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After Effects Training

2 days - private courses from £1390 + vat

Adobe After Effects is a very large and powerful motion graphics application. Our instructor led two day introductory After Effects course will provide those new to post production techniques the tools to use this powerful software.

Our advanced modules can be booked in pairs to provide a bespoke course focusing on the areas of After Effects most relevant to you.

After Effects Training Course Content

How After Effects Works

• Projects
• Compositions
• Layers
• Properties
• Effects
• Rendering

Projects & Compositions

• Importing and trinning footage
• Integration with Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator
• Layer Windows and the Composition Window
• Manipulation in the composition window: transformation, masks.
• Nesting Compositions

Timeline vs Composition window

Switches, buttons and modes

• Track Matte

Properties 1 - Transformations:

• Temporal properties: rotation and opacity
• Spatial properties: position and anchor point

More on Layer Windows

• Anchor Point Path
• Masks
• Effect Points

Previewing

• Scale and Quality
• Reduced framerate
• Wireframes
• Dynamic Preview

Adding Effects

• Managing the Timeline
• Effects switches
• Animating effect properties
• Adjustment layers

About Time

• Timestretching footage
• Time Remapping and holds
• Frame blending
• Time effects
• Synchronisation tricks

Rendering

• Render Checklist
• Output Modules

Basic Parenting and Expressions

• Using the pickwhip

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Additional Half Day Modules: (these can also be booked seperately)

Module 1

3D: Using it and Faking It

• Basic 3D, scale, drop shadow and other fakery
• 3D transform properties
• Material properties
• Camera views and tools
• Effect on render order
• 3D effects and intergration with other 3D packages

This module requires a basic grasp of 3D graphics

Module 2

Titling: Techniques for getting text in motion

• Path Text: still useful
• Introduction to text layers
• Animators for text properties
• Range selectors, simple and advanced
• Footage inside text
• Randomizing techniques

Module 3

Advanced Keyframing and expressions

• Linear and bezier interpolation
• Spatial and temporal interpolation
• Using the speed graph to smooth effects
• Roving keyframes
• Writing advanced expressions
• Making expressions and parenting work together
• Motion Blur

This module is fairly mathematical. Some knowledge of Javascript and/or Object-oriented programming would be useful.

Module 4

Pro Compositing

• Motion Tracking and Stabilizing
• Basic Keying
• Using the Difference Key
• Chokers and the Spill Suppressor
• Painting on footage and alpha channels

This module focuses on the Pro version of After Effects

Module 5

Puppetry: advanced parenting

• Preparing puppets in Illustrator and Photoshop
• Building a puppet in After Effects
• Nulls and anchors
• Techniques for bringing a puppet to life
• Motion Sketch
• morphing: animating masks, warps and other distortions
• lipsynch

Module 6

Stuff Everywhere! – getting the most from Particle Playground

• The basic types: Cannon, Grid and the Exploders
• Using After Effects layers as particles
• Text and numbers as particles
• Gravity, walls and repellers
• Property Mappers: persistent and ephemeral

After Effects Training Course Prerequisites

• Familiarity with digital video formats.

After Effects Training Course Recommended Reading

Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects: The Essentials - Trish Meyer, Chris Meyer – buy from amazon
Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book by Adobe Creative Team - buy from amazon

Download course outline as pdf.