What are some good, basic AE skills every filmmaker/editor should know

K

kmv787

New member
Newb here. I was just hoping someone could inform me on some fundamental, commonly-used After Effects skills I should learn to better help any video I work on. Thanks.
 
Keyframing, parenting, masking, puppeting. AE is used entirely too much as an NLE, a colorist program, a stabilizer, etc. It's a compositing tool. If you know those things, you have a toolbox available to you that will take your productions to a new level.
 
The best thing I could have learned/understood a bit sooner when I was first starting out was everything there is to know about alpha & luma mattes.In my personal workflow I use luma mattes all the time and they can not only make your job eaiser when used correctly, but also key/remove backgrounds when necessary.If your going to do a great deal of compositing, the use of track mattes in AE is always a good option.-B
 
Don't overlook the fact that simply knowing how to use the program itself, things like menu commands and keyboard shorcuts, will go a long ways towards making any job easier.

Give the manual a thorough read from start to finish.
 
When I first learned AE, I found the Adobe "Classroom in a Book" to be a strong introduction to using the program effectively. Now that I pull the book down off the shelf and look at it, I see that it was 10 years ago! I'm sure at this point there are many many more free resources on the net, but if you want a quick one stop shop for learning, I highly recommend this dead tree. The books come with a disc with project files and footage to work with, and by the time you are done you've worked on a project from start to finish.
 
If you're looking for stuff you'll use daily, learn how to color grade/online your film in AE. Learn how to mask areas and feather it for creating power windows when you grade using Colorista Free. Learn how to use Curves and Hue/Saturation. Learn how to export a TIFF sequence. Learn how to reframe a shot with Scale, Rotation and Position. I'd also recommend learning how to key with Keylight.
In all honestly, go to Videocopilot.net and follow their intro tutorials as posted above. Then start watching the ones that interest you. By following along, you'll start to understand how the software works and you'll see common stuff that comes up frequently.
 
I'll second the recommendations for the basic videocopilot, which is basic, fast, and free, and lynda.com, which, for $25/month for lessons on many, many topics, can't be beat. I'm doing AE myself, right now and it's proving to be a good foundation.
 
Another +1 for video co-pilot and spring the cash for Lynda for the classes they have it's the best money you will invest in learning period.

Another good source that I did not see mentioned was shortformvideo
 
I started many years ago doing simple keying and every time I needed to do something new I learned that. I now know my way around AB but I often learn new things so it's an ongoing experience.
 
JoeRawlins said:
Keyframing, parenting, masking, puppeting. AE is used entirely too much as an NLE, a colorist program, a stabilizer, etc. It's a compositing tool. If you know those things, you have a toolbox available to you that will take your productions to a new level.
Click to expand...

Wait what's puppeting? I know all the rest, except that. Do you mean things like pick-whipping to Nulls?

ZOMG I just figured it out after watching this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WFmcQXwnfs

I had no idea there was a puppet tool. Sweeeet.
 
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