The After Effects Illusionist

All the Effects in One Complete Guide

Chad Perkins

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781138401433
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136058219
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Film & Video
• Index: Computer Science

Harness the full power of After Effects by mastering its native plug-in effects. Author Chad Perkins breaks down the creation and application of each native plug-in effect available in the After Effects toolset. He also shows you how each can be used optimally in your own media project, when and why it makes sense to use each, and how to "break the rules" by using effects in unconventional ways.

Completely updated for CS6 and revised to include coverage of Keylight and the Cycore effects, you will learn every effect from color correction to distortion to simulation and all in between, putting the full power of After Effects in your hands. Included is instruction for using, among others:

• The 3D Camera Tracker
• The Cycore effects
• Matte tools, including Keylight and Refine Matte
• Color correction tools
• A wide array of pattern generating tools

The downloadable resources include project files, allowing you work hand-in-hand with the lessons contained in the book.

Customers who buy an electronic version of the book can contact Peter Linsley ([email protected]) with their receipt and Focal Press will grant access to the companion files.

1
BECOMING AN ILLUSIONIST

Welcome to the second edition of The After Effects Illusionist! In this book, we’re going to look at every single native effect in After Effects. But this will not be a duplicate of the After Effects help documentation—far from it. This book is not meant to be exhaustively comprehensive in the literal sense, meaning that we won’t necessarily cover every single property in every single effect. I think the help documentation does a good enough job of that. We’re instead going to focus on the purpose of each effect, and also how to use it creatively. I’ll also let you know my opinion on which effects are a waste of time, and if there are any substitutes that might work better.

In this chapter, we’re going to get you the foundation you need to understand this book, no matter your skill level. We’ll also give you a brief overview of all of the exciting things that have been added in this edition of the book. There also may be some tips and tricks in this chapter that can help you as you begin to dig a little deeper into the world of effects.

Why This Book?

I had the idea to create this book after seeing many After Effects users (with far more talent and skill in this arena than I have) doing things manually that could be easily done with the effects that ship with After Effects. Many times, users of After Effects will go back to Photoshop, or Illustrator, or their video editing application, or their dedicated 3D application to make small changes that could have been done quickly and just as well with effects in After Effects.

The problem is that there are now 189 native effects. Many of them are almost completely worthless. Others might seem worthless or abstract, leaving users to wonder—“When would I ever use this?” This book is my attempt to share with you what I’ve learned in my studies of these effects. The exercise files on the disc that accompanies this book were specifically geared to helping you discover how these effects might help you in your workflow.

How This Book is Laid Out

In this book, we’re going to examine (among other things) every native effect in After Effects, as well as some 3rd party tools that have been included with After Effects for quite some time.

We’re going to cover each effect in each category (e.g., Color Correction, Distort, Generate, and so on) in the order in which After Effects lists them in the Effects menu (and the Effects and Presets panel). After Effects organizes the categories alphabetically, and then the effects in that category are also organized alphabetically as well. And this is the same order that we will follow in this book. So, remember that these effects are not listed in the order of importance, or sorted in any other way.

After we’ve finished covering all of the effects, we’ll have a few appendix-type chapters that cover more intermediate and advanced effects topics, such as using multiple effects, using maps to control effect properties, and a brief glance at some of my favorite third-party effect solutions.

What’s New in This Edition?

This is always the first question on my mind when a new edition for a book is released. Well, let me tell you. There are MASSIVE updates in this edition. I have to thank Focal Press, who have been so patient with me (because I’ve been taking forever with this). Focal Press has also believed enough in this book to give me a ridiculously large page count for the first edition, and has upped that significantly in this edition. If this book was done halfway, it wouldn’t have worked.

So with that, let me give you a brief heads up as to what is new in this edition. First of all, in Chapter 21, I’ll take a look at the Cycore effects. This massive collection of over 70 effects has been shipping with After Effects for a long time now, and it’s time to take a look. The Cycore effects extend the functionality of After Effects so much, including adding the best native particle systems, all kinds of transitions, blurs, fast rendering and intuitive distortions, weather systems and more. We’ll dig into all of this in Chapter 21.

And while we’re adding more support for third-party effects included with After Effects, we also decided to cover Keylight. This keying tool from The Foundry has been included with After Effects since the Reagan administration (give or take), and we’re going to see how to make this amazing keying tool work for you, as well as potential roadblocks to avoid.

