Episode 68
The Adobe After Effects Show
December 23, 2016 · Mike Murphy
Ep68: THE ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS SHOW Adobe After Effects 101 Episode Summary: What is Adobe After Effects? How Did I Make The PodShed Gift Guide Videos?
Episode Summary: Part 2 of 2 on the Podshed Holiday Gift Guide videos — what Adobe After Effects actually is, and the exact 10-step process used to make each animated video.
What You’ll Learn
- What Adobe After Effects is and how it differs from Photoshop
- The typical pro video workflow: Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition together
- The exact 10-step process used to make each PodShed Gift Guide video
- Where to find affordable royalty-free music, and how to handle a false copyright claim
Happy holidays, whatever you’re celebrating.
What Is Adobe After Effects?
After Effects is a motion graphics and special effects tool. In Adobe’s words: “the industry-standard animation and creative compositing app lets you design and deliver professional motion graphics and visual effects for film, TV, video, and web.”
It shares real similarities with Photoshop — both work in layers with effects applied on top — but where Photoshop handles photos and still artwork, After Effects is built around motion. It’s fundamentally a compositing tool, capable of complex motion graphics and effects, and it’s where green-screen work (chroma keying) and camera tracking really shine — and where things get genuinely complicated. Any time a movie, TV show, or even a local news broadcast shows a slick effect, there’s a good chance After Effects is behind it.
Typical pro workflow: Adobe Premiere Pro for assembling and editing, After Effects for special effects and polish, Adobe Audition for sound design.
Workflow: Making the PodShed Holiday Gift Guide Videos
See all the videos here.
- Adobe Draw — hand-draw each product or tool using an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
- AirDrop the final drawing over to the MacBook.
- Adobe After Effects — create a new composition (the scene/canvas the animation gets built in) for each video, sized to 1920×1080p at 24fps.
- Photoshop or Illustrator — build any additional graphics, backgrounds, or textures.
- Adobe Character Animator — animate the “Mini-Mike” character.
- Audio/soundtrack — AudioBlocks ($99/year for unlimited tracks, personal or commercial use). Side tip: if a YouTube copyright claim comes in on audio that’s genuinely licensed, email the source — they can clear the claim and get the warning removed quickly.
- Story — build a 60-second-or-shorter narrative around the product or tool.
- Adobe Media Encoder — export as HD 1920×1080p
.mp4. - Upload to Instagram, share to Facebook and Twitter.
- Upload to YouTube, then embed that link in the corresponding post on PodcasterToolkit.co and MikeMurphy.co.
Happy Holidays
Cheers, Mike.