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Fast Track to After Effects

Fast Track to Adobe After Effects CS4 is a 3-day introductory course for those working or wishing to work in the video field, or for Adobe users wishing to expand their skills in video effects. This class covers the core concepts and skills necessary to excel in motion graphics animation and visual effects, as well as advanced approaches and techniques. In this course students will create compositions applying motion and animated effects to media elements, create transparency in layers using mattes, masks, and stencils, animate objects in 3-D space, and much more. After taking this class students will be able to create visual effects for use in web video and podcasts, broadcast television, and even film.

Duration: 3 days

Price: 1195.00
GSA Price: 1143.76
Online Price: 1345.00

Course Prerequisites

To successfully complete this course, students should have basic Windows application skills, such as saving files, copying and pasting text etc. Experience with a video editing application such as Adobe Premiere is helpful although not required, as is a experience with graphics applications such as Adobe Photoshop.

Course Objectives

  • By the time students complete this course, they will be able to:
  • Create projects and compositions with media clips that play in a sequence
  • Apply animated effects and motion to sequenced media elements
  • Manipulate the sequence and duration of footage items into hierarcies through parenting and nested compositions
  • Blend transparencies with masks, track mattes, and modes
  • Create complex animations with keyframe and velocity control
  • Create and use 3-D animations and effects
  • Integrate After Effects elements with other applications
  • Render compositions and choose appropriate rendering options and codecs

Course Outline

Lesson 1. Getting to Know the Workflow

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Creating a project and importing footage
  • Creating a composition and arranging layers
  • Adding effects and modifying layer properties
  • Animating the composition
  • Previewing your work
  • Exporting your composition
  • Customizing the workspace
  • Controlling the brightness of the user interface
  • Using After Effects Help
  • Using Adobe online services
  • Review

Lesson 2. Creating a Basic Animation Using Effects and Presets

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Setting up the project
  • Importing footage using Bridge
  • Creating the composition
  • Working with imported Illustrator layers
  • Applying effects to a layer
  • Applying a preset animation
  • Previewing the effects
  • Adding transparency
  • Rendering the composition
  • Review

Lesson 3. Animating Text

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • About text layers
  • Creating and formatting point type
  • Using a text animation preset
  • Animating with scale keyframes
  • Animating using parenting
  • Animating imported Photoshop text
  • Animating text using a path preset
  • Animating type tracking
  • Animating the letters' opacity
  • Using a text animator group
  • Cleaning up the path animation
  • Animating the dragonfly
  • Adding motion blur
  • Review

Lesson 4. Animating a Multimedia Presentation

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Animating the scenery using parenting
  • Adjusting an anchor point
  • Masking video into a vector shape
  • Keyframing a motion path
  • Animating additional elements
  • Applying an effect
  • Creating an animated slide show
  • Adding an audio track
  • Zooming in for a final close-up
  • Review

Lesson 5. Animating Layers

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Simulating changing lighting
  • Duplicating an animation using the pick whip
  • Animating movement in the scenery
  • Adjusting the layers and creating a track matte
  • Animating the shadows
  • Adding a lens flare effect
  • Animating the clock
  • Retiming the composition
  • Review

Lesson 6. Working with Masks

  • Lesson overview
  • About masks
  • Getting started
  • Creating a mask with the Pen tool
  • Editing a mask
  • Feathering the edges of a mask
  • Replacing the content of the mask
  • Adding a reflection
  • Creating a vignette
  • Adjusting the color
  • Review

Lesson 7. Keying

  • Lesson overview
  • About keying
  • Getting started
  • Changing the background color
  • Adding the foreground subject
  • Creating a garbage mask
  • Applying the Color Difference Key effect
  • Choking the matte
  • Removing spill
  • Adjusting contrast
  • Adding the background animation
  • Adding the title
  • Adding the animated logo
  • Copying effects across two layers
  • Review

Lesson 8. Performing Color Correction

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Adjusting color balance
  • Replacing an element of the shot
  • Lightening other dark areas
  • Correcting a range of colors
  • Warming colors with the Photo Filter effect
  • Removing unwanted elements
  • Review

Lesson 9. Building and Animating a 3D Object

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Animating a square in 3D space
  • Using 3D views
  • Flipping the cube bottom
  • Creating the 3D floor
  • Building the cube sides
  • Animating the cube sides
  • Review

Lesson 10. Using 3D Effects

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Using 3D lights
  • Turning on shadows
  • Adding a camera
  • Adding an animated sphere
  • Adding the logo
  • Review

Lesson 11. Advanced Editing Techniques

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Using motion stabilization
  • Using single-point motion tracking
  • Using multipoint tracking
  • Creating a particle system
  • Let's do the Timewarp
  • Review

Lesson 12. Rendering and Outputting

  • Lesson overview
  • Getting started
  • Creating templates for the rendering process
  • Creating templates for output modules
  • Rendering to different output media
  • Review

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