Adobe After Effects CS5 Digital Classroom

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.

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