Lynda.com After Effects CS5 Essential Training

Author: Chad Perkins
Duration (hr:min): 08:45
Released on: 4/30/2010
Exercise files: Yes
Software works on: Mac and Windows

In After Effects CS5 Essential Training, author Chad Perkins discusses the basic tools, effects, and need-to-know techniques in Adobe After Effects CS5, the professional standard for motion graphics, compositing, and visual effects for video. The course provides an overview of the entire workflow, from import to export, as well as detailed coverage of each stage, including animating text and artwork, adding effects to compositions, working in 3D, and rendering and compressing footage. Exercise files are included with the course.

Topics include:

• Understanding the After Effects workflow
• Precomposing footage
• Explaining the basics and beyond of animating
• Creating glows, patterns, textures, and more with effects
• Color correcting footage
• Working with text
• Manipulating video playback speed
• Masking objects and shape layers
• Removing backgrounds with keying
• Compositing multiple pieces of footage
• Integrating After Effects with the rest of the Creative Suite

Content:

1. Introduction - 05:40

    Introduction - 1:30 - 8.2 MB
    What is After Effects? - 3:12 - 13.8 MB
    How to use the exercise files - 0:58 - 0.9 MB

2. Introductory Project - 28:14

    After Effects workflow overview - 2:18 - 3.9 MB
    Bringing elements into After Effects - 2:23 - 2.6 MB
    Adding elements to the Timeline - 1:57 - 2.1 MB
    Working with layers - 3:45 - 4.4 MB
    Creating animation with presets - 3:24 - 5.2 MB
    Applying effects - 3:34 - 5.0 MB
    Creating animation without presets - 5:38 - 6.6 MB
    Previewing your work - 2:46 - 4.6 MB
    Exporting content as a movie file - 2:29 - 3.0 MB

3. Getting Started with After Effects - 27:20

    Touring the interface - 6:02 - 8.2 MB
    How After Effects projects work - 4:47 - 5.1 MB
    What is a composition? - 4:52 - 5.1 MB
    Tips for adding content to compositions - 2:49 - 3.2 MB
    Understanding the properties of video - 8:50 - 9.1 MB

4. Learning to Animate - 57:08

    Importing an Illustrator file - 4:57 - 6.0 MB
    Animation basics - 7:12 - 8.6 MB
    Animating opacity - 6:40 - 9.4 MB
    Understanding anchor points - 4:57 - 6.7 MB
    Animating position - 6:08 - 7.2 MB
    Animating rotation - 4:41 - 5.5 MB
    Animating scale - 7:19 - 11.0 MB
    Using the Puppet tool - 7:13 - 8.5 MB
    Copying and pasting keyframes - 3:04 - 4.4 MB
    Animation shortcuts - 4:57 - 7.2 MB

5. Precomposing and Nesting Compositions - 09:42

    Understanding precomposing - 6:51 - 10.3 MB
    Navigating through compositions quickly - 2:51 - 3.5 MB

6. The Power of Effects - 01:12:09

    A showcase of effects - 2:34 - 4.5 MB
    Creating a layer for effects - 3:01 - 3.3 MB
    Applying effects - 4:54 - 5.5 MB
    Animating effect properties - 4:29 - 5.8 MB
    Using Glow - 5:34 - 7.3 MB
    Creating patterns and textures - 6:57 - 12.5 MB
    Creating a fireball - 7:09 - 8.4 MB
    Using the Cycore effects - 5:58 - 10.3 MB
    Adding blur - 5:45 - 7.7 MB
    Creating a galaxy scene from scratch - 8:38 - 13.9 MB
    Distorting objects with effects - 4:07 - 4.8 MB
    Creating and using lens flares - 4:21 - 5.7 MB
    Creating lightning bolts - 4:03 - 5.5 MB
    Viewing random variations with Brainstorm - 4:39 - 6.3 MB

7. Working with Video - 30:52

    Shortening the duration of layers - 4:23 - 4.7 MB
    Trimming in the Footage panel - 4:14 - 6.1 MB
    Slowing and accelerating video speed - 7:09 - 11.2 MB
    Applying video transitions between clips - 6:07 - 9.6 MB
    Working with image sequences - 4:47 - 5.1 MB
    Importing footage with an alpha channel - 4:12 - 4.5 MB

