Getting Started

Welcome to Learn Adobe After Effects CC for Visual Effects and Motion Graphics! We use a combination of text and video to help you learn the basics of creating visual effects and motion graphics with Adobe After Effects CC along with other skills that you will need to start your career in motion graphics and enhance your value as a creative professional. Adobe After Effects CC is a powerful program for video compositing, motion graphics design, and animation. You can also use After Effects to export your projects to many popular formats that your viewers can watch on a wide range of screens, including desktop computers and mobile devices like phones and tablets.

About This Product

Learn Adobe After Effects CC for Visual Effects and Motion Graphics was created by a team of expert instructors, writers, and editors with years of experience in helping beginning learners get their start with the cool creative tools from Adobe Systems. Our aim is not only to teach you the basics of the art of creating motion graphics with After Effects, but to give you an introduction to the associated skills (like design principles and project management) that you'll need for your first job.

We've built the training around the objectives for the Visual Effects and Motion Graphics Using Adobe After Effects CC (2018) Adobe Certified Associate Exam. If you master the topics covered in this book and video, you'll be in good shape to take the exam. But even if certification isn't your goal, you'll still find this training will give you an excellent foundation for your future work in motion graphics. To that end, we've structured the material in the order that makes most sense for beginning learners (as determined by experienced classroom teachers), rather than following the more arbitrary grouping of topics in the ACA Objectives.

To aid you in your quest, we've created a unique learning system that uses video and text in partnership. You'll experience this partnership in action in the Web Edition, which lives on your Account page at peachpit.com. The Web Edition contains 8 hours of video-the heart of the training-embedded in an online eBook that supports the video training and provides background material. The eBook material is also available separately for offline reading as a printed book or an eBook in a variety of formats. The Web Edition also includes hundreds of interactive review questions you can use to evaluate your progress, and a glossary of key terms highlighted in the book. Purchase of the book in any format entitles you to free access to the Web Edition (instructions for accessing it follow later in this section).

Most chapters provide step-by-step instructions for creating a specific project or learning a specific technique. Other chapters acquaint you with other skills and concepts that you'll come to depend on as you use the software in your everyday work. Many chapters include several optional tasks that let you further explore the features you've already learned.

Each chapter opens with two lists of objectives. One list lays out the learning objectives-the specific tasks you'll learn in the chapter. The second list shows the ACA exam objectives that are covered in the chapter. A table at the end of the book guides you to coverage of all of the exam objectives in the book or video.

Most chapters provide step-by-step instructions for creating a specific project or learning a specific technique. Many chapters include several optional tasks that let you further explore the features you've already learned. Chapter 7 acquaints you with other skills and concepts that you'll come to depend on as you use the software in your everyday work. Here is where you'll find coverage of parts of Domain 1 of the ACA Objectives that don't specifically relate to features of After Effects but that are important components of the complete skill set that the ACA exam seeks to evaluate.

Conventions Used in This Book

This book uses several elements styled in ways to help you as you work through the exercises.

Links to videos that cover the topics in depth appear in the margins.

Text that you should enter appears in bold, such as:

In the Link field in the Property inspector, type

https://helpx.adobe.com/support/after-effects.html.

Terms that are defined in the glossary appear in bold and in color, such as:

parenting Coordinating two layers by having the second layer exactly follow the property changes of another layer.

The ACA Objectives covered in the chapters are called out in the margins beside the sections that address them.

Notes give additional information about a topic. The information they contain is not essential to accomplishing a task but provides a more in-depth understanding of the topic.

Operating System Differences

In most cases, After Effects CC works the same in both Windows and macOS. Minor differences exist between the two versions, mostly due to platform-specific issues. Most of these are simply differences in keyboard shortcuts, how dialogs are displayed, and how buttons are named. In most cases, screen shots were made in the macOS version of After Effects and may appear somewhat differently from your own screen.

Where specific commands differ, they are noted within the text. Windows commands are listed first, followed by the macOS equivalent, such as Ctrl+C/Command+C. In general, the Windows Ctrl key is equivalent to the Command (or “Cmd”) key in macOS and the Windows Alt key is equivalent to the Option (or “Opt”) key in macOS.

As lessons proceed, instructions may be truncated or shortened to save space, with the assumption that you picked up the essential concepts earlier in the lesson. For example, at the beginning of a lesson you may be instructed to “press Ctrl+C/Command+C.” Later, you may be told to “copy” text or a code element. These should be considered identical instructions.

If you find you have difficulties in any particular task, review earlier steps or exercises in that lesson. In some cases, if an exercise is based on concepts covered earlier, you will be referred to the specific lesson.

Installing the Software

Before you begin using Learn Adobe After Effects CC for Visual Effects and Motion Graphics, make sure that your system is set up correctly and that you've installed the proper software and hardware. This material is based on the original 2018 release of Adobe After Effects CC (version 15.1) and is designed to cover the objectives of the Adobe Certified Associate Exam for that version of the software.

