Create vibrant visual effects with Adobe After Effects. Gain the tips, tricks, and applied knowledge you need to carry out essential visual effects tasks and bring your digital compositing to the next level. In Compositing Visual Effects in After Effects, industry veteran Lee Lanier covers all the common After Effects techniques any serious visual effects artist needs to know, combining the latest, professionally-vetted studio practices and workflows with multi-chapter projects and hands-on lessons. Engaging, full-color tutorials cover: Altering resolutions and frame rates Channel and color space manipulation Rotoscoping and masking Matchmoving and motion tracking Keying green screen Working in the 3D environment and integrating 3D render passes Particle simulation Color grading and distressing Expressions and project management The companion website (www.focalpress.com/cw/lanier) features video image sequences, 3D renders, matte paintings, and other tutorial materials, allowing you to immediately apply the techniques taught in the book.

Create vibrant visual effects with Adobe After Effects. Gain the tips, tricks, and applied knowledge you need to carry out essential visual effects tasks and bring your digital compositing to the next level. In Compositing Visual Effects in After Effects, industry veteran Lee Lanier covers all the common After Effects techniques any serious visual effects artist needs to know, combining the latest, professionally-vetted studio practices and workflows with multi-chapter projects and hands-on lessons. Engaging, full-color tutorials cover: Altering resolutions and frame rates Channel and color space manipulation Rotoscoping and masking Matchmoving and motion tracking Keying green screen Working in the 3D environment and integrating 3D render passes Particle simulation Color grading and distressing Expressions and project management The companion website (www.focalpress.com/cw/lanier) features video image sequences, 3D renders, matte paintings, and other tutorial materials, allowing you to immediately apply the techniques taught in the book.

Covers the basics of Adobe After Effects, from color correction and keying to selection methods and motion tracking and provides tips and techniques to help readers become more productive with the program.

Put the essential concepts and techniques of digital compositing to work for you without the need of a single mathematical equation. Compositing Visual Effects is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of film shots, figures, illustrations, and diagrams to help the visual reader gain a valuable vocabulary and understanding of the full range of visual effects, in which digital compositing plays a key role. Beginning with an inspirational tour of the scope and magnitude of digital compositing, you get a solid overview of the kinds of digital effects routinely executed today. See how CGI is composited with live action, how set extensions are done, and what a match-move shot is. Following that you learn each of the key applications of digital compositing, which include bluescreen compositing, bullet-time shots, motion tracking, and rotoscoping. The subsequent chapters dig down into each of the major digital compositing applications, introducing the fundamental concepts, and processes behind them. Learn what is easy and hard, possible and impossible, and what to expect when working on a job that entails digital compositing. New to this edition are 4 new chapters on: * 3D compositing, with lessons on what camera tracking is, how it is used to put CGI into a live-action plate, as well as live action into a 3D scene. * Stereo compositing, with descriptions of key stereoscopic terms and concepts, lessons on compositing shots that were filmed in stereo (both bluescreen and CGI), as well as the stereo conversion process when a flat 2D movie is converted to a stereo 3D movie * RED and Digital Capture with Log Images, including log image formats. This is a very hot topic these days. Colleges hang around video because it is cheaper. Film is still big in the real world of production. * Tracking an entire project from start to finish This is in addition to robust updates on topics such as: * planar tracking, Z compositing, working with Anamorphic HD formats, mocap, and more This edition also includes a companion website with images from the book for you to work with in your own compositing exercises. An accessible introduction to a complex subject for novice and aspiring compositors, from experienced author and compositing whose compositing credits include Night at the Museum 2, Shutter Island, Solaris, Traffic, and more Full color presentation illustrating the art and techniques of the practice, provides inspiration along with instruction New to this edition is a companion website, new chapters on 3D compositing, stereo compositing, RED and digital capture with log images, and more will have you understanding the latest in compositing technology in no time

This is the only book on the market to focus exclusively on the creation of visual effects for After Effects users, and is a one-stop resource for anyone who wants in-depth explanations that demystify the realm of visual effects and how they were created, thanks to veteran author Mark Christiansen's friendly and accessible style. A thoroughly packed, informative read, this masterful guide focuses on explaining the essential concepts, features, and techniques that are key to creating seamless movie-quality visual effects. Users who are comfortable with After Effects will find a helpful review of the fundamentals - managing footage, viewing and editing layers, animating type, and more - so they can learn how to work smarter and more efficiently. Readers of all levels will learn core techniques for effects compositing including color matching, keying, rotoscoping, motion tracking, emulating the camera, and concluding with using expressions in After Effects, written by contributor and expert Dan Ebberts. An incredibly useful appendix on scripting in After Effects is included as well, written by Adobe engineer Jeff Almasol. The final section of the book delves into creative explorations, demonstrating professional effects that are commonly seen in films and games which readers can re-create. Readers will also find comprehensive coverage of all that's new and makes this version of Adobe's effects programa must-have update, including the revolutionary new Roto Brush, all new effects such as the New Refine Matte effect, new support for Color Look-Up Tables, workflows that take advantage of the all-new 64-bit support, inclusion of third-party tools for additional creativity, and much more. Note from the publisher: FREE Adobe After Effects CS5.5 updates are available for this title. Simply register your product at www.peachpit.com/register and you will receive the updates when they become available.

In Advanced Visual Effects Compositing: Techniques for Working with Problematic Footage, learn to tackle difficult visual effect composites in layer-based and node-based compositing programs. In this book, industry veteran and compositing expert Lee Lanier offers tips, tricks, techniques, and workflows for difficult visual effects shots, including poorly shot green screen, moving shots with no visible motion tracking marks, shots requiring three-dimensional (3D) elements that lack 3D renders, poor-quality stock footage, and incorrectly lit shots. Lanier details the common problems of visual effects shots and offers practical solutions using examples from Adobe After Effects and Blackmagic Design Fusion. An accompanying eResource (www.routledge.com/9781138668348) features video image sequences, 3D renders, and other tutorial materials, allowing you to practice the discussed techniques. The visual effects challenges covered in this book include: Chroma keying Motion tracking Relighting in the composite Repairing plates Replicating damage Adding depth with 2.5D Working with stock footage