'After Effects 6 On the Spot' delivers immediate solutions! Packed with over 350 techniques, this book gets motion graphics and visual effects artists up to speed efficiently in After Effects by letting them learn what they need to know, when they need to know it. All of the essential methods that professionals use to get the job done are clearly and concisely detailed and illustrated. Experienced editors will find the book sufficiently comprehensive to orient themselves to After Effects version 6 and novices will find an invaluable reference filled with techniques to improve their efficiency and creativity.

If you're new to After Effects and want to get up to speed quickly, After Effects Apprentice was created just for you. With 11 core lessons plus a fun final project, you'll quickly get into the program and learn how to tap its potential - whether you want to create motion graphics for a network program, your company's video, or your own independent production. In this book, you'll get a professional perspective on the most important features a motion graphics artist needs to learn to use this program effectively. You'll learn to creatively edit and combine layers, animate eye-catching titles, replace a screen on a computer monitor, place a studio shot in anew environment, manipulate 3D space, and use effects to generate excitement or enhance the realism of a scene. Easy to follow step-by-step instructions take you through each technique, including projects that encourage you to express it in your own way. You'll learn more than just the tools; you'll learn skills that you can immediately put to work in your own projects. Topics include how to: * Animate, layer, and composite images and text. * Manipulate keyframes to create more refined animations. * Use masks, mattes, stencils and modes to add depth. * Manage layers to make them easier to coordinate. * Add 3D to your animations. * Use tracking and keying to create special effects. * Includes new CS3 features; Shape layers, the Puppet tool, Brainstorm, and Per-Character 3D Text. DVD contains: All exercise source material and projects in AE7 and CS3, video guided tours, and movies of the finished projects.

Get the most from the most widely used application in the postproduction field! Gain the insider tips you need to compose eye-catching, imaginative Adobe After Effects projects quickly and effectively. In How to Cheat in After Effects, Second Edition seasoned AE expert Chad Perkins provides dozens of concise, step-by-step tutorials and lavish 4-color illustrations to get you on the fast track to producing amazing motion graphics and visual effects. Updated for CS6, this new edition has been revised to include: A brand new chapter on the most popular 3rd party effects including Trapcode Particular and Video Copilot's Element 3D New cheats on professional compositing, expressions, and high end visual effects Tons of cool light tricks and lessons on how to use Video Copilot's Optical Flares A thorough explanation of the Ray-trace 3D engine introduced in After Effects CS6 Downloadable resources with project files allowing you to work alongside the exercises in the book, as well as QuickTime movies displaying techniques There’s no time to waste! Whether you are an intermediate After Effects user in need of its more advanced tools or a novice looking for techniques to up your game, this book will bring your motion graphics, visual effects, and graphic compositions to the next level. Downloadable resources project files are available at www.focalpress.com/9780415661065

Take your After Effects skills to a new level! Twelve step-by-step tutorials, designed by industry professionals, explore a variety of creative approaches as they teach useful design concepts and production techniques. Updated for After Effects 6.5, this new edition covers the most significant Version 5 and 6 features including 3D space, cameras, lights, parenting, text, animation presets, paint, and expressions. Each carefully structured project presents the "why" behind the steps, so you can adapt these techniques to your own designs and motion graphics work. All contain timeless concepts that will be of use for many years to come. After Effects in Production also contains six case studies of commercial projects created by award-winning studios such as ATTIK, Belief, Curious Pictures, The Diecks Group, Fido, and the authors' own studio, CyberMotion. These detail the integration of After Effects, 3D programs, live action, and a variety of animation techniques, revealing the artistic concepts behind the spots as well as the inventive techniques used to execute them. The enclosed DVD contains QuickTime movies of each of the final animations, allowing you to step through them frame-by-frame so you can examine them in detail.

After Effects CS5.5 Update: /tv.adobe.com/show/after-effects-cs55-new-creative-techniques/ Chris and Trish Meyer have created a series of videos demonstrating how to use their favorite new and enhanced features in After Effects CS5.5. Virtually all of these videos use exercise files from Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects (5th Edition for CS5) as their starting point, extending the usefulness of this book for its owners. These videos may be viewed for free on AdobeTV. * 5th Edition of best-selling After Effects book by renowned authors Trish and Chris Meyer covers the important updates in After Effects CS4 and CS5 * Covers both essential and advanced techniques, from basic layer manipulation and animation through keying, motion tracking, and color management * The downloadable resources are packed with project files for version CS5, source materials, and nearly 200 pages of bonus chapters Trish and Chris Meyer share over 17 years of hard-earned, real-world film and video production experience inside this critically acclaimed text. More than a step-by-step review of the features in AE, readers will learn how the program thinks so that they can realize their own visions more quickly and efficiently. This full-color book is packed with tips, gotchas, and sage advice that will help users thrive no matter what projects they might encounter. Creating Motion Graphics 5th Edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect the new features introduced in both After Effects CS4 and CS5. New chapters cover the revolutionary new Roto Brush feature, as well as mocha and mocha shape. The 3D section has been expanded to include working with 3D effects such as Digieffects FreeForm plus workflows including Adobe Repoussé, Vanishing Point Exchange, and 3D model import using Adobe Photoshop Extended. The print version is also accompanied by downloadable resources that contain project files and source materials for all the techniques demonstrated in the book, as well as nearly 200 pages of bonus chapters on subjects such as expressions, scripting, and effects. Subjects include: Animation Techniques; Layer Management; Modes, Masks, and Mattes; Mastering 3D Space; Text Animation; Effects & Presets; Painting and Rotoscoping; Parenting, Nesting, and Collapsing; Color Management and Video Essentials; Motion Tracking and Keying; Working with Audio; Integrating with 3D Applications; Puppet Tools; Expressions; Exporting and Rendering; and much more.

"The official training workbook from Adobe Systems"--Cover.

Packed with more than 350 techniques, this book delivers what you need to know - on the spot. If you create graphics for television, this book is for you. 'Broadcast Graphics on the Spot' show you how to produce more compelling TV graphics. From gathering images for use in broadcast graphics to working with fonts, mastering keying and rotoscoping, or working with logo motion, this book includes step-by-step procedures for creating over-the-shoulder graphics for news anchors, lower thirds, titles, and full-screens that can be used in everyday news productions.