Throughout these lessons we will use a combination of Maya, After Effects and Photoshop to do everything from the modeling, animating, texturing, lighting and rendering of an animated title sequence. By the end of this tutorial you'll have an understanding of the knowledge required to create a robotic title sequence from start to finish.

We will be introduced to a few tools and techniques to create photorealistic material that is suitable for commercial design projects. By the end of this tutorial, we will have touched on modeling, lighting, shading, animation, scripting and rendering for efficiency and quality.

In this training you will learn from several Digital-Tutors instructors, each of whom will be guiding you through a portion of the entire production pipeline used to create our final motion graphics piece. We will begin by exploring many of the powerful modeling tools found in 3ds Max, and utilizing these tools to build our 3D motion graphics elements. From there, we will look at a number of animation tools and features that will allow us to quickly add movement and life to our 3ds Max elements. From there, we will learn how to incorporate dynamic elements such as flowing cloth, smoke, and sparks into our scene. Finally, we will learn how to render out our elements from 3ds Max, and utilize After Effects for final compositing and sweetening of our motion graphics spot.

We'll begin this tutorial by looking at the new vibrance and black and white effects, which allow us new creative controls. Then we'll look at the new Camera Lens Blur and 3D Camera Depth of Field blur features, which are vastly improved and allow for natural bokeh and depth blurs. Then we'll learn how to quickly do repetitive placement tasks using the align panel. Then we'll learn how to use the new 3d light falloff features to create more realistic lighting. Then we'll take some time examining the new Warp Stabilizer effect which stabilizes footage quickly and cleanly in a matter of clicks. Finally, we'll examine the new Stereoscopic 3D camera rig and how we can use it with our 3d projects for a quick stereo experience. By the end of this After Effects tutorial, you'll have the ability to better use all of the new features added in CS5.5.

We will start the tutorial off by covering what motion graphics and compositing are and the various terms we encounter in After Effects such as project, composition, and layers. We will then take a look at importing images into After Effects so you can learn how to begin work on your own projects. After that, you will learn to do common tasks such as creating effects, masking, transforming and animating. And to wrap up this tutorial, we will go over how to render your projects out of After Effects to deliver to your client or show the world what you have accomplished. This series of step-by-step videos were developed with artists new to After Effects in mind so we will be moving at a steady, easy-to-follow pace making sure you understand terms and basic techniques.

We will begin this project by manually tracking our sequence in MatchMover and exporting it for use in Maya. We will then take our solved camera into our Maya scene and move our object into place. We will then learn how to capture our 3D environment reflections and create some helpful matte layers. Once we have rendered our Maya sequence, we will learn how to combine all of our images in After Effects. We will learn about processing our background footage to capture traveling mattes, as well as many different ways to combine our various mattes to create effects. We will finish by adding a silhouette and color correcting our images.

We will begin the tutorial by importing our footage into After Effects and analyzing the job ahead of us. Then we will create garbage masks to break apart our person into manageable pieces. We will then add Keylight effects to our layers to create an initial key. After that, we will analyze the best way to remove noise on each layer. Then we will fill in our alpha by creating a core matte. Finally we will focus on the hair and all the detailed roto and keying work involved. We will complete the project by doing some heavy-duty rotoscoping work on the bottle.

We'll begin this tutorial by learning what a chroma key is and what we need to look out for while we shoot the greenscreen footage. From there, we begin keying a sample shot using the Keylight keyer. We'll then learn how to refine our matte and edge using the various built-in modifiers. Finally, we will composite our keyed footage over a background and learn about spill suppression and some compositing tricks to integrate our pieces of footage. We'll end the tutorial by learning a method of treating compressed or chroma subsampled footage to pull better keys.

We'll begin this tutorial by importing our background plate and creating the text we'll integrate. Then we'll track the background plate and attach our text to the track. We'll then learn about the uses of pre-composing and how to combine various effects to make our text look more three dimensional. We'll then learn how to take elements from our background and layer them into our text to create the illusion that the text is in the scene. We'll finish the tutorial by doing a quick color correction and render out our finished shot!

