Chapter 1: Selecting Color Spaces, Resolutions, and Frame Rates
Choosing Bit-Depths and Color Spaces
An Overview of Common Bit-Depths
Using a Working Space in After Effects
Working in Linearized Color Space
Previewing and Converting Different Color Spaces
Selecting Resolutions and Frame Rates
Speeding Up and Slowing Down Footage
Time Warping with RE:Vision Effects Twixtor
Altering the Frame Rate with Time Effects
Chapter 2: Generating Alpha with Keyers and Mattes
Generating Alpha with Chroma Key Techniques
Working with Imperfect Green Screen
Applying Additional Keylight Properties
Screen Gain and Screen Balance
Clip Rollback, Screen Shrink/Grow, and Screen Softness
Screen Despot Black and Screen Despot White
Working with Spill in Keylight
Chapter Tutorial: Keying a Difficult Green Screen, Part 1
Chapter 3: Masking, Rotoscoping, and Basic Keyframing
Combining Masks to Make Complex Shapes
Adjusting a Mask with Pen Variants
Importing Bitmap and Vector Masks
Editing Keyframes on the Timeline
Chapter Tutorial: Keying a Difficult Green Screen, Part 2
Chapter 4: Transforming and Motion Tracking
Working with Additional Transform Properties
Nesting and Transform Collapsing
Precomposing and Pre-Rendering
Selecting Features and Fine-Tuning Motion Paths
Transform Tracking with Rotation and Scale
Adjusting Applied Tracking Transforms
Introduction to The Foundry’s CameraTracker
Motion Tracking Masks and Facial Tracking
Chapter Tutorial: Planar Motion Tracking
Chapter 5: Working with the 3D Environment
Creating and Transforming 3D Layers
Creating and Transforming a 3D Camera
Specular Shininess, Specular Intensity, and Metal
Casts Shadows, Accepts Shadows, and Accepts Lights
Arranging 2D Layers as Visual Effects Cards
Importing Cameras, Lights, and Geometry
Working with Cinema 4D Multi-Passes
Extracting Cinema 4D Scene Elements
Motion Blurring Cinema 4D Scenes
Chapter Tutorial: Rendering Reflections with Ray-Traced 3D
Chapter 6: Creating Particle Simulations
Using Built-In Particle Effects
Creating Dust Puffs with Particle Playground
Creating Sparks with CC Particle Systems II
Creating Smoke with CC Particle World
An Introduction to Trapcode Particular
Chapter Tutorial: Creating Particle Rain
Chapter 7: Integrating Render Passes
Identifying Render Passes and Blending Modes
Overview of Common Shading Passes
Applying Advanced Shading Passes
Supplying Alpha to Nonalpha Passes
Working with Multichannel Image Formats
Creating Motion Blur in the Composite
Chapter Tutorial: Using OpenEXR Depth Channels for Depth of Field
Chapter 8: Color Grading, Color Effects, and HDRI
Working with Blacks, Whites, and Color Cast
Working with Hue, Saturation, Tint, and Color Balance
Working with Brightness and Contrast
Working with Pedestal, Gain, Gamma, and Photo Filters
Working with Stylistic Color Effects
An Introduction to Color Finesse 3
HDR Compander (Effect > Utility)
HDR Highlight Compression (Effect > Utility)
Exposure (Effect > Color Correction)
Chapter Tutorial: Color Grading Effects
Chapter 9: Damage Repair and Distressing
Working with Noise, Grain, and Compression Blocks
Adding Other Film and Video Artifacts
Scratches, Dirt, Debris, and Dropout
Halation, Glow, Glint, and Glare
Editing a Stroke’s Color, Opacity, and Softness
Transforming and Erasing a Stroke
Overview of Distortion Effects
Chapter Tutorial: Emulating Low-Quality Video Footage
Chapter 10:Expressions, Scripting, and Project Management
Automating Animation with Expressions
Customizing the Program Environment and Keyboard Shortcuts