After Effects 5.5 Magic

Mark Christiansen is a San Francisco based artist/animator and a Contributing Editor for DV Magazine; he began using After Effects in the art department at LucasArts Entertainment Company when it was still a product of CoSA. Recent clients include ABC-TV (with The Orphanage) and Medtronic; while at LucasArts, Mark was the Lead Artist of Behind the Magic which Entertainment Weekly named its number one choice for 1998; he also pioneered the use of full motion video in Rebel Assault II, for which he created over 40 minutes of composited footage, as well as a set of film trailers. He has written over three dozen articles and features for DV Magazine and other publications and has spoken at NAB, GDC and Develop! UK. This is his first book.

Introduction.


1. Cel-Style Animation Tricks.


2. Algorithmic Video Distortion.


3. SWF Export from After Effects.


4. Green-Screen Compositing and Other Keying Techniques.


5. Adding a Realistic Touch to a Composite.


6. Animating Layers from Photoshop and Illustrator.


7. Logo Animation with 3D.


8. 3D Images and 3D Layers.


9. Building Virtual Sets.


10. Motion Graphics-The Next Level.


11. 3D Match Moves Using 2D Tracking.


12. Elementary Expressions.


13. Using Arrays, Math, and Loops in Expressions.


14. Randomization with Expressions.


15. Animating Without Keyframes.


16. How to Draw with Spirograph!


17. Synchronizing Motion with Audio.


Appendix A. What's on the CD.


Index.
 

Appendixes on the CD-ROM.
Appendix B. The Digital Motion Design Studio.Appendix C. The NTSC DV Video Standard and QuickTime.Appendix D. Expressions Explained.Appendix E. Difference Mattes.Appendix F. No Budget? Build a Do-It-Yourself Green Screen!