After Effects reference

[_gl 0]

What is the best AE reference in any form? Book, website, ebook whatever...

 

I am teaching a mograph class and I want the students to have a good reference source to look up the basics.

 

-gl

 

 

Edited August 22, 2014 by _gl

[AromaKat 1]

http://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/after_effects_reference.pdf

[Todd Kopriva 0]

It is as AromaKat says. Of course, I would say that, since I wrote it from After Effects 7.0 through After Effects CS5 (10.0).

 

That said, Chris and Trish Meyer's Creating Motion Graphics is the most comprehensive book other than Adobe's Help document, and they have better illustrations and examples for most things.

[_gl 0]

Thanks for the replies. Is CMG going to be less helpful because we have had several major version upgrades?

 

-gl

[Todd Kopriva 0]

Even the most major upgrade that we do doesn't (usually) change the fundamentals. Typically, we're adding new features and/or alternative ways of doing things. So, CMG is still very useful and valid.

[AromaKat 1]

Yeah, CMG has been the standard issue book in schools for over a decade.

[edrhine 0]

Would second CMG as well. Was going to be teaching a class this year and the plan was to use that as the text.

[Crish 0]

Thanks Todd for sending us this thread about our book!

 

If you are teaching After Effects to beginners, we recommend After Effects Apprentice. It's written as a step-by-step book (11 lessons and a final project), and the entire book is also available as a video series on lynda.com and Class on Demand. So whichever way your students like to learn, they have the option to read or watch.

 

The 3rd edition of Apprentice covers AE CS6 but there is a PDF on our website with any updates for CC. But as Todd said, most of the new features are advanced or additions - very little of the core functionality has changed. (CC2014 adds one feature - applying effects with a mask that makes a sidebar on page 101 obsolete.)

 

Our plan is to update AE Apprentice next spring, so that it will be in the stores by the summer for next year's back-to-school session.

 

Creating Motion Graphics will not be updated going forward. That said, I think you'll still find it valuable as a reference guide to individual topics where you might want to get deeper into a topic.

 

We have been keeping CMG updated by releasing videos demo'ing any new features on lynda.com, but you could use these videos to add on the new features for a longer course.

 

* If you are teaching AE, then please ask our publisher for review copies of both books: Email orders@taylorandfrancis.com. If you don't get a response, please contact us through our website's Contact page at crishdesign.com and we will put you in touch with the Focal Press academic dept. You can also download sample chapters and Table of Contents for both books from our website.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Crish

[kitkats 0]

Chris and Trish's books are some of the best software learning resources ever made; in any medium, for any software. I haven't read Apprentice but I owned 2 editions of CMG and they were so well put together. The Adobe documentation is more exhaustive but it tends to be extremely dry. It's like 'Let's tell them absolutely everything the software can do' whereas CMG was like 'Let's explain how everything works' - difference being that the CMG books have a more real-world, production POV. They have a tone of voice that makes you want to play with the application rather than just slit your wrists. But if you need to know what some obscure option in the Advanced Lightning effect does - go for the manual.

[J Montreuil 0]

And the Maxon manual is the perfect marriage of the two style?

[Todd Kopriva 0]

...rather than just slit your wrists...

 

And people wonder why I changed jobs.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Todd Kopriva