As we mentioned awhile back, we've been busy the past year and a half creating an extensive, multi-course video training series based on our popular beginner's book After Effects Apprentice. Each course has two or more movies that are free for all to view; we're re-posting those videos here on PVC to make sure you don't miss them. In this movie, Chris demonstrates using the Starch tool to clean up problems that can appear when creating Puppet distortions in After Effects.

The lucky thirteenth Apprentice course (available by subscription to lynda.com and now for individual purchase through Class on Demand) introduces a series of creative tools inside After Effects: Paint, Puppet, Brainstorm, and Cartoon. The centerpiece is Paint, where Trish will demonstrate how to use the Brush, Eraser, and Clone Stamp tools to draw on a layer, remove portions of it, or repeat elements around a composition. These can be used for artistic purposes as well as to repair problem areas in footage. Chris then shows off the Puppet tools for distorting layers, Brainstorm to break through creative blocks, and the Cartoon effect to lend an illustrative look to live footage or 3D renders.

In the movie above, Chris demonstrates the third of the three Puppet tools: Starch. Not all problems that creep up using Puppet can be cured by altering the number of triangles used to define the distortion mesh. The Starch tool allows you to target specific areas to make stiffer or looser, helping create more predictable (and desired) distortions.

FTC Disclosure: We make a bit of money whenever you purchase one of our courses from Class on Demand, or have a lynda.com subscription and watch one of our courses. We do not make any money from either when you watch these free videos. We've worked with Adobe over the years, and they give us free access to their software in exchange for testing and consulting, but they did not subsidize the creation of these videos or the book they are derived from. We're just trying to pay the bills by sharing what we've learned from using After Effects in the real world since version 1.0.

The content contained in After Effects Apprentice – as well as the CMG Blogs and CMG Keyframes posts on ProVideoCoalition – are copyright Crish Design, except where otherwise attributed.