Those creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe After Effects CS5 choose Adobe After Effects CS5 Classroom in a Book from the Adobe Creative Team at Adobe Press. The 14 project-based lessons in this book show readers step-by-step the key techniques for working in After Effects CS5 and how to work efficiently and deliver in the widest possible range of media types. In addition to learning the key elements of the After Effects interface, this completely revised CS5 edition covers 64-bit performance; new Mocha, Color Finesse 3, and Digieffects FreeForm plug-ins; Roto Brush; AVC-Intra and expanded RED camera support; and more.
“The Classroom in a Book series is by far the best training material on the market. Everything you need to master the software is included: clear explanations of each lesson, step-by-step instructions, and the project files for the students.” —Barbara Binder, Adobe Certified Instructor, Rocky Mountain Training
Classroom in a Book®, the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, helps you learn the features of Adobe software quickly and easily. Classroom in a Book offers what no other book or training program does—an official training series from Adobe Systems Incorporated, developed with the support of Adobe product experts.
Customer Reviews & Comments
This book won't explain the program in detail, however it WILL get you up to speed with 14 lessons encompassing the most widely-used features of After Effects. The included CD offers lesson files and examples of finished projects-a great way of viewing the result you're aiming for. Everything about the book is well organized and the chapters start off with the basics (such as animating text and shape layers), leading up to the Roto Brush tool and advanced editing techniques.
I went through several of the lessons in order to get a feel for the book's accuracy, learning curve, and program features. I did find a few areas in the book that could have benefitted from an additional diagram or two (e.g. Restore Frame Size from the Render Queue panel was never found, though the book described it, assuming that it was easy enough to find. Not so.)
As someone familiar with many Adobe products, I found that After Effects has a much higher learning curve. I ventured to the web on many occasions in order to search a particular term or file extension being described in the book in order to learn and not blindly follow along.
I would recommend a basic appendix at the end of the book in order to give beginners new to the program a head start. While the book's preface mentions that the book is not meant to replace program documentation, it wouldn't have been too difficult to have added a few pages of useful information.
