does reading the manual help much?

Jasta85 · Post by **Jasta85** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 4:16 am

so i have the adobe CS3 collection, i know how to use primiere pro (sort of, a lot of the effects still are beyond me) and i've been interested in using after effects, however after looking at some of the demos on creativecow.net i was so overwhealmed by all the stuff involved i just stayed away from it. but now i'm interested again, i have the manual (all 650+ pages of it) and i'm wonderin if actually reading the darn thing helps much in using after affects for amv making.

so, i'm asking other people who use after effects if they just played around with it and figured stuff out on their own or did anyone actually read the manual and did it give some kind of better insight into how the thing works rather than feeling around in the dark. thanks

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:14 am

It might be useful for you, I've felt manuals and books focus on things that work well with live-action footage to make poorly recorded camcorder footage look more realistic - take that as you will.

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 8:44 am

My experience has been that the manual (and the online help documentation) is generally good for reference but not so much for learning how to do things. When I wanted to learn After Effects, I picked up one of the Classroom In A Book books and went through the exercises/tutorials in it and learned a lot. Once I had the basics down, I'd search around online (CreativeCow is an excellent resource as you've mentioned, both in the tutorials they have and the forums) or ask here if I couldn't figure out how to do something I was interested in on my own.

But really I've probably gotten the most mileage out of that CiaB book and simply fiddling with things to find out what I can make them do.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:02 pm

Yea, to learn how to generally use after effects, look up some tutorials. If you have a question about the basic working of the program, such as "ok, how do i use this darn motion tracking thingamajiggy", then that's something you might try looking up in the manual.

leahzero · Post by **leahzero** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:36 pm

Video Copilot's After Effects Basic Training video series is excellent, and free.

I only use the manuals for reference.

Jasta85 · Post by **Jasta85** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:21 pm

oooh, i havnt seen that one yet, i saw another intro video to after effects but it was only like 15 minutes long and only showed the most basic stuff. definitly checking out that link

i think the reason i got so intimidated was some of the tutorials i was looking at involved doing half the editing using java code, and i quit being an information science major specifically cause i hated writing code, but thanks for the advice, guess i'll let the manual gather dust a bit longer and check out some of these vids