ADOBE® AFTER EFFECTS® Help and tutorials April 2014
Contents What’s new................................................................................................................................................... 1 New feature summary (Dec 2013).......................................................................................................................................... 2 Workspace and workflow..............................................................................................................................
Animating with Puppet tools............................................................................................................................................... 253 Tracking 3D Camera Movement | CC, CS6........................................................................................................................ 260 Time-stretching and time-remapping..................................................................................................................................
Markers..................................................................................................................................................... 629 Layer markers and composition markers............................................................................................................................630 XMP metadata....................................................................................................................................................................
What's new 1
What's new in After Effects CC 12.2 (December 2013) This document describes the new and updated features in After Effects CC 12.2. For information on what's new in previous releases of After Effects CC, see the following articles: What's new in After Effects CC What's new in After Effects CC 12.
A new element, Project Folder, has been added to the Add Property menu under the File Name and Location template. To choose this element: Click the Output To drop-down list in the Render Queue panel. Choose Custom. Click the Add Property button. You could also simply type [projectFolder] in the Template dialog box with Custom Preset. The [projectFolder] keyword can be used in the combination with other "path" keywords. For example, the template [projectFolder]/output/final_[compName].
dialog box. Previously, paths and folders were not supported in the templates. 2. Output Movies that use image sequence formats will automatically use the new Comp Folder and Comp Name template, so that image sequence files are contained within this folder. This feature grew out of user discussions and requests to have image sequence files into a single folder. This feature thus helps users avoid clutter especially if they save a large file sequence into a folder. 3.
Changes to location of installed scripts In After Effects 12.2, if you drag and drop a script (.jsx or .jsxbin) file onto the Project panel, the script is copied to the following user location: (Windows) \Users\[user_name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\12.2 (Mac OS) /Users/[user_name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/12.2 Relaunch After Effects to see the scripts (that are located in the user space) under the File > Scripts submenu.
Workspace and workflow 6
Setup and installation Installing the software Activate the software To submit a feature request or bug report about After Effects, choose Help > Send Feedback. To the top Installing the software Before installing Adobe After Effects software, review complete system requirements and recommendations in the Read Me file. The Read Me file is included in the Release Notes document available through the After Effects support section of the Adobe website.
General user interface items Activate a tool Open panel, viewer, and context menus Columns Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels Scroll or zoom with the mouse wheel Undo changes After Effects user interface tips To the top Activate a tool The Tools panel can be displayed as a toolbar across the top of the application window or as a normal, dockable panel. Note: Controls related to some tools appear only when the tool is selected in the Tools panel.
The Project, Timeline, and Render Queue panels contain columns. To show or hide columns, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a column heading (or choose Columns from the panel menu), and select the columns that you want to show or hide. A check mark indicates that the column is shown. Note: In general, the search and filter functions in the Project and Timeline panels only operate on the content of columns that are shown. To reorder columns, select a column name and drag it to a new location.
To show only footage items for which the name or comment contains a specific string, start typing the string. To show only footage items for which the source file is missing, type the entire word missing. (This search works whether or not the File Path column is shown, which is an exception to the general rule that only shown columns are searched.) To show only unused footage items, type the entire word unused. To show only used footage items, type the entire word used.
Use ClearType text anti-aliasing on Windows. ClearType makes the outlines of system text, such as menus and dialog boxes, easier to read. See Windows Help for information on how to enable ClearType text anti-aliasing. To show tool tips, select the Show Tool Tips preference (Edit > > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS)). Use a workspace that contains the Info panel, and leave that panel in front of other panels in its panel group whenever possible.
Workflows General workflow in After Effects Basic workflow tutorial: Create a simple movie To the top General workflow in After Effects Overview of general workflow in After Effects Whether you use Adobe After Effects to animate a simple title, create complex motion graphics, or composite realistic visual effects, you generally follow the same basic workflow, though you may repeat or skip some steps.
6. Render and export Add one or more compositions to the render queue to render them at the quality settings you choose and to create movies in the formats that you specify. For more information, see Basics of rendering and exporting and encoding quick start. Getting Started with After Effects ... Read More by See this page on the After Effects Region of Interest http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2010/01/ge... blog for a collection of resources for getting started with After Effects. http://blogs.
Choose Composition > New Composition. Press Ctrl+N (Windows) or Command+N (Mac OS). 2. Change the Duration value in the Composition Settings dialog box by entering 5.00 (5 seconds), choose Web Video from the Preset menu, and click OK. 3. Create a new text layer: Choose Layer > New > Text. Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+T (Mac OS). 4. Type your name.
12. Step text 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. For the location, choose something easy to find, like your desktop. 14. Click the Render button to process all items in the render queue. The Render Queue panel shows the progress of the rendering operation. A sound is generated when rendering is complete.
Dynamic Link and After Effects About Dynamic Link Create and link to After Effects compositions with Dynamic Link Modify a dynamically linked composition in After Effects Delete a dynamically linked composition or clip Create a linked sequence in Adobe Premiere Pro with Dynamic Link Dynamic Link performance Dynamic Link features of After Effects are available only with Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium edition and Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection edition.
it creates a composition in the current project.) The new composition name is based on theAdobe Premiere Pro or Encore project name, followed by Linked Comp [x]. 1. In Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Encore, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > New After EffectsComposition. 2. If the After Effects Save As dialog box appears, enter a name and location for the After Effects project, and click Save. When you create a dynamically linked After Effects composition, the composition duration is set to 30 seconds.
Note: You can change the name of the composition in After Effects after creating a dynamic link to it from Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro does not update the linked composition name in the Project panel. Adobe Premiere Pro does retain the dynamic link, however. To the top Delete a dynamically linked composition or clip You can delete a linked composition from an Encore project if the composition isn’t used in the project.
If you commonly work with complex source compositions, try adding RAM or a faster processor. Note: A linked After Effects composition will not support Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing. See Improve performance by optimizing memory, cache, and multiprocessing settings. Adobe also recommends Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Workspaces, panels, and viewers Workspaces and panels Viewers To the top 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. The main window of a program is the application window. Panels are organized in this window in an arrangement called a workspace.
If the workspace has a keyboard shortcut assigned, press Shift+F10, Shift+F11, or Shift+F12. To assign a keyboard shortcut to the current workspace, choose Window > Assign Shortcut To [Workspace Name] Workspace. Save, reset, or delete workspaces Save a custom workspace As you customize a workspace, the application tracks your changes, storing the most recent layout. To store a specific layout more permanently, save a custom workspace.
Dragging panel (A) onto docking zone (B) to dock it (C) Grouping zones Grouping zones exist in the middle of a panel or group, and along the tab area of panels. Dropping a panel on a grouping zone stacks it with other panels. Dragging panel (A) onto grouping zone (B) to group it with existing panels (C) Dock or group panels 1. If the panel you want to dock or group is not visible, choose it from the Window menu. 2.
Drag panel gripper to move one panel To move an entire group, drag the group gripper in the upper-right corner onto the desired drop zone. Drag group gripper to move entire group The application docks or groups the panel, according to the type of drop zone. Undock a panel in a floating window When you undock a panel in a floating window, you can add panels to the window and modify it similarly to the application window.
To resize either horizontally or vertically, position the pointer between two panel groups. The pointer becomes a double arrow . To resize in both directions at once, position the pointer at the intersection between three or more panel groups. The pointer becomes a four-way arrow . 2. Hold down the mouse button, and drag to resize the panel groups. Dragging divider between panel groups to resize them horizontally A. Original group with resize pointer B.
A viewer is a panel that can contain multiple compositions, layers, or footage items, or multiple views of one such item. The Composition, Layer, Footage, Flowchart, and Effect Controls panels are viewers. Locking a viewer prevents the currently displayed item from being replaced when you open or select a new item. Instead, when a viewer is locked and a new item is opened or selected, After Effects creates a new viewer panel for that item.
Sync Settings Sync settings Sync settings from a different account Managing sync When you work on multiple computers, managing and syncing preferences among the computers can be time-consuming, complex, and error prone. The new Sync Settings feature enables you to sync preferences and settings via Creative Cloud. For example, if you use two computers, the Sync Settings feature makes it easy for you to keep those settings synchronized across these two computers.
To the top Managing sync Clear Settings You can clear all settings and revert to default settings. From the Edit menu (Windows) or After Effects menu (Mac OS), choose [your Adobe ID] > Clear Settings. Click Quit to clear the current preferences, and close After Effects. When the application is launched again, default preferences are set.
You can change the sync options and also choose what to do in case of conflict. Select the options to sync preferences and settings. Synchronizable preferences refer to preferences that are not dependent on computer or hardware settings. Automatically clear user profile on application quit Enable this option to clear the user profile when you quit After Effects. On next launch, preferences are fetched from the default Adobe ID used to license the product. Select the Preferences to sync.
Planning and setup Planning your work Planning for playback on computer monitors and mobile devices Cross-platform project considerations To the top Planning your work Correct project settings, preparation of footage, and initial composition settings can help you to avoid errors and unexpected results when rendering your final output movie. Before you begin, think about what kind of work you’ll be doing in After Effects and what kind of output you intend to create.
Project settings Project settings fall into three basic categories: how time is displayed in the project, how color data is treated in the project, and what sampling rate to use for audio. Of these settings, the color settings are the ones that you need to think about before you do much work in your project, because they determine how color data is interpreted as you import footage files, how color calculations are performed as you work, and how color data is converted for final output.
storage (disk space) and processor power are less for mobile phones than for personal computers, file size and data rate for movies must be even more tightly controlled. Screen dimensions, video frame rates, and color gamuts vary greatly from one mobile device to another. Use these tips when shooting video for mobile devices: Tight shots are better. It’s hard to see a face on a tiny screen unless it’s shot in relative close-up.
Supported file types Some file types are supported on one platform but not others. See Supported import formats and Supported output formats. Resources Ensure that all fonts, effects, codecs, and other resources are available on both systems. Such resources are often plug-ins. If you use a native After Effects effect in a project on one operating system, the effect will still work on the other operating system to which you’ve transferred your project.
Working with After Effects and other applications Working with Adobe Bridge and After Effects Working with Photoshop and After Effects Working with Flash and After Effects Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects Working with Adobe Encore and After Effects Edit in Adobe Audition To the top Working with Adobe Bridge and After Effects Adobe Bridge is the control center for Adobe Creative Suite software.
Exchanging still images After Effects can import and export still images in many formats, but you will usually want to use the native Photoshop PSD format when transferring individual frames or still image sequences between After Effects and Photoshop. When importing or exporting a PSD file, After Effects can preserve individual layers, masks, layer styles, and most other attributes.
Additional resources The following articles provide additional information about using Flash and After Effects together: Richard Harrington and Marcus Geduld provide an excerpt, "Flash Essentials for After Effects Users", of their book After Effects for Flash | Flash for After Effects on the Peachpit website. In this chapter, Richard and Marcus explain Flash in terms that an After Effects user can understand. http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.
To the top Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects Adobe Premiere Pro is designed to capture, import, and edit movies. After Effects is designed to create motion graphics, apply visual effects, composite visual elements, perform color correction, and perform other post-production tasks for movies. You can easily exchange projects, compositions, sequences, tracks, and layers between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro: You can import an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects.
2. Choose Layer > Adobe Encore > Create Button. 3. Enter a name for the button. 4. Use the menus to assign up to three highlight layers and one video thumbnail layer, and then click OK. A new composition is created with the button name. In keeping with the Adobe Encore naming standards, the prefix (+) is added to the name of the composition to indicate that it is a button. Note: If you rename the button, be sure to retain the (+) prefix.
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Keyboard shortcuts reference General (keyboard shortcuts) Projects (keyboard shortcuts) Preferences (keyboard shortcuts) Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts) Activating tools (keyboard shortcuts) Compositions and the work area (keyboard shortcuts) Time navigation (keyboard shortcuts) Previews (keyboard shortcuts) Views (keyboard shortcuts) Footage (keyboard shortcuts) Effects and animation presets (keyboard shortcuts) Layers (keyboard shortcuts) Showing properties and groups in the
Project panel, Render Queue panel, or Effect Controls panel Duplicate selected layers, masks, effects, text selectors, animators, puppet meshes, shapes, render items, output modules, or compositions Ctrl+D Command+D Quit Ctrl+Q Command+Q Undo Ctrl+Z Command+Z Redo Ctrl+Shift+Z Command+Shift+Z Purge all Ctrl+Alt+/ (on numeric keypad) Command+Option+/ (on numeric keypad) Interrupt running a script Esc Esc To the top Projects (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS New project Ctrl+A
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. See Mac OS Help for instructions to reassign Dashboard & Expose shortcuts.
Toggle activation between Composition panel and Timeline panel for current composition \ (backslash) \ (backslash) Cycle to previous or next item in active viewer (for example, cycle through open compositions) Shift+, (comma) or Shift+. (period) Shift+, (comma) or Shift+. (period) Cycle to previous or next panel in active frame (for example, cycle through open Timeline panels) Alt+Shift+, (comma) or Alt+Shift+. (period) Option+Shift+, (comma) or Option+Shift+.
Activate and cycle between the Pen and Mask Feather tools (CS6) G G Temporarily activate Selection tool when a pen tool is selected Ctrl Command Temporarily activate pen tool when the Selection tool is selected and pointer is over a path (Add Vertex tool when pointer is over a segment; Convert Vertex tool when pointer is over a vertex) Ctrl+Alt Command+Option Activate and cycle through Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser tools Ctrl+B Command+B Activate and cycle through Puppet tools Ctrl+P Command+
To the top Time navigation (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Go to specific time Alt+Shift+J Option+Shift+J Go to beginning or end of work area Shift+Home or Shift+End Shift+Home or Shift+End Go to previous or next visible item in time ruler (keyframe, layer marker, work area beginning or end) J or K J or K Go to beginning of composition, layer, or footage item Home or Ctrl+Alt+Left Arrow Home or Command+Option+Left Arrow Go to end of composition, layer, or footage item End or Ctr
Save RAM preview Ctrl-click RAM Preview button or press Ctrl+0 on numeric keypad* Command-click RAM Preview button or press Command+0 on numeric keypad* Save RAM preview with alternate settings Ctrl+Shift-click RAM Preview button or press Ctrl+Shift+0 on numeric keypad* Command+Shift-click RAM Preview button or press Command+Shift+0 on numeric keypad* Preview only audio, from current time . (decimal point) on numeric keypad* . (decimal point) on numeric keypad* or Control+.
channel as grayscale Option+4 Show colorized red, green, or blue channel Alt+Shift+1, Alt+Shift+2, Alt+Shift+3 Option+Shift+1, Option+Shift+2, Option+Shift+3 Toggle showing straight RGB color Alt+Shift+4 Option+Shift+4 Show alpha boundary (outline between transparent and opaque regions) in Layer panel Alt+5 Option+5 Show alpha overlay (colored overlay on transparent regions) in Layer panel Alt+6 Option+6 Show Refine Edge X-ray (CC) Alt+X Option+X Reset view in the Composition panel to 100%
Turn snapping to grid on or off Ctrl+Shift+' (apostrophe) Command+Shift+' (apostrophe) Turn snapping to guides on or off Ctrl+Shift+; (semicolon) Command+Shift+; (semicolon) Lock or unlock guides Ctrl+Alt+Shift+; (semicolon) Command+Option+Shift+; (semicolon) Show or hide layer controls Ctrl+Shift+H Command+Shift+H To the top Footage (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Import one file or image sequence Ctrl+I Command+I Import multiple files or image sequences Ctrl+Alt+I Command+
Apply most recently applied effect to selected layers Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E Command+Option+Shift+E Apply most recently applied animation preset to selected layers Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F Command+Option+Shift+F To the top Layers (keyboard shortcuts) Note: Some operations do not affect shy layers.
Split selected layers (If no layers are selected, split all layers.
Result Windows Mac OS Find in Timeline panel Ctrl+F Command+F Toggle expansion of selected layers to show all properties Ctrl+` (accent grave) Command+` (accent grave) Toggle expansion of property group and all child property groups to show all properties Ctrl-click triangle to the left of the property group name Command-click triangle to the left of the property group name Show only Anchor Point property (for lights and cameras, Point Of Interest) A A Show only Audio Levels property L L S
time To the top Showing properties in the Effect Controls panel (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Toggle expansion of selected effects to show all properties Ctrl+` (accent grave) Command+` (accent grave) Toggle expansion of property group and all child property groups to show all properties Ctrl-click triangle to the left of the property group name Command-click triangle to the left of the property group name To the top Modifying layer properties (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows
or later Down Option+Shift+Page Down Increase or decrease Rotation (Z Rotation) of selected layers by 1° + (plus) or - (minus) on numeric keypad + (plus) or - (minus) on numeric keypad Increase or decrease Rotation (Z Rotation) of selected layers by 10° Shift++ (plus) or Shift+- (minus) on numeric keypad Shift++ (plus) or Shift+- (minus) on numeric keypad Increase or decrease Opacity (or Intensity for light layers) of selected layers by 1% Ctrl+Alt++ (plus) or Ctrl+Alt+- (minus) on numeric keypad
Switch to 3D view 2 (defaults to Custom View 2) F11 F11 Switch to 3D view 3 (defaults to Active Camera) F12 F12 Return to previous view Esc Esc New light Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L Command+Option+Shift+L New camera Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C Command+Option+Shift+C Move the camera and its point of interest to look at selected 3D layers Ctrl+Alt+Shift+\ Command+Option+Shift+\ With a camera tool selected, move the camera and its point of interest to look at selected 3D layers F F With a camera tool selected,
linear or hold mode Easy ease selected keyframes F9 F9 Easy ease selected keyframes in Shift+F9 Shift+F9 Easy ease selected keyframes out Ctrl+Shift+F9 Command+Shift+F9 Set velocity for selected keyframes Ctrl+Shift+K Command+Shift+K Add or remove keyframe at current time (For property shortcuts, see Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts).
