Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners

In the past couple of years, great quality homemade special effects videos have become very popular. A lot of the effects you see in those videos are done using an amazing program known as Adobe After Effects. If you'd like to get to know more about this application and how to use it, watch the free Adobe After Effects CS5 video tutorials for beginners below. These are from After Effects CS5 Essential Training by lynda.com. It's an 8 hour training course that teaches you the things you need to know to start making your own awesome special effects videos. If you want to watch the entire course, you can sign up for a lynda.com membership. Or if you want to try it out first, visitors of Tutorials 101 can get a get a free 7-day trial pass.

After Effects CS5 Essential Training by

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WATCH THESE 14 FREE VIDEOS FROM THE COURSE

Introduction to After Effects CS5 Essential Training


What is After Effects? - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


After Effects workflow overview - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Bringing elements into After Effects - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Adding elements to the Timeline - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Working with layers - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Using the Puppet tool - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Creating a fireball - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Creating a galaxy scene from scratch - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Creating and using lens flares - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Slowing and accelerating video speed - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Using the Roto Brush tool - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Animating growing vines - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners


Stabilizing shaky footage - Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners

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Course Information

Training Provider: Lynda.com
Title: After Effects CS5 Essential Training
Author: Chad Perkins
Duration: 8hrs 39mins
Date of release: 30 April 2010

Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
What is After Effects?
How to use the exercise files

Chapter 2: Introductory Project
After Effects workflow overview
Bringing elements into After Effects
Adding elements to the Timeline
Working with layers
Creating animation with presets
Applying effects
Creating animation without presets
Previewing your work
Exporting content as a movie file

Chapter 3: Getting Started with After Effects
Touring the interface
How After Effects projects work
What is a composition?
Tips for adding content to compositions
Understanding the properties of video

Chapter 4: Learning to Animate
Importing an Illustrator file
Animation basics
Animating opacity
Understanding anchor points
Animating position
Animating rotation
Animating scale
Using the Puppet tool
Copying and pasting keyframes
Animation shortcuts

Chapter 5: Precomposing and Nesting Compositions
Understanding precomposing
Navigating through compositions quickly

Chapter 6: The Power of Effects
A showcase of effects
Creating a layer for effects
Applying effects
Animating effect properties
Using Glow
Creating patterns and textures
Creating a fireball
Using the Cycore effects
Adding blur
Creating a galaxy scene from scratch
Distorting objects with effects
Creating and using lens flares
Creating lightning bolts
Viewing random variations with Brainstorm

Chapter 7: Working with Video
Shortening the duration of layers
Trimming in the Footage panel
Slowing and accelerating video speed
Applying video transitions between clips
Working with image sequences
Importing footage with an alpha channel

Chapter 8: Color-Correcting Footage
Brightening dark footage
Changing colors in footage
Creating cinematic color treatments
Creating a quick vignette
Colorizing black-and-white objects
Using adjustment layers

Chapter 9: Creating and Animating Text
Creating and editing text
Applying text animation presets
Animating text manually
Applying layer styles to text

Chapter 10: Becoming More Efficient
Let's get better
Using work areas
Creating markers
Replacing layers
Mastering Timeline navigation
Aligning and distributing layers
Selecting layers quickly
Cropping layers
Adjusting comp resolution

Chapter 11: Painting
Using the paint tools
Using the Roto Brush tool
Animating growing vines

Chapter 12: Working with Masks and Shape Layers
Creating and using masks
Exploring mask options
Creating masks with Auto-trace
Masking objects with other objects
Making shape layers
Modifying shape layers

Chapter 13: Working in 3D
Turning 2D layers into 3D layers
Creating lights and cameras
Creating shadows
Using depth of field
Working with 3D effects

Chapter 14: Keying and Compositing
Removing a green screen background
Refining the matte
Compositing with color adjustments
Compositing with blend modes

Chapter 15: Intermediate Animation
Understanding spatial interpolation
Creating and adjusting motion paths
Orienting moving objects along a path
Drawing motion with Motion Sketch
Creating pauses in animation
Understanding temporal interpolation
Easing keyframes
About the Graph Editor

Chapter 16: Stabilizing and Tracking Motion
Stabilizing shaky footage
Tracking the motion in footage

Chapter 17: Parenting and Expressions
Setting up parent layers
Working with null objects
What are expressions?
Modifying simple expressions
Using the wiggle expression

Chapter 18: Working with Audio
Understanding audio in motion graphics
Previewing and mixing audio
Enhancing audio tracks with effects

Chapter 19: Rendering and Compression
Adding comps to the Render Queue
Exploring key Render Queue settings
How should I export my video?

Chapter 20: Integration
Using Photoshop with After Effects
Using Illustrator with After Effects
Using Flash with After Effects

About Lynda.com

Lynda.com is an online video training provider with over 1000 courses covering a wide array of topics - 3D, video, business, the web, graphic design, programming, animation, photography, and more. They produce top quality video tutorials with the best industry experts as your instructors. With a subscription, you can log-in at any time, and learn at your own pace. New courses are added each week, and you will receive a certificate of completion for each course that you finish.

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Want to watch the rest of these Adobe After Effects CS5 Video Tutorials for Beginners? Then become a lynda.com member today! Your membership also gives you access to the entire lynda.com library of over 1000 courses.

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