Contents at a glance GETTING STARTED About Classroom in a Book Prerequisites Installing After Effects and Bridge Optimizing performance Restoring default preferences Accessing the Classroom in a Book files How to use these lessons Additional resources Adobe Authorized Training Centers 1 GETTING TO KNOW THE WORKFLOW About the After Effects work area Getting started Creating a project and importing footage Creating a composition and arranging layers About layers Adding effects and modifying layer properties About the Tools panel Animating the composition About the Timeline panel About timecode and duration Previewing your work Optimizing performance in After Effects Rendering and exporting your composition Customizing workspaces Controlling the brightness of the user interface Finding resources for using After Effects Review questions and answers 2 CREATING A BASIC ANIMATION USING EFFECTS AND PRESETS Getting started Importing footage using Adobe Bridge Creating a new composition Working with imported Illustrator layers Applying effects to a layer Applying and controlling effects Applying an animation preset Previewing the effects Adding transparency Rendering the composition Review questions and answers 3 ANIMATING TEXT Getting started About text layers Installing a font using Typekit Creating and formatting point text Using a text animation preset Animating with scale keyframes Animating using parenting About parent and child layers Animating imported Photoshop text Animating type tracking Animating text opacity Using a text animator group About text animator groups Animating a layer’s position Timing layer animations Adding motion blur Review questions and answers 4 WORKING WITH SHAPE LAYERS Getting started Adding a shape layer Creating custom shapes Duplicating shapes Duplicating and modifying a composition Positioning layers with snapping Adding compositions to a 3D project Adding the finishing touches Extra credit Review questions and answers 5 ANIMATING A MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION Getting started Using Creative Cloud Libraries in After Effects Adjusting anchor points Parenting layers Precomposing layers Keyframing a motion path Animating additional elements Applying an effect About solid-color layers Animating precomposed layers Animating the background Adding an audio track Supported audio file formats Editing audio files in Adobe Audition Review questions and answers 6 ANIMATING LAYERS Getting started Preparing layered Photoshop files About Photoshop layer styles Simulating lighting changes Duplicating an animation using the pick whip About expressions Animating movement in the scenery Adjusting the layers and creating a track matte About track mattes and traveling mattes Animating the shadows Adding a lens flare effect Adding a video animation Rendering the animation Retiming the composition Review questions and answers 7 WORKING WITH MASKS About masks Getting started Creating a mask with the Pen tool Editing a mask About mask modes Feathering the edges of a mask Creating a Bezier mask Replacing the content of the mask Zooming and panning by touch Adding a reflection Creating a vignette Adjusting the timing Using the Rectangle and Ellipse tools Tips for creating masks Trimming the work area Review questions and answers 8 DISTORTING OBJECTS WITH THE PUPPET TOOLS Getting started About the Puppet tools Adding Deform pins Defining areas of overlap Stiffening an area Animating pin positions Squash and stretch Recording animation Review questions and answers 9 USING THE ROTO BRUSH TOOL About rotoscoping Getting started Creating a segmentation boundary Using Adobe Premiere Pro with After Effects Fine-tuning the matte Freezing your Roto Brush tool results Refine Soft Matte and Refine Hard Matte effects Changing the background Adding animated text Outputting your project Extra credit Review questions and answers 10 PERFORMING COLOR CORRECTION Getting started Previewing your project on a video monitor Adjusting color balance with levels Adjusting color balance with Color Finesse 3 Replacing the background Color-correcting using Auto Levels Motion tracking the clouds Replacing the sky in the second clip Color grading Extra Credit Review questions and answers 11 USING 3D FEATURES Getting started Creating 3D text Using 3D views Importing a background Adding 3D lights Adding a camera Repositioning layers Adding a text layer Working with Cinema 4D Lite Review questions and answers 12 WORKING WITH THE 3D CAMERA TRACKER About the 3D Camera Tracker effect Getting started Repairing rolling shutter distortions Tracking the footage Creating a ground plane, a camera, and the initial text Creating realistic shadows Adding ambient light Creating additional text elements Locking a layer to a plane with a null object Animating the text Adjusting the camera’s depth of field Rendering the composition Review questions and answers 13 ADVANCED EDITING TECHNIQUES Getting started Using Warp Stabilizer VFX Bicubic scaling Warp Stabilizer VFX settings Using single-point motion tracking Checking for drift Moving and resizing the track points Using multipoint tracking mocha for After Effects Creating a particle simulation Understanding Particle Systems II properties About high dynamic range (HDR) footage Review questions and answers 14 RENDERING AND OUTPUTTING Getting started Creating templates for the Render Queue About compression Exporting using the Render Queue Preparing movies for mobile devices Rendering movies with Adobe Media Encoder Preparing a movie for broadcast output Review questions and answers APPENDIX: GENERAL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS INDEX Getting Started
Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book. Adobe After Effects CC provides a comprehensive set of 2D and 3D tools for
compositing, animation, and effects that motion-graphics professionals, visual effects
artists, web designers, and film and video professionals need. After Effects is widely used
for digital post-production of film, video, DVD, and the web. You can composite layers in
various ways, apply and combine sophisticated visual and audio effects, and animate both
objects and effects. About Classroom in a Book
Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2015 release) is part of the official training
series for Adobe graphics and publishing software, developed with the support of Adobe
product experts. The lessons are designed to let you learn at your own pace. If you’re new
to Adobe After Effects, you’ll learn the fundamental concepts and features you’ll need to
master the program. And if you’ve been using Adobe After Effects for a while, you’ll find
that Classroom in a Book teaches many advanced features, including tips and techniques
for using the latest version.
Although each lesson provides step-by-step instructions for creating a specific project,
there’s room for exploration and experimentation. You can follow the book from start to
finish, or do only the lessons that match your interests and needs. Each lesson concludes
with a review section summarizing what you’ve covered. Prerequisites
Before beginning to use Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2015 release),
make sure that your system is set up correctly and that you’ve installed the required
software and hardware. You should have a working knowledge of your computer and
operating system. You should know how to use the mouse and standard menus and
commands, and also how to open, save, and close files. If you need to review these
techniques, see the printed or online documentation included with your Microsoft®
Windows® or Apple® Mac® OS software.
To complete the lessons in this book, you’ll need to have both Adobe After Effects CC
(2015 release) and Adobe Bridge CC installed. The exercises in this book are based on
After Effects CC (2015.1 release). Installing After Effects and Bridge
You must purchase the Adobe After Effects CC software separately. For system
requirements and complete instructions on installing the software, visit
www.adobe.com/support. Note that After Effects CC requires a 64-bit operating system
and OpenGL 3.3 support. You must also have Apple QuickTime 7.6.6 or later installed on
your system.
Some of the lessons in this book use Adobe Bridge. After Effects and Bridge use separate
installers. You must install these applications from Adobe Creative Cloud
(creative.adobe.com) onto your hard disk. Follow the onscreen instructions. Optimizing performance
Creating movies is memory-intensive work for a desktop computer. After Effects CC
(2015 release) requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM. The more RAM that is available to
After Effects, the faster the application will work for you. For information about
optimizing memory, cache, and other settings for After Effects, see “Improve
performance” in After Effects Help. Restoring default preferences
The preferences files control the way the After Effects user interface appears on your
screen. The instructions in this book assume that you see the default interface when they
describe the appearance of tools, options, windows, panels, and so forth. Therefore, it’s a
good idea to restore the default preferences, especially if you are new to After Effects.
Each time you quit After Effects, the panel positions and certain command settings are
recorded in the preferences files. To restore the original default settings, press
Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS) while starting After
Effects. (After Effects creates new preferences files if they don’t already exist the next
time you start the program.)
Restoring the default preferences can be especially helpful if someone has already
customized After Effects on your computer. If your copy of After Effects hasn’t been used
yet, these files won’t exist, so this procedure is unnecessary. Important: If you want to save the current settings, you can rename a preferences file
instead of deleting it. When you are ready to restore those settings, change the name back,
and make sure that the file is located in the correct preferences folder.
