Adobe After Effects CS4 Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: color management, creative explorations, shutter angle, After Effects, Effects Compositing Essentials, Working Foundations (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This is the only book in the After Effects market to focus exclusively on the creation of visual effects, and is a one-stop resource for anyone who wants in-depth explanations that demystify the realm of visual effects and how they were created, thanks to veteran author Mark Christiansen's friendly and accessible style. A thoroughly packed, informative read, this masterful guide focuses on explaining the essential concepts, features, and techniques that are key to creating seamless movie-quality visual effects. Users who are comfortable with After Effects will find a helpful review of After Effects fundamentals—managing footage, viewing and editing layers, animating type, and more—so they can learn how to work smarter and more efficiently. Readers of all levels will learn core techniques for effects compositing including color matching, keying, rotoscoping, motion tracking, emulating the camera, and concluding with using expressions in After Effects, written by contributor and expert Dan Ebberts. The final section of the book delves into creative explorations, demonstrating professional effects that readers might want to re-create.

Readers will also find comprehensive coverage of all that's new and makes this version of Adobe’s effects program such a boon to video pros of all stripes: searchable timelines and projects, Photoshop 3D layers import, the Cartoon effect, Imagineer Systems’ Mocha for Adobe After Effects, improved workflow for mobile devices, and more.

Throughout the book, beautiful full-color examples demonstrate what's possible, while the companion DVD offers demos of After Effects CS4, sample footage, and software plug-ins.

About the Author

Mark Christiansen has created visual effects and animations for feature films, network television, computer games, and an array of high technology companies. Recent clients include Adobe Systems Inc., Evil Eye Pictures, The Orphanage, History Channel, and HBO as well as Seagate, Sun, Intel and Medtronic. Feature credits include The Day After Tomorrow, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and films by Robert Rodriguez. He is the author of the previous editions of Adobe After Effects Professional Studio Techniques.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Adobe Press; 1 Pap/Dvdr edition (December 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321592018
• ISBN-13: 978-0321592019
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,550 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting expression language for coding, January 6, 2009

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The text provides indepth explanations of many special visual techniques made possible in After Effects. It seems like a fairly advanced treatment, where ideally you have already used After Effects to some extent, and possibly also Photoshop.

One appeal of the book is how it shows differences with the way that Photoshop treats some methods. An example is in the chapter on compositing, where After Effects offers you Curves control for gamma correction (amongst other uses). Its approach is not that of Photoshop, and the comparison is useful.

For programmers, the book delves into the use of expressions, which is the coding language of After Effects. Used for dynamic situations, where you have a sequence of frames. Some readers will be reassured by the remark that this language is derived from a subset of JavaScript. However, the expression language is not as powerful as OpenGL. This may perturb some After Effects fans but hopefully you can get over it. The language lives within the frame of After Effects and is quite useful in this context. But it is not a fully fledged graphics programming language. The drawback of course with OpenGL is that you don't get the nice stuff in After Effects, so this is the tradeoff.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Learning Tool and an Easy Read, June 16, 2009

By	B. Moore (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a longtime digital artist relatively new to the After Effects arena and Compositing in general, I find this book to be an invaluable learning tool that I'm constantly referencing. It's very well written and manages to integrate both the artistic side and technical side of compositing and After Effects. It's not overly heavy on tutorials, which is nice, because those can be found anywhere online. Instead, the book explains by showing how and why using a certain tool or method is the optimal approach. There's often sidebars that explain the technical reasons as well.

Part of what I like most about the book is the tone of the author, Mark Christiansen. He's got a sharp wit, that's evident in his writing style and I caught myself laughing a few times which I can't say has ever happened to me while reading a book on software/design training. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to beef up their After Effects skills and more specifically, those who want to learn compositing as an art form.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, January 20, 2009

By	Dan Ramirez - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I also own the CS3 book by the same author.

Highly recommended. Lots of detailed information to be found, both for After Effects and VFX/Compositing in general.

I could probably be categorized as an intermediate user and the book seems to be at the perfect level for me. There are probably better books for an absolute beginner, but everyone else will find a reason to keep it around, even the seasoned pros.