Book Image

Creative Motion Mastery with Adobe After Effects

By : Vishu Aggarwal
Book Image

Creative Motion Mastery with Adobe After Effects

By: Vishu Aggarwal

Overview of this book

Visual effects and motion graphics are everywhere, shaping the film, TV, games, websites, and application landscape. Navigating a field this complex and ever-expanding demands more than mere familiarity with tools; you need to stand out to get ahead. Creative Motion Mastery with Adobe After Effects is the definitive guide that not only equips you with the essential skills to distinguish yourself, but also takes you through real projects that you can add to your portfolio. Guided by a hands-on learning approach, you'll master the UI, workflow, and diverse projects such as text animation, shape layers, and rotoscoping. With this newfound knowledge, you’ll take your graphic design and post-production skills to the next level using chroma keying, particle simulations, and 2D and 3D tracking. You’ll progress faster than someone taking a formal course in Adobe After Effects! And it’s not all about creating; you’ll import graphics from Illustrator and Photoshop and apply post-production effects to give them a new life. Finally, you’ll discover how seamlessly you can export and manage your projects, ensuring end-to-end coverage of all you need. By the end of the book, you’ll have a thorough understanding of Adobe After Effects, equipped with the skills and practice you need to propel your career in graphic design.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Working with Motion Graphics
8
Part 2: Post-Production and Visual Effects
13
Part 3: 2D and 3D Tracking, and Rendering

Using single-point tracking

Single-point tracking in After Effects is a fundamental technique used in motion graphics, video editing, and visual effects to make an element follow a specific point in a video clip. This technique involves tracking the movement of a single point in the video and applying that motion data to another element, creating a seamless integration between the real footage and the added visual elements. It is part of the 2D tracking system of After Effects.

Go to the Point Tracker composition and play the composition – notice how the Call Out text isn’t moving with the bicycle in the composition. So, we will be tracking a point in the Bicycle.mp4 layer given in the Point Tracker composition so that we can move the Call Out text with the bicycle.

Follow these steps to track the point in the Bicycle.mp4 layer:

  1. Locate the Point Tracking composition in the Project panel and double-click the composition to open it in the timeline if not already...