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Last updated 11/28/2011 Legal notices Legal notices For legal notices, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/legalnotices/index.html..
iii Last updated 11/28/2011 Contents Chapter 1: What’s new What’s new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
iv USING AFTER EFFECTS Contents Last updated 11/28/2011 Editing, moving, and copying keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Assorted animation tools .
v USING AFTER EFFECTS Contents Last updated 11/28/2011 Text effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 1: What’s new What’s new New and changed features in After Effects CS4, CS5, and CS5.5, collected by Chris and Trish Meyer on the ProVideo Coalition website . For a complete list of what’s new and changed in Adobe After Effects CS5.
2 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Auto-keyframe mode: “ Auto-keyframe mode ” on page 198 • Apply Color LUT effect for using color lookup tables: “ Apply Color LUT .
3 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Removed ability to import AAF, OMF, PCX, Pixar, and Filmstrip files: “ Supported import formats ” on page 71 • Removed ability to import Premiere 6.
4 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • When you are working with a composition that contains a 3D layer, a light, or a camera, the Composition panel shows a label in the top-left corner of each view (such as Top or Right) to indicate which view is associated with which camera perspective.
5 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Double-clicking a Type tool creates a new text layer: “ Enter point text ” on page 333 Transparency, opacity, and compositing changes.
6 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • After Effects writes startTimecode and altTimecode values into XMP metadata. You can view these values in the Start Timecode and Alternat.
7 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Removed some color depth options from output module settings that used very few bits per pixel (bpp) from output modules: Black & White (1-bpp color), 4 Colors (2-bpp color), 16 Colors (4-bpp color), Thousands Of Colors (16- bpp color), and some grayscale options.
8 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • New shortcuts to display entire composition duration in the Timeline panel: “ Zoom in or out in time for a composition ” on page 183 • Mouse scroll wheel no longer changes camera position when the Unified Camera tool is active.
9 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Source timecode: “ Source timecode (CS5.5 and later) ” on page 57. • Stereoscopic 3D improvements: “ Stereoscopic 3D camera rig (CS5.5) ” on page 175. • Light falloff: “ Light settings ” on page 170.
10 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 2: Workflows, planning, and setup Setup and installation To submit a feature request or bug report about After Effects, choose Help > Send Feedback. Installing the software Before installing Adobe After Effects software, review complete system requirements and recommendations in the Read Me file.
11 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Network rendering with watch folders and render engines ” on page 709 “ Plug-ins ” on page 631 Activate the software Activation is a simple, anonymous process.
12 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Import and organize footage After you create a project, import your footage into the project in the Project panel.
13 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Some people prefer to use the mouse and menus to interact with After Effects, whereas others prefer to use keyboard shortcuts for common tasks.
14 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 13 In the Render Queue panel, click the underlined text to the right of Output To. In the Output Movie To dialog box, choose a name and location for the output movie file, and then click Save.
15 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Acquiring, choosing, and preparing footage Before importing footage, first decide which media and formats you'll use for your finished movies, and then determine the best settings for your source material.
16 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Composition settings After you prepare and import footage items, you use these footage items to create layers in a composition, where you animate and apply effects.
17 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Screen dimensions, video frame rates, and color gamuts vary greatly from one mobile device to another. Adobe Device Central contains device profiles that provide information about these characteristics.
18 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 If you are building cross-platform projects, it’s best if the full paths have the same names on Mac OS and Windows systems.
19 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • To reveal a file in Adobe Bridge, select a file in the Project panel and choose File > Reveal In Bridge. • To use Adobe Bridge to open template projects, choose File > Browse Template Projects.
20 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 3D objects, 3D models, and 3D images In general, After Effects 3D functionality is limited to the manipulation of two-dimensional layers in three dimensions.
21 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Working with Flash and After Effects If you use Adobe® Flash® to create video or animation, you can use After Effects to edit and refine the video. For example, from Flash you can export animations and applications as QuickTime movies or Flash Video (FLV) files.
22 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • Tom Green provides a brief video tutorial on the Layers Magazine website that shows how to use the XFL format to export an After Effects composition for use in • Flash Professional • : http://www.
23 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Rendering and exporting FLV and F4V files from After Effects When you render finished video from After Effects, select FLV or F4V as the output format to render and export video that can play in Flash Player.
24 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Importing Flash SWF files into After Effects Flash has a unique set of vector art tools that make it useful for a variety of drawing tasks not possible in After Effects or Adobe® Illustrator®.
25 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Working with Adobe Encore and After Effects You can use After Effects to quickly create buttons and button layers for use in Adobe Encore.
26 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Edit audio in Adobe Soundbooth While working in After Effects, you may want to use the more comprehensive audio-editing capabilities of Adobe Soundbooth to fine-tune your audio.
27 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Dynamic Link and After Effects Dynamic Link features of After Effects are available only with Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium edition and Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection edition.
28 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects and Encore. You don’t have to render or save changes first. Online resources about Dynamic Link For a video tutorial introducing Dynamic Link, see the Adobe website .
29 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • exporting • After Effects • projects to • Adobe Premiere Pro • using the Capture In • Adobe Premiere Pro •.
30 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • set In and Out points for it • add it to a sequence • edit it with • Adobe Premiere Pro • tools When you add a linked composition that contains both video and audio to a sequence, Adobe Premiere Pro inserts linked video and audio clips in the timeline.
31 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 , however, works with the YUV color model. When you work with a dynamically linked composition, Adobe Premiere Pro either converts it to YUV or retains the RGB colors, depending on the output format.
32 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: project. Create and link to After Effects compositions with Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only) You can create After Effects compositions, and dynamically link to them, from Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore.
33 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 or Encore project name, followed by Linked Comp [x] . 1 In 2 Adobe Premiere Pro 3 or Adobe Encore, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > New 4 After Effects 5 Composition.
34 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • Project panel or the Encore Project panel. • Drag an • After Effects • project file into the Adobe • Premiere Pro • Project panel. If the • After Effects • project file contains multiple compositions, the Import Composition dialog box opens.
35 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 , you can change the composition without having to use the Edit Original command again. 1 Select the 2 After Effects 3 composition in the Adobe 4 Premiere Pro 5 or Encore Project panel, or choose a linked clip in the Timeline, and choose Edit > Edit Original.
36 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Adobe Premiere Pro sequence from After Effects launches Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro then creates a project and sequence with the dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, and audio sample rate of the originating project.
37 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Dynamic Link performance (Production Premium or Master Collection only) A linked clip can refer to a complex source composition. Actions you perform on the complex source composition require additional processing time.
38 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 3: User interface Workspaces, panels, and viewers Workspaces and panels Adobe video and audio applications provide a consistent, customizable user interface. Although each application has its own set of panels, you move and group panels in the same way in each application.
39 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 See this video tutorial about workspaces by Andrew Devis on the Creative Cow website for more details.
40 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Dock, group, or float panels You can dock panels together, move them into or out of groups, and undock them so they float above the application window. As you drag a panel, drop zones —areas onto which you can move the panel—become highlighted.
41 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do one of the following: • To move an individual panel, drag the gripper area in the upper-left corner of a panel’s tab onto the desired drop zone.
42 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 When you drag the divider between panel groups, all groups that share the divider are resized. 1 Do either of the following: • To resize either horizontally or vertically, position the pointer between two panel groups.
43 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Scroll bar for showing tabs of other panels More Help topics “ Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 721 Viewers A viewer is a panel that can contain multiple compositions, layers, or footage items, or multiple views of one such item.
44 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Edit this, look at that (ETLAT) and locked Composition viewers If a Composition viewer is locked, the Timeline panel for another compositi.
45 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Open panel, viewer, and context menus Panel menus provide commands relative to the active panel or frame. Viewer menus provide lists of compositions, layers, or footage items that can be shown in the viewer, as well as commands for closing items and locking the viewer.
46 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 If one or more layers are selected in a composition, the filtering operation in the Timeline panel only affects selected layers. In this case, unselected layers are not filtered out (hidden) if they don’t match the search query.
47 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Click the swatch for a label to see the context menu that lists the label names. Alternatively, drag the right edge of the Label column heading to expand the column to read the label names.
48 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 • To undo a change and all changes after it, choose Edit > History, and select the first change that you want to undo. • To revert to the last saved version of the project, choose File > Revert.
49 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 General preferences • Levels Of Undo: “ Undo changes ” on page 47 • Path Point Size: Specifies size of Bezier direction handles and vertices for masks and shapes, direction handles for motion paths, and other similar controls.
50 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 • Adobe After Effects CS5.5 and later contains a dropdown menu to choose drop-frame or non-drop-frame timecode for Indeterminate Media NTSC, which applies to imports like still image sequences in which timecode values are not present or are unknown.
51 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 4: Projects and compositions Projects About projects An After Effects project is a single file that stores compositions and references to all of the source files used by footage items in that project. Compositions are collections of layers.
52 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Project links embedded in QuickTime, Video for Windows, FLV, and F4V files When you render a movie and export it to a container format, you can embed a link to the After Effects project in the container file.
53 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Auto-saved files are saved in the After Effects Auto-Save folder, which is located in the same folder as the original project file.
54 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 You can download example projects and template projects from many websites, including the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website. For more sources of After Effects example projects and template projects, see After Effects community resources on the Adobe website.
55 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 • To delete elements, select them and press Delete. If the selected element is a footage item or composition, it is deleted from the project and no longer appears in the Timeline and Project panels.
56 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 • To change time display units, choose File > Project Settings, and choose from the options in the Display Style section.
57 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: In After Effects CS5.5 and later, timecode is no longer a global setting for projects. You may have both drop-frame and non-drop-frame timecode in any composition within a project.
58 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Composition basics For more information about creating compositions, see this video by Andrew Devis on the Creative Cow website . About compositions A composition is the framework for a movie.
59 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Creating layers ” on page 117 “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 “ Flowchart panel ” on page 54 “ Basics of rendering and exporting ” on page 680 Create a composition You can change composition settings at any time.
60 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 3 Select Single Composition and other settings in the New Composition From Selection dialog box: Use Dimensions From Choose the footage item from which the new composition gets composition settings, including frame size (width and height) and pixel aspect ratio.
61 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 A Preview composition is also created. The Preview composition consists of a grid of device-specific compositions so that you can preview your master composition in the context of several mobile devices simultaneously.
62 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Composition settings You can enter composition settings manually, or you can use composition settings presets to automatically set frame size (width and height), pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate for many common output formats.
63 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 For information on specific Basic composition settings not listed here, see the related sections: • “ Pixel aspect ratio an.
64 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 During rendering, the image data and other information can be said to flow from each nested composition into the composition that contains it.
65 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 In the Advanced tab of the Composition Settings dialog box (Composition > Composition Settings), choose Preserve Resolution .
66 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About precomposing and nesting ” on page 63 Opening and navigating nested compositions Nested compositio.
67 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 To scroll through a long flow path, place the pointer over a composition button in the Composition Navigator and roll the mouse scroll wheel.
68 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Pre-render a nested composition A complex nested composition can take a long time to render, either for previews or for final output.
69 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Some effects ignore masks on the layer to which they’re applied. To have such an effect operate on a masked layer, pre-compose the layer with the mask applied, and then apply the effect to the pre-composed layer.
70 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 5: Importing and managing footage items Importing and interpreting footage items See this video tutorial on importing assets on the Creative Cow website by Andrew Devis. About imported files and footage items You import source files into a project as the basis for footage items and use them as sources for layers .
71 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 To replace all uses of selected footage items with another footage item, select footage items in the Project panel, and then Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the new footage item onto a selected footage item in the Project panel.
72 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Still-image formats • Adobe Illustrator (AI, AI4, AI5, EPS, PS; continuously rasterized) • Adobe PDF (PDF; first.
73 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 • FLV, F4V Note: After Effects CS5 can import FLV files with video encoded using the On2 VP6 video codec; After Effects CS5 can’t import FLV files with video encoded with the Sorenson Spark video codec.
74 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Project formats • Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, CS3, CS4, CS5 (PRPROJ; 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 Windows only) • Adobe After Effects 6.0 and later binary projects in After Effects CS5 (AEP, AET) • Adobe After Effects 6.
75 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Import footage items by dragging If you always want the layered still-image files that you drag into After Effects t.
76 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that you can use to make guessing the 3:2 pulldown, 24Pa pulldown, or alpha channel interpretation more convenient.
77 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Locations of the interpretation rules file in After Effects CS5.5 (note that the file is located in the Preferences folder). • (Windows) <drive>Users<username>LibraryPreferencesAdobeAfter Effects 10.
78 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 A footage item with premultiplied channels (top) appears with a black halo when interpreted as Straight-Unmatted (lower-left).
79 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Frame rate The composition frame rate determines the number of frames displayed per second, and how time is divided into frames in the time ruler and time display.
80 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: When you import a sequence of still images, it assumes the frame rate specified by the Sequence Footage preference in the Import category. The default rate is 30 frames per second (fps).
81 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio Pixel aspect ratio ( PAR ) is the ratio of width to height of one pixel in an image. Frame aspect ratio (sometimes called image aspect ratio or IAR ) is the ratio of width to height of the image frame.
82 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects reads and writes pixel aspect ratios directly from QuickTime movies. For example, if you import a movie captured as widescreen (16:9 DV), After Effects automatically tags it correctly.
83 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 New projects and compositions created in After Effects CS4 and later use the correct pixel aspect ratio values by default.
84 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Common pixel aspect ratios Working with footage items Organize, view, manage, and trim footage items Compositions and footage items are listed in the Project panel.
85 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Scripts for managing footage items Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that automatically writes specified information about footage items or layers to the Comment fields for the respective items in the Project panel or Timeline panel.
86 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Refresh footage items ❖ To refresh footage items selected in the Project panel to use the current versions of the source footage files, choose File > Reload Footage.
87 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Carl Larsen demonstrates the use of the Collect Files command and the Consolidate All Footage command in a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to organize, consolidate, and archive project files and footage.
88 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Proxy items in Project panel A. Proxy assigned and in use B. Proxy assigned, but original in use C.
89 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 For best results, set a proxy so that it has the same frame aspect ratio as the actual footage item. For example, if the actual footage item is a 640x480-pixel movie, create and use a 160x120-pixel proxy.
90 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 See this video tutorial on the Video2Brain website by Todd Kopriva for information about saving time by pre- rendering and using proxies in After Effects.
91 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project Important: Importing an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects does not use Dynamic Link. After Effects can’t import a Premiere Pro project if one or more sequences in it are already dynamically linked to After Effects.
92 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Use Adobe Premiere Pro for capture (Production Premium and Master Collection only) If you have Adobe Creative Suite .
93 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 . (See “ About Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only) ” on page 27.
