Professional Documents
Culture Documents
GETTING STARTED
About Classroom in a Book
Prerequisites
Installing After Effects, Bridge, and Media Encoder
Activating fonts
Optimizing performance
Restoring default preferences
Online content
How to use these lessons
Additional resources
Adobe Authorized Training Centers
3 ANIMATING TEXT
Getting started
About text layers
Installing a font using Adobe Fonts
Creating and formatting point text
Animating with scale keyframes
Using a text animation preset
Animating imported Photoshop text
Animating type tracking
Animating text opacity
Animating an image to replace text
Using a text animator group
Animating a layer’s position
Adding motion blur
Review questions and answers
6 ANIMATING LAYERS
Getting started
Simulating lighting changes
Duplicating an animation using the pick whip
Using a track matte to confine animation
Animating using the Corner Pin effect
Simulating a darkening sky
Retiming the composition
Review questions and answers
12 USING 3D FEATURES
Getting started
Creating 3D text
Using 3D views
Importing a background
Adding 3D lights
Adding a camera
Extruding text in After Effects
Animating 3D text
Finishing the project
Review questions and answers
INDEX
Getting Started
Prerequisites
Before beginning to use Adobe After Effects Classroom in a Book (2020
Release), make sure that your system is set up correctly and that you’ve
installed the required software and hardware. You should have a working
knowledge of your computer and operating system. You should know how
to use the mouse and standard menus and commands, and also how to open,
save, and close files. If you need to review these techniques, see the printed
or online documentation included with your Microsoft® Windows® or
Apple® macOS® software.
To complete the lessons in this book, you’ll need to have Adobe After
Effects, Adobe Bridge, and Adobe Media Encoder installed. Additional
optional exercises require Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition, and Adobe
Character Animator. The exercises in this book are based on After Effects
(2020 release).
Activating fonts
Several lessons use specific fonts that may not be installed on your system.
You can activate the fonts using Adobe Fonts or choose a different font on
your system with similar characteristics. If you choose a different font, your
projects won’t look exactly like the ones shown in the book.
Adobe Fonts licenses are included in Creative Cloud subscriptions.
To activate fonts within After Effects, choose File > Fonts From Adobe, or
click the Creative Cloud icon next to Add Adobe Fonts in the Font menu in
the Character panel. Then, find the font in Adobe Fonts in your browser,
and activate the font.
Optimizing performance
Creating movies is memory-intensive work for a desktop computer. After
Effects (2020 release) requires a minimum of 16GB of RAM. The more
RAM that is available to After Effects, the faster the application will work
for you. For information about optimizing memory, cache, and other
settings for After Effects, see “Improve performance” in After Effects Help.
Online content
Your purchase of this Classroom in a Book includes the following online
materials:
Lesson files
To work through the projects in this book, you will need to download the
lesson files from adobepress.com. You can download the files for individual
lessons or it may be possible to download them all in a single file.
Web Edition
The Web Edition is an online interactive version of the book providing an
enhanced learning experience. Your Web Edition can be accessed from any
device with a connection to the Internet, and it contains:
The complete text of the book
Hours of instructional video keyed to the text
Interactive quizzes
Accessing the lesson files and Web Edition
You must register your product on adobepress.com in order to access the
online content:
Note
If you encounter problems registering your product or accessing the
lesson files or Web Edition, go to www.adobepress.com/support for
assistance.
1. Go to www.adobepress.com/AfterEffectsCIB2020.
2. Sign in or create a new account.
3. Click Submit.
4. Answer the questions as proof of purchase.
5. You can access the lesson files from the Registered Products tab on your
Account page: Click the Access Bonus Content link below the title of
your product to proceed to the download page. Click the lesson file links
to download them to your computer.
You can access the Web Edition from the Digital Purchases tab on your
Account page. Click the Launch link to access the product.
Note
If you purchased a digital product directly from www.adobepress.com or
www.peachpit.com, your product will already be registered. However,
you still need to follow the registration steps and answer the proof of
purchase questions before the Access Bonus Content link will appear
under the product on your Registered Products tab.
