publishing and books

As someone who teaches media, I have many of the books on AE out there and this is by far the most useful because it goes beyond the basics of the "how to use the program" while being detailed enought that those fairly new to the program, and the new features, can easily follow along. The case studies are especially useful as they detail the production process from concept to completion with suggestions on how to use these ideas in your own work. The tutorials and case studies are also for the most part very practical, make you realize just how powerful AE really is and the creative ways that others have used it (and helps me get out of some of my own creative stiffling ruts). Some books and videos show you how something works and what a slider does but you have no idea how you would ever actually use it in a real world production. Also, the book and CD are well laid out and the CD has some extra plugins, templates and additional articles.
Got me excited about AE all over again!

Wow, this book is amazing.
The authors presents the software to you, but they also make you think about the techniques and concepts.
They also have special guests in the book and various famous studios share their projects, visions and techniques.
This book is mostly targeted for intermediate to advanced users of After Effects, but don't be intimidated if you are a beginner.
The book comes with a fabulous CD ROM with the projects, movies, free tutorials and free plug-ins and an trial version of After Effects 5.0

When a new upgrade for a program comes out, most computer graphic authors just update their old book. Not these guys. This is a completely new book, that is everything that their old book wasn't. 'Creating Motion Graphics' was a thorough textbook for all the main features of the program. This book takes a different approach, offering 12 varied tutorials that help the reader master managing and problem-solving a project as well as learning version 5's new features.

Version 5 features are covered very well. The examples of parenting and 3D and expressions are good pratical real world examples, not just -this how you can warp someones face digitally- like some authors do. There's also a case studies section at the back that focuses on projects from other graphic companies, which is great also. I particularly enjoyed the lesson on using After Effects to export a Flash Animation.

If you don't have 'Creating Motion Graphics', I'd recommend that first, as all of its teachings are still valid (just no v5 features are covered). This book assumes a certain amount of experience, so if you're a beginner, classroom in a book would be more suitable.