Customer Reviews

Adobe After Effects 6 Hands-On Training

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While the author states that she is writting a cross platform book,
she ofter fails to explain the correct way of doing things on the Windows platform. The Windows user is left to figure it out on their own. The Windows user may find another title more suitable.

traditionally the Meyers books are considered the standard, but they're kind of dense, a lot to absorb, and they move through material a bit fast. If you're committed and hungry, then maybe they're what you want, but if you want a gentler beginning to build your confidence, I think you're better off starting with this book, and then taking on the Meyers books once you have a solid overall grounding. The difference in layout alone is plenty reason: this book has a lot more white space and breathing room, while the Meyers books are just crammed margin to margin, and feel smaller, even though they are the same size. Properly delivered, AE gives itself up wonderfully, but there's so much to it, you run the risk of overwhelm if it piles on too fast.

I am a Production Manager for a major TV Station in the Southwest. This is by far the most comprehensive and informative step by step book on "Adobe After Effects" that I have ever read on the subject. Perfect if you are a beginner and working on MAC platform. If you are already familiar with previous versions of After Effects maybe you should look for a more technically advanced book. But if you are new to the subject you won't find a better book than this one. Period!

Clearly the best tool for learning After Effects on the market. I have Total Training, Classroom In A Book, etc. None compare to this "hands on" tutorial. Very hard to put down.

This is a great guide to learning Adobe After Effects. Interactive and highly effective.

Before turning the first page of this book, the only thing I knew about After Effects was that it was an Adobe product. I breezed through the trainings with no problems, and by the end had a firm grasp of the program. The exercises are well written and straight forward. I found the instances of repetitiveness helpful because of the sheer volume of information covered. I flagged all the major charts and definitions for review, as I am sure this book will be a handy reference long after the last page. Familiarity with Adobe products such as Illustrator and Photoshop will help, but are not essential. I only wish Lynda had written a second volume to cover more advanced techniques as well, but I plan on using her H.O.T. line of books next time I plunge into unfamiliar software.

I'm brand new to After Effects. This book held my hand and walked me through it and gave me understanding. I'm still in the early chapters, but I find I can't wait to get to the next one. Lynda is so clear and complete in her explanations that it would be difficult not to understand and learn.

a bit more underlined than I was expecting, but its used,
so I guess that's what used means....many thanks,
I am going to make good use of it!

I've read most of the books on After Effects. This one stands out for clarity of instruction. Unlike many of the others, this is both broad in its coverage and it avoids the "just do this" that a lot of introductory books have. It explains the reasoning for picking certain keyframes and has an especially good coverage of 3D space in After effects. It is an introductory book, however, so you will find little on rotoscoping, only introductory information on expressions, and no coverage of keying, image stabilization, or advanced masking.

This book is very clear on instruction and a great place to start when working with After Effects. I took a chance on ordering through Amazon.ca without having seen a copy beforehand, but I don't regret it. Lynda puts out a lot of great stuff on Adobe and Dreamweaver (be sure to check out her site at www.Lynda.com to get a preview of books and materials before buying them at Amazon). I would give this book a five, however, it does get a bit annoying in places particularly because of the repetition. For instance, the very first thing Lynda teaches you is to save a project to a specific folder location, but for EVERY single activity you do she tells you to save it to that location, in that same folder, over and over again (For instance, in Chapter 6 she writes for the millionth time, "Save a copy of this file in the AE6 HOT Projects folder that you created in Chapter 2. This allows you to make changes, and still be able to return to the original if you should ever want to"). She does this for a lot of different tasks. If you really have no clue what you are doing, or if you only read one chapter every other month, maybe this is the perfect book for you. I've found it helpful except for those ever-annoying parts where she repeats instructions for the same task over and over again. She also repeats the instruction for the same task over and over again. See how annoying that can get?