Andrew Kramer's Serious Effects & Compositing DVD

[scrimski]

Check www.creativecow.net for free Andrew Kramer tutorials(and others).

[payton]

hi,
there is pretty nice stuff on the dvd.
in the meantime he does it the "quick ´n dirty" way. f.e.: not spending to much time to pull a good matte out of a bluescreen. no explanations of how keying works. he just tells you "do this, than that and you are done...".
but thats ok if you dont want to dive too deep into the theory. for people who know this stuff alreade there are maybe some hints ´n´ tips to use in their daily work.
try it. i think its worth the money.
bye,
payton

[Nathan-H]

Yes, from the free tutorials I agree that he does them "quick ´n dirty". Personally I think this (http://www.vtc.com/products/ae7rsf.htm) looks much better if your trying to learn after effects like me. Chad Perkins(the author) go's very "In Depth" to explain everything he's doing, and I think that's good. It's a little more expensive, but if your trying to actually learn it's probably the rout to go.

[stevester1]

Yes, from the free tutorials I agree that he does them "quick ´n dirty". Personally I think this (http://www.vtc.com/products/ae7rsf.htm) looks much better if your trying to learn after effects like me. Chad Perkins(the author) go's very "In Depth" to explain everything he's doing, and I think that's good. It's a little more expensive, but if your trying to actually learn it's probably the rout to go.

I have to disagree, he might go a little bit fast on the free tutorials, but than again he probably asumes you know the basic fonctions already and I personally think he's just trying to open up some "creativity doors". I have the dvd from his website and they are in depth, and about the whole fast keying, the whole second tutorial is dedicated to it, and than in every tutorial he re-does the keys. I dunno this is just my opinion but maybe he assumed the basics were covered, I mean he does have a free AE 101 tutorial, check it out first.

[payton]

hi stevester,
but he does not tell you why you need to set property1 to x and tick the checkbox for unction y. if you learn keying that way you will be out of luck if you need to key your own footage which might be not so easy to key.

the teaching style is ok for people who already know the basics and want to be inspired how to achieve this or that look etc.

i liked the dvd but fortunately i knew the theory behind compositing/keying/... already.

payton

[stevester1]

hi stevester,
but he does not tell you why you need to set property1 to x and tick the checkbox for unction y. if you learn keying that way you will be out of luck if you need to key your own footage which might be not so easy to key.

the teaching style is ok for people who already know the basics and want to be inspired how to achieve this or that look etc.

i liked the dvd but fortunately i knew the theory behind compositing/keying/... already.

payton



im sorry you are right, but when it came to the basics, actualy i like to consider myself a lil more advanced than just the basics, but lets say when it comes to keying I know my way around and my opinion about the dvd could be biased because of that, my apologies

[DoubleSupercool]

Well, the DVD is called "serious effects and compositing" so I think it's safe to assume that the tutorials aren't going to lead you by the hand, step by step.

I purchased the DVD set last month (with the action movies elements) and frankly, for $50 I think it's pretty solid considering you get the video tutorials, the video footage and all the projects.

Again, it's not an "introduction to AE" video, it's a couple of tutorials about how to do cool things quickly. Obviously you would go back over the video's and finesse it until it looks top notch.

Also, I gave Andrew some feedback on the Elements DVD and his support was very quick. If you have any issues, definitely email him as he seems pretty serious about taking suggestions on board for future releases.

ETA. The VTC stuff looks like great value for money as well, and certainly looks comprehensive.

[payton]

what i meant with basics is the handcraft of compositing. no art, just fundamental skills that you need to know.

and when i see how andrew is creating mattes, i need to say:

maybe he...

a) ...can´t do it better

b) ...he won´t spend to much time for it (within this tutorial)

the risk is: if you see these tuts as a "noob" you maybe think. "aaah, that´s the way the pro´s do it." but it´s not. it´s only a kind of a shortcut. "quick and dirty". no special treatment of the edges. just shrinking and blurring until nothing hurts too much.

anyway, i recommended it for people who don´t want to know or who already know the "handcraft of compositing".

enough said :)
payton

[DoubleSupercool]

I think the answer is (b).

You can spend an entire DVD or a book just on keying and going through every dial in the keyer (I have a 1hr + one from CMI on keying in Fusion that just scratches the surface), but that's not what this DVD is about.

I think it's more a case of:

"Here is a cool tip and the basics of how to do it. I assume you know how to pull a decent key to start off the tutorial and are following what I am doing from then on."

