Adobe After Effects CS4/CS5: Rookie

Prerequisites:

Before taking this course, you should have a basic understanding of your computers operating you should know how to launch an application, create and save files, and copy files from.

Course Description:

Bring your vision to life with blockbuster visual effects and compelling motion graphics in Adobe After Effects Professional software. Work with sophisticated tools and enjoy tight integration with Adobe's leading design applications while you deliver stunning work to virtually any media type.

On this course you will become familiar with the After Effects interface, learn to create animations, work with layers, apply effects, work with masks and mattes, about type, use color effectively and to export files.

This course includes the following modules:

After Effects User Interface and Animation

• What is a project file and what is in it?
• Tools and Panels: how to navigate around the application, Workspaces: selecting, saving, setting

Basic Animation

• Transform properties of layers
• Keyframing: making element move, Importing Photoshop and Illustrator files

Intermediate Animation

• In depth keyframe manipulation and interpolation Graph Editor, Motion Sketch/Smoother, Auto-Orient/Motion Blur, Roving Keyframes, Anchor Point/Pan Behind Tool, Panning a large graphic: technique, Hold Keyframes

Layer Control

• Trim-move-stack-split (keyboard shortcuts)
• Quality,Slip Tool, Sequence Layers, Solo Switches, Looping Footage, Image Sequences, Frame Rate vs. Time Stretch, Blending Modes, Effects and Solids with Blending Modes, Effects and Presets Panel: animation presets, Adjustment layers

Transparency

• Masks
• Shape, feather, expansion, Masking with the Pen Tool: Bezier curves, Mask Shape Interpolation, Mask modes, Mattes and Stencils, Mask shapes

Type and Titles

• Simple Rules of Titling
• Basic Text, Text Animators/Range Selectors, Randomizing, Applying and Saving Text Animation presets, Per character animators in CS3

Nesting

• Precomps
• Editing precomps
• Locking panels

Render Order

• How After Effects put it all together

Exporting Files

• Render Queue
• Export As,Same Frame As
• Prerender