Creative After Effects 7: Workflow Techniques for Animation, Visual Effects and Motion Graphics (Paperback)

Description

Realize your creative potential with a working knowledge of After Effects 7. Renowned artist and designer Angie Taylor demonstrates professional workflows and inspires with practical tutorial lessons that help put the theory (and you!) to work. You'll learn from a comprehensive survey of the new interface and features, with illustrated techniques for animation, visual effects and motion graphics. Practice exercises to reinforce essential techniques, and continuous projects challenge you with fantastically creative uses of the application. The companion DVD includes everything you'll need to complete the tutorials as well as an array of bonus plug-ins and demo software.

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 01 - Interface synopsis before you start understanding the interface tip of the day the project panel importing files customizing your workspace working with panels and frames viewer panels customising workspaces keyboard shortcuts deleting workspaces assigning new shortcuts recap Inspiration - Jerry Ibotson, Media Mill, UK Chapter 02 - Basics synopsis basic compositing composition settings project settings the composition viewer panel the timeline adding footage to your comp using audio as a guide editing footage working with layers five basic properties keeping things tidy importing files as comps basic animation keyframes keyframing properties navigating through time layer switches RAM Previewing purging RAM animating multiple properties editing keyframes adding/removing single keyframes editing single keyframes adding/removing all keyframes selecting property keyframes opening up individual properties fine tuning animation basic keyframe interpolation quality settings copying/pasting keyframes continuous rasterization wireframe preview region of interest keyframe assistants replacing footage in the timeline applying effects adjusting effect properties combining multiple effects blending modes rendering movies archiving projects recap inspiration Steve Caplin; Photo monatge artist and Author, UK Chapter 03 - workflow synopsis your mission . . . inspiration the brief storyboards seattle evening news the design process the storyboard pop art – design and music from the 1960s the brief the design process the storyboard macdonna video the brief the design process the storyboard recap inspiration - Angie Taylor, Animator, Designer, Author and Demo Artist, UK Chapter 04 - Import synopsis importing Photoshop compositions layers channels file information ready-made comps properties and switches blending modes adjustment layers effects layer styles & layer effects scrubbable hot text saving presets applying presets deleting presets searching for effects and presets editable text layer sets nested compositions Importing illustrator compositions Importing paths and masks converting merged footage to a layered comp importing image sequences Importing audio files sequencing layers importing folders creating comps from selected layers importing from editing applications Mac Only - importing from Final Cut Pro PC only - importing adobe Premiere Pro compositions fixing broken links replacing footage in the timeline slide edit adobe bridge the bridge interface technical considerations video formats frame rates time display styles frames timecode NTSC PAL HD feet and frames more about frame rates recap 3:2 pulldown resolution issues frame aspect ratio pixel aspect ratio PAL NTSC recap Widescreen and HD issues true widescreen letterboxing simulcasting centre cut-out 14:9 compromise working in widescreen fields and interlacing recap compression and codecs recap bitmap versus vector bitmap images vector images continuously rasterize recap importing multiple projects template projects recap inspiration - Elaine Axten - preformance artist, animator and designer, UK Chapter 05 - animation rules of animation animation types straight ahead animation pose to pose animation auto-orientation adjusting motion paths spatial keyframes linear keyframes arc auto bezier keyframes continuous bezier keyframes timing the graph editor speed graph roving keyframes continuous bezier retiming a keyframed animation value graph squash and stretch exaggeration pan and zoom panning anchor point copying and pasting paths into effect properties 2D zooming basic expressions exponential scale the smoother animating rotation animating with the pen tool more animation rules staging (setting the scene) anticipation motivation secondary action sound effects overlap and follow through motion sketch recap Inspiration - Joan Armatrading, Singer, Songwriter, Musician, UK chapter 06 - compositing synopsis channels experiment channel effects mattes minimax alpha channels straight alpha premultiplied alpha Remove color matting Luminescent premultiplied masks seattle evening news solids drawing masks in the comp panel in the layer panel mask modes nesting collapsing transformations editing nested comps using rulers and guides the pen tool drawing straight lines drawing curves adjusting Bezier curves adjusting mask properties rotobezier masks auto trace the work area Smart Mask interpolation – pro only Interpolating complex shapes more SMI settings first vertices blending modes normal dissolve dancing dissolve add multiply screen overlay soft light hard light linear Light vivid Light pin Light hard Mix color dodge