Note
If for any reason you need to download fresh copies of the lesson files,
you can download them from your account again at any time.
Organizing the lesson files
The files are compressed into ZIP archives to speed download time and
protect the contents from damage during transfer. You must uncompress (or
“unzip”) the files to restore them to their original size and format before
you use them with the book. Modern macOS and Windows systems are set
up to open ZIP archives by simply double-clicking.
1. On your hard drive, create a new folder in a convenient location, and
name it Lessons, following the standard procedure for your operating
system:
In Windows, right-click, and choose New > Folder. Then enter the new
name for your folder.
In macOS, in the Finder, choose File > New Folder. Type the new
name, and drag the folder to the location you want to use.
2. Drag the unzipped Lessons folder (which contains folders named
Lesson01, Lesson02, and so on) that you downloaded onto your hard
drive to your new Lessons folder. When you begin each lesson, navigate
to the folder with that lesson number to access all the assets you need to
complete the lesson.
Additional resources
Adobe After Effects Classroom in a Book (2020 Release) is not meant to
replace documentation that comes with the program or to be a
comprehensive reference for every feature. Only the commands and options
used in the lessons are explained in this book.
Tutorials within After Effects can help you get started: In After Effects,
choose Window > Learn. The Learn panel opens with a series of tutorials.
For comprehensive information about program features and tutorials, refer
to these resources:
Adobe After Effects Learn & Support: helpx.adobe.com/support/after-
effects.html is where you can find and browse tutorials, help, and support
on www.adobe.com.
After Effects tutorials: helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/tutorials.html lists
online tutorials for beginner and experienced users. You can go there
directly from After Effects by choosing Help > After Effects Online
Tutorials.
After Effects Forums: community.adobe.com lets you tap into peer-to-
peer discussions, and questions as well as answers about After Effects.
Adobe Create Magazine: create.adobe.com offers thoughtful articles on
design and design issues, a gallery showcasing the work of top-notch
designers, tutorials, and more.
Resources for educators: www.adobe.com/education and
edex.adobe.com offer a treasure trove of information for instructors who
teach classes on Adobe software. Find solutions for education at all levels,
including free curricula that use an integrated approach to teaching Adobe
software and can be used to prepare for the Adobe Certified Associate
exams.
Also check out these useful links:
Adobe Add-ons: exchange.adobe.com/addons is a central resource for
finding tools, services, extensions, code samples, and more to supplement
and extend your Adobe products.
Adobe After Effects product home page:
www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects
Lesson overview
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:
Create a project and import footage.
Create compositions and arrange layers.
Navigate the Adobe After Effects interface.
Use the Project, Composition, and Timeline panels.
Transform layer properties.
Apply basic effects.
Create keyframes.
Preview your work.
Customize the workspace.
Adjust preferences related to the user interface.
Find additional resources for using After Effects.
This lesson will take about an hour to complete. If you haven’t already
done so, download the project files for this lesson from
www.adobepress.com/AfterEffectsCIB2020, following the instructions
in the Getting Started section under “Accessing the lesson files and
Web Edition.”
PROJECT: TITLE SEQUENCE
Whether you use After Effects to animate a simple video title
sequence or to create complex special effects, you generally follow the
same basic workflow. The After Effects interface facilitates your work
and adapts to each stage of production.
About the After Effects work area
After Effects offers a flexible, customizable work area. The main
window of the program is called the application window. Panels
are organized in this window in an arrangement called a
workspace. The default workspace contains stacked panels as
well as panels that stand alone, as shown below.
Getting started
A basic After Effects workflow follows six steps: importing and organizing
footage, creating compositions and arranging layers, adding effects,
animating elements, previewing your work, and rendering and outputting
the final composition so that it can be viewed by others. In this lesson, you
will create a simple animated video using this workflow, and along the way,
you’ll learn your way around the After Effects interface.
First, you’ll preview the final movie to see what you’ll create in this lesson.
