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the after effects learning curve
Can one adequately tackle learning after effects if one’s knowledge of photoshop is limited? Or, must one work thru learning photoshop before taking on after effects?
I have a cursory knowledge of layers and how they work, but still have not completely got my hear around alpha channels. I understand what they are, but not exactly how to utilize them.
Thanks for any opinions.
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5 Replies
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Absolutely. I learned After Effects 6 before I ever bought Photoshop. But it would have helped a bit had I already had some understanding of photoshop skills. Did my lack of photoshop knowledge prevent me from learning after effects? Nope. Would it have helped? A bit perhaps.
And alpha channels are not as complicated as the name would suggest. Think of it as a channel that determines what stuff will show through below if you overlay it and mask something out. It determines what will be transparent and what is opaque.
Mike James
VFXpodcast.com -
Every digital content creation tool makes it easier to learn the next. The first few are always the hardest, but once you understand pixels and layers and channels it primarily becomes a matter of learning a new interface.
Alpha channels can be confusing at first. If you think of the red channel as how much red is in a pixel, the green channel as how much green, the blue channel as how much blue, then consider the alpha channel as how opaque a pixel is when you superimpose (composite) it over another.
Example: you superimpose a title over a talking head video clip. You want the title to fade in, be fully visible for three seconds, and fade out. The RGB channels control what color the pixels are, but the alpha channel controls the amount of “fade.” Think of the alpha channel as a spotlight that shows the pixel. If the alpha channel is blak then you don’t see the pixels at all; if the alpha channel is white then the title’s pixels will totally block the background pixels. The alpha channel increases when you fade up and decreases as you fade out.
Hope this helps.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
When I started on After Effects (version 3!), I had a strong grasp of Photoshop, and it helped me a lot. I started to think of After Effects as Photoshop with a timeline, and my learning curve started to arc drastically upwards. Obviously there’s more to AFX than that, but as a newbie, those Photoshop skills were indispensable to me.
It also helps that they are from the same company, making the interfaces similar enough to be unintimidating.
I agree that it’s not necessary, but it sure helped me.
And echoing Jim’s post, every new tool you learn makes it easier to learn the next. Absolutely.
e.
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Echoing the same opinion.
I had a very limited experience with Photoshop when I started with AE, but having a similar layout helps a lot.
AE is very esotaric and can be very overwhelling so the learning curve is much steeper than Photoshop. Fourtunately for you there are a lot of great FREE tutorials that can really help you get up to speed quickly -unlike when all of the forum leaders had to learn AE! 🙂Good Luck,
Todd at UCSB
Television Production -
I totally agree with Enzo & Todd…I started with AE3 (think it was called COSA then) & PS3 and learning them together made both a lot easier. As i think Enzo said, i started out thinking of AE as PS with a timeline/motion, which helped me get my head around it even though there is much more to AE than that. Bottom line…you don’t have to know PS to learn AE, but it will not only help you learn it faster, but also help you use more of its capabilities. The bright side is that the learning curve for both is not nearly as steep as it once was. If that weren’t true, the CALF probably wouldn’t exist since the the AE market would still be limited to those who relied on it to make a living and thus were willing to spend infinite sleepless nights to learn it.
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