Adobe After Effects 7.0 Studio Techniques
by Mark Christiansen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mark ChristiansenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-05-28
ISBN: 0321385527
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Adobe Press
Book Reviews of Adobe After Effects 7.0 Studio Techniques
Book Review: After Effects 7 Studio Techniques: An Expert Guide from an After Effects Expert
Summary: 5 Stars
Buy this book; its cost (particularly here at Amazon) is trivial compared to the software, and you'll get some important independent opinions and expert advice that, from what I understand, isn't available anywhere else.
In general, I've found the book to be pedagogical, informative and entertaining at the same time. What makes the book unique is Mark Christiansen's opinions. You get the voice of a great deal of experience, giving an independent evaluation of features and organization of After Effects itself, and how this impacts real-world usage. Reading that how certain features were implemented were "weird" was a pleasant surprise in a book published by Adobe Press. In contrast with the user manuals and canned tutorial materials, the book does not automatically assume that how After Effects works is the best way to accomplish certain tasks---in some instances, other software applications are better (e.g. rotoscoping), and Christiansen doesn't hesistate to point that out. What makes the book so useful is that you get an evaluation of After Effects, instead of an automatic assumption that it must be all things to all people. That being said, Christiansen does give it a fair Shake (pun intended :), and the general thrust is that After Effects is no younger sibling to node-based compositors, and it's capable of a lot more than typical users think.
The other major strength to the book is that it's NOT a user manual. Those books, and many about how to use software in general, are feature-descriptive, and organized like the software program in how things are explained. This certainly makes the organization easy to follow (and, I daresay, easier on the authors to write), but isn't necessarily useful for working professionals. What Christiansen has done is give his take on what After Effects can do, as related to a real production environment, and then describes how to do it. Again, it's his evaluative paradigm coming into play here, as he's made a number of decisions on what to cover. This is particularly evident at the beginning, as he explains all of the basic features as relating to how they influence real production. It's eminently practical, and an extremely useful addition to any set of reference materials, since it provides a real-work-driven guide to the entire program.
The shortcomings to the book are few, and ultimately may just be matters of taste. The flipside to having so many opinions is that people will inevitably disagree. My personal preference is to try to have all of the information and opinions at my disposal, which I'm then free to accept or reject, but others may find his opinionated style to be too judgmental; you have been warned. Also, the choice of topics in this book is, as clearly stated in the introduction and its subtitle "definitive guide to creating visual effects", heavily weighted toward visual effects. You will not learn much more about the traditional motion graphics, such as how to apply text effects, than what's in the Classroom-in-a-Book targeted toward absolute beginners. As such, entitling the text "Studio Techniques" may be a bit broader than the book actually delivers. And, finally, the language is strongly weighted toward the jargon in the visual effects community, and is used from the beginning of the book, which total beginners may find somewhat difficult to navigate at the outset.
That being said, I strongly recommend this book to anyone using After Effects at all. It's a detailed reference with a lot of information that will teach you how After Effects is operating beneath the hood. And all of this information, really the entire book, are geared practically toward getting the job done in a real production environment. That will surely be useful, no matter how you choose to operate the program. And, to me, the independent (and entertaining) opinions are extraordinarily valuable in judging both what After Effects can do, and how well it does them.
Overall, I've read very few books about commercial software that are anywhere near as good. It will be a well-used reference on my shelf for a long time to come.
Summary of Adobe After Effects 7.0 Studio Techniques
Ready to learn the visual effects techniques used at such leading-edge studios as Industrial Light + Magic and The Orphanage? Adobe After Effects 7.0 Studio Techniques inspires you to take your work to the next level with real-world examples and insider techniques. With this under-the-hood, in-depth guide to Adobe's updated motion graphics and effects powerhouse, you'll get complete coverage of all the big features in After Effects 7.0: High dynamic range (HDR) 32 bit per channel color compositing, cinema preview and color management, a redesigned user interface, a new Graph Editor to animate using explicit translation curves, retiming effects using Timewarp, and dozens of other enhancements. Get blockbuster results without the big budget as you delve deep into the essence of visual effects. This book goes beyond conventional step-by-step instruction, teaching you bread-and-butter effects that you can adapt and combine for countless projects.- Real solutions from real professionals: learn the techniques and approach used to create shots for big-budget special effects films.
- Compositing essentials: No matter how sophisticated the effect, they all begin with the same building blocks. Find out what you've been missing about color and light matching, keying, motion tracking, rotoscoping, working with film, and more.
- Advanced techniques: Your goal should be effects so good that no one notices them. From sky replacement to explosions, from smoke to fire, learn to bring your shots to life and enhance scenes without anyone ever knowing what they're seeing isn't 100% real.
- Companion CD-ROM: Professional tools produce professional results. The book?s companion disc includes plenty of sample projects including HD footage from Pixel Corps and the Artbeats Digital Film Library, as well as more than a dozen plug-ins and programs that you can use to build up and customize your own effects.
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