Visual effects and motion graphics pros of all stripes--from broadcast professionals to VFX supervisors to Web designers who need to produce occasional video segments--will welcome the dramatically accelerated features provided in the brand-new After Effects CS3 This best-selling book has been revised to cover all that's new in this upgrade: Shape layers, which enables users to easily create and animate shapes; Puppet tool, which you can use to animate a 2D image like a marionette; powerful integration with Photoshop CS3; new support for Flash designers; the new Brainstorm panel, which lets you preview an array of different visual possibilities in one gorgeous panel; complete color management workflow; Adobe Clip Notes, which lets you attach comments directly to a composition; Adobe Device Central CS3, which lets you preview and test animations for mobile devices, and more. Designed around a single complex project that's broken down into manageable lessons, this book-and-DVD package mimics a real-world workflow--but one that readers tackle at their own pace. The DVD contains all the lesson files and footage readers need to complete the lessons.
Educational instructor notes—created to help teachers plan, organize, and time their lessons—are available for this book (and for other Classroom in a Book titles) at www.peachpit.com/instructorresources.
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
Neither comprehensive nor for beginners, May 26, 2008
By
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
I am totally unfamiliar with Adobe After Effects and based upon the title and experience with other Adobe Classroom in a Book titles, thought this would bring me gently into the After Effects universe.
Wrong. Totally wrong.
Rather than provide an overview of what After Effects does or is capable of, the book states "Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional provides a comprehensive set of 2D and 3D tools for compositing, animation and effects that motion-graphics professionals, visual effects artists, web designers and film and video professionals need. After Effects is widely used for digital post-production of film, video, DVD, and the web. You can compositer layers in various ways, apply and combine sophisticated visual and audio effects, and animate both objects and effects." That's it. That's the whole introduction to After Effects. Hardly illuminating and certainly not helpful to the neophyte.
The authors promises to teach the newcomer fundamental concepts and features - and it dispenses with that mission in a few inadequate pages.
Then it is on to learning the new features of After Effects CS3, which is what this book is all about.
But even that is not done well. Take for example these informative sentences: "You can pucker a shape by pulling the path's vertices inward while curving segments outward." There are no explanatory illustrations.
The lessons are nothing more than instruction lists with little explanation of what you are doing or why. The back cover declares "The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional". I don't think so. Not by a long shot.
Overall, a disappointment and not the way for a beginner to learn about the capabilities of After Effects.
Jerry
The Basics, October 23, 2007
By
Matthew H. Ross (Cincinnati, OH USA)
Great book for walking through the basic, prominent features of AE. The included DVD is a definite plus.
Another Great Classroom in a book!, October 17, 2007
By
WalterThis book is well written and fun to go through. It's a "must-have" for anyone who wants to dive into AfterEffects.
Not Bad, October 15, 2007
By
P. Studdard (Louisiana)
I have only begun working on the 1st 2 lessons. I have done the 1st one several times. It isn't that the book doens't have good information its just that it is often difficult to follow exactly what the writers are telling you to do. The lessons themselves are pretty basic and helpful. I just wish they could be a bit more specific so that I am not having to figure out what layers or project selection I am supposed to make. I have had the same problem with both lesson 1 and 2. I think a DVD lesson would have been better so that there would have been nothing left out of the details. Once you figure out what the writer wants you to select, the book isn't bad.
