Episode Summary: Part 2 of 2 on the Podshed Holiday Gift Guide videos — what Adobe After Effects actually is, and the exact 10-step process used to make each animated video.

What You'll Learn

• What Adobe After Effects is and how it differs from Photoshop
• The typical pro video workflow: Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition together
• The exact 10-step process used to make each PodShed Gift Guide video
• Where to find affordable royalty-free music, and how to handle a false copyright claim

Happy holidays, whatever you're celebrating.

What Is Adobe After Effects?

After Effects is a motion graphics and special effects tool. In Adobe's words: "the industry-standard animation and creative compositing app lets you design and deliver professional motion graphics and visual effects for film, TV, video, and web."

It shares real similarities with Photoshop — both work in layers with effects applied on top — but where Photoshop handles photos and still artwork, After Effects is built around motion. It's fundamentally a compositing tool, capable of complex motion graphics and effects, and it's where green-screen work (chroma keying) and camera tracking really shine — and where things get genuinely complicated. Any time a movie, TV show, or even a local news broadcast shows a slick effect, there's a good chance After Effects is behind it.

Typical pro workflow: Adobe Premiere Pro for assembling and editing, After Effects for special effects and polish, Adobe Audition for sound design.

Workflow: Making the PodShed Holiday Gift Guide Videos

See all the videos here.

1. Adobe Draw — hand-draw each product or tool using an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
2. AirDrop the final drawing over to the MacBook.
3. Adobe After Effects — create a new composition (the scene/canvas the animation gets built in) for each video, sized to 1920×1080p at 24fps.
4. Photoshop or Illustrator — build any additional graphics, backgrounds, or textures.
5. Adobe Character Animator — animate the "Mini-Mike" character.
6. Audio/soundtrack — AudioBlocks ($99/year for unlimited tracks, personal or commercial use). Side tip: if a YouTube copyright claim comes in on audio that's genuinely licensed, email the source — they can clear the claim and get the warning removed quickly.
7. Story — build a 60-second-or-shorter narrative around the product or tool.
8. Adobe Media Encoder — export as HD 1920×1080p .mp4.
9. Upload to Instagram, share to Facebook and Twitter.
10. Upload to YouTube, then embed that link in the corresponding post on PodcasterToolkit.co and MikeMurphy.co.

Happy Holidays

Cheers, Mike.

Show Notes & Links

Adobe After Effects PodShed 2016 Holiday Gift…

Read the complete show notes and resources on mikemurphy.ai.

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