Customer Reviews

Adobe After Effects CS5 Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first became interested in After Effects as a result of reading Stu Maschwitz's The DV Rebel's Guide. When I actually started learning the program, I became fascinated for a while with its abilities to create "cool" looking animations. Ultimately, though, I wanted to learn it in order to put finishing touches on video projects, to make them look as good as they possibly could. That's really what this guide is about - learning how to become an effective power user of After Effects for video postproduction work. It's no accident that Stu Maschwitz wrote the preface to this guide - and that he and Mark Christiansen worked together at the Orphanage visual effects studio. There's lots of advice on a wide range of subtle issues, many of which I'd never faced before and had to just catalogue as "things to be aware I might need to know when I face them" - but where I found the book to be most helpful for someone (like me) moving into an intermediate level of competence with AE is in his extremely helpful and detailed advice on masking, tracking and keying. Reading this book (and working along on the included illustrative video files) is not like reading an encyclopedic textbook - it's like getting sage advice on a range of related topics from a master in his field, an insider's look at what's possible with the versatile set of tools available in After Effects, and insight in how to tweak those tools to get from them everything they can give.

I think it's helpful to think of AE as having two major capabilities: it is a motion graphics generator, and a visual effects compositor. It's very good at doing both of these things, but which one of them is more important depends on the needs of the user. Roughly, it's ability to generate complex motion graphics (whether by itself or by combining elements taken from other sources) is likely to be most important for those working in commercial work (like commercials or title sequences). It's abilities as a visual effects compositor (where the emphasis is on manipulating and applying effects to images that have been captured elsewhere, such as video and photographs) are likely to be most important to the independent filmmaker. That's really what this guide emphasizes, and I would say it's one of the very few essential guides to After Effects. The other, that focuses more on its capacities as a motion graphics generator, is the appropriately named Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.

Where "Creating Motion Graphics" might be thought of as the After Effects bible - that covers literally all of the essential skills and techniques you can make use of in After Effects, this one combines an insider's understanding of the subtleties, with a practical outline of the fundamental techniques for using After Effects as a filmmaking tool. It doesn't cover everything (though it's far more than you can expect to take in on a single read through), but shows you how to do the kinds of things you're likely to need as a filmmaker using After Effects to do compositing and effects work on pre-captured film or video. Even for those who mostly use AE for commercial type work would benefit, though, from the opening chapters on "Working Foundations" - that outline what were for me at least a very helpful series of "best practices" for working efficiently. One thing you learn quickly starting out is that there are a number of different ways to get things done in After Effects. This book focuses on the most efficient ways to get things done. Each chapter covers a lot of ground very quickly, so quickly I had to read it slowly - so it's the kind of thing I know I'll re-read several times before everything starts to gel. Christiansen writes clearly, but where he is addressing difficult subjects such as how After Effects calculates pixel values at the edges of overlapping layers, his emphasis tends to veer towards being precise and direct rather than achieving clarity at the cost of oversimplification.

It should be clear enough that this is not a book for beginners - it can get quite technical - and you're not likely to get the full benefit out of this book unless you already have a fairly solid working knowledge of how After Effects works. While there are video files included on the dvd that comes with this book, they are there by way of illustration and exploration. There aren't any tutorials here where the author tells you exactly what to do to achieve a very specific effect. Almost everything in this book is general advice, on essential skills and techniques, and on the inner workings of the program where understanding this is necessary for troubleshooting recurrent issues. This is not, in other words, the first book to buy if you really want to master this program - probably the best place to start is with After Effects Apprentice (by the authors of the more comprehensive and intermediate guide "Creating Motions Graphics with After Effects") - but it is an essential book, especially for those who are most interested in using After Effects as a postproduction tool for film and video, and not primarily or exclusively to generate motion graphics.

If you're looking for a crash course in compositing within Adobe After Effects, thanks to the revisions, this book is now the best one stop solution for compositing.

Prior editions required a working knowledge of After Effects. This edition assumes you know little.

I bought this book despite owning prior editions. I have not upgraded After Effects from CS4. So why buy? For one, the author has taught for a few years, so he's more aware of what potential buyers DON'T know about After Effects and compositing.

That means there writing is less terse than the CS4 edition of this book. It's more inviting. More details and explanations. More illustrations for concepts. And revised chapters.

The author has rewritten and expanded on the green screen section, which is really why I bought this book.

The DVD comes with new video material. I only wish it came with a PDF copy of the text for portability.

