Adobe After Effects
PRESENTED BY: NAPOLEON SOBERANO
What is Adobe After Effects?
Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing
application developed by Adobe Systems and used in the post-production
process of film making and television production. Among other things, After
Effects can be used for keying, tracking, compositing, and animation
History
After Effects was originally created by David Herbstman, David
Simons, Daniel Wilk, David M. Cotter, and Russell Belfer at
the Company of Science and Art in Providence, Rhode Island,
where the first two versions of the software, 1.0 (January 1993) and
1.1, were released by the company. CoSA along with After Effects
was then acquired by Aldus corporation in July 1993, which was in
turn acquired by Adobe in 1994, and with it Pagemaker. Adobe's
first new release of After Effects was version 3.0.
Features
Watch a preview video
While you can create motion in text, images, and any other layer in
Adobe Premiere Pro – it is a lot easier to do in After Effects
For titles, shapes, 2D animations, adding special effects, After Effects
is your tool.
Source: 2Snacks YT Channel
Source: School in Motion
What you can do in Adobe After Effects
After Effects for compositing 3D rendered footage. A video editor
might use After Effects more for title design, and an animator might
use it for creating 2D cartoon characters.
The reason why so many people have trouble defining
what After Effects does is simply due to the fact that it does so many
things — and does them well.
Features
The Effects Library
The thing that really sets After Effects apart from all the other video
applications is its vast effects library. There are literally hundreds of built-in
effects that can be combined to create an unlimited number of creative
possibilities. This might sound a little too good to be true, but
in After Effects — if you can dream it, you can do it. Let’s take a look at a
few of the effects categories included in Adobe After Effects.
Title Design
With title design features as diverse as Photoshop, After Effects is a fantastic program for
creating the perfect titles for your video projects. The title tool built into After Effects works
very similarly to those found in most word processors. This includes paragraph options and
custom controls for things like leading and kerning.
However, the thing that really puts the title design capabilities of After Effects over the top
are the title animators that allow users to automatically animate characters, words, or lines
depending on your project’s needs.
Compositing
A compositing software is simply a software that can be used to bring multiple assets
together to create a finished scene. For example, a single VFX shot may require that
a green screen plate, a background, some explosion elements, dust, and smoke all
be composited into a single scene. This would be incredibly difficult to do inside of a
video editing application, so a specialty application like After Effects is the way to go.
Scripts
Unlike plugins, scripts don’t unlock anything that After Effects isn’t already
capable of doing — they simply automate a process that would normally
take longer for someone to do. For example, there are some scripts like AE
Sweets that create shape animations.
The Element 3D plugin is possibly the most impressive third-party
plugin because it allows users to import, texturize, color, light, and
create 3D objects inside of After Effects. It doesn’t replace a 3D
modeling application entirely — but if you only work with 3D objects
occasionally, it’s a helpful tool for speeding up the 3D design process
3D Modeling and Animation
Using Element 3D, you can import 3D objects into After Effects — but
you’re limited when it comes to animating them, so you’ll never be
able to replace a traditional 3D modeling/animation software. You’ll
also be incredibly limited in the types of models you can create. If
you’re serious about 3D design, you really need to begin learning a
3D software like Cinema 4D or Maya.
