After Effects Advanced Techniques

with Trish & Chris Meyer

Dates: 2 days – none scheduled

An intensive 2-day hands-on class designed for serious users of After Effects who wish to gain a deeper understanding of After Effects 7. This fast-paced class covers the high-end features of the software with skilled After Effects motion graphics designers and authors of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects and After Effects Apprentice.

Learn through in-class examples, tips and tricks developed by the instructors. Emphasis is placed on 3D animation, text animators, and understanding the internal render order critical for troubleshooting visual problems.

A good working knowledge of After Effects is necessary; this class is not for beginners! It is suggested that students acquire Creating Motion Graphics as a companion to this course.

Please note that depending on the facility, this may be a “bring your own laptop” course, in which case you will need to have a laptop with the current version of After Effects installed before the class begins.

Day 1:

• Complex animation made easy with Parenting & Null Objects
• Basic Expressions
• Building hierarchies by nesting and precomposing comps
• Understanding the internal render order in 2D
• Collapsing transformations in 2D
• Time Remapping
• Mastering Text Animators
• Using and editing Text and Animation Presets

Day 2:

• Animate in 3D using Camera and Lights
• Managing 3D shadows
• Setting material options for 3D layers
• Understanding the internal render order in 3D comps
• Precomposing and collapsing transformations in 3D comps
• Paint and Clone
• Motion tracking & stabilization (AE Professional only)
• Discussion of how to integrate Cinema 4D 3D renders with cameras and lights
• plus lots more tips & tricks and workflow enhancements...

Prerequisites: six months or more experience with After Effects; Photoshop basics; video editing, 3D and Illustrator basics helpful.

Recommended Reading:

• Creating Motion Graphics
  
• Optional: For understanding the technical issues (alpha channels, fields, 3:2 pulldown, non-square pixels, widescreen, luminance ranges, and so on), we recommend our technical courses at Lynda.com or our VideoSyncrasies DVD. See Online Training for more details.