After effects 5 vs 4 or 3?

[Soura2112]

I'm 100% new to after effects. I plan to take some begininer classes at my local JC to learn it. I recently downloaded the trial of CS 5.5 and thought my photoshop knowledge would help a bit when it comes to the tools area, well not really the case. I really want to learn this program a bit more before I buy it, as we know it's not cheap. I use Final Cut, hopefully FCX will work well with AE. To my point, I have been searching for intros for beginners, and most versions on the net are CS 4 sometimes CS 3. A lot of the intros are on Windows, but that never hurt while learning a program, such as photoshop when I need help, but having trouble with AE. I would assume CS 4 and 3 would have the same basic functions, right now I'm working with color correction, trying to change a shirt color, well I followed the steps from CS 3 and it didn't work, tried many times and watched it many times with no success. I never followed Adobe like other programs, so maybe they changed the program a lot. I just figured theybwould add things and make things better. Maybe there's something I missed. I know it's a huge program, but I would like to create something simple and cool before my trial is up.
First I tried an old video shot from MiniDv, thought I should use something shot in 720, so I grabbed a snip of video from my iPhone, thinking it was short and would be simple...Could the iPhone video not work right in AE?
Does anyone know a free website or YouTube link that would help me out? Time is clicking away each day, I know I won't learn to much, just want to see how AE can help my design work, well film work mainly.
I found one good site on YouTube, Mac CS 5 tutorial, except it's really basic and stops at a very simple text tutorial. The kid was doing well until he stopped making videos at simple text.
The class I want is not until fall, and I have time on my hands at the moment. I already have my bachelors, so it will be nice to take a class where grades are not very important, I just want to learn the program, hopefully no tests, lol.

 

[MattSepeta]

http://ae.tutsplus.com/

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

Those two sites along with my Photoshop and FCP/Adobe Premier experience gave me all I needed to wrap my head around AE CS4 in a couple weeks.

EDIT- I realize the basic functions are tough to understand if it's your first time, ie; parenting, compositions, render quue, etc but if you simply start doing some tutorials, then googling steps in the tutorial that don't quite make sense you will be able to figure it out! Heck, I don't even have a BA and I got it eventually

Also- Search for "Titling" tutorials, those are typically more fundamental and should help you get a good grasp of the program

Also also- IIRC, the "shirt color change" operation should be pretty straightforwards. I believe it is just one "effect" you need to apply to the clip?

 

[Soura2112]

Thanks

Thanks for the links. It is a hard program to jump into. I just wanted to learn some basics and see how I can use it with my video work. I do title work with Final Cut but whatever is best.
One thing I would love to learn is emblems, most likely the wrong word. Basically like news stations have on while their doing the news such as FOX or CNN. I really like the Fox logo, and their designs, CNN had an old look but now looks much better. Using both examples to stay away from politics lol.

 

[SatyMahajan]

Thanks for the links. It is a hard program to jump into. I just wanted to learn some basics and see how I can use it with my video work. I do title work with Final Cut but whatever is best.
One thing I would love to learn is emblems, most likely the wrong word. Basically like news stations have on while their doing the news such as FOX or CNN. I really like the Fox logo, and their designs, CNN had an old look but now looks much better. Using both examples to stay away from politics lol.

To go along with what Matt said, do this set of 10 tutorials (also from Video Copilot) first:

http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/

Will help you get wrapped around the basic stuff you'll use 90% of the time.

 

[Soura2112]

one I tried

To go along with what Matt said, do this set of 10 tutorials (also from Video Copilot) first:

http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/

Will help you get wrapped around the basic stuff you'll use 90% of the time.

Thanks!
I actually stumbled upon videocopiliot and thats where I ran into my color correction problem. I know I did something wrong since it didn't work. I was working on part 2 or 3. changing the color of the girls shirt. I imported a very small clip, 5 seconds of ski shot I took in Tahoe with my iphone, only 720 cam I had on me. I kept trying to change the color of the ski jacket with no luck. Which is why I was not sure if the AE 4 vs AE 5.5 mattered. Seems like it doesn't.

I will try again and see what mistakes I made. I appreciate the help, especially with the time ticking away.
Thanks