94 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Adobe Premiere Pro Note: , with the bottom-most layer on Track 1. 11 Choose Edit > Copy. 12 In 13 Adobe Premiere Pro 14 , open a sequence in the Timeline panel.
95 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Copy from Adobe Premiere Pro to After Effects You can copy a video or audio asset from an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence and paste it into an After Effects composition. After Effects converts assets to layers and copies the source footage items into its Project panel.
96 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects , but you can paste text with attributes from the Adobe Premiere Titler into After Effects . 1 Select an asset from the 2 Adobe Premiere Pro 3 Timeline panel.
97 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: When you import a Note: Premiere Pro Note: project into Note: After Effects Note: , features are converted in the same manner as they are converted when copying from Note: Premiere Pro Note: to Note: After Effects Note: .
98 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Each interlaced video frame consists of two fields . Each field contains half the number of horizontal lines in the frame; the upper field (or Field 1 ) contains the odd-numbered lines, and the lower field (or Field 2 ) contains the even- numbered lines.
99 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 If your output will not be interlaced, it’s best to use noninterlaced source footage, to avoid the need to separate fields. However, if a noninterlaced version of your source footage is not available, interlaced footage will work fine.
100 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Using the Next Frame button in the Preview panel, step forward at least five frames in the Footage panel.
101 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 When importing interlaced video that was originally transferred from film, you can remove the 3:2 pulldown that was applied during the transfer from film to video as you separate fields so that effects you apply in After Effects don’t appear distorted.
102 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 The root of the P2 folder structure is a CONTENTS folder. Each essence item (an item of video or audio) is contained in a separate MXF wrapper file; the video MXF files are in the VIDEO subfolder, and the audio MXF files are in the AUDIO subfolder.
103 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 For additional information on the Panasonic P2 format and workflows with Adobe digital video software, see the Adob.
104 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Importing PSD files as 3D scenes Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers website that turns a layered PSD file into a 3D scene in After Effects. The script creates a composition and adds expressions to the layers from the PSD file.
105 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ 3D layers ” on page 158 “ Cameras, lights, and points of interest ” on page 165 Online r.
106 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ 3D layers ” on page 158 “ Cameras, lights, and points of interest ” on page 165 Baking and importing Maya data After Effects imports camera data from Maya project files.
107 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: After Effects doesn’t read World or Underworld coordinates in the LocatorShape.
108 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 • Set the pixel dimensions to the resolution and frame aspect ratio that you will use in After Effects. If you plan to scale the image over time, set image dimensions that provide enough detail at the largest size the image has in the project.
109 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 A sequence of still-image files (left) becomes one image sequence when imported into After Effects (right).
110 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Select any file in the sequence. To import a subset of files in a sequence, select the first file, hold down Shift, and then select the last file to import.
111 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 • Make sure that each layer has a unique name. This is not a requirement of the software, but helps to keep you from becoming confused.
112 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 If you import a layered Photoshop file as a merged file, After Effects merges the transparent areas and layer masks of all the layers into one alpha channel that is premultiplied with white.
113 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Scaling and resizing Though it's not very well suited for movies, the content-aware scaling feature in Photoshop is very useful for extending and scaling still images.
114 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile ” on page 278 “ Copy a path f.
115 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Cineon and DPX footage items A common part of the motion-picture film production workflow is scanning the film and encoding the frames into the Cineon or DPX file format.
116 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Logarithmic Conversion Converts the Cineon sequence from log color space to the target gamma specified by the Current Gamma setting. When you’re ready to produce output from the Cineon file, it is important that you reverse the conversion.
117 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 6: Layers and properties Creating layers Layers overview Layers are the elements that make up a composition. Without layers, a composition is only an empty frame. Use as many layers as necessary to create your composition.
118 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Creating and editing text layers ” on page 331 “ 3D layers ” on page 158 “ Cameras, lights, and points of interest ”.
119 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: By default, new layers begin at the beginning of the composition duration. You can instead choose to have new layers begin a.
120 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Replace layer sources with references to another footage item 1 Select one or more layers in the Timeline panel 2 Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) a footage item from the Project panel onto a selected layer in the Timeline panel.
121 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 If you want to apply an effect or transformation to a collection of layers, you can precompose the layers and then apply the effect or transformation to the precomposition layer. (See “ Precompose layers ” on page 65.
122 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Selecting and arranging layers Select layers Selected layers that also have properties selected are indicated with a hollow highlight in the Timeline panel. A selected layer that has no properties selected is indicated with a solid highlight.
123 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website with which you can tag layers and then select, shy, and solo layers according to their tags. The tags are appended to comments in the Comments field in the Timeline panel.
124 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 As you move the pointer over the layer frame in the Layer panel, the Info panel displays the coordinates of the pixel under the pointer in layer space. The X coordinate represents position on the horizontal axis, and the Y coordinate represents position on the vertical axis.
125 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Move layers by dragging in the Composition panel To snap the edges of a layer to grids or guides as you drag, choose View > Snap To Grid or View > Snap To Guides. • Select one or more layers, and then drag a selected layer using the Selection tool .
126 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 The decision of whether to work with separate dimensions depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Using one property for position has the advantage of providing smooth motion more easily.
127 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Select layers ” on page 122 “ Safe zones, grids, guides, and rulers ” on page 192 “ Align and justify text ” on page 344 Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer The beginning of the duration of a layer is its In point , and the end is its Out point .
128 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources for trimming, extending, and editing layers Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website that trims a layer to the duration of the layer above it in the layer stacking order.
129 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do one of the following: • Select the layers from which to remove a section. • Select the Lock switch for layers that you do not want affected by the extraction. Press F2 to deselect all layers.
130 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website with which you can move selected layers as a group, aligning the group to a specific time in the composition.
131 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 • To overlap layers, select Overlap, enter a Duration value for the duration of the overlap, and select a transition. Select Cross Dissolve Front And Back Layers to use the transparency of the selected layers; otherwise, choose Dissolve Front Layer.
132 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 When you split a layer, both resulting layers contain all of the keyframes that were in the original layer in their original positions. Any applied track mattes retain their order, on top of the layer.
133 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Additional resources for selecting and arranging layers Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that creates a panel with controls for moving various combinations of items in time: layer In point, layer Out point, layer source frames, keyframes, and markers.
134 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Timeline panel ” on page 61 “ Layers (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 728 Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel Many of characteristics of a layer are determined by its layer switches, which are arranged in the Timeline panel in columns.
135 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Adjustment Layer Identifies the layer as an adjustment layer. (See “ Adjustment layers ” on page 120.
136 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 When a layer is locked, the Lock icon appears in the A/V Features column, which appears by default to the left of the layer name in the Timeline panel. • To lock or unlock a layer, click the Lock switch for the layer in the Timeline panel.
137 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Shy layers are still rendered, both for previews and for final output. To exclude layers from previews or final output, use the Video switch or make the layer a guide layer.
138 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Because the default anchor point for a layer is the center of an object, odd-sized objects have non-integer anchor points and appear soft when positioned at integer values.
139 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Image from imported Illustrator file A. Original B. Enlarged with Continuously Rasterize switch turned off C.
140 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Collapsed property group (left) compared to expanded property group (right) in layer outline Properties in the Effects property group ( effect properties ) are also layer properties.
141 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Select a property or property group in the Timeline panel • To select a property or property group—including all values, keyframes, and expressions—click the name in the layer outline in the Timeline panel.
142 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You can enter simple arithmetic expressions for property values and other number entries. For example, you can enter 2*3 instead of 6 , 4/2 instead of 2 , and 2e2 instead of 200 .
143 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Anchor point in center of text layer (left) compared to anchor point moved to the end of the text layer (right) When you use the P.
144 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Scale or flip a layer As with other transformations, scaling of a layer occurs around the anchor point of the layer. If you move the anchor point away from the center of the layer, the layer may move when you flip it.
145 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 For a script that scales multiple compositions simultaneously, go to the AE Enhancers forum . Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website that scales selected layers to fit the composition frame, and provides options for cropping or letterboxing.
146 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 For more precision in setting audio levels by dragging sliders, increase the height of the Audio panel. ❖ In the Audio panel, to adjust volume, do one of the following: • To set the level of the left and right channels together, drag the center slider up or down.
147 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 • To remove a parent from a layer, in the Parent column, click the menu of the layer to remove the parent from, and choose None.
148 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 A composition can contain any number of null objects. A null object is visible only in the Composition and Layer panels and appears in the Composition panel as a rectangular outline with layer handles.
149 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Brainstorm uses genetic algorithms to mutate and select property values used as input into each Brainstorm operation. You decide which variants to include as input to each generation and how much mutation (randomness) to use.
150 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Brainstorm operates on all selected keyframes. For a property with no keyframes, Brainstorm operates on the global, constant value.
151 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: If you use the Save As New Composition feature and the current composition contains expressions that refer to itself using t.
152 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Blending mode reference ” on page 152 “ Mask modes ” on page 370 “ Split a layer ” on page 131 “ Color basics ” on page 263 Blending mode reference All blending modes described in this section are available for blending between layers.
153 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Stencil (left) shows all layers below the stencil layer through the frame of the alpha channel of the stencil layer; silhouette (right) cuts a hole through all layers below the silhouette layer.
154 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Add Each result color channel value is the sum of the corresponding color channel values of the source color and underlying color. The result color is never darker than either input color.
155 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 If you have two layers with an identical visual element that you want to align, place one layer on top of the other and set the blending mode of the top layer to Difference.
156 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Layer styles Photoshop provides a variety of layer styles—such as shadows, glows, and bevels—that change the appearance of a layer. After Effects can preserve these layer styles when importing Photoshop layers.
157 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Add, remove, and convert layer styles • To convert merged layer styles into editable layer styles, select one or more layers and choose Layer > Layer Styles > Convert To Editable Styles.
158 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Layer styles can be categorized as interior layer styles or exterior layer styles.
159 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Any layer can be a 3D layer, except an audio-only layer. Individual characters within text layers can optionally be 3D sublayers, each with their own 3D properties.
160 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he demonstrates the creation of 3D reflections.
161 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 If the axis that you want to manipulate is difficult to see, try a different setting in the Select View Layout menu at the bottom of the Composition panel.
162 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Show or hide 3D axes and layer controls ” on page 160 “ Selecting and arranging layers ” on page 122 .
163 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Coordinate systems: composition space and layer space ” on page 123 3D layer interactions, render order, an.
164 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Effects on continuously rasterized vector layers with 3D properties are rendered in 2D and then projected onto the 3D layer. OpenGL rendering does not support this kind of projection, so results may differ when rendering using OpenGL.
165 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 The live Photoshop 3D layer in After Effects contains several expressions, which are used to attach it to a null layer. Use the null layer to manipulate the live Photoshop 3D layer, rather than directly manipulating the live Photoshop 3D layer’s Transform properties.
166 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 It’s often easiest to adjust a camera when using one of the custom 3D views. You can’t—of course—see the camera to manipulate it when you’re looking through the camera itself.
167 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The three things that affect depth of field are focal length, aperture, and focus distance. Shallow (small) depth of field is a result of long focal length, short focus distance, and a larger aperture (smaller F-stop).
168 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Film Size The size of the exposed area of film, which is directly related to the composition size. When you modify Film Size, the Zoom value changes to match the perspective of a real camera.
169 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Create a light and change light settings A light layer can affect the colors of the 3D layers that it shines on, depending on the light’s settings and the Material Options properties of the 3D layers.
170 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Change light settings ❖ Double-click a light layer in the Timeline panel or select the layer and choose Layer > Light Settings. Select Preview in the Light Settings dialog box to show results in the Composition panel as you modify settings in the dialog box.
171 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: For After Effects CS5 and earlier, light falloff is not available. However, you can simulate light falloff using expressions or one of several third-party plug-ins created for this purpose.
172 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 You can also use the Camera tools to adjust a working 3D view , a 3D view that is not associated with a camera layer. You can think of 3D views as being virtual cameras through which you can view and preview a composition.
173 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Tips and online resources for moving and animating cameras and lights Before moving a camera, choose a view other than Active Camera. If you use Active Camera view, you are looking through the camera, which makes it harder to manage.
174 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Light Transmission The percentage of light that shines through the layer, casting the colors of the layer on other layers as a shadow. 0% specifies that no light passes through the layer, casting a black shadow.
175 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Stereoscopic 3D Stereoscopic 3D video can be created with Adobe After Effects CS5, and there are new workflows and tools available for it in After Effects CS5.5 and later. For tutorials, details, and resources about stereoscopic 3D in After Effects CS5.
176 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Getting started with stereoscopic 3D If you are working with stereoscopic 3D, you don’t necessarily need a 3D television. For example, you can use anaglyph (red-cyan) 3D glasses and view 3D stereoscopic footage right in the Composition panel.
177 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 • If you want the depth of field to change over time, you can animate the focus distance of the master camera. Then, set the convergence point to converge from “Camera Position”, and set an expression linking the convergence Z offset to the master camera’s Focus Distance.
178 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 7: Views and previews Previewing Preview video and audio You can preview all or part of your composition as you work, without rendering to final output.
179 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do one of the following: • To preview using RAM Preview Options, click the RAM Preview button in the Preview panel or press 0 (zero) on the numeric keypad.
180 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Ping Pong Repeatedly plays preview, alternating between backward and forward play. Preview only audio When you preview only audio, it.
181 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 To view the VU meter and levels controls in more detail, increase the height of the Audio panel.
182 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Move the current-time indicator (CTI) The most basic way of previewing frames is to manually preview by moving or dragging the current-time indicator (CTI) . The time ruler visually represents the time dimension of a composition, a layer, or a footage item.
183 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Zoom in or out in time for a composition • In the Timeline panel, click the Zoom In button or the Zoom Out button , or drag the zoom slider between the buttons. • On the main keyboard, press the = (equal sign) key to zoom in or press the – (hyphen) key to zoom out in time.
184 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Preferences ” on page 48 “ Render with OpenGL ” on page 696 Preview modes and Fast Previews preferences Ea.
185 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: When you are using OpenGL to render previews and are previewing on a video monitor, the preview shown on the video monitor doesn’t update as you interact with elements of your composition until you have released the mouse at the end of an interaction.
186 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Work area The work area is the part of the duration of a composition that is rendered for previews or final output. In the Timeline panel, the work area appears in a lighter shade of gray.
187 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 • To view the most recent snapshot taken with the Take Snapshot button or Shift+F5, click and hold the Show Snapshot button at the bottom of the panel. • To view a specific snapshot, press and hold F5, F6, F7, or F8.
188 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Modifying and using views Choose a view layout and share view settings The Composition panel can show one, two, or four views at a time. By default, viewer options (such as grids and rulers) affect only the currently active view.
