presets
......Page 91
Layer Styles......Page 95
Adjustment Layers......Page 97
Applying a filmic glow
......Page 98
Tech corner: non-square pixels
......Page 99
Lesson 4 – Creating Transparency: Using masks, mattes, and stencils to cut out portions of a layer......Page 101
Masking
......Page 103
Animating a mask path
......Page 107
Creating a vignette
......Page 108
Masking with the Pen tool
......Page 109
Editing the path
......Page 110
How mask paths interpolate
......Page 111
Mask paths and effects
......Page 112
Multiple mask madness
......Page 113
Mask Opacity......Page 114
RotoBezier mask paths
......Page 115
Audio Spectrum effect......Page 116
Using track mattes
......Page 117
Nesting with track mattes
......Page 119
Luma Track Matte......Page 121
Animated track matte
......Page 122
Stencils
......Page 123
Effects with track mattes and stencils......Page 126
Lesson 5 – Type and Music: Animating text and working with music are essential to motion graphics design......Page 127
Text basics
......Page 128
Text animators
......Page 130
Creating cascading text
......Page 134
Adjusting the Anchor Point
......Page 136
One word at a time
......Page 137
Safe areas
......Page 138
Flowing text
......Page 139
Text on a curve
......Page 140
Per-character 3D
......Page 141
Separating fields
......Page 145
The Wiggly Selector
......Page 146
Rendering with an alpha channel
......Page 147
Rendering with fields
......Page 148
Just add sound
......Page 149
Text Animation Presets
......Page 151
Saving text animations
......Page 153
Editing Photoshop Text layers
......Page 154
Approaches to grouping
......Page 155
Parenting
......Page 157
Parenting with nulls
......Page 159
Nesting a gorup of layers
......Page 161
Editing the precomps
......Page 163
Navigating composition hierarchies
......Page 165
Nesting a common source
......Page 166
Precomposing a group
......Page 171
Precomposing a single layer
......Page 173
Render order
......Page 175
Using precomposing to re-order......Page 177
Render order exceptions
......Page 179
Lesson 7 – Expressions and Time Games: Using expressions and playing with time......Page 181
Pick whip
......Page 183
Going for a loop
......Page 189
Expression tips
......Page 190
Wiggle expression
......Page 191
Expressions and effects
......Page 192
Master controller
......Page 193
Driven by sound
......Page 194
Frame blending
......Page 195
Pixel Motion......Page 196
Stop motion tricks
......Page 197
Time Remapping......Page 199
Quizzler
......Page 204
Lesson 8 – 3D Space: Adding a new dimension to your animations......Page 205
Multiplaning......Page 209
3D animation
......Page 211
Editing in multiple views
......Page 212
The 3D camera
......Page 213
Using the camera tools
......Page 214
Moving the camera
......Page 215
Cameras and Auto Orientation......Page 217
3D lights......Page 219
Casting shadows
......Page 221
OpenGL and Fast Previews......Page 223
Vanishing Point Exchange......Page 225
Photoshop 3D Layers......Page 227
Dimensional stills
......Page 229
Cutting up stills
......Page 231
Lesson 9 – Track and Key: Tackling several essential skills for creating special effects......Page 233
Track points
......Page 235
Performing the track
......Page 236
Applying stabilization
......Page 237
Basic tracking
......Page 239
Applying the track
......Page 240
Tracking for effects
......Page 241
perspective corner pin tracking......Page 244
Background replacement
......Page 247
Tech corner: working with high-definition footage
......Page 250
Keylight......Page 251
Creating a garbage matte
......Page 253
Lesson 10 – Paint and Puppet: Exploring Paint, the Puppet Tools, and Brainstorm......Page 255
Paint basics
......Page 256
Erasing strokes
......Page 258
Painting to reveal
......Page 261
Using the clone stamp tool
......Page 264
Idea corner
......Page 266
The puppet tool
......Page 267
Animating Pins
......Page 268
Puppet Overlap tool......Page 269
Recording Puppet Animation......Page 270
Brainstorm......Page 271
Brainstormed keyframes
......Page 273
Your cartoon brain
......Page 274
Lesson 11 – Shape Layers: Creating and animating vector-based shapes......Page 275
Edit a shape
......Page 276
Multiple shapes
......Page 277
Shape Effects......Page 279
The repeater
......Page 281
Compound Paths......Page 283
Crosshairs
......Page 285
Abstract imagery
......Page 287
Stroked paths
......Page 289
Animating the stroke
......Page 291
Brainstormed shapes......Page 292
Lesson 12 – Final Project: Using 3D space plus effects to create a show's opening title......Page 293
creating elements
......Page 294
Creating the radar comp
......Page 295
Creating the Skater comp......Page 297
Creating the dial comp
......Page 300
Using the stroke effect
......Page 301
Animating the dials
......Page 303
Creating Main Comp 1
......Page 304
Adding the spinning radar
......Page 305
Adding the grid floor
......Page 306
Adding the skater video panel......Page 307
Creating the skater's reflection
......Page 308
Adding the dial
......Page 310
Crafting the camera move
......Page 311
Creating and animating a title
......Page 313
Adding a light and shadows
......Page 315
final tweaks......Page 316
Finish off the Main Comp 2
......Page 317
Putting it all together
......Page 319
Client idea corner
......Page 320
Appendix – Rendering
......Page 321
Resources......Page 329
A......Page 330
D......Page 331
I......Page 332
L......Page 333
P......Page 334
S......Page 335
Z......Page 336