Animation, Polishing and Compositing with After Effects
After Effects is an incredibly powerful and versatile program that keeps gaining momentum in the industry. If you are new to the program, it may seem daunting to get into with the sheer amount of flexibility the program has in it's uses. If you're interested in After Effects you can download a free trial of it here, or through the link in the “Useful Links” section. After Effects main uses usually fall to three categories: Animating, Polishing, and Compositing.
The biggest thing about animating using the program is that After Effects lives in a world between 3D animation and 2D animation. In After Effects “2.5D” world there is depth to the stage you're animating on, but all your pieces are flat. It's a lot like animating with paper cut outs, you can move the paper forwards and backwards in space, but it itself has no real depth to it. That's how After Effects treats it's 3D space. Things are changing slightly with integration of Cinema4D, but that's using another program to achieve the true 3D elements.
A great example of After Effects' 2.5D animation style is Run Wrake's short film “Rabbit.” It's a great example of animating in After Effects and really capitalizing on it's 2.5D style.
Now not all animation in After Effects has to look like cut out puppets, but that is kind of it's default style. This is where After Effects is great at polishing. After Effects works amazingly well with integration from Flash, Photoshop and Cinema4D.
The last area that the industry is really using After Effects is compositing, a lot like what Alex Horan did in Wolf Within, but it can be extended to live action as well. Green screening, masking and compositing are all things After Effects does very well with ease. After Effects compositing skills is something it has a distinct advantage of over other animation programs, it's masking ability is incredibly versatile. Here's a fun, fourth wall breaking, music video from the directing duo Daniels for Tenacious D that uses lots of compositing, in various stages of finish.
All in all After Effects is a very powerful and very versatile program which can bend and twist to whatever function you may have in mind for it.While Adobe does have a fairly high cost entrance, if you are serious about pursuing a professional career in any form of animation After Effects is an essential tool. And if you're just curious about it, Adobe's free trial is a great way to get your feet wet without having to shell out a bunch of cash.
courtesy:animation.about.com
After Effects is an incredibly powerful and versatile program that keeps gaining momentum in the industry. If you are new to the program, it may seem daunting to get into with the sheer amount of flexibility the program has in it's uses. If you're interested in After Effects you can download a free trial of it here, or through the link in the “Useful Links” section. After Effects main uses usually fall to three categories: Animating, Polishing, and Compositing.
The biggest thing about animating using the program is that After Effects lives in a world between 3D animation and 2D animation. In After Effects “2.5D” world there is depth to the stage you're animating on, but all your pieces are flat. It's a lot like animating with paper cut outs, you can move the paper forwards and backwards in space, but it itself has no real depth to it. That's how After Effects treats it's 3D space. Things are changing slightly with integration of Cinema4D, but that's using another program to achieve the true 3D elements.
A great example of After Effects' 2.5D animation style is Run Wrake's short film “Rabbit.” It's a great example of animating in After Effects and really capitalizing on it's 2.5D style.
Now not all animation in After Effects has to look like cut out puppets, but that is kind of it's default style. This is where After Effects is great at polishing. After Effects works amazingly well with integration from Flash, Photoshop and Cinema4D.
The last area that the industry is really using After Effects is compositing, a lot like what Alex Horan did in Wolf Within, but it can be extended to live action as well. Green screening, masking and compositing are all things After Effects does very well with ease. After Effects compositing skills is something it has a distinct advantage of over other animation programs, it's masking ability is incredibly versatile. Here's a fun, fourth wall breaking, music video from the directing duo Daniels for Tenacious D that uses lots of compositing, in various stages of finish.
All in all After Effects is a very powerful and very versatile program which can bend and twist to whatever function you may have in mind for it.While Adobe does have a fairly high cost entrance, if you are serious about pursuing a professional career in any form of animation After Effects is an essential tool. And if you're just curious about it, Adobe's free trial is a great way to get your feet wet without having to shell out a bunch of cash.
courtesy:animation.about.com
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