"By showcasing a variety of artistic techniques, After Effects in Production is a natural follow-up to Creating Motion Graphics." - Steve Kilisky, Senior Product Manager, Adobe After Effects
Take your After Effects skills to a new level! Twelve step-by-step tutorials, designed by industry professionals, explore a variety of approaches as they teach useful design concepts and production tricks. The tutorials highlight the significant new features introduced in After Effects 5.0 - including 3D space, cameras, lights, parenting, and expressions. Each carefully structured project presents the "why" behind the steps, so you can adapt these techniques to your own motion graphics work. Many of the projects contain timeless concepts that can also be executed in After Effects 4.1, so that the maximum number of users can learn to master this industry-standard application.
After Effects in Production also contains six case studies of commercial projects created by award-winning studios such as ATTIK, Belief, Curious Pictures, The Diecks Group, Fido, and the authors' own studio, CyberMotion. These detail the integration of After Effects, 3D programs, live action, and a variety of animation techniques, revealing the artistic concepts behind the spots as well as the inventive techniques used to execute them. The enclosed CD contains QuickTime movies of each of the final animations, allowing you to step through them frame-by-frame so you can examine them in detail.
Topics include: · Mastering the new 3D space features, including lights, cameras, and orientation · Employing parenting, precomposing, and expressions to group layers · Refining animations with keyframe assistants, expressions, and velocity curves · Universal design concepts that can be applied to any version of After Effects
The CD-ROM contains a tryout version of Adobe After Effects 5.0 (Mac or Windows), all projects and sources, QuickTime movies of finished tutorials and case studies, and free plug-ins.
The most experienced professionals in any field are the first ones to say there is always more to learn. Often, the best way to learn is to be a fly on the wall while watching a peer. Chris and Trish Meyer have given After Effects users a unique and wonderful opportunity in
After Effects in Production, allowing us to look over the shoulders of some of the best motion-graphics designers in the business and watch and learn as they go through the creative process. Unlike the fly on the wall, though, we have the chance to occasionally put down the book and practice what's been learned.
In the tutorials section, the authors break down the process of creating broadcast-quality motion graphics into a dozen step-by-step tutorials. Each tutorial focuses on or introduces a particular feature, and often builds on features that were introduced in a previous tutorial. The enclosed CD-ROM includes all 12 project and media files (and the final rendered movies), giving the reader the chance to build the project from scratch or carefully dissect a project that's already built.
Case Studies, a far smaller section of the book (but equal in value to the rest), explores, breaks down, and dissects After Effects projects that are on the air or on the Web, including work from such studios as Belief, ATTIK, and Curious Pictures. While less step-by-step oriented, one gets the chance to learn why each project was handled the way it was, rather than how.
As an added bonus, the CD-ROM includes numerous free plug-ins from such vendors as Pinnacle, Media 100, Boris, Trapcode, and the Foundry for both Mac and Windows versions of After Effects. There's also plenty of bonus material to read and sift through in the form of PDF files--additional tutorials, tips and tricks, and project templates.
After Effects in Production is a must-have book for any user who intends to grow into a serious designer, or for the serious designer who simply intends to keep on growing. --Mike Caputo
