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Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking by Tim Dobbert
If you are looking for a great book to get your started in matchmoving as well as something you can keep with you for a long time on shoots to come, Tim Dobbert’s book has basically everything there is to know when it comes to everything from setting up shots to solving cameras.
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The After Effects Illusionist: All the Effects in One Complete Guide by Chad Perkins
This book is kind of like Chad Perkins’ Lynda.com training DVD After Effects Effects, but in book form. The book goes through each and every effect included with After Effects CS4 and teaches you how to use it, and how you could possibly apply it into a real world situation.
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The Visual Effects Arsenal: VFX Solutions for the Independent Filmmaker by Bill Byrne
Bill Byrne takes years of visual effects experience to show you how to make some of the hottest effects used in cinema, from color correction to chopping arms off! The provided disk also comes with all the project files so that you can follow along in your application!
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After Effects Expressions by Marcus Geduld
Expressions are kind of scary, I’ll admit… thank god there is a book out there that can teach you everything you need to know about expressions in After Effects. Marcus’ book is 448 pages chock full of expressionny goodness complete with a disk with project files so you can examine the expressions for yourself!
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Filming the Fantastic: A Guide to Visual Effects Cinematography by Mark Sawicki
This book deals on the simple idea of eliminating the phrase “we’ll fix it in post.” Why waste time fixing it later, when you can do it right the first time? Learn techniques on doing in camera special effects and cinematography to create plates that you can later composite together for better video!
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Adobe After Effects CS5 Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques by Mark Christiansen
Mark Christiansen has been writing this book for years, each time updated with the newest version of After Effects. It has become one of the must have books for an After Effects artist to have, because there is always something new to learn from him. This version is to be released October 2nd 2010
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The DV Rebel’s Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap by Stu Maschwitz
A favorite book for anyone who has ever made a super low budget to no budget film is The DV Rebel’s Guide. Stu, the creator of tools like Magic Bullet Looks, wrote this book to help those that have a hard time penny pinching to get a amazing film out of little to no money.
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Greenscreen Made Easy: Keying and Compositing Techniques for Indie Filmmakers by Jeremy Hanke & Michele Yamazaki
Editor of Microfilmmaker.com Jeremy Hanke and Toolfarm’s own Michele Yamazaki have this amazing handbook for people working in green screen. It goes through everything from plugins, to making homemade greenscreen, to what apps to use, and tips and tricks for getting good mattes when you are compositing.
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After Effects Apprentice, Second Edition by Chris and Trish Meyer
Chris and Trish Meyer are undoubtedly legends in the After Effects world. Their book, the After Effects Apprentice takes you through all you need to know if you are getting started in our app of choice, complete with a disk with video tutorials and project files!
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Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, 5th Edition, Fifth Edition: Essential and Advanced Techniques by Chris Meyer and Trish Meyer
Now in it’s 5th Edition to reflect CS5, this massive 768 page book deals in all you need to know for making motion graphics. Subjects include mastering 3D space, all the 3D effects in CS5, working with Photoshop, keying, mattes, roto, basically anything you need to know if you are going to be working on motion graphics.
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Adobe After Effects CS5 Classroom in a Book by Adobe Creative Team
If you have been in college you have probably been required to get this book to learn After Effects. It is made by the Adobe Creative Team as a collective effort and serves as the jumpstart for learning, using, and understanding After Effects.
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After Effects CS4 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide by Antony Bolante
This book from Antony Bolante is a great book for people of all walks of life, whether it be graphic, web, or video production how they can use After Effects CS4 in their workflow to enrich their projects and integrate their other applications.
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After Effects for Flash / Flash for After Effects: Dynamic Animation and Video with Adobe After Effects CS4 and Adobe Flash CS4 Professional by Richard Harrington and Marcus Geduld
If you are a Flash user and have never messed with After Effects, this is the book for you. Learn how you can use both apps harmoniously to create some amazing motion graphics, and integrate these two applications together in your workflow.
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Flash + After Effects, Second Edition: Add Broadcast Features to Your Flash Designs by Chris Jackson
This book is more for learning how you can use After Effects in your Flash animations to make better and more compelling work in Flash. If you have the Suite and have both programs, if you are only limiting yourself to Flash, you are really missing out.