color burn darken lighten difference exclusion hue saturation color luminosity stencil alpha stencil luma silhouette Alpha and silhouette Luma alpha add luminescent premultiply basic keying preparation third party solutions formats standard version keying the color range effect levels color range settings shift channels professional version keying recap inspiration - Robert Hranitzky, filmmaker, Germany Chapter 06 - grouping synopsis nesting pre-composing the flowchart panel other uses for pre-composing parental hierarchy basic parenting hierarchies a parallax trick uses for parental hierarchy grouping layers hierarchal motion animation working with null objects give the parents some time off advanced parenting 3D taster character animation recap inspiration - David Keone, designer for Canto Five Design, Holland Chapter 08 - time fx synopsis tricks with timing time stretching frame blending 1 – frame mix slowing things down time remapping freeze-frames time remap value graph auto-editing layer markers toggle hold keyframes improving dancing skills frame blending 2 - pixel motion practice session time effects Time warp (Pro only) easy ease button posterize time recap inspiration - Bill Byrne Professor of Motion Graphics and Digital Filmmaking, USA Chapter 09 - effects Synopsis color treatment effects - without filters speeding up workflows RAM Previewing options pre-rendering proxies using effects on proxies color treatment effects - with filters colorama saving effect settings time effects echo combining filters channel blur glowing effects glow set matte blending mode alternative glow combination set matte color balance fast blur blending modes animation presets preset basics not so simple looking Further applying individual properties from presets effects as well as presets... sort it out conclusion recap free plug-ins Inspiration Joost vanderhoeven - animator, designer, filmmaker, Holland chapter 09 - text Synopsis fonts animating range selectors adding multiple properties working with multiple animators other types of selector wiggly selector adding effects to text animating effects animating animator properties saving text presets re-applying text presets bonus trick browsing presets with bridge customising presets more text features text on a path messing around with fonts creating outlines fun effects for text scribble stroke track mattes Recap inspiration - Birgitta hosea, animator, designer, Animation course diector, St. Martins Art College, London Chapter 11 - 3D synopsis 3D in after effects 3D layers 3D effects 3D workspace layer quality and resolution making a layer 3D adjusting 3D position 3D views customizing 3D views camera tools resetting custom views orthogonal views multiple views 2D and 3D layer order adjusting 3D rotation orientation rotation 3D render plug-ins axis modes local axis mode world axis mode view axis mode camera basics guide layers OpenGL camera settings point of interest 3D assistants animating cameras adjusting multiple keyframes auto-orienting cameras camera techniques orbital camera move precoming 3D layers technique 1 – aperture change Using Camera tools to animate cameras technique 2 – push in technique 3 – rack focus lighting basics light types ambient parallel point spot lighting a scene light options panel lighting scheme one – basic draft 3D mode casting shadows material attributes lighting scheme two – stained glass more material options lighting scheme three – disco lights depth of field Recap inspiration - Rachel Max, freelance broadcast designer and animator, USA Chapter 12 - paint synopsis paint basics the paintbrush tool the eraser tool animating paint basic character animation drawing straight lines rulers and grids animated handwriting retiming animation scribble and auto-trace matte painting the Clone tool scratch removal extending existing footage precomposing clone presets clone source overlay the eraser tool time offset advanced cloning motion tracking – pro only applying tracking data recap Inspiration - John Williams, Director, filmmaker, UK Chapter 13 - expressions Synopsis what are expressions? when to use them how to learn adding expressions expression switches default expression language and syntax operators words math symbols disabling expressions enable expression switch deleting an expression linking properties expression shortcut using the pick whip basic arithmetic taking values from other layers more arithmetic properties and dimensions using 2D properties to control 1D properties using 1D properties to control 2D properties variables test your knowledge fun and games character animation reveal expression shortcut convert audio to keyframes assistant linear & ease expressions expression language menu lip synching advanced expressions advanced arithmetic different approach. wiggle variable wiggle expression Controls Looping keyframes more looping animations basic motion capture handwriting controlling other properties Recap inspiration - Lucy Tom -Treehouse, Storyboard artists chapter 14 - output rendering your movie third party codecs render settings making templates output modules naming files rendering multiple items exporting alpha channels other output options image sequences filmstrip files adobe media encoder the export menu export to Premiere Pro (Windows only) export to flash video export to SWF network rendering open GL rendering recap inspiration - madeleine duba, Czech-Swiss award-winning filmmaker based in London, UK