Lessons
Class Introduction & What is After Effects
03:39 2Workflow Overview
09:18 3Importing Assets
11:46 4Creating Compositions
09:24 5Working with Layers
16:11 6The 5 Basic Properties
18:31 7Creating Text
12:12 8Understanding Animation
15:32Getting Efficient
07:51 10Adjusting Keyframes & Improving Animation
18:55 11Parenting Layers
06:19 12Using the Puppet Tool
05:59 13Animating Text
12:27 14Creating Shape Layers
20:05 15Adding Path Operations
21:19 16Using Effects
19:46 17Working in 3D
10:06 18Adding 3D Lights
05:03 19Working with 3D Cameras
06:16 20Nesting Compositions
06:03 21Masks and Track Mattes
13:13 22Camera Tracking
07:59 23Render Queue and Adobe Media Encoder
13:20Lesson Info
Working with 3D Cameras
So, I'm going to go ahead, continuing where I left off. I'm going to right click in a blank spot. Same way we created a new light, just now, we're gonna create a new camera. Now, by default, the cameras are set up to, just, like the default settings are setup to make it so you don't really mess anything up. So, when I add the camera, I click "okay". Our scene's gonna look pretty much the same, because the lens of the camera, it looks pretty much like it is, but the camera allows us to view our scene in a different way. We can actually change the focal length, which changes in the same way that a wide angle lens behaves differently than a long lens. In the real world, those types of lenses can be, you can put those types of lenses on the camera and after effect, and it has the same type of properties with. You have to have a really wide angle lens, and after effects, it's gonna distort as it gets closer to the lens, and everything looks more spread out just like in real life which is re...
ally cool. So what I can do here with this camera, and actually let me put that light back, just so that we can see our scene a little bit better. Even though I love that sexy silhouette. That's so dope, but just for right now, just for right now. We're gonna just leave it like this so we can see what's going on. So what I can do here, is I can get this thing called the Unified Camera Tool. In after affects there used to be three different camera tools for the different types of movement. And now there's just the Unified Camera Tool which is really, really great. So, with the Unified Camera Tool if I click with the one button, it's gonna orbit around. And, you can kinda see what's happening here, because we moved our layers in different 3-D dimensions, and if I keep going you could see really what's happening. We've just staggered them like this. They're offset a little bit. But, the difference is that when you move this around, it can kind of pan around a little bit and create a little bit of depth. You can also see that we're missing that from the lightening, because the lightening is just 2-D. We're really missing that, so what I'd probably do is go back in and you can change the settings, and say don't be affected by the lights. So, it'll still be 3-D but don't be affected by the lights. But for just right now, it's a little bit easier to do it this way. So, the left mouse button will orbit around stuff. I can do that. The middle mouse button will dolly or track, so it's like left and right, up and down. And, the right mouse button will actually dolly. We'll zoom in and out. And the more depth that you have, like our mountains, I didn't take the time to put the mountains far back in 3-D. So, we're not really getting that much depth out of them. But, if we did put 'em way far back, we'd really get that sense right now. So, I can go ahead and get in here, and go to Transform, and I'll set a key frame for position. And I think that when I click around, yeah, that's on moving it's position. Yeah, k. So, instead of key frame for position, and actually my starting point, I want to be kinda of maybe like this. And, maybe let's right click and hold, and zoom out, and then, I can go to the end so another key frame where we've rotated around. And, we're zooming in, we're pushing in. Actually, let me go back to widening, and just make that 3-D. There we go. So now, when I preview this, we move into our scene, and just feels like a little bit more realistic. It's kind of a crapshoot with the camera animation, so, I'd probably spend quite a bit more time fiddling with that angle, but you get the idea that we can go in here with our camera. We can push in. We could orbit around. We could do some things that make this feel like this is an actual world. I'd probably go back to, I don't know, the background mountains, for example, or maybe the castle. Move that back further. Go to the background mountains. Move those back a lot as well. Preview that I get a little bit more depth there. The castle's moving. It adds a lot. Now, what I was gonna say really quickly, is that we also have one of the other attributes. I just wanna answer this really, really quick. I didn't plan on covering this, but, if you go into camera options, depth of field is off. Those of you that work with cameras, ya know that depth of field is mighty delicious. So, I can go to depth of field. Click it "on". But, by default, it is off which basically means that everything is in focus. There's no, like, in focus or out of focus. Everything's just in focus when depth of field is off. When you turn it on, then you can have focus. And, it can be awesome. So, just like in the real world, we open up the aperture to narrow the field of focus. So I'm gonna increase the aperture quite a bit. Lemme zoom in here so we can see what's going on. And then, I can adjust the focus distance. So, I want to play with the focus distance. And actually, I might need to increase the aperture quite a bit here coz nothing's really out of focus that much. Maybe I need to increase the blur level. There we go. And then now, I need to adjust the focus distance. There we go. Right about there. So now, I wanna see the utility keys so you can see this a little bit better. So, now, we have the castle in the background. It's blurry and out of focus. These mountains are out of focus. Even the sky in the front's out of focus that these people are in focus coz they're on the same depth playing a stew. And so, again, it's a combination of all these things. The affects, the animation, the parenting, the lighting. The way that the animation's speed. The effects that we added to give more life to things. All these things in tandem create this really rich tapestry of an organic, engaging thing, that takes even great art and makes it even more exciting to watch.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Grace Duong
I really enjoyed this course! As a self-taught After Effects user, this was great if you want to cover the basics and understand the program even more. I also enjoyed Chad's obvious enthusiasm for After Effects and his energy. Definitely felt like I took away some useful tips for my workflow!
Pauly Wright
I bought this over a year ago when it was over $50 and it was still worth every penny then. I'm a videographer that knows Adobe Premier Pro and I wanted to understand After Effects more to make information, figures, stats in videos more engaging. Chad is really enthusiastic, passionate about what he does and he doesn't waffle. After watching this i'm now confident to put this in practise. Highly recommended.
a Creativelive Student
If you want to get into learning AE. Watch this video first. I've watched many AE tutorials and I still had many 'why' questions. Chad is great and explaining things and even uses great analogies so you understand what is going on. I highly recommend it. Thank you.