After effects Learning Curve?
 

I watched adobes demo video on after effect 6.5. How steep is the learning curve for a newbie. There are cheeper older versions available. would i loose to many capabilities buy purchasing an older version? I just want cool titles and vegas dos'nt quite cut it. and anything i could do to help a photo montage.

Hello,

I moved from using Photoshop to After Effects, and found that it was a pretty easy migration.. After Effects is kind of Photoshop with motion..If you have no Photoshop experience, then it will probaly be a pretty steep curve, but worth it..After effects is my main tool for doing most of my compositing, effects, colorizing, keying, text manipulation and on and on..Quite frankly I would be lost without it.. It is a key to making my productions professional..(and no i do not work for Adobe)
As far as using the latest version (6.5) it is definately worth getting.. If for nothing else version 6.5 has introduced, Text Animation Presets, these are pre made Text animations ( there are hundreds of them included) which make some text you type in do all kinds of great animation moves which would take hours and lots of work to set up manually. You pretty much just type in your text and then choose what the animation will look like and After Effects takes care of the rest for you.. Well worth it..

Anyway, I believe there is a trial version of After Effects on Adobes web site.. Also there is a training series from a company called Total Training, which offers excellent training DVD's..

hope this helps,
mike m.

Hey chris,

Here is a link which shows you what the Text presets in After Effects look like..I am guessing this is the type of thing you are looking for to add to your arsenal..

here:

http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/type_effects.html

Mike m.

yes!!

This type of titling is very profesional looking. Could i use this without having to quickly learn most of the software since they are presets.

You would only have to know the basics..Pretty simple.. You should be up and running in no time at all..Like i said the animation text presets alone make this program worthwhile..

Mike m.