Lessons
Lesson Info
Class Introduction
I'm really excited about this class because we use After Effects in our design studio all the time for all of our print work, for photography work. We use it to create special effects, and just do anything that's interesting to make something more visual. We're always being asked to create content for blogs, content for posts on medium for social media, print pieces, PDFs, and you're always trying to create some new sort of look, or something interesting. And so what I wanna do is show you some of the techniques, and some of the things that we do inside of After Effects to really enhance graphic design for us. So if you're familiar with Photoshop, Photoshop has this idea of an effects panel in the layers panel. And so effects in Photoshop give us the ability to do things like add drop shadows, color overlays. Just basically effect the artwork. Well After Effects is all about effects. It's taking that effects in Photoshop, and just multiplying them. And so one of the differences you'll ...
see when we start using After Effects is some of the terminology is a little different. However, once you get past some of this terminology, you already know the basics of After Effects. Because it works just like Photoshop. So when we talk about layers in Photoshop, that's gonna be in the Timeline panel in After Effects. The Canvas in Photoshop is referred to as the Composition in After Effects. Linked Files, as in Linked Files inside of the SmartObject in Photoshop is showing up in the Project panel in After Effects, and then a SmartObject in Photoshop where we sort of encapsulate information about a particular piece of art or multiple layers is a Pre-Comp inside of After Effects. So you can open that up, change stuff, close it back up, and reuse that within your composition. So the idea in a workflow is exactly the same. So here's some of the things that we're gonna be doing. We're gonna be taking some artwork from Illustrator, and we're gonna be turning that into a globe. We're gonna turn this into a three-dimensional shape inside of After Effects. Then from After Effects we can go right to Photoshop, colorize this, create some layer comps, which we can then activate inside of InDesign. So this will give us the ability to custom-create artwork for an ongoing print campaign, and never have to go back and look for stock photography. We can create our own artwork as much as we need, so we can rotate our globe and highlight any city. In our other class, Into to Sketch for Screen Design, and Creating Your Custom, Your First Webpage With Code, we used this cutting board shape here, and we actually created this artwork in Photoshop using After Effects, and we shot this in a studio, and we did some bracketing, but I wanted to show the too-dark version, and the non-saturated version against a blue screen. Because in After Effects we can use the keying tools, and really quickly key out information that we can then bring over to Photoshop, and then use in print, use on the Web, and we'll show you these, these samples, and again this is the artwork from the other class, so this is actually how we created it. And then there's tons of other things we can do. We can take photography that's not quite as interesting, this is a still frame from a video. We can add a sunset to it with a reflection in the water. This is the same image. We created all these effects inside of After Effects. Same thing for statues. We can just create a whole bunch of visual interest by not only changing queue and saturation, but applying lighting effects, and really playing off the sunlight for example, shining off this particular statue. We're just taking what was already there, and just really sort of exaggerating it, and just making something that looks really interesting. But in addition to just modifying photography, we can also use After Effects to generate artwork from nothing. We can use fractal noise and effects to create an effect of water. We can use kaleidoscope effects and checkerboard patterns, and modify all these settings to just create these really interesting patterns and shapes. And then finally we can even do things like modify existing photography. So we can take champagne glasses that have no bubbles, and add bubbles. We can use particle systems in After Effects, and combine that with bevel and emboss in Photoshop, and just create these really realistic effects. And then finally we're gonna end today with taking this logo, and applying this into a 360-degree photograph using a new set of plug-ins that Adobe acquired from a company called Metal. And so we can take two-dimensional flat artwork, and have After Effects wrap this into a 360-degree photography, so we can then move this around and begin to change this. So these are some of the things that we're gonna be doing today so I'm really excited, so let's get started.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Trang Le
Amazing class. Recently, I've been wondering whether it is worth learning motion graphic and animation with After Effects. After watching this class, however, I've realized that the possibilities for After Effects are endless. I never thought it could be used to enhance 2D graphic design, photography, print designs etc. Christ Converse is very patient and thoroughly explains what, and why he was doing certain things in After Effects. He also presented a scenario for what to do when we don't have good material to begin with. Definitely recommend this for everyone new to AE.
Yog Amreet
This class had a tremendous impact on my workflow. I used to work as an image editor for years but never thought about After Effects as a solution for editing still images. Chris has opened my eyes to a new dimension. Actually, all his classes are great, well prepared, in a good pace, a lot of information that would be hardly to find out anywhere else.
Nelson Mueller
This is a great class! Very cool how he used After Effects with Photoshop to create those effects. This definitely helped me understand more on how to collaborate between Adobe softwares to create some great artwork. Also, he teaches very well, making learning new things very easy.
Student Work
Related Classes
Motion Graphics