I recently completed a module in After Effects, which is the motion graphics and visual effects software developed by Adobe. It’s commonly used in post-production of television commercials but I also learnt about its application in films, DVD’s and the web. There are extensive third-party plug-ins including automatic duck, which we used to seamlessly import our projects from Final Cut Pro into After fx. Automatic duck is a fantastic tool and would be essential if you were working in post-production and constantly importing from Final Cut Pro to After fx. Unfortunately when I looked it up, I found that it is expensive to buy.
The module was useful to gain an overview of the possible applications of After fx, particularly for my short film and documentary projects. I don’t expect to become an expert in motion graphics and visual effects but I think it’s important to have an understanding of their creative possibilities and how they can be used to enhance elements of your work. Perhaps one of the key applications it will have for my projects is in animating text and the creative development of credit sequences. Tools we covered that I thought might also have useful applications for my projects include:
- Time remapping - used to change motion speed of action
- Key lighting or chroma key
- Paint tool - used for animating text
- Adjust tool - used for colour contrast consistency between frames
- Stabilising tool - used to improve material that’s been shot on hand held camera
- Threshold effect - used to take out colour and produce black and white
- Clone tool - used to touch up shot (eg boom in frame).
