Preface

Adobe After Effects is a versatile and powerful software application that stands at the forefront of motion graphics, visual effects, and video editing. Known for its industry-leading capabilities, After Effects is an integral part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, empowering creatives and professionals to bring their ideas to life with stunning visuals and dynamic animations.

Embark on a creative journey with this book as it unravels the intricacies of Adobe After Effects across three captivating parts: Motion Graphics, Post-Production and Visual Effects, and 2D and 3D Tracking and Rendering. Delve into the fundamentals of After Effects, with each chapter thoughtfully crafted to showcase practical examples. Following every chapter will not only enrich your understanding but also provide a hands-on experience through project-based examples, making the learning process both insightful and engaging.

Who this book is for

This book is designed for anyone who wants to learn Adobe After Effects from scratch or enhance their basic knowledge. Whether you are a graphic designer, UX/UI designer, motion graphics artist, video editor, or VFX artist, this guide is tailored to provide valuable insights, basic concepts, and tips and tricks to elevate your skills in After Effects.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting to Know the User Interface and Workflow, covers the basics of the interface and explains how to import media files to create compositions following the best practices and optimizing After Effects performance.

Chapter 2, Applying Effects and Presets to Create Animated Graphics, explains how to preview presets and apply built-in After Effects. You will learn the benefits of Precompose and how to adjust preset effects.

Chapter 3, Deep-Dive into Text Animations, discusses the unique properties of After Effects text animations. We will deep dive into the properties of text animators and other text options for animation.

Chapter 4, Animating Shape Layers, explains how to create shape layers and how to animate shape layers, apply animations, and connect shapes with null objects to create impactful animations.

Chapter 5, Adding Motion into Photoshop and Illustrator Graphics, explains how to import Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files into After Effects, and animate the layers of Photoshop and Illustrator using keyframing. This chapter will also cover the usage of the graph editor and expressions and explains how to incorporate audio into a composition.

Chapter 6, Creating Motion Graphic Templates for Premiere Pro, covers creating Motion Graphic Templates with controls that can be edited in Premiere Pro.

Chapter 7, Color Correction and Color Grading, shows you how to color correct and grade video shots in After Effects. After Effects lets you easily correct white balance, adjust contrast/brightness, and change the mode of video clips.

Chapter 8, Rotoscoping and Mask Tracking Techniques, takes you through rotoscoping in After Effects using the Roto brush and Pen tool, which will let you separate the foreground from the background in video clips and create masks. This chapter also covers how to remove unwanted objects using content-aware features in After Effects.

Chapter 9, Chroma Keying, explains how to remove green/blue screens from video clips and composite on a different background.

Chapter 10, Working with Particle Simulations, discusses how to create effects such as rain, fire, and smoke using the particle simulation effects in After Effects.

Chapter 11, Working with 2D and 3D Tracking, covers perspective and single point tracking using the 2D tracking features and tracking 2D footage with the 3D tracker to composite graphics over video footage.

Chapter 12, Exporting and Managing Projects, explains how to export compositions from After Effects and Media Encoder in formats such as .mov, avi, and mp4. This chapter will also cover how to consolidate a project’s media in one folder.

To get the most out of this book

Download and install Adobe After Effects from Adobe Creative Cloud, which should automatically install Media Encoder. In addition to Adobe After Effects, install Adobe Bridge as it is used in Chapter 2. Adobe also provides a 7-day trial version of these applications. Also, don’t forget to download the lesson/exercise files provided with the book (the link is provided in the next section).

When opening the lesson files in the latest version of After Effects, you will get a message saying After Effects: this project must be converted from version 22.6(Apple ARM 64). The original file will be unchanged. Just click OK to open the file in After Effects.

Software/hardware covered in the book	Operating system requirements
Adobe After Effects	Windows or macOS
Adobe Bridge	Windows or macOS
Adobe Media Encoder	Windows or macOS

Adobe After Effects version 2022 or higher is recommended. For the system requirements, please visit the Adobe After Effects System Requirements help document at https://helpx.adobe.com/in/after-effects/system-requirements.html.

Download the exercise files

You can download the exercise files for this book at https://packt.link/gbz/9781804617281.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “Now drag the sunset.mp4 file from the project panel to the composition icon in the project window to create a composition based on the properties of the media and duration.”

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “If you select the Next to Project option, the project will be autosaved as a new file in the same folder as your current project.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, email us at [e-mail] and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata and fill in the form.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [e-mail] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

Share Your Thoughts

Once you’ve read Adobe After Effects – Tips, Tricks, and Techniques, we’d love to hear your thoughts! Please visit https://packt.link/r/1804617288 for this book and share your feedback.

Your review is important to us and the tech community and will help us make sure we’re delivering excellent quality content.

Download a free PDF copy of this book

Thanks for purchasing this book!

Do you like to read on the go but are unable to carry your print books everywhere?

Is your eBook purchase not compatible with the device of your choice?

Don’t worry, now with every Packt book you get a DRM-free PDF version of that book at no cost.

Read anywhere, any place, on any device. Search, copy, and paste code from your favorite technical books directly into your application. 

The perks don’t stop there, you can get exclusive access to discounts, newsletters, and great free content in your inbox daily

Follow these simple steps to get the benefits:

1. Scan the QR code or visit the link below

https://packt.link/free-ebook/9781804617281

2. Submit your proof of purchase
3. That’s it! We’ll send your free PDF and other benefits to your email directly