189 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Choose a view layout and share view settings ” on page 188 “ Views (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 726 Show or hide layer co.
190 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 To pan around in the Composition, Layer, or Footage panel while zoomed in, drag with the Hand tool, which you can activate by holding down the spacebar, the H key, or the middle mouse button.
191 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 View a color channel or alpha channel You can view red, green, blue, and alpha channels—together or separately—in a Footage, Layer, or Composition panel by clicking the Show Channel button at the bottom of the panel and choosing from the menu.
192 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 • To reset exposure, click the Reset Exposure button. To return to the most recent nonzero setting, click the button again.
193 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Compositions with a frame aspect ratio equal to or near 16:9 have two additional center-cut safe-zone indicators. The center-cut indicators show which parts of a 16:9 composition may be cut off when the image is shown on a 4:3 display.
194 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 8: Animation and keyframes Animation basics About animation, keyframes, and expressions Animation is change over time. You animate a layer or an effect on a layer by making one or more of its properties change over time.
195 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 When the stopwatch is active for a specific property, After Effects automatically sets or changes a keyframe for the property at the current time whenever you change the property value.
196 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Two animated properties (Position and Scale) shown in the Graph Editor Two types of graphs are available in the Graph Editor: value graphs, which show property values; and speed graphs, which show rates of change of property values.
197 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Specify which properties are shown in the Graph Editor ❖ Click the Show Properties button at the bottom of the Graph Editor, and select from the following options: Show Selected Properties Displays selected properties in the Graph Editor.
198 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 • To zoom vertically, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) up with the Zoom tool to zoom in or down to zoom out. Note: You cannot pan or zoom vertically when Auto Zoom Height is selected.
199 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Auto-keyframe mode doesn’t automatically activate the stopwatch for properties that aren’t interpolated, such as menus, checkboxes, and the Source Text property. Auto-keyframe mode is off by default.
200 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 • To select all keyframes for a layer property, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a segment between two keyframes in the Graph Editor, or click the layer property name in the layer outline.
201 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 • RPF Camera Import Imports RPF camera data from third-party 3D modeling applications. • Sequence Layers Opens the Sequence Layers assistant. • Time-Reverse Keyframes Reverses selected keyframes in time.
202 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Editing, moving, and copying keyframes View or edit a keyframe value Before you change a keyframe, make sure that the current-time indicator is positioned at an existing keyframe.
203 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Do one of the following: • To paste to the same property of the copied keyframes, select the destination layer. • To paste to a different property, select the destination property.
204 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Layer properties in the Timeline panel ” on page 139 “ About animation, keyframes, and expressions ” on page 194 Move keyframes in time You can move keyframes in time, either individually or as a group.
205 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 2 In the layer outline, click the name of one or more layer properties containing the keyframes you want to keep at the same times. 3 Choose Edit > Cut. 4 Move or stretch the layer duration bar to its new In and Out points.
206 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Move or change keyframes in the Graph Editor A value graph in the Graph Editor displays the values for each keyframe and the interpolated values between keyframes. When the value graph of a layer property is level, the value of the property is unchanged between keyframes.
207 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 When you select multiple keyframes in the Graph Editor, a free-transform bounding box appears.
208 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 The density of dots between the boxes in a motion path indicates the relative speed of the layer or effect control point. Dots close together indicate a lower speed; dots farther apart indicate a greater speed.
209 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Drag a keyframe in the Composition panel to move one Position keyframe. You can move multiple keyframes at one time by selecting them in the Timeline panel before you drag them in the Composition panel or Layer panel.
210 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Though the results are different, the techniques for manipulating motion-path curves with the Pen tool work in much the same way as the techniques used to create and modify other Bezier paths, such as mask and shape paths.
211 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 You can paste any of these paths into the Position or Anchor Point property for a layer, or into the position property of an effect control point. The pasted keyframes are set to rove in time, except for the first and last ones, to create a constant velocity along the path.
212 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 When motion blur is enabled for a composition and the Timeline panel is zoomed in so that you can see individual frames, a light gray region around the current-time indicator indicates the shutter phase and shutter angle.
213 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Additional resources about motion blur Mark Christiansen explains some of the concepts surrounding motion blur, shutter speed, and shutter angle on the ProVideo Coalition website .
214 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Sketch a motion path with Motion Sketch ” on page 210 “ Select keyframes ” on page 199 Add randomness to a property with the Wiggler You can add randomness to any property as it varies over time by using the Wiggler.
215 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Convert audio to keyframes The Convert Audio To Keyframes keyframe assistant analyzes audio amplitude within the work area and creates keyframes for audio amplitude.
216 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Because interpolation generates the property values between keyframes, interpolation is sometimes called tweening .
217 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Motion path interpolation A. Linear B. Auto Bezier C. Continuous Bezier D. Bezier E. Hold In some cases, the Auto Bezier spatial interpolation for Position keyframes can cause undesired back-and-forth ( boomerang ) motion between two keyframes with equal values.
218 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Examples of keyframe icons in Timeline panel in layer bar mode A. Linear B. Linear in, Hold out C.
219 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Bezier interpolation Bezier interpolation provides the most precise control because you manually adjust the shape of the value graph or motion path segments on either side of the keyframe.
220 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 You can easily freeze the current frame for the duration of the layer using the Freeze Frame command. To freeze a frame, position the current time indicator at the frame you want to freeze.
221 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Rove Across Time Smooths the rate of change through the selected keyframes by automatically varying their position in time, based on the positions of the keyframes immediately before and after the selection.
222 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Extending a Bezier direction handle in the speed graph More Help topics “ The Graph Editor ” on page 195 “ About animation.
223 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 For information about keyframe interpolation, see “ Keyframe interpolation ” on page 215. The following factors affect the speed at which a property value changes: • The time difference between keyframes in the Timeline panel.
224 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 More spatial distance between keyframes increases layer speed. • In layer bar mode or in the Graph Editor, adjust the time difference between two keyframes.
225 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Speed graph controls A. Value at the current-time indicator B. Speed graph C. Direction handle (controls speed) By adjusting the rise and fall of the speed graph, you can control how quickly or slowly a value changes from keyframe to keyframe.
226 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: When you drag a direction handle beyond the top or bottom of the Graph Editor with Auto Zoom Graph Height on, After Effect.
227 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Dragging the direction handle to make a gradual change Adjust influence of a direction handle on an adjacent keyframe Along with.
228 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 After you apply Easy Ease, each keyframe has a speed of 0 with an influence of 33.33% on either side. When you ease the speed of an object, for example, the object slows down as it approaches a keyframe, and gradually accelerates as it leaves.
229 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Revert to a nonroving keyframe • Select the roving keyframe option from the keyframe menu, or drag the roving keyframe left or right. • Select the keyframes you want to change, and choose Animation > Keyframe Interpolation.
230 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Time-stretching a layer redistributes keyframes along the new duration. If you time-stretch a layer so that the resulting frame rate is very different from the original frame rate, the quality of motion within the layer may suffer.
231 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Time-stretch a layer but not its keyframes When you time-stretch a layer, the positions of its keyframes stretch with it by default. You can circumvent this behavior by cutting and pasting keyframes.
232 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 The Timewarp effect provides similar features with more control over some aspects of frame blending, but with additional limitations as a result of being applied as an effect. Frames from non-time-remapped footage are displayed at a constant speed in one direction.
233 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 You can remap time in either the Layer panel or the Graph Editor. Remapping video in one panel displays the results in both.
234 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 By setting additional Time Remap keyframes, you can create complex motion results. Each time you add a Time Remap keyframe, you create another point at which you can change the speed or direction of playback.
235 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Drag the first keyframe to the current-time indicator, which moves the start and end keyframes. (If you are working in the Graph Editor, drag the bounding box—not the keyframe or a handle—so that both keyframes move.
236 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Dragging the keyframe down slows down the layer. • To slow the layer down, drag the keyframe down. (If the layer is playing in reverse, drag up.) • To speed the layer up, drag the keyframe up.
237 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Drag the remap-time marker to replace the frame at the current time marker. 5 Move the current-time indicator on the lower time ruler to the last frame where you want change to occur.
238 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Remove clicks from new In and Out points 1 If necessary, choose panel > Audio. 2 In the Timeline panel, select the audio (or audio and video) layer to which you applied time-remapping.
239 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Use frame blending to enhance the quality of time-altered motion in a layer that contains live-action footage—video, for example. You can apply frame blending to a sequence of still images, but not to a single still image.
240 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Puppet Starch tool Use this tool to place Starch pins, which stiffen parts of the image so that they are distorted less.
241 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources for the Puppet tools For a video tutorial on using the Puppet tools, go to the Adobe website . Trish and Chris Meyer give tips for using the Puppet tools on the ProVideo Coalition website .
242 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: If an image is too complex for the Puppet effect to generate a mesh with the current Triangle value, a “Mesh Generation Failed” message appears in the Info panel. Increase the Triangle value in the Tools panel and try again.
243 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 You can modify the motion paths of the Deform pins using the same techniques that you use to modify any other motion paths. The motion path for a pin is shown only if it is the only pin selected.
244 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 If the Puppet effect has not already been applied to a layer, outlines for that layer have not yet been calculated. When you click, the Puppet effect calculates outlines and determines whether you have clicked within an outline.
245 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Puppet Overlap controls When you are distorting one part of an image, you may want to control which parts of the image appear in front of other parts. For example, you may want to keep an arm in front of the face as you make the arm wave.
246 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Unwanted distortion in figure (upper left) is prevented with Starch pin (upper right and lower left) Each Starch pin has the following properties: Amount The strength of the stiffening agent.
247 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Todd Kopriva provides a basic introduction to using mocha-AE for motion tracking in "Overview of the mocha-AE interface and workflow" on the video2brain website.
248 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 • Stabilizing footage to hold a moving object stationary in the frame to examine how a moving object changes over time, which can be useful in scientific imaging work. • Stabilizing footage to remove the jostling (camera shake) of a handheld camera.
249 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources for motion tracking and stabilization Curtis Sponsler provides detailed instructions and explanations for tracking and stabilizing motion in a PDF excerpt from his book The Focal Easy Guide to After Effects .
250 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 As with many workflows in the real world, you may have to repeat some of these steps. You can track a layer as many times as desired and apply any combination of tracking results.
251 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Attach point centered in feature region Attach point offset from feature region 5.
252 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 8. Apply tracking data If you’re using any Track Type setting other than Raw, you apply tracking data by clicking Apply, after making sure that the correct target is shown for Motion Target.
253 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do one of the following: • Click Track Motion in the Tracker panel (or choose Animation > Track Motion), click Edit Target, and choose the target to apply the tracking data to.
254 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Current Track The active tracker. You can modify settings for a tracker at any time by selecting the tracker from this menu.
255 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Motion tracking options These settings apply to a tracker, a group of track points that is generated in one tracking session. You can modify these settings by clicking Options in the Tracker panel.
256 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: To show or hide motion paths in the Layer panel, select or deselect the Display Motion Paths option in the panel menu of the Tracker panel. (The panel menu is the menu that you access by clicking the icon in the upper-right corner of a panel.
257 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Track point components and Selection tool pointer icons A. Search region B. Feature region C. Keyframe marker D. Attach point E. Moves search region F. Moves both regions G. Moves entire track point H.
258 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Apply tracking data to a new target After you’ve tracked a motion source layer, you can apply the tracking data stored on that layer to any number of other target layers and effect control points.
259 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the feature and search regions only (not the attach point) to the correct location. 3 If you are correcting the track for one frame, go to step 4.
260 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 3 Switch Track Type to Stabilize. 4 Stabilize footage as you would in After Effects CS5.
261 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Borders Borders settings adjust how borders (the moving edges) are treated for footage that is stabilized.
262 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Warp Stabilizer workflow tips 1 Apply the Warp Stabilizer. 2 While Warp Stabilizer is analyzing your footage, you can adjust settings or work on a different part of your project.
263 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 9: Color Color basics Charles Poynton provides an excellent set of resources on his website regarding color technology and color terminology. Color depth and high dynamic range color Color depth (or bit depth ) is the number of bits per channel (bpc) used to represent the color of a pixel.
264 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 To change the format in which color values are shown in the Info panel and in some effect controls, choose an option such as Percent or Web from the Info panel menu. Choosing Auto Color Display automatically switches between 8 bpc, 16 bpc, and 32 bpc, depending on the color depth of the project.
265 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Special considerations for working with high dynamic range color You can use the HDR Compander effect to compress the dynamic range of a layer with an HDR footage item as its source. In this way, you can use tools that don’t support HDR color, such as 8-bpc and 16-bit effects.
266 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 A. Opacity stop B. Color stop C. Opacity midpoint D. Eyedropper E. New-color rectangle F. Original-color rectangle Choose a color picker ❖ Choos.
267 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 2 (Optional) To prevent panels from updating with the results of your color selection until you accept the color by clicking OK, deselect Preview in the Color Picker dialog box. The Preview option is not available in all contexts.
268 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Edit a gradient A gradient is defined by color stops and opacity stops . Each stop has a location along the gradient and a value for color or opacity.
269 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 The Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse plug-in included with After Effects includes excellent color-correction tools.
270 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Input sliders moved so that output uses full tonal range Histogram showing highlight clipping Histogram showing shadow clipping Resources for Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse Important: Color Finesse is not included with the free trial version of After Effects.
271 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Though many devices use red, green, and blue components to record or express color, the components have different characteristics—for example, blue for one camera is not exactly the same as blue for another camera.
272 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Many compositing operations, such as combining colors with blending modes, benefit from being performed in a linear color space. For the most natural and realistic blending of colors, work in a linear color space.
273 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 QuickTime and gamma in non-color-managed projects After Effects 7.0 and earlier used QuickTime codecs to decode several kinds of media, and the gamma adjustments performed by QuickTime on Windows were different from the gamma adjustments performed on Mac OS.
274 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 In the specific case of working within After Effects, ICC color profiles are used to convert to and from the working color space in the following general workflow: 1 An input color profile is used to convert each footage item from its color space into the working color space.
275 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 If a footage item has an embedded color profile (for example, the footage item is a Photoshop PSD file), then the colors intended by the person who created the image can be accurately reproduced in your composition.
276 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources about color management This video from the After Effects CS5: Learn By Video series provides an introduction to color management, both explaining how it works and how to use it. Trish and Chris Meyer provide an overview of color management in an article on the Artbeats website .
277 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Choosing a working color space is an essential step in managing color in a project. Colors of footage items are converted into the working color space as a common color space for compositing.
278 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 By performing operations in a linear color space, you can prevent certain edge and halo artifacts, such as the fringing that appears when high-contrast, saturated colors are blended together.
