Best After Effects Book

[Vavylona Entertainment]

Hello im searching for a good adobe after effects (CS5 or later) book. I have no experiance in ae and i want to create effects like, magic duels (heey potter) explosions and transformation effects. What do you think?

[Szalam]

What do I think? I think you needn't limit yourselves to books only. There are some great resources online.

Here is a good place to start.

This is another good link.

A full, in-depth tutorial series is here.

And, if you must have a book, here are a bunch.

[Vavylona Entertainment]

Hey, i prefer having a book. From the link you gave me which one is better?

[Dave_LaRonde]

I would say that the Meyers' book is most helpful to the AE novice.  Make sure you get the book that matches your version of AE.

[gregb98056542]

I wanted to back up Dave's response - Chris and Trish Meyer are excellent guides into the world of After Effects.  The Classroom In a Book series is also very strong and is very specific to the version of AE you are working in. 

Once you have had the books, video tutorials will really help with getting good.  Lynda.com has several videos that are taught by the Meyers as well.

[Pierre_Devereux]

Hi,

When I first installed After Effects, 7 months ago, I had never seen or heard of it before. I started with online tutorials while I waited to figure out what books to get as well. The tutorial links given by Szalam are a perfect place to start. The series by ANdrew Devis are absolutely brilliant - beyond brilliant in fact - somewhere in the realms of "awesome" - check out the creative cow site, as there are some new additions to the series available there.

When it comes to books, I got as many as I could - starting with Classroom in a book series and learn by video series. I also got some books on Green Screen work etc. I did by "How to cheat in After Effects" by Chad Perkins - and whereas this is a great book, with some great shortcuts in it, I would suggest getting a better understanding through the other books first, as you might tend to rely on the "Cheat" recipies too heavily otherwise, and miss out on some great effects found through trial and error!

Anyway, Peachpit is also a great resource as qell as Lynda.com.

There, that should keep you going for a while - One last place you HAVE to bookmark is VideoCopilot.com.

Hope that helps

Pierre