Rating: 
Summary: Great book but...
Review: I think this book is the best book on After Effects out in the market. There are a lot of examples, tutorials and explainations to give you ideas on how to accomplish effects and motions you see on TV and movies. More than anything this book encourages you to be more creative with this deep program. I find myself coming back to this book again and again for references and troubleshoot. The CD-Rom alone is worthe the price of this book!However, I do not recommend this to anyone who's just starting out. If you are new to motion graphics and doesn't have enough knowledge on Photoshop (esp Alpha Channel), most of the things they explain to you will not make sense to you right away. You will be overwhelmed by the wealth of materials this book has. In the introduction of this book the authors say that they expect the readers to have some knowledge on Photoshop. I recommend at least finish AE Classroom in a book first. Althogh Classroom in a book is not a great book for After effects, it is enough for beginners to understand how AE works. Motion Graphics with After Effects will make much more sense to you after you finish CIB.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply the best.
Review: Anyone using After Effects should consider this book a 'must have'. Written in an informative and relaxed style it immerses you gently, yet deeply into the world of AE and Motion Graphics. The book is unusual in that it works as an assistant to The Adobe Manual / Classroom in a book for someone learning AE yet offers them in depth information on all the problematic areas.. fields, 3:2pulldown, film resolution, motion math, masking, tracking etc. The tutorials on the companion CD are excellent and compliment the book very well. Beginner or expert you should definately give this book some serious consideration. Information is also given on integration with Photoshop & Illustrator, essential as the three programs integrate together so tightly.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent place to start for AE
Review: I wisely decided putting off learning AE for the first few days after I got the program waiting for this book. The learning curve is indeed steep and I can't imagine learning it without some training. Already, I've learned about keyframes and how to navigate the AE timeline fluidly. The book appears to give great tips and is well laid out-let me rephrase it has superb layout. Coupled with CD-ROM tutorials and the fact that the chapter's examples are on CD make this an all-in-one instruction kit, for those who like to read and for those that like to get hands on work right away.
Rating:
Summary: The most comprehensive AE Book available...
Review: As one of the first purchasers of this book, I must address the few negative comments that are in this review section. A) This book is NOT just for novice or begining users. It is an extremely thorough reference. Our company owns every book available on AE, and this is by far the best. Very well laid out, and covers nearly every topic. B) The screenshots in the book are on the Mac Platform. Finally! Nearly every designer I know is on the Mac platform (and the Mac is what AE was created on), so it makes complete sense to the 90% of the AE users out there who are on a Mac. To address one of the complaints below: If you want to know how to use Cinelook, contact DigiEffects. This book is not a dissertation on how to use every plug-in. It IS an excellent example of how a book can teach both novices and even experts a few new tricks. Kudos to the awesome illustrations!
Rating:
Summary: Must have for the Digital Filmmaker
Review: This is an invaluable reference and instruction guide. For the price you get thousands of dollars worth of course material and experience. This book saved me twenty times the price of the book on my first project! This book is not just for beginners but for multi-media producers who need a better understanding of After Effects capabilities.
Rating:
Summary: Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects
Review: This book is simply outstanding. If You want to understand digital compositing with After Effects there is nothing comparable anywhere. There is a sample tutorial for almost every paragraph in the book. A must have.
Rating:
Summary: Does a good job
Review: Thought it worth putting my thoughts down as I've heard some stories of people slagging this book off. If you're a hardened AE user you might find the book a little straightforward but for me, working with AE for about two years, in a limited way I find it incredibly useful. The explanations of processes, and how to get the best out of the software are invaluable and a far easier read than the manuals. Now I admit I'm the sort of person that uses software before reading manuals but that comes from experience of knowing that manuals don't tell you everything about the software and are written for people who have the ability to combined individual techniques together without furtehr explanation. I'm not like that and having had the book some three weeks or so have used it several times to enhance my work and understand what's going on. In short, it may cost a bit but that's par for the course with these things, its a good read, and incredibly useful for both novice and intermediate users
Rating:
Summary: An Engaging, Informative and Inspiring Book
Review: I purchase very few books about computers, mainly because they don't offer real-world, practical solutions I can use. This book does. I've been using AE for 6 years, but the shortcuts I learned in the first few chapters alone paid for the book. It's rare that an instruction book comes along that gives real-world tools to use in every-day projects as well as inspires to try new artistic approaches. Data and art in an interesting, engaging format. Cool. I'd recommend this book to anyone serious about AE.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful-must have
Review: I found the book to be easy reading and very useful. It covers much more than the owners manual does and gives lots of real world applications that none of the other books cover. I have used a bunch of the techniques covered in the book, for the main title sequence and music segments in the cartoon Generation O! on Kids WB.
Rating:
Summary: Great Pedagogy and Solid Support
Review: This is a wonderful sork for anyone who uses or is learning to use After Effects. It is direct, clear, wonderfully well organized, never condescending, and very effective. If you need a reference for AE and/or are honing your skills on it, this is the book you need.
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