279 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 3 In the Color Management tab of the Interpret Footage dialog box, choose a value from the Assign Profile menu. If you don’t see the profile that you want in the Assign Profile menu, select Show All Available Profiles.
280 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Some file formats—such as Photoshop (PSD), PNG, TIFF, and JPEG—allow for the embedding of a color profile. If you embed a color profile in an output file, then you can be more certain that programs that use the file will correctly interpret its color information.
281 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 • Choose View > Use Display Color Management. • Press Shift+/ (on the numeric keypad). Output simulation settings (including No Output Simulation) are remembered.
282 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Output simulation applies only to a specific viewer (Composition, Layer, or Footage panel) and works only for previews. Color conversions for output simulation are performed when values are sent to the display.
283 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 To toggle between no output simulation and the most recently used output simulation, click the Show Channel And Color Management Settings button at the bottom of the viewer and choose Simulate Output.
284 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Keep in mind the following guidelines: • Avoid pure black and pure white values. • Avoid using highly saturated colors. • Render a test movie and play it on a video monitor to ensure that colors are represented accurately.
285 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 10: Drawing, painting, and paths Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser Paint tools and paint strokes The Brush tool , Clone Stamp tool , and Eraser tool are all paint tools. You use each in the Layer panel to apply paint strokes to a layer.
286 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Brushes and the Brushes panel ” on page 287 “ Paint tools (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 736 Common operations for paint tools and strokes • To show paint strokes on selected layers in the Timeline panel, press PP.
287 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Brushes and the Brushes panel To use the Brushes panel, first select a paint tool from the Tools panel.
288 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Angled brushes create chiseled strokes: 45-degree brush (left), and -45-degree brush (right).
289 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Paint with the Brush tool Use the Brush tool to paint on a layer in the Layer panel with the current foreground color. Important: To specify settings for a paint stroke before you apply it, use the Paint and Brushes panels.
290 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 3 In the Layer panel, drag with the Brush tool to paint on the layer. Each time you release the mouse button, you stop drawing a stroke. When you drag again, you create a new stroke.
291 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Displaying the clone source overlay while cloning between two different layers A. Clone source overlay B. Current stroke point C. Current sample point Important: To specify settings for a paint stroke before you apply it, use the Paint and Brushes panels.
292 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You can manually manipulate the time and coordinates from which sampling begins by modifying the Offset, Source Time Shift, Source Position, or Source Time values in the Paint panel.
293 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Eraser tool If you use the Eraser tool in Layer Source & Paint or Paint Only mode, it creates Eraser strokes that can be modified and animated.
294 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Layer properties in the Timeline panel ” on page 139 “ Managing and animating shape paths and mask.
295 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects interpolates a paint stroke (center) between two different shapes created with the same brush (left and right).
296 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Aharon Rabinowitz’s “What are Raster and Vector Graphics?” video tutorial—part of the Multimedia 101 series on the Creative COW website—provides a general introduction to raster images and vector graphics.
297 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Points on a path A. Four corner points B. Four smooth points C. Combination of corner and smooth points When you move a direction line for a smooth point, the curves on both sides of the point adjust simultaneously.
298 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About masks ” on page 367 “ About shapes and shape layers ” on page 298 “ Creating shapes and .
299 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 You can download additional animation presets that take advantage of per-character 3D text animation from the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website.
300 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 A. Two shapes in a group B. Two paths in a compound shape C. Circle path with Wiggle Paths applied D. One stroke applied to all paths above it E. Star path in a group by itself F.
301 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • Paint operations within a group are performed from the bottom to the top in the Timeline panel stacking order. This means, for example, that a stroke is rendered on top of (in front of) a stroke that appears after it in the Timeline panel.
302 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • Specify the dimensions of the mask path numerically in the Mask Shape dialog box. (See “ Create a rectangular or elliptical mask numerically ” on page 302.) • Convert a shape path to a mask path by copying the shape’s path to the Mask Path property.
303 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 4 Select Reset To, choose Rectangle or Ellipse from the Shape menu, and specify the size and location of the bounding box for the mask.
304 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About masks ” on page 367 “ Keying introduction and resources ” on page 375 “ Work area ” on page 186 Creating shapes and shape layers You create a shape layer by drawing in the Composition panel with a shape tool or the Pen tool.
305 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 A polygon is a star without an Inner Radius or Inner Roundness property, so the name of the shape created for a polygon or a star is the same: polystar . You can create a mask by dragging with a shape tool on a selected layer in the Composition panel or Layer panel.
306 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Squares are created to be square according to the pixel aspect ratio of the composition.
307 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Create a manual Bezier path using the Pen tool 1 With the Pen tool selected and the RotoBezier option deselected in the Tools panel, click in the Composition panel where you want to place the first vertex.
308 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Drawing the first vertex in a curved path A. Placing the Pen tool B. Starting to drag (mouse button pressed) C.
309 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 2 In the Tools panel, double-click the Rectangle , Rounded Rectangle , Ellipse , Polygon , or Star tool.
310 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the layer or text and choose Create Masks From Text from the context menu. The Video switch for the text layer is turned off.
311 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Andrew Devis shows how to use paths from Illustrator as motion paths in After Effects in this video on the Creative COW website .
312 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 3 To create a new mask, select the layer on which to create the mask, and choose Layer > Mask > New Mask. 4 In the Timeline panel, click the name of the Mask Path property for the mask into which to paste the keyframes from the motion path.
313 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Rotoscoping introduction and resources Rotoscoping (or just roto in casual usage) is the drawing or painting on frames of a movie, using visual elements in the movie as a reference.
314 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Sean Kennedy provides several good tutorials on the SimplyCG website, including some for rotoscoping in After Effects. Sean maintains an index of these tutorials on his website .
315 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Selection modes for shapes on shape layers A. Layer selection B. Group selection C. Free-transform D. Path editing For information on selecting masks, see “ Select masks, segments, and vertices ” on page 316.
316 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • To select an entire path, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a segment or vertex of the path with the Selection tool, or select any portion of the path and press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS).
317 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 3 Do any of the following: • To select one mask, click its name. • To select a contiguous range of masks, Shift-click the names of the first and last masks in the range.
318 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • To scale the path or selected vertices, position the pointer on a bounding box handle and, when the pointer changes to a straight, double-sided arrow , drag to a new size.
319 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 To temporarily switch from the Pen tool to the Selection tool, press V or Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS). • To add a vertex to a mask, use the Add Vertex tool to click the segment between two existing vertices.
320 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Designate the first vertex for a Bezier path To animate a path, After Effects designates the topmost vertex at the initial keyframe as the first vertex and numbers each successive vertex in ascending order from the first vertex.
321 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Regardless of the keyframe rate you choose, Smart Mask Interpolation always adds keyframes at the frame just after the first mask path keyframe and at the frame just before the second mask path keyframe.
322 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 First Vertices Match Specifies that Smart Mask Interpolation matches the first vertices in the two mask path keyframes. If not selected, Smart Mask Interpolation searches for the best first-vertex match between the two input mask paths.
323 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Pan a layer behind its mask 1 Select the Pan Behind tool in the Tools panel.
324 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 New shapes are created with fill and stroke properties depicted by the swatch buttons next to the underlined Fill and Stroke text controls in the Tools panel.
325 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 By default, when you create a shape path by drawing with the Pen tool, the control points for the gradient are placed in the center of the layer. You can adjust these points after you finish drawing.
326 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Projecting Cap The stroke extends beyond the end of the path for a number of pixels equal to the stroke width in pixels.
327 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Alter shapes with path operations Path operations are similar to effects. These live operations act nondestructively on a shape’s path to create a modified path that other shape operations (such as fills and strokes) can apply to.
328 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 transformations are auto-animated, meaning that they change over time without the need to set any keyframes or add expressions.
329 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Aharon Rabinowitz provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to combine multiple paths into a single compound shape using the Merge Paths path operation.
330 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 The Offset property value is used to offset the transformations by a specific number of copies.
331 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 11: Text Creating and editing text layers About text layers You can add text to a composition using text layers. Text layers are useful for many purposes, including animated titles, lower thirds, credit rolls, and dynamic typography.
332 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Best practices for creating text and vector graphics for video Text that looks good on your computer screen as you are creating it can sometimes look bad when viewed in a final output movie.
333 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Salahuddin Taha provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website that enables entry of Arabic text (which flows from right to left).
334 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You can also choose Edit > Paste to paste text that you have copied from any application that uses Unicode characters. Text receives the formatting of the first character in the text layer into which it is pasted.
335 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 The pointer for a type tool changes, depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition panel. When the pointer for a type tool is directly over a text layer, it appears as the edit text pointer ; click to place the insertion point in the existing text.
336 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 When you convert from paragraph text to point text, a carriage return is added at the end of each line of text, except the last line. To display the bounding box of paragraph text and automatically select a type tool, double-click the text layer in the Timeline panel.
337 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Preparing and importing Photoshop files ” on page 110 “ Layer styles ” on page 156 Formatting characters and the Character panel Use the Character panel to format characters.
338 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 The font size determines how large the type appears in the layer. In After Effects, the unit of measurement for fonts is pixels. When a text layer is at 100% scale value, the pixel values match composition pixels one-to-one.
339 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Create a non-breaking space If a set of characters is set to be non-breaking, the characters animate together as if they were a single word. 1 Select the characters you want to prevent from breaking.
340 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Text fills and strokes For text, a fill is applied to the area inside the shape of an individual character; a stroke is applied to the outline of the character.
341 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Change text stroke line join The line join type for a stroke determines the shape of the stroke when two segments of the stroke intersect.
342 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Change the case of text You can enter or format text as uppercase characters, either all caps or small caps. When you format text as small caps, After Effects uses the small caps designed as part of the font, if they are available.
343 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Original layer (left) and after tate-chuu-yoko is applied (right) 1 Select the characters that you want to rotate. 2 Choose Tate-Chuu-Yoko from the Character panel menu. (A check mark indicates that the option is turned on.
344 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Align and justify text You can align text to one edge of a paragraph (left, center, or right for horizontal text; top, center, or bottom for vertical text) and justify text to both edges of a paragraph.
345 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Hanging punctuation for Roman fonts Hanging punctuation controls whether punctuation marks fall inside or outside the margins.
346 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 • Animate the source text of the layer, so that the characters themselves change to different characters or use different character or paragraph formats over time. (See “ Select and edit text in text layers ” on page 334 and “ Writing expressions for source text ” on page 643.
347 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Additional online resources for animation presets You can download additional animation presets that take advantage of per-character 3D text animation from the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website.
348 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 5 To refine the selection, expand Advanced and specify options and values as desired. For example, to animate opacity gradually from the first char.
349 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 • To remove animators from a text layer, select the text layer in the Timeline panel, and choose Animation > Remove All Text Animators. • To copy an animator group, select it in the Timeline panel and choose Edit > Copy.
350 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Text selectors Each animator group includes a default range selector. You can replace the default selector, add additional selectors to an animator group, and remove selectors from a group.
351 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Amount Specifies how much the range of characters is affected by animator properties. At 0%, the animator properties do not affect the characters. At 50%, half of each property value affects the characters.
352 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Ease High and Ease Low Determines the speed of change as selection values change from fully included (high) to fully excluded (low). For example, when Ease High is 100%, the character changes more gradually (eases into the change) while it is fully to partially selected.
353 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Fill color changes randomly using an expression animator. Text anchor point properties Text animators animate character position, rotation, and size-related properties relative to an anchor point.
354 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 To center the anchor point in a string of capital letters, try a Grouping Alignment value of 0%, -50%. To center the anchor point in a string of lowercase letters, or if you’re using both lowercase and uppercase letters, try 0%, -25%.
355 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates how to use per-character 3D text animation to animate text along a path in the shape of a 3D tornado.
356 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Force Alignment Positions the first character at the beginning of the path (or at the specified First Margin location), positions the last character at the end of the path (or at the specified Last Margin location), and evenly spaces the remaining characters between the first and last characters.
357 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Angie Taylor provides a tutorial on the Digital Arts website that shows how to use per-character 3D text animation together with a common workaround for simulating extruded 3D text.
358 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating the offset values for the characters in the word Galaxy 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer with the word Galaxy . 3 Choose Animation > Animate Text > Character Offset.
359 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating the color and position of the characters in the word Galaxy 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer with the word Galaxy and set the color to blue in the Character panel. 3 Choose Animation > Animate Text > Position.
360 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating the tracking values for the characters 3579 (left and center) so that only the 7 in the middle remains (right) 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer and type 3579 . 3 With the text layer selected, click the Center Text button in the Paragraph panel.
361 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating the skew values in the characters in the word Speeding 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer with the words Speeding Saucer . 3 Choose Animation > Animate Text > Skew.
362 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds and drag the start selector in the Composition panel to the right edge of the text (the value will be 5). 8 Preview the composition. Note: By default, the Smoothness property is set to 100%.
363 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Set or add keyframes ” on page 198 “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 Example: Animate text position with expressions This example uses the textIndex and textTotal attributes with the wiggle expression to animate a line of text.
364 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 To see the expressions on a layer, select the layer and press EE . More Help topics “ Timecode and time display units ” on page 55 “ Time con.
365 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 12: Transparency, opacity, and compositing Compositing and transparency overview and resources Compositing overview To create a composite from multiple images, you can make parts of one or more of the images transparent so that other images can show through.
366 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Rich Young collects resources and tutorials for various methods of creating vignettes. Rich Young collects resources for sky replacement on the ProVideo Coalition website .
367 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Many file formats can include an alpha channel, including Adobe Photoshop, ElectricImage, FLV, TGA, TIFF, EPS, PDF, and Adobe Illustrator.
368 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Closed-path masks can create transparent areas for a layer. Open paths cannot create transparent areas for a layer but are useful as parameters for an effect.
369 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Save a mask 1 In the Timeline panel for the composition containing the layer and mask you want to save, expand the layer and its mask properties. 2 Do one of the following: • To save an animated mask, select the mask keyframes you want to save.
370 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Mask modes Blending modes for masks ( mask modes ) control how masks within a layer interact with one another. By default, all masks are set to Add, which combines the transparency values of any masks that overlap on the same layer.
371 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Add The mask is added to the masks above it in the stacking order. The influence of the mask is cumulative with the masks above it. Subtract The influence of the mask is subtracted from the masks above it.
372 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Results for different Mask Feather values A. Masked layer with 5-pixel feather B.
373 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Defining the transparency of a layer based on the luminance of the track matte’s pixels is useful when you want to create a track matte using a layer without an alpha channel or a layer imported from a program that can’t create an alpha channel.
374 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Define transparency for the track matte by choosing one of the following options from the TrkMat menu for the fill layer: No Track Matte No transparency created; next layer above acts as a normal layer.
