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Total Training for Adobe
After Effects 7 Pro: Professional Features
Review Date: February 15, 2006
Reviewed By: Jeremy Hanke
Product Reviewed: Total Training for After Effects 7 Pro: Professional Features
Total Training brings their training for Adobe After Effects 7 Pro to the Professional Features table with the follow up to their AAE7P: Essentials. And like the previous volume of training, this training series is helmed by Steve Holmes, the effects-savvy Creative Director from Energi Design in San Francisco.
The basic scope of this set is centered on viewing 3D images in AE7 Pro, creating 3D cameras and lights, keying green/blue-screen images, compositing layered video, color correcting composited layers of video, rotoscoping backgrounds and text into footage, and Dynamic motion tracking. Additionally, there's also some helpful training at the beginning about a few clever uses of 'wiggle' selectors and other features to create impressive titles.
Throughout it, Steve does an admirable job of showing you After Effects 7 Pro and how you can best use it.
Understandability
It's highly recommended that you first purchase and use Steve Holmes' Total Training for Adobe After Effects 7 Pro: Essentials before jumping into this series. If you do so, you'll be able to understand most of the concepts more easily. This does not mean that you have to do so if you're already familiar with After Effects, as this training does work as a standalone training.
While it was pretty easy to follow Steve's thoughts and ideas much of the time, there were a few times where his simple familiarity with the program would cause him to blur through steps a little too quickly. With a bit of patience, you'll catch up to him, but there's a bit of an extra learning curve due to this.
Depth of Information
There is a huge amount of information that is covered in this series on 3D, compositing, color correction, rotoscoping, and Motion tracking, which will definitely help your future productions improve dramatically.
After you complete this training, you will have an all new respect for some of the plug-ins that Adobe has included with After Effects, like KeyLight, which allows you to very powerfully key out colored backgrounds--even if the lighting isn't very even--while still preserving any shadows you may want. As much as I've used After Effects, I was really impressed with some of the new effects that it's now capable of and some of the clever ways Steve combined features to come up with something completely new and innovative.
Despite all the great info on compositing and 3D work, I would have liked to have seen a bit more depth on advanced titling, as that segment was a little bit abbreviated. Additionally, a bit more info on color matching non-composited shots for film would have been useful, as the color correction is limited mainly to compositing. All in all though, there is a huge amount of info you will glean from this series.
Attention Captivation
Due to the complexity of the information in this DVD, the attention captivation was a real mixed bag. To begin with, Steve Holmes has a very soothing British voice, which can, at times, tend to make you drowsy during some of his lecture segments. To show where these lulls pop up, let's look at an overview of the training itself.
The training opens up with some interesting ways to do a few titles that also demonstrates some nice advanced features in AE7 Pro. Soon after that, Steve plunges headlong into 3D and 3D compositing within the program. Unfortunately, he ends up going into rather lengthy explanations of 3D theory and the mechanics of After Effects in dealing with them. All of this information is necessary, but it would have helped a lot if there was more show and less tell in this segment, especially due to the aforementioned soothing resonance to his voice. Because of the number of more lecture-based segments in this area, it actually took me about three times as long to get through things here because I couldn't watch the training for as long a period of time per session without getting bogged down.
When you get to the second disc, which deals with keying, compositing, color correcting, and rotoscoping, the interest level ramps back up, as Steve's excitement level seems to increase and there is a lot more show to go along with the tell. (This does not mean there aren't a few lecture segments here, but this side is much more lively.) I would probably recommend that you start with the second disc and then go to the first disc at the end, especially if you haven't watched the Total Training After Effects Essentials set prior to this.
Reusability
This set is very reusable, which is helpful if you need to bring other editors up to speed on After Effects 7 Pro. Additionally, there's so much information that you'll want to refresh yourself on, you'll probably find yourself flashing back to helpful segments during future projects. To make refreshing simple, Total Training has their standard training interface, which includes easy chapter surfing, memory of where you left off last, and handy bookmark features.
Value vs. Cost
Although $230 is a decent chunk of change, the amount of information you will gain out of this is absolutely huge! If you are planning on using 3D, green-screening actors or sets, or rotoscoping new backgrounds and/or fonts into your films, then this will be a very solid investment for you to make!
Overall Comment
While there are a few dry patches in this training, the amount of information you can glean from it is intense and will serve you and your future films well. If you plan on using After Effects 7 Pro for complex effects, this series is highly recommended.
View original at www.microfilmmaker.com
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