After Effects

These After Effects mostly went over the basics of After Effects, although I have used AE for tasks such as basic compositing his was a very helpful reminder of hot keys as well as teaching something new.

Our first composition was based on moving objects positions, rotations and scales which was something I was already quite familiar with.

For our explorations with character, we used parenting for layers as well as the puppeteering tool to move the limbs of a character. I did not even know that a puppet tool even existed, so it was very helpful to find out, especially when it comes to rigging characters. That being said, it has a very different type of motion to rigging in Toon Boom so the application feels different.

Next, we played around with adjustment layers and effects. For me, this is my favourite part of After Effects as it’s what I like to play around with in the compositing stage of my animation

At the end of these classes, I felt a lot more confident approaching After Effects than I did before. Of course it’s going to require some practice and exploration but I would be more confident using this in future.

Adobe Certification Program

The certification program was tougher than I had initially expected. Even with programmes I had used before, it made me realise how I don’t exactly use the full breadth of what they had to offer. For example, I mainly use After Effects for pretty simple video compositing but it can be used to all manners of complex video editing. The GMetrix course was both informative and slowly paced, but I appreciated how it went through various parts of video productions such as pre-production: copyright and IP, animation principles, parts of live-action production that I didn’t know about. A phrase I learnt from this course was ‘scope creep’ which refers to when the scope of a project is off-set, changed or delayed outside of its original plan. I’m glad I learnt this word as having it in my vocabulary might make communication easier on both university and professional projects. The production side of the course went in depth about elements such as colour grading, chroma keying, typography and more. Even though there were things I had learned and used before, it was nice to get a refresher and extra insight into them.

Funnily enough, the only test I failed was for the app I use the most- Photoshop. That being said, my use of Photoshop is mostly for illustrations while its original intent is as a photography editing app. I had a lot of fun in the class messing around with features like the clone stamp tool and creating new effects with the mask tool. I think my downfall was not completing the full GMetrix course and speeding through too much of it (and that our classmates who passed had completely different questions to us who failed). But I didn’t let that deter me, I rebooked the Photoshop test, studied hard and passed on my second try.

Premiere Pro was the final test I did. Premiere is a bit simpler than After Effects in terms of what it can do but it’s also the software I’m least familiar with so this time I knew I had to study a bit harder. By the time I got to this, I was already quite aware of a lot of the pre-production terminology so that was pretty easy. While navigating the interface was a bit challenging at first, I learnt from my mistakes on the Photoshop exam and studied hard. Having completed the certifications was very rewarding. I haven’t had to study or take an exam since A-levels so I was proud that I had something I could put on my CV for the future.