375 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Aharon Rabinowitz provides a short video tutorial about the Preserve Underlying Transparency option on the Creative COW website . Tim Clapham provides an explanation and demonstration on his website of the Preserve Underlying Transparency switch.
376 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 You often see composites made with keying techniques in movies, for example, when an actor appears to dangle from a helicopter or float in outer space. To create this effect, the actor is filmed in an appropriate position against a solid- color background screen.
377 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 For tips on shooting footage so that color keying is easier and more successful, see Jonas Hummelstrand’s General Specialist website .
378 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 • To key dark areas or shadows, use the Extract Key on the Luminance channel. • To make a static background scene transparent, use the Difference Matte Key. Add the Simple Choker and other effects as needed to refine the matte.
379 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Example of using a hold-out matte A. Original bluescreen image. The background for the number is also blue. B. After keying, the background for the number is also transparent.
380 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 With the Roto Brush tool, you draw strokes on representative areas of the foreground and background elements, and then After Effects uses that information to create a segmentation boundary between the foreground and background elements.
381 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Try for a segmentation boundary that is within a couple of pixels of your desired edge. You can modify properties in the Roto Brush effect, such as Smooth, to refine the initial segmentation further.
382 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 • When you've gotten everything as good as you can with the Roto Brush effect, you can touch up the matte further using other compositing features in After Effects—such as by painting on the alpha channel.
383 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 You can use expressions on the Roto Brush effect's Path property in the same manner as the Paint effect's Path property. When drawing a stroke with the Roto Brush tool, a new stroke is created even if another stroke is selected.
384 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 • Use Alternate Color Estimation Subtly changes the process by which the Roto Brush effect determines what is foreground and what is background. Sometimes checking it helps with segmentation; sometimes it doesn't.
385 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: If you click Stop in the Freezing Roto Brush dialog box, After Effects stops adding frames to the cache, but Roto Brush segmentation is still locked with the segmentation information cached up until the point that you clicked Stop.
386 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 13: Effects and animation presets Effects and animation presets overview Animation presets overview and resources For a video tutorial on applying and working with effects and animation presets, go to the Adobe website .
387 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Animation presets are loaded and initialized only when the Effects & Presets panel is shown. If the Effects & Presets panel is closed or hidden behind another panel, the animation presets are not initialized.
388 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Effects are sometimes mistakenly referred to as filters . The primary difference between a filter and an effect is that a filter permanently modifies an image or other characteristic of a layer, whereas an effect and its properties can be changed or removed at any time.
389 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating effects You animate effect properties in the same way that you animate any other properties—by adding keyframes or expressions to them. In most cases, even effects that rely on animation for their normal use require that you set some keyframes or expressions.
390 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Plug-ins ” on page 631 “ Effects & Presets panel ” on page 392 “ Layer switches and colum.
391 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • You can create a control layer by precomposing a white solid layer, a black solid layer, and a mask on the top layer that determines which areas are white and black. Increasing the feather of a mask softens the transition between black and white values.
392 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • To expand or collapse all property groups for selected effects, press Ctrl+` (accent grave) (Windows) or Command+` (accent grave) (Mac OS).
393 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Apply an effect or animation preset Chris & Trish Meyer give tips on applying and using effects in an article on the ProVideo Coalition website .
394 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 You can’t disable an animation preset or delete it from a layer as a unit. You can, of course, individually delete or disable the effects, keyframes, and expressions that it comprises.
395 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Rather than removing effects or animation presets entirely, consider creating a subfolder in the Plug-ins or Presets folder for effects or animation presets that you seldom use.
396 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Randomness and random seeds Because true randomness is not repeatable, many effects simulate randomness by using a calculation that generates seemingly random results for each value of a Random Seed property.
397 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Red Speed • River • Rose Light • Silk • Smoke Rising • Sweeping Curves Behaviors • Autoscroll - horizontal.
398 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Colorize - sky blue • Colorize - sky orange • Colorize - sunset gradient • Contrast - luminance • Contrast - s.
399 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Invert Alpha • Keying - blue blur • Keying - green blur • Levels - computer to video • Levels - video to compu.
400 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Geo Logo* • Graph Paper* • Honeycomb* • Iris Flare* • Kaleidorganic* • Kaleidoscopic Seaweed* • Light Bulb.
401 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Sprites - Animated 2* • Pulsing Circles* • Spiralgear* • Sunflower - animated* Sprites - Still • Alien Calligraphy.
402 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Sound Effects • Blaster • Busy • CallAdobe • DialTone-US • DTMF • PhoneCompany • RingingPhone-US Synthetics .
403 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • 3D Fly Down & Unfold • 3D Fly Down Behind Camera • 3D Fly Down Random & Rotate Y • 3D Lines Zoom In • .
404 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Decoder Fade In • Drop In By Character • Espresso Eye Chart • Fade Up And Flip • Fade Up Characters • Fade U.
405 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Stretch Out Each Line • Stretch Out Each Word • Twirl Off Each Line • Twirl Off Each Word Blurs • Blur By Word.
406 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Dictionary • Frame Number • Inch Worm • Text Bounce Fill and Stroke • Chasing Strokes • Fill Color Wipe • .
407 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Emerge • Exposure • Flash • Flicker Exposure • Fluctuate • Fluorescent Light • Office Light • Overlay .
408 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Back Flip • Blow Away • Bounce In • Bungee • Chaotic • Clay Pigeons • Dot.
409 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Fly In By Words • Front - Back • Frontside - Backside • Ideas • Incoming • Jetstream 2 • Jetstream • Mul.
410 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Quiver • Ripple • Rubber Floor • Rubber • Sea-Sick • Shuffle • Simmer • Slice And Dice • Sprouts • T.
411 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Organism • Paper Clip • Pipes • Raquetball • Rat Nest • Reel To Reel • Rope Bridge • Serpent • Slipper.
412 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Wiggly Scale Wipe • Zoom Away • Zoom Forward Tracking • Contract • Decrease Tracking • Extend • Increase T.
413 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Ovals - concentric PAL • Ovals - random NTSC • Ovals - random PAL Transitions - Movement • Card Wipe - 2D fractu.
414 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Clock Wipe • Corner Reveal • Grid Wipe • Iris - cross • Iris - diamond • Iris - points • Iris - round • .
415 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Blur & Sharpen effects • “ Bilateral Blur effect ” on page 433 • “ Box Blur effect ” on page 434 • “ Camera Lens Blur effect (CS5.
416 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Color Correction effects • “ Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects ” on page 448 • “ Auto Levels effect ” on pa.
417 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • “ Displacement Map effect ” on page 469 • “ Liquify effect ” on page 470 • “ Magnify effect ” on page .
418 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Checkbox Control effect • Color Control effect • Layer Control effect • Point Control effect • Slider Control .
419 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • “ Color Range effect ” on page 505 • “ Difference Matte effect ” on page 506 • “ Extract effect ” on p.
420 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Third-party effects: • CC Cylinder effect • CC Sphere effect • CC Spotlight effect Simulation effects • “ Card D.
421 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • “ Scatter effect ” on page 580 • “ Strobe Light effect ” on page 580 • “ Texturize effect ” on page 581 • “ Threshold effect ” on page 582 Third-party effects: • CC Burn Film effect • CC Glass effect • CC Kaleida effect • CC Mr.
422 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Third-party effects: • CC Glass Wipe effect • CC Grid Wipe effect • CC Image Wipe effect • CC Jaws effect • CC L.
423 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects The 3D Channel effects work on 2D layers—specifically, 2D layers with 3D information in auxiliary channels.
424 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The ProEXR package from the fnord software website also includes the ProEXR Comp Creator plug-in. This plug-in can create a layer from each of the channels of an OpenEXR file.
425 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Surface Normals This channel maps the direction vector of each point on the surface of an object to the RGB channels. The vectors are relative to the camera. Third-party plug-ins can use this channel as the basis for dynamic relighting and relief rendering.
426 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Feather The amount of feather along the edges of the matte. Invert Select to matte out everything with a depth greater than the Depth value. Deselect to matte out everything with a depth less than the Depth value.
427 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects ” on page 423 “ Preparing and importing 3D ima.
428 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects ” on page 423 “ Preparing and importing 3D image files ” on page 103 “ 3D layers ” on page 158 ID Matte effect Many 3D programs tag each element in a scene with a unique Object ID.
429 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Audio effects Trish and Chris Meyer provide tips about audio effects on the ProVideo Coalition website . Backwards effect The Backwards effect reverses the audio of a layer by playing the audio from the last frame to the first frame.
430 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The default settings for the Flange & Chorus effect are for flange. To create a chorus result, use values something like the following: 40 for Voice Separation Time (or higher for a greater chorus result), 4 for Voices, 0.
431 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Audio Spectrum effect ” on page 485 “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 Modulator effect The Modulator effect adds both vibrato and tremolo to audio by modulating (varying) the frequency and amplitude.
432 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Harry Frank and Aharon Rabinowitz provide a video tutorial on the All Bets Are Off website that shows how to use the Backwards effect and the Reverb effect to create a creepy reverse echo result.
433 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 “ Set or add keyframes ” on page 198 Blur & Sharpen e.
434 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The Bilateral Blur effect preserves the details in the logo and face. Threshold The radius of the blur is automatically decreased in areas where an edge or other prominent detail feature exists.
435 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Descriptions of the Camera Lens Blur effect’s properties also apply to the camera layer’s Camera Options properties group with the same (or similar) names. Iris Properties Iris properties include Shape, Roundness, Aspect Ratio, Rotation, and Diffraction Fringe.
436 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: If you have noise or artifacts primarily in one color channel—such as MPEG compression artifacts in the blue channel of DV footage—use Channel Blur to clean up the noise in that channel, leaving the other channels sharp.
437 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Direction The direction of the blur. The blur is applied equally on either side of the center of a pixel; therefore, a setting of 180° and a setting of 0° produce the same results.
438 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Lens Blur effect The Lens Blur effect simulates the blurring of objects not in the focal plane of a camera. The appearance of the blur depends on the control layer used as a depth map and the iris settings for the simulated camera aperture.
439 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About Blur & Sharpen effects ” on page 433 Radial Blur effect The Radial Blur effect creates blurs around a point, simulating the result of a zooming or rotating camera.
440 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) More Help topics “ About Blur & Sharpen effects ” on page 433 Smart Blur effect The Smart Blur effect blurs an image while preserving lines and edges within the image.
441 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Radius The distance from the edge at which pixels are adjusted for contrast. If you specify a low value, only pixels near the edge are adjusted.
442 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Block Above Set the channel value of the pixel to zero if the original value of the pixel is greater than the value specified; otherwise, leave the original value.
443 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Calculations effect The Calculations effect combines channels of one layer with the channels of a second layer. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Input Channel The channel to extract and use as input to the blending operation.
444 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 set the color channels to 1.0. When you select Hue Only, the applied hue value is combined with 50% lightness and 100% saturation. When you select Lightness Only, the applied lightness value is combined with 0% saturation, which then gives the hue no influence.
445 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Channel Which channel or channels to invert. Each group of items operates in a particular color space, inverting either the entire image in that color space or only a single channel.
446 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with Remove Color Matting effect applied (right) Use Background Color to specify the new background color. To allow this effect to generate color values outside the range 0.
447 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Sometimes, it’s easier and faster to create traveling mattes by using a track matte instead of using the Set Matte effect. However, using the Set Matte effect provides some advantages over defining a layer as a track matte layer.
448 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 See “ Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects ” on page 632. Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects The Auto Color effect adjusts the contrast and color of an image after analyzing the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image.
449 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) More Help topics “ Color.
450 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The Broadcast Colors effect alters pixel color values to keep signal amplitudes within the range allowed for broadcast television.
451 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Invert Color Correction Mask Inverts the mask that determines which colors to affect.
452 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Color correction, color grading, and color adjustment ” on page 268 Channel Mixer effect The Channel Mixer effect modifies a color channel using a mix of the current color channels.
453 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Color Link effect The Color Link effect colorizes one layer with the average pixel values of another layer. This effect is useful for quickly finding a color that matches the color of a background layer.
454 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 White Point Place this point on a bright area to stabilize. Sample Size Radius, in pixels, of sampled areas.
455 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Output Cycle controls Use Preset Palette Presets for the Output Cycle. The top palettes are designed for quick color correction and adjustment tasks. The bottom choices offer a variety of built-in color palettes for creative results.
456 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Matching Tolerance How far a color can be from Matching Color and still be affected by the Colorama effect. When Matching Tolerance is 0, the Colorama effect only affects the exact color selected for Matching Color.
457 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 2 If the image has more than one color channel, choose the channel you want to adjust from the Channel menu. RGB alters all channels using a single curve. 3 Use the Bezier tool and the Pencil tool to modify or draw a curve.
458 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Offset Darkens or brightens the shadows and midtones with minimal change to the highlights. Gamma Correction The amount of gamma correction to use for adding an additional power-curve adjustment to the image.
459 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Colorize Hue, Colorize Saturation, Colorize Lightness Specify the hue, saturation, and lightness of the color range chosen from the Channel Control menu. After Effects displays only the sliders for the Channel Control menu choice.
460 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Edge Softness The softness of the color boundaries. High values smooth the transition from color to gray. Match Colors Determines whether RGB values or HSB values are compared.
461 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Click the histogram to alternate between showing colorized versions of the histograms for all color channels and only showing the histogram for the channel or channels selected in the Channel menu.
462 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 You can use the Photo Filter effect controls to do the following: • To use a color preset for the filter color, choose an option from the Filter pop-up menu.
463 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 To convert .acv and Photoshop spline files, load the .acv file (Windows) or the Photoshop spline file (Mac OS) in the Curves dialog box, click the Pencil tool, and then save the file as an .
464 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Auto Amounts If this optio.
465 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Midtone Contrast The amount of contrast that the effect applies to the midtones. Higher values increase the contrast in the midtones alone, while concurrently darkening the shadows and lightening the highlights.
466 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Vibrance effect The Vibrance effect adjusts saturation so that clipping is minimized as colors approach full saturation.
467 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Resources for Digieffects FreeForm Note: Digieffects FreeForm is not included with the free trial version of After Effects. See “ Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects ” on page 632.
468 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Bulge effect The Bulge effect distorts an image around a specified point, making the image appear to bulge toward or away from the viewer, depending on the options you select.
469 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original image (upper-left), corner moved (lower-left), and final image (lower-right) The AE Enhancers forum describes and links to an animation preset from Donat van Bellinghen for scaling a set of Corner Pin effect points.
470 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The effect uses the control layer specified by Displacement Map Layer, without considering any effects or masks. If you want to use the control layer with its effects, precompose it.
