There’s a fantastic new resource available for After Effects users – a free three-hour in-depth tutorial on After Effects CS5. This introductory course covers a broad range of topics: learning the basics of compositing and animation, how to use keyframes as well as spatial and temporal interpolation, using parenting to group animated elements together, how to use masks and layers, introduction to effects, importing Photoshop documents into AE, syncing transitions to music, creating a master composition, how to render out your finished video to a standalone file, and more. The program is hands-on and includes downloadable sample files to follow along with for creating a motion graphic title sequence.

The free class is broken out into seven easily-digestible parts, and has already earned a five-star rating from viewers. It’s “learn by doing” and although the lessons are geared towards After Effects CS5, most of the concepts (though not all the product features or speed) apply to earlier versions such as CS4 or CS3. By the time you’re through, you’ll be able to make your own stunning motion graphic title sequence for a film using your software.

If you don’t already own After Effects CS5, it’s a phenomenal release and you can easily download the free 30-day trial from Adobe to get started with the training. (Note that After Effects CS5 requires a 64-bit system, so if you don’t have that yet, you may have to go with the free trial of After Effects CS4 instead… Then, if and when you’re ready to buy, you can get both of them together with a single purchase.)

Elsewhere, After Effects CS5 is garnering some great reviews – see what OSNews (“a very strong release“), Videomaker (“a must-have upgrade“) and Renderosity (“a solid release“) have to say about it…

If you’re new to After Effects, you may also want to read Getting Started with After Effects (CS4, CS5, & CS5.5) with a ton of tips from Adobe’s documentation lead Todd Kopriva. The free extensive “After Effects Basics” sessions from Andrew Devis are another fantastic resource.

Also see here for a comprehensive set of Adobe CS5 tutorials for all products.