ugh.. after effects..

[webguy]

Unhappy that I have waited so long to investigate adobe after effects I am now kicking myself because of how involved the program seems to be. It's like learning photoshop for the first time. I need tips on learning, maybe even some encouragement as it seems more involved than I had anticipated. I've no trouble finding tutorials..matter of fact I found 100+ on one page :( guess I got my work cut out for me. The question at hand is where to start, what to work towards and perhaps a suggestion for a way of reducing the learning curve. Perhaps someone can put After Effects in layman terms, or perhaps compare it to Photoshop, Flash or something else. I know I'm confusing you, cause I am confused myself.

[joelanman]

Think of After Effects as being like Photoshop in the way it works with layers - you import video or images and then place them on separate layers. After Effects can blend these layers and use masks and effects, the same way Photoshop does.

Where it varies from Photoshop is the way you can manipulate these layers over time, similarly to Flash. Layers can be moved, scaled and have their opacity change over time to produce a video sequence.

Hope that helps

Joe

[webguy]

Makes it sound even more complex :D which helps..hehe. No seriously thanks, kinda takes a bit of a load off, cause I know both of those pretty well I should be able to pick up on it after a bit of trial and error.

Any other advice?

[senocular]

tutorial based (not reference) books are good. We sick our interns on those and they seem to come out with a pretty decent knowledge of AE.

[webguy]

any suggestions senocular?

[senocular]

duh... errr... ummm lemme go look at the bookshelf heh


*time passes*


here are the books we have
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1578201144/qid=1066248714/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-5836460-7356715?v=glance&s=books
(5 of 5 stars)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0879306068/qid=1066248714/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-5836460-7356715?v=glance&s=books
(4.5 of 5 stars)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1578202078/qid=1066248714/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-5836460-7356715?v=glance&s=books
(4.5 of 5 stars)

... so they seem pretty good.
I learned in college, so I'm not too familiar with books on the subject. Granted, Im no master, but I know my way around it well enough (books will probably teach much better than my less tech-savy profs anyhow).