He moves quickly and doesn't do things like explain short cut keys or why he is doing certain things. It is certainly not an "Introduction to AE" DVD. It's a "You know how to do the basics by now, here is some extra stuff you can do quickly and easily."

[mazm]

so what about Total Training Adobe After Effects 7 Pro Essentials, Professional and Broadcast Desgin. I know it's very expencive but i think it worth.

i want to know what is the right way to learn AE becasue i'm new with it.

thanx

[AndrewKramer]

Hey guys,

I hope you don't mind if I chime in here...

Does anybody here play the guitar? I do, in fact I have been playing for about 7 years.



When I think back to when I was first learning the guitar I remember all I wanted to do it play recognizable popular songs. So I would ask my advanced guitar friends to show me how to play "that one beetles song" or whatever was "cool" at the time.



They told me a bunch of stuff about rhythm and strumming and some complicated stuff about chords or something.



But, all I wanted to do was have fun and make some fun music. I thought I don't need to learn that stuff , just show me how to play it so I can impress the ladies. So they showed me.



I could play a dozen songs or so within just a couple of weeks. Did I really know how to play that guitar? NO, I just basically memorized the frets and strings to hit.



But, by becoming capable (not necessarily skilled) with the instrument I didn't lock it in my closet, I kept it out and played some more. And through my drive for taking my abilities to the next level and wanting to play new stuff, I ended up learning those pesky chords and rhythm and went on to playing my true love the drums.



Now we do what we do because we love to do it. A three hour training on Keying might be informative but the target users of this Training DVD wants to create cool things in AE. Surely not beginner stuff but certainly not Spielberg ready. Trust me when they get to the next level they can start to study and push their visual effects to the next level then they'll clean up those mattes and really sell their effects. But until then, have some fun because if you don't enjoy what your doing right now then tomorrow is wasted.


Best,
Andrew Kramer
Video Copilot
http://www.videocopilot.net

[evanfotis]

I will totaly agree with Andrew.
Playing is the best way to learn something because we enjoy it. And although these DV tools (AE, PS etc) are quite deep and complex, the best way to begin is to start playing around and getting some real results with them, than diving into theory.
It helps us practice more, so we become better.

[mazm]

I totaly agree with Andrew & evanfotis ... but there are a lot of people " like me " need to learn like the baby .... i mean baby can't eat without his mother ... a lot of beignners need someone give them the information in thier mouth ... but when he grow maybe can't depend on hiself becasue he used to wait his mother so i think the right thing is search and make mistakes to can decide what is right and what's wrong.

[mamurphy]

... but there are a lot of people " like me " need to learn like the baby .... i mean baby can't eat without his mother ... a lot of beignners need someone give them the information in thier mouth ....

then you need to bite the bullet and pay the big bucks for the Total Training series or the VTC lessons.
I would not recommend the TT-AE Broadcast DVD because it assume some prior knowledge.

Education is not cheap, unless you want a cheap education

[shirak23]

Hey all,
This may be a little OT 'cause it's not about training DVD's per se, but after trying to find quality, in depth training materials to better my AE compositing and visual effects techniques, I happened upon what I consider to be the best BOOK I've found so far. Now, mind you, I'm no expert (no, really), BUT, I highly recommend Adobe's After Effects 6.5 STUDIO Techniques by Mark Christiansen. It doesn't have step-by-step tutorials but he does cover in excellent detail how-to's concept wise that you can apply to your own work. I'm somewhere around intermediate in my skills, but there's a ton about keying that I was totally screwing up before I read his stuff and so it really is good for beginners. I've learned so much from this book that I have never found anywhere else. I know, I sound like I'm gushing, but it's just a really cool book!

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm in ANY way disparaging Andrew's Video CoPilot site or his tutorials, 'cause truth be told I frickin' love them and they also have taught me a lot of cool little things VERY clearly that would've taken me forever to figure out on my own, so thanks Andrew and please keep up the good work!!

I only mention this all in such detail, 'cause I just wanna give back to the CGTalk community. Don't know where I'd be without ya. So, anyway, my 2 cents. Take it or what-not...

[lucille]

czeroone

Thanks for posting this--I bought AE in the spring and have been a little tenative
getting into it--this looks like a great starting point. In response to other posters
here I don't think the lack of an exhaustive theoretical presentation is necessarily
a negative--sometimes its best to get going on a casual level and then delve
deeper. The concept of pairing (potentially) useful elements with tutorials is
very attractive...Let you know when it comes...

pfj

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