There is a plethora of plug-ins for After Effects and by utilizing these plug-ins, you can accomplish awesome effects using these third party plug-ins.
But before one can use "Plug-Ins to After Effects" by Michele Yamazaki, its important to note that you MUST at least have the following third-party plug-ins:
- Boris Continuum Complete
- GenArts Sapphire and GenArts Monsters
- Noise Industries FxFactory Pro
- Trapcode Suite
- Red Giant Magic Bullet Suite
- Digieffects Delirium
- Re:Vision Effects Effections Bundle
- Tiffen DFx Digital Filter Suite
- CoreMelt Complete
- The Foundry's Plug-Ins
- Adobe Pixel Bender Plug-Ins
Michele Yamazaki touches upon the following in each chapter:
CHAPTER 1 - Introduction to Plug-Ins
CHAPTER 2 - Color Correction and Color Effects (ie. using Boris Continuum complete, Red Giant Magic Bullet, Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse and more).
CHAPTER 3 - Effects (Blur, light effects, brushes, cartoon look, TV inspired effects and more)
CHAPTER 4 - Distortions, Warps, Tiling and Time Effects (Push Effect using GenArts Sapphire Distortion, Re:Vision Effects and more).
CHAPTER 5 - Creative Transitions: When a Simple Cut Just Isn't Enough! (CoreMelt Complete Transitions, Noise Industries FxFactory Transitions, Pixelan Creativeeaste Tranditions, Boris Continuum Complete Wipes and more)
CHAPTER 6 - Generators - Lens Flares, Particle Systems, Backgrounds and Textures
CHAPTER 7 - Invisible and Natural Effects (generating water, rain, atmospheric effects, fire and fireballs)
CHAPTER 8 - Text and Graphic Elements - Text Elements, FxFactory Type plug-ins, lines and paths and more.
CHAPTER 9 - Generating 3D Elements in After Effects - Utilizing Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator, Boris Continuum, mountains, cables and more.
CHAPTER 10 - Working with the 3D Camera - Digieffects Camera Mapper, Trapcode Horizon, Digieffects Snowstorm, Stereoscopic 3D Viewmaster and more.
CHAPTER 11 - Automation and Keyframe Generators (Automated Motion, Keyframes from Audio, Boris Continuum, Dance Club Eye Candy and more).
CHAPTER 12 - Keying and Compositing Greenscreen Footage (Keyers and Tools, Compositing Tools, Matte Cleaners)
CHAPTER 13 - Tracking, Matchmoving, Motion Stabilization and Rotoscoping (Imagineer mocha AE, Boris Continuum and more)
CHAPTER 14 - Fixing Video Problems (Noise and Grain, Lens Distortion/Barrel Distortion, Rolling Shutter and more).
CHAPTER 15 - Reference and Workflow
CHAPTER 16 - More on Plug-Ins: The FAQ
The DVD included with the book comes with the project files, demo versions of the plug-ins, fonts and more.
JUDGMENT CALL:
"Plug-In to After Effects" is a fantastic how-to book with project files for one to learn how to utilize these third-party plug-ins with great efficacy. But of course, this book is not for everyone as it does require you to own the third party software and these plug-ins are quite expensive. The good news is that the included DVD does have demo versions of the plug-ins but the good thing that I enjoyed about the book is that it does give you an idea of what plug-ins can be utilized to accomplish certain effects.
There are so many plug-ins out there but it helps to read from a professional who is familiar with the plug-ins to give you a good idea of how to use them and in some cases, you can tell which plug-ins Yamazaki tends to favor as they are featured quite often throughout the book.
If you are a person who wonders how certain effects are created and want to learn from one of the best After Effect gurus out there, "Plug-Ins to After Effects" is a wonderful resource and reference worth buying!
Highly recommended!
