However, this is no paint-by-numbers exercise. Trish demonstrates how she makes creative decisions and saves time through the use of keyboard shortcuts and smart working practices. Additional movies explain further details about how After Effects works under the hood. Her measured pace helps even those completely new to After Effects understand the program so that they can use it effectively on their own projects. Exercise files are included with the course. The After Effects Apprentice videos on lynda. com were created by Trish and Chris Meyer and are designed to be used on their own and as a companion to their book After Effects Apprentice. We are honored to host these tutorials in the lynda. com Online Training Library®.

Topics include:
* Starting a project from scratch
* Building a composition
* Arranging and transforming layers interactively and numerically
* Animating parameters including motion paths
* Applying and re-using effects
* Creating variations and rendering the final movie
* Importing layered Photoshop files
* Understanding alpha channels
* Avoiding common mistakes