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After Effects 6

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After Effects 6

Postby Gerry » Sat Nov 24, 2012 1:03 am

You guys are gonna laugh, but I just picked up a legitimate copy of After Effects 6 for $60. I'm already halfway through the Lynda.com course on it. (Yup, I realize it's about 9 years out-of-date.)

Reason? I spent almost 3 weeks recently in my work's video editor's office, creating 4 client videos from scratch, with only rough scripts, a half-baked idea, and a plea, "Brian, you've gotta help me make these things EXCITING!" He did all of them in After Effects (albeit CS6) and I picked up enough by watching that I got the bug.

Rather than plunge into the $400 After Effects CS3 pool on eBay (let alone the $999 CS6 pool), I figured I'd hit the wading pool first, to see if it's something I'll be able to use at home, and will enjoy.

I'm all psyched, so here's hoping!
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Bob » Sat Nov 24, 2012 1:34 am

I'm certainly not going to laugh. I'm going to say, Good for You! :TU: AE 6 is certainly not as capable as more recent versions, but you can still do quite a bit with it. AE 6 came in a Standard version and a Professional version which had more capability. Which do you have?

Do you have Windows 7 64-bit? Since you already have Photoshop and Illustrator, if you get bitten by the AE bug, you might consider the Production Premium CS6 suite. With three of the core products, your upgrade costs will be competitive once you get past the initial outlay. Or, there's always the subscription route.
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Gerry » Sat Nov 24, 2012 10:45 am

It's the "Standard" version, Bob -- and I actually don't even have it in-hand yet. It should arrive early next week. But why wait learning it?

Yup, I do have Win 7/64, and CS5 versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Thanks for the heads-up on the Production Suite, I never gave that a thought. Because I bought PS, IL, and ID separately, Adobe won't consider them a "Suite" so when it's upgrade time, there'll be a bit of a cash outlay for all 3. I'll have to look into all this.

Right now, though, I'm all excited to figure out just what I'm going to "need" After Effects for! It's a solution in search of a problem.
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby momoffduty » Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:27 pm

Gerry wrote:Right now, though, I'm all excited to figure out just what I'm going to "need" After Effects for! It's a solution in search of a problem.


That is the fun part! AE is versatile and used for many different types of projects. The tuts at Lynda.com are wonderful. The AE bug is catching. About 99% of my slideshows are made in AE. Title work is good too. Editing video in PrPro has become bland for me and the fun part is creating the titles in AE. Congrats & have fun! :-D
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Gerry » Sun Nov 25, 2012 12:51 am

momoffduty wrote:Editing video in PrPro has become bland for me and the fun part is creating the titles in AE. Congrats & have fun! :-D


Thanks! I'm looking forward to that. But I'm just wondering that, as I cram AE learning into my brain, what's coming out?
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby momoffduty » Sun Nov 25, 2012 3:22 pm

Gerry wrote:Thanks! I'm looking forward to that. But I'm just wondering that, as I cram AE learning into my brain, what's coming out?


The first month learning AE I must have said 100x that I can't do this. It was very frustrating. Information overload. After you finish the Lynda tuts look at title tuts at Video CoPilot or AETuts. Follow it through and then change things around like a color or one of the fx property parameters to make it your own creation. And watch a few tuts from various sources and combine into one title. Things will start to click after awhile. At least you have your co-worker to help you. I'm glad to help too depending on what you are trying to achieve.
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Gerry » Mon Nov 26, 2012 12:30 am

momoffduty wrote:The first month learning AE I must have said 100x that I can't do this. It was very frustrating. Information overload. After you finish the Lynda tuts look at title tuts at Video CoPilot or AETuts. Follow it through and then change things around like a color or one of the fx property parameters to make it your own creation. And watch a few tuts from various sources and combine into one title. Things will start to click after awhile. At least you have your co-worker to help you. I'm glad to help too depending on what you are trying to achieve.


Tons of great advice there. Thanks a million. I've never heard of Video CoPilot so I'll have to look into that.

Plus, I'll have to give myself a legitimate project to complete. Otherwise it'll just be flailing around and not really feel compelled to learn and internalize it.

And thanks for your offer of help -- I'll take you up on it!
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Gerry » Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:00 am

Woo-hoo! Got the program installed tonight and have already made a still picture rotate around in 3D space! It took all night, and elicited a "that's IT?" response from my wife, but I'm learning!
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby momoffduty » Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:57 am

Gerry wrote:Woo-hoo! Got the program installed tonight and have already made a still picture rotate around in 3D space! It took all night, and elicited a "that's IT?" response from my wife, but I'm learning!


Yep, you got the AE bug big time! Congrats on your first 3D movement. =D> Plan on spending 4 hours to make a 30 second project. :lol: Tip: Learn the keyboard shortcuts!!!! A real time saver.
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Gerry » Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:40 am

momoffduty wrote:Yep, you got the AE bug big time! Congrats on your first 3D movement. =D> Plan on spending 4 hours to make a 30 second project. :lol: Tip: Learn the keyboard shortcuts!!!! A real time saver.


It totally made me realize how good our video editor at work is. Man, he was flying through that program. I also remember how he told me that when he first got it, he got "lost" in 3D space dozens of times. I can understand that so much better now.

I'm encountering a bit of turbulence, though, since I think this XP-built program isn't playing nice with Win7. I'll go to do a render on a 30-second clip, and the render just stops dead 3 or 4 times -- I have to keep hitting the spacebar to get it to continue.

But still having a ton of fun!
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby momoffduty » Wed Nov 28, 2012 10:28 am

Gerry wrote:It totally made me realize how good our video editor at work is. Man, he was flying through that program. I also remember how he told me that when he first got it, he got "lost" in 3D space dozens of times. I can understand that so much better now.


Getting lost in 3D space is very easy. Half the battle learning AE is knowing where everything is at and the keyboard shortcuts. I hunted & pecked for a long time. Be sure to SAVE (Ctrl+S) every few minutes or so.
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby John 'twosheds' McDonald » Wed Nov 28, 2012 10:34 am

momoffduty wrote:Be sure to SAVE (Ctrl+S) every few minutes or so.

Yes. Second that. If what I am doing is especially complex I save almost after every step.
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Gerry » Wed Nov 28, 2012 11:09 am

Great advice. Will do.
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Gerry » Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:54 am

I know it's not great, but it's only my second test with After Effects 6. Wanted to see if I could get the hang of 3D space, null objects, and camera moves. It's just over a minute long.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtoXHK54ZRY[/youtube]
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Re: After Effects 6

Postby Dave McElderry » Wed Dec 05, 2012 2:41 am

Looks like you're off to a "flying" start Gerry! :-D There are a lot of people here who can appreciate the hours of learning time that it takes to make a one minute short like this. :TU:
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