Learning After Effects

Course details

This course, designed to thoroughly initiate and inspire beginners, covers the basics of Adobe After Effects. Instructor Mark Christiansen introduces you to the core terminology of After Effects and of film, video, and motion design. Then Mark moves on to explore the After Effects interface and the fundamentals of working in After Effects: building compositions, working with layers, animating, adding effects, designing in 3D, and rendering. Mark employs these techniques while taking you through a sample project, demonstrating how everything comes together in an actual workflow. He shows you how to use automated tools to integrate text and video, import a Premiere Pro sequence, customize and add motion to text, match a moving camera, distort a layer, animate an Illustrator logo, and add dimension to a design.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Adobe After Effects puts design into motion
02 - Using the exercise files and relinking the footage

1. The Six Foundations of After Effects

03 - Start with the composition, where everything happens
04 - Layers are the building blocks of After Effects
05 - After Effects keyframe animation is a superpower
06 - 3D adds more than depth
07 - Effects - Right there in the name
08 - Render or it didn't happen

2. The Timeline Puts Ideas in Motion

09 - Create a new After Effects project
10 - Standardize and customize your After Effects UI
11 - Use the power of compositions wisely
12 - Take control of the After Effects viewers
13 - Explore After Effects layer controls
14 - Get creative combining layers
15 - Bring layers to life with keyframes
16 - Refine motion with timing and keyframe controls

3. Add Effects, 3D, and Output

17 - Enter the third dimension
18 - Create 3D within After Effects
19 - Freely experiment with effects
20 - Three basic effects types
21 - Add an adjustment layer
22 - Get those Render Queue settings right

4. Use Automated Tools to Integrate Text and Video

23 - Import a Premiere Pro edit
24 - Create cloudy skywriting text using Fractal Noise
25 - Pre-compose to solve timing and workflow blockers
26 - Create a complex moving matte automatically with Roto Brush
27 - Use layer styles to integrate text
28 - Match 2D motion with the Tracker
29 - Ramp speed with Time Remapping and Easy Ease
30 - Camera track a shot in 3D to match motion
31 - Integrate graphics into a 3D camera-matched scene
32 - Add a logo image sequence

5. Add Motion Graphics Animation with Shapes

33 - Block in motion with hold keyframes
34 - Create motion graphics with vector shape layers
35 - Extract a moving holdout matte from the sky
36 - Draw in a shape with Trim Paths
37 - Design a dynamic animation with a single shape
38 - Animate a displacement map to organically glitch graphics
39 - Publish the master composition to YouTube

Learning After Effects

Authors

Mark Christiansen