We'll begin this tutorial by solving four of our shots in MatchMover and combining them in Maya into a cohesive 3D scene. Then we'll create our last camera in Maya and match it. Once all our camera are set-up, we'll learn how to model our object, create dynamics, animate, texture and render our scene. We'll then jump into After Effects to do some color treatment on our backgrounds and then composite our layers together. Now, this is a long project that will take some time to complete. If you get stuck or have any questions, please join our forums and ask. We check the forums often and have a very active and helpful community.

We'll begin the tutorial by taking a look at what is depth-based compositing or layering and why we would want to use it. Then we'll learn about some of the downsides of using this technique. We'll then dive in to After Effects and create a matte for our foreground layer using it's depth map and the background depth map. We'll then learn how to work with depth maps including combining maps from different scene scales, using depth-based layering to fix interpenetration issues and making depth maps human readable and error-free.

We'll begin the tutorial by importing a logo built in illustrator and organize our layers into compositions. We'll then learn some animation techniques to take what would be boring motion and give it some life. We'll then learn how to accurately gauge perspective and how to place the anchor point. Throughout the project we will create animation presets that will save us time on repetitive tasks. We'll learn techniques to reveal and grow elements from simple mask expansions to complex path strokes and mask animation.

We'll begin this project by learning the basics of importing images, compositing images together and production workflows for rendering safely. Then we'll do some basic compositing, masking, animation and color correction. We'll finish the course by creating a transition between two videos and learn about pre-comping. This series of lessons is a great starting point to learning After Effects. By learning the basic workflows of After Effects, we will be able to create appealing animations and video in no time and begin using After Effects in our production pipeline.

We'll begin this ctutorial by learning how to set-up our project for stereo work and the basic stereo workflows. We'll then learn how to consistently and quickly edit our stereo images in After Effects. Finally, we'll go through an entire practical application of fixing a visual problem in our stereo images. During this we'll learn how and when we can re-use data from the left to the right side, and how to actually apply this. We'll finish by learning how to use an expression to change our screen depth solely in After Effects.

We'll begin this project by learning about what stereo disparity maps can do inside After Effects. We'll then learn what a stereo map is and how to covert a depth map into a stereo map. Then we'll dive right in and learn the mathematical relationship between depth and disparity maps and learn how to offset and multiply our depth into a pixel offset value. With our disparity map created, we will be able to create a point based depth control. We'll finish by learning how to use our disparity values to automatically update stereo offset using expressions.

We'll begin the tutorial by setting up our motion tracked scene by adding the original footage and aligning everything to make working easier. We'll then bring in our 3d object and learn how to place it in our scene. We'll then learn how to create ground geometry and match the lighting in our original shot. We'll then create multiple render passes and layers to make compositing much easier. After we render, we'll jump into After Effects and learn about such topics as shadow matching, color matte usage and various techniques to match our 3d render with our live action back-plate. The end result of this course will be a final color corrected shot of our 3d object in real life.This tutorial will illustrate an example of how to use Maya and after Effects together to integrate a 3d model into live-action footage. This will allow us to place our own 3d models into real environments easier.

We'll begin the tutorial by importing our elements and tracking various features of the face, including a difficult track through an eye blink. We'll learn how to create a tracked and animated mask to match our eye movement. To combine all of the elements and give them visual appeal, we'll learn how to use several different effects not only by themselves, but also together to create various looks. We'll learn how we can create animation using expressions. And finally, combine all our layers using compositing math to correctly mix everything together.

We'll begin the tutorial by learning the basics of using trackers to speed up the rotoscoping process by removing camera jitter, translation, rotation and scaling. We'll then dive into our main project where we will use a combination of tracking, color keying and shape animation to create a clean mask for our foreground actor. We'll learn how each of these different methods can be used to speed up our rotoscoping workflow.

We'll begin this tutorial by learning about the pen tool, which lets us draw shapes and masks. We'll then dive deeper into the masking system in After Effects and learn some time saving workflows for checking your roto. We'll then jump into the basic workflows of animating masks and how we can keep a consistent shape for a more appealing matte. We'll end by outputting our mask into an image sequence that can be used in other applications.

