Table Of ContentAFTER EFFECTS MOST
WANTED
CHRISTIAN DARKIN
CHRIS JAMES HEWITT
JOOST KORNGOLD
PETER REYNOLDS
MARK TOWSE
SIMON TYSZKO
After Effects Most Wanted Authors
Christian Darkin
© Apress 2002 Chris james Hewitt
Originally published by Friends of ED in 2002 Joost Korngold
Mark Towse
Peter Reynolds
Simon Tyszko
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
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any form or by any means, without the prior written
jon Bounds
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Editorial Proofer
The authors and publisher have made every effort in the Dan Britton
preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the
information. However. the information contained in this Project Manager
book is sold without warranty. either express or implied. jenni Harvey
Neither the authors. friends of ED nor its dealers or
distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or Technical Reviewers
alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this Brian Ganninger
book. Scott Manning
William Mcintyre
First printed October 2002 Peter Reynolds
Ned Seltz
Kevin Sutherland
Graphic Editor
Ty Bhogal
Cover Design
Katy Freer
Jon Bounds
Trademark Acknowledgements
Index
Simon Collins
Proof Reader
Mel Orgee
Author Agent
Laura jones
Additional material to this book can be downloaded from
http://extras.springer. com Commissioning Editor
Lums Thevathsan
ISBN 978-1-59059-163-5 ISBN 978-1-4302-5149-1 (eBook)
Managing Editor
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4302-5149-1
Sonia Mullineux
Copyright Thanks to:
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd.
The Coca-Cola Company
McDonald's
DDB Sydney
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 I'd Buy That For a Dollar 7
Reflections, Shadows and 3D
Chapter 2 Extreme FX 21
Multiple video clips and Morphing
Chapter 3 Video Art, Let's Dance 49
Split-screen FX and Video Choreography
Chapter 4 Eat Static 83
Relokation Ne-Abstract animation. Sound sync and TV FX
Chapter 5 jenovah 101
Advanced Layering
Chapter 6 I'm Sorry Dave, I'm Afraid I Can't Do That 129
Layering and Opacity, Giving 2D animation real depth
Chapter 7 Horror of Horrors 147
Amazing transitions
Chapter 8 How to Resurrect a Dead Fish 175
Bringing 3D models into and out of reality, including
special text FX
Index 211
AFTER EFFECTS MOST WANTED
AFTER EFFECTS MOST WANTED
How special are your effects' Are you Tim Burton or Ed Wood?
Whether you're working in TV, film, or the Web (or you want to!) you've seen what After Effects can do -
welcome to the book that'll show you how to do it.
We've gathered some of the best and most respected After Effects professionals and got them to reveal what
makes them tick - and their FX rock!
At friends of ED we believe we've been the only publisher to take the increase of digital video use seriously, and
have substantial experience of publishing on the technology within our DVision books (see
www.friendsofED.com/Dvision). Following on from our successful Photoshop Most Wanted, but tailored to the
specifics and workflow of After Effects. this book pulls together all of our knowledge and that of our authors into
a truly useful package.
When you look at the work of the authors involved in this book - and at their level it is work, however creative
-you can see the true potential of After Effects in the right hands. You may have already seen their work on TV
or on the Web - and that's where we hope to see yours. and soon.
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•••
INTRODUCTION
This book intends to take your After Effects knowledge and give you a leg-up to the level of our working
professionals. It should give you the inspiration to get to the summit and the tools you need to get there - the
rest is up to you.
Layout Conventions
We want this book to be as clear and easy to use as possible, so we've used a number of layout styles throughout.
We'll use different styles to emphasize things like filenames, KEYSTROKES OR SHORTCUTS and also hyper I inks. ...
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When we want you to click on a menu, and then through subsequent (EIIId-.-
sub-menus we will indicate to like so: Effect > Blur & Sharpen > Utact Cor<""' 511ft~T
Gaussian Blur. This would translate to:
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AFTER EfFECTS MOST WANTED
If there's something you should type in then it'll be 'in single quotes'.
1. Steps that you have to follow will be numbered.
2. Follow them through, checking the screenshots and diagrams for more hints.
Further explanation of the steps may appear betwixt the steps like so.
3. When you get to the end, you can stop - and you'll have a finished effect.
On the CD
As I'm sure you're aware, digital video files are huge and try as we might, there is no way we could fit all of the
pre-rendered After Effects Projects onto one CD, Christian Darkin's museum piece, for example was over seven
Gig! What we've done is included enough material for each chapter for you to follow and recreate our Most
Wanted effects - and where time, space and copyright have allowed us, the final movies. If the final movie file is
not in the chapter folder we've included web addresses where they can be found.
The CD content is organized in folders, each titled as the chapter and containing everything you need to follow
our authors' instructions. You as readers are encouraged to build your own customized projects.
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INTRODUCTION
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Support - we're here to help
All books from friends of ED aim to be easy to follow and error-free. However, if you do run into problems, don't
hesitate to get in touch - our support is fast, friendly and free.
You can reach us at [email protected], quoting the last four characters of the ISBN in the subject of the
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We'd love to hear from you, even if it's just to request future books, ask about friends of ED, or tell us how much
you loved After Effects Most Wanted.
To tell us a bit about yourself and make comments about the book, why not fill out the reply card at the back
and send it to us.
If your enquiry concerns an issue not directly concerned with book content, then the best place for these types
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For news, more books, sample chapters, downloads, author interviews, our new PDF shop and loads more, send
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Away you go!
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