Plug-in to After Effects: Third Party Plug-in Mastery [Paperback]

There is a plethora of plug-ins for After Effects and by utilizing these plug-ins, you can accomplish awesome effects using these third party plug-ins.

But before one can use "Plug-Ins to After Effects" by Michele Yamazaki, its important to note that you MUST at least have the following third-party plug-ins:

- Boris Continuum Complete
- GenArts Sapphire and GenArts Monsters
- Noise Industries FxFactory Pro
- Trapcode Suite
- Red Giant Magic Bullet Suite
- Digieffects Delirium
- Re:Vision Effects Effections Bundle
- Tiffen DFx Digital Filter Suite
- CoreMelt Complete
- The Foundry's Plug-Ins
- Adobe Pixel Bender Plug-Ins

Michele Yamazaki touches upon the following in each chapter:

CHAPTER 1 - Introduction to Plug-Ins
CHAPTER 2 - Color Correction and Color Effects (ie. using Boris Continuum complete, Red Giant Magic Bullet, Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse and more).
CHAPTER 3 - Effects (Blur, light effects, brushes, cartoon look, TV inspired effects and more)
CHAPTER 4 - Distortions, Warps, Tiling and Time Effects (Push Effect using GenArts Sapphire Distortion, Re:Vision Effects and more).
CHAPTER 5 - Creative Transitions: When a Simple Cut Just Isn't Enough! (CoreMelt Complete Transitions, Noise Industries FxFactory Transitions, Pixelan Creativeeaste Tranditions, Boris Continuum Complete Wipes and more)
CHAPTER 6 - Generators - Lens Flares, Particle Systems, Backgrounds and Textures
CHAPTER 7 - Invisible and Natural Effects (generating water, rain, atmospheric effects, fire and fireballs)
CHAPTER 8 - Text and Graphic Elements - Text Elements, FxFactory Type plug-ins, lines and paths and more.
CHAPTER 9 - Generating 3D Elements in After Effects - Utilizing Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator, Boris Continuum, mountains, cables and more.
CHAPTER 10 - Working with the 3D Camera - Digieffects Camera Mapper, Trapcode Horizon, Digieffects Snowstorm, Stereoscopic 3D Viewmaster and more.
CHAPTER 11 - Automation and Keyframe Generators (Automated Motion, Keyframes from Audio, Boris Continuum, Dance Club Eye Candy and more).
CHAPTER 12 - Keying and Compositing Greenscreen Footage (Keyers and Tools, Compositing Tools, Matte Cleaners)
CHAPTER 13 - Tracking, Matchmoving, Motion Stabilization and Rotoscoping (Imagineer mocha AE, Boris Continuum and more)
CHAPTER 14 - Fixing Video Problems (Noise and Grain, Lens Distortion/Barrel Distortion, Rolling Shutter and more).
CHAPTER 15 - Reference and Workflow
CHAPTER 16 - More on Plug-Ins: The FAQ

The DVD included with the book comes with the project files, demo versions of the plug-ins, fonts and more.

JUDGMENT CALL:

"Plug-In to After Effects" is a fantastic how-to book with project files for one to learn how to utilize these third-party plug-ins with great efficacy. But of course, this book is not for everyone as it does require you to own the third party software and these plug-ins are quite expensive. The good news is that the included DVD does have demo versions of the plug-ins but the good thing that I enjoyed about the book is that it does give you an idea of what plug-ins can be utilized to accomplish certain effects.

There are so many plug-ins out there but it helps to read from a professional who is familiar with the plug-ins to give you a good idea of how to use them and in some cases, you can tell which plug-ins Yamazaki tends to favor as they are featured quite often throughout the book.

If you are a person who wonders how certain effects are created and want to learn from one of the best After Effect gurus out there, "Plug-Ins to After Effects" is a wonderful resource and reference worth buying!

Highly recommended!

Amazing Book that serves so many purposes.
1. As an AE artists reference of the many plugins available for After Effects.
2. As a real world "consumers reports" comparing which brand of Plugin is more capable for a particular task. Drilling downto why a recommended tool for the job is the tool you should use.
3. Priceless Tips, tutorials and shortcuts that not only give you the steps needed but also the thinking that went into the steps, provided by very capable working Pros.
4. This Book is Huge and Heavy
5. Also serves as a very good tutorial for After Effects itself
6 Even gives uses of plug ins that come bundled free with After Effects
7 Included DVD with AE files so you can work along with your tutorial
8 New and Experienced AE users will find this a valuable reference on the desk.
9 Very well Illisrated with tons of helpful gui screenshots
10 I did mention big, heavy and comprehensive didnt I? Like the old school Microsoft software Manuals.
11 Seems to be version Agnostic, both for AE and its Plugs

I find no cons with this book. Just a vast playground in which I can emulate most any effect I see in Hollywood, TV or Madison Avenue. So when I want to do this....and do it know...now I can. A lot less time experimenting and fumbling around.

If you are into After Effects this is the answer book for almost all it's plugs. What an amazing way to find out about all the plug options that exist, how they work, and methods for their use. It made me aware of more plug-in's that I did not even know existed. I will refer back to this manual often. What a great and wonderful tool for artists and users of AE. It couldn't be better.