Focal Easy Guide to After Effects: For new users and professionals (The Focal Easy Guide) [Paperback]

Curtis Sponsler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2005 | ISBN-10: 024051968X | ISBN-13: 978-0240519685 | Edition: 1

If you want to become a resourceful creative artist then look no further! This quick reference to After Effects will show you how to open, install and get up-and-running to a professional level with Adobe's motion graphics and visual effects software package.

Curtis Sponsler guides you through some of the common stumbling blocks that frustrate novice and many intermediate designers. Clear and concise full color examples will help you to quickly learn the key features, interface and functional techniques used within the production workspace. By putting these key skills into practice you will discover how to build on and extrapolate concepts, enabling you to solve common production design problems straight away! You can then move on to build simple compositions and progress into the advanced feature-set of After Effects.

As you work through each section you will grasp an ever-increasing array of tools and capabilities to discover a program that will well and truly change your working life!

Associated Website: www.focalpress.com/companions/024051968X

* Achieve excellent results, fast, through Curtis Sponsler's expert teaching
* Clear and concise color coverage helps you explore the full power of the program
* Ideal for editors who want to learn how to push their skills to a professional level with this affordable package

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you want to master Adobe After Effects on either the PC or Mac platforms, this is the book to read... This really is a clearly laid out, well illustrated book that you will be able to start working from straight away. Both practical and user friendly, this book will really raise your game when using Adobe After Effects, whether you are a new user or a seasoned pro." - www.dvuser.co.uk

Book Description

The get up and running guide to After Effects!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 024051968X
• ISBN-13: 978-0240519685
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent for curious and first-timers, October 15, 2005

By 

schnoggi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Focal Easy Guide to After Effects: For new users and professionals (The Focal Easy Guide) (Paperback)

After Effects is an amazing program, so powerful, so intuitive. People that are already committed to taking it on will be better off with the excellent but very dense Trish Meyers books. People that have gentler goals and less technical experience will be overwhelmed by them, and probably quit before they really crack AE, so that's where this book comes in.

AE is potentially a radical tool; with it anyone with a computer and a DVD burner is a film and animation studio. Far more people could learn it, and to that end this book is a useful thing: it isn't as thorough as the Meyers books or the also-excellent H.O.T. book, but as a quick spin through the essentials, a teaser to get you excited and briefed so you'll be ready to take on heavier selections, it's a good choice.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Useful book with one main problem, October 24, 2006

By 

Susanna Luck "susannaluck" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Focal Easy Guide to After Effects: For new users and professionals (The Focal Easy Guide) (Paperback)

As an artist with a lot of 2d experience in animation who needs to absorb several new animation programs quickly, I find this book very easy to read and well organized.

There is one major problem though (actually, perhaps two).

Key components of the book are the 'downloadable' files located at the publishers' site online (rather than on CD as with other computer books). Many of these files seem to be corrupted or do not open in a newer version of AI. In addition there appears to be no 'help' page or resource for this problem from the publishers. I am unsure how much I'll be able to learn here without being able to perform many of the examples and lessons featured in the book.

I really want to like this book a lot more than I feel I am able.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent starter book!, May 22, 2007

By 

Katalin Nivelt "kati" (los angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Focal Easy Guide to After Effects: For new users and professionals (The Focal Easy Guide) (Paperback)

I love this book, it's easy to read and understand even for an artistic type. The book is spangled with pictures, and visual guides. I use this for my beginning motion graphics class and all kinds of students are able to understand it.

AND above all it is not horribly expensive like all other software books!

Great starter book if you want to get familiar with After Effects!