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After Effects Essentials

with Trish & Chris Meyer

Dates: 2 days – Saturday & Sunday, November 10–11, 2007

At Rich Media Institute, Venice, CA

Use CODE "9meyer3" or "mgla2" (no quotes) for $50 discount
($440 instead of $490 list).

In this intensive 2-day hands-on class at the Rich Media Institute in Venice, CA, learn the essential techniques for creating professional motion graphics in After Effects through in-class examples, tips and tricks used by the instructors Trish & Chris Meyer (authors of the best-selling "Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects" and "After Effects in Production" series of books) in their own professional work.

This course is for new users of After Effects who would like to hit the ground running – in the right direction! You'll learn not only how to create refined animations, but also how to organize a hierarchy of compositions so that a complex project is easy to manage and edit. Emphasis is placed on learning the most useful keyboard shortcuts and developing good working practices.

Although no prior experience is necessary, basic familiarity with After Effects will be helpful. It is suggested that students acquire After Effects Apprentice as a companion to this course.

Please note that this is a “bring your own laptop” course! You will need to have After Effects installed before the class begins.

While After Effects CS3 will be used for this course, the techniques taught are entirely applicable to version 7 (Standard version). Students are free to use either version.

Day 1:

Introduction to the After Effects Interface
Importing Footage
Navigating in time and space
Animating Transformations (Position, Scale, Rotation)
Editing motion paths in the Comp panel
Adjusting velocity controls and interpolation in the Graph Editor.
RAM Preview vs. Standard Preview
Layer management & trimming
Editing the Anchor Point
Making a complex animation easy with Parenting & Null Objects
Building hierarchies by Nesting and Pre-composing comps
Understanding the internal render order

Day 2:

Importing Photoshop & Illustrator files as Compositions
Continuously rasterizing Illustrator layers
Blending Modes
Alpha & Luma Track Mattes
Using Track Mattes in a hierarchy
Basic Masking techniques
Creating text and using Text Animators
Apply and animating Effects
Adjustment Layers
Using and creating Animation Presets
The Render Queue: time-saving shortcuts and workflow tips
FLV and SWF Export

About Your Instructors

Trish and Chris Meyer are principals in CyberMotion, an award-winning Los Angeles motion graphic design studio. Their design and animation work has appeared on shows and promos for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, The Learning Channel, HBO, and PBS. CyberMotion was one of the first studios to create major release film opening titles using desktop tools, and they have also created promotional and trade show videos for corporate clients from Apple Computer to Xerox.

In addition to their motion graphics work, Trish and Chris have written the books "Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects" and "After Effects in Productions", and they co-author the Motion Graphics column for DV magazine (www.dv.com) plus monthly Tips N Tricks articles at Artbeats.com. They host the Motion Graphics Los Angeles professional user group (www.mgla.org).