The After Effects Illusionist: All the Effects in One Complete Guide

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Two thumbs...way up!!!!, November 17, 2009
By Mark L. Santella (Cheshire, MA)

This book will make you a better motion graphics designer. I was an average After Effects user...but no more. Chad has organized this book so effectively that you will become a better Illusionist immediately. It is written clearly and illustrated perfectly. This is the ULTIMATE reference for After Effect effects. It's a keeper. You can't have mine! Buy your own!




Good, but still slightly disappointing, August 28, 2009
By GameMaker (Portland, OR USA)
First let me say that I'm a big Chad Perkins fan. His books and especially his video training series are great. You can't help but love his enthusiasm and depth of knowledge. So I eagerly snapped this book up when I was faced with a project that required me to do a lot of special effects that I basically had no clue how to do. This seemed like the perfect book for that.

Well, after having it a while, and reading some of the sections, I have kind of mixed feelings. What I was really hoping for was a good reference. A book that I could keep on my bookshelf and when I wanted to figure out how to use a certain effect in After Effects, I'd look up that effect in the appendix, turn to the chapter, and read what the various knobs mean and how to effectively use it. Sadly, it's not really that kind of book. It is well organized, and it contains a lot of good information. But when you look up an effect, instead of getting a very concise explanation of how it works and what the knobs do, Chad give you more of "here's one way you can use it".

Anyhow, decent book, I'm glad that I got it. Reading through the chapters is interesting and instructive, but I'm still left looking for an ideal reference manual to the effects in After Effects.



The Most Fun Motion Graphics Book Ever, May 14, 2009
By Jack B. Hunt
There is a distinct line between the artistic side and logical side of motion graphic artists. Chad Perkins book hits a home-run with "The After Effects Illusionist" by perfectly bridging the gap between the two. The power of After Effects lies in effects, and Chad walks through them all. It is the most fun motion graphics book ever written. You will not be able to distinguish work from play when going through this book. Chad uses his strength of taking the most complex material, condensing it and making it understandable to everyone, all with his great well-known enthusiasm. The books covers areas I have not seen written or discussed elsewhere. I highly recommend it for all After Effects users.

Jackson Hunt
VP of Marketing
SerTech



It's About Time, May 6, 2009
By D. B. Ross
As an After Effects user for more than 10 years, I can't recommend this book highly enough. To have a resource that illustrates and explains ALL of the effects that ship with the program, you know, the ones you generally pass by on your way to your favorite third party plug ins, is long overdue. Though the subject has the potential to bog down and be dry, it never does thanks to the excellent humor and fullness of understanding of the author. Chad seems to be the sort of instructor that is infinitely patient, totally prepared and completely sincere while passing on a great deal of knowledge and keeping things fun. Again, I highly recommend this book.



Simply the BEST, February 1, 2009
By Daniel D. Orlando (Tempe, AZ USA)
I've recently been reading a lot of books on creating motion graphics, and I must say that "The After Effects Illusionist" is definitely top 3, and quite possibly my number 1 favorite. I absolutely love the simplicity of the organizational structure of the book. Instead of organizing the content in a way that the author assumes the reader should see it, the author instead simply goes through every single one of the 189 effects included with After Effects CS4 in alphabetical order, the same exact way that they are listed in the Effects and Presets panel in After Effects. Additionally, the tutorials are incredibly easy to follow, and my favorite thing - the best part of this book - is the DVD that comes with it... It is quite apparent right away the amount of time and effort author Chad Perkins must have put into writing this book by the 1.96 gigabytes of data on the DVD. On this DVD, I was pleasantly surprised to find a boat-load of example projects that the author made for you to use as "starting points" so you can literally learn by doing. Often I will go through a particular tutorial on an effect, and then put the book down and just continue to mess around with the project based on the information I just learned.

Bottom line - this is an incredible learning tool if you want to become the next multimedia "illusionist" using After Effects. This is one of few books I can honestly say has far more value than it's price.