Creative After Effects 5.0 is by Angie Taylor, and boy is she WACKY---but in a that really neat wacky way. Her projects are a lot of fun and very informative, but more importantly by far, Angie is constantly encouraging you to run off on your own and play, try things, and have fun. The cool thing is that Angie gives you a mission right up front—using the large collection of stock video included on the book’s CD Rom along with the techniques taught in the book, come up with your own music video or opening title sequence for a mock television show. Which is really cool—because when you’re done, you’ve not only got a bunch of completed tutorials, but a project you’ve put together yourself from beginning to end.
Aside from covering all the basics of using After Effects 5.0, it’s good to note that Angie’s style if very different from that of Chris and Trish Meyers, whose books Creating Motion Graphics and After Effects in production are reviewed below. Angie’s work tends to have a 'cell animation' feel to it that is really neat. I’ve found myself coming again and again to her book when I wanted to do something outside the norm, and come up with something not everyone else is doing.
Creative After Effects 5.0 is a lot of fun and a lot of inspiration. We think it’s a great addition to the After Effects user’s arsenal, and highly recommend it.
Do you use After Effects? Do you wanna use After Effects? Do the ideas of track mattes, motion math, alpha channels, and luma mattes scare you silly? Get this book. It is THE After Effects Bible.
Every page is IN COLOR and chock FULL (I mean, no room to breathe...yet still somehow pleasant to look at) with tips, notes, warnings, and screenshots. Sure, there were times I didn't fully understand what was going on, but by taking a second look at the graphics and explanations, I pretty much got it all--me, a guy who SUCKED at math, geometry, graphs, anything that involved numbers in High School--I'm kicking out phrases like "interlopation" and "exponential scale!" Miss Ziccardi, my fifth grade math teacher, would be proud.
Nine sections break down the features of After Effects , starting with basic animation and key framing, and then gets into layers, masks, mattes, (all things I was REALLY scared of), effects, and rendering.
Then there's the CD-ROM, which gives 22 tutorials(!!!!!) and project files.
Chris and Trish Meyer are the best kind of teachers...the kind that care about their students. If you want to learn AE and really, really do some cool stuff, this book, and no other, is for you. Happy motion graphics!
This book is a companion for Creating Motion Graphics, reviewed here. If you’re an After Effects user and have done any research on the web, chances are you know that Chris and Trish Meyers are gurus. Their first book is still my bible for taking my motion graphics to the next level. Well, they wrote this as a sequel of sorts, and I now find that on every After Effects project I do, I’m pulling out both of these books for inspiration, and to remind me how the heck things like displacement maps, track mattes, and motion tracking work.
AFTER EFFECTS IN PRODUCTION is really an even more hands-on book, containing 12 step-by-step tutorials and six case studies of commercial projects that are designed not only by the Meyers, but other industry professionals as well. Each tutorial goes into the mind-set of the artist when they were working on the piece, as well as the “why” behind the steps, so it’s easy to pick out the techniques and use them in your own work.
What’s exciting about this new book is it delves into the new features of After Effects 5.0 as well, including 3d space, cameras, lights, parenting, and expressions—things that scare the hell out of me. Trust me, when I’m trying to figure out why my shadows aren’t working, this is the first book I tear into, not the AE manual. I’m not an AE geek, and don’t really want to be—usually I’m putting together a film title or a graphic for a client, and I need answers, fast.
These two books provide those answers, and let me get my work done faster. I figure I’ve saved al least a couple of grand just by having these books and not needing to 'experiment’ when time didn’t permit it. If you have After Effects, first get Creating Motion Graphics, here, and add this book to it. You’ll be SO happy you did.
