Page 1 of 5 In January, 2007, friendsofED will be releasing a ground breaking book: From After Effects to Flash: Poetry in Motion Graphics. Written by Community MX Partner, Tom Green and Community MX contributor, Tiago Dias, the book is the first exploration of how After Effects and Flash are about to become a motion graphics power house. Over the next few weeks, we will be presenting the first two chapters of the book. These two chapters are designed to explore the emerging workflow between After Effects and Flash and they take you from concept to upload. In this first excerpt, from Chapter 1, you are introduced to the After Effects work space and how Projects and Compositions are created in After Effects.
We are going to start our journey through After Effects and Flash by launching a search for dragons. There is a historical myth that assumes English mapmakers in the 1500s, not knowing what lay in the Arctic, would add the legend "Here be dragons" to their maps. We say "myth" because the only known reference to that phrase is on the Lenox Globe, which can be found in the New York Public Library. Still, the phrase has stuck and makes for a rather great jumping off point for our exploration of the unknown.
In many respects, the workflow and relationship of Flash and After Effects
is uncharted and out there in "Dragon Country."
Until the acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe in 2005, Flash and After Effects
lived in separate worlds and solitudes. Adobe was quite succinct in their motivation
behind the acquisition of Macromedia. When asked for the reasoning, those involved
in the acquisition, both at Adobe and Macromedia, summed it up in one word: "Flash."
Though Flash 8 covers a lot of web ground, the most groundbreaking aspect of Flash 8 was the inclusion of a number of serious video tools designed for the creation and deployment of video on the Web. Within hours of the completion of the Adobe/Macromedia deal, Adobe released updated versions of its media creation and editing tools, and among them was a new version of Adobe After Effects 7, which pushed the application into new territory. With Flash Professional 8 and After Effects 7 under the same roof, we have been handed two tools that were absolutely made for each other and will inevitably also be drawn closer to each other over the next few years.
Just to give you an idea of how these two applications integrate, consider the following:
The neat thing about these points is they just scratch the surface of what you can do with these tools. In many respects, these five points are the land masses on those early English maps, and the time has arrived to see whether there really are dragons out there. Let's go dragon hunting.
Keywords
Flash, After Effects, Comp, Project