Select text from insertion point to mouse click point Shift-click Shift-click In horizontal text, move insertion point one character left or right; one line up or down; one word left or right; or one paragraph up or down Left Arrow or Right Arrow; Up Arrow or Down Arrow; Ctrl+Left Arrow or Ctrl+Right Arrow; or Ctrl+Up Arrow or Ctrl+Down Arrow Left Arrow or Right Arrow; Up Arrow or Down Arrow; Command+Left Arrow or Command+Right Arrow; or Command+Up Arrow or Command+Down Arrow In vertical text, move in
Decrease or increase kerning or tracking 100 units (100/1000 ems) Ctrl+Alt+Left Arrow or Ctrl+Alt+Right Arrow Command+Option+Left Arrow or Command+Option+Right Arrow Toggle paragraph composer Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T Command+Option+Shift+T To the top Masks (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS New mask Ctrl+Shift+N Command+Shift+N Select all points in a mask Alt-click mask Option-click mask Select next or previous mask Alt+` (accent grave) or Alt+Shift+` (accent grave) Option+` (accent grave
and background color to white Set foreground color to the color currently under any paint tool pointer Alt-click Option-click Set foreground color to the average color of a 4-pixel x 4-pixel area under any paint tool pointer Ctrl+Alt-click Command+Option-click Set brush size for a paint tool Ctrl-drag Command-drag Set brush hardness for a paint tool Ctrl-drag, then release Ctrl while dragging Command-drag, then release Command while dragging Join current paint stroke to the previous stroke Hold
mode and press Ctrl+T and press Command+T Increase star inner roundness Page Up when dragging to create shape Page Up when dragging to create shape Decrease star inner roundness Page Down when dragging to create shape Page Down when dragging to create shape Increase number of points for star or polygon; increase roundness for rounded rectangle Up Arrow when dragging to create shape Up Arrow when dragging to create shape Decrease number of points for star or polygon; decrease roundness for rounde
Motion tracking (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Move feature region, search region, and attach point 1 pixel at current magnification arrow key arrow key Move feature region, search region, and attach point 10 pixels at current magnification Shift+arrow key Shift+arrow key Move feature region and search region 1 pixel at current magnification Alt+arrow key Option+arrow key Move feature region and search region 10 pixels at current magnification Alt+Shift+arrow key Option+Shift+arro
After Effects keyboard shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to speed up your tasks and also work more efficiently. Here is a downloadable shortcuts graphic of about 50 of the more commonly used and popular After Effects shortcuts. AfterEffects_KeyboardShortcuts.pdf The complete list of After Effects keyboard shortcuts is available here. Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Preferences The following sections describe the Preferences menu and and the various tasks that can be performed using this menu.
The following list briefly describes the different options listed under the Edit > Preferences menu, especially those options that are not selfexplanatory. General preferences Levels Of Undo: Undo changes Path Point Size: Specifies size of Bezier direction handles and vertices for masks and shapes, direction handles for motion paths, and other similar controls.
Display preferences Motion Path: Motion paths Disable Thumbnails In Project Panel: Composition thumbnail images Show Rendering Progress In Info Panel And Flowchart: Preview video and audio Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, And Footage Panels: Improve performance Import preferences Still Footage: Create layers from footage items or change layer source Sequence Footage: Import a single still image or a still-image sequence Interpret Unlabeled Alpha As: Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or s
Appearance preferences Use Label Color For Layer Handles And Paths and Use Label Color For Related Tabs: Color labels for layers, compositions, and footage items Cycle Mask Colors: Cycle through colors for mask paths Use Gradients: Use gradients in user interface. Brightness: Brightens or darkens user interface (UI) colors.
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. Sebastien Perier provides instructions on his website for assigning keyboard shortcuts to scripts so that you can run a script with a single keystroke. This technique relies on the KeyEd Up script. For information on remapping keyboard shortcuts for keyboard layouts other than the standard US English layout, see Jonas Hummelstrand’s website.
Projects and compositions 66
Projects About projects Create and open projects Save and back up projects Template projects and example projects Flowchart panel To the top 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.
Note: After Effects CS5 can open projects using project links included in movies rendered and exported by After Effects CS4 and later. To the top Create and open projects Only one project can be open at a time. If you create or open another project file while a project is open, After Effects prompts you to save changes in the open project, and then closes it. After you create a project, you can import footage into the project.
Saving and backing up projects in After Effects CS5.5 or After Effects CS6 is similar to previous versions, however, there are new ways to do so. For example, you can now save a project in the XML project file format, or as a previous project format. To save the project with a different name or to a different location, choose File > Save As > Save As. To save the project as a copy in the XML project file format, choose File > Save As > Save A Copy As XML.
To save a copy of a project as a template project, choose File > Save A Copy, and then rename the copy with the filename extension .aet. To the top Flowchart panel In the flowchart for each project or composition, individual boxes (or tiles) represent each composition, footage item, and layer. Directional arrows represent the relationships between components. Note: The Flowchart panel shows you only the existing relationships. You cannot use it to change relationships between elements.
Precomposing, nesting, and pre-rendering About precomposing and nesting Precompose layers Opening and navigating nested compositions Pre-render a nested composition Render order and collapsing transformations To the top About precomposing and nesting If you want to group some layers that are already in a composition, you can precompose those layers. Precomposing layers places them in a new composition, which replaces the layers in the original composition.
Preferences and composition settings that affect nested compositions Because a precomposition is itself a layer, you can control its behavior using layer switches and composition switches in the Timeline panel. You can choose whether changes made to the switches in the containing composition are propagated to the nested composition.
head and tail durations for more editing flexibility. To the top Opening and navigating nested compositions Nested compositions are sometimes referred to as being upstream of the compositions that contain them, and the containing compositions are said to be downstream of the nested compositions that they contain. The root composition is the most downstream; the most deeply nested composition is the most upstream.
multiple times within one composition, the multiple instances of the nested composition appear as one entry with a number in parentheses indicating the number of instances. To open the Composition Mini-Flowchart, do one of the following: A. Indicator that composition does not flow into other compositions B. Flow direction C. Active (current) composition D. Upstream compositions E.
See this video tutorial on the Video2Brain website about how to save time with pre-rendering and proxies in After Effects. Note: An alternative to replacing the composition with the movie is to use the rendered movie as a proxy for the nested composition. To the top Render order and collapsing transformations A composition consists of layers stacked on top of one another in the Timeline panel. When the composition is rendered—either for previewing or for final output—the bottom layer is rendered first.
This video from the “After Effects CS5: Learn by Video” series provides a detailed visual demonstration of the render order and how to work with (and around) it. Chris and Trish Meyer explain collapsing transformations and continuous rasterization in this article on the ProVideo Coalition website. Adobe also recommends About Smart Objects Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Composition basics About compositions Create a composition Create compositions for playback on mobile devices Timeline panel Composition settings Composition thumbnail images For more information about creating compositions, see this video by Andrew Devis on the Creative Cow website. To the top About compositions A composition is the framework for a movie. Each composition has its own timeline.
Create a composition You can change composition settings at any time. However, it’s best to specify settings such as frame aspect ratio and frame size when you create the composition, with your final output in mind. Because After Effects bases certain calculations on these composition settings, changing them late in your workflow can affect your final output. For more information about creating compositions, see this video by Andrew Devis on the Creative Cow website.
Add To Render Queue Add the new composition to the render queue. Sequence Layers, Overlap, Duration, and Transition Arrange the layers in a sequence, optionally overlap them in time, set the duration of the transitions, and choose a transition type. Create multiple compositions from multiple footage items 1. Select footage items in the Project panel. 2. Drag the selected footage items to the Create A New Composition button From Selection. at the bottom of the Project panel, or choose File > New Comp 3.
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. After you render and export the compositions, you can preview and test the resulting movies on the simulated devices within Adobe Device Central. To the top Timeline panel Each composition has its own Timeline panel.
dialog box, and then click the Save button . To delete a composition settings preset, choose it from the Preset menu in the Composition Settings dialog box, and click the Delete button . To restore default composition settings presets, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Delete button Composition Settings dialog box. or the Save button in the Note: You cannot move custom composition settings presets from one system to another, as they are embedded into the preferences file.
Ray-traced 3D Click the Options button to launch the Ray-traced 3D Renderer Options dialog box. You can also Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the Current Renderer Indicator button in the upper-right of the Composition panel to launch the dialog box. Here you can choose: Ray-tracing quality: Click the Ray-tracing quality setting to change it according to your workflow. Higher values for ray-tracing quality decrease noise but greatly increase render time.
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Timecode and time display units Change time-display units in After Effects CS5 Change time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later Options for time-display units in After Effects CS5 Options for time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later Source timecode (CS5.5 and later) Online resources about timecode Many quantities in After Effects are either points in time or spans of time, including the current time, layer In and Out points, and durations of layers, footage items, and compositions.
footage item or composition. If an item doesn’t have timecode (such as an audio file), After Effects uses a default value (30 fps for English, Japanese, and Korean versions of After Effects, or 25 fps for French, German, Spanish, and Italian versions) or the last non-auto value you specified in the Project Settings dialog box. You can also specify that After Effects use a specific frame rate.
Source timecode support file formats After Effects can read and use timecode for most formats including: QuickTime, DV, AVI, P2, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, h.264, AVCHD, RED, XDCAM EX, XDCAM HD, WAV and DPX image sequence importers. Project panel Source timecode is displayed in columns in the Project panel: Media Start, Media End, Media Duration and Tape Name. These refer to the source’s start, end and total duration.
Importing footage 87
Importing and interpreting footage items About imported files and footage items Supported import formats Import footage items Interpret footage items Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight Frame rate Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio To the top 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.
Supported import formats Note: 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. The import and export of some formats are not supported in the trial version: AVC-Intra, AVCHD, HDV, MPEG-2, MPEG-2 DVD, MPEG-2 Blu-ray, and XDCAM. The trial version for Adobe After Effects CS5.5 and later includes all codecs that are in the full version.
Note: 3D Channel effect plug-ins from fnord software are included with After Effects to provide access to multiple layers and channels of OpenEXR files. (See Using channels in OpenEXR files.) Note: After Effects can also read ZPIC files corresponding to imported PIC files. See Importing and using 3D files from other applications.) Targa (TGA, VDA, ICB, VST) TIFF (TIF) You can import files of any still-image format as a sequence. See Preparing and importing still images.
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. As with any unsupported format, transcode the file to a format that After Effects can import. Media eXchange Format (MXF) MXF is a container format. After Effects can only import some kinds of data contained within MXF files.
Import footage items using the Import dialog box 1. Choose File > Import > File, choose File > Import > Multiple Files, or double-click an empty area of the Project panel. If you choose Import Multiple Files, then you can perform the next step more than once without needing to choose an Import command multiple times. To display only supported footage files (excluding project files), choose All Footage Files from the Files Of Type (Windows) or Enable (Mac OS) menu. 2.
Note: In all of these cases, the information is used to make decisions about how to interpret data in the imported footage item—to tell After Effects about the input footage. The interpretation settings in the Interpret Footage dialog box should match the settings used to create the source footage file. Do not use the interpretation settings to try to specify settings for your final rendered output. Generally, you don’t need to change interpretation settings.
The interpretation rules file contains the rules that specify how After Effects interprets footage items. In most cases, you don’t need to customize the interpretation rules file. When you import a footage item, After Effects looks for a match in the interpretation rules file, and then determines interpretation settings for the footage item. You can override these settings after importing, using the Interpret Footage dialog box.
or a loss of image quality at the edges of the alpha channel. For example, if channels are interpreted as straight when they are actually premultiplied, semitransparent areas retain some of the background color. If a color inaccuracy, such as a halo, appears along the semitransparent edges in a composition, try changing the interpretation method. A footage item with premultiplied channels (top) appears with a black halo when interpreted as Straight-Unmatted (lower-left).
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. In other words, the composition frame rate specifies how many times per second images are sampled from the source footage items, and it specifies the time divisions at which keyframes can be set. Note: After Effects CS5.5 and later contains a menu for drop-frame or non-drop-frame timecode in the Composition Settings dialog box.
Change frame rate for a footage item 1. Select the footage item in the Project panel. 2. Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main. 3. Select Conform To Frame Rate, enter a new frame rate for Frames Per Second, and then click OK. Instead of using Interpret Footage to change a footage item’s frame rate, you can time-stretch a layer based on the footage item. For example, time-stretch a layer by 100.1% to convert between 30fps and 29.97fps. Time-stretching modifies the speed of audio as well as video.
Square and nonsquare pixels A. Square pixels and 4:3 frame aspect ratio B. Nonsquare pixels and 4:3 frame aspect ratio C. Nonsquare pixels displayed on a square-pixel monitor If a footage item uses nonsquare pixels, After Effects displays the pixel aspect ratio next to the thumbnail image for the footage item in the Project panel. You can change the pixel aspect ratio interpretation for individual footage items in the Interpret Footage dialog box.
format value in After Effects CS4 and later previous value D1/DV NTSC 0.91 0.9 D1/DV NTSC Widescreen 1.21 1.2 D1/DV PAL 1.09 1.07 D1/DV PAL Widescreen 1.46 1.42 This discrepancy is limited to these older, standard-definition formats for which clean aperture differs from production aperture. This discrepancy doesn’t exist in newer formats. New projects and compositions created in After Effects CS4 and later use the correct pixel aspect ratio values by default.
2. Do one of the following: Choose a composition settings preset from the Preset menu. Choose a value from the Pixel Aspect Ratio menu. Common pixel aspect ratios Pixel aspect ratio When to use Square pixels 1.0 Footage has a 640x480 or 648x486 frame size, is 1920x1080 HD (not HDV or DVCPRO HD), is 1280x720 HD or HDV, or was exported from an application that doesn’t support nonsquare pixels. This setting can also be appropriate for footage that was transferred from film or for customized projects.
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Importing and interpreting video and audio Interlaced video and separating fields Remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown from video Import assets in Panasonic P2 format To the top Interlaced video and separating fields Interlacing is a technique developed for transmitting television signals using limited bandwidth. In an interlaced system, only half the number of horizontal lines for each frame of video are transmitted at a time.
the video to noninterlaced frames, while preserving the maximum amount of image quality. Using noninterlaced frames allows After Effects to apply edits and effects consistently and at the highest quality. After Effects creates field-separated footage from a single formerly interlaced frame by splitting it into two independent frames. Each new frame has only half the information of the original frame, so some frames may appear to have a lower resolution than others when viewed at Draft quality.
4. In the Project panel, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you double-click the footage to open it in the Footage panel. 5. If the Preview panel is not visible, choose Window > Preview. 6. In the Footage panel, find a segment that contains one or more moving areas. in the Preview panel, step forward at least five frames in the Footage panel. Moving areas should move 7. Using the Next Frame button consistently in one direction.
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. It’s important to remove 3:2 pulldown from video footage that was originally film so that effects you add in After Effects synchronize perfectly with the original frame rate of film.
Because Panasonic P2 cards use the FAT32 file system, each file is limited to a size of 4 GB. When a shot is recorded that requires more than the 4 GB, a P2 camera creates another file and continues recording the shot to the new file without interruption. This is referred to as clip spanning, because the shot spans more than one file or clip.
Preparing and importing 3D imagefiles Importing 3D images from Photoshop and Illustrator Importing and using 3D files from other applications Import RLA or RPF data into a camera layer Baking and importing Maya data To the top Importing 3D images from Photoshop and Illustrator 3D object layers in PSD files Adobe Photoshop CC (or Extended) can import and manipulate 3D models (3D objects) in several popular formats. Photoshop can also create 3D objects in basic, primitive shapes. After Effects CS5.
object, including text and drawings. If you want to add depth to your vector art and text, consider creating it in Illustrator, using the 3D effects, and then importing the results into After Effects. To the top Importing and using 3D files from other applications After Effects can import 3D-image files saved in Softimage PIC, RLA, RPF, OpenEXR, and Electric Image EI format.
To the top Import RLA or RPF data into a camera layer After Effects imports camera data saved with RLA or RPF sequence files. That data is incorporated into camera layers—one for each camera in the sequence—that After Effects creates in the Timeline panel. You can access the camera data of an imported RLA or RPF sequence and create a camera layer containing that data. 1. Add the sequence to a composition, and select its layer in the Timeline panel. 2.
use either horizontal or vertical FilmFit, not fill. After Effects can read Maya locator nodes, which enable you to track objects from the Maya scene as it is translated into After Effects. After Effects creates a null layer and applies the relevant transformations to it if the name of a Maya locator node contains the word Null, NULL, or null. Avoid parenting locator nodes to each other in Maya; instead, parent the locator nodes to geometry.
Working with footage items Organize, view, manage, and trim footage items Edit footage in its original application Remove items from a project Placeholders and proxies Loop a footage item To the top Organize, view, manage, and trim footage items Compositions and footage items are listed in the Project panel. Unlike items in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel, the order of items in the Project panel has no influence on the appearance of the movies that you create.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the item, choose Rename, and enter the new name. To rename the Comment column, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the column heading and choose Rename This. You can use the Comment column to create a custom sorting option. Rename the column, enter corresponding information for each item (for example, camera number), and then sort by that column. To sort items by entries in any column, click the column name in the Project panel.
footage in the original application, the changes are applied to all instances of the footage when After Effects becomes the active application. Note: If you’re editing footage that has an alpha channel, make sure that you’re viewing and editing all of the channels, including the alpha channel, in the other application. Otherwise, changes you make may not be applied to the alpha channel, and it may become misaligned with the color channels.
Proxy Any file used to temporarily replace a footage item, but most often a lower-resolution or still version of an existing footage item used to replace the original. Often, storyboard images are used as proxies. You can use a proxy either before you have the final footage or when you have the actual footage item but you want to speed up previewing or rendering of test movies. You must have a file available to use as a proxy.
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. When a proxy item is imported, After Effects scales the item to the same size and duration as the actual footage. If you create a proxy with a frame aspect ratio that is different from the frame aspect ratio of the actual footage item, scaling takes longer.
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. To the top Loop a footage item If you intend to loop a visual footage item continuously in your project, you only need to create one cycle of the footage item in After Effects. 1. In the Project panel, select the footage item to loop. 2. Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main. 3. Type an integer value for Loop and click OK.
CINEMA 4D and Cineware Overview Maxon CINEMA 4D Lite Working with Cinema 4D files CINEWARE effect Closer integration with CINEMA 4D allows you to use Adobe After Effects and Maxon CINEMA 4D together. You can create a CINEMA 4D file (.c4d) from within After Effects and you can work with complex 3D elements, scenes, and animations. To enable interoperability, CINERENDER, the Maxon CINEMA 4D rendering engine, is integrated with Adobe After Effects.
Import Cinema 4D files To import Cinema 4D files into After Effects, do the following: 1. Choose File > Import > File. 2. Select the Cinema 4D file and click Import. The file is placed in the Project panel as a footage item. You can place the footage item on an existing composition, or create a matching composition.
Standard (Draft): Uses the Standard renderer but turns off slower settings like anti-aliasing for better interactivity. Software: Uses the settings to provide the fastest rendering, by letting you choose Display settings. Shaders and multi-passes are not displayed. Use the Software renderer to preview while you continue to work on the composition. Note: Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing is disabled when using C4D layers.
Set Multi-Pass Click to select which pass to render on this layer. This option is only available if CINEMA 4D Multi-Pass option is enabled. Defined Multi-Passes When enabled, adds the passes explicitly added in the .c4d file. This can include passes other than Image Layers. Add Image Layers Use this option to create multiple pass layers with proper blending modes depending on the setting of Defined MultiPasses.
Cinema 4d Render path and Executable path In After Effects CC (12.1) and later, you can specify the instance of Cinema 4D you want to use in the Cineware plugin. There are two new settings in the Options dialog of Cineware Effect that you can choose from. Cinema 4D Render Path - Choose the version of Cinema 4D (R14 or R15) for rendering while working in After Effects. For example, you can choose to use Cinema 4D Studio, Broadcast, Prime, or Visualize if you have it installed.
2. a. From the Render menu, choose Render > Edit Render Settings. b. In the Render Settings dialog, set the popup to Renderer: Physical. c. Click Physical and set other settings such Depth of Field or Motion Blur options. 3. Save the .c4d file with the renderer settings. 4. The renderer specified in Cinema 4D is the one that will be used by the Cineware effect when the Renderer Settings in the effect is set to Standard (Final) and Standard (Draft). To render Sketch and Toon, do the following: 1.
Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro Import an After Effects project Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project Use Adobe Premiere Pro for capture (Production Premium and Master Collection only) Copy between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro To the top Import an After Effects project You can import one After Effects project into another. Everything from the imported project—including footage items, compositions, and folders— appears inside a new folder in the current Project panel.
from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro.) After Effects preserves the order of clips in the timeline, the footage duration (including all trimmed In and Out points), and marker and transition locations. After Effects bases the arrangement of layers in the Timeline panel on the arrangement of clips in the Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline panel.
You can copy a layer based on a footage item from an After Effects composition and paste it into an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence. Adobe Premiere Pro converts these layers to clips in the sequence and copies the source footage item to its Project panel. If the layer contains an effect that is also used by Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro converts the effect and all of its settings and keyframes. You can also copy nested compositions, Photoshop layers, solid-color layers, and audio layers.
Transform property values and keyframes Motion or Opacity values and keyframes Source settings for R3D source files Source settings for R3D source files The keyframe type—Bezier, Auto Bezier, Continuous Bezier, or Hold—is retained. 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.
retained. Sequence marker Markers on a new solid-color layer To copy sequence markers, you must either copy the sequence itself or import the entire Adobe Premiere Pro project as a composition. Speed property Time Stretch property Speed and time stretch have an inverse relationship. For example, 50% speed in Adobe Premiere Pro is converted to 200% stretch in After Effects.
Preparing and importing still images Preparing still-image files for importing Import a single still image or a still-image sequence Preparing and importing Photoshop files Preparing and importing Illustrator files Importing camera raw files with Camera Raw Cineon and DPX footage items To the top Preparing still-image files for importing You can import individual still images into After Effects or import a series of still images as a sequence.
Import a single still image or a still-image sequence You can import still image files as individual footage items, or you can import a series of still image files as a still-image sequence, which is a single footage item in which each still image is used as a single frame. To import multiple image files as a single still-image sequence, the files must be in the same folder and use the same numeric or alphabetic filename pattern (such as Seq1, Seq2, Seq3).
Merged Layers Imports the sequence as a sequence footage item in which the layers in the file, if any, are merged into one layer. Choose Layer Imports the sequence as a sequence footage item in which the same layer from each source file—for example, layer 3—is imported and used in the sequence. If you choose this option for a PSD sequence, then you can also choose whether to ignore layer styles or merge them into the layer.
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). You can change the frame rate after importing by reinterpreting the footage item: Select the sequence in the Project panel, choose File > Interpret Footage > Main, and then enter a new value for Assume This Frame Rate. For more information, see Frame rate.
Masks and alpha channels Adobe Photoshop supports a transparent area and one optional layer mask (alpha channel) for each layer in a file. You can use these layer masks to specify how different areas within a layer are hidden or revealed. If you import one layer, After Effects combines the layer mask (if present) with the transparent area and imports the layer mask as a straight alpha channel.
object layers from Photoshop.) 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. This feature can be useful when repurposing images for wide-screen formats that were created for standard-definition formats.
To the top Importing camera raw files with Camera Raw You can import sequences of camera raw files much as you import sequences of other kinds of still image files. After Effects applies the settings for the first camera raw image in the sequence to all of the images in the sequence that do not have their own XMP sidecar files. After Effects does not check the Camera Raw database for image settings. Note: Camera raw files are uncompressed. Their large size may increase rendering time.
to a layer that uses the Cineon footage item as its source. See Cineon Converter effect. If you need to manually modify the settings for a Cineon footage item, or if you don’t want to use color management, then you can use the Cineon Settings dialog box. To open this dialog box, click the Cineon Settings button in the Color Management tab of the Interpret Footage dialog box.
Layers and properties 136
Creating layers Layers overview Create layers from footage items or change layer source Solid-color layers and solid-color footage items Adjustment layers Create a layer and new Photoshop footage item To the top 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. Some compositions contain thousands of layers, whereas some compositions contain only one layer.
Layers in the Layer, Composition, and Timeline panels After you add a layer to a composition, you can reposition the layer in the Composition panel. In the Timeline panel, you can change a layer’s duration, starting time, and place in the layer stacking order. You can also change any of the properties of a layer in the Timeline panel. (See Layer properties in the Timeline panel.) You can perform many tasks—such as drawing masks—in either the Composition panel or the Layer panel.
1. Select one or more footage items and folders in the Project panel. 2. Do one of the following: Drag the selected footage items to the Composition panel. Hold Shift while dragging to snap the layer to the center or edges of the composition. Drag the selected footage items to the Timeline panel. When you drag the item into the layer outline, a highlight bar indicates where the layer will appear when you release the mouse button.
You can create layers of any solid color and any size (up to 30,000x30,000 pixels). Solid-color layers have solid-color footage items as their sources. Solid-color layers and solid-color footage items are both usually called solids. Solids work just like any other footage item: You can add masks, modify transform properties, and apply effects to a layer that has a solid as its source footage item.
Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he shows how to use an adjustment layer to apply an effect to only a short duration and to only specific portions of a movie. Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates the use of lights as adjustment layers, to precisely control which layers are affected by which lights.
Selecting and arranging layers Select layers Change the stacking order for selected layers Coordinate systems: composition space and layer space Move layers in space Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individually Align or distribute layers in 2D space Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer Remove part of the duration of a layer Place or move a layer in time Arrange layers in time sequentially Copy or duplicate a layer Split a layer Auto-Orientation options Additional resources for selecting
Composition or Timeline panel. The child layers are added to the existing selection. You can select multiple layers in the Composition panel (After Effects CS5.5 and later). Drag with the Selection tool to create a selection box (marquee) around the layers to select them. Hold Shift while clicking or dragging to select additional layers or to deselect layers.
To move selected layers so that their anchor points are at the center in the current view, choose Layer > Transform > Center In View or press Ctrl+Home (Windows) or Command+Home (Mac OS). To move a layer so that its anchor point is at the center of the composition, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the Position property, choose Edit Value, choose % Of Composition in the Units menu, and enter 50 for each of the components of the Position property.
lost, because the multiple Bezier curves used to represent the individual components are collapsed into a single Bezier curve at each keyframe. When you separate dimensions, some information about speed is lost, but the motion path does not change. You should work with separate dimensions or without separate dimensions for each property for an entire project, rather than toggling back and forth. The decision of whether to work with separate dimensions depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
The beginning of the duration of a layer is its In point, and the end is its Out point. The duration is the span between the In point and the Out point, and the bar that extends from the In point to the Out point is the layer duration bar. To trim a layer is to modify its In or Out point so that the layer has a different duration.
Trim or extend a layer in the Layer panel Open the layer in the Layer panel and drag either end of the layer duration bar. Move the current-time indicator in the Layer panel to the time at which you want the footage to begin or end, and then click the In button to set the In or Out point to the current time. or Out Slip-edit a layer After you’ve trimmed a layer based on moving footage, a pale slip-edit bar represents the frames of the footage item that you are excluding from the composition.
To set the In point or Out point numerically, click the number in the In or Out column for the layer in the Timeline panel. To move the In point or Out point to the current time, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the number in the In or Out column for the layer in the Timeline panel. To move the In points of selected layers to the beginning of the composition, press Alt+Home (Windows) or Option+Home (Mac OS).
1. In the Timeline panel, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) and select layers in sequential order, beginning with the layer to appear first. 2. Choose Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Sequence Layers. 3. In the Sequence Layers dialog box, do one of the following: To arrange the layers end to end, leave the Overlap option unselected. To overlap layers, select Overlap, enter a Duration value for the duration of the overlap, and select a transition.
mattes retain their order, on top of the layer. After you split a layer, the duration of the original layer ends at the point of the split, and the new layer starts at that point in time. If no layer is selected when you choose Edit > Split Layer, all layers are split at the current time. Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum for splitting layers at layer markers.
Managing layers View and change layer information Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel Toggle visibility or influence of a layer or property group Solo a layer Lock or unlock a layer Color labels for layers, compositions, and footage items Show and hide layers in the Timeline panel Layer image quality and subpixel positioning Continuously rasterize a layer containing vector graphics Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that renders and exports each of the selected layers sep
lower-left corner of the Timeline panel. Press Shift+F4 to show or hide the Parent column. Press F4 to toggle the Switches and Modes columns. The results of some layer switch settings depend on the settings of composition switches, which are in the upper right of the layer outline in the Timeline panel. Quickly change the state of a switch for multiple layers by clicking the switch for one layer and dragging up or down that column for the adjacent layers.
3D Layer Identifies the layer as a 3D layer. If the layer is a 3D layer with 3D sublayers—as is the case for a text layer with per-character 3D properties—the switch uses this icon: . (See 3D layers overview and resources.) To the top Toggle visibility or influence of a layer or property group The Video (eyeball) switch for a layer controls whether the visual information for a layer is rendered for previews or final output.
column to greater than the default width. To select all layers with the same label color, select a layer with that label color and choose Edit > Label > Select Label Group. To change the color of a label for one layer, click the label in the Timeline panel and choose a color. To change the color of a label for all layers with that label color, select one of the layers belonging to the label group, choose Edit > Label > Select Label Group, and choose Edit > Label > [color name].
positioning, and some effects are not precisely calculated. Wireframe Displays a layer as a box, without layer contents. Layer wireframes are displayed and rendered faster than layers rendered with Best or Draft settings. Subpixel positioning Property values (like Position and Anchor Point) in After Effects are not restricted to integer values; they can have fractional values, too. This allows for smooth animation, as a value is interpolated from one keyframe to another.
In the Timeline panel, click the layer’s Continuously Rasterize switch precomposition layers. , which is the same as the Collapse Transformations switch for Adobe also recommends Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Layer properties Layer properties in the Timeline panel Set a property value Layer anchor points Scale or flip a layer Rotate a 2D layer Adjust audio volume levels Parent and child layers Null object layers Guide layers Use Brainstorm to experiment and explore settings To the top Layer properties in the Timeline panel Each layer has properties, many of which you can modify and animate.
(keyboard shortcuts).) To add a property or property group to the properties shown in the Timeline panel, hold Shift while pressing the shortcut key for the property or property group. To show only properties that have been modified from their default values, press UU, or choose Animation > Reveal Modified Properties. To show only properties that have keyframes or expressions, press U, or choose Animation > Reveal Animating Properties.
To the top Set a property value If multiple layers are selected and you change a property for one layer, then the property is changed for all selected layers. Sliders, angle controls, and some other property controls are only available in the Effect Controls panel. To change the units for a property, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the underlined value, choose Edit Value, and choose from the Units menu. The available units are different for different property types.
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 Pan Behind (Anchor Point) tool to move the anchor point in the Composition panel (left), After Effects automatically compensates for the move so that the layer maintains its position relative to the composition frame (right). Note: If you don’t see the anchor point in the Layer panel, select Anchor Point Path from the View menu at the lower-right area of the Layer panel.
To flip selected layers, choose Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontal or Layer > Transform > Flip Vertical. To scale a layer proportionally in the Composition panel, Shift-drag any layer handle. To scale a layer freely in the Composition panel, drag a corner layer handle. To scale one dimension only in the Composition panel, drag a side layer handle. To increase or decrease Scale for a selected layer by 1%, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you press + or – on the numeric keypad.
When you use footage containing audio, the default audio level for playback is 0 dB, meaning that the level is unadjusted in After Effects. Setting a positive decibel level increases volume, and setting a negative decibel level decreases volume. Note: Double-clicking an Audio Levels keyframe activates the Audio panel. The VU meter in the Audio panel displays the volume range for the audio as it plays. The red blocks at the top of the meter represent the volume limit of your system.
menu. 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. To extend the selection to include all child layers of a selected parent layer, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the layer in the Composition or Timeline panel, and choose Select Children. To make a child layer jump when a parent is assigned or removed, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you assign or remove the parent.
Angie Taylor provides an extensive discussion and explanation of animation using parenting, expressions, and null object layers in a PDF excerpt from her book Creative After Effects 7: Workflow Techniques for Animation, Visual Effects, and Motion Graphics. To the top Guide layers You can create guide layers from existing layers to use for reference in the Composition panel, to help you position and edit elements.
With Brainstorm, you can rapidly accomplish the following: Compare the results of multiple values for a single property so that you can find the value that works best. Explore the results of randomly modifying any number of properties to achieve a creative result. Open a template project or apply an animation preset to a layer, select some properties (or entire property groups), and then use Brainstorm to quickly modify these properties.
You can move back or forward a generation by clicking the arrow buttons on either side of the Brainstorm button at the bottom of the Brainstorm dialog box. If you move back a generation and then perform another Brainstorm operation, the later generations are lost. Note: Press Esc to close the Brainstorm dialog box.
Blending modes and layer styles Work with layer blending modes Blending mode reference Layer styles Exclude channels from blending To the top Work with layer blending modes Blending modes for layers control how each layer blends with or interacts with layers beneath it. Blending modes for layers in After Effects (formerly referred to as layer modes and sometimes called transfer modes) are identical to blending modes in Adobe Photoshop.
Normal category Normal, Dissolve, Dancing Dissolve. The result color of a pixel is not affected by the color of the underlying pixel unless Opacity is less than 100% for the source layer. The Dissolve blending modes turn some of the pixels of the source layer transparent. Subtractive category Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Classic Color Burn, Linear Burn, Darker Color. These blending modes tend to darken colors, some by mixing colors in much the same way as mixing colored pigments in paint.
then the result color is the underlying color. Dissolve and Dancing Dissolve do not work on 3D layers. Dancing Dissolve Same as Dissolve, except that the probability function is recalculated for each frame, so the result varies over time. Darken Each result color channel value is the lower (darker) of the source color channel value and the corresponding underlying color channel value.
underlying color is darker than 50% gray, the layer darkens as if it were multiplied. This mode is useful for creating the appearance of shadows on a layer. Linear Light Burns or dodges the colors by decreasing or increasing the brightness, depending on the underlying color. If the underlying color is lighter than 50% gray, the layer is lightened because the brightness is increased. If the underlying color is darker than 50% gray, the layer is darkened because the brightness is decreased.
cause more transparency than the darker pixels. Painting with pure white creates 0% opacity. Painting with pure black produces no change. Alpha Add Composites layers normally, but adds complementary alpha channels to create a seamless area of transparency. Useful for removing visible edges from two alpha channels that are inverted relative to each other or from the alpha channel edges of two touching layers that are being animated.
Satin Applies interior shading that creates a satiny finish. Color Overlay Fills the contents of the layer with a color. Gradient Overlay Fills the contents of the layer with a gradient. Stroke Outlines the contents of the layer. 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.
the Angle and Altitude settings for each individual layer style. This option is useful if you have multiple layer styles applied to the same layer and want to animate the position of the light for all of them. Blending options for layer styles Each layer style has its own blending mode, which determines how it interacts with underlying layers. The underlying layer in this context may or may not include the layer to which the layer style is applied.
3D layers 3D layers overview and resources Convert 3D layers Show or hide 3D axes and layer controls Move a 3D layer Rotate or orient a 3D layer Axis modes 3D layer interactions, render order, and collapsed transformations 3D object layers from Photoshop (CS5.5, and earlier) To the top 3D layers overview and resources The basic objects that you manipulate in After Effects are flat, two-dimensional (2D) layers.
Alan Shisko provides a detailed video tutorial on his website, demonstrating how to create a complex 3D environment from 3D layers, beginning with simple 2D assets. Chris and Trish Meyer provide a tutorial on the Artbeats website that demonstrates how to create 3D reflections. Chris and Trish Meyer provide a demonstration of importing and using extruded 3D objects from Photoshop, including those created using the Repoussé feature in Photoshop. See “Repoussé in After Effects CS5” on the Lynda.com website.
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. To show or hide a set of persistent 3D reference axes, click the Grid And Guides Options button and choose 3D Reference Axes. at the bottom of the Composition panel, Chris and Trish Meyer provide a video tutorial on the ProVideo Coalition website that demonstrates the use of the 3D axis layer controls. To the top Move a 3D layer 1.
Drag a layer handle. Dragging a corner handle turns the layer around the z axis; dragging a left or right center handle turns the layer around the y axis; dragging a top or bottom handle turns the layer around the x axis. Drag the layer. Shift-drag to constrain your manipulations to 45-degree increments. Rotate or orient a 3D layer in the Timeline panel 1. Select the 3D layer that you want to turn. 2. In the Timeline panel, modify the Rotation or Orientation property values.
3D layers intersecting (left), and 3D layers prevented from intersecting by intervening 2D layer (right) Just like 2D layers, other types of layers also prevent 3D layers on either side from intersecting or casting shadows on one another: An adjustment layer A 3D layer with a layer style applied A 3D precomposition layer to which an effect, closed mask (with mask mode other than None), or track matte has been applied A 3D precomposition layer without collapsed transformations A precomposition with collap
Photoshop places each 3D object on a separate layer. Within Photoshop, you can use the 3D tools to transform (move and scale) a 3D model, change the lighting, change camera angles and positions, and change render modes—for example, from solid to wireframe mode. You can also use Photoshop to modify, paint on, and replace textures for a 3D object. You can bring these 3D object layers in PSD files from Photoshop into After Effects for compositing and animation.
Cameras, lights, and points of interest Create a camera layer and change camera settings Create a light and change light settings Adjust a 3D view or move a camera, light, or point of interest Material Options properties Specify resolution to use for rendering shadows Stereoscopic 3D To the top Create a camera layer and change camera settings You can view 3D layers from any angle and distance using camera layers.
Note: By default, new layers begin at the beginning of the composition duration. You can instead choose to have new layers begin at the current time by deselecting the Create Layers At Composition Start Time preference (Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS)). Change camera settings You can change camera settings at any time. Double-click the camera layer in the Timeline panel, or select the layer and then choose Layer > Camera Settings.
Lock To Zoom Makes the Focus Distance value match the Zoom value. Note: If you change the settings of the Zoom or Focus Distance options in the Timeline panel, the Focus Distance value becomes unlocked from the Zoom value. If you need to change the values and want the values to remain locked, then use the Camera Settings dialog box instead of the Timeline panel.
Trish and Chris Meyer provide a tutorial for using 3D layers, lights, and cameras in a PDF excerpt from their book After Effects Apprentice on the Focal Press website. Richard Harrington provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to use the Camera tools and camera views in After Effects to create a camera move with 3D layers. (This tutorial is the second in a two-part series.
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. Light settings Light Type Parallel emits directional, unconstrained light from an infinitely distant source, approximating the light from a source like the Sun.
This control is active only if Casts Shadows is selected. Online resources about lights Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates the use of lights as adjustment layers, to precisely control which layers are affected by which lights. Chris and Trish Meyer provide tips about shadows and lights in 3D in an article on the ProVideo Coalition website.
2. Activate a Camera tool. You can activate a Camera tool by selecting it in the Tools panel or pressing C to cycle through the Camera tools. The easiest way to switch between the various Camera tools is to select the Unified Camera tool and use the buttons on a three-button mouse. Orbit Camera Rotates the 3D view or camera by moving around the point of interest. (To temporarily activate the Orbit Camera tool when the Unified Camera Tool is selected, hold the left mouse button.