471 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website that demonstrates the use of the Liquify effect to distort (morph) a human face into the face of a demon.
472 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Undo distortions with the Liquify effect Use the Reconstruction tool and its modes to reverse distortions or redo them in new ways.
473 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Feather The amount of edge feather, in pixels. Opacity The opacity of the magnified area, as a percentage of the opacity of the original layer.
474 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Each patch becomes a boundary for the distortion. For example, when you stretch a patch, the area of the image in the patch stretches, squishing the area of the image in the adjacent patch.
475 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Resize Resizes the layer when the applied distortion stretches the layer beyond its boundaries. To use this control, first select Reverse Lens Distortion, and then choose an option.
476 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Type of Conversion The conversion process to use: • Rect To Polar Moves pixels by using (x,y) coordinates from each pixel as (r, ) coordinates. For example, an (x,y) coordinate of (2,3) becomes a polar coordinate with a radius of 2 and a degree of 3.
477 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The other settings fall between. The more fluid elasticity settings require more rendering time.
478 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 9 Adjust the Percent control, and choose an option for Elasticity. 10 In the Composition panel, add, delete, or move correspondence points on the masks to control the distortion: • To add a point, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the mask.
479 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Smear effect Using the Smear effect, you define an area within an image and then move that area to a new location, stretching, or smearing , the surrounding part of the image with it.
480 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 keyframes, add more keyframes. For example, a distortion representing a 90-degree rotation between two keyframes appears as a folding of the image. To make this distortion more fluid, add a keyframe for every 10°.
481 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Turbulent Displace effect The Turbulent Displace effect uses fractal noise to create turbulent distortions in an image. For example, use it to create flowing water, funhouse mirrors, and waving flags.
482 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 5 In the Timeline panel, move the current-time indicator to the time where the cycle completes. For example, if the Cycle value is 2, find the frame where the Evolution value is 2 revolutions.
483 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Wave Warp effect The Wave Warp effect produces the appearance of a wave traveling across an image. You can produce a variety of different wave shapes, including square, circular, and sine waves.
484 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Blending Mode The blending mode to use in combining the gradient with the layer. Advanced Lightning effect The Advanced Lightning effect creates simulations of electrical discharges.
485 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Composite On Original Composites the lightning with the original layer using the Add blending mode. When deselected, only the lightning is visible. Complexity Specifies the complexity of the turbulence in the lightning.
486 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (upper-left), and with effect applied (lower-left and right) Audio Layer The audio layer you want to use as input. Start Point, End Point Specifies the position at which the spectrum starts or ends if Path is set to None.
487 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Audio Waveform effect Apply the Audio Waveform effect to a video layer to display the audio waveform of a layer that contains audio (and optionally video). You can display the audio waveform in several different ways, including along an open or closed mask path.
488 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Randomness and random seeds ” on page 396 Beam effect The Beam effect simulates the movement of a beam, such as a laser beam. You can make the beam shoot, or you can create a wandlike beam with a stationary start or end point.
489 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Contrast/Sharpness Specifies the contrast of the cell pattern when you use the Bubbles, Crystals, Pillow, Mixed Crystals, or Tubular cell pattern. The control specifies sharpness for any of the Plate or Crystallize options.
490 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc color. Anchor The point of origin of the checkerboard pattern.
491 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Eyedropper Fill effect The Eyedropper Fill effect (formerly the Color Picker effect) applies a sampled color to the source layer.
492 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Spaceship layer (upper-left) composited over layer with Mandelbrot fractal with Lightness Gradient palette (lower-left) and Jul ia fractal (lower- right) Set Choice Specifies the set used.
493 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 High Quality Settings Specify the oversampling settings for the effect: • Oversample Method Specifies the method used to oversample the effect: Edge Detect-Fast-May Miss Pixels performs a simple edge detection and oversamples only those pixels.
494 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The anti-aliasing of the grid borders may cause the visible thickness to vary. Feather The softness of the grid. Invert Grid Inverts the transparent and opaque areas of the grid.
495 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Alpha Channel Specifies that the effect fills either the opaque or transparent areas in the whole image, depending upon the alpha channel value at the point you set the fill point.
496 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Polygon wave type with square stroke profile (lower-left), and Image Contour wave type with Sine stroke profile (lower-right) Producer Point The point from which the waves appear.
497 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Value Channel The color attributes of the source layer used to define the image contours. Invert Input Inverts the chosen value channel option. Value Threshold Specifies the threshold for the chosen value channel.
498 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 fade out at 2 seconds. If the sum of Fade-in Time and Fade-out Time is greater than the Lifespan value, the intersection point of the two fades is calculated so that the wave doesn’t reach full transparency.
499 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Edge Options Options for the edge of the scribble if Fill Type is set to an edge. • Edge Width Controls the width of the edge. • End Cap Controls the ends of scribble lines.
500 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Stroke effect The Stroke effect creates a stroke or border around the path defined by one or more masks. You can also specify stroke color, opacity, and spacing, as well as brush characteristics.
501 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Image Contours If Image Contours is chosen from the Stroke menu, you specify what layer to take the image contours from and how to interpret the input layer. • Input Layer The layer whose image contours are used.
502 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Hardness Determines how sharp or blurry the edges of the stroke are. A value of 1 creates a slight blur; a value of 0.0 blurs the line so that few solid areas of color remain.
503 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Keying effects After Effects includes several built-in keying effects, as well as the Academy Award–winning Keylight effect, which excels at professional-quality color keying.
504 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 2 In the Effect Controls panel, choose Matte Corrected from the View menu. To view and compare the source image, both partial mattes, and the final matte at the same time, choose [A, B, Matte] Corrected, Final from the View menu.
505 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Color Key effect Note: Though the color keying effects built into After Effects can be useful for some purposes, you should try keying with Keylight before attempting to use these built-in keying effects.
506 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Poorly lit greenscreen (upper-left) and background layer (lower-left) are combined using Color Range Key (lower-right).
507 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Difference Matte Key effect A.
508 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 9 Adjust the Matching Tolerance slider to specify the amount of transparency based on how closely colors must match between the layers. Lower values produce less transparency; higher values produce more transparency.
509 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Drag the entire bar left or right to position it under the histogram.
510 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Set Edge Thin to specify how much of the border of the matte is affected by the key.
511 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 4 In the Effect Controls panel, choose Final Output from the View menu. The view you choose appears in the right thumbnail and in the Composition panel. To see other results, work in one of the other views: Source Only Shows the original image without the key applied.
512 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Luma Key effect For information about keying in general, including links to tutorials and other resources, see “ Keying introduction and resources ” on page 375. The Luma Key effect keys out all the regions of a layer with a specified luminance or brightness.
513 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 If you’re not satisfied with the results from using the Spill Suppressor, try applying the Hue/Saturation effect to a layer after keying, and then decrease the saturation value to de-emphasize the key color.
514 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Matte Choker effect The Matte Choker effect repeats a sequence of choking and spreading the matte to fill undesired holes (transparent areas) in opaque regions.
515 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Simple Choker effect The Simple Choker effect shrinks or expands the edges of a matte in small increments to create a cleaner matte.
516 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The Remove Grain and Match Grain effects use a two-step process to manipulate grain without affecting the edges, sharpness, or highlights of an image.
517 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Any mask or matte works in a similar way: The white pixels in it exclude that area of the original image from processing by the grain effect; the black pixels process normally.
518 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Select Invert Match if you want to invert the matte so that the white areas become black and the black areas become white. (The matching color is black in the matte and is processed by the grain effect regardless of the Amount setting.
519 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 3 To change the dimensions of the preview region, change the Width and Height values in the Effect Controls panel to the desired size, in pixels. (Larger preview regions can result in slower rendering.
520 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Manually reposition noise samples Automatic grain or sample selection generally gives acceptable results for the Match Grain or Remove Grain effect, but you can choose to manually position and resize each sample or change the sample number.
521 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Working with added or matched grain The Add Grain effect creates new grain or noise in an image by building the grain from nothing or by basing the properties of the grain on presets.
522 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Several factors can affect the apparent color of the grain that these effects generate, including the following: • The color value of the underlying pixel in the source image.
523 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The distribution of the added noise over the color channels does affect the overall color of the resulting image. With a dark background, the noise tends to add to the image visually, so a red tint or more noise in the red channel gives a reddish hue to the image.
524 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Dust & Scratches effect The Dust & Scratches effect reduces noise and defects by changing dissimilar pixels within a specified radius to be more like their neighboring pixels.
525 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Because the controls for the two effects are nearly identical, you can use most instructions and tutorials created for the Fractal Noise effect to instead guide your use of the Turbulent Noise effect.
526 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 the appearance at 2 revolutions, and so on. To return the Evolution setting to its original state (for example, to create a seamless loop), use the Cycle Evolution option. You can specify how much the noise evolves over a period of time by animating Evolution.
527 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Set a value for Cycle. The evolution completes the number of revolutions you specify for Cycle in the amount of time determined by the distance between Evolution keyframes.
528 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Working with added or matched grain ” on page 521 Match noise or grain between images 1 Make sure that the source and the destination layers are in the same composition.
529 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 To use this control automatically, set the Compensate For Existing Noise slider to 100%. You can then view the noise samples in the destination layer by choosing Compensation Samples in the Viewing Mode menu.
530 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Amount Of Noise The amount of noise to add. Noise Type Use Color Noise adds random values to the red, green, and blue channels individually.
531 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Cycle Specifies the numbers of revolutions of the Noise Phase that the noise cycles through before it repeats (available only when Cycle Noise is selected). Alter the timing of the Noise Phase keyframes to adjust the speed of the Noise Phase cycles.
532 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Good degraining depends on good noise sampling. The results of the automatic sampling depend on the image content and noise type. You can also change the number, size, and position of the samples to get the best results for a particular image.
533 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Adjust any of the following in the Fine Tuning controls group to improve the balance between noise reduction and retained sharpness: Chroma Suppression Suppresses some of the chroma from the noise to clean up the image.
534 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Sharpen an image with Unsharp Mask controls The Remove Grain effect contains Unsharp Mask controls, which increase the contrast of edges and fine details to help restore some of the sharpness that may have been lost during the grain reduction process.
535 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Wrap Back Remaps triangularly, so that values above 1.0 or below 0 fall back into the range. This option reveals subtle detail when Contrast is set above 100. When used as a luma matte, the layer reveals more detailed textured areas of transparency.
536 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Saturation Renders the fractal noise as saturation values instead of grayscale. The Hue and Lightness of the original layer are maintained. If the original layer is grayscale, nothing happens.
537 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Ghost effects occur if the luminance values of one color exceed the luminance values of another color to such an extent that you can see the first color through the wrong lens of anaglyph glasses.
538 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Red Blue LR Tints the Right View layer red and the Left View layer blue (cyan) using the luminance values of each layer.
539 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Bevel Edges effect The Bevel Edges effect gives a chiseled and lighted 3D appearance to the edges of an image. Edge locations are determined by the alpha channel of the source image.
540 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: To apply a drop shadow to a layer that rotates, rotate the layer using the Transform effect and then apply the Drop Shadow effect. You can also use nesting, precomposing, or an adjustment layer to achieve this result.
541 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Shadow Only Select to render only the shadow. Resize Layer Select to allow the shadow to extend beyond the original boundaries of the layer.
542 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Material controls The Material controls specify reflection values. Diffuse Reflection Gives objects form-defining shading. Shading depends on the angle at which the light strikes the surface and is independent of the position of the viewer.
543 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), gradient layer (center), and with Card Dance applied (right) Apply Card Dance to the layer to use for the front of the cards. To set the view, use the rotation or perspective controls, or match the perspective of the effect in any scene by corner-pinning.
544 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Position, Rotation, and Scale controls Position (X, Y, Z), Rotation (X, Y, Z), and Scale (X, Y) specify the transformation properties you want to adjust. Because Card Dance is a 3D effect, you can control these properties separately for each axis of the cards.
545 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website in which he demonstrates how to use the Caustics effect with the Wave World effect. Note: The Caustics effect ignores masks and alpha channels on the layer to which it is applied.
546 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Water controls Water Surface Specifies the layer to use as the surface of the water. Caustics uses the luminance of this layer as a height map for generating a 3D water surface.
547 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (upper-left), with Foam applied (lower-left), and with a robot layer used as the Bubble Texture Layer (lower-right) You can also substitute any image or movie for bubbles.
548 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 upper-left corner of the screen if you don’t select Zoom Producer Point. If you select Zoom Producer Point, the point moves with the universe as it is zoomed out, and the point ends up closer to the center of the screen.
549 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Pop Velocity Controls how popping bubbles affect each other. When a bubble pops, it affects other bubbles around it by leaving a hole that other bubbles can fill, pushing other bubbles away, or popping other bubbles.
550 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Bubble Velocity faces the bubble in the direction of its motion. This setting is the most useful for flocking-style animations. Environment Map Specifies the layer that is reflected in the bubbles.
551 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc color. Particles shooting out of the spacecraft layer (upper-left), text characters used as p.
552 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 When you use a layer as a source for particles, Particle Playground ignores any changes you’ve made to that layer within that composition, such as changing the Position values.
553 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 With the Grid, a new particle appears on every frame at each grid intersection.
554 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Radius Of New Particles Specifies the radius of the particles resulting from the explosion.
555 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Absolute Random Takes a frame at random from the layer, by using a time in the range from 0 to the Random Time Max you specify. Choose Absolute Random when you want each particle to represent a different single frame of a multiframe layer.
556 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Using Selection Text values to differently affect subsets of text You can differently affect only certain subsets of text particles by specifying Selection Text values.
557 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Gravity controls Use Gravity controls to pull existing particles in a direction you specify. Particles accelerate in the direction of gravity. Apply in a vertical direction to create falling particles, such as rain or snow, or rising particles, such as champagne bubbles.
558 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The simulation space is not bounded by the dimensions of the layer to which Particle Playground is applied. You may need to use a selection map that is larger than the Particle Playground layer so that the selection map affects dots that are not visible.
559 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 4 Specify the minimum and maximum values you want the layer map to produce for each Map To group. Min is the value to which a black pixel is mapped, and Max is the value to which a white pixel is mapped.
560 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 result in no adjustment, similar to flat land. Lower pixel values represent less resistance to a particle’s force, similar to a downhill grade. Higher pixel values represent more resistance to a particle’s force, similar to an uphill grade.
561 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • You use a layer map to affect the Scale property of particles and find that the smallest particles aren’t small enough while the largest resulting particles are too large.
562 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The alpha channel in a control layer modifies the color values in the control layer before Particle Playground uses the control layer’s pixel values. Areas where the alpha channel value is 0 (transparent areas of a control layer) don’t affect particle values.
