The After Effects Illusionist: All the Effects in One Complete Guide »

Chad Perkins is an Adobe Certified Instructor and Expert in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, After Effects, Premiere, and was one of the first in the world to be a Certified Expert in Adobe Encore DVD. Chad also owns Aveconta, an architectural rendering studio that creates photo-realistic renders from AutoCAD drawings and blueprints. Chad served for over two years as the Digital 3D and Animation Specialist at a leading lenticular art creation facility in Southern California, where he produced finished art for Warner Brothers, Paramount, and Disney, among others. True to his passion for movies and animation, Chad is currently directing and producing an all-CGI short film.

Covers CS4
This cookbook contains recipe after recipe that allow you to harness the full power of the native plug-in effects in the After Effects application. In a step-by-step manner, author Chad Perkins guides you through the creation and application of each and every native plug-in effect available for use in the AE toolset. The book also shows you how each can be used optimally in your media project, when and why it makes sense to use each, and also how to combine multiple effects.

From color correction effects to distortion effects to stimulation effects and all in between, this book puts the full power of the AE plug-in effects in your hands. It shows you how to create, among others:
- the shatter effect
- the fractal noise effect
- the glow effects
- the Particle playground effect
- the 3D Channel Extract effect
- the Colorama effect

A CD that contains tutorial project files is included with the book, allowing you to work hand-in-hand with the lessons in the book.

All exercise files on the CD are for use in CS4 only. Non-exercise files on the CD are compatible with any version of After Effects.

* Fully harness the power of AE with ingredient-by-ingredient recipes for creating effects using the native plug-ins in After Effects
* Features inspiring 4 color presentation and insight into when and why certain effects should be used
* Companion CD features tutorial project files allowing you to work hand-in-hand with the lessons in the book
* All exercise files on the CD are for use in CS4 only. Non-exercise files on the CD are compatible with any version of After Effects.

Ch. 1 Becoming an Illusionist 1

Ch. 2 The 3D Channel Effects 15

Ch. 3 The Audio Effects 35

Ch. 4 The Blur & Sharpen Effects 43

Ch. 5 The Channel Effects 85

Ch. 6 The Color Correction Effects 129

Ch. 7 The Distort Effects 207

Ch. 8 The Expression Controls Effects 275

Ch. 9 The Generate Effects 281

Ch. 10 The Keying Effects 327

Ch. 11 The Matte Effects 351

Ch. 12 The Noise & Grain Effects 357

Ch. 13 The Obsolete Effects 401

Ch. 14 The Paint Effects 411

Ch. 15 The Perspective Effects 415

Ch. 16 The Simulation Effects 425

Ch. 17 The Stylize Effects 477

Ch. 18 The Text Effects 523

Ch. 19 The Time Effects 531

Ch. 20 The Transition Effects 545

Ch. 21 The Utility Effects 565

Index 573

Cd-Rom Content

Ch. 22 Using Multiple Effects Together

Ch. 23 Enhancing the Illusion with Maps

Ch. 24 Where Do I Go From Here?