Trish and Chris Meyer provide a video tutorial on the ProVideo Coalition website that demonstrates the use of the Camera tools to adjust cameras and 3D views. Trish and Chris Meyer provide a tutorial for using 3D layers, lights, and cameras in a PDF excerpt from their book After Effects Apprentice on the Focal Press website.
reflection with a small specular highlight. 0% specifies a reflection with a large specular highlight. Metal The contribution of the layer color to the color of the specular highlight. 100% specifies that the highlight color is the color of the layer. For example, with a Metal value of 100%, an image of a gold ring reflects golden light. 0% specifies that the color of the specular highlight is the color of the light source.
the master camera with the right camera to the right. Conversely, Hero Right places the right camera at the master camera position with the left camera to the left. Stereo Scene Depth Controls the interaxial separation between the cameras as a percentage of the composition’s width. That way, if the composition is resized, the separation amount is constant. This setting starts low at a value of 3% to keep the effect subtle.
Interlaced 7. Turn on 3D mode for your 3D TV and match the format to what was set in 3D View for the 3D Glasses effect. (Stereo Pair, and Over Under are supported on most 3D TVs. 8. Put on your 3D glasses, and edit your composition in true stereoscopic 3D. Stereoscopic 3D tips If you are working with3D stereoscopic footage in the Composition panel and you do not have a 3D television, you can work with the anaglyph format.
Views and previews 191
Previewing Preview video and audio Use RAM preview to play video and audio RAM preview a specified number of frames Save a RAM preview as a movie Loop options for previews Preview only audio Use standard preview to play video Manually preview (scrub) video and audio Audio panel options Additional tips and options for previewing Move the current-time indicator (CTI) Zoom in or out in time for a composition Choose a viewer to always preview Preview modes and Viewer Quality preferences Preview modes and Fast P
Mute Audio Include audio in or exclude audio from RAM preview. Frame Rate Choose Auto to use the composition frame rate. Skip The number of frames to skip between a rendered frame and the next rendered frame. Choose 0 to render all frames. Resolution Choose Auto to use the resolution set in the Resolution/Down Sample Factor menu at the bottom of the viewer panel.
RAM preview doesn’t generate interlaced fields, so a saved RAM preview never contains fields. Note: The 3D View of the active composition panel must be set to Active Camera for Save RAM Preview to work, even if the composition doesn’t contain 3D layers. 1. After you generate a RAM preview, choose Composition > Save RAM Preview. 2. Enter a name, specify a location, and click Save.
To manually preview (scrub) video in the Timeline panel or go to a specific frame, drag the current-time indicator. To scrub audio in the Timeline panel, Ctrl+Alt-drag (Windows) or Command+Option-drag (Mac OS) the current-time indicator. To scrub audio and video in the Timeline panel, Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) the current-time indicator. If you stop moving the current-time indicator while keeping the mouse button depressed, a short section of audio loops.
To turn pixel-aspect ratio correction on or off for previews, click the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction button at the bottom of the panel. The quality of the pixel aspect ratio correction is determined by the Zoom Quality preference. (See Viewer Quality preferences.) When possible, preview on the same kind of device that your audience will use to view your final output. For example, you can preview on an external video monitor.
Jeff Almasol provides a script that creates a panel with controls for moving the current-time indicator to different times in the composition. The panel provides buttons for jumping a specific number of frames forward or back from the current time, as well as buttons for capturing different times and jumping to them easily. For more information, go to Jeff Almasol’s redefinery website. You can scroll and zoom in time in the Timeline, Footage, and Layer panels. See Scroll or zoom with the mouse wheel.
Preview modes and Fast Previews preferences Each preview mode provides a different balance between quality and speed for playback and for updating of images during interactions, such as when you drag a layer in the Composition panel or modifying a property value in the Timeline panel. Draft 3D and Live Update modes apply to all views of a composition. Draft 3D Disables lights, shadows, and depth-of-field blur for cameras. To turn Draft 3D mode on or off, click the Draft 3D button the Timeline panel.
Off (Final Quality) Fast Previews is off. Use this mode when previewing the final quality of your composition. Adaptive Resolution Attempts to downsample footage while dragging a layer or scrubbing a property value. For the ray-traced 3D compositions, Adaptive Resolution will reduce the ray-tracing quality based on the current adaptive resolution: At 1/2, the ray-tracing quality value is cut in half. at 1/4, it will be reduced to at most 4. at 1/8 or 1/16, it will be reduced to at most 2.
In the Previews preferences category, you can choose the quality and speed of color management and zoom operations used in previews. From the Zoom Quality or Color Management Quality menu, choose one of the following: Faster More Accurate More Accurate Except For RAM Previews. The Zoom Quality preference affects the quality of scaling performed for pixel aspect ratio correction in the Composition and Layer panels. (See Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio.
Work area markers indicate the composition duration rendered for previews or final output. To move the work area, drag the center of the work area bar left or right. Dragging center of work area bar to move work area To expand the work area to the size of the composition, double-click the center of the work area bar. To show the duration of the work and the times of its beginning and end in the Info panel, click the work area bar.
4. Set any of the following options: Previews Displays RAM previews or standard previews on the external monitor only. Mirror On Computer Monitor Displays RAM previews or standard previews simultaneously on the external monitor and on the computer screen. Using this option may slow down the previews. Interactions Displays interactive previews—such as dragging in the Timeline panel or dragging in the Composition panel—on the computer screen and simultaneously on the external monitor.
Modifying and using views Choose a view layout and share view settings Choose a 3D view Show or hide layer controls in the Composition panel Zoom an image for preview Resolution View a color channel or alpha channel Adjust exposure for previews Safe zones, grids, guides, and rulers Additional resources for viewing and previewing To the top Choose a view layout and share view settings The Composition panel can show one, two, or four views at a time.
To the top Show or hide layer controls in the Composition panel You can assign different options to each view in the Composition panel, so that you can see any combination of camera and light wireframes, layer handles, mask and shape paths, effect control points, and motion path controls. To choose which layer controls to show in a view, choose View > View Options, or press Ctrl+Alt+U (Windows) or Command+Option+U (Mac OS).
image. For each view, there are two such ratios—one for the horizontal dimension and one for the vertical dimension. Each composition has its own Resolution setting, which affects the image quality of the composition when it’s rendered for previews and final output. Rendering time and memory for each frame are roughly proportional to the number of pixels being rendered.
You can adjust the exposure (in f-stop units) for previews with the Adjust Exposure control, which is located to the right of the Reset Exposure button at the bottom of a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel. Each viewer can have its own Adjust Exposure setting. When the Adjust Exposure control is set to a value other than zero, the Reset Exposure button is orange . The Adjust Exposure control doesn’t affect final output, only how video appears during previews.
You should always design from one edge of the frame to the other, because computer monitors and some television sets may show the entire frame. The conventional action-safe zone is 90% of the width and height of the frame, which corresponds to a margin of 5% on each side. Keep important visual elements within this zone. The conventional title-safe zone is 80% of the width and height of the frame, which corresponds to a margin of 10% on each side.
Animation and Keyframes 208
Animation basics About animation, keyframes, and expressions The Graph Editor To the top 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. For example, you can animate the Opacity property of a layer from 0% at time zero to 100% at time 1 second to make the layer fade in.
Note: When a layer property that contains keyframes is collapsed, gray dots (summary keyframe indicators) for the property group show that there are keyframes contained within it. Some tools, such as Motion Sketch and the Puppet tools, automatically set keyframes for you to match motion that you sketch. Expressions Expressions use a scripting language based on JavaScript to specify the values of a property and to relate properties to one another.
Keyframes in the Graph Editor with direction handles Online resources about the Graph Editor Antony Bolante provides information, tips, illustrations about using the Graph Editor in an article on the Peachpit Press website. 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.
Show Graph Tool Tips Toggles the graph tool tips on and off. Show Expression Editor Shows or hides the expression editor field. Allow Keyframes Between Frames Allows placement of keyframes between frames for fine-tuning animation. Pan and zoom in the Graph Editor To pan vertically or horizontally, drag with the Hand tool To activate the Hand tool momentarily when using another tool, press and hold the spacebar or the middle mouse button. To pan vertically, roll the mouse scroll wheel.
Setting, selecting, and deleting keyframes Set or add keyframes Move the current-time indicator (CTI) to a keyframe Select keyframes Keyframe menu commands Delete or disable keyframes To the top Set or add keyframes When the stopwatch is active for a specific property, After Effects automatically adds or changes a keyframe for the property at the current time whenever you change the property value. To activate the stopwatch and enable keyframing, do one of the following Click the Stopwatch icon value.
To detach the keyframe navigator from the A/V Features column to function as its own column, choose Column > Keys from the Timeline panel menu. Keyframe navigator in Timeline panel A. Keyframe at current time B. No keyframe at current time C. No keyframes for layer property To move to the next or previous keyframe, click a keyframe navigator arrow. To snap to a keyframe or marker, Shift-drag the current-time indicator.
Select Equal Keyframes Selects all keyframes in a property that have the same value. Select Previous Keyframes Selects all keyframes preceding the currently selected keyframe. Select Following Keyframes Selects all keyframes following the currently selected keyframe. Toggle Hold Keyframe Holds the property value at the value of the current keyframe until the next keyframe is reached. Keyframe Interpolation Opens the Keyframe Interpolation dialog box.
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Editing, moving, and copying keyframes View or edit a keyframe value Copy and paste keyframes Edit keyframe values using a spreadsheet or text editor Move keyframes in time Move a layer duration bar but not its keyframes Change multiple keyframe values at once Move or change keyframes in the Graph Editor To the top View or edit a keyframe value Before you change a keyframe, make sure that the current-time indicator is positioned at an existing keyframe.
4. In the Timeline panel containing the destination layer, move the current-time indicator to the point in time where you want the keyframes to appear. 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. 6. Choose Edit > Paste.
Move keyframes in time You can move keyframes in time, either individually or as a group. Jeff Almasol provides a versatile 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.
5. Move the current-time indicator to the composition marker at the time at which the first keyframe appeared before you cut the keyframes. 6. Choose Edit > Paste. To the top Change multiple keyframe values at once You can change the values of multiple keyframes on multiple layers at one time; however, all keyframes you select must belong to the same layer property.
2. If necessary, click the Graph Editor button or press Shift+F3 to enter Graph Editor mode. 3. If necessary, add a keyframe at the point in time you want the change to occur. 4. Drag the keyframe up or down to set a new value for the layer property. Modify multiple keyframes in the Graph Editor You can edit and move multiple keyframes simultaneously using the Graph Editor.
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Assorted animation tools Motion paths Motion blur Smooth motion and velocity by removing extra keyframes Add randomness to a property with the Wiggler Convert audio to keyframes To the top Motion paths When you animate spatial properties—including Position, Anchor Point, and effect control point properties—the motion is shown as a motion path. A motion path appears as a sequence of dots, where each dot marks the position of the layer at each frame. A box in the path marks the position of a keyframe.
3. In the Composition panel or Layer panel, use the Selection tool to drag a keyframe or its handles. Note: The current-time indicator does not need to be located on a keyframe before you drag it. 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.
You can draw a path for the motion of a selected layer using Motion Sketch, which records the position of the layer and the speed at which you draw. As you draw, a Position keyframe is generated at each frame. Motion Sketch does not affect keyframes that you have set for other properties. For example, if you set Rotation keyframes for an image of a ball, you can use Motion Sketch to generate Position keyframes, so that the ball appears to roll along the path you created.
1. Copy a path to the clipboard: Select a Path property in the Timeline panel, and choose Edit > Copy. Select a path in Illustrator or Photoshop, and choose Edit > Copy. 2. In the Timeline panel, select the property into which to paste the path. 3. Place the current-time indicator at the time for the first keyframe of the motion path. 4. Choose Edit > Paste. Andrew Devis shows how to use paths from Illustrator as motion paths in After Effects in this video on the Creative COW website.
Samples Per Frame The minimum number of samples. This minimum is the number of samples used for frames for which After Effects is not able to determine an adaptive sampling rate based on layer motion. This sample rate is used for 3D layers and shape layers. Adaptive Sample Limit The maximum number of samples. Shutter Angle The shutter angle is measured in degrees, simulating the exposure allowed by a rotating shutter.
Although you can smooth a curve for any property, the Smoother is most useful when applied to curves that have been automatically generated by Motion Sketch, where you may have excess keyframes. Applying the Smoother to keyframes that have been set manually may result in unexpected changes to the curve. Note: To avoid the need to use the Smoother on a path generated by Motion Sketch, set the Smoothing option in the Motion Sketch panel before sketching the motion path.
Jagged Noise Produces sudden changes. 5. Select the dimensions of the property you want to affect: X, Y, or Z Adds deviations to only one dimension of the selected property. Choose the dimension from the menu. All Independently Independently adds a different set of deviations to each dimension. All The Same Adds the same set of deviations to all dimensions. 6. Set Frequency to specify how many deviations (keyframes) per second After Effects adds to the selected keyframes.
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Tracking and stabilizing motion Motion tracking overview and resources Resources for mocha for After Effects (mocha AE) Motion tracking workflow Track or stabilize motion with the point tracker Adjust the track point Apply tracking data to a new target Correct a motion track Stabilize motion with the Warp Stabilizer effect | CC, CS6, CS5.
Layer panel with track point A. Search region B. Feature region C. Attach point Feature region The feature region defines the element in the layer to be tracked. The feature region should surround a distinct visual element, preferably one object in the real world. After Effects must be able to clearly identify the tracked feature throughout the duration of the track, despite changes in light, background, and angle.
Planar tracking Motion tracking and compositing computer-generated elements into a scene Screen tracking and replacement Sean Kennedy provides a free script, TrackerViz, that makes tracking motion and applying tracking data to masks easier. You can get TrackerViz and a series of detailed instructions on the SimplyCG website.
in After Effects. (See Resources for Imagineer mocha shape for After Effects (mocha shape AE).) Note: The free trial version of Adobe After Effects software does not include some features that depend upon software licensed from parties other than Adobe. For example, mocha for After Effects, some effect plug-ins are available only with the full version of Adobe After Effects software. (See Setup and installation.
Attach point centered in feature region Attach point offset from feature region Adjust the feature region, search region, and tracking options Place each feature region control tightly around its tracked feature, completely enclosing the tracked feature, but including as little of the surrounding image as possible. The size and position of the search region depend on the movement of the feature you want to track.
value. This combination of settings centers the motion blur on the attach point. Otherwise, the attached object may appear to lead or lag the object that it’s attached to. You can apply the tracking data to a null object layer and parent the layer that you want to animate to the null object layer. To the top Track or stabilize motion with the point tracker Tracking motion and stabilizing motion are essentially the same process, only with a different target and result.
After Effects creates keyframes for the target layer. When tracking position and applying this position data to a target, you can choose to apply only the x (horizontal) or y (vertical) component of motion. For example, you can apply the tracking data to the x axis to make a speech bubble (the motion target) remain at the top of the frame even when the actor (the motion source) moves downward. X And Y (default) allows motion along both axes. X Only restricts the motion target to horizontal movement.
Analyze buttons Begins the frame-to-frame analysis of the track point in the source footage: Analyze 1 Frame Backward Analyze Backward Analyze Forward : Analyze the current frame by moving back to the previous frame. : Analyze from the current-time indicator backward to the beginning of the trimmed layer duration. : Analyze from the current-time indicator to the end of the trimmed layer duration. Analyze 1 Frame Forward : Analyze the current frame by advancing to the next frame.
Select Stop Tracking to stop the motion tracking. Select Extrapolate Motion to estimate the position of the feature region. Attach-point keyframes aren’t created for low-confidence frames, and attach-point keyframes for the low-confidence frames from previous tracks are deleted. Select Adapt Feature to use the original tracked feature until the confidence level falls below the specified threshold.
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. Moves attach point I. Moves entire track point J. Resizes region To turn on or off feature region magnification, choose Magnify Feature When Dragging from the Tracker panel menu.
3. Click Edit Target, and choose the target. 4. In the Tracker panel, click the Apply button. To the top Correct a motion track As an image moves in a shot, the lighting, surrounding objects, and angle of the object can all change, making the once distinct feature no longer identifiable at the subpixel level. Also, if the search region is too small, the tracked feature may leave its bounds from one frame to the next. Learning to choose a trackable feature takes time.
2. In the Tracker panel, click Options. 3. Change settings in the Motion Tracker dialog box as appropriate. (See Motion tracking options.) 4. In the Tracker panel, click the Analyze Forward or the Analyze Backward button. 5. Watch the tracking to make sure that it is accurate. If the tracking is not accurate, then click the button again to stop tracking, adjust the settings, and begin again. 6.
Warp Stabilizer VFX / Warp Stabilizer settings Analyze There is no need to press this button when you first apply Warp Stabilizer, it is pressed for you automatically. The Analyze button remains dimmed until some change takes place. For example, if you adjust a layer’s In or Out points, or there is an upstream change to the layer source. Click the button to reanalyze the footage. Note: Analysis does not take into account any masks or effects that are applied directly to the same layer.
Smooth More property are disabled. Stabilize, Crop: Crops the moving edges without scaling. Stabilize, Crop is identical to using Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale, and setting Maximum Scale to 100%. With this option enabled, the Auto-scale section is disabled, but the Crop Less <-> Smooth More property is enabled. Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale (default): Crops the moving edges and scales up the image to refill the frame. The automatic scaling is controlled by various properties in the Auto-scale section.
stabilized motion onto a different layer. Target Layer Choose a layer to which the stabilized motion is applied using the Apply Motion to Target or Apply Motion to Target over Original options. Show Track Points Determines if track points are displayed. Track Point Size Determines the size of the displayed track points Auto-delete Points Across Time When you delete track points in a composition panel, corresponding track points on the same object, are deleted at other times on the layer.
Speed Controlling speed between keyframes Smooth motion with roving keyframes Use Exponential Scale to change the speed of scaling To the top Controlling speed between keyframes When you animate a property in the Graph Editor, you can view and adjust the rate of change (speed) of the property in the speed graph. You can also adjust speed for spatial properties in the motion path in the Composition or Layer panel. In the Composition or Layer panel, the spacing between dots in a motion path indicates speed.
Linear interpolation (top) causes sharp changes; Bezier interpolation (bottom) creates smoother changes. Control speed between keyframes without using the speed graph In the Composition or Layer panel, adjust the spatial distance between two keyframes on the motion path. Increase speed by moving one keyframe position farther away from the other, or decrease speed by moving one keyframe position closer to the other. More spatial distance between keyframes increases layer speed.
Shorter temporal distance between keyframes increases layer speed. Apply the Easy Ease keyframe assistant, which automatically adjusts the speed of change as motion advances toward and retreats from a keyframe. About the speed graph You can fine-tune changes over time using the speed graph in the Graph Editor. The speed graph provides information about and control of the value and rate of change for all spatial and temporal values at any frame in a composition.