1. Make sure the following files are in the Lessons/Lesson01 folder on
your hard disk, or download them from www.adobepress.com now:
In the Assets folder: movement.mp3, swimming_dog.mp4, title.psd
In the Sample_Movies folder: Lesson01.avi, Lesson01.mov
2. Open and play the Lesson01.avi sample movie in Windows Movies &
TV or the Lesson01.mov sample movie in QuickTime Player to see what
you will create in this lesson. When you are done, close Windows
Movies & TV or QuickTime Player. You may delete the sample movies
from your hard disk if you have limited storage space.
Tip
Restoring default preferences can be tricky in Windows, especially if
you’re working on a fast system. Press the keys after you double-click
the application icon but before After Effects begins to list the files it’s
activating. Alternatively, you can choose Edit > [your Creative Cloud
account username] > Clear Settings, and then restart the application.
An After Effects project is a single file that stores references to all the
footage you use in that project. It also contains compositions, which are the
individual containers used to combine footage, apply effects, and,
ultimately, drive the output.
Tip
To quickly maximize a panel, double-click the panel tab. To return it to
its original size, double-click the tab again.
When you begin a project, often the first thing you’ll do is add footage to it.
3. Choose File > Import > File.
4. Navigate to the Assets folder in your Lessons/Lesson01 folder. Shift-
click to select the movement.mp3 and swimming_dog.mp4 files. Then
click Import or Open.
A footage item is the basic unit in an After Effects project. You can import
many types of footage items, including moving-image files, still-image
files, still-image sequences, audio files, layered files from Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe Illustrator, other After Effects projects, and projects created in
Adobe Premiere® Pro. You can import footage items at any time.
Tip
You can also choose File > Import > Multiple Files to select files located
in different folders or drag and drop files from Explorer or the Finder.
You can use Adobe Bridge to search for, manage, preview, and import
footage.
As you import assets, After Effects reports its progress in the Info panel.
Because one of the footage items for this project is a multilayer Photoshop
file, you’ll import it separately as a composition.
5. Double-click in the lower area of the Project panel to open the Import
File dialog box.
6. Navigate to the Lesson01/Assets folder again, and select the title.psd
file. Choose Composition from the Import As menu. (In macOS, you
may need to click Options to see the Import As menu.) Then click
Import or Open.
After Effects opens an additional dialog box that displays options for the
file you are importing.
7. In the title.psd dialog box, choose Composition from the Import Kind
menu to import the layered Photoshop file as a composition. Select
Editable Layer Styles in the Layer Options area, and then click OK.
When you import files, After Effects doesn’t copy the video and audio data
itself into your project. Instead, each footage item in the Project panel
contains a reference link to the source files. When After Effects needs to
retrieve image or audio data, it reads it from the source file. This keeps the
project file small and allows you to update source files in another
application without modifying the project.
Tip
You can locate missing fonts or effects the same way. Choose File >
Dependencies, and then choose Find Missing Fonts or Find Missing
Effects. Or just type Missing Fonts or Missing Effects into the Search
box in the Project panel.
If you move a file or if After Effects can’t access its location, it will report
that the file is missing. To identify missing files, choose File >
Dependencies > Find Missing Footage. You can also type Missing Footage
into the Search box in the Project panel to look for the missing assets.
To save time and minimize the size and complexity of a project, you’ll
usually import a footage item once even if you’re using it multiple times in
a composition. However, you may sometimes need to import a source file
more than once, such as if you want to use it at two different frame rates.
After you’ve imported footage, it’s a good time to save the project.
9. Choose File > Save. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the
Lessons/Lesson01/Finished_Project folder. Name the project
Lesson01_Finished.aep, and then click Save.
Tip
To create a composition from footage as you import it, select Create
Composition in the Import File dialog box.
To create a composition, you’ll drag the footage items into the Timeline
panel, and After Effects will create layers for them.
The footage items appear as layers in the Timeline panel, and After Effects
displays the composition, named swimming_dog, in the Composition panel.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.