Introduction to Adobe After Effects CC

Video, animation and graphics professionals who need a working knowledge of Adobe After Effects CC.

• Practical working knowledge of computers and basic Mac OS X or Windows skills.
• Photoshop Fundamentals: An Introduction to Photoshop class or equivalent experience is recommended.

 

Lesson 1: Fundamentals of Motion Graphics

• RGB Color Model
• Frame size
• Resolution
• Pixel aspect ratio
• Alpha channels
• Frame rate
• Time code
• Interpreting footage

Lesson 2: Getting to Know the Workflow

• How After Effects Works
• Overview of panels
• Creating a project and importing footage
• Creating a composition and arranging layers
• Adding effects and modifying layer properties
• Animating the composition
• Previewing your work
• Optimizing performance in After Effects
• Customizing workspaces
• Controlling the brightness of the user interface
• Finding resources for using After Effects

Lesson 3: Creating a Basic Animation Using Effects and Presets

• Importing using the Creative Cloud Library
• Importing video clips
• Importing stills
• Importing a sequence of stills (interpreting)
• Importing multilayered photoshop and illustrator files
• Creating a new composition
• Applying effects to a layer
• Changing parameters globally
• Creating keyframes
• Keyframe interpolation: auto, continuous, and bezier interpolation
• Temporal and spatial Interpolation
• Position vs. Anchor Point path
• Roving in time for spatial properties
• Creating and applying an animation preset
• Previewing your work
• Viewing Audio in the timeline
• Adding Markers in real-time

Lesson 4: Working With Masks

• About masks
• Creating a mask with the Pen tool
• Editing a mask
• Feathering the edges of a mask
• Replacing the content of the mask
• Mask interpolation
• Using masks from Illustrator and Photoshop
• Masks for spatial keyframes

Lesson 5: Animating Text

• About text layers
• Creating and formatting point text vs. paragraph text
• Using a text animation preset
• Text on a path
• Animating imported Photoshop text
• Animating text using a path animation preset
• Using a text animator
• Adding properties
• Adding a range selector
• Using a text animator group

Lesson 6: Working with Shape Layers

• Adding a shape layer
• Creating custom shapes
• Creating stars
• Default properties of shape layers
• Add properties
• Creating Groups
• Stack your shapes & properties

Lesson 7: Other Effects

• The smoother
• The wiggler
• Auto orient
• Splitting a layer
• Adjustment layers
• The effects and presets panel
• Pan Behind tool

Lesson 8: Distorting Objects with the Puppet Tools

• About the Puppet tools
• Adding Deform pins
• Defining areas of overlap
• Stiffening an area
• Animating pin positions
• Recording animation

Lesson 9: Rendering and Output

• Creating templates for the Render Queue
• Exporting using the Render Queue
• Rendering movies with Adobe Media Encoder