This book was designed for people who already have some experience using Adobe After Effects. Its goal is to help you build on that experience by sharing a number of tricks and techniques in an artistic context.

That said, we ve endeavored to make the instructions for each tutorial easy to follow, without assuming too much. The first tutorial in particular Atomic Caf is a good starting point for beginners. You can then fill in the information behind a feature by referring to the manual, online Help, or our first book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects.

Each tutorial follows its own path. Some feature step-by-step instructions for how to build a project from scratch; others begin with several elements already in place, then show you how to put them to work. Some provide exercises on general concepts, then walk you through a more complex project that uses those same concepts; a couple encourage you to build on our base and customize the project on your own. There are a handful of two-part tutorials, which either are continued on a PDF file on the CD, or which form the base for the next tutorial in the book. There are even occasions when we purposely lead you down the most common blind alleys, just to make sure you know how to find your way back out.

The case studies should be of value to any motion graphics artist or producer, even if you don t use After Effects for your own work.