Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects

by Ben Goldsmith
Released July 2022
Publisher(s): Rocky Nook
ISBN: 9781681988672

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Book description

Adobe After Effects: A Complete Course and Compendium of Features is your guide to editing and enhancing videos in Adobe After Effects. Whether you’re animating text or objects, changing a scene’s setting, or creating a 3D scene, After Effects is the tool for you—and this book will teach you what you need to know.

First, with a complete Course that includes a set of projects and lessons derived from video editor and Adobe Certified Instructor Ben Goldsmith, you will learn the procedures needed to use After Effects effectively and professionally. Dozens of exercises are included that can be applied to any videos you have in mind. Through step-by-step lessons, you’ll be exposed to all of After Effects’ features in practical contexts and its best practices for optimal workflows. To complete the Course, we’ll supply lesson documents and their assets to download, so you can work alongside the text.

Then, for greater depth of knowledge and subsequent reference, you’ll use the Compendium to uncover more of the “how” and “why” of After Effects. With each topic easy to access, you can find and explore all of Premiere Pro’s key features and concepts in depth. With cross-references between the Course and Compendium, the two parts of the book complement each other perfectly. Best of all, when the lessons in the Course are done, the Compendium will continue to serve for months and years to come.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
    1. About the Author
      1. Acknowledgments
    2. Introduction
      1. Software and Files
        1. A Note Regarding Keyboard Shortcuts
    3. 1 Layout and Basic Animation
      1. Project Organization
        1. Folder Structure
      2. Setting Up the After Effects Project
        1. Create a New Project
        2. Import Assets
      3. The Composition Panel
        1. Configure the Comp Panel to Your Liking
      4. Layout in the Comp Window
        1. Changing an Object’s Position
        2. Changing an Object’s Scale
        3. Changing an Object’s Rotation
        4. Changing an Object’s Anchor Point
      5. Transform Controls in the Timeline
        1. Configuring the Timeline
        2. Transform Controls
        3. PARTS
        4. Zoom In and Out of the Timeline
      6. Keyframe Animation
        1. Prepping for Animation
        2. Animating Position
        3. It’s Playback Time
        4. Configuring Playback
        5. The Preview Panel
        6. Work Area
        7. Adding a Pause in Animation
        8. Editing Keyframes
      7. Adding Finesse
        1. Curved Position Paths
        2. Add Rotation
        3. Trimming Clips
    4. 2 Advanced Animation, Parenting & Text
      1. Set Up the Project
        1. Import the Asset
        2. Open the Composition
        3. Composition Settings
      2. Null Objects
        1. Create a Null Object
      3. Parenting
        1. Parent with Pickwhipping
        2. Scale the Null
      4. Continuous Rasterization
        1. Enable Continuous Rasterization
      5. Animating Scale
        1. Don’t Forget to Set Your Anchor Point
        2. Scale in the Timeline
      6. Eased Animation
        1. Easy Ease
      7. Keyframe Velocity
        1. The Graph Editor
        2. Adjusting Keyframe Velocity
      8. Editing Graphs
        1. Graph Bezier Curves
      9. Finalize the Animation
        1. More Parenting
        2. Reusing Animation
      10. Adding Text
        1. Creating a Text Layer
        2. Editing Text
        3. Text on a Path
      11. Animating Text
        1. The Effects & Presets Panel
        2. Retiming, Again
        3. Trim the Comp
      12. Exporting
        1. Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue
    5. 3 Shape Layers & Effects
      1. Set Up the Project
        1. Creating a New Composition from Scratch
      2. Creating an Emoji
        1. Create an Ellipse Shape
        2. Change a Shape’s Fill
        3. Gradient Fill
        4. Change a Shape’s Stroke
