Adobe After Effects CC : 2018 release / Brie Gyncild & Lisa Fridsma.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe After Effects CC (2018 release) choose Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book (2018 release) from Adobe Press. The 15 project-based lessons in this book show users step-by-step the key techniques for working in After Effects. Learn how to create, manipulate, and optimize motion graphics for film, video, DVD, the web, and mobile devices. Gain hands-on experience animating text and images, customizing a wide range of effects, tracking and syncing content, rotoscoping, and correcting color. Create Motion Graphics templates in After Effects so colleagues can make specific edits in Premiere Pro without accidentally changing other critical settings. Learn to create 3D content with both After Effects and Maxon Cinema 4D Lite (included with the software).

The online companion files include all the necessary assets for readers to complete the projects featured in each chapter as well as ebook updates when Adobe releases relevant new features for Creative Cloud customers. All buyers of the book get full access to the Web Edition: a Web-based version of the complete ebook enhanced with video and multiple-choice quizzes.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Getting Started (p. 1)
• About Classroom in a Book (p. 1)
• Prerequisites (p. 1)
• Installing After Effects and Bridge (p. 2)
• Optimizing performance (p. 2)
• Restoring default preferences (p. 3)
• Online content (p. 3)
• How to use these lessons (p. 5)
• Additional resources (p. 5)
• Adobe Authorized Training Centers (p. 6)
• 1 Getting to Know the workflow (p. 8)
• About the After Effects work area (p. 10)
• Getting started (p. 11)
• Creating a project and importing footage (p. 11)
• Creating a composition and arranging layers (p. 15)
• About layers (p. 17)
• Adding effects and modifying layer properties (p. 18)
• Animating the composition (p. 22)
• About the Tools panel (p. 25)
• About timecode and duration (p. 26)
• About the Timeline panel (p. 27)
• Previewing your work (p. 30)
• Optimizing performance in After Effects (p. 32)
• Rendering and exporting your composition (p. 32)
• Customizing workspaces (p. 32)
• Controlling the brightness of the user interface (p. 35)
• Finding resources for using After Effects (p. 36)
• Review questions and answers (p. 37)
• 2 Creating a Basic Animation using Effects and Presets (p. 38)
• Getting started (p. 40)
• Importing footage using Adobe Bridge (p. 41)
• Creating a new composition (p. 43)
• Working with imported Illustrator layers (p. 46)
• Applying effects to a layer (p. 47)
• Applying and controlling effects (p. 48)
• Applying an animation preset (p. 49)
• Previewing the effects (p. 52)
• Adding transparency (p. 53)
• Rendering the composition (p. 54)
• Review questions and answers (p. 57)
• 3 Animating Text (p. 58)
• Getting started (p. 60)
• About text layers (p. 62)
• Installing a font using Typekit (p. 63)
• Creating and formatting point text (p. 65)
• Using a text animation preset (p. 68)
• Animating with scale keyframes (p. 71)
• Animating using parenting (p. 72)
• Animating imported Photoshop text (p. 74)
• About parent and child layers (p. 74)
• Animating type tracking (p. 78)
• Animating text opacity (p. 79)
• Using a text animator group (p. 80)
• About text animator groups (p. 81)
• Animating a layer's position (p. 83)
• Timing layer animations (p. 85)
• Adding motion blur (p. 86)
• Review questions and answers (p. 87)
• 4 Working with Shape Layers (p. 88)
• Getting started (p. 90)
• Creating the composition (p. 91)
• Adding a shape layer (p. 92)
• Creating a self-animating shape (p. 94)
• Duplicating a shape (p. 95)
• Creating custom shapes (p. 98)
• Positioning layers with snapping (p. 99)
• Animating a shape (p. 102)
• Creating nulls from paths (p. 106)
• Previewing the composition (p. 111)
• Animating layers to match audio (p. 112)
• Review questions and answers (p. 113)
• 5 Animating a Multimedia Presentation (p. 114)
• Getting started (p. 116)
• Using Creative Cloud Libraries in After Effects (p. 117)
• Adjusting anchor points (p. 119)
• Parenting layers (p. 121)
• Precomposing layers (p. 123)
• Keyframing a motion path (p. 125)
• Animating additional elements (p. 129)
• Applying an effect (p. 133)
• About solid-color layers (p. 134)
• Animating precomposed layers (p. 136)
• Animating the background (p. 139)
• Adding an audio track (p. 141)
• Supported audio file formats (p. 141)
• Editing audio files in Adobe Audition (p. 142)
• Review questions and answers (p. 143)
• 6 Animating Layers (p. 144)
• Getting started (p. 146)
• Preparing layered Photoshop files (p. 148)
• About Photoshop layer styles (p. 149)
• Simulating lighting changes (p. 150)
• About expressions (p. 152)
• Duplicating an animation using the pick whip (p. 152)
• Animating movement in the scenery (p. 154)
• Adjusting the layers and creating a track matte (p. 158)
• About track mattes and traveling mattes (p. 159)
• Animating the shadows (p. 162)
• Adding a lens flare effect (p. 164)
• Adding a video animation (p. 166)
• Rendering the animation (p. 167)
• Retiming the composition (p. 168)
• Review questions and answers (p. 175)
• 7 Working with Masks (p. 176)
• About masks (p. 178)
• Getting started (p. 178)
• Creating a mask with the Pen tool (p. 180)
• Editing a mask (p. 180)
• About mask modes (p. 183)