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After Effects and Photoshop: Animation and Production Effects for DV and Film, Second Edition by Jeff Foster
This is another book trying to unify the Creative Suite’s apps, Photoshop and After Effects to create a better, faster workflow when it comes to dealing with graphics, visual effects or filmmaking.
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Adobe After Effects CS5 Digital Classroom by AGI Creative Team
In 16 lessons, this book will teach you thoroughly how to use After Effects what effects do what, and how you can use the program to make your video woes much easier. This book is due out November 8th 2010.
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The Video Collection Revealed: Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Soundbooth and Encore CS5 by Debra Keller
I love these books that preach about how to use your apps together for better workflow. Too often we get hung up on trying to do everything in one application. This book teaches you about Premiere, After Effects, Soundbooth and Encore and shows you a great workflow for using them together in your production pipeline.
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Compositing Visual Effects: Essentials for the Aspiring Artist by Steve Wright
This was published back in 2007, but all the same techniques still hold true. This book is a great stepping stone for beginning visual effects artists that want to learn and understand how visual effects shots are made and composited together.
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The Green Screen Handbook: Real-World Production Techniques by Jeff Foster
This is an amazing resource for those working heavily in the green screen world of video. Jeff Foster explains everything from setting up your green screen to matchmoving a virtual set! This 384 page monster is sure to be one that you put in your backpack every shoot.
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The Art and Science of Digital Compositing, Second Edition: Techniques for Visual Effects, Animation and Motion Graphics (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) by Ron Brinkmann
This is a great book going through 17 case studies on hit Hollywood films like The Golden Compass, Sin City, Lord of the Rings, and Revenge of the Sith, just to name a few. Take an in depth look at how shots from these movies were put together to create such realistic imagery.
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Professional Digital Compositing: Essential Tools and Techniques by Lee Lanier
No matter what application you are using, this book will apply to it. Color Theory, stereoscopy and CG integration are just a few of the things covered in this book. Whether you are a Motion, Shake or After Effects user, you will learn a lot from this book.
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The VES Handbook of Visual Effects: Industry Standard VFX Practices and Procedures by Jeffrey A. Okun and Susan Zwerman
Just like the title says, you will learn some of the best practices and procedures from some of the huge names in the visual effects industry. Co-authored by members of the Visual Effects Society, you get many different perspectives and ideas on how to do things in the visual effects world.
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The Visual Effects Producer: Understanding the Art and Business of VFX by Charles L. Finance and Susan Zwerman
Instead of focusing on the art of visual effects itself, this book focuses on the business of being a producer instead. Learn how to manage clients, crew and vendors, along with planning out scheduling, budgeting, and all the other woes that come along with being a producer.
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VFX Artistry: A Visual Tour of How the Studios Create Their Magic by Spencer Drate and Judith Salavetz
If you have ever wanted a look into how studios like Digital Kitchen, Prologue and Trollback create their amazing pieces of art, look no further. This book showcases how certain videos were produced, what went into them, and what was needed!
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Digital Compositing for Film and Video, Third Edition by Steve Wright
This book is great for the compositor faced with challenges like badly shot footage, mismatched lighting and the like. Now in it’s third edition, this book contains new chapters on stereoscopy and CGI integration of elements.
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Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics by Jon S. Krasner
if you have ever wanted to delve deep… I mean, REALLY deep into motion design, investigating the theory, history and whatnot of how it has come to be an artform, this is by far the best book for you.
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How to Cheat in Motion by Patrick Sheffield
In this non-app-specfic book Patrick shows you how to do some nifty, easy, and dirty little tricks that the pros use with little or no effort at all to enhance the look of your projects!
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The Art and Technique of Matchmoving: Solutions for the VFX Artist by Erica Hornung
Whether or not you want to learn it, matchmoving is going to end up being a tool in every artist’s arsenal. Erica’s new book, gets you up to speed on the newest technology, theory, and practices when it comes to matchmoving.