563 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc color. Original (upper-left), and as Shatter is applied over time to reveal another layer (lo.
564 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Wireframe + Forces Displays the wireframe view, plus a blue representation of the force spheres. This view includes camera controls, so you can position everything precisely in 3D space.
565 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: To begin the shattering at a time other than layer time zero, animate the Radius property, not the Strength property. Pieces inside the force sphere defined by the Radius property are pulled outside the frame by gravity even if Strength is set to 0.
566 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Any application of z-axis rotation appears only when a second force hits the layer. The pieces do not rotate from the first blast if only z-axis rotation is selected. Randomness Affects the initial velocities and spins generated by the force sphere.
567 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 same pixel information on both sides. Side Layer maps an extrusion of the chosen layer to the extruded sides of the piece, as if the chosen layer is also mapped to the front and back, and the layer has been sliced through.
568 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Use the Colorama effect to posterize the colors of an image to these eight colors. Turn off Interpolate Palette in the Colorama effect controls. See “ Colorama effect ” on page 454.
569 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 To understand how this effect works, consider the following information about the physics of waves: A wave consists of a peak and a trough. The amplitude of a wave is the height, or distance, between the peak and trough.
570 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Transparency Controls the clarity of the water by adjusting how opaque the alpha channel is in shallower areas. For example, you can easily see to the bottom of a pool filled with fresh water, but you can see only an inch or two into a pool filled with coffee.
571 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You can create a pulsing wave effect by animating the steepness of the ground so that the ground pokes through the water, producing waves. Then use the Wave Strength control to intensify the effect.
572 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Brush Strokes effect The Brush Strokes effect applies a rough painted look to an image. You can also use this effect to achieve a pointillist style by setting the length of the brush strokes to 0 and increasing the stroke density.
573 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The Cartoon effect works in three stages: 1 It smooths the image and removes minor variations with a blurring operation similar to that used by the Bilateral Blur effect. Modify the Detail Radius and Detail Threshold properties to control this phase.
574 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Cartoon effect applied with Render set to Fill Cartoon effect applied with Render set to Edges Cartoon effect applied with.
575 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Cartoon effect properties Render Fill, Edges, or Fill & Edges. Determines which operations to perform and which results to display.
576 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) More Help topics “ Emboss effect ” on page 576 Emboss effect The Emboss effect sharpens the edges of objects in an image and suppresses colors.
577 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Glow effect The Glow effect finds the brighter parts of an image and then brightens those pixels and surrounding pixels to create a diffuse, glowing aura. The Glow effect can also simulate overexposure of brightly lit objects.
578 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 A & B Midpoint The midpoint specifies the balance between the two colors used in the gradient. Lower percentages use less of the A color. Higher percentages use less of the B color.
579 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Posterize effect The Posterize effect posterizes colors; the number of colors is reduced and gradual color transitions are replaced by abrupt color transitions. You specify the number of tonal levels (or brightness values) for each channel in an image.
580 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Evolution Options Evolution Options provide controls that render the effect for one short cycle and then loop it for the duration of your layer. Use these controls to pre-render your roughen elements into loops, and thus speed up rendering time.
581 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc color. Strobe Color The color of the strobe light. Blend With Original The transparency of the effect. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top.
582 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Threshold effect The Threshold effect converts grayscale or color images to high-contrast, black-and-white images. Specify a certain level as a threshold; all pixels lighter than the threshold convert to white and all pixels darker convert to black.
583 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Hexadecimal Base-16 numbers (digits from 0 to F). Hexadecimal numbers increment by 0x1 for every 0.0000125 that the Value/Offset/Random Max value increases, and increments by 0x10000 for every 1.
584 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Time Source (CS5.5 and later) The source used for the effect. • Layer Source Timecode is displayed according to the timecode from the source footage of the layer. • Composition Timecode is displayed according to the timecode from the composition.
585 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Echo effect The Echo effect combines frames from different times in a layer. The Echo effect has a variety of uses, from a simple visual echo to streaking and smearing effects.
586 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Posterize Time effect The Posterize Time effect locks a layer to a specific frame rate.
587 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Time Offset The relative time in the comparison layer, in seconds, where the layers are compared.
588 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Like the Displacement Map effect, the Time Displacement effect uses a displacement map, but it bases the movement of pixels in the layer on luminance values in the map.
589 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 4 Choose Effect > Time > Time Displacement. 5 Choose a displacement map from the Time Displacement Layer menu, which lists all layers in the composition. Grayscale maps are recommended.
590 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Adjust Time By controls Choose Speed to specify a time adjustment as a percentage. Choose Source Frame to specify a time adjustment by identifying which source frame is to play at which time.
591 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Source Crops If the image contains unwanted pixels or artifacts at the edges, use Source Crops controls to specify image boundaries. Pixels from the boundaries are repeated to fill the area beyond the boundaries to the edges of the layer.
592 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Block Dissolve effect The Block Dissolve effect makes a layer disappear in random blocks.
593 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Randomness and random seeds ” on page 396 “ Common Lighting controls and Material controls ” on.
594 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Corner Pins controls Corner Pinning is an alternative camera control system. Use it as an aid for compositing the result of the effect into a scene on a flat surface that is tilted with respect to the frame.
595 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (upper-left), and with effect applied (lower-left and right) The gradient layer can be a still image or a moving image. The gradient layer must be in the same composition as the layer to which you apply Gradient Wipe.
596 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (upper-left), and with effect applied (lower-left and right) More Help topics “ About Transition effects and th.
597 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Radial Wipe effect The Radial Wipe effect reveals an underlying layer using a wipe that circles around a specified point. At Best quality, the edges of the wipe are anti-aliased.
598 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Utility effects Apply Color LUT effect Apply the Apply Color LUT effect to a layer to transform the colors of the layer according to a color lookup table (LUT). LUTs are sometimes used to perform manual color correction or color management tasks.
599 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Pete O’Connell provides an article on the Creative COW website that describes the use of the Cineon Converter effect.
600 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 When specifying a rendering intent, you can choose to use black point compression. Black point compression ensures that the shadow detail in the image is preserved by simulating the full dynamic range of the output device.
601 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You should not need to use this effect when working with effects that work with 32-bpc color, because these effects have been updated to automatically compensate for layer size.
602 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Select Expand Range for Mode for the second instance of the HDR Compander effect. 8 Set Gain and Gamma to the same values as set in the first instance of the HDR Compander effect.
603 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Wireframe is selected, the specular highlight is indicated by a red plus sign (+) if it isn’t visible on the layer (that is, if the center of the highlight doesn’t intersect the layer) and a green plus sign (+) if the highlight is visible.
604 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Branch Width The average width of each branch as a fraction of the width of the lightning bolt. Speed How fast the lightning bolt undulates. Stability How closely the lightning follows the line defined by the start and end points.
605 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Handles appear in the Composition panel only if the effect is selected in the Effect Controls panel and if you aren’t animating text along a mask or path.
606 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Tracking Average distance between characters. Kerning Controls the horizontal distance between two characters. If you change the text, specified kerning is preserved for all unchanged character pairs.
607 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Baseline Shift Specifies the distance in pixels between the path and the bottom of the characters. Depending on the path shape, text may appear to be better spaced if the path passes through the centers of the characters.
608 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Move vertices, circle centers, and tangents • To move the Vertex 1/Circle Center and the Tangent 1/Circle Point together, drag the outer circle of the Vertex 1/Circle Center.
609 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 14: Markers and metadata Layer markers and composition markers Use composition markers and layer markers to store comments and other metadata and mark important times in a composition or layer.
610 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 If you add one composition to another, the original composition becomes nested as a layer in the containing composition. All of the composition markers from the nested composition become layer markers in the timeline of the containing composition.
611 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 • To remove a composition marker, drag the marker to the Comp Marker Bin button or Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the marker.
612 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 To convert selected properties to cue point parameters in layer markers, choose File > Scripts > Convert Selected Properties To Markers.jsx. This script adds a layer marker on the layer at the same time as each keyframe for each selected property.
613 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources about markers To view video tutorials on working with markers, cue points, and XMP metadata go to the Adobe websit.
614 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 XMP metadata included in an F4V or FLV file can be read and used by ActionScript, so you can use XMP metadata to add interactivity to a video playing in Flash Player.
615 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 The After Effects scripting interface provides additional tools for using and interacting with XMP metadata.
616 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 To see Files metadata in the Metadata panel, you must first select a file in the Project panel. You can then add or change information in any of the metadata categories. If you select multiple files, then changes that you make will be made in all of the selected files.
617 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 • Windows Media (.wmv) • some MPEG formats (.mpg, .m2v, .mp4) Note: XMP metadata is written to sidecar (.xmp) files for some MPEG formats. For files of other types, the Include Source XMP Metadata option is unavailable.
618 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 , and Soundbooth divide the Metadata panel into separate sections for different asset types. Adobe Premiere Pro Separates metadata in these sections: • Clip Displays properties for clip instances you select in the Project panel or Timeline panel.
619 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do any of the following: • To save a customized set of displayed metadata, click • Save Settings • . Then enter a name, and click OK. • To display a previously saved set of metadata, select it from the menu.
620 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 15: Memory, storage, and performance Memory and storage Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects Advantages of a 64-bit application and 64-bit address space The m.
621 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects can start additional processes of the After Effects application to run in the background to assist the main foreground application with the rendering of frames for RAM previews or final output.
622 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 CPUs Reserved For Other Applications Set this value to a number other than 0 to prevent After Effects from using all of the CPUs (processor cores) in your computer system.
623 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Particle Playground • Shadow/Highlight Note: Some third-party effects—such as CC Time Blend and RE:Vision Effects Video Gogh—are also incompatible with the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing feature.
624 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Adding per-character 3D properties • Precomposing without collapsing transformations • Using certain blending m.
625 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The value 2,097,152 is a conversion factor that accounts for the number of bytes per megabyte (2 20 ), the number of bits per byte (8), and the number of channels per pixel (4).
626 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The disk cache is not used for RAM previews. It is only used for standard previews.
627 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 A database retains links to each of the cached media files. This media cache database is shared with Adobe Media Encode.
628 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Make sure that your system has enough RAM. Optimum performance is achieved with computer systems with at least 2 GB of installed RAM per processor core.
629 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Before rendering, put all of your source footage files on a fast, local disk—not the one that you’re rendering and exporting to. A good way to do this is with the Collect Files command.
630 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Select Draft 3D in the Timeline panel menu, which disables all lights and shadows that fall on 3D layers.
631 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 16: Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Plug-ins Plug-ins are small software modules—with filename extensions such as .aex, .pbk, .pbg, and .8bi—that add functionality to an application. After Effects effects are implemented as plug-ins, as are some features for importing and working with certain file formats.
632 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 On Mac OS, press Command+Option+Shift+Help to generate a list of all plug-ins loaded into After Effects (including version numbers).
633 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit Increasingly, many effect plug-ins for After Effects are written in the Adobe Pixel Bender language.
634 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The path for After Effects CS5.5 and later differs in the version number portion of the path. Several scripts come with After Effects and are automatically installed in the Scripts folder.
635 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 Writing and modifying scripts You can write your own scripts for use in After Effects by using the script editor, which is part of the ExtendScript Toolkit. The ExtendScript Toolkit provides a convenient interface for creating, debugging, and testing your own scripts.
636 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Expressions ” on page 637 “ Plug-ins ” on page 631 “ Scripts ” on page 633 “ Automate.
637 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 17: Expressions Expression basics Many of the examples in this section are based on examples provided by Dan Ebberts. Dan Ebberts also has an excellent collection of example expressions and tutorials for learning how to work with expressions on his MotionScript website .
638 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 When you are animating text, you can use the Expression selector to specify how much you want an animator property to affect each text character. You can add one or more Expression selectors to an animator group, and that animator group can contain one or more properties.
639 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 For example, you can double the result by typing *2 at the end of the expression; or you can halve the result by typing /2 at the end of the expression. As you develop comfort editing expressions, you can combine these simple operations—and more.
640 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Edit an expression with the pick whip If you are not familiar with JavaScript or the After Effects expression language, you can still take advantage of the power of expressions by using the pick whip.
641 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Because the default is to use compact English, this document uses compact English in most examples and illustrations. 1 Drag the pick whip to another property in the Timeline panel or Effect Controls panel.
642 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 6 Again, look at the expression elements reference to see that layer(index) returns a Layer object. Look at “ Layer General attributes and methods (expression reference) ” on page 661, and find the element you want to use.
643 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Writing expressions for source text The Source Text property of a text layer is interpreted by expressions as a JavaScript String. You can use the pick whip to retrieve the source text from another text layer; however, only the style of the first character of the destination layer is used.
644 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 • Type /* at the beginning of the comment and */ at the end of the comment. Any text between /* and */ is ignored. For example: /* This is a multiline comment. */ For examples of this type of comment, see “ Save and reuse expressions ” on page 644.
645 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: As with pasting keyframes and other items, you can often paste the item into the target layer and rely on After Effects to determine which property should be the target of the paste operation.
646 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Aharon Rabinowitz’s three-part “After Effects Expression Controls” series of video tutorials on the Creative COW website introduces the Expression Controls effects and shows some basic examples of their uses.
647 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Accessing attributes and methods You use the expression language to access attributes and methods of layer properties. To access a value, use a chain of object references separated by the period ( .
648 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 You can access the individual elements of an Array object by using brackets and an index number to indicate which element you want. The elements in an Array object are indexed starting from 0.
649 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 x = thisComp.layer("Layer A").position[0]; y = thisComp.layer("Layer B").position[1]; [x,y] You can create an expression that refers to just one value within the array of a 2D or 3D property.
650 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 thisComp.layer(1).position thisComp.layer(1).position.valueAtTime(time) To use a relative time, add an incremental time value to the time argument. For example, to get the Position value 5 seconds before the current time, use the following expression: thisComp.
651 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Expression language reference Use the After Effects expression elements along with standard JavaScript elements to write your expressions.
652 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 posterizeTime(framesPerSecond) Return type: Number. Argument type: framesPerSecond is a Number. The framesPerSecond value becomes the frame rate from which the rest of the expression operates.
653 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 timeToCurrentFormat(t = time + thisComp.displayStartTime, fps = 1.0 / thisComp.frameDuration, isDuration = false) Return type: String. Argument type: t and fps are Numbers; isDuration is a Boolean.
654 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Argument type: value , limit1 , and limit2 are Numbers or Arrays. The value of each component of value is constrained to fall between the values of the corresponding values of limit1 and limit2 .
655 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Argument type: offset is a Number, timeless is a Boolean. The random and gaussRandom methods use a seed value that controls the sequence of numbers.