        5. Rename Your Stuff
        6. Add More Shapes
        7. Add a Custom Shape
        8. Stroke Settings
      3. Organizing Shape Layers
        1. Grouping Shapes
      4. Animating an Emoji
        1. Using Markers
        2. Animate the Face Group
        3. Animate the Eyebrows
        4. Animate the Mouth
        5. Finesse the Animation
      5. Shape Effects
        1. Create a New Shape Layer
        2. Adding a Second Stroke
        3. Stroke Taper
        4. Trim Paths
        5. Stylize It With an Effect
      6. Motion Blur
        1. Enable Motion Blur
        2. Optimizing Playback
      7. Exporting
        1. Adobe Media Encoder Caveats
        2. Exporting with Render Queue
    6. 4 Masking, Matting & Precomps
      1. Set Up the Project
      2. Masking
        1. Create a Mask
        2. Editing a Mask
        3. Mask Options
        4. The Mask Feather Tool
      3. Mattes
        1. Creating a Matte
      4. Precomposing
        1. Set Up the Precomp
        2. Working with Precomps
      5. Animate It
        1. Animating a Mask
        2. Animating an Effect
        3. Timing Within a Precomp
        4. Retiming
        5. Moving On
    7. 5 3D, Character Animation & Expressions
      1. Set Up the Project
        1. What Is (and Isn’t) 3D
        2. Some Quick Parenting
      2. 3D
        1. Convert a Layer to a 3D Layer
        2. The Gizmo
        3. 3D Views
        4. Arranging 3D Layers
      3. Cameras
        1. Creating a Camera
        2. Animating the Camera
        3. Depth of Field
      4. Character Animation
        1. Setting Up the Puppet Tool
      5. Expressions
        1. Enable Expressions
        2. Add a Wiggle Expression
        3. Advanced Parenting
    8. 6 Motion Tracking & Compositing
      1. Set Up the Project
      2. The Footage Panel
        1. Open a Clip in the Footage Panel
      3. Motion Tracking with Mocha
        1. Open the Mocha AE Effect
        2. Tracking a Flat Object
        3. Apply the Track
      4. Rotoscoping with the Roto Brush
        1. First, a Little Setting Up
        2. Using the Roto Brush
        3. Now, Propagate!
        4. Freeze!
      5. A Few Final Tweaks
        1. Mask the Phone Screen
        2. Compositing
        3. What’s Next?
    9. 1 The Interface & Editing
      1. Before You Get Started
        1. Organizing Your Files
      2. The Interface
        1. Workspaces
        2. Resizing and Rearranging Panels
      3. Panels and Custom Workspaces
        1. Align Panel
        2. Audio Panel
        3. Brushes Panel
        4. Character Panel
        5. Content-Aware Fill Panel
        6. Effects & Presets Panel
        7. Essential Graphics Panel
        8. Info Panel
        9. Learn Panel
        10. Libraries Panel
        11. Lumetri Scopes Panel
        12. Mask Interpolation Panel
        13. Media Browser Panel
        14. Metadata Panel
        15. Motion Sketch Panel
        16. Paint Panel
        17. Paragraph Panel
        18. Preview Panel
        19. Progress Panel
        20. Properties Panel
        21. Review with Frame.io Panel
        22. Smoother Panel
        23. Toolbar
        24. Tracker Panel
        25. Wiggler Panel
        26. Effect Controls Panel
        27. Flowchart Panel
      4. The Project Panel
        1. Importing Files
        2. Asset Options
        3. Project Settings
      5. The Footage Panel
        1. Common Interface Tools
        2. Playback in the Footage Panel
        3. Setting In and Out Points
        4. Timecode
        5. Adding Footage to a Composition
      6. Creating a Composition
        1. Frame Size and Frame Rate
        2. Create a Composition from Scratch
        3. Create a Composition from File
        4. Composition Settings
      7. The Composition Panel
        1. Composition Panel Interface Tools
      8. The Timeline Panel
        1. Toggle Track Visibility, Mute, Solo, and Lock
        2. Labels
        3. Layers
        4. The Switches
        5. Parent & Link
        6. Expand/Collapse Other Panes
        7. Comp Search Bar
        8. Timeline Buttons
        9. Work Area
      9. Editing
