Although this book is designed not to rely on tutorials, many of the techniques described in the text can be further explored via the dozens of projects and accompanying footage and stills included on the disc. Wherever possible, HD (1920×1080) clips are incorporated; other examples use NTSC footage or stills if that is all that’s required to get the point across.
Additionally, the DVD includes demos of more than a dozen plug-ins and applications. These demos are similar to the real software for everything but output, allowing you to experiment with your own footage.
Custom scripts from redefinery. A number of custom scripts created by Jeff Almasol are included with this edition, including Lightwrap and CameraProjectionSetup, which duplicate the exact steps described to set those up (Chapters 12 and 9, respectively); the three scripts described in the appendix on the accompanying disc; and two scripts included with previous editions and updated for version CS4: Duplink, which creates “instance” objects, and Merge Projects, which integrates the structure of an imported project into the master project. More information on these is included as comments in the scripts themselves (which can be opened with any text editor).
SynthEyes (Andersson Technologies) provides fully automatic, as well as user-controlled, matchmoving for single or batch processed shots; it’s a stand-alone program that exports to After Effects.
Lenscare (Frischluft) creates a more natural and beautiful lens blur than the built-in After Effects tools.
ZbornToy (Frischluft) enhances what you can do with RPF format files in After Effects, including relighting a 3D render that includes a normal map in After Effects.
Trapcode Particular (Red Giant Software) designs 3D particle systems that simulate air resistance, gravity, and turbulence. It provides a real-time preview, as well as controls that allow you to freeze time and manipulate a camera in the scene.
Trapcode Form (Red Giant Software) is a cousin to Trapcode Particular and allows you to array particles across a mesh, so that they can hold a three dimensional shape.
Trapcode Horizon (Red Giant Software) creates 3D-aware gradients and spherical maps, which is useful to create skies and multi-color gradients for use with a 3D camera.
Warp (Red Giant Software) is a natural companion to Mocha for After Effects CS4 and goes far beyond the native After Effects corner pinning tools in both features and image quality.
Knoll Light Factory Pro (Red Giant Software) includes such pre-built lighting effects as lens flares, sparkles, glows, and more. It also provides individual lens components so you can create your own custom effects.
Knoll Light Factory Unmult (Red Giant Software) is not a demo but a full working version of a plug-in that performs one task: removing all black matting from edges and converting it to transparency.
Magic Bullet Colorista (Red Giant Software) adds 3-way Lift/Gamma/Gain color control to After Effects, allowing you to individually style the colors of shadows, mid-tones and highlights.
Trapcode Lux (Red Giant Software) simulates light reflection by using After Effects’ built-in lights to create visible light that corresponds to your layers’ lighting schemes.
Magic Bullet Looks (Red Giant Software) is an intuitive, real-world based application that lets you dramatically change the color look of your footage.
ReelSmart Motion Blur (RE: Vision Effects) allows you to procedurally generate motion blur for moving elements in a shot which lack it (or lack enough of it). After Effects’ built-in motion blur is available only on animated elements.
PV Feather (RE: Vision Effects) adds features long missing from After Effects and available in comparable packages such as Shake: the ability to control per-vertex (or per-spline) mask feather.
Twixtor (RE: Vision Effects) is an alternative to After Effects’ built-in Timewarp effect for optical-flow-based retiming of footage.
Erodilation and Copy Image (ObviousFX) are not demos but freeware. These plug-ins allow for quick manipulation of matte data and quick production of stills, respectively.
Also included are dozens of After Effects CS4 project files demonstrating techniques described in the book. These range from simple demonstrations of single concepts to completed shots.
Live Action effects and location footage is included from Pixel Corps, Kontent Films, and more.