Control speed with the speed graph 1. In the Timeline panel, expand the outline for the keyframe you want to adjust. 2. Click the Graph Editor button and select Edit Speed Graph from the Graph Type And Options menu . 3. Using the Selection tool, click the keyframe you want to adjust. 4. (Optional) Do one of the following: To split the incoming and outgoing direction handles, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) a direction handle.
Start or stop change gradually Direction handles can create gradual starts and stops, such as a boat slowing to a stop and then starting again. When you use this technique, the speed graph resembles a smooth U shape. 1. In the Timeline panel, expand the outline for the keyframe you want to adjust. 2. Click the Graph Editor button and display the speed graph for the property. 3. Make sure the interpolation method for the keyframe you want to adjust is set to Continuous Bezier or Bezier. 4.
1. Display the speed graph for the keyframe you want to adjust. 2. Select the keyframe you want to edit, and then choose Animation > Keyframe Velocity. 3. Enter values for Speed for Incoming and Outgoing Velocity. 4. Enter a value for Influence to specify the amount of influence toward the previous keyframe (for incoming interpolation) or the next keyframe (for outgoing interpolation). 5. To create a smooth transition by maintaining equal incoming and outgoing velocities, select Continuous.
1. In layer bar mode or in the Graph Editor, set up the keyframes for the motion you want to smooth. 2. Determine the beginning and ending keyframes for the range you want to smooth. 3. Do one of the following: For every keyframe in the range (except the beginning and ending keyframes), select Rove Across Time in the keyframe menu . Select the keyframes you want to rove and choose Animation > Keyframe Interpolation. Then choose Rove Across Time from the Roving menu.
Animating with Puppet tools Puppet tools overview and resources Manually animate an image with the Puppet tools Record animation by sketching motion with the Puppet Pin tool How the Puppet effect creates outlines Work with Puppet pins and the distortion mesh Puppet Overlap controls Puppet Starch controls To the top Puppet tools overview and resources Use the Puppet tools to quickly add natural motion to raster images and vector graphics, including still images, shapes, and text characters.
If a single animated Deform pin is selected, its Position keyframes are visible in the Composition panel and Layer panel as a motion path. You can work with these motion paths as you work with other motion paths, including setting keyframes to rove across time. (See Smooth motion with roving keyframes.) You can have multiple meshes on one layer.
Click within a closed, unlocked mask to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline defined by the mask path. Click outside all closed paths on a vector layer to apply the Puppet effect without creating a mesh. Outlines are created for paths on the layer, though an outline is only visible when a Puppet tool pointer is over the area that the outline defines. Place the pointer over the area enclosed by a path to see the outline in which a mesh will be created if you click that point.
The color of the outline for the mesh for which motion is being sketched is the same as the color of the pin (yellow). Reference outlines, for other meshes on the same layer, match the label color of the layer. The current-time indicator returns to the time at which recording began, so that you can repeat the recording operation with more Deform pins or redo the recording operation with the same pins.
Outline for union of two shape paths, indicated by yellow highlight, visible because Puppet tool pointer is within area defined by outline To the top Work with Puppet pins and the distortion mesh To show the mesh for the Puppet effect, select Show in the options section of the Tools panel. To select or move a pin, click or drag it with the Move tool tool . To activate the Move tool, place the pointer on a pin while either the Selection or the corresponding Puppet tool is active.
Overlap pin with negative In Front value (top), and Overlap pin with positive In Front value (bottom) Each Overlap pin has the following properties: In Front The apparent proximity to the viewer. The influence of Overlap pins is cumulative, meaning that the In Front values are added together for places on the mesh where extents overlap. You can use negative In Front values to cancel out the influence of another Overlap pin at a specific location.
If you notice image tearing near a Deform pin, use a Starch pin with a very small Amount value (less than 0.1) near the Deform pin. Small Amount values are good for maintaining image integrity without introducing much rigidity. Extent How far from the Starch pin its influence extends. The influence ends abruptly; it does not decrease gradually with distance from the pin. Extent is indicated visually by a pale fill in the affected parts of the mesh.
Tracking 3D camera movement | CC, CS6 3D camera tracker effect Ground plane and origin in 3D Camera Tracker effect | CC Auto-delete Points Across Time | CC To the top 3D camera tracker effect The 3D camera tracker effect analyzes video sequences to extract camera motion and 3D scene data. The 3D camera motion allows you to correctly composite 3D elements over your 2D footage. Like the Warp Stabilizer, the 3D camera tracker effect performs analysis using a background process.
Moving the target to attach content to different location To move the target so that you can attach content to a different location, do the following: 1. When above the center of the target, the "move" cursor appears for repositioning the target. 2. Drag the center of the target to desired location. Once at the intended location, you can attach content by using the commands in the context menu. If the size of the targets is too small or too large to see, you can resize them to help visualize the planes.
Effects controls for the 3D camera tracker The effect has the following controls and settings: Analyze/Cancel Starts or stops the background analysis of the footage. During analysis, status appears as a banner on the footage and next to the Cancel button. Shot Type Specifies whether the footage was captured with a fixed horizontal angle of view, variable zoom, or a specific horizontal angle of view. Changing this setting requires a resolve.
4. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the target and choose Set Ground Plane And Origin. This action does not have any visible result, but the reference plane and origin of the coordinate system are saved for this scene. Any items that you create from within this instance of the 3D Camera Tracker effect are created using this plane and origin.
Time-stretching and time-remapping Time-stretch a layer Reverse the playback direction of a layer Reverse keyframes without reversing layer playback Time-remapping Frame blending Time-stretching, time-remapping, and the Timewarp effect are all useful for creating slow motion, fast motion, freeze frame, or other retiming results. For information on the Timewarp effect, see Timewarp effect.
Current Frame Holds the layer at the position of the current-time indicator (also the frame displayed in the Composition panel), and timestretches the layer by moving the In and Out points. Layer Out-point Holds the ending time of the layer at its current value and time-stretches the layer by moving its In point. Time-stretch a layer to a specific time 1. In the Timeline panel, move the current-time indicator to the frame where you want the layer to begin or end. 2.
To the top Reverse keyframes without reversing layer playback You can select and reverse keyframes across multiple layers and properties, but each set of keyframes for a property is reversed only within its original time range and not that of any other selected property. Markers in the Timeline panel are not reversed, so you may need to move markers after reversing keyframes. 1. In the Timeline panel, select a range of keyframes you want to reverse. 2.
Layer panel for time remapping The Graph Editor provides a view of the changes you specify over time by marking your changes with keyframes and a graph like the one displayed for other layer properties. Time-remapping graph When remapping time in the Graph Editor, use the values represented in the Time Remap graph to determine and control which frame of the movie plays at which point in time.
You can time-remap all or part of a layer to create many different results, such as freeze-frame or slow-motion results. (See Time-remapping.) Freeze the current frame for the duration of the layer 1. In a Composition or Timeline panel, select the layer. 2. Place the current-time indicator on the frame that you want to freeze. 3. Choose Layer > Time > Freeze Frame. Time-remapping is enabled, and a Hold keyframe is placed at the position of the current-time indicator to freeze the frame.
8. (Optional) To extend the layer so that its duration is increased to accommodate the time added by the freeze-frame operation, press the K key twice to move the current-time indicator to the last Time Remap keyframe, and press Alt+] (Windows) or Option+] (Mac OS). The portion of the layer between the first and second keyframes plays at an unaltered rate (the same as for the non-time-remapped layer), as does the portion of the layer between the third and fourth keyframes.
2. Choose Layer > Time > Enable Time Remapping. A second time ruler appears in the Layer panel above the default time ruler and the navigator bar. 3. On the lower time ruler, move the current-time indicator to the first frame where you want the change to occur. 4. On the upper time ruler, the remap-time marker indicates the frame currently mapped to the time indicated on the lower time ruler.
To lower the pitch, drag the speed graph marker down. To increase the pitch, drag the speed graph marker up. 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. 3. Expand the layer outline to display the Audio property and then the Audio Levels property. 4. Move the current-time indicator to the new In point and choose Animation > Add Audio Levels Keyframe. 5.
The Quality setting you select also affects frame blending. When the layer is set to Best quality, frame blending results in smoother motion but may take longer to render than when set to Draft quality. Note: When working with a frame-blended layer in Draft mode, After Effects always uses Frame Mix interpolation to increase rendering speed. You can also enable frame blending for all compositions when you render a movie.
Keyframe interpolation About spatial and temporal keyframe interpolation Keyframe interpolation methods Apply and change keyframe interpolation methods Modify Bezier direction handles in the Graph Editor To the top About spatial and temporal keyframe interpolation Interpolation is the process of filling in the unknown data between two known values. You set keyframes to specify a property’s values at certain key times. After Effects interpolates values for the property for all times between keyframes.
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. In such a case, you can change the earlier keyframe to use Hold interpolation or change both keyframes to use Linear interpolation.
of the keyframes for a layer property. In practice, you can apply any available interpolation method to any keyframe. No interpolation No interpolation is the state in which a layer property has no keyframes—when the stopwatch is turned off and the I-beam icon appears in the Timeline panel under the current-time indicator. In this state, when you set the value of a layer property, it maintains that value for the duration of the layer, unless overridden by an expression.
Hold interpolation Hold interpolation is available only as a temporal interpolation method. Use it to change the value of a layer property over time, but without a gradual transition. This method is useful for strobe effects, or when you want layers to appear or disappear suddenly. If you apply Hold temporal interpolation to all keyframes of a layer property, the value of the first keyframe holds steady until the next keyframe, when the values change immediately.
Linear, Bezier, Continuous Bezier, and Auto Bezier Apply a spatial interpolation method using default values. 5. If you selected keyframes of a spatial layer property, use the Roving menu to choose how a keyframe determines its position in time, and then click OK: Current Settings Preserves the currently applied method of positioning the selected keyframes in time.
or Option-drag (Mac OS) outside a keyframe to draw new handles, whether or not handles already exist. To manipulate the direction handles of two neighboring keyframes simultaneously, drag the value graph segment between the keyframes. Extending a Bezier direction handle in the speed graph Adobe also recommends Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Color 279
Color basics Color depth and high dynamic range color Select a color or edit a gradient Color correction, color grading, and color adjustment Resources for Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse Color models and color spaces Gamma and tone response Charles Poynton provides an excellent set of resources on his website regarding color technology and color terminology.
This video from the After Effects CS5: Learn By Video series provides an introduction to color channels and color bit depth, and it shows how choosing the right color bit depth can often eliminate banding in gradients. Comparative advantages of each color depth The dynamic range (ratio between dark and bright regions) in the physical world far exceeds the range of human vision and of images that are printed on paper or displayed on a monitor.
Additional resources about high dynamic range color Jonas Hummelstrand provides a collection of resources for understanding and using HDR color in After Effects on his General Specialist website. Chris Meyer explains what floating-point, 32-bpc, HDR color is good for in a video overview on the Lynda.com website. Kert Gartner provides some visual examples and a brief explanation on his VFX Haiku website that demonstrate the benefits of working with 32bpc color.
1. Click the eyedropper button, and move the pointer to the pixel that you want to sample. The color swatch next to the eyedropper button dynamically changes to the color under the eyedropper. 2. Do one of the following: To select the color of a single pixel, click the pixel. To sample the color average of a 5-pixel-by-5-pixel area, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the area.
4. Do any of the following: Drag the triangles along the color slider, or click inside the color slider to adjust the colors displayed in the color spectrum. Click or drag inside the large square color spectrum to select a color. A circular marker indicates the location of the color in the color spectrum. Note: As you adjust the color using the color slider and color spectrum, the numeric values change to indicate the new color.
You need to restrict colors to a particular range, such as the broadcast-safe range. The terms color correction and color grading are often used interchangeably, though the term color grading is sometimes used to refer distinctly to color adjustments made for creative purposes rather to correct problems with color. The term color correction is used in the broad, general sense in After Effects.
Input sliders moved so that output uses full tonal range Histogram showing highlight clipping Histogram showing shadow clipping To the top Resources for Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse The Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse plug-in included with After Effects includes excellent color-correction tools. Synthetic Aperture provides tutorials and additional information about using Color Finesse on their website. Color Finesse installs its documentation in the plug-in’s subfolder in the Plug-ins folder.
Adobe provides a white paper on color spaces and color management in After Effects, on the Adobe website. Charles Poynton provides an excellent set of resources on his website regarding color spaces, color management, and other color technology. Harry Frank provides a video tutorial on his graymachine website that shows how and why to use color conversion expressions to convert colors from the RGB color model to the HSL color model when randomly varying colors.
To disable this automatic color transformation, deselect Compensate For Scene-referred Profiles in the Project Settings dialog box (File > Project Settings). The Compensate For Scene-referred Profiles feature also exists in Adobe Photoshop CS4 and later, but this feature does not exist in other applications. To match the colors in other applications—including After Effects CS3 and earlier—disable this automatic conversion.
Color management Color management and color profiles Calibrate and profile your monitor Choose a working color space and enable color management Linearize working space and enable linear blending Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile Assign an output color profile Enable or disable display color management Simulate how colors will appear on a different output device Broadcast-safe colors This video from the After Effects CS5: Learn By Video series provides an introduction to color ma
By default when you use color management, After Effects automatically adjusts colors to compensate for the differences in gamma between scene-referred color profiles and output-referred color profiles. (See Gamma and tone response.) Note: An alternative approach to color management is to manually apply color transformations using color lookup tables (LUTs). (See Apply Color LUT effect.
open the project on another system. Note: The NTSC (1953) color profile corresponds to obsolete television equipment and should not be used. For standard-definition NTSC television, use one of the SDTV NTSC color profiles. When you choose a profile—for input, output, or simulation—the motion-picture film profiles do not appear unless your footage is Cineon footage or you select Show All Available profiles.
For best results, use third-party software and measuring devices. In general, using a measuring device such as a colorimeter along with software can create more accurate profiles because an instrument can measure the colors displayed on a monitor far more accurately than the human eye can. Most profiling software automatically assigns the new profile as the default monitor profile. For instructions on how to manually assign the monitor profile, see the documentation for your operating system.
If you have not enabled color management, you can still perform blending operations using a gamma of 1.0. By performing operations in a linear color space, you can prevent certain edge and halo artifacts, such as the fringing that appears when highcontrast, saturated colors are blended together. Many color operations benefit from working in a linear color space, including those operations involved in image resampling, blending between layers with blending modes, motion blur, and anti-aliasing.
If you don’t assign an input color profile, and After Effects doesn’t have a rule in the interpretation rules file with which to make an interpretation, the colors of the footage item are assumed to be in the working color space of the project. When color management is enabled, the input color profile for a footage item is shown in the information area at the top of the Project panel.
3. Read the information in the Description area of the dialog box to confirm that the conversion is the one that you want, and click OK. To the top Enable or disable display color management When color management is on, the default behavior is for RGB pixel values to be converted to the color space of your computer monitor from the working color space for the project. Color appearance is preserved; RGB numbers are not preserved.
simulated device also performs color management and will convert colors for display. Color appearance is preserved; RGB numbers are not preserved. If Preserve RGB is selected, the color values are not converted in this step. Instead, the numeric RGB color values are preserved and are reinterpreted to be in the color space of the simulated device.
and Simulation Profile. To preview how a movie will look if you output the movie to one device and then view it on another, color-managed device, use different values for Output Profile and Simulation Profile, and deselect Preserve RGB. To preview how a movie will look if you output the movie to one device and view it on another device, use different values for Output Profile and Simulation Profile, and select Preserve RGB. You can choose an output simulation preset for each view.
If you notice that colors of imported footage look wrong—blacks don’t look black enough, and whites don’t look white enough—make sure that you’ve assigned the correct input color profile. The common video color profiles included with After Effects include variants that account for these limited ranges, such as the HDTV (Rec. 709) 16-235 color profile, which interprets 16 as black and 235 as white.
Drawing, painting, and paths 299
Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp,and Eraser Paint tools and paint strokes Brushes and the Brushes panel Paint with the Brush tool Clone Stamp tool Eraser tool Animate and edit paint strokes To the top 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. Each paint tool applies brush marks that modify the color or transparency of an area of a layer without modifying the layer source.
To reorder paint strokes within an instance of the Paint effect, drag a Paint stroke to a new location in the stacking order in the Timeline panel. To reorder an instance of the Paint effect to interleave it with other effects, drag the effect to a new location in the stacking order in the Timeline panel. To target a specific instance of the Paint effect for the addition of new paint strokes, choose from the View menu at the bottom of the Layer panel.
Brush properties Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) the brush in the Layer panel to adjust Diameter; release the key and continue to drag to adjust Hardness. Diameter Controls the size of the brush. Strokes with low Diameter values (left) and high Diameter values (right) Angle The angle by which the long axis of an elliptical brush is rotated from horizontal. note: Brush angles can be expressed in both positive and negative values.
Decrease spacing for continuous strokes (left); increase spacing for dashed strokes (right). Brush Dynamics These settings determine how the features of a pressure-sensitive digitizing tablet—such as a Wacom pen tablet—control and affect brush marks. For each brush, you can choose Pen Pressure, Pen Tilt, or Stylus Wheel for Size, Angle, Roundness, Opacity, and Flow to indicate what features of the pen tablet you would like to use to control brush marks.
Paint on individual frames with the Brush tool You can paint on individual frames over a series of frames to create an animation or to obscure unwanted details in your footage. If your output will be interlaced, double the frame rate of your composition before painting on individual frames. (See Frame rate.) 1. Select the Brush tool. 2. In the Paint panel, choose Custom from the Duration menu, and specify the duration in frames. To paint on each frame, set the Duration value to 1.
Displaying the clone source overlay while cloning between two different layers A. Clone source overlay B. Current stroke point C. Current sample point Note: To specify settings for a paint stroke before you apply it, use the Paint and Brushes panels. To change and animate properties for a paint stroke after you’ve applied it, work with the properties of the stroke in the Timeline panel.
Each clone stroke includes properties in the Timeline panel that are unique to the Clone Stamp tool and correspond to settings made in the Paint panel before the clone stroke is created: Clone Source The sampled layer. Clone Position The (x, y) location of the sample point within the source layer. Clone Time The composition time at which the source layer is sampled. This property appears only when Lock Source Time is selected.
To the top Animate and edit paint strokes You animate a paint stroke by setting keyframes or expressions for its properties. After Effects animates paint stroke properties—even the Path property of a paint stroke—by interpolating values for all frames between keyframes. By modifying and animating the Start and End properties of a paint stroke, you can control how much of a stroke is shown at any time.
4. Using the Selection tool, select the paint stroke. To momentarily activate the Selection tool, press and hold V. 5. Press SS to show the selected paint stroke in the Timeline panel. 6. Click the triangle next to the paint stroke name to expand its list of properties. 7. Click the stopwatch for the Path property to create an initial Path keyframe. 8. Drag the current-time indicator to another time. 9.
Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector graphics About vector graphics and raster images About paths About shapes and shape layers Groups and render order for shapes and shape attributes To the top About vector graphics and raster images Vector graphics are made up of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors, which describe an image according to its geometric characteristics.
for creating and editing these various kinds of paths overlap, but each kind of path has its own unique aspects. A path consists of segments and vertices. Segments are the lines or curves that connect vertices. Vertices define where each segment of a path starts and ends. Some Adobe applications use the terms anchor point and path point to refer to a vertex.
For shape paths, you can use the Merge Paths path operation (similar to the Pathfinder effects in Adobe Illustrator) to combine multiple paths into one path. (See Merge Paths options.) When you want text or an effect to follow a path, the path must be a mask path. A path itself has no visual appearance in rendered output; it is essentially a collection of information about how to place or modify other visual elements. To make a path visible, you apply a stroke to it.
own set of transform properties. By assembling shapes into groups, you can work with multiple shapes simultaneously—such as scaling all shapes in the group by the same amount or applying the same stroke to each shape. You can even place individual shapes or individual shape attributes within their own groups to isolate transformations. For example, you can scale a path without scaling its stroke by grouping the path by itself.
path operations.) 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. To override this default behavior for a specific fill or stroke, choose Above Previous In Same Group for the Composite property of the fill or stroke in the Timeline panel. (See Strokes and fills for shapes.
Creating shapes and masks Creating masks Create a rectangular or elliptical mask numerically Create a mask from channel values with Auto-trace Creating shapes and shape layers Vector Art Footage-to-Shape Conversion | CC, CS6 Create a shape or mask by dragging with shape tools Create a Bezier shape or mask using the Pen tool Create a shape or mask the size of the layer Create shapes or masks from text characters Copy a path from Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks Create a mask or shape from a motion path D
When creating or editing masks, look in the Info panel for information such as the mask name and the number of vertices in the mask. To create a mask that you can move independently of the primary layer that it is masking, do the following: 1. Create the mask on a separate white solid layer, and use that solid layer as a track matte for the primary layer. 2. Use parenting to make the solid layer a child of the primary layer, so that the mask moves with the primary layer as if it were applied directly.
5. Set any of the following options: Invert Inverts the input layer before searching for edges. Blur Blurs the original image before generating the tracing result. Select this option to reduce small artifacts and to smooth jagged edges in the tracing result. Deselect this option to closely trace details in a high-contrast image. Specify the radius, in pixels, of the area used for the blurring operation. Larger values result in more blur.
information about creating masks, see Creating masks. 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. To the top Vector Art Footage-to-Shape Conversion | CC, CS6 In previous versions of After Effects you could import an Illustrator (.ai), EPS (.eps), or PDF (.pdf) file, however you could not modify the file.
To reposition a shape or mask as you are drawing, hold the spacebar or the middle mouse button while dragging. To scale a circle, ellipse, square, rounded square, rectangle, or rounded rectangle around its center while drawing, hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) key after you begin dragging. Don’t release the key until you have released the mouse button to finish drawing. To cancel the drawing operation, press Esc.
Shift-drag to scale the polygon or star as you draw it, preventing rotation. 2. (Optional) Do the following before releasing the mouse button: To add or remove points, press the Up Arrow key or the Down Arrow key, or roll the mouse wheel forward or backward. To increase or decrease the outer roundness, press the Left Arrow key or the Right Arrow key. To keep the inner radius of a star constant as you move the mouse to increase the outer radius, hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) key.
click, you create a path made of straight line segments connected by corner points. Clicking with Pen tool creates straight segments. 1. Place the Pen tool where you want the straight segment to begin, and click to place a vertex. (Do not drag.) 2. Click again where you want the segment to end. (Shift-click to constrain the angle between segments at the corner point to a whole multiple of 45°.) 3. Continue clicking to set vertices for additional straight segments.
A. Starting to drag B. Dragging away from previous direction line, creating a C curve C. Result after releasing mouse button To create an S-shaped curve, drag in the same direction as the previous direction line, and then release the mouse button. Drawing an S curve A. Starting to drag B. Dragging in same direction as previous direction line, creating an S curve C. Result after releasing mouse button 4. Continue dragging the Pen tool from different locations to create a series of smooth curves.
To create shapes for all characters in a text layer, select the text layer in the Timeline panel or Composition panel. To create shapes for specific characters, select the characters in the Composition panel. 2. Do one of the following: Choose Layer > Create Shapes From Text. Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the layer or text and choose Create Shapes From Text from the context menu. The Video switch for the text layer is turned off.
Path drawn in Adobe Illustrator (left) and pasted into After Effects as a mask (right) 1. In Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks, select an entire path, and then choose Edit > Copy. 2. In After Effects, do one of the following to define a target for the paste operation: To create a new mask, select a layer. To replace an existing mask path or shape path, select its Path property. Note: To paste a path as a shape path, you must select the Path property of an existing shape in a shape layer.
difference may cause the pasted path to be offset, requiring you to reposition the path after pasting it. (See Coordinate systems: composition space and layer space.) Create a mask path from a motion path 1. In the Timeline panel, click the name of the Position property or Anchor Point property from which you want to copy the motion path. (This selects all keyframes. To select only some of the keyframes of a motion path, Shift-click them.) 2. Choose Edit > Copy. 3.
Creating Contrasting Color for Mask Path When the Use Contrasting Color For Mask Path preference (under Preferences > Appearance) is enabled, After Effects analyzes the colors near the point where you start drawing a mask. After Effects then chooses a label color that is different from the colors in that region. It also avoids the color of the last mask drawn.
Managing and animating shape paths and masks Rotoscoping introduction and resources View mask paths and shapes Select shape paths, shapes, and shape groups Select masks, segments, and vertices Lock or unlock masks Move vertices in free-transform mode Convert a path between manual Bezier and RotoBezier Modify a Bezier mask path or shape path Change a mask path numerically Designate the first vertex for a Bezier path Animate a mask path with Smart Mask Interpolation Move a mask or pan a layer behind a mask Y
In After Effects CC and CS6, use the variable-width mask feather feature for more control when feathering objects. Online resources about rotoscoping This video from the After Effects CS5: Learn By Video series shows how to combine motion tracking and rotoscoping to isolate and selectively color-correct an actor's face.
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. Press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS) with a shape vertex selected to select all vertices on that path. Press again to select all shapes. Press again to select all layers. Select a shape layer Click the layer name or layer duration bar in the Timeline panel.
Select all points on a path and enter free-transform mode Double-click a path segment while in path-editing mode or in group selection mode for a single shape. Select the Path property in the Timeline panel and press Ctrl+T (Windows) or Command+T (Mac OS). To the top Select masks, segments, and vertices Unlike layers, masks can have more than one level of selection. You can select a mask as a whole path, which is appropriate when you want to move or resize a mask.
Lock or unlock masks Locking a mask prevents you from selecting it in the Timeline, Composition, and Layer panels or setting it as a target in the Layer panel. Use this feature to avoid unwanted changes to the mask. 1. In the Timeline panel, expand the Masks property group. next to the mask you want to lock or unlock. A mask is locked and 2. In the A/V Features column, click the box underneath the Lock icon cannot be selected when its Lock switch is selected—that is, when the Lock icon appears in the box.
Convert a path between manual Bezier and RotoBezier You can convert any manual Bezier mask path or manual Bezier shape path to a RotoBezier path. If the manual Bezier path has direction handles that have been adjusted, this conversion changes the shape of the path, because After Effects calculates the curvature of RotoBezier segments automatically. The conversion of a RotoBezier path to a manual Bezier path does not change the shape of the path. 1.
Toggle a vertex between a smooth point and a corner point Click the vertex with the Convert Vertex tool . To activate the Convert Vertex tool when the Pen tool is selected, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS). Adjust the tension of a RotoBezier mask 1. If you want to adjust the tension of more than one vertex simultaneously, then select them. 2. Using the Convert Vertex tool , drag a vertex.
2. In the Timeline panel, move the current-time indicator to the point where you want to designate a new first vertex. 3. Select the vertex to designate as the first vertex. 4. Choose Layer > Mask And Shape Path > Set First Vertex. Note: The vertex designated as the first vertex appears slightly larger than the other vertices in the Composition panel.
result. Smart Mask Interpolation does not modify the original keyframes. Only the new mask path keyframes computed by Smart Mask Interpolation have additional vertices. The value you set specifies how finely the input mask paths are subdivided. Pixels Between Vertices specifies the distance, in pixels, between vertices on the larger perimeter mask path after subdivision. Total Vertices specifies the number of vertices on the interpolated mask paths.
When you use the Pan Behind (Anchor Point) tool in the Composition panel, After Effects automatically makes two adjustments. In the Layer panel, the mask is moved in relation to its layer (top), and in the Composition panel, the layer is moved in relation to the composition (bottom). Move a mask 1. Select the mask or masks you want to move. 2. In the Composition panel, drag the mask or masks to a new location.
Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers Adding attributes to shape layers Strokes and fills for shapes Alter shapes with path operations To the top Adding attributes to shape layers After a shape layer has been created, you can add attributes—paths, paint operations, and path operations—by using the Add menu in the Tools panel or in the Timeline panel.
Solid color The entire fill or stroke consists of one color. Linear gradient The fill or stroke consists of colors and opacity values defined by a linear gradient and then mapped onto the composition along a single axis from the Start Point to the End Point.
1. Select the group in which the gradient is contained. 2. With the Selection tool active, drag the Start Point, End Point, or Highlight controls in the Composition panel. The Selection tool turns to a gradient control pointer or when placed over a gradient control. Set stroke width To set stroke width for new shapes in pixels (px), drag the underlined Stroke Width control (which is located to the right of the Stroke controls in the Tools panel), or click the control and enter a value in the box.
Fill rules for shapes A fill operation works by painting color in the area defined as inside a path. Determining what is considered inside a path is easy when the path is something simple, like a circle. However, when a path intersects itself, or when a compound path consists of paths enclosed by other paths, determining what is considered inside is not as easy. After Effects uses one of two rules to determine what is considered inside a path for the purpose of creating fills.
Pucker & Bloat Pulls the vertices of a path outward while curving the segments inward (Pucker), or pulls the vertices inward while curving the segments outward (Bloat). Repeater Creates multiple copies of a shape, applying a specified transformation to each copy. (See Using the Repeater to replicate shapes.) Round Corners Rounds corners of paths. Higher Radius values cause greater roundness.
Merge Paths options The Merge Paths path operation takes all of the paths above it in the same group as input. The output is a single path that combines the input paths. The input paths are still visible in the Timeline panel, but they are essentially removed from the rendering of the shape layer, so they don’t appear in the Composition panel.
Original shape (upper-left), one instance of the Repeater operation applied (upper-right), and two instances of the Repeater operation applied (lower-right) If the original shape is numbered 0, the next copy is numbered 1, and so on, then the result of the Repeater is to apply each transformation in the Transform property group n times to copy number n.
Mask Tracking The rigid mask tracker transforms a mask so that it follows the motion of an object (or objects) in a movie.
Text 344
Creating and editing text layers About text layers Best practices for creating text and vector graphics for video Scripts and expressions for working with text Enter point text Enter paragraph text Select and edit text in text layers Resize a text bounding box Move a text layer Convert point or paragraph text Change the direction of text Convert text from Photoshop to editable text To the top About text layers You can add text to a composition using text layers.
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. These differences can arise from the device used to view the movie or from the compression scheme used to encode the movie. The same is true for other vector graphics, such as shapes in shape layers.
Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that sets keyframes for the Source Text property of a text layer and sets the values to text from a text file; the keyframes are placed at times specified by layer markers on the text layer. For examples of expressions for the Source Text property, see Writing expressions for source text and MarkerKey attributes (expression reference).
Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to define a bounding box around a center point. Note: The pointer for a type tool changes depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition panel. When the pointer is not directly over a text layer, it appears as a new text pointer ; drag to create a new text layer. Shift-drag always creates a new text layer. 3. Enter text by typing. Press Enter on the main keyboard (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to begin a new paragraph.
2. Position the pointer over a handle—the pointer turns into a double arrow —and do one of the following: Drag to resize in one direction. Shift-drag to maintain the proportion of the bounding box. Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) to scale from the center. To the top Move a text layer You can drag with the move pointer in the Composition panel to move a text layer.
A. Horizontal point text B. Horizontal point text converted to vertical C. Horizontal paragraph text D. Horizontal paragraph text converted to vertical 1. Using the Selection tool , select the text layer. Note: You can’t convert text in text-editing mode. 2. Using a type tool, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) anywhere in the Composition panel, and choose Horizontal or Vertical.
Formatting characters and the Character panel Fonts Spacing between characters and lines: non-breaking spaces, kerning, tracking, and leading Text fills and strokes Text scale and baseline shift Change the case of text Format text as superscript or subscript Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text Smart quotes Use the Character panel to format characters. If text is selected, changes you make in the Character panel affect only the selected text.
Note: When choosing fonts and styles from the menus in the Character panel, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to accept an entry, or press Esc to exit the menu without applying a change.
1. Select the characters you want to prevent from breaking. 2. Choose No Break from the Character panel menu. Note: You open the panel menu by clicking the panel menu button in the upper-right tab of the panel. Specify leading In the Character panel, do one of the following: Choose the desired leading from the Leading menu . Select the existing leading value, and enter a new value. Drag the underlined leading value.
multiple selected layers. You can also control the compositing order of the fill and stroke for a text layer using the All Fills Over All Strokes or All Strokes Over All Fills options, which override the Fill Over Stroke or Stroke Over Fill properties of individual characters.
Choose Miter, Round, or Bevel from the Line Join menu. Blend overlapping characters in a text layer 1. In the Timeline panel, expand the text layer and the More Options group. 2. Choose a blending mode from the Inter-Character Blending menu. Note: To blend a text layer with the layers beneath it, specify a blending mode from the Modes column in the Timeline panel. Inter-character blending is not available for text layers with per-character 3D properties.
To the top Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text After Effects provides several options for working with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) text. Characters in CJK fonts are often referred to as double-byte characters because they require more than one byte of information to express each character. To display CJK font names in English, choose Show Font Names In English from the Character panel menu. You open the panel menu by clicking the panel menu button in the upper-right tab of the panel.
as you do to other characters. To the top Smart quotes Smart quotes, or printer’s quotation marks, use a curved left or right quotation mark instead of straight quotation marks. To use smart quotes, choose Use Smart Quotes from the Character panel menu. Note: You open the panel menu by clicking the panel menu button in the upper-right tab of the panel. Adobe also recommends Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Examples and resources for text animation Example: Example: Example: Example: Example: Example: Example: Example: Example: Animate characters with per-character 3D properties Offset characters Animate characters with the Wiggly selector Animate text tracking Use selectors to animate specific words Create a write-on animation Animate text with multiple selectors Animate text position with expressions Animate text as a timecode display Chris and Trish Meyer provide a video tutorial on the ProVideo Coalition
2. Create a new text layer with the word ovation. 3. Choose Animation > Animate Text > Enable Per-character 3D. 4. Choose Animation > Animate Text > Position. 5. Choose Animation > Animate Text > Rotation. 6. In the Timeline panel, in the Animator group, set the X Rotation property to 45, and set the Position value to (0.0, 0.0, -100.0). 7. Expand Range Selector 1. 8. Click the stopwatch icon for the Offset property to set an initial keyframe with the value at 0 seconds. 9.
3. Choose Animation > Animate Text > Character Offset. 4. In the Timeline panel, set the Character Offset value to 5. 5. Expand Range Selector 1. 6. Click the Start stopwatch to set an initial keyframe at 0 seconds and set the value to 0%. 7. Move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds and set the Start value to 100%. 8. Set Character Alignment to Center. 9. Preview the composition.
12. Click the Start stopwatch and leave it at 0% at 0 seconds; then move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds and set Start to 100%. 13. Preview the animation. The colors change now as they drop from the top of the screen, but they all use the same color and end up the same, original color. 14. With Fill Hue selected, choose Selector > Wiggly from the Add menu. 15. Expand the Wiggly Selector 1 property and choose Add from the Mode menu. 16. Preview the composition.
12. Click the Show Snapshot button. 13. In the Timeline panel, select Animator 1 and choose Line Anchor from the Add menu. 14. Drag the Line Anchor value until the 7 is positioned in approximately its original position in the center of the Composition panel. 15. Click the Show Snapshot button in the Composition panel to see the exact location of the 7 in its original location. Adjust the Line Anchor value to position the character in the original location. 16. Preview the animation.
Writing text on using the Opacity property 1. Create a new composition. 2. Create a text layer with the characters 01234. 3. Choose Animation > Animate Text > Opacity. 4. Set Opacity to 0%. 5. Expand the Range Selector 1 and click the stopwatch icon for Start. 6. In the Composition panel, drag the start selector to the left edge of the text (the value will be at 0). 7.
selectorValue * textIndex/textTotal 10. Replace the default expression text with the following expression: r_val=selectorValue[0]; if(r_val < 50)r_val=0; if(r_val > 50)r_val=100; r_val 11. Set the opacity to 0%, and preview the composition. To the top Example: Animate text position with expressions This example uses the textIndex and textTotal attributes with the wiggle expression to animate a line of text. 1. Create a new composition. 2. Create a new text layer. 3.
You can use other expressions in the Global category to display time in another format. To see the expressions on a layer, select the layer and press EE. Adobe also recommends Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Animating text About text animation Text animation presets Animate text with text animators Text animator properties Text selectors Text anchor point properties Per-character 3D text properties Creating and animating text on a path To the top About text animation Animating text layers is useful for many purposes, including animated titles, lower thirds, credit rolls, and dynamic typography. As with other layers in After Effects, you can animate entire text layers.
Text animation presets in the Paths category automatically replace the source text with the name of the animation preset and change the font color to white. These animation presets may also change other character properties. The Fill And Stroke category of animation presets contains presets that may change the fill color and stroke properties of the preset that you apply. If the animation preset requires a stroke or fill color, the animation works only if you have assigned one to your text.
doing one of the following: Set the values for Start and End in the Timeline panel. You may find it easier to think in terms of numbers of characters than percentages for the Start and End properties of a range selector. To show these properties in numbers of characters (including spaces), choose Index for Units in the Advanced property group of a range selector. Drag the selector bars in the Composition panel. The pointer changes to the selector movement pointer a selector bar.
default selector and the chosen animator property, appears in the Timeline panel. To add a new animator property to an existing animator group, select the animator group in the Timeline panel, and choose the property from Animation > Animate Text menu or from the Add menu for the animator group in the Timeline panel. The new animator property appears within the same group as the existing animator property and shares the existing selectors.
Selectors are a lot like masks: You use selectors to specify which part of a range of text you want to affect, and by how much. You can use multiple selectors and specify a Mode setting for each one to determine how it interacts with the text and with other selectors in the same animator group. If you have only one selector, Mode specifies the interaction between the selector and the text—Add is the default behavior; and Subtract inverts the influence of the selector.
Range selector properties Range selectors include the following properties, in addition to properties common with other selectors: Start and End The beginning and end of the selection. You can modify the Start and End properties by dragging the selector bars in the Composition panel when the selector is selected in the Timeline panel. Offset The amount to offset the selection from the selection specified by the Start and End properties.
