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

Importing Illustrator and Photoshop files

In this section, we will look into how to import the layered files of Illustrator and Photoshop in After Effects and convert them into a composition in After Effects, allowing individual layers to be animated.

Importing Illustrator files

Before we start working on shape layers and tools, let us create a new project and import the Illustrator file, as follows:

  1. Go to File | New | New project.
  2. Then, double-click in the Project window to open the import window, or go to File | Import | File….
  3. Select the workout.ai file from the project file in the footage folder.
  4. Keep the import options as the default, and then click Open:
Figure 5.2: The import options settings

Figure 5.2: The import options settings

Now, a pop-up window will appear for the import options. This appears whenever an Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop file is imported in After Effects, but only if you import a single file at a time.

  1. In the pop-up window...