        1. Retiming Clips
        2. Changing Clip Speed
        3. Scene Edit Detection
      10. Playback
        1. The Preview Panel
      11. The Layer Panel
        1. The Layer Panel Interface
      12. Pre-Composing
        1. Creating a Precomp
        2. Navigating Precomps
      13. Rendering and Encoding
        1. What’s the Difference?
        2. Render with the Render Queue
        3. Encode with Adobe Media Encoder
    10. 2 Animation
      1. Transforming in the Composition Panel
        1. The Tools Panel
        2. Anchor Points
      2. Transforming in the Timeline Panel
        1. Transform Properties
        2. Quickly Accessing Transforms
      3. Keyframing
        1. Enabling Keyframes
        2. Basic Keyframe Editing
        3. Keyframe Labels
      4. Fancy Keyframe Interpolation
        1. Easy Ease
        2. Keyframe Velocity
        3. Hold Keyframes
      5. The Graph Editor
        1. The Graph Editor Interface
        2. Editing Graphs
        3. Keyframe Interpolation
        4. Scale Graphs
      6. Spatial Interpolation
        1. Position Keyframes in the Comp Panel
        2. Position Keyframes in the Graph Editor
        3. Rove Across Time
        4. Auto-Orient
      7. Parenting
        1. Setting Up Parent/Child Relationships
        2. Null Objects
    11. 3 Text
      1. The Type Tool
        1. Point Text
        2. Paragraph Text
        3. The Vertical Type Tool
      2. The Character Panel
        1. Font
        2. Font Style
        3. Fill and Stroke
        4. Font Size
        5. Leading
        6. Kerning
        7. Tracking
        8. Vertical and Horizontal Scale
        9. Baseline Shift
        10. Tsume
        11. Faux Bold and Faux Italic
        12. All Caps
        13. Small Caps
        14. Superscript and Subscript
        15. Ligatures
        16. Hindi Digits
      3. The Paragraph Panel
        1. Alignment
        2. Justification
        3. Indent Left/Right Margins
        4. Add Space Before/After Paragraph
        5. Indent First Line
        6. Text Direction
      4. Keyframe Source Text
        1. Source Text Can…
        2. Source Text Cannot…
      5. Text Animation Presets
        1. Browsing Text Animation Presets
        2. Applying a Text Preset
      6. Creating Your Own Text Animation
        1. Create an Animator
        2. Edit the Animator
        3. Manipulate the Range Selector
        4. Advanced Range Selector Options
        5. Wiggly Selector
        6. Expression Selector
      7. Text Along a Path
        1. Create a Path
        2. Putting Text on the Path
        3. Path Options
    12. 4 Shapes, Masks & Mattes
      1. Creating Shape Layers
        1. Creating Shapes with the Shape Tool
        2. Creating Shapes with the Pen Tool
        3. Editing Bezier Paths
        4. Convert a Shape to a Bezier Path
        5. Convert an Illustrator File to a Shape Layer
        6. Rotobezier
      2. Editing Shape Layers
        1. Edit a Shape’s Fill
        2. Editing a Shape’s Stroke
        3. Transform
      3. Organizing Shape Layers
        1. Adding a Shape to a Shape Layer
        2. Grouping Shapes
        3. Adding More Stuff to a Shape
      4. Shape Effects
        1. Merge Paths
        2. Offset Paths
        3. Pucker and Bloat
        4. Repeater
        5. Round Corners
        6. Trim Paths
        7. Twist
        8. Wiggle Paths
        9. Wiggle Transform
        10. Zig Zag
      5. Masks
        1. Creating a Mask
        2. Editing a Mask
        3. The Mask Feather Tool
        4. Animating a Mask
      6. Mattes
        1. Setting a Matte
        2. The Set Matte Effect
        3. Preserve Underlying Transparency
      7. Blend Modes
        1. Blend Mode Categories
        2. Normal Modes
        3. Darkening Modes
        4. Lightening Modes
        5. Contrast Modes
        6. Arithmetic Modes
        7. Component Modes
        8. Stencil Modes
        9. Utility Modes
      8. Additional Helpful Stuff
        1. Preferences
        2. Plug-Ins
    13. 5 Effects
      1. Working with Effects
        1. The Effect Controls Panel
        2. Keyframing Effects
        3. Adjustment Layers
