Intro to Visual Effects

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1. Syllabus — Rules for late work, missing class, and how to get an A
2. Schedule
3. Exercises.  exercise no. 0, exercise no. 1, exercise no. 2, exercise no. 3, exercise no. 4, exercise no. 5, exercise no. 6
4. Projects.  PROJECT 1 (still project),  PROJECT 2,  PROJECT 3,  PROJECT 4 (final project)
5. Topics:
   
   1. • AE basics (pt. 0) —

        Getting started, User interface, Importing items, Comps, Layers, Transformations, Masking, Rendering a still image

      • AE basics (pt. 1) —

        User interface deep dive, Some important terminology, Casual intro to keyframes

      • Compressing a video —

        Using the open-source program Handbrake to compress video for submission to D2L (or any online destination such as YouTube or Vimeo)

      • AE basics (pt. 2) —

        Useful keyboard shortcuts, Previewing work, Keyframes in-depth

      • AE basics (pt. 3) — 

        Back-and-forth between AE and Premiere, Solid Layers, Adjustment Layers, Parenting

      • Intermediate AE (pt. 1) —

        Motion paths (auto orient, using mask paths, etc), Motion Sketch, Smoother & Wiggler, Puppet tools

         

      • Intermediate AE (pt. 2) — 

        Mask animation, Nesting Compositions, Intro to Null Object layers

      • Intro to Keying — 

        Concepts & Terms, Keylight & Refine Hard Matte effects, Basic Workflow

      • Intro to 3D
      • 3D Lights
      • Intro to Expressions
      • Looping Keyframes with Expressions
      • Manipulating Time
6. Labs.  Here is a link to some info about the the labs on campus.
7. Helpful AE Sites
   1. Adobe’s own set of tutorials
   2. A nice Adobe blog post about getting started with AE
   3. tutsplus.com – “Welcome to After Effects”
   4. creativecow.net – AE Basics Forum – General Tutorials
   5. greyscalegorilla.com – Intro to AE
   6. videocopilot.net – Basic Training
8. Misc Interesting Links
   1. “Fox and the Hare” by Yuri Norstein (1973)
   2. “Hedgehog in the Fog” by Yuri Norstein (1974)
   3. “Walt Disney’s MultiPlane Camera” (1957), and a swell compilation video of its results in various films
9. EVENTS
   1. UWM Cinema Upcoming Events Schedule
   2. Dates and Deadlines for UWM (drops, etc)
10. THUMB/HARD DRIVES. You’ll need to have/get a thumb/flash drive or external hard drive for this class. Why not pick one up at Riverwest Film & Video on Center Street in Riverwest?