About the Author

Mark Christiansen is a San Francisco–based visual effects supervisor and creative director. Some of his Hollywood feature and independent film credits include Avatar, All About Evil, The Day After Tomorrow and Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End. As a director, producer, designer, and compositor/animator, he has worked on a diverse slate of commercial, music video, live event, and television documentary projects for clients as diverse as Sony, Interscope, HBO, and many of the world’s best-known Silicon Valley companies.

Mark has used After Effects since version 2.0 and has worked directly with the After Effects development and marketing teams over the years. He has written four previous editions of this book as well as After Effects 5.5 Magic (with Nathan Moody), and has contributed to other published efforts including the Adobe After Effects Classroom in a Book.

Mark is a founder of Pro Video Coalition (provideocoalition.com). He has created video training for Digieffects, lynda.com, and others; has taught courses at fxphd.com and Academy of Art University; and has been a guest host of popular podcasts such as “The VFX Show.” You can find him at christiansen.com.