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In this workshop, Adobe Technical Support Lead Todd Kopriva shows you all of the ways that you can track motion in After Effects, either to stabilize the motion or to apply the motion to another object. Get up to speed on the new Warp Stabilizer effect, which makes stabilizing shaky handheld footage much easier than it was in the past. Plus, see how to use the point tracker, which is the best way to stabilize motion in After Effects CS5 and earlier, and is still useful for some purposes in After Effects CS5.5. Finally, Todd shows how to use the mocha plugin—which ships free with After Effects—for scenes that can't be effectively tracked using the point tracker.

This course highlights some of the most exciting features in the latest release. These include enhanced 3D lights, cameras, and effects; the Warp Stabilizer; new stereoscopic tools; and the simplified audio workflow between Audition and After Effects. The course also includes bonus tips, "Tweaks for Geeks," on working more efficiently in After Effects, including searching, sorting, saving, and more.

After Effects CS5.5 New Creative Techniques was created and produced by Trish and Chris Meyer. We are honored to host their material in the lynda.com Online Training Library®.

In this course,, visual effects guru Mark Christiansen covers the relevant new features of After Effects CS5.5, including the new Warp Stabilizer, 3D Stereoscopic workflow, and Lens Effects tools. The course also covers light falloff enhancements and workflow improvements in this release.

In After Effects CS5 Essential Training, author Chad Perkins discusses the basic tools, effects, and need-to-know techniques in Adobe After Effects CS5, the professional standard for motion graphics, compositing, and visual effects for video. The course provides an overview of the entire workflow, from import to export, as well as detailed coverage of each stage, including animating text and artwork, adding effects to compositions, working in 3D, and rendering and compressing footage. Exercise files are included with the course.

In this course, author Ian Robinson introduces Adobe After Effects CS6 and the world of animation, effects, and compositing. Chapter 1 introduces the six foundations of After Effects, which include concepts like layers, keyframes, rendering, and moving in 3D space. The rest of the course expands on these ideas, and shows how to build compositions with layers, perform rotoscoping, animate your composition with keyframes, add effects and transitions, and render and export the finished piece. Two real-world example projects demonstrate keying green screen footage and creating an advanced 3D composition with the expanded 3D toolset, an important addition to CS6.

Get up to speed quickly with the new features in After Effects CS6. Join veteran After Effects user Chris Meyer as he explores the key enhancements to this industry standard visual effects and motion graphics software. Chris shares creative ideas and important production advice while covering the strengths of features such as memory optimization with the new global performance cache, 3D motion tracking with the 3D Camera Tracker, and the new 3D rendering engine for ray-traced 3D rendering.

Adobe After Effects CS6 has lots of new and enhanced features in many areas of the program, from importing and compositing to effects and especially 3D animation. In this course, Adobe Technical Support Lead Todd Kopriva walks you through all of them, including extruded text and shapes, the ray-traced 3D renderer, the 3D camera tracker, fast previews, and variable-width mask feathering. Plus, learn about changes to performance and the user interface, and how these can affect your workflow.

Speed up your character rigging and animation workflows with Duik, the free script-based toolset for After Effects. Duik is known for its inverse kinematics (IK) rigging and animation tools, but it also can help you save time and add diversity to everyday motion graphics. Owen Lowery takes you on an in-depth tour of all the essential tools in Duik, studded with challenges to test your skills and mini-projects that show Duik in action. Learn how to rig characters with the IK tools, rig bones of puppet pin-based characters, animate a walk cycle, and control keyframe interpolation and speed. Plus, find out how Duik can extend 3D cameras and discover how to create traditional frame-by-frame animation with the Cel Animation tool. Owen also shows how to make a character rig dance, without adding a single keyframe!

Learn how to create an animated shower scene for a product visualization inside Adobe After Effects. The complete scene features a chrome showerhead, water streams, steam, and a realistic background—all built in true 3D space with Element 3D, an AE plugin that makes it easy to build 3D objects and particle systems. Explore different shooting angles with the scene camera, and learn to add a depth-of-field camera. Discover how to completely automate the stream speed and thickness in a very natural looking way, all with sliding controllers. Then turn that effect into multiple similar (but not identical) streams, for a realistic shower spray.

This is a project-based learning experience. Each step of the process is rich with object lessons that are applicable to the variations that a motion design and compositing artist will face in the real world.