There have also been a host of great effects added that we’re going to look at. Everything from the mind-blowing 3D Camera Tracker to the Refine Matte effect to Warp Stabilizer, Rolling Shutter Repair, new color-based effects like Black & White, Selective Color, Vibrance, and Apply Color LUT.

I’ve also gone through and revamped TONS of the old stuff. I’ve recently purchased a RED Scarlet-X camera, and a lot of the new footage used in this book is coming from this camera. I’ve also learned so much in the last few years since the first edition was written, and I’ve used so many more plugins and software tools. So I’ve gone back and added new tips in almost every single chapter.

I’ve added several more real world examples, especially in the chapter on Expression Controls (Chapter 8). I also received permission to include footage from Causality, a sci-fi show that I’ve been doing visual effects on, as a practical application of the Fractal Noise effect (shown in Chapter 12). I’ve also added a new use for the Colorama effect—making luma mattes for sky replacement (Chapter 6). I’ve even added a bunch of new audio tips (including an expression from AE guru Dan Ebberts for creating an automatic analog synth riff) in Chapter 3.

And again, this is just a small sampling of what’s new. There are loads of new tips, updated exercise files, added explanations, and more all throughout this book. I’m so excited about it.

Why Use Effects?

So, what can effects do? Why use them? First, and perhaps foremost—the effects in After Effects are free, once you have After Effects. They don’t need extra installations or additional serial numbers. There are no compatibility issues with the native effects.

Effects have a wide range of functions. We can use them to create remarkable patterns that can captivate an audience, or that simulate real world stuff like fire or water. In After Effects, we also adjust color by using effects. But effects can also create simulations, as if something were blowing up or distorting in an organic way. We can access 3D data using effects, and even enhance (and create!) audio using effects. With 189 choices here, and an almost infinite amount of creative combinations, you’re sure to find something to enhance your workflow.

The Great Secret to the Effects

If there were one great secret to effects, and I had to sum this book up into a single sentence, it would be that effects are sometimes at their best when used for purposes that they were never intended for. We’ll take the Shatter effect (which “blows stuff up,” according to its formal definition), and use it to create volumetric 3D text. In Chapter 7, we’ll sharpen edges using a blur effect, as seen in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 These razor sharp edges were sharpened with blur.

In Chapter 5, we’ll use an abstract effect (Shift Channels) to relight a scene rendered from a 3D program using 3D data that is stored in the 3D image. In Chapter 16, we’ll be creating a sci-fi control panel out of video footage of children running using the Brush Strokes effect. This is seen in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2 Applying an effect called Brush Strokes, we create this 60’s sci-fi master computer out of video footage of children playing.

We’re going to be creating fireballs and interactive magnifying glasses and lightning and light sabers and armies of objects and realistic flowing chocolate and much more. Of course there aren’t any fireball or chocolate effects. We have to get clever to achieve these results. We have to use effects for purposes that have nothing to do with their names. If ever there were a time to reuse the cliché of thinking outside the box, this is it.

Applying Effects

I’m assuming that you are fairly familiar with After Effects. You’ll certainly get more out of this book if you know more about other (non-effect) aspects of After Effects, such as color channels and color theory, the names of key panels (such as the Composition panel, Project panel, Timeline panel, etc.), layer blend modes, masks, and so forth. But if you are new to After Effects and want to follow along here, you can still learn a lot. So, in this section, we’ll look at how to apply effects.

There are two ways to...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Chapter 1 Becoming an Illusionist
• Chapter 2 The 3D Channel Effects
• Chapter 3 The Audio Effects
• Chapter 4 The Blur & Sharpen Effects
• Chapter 5 The Channel Effects
• Chapter 6 The Color Correction Effects
• Chapter 7 The Distort Effects
• Chapter 8 The Expression Controls Effects
• Chapter 9 The Generate Effects
• Chapter 10 The Keying Effects
• Chapter 11 The Matte Effects
• Chapter 12 The Noise & Grain Effects
• Chapter 13 The Obsolete Effects
• Chapter 14 The Perspective Effects
• Chapter 15 The Simulation Effects
• Chapter 16 The Stylize Effects
• Chapter 17 The Text Effects
• Chapter 18 The Time Effects
• Chapter 19 The Transition Effects
• Chapter 20 The Utility Effects
• Chapter 21 The Cycore Effects
• Chapter 22 Using Multiple Effects Together
• Chapter 23 Enhancing the Illusion with Maps
• Chapter 24 Where Do I Go From Here?
• Index