A simple question for y'all

It's nothing dealing with "how do I do this," or "what's the best way to do that," or a misplaced post (which I have had so many of, what can I say? I'm a newbie).

How long did it take you people to learn all these programs and become fluent with them? editing programs, special effect programs, 3d programs, so many programs to learn. I realize that not everyone knows all of these, but it sure seems like a lot of you guys do.


I know I shouldn't feel discouraged, because I'm just starting out and just finished my first movie (for a spanish project. I had Obi-Juan Quijote battle Darth Maulino. good times), but I can't help but feel lost among the "masters."

 

Photoshop... A few years. Just now am I getting good with it. Ditto for NLEs, but a fresh switch from Premiere to Vegas means I'm back a bit on the learning curve.

AE has been helped by my Photoshop knowledge, but I am not quite sure about my skill. I cannot think up a new exciting effect, but I think I can tackle ideas pretty well; I can't say with any certainty tho. Overall, about 5 months to get from newb to sabers, blasters, matchmoving, crawls, compositing, and misc.

 

Don't feel too bad. I'm still getting the hang of it all, too. But, to follow up on what the poster above me said - I started working with Photoshop in either '98 or '99. That's helping a lot.

I don't know how you feel about guidebooks, but I'm finding the "Visual Quickstart" and "Teach Yourself Visually" guides are my favorites. They have both for Premiere 6 and I believe for After Effects also.

And I found this one at Barnes and Noble the other day for After Effects. It seems pretty decent: Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects

Don't give up. Everyone on this board and all those using these programs had to be at the point you are at some point in their experience.

 

Good question.

I use 4 main programs, AE, Premiere, Photoshop & Lightwave

Premiere - I used Adobes Classroom in a book. teaches you all teh basics in a few hours and to be honets I have hardly moved away from the basics. Been using it for about 3-4 years. learned all I need to know in the 1st week.

AE - I have about 3 books, still need to read one. Its confusing at first but once you settle into the way it does thigns picking up new things is very easy. Then its just a matter of working out how to acheive something. It is a program that can do very complex things in many simple steps. Had it about a year, spent a few weeks doing nothing but learning with books and examples. Now if I need to know something I can pick it up very quickly.

Photoshop - I only know what I need to know and nothing more. I find it the hardest app to use to its potential. I learn new things each time i have a new problem so this is an ongoing process for me.

Lightwave - Will take forever!!! Had it 2.5 years, know about 3% of what it can do. Big scarey program that can do anything.

Pete

 

It took me about a good year of doing tutorials from http://rainworld.com/psworkshop/
to actually know where everything is in PS and what it does.

Premiere was fairly easy, i didn't have a book or any tutorials and i think it took me about 2-3months to know everything in the program.

AE-i'm a newbie at it. i have a book called "Creating Motion Graphics with AE". its good and helping me to learn the program.

hope this helps you a bit.

-bert

 

I started using AE on version 2.0, and PhotoShop 2.0 about 9 years ago. At the same time I did some work with KPT Bryce 1.5. (That was before Meta Creations got ahold of it)

Now, this is going to sound really discouraging. But, after all this time, and 100's of projects, I'm still learning new things about those programs.

 

I started playing with video like 5 years ago, and i am still learning just about the same amount everyday than i did when first started. Well maybe not that much, but still alot. I think your 3D programs (3dsmax, lightwave, etc) are going to be the hardest, but they can pump out some flat out amazing stuff when you know what you are doing.

good luck, and remember we ALL started the same way you did. Just takes a lot of reading and trial/error.

 

I first started using Photoshop almost 5 years ago, After Effects about 2 years ago and Lightwave for a year.

 

I don't use Photoshop much. I have it, and need to learn it, though.

I started using After Effects last summer. I started using Premiere last summer, as well. I have Illustrator, and I opened it once. It was scary. I might read the manual sometime soon and open it again.

I suck at teh 3D.

 

PS -- 8 mon.

AE -- 1 yr.

Premiere -- 1 mon.

3dS Max -- not good yet, been using it with little time or effort for 2 years!

 

I use photoshop pretty fluently, and have been using it since version 4. I am very new to After Effects, but am slowly finding my way around. I have been using Adobe GoLive since version 3, and still don't know all of it.

So far my in my 3d career I have learned 3 3d applications. I started in 3d studio max r3, and would have stayed with it, but they don't yet have an OS X version. I still know Max better than any other app I've used. I next moved to Maya, and found it not to my liking. I could function ok, but some of it's features felt overly complicated to me, so I moved on.

I am now and permanently using Lightwave, and I love it. I have down about 4 of it's modeling tools, and am just getting into it's character animation tools. It is an incredibly deep program, but I hope to get more and more proficient as I go.

-tm