Expressions are an advanced feature of After Effects that many editors shy away from. The perception is that you need to be good at scripting to be able to use expressions. But basic expressions are easy to apply using simple point-and-click methods. They're incredibly useful for adding randomness to animation and effects, linking properties to synchronize animation, or even making effects react to music.

After Effects Expressions for Premiere Pro Editors is a creative, project-based workshop. Editors take a basic Premiere Pro edit and bring it to life using After Effects expressions and Dynamic Link, following author Angie Taylor's expert instructions. The concepts are broken down into manageable 3–5 minute videos, covering techniques such as randomizing effects, linking animation and color to sound, automating animation, and more.

As a designer, you're constantly challenged to create new and compelling imagery for your projects. That sometimes requires new tools. After Effects is known for animation, but it's also a powerful program for graphic designers. Its panels and basic features are similar to Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, which makes After Effects easier for designers to learn. This course offers a unique workflow, combining Photoshop with After Effects to create stunning, unique, and professional-quality assets for print, web, and photography. Instructor Chris Converse—founding partner of Codify Design Studio—shows how to create special effects, add dramatic lighting to photos, color key images, build textures and patterns, and generate artwork from almost nothing, producing effects like water, bubbles, lightning, and rain. The course is for any designer—even if you've never used After Effects before. Chris demos each example step by step, and shows how the results can be used in real-world design projects.

As a designer, you're constantly challenged to create new and compelling imagery for your projects. That sometimes requires new tools. After Effects is known for animation, but it's also a powerful program for graphic designers. Its panels and basic features are similar to Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, which makes After Effects easier for designers to learn. This course offers a unique workflow, combining Photoshop with After Effects to create stunning, unique, and professional-quality assets for print, web, and photography. Instructor Chris Converse—founding partner of Codify Design Studio—shows how to create special effects, add dramatic lighting to photos, color key images, build textures and patterns, and generate artwork from almost nothing, producing effects like water, bubbles, lightning, and rain. The course is for any designer—even if you've never used After Effects before. Chris demos each example step by step, and shows how the results can be used in real-world design projects.

Learn a variety of techniques you can use to prototype motion and interactions using Adobe After Effects CC 2018. The course starts with a review of the AE interface, showing how to set up After Effects for working on UX projects. The course then covers how to prototype gestures and micro-interactions using animation tools; how to create and export an app with interaction previews for client and team reviews, and more.

Learn a variety of techniques you can use to prototype motion and interactions using Adobe After Effects CC 2018. The course starts with a review of the AE interface, showing how to set up After Effects for working on UX projects. The course then covers how to prototype gestures and micro-interactions using animation tools; how to create and export an app with interaction previews for client and team reviews, and more.

After Effects has a powerful toolset, but there are some things Photoshop just excels at. Namely, manipulating raw images, color, and perspective. If you're a Creative Cloud subscriber, you have access to the entire suite of applications. So why not take advantage of both toolsets? In this course, Rich Harrington shows video professionals how to fully integrate Photoshop into a variety of After Effects workflows, including repairing images and building new assets for motion graphics and video effects.

Learn how to properly develop and then optimize raw files to increase performance in After Effects, and use Photoshop's advanced typographic controls. Find out how to use layer styles to add bevels, overlays, and glows, and correct lens distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. Rich also introduces a unique use for Vanishing Point, which allows you to export 3D objects for parallax movements and virtual sets. Plus, discover how to save out depth mattes for backdrops and keying, and use the powerful Content-Aware tools for background plates, set extensions, or recomposing assets. There's a lot to learn! Start watching to incorporate Photoshop's advanced tools into your next After Effects project.

Integrate Photoshop into your everyday video and animation workflows to save time, correct common video issues, and generate custom textures. After Effects guru Ian Robinson starts with the essentials: retouching, correcting color, and fixing distortion with Photoshop. Then he takes things further and shows how to prep still images in Photoshop for animation in After Effects. Next, learn how to use Photoshop to create environment maps that accurately reflect graphics when applied in After Effects or CINEMA 4D (C4D) Lite. In the last chapter you'll explore integrating Photoshop into a 3D production pipeline, making custom textures in Photoshop, and applying them via bump maps and normal maps in C4D Lite.