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How to Cheat in After Effects by Chad Perkins
Chad Perkins’ brand new book is full of a bunch of quick tips that save you a ton of time and basically works as a cheat sheet for hundreds of tasks inside of After Effects. This book is due out October 4th 2010
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BBC VFX: The History of the BBC Visual Effects Department 1954-2003 by Mat Irvine and Mike Tucker
This is a great book that showcases the last 50 years of visual effects used on the BBC. There has been some amazing shows, movies, and other programming that is unforgettable. This book spotlights all those and shows you what went into them. This book will be available January 1st 2011!
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Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques by Richard Harrington and Ian Robinson
Yet another book showcasing how you can use different applications from the Creative Suite in your workflow, this book by Richard Harrington and Ian Robinson shows you how to use Illustrator, Photoshop and of course After Effects to create spectacular motion graphics. Pick up this book October 3rd 2010!
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Creative Motion Graphic Titling for Film, Video, and the Web by Yael Braha and Bill Byrne
We, as motion artists get asked a lot to create title sequences… what better of a place to find inspiration than a book dedicated to teaching that!? This book features tutorials and interviews on how and who created some of the most inspiring titles sequences in the most famous blockbuster movies! This book will be out October 1st 2010!
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Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist: A Practical Guide to Principles & Techniques by Angie Taylor
Aspiring motion artists be on the lookout! This book is a crash course on the designer’s side of looking at creating motion graphics. Learn to think like a designer, analyze color palettes and typography… make educated decisions when it comes to the way you want things to look! This book will get you up to speed on it. Book drops October 29th 2010.
How many books are in your library? I have some of the top rated books for our industry for you guys to pick and choose from depending on your interests! Whether you are into motion graphics or matchmoving… there is something here for everyone!
Coming Soon…
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By Topher Welsh
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If you haven’t read Marcus Geduld’s book on Expressions, it helped me a ton!… just to throw that out there. The Art and Science of Digital Compositing was another one that really helped me understanding how filters/plugin’s worked at the core. For example, I knew what a blur looked like but understanding how it works has been eye opening. Check it out!
So now I need some comments on people who have already read some of the books, any user reviews?
do you know if there is a Brazilian version of these books?
I’ve got to rep The DV Rebel’s Guide cuz that book is the ship. I most def need to read more books but I’ve been through a steady amount & I know for a fact that book is truly meant to help people out. Oh God I’ve been through so many money ploys when I was growing up.
Basically I got the book less than a year ago and a lot of it I knew but I picked up on so much it brought me up to speed w/ the fundamentals. If only I would have purchased this book a when it came out so many years back which is still why it’s in rotation.
If you’re a noob then this is the book you want, you’ll excel much faster.
I also have to add that the book covers after effects a steady amount, no surprise there, but it also covers so much more which is where I really found this book helpful. So worth every penny.
I’ll be purchasing After Effects Expressions by Marcus Geduld next
Thx Adam
Great list Topher. I too can recommend Ron Brinkmann’s “The Art and Science of Digital Compositing”. It’s a great book!
LOL Do you actually have ALL these books ??? think i might get the anglie taylor one, the last one i used was really gd!
I have ‘The Art and Science of Digital Compositing’ 2nd edition, it’s a great book
just got Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking. seems worth it. the After Effects and Photoshop: Animation and Production Effects for DV and Film book is ok i guess. u can find it cheap. added a few others to my amazon shitlist a while ago, and i’m surprised they are on this list, so i guess i made a couple decent choices. there’s also an after effects book by mark christiansen–google the damn thing. he knows his ae. and anything on ae by a Meyer seems worthwhile too. Nice list.
peace
a good post . thank you
Adobe After Effects CS5 Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques by Mark Christiansen is the sixth book down in this list…
hi everybody… can someone tell me what is the best book for learning motion graphics in AE
I think this list is pretty much everything there is out there on the topics. Unless you add 3D and animation to vfx area. I own a lot of them. Currently reading “Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics” and “The Visual Effects Producer”. I like them a lot. Also I like the process of learning in general so books that are not application specific but rather explain principles and concepts are in my favor.
Since the list includes not only practical but also business book I’d suggest to add “Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution” http://www.droidmaker.com
Also be sure to check out the publishing house behind the most of the titles here. They have lots of good stuff.