After reading some of the other reviews on this site, I decided to purchase this book because I wanted a more in depth look and explanation of After Effects CS5 along with a guide to better techniques. The book does a good job going over some of the simpler effects and provides some solid methods in tackling different situations one might encounter. However, I found the actual descriptions of the procedures to be very lacking. A perfect example is in the section detailing the mocha 2 application that now comes with CS5. There is about six and a half pages which talk about it, but mocha really needs a chapter to truly show you the power of the program. I ended up having to go to the mocha website in order to achieve a thorough understanding of its tracking abilities. Time and time again I ran into the same problem going through this book. Complex techniques and methods are sometimes explained well but often glossed over leaving the reader scratching his or her head. I found myself constantly going to the After Effects Guide and other websites for better descriptions on the topics being talked about. I understand the gist of most of the subjects. However, I bought this book to learn the details on how to get certain results, and the author is not big on step by step procedures. To simply say that this book is not for beginners is no excuse for unclear and confusing text. I find it much more useful doing the tutorials from Creative Cow and Video Copilot which are free to the user and much easier to understand. I realize part of the limitations of a book is that it is harder to teach with than using a visual medium. With that said, I hope future generations of this book contain more illustrations and take a few more pages to better explain the complicated techniques needed to pull off some of these effects. I am sure the author is an After Effects genius and is very knowledgeable about the program. He also provides useful techniques that artist will use in the field. He just needs to present the material in a more straightforward, simplified manner. I guess the best way to describe it is, the author writes as if you already understand what he is talking about. I've had teachers like that before where they go through an entire lecture, and I feel dumb because I don't know what is going on until I look around and realize nobody else knows either. Unfortunately, with a book no one can raise their hand to stop the teacher for clarification.

I am finding this book incredibly helpful in my journey to not only understanding the basics of After Effects CS5 but, more importantly understanding the underlying logic of After Effects -- all essential to making it After Effects work as a video art form.

While Mark mentions in the book's intro that this is not a book for beginners, I am a relative newcomer and I am finding the book helpful and in fact indispensable. First of all his initial Section does indeed cover the working foundations of After Effects in a way that both advanced and, newcomers such as myself, can easily understand. In addition sprinkled on almost every single pages are tips that beginners (and advanced users) will find essential and time saving, and thus creative enhancing.

Importantly, Mark's writing style is enjoyable and entertaining and is making my journey into the magic of After Effects something that I am looking forward to.

I was one of the first persons ordering this book from Amazon and am still digging through it. It's quite an adventure, and I recommend this book for those who want to know more than just the basics of the program.

...Rowby

I bought this book to help me get a grounding in after effects. The book has a lot of depth to it but is presented in an easy to read style. This book will give you a lot on information on the craft of visual effects, not how to use the latest and greatest after effects plugins but a good solid grasp of how to achieve good keys, colour balance / correction etc with any tool.

I contacted the Author, Mark as i had bought the kindle version and was missing (the really good) project files that come on the DVD and he was good enough to point out that he has included a link in the back of the book that grants access to the files. so a must buy book that is still great as a reference even after you have read it the first time.

Definatley recommended

This book is very ambiguous and confusing to say the least. It says it's not a book of tutorials but yet at times it attempts to walk you through certain specific steps (techniques) referencing files that aren't even in the DVD. In some explanations it skips steps and assumes you know how he got to a certain point in a project. You have to figure out what he did on your own... It's almost like two compositors having a conversation and you're not included..

About 25% of this book is interesting and serves as a good solid professional reference guide. But the rest is up in the air for you to figure out what he meant, what he skipped, sift out the typos, or even guess if the files or projects it's referencing are even on the DVD. I'm surprised the publisher even let it out the door. Poorly written, edited and checked. Tsk, tsk.

It does not give an elementary introduction to the keys and functions. It's for someone more advanced and looking for tips and shortcuts and who doesn't need virtually any visual aids. I needed a basic, cursory introduction to the layout and keys and their functions because until that is established the rest of the tips, the book, is virtually meaningless.

The order was received very fast with awkward packaging, but sufficient protection. The book that I got was in perfect shape and as described.

I found the book to offer advice for a range of experience levels. I believe a lot of beginners made the mistake of getting this book to help them navigate AE. If you are just starting to use after effects this is not the book. I recommend After Effects Apprentice by Trish and Chris Meyer. This book does offer some advice for the novice but about 90% of the material is really for intermediate to advanced users. The author knows his stuff and does offer tips to streamline tasks. A lot of the information in this book does help the reader to better grasp the functions involved to "sell" effects and give them a realistic edge. This book is intended for those that have an understanding of AE and want to add an edge to their projects that will help them stand out of the pack. I recommend this book to intermediate to advanced users.

Great resource to support anyone learning After Effects. Information that will help prepare you for any project on which you work. Strong support tool to have at your side while working. Can be challenging to read at times, but a lot of things in video are difficult to explain on paper. This book is intended use as you experiment with the test file combing the knowledge on paper with hands on work. Some things you may need to read through multiple times, but eventually you'll make sense of the information.