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After Effects CS5 Digital Classroom Book and DVD

After Effects CS5 book
"I highly recommend this book." Amazon.com Reviewer
Adobe After Effects CS5 Digital Classroom is like having a personal instructor guiding you through each lesson, while you work at your own pace. This After Effects book and DVD includes 10 self-paced lessons helping you learn essential skills and explore new features and capabilities of Adobe After Effects.
  • Full color lessons with easy to follow step-by-step instructions | view sample lesson
  • Video tutorials highlight key topics in each lesson | view sample video tutorial
  • Covers all essential After Effects skills | view Table of Contents
  • Gets you up-and-running quickly with included lesson files on DVD
  • Written by expert instructors – it's like having your own personal tutor
  • Used by hundreds of schools and more than 100,000 readers

Are you an Instructor or Professor?

Contact your Wiley higher education representative to obtain a review copy or use the contact form to obtain an instructor's guide for using the Digital Classroom as your After Effects class textbook.

Starting Up

  • About Digital Classroom
  • Prerequisites
  • System requirements
  • Starting Adobe After Effects CS5
  • Fonts used in this book
  • Resetting Adobe After Effects CS5 preferences
  • Loading lesson files
  • Working with the video tutorials
  • Setting up for viewing the video tutorials
  • Viewing the video tutorials
  • Additional resources

Lesson 1: Dreamweaver CS4 Jumpstart

  • Starting up
  • Defining motion graphics
  • Digital video basics
  • Understanding video formats
  • Understanding frame rate and resolution
  • Understanding transparency
  • Self study
  • Review

Lesson 2: Understanding the After Effects Interface

  • Starting up
    Understanding and working with menus
  • Opening an existing After Effects project
  • Understanding the After Effects panel system
  • After Effects panels
  • Primary panels
  • Understanding the workspace
  • Viewing and hiding panels
  • Docking and undocking panels
  • Resizing panels
  • Saving a custom workspace
  • Resetting the workspace
  • Setting After Effects Preferences
  • Changing the default undo levels
  • Enable Auto-Save
  • Self study
  • Review

Lesson 3: Media Management—Images, Video, and Audio

  • Starting up
  • What is Media Management?
  • Projects, compositions, and layers: an overview
  • Creating a new project
  • Importing media files
  • Organizing the Project panel

  • Modifying the column displays
  • Creating folders and subfolders
  • Previewing footage
  • Previewing stills and video
  • Previewing audio
  • Trimming a video clip
  • Importing multiple files
  • Importing Photoshop and Illustrator files
  • Importing image sequences
  • Importing After Effects compositions
  • Locating missing files
  • Using the Interpret Footage dialog box
  • Looping an audio or video file
  • Using Remember Interpretation
  • Using the Collect Files command to consolidate files
  • Self study

Lesson 4: Animation Workflow

  • Starting up
  • Understanding the animation workflow
  • Creating and working with compositions
  • Creating a new composition
  • Understanding composition settings
  • Importing compositions 
    from Photoshop and Illustrator
  • Working with layers
  • Understanding the layer switches
  • Understanding layer stacking order
  • Changing layer names
    Creating Kinestasis by animating the Anchor Point
  • Animating rotation
  • Using layer parenting to ease repetition
  • Animating position
  • Understanding motion paths
  • Using layer motion blur
  • Adjusting Motion Blur settings
  • Using blending modes
  • Applying layer styles
  • Understanding nested compositions 
    and precomposing
  • Adding nested styles
  • Pre-composing layers
  • Creating a fade-in by animating Opacity and Scale
  • Self study
  • Review

Lesson 5: Working with Masks, Track Mattes, and Keys

  • Starting up
  • Working with masks
  • Creating masks with the shape tools
  • Selecting and manipulating masks
  • Animating the position of masks
  • Creating freeform masks
  • Animating the shape of masks
  • Understanding track mattes
  • Creating track mattes
  • Creating mattes from animated Photoshop files
  • Creating a chroma key
  • Creating a garbage matte
  • Creating a chroma key
  • Refining the matte
  • Self study
  • Review

Lesson 6: Working with Text

  • Starting up
  • Creating text
  • Setting text properties globally
  • Formatting individual characters
  • Animating text properties
  • Saving an animator as a preset
  • Working with text animation presets
  • Modifying animation presets
  • Creating custom text animators
  • Creating a typewriter effect
  • Creating text on a path
  • Self study
  • Review

Lesson 7: Working with Audio

  • Starting up
  • Audio in After Effects
  • Previewing audio
  • Adding audio files to the Timeline
  • Viewing audio file metadata
  • Looping audio files
  • Animating audio levels
  • Working with audio effects
  • Using composition markers to set the beat
  • Naming composition markers
  • Refining the position of composition markers
  • Syncing animation to composition markers
  • Creating keyframes from audio files
  • Self study
  • Review

Lesson 8: Working with 3D in After Effects

  • Starting up
  • Previewing animation with RAM preview
  • Working the 3D capabilities of After Effects
  • Creating 3D layers
  • Using multiple viewports
  • Understanding 3D Transform properties
  • Understanding Material Options
  • Animating 3D layers
  • Creating and using lights
  • Understanding light options
  • Animating light properties
  • Creating and using cameras
  • Understanding camera options
  • Animating camera properties
  • Creating the depth-of-field effect
  • Creating a Rack Focus shot
  • Working with Live Photoshop 3D
  • Importing Live Photoshop 3D effects
  • Animating Photoshop 3D compositions
  • Adding a Glow and Lens Flare effect
  • Self study
  • Review

Lesson 9: Advanced Animation

  • Starting up
  • Animating with effects
  • Applying effects to layers
  • Animating effect properties
  • Saving animation presets
  • Applying and modifying effects presets
  • Time-reversing a layer
  • Using the Motion Sketch panel to capture motion
  • Controlling layer orientation
  • Using the Smoother panel to soften movement
  • Using the Wiggler panel to add frantic motion
  • Create acceleration and
    deceleration using Easy Easing
  • Changing spatial interpolation
  • Adding easing to keyframes
  • Using squash and stretch to enhance the animation
  • Animating with the Graph Editor
  • Create a strobing effect using hold interpolation
  • Automating animation with expressions
  • Finding expressions
  • Adding expressions to properties
  • Using the LoopOut( ) expression
  • Using the Random( ) expression
  • Using the Time property with expressions
  • Using the Wiggle( ) expression
  • Working with scripts
  • Installing and running scripts
  • Creating scripts
  • Finding additional scripts
  • Using and applying scripts
  • Self study
  • Review

Lesson 10: Outputting After Effects Projects

  • Starting up
  • Rendering files for output
  • Understanding the Render Queue
  • Adding compositions to the Render Queue
  • Adjusting render settings
  • Duplicating jobs in the Render Queue
  • Creating render templates
  • Exporting a project file
  • Trimming and cropping compositions
  • Rendering an individual frame
  • Self study
  • Review

Appendices

  • Appendix A 
    After Effects Secondary panels
  • Appendix B 
    Importable media formats
    Still images and image sequences
    Project formats
  • Appendix C 
    Understanding formats and codecs
    Understanding bit rate
    Understanding spatial and temporal compression
  • Appendix D 
    Understanding Video Displays
    Understanding aspect ratio and pixel aspect ratio
    Progressive display versus interlacing
Other Books from the Digital Classroom Series
  • Photoshop CS5 book
  • Dreamweaver CS5 book
  • Creative Suite 5 book
  • Flash Professional CS5
  • InDesign CS5 book