Linda.COM After Effects Apprentice 02: Basic Animation

Authors:
Chris Meyer
Trish Meyer

Duration:
02h 05m

Released on:
1/25/2011

Exercise files:
Yes

Software works on:
Windows only

Trish Meyer leads beginners through a gentle introduction to Adobe After Effects: from creating a new project and importing sources, through arranging and animating layers, applying effects, and creating variations, to rendering the final movie. However, this is no paint-by-numbers exercise. Trish demonstrates how she makes creative decisions and saves time through the use of keyboard shortcuts and smart working practices. Additional movies explain further details about how After Effects works under the hood. Her measured pace helps even those completely new to After Effects understand the program so that they can use it effectively on their own projects. Exercise files are included with the course.

The After Effects Apprentice video lessons on lynda.com are designed to be used on their own or as a companion to Trish and Chris Meyer's acclaimed tutorial book, After Effects Apprentice.
Topics include:

    Starting a project from scratch
    Building a composition
    Arranging and transforming layers interactively and numerically
    Animating parameters including motion paths
    Applying and re-using effects
    Creating variations and rendering the final movie
    Importing layered Photoshop files
    Understanding alpha channels
    Avoiding common mistakes





Introduction
Overview           01m 26s

1. Getting Started
Creating a new project           03m 17s
Creating a composition           02m 46s
Importing sources           05m 03s
Adding a layer to a comp           02m 04s

2. Transforming and Animating Layers
Editing interactively in the Composition panel           03m 56s
Editing numerically in the Timeline panel           07m 09s
Animating position           08m 32s
Adding more layers           03m 07s
Editing motion paths           04m 40s
Animating scale, rotation, and opacity           02m 40s

3. Finishing Your Composition
Arranging layers           03m 11s
Adding a solid           04m 23s
Applying effects           05m 05s
Rendering the final movie           02m 57s

4. Idea Corner
Creating variations of the design           09m 36s

5. More on Keyframes
Spatial keyframes           05m 38s
Hold keyframes           05m 29s
Common keyframe mistakes           07m 27s
Auto-keyframe mode           04m 38s

6. More on Arranging Layers
Action- and title-safe areas           02m 41s
Grids & Guides           03m 24s
Aligning and distributing           03m 25s

7. Sidebars
Importing layered Photoshop files           07m 17s
Understanding alpha channels           08m 26s
Understanding the background color           03m 38s
Avoiding problems with switches           03m 54s