Adobe 12040118 Tutorial - Page 546

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PDF document on the fnord website

. For more information, see About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects.

Digieffects FreeForm

(Not included with the trial versions of After Effects CS5 or After Effects CS5.5.) Documentation for the FreeForm AE plug-

in is available on the

Digieffects website

. For more information, see Resources for Digieffects FreeForm.

Note:

Digieffects FreeForm is no longer included with After Effects CS6.

CycoreFX (CC)

(Not included with the trial version of After Effects CS5 or After Effects CS5.5.) Documentation for Cycore FX plug-ins is available

on the

Cycore website

. In After Effects CS5.5, and earlier. For more information, see Resources for Cycore FX (CC) effects.

CycoreFX HD

CycoreFX HD (1.7.1) is included in the installation of After Effects CS6. There is 16-bpc support in all effects, and 32-bpc (float)

support in 35 effects. Included are 12 additional plug-ins. CycoreFX HD plug-ins have support for motion blur, lights, more controls, and options.

In this video

by Todd Kopriva and video2brain, the new Cycore effects and improved color bit depth are shown. Learn how to apply a couple of

these effects and see what it means to use different bit depths.

Imagineer mocha shape AE

(Not included with the trial version of After Effects CS5 or After Effects CS5.5.) Documentation for the mocha shape

for After Effects (mocha shape AE) plug-in is available on the

Imagineer website

. For more information, see Resources for Imagineer mocha

shape for After Effects.

Note:

Unlike the similarly named mocha shape for After Effects (mocha shape AE), Imagineer mocha-AE is not a plug-in; it is a separate,

standalone planar tracker application. For more information, see Resources for mocha for After Effects (mocha-AE).

C/C++ plug-ins and the After Effects SDK

Many plug-ins for After Effects are written in the C/C++ programming language using the After Effects SDK. Effect plug-ins written with C/C++

have the filename extension .aex. For information on developing plug-ins for After Effects with the C/C++ SDK, go to the

After Effects Developer

Center

section of the Adobe website.

Kas Thomas provides a tutorial on the

MacTech website

that shows step by step how to write an After Effects plug-in.

To ask questions about writing plug-ins with the C/C++ SDK for After Effects, go to the

After Effects SDK user-to-user forum

.

Satya Meka provides an overview of the different ways to develop effect plug-ins for After Effects on

his website

.

Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit

Increasingly, many effect plug-ins for After Effects are written in the Adobe Pixel Bender language. Pixel Bender is designed to improve the

performance of image-processing operations by taking advantage of multiple processor cores; multiprocessing for Pixel Bender effect plug-ins

does not rely on the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously option being selected.

Note:

Support for Pixel Bender (.pbk, .pbg) plug-ins has been removed in After Effects CS6. Existing projects that use them appear as missing

effects. Using the File > Save As > Save a Copy As CS5.5 command allows the plug-ins to work when opened in CS5.5.

Effect plug-ins written with Pixel Bender have the filename extension .pbk (for single-kernel effects) or .pbg (for multiple-kernel effects).

The Pixel Bender language is also used to write effects and filters for use with other Adobe software, including Flash and Photoshop.

For more information about Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit, go to the

Pixel Bender section

of the Adobe website.

Tom Beddard provides several Pixel Bender plug-ins and supporting materials on his subblue website, including a

Droste effect

and

Fractal

Explorer effect

.

Satya Meka provides an in-depth introduction to Pixel Bender on

his website

.

Where to find more plug-ins for After Effects

For information on plug-ins available for After Effects, go to the

After Effects plug-in page

on the Adobe website and the

Toolfarm website

.

To exchange plug-ins, scripts, projects, and other useful items with other After Effects users, go to the

After Effects Exchange

on the Adobe

website.

The

After Effects Scripts + After Effects Plug-ins website

provides plug-ins, including many written with Pixel Bender.

For other sources of plug-ins, see

After Effects community resources

on the Adobe website.

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Section	Page
What's New	2
What's new in CS6	3
What’s new in After Effects CS5.5	8
What’s new in After Effects CS5	9
After Effects getting started tutorials	15
Learn After Effects CS5 and CS5.5	16
Planning and setup	18
Setup and installation	22
Workflows	24
Workspace and workflow	27
Setup and installation	28
Workflows	30
Planning and setup	33
Working with After Effects and other applications	37
Dynamic Link and After Effects	43
Workspaces, panels, and viewers	46
General user interface items	51
Keyboard shortcuts reference	54
Modify keyboard shortcuts	72
Preferences	73
Projects and compositions	76
Projects	77
Timecode and time display units	80
Composition basics	82
Precomposing, nesting, and pre-rendering	87
Importing footage	92
Importing and interpreting video and audio	93
Working with footage items	98
Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro	103
Importing and interpreting footage items	107
Preparing and importing 3D image files	118
Preparing and importing still images	121
Layers and properties	128
Creating layers	129
Selecting and arranging layers	133
Managing layers	141
Layer properties	145
Blending modes and layer styles	153
3D layers	158
Cameras, lights, and points of interest	163
Views and previews	171
Previewing	172
Modifying and using views	181
Animation and Keyframes	185
Animation basics	186
Setting, selecting, and deleting keyframes	189
Editing, moving, and copying keyframes	192
Assorted animation tools	196
Keyframe interpolation	202
Speed	207
Tracking and stabilizing motion	213
Tracking 3D Camera Movement (CS6)	225
Animating with Puppet tools	228
Time-stretching and time-remapping	234
Color	241
Color basics	242
Color management	250
Drawing, painting, and paths	258
Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser	259
Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector graphics	266
Creating shapes and masks	271
Managing and animating shape paths and masks	279
Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers	287
Text	293
Creating and editing text layers	294
Formatting characters and the Character panel	299
Formatting paragraphs and the Paragraph panel	304
Animating text	306
Extruding text and shape layers (CS6)	315
Examples and resources for text animation	320
Transparency and compositing	325
Compositing and transparency overview and resources	326
Alpha channels, masks, and mattes	328
Keying	337
Roto Brush and Refine Matte	340
Effects and animation presets	345
Effects and animation presets overview	346
Effect list	368
3D Channel effects	376
Audio effects	381
Blur & Sharpen effects	384
Channel effects	390
The rolling shutter repair effect (CS6)	395
Color Correction effects	396
Distort effects	408
Generate effects	421
Keying effects	435
Matte effects	443
Noise & Grain effects	445
Obsolete effects	459
Perspective effects	463
Simulation effects	467
Stylize effects	488
Text effects	497
Time effects	499
Transition effects	504
Utility effects	510
Markers	514
Layer markers and composition markers	515
XMP metadata	519
Memory, storage, performance	524
Memory and storage (CS5.5, and earlier)	525
Improve performance	531
GPU (CUDA, OpenGL) features in After Effects CS6	534
Memory and storage (CS6)	536
Expressions and automation	544
Plug-ins	545
Scripts	547
Automation	549
Expression basics	550
Expression language reference	561
Expression examples	578
Rendering and Exporting	582
Basics of rendering and exporting	583
Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player	596
Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences	602
Automated rendering and network rendering	604
Converting movies	610

Adobe 12040118 Tutorial - Page 546

C/C++ plug-ins and the After Effects SDK, Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit

Page 546 highlights