        4. Masking Effects
      2. All the Effects!
        1. 3D Channel
        2. Audio
        3. Blur
        4. Boris FX Mocha
        5. Channel
        6. Cinema 4D
        7. Color Correction
        8. Lumetri Color
        9. Distort
        10. Expression Controls
        11. Generate
        12. Immersive Video
        13. Keying
        14. Matte
        15. Noise and Grain
        16. Obsolete
        17. Perspective
        18. Simulation
        19. Stylize
        20. Text
        21. Time
        22. Transitions
        23. Utility
      3. Layer Styles
        1. Applying a Layer Style
        2. Drop Shadow
        3. Inner Shadow
        4. Outer Glow
        5. Inner Glow
        6. Bevel and Emboss
        7. Satin
        8. Color Overlay
        9. Gradient Overlay
        10. Stroke
    14. 6 3D
      1. 3D Basics
        1. 3D Position
        2. 3D Orientation and Rotation
        3. Scaling
        4. Gizmo Options
        5. Interactions with 2D Layers
      2. The 3D Interface
        1. Draft 3D
        2. Change Renderer
        3. View Options
        4. Multiple Views
      3. Cameras
        1. Create a Camera
        2. Moving the Camera
        3. Camera Options
      4. Lights
        1. Creating a Light
        2. Common Light Attributes
        3. Shadows
        4. Materials
      5. The Cinema 4D Renderer
        1. Cinema 4D’s Limitations
        2. Reflections
        3. Geometry Options
        4. Render Quality
      6. Going Further with 3D
        1. Cinema 4D Lite
        2. Element 3D
    15. 7 Special Tools & Features
      1. The Roto Brush Tool
        1. Selecting the Subject
        2. View Options
        3. Propagating
        4. Freeze and Unfreeze
        5. Roto Brush Refinement
      2. Paint Tools
        1. The Brush Tool
        2. The Clone Stamp Tool
        3. The Eraser Tool
      3. Content-Aware Fill
        1. Choose What to Replace
        2. The Content-Aware Fill Panel
      4. Motion Tracking
        1. Types of Tracking
        2. Motion Source
        3. Current Track
        4. Track Type
        5. Target
        6. Analyze
        7. Apply
      5. Camera Tracking
        1. Track Camera
        2. 3D Camera Tracker Options
        3. Incorporating 3D Objects
      6. Mocha
        1. Launching Mocha AE
        2. The Mocha Workspaces
        3. Mocha Tools
        4. Viewer Controls
        5. Timeline Controls
        6. The Layer Panel
        7. Layer Properties
        8. Essentials Panel
        9. Parameters Panel
        10. Getting Back to After Effects
        11. Mocha Pro
      7. The Puppet Tool
        1. Building a Puppet Rig
        2. Animating a Puppet Rig
        3. The Mesh
        4. Other Types of Pins
        5. Going Further with Character Animation
    16. 8 Expressions
      1. Advanced Parenting
        1. Pickwhipping Attributes
        2. Parenting between Compositions
        3. A Peek Under the Hood
        4. Data Types
      2. The Expressions Menu
        1. Accessing Expressions
        2. The Loop Expression
      3. Modifying Expressions
        1. Time
        2. Wiggle
      4. Variables
        1. Defining Variables
        2. Using Variables
        3. Comments
        4. Semicolons
      5. Controlling Expressions
        1. Adding a Slider
        2. Bring the Slider Values into the Expression
        3. Taking it from Here
      6. Array Functions
        1. Understanding Position Data
        2. Array Index
        3. Accessing Array Data
        4. Wiggle on One Axis
        5. Value
        6. Array Isn’t Just Position
      7. Text Expressions
        1. Source Text Expressions
        2. Building a Number Counter
        3. Rounding Numbers
      8. If/Else
        1. Set Up the Scene
        2. Define If
        3. If This Is True…
        4. Or Else!
        5. Moving Forward
      9. Want to Learn More?
        1. The Internet Is Your Friend
        2. The Expression Guide
        3. Go Read Another Book

Product information

  • Title: Adobe After Effects
  • Author(s): Ben Goldsmith
  • Release date: July 2022
  • Publisher(s): Rocky Nook
  • ISBN: 9781681988672