Learn how to animate infographics with Adobe After Effects! Many infographic elements begin life in applications like Illustrator, Photoshop, or PowerPoint. But these assets can be flat and boring; animation is what brings them to life. In this course, After Effects guru Ian Robinson covers animating charts and graphs with shape layers, layer masks, and stroke and text animators. He also shows how to use expressions to link animation between different graphic elements, build dynamic camera moves, and create some animated 3D infographics with CINEMA 4D Lite. To finish things off, he'll look at some third-party tools such as Cinema Spice Charts & Graphs for After Effects and aescripts, which help speed up some of the techniques you learned earlier in the course.

This episode of After Effects Guru combines the powers of Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and Illustrator to help you make polished logo animations for your clients. Learn how to use the Keyframe Assistant to build animations with multiple repeating elements, and animate with color, starting with grayscale values you'll use to generate different hues. Ian Robinson also provides some project-saving advice for what happens when you don't have access to the full-res version of a logo. Last, you'll learn about the best formats for outputting animated logo bugs and animations that contain transparency.

This course was created and produced by RHED Pixel. We're honored to host this content in our library.

Many designers get their start in animation with the simple desire to create interesting type animation, but they don't know where to begin. Let an After Effects guru show you the path. Join Ian Robinson for an in-depth look at all of the different ways you can animate type in After Effects, from animation presets to animated cameras. Rather than focusing just on the buttons, Ian focuses on creating and adding movement that matches the meaning of the words. Follow along as he dives into the process for deciding which tool is best to use for each effect.

This course was created by RHED Pixel. We're honored to host this content in our library.

There's a world of possibilities in the market inside of the Adobe Creative Cloud. Take a look at the tools and assets available for After Effects in the CC Market and Libraries. Ian Robinson explores the vector graphics, patterns, textures, brushes, and even user interface extensions available inside the CC Market. Then he shows how to search for, download, and install assets and organize them in CC Libraries, which can be shared between all Creative Cloud programs. The final three chapters put the assets to work in multiple motion graphic projects, including an animated SVG and a short promo video, using After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator.

Get up and running with Character Animator, the motion capture animation tool in After Effects CC. Character Animator can speed up your character-driven animation projects exponentially—eliminating keyframes and time-consuming dialog matching. AE Guru Ian Robinson starts you off by working with Character Animator templates. Then it's time to build characters with custom controls for animation, such as subpuppet attachment points and layer handles. Ian then shows how to drive animation with your mouse or touchscreen device, and control facial expressions, mouth positions, and body parts like hands, arms, and legs. He even shows you how to map keystrokes to drive animation in real time with body and head rotation or advanced physics simulations. Lastly, he reviews puppet behaviors for smoothing and transforming character motion, and shows how to refine, edit, and export recordings. The final output from Character Animator can be rendered with After Effects, Premiere Pro, or even Adobe Media Encoder.

Whether you're looking to "fix it in post" or "make it pop," After Effects offers a wealth of tools for making both technical and artistic color enhancements to your footage. And this class has you covered. Rich Harrington introduces a basic workflow for getting a shot back to its best natural state, and then advanced techniques that allow you to push your footage a little further: converting it to black and white or adding creative color. Start now and learn how to make your video look its best within After Effects.

This course was created by RHED Pixel. We're honored to host this training in our library.

How much time in your After Effects workflow do you spend applying simple key frames to layers in your composition, such as fade in and fade out? Wouldn't it be easier to save those effects as presets, so you don't have to recreate them? Follow Nick Harauz as he shows how to build presets that you can use in future projects. In this course, Nick explains how to create text presets, textures, and useful backgrounds. Plus, he looks at ways to control multiple layers in a project through expressions, null objects, and blending tricks. By the end of the course, you're equipped to develop your own library of presets, so that when you tackle your next After Effects project, you'll have an arsenal of custom effects and content that can help expedite your work.

In video, saving time on the simple tasks means you've got more energy left for the hard ones. Luckily, many effects and animations can be automated in After Effects, thanks to its robust effects and presets engine. In this course, you'll learn how to use existing presets, design custom effects and save them as presets, and save time with a variety of built-in animations that most users miss. Author Rich Harrington also shows how to install third-party presets, share and back up your presets, and organize them on your hard drive.

Expressions are an incredibly powerful feature in After Effects. They are a way to affect the values of properties using lines of code rather than keyframes. This makes expressions faster and cleaner than traditional animation techniques. In this course, author Luisa Winters demonstrates how to use expressions in Adobe After Effects. Watch and learn how to add and edit expressions, change dimensions like rate and value, and use variables to assign and change values globally. Plus, find out how to use the After Effects Expression Language menu and introduce randomness into expressions for more creative possibilities.