The Adobe After Effects CC software is not included with this book; it is available only with an Adobe Creative Cloud membership, which you must purchase or which must be supplied by your school or other organization. In addition to Adobe After Effects CC, some lessons in this book have steps that can be performed with Adobe Media Encoder and other Adobe applications. You must install these applications from Adobe Creative Cloud onto your computer. Follow the instructions provided at helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/download-install-app.html.

Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop App

In addition to Adobe After Effects CC, this training requires the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application, which provides a central location for managing the many apps and services that are included in a Creative Cloud membership. You can use the Creative Cloud desktop application to sync and share files, manage fonts, access libraries of stock photography and design assets, and showcase and discover creative work in the design community.

The Creative Cloud desktop application is installed automatically when you download your first Creative Cloud product. If you have Adobe Application Manager installed, it auto-updates to the Creative Cloud desktop application.

If the Creative Cloud desktop application is not installed on your computer, you can download it from the Download Creative Cloud page on the Adobe website (creative.adobe.com/products/creative-cloud) or the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop apps page (www.adobe.com/creativecloud/catalog/desktop.html). If you are using software on classroom machines, be sure to check with your instructor before making any changes to the installed software or system configuration.

Checking for Updates

Adobe periodically provides updates to software. You can easily obtain these updates through the Creative Cloud. If these updates include new features that affect the content of this training or the objectives of the ACA exam in any way, we will post updated material to peachpit.com.

Accessing the Free Web Edition and Lesson Files

Your purchase of this product in any format includes access to the corresponding Web Edition hosted on peachpit.com. The Web Edition contains the complete text of the book augmented with hours of video and interactive quizzes.

To work through the projects in this product, you will first need to download the lesson files from peachpit.com. You can download the files for individual lessons or download them all in a single file.

If you purchased an eBook from peachpit.com or adobepress.com, the Web Edition will automatically appear on the Digital Purchases tab on your Account page. Continue reading to learn how to register your product to get access to the lesson files.

If you purchased an eBook from a different vendor or you bought a print book, you must register your purchase on peachpit.com:

1. Go to www.peachpit.com/register.

2. Sign in or create a new account.

3. Enter ISBN: 9780135426036

4. Answer the questions as proof of purchase.

5. The Web Edition will appear under the Digital Purchases tab on your Account page. Click the Launch link to access the product.

The Lesson Files can be accessed through 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.

Project Fonts

All fonts used in these projects are either part of standard system installations or can be downloaded from Adobe Fonts, an Adobe service that is included with your Creative Cloud membership.

Note that Typekit was renamed Adobe Fonts after the 2019 release of Adobe After Effects CC, the version on which this book is based. As a result, this book still refers to the service as Typekit.

(Adobe Fonts might not be included with some educational or institutional Creative Cloud memberships.)

Additional Resources

Learn Adobe After Effects CC for Visual Effects and Motion Graphics is not meant to replace documentation that comes with the program or to be a comprehensive reference for every feature. 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 Help and Support content on Adobe.com. You can go there from inside Adobe After Effects by choosing Help > After Effects Help. Help is also available as a printable PDF document. Download the document at helpx.adobe.com/pdf/after_effects_reference.pdf.

• Adobe After Effects Tutorials: helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/tutorials.html is where you learn more about After Effects by watching many online video tutorials. You can go there from inside After Effects by choosing Help > After Effects Tutorial.

• Adobe Forums: forums.adobe.com/community/aftereffects_general_discussion lets you tap into peer-to-peer discussions, questions, and answers on Adobe products.

• Adobe After Effects CC product home page: adobe.com/products/aftereffects provides information about the current version's new features. It also provides links to related Adobe applications and to the Learn & Support page.

• Adobe Add-ons: adobeexchange.com/creativecloud.html is a central resource for finding tools, services, extensions, code samples, and more to supplement and extend your Adobe products.

• Resources for educators: adobe.com/education and edex.adobe.com offer a treasure trove of information for instructors who teach classes on Adobe software at all levels.

Adobe Certification

The Adobe training and certification programs are designed to help video editors, designers, and other creative professionals improve and promote their product-proficiency skills. The Adobe Certified Associate (ACA) is an industry-recognized credential that demonstrates proficiency in Adobe digital skills. Whether you're just starting out in your career, looking to switch jobs, or interested in preparing students for success in the job market, the Adobe Certified Associate program is for you! For more information visit edex.adobe.com/aca.

Resetting Preferences to Their Default Settings

After Effects lets you determine how the program looks and behaves (like tool settings and the default unit of measurement) using the extensive options in Edit > Preferences (Windows) or After Effects CC > Preferences (macOS). To ensure that the preferences and default settings of your Adobe After Effects program match those used in this book, you can reset your preference settings to their defaults. If you are using software installed on computers in a classroom, don't make any changes to the system configuration without first checking with your instructor.

To reset your preferences to their default settings, follow these steps:

1. Quit Adobe After Effects.

2. Start After Effects, then immediately hold down the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift key (macOS).

3. When a message appears asking if you want to delete your preferences file, click OK.