After Effect
Animate Graphic Designs
Adobe After Effects (AE) is the industry standard graphic animation software. It is a very versatile and powerful tool. Students will be taught how to import their custom created graphics that were created in Photoshop and bring them to life through animation - movement. A well designed graphic can have impact for the viewer but animating the design brings it to life and grabs the visual attention of the viewer.
Coming from Premiere Pro and/or Photoshop to After Effects makes many of the key concepts much easier to understand and allow for students to animate quite quickly. The learning curve can be steep in complex animations but it is quite easy to get started with the basic understanding and concepts and then build on that. Students do not need to know how to do everything in After Effects - just the basic animations to begin. However, if a student finds After Effects fascinating - hopefully a lot of you - you can challenge yourself to create spectacular visual effects and animations in After Effects.
A word about AE CS6 and CC and working in 3D space
There are some differences when applying complex 3 D animations in CS6 vs. CC. CS6 is not "True" 3D - but is considered 2.5 3D! CC work and render in full 3D. This only becomes an issue if you are designing and animating in 3D space. For the purposes of our classes we will be importing/building and animating in 2D. If you watch Youtube or television you will see that 95% of all graphics are built as flat 2D designs.
Animate Graphic Designs
Adobe After Effects (AE) is the industry standard graphic animation software. It is a very versatile and powerful tool. Students will be taught how to import their custom created graphics that were created in Photoshop and bring them to life through animation - movement. A well designed graphic can have impact for the viewer but animating the design brings it to life and grabs the visual attention of the viewer.
Coming from Premiere Pro and/or Photoshop to After Effects makes many of the key concepts much easier to understand and allow for students to animate quite quickly. The learning curve can be steep in complex animations but it is quite easy to get started with the basic understanding and concepts and then build on that. Students do not need to know how to do everything in After Effects - just the basic animations to begin. However, if a student finds After Effects fascinating - hopefully a lot of you - you can challenge yourself to create spectacular visual effects and animations in After Effects.
A word about AE CS6 and CC and working in 3D space
There are some differences when applying complex 3 D animations in CS6 vs. CC. CS6 is not "True" 3D - but is considered 2.5 3D! CC work and render in full 3D. This only becomes an issue if you are designing and animating in 3D space. For the purposes of our classes we will be importing/building and animating in 2D. If you watch Youtube or television you will see that 95% of all graphics are built as flat 2D designs.
You will need to use a mouse to work in After Effects
Mr. Snyder After Effects Tutorials
Mr. Snyder After Effects Tutorials
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Key Concepts:
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First Animations in After Effects
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Key Concepts:
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Tips in Tricks in the AE Workspace
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Key Concepts
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Render Out Animation as a Video File with "Alpha Channel" (Transparency)
After the entire animation is complete it needs to be "rendered" as a video file so it can be added to a Premiere Project or even just played as a standalone video. The process is call "Render" in After Effects. Process is called "Export" in Premiere Pro. Same idea. After Effects does all the mathematical calculations to create a video file that will play on any device. These calculations are based on the instructions in the animation timeline.
After the entire animation is complete it needs to be "rendered" as a video file so it can be added to a Premiere Project or even just played as a standalone video. The process is call "Render" in After Effects. Process is called "Export" in Premiere Pro. Same idea. After Effects does all the mathematical calculations to create a video file that will play on any device. These calculations are based on the instructions in the animation timeline.
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Key Concepts
Quicktime RGB + Alpha Format/Quality 100% You can reduce the Format/quality setting to about 70% if you find the file is too big for your computer space.
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Bill Marriott After Effect Tutorial
Bill Marriott.com
Bill Marriott.com
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A Good Tutorial for the Basics
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Source: Bill Marriott
https://youtu.be/hb2bbfiNBXA
https://youtu.be/hb2bbfiNBXA
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Basic Animation Concepts
Alternative After Effects tutorial |
Working In AE without using a Photoshop Graphic
Common Visual Effects created in After Effects
The following tutorials will walk you through designing/creating inside After Effects without using a Photoshop Graphic. It is a significantly different workflow within After Effects. To understand the basics of After Effects you will need to know how to create shapes on Shape layers.
