This 93 minute, in-depth video tutorial is aimed at intermediate to advanced users of After Effects… in particular those who want to broaden their skills and open up the world of workflow and creative possibilities that expressions allow.
You should be at a level with After Effects where you know your way around the program pretty well… and some experience with expressions would be a bonus. (this tutorial is not an introduction to expressions!)
The tutorial is the first part of a series. The series is designed to build an intuitive and visual understanding of how After Effects 3D Space actually works, step by step. It’s focussed more on mastering concepts than end results.
There are visual demonstrations that visualize the 3D space in action, there are short demonstrations of principles and more involved demonstrations that put the techniques you learn to good use.
This particular tutorial introduces some basic concepts and then introduces the toWorld() and fromWorld() functions and ways to use them, with a sprinkling of other expression functionality thrown in for good measure.
Chapter 1: Introduction (2 mins)
Chapter 2: Basic demonstration (6 mins)
Chapter 3: Visualizing Layer Spaces (18 mins)
Chapter 4: Example: Auto Focus (9 mins)
Chapter 5: Example: Showtime (29 mins)
Chapter 6: Example: UFO (30 mins)
The examples are also included in a project file (After Effects CS5 format). Each example has two associated compositions… the start state and the completed state.
Enjoy!