Wiggles/Second How many variations from the set selection occur per second. Correlation Correlation between variations for each character. At 100%, all characters wiggle by the same amount at the same time, and at 0%, all characters wiggle independently. Temporal and Spatial Phase (revolutions + degrees) The variation of wiggle, based on the phase of your animation in time (temporal) or per character (spatial). Lock Dimensions Scales each of the dimensions of the wiggled selection by the same value.
Fill color changes randomly using an expression animator. To the top Text anchor point properties Text animators animate character position, rotation, and size-related properties relative to an anchor point. You can use the text property, Anchor Point Grouping, to specify whether the anchor point used for transformations is that of each character, each word, each line, or the entire text block.
Lower the Grouping Alignment values to move each anchor point up and to the left. Raise the Grouping Alignment values to move each anchor point down and to the right. 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%.
When you have a mask on a text layer, you can make the text follow the mask as a path. You can then animate the text along that path, or animate the path itself. You can use open or closed masks to create paths for text. After you create the path, you can modify it at any time. When using a closed mask as a text path, make sure to set the mask mode to None. To disable the Path Options property group for a text layer, click the visibility (eyeball) switch for the Path Options property group.
Examples and resources for text animation Expression basics Example: Animate characters with per-character 3D properties Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Extruding text and shape layers | CC, CS6 About beveled and extruded text and shape layers Video tutorial: Ray-traced, extruded text and shapes - part 1 The Ray-traced 3D renderer Limitations of the Ray-traced 3D renderer Additional features of a Ray-traced 3D composition Creating a Ray-traced 3D composition Previewing Ray-traced 3D compositions Monitoring and changing the composition renderer Creating beveled and extruded text and shape layers Beveled and extruded vector artwork Bending a footage layer New
Limitations of the Ray-traced 3D renderer The following features are not rendered by the Ray-traced 3D renderer: Blending modes Track mattes Layer styles Masks and effects on continuously rasterized layers, including text and shape layers Masks and effects on 3D precomposition layers with collapsed transformations Preserve Underlying Transparency To the top Additional features of a Ray-traced 3D composition Features of a Ray-traced 3D composition also include: Bending footage and composition layers Additi
To the top Creating beveled and extruded text and shape layers In the Ray-traced renderer, 3D text and shape layers can have an extrusion or bevel. For a beveled and extruded text or shape layer, do the following: 1. Create a Ray-traced 3D composition 2. Create a new text or shape layer 3. Enable the 3D for the layer 4. Adjust controls for bevel and extrusion To control their appearance, use these properties in the layer's Geometry Options section in the Timeline panel: Bevel Style: The form of the bevel.
Appears in Reflections: Indicates if the layer appears in other reflective layers' reflections. The On and Off options control if the reflection appears, but the layer itself is visible. The Only option is like the On option that it is reflected but the layer itself is invisible. Reflection Intensity: Controls how much of other reflective 3D objects and the environment map appears on this object.
tutorial by Chris and Trish Meyer and Lynda.com To the top Environment layer In the Ray-traced renderer, you can use a 3D footage, or nested composition layer, as a spherically mapped environment around the scene. This environment map layer will be seen on reflective objects. To set a footage or nested composition layer as an environment layer: Choose Layer > Environment Layer.
Formatting paragraphs and the Paragraph panel Align and justify text Indent and space paragraphs Hanging punctuation for Roman fonts Text composition methods A paragraph is any range of text with a carriage return at the end. Use the Paragraph panel to set options that apply to entire paragraphs, such as the alignment, indentation, and leading (line spacing). For point text, each line is a separate paragraph.
: Justifies all horizontal lines except the last, which is center-aligned. : Justifies all horizontal lines except the last, which is right-aligned. : Justifies all horizontal lines including the last, which is force-justified. : Justifies all vertical lines except the last, which is top-aligned. : Justifies all vertical lines except the last, which is center-aligned. : Justifies all vertical lines except the last, which is bottom-aligned.
The appearance of text on the page depends on a complex interaction of processes called text composition. Using the word spacing, letter spacing, and glyph spacing options you’ve selected, After Effects evaluates possible line breaks and chooses the one that best supports the specified parameters. After Effects offers two composition methods, which you choose from the Paragraph panel menu. Note: You open the panel menu by clicking the panel menu button in the upper-right tab of the panel.
Transparency and compositing 385
Roto Brush, Refine Edge, and Refine Matte effects | CC Roto Brush & Refine Edge tools Roto Brush & Refine Edge workflow Freezing (caching, locking, and saving) Roto Brush segmentation Layer panel view options Refine Hard Matte and Refine Soft Matte effects Roto Brush & Refine Edge, Refine Hard Matte, and Refine Soft Matte effect reference Separating a foreground object, such as an actor, from a background is a crucial step in many visual effects and compositing workflows.
the Roto Brush Matte and Refine Edge Matte properties to improve the matte. Strokes, spans, and base frames Roto Brush tool, Roto Brush strokes, and similarities to paint tools and strokes Tips for working with the Roto Brush and Refine Edge tools To the top Roto Brush & Refine Edge workflow 1. Switch to the Roto Brush or Refine Edge tool by pressing Alt+W (Windows) or Option+W (Mac OS). Note: Once selected, you can press Alt+W (Windows) or Option+W (Mac OS) to toggle between these tools. 2.
Draw a background stroke to exclude an area 6. Repeat the steps of drawing foreground and background strokes on the base frame until the segmentation is as precise and complete as possible. You should make the segmentation on the base frame as good as possible; the segmentation of other frames is based on the segmentation defined on the base frame. Try for a segmentation boundary that is within a couple of pixels of your desired edge.
Draw a Refine Edge stroke to mark areas of partial transparency 12. Repeat and use the Refine Edge tool on other frames until the refinement is as precise and complete as possible. Press Alt/Option to erase Refine Edge strokes. 13. If you've used the Refine Edge brush, the Fine-tune Refine Edge Matte option in the Roto Brush & Refine Edge effect properties is selected. Modify properties in the Refine Edge Matte property group as needed.
saved with the project. To the top Layer panel view options You can choose these view modes from the Show Channel menu in the Layer panel, by clicking the buttons in the Layer panel, or by using keyboard shortcuts. You can use the controls at the bottom of the Layer panel to change the color and opacity of the overlays used in Alpha Boundary and Alpha Overlay mode. Refine Edge X-ray Shows areas of partial transparency created by the Refine Edge strokes as an X-ray. (Alt+X or Option+X).
Roto Brush and Refine Matte | CS6 Online resources for the Roto Brush tool and Refine Matte effect Roto Brush and Refine Matte overview and workflow Tips for working with the Roto Brush tool Roto Brush strokes, spans, and base frames Roto Brush effect and Refine Matte effect reference Freezing (caching, locking, and saving) Roto Brush segmentation Layer panel view options Separating a foreground object, such as an actor, from a background is a crucial step in many visual effects and compositing workflows.
4. Drag in the Layer panel to draw a foreground stroke on the object that you want to define as a foreground object. When you are drawing a foreground stroke, the Roto Brush tool’s pointer is a green circle with a plus sign in the middle. Note: Draw the stroke down the center of the object, not along the edge. (See Tips for working with the Roto Brush tool.
Work with resolution set to Full when using the Roto Brush tool. Fast Previews modes, such as Adaptive Resolution, don’t work well with the Roto Brush tool, because switching resolutions requires a full recalculation of the segmentation information. For this reason, Fast Previews modes are turned off when you draw a Roto Brush stroke. This setting is shared by the Composition and Layer panels. (See Resolution.
Roto Brush strokes are in a Strokes property group within the Roto Brush property group in the Timeline panel. Many keyboard shortcuts that work with paint strokes and paint tools also work with Roto Brush strokes and the Roto Brush tool. (See Paint tools (keyboard shortcuts).) Press 1 or 2 on the main keyboard to move earlier and later (backward or forward) one frame. Press PP to show paint strokes, Roto Brush strokes, and Puppet pins.
Feather Softness of the segmentation boundary. This property does nothing if Smooth is 0. In contrast to Smooth, Feather applies across the edge. Choke The amount of choking (contraction) of the matte relative to the value of the Smooth property. The result is very similar to that of the Choke property in the Matte Choker effect, but the value is given from -100% to 100% (instead of -127 to 127). Reduce Chatter Increase this property to reduce erratic changes to edges from one frame to the next.
To the top Layer panel view options You can choose these view modes from the Show Channel menu in the Layer panel, by clicking the buttons in the Layer panel, or by using keyboard shortcuts. You can use the controls at the bottom of the Layer panel to change the color and opacity of the overlays used in Alpha Boundary and Alpha Overlay mode. Alpha Shows alpha channel of layer (Alt+4 or Option+4).
Alpha channels, masks, and mattes About alpha channels and mattes About masks Online resources about masks Copy, cut, save, reuse, and delete masks Copy, cut, duplicate, or paste a mask Save a mask Reuse a mask Delete masks Control mask path color Change mask path color Cycle through colors for mask paths Mask modes Expand or contract the edges of a mask Soften (feather) the edges of a mask Variable-width mask feathering | CC, CS6 Tips for variable-width mask feathering (Mask Feather tool) Track mattes and
Some programs can store multiple alpha channels in one image, but After Effects only interprets the fourth channel as an alpha channel. Note: The term alpha channel technically refers to the fourth (A) channel in an RGBA image file, regardless of whether that channel is used for communicating transparency information. However, since that fourth channel is used so often to communicate transparency information, the terms alpha and transparency have become nearly synonymous in common usage.
Apprentice: Real-World Skills for the Aspiring Motion Graphics Artist. This sample chapter from the After Effects CS5 Classroom in a Book on the Peachpit Press website shows how to create, use, and modify masks. Chris and Trish Meyer provide tips about drawing and using masks in this article on the ProVideo Coalition website.
Delete masks To delete one mask, select the mask in the Timeline panel and press Delete. To delete all masks, select the layer containing the masks you want to remove and choose Layer > Masks > Remove All Masks. To the top Control mask path color To help you identify and work with masks, the Composition and Layer panels outline a mask path with color, and the Timeline panel displays that same color next to the name of the mask. By default, After Effects uses the color yellow for all masks.
Compound masks that result when different modes are applied to the circle mask. The masks in this illustration have different Mask Opacity values. A. Original masks B. None C. Add D. Subtract E. Intersect F. Lighten G. Darken H. Difference None The mask has no direct influence on the alpha channel of the layer. This option is useful when you are only using the path of the mask for an effect such as Stroke or Fill, or if you are using the mask path as the basis for a shape path.
2. Drag the underlined value for Mask Expansion. Todd Kopriva provides a visual aid and further explanation regarding mask expansion—and why it creates rounded corners—on his blog on the Adobe website. To the top Soften (feather) the edges of a mask Feathering softens the edges of a mask by fading it from more transparent to less transparent over a user-defined distance. Using the Mask Feather property, you make mask edges hard-edged or soft-edged (feathered).
Earlier versions of After Effects had the ability to add a feathered edge to a closed mask, but the width (extent) of the feather was the same around the mask. A new Mask Feather tool (available in the same tool menu as the Pen tool) has been added to let you define points along a closed mask that should have varying widths. This video by Todd Kopriva and video2brain introduces the variable-width mask feathering feature.
In this video tutorial, reTooled.net shows you how to use the Mask Feather tool to control variable-width mask feathering in After Effects CS6.... Read More by reTooled.net http://www.retooled.net reTooled.net provides tutorials in editorial, design compositing, and innovative tools to maximize standard desktop applications and streamline everyday tasks. http://www.retooled.
Traveling matte A. Track matte layer: a solid with a rectangular mask, set to Luma Matte. The mask is animated to travel across the screen. B. Fill layer: a solid with a pattern effect. C. Result: the pattern is seen in the shape of the track matte. This is then composited over an additional image layer. A track matte only applies to the layer directly beneath it. To apply a track matte to multiple layers, first precompose the multiple layers, and then apply the track matte to the precomposition layer.
matte layer, and adds a track matte icon next to the name of the track matte layer in the Timeline panel. Note: Although the video is turned off for the matte layer, you can still select the layer to reposition, scale, or rotate it. Select the layer in the Timeline panel, and then drag the center (indicated by a circle with an X) of the layer in the Composition panel.
You don’t apply the mocha shape effect to a layer directly. Rather, you copy path data to the clipboard in the mocha-AE application and then paste it onto a layer in After Effects. The paths from mocha-AE are converted to instances of the mocha shape effect to create a matte. The Imagineer website provides several video tutorials and other resources for learning to use mocha-AE and mocha shape with After Effects.
Compositing and transparency overview and resources Compositing overview Online resources for compositing Compositing fire, explosions, muzzle flashes Compositing fog, smoke, and clouds To the top 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.
To the top Compositing fire, explosions, muzzle flashes Mark Christiansen provides tips and detailed techniques for creating and compositing fire, explosions, muzzle flashes, bullet hits, and energy blasts in the “Pyrotechnics: Creating Fire, Explosions, and Energy Phenomena in After Effects” chapter of After Effects Studio Techniques on the Peachpit Press website.
Keying Keying introduction and resources Use a garbage matte Use a hold-out matte To the top Keying introduction and resources Note: When a background is not of a consistent and distinctive color, you can’t remove the background with keying effects. Under these conditions, you may need to use rotoscoping—the manual drawing or painting on individual frames to isolate a foreground object from its background. (See Rotoscoping introduction and resources.
cover basic compositing, color keying, garbage mattes, hold-out mattes, and how to avoid common problems with greenscreen shots. For more information, see the Adobe website. Rich Young collects more tips and resources for keying on his After Effects Portal website. Tips on color keying and compositing from experienced compositor, Chris Zwar. Chris & Trish Meyer shares tips & resources for color keying with Keylight and other effects.
or adding the Linear Color Key. 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. After you have used a key to create transparency, use Matte effects to remove traces of key color and create clean edges. Blurring the alpha channel after keying can soften the edges of the matte, which can improve compositing results.
3. On the duplicate layer, create masks to mask out everything in the image except the area that you want to preserve. 4. Make sure that the copy (the hold-out matte) is positioned directly on top of the keyed layer. Note: Don’t change Transform properties of only one of the layers after making the duplicate; keep the layers moving together. Consider parenting one to the other. (See Parent and child layers.
Effects and animation presets 414
Effects and animation presets overview Animation presets overview and resources Effects overview and resources Resources for Cycore FX (CC) effects Compound effects and control layers Effects with a Comp Camera attribute Effect Controls panel Effects and Presets panel Apply an effect or animation preset Delete or disable effects and animation presets Remove an effect or animation preset Effect control points Randomness and random seeds Animation preset list To the top Animation presets overview and resour
Save an animation preset 1. Select any combination of properties (for example, Position and Scale) and property groups (for example, Paint and Transform). If you are selecting only effects, you can select them in the Effect Controls panel. 2. Choose Save Animation Preset from the Animation menu or from the Effects & Presets panel menu. 3. Specify a name and location for the file, and then click Save.
the Timeline panel for the active composition, press FF. Effect plug-ins All effects are implemented as plug-ins, including the effects that are included with After Effects. Plug-ins are small software modules—with filename extensions such as .aex, .pbk, and .pbg—that add functionality to an application. Not all plug-ins are effect plug-ins; for example, some plug-ins provide features for importing and working with certain file formats.
To apply an effect to only a specific portion of a layer, use an adjustment layer. An effect applied to an adjustment layer affects all layers below it in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel. (See Create an adjustment layer.) Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he shows how to use an adjustment layer to apply an effect to only a short duration and to only specific portions of a movie.
For example, the Displacement Map effect uses the brightness values of a control layer to determine how far to shift pixels of the underlying layer, and in which direction. The Shatter effect can use two control layers—one to customize the shapes of the shattered pieces and one to control when specific parts of the destination layer explode. The compound effect ignores effects, masks, and transformations of a control layer.
more convenient controls for many kinds of properties, such as sliders, effect control point buttons, and histograms. The Effect Controls panel is a viewer, which means that you can have Effect Controls panels for multiple layers open at once and can use the viewer menu in the tab of the panel to select layers. To open or close the Effect Controls panel for the selected layer, press F3. To select an effect, click it.
To apply an effect or animation preset to a single layer, drag the effect or animation preset from the Effects & Presets panel to a layer in the Timeline, Composition, or Effect Controls panel. Note: When you drag an effect or animation preset onto a layer in the Composition panel, the name of the layer under the pointer is shown in the Info panel. If you have not selected a layer, double-clicking an animation preset will create a new layer and apply the preset to the layer.
Effect switch in the Effect Controls panel and Effect switch in the Timeline panel A. The Effect switch in the Effect Controls panel turns a specific effect on or off. B. The Effect switch for an effect in the Timeline panel also turns a specific effect on or off. C. The Effect switch in the Switches column of the Timeline panel turns all effects on a layer on or off.
View an effect control point To view an effect control point in the Layer panel, choose the effect name from the View menu at the bottom of the Layer panel. To view an effect control point in the Composition panel, select the effect name in the Timeline panel or Effect Controls panel. Note: To view effect control points in the Composition panel, select Show Layer Controls in the View menu and select Effect Controls in View Options (View > View Options).
