After Effects Experts to look to...They’re Jedi Masters and I’m a Padawan learner
Poor allusions and metaphors are part of the whole package with me but they’re fun too. Allow me to continue with my Star Wars metaphor in order to point you to people who can really teach you about After Effects.
Aharon Rabinowitz “Qui-Gon Jinn” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qui-Gon_Jinn – Aharon is really a fantastic guy who happens to not only be a great AE artist, but also a great teacher – just like Qui-Gon Jinn who was portrayed by Liam Neeson. My experience has taught me that this is a rare combination indeed. Better yet, most of his work you can find for free at the CreativeCow.net forums. I just checked out one of Aharon’s tutorials on basic expressions (a scary topic indeed) and walked away from it thinking that I should dive into it again. Note to self – stop saying that about every Adobe product. Aharon was instrumental in helping get the After Effects New York group started. Check out http://www.AENY.org if you live around the NY area. You can find Aharon on http://www.creativecow.net under the AE forums
Dean Velez “Mace Windu” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mace_Windu
Besides having a matching hair do, Dean does share a certain quiet passion (okay if you know Dean, he’s not quiet!) that characterizes Mace Windu in the Star War movies. Dean is also about motion graphic design, he doesn’t focus on visual effects as much. He has that instinct about creativity and he teaches how to harness your creativity to create within After Effects. Dean runs a training site at http://www.TheAnvel.com He has a number of CDs that you can buy. I like them because it not only gives you all the goodies, but step-by-step PDFs that walk you thru creating what you see.
Brian Maffitt “Yoda” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoda
If the title of “Mr. After Effects” had to be handed out, you’d have to give it to Brian. Brian started selling VHS tapes about After Effects with version 3.0. If you were going to learn After Effects, investing in one of his Total Training products was almost a prerequisite. Along the way, his company grew and now encompasses all Adobe products and a few others as well. You can find Brian’s product offerings at http://www.TotalTraining.com. Total Training products are encyclopedic in their approach in that they cover just about everything depending on which products you look at. The After Effects collection currently covers about 60 hours of training. That’s right, a week and a half of work just to get through it all.
Are there other companies, resources and individuals that will help you? Definitely. Lynda.com and DigitalMediaNet.com are two that readily come to mind. Just type After Effects Tutorials in your search engine and see what pops up.
May the force of AE be with you my friend,
Dennis