Study Guide - SPRING 2015 Final Exam
CS 2880 Topics in Computing: VE, A, and MG

1-2:50 p.m. Monday, May 4th, 2015 is our exam time.




  1. Here is the LINK to the A U D I O and After Effects 2014 posters and notes. It is the study guide for the AUDIO portion of the final exam. Everything is scanned in as PDF. It is my hand-written notes and your reduced size group presentation posters.

  2. It covers the Editing and Animating to Sound with After Effects that we did in class and for individual assignments.

  3. We focused on this 2h 37m video course during the last few weeks of class in both Spr 2014 and Spr 2015.
    We had group exercises, group presentations, and you turned in an individual assignment of notes and ideas for 3 of the video chapters.



  1. Birds - Two Creative Cow video tutorials and a set of study questions:

    1. Study guide to the Creating a Flying Bird Creative Cow tutorial. Video is 7:53 in length. Watch it, review it, you did this for an assignment.

    2. Study guide to the Creating a Flock of Flying Birds Creative Cow tutorial. Video is 9:45 in length. Watch and review and take notes. You did this for an assignment.

    3. As you study/watch and review the Flying Bird and Flock videos, look at questions CC1 through CC11. CC = Creative Cow.
      All 11 of the CC1, CC2, ... CC11 questions are about the Creating a Flock of Birds Part 1 and Part 2 video tutorials. THEY ARE VERY SIMPLE QUESTIONS ON THE VIDEO for CS 1025 Computational Modeling and Simulation students who had very little experience with using After Effects.

      Please IGNORE and DISREGARD the NL1 through NL4, as those questions are about NetLogo turtle graphics and were only for students in the LAC course Computational Modeling and Simulation.

    4. Bird Flock part 2 notes, hand-written for the in-class exercise. Study these notes for the test. Compare them to your own notes from watching the video.

    5. Here is the Adobe Illustrator file that you build the flying single bird from in tutorial part 1: Download the BirdArt.ai file and import it as footage.

  2. Lesson 07: TIME REMAPPING and LOOPING expressions. Speed up, slow down, reverse time. Repeating and looping a set of keyframes.

  3. Camtasia 10 minute 22 second Time Remapping video tutorial review of what we did from the After Effects Apprentice book in two different classes. Follows the Time Remapping handout you received in class, step by step.

    SPRING 2014: Also exactly follows the textbook (Follows the LYNDA videos for SPRING 2014):
    VIP: Time Remapping video(s): 4m 39s Spotting Hit Points in Time and 7m 51s Keyframing time (lynda.uni.edu)

    Lesson 07 chapter of AE Apprentice.

    Please do not cry over spilled milk. We can make time go backwards and it magically all goes back inside the glass.

  4. VIP: Lesson 01 notes and quiz study guide. Know the AE basics (January 2014 material and introductory concepts).

    1. Change your place in space: Spatial Interpolation - making it LINEAR instead of Auto Bezier (Bezier).
      Position animation and sharp corners instead of smooth curved paths:
    2. APSRO Transform properties and APSRT keyboard shortcuts.
    3. KNA = Keyframe Navigation Arrows and parking on keyframes. Removing a keyframe. Adding a KF at the CTI.
    4. Keyboard techniques: [ and ] and Alt+[ and Alt+]. What does Alt+Home do?

  5. SEE LESSON 03 of textbook:
    Review of the basics of LAYERS: CTI, in points, out points, trim and untrim, etc.

    Trimming Layers is 5m 45s lynda tutorial from Layer Control video chapters of After Effects Apprentice.

  6. Study over the old quizzes from this Spring of 2014 semester and the old quizzes from past semesters.
    There are FOUR different PDF documents with most of the pages
         of our past quizzes.  
    
      Quiz01Feb12th2014.pdf       
          QuizFourApr7th2014.pdf
              QuizFiveApr16th2014.pdf
                  AE_QuizPagesSpring2014.pdf  
    
         See the above link to this Spring of 2014 semester:
    

    OK- on a quiz answer means your answer was okay that time, (no points taken off), but any future quiz or test, you would NOT get full credit for the same answer. That is what OK- (OK-minus) means as a grade for an answer.

    Repository of old quizzes: QUIZZES from 2010 - IGNORE FLASH BUTTONS! We did NOT cover them in Spring 2012.

    NEW: Quizzes from 2011, including both SPRING 2011 and FALL 2011. Ignore Flash Buttons and four states of buttons.

  7. Time Remapping: timeRemap.pdf you have as a handout. We did this in two different classes this semester.
    NOTE: THIS will be BOTH on the HANDS-ON portion of the class AND on the written portion of the exam.

  8. VIP: Cameras and After Effects: Camera Basics scanned in notes.
    One page of notes: Five points to know about cameras for Spring 2014

  9. 03/03/2014 assignment: MASKING and using MASKS on layers in After Effects? RIVERS AND SUNSETS

    The Bumping on Sunset tutorial was covered briefly in class, and then you did it as an assignment/project.

    See LI List Items #1, #2, #3, and #4.

     
    a.  See Lesson 4: After Effects Apprentice textbook. Transparent areas are
          creating using 3 approaches: Masks, Track Mattes and Stencils.
    
          MASKING = "I want to see only the area inside this shape; make the
                                                        outside transparent."
      
         Lesson 4 - Page 88 of After Effects Apprentice book.
      
    
    b. Shape tools are used to create mask paths. Select the layer 1st, apply
                or use the SHAPE tool 2nd.
    
       VIP tip (SPRING 2014 final exam)   
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------
       Note: If no layer is selected, the shape tool will create a brand new
                SHAPE LAYER. If a layer is pre-selected, then a SHAPE tool will
                create a mask path.
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------
       
    c.  Masks only effect the layer immediately underneath the layer, i.e. the
          layer the mask is applied to. The mask either hides or reveals the
          layer it is applied to. It has no effect on other layers.
         
    Question: When do you get a new SHAPE LAYER instead of a MASK PATH?  
              WHY?
    
  10. Photoshop for After Effects: September 7th, 2011 how to zoom it; move it move it move it; color it; cut it; make a new layer; ... Photoshop basics review - see quiz #4 from spring 2011.

    We separated the Rock, the Paper, and the Scissors into brand new Photoshop layers in class.

    Know the following tools and techniques: Eyedropper, Lasso, Color Modes Indexed and RGB and GIF files, how do zoom in and zoom out, Magic Wand tool, Alt + Backspace to paint with Foreground color, Paste in Place, ...

  11. AE Basics 16: Parenting video tutorial: Using the parenting column. Sun, moon, earth. 14 minute long video tutorial from Creative Cow.

  12. Good luck on your final exams!