From the course: Getting Started in After Effects for Photoshop Users

Is After Effects the Photoshop of video?

From the course: Getting Started in After Effects for Photoshop Users

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Is After Effects the Photoshop of video?

- There are four primary design apps in Creative Cloud, and each is the leader in its respective category. While many artists know their way around some combination of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, After Effects has remained the unknown, even for many experts. In separate courses, I introduce After Effects to Illustrator and InDesign artists. But in this course, we will look at all of the features in After Effects that you already know from Photoshop. From its very inception, After Effects was guided by Photoshop and emulated many of its features, the layer stack model, blending modes, many of the selection tools, layer styles, filters, even the checkerboard background. These have all long been part of After Effects despite that it didn't even begin as an Adobe product. And in the time since, many more features have been developed to be shared by both, with each development team sometimes borrowing concepts and even underlying tech directly from the other. Our goal together in this short course is simple. I want to set you up for future success in After Effects by introducing you to features and workflows you already may know very well. It may not be surprising to learn that moving image workflows introduce complexities that still artists may rarely consider. Yet in my opinion, the best motion graphic design consistently begins with carefully constructed still images. For that type of workflow, Photoshop and After Effects are a natural fit, and I'll show you how. If like millions of artists around the world, you've come to consider Photoshop your go-to image editing software, this course is for you. If you've put off getting into After Effects because it seems too complicated, my goal is to familiarize you with the parts that you will instantly understand already. While I certainly can't instantly transform you into an After Effects expert, I want it to be easier for you to understand where to go next to learn more about what you want to do with motion. It may be that type in motion becomes your main focus, or animating full designs, or you may want to bring more realistic scenes fully to life on the screen, that's visual effects. You could even pursue a specific specialty like motion for UX, or character animation, or incorporating 3D. All of these link directly to what After Effects allows you to do. So, whether After Effects begins to compliment the work you do in Photoshop or whether like me you often find it starts to take over from Photoshop even working with still images, I hope you enjoy this brief introduction to the features and workflows you will find most familiar.

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