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

Working with four-point tracking

Four-point tracking in After Effects, also known as corner-pin tracking, involves tracking the motion of four specific points in a video frame. This technique is used when you need to replace or modify the contents of a rectangular area, such as a TV screen, billboard, or the side of a building.

We will be using four-point tracking to replace the laptop screen in the 4 Point Tracking composition in the Laptop.mp4 layer with the War Scene.mp4 layer, which we created in Chapter 10 while working with particle simulation.

Before we jump into tracking, we will have to increase the duration of the War Scene.mp4 footage from 5 seconds to 10 seconds, for which we will be using the Time Stretch option in After Effects, so that it matches the duration of the Laptop.m4 footage.

Time Stretch

Firstly, we need to extend the timing of the War Scene.mp4 layer in the 4 Point Tracking composition because the duration of the War Scene.mp4 layer is only 5 seconds...