8. Color-Correcting Footage - 36:11

    Brightening dark footage - 9:12 - 11.2 MB
    Changing colors in footage - 6:34 - 8.3 MB
    Creating cinematic color treatments - 8:17 - 11.2 MB
    Creating a quick vignette - 3:42 - 4.4 MB
    Colorizing black-and-white objects - 4:50 - 8.2 MB
    Using adjustment layers - 3:36 - 4.1 MB

9. Creating and Animating Text - 21:09

    Creating and editing text - 7:39 - 9.1 MB
    Applying text animation presets - 4:41 - 7.3 MB
    Animating text manually - 4:43 - 5.6 MB
    Applying layer styles to text - 4:06 - 4.9 MB

10. Becoming More Efficient - 28:58

    Let's get better - 0:37 - 6.9 MB
    Using work areas - 3:37 - 5.1 MB
    Creating markers - 6:17 - 7.7 MB
    Replacing layers - 2:35 - 3.5 MB
    Mastering Timeline navigation - 3:18 - 3.7 MB
    Aligning and distributing layers - 3:04 - 3.4 MB
    Selecting layers quickly - 1:56 - 2.3 MB
    Cropping layers - 3:43 - 4.6 MB
    Adjusting comp resolution - 3:51 - 4.8 MB

11. Painting - 23:53

    Using the paint tools - 9:35 - 12.0 MB
    Using the Roto Brush tool - 9:25 - 12.7 MB
    Animating growing vines - 4:53 - 5.6 MB

12. Working with Masks and Shape Layers - 40:29

    Creating and using masks - 6:42 - 8.6 MB
    Exploring mask options - 7:57 - 11.6 MB
    Creating masks with Auto-trace - 6:51 - 8.1 MB
    Masking objects with other objects - 5:33 - 15.9 MB
    Making shape layers - 3:43 - 4.7 MB
    Modifying shape layers - 9:43 - 14.1 MB

13. Working in 3D - 30:44

    Turning 2D layers into 3D layers - 9:22 - 11.2 MB
    Creating lights and cameras - 6:14 - 8.3 MB
    Creating shadows - 4:23 - 5.7 MB
    Using depth of field - 4:42 - 6.1 MB
    Working with 3D effects - 6:03 - 11.6 MB

14. Keying and Compositing - 18:10

    Removing a green screen background - 4:37 - 5.3 MB
    Refining the matte - 4:48 - 5.6 MB
    Compositing with color adjustments - 4:50 - 5.2 MB
    Compositing with blend modes - 3:55 - 7.4 MB

15. Intermediate Animation - 25:44

    Understanding spatial interpolation - 2:05 - 2.4 MB
    Creating and adjusting motion paths - 3:55 - 4.9 MB
    Orienting moving objects along a path - 1:29 - 2.0 MB
    Drawing motion with Motion Sketch - 2:51 - 3.5 MB
    Creating pauses in animation - 3:06 - 3.6 MB
    Understanding temporal interpolation - 1:56 - 2.4 MB
    Easing keyframes - 5:57 - 8.3 MB
    About the Graph Editor - 4:25 - 5.0 MB

16. Stabilizing and Tracking Motion - 17:52

    Stabilizing shaky footage - 7:46 - 11.3 MB
    Tracking the motion in footage - 4:27 - 6.5 MB
    Tracking with mocha - 5:39 - 7.0 MB

17. Parenting and Expressions - 24:58

    Setting up parent layers - 5:49 - 7.2 MB
    Working with null objects - 2:31 - 4.6 MB
    What are expressions? - 7:17 - 9.4 MB
    Modifying simple expressions - 2:20 - 3.5 MB
    Using the wiggle expression - 7:01 - 12.7 MB

18. Working with Audio - 06:52

    Understanding audio in motion graphics - 1:22 - 1.7 MB
    Previewing and mixing audio - 3:55 - 4.4 MB
    Enhancing audio tracks with effects - 1:35 - 1.7 MB

19. Rendering and Compression - 11:36

    Adding comps to the Render Queue - 2:30 - 3.1 MB
    Exploring key Render Queue settings - 4:11 - 4.4 MB
    How should I export my video? - 4:55 - 5.2 MB

20. Integration - 07:16

    Using Photoshop with After Effects - 2:10 - 3.1 MB
    Using Illustrator with After Effects - 3:02 - 4.2 MB
    Using Flash with After Effects - 2:04 - 2.2 MB

Conclusion - 00:11

    Goodbye - 0:11 - 0.1 MB