This is the only book to focus exclusively on the creation of visual effects for After Effects, and is a one-stop resource for students who wants in-depth explanations that demystify the realm of visual effects and how they were created. A thoroughly packed, informative read, this masterful guide focuses on explaining the essential concepts, features, and techniques that are key to creating seamless movie-quality visual effects. Students who are comfortable with After Effects will find a helpful review of the fundamentals-managing footage, viewing and editing layers, animating type, and more-so they can learn how to work smarter and more efficiently. Students of all levels will learn core techniques for effects compositing including color matching, keying, rotoscoping, motion tracking, emulating the camera, and concluding with using expressions in After Effects. The final section of the book delves into creative explorations, demonstrating professional effects that students might want to re-create.

Author Biography

Mark Christiansen (christiansen.com) is a visual effects supervisor and creative director and has worked on features including Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and Beasts of the Southern Wild, and has served as a director, producer, designer, and compositor/animator on commercials, music videos, live events, and television documentary productions. Mark has done work directly for the Adobe After Effects development and marketing teams, is a founder at provideocoalition.com, and has taught courses at fxphd.com and Academy of Art University. He has been a guest host of popular podcasts such as "The VFX Show" and has written all editions of this book and coauthored After Effects 5.5 Magic. Mark is also founder of New Scribbler Press.