There are important differences working with shapes in After Effects vs. Photoshop.
Common Visual Effects created in After Effects
The following tutorials will walk you through designing/creating inside After Effects without using a Photoshop Graphic. It is a significantly different workflow within After Effects. To understand the basics of After Effects you will need to know how to create shapes on Shape layers.
There are important differences working with shapes in After Effects vs. Photoshop.
Creating a new shape in After Effects
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Key Concepts
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Adding More Than 1 Shape to an After Effect Composition
This concept can be tricky at first if you don't understand how to add new shapes to your composition. The difference between doing it right and wrong is subtle. When adding a new shape you must first decide whether the new shape should be created on its own new Shape layer or a ShapeLayer that already had content on it.
This tutorial will walk you through how to add additional shapes to a composition and explain the very importance differences in the way you need to add them.
This concept can be tricky at first if you don't understand how to add new shapes to your composition. The difference between doing it right and wrong is subtle. When adding a new shape you must first decide whether the new shape should be created on its own new Shape layer or a ShapeLayer that already had content on it.
This tutorial will walk you through how to add additional shapes to a composition and explain the very importance differences in the way you need to add them.
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Key Concepts
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Pre-Composing Multiple Layers
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Key Concepts
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Adding Layers in After Effects
Multiple ways to do so
From Adobe.com
Multiple ways to do so
From Adobe.com
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Bounce Effect Animation
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Key Concepts
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Duplicate a Shape Layer and Its Animation Properties
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Key Concepts
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The Anchor Point - Rotation
The importance and reason for re-positioning the anchor point
The importance and reason for re-positioning the anchor point
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Key Concepts
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The Anchor Point - Scale
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Key Concepts
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Growing Lines in After Effects
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Key Concepts
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Basic Text Creation in AE
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Key Concepts
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Text Animating and Character Spacing (Tracking)
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Key Concepts
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Reveal Text or any Shape from Behind Another Shape
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Key Concepts
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Additional After Effect Tutorials Showing Masking Techniques
Reveal a Layer from Behind Another Layer
Caleb Lancaster's Tutorials are not project specific but they are excellent for the main concepts
Source: Caleb Lancaster
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm5gq5gZodvbqP47fHRrFbQ
Reveal a Layer from Behind Another Layer
Caleb Lancaster's Tutorials are not project specific but they are excellent for the main concepts
Source: Caleb Lancaster
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm5gq5gZodvbqP47fHRrFbQ
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A Layer Animates and Reveals New Layer Content
Different animation than previous tutorial
Different animation than previous tutorial
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Key Concepts
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Double Reveal animation from behind a Logo
Attempt this tutorial once you have a good feel for After Effects.
Attempt this tutorial once you have a good feel for After Effects.
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Audio Playback in AE
After Effects dow not handle audio all that well. It is a visual effect program.
But audio can be heard on the AE timeline
Here's how!
After Effects dow not handle audio all that well. It is a visual effect program.
But audio can be heard on the AE timeline
Here's how!
Additional After Effect Tutorials
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Importing a Photoshop File into After Effects
Excellent Alternative Tutorial for importing Photoshop files into After Effects |
Source: VideoFort
Moving Anchor Points on layers
Critical when scaling from one side of a layer or rotating the layer
Critical when scaling from one side of a layer or rotating the layer
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Key concepts
Anchor point determines the point around which a layer will rotate Anchor will determine from where scaling will occur ie. center of layer, one side of the layer, top or bottom of the layer |
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How to generate a stroke animation from text
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Key Concepts
Easing keyframes to make animations smoother and more natural looking |
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EC Abrahams
He is an excellent resource on Youtube to learn a wide variety of visual effects. His tutorials tend to be for people who already have a basic knowledge of After Effects. Check him out online.
He is an excellent resource on Youtube to learn a wide variety of visual effects. His tutorials tend to be for people who already have a basic knowledge of After Effects. Check him out online.