• Creating a Bezier mask (p. 184)
• Feathering the edges of a mask (p. 185)
• Replacing the content of the mask (p. 185)
• Zooming and panning by touch (p. 186)
• Adding a reflection (p. 188)
• Creating a vignette (p. 192)
• Using the Rectangle and Ellipse tools (p. 194)
• Adjusting the timing (p. 194)
• Tips for creating masks (p. 195)
• Trimming the work area (p. 196)
• Review questions and answers (p. 197)
• 8 Distorting Objects with the Puppet Tools (p. 198)
• Getting started (p. 200)
• About the Puppet tools (p. 205)
• Adding Deform pins (p. 206)
• Defining areas of overlap (p. 209)
• Stiffening an area (p. 209)
• Squash and stretch (p. 210)
• Animating pin positions (p. 210)
• Recording animation (p. 212)
• Extra Credit: Act it out with Adobe Character Animator (p. 214)
• Review questions and answers (p. 215)
• 9 Using the Roto Brush Tool (p. 216)
• About rotoscoping (p. 218)
• Getting started (p. 218)
• Creating a segmentation boundary (p. 220)
• Editing Adobe Premiere Pro clips with After Effects (p. 222)
• Fine-tuning the matte (p. 226)
• Refine Soft Matte and Refine Hard Matte effects (p. 227)
• Freezing your Roto Brush tool results (p. 228)
• Changing the background (p. 229)
• Adding animated text (p. 231)
• Outputting your project (p. 234)
• Extra credit. Tracking faces (p. 235)
• Review questions and answers (p. 237)
• 10 Performing Color Correction (p. 238)
• Getting started (p. 240)
• Previewing your project on a video monitor (p. 242)
• Adjusting color balance with levels (p. 243)
• Adjusting color balance with Color Finesse 3 (p. 246)
• Replacing the background (p. 250)
• Color-correcting using Auto Levels (p. 254)
• Motion tracking the clouds (p. 255)
• Replacing the sky in the second clip (p. 257)
• Color grading (p. 261)
• Extra credit: Cloning an object in a scene (p. 265)
• Review questions and answers (p. 267)
• 11 Creating Motion Graphics Templates (p. 268)
• Getting started (p. 270)
• Preparing a master composition (p. 270)
• Setting up a template (p. 275)
• Creating an image slider (p. 275)
• Fading a background image (p. 279)
• Adding text properties to the Essential Graphics panel (p. 280)
• Exporting the template (p. 284)
• Extra credit: Using a Motion Graphics template in Adobe Premiere Pro (p. 286)
• Review questions and answers (p. 287)
• 12 Using 3D Features (p. 288)
• Getting started (p. 290)
• Creating 3D text (p. 291)
• Using 3D views (p. 293)
• Importing a background (p. 294)
• Adding 3D lights (p. 295)
• Adding a camera (p. 299)
• Extruding text in After Effects (p. 301)
• Working with Cinema 4D Lite (p. 303)
• Integrating the C4D layer in After Effects (p. 310)
• Finishing the project (p. 311)
• Save multiple takes in Cinema 4D (p. 312)
• Review questions and answers (p. 313)
• 13 Working with the 3D Camera Tracker (p. 314)
• About the 3D Camera Tracker effect (p. 316)
• Getting started (p. 316)
• Repairing rolling shutter distortions (p. 318)
• Tracking the footage (p. 319)
• Creating a ground plane, a camera, and the initial text (p. 320)
• Creating realistic shadows (p. 324)
• Adding ambient light (p. 326)
• Creating additional text elements (p. 327)
• Locking a layer to a plane with a null object (p. 329)
• Animating the text (p. 331)
• Adjusting the camera's depth of field (p. 333)
• Previewing the composition (p. 334)
• Review questions and answers (p. 335)
• 14 Advanced Editing Techniques (p. 336)
• Getting started (p. 338)
• Stabilizing a shot (p. 338)
• Bicubic scaling (p. 339)
• Warp Stabilizer VFX settings (p. 341)
• Removing motion blur (p. 343)
• Using single-point motion tracking (p. 343)
• Moving and resizing the track points (p. 347)
• Checking for drift (p. 348)
• Using multipoint tracking (p. 349)
• Mocha for After Effects (p. 353)
• Creating a particle simulation (p. 354)
• Understanding Particle Systems II properties (p. 356)
• About high dynamic range (HDR) footage (p. 363)
• Review questions and answers (p. 369)
• 15 Rendering and Outputting (p. 370)
• Getting started (p. 372)
• Creating templates for the Render Queue (p. 373)
• About compression (p. 377)
• Exporting using the Render Queue (p. 378)
• Preparing movies for mobile devices (p. 380)
• Rendering movies with Adobe Media Encoder (p. 380)
• Preparing a movie for broadcast output (p. 385)
• Review questions and answers (p. 387)
• Appendix: General Keyboard Shortcuts (p. 388)
• Appendix: Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts (p. 389)
• Index (p. 391)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Lisa Fridsma has long loved the process of teaching others to use Adobe products. She has produced and illustrated over thirty books in the Classroom in a Book series over the last two decades (including books on Photoshop and After Effects), starting with her time on-staff at Adobe. She is currently the owner of Darlington Hill Productions (informational illustrations and publishing). Lisa lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her family which includes a tortoise and an above-average dog.

Brie Gyncild aims to make technical information accessible to those who need it. Brie has written and co-written dozens of books about Adobe applications, including numerous editions of the Classroom in a Book series on Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, and Acrobat; and several editions of the How to Wow series. Brie lives in Seattle with cats and an overgrown garden.