PE_4 CS5

I decided to take the plunge and create a project using one of the applications in Adobe CS5. I have to admit that I find the Adobe products a bit intimidating. iMovie is one thing, but Premiere and After Effects... That's a whole different ballgame. I decided to keep it simple since it would be my first experience with one of the applications in the CS5 suite. I decided to make a holiday photo show of my boys using After Effects (AE).



First I created a background movie in iMovie by stringing together six photos that I changed to black and white. I then imported this movie into AE. I also imported all of the color shots I would use in the photo show. All imported items show up in the window on the upper left of the screen. I learned this by watching the AE essentials on Lynda.com.



From this window you drag the items you want down to the timeline. You need to make sure they are on the right layer or else they will not show up. The layer can easily be changed on the timeline by dragging and dropping.



Once the objects are set on the timeline, you can now add effects and transitions by dragging and dropping them from the effects and presets window on the right hand side.



Since this is my first experience with AE, I followed Lynda.com's advice and stuck with presets. The number of effects and animations is amazing, but AE does allow those more inclined than I to actually create custom effects through an internal programing language.

Once the project is laid out, AE allows you to compose the project into a wide variety of formats. I chose .mov. The last step is to press the render button and wait for the project to code.



Overall, I found the program a bit tedious, but I was blown away by its capabilities and the possibilities. I'm glad I got my feet wet. Here is my final project. It's not that great for the amount of time I spent on it, but all in all I'm pleased considering it's my first attempt.



I did bring it back into iMovie and add a stock holiday theme.