656 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 If minValOrArray and maxValOrArray are Numbers, this method returns a random number. Approximately 90% of the results are in the range from minValOrArray to maxValOrArray , and the remaining 10% are outside this range.
657 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Argument type: t is a Number, and value1 and value2 are Numbers or Arrays. Similar to linear with the same arguments, except that the interpolation eases in and out so that the velocity is 0 at the start and end points.
658 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Other Math methods (expression reference) Chris and Trish Meyer provide additional information about these methods in an article on the ProVideo Coalition website . degreesToRadians(degrees) Return type: Number.
659 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Returns the MarkerKey object of the marker with the specified name. The name value is the name of the marker, as typed in the comment field in the marker dialog box, for example, marker.key("1") .
660 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 shutterPhase Return type: Number. Returns the shutter phase of the composition, in degrees. bgColor Return type: Array [4]. Returns the background color of the composition. pixelAspect Return type: Number.
661 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects finds the effect by its name in the Effect Controls panel. The name can be the default name or a user- defined name. If multiple effects have the same name, the effect closest to the top of the Effect Controls panel is used.
662 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: In general, the value of outPoint is greater than the value of inPoint . However, if a layer is reversed in time, the value of inPoint is greater than the value of outPoint . Similarly, the value of startTime can be greater than the value of inPoint .
663 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Layer Properties attributes and methods (expression reference) When you add masks, effects, paint, or text to a layer, After Effects adds new properties to the Timeline panel.
664 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 marker.nearestKey(1).time This expression returns the time of the marker on the layer nearest to the current time: marker.nearestKey(time).time marker.numKeys Return type: Number. Returns the total number of markers on the layer.
665 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Layer Space Transforms methods (expression reference) Use layer space transform methods to transform values from one space to another, such as from layer space to world space. The “from” methods transform values from layer space to the named space (composition or world).
666 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Transforms a vector from layer space to composition space. Example: toCompVec([1,0]) fromCompVec(vec, t=time) Return type: Array [2 or 3]. Argument type: vec is an Array [2 or 3], and t is a Number.
667 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Returns the aperture value of a camera, in pixels. blurLevel Return type: Property. Returns the blur level value of a camera as a percentage.
668 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Argument type: name is a String. Returns a property within an effect. Effect control points are always in layer space. Example: effect("Bulge").param("Bulge Height") param(index) Return type: Property.
669 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 speed Return type: Number. Returns a 1D, positive speed value equal to the speed at which the property is changing at the default time. This element can be used only for spatial properties. speedAtTime(t) Return type: Number.
670 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 amount that amp is multiplied by for each octave, and t is the base start time. For this function to be meaningful, the property it samples must be animated, because the function alters only the time of sampling, not the value.
671 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 David Van Brink provides an instructional article and sample project on his omino pixel blog that show how to use the Echo effect, the Particle Playground effect, and the loopOut method to animate a swarm of stylized swimming bacteria.
672 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Returns the index of a property relative to other properties in its property group, including property groups within masks, effects, text animators, selectors, shapes, trackers, and track points.
673 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 d = Math.abs(time - nearestKey(time).time); easeOut(d, 0, .1, 100, 0) value Return type: Number or Array. Returns the value of the keyframe. time Return type: Number. Returns the time of the keyframe.
674 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Contents of Chapter field in marker dialog box. url Return type: String. Contents of URL field in marker dialog box. frameTarget Return type: String. Contents of Frame Target field in marker dialog box.
675 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Chris Zwar provides an example project on his website for automatically arranging still images or videos into a grid (like a video wall). You can easily adjust position and spacing with sliders that are connected to a system of expressions.
676 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Expression example: Position one layer between two others This example expression positions and maintains one layer at a balanced distance between two other layers. 1 Start with three layers.
677 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Expression example: Fade opacity of a 3D layer based on distance from camera ❖ Apply the following expression to the Opacity property of a 3D layer: startFade = 500; // Start fade 500 pixels from camera.
678 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 n = 0; t = 0; if (marker.numKeys > 0){ n = marker.nearestKey(time).index; if (marker.key(n).time > time) n--; } if (n > 0) t = time - marker.key(n).time; amp = 15; freq = 5; decay = 3.
679 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Expression example: Match camera focal plane to another layer ❖ Apply the following expression to the Focus Distance property of a camera layer to have its focus distance match the distance to the anchor point of a layer named “target”: target = thisComp.
680 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 18: Rendering and exporting Basics of rendering and exporting Rendering and exporting overview Rendering is the creation of the frames of a movie from a composition.
681 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Using the Render Queue panel, you can render the same composition to different formats or with different settings, all with one .
682 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Supported output formats Important: The trial version of After Effects CS5 doesn't include some features that depend on third-party software components that are only included in the full version of After Effects.
683 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 • Radiance (HDR, RGBE, XYZE) • SGI (SGI, BW, RGB, 16 bpc) • Targa (TGA, VBA, ICB, VST) • TIFF (TIF; 8, 16, and 32 bpc) A.
684 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Click the triangle next to the Output To heading in the Render Queue panel to choose a name for the output file based on a naming convention, and then choose a location; or click the text next to the Output To heading to enter any name.
685 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 • To remove a render item from the render queue (change its status from Queued to Unqueued), deselect its entry in the Render column. The item remains in the Render Queue panel.
686 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 To view more information about the current render operation, click the triangle to the left of the Current Render heading. The Current Render pane collapses (closes) after a short time.
687 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Carl Larsen demonstrates the use of the Collect Files command and the Consolidate All Footage command in a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to organize, consolidate, and archive project files and footage.
688 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 The names of these folders appear in parentheses to signal to any attending render engines that they should not search these folders for projects. David Torno provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website that exports specified information about a project.
689 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Name output files automatically The Use Default File Name And Folder preference ensures that all compositions added to the render queue are automatically assigned a unique output filename (except for files created by saving RAM previews, which still use the composition name).
690 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The default render settings template is assigned to a render item when it is created. To change which render settings template is the default, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you choose a render settings template from the menu.
691 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Color Depth Current Settings (default) uses the project bit depth. (See “ Color depth and high dynamic range color ” on page 263.
692 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Before rendering, check the Audio Output settings in the Output Module Settings dialog box to ensure that they are correct.
693 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Changes to an existing template do not affect render items that are already in the render queue.
694 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Resize Specifies the size of your output movie. Select Lock Aspect Ratio To if you want to retain the existing frame aspect ratio when resizing the frame. Select Low Resize Quality when rendering tests, and select High Resize Quality when creating a final movie.
695 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Important: The embedded version of the Adobe Media Encoder used to manage export settings within After Effects output modules does not provide all of the features of the full, stand-alone Adobe Media Encoder application.
696 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You choose Post-Render Action options in the Output Module group, so be aware that changing the Output Module template could also change the Post-Render Action option. (See “ Output modules and output module settings ” on page 691.
697 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 OpenGL in After Effects can render the following features: • Shadows, except point light shadows (Colored shadows appear gray.
698 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Render settings ” on page 689 “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player You can render and export movies from After Effects as movies that can play in Adobe Flash Player.
699 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Working with Flash and After Effects ” on page 21 “ Basics of rendering and exporting ” on page 680 About XFL files XFL files are essentially the XML equivalent of FLA files.
700 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Working in Flash Professional with a FLA document created from an XFL file The Library panel in Flash Professional is similar to the Project panel in After Effects.
701 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 • The layer is not a 3D layer. Stage 2: Remaining source files are converted to PNG sequences or FLV files, if possible.
702 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects relies on the embedded version of the Adobe Media Encoder to create FLV files. The Adobe Media Encoder can’t create FLV files with pixel dimensions greater than 1920x1080.
703 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Working with Flash and After Effects ” on page 21 “ Basics of rendering and exporting ” on page 680 SWF export settings JPEG Quality Specifies the quality of rasterized images.
704 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 _top Loads the web link into the top frame in the current window. _level0 Loads another SWF file into level 0. The current file typically plays at level 0; another file loaded into level 0 usually replaces the current file.
705 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 You can play a movie in an FLV or F4V container file in many different ways, including the following: • Import the file into the Flash Professional authoring application and publish the video in a SWF file.
706 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences Rendering and exporting a sequence of still images You can export a rendered movie as a sequence of still images, in which case each frame of the movie is output as a separate still-image file.
707 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 PSD files generated by Save Frame As > Photoshop Layers have the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 ICC color profile embedded if color management is disabled for the project (the project's working color space is set to None).
708 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 To render just Composition_1 to a specified file, enter this command: aerender -project c:projectsproject_1.aep -comp "Composition_1" -output c :outputproject_1project_1.
709 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website that takes items that are ready to render in the render queue and sends them to render in the background using aerender.
710 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 When you have multiple render engines on multiple computers monitoring a watch folder, they cooperate to achieve optimal efficiency.
711 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 When you install an After Effects render engine on a computer, it contains all the plug-ins included with After Effects. If a composition uses a plug-in from another manufacturer, the plug-in must be present on all computers that will render the composition.
712 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Select Enable Watch Folder Render, click Collect, and name the Collect Files folder.
713 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 When you render a still-image sequence with multiple computers, rendering in each copy of After Effects starts at approximately the same time.
714 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects can render sequences and movie files into segments that are limited to a specified number of files or by file size. This is useful when preparing a movie for a medium such as CD-ROM, for which file or folder size may need to be limited to chunks of 650 MB or less.
715 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 5 In the Render Queue panel, next to Render Settings, choose the appropriate preset from the menu. For example, if you’re converting to DV footage, select DV Settings from the menu.
716 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Scaling a movie down Several methods exist for producing a reduced-size movie from your composition, each with tradeoffs between speed and quality: Nest the composition Create a new composition at the smaller dimensions, and nest the large composition inside it.
717 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Scaling a movie up Increasing the size of the output from a rendered composition reduces the image quality of a movie and is not recommended.
718 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Adjust the render settings as desired, and click Render. More Help topics “ Render settings ” on page 689 “ Render and e.
719 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Click the underlined Render Settings name, and then choose Upper Field First from the Field Render menu.
720 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 19: Keyboard shortcuts Modify keyboard shortcuts To modify keyboard shortcuts, use the KeyEd Up script from Jeff Almasol, which is available on the Adobe After Effects Exchange website .
721 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Projects (keyboard shortcuts) Preferences (keyboard shortcuts) Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts) Note: (Mac OS) Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by the operating system.
722 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Open or close Info panel Ctrl+2 Command+2 Open or close Preview panel Ctrl+3 Command+3 Open or close Audio panel Ctrl+4 Command+4 Ope.
723 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Activating tools (keyboard shortcuts) Note: You can activate some tools only under certain circumstances. For example, you can activate a camera tool only when the active composition contains a camera layer.
724 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Compositions and the work area (keyboard shortcuts) Time navigation (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS New composition Ctrl+N.
725 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Previews (keyboard shortcuts) Go to previous In point or Out point Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Left Arrow Command+Option+Shift+Left Arrow Go to ne.
726 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad.
727 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Footage (keyboard shortcuts) Zoom in Timeline panel to single-frame units (Press again to zoom out to show entire composition duration.
728 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Effects and animation presets (keyboard shortcuts) Layers (keyboard shortcuts) Note: Some operations do not affect shy layers.
729 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad.
730 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts) Note: This table contains double-letter shortcuts (for example, LL). To use these shortcuts, press the letters in quick succession.
731 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Showing properties in the Effect Controls panel (keyboard shortcuts) Modifying layer properties (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows M.
732 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 3D layers (keyboard shortcuts) Note: (Mac OS) Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by the operating system. See Mac OS Help for instructions to reassign Dashboard & Expose shortcuts.
733 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Keyframes and the Graph Editor (keyboard shortcuts) Note: (Mac OS) Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by the operating system. See Mac OS Help for instructions to reassign Dashboard & Expose shortcuts.
734 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Extend or reduce selection by one word to right or left in horizontal text Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow or Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow Command+Sh.
735 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Masks (keyboard shortcuts) Justify paragraph; right align last line Ctrl+Alt+Shift+J Command+Option+Shift+J Justify paragraph; force last line Ctrl+Shift+F Command+Shift+F Decrease or increase font size of selected text by 2 units Ctrl+Shift+, (comma) or Ctrl+Shift+.
736 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Paint tools (keyboard shortcuts) Invert selected mask Ctrl+Shift+I Command+Shift+I Open Mask Feather dialog box for selected mask Ctr.
737 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad.
738 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Motion tracking (keyboard shortcuts) Saving, exporting, and rendering (keyboard shortcuts) Go to a composition marker (0-9) 0-9 on ma.
Ein wichtiger Punkt beim Kauf des Geräts Adobe After Effects CS5 (oder sogar vor seinem Kauf) ist das durchlesen seiner Bedienungsanleitung. Dies sollten wir wegen ein paar einfacher Gründe machen:
Wenn Sie Adobe After Effects CS5 noch nicht gekauft haben, ist jetzt ein guter Moment, um sich mit den grundliegenden Daten des Produkts bekannt zu machen. Schauen Sie zuerst die ersten Seiten der Anleitung durch, die Sie oben finden. Dort finden Sie die wichtigsten technischen Daten für Adobe After Effects CS5 - auf diese Weise prüfen Sie, ob das Gerät Ihren Wünschen entspricht. Wenn Sie tiefer in die Benutzeranleitung von Adobe After Effects CS5 reinschauen, lernen Sie alle zugänglichen Produktfunktionen kennen, sowie erhalten Informationen über die Nutzung. Die Informationen, die Sie über Adobe After Effects CS5 erhalten, werden Ihnen bestimmt bei der Kaufentscheidung helfen.
Wenn Sie aber schon Adobe After Effects CS5 besitzen, und noch keine Gelegenheit dazu hatten, die Bedienungsanleitung zu lesen, sollten Sie es aufgrund der oben beschriebenen Gründe machen. Sie erfahren dann, ob Sie die zugänglichen Funktionen richtig genutzt haben, aber auch, ob Sie keine Fehler begangen haben, die den Nutzungszeitraum von Adobe After Effects CS5 verkürzen könnten.
Jedoch ist die eine der wichtigsten Rollen, die eine Bedienungsanleitung für den Nutzer spielt, die Hilfe bei der Lösung von Problemen mit Adobe After Effects CS5. Sie finden dort fast immer Troubleshooting, also die am häufigsten auftauchenden Störungen und Mängel bei Adobe After Effects CS5 gemeinsam mit Hinweisen bezüglich der Arten ihrer Lösung. Sogar wenn es Ihnen nicht gelingen sollte das Problem alleine zu bewältigen, die Anleitung zeigt Ihnen die weitere Vorgehensweise – den Kontakt zur Kundenberatung oder dem naheliegenden Service.
