after effects

[ASHREY]

Hey hey!

I've just newly introduced to this software, and was wondering if anyone knows of a good youtube or vimeo series that has tutorial videos on the software, or any website/blogs/books that do the same!

I really want to learn this program but my uni does not offer any kind of training on this program, yet it is installed on every editing computer in the damn place!

I mostly wanted to use it to do some more advanced colour correcting and grading than possible on FCP, but i've realised that i really am ignorant to the whole program and know nothing of how to use it to it proper capabilities.

Any advice or a point in the right direction would be appreciated!

Cheers,
Ash

 

[ASHREY]

Since we are on the note of learning after effect, does anyone know a good series of video which just teaches how to color correct?

For example, instead of: "for this clip, we'll pull this part of the color curve higher, and this bit lower, and increase the midtone a little, increase the contract and we are done." like they do in so many tutorials, I'm hoping for a tutorial where they teach what each part of the color curve represent, what does it mean to pull one up and another down, what is the alpha and luma channel, how does it affect the shot when something is changed.

Are there any books or series of videos which teaches those?

http://www.colorgradingcentral.com/

this website i found extremely helpful for color correction.

the (free)tutorials are for final cut pro X which not all have, and most hate! but the basics and the applications of color balancing/correction are the same.

really helped understand my correcting and how to get what i want.

 

[Synia]

If you particularly want to to colour grading in after effects look into the Magic Bullet plug-ins. You can get the 3-way colour corrector 'Colourista' for free now!

This video I found useful when trying to understand the very basics of colour correction/colour theory:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/maschwitz_stu/red-giant-blockbuster-film-look/video-tutorial

Hope this helps

Thanks, i have heard about colourista, but never had a look, not realizing it's a free plug-in. I'll have a look into it.

 

[Synia]

http://www.colorgradingcentral.com/

this website i found extremely helpful for color correction.

the (free)tutorials are for final cut pro X which not all have, and most hate! but the basics and the applications of color balancing/correction are the same.

really helped understand my correcting and how to get what i want.

mmm... despite all the bad things said about it, if i had a mac, i'd probably get FCP X. It might not be powerful enough for the real pros, but considering it's low price tag, and it has to at least rival with Premier right? But don't let me start another argument about Macs or Pcs. Thanks for the website

@Knightly: True that, nothing's easy if you want to do it well

 

[ASHREY]

mmm... despite all the bad things said about it, if i had a mac, i'd probably get FCP X. It might not be powerful enough for the real pros, but considering it's low price tag, and it has to at least rival with Premier right? But don't let me start another argument about Macs or Pcs. Thanks for the website

@Knightly: True that, nothing's easy if you want to do it well

i have final cut pro X, and i LOVE the colour options, they really are fantastic.
but FCP 7 is by far the superior editing program.
FCPX is just an iMovie clone.. it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[knightly]

http://www.colorgradingcentral.com/

this website i found extremely helpful for color correction.

the (free)tutorials are for final cut pro X which not all have, and most hate! but the basics and the applications of color balancing/correction are the same.

really helped understand my correcting and how to get what i want.

Just got finished watching all of these! Brilliant

 

[Nate North]

I'll give you a basic tip for fixing the most common problem quickly. In the "Synthetic Aperature" rollout of your effects panel, choose color finesse, scroll down to HSL master, rollout, and adjust RGB gain to brighten only colors but not darks. Has restored a lot of underexposed shots for me.