I have finally bought After Effects Pro 7.0 to add to my tools to use. Watching the DVD videos that came with the program I am so very impressed with this program and what it can do. Of course with me reading about After Effects for a while now I have been impressed with AE for a while now and have been wanting to get this program for a long time.

I searched and it seems everyone holds a high regard to Trish and Chris Meyer books, but want to ask this before I buy my first book I am looking at to get:
Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, Vol. 1: The Essentials (3rd Edition, Version 6.5) by Trish and Chris Meyer.

For the people that have used both AE 6.5 and 7.0 is there really any major difference since I have AE Pro 7.0 and the book shows 6.5 examples or can I still easily follow along in the book regardless?

Does anyone know when the new 7.0 book is suppose to be out by Trish and Chris Meyer? Or if there is even going to be one. I'm sure they will eventually make one.

I know about creative cow and will be having a friend download some videos on there to learn with as well.

Thank You for your help!


Dave

The book you mention is by far the best learning resource you can buy for yourself and the 'cow' is the best freebie resource you're likely to find for a while.

Given that v6.5 is a subset of what is in v7 then all the examples and 'learning' from the book will equally apply to v7. I haven't found a single example for mthe cover disk of the book that doesn't load. Of course you need to install the freebie plugin first for most of them though.

The book is just over a year old (I think) so it is not likely to get edition 4 come out for another year I reckon.

My best recommendation is to spend your £30 or so and buy the book because it is still all completely relevant to v7. You won't regret it. And the 5% or so of features that are new in v7 and not covered by the book - you won't miss for a while because you should alolow a few months for the learning curve you have form the book. Once you've got those basics and the vocabulary down pat then the new extra features you'll grab easily enough I reckon from the online help and the manual.

Some might argue that £30 (or so) is expensive for a book but if you think of it as 'training' then buying a good book is the cheapest training you'll find. I also recommend having a look at the latest edition of their 'In Production' book as well.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

I ordered the Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, Vol. 1: The Essentials (3rd Edition, Version 6.5) by Trish and Chris Meyer book from Amazon earlier and getting it tomorrow since I did the special $3.99 overnight shipping thing they do.

Later on I will buy Vol. 2 of the above book.

I want to learn as much as I can with this AE program. I would love to get the Total Training DVD's as well, but at $550.00 USD for the whole set for AE that will take some time to get them.

Thank You for your help. I am very excited to finally begin my learning process with AE as I have been wanting this program for a long time. This is one amazing program.


Dave

great job! but it will be a little while before you are really ready for Vol2.

I might also point you at this http://www.videoforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=8129

These disks have training material from total trainign on them as well which might be useful. I'll gladly pass them on if you want. PM me if interested.

Alan

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

I got my book and have started the lessons inside it. I have made the first three compositions so far. I am going to work on it more tonight.

Yeah, it is going to be a LONG while before Vol. 2. I can see why people have said this is a very deep program to learn now. But, I want to learn it so I gotta do it.

Thanks for your help!


Dave