Day One

Getting Started
• Workspaces – selecting a layout and resetting the windows:
• The Project window, timeline and viewer
• Setting Up Your Database & folder structure
• Creating Compositions – Comp settings
• Essential viewer window settings
• Creating assets within AE
• Arranging objects in the viewport
• How layers work in the timeline window
• Object properties – the basics – Position, Scale, Rotation, Anchor Point and Opacity

Animating
• Manipulating object transforms
• Navigating the timeline, playing scrubbing and zooming
• Simple animation – your first keyframes
• Position animation and Bezier curves
• Manipulating keyframes
• Using the keyframe navigator
• Adding ease to improve animation quality
• Copying and pasting keyframes
• Proportional scaling of keyframes on the timeline
• Using hotkeys to reveal keyframes and properties
• Adding Motion Blur – Adjusting the global motion blur settings

Adding Effects
• The effect controls palette
• Ensuring that you explore effects completely – good workflow practices
• How effects work with keyframes
• Combining effects together
• Adjustment layers

Best Practices & Importing Different Files
• Exploring the interface in more detail, switches, modes and time controls
• Ensuring correct workflow vector files
• The collapse transformations switch
• Importing video footage
• Trimming and time manipulation of layers
• Sorting, finding and working with assets in the project window
• Importing Photoshop files
• Importing Illustrator files
• Layer modes
• PreComps – Why Precomps are vital
• Sending Projects To Others

Questions and Answers

Day Two

Keyframes - A Deeper Look
• Hold keyframes
• Reversing animation the right way – avoiding “Bezier twists”
• Roving keyframes
• Auto orientation

Track Mattes & Masks
• Track Matte Types - Luma & Alpha
• Editing masks
• Using masks to reveal and hide layers
• Animating Masks
• Other mask uses for paths and effect controls

Creating a Basic Logo
• Anchor point issues
• Pre-composing base elements for better workflow
• Adding effects to build our sequence
• Parenting Layers
• A simple expression - “Wiggle”
• How Wiggle works – what the numbers do

Text
• Using basic presets as a start point
• Text presets – a special case
• Creating your own text animators
• Saving text animators as a preset

Rendering
• Rendering & Media Encoder - Best Practices

Q&A and Troubleshooting