We will dedicate the first portion of this course to using Render Passes in Maya to separate various elements of our scene at render time. We'll use mental ray's render passes, contribution maps, custom framebuffers, and render layers to create the necessary render passes for our scene. In the second portion of this course we will begin with some quick compositing similar to our Compositing 3D Renders in After Effects course, but we will quickly get into more advanced topics such as basic and advanced Depth-of-Field, Proxies, spot paint fixing and chromatic aberration.

We'll begin this project by creating a new project and learning the basics of the mocha planar tracker. We'll then learn how to bring that tracking data into after effects to do a sign replacement. We'll then learn how to change the output of mocha for an easier integration into After Effects. Once that is done, we'll learn about tracking with multiple layers in mocha and how to stabilize footage. We'll finish by working through a few difficult to track clips and learn the variety of tools we have to tweak and edit tracks in mocha.

We'll begin the tutorial by learning the basics of importing images and moving around the After Effects user interface. Then we'll do some basic compositing, masking, animation and color correction. We'll finish with a project to composite a 3D render, create an interesting animated wipe and render it into a video file.

We'll begin the tutorial by doing a simple one point track using some easy footage and how to apply that movement information to other layers. We'll then learn how to do a two point track on real footage and create a black-bar effect over someone's eyes. Lastly, we'll track the four corners of a television screen to replace the image on the screen. We'll then learn some tips for getting a track from difficult footage using color correct techniques.

We'll begin the tutorial by importing our layers and assembling them into a nice render of a car. We'll then learn how to create an advanced matte to cut out our car using the shadow, indirect, and matte layers. We'll then learn several compositing tricks to help us really blend the foreground and background, such as Reflection matching, Lightwraping, color correction and grain matching.

Popular highlights include: Stereoscopy Overview; Rules of Safe Stereo; Anaglyph Filtering; Stereo 3D workflow; After Effects Camera Rigs; 3D Objects in After Effects; Mathematics of Stereo Imagery; Creating Interactive Guides to Help Visualize; Color Correcting Stereo Imagery; Composting Stereo Pair Renders from Maya; Expressions; Controlling Zero Parallax; Interaxial Separation; Creating a Camera Dolly System; Animating Cameras with Dolly System; Photoshop 3D Layers; 3D Assets with Photoshop; Assembling Multiple Compositions with Expressions; Zero Parallax Controls in 3D Scene; Interaxial Separation Controls; Avoiding Keystoning and Other Stereo Distortions; Creating a Stereo Camera Rig for Photoshop 3D Objects.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Setting up the Turbulence Displace effect to look like moving water ; Learning various ways to localize the water effect ; Softening the effect by adding a fast blur. For more information on After Effects check out Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects, an in-depth guide to creating stereoscopic 3D imagery in post.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Adding keyframes at the current time without changing the layer ; Using the Graph Editor to add acceleration to an animation ; Learning how to use motion blurring for animation. Learn more about After Effects with Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects, an in-depth guide to creating stereoscopic 3D imagery in post.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Editing shapes during creation; Adding options to a shape; Creating multiple copies on a single shape layer. Learn more about After Effects with Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects, an in-depth guide to creating stereoscopic 3D imagery in post.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Using Minimax to soften an image; Layering effects to create complex looks; Changing blending modes and opacity to make the effects subtle. Learn more about After Effects with Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects, an in-depth guide to creating stereoscopic 3D imagery in post.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Changing keyframe interpolation; How to read the interpolation line; Using the Graph Editor. Learn more about After Effects with Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects, an in-depth guide to creating stereoscopic 3D imagery in post.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Brainstorming an effect; Saving Brainstormed effects; Changing the variation that Brainstorm uses. Learn more about After Effects with Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects, an in-depth guide to creating stereoscopic 3D imagery in post.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Non-destructive color correcting using adjustment layers; Masking adjustment layers; Keeping layers together using Parenting. Learn more about After Effects with Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects, an in-depth guide to creating stereoscopic 3D imagery in post.

Topics covered in this tutorial: Setting up a basic scene; Writing expressions for an automatic countdown; Creating attributes; Understanding and labeling comps; Stringing commands together . To learn more about After Effects check out Stereoscopic 3D in After Effects, an in-depth guide to creating stereoscopic 3D imagery in post.