Green Crystals Indigestion Infection Lightning Bend Magma Orb Pixels Racing Rectangles Red Speed River Rose Light Silk Smoke Rising Sweeping Curves Behaviors Autoscroll - horizontal Autoscroll - vertical Drift Over Time Fade In Over Layer Below Fade In+Out - frames Fade In+Out - msec Fade Out Over Layer Below Opacity Flash - layer markers Opacity Flash - random Rotate Over Time Scale Bounce - layer markers Scale Bounce - random Wiggle - gelatin Wiggle - position Wiggle - rotation Wiggle - scale Wiggle - s
Colorize - infrared Colorize - moonshadows Colorize - red hand tint Colorize - royal purple Colorize - sepia Colorize - sky blue Colorize - sky orange Colorize - sunset gradient Contrast - luminance Contrast - saturation Dimension - bevel+shadow Dimension - glow+shadow Grayscale Inset Video - framed Inset Video - torn edges Left Third - scoop mask NTSC Left Third - scoop mask PAL Lower Third - scoop mask NTSC Lower Third - scoop mask PAL Lower Third Holdout - darken Lower Third Holdout - saturate Mood Light
Flip Flop Invert Alpha Keying - blue blur Keying - green blur Levels - computer to video Levels - video to computer Reduce DV blockiness Sample Image Expression Shapes Backgrounds Box Swarm Kaleidoscopic Nerve Net - Circular Nerve Net - Linear Nerve Net - Penta Backgrounds 2* Autumn Leaves* Blue Hibiscus* Butterfly Resolve* Fabric of Space* Floral Explosion* Jellyfish Web* Sharps* Elements 60s Text Bar Chasing Line - Boxes Chasing Line - Dots Marquee Chasers Mod Boxes Ring Chart Wireframe Worm Elemen
Deconstructionist* Deploy* Geo Logo* Graph Paper* Honeycomb* Iris Flare* Kaleidorganic* Kaleidoscopic Seaweed* Light Bulb Sign* Mandathorns* Neon Flower* Protection* Pulsing Snake* Radar Stopwatch* Spiral Magic* Swoop* Tunnel Drain* Woven Celtic* Woven Springs* Lower Thirds* LT_blue double slant+anim* LT_blue double-still* LT_dashed underscore-still* LT_double bubble-still* LT_fade bar-still* LT_neutral gradient+anim* LT_neutral gradient-still* LT_red skew glow+anim* LT_slant underscore-still* LT_underhoo
Pulsing Circles* Spiralgear* Sunflower - animated* Sprites - Still Alien Calligraphy Alien Face Box - dashed lines Bullseye Circular - half round Circular - tri dash Crosshair - brackets Crosshair - round Crosshair - square Fan Blades Flower Power Gear Holy Light Indian Sun Mandala RayStar-4 RayStar-8 Rounded Bracket - beveled Rounded Bracket - double Seaside Daisy Tri Cog Sprites - Still 2* Spiral* Sunflower - still* Symbol Families* Braille* (numbers, letters, punctuation, contractions, and fragment
Busy CallAdobe DialTone-US DTMF PhoneCompany RingingPhone-US Synthetics Blue Bars Cells Digital Ethereal Gold Ambiance Lightning - Horizontal Lightning - Vertical Mosaic Orange Streaks Smoke - Drifting Starburst Spin Text 3D Text 3D Basic Position Z Cascade 3D Basic Position Z Typeon 3D Basic Rotate X Cascade 3D Basic Rotate Y Cascade 3D Bouncing In Centered 3D Fall Back Scale & Skew 3D Fall Back Scramble & Blur 3D Flip In Rotate X 3D Flip Out Rotate X 3D Flip Up Reflection 3D Flutter In From Left 3D Fl
3D Random Spike Tumble 3D Resolve Position 3D Rotate around Circle 3D Rotate in by Character 3D Rotate out by Word 3D Scramble in Position Z 3D Spiral Down & Unfold 3D Spiral Rotate In by Line 3D Spiral Rotate Out by Line 3D Swing Around on Path 3D Tumble Words Forward 3D Twist & Color Characters 3D Text 2* 3D Blur Flip Up Random* 3D Character Lineup* 3D Falling Like Leaves* 3D Flip Over Heels* 3D Fumble Up* 3D Ghost Landing* 3D Pop Forward Fadeout* 3D Pop Forward Unblur* 3D Take a Bow* 3D Triple Twist XY
Raining Characters In Random Fade Up Random Shuffle In Random Word Shuffle In Slow Fade On Smooth Move In Spin In By Character Spin In By Word Straight In By Character Straight In By Word Straight In Multi-Line Stretch In Each Line Stretch In Each Word Twirl On Each Line Twirl On Each Word Typewriter Wipe In To Center Animate Out Encoder Fade Out Fade Out By Character Fade Out Slow Raining Characters Out Random Fly Off Random Word Fly Off Slide Off Right By Character Slide Off Right By Word Stretch Out Ea
Bloom Flower Clockwise Entry Counter Rotate Dust Devil Lasso Tumble Lasso Musical Chairs Newton Pinwheel Radial Flare Retrograde Rotate Somersault Spin Fast Spiral Exit Spiral In Spirograph Swoopy Entry Tea Leaves Tire Rim Whirl In Expressions Buzz Words Current Time Format Dictionary Frame Number Inch Worm Text Bounce Fill and Stroke Chasing Strokes Fill Color Wipe Flicker Color - scale Flicker Color Flicker Green Inflammation Pulse Blue Pulse Orange Pulsing Strokes Rotate Hue Sliding Color Flicker Str
Wiggly Stroke Width By Line Wiggly Stroke Width Graphical Bars Blinky Bars Lime Blue Note Cut Shapes Exchange Green Dots Hazard Red Circles Scratchy Film Snowflakes White Trim Yellow Boxes Lights and Optical Blue Flash Broadway Bubble Pulse Emerge Exposure Flash Flicker Exposure Fluctuate Fluorescent Light Office Light Overlay Pulse Exposure Shadows Silhouettes Sonar Ping Spin Flash Word Flash Mechanical Algorithm Loop Algorithm Automation Bad Reception 433
Doppler Electro Magnet Helicopter Insert Text Kinematic Mechanical Pistons Rack & Pinion Roadtrip Scale Bounce Screen Roll Stairstep Submarine Underscore Warp 9.8 Miscellaneous Angle Fly-In Back Flip Blow Away Bounce In Bungee Chaotic Clay Pigeons Dot.
Yo-Yo Multi-Line Alphabet Soup Contract - Expand Currents Data Packet Data Stream Dealer Encryption Fly In By Characters Fly In By Words Front - Back Frontside - Backside Ideas Incoming Jetstream 2 Jetstream Multi-Line Flip Outgoing - Incoming Pneumatic Production Stack Right Left Weekdays Word Processor Zippy Organic Autumn Boiling Boomerang Bounce Diagonal Chewing Gum Climber Dip-Bounce Double-Helix Drop Bounce Fish Bait Flutter Flying Formation Horsefly Hummingbird 435
Insect Wipe Insects Labrador Leapfrog Loose Line Ocean Tide Quiver Ripple Rubber Floor Rubber Sea-Sick Shuffle Simmer Slice And Dice Sprouts Tag Team Wheatfield Wind Current Wobble Paths 360 Loop Antelope Ants Back Stage Balance Balloon Man Balloon Bouncing Bubble Pop Bump And Slide On Centipede Circuit Board Conveyor Belt Double Spiral Down And Out Downhill Slide Off Downhill Slide On Frenzy Hurdles Karate Chop Loop On And Off Lyrical Organism 436
Paper Clip Pipes Raquetball Rat Nest Reel To Reel Rope Bridge Serpent Slippery Slope Spiral Long Spiral Springy Squirmy Stairwell Symmetry Tchotchke Walk Of Stars Zig-Zag Rotation Drip Down Flip Up Full Rotation Loopy Loop Random Rotation Rotate Chars Rotate Per Word Spin In Swirly Rotation Whirlwind Scale Large Scale Let's Dance Scale Down Word Scale Down Scale Up Word Scale Up Wiggly Scale Wipe Zoom Away Zoom Forward Tracking 437
Contract Decrease Tracking Extend Increase Tracking Magnify Spasm Stretchy Transform Separate XYZ Position See Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individually.
Card Wipe - 2D fractured Card Wipe - 3D pixelstorm Card Wipe - 3D swing Fly to Inset Slide - drop Slide - straight Slide - swoop Slide - variable Stretch & Blur Stretch & Slide Stretch - diagonal bottom Stretch - diagonal top Stretch - horizontal Stretch - vertical Stretch Over - horizontal Stretch Over - vertical Zoom - 2D spin Zoom - 3D tumble Zoom - bubble Zoom - spiral Zoom - wobbling Transitions - Wipes Band Wipe - build NTSC Band Wipe - build PAL Band Wipe - crossing NTSC Band Wipe - crossing PAL Ba
Iris - sunburst unfold Iris - sunburst Linear Wipe Paint On - NTSC Paint On - PAL Radial Wipe - bottom Radial Wipe - top Venetian Blinds Wedge Wipe Adobe also recommends Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Detail-preserving Upscale effect The Detail-preserving Upscale effect is capable of scaling up images by large amounts while preserving details in the image and the sharpness of sharp lines and curves is preserved. For example, you can scale up from SD frame sizes to HD frame sizes, or from HD frame sizes to digital cinema frame sizes. This effect is very closely related to the Preserve Details resampling option in the Image Size dialog box in Photoshop.
Effect list 3D Channel effects Blur & Sharpen effects Channel effects Color Correction effects Distort effects Expression Controls effects Generate effects Keying effects Matte effects Noise & Grain effects Perspective effects Simulation effects Stylize effects Text effects Time effects Transition effects Utility effects Obsolete effects Note: Effects marked as third-party effects are not available with the trial version of Adobe After Effects software. However, After Effects CS5.
Directional Blur effect Fast Blur effect Gaussian Blur effect Lens Blur effect Radial Blur effect Reduce Interlace Flicker effect Sharpen effect Smart Blur effect Unsharp Mask effect Third-party effects: CC Cross Blur effect (CS6) CC Radial Blur effect CC Radial Fast Blur effect CC Vector Blur effect To the top Channel effects Arithmetic effect Blend effect Calculations effect Channel Combiner effect Compound Arithmetic effect Invert effect Minimax effect Remove Color Matting effect Set Channels effect
Broadcast Colors effect Change Color effect Change To Color effect Channel Mixer effect Color Balance effect Color Balance (HLS) effect Color Link effect Color Stabilizer effect Colorama effect Curves effect Equalize effect Exposure effect Gamma/Pedestal/Gain effect Hue/Saturation effect Leave Color effect Levels effect Levels (Individual Controls) effect Photo Filter effect PS Arbitrary Map effect Selective Color effect Shadow/Highlight effect Tint effect Tritone effect Vibrance effect Third-party effects
Optics Compensation effect Polar Coordinates effect Reshape effect Ripple effect Smear effect Spherize effect Transform effect Turbulent Displace effect Twirl effect Warp effect Warp Stabilizer effect (CS5.
4-Color Gradient effect Advanced Lightning effect Audio Spectrum effect Audio Waveform effect Beam effect Cell Pattern effect Checkerboard effect Circle effect Ellipse effect Eyedropper Fill effect Fill effect Fractal effect Grid effect Lens Flare effect Paint Bucket effect Radio Waves effect Ramp effect Scribble effect Stroke effect Vegas effect Write-on effect Third-party effects: CC Glue Gun effect CC Light Burst 2.
CC Simple Wire Removal effect Keylight To the top Matte effects Matte Choker effect Roto Brush and Refine Matte Simple Choker effect Third-party effects: mocha shape To the top Noise & Grain effects Add Grain effect Dust & Scratches effect Fractal Noise effect Match Grain effect Median effect Noise effect Noise Alpha effect Noise HLS effect and Noise HLS Auto effect Remove Grain effect Turbulent Noise effect To the top Perspective effects 3D Glasses effect Bevel Alpha effect Bevel Edges effect Dr
To the top Simulation effects Card Dance effect Caustics effect Foam effect Particle Playground effect Shatter effect Wave World effect Third-party effects: CC Ball Action effect CC Bubbles effect CC Drizzle effect CC Hair effect CC Mr.
Third-party effects: CC Block Load effect (CS6) CC Burn Film effect CC Glass effect CC Kaleida effect CC Mr.
Third-party effects: CC Glass Wipe effect CC Grid Wipe effect CC Image Wipe effect CC Jaws effect CC Light Wipe effect CC Line Sweep effect (CS6) CC Radial ScaleWipe effect CC Scale Wipe effect CC Twister effect CC WarpoMatic effect (CS6) To the top Utility effects Apply Color LUT effect Cineon Converter effect Color Profile Converter effect Grow Bounds effect HDR Compander effect HDR Highlight Compression effect Third-party effects: CC Overbrights effect (CS6) To the top Obsolete effects Effects in
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3D Channel effects About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects 3D Channel Extract effect Depth Matte effect Depth Of Field effect Fog 3D effect ID Matte effect Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: EXtractoR effect IDentifier effect ID Matte See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects. To the top About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects The 3D Channel effects work on 2D layers—specifically, 2D layers with 3D information in auxiliary channels.
OpenEXR plug-in will use the information in this file to tag channels when it imports an OpenEXR file. An OpenEXR_channel_map.txt file is not included with After Effects, but you can download one as part of the ProEXR package from the fnord software website. The sample OpenEXR_channel_map.txt file available from the fnord software website includes documentation describing its use. The ProEXR package from the fnord software website also includes the ProEXR Comp Creator plug-in.
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. This channel is anti-aliased. Coverage The behavior for this channel varies for various 3D applications. It is used to mark areas near the edges and contours of objects to provide information about their anti-aliasing and overlap behavior.
uses the depth information from the auxiliary channel of an imported file representing a 3D scene. To use the depth information that After Effects calculates for a camera layer, see Create a camera layer and change camera settings. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Original (upper-left), and with Depth Of Field applied using different Focal Plane values (lower-left and lower-right) Focal Plane The distance along the z axis of the focal plane from the camera.
To determine the depth of an object, click it in the Composition panel or Layer panel using the Selection tool while the effect is selected. Fog End Depth Where along the z axis the diffusion reaches its maximum. Scattering Density Determines how quickly the scattering occurs. The higher the value, the more dense the fog appears from its starting point. Foggy Background Creates a foggy background (default).
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Audio effects Backwards effect Bass & Treble effect Delay effect Flange & Chorus effect High-Low Pass effect Modulator effect Parametric EQ effect Reverb effect Stereo Mixer effect Tone effect Trish and Chris Meyer provide tips about audio effects on the ProVideo Coalition website. To the top Backwards effect The Backwards effect reverses the audio of a layer by playing the audio from the last frame to the first frame. The frames remain in their original order in the Timeline panel.
Flange is an audio effect caused by mixing the original audio with a copy that is delayed by a varying amount that cycles over time. The frequency of the copy is also offset by an amount related to the delay. Chorus uses a larger delay, to make one voice or instrument sound like many. 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.
The Modulator effect adds both vibrato and tremolo to audio by modulating (varying) the frequency and amplitude. Modulation Type The type of waveform to use. Sine produces smoother modulation. Triangle produces more abrupt modulation. Modulation Rate The rate in Hz of the modulation. Modulation Depth The amount of frequency modulation. Amplitude Modulation The amount of amplitude modulation. To the top Parametric EQ effect The Parametric EQ effect emphasizes or attenuates specific frequency ranges.
To the top Stereo Mixer effect The Stereo Mixer effect mixes the left and right channels of audio and pans the entire signal from one channel to the other. Invert Phase Inverts the phase of both channels of the stereo signal. Use this control to prevent two sounds at the same frequency from canceling each other out. To the top Tone effect The Tone effect synthesizes simple audio tones to create sounds, such as the low rumble of a submarine, a telephone ringing in the background, sirens, or a laser blast.
Blur and Sharpen effects About Blur & Sharpen effects Bilateral Blur effect Box Blur effect Camera Lens Blur effect (CS5.
The result of the Bilateral Blur effect is very similar to the result of the Surface Blur filter in Adobe Photoshop. Eran Stern provides a demonstration of the Bilateral Blur effect on the Motionworks website. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. 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.
Blur Map A control layer can be used as a blur map to affect Camera Lens Blur effect properties. Layer Layer to use as the blur map. Channel Luminance, color, or alpha channel for the blur map. Blur Focal Distance The value from the control layer that corresponds to zero blurring. The difference between the Blur Focal Distance value and a value from the control layer dictates the amount of blurriness for the corresponding area on the layer with the effect applied.
especially with animated blur layers such as those generated with the Turbulent Noise effect. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Original (upper-left), blur layer (lower-left), and result (lower-right) Maximum Blur The maximum amount, in pixels, that any part of the affected layer can be blurred. Stretch Map To Fit Stretches the control layer to the dimensions of the layer to which it is applied; otherwise, the control layer is centered on the effect layer.
Original (left), and with effect applied (right) To the top Gaussian Blur effect The Gaussian Blur effect blurs and softens the image and eliminates noise. The quality setting of the layer doesn’t affect Gaussian Blur. Stu Maschwitz compares the Box Blur, Fast Blur, and Gaussian Blur effects in a post on his ProLost blog. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color.
Iris Shape The polygon to use as the iris shape. Iris Blade Curvature The roundness of the edges of the iris. Iris Rotation The rotation of the iris. Iris Radius The size of the iris. Increase this value for greater blur. Specular Threshold All pixels with a brightness value greater than Specular Threshold are treated as specular highlights. Specular Brightness Brightness of specular highlights. Noise controls Film grain and noise are removed when you blur an image.
The Sharpen effect increases the contrast where color changes occur. The quality setting of the layer doesn’t affect Sharpen. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) To the top Smart Blur effect The Smart Blur effect blurs an image while preserving lines and edges within the image. For example, you can use the Smart Blur effect to smoothly blur shaded areas while retaining crisp outlines of text and vector graphics.
Threshold The greatest difference between adjacent pixels for which contrast isn’t adjusted. A lower value produces a greater result. A value that is too low causes contrast for the entire image to be adjusted and can generate noise or cause unexpected results. Adobe also recommends Blur filters Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Channel effects Additional resources about Channel effects Arithmetic effect Blend effect Calculations effect Channel Combiner effect Compound Arithmetic effect Invert effect Minimax effect Remove Color Matting effect Set Channels effect Set Matte effect Shift Channels effect Solid Composite effect Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: CC Composite effect See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects.
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. Block Below Set the channel value of the pixel to zero if the original value of the pixel is less than the value specified; otherwise, leave the original value. Slice Set the channel value of the pixel to 1.0 if the original value of the pixel is above the specified value; otherwise, set the value to zero.
Input Channel The channel to extract and use as input to the blending operation. RGBA displays all channels normally. Gray converts all color channel values for a pixel to the luminance value of the original pixel. Red, Green, or Blue converts all color channel values for a pixel to the value of the selected color channel for the original pixel. Alpha converts all channels to the value of the alpha channel for the original pixel. Invert Input Inverts the layer (subtracts each channel value from 1.
To the top Compound Arithmetic effect The Compound Arithmetic effect mathematically combines the layer to which it is applied with a control layer. The Compound Arithmetic effect is intended only to provide compatibility with projects created in earlier versions of After Effects that use the Compound Arithmetic effect. Using blending modes is usually more effective than using the Compound Arithmetic effect. This effect works with 8-bpc color.
YIQ/Luminance/In Phase Chrominance/Quadrature Chrominance YIQ inverts all three NTSC luminance and chrominance channels. Y (luminance), I (in-phase chrominance), and Q (quadrature chrominance) each invert an individual channel. Alpha Inverts the alpha channel of the image. The alpha channel isn’t a color channel; it specifies transparency. 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.
Set Channels effect The Set Channels effect copies channels from control layers (source layers) to the red, green, blue, and alpha channels of the effect layer. For example, you can take the luminance values of the pixels of a control layer and use them as the blue values for the pixels of the effect layer. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Take Channel From The channel to use as a source. Todd Kopriva provides a post on the Adobe website that describes the use of the Remove Color Matting and Shift Channels effects to remove black backgrounds from images. To the top Solid Composite effect The Solid Composite effect offers a quick way to create a composite of a new color solid behind the original source layer. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Source Opacity The opacity of the source layer.
Keying effects Color Difference Key effect Color Key effect Color Range effect Difference Matte effect Extract effect Inner/Outer Key effect Linear Color Key effect Luma Key effect Spill Suppressor effect After Effects includes several built-in keying effects, as well as the Academy Award–winning Keylight effect, which excels at professional-quality color keying. For information on the Keylight effect, see its documentation in the folder in which the Keylight plug-in is installed. (See Plug-ins.
described in step 10. 3. Select the appropriate key color: To key out a bluescreen, use the default blue color. To key out a nonblue screen, select a key color in one of the following ways: Thumbnail eyedropper: Select and then click in the Composition panel or the original thumbnail image on an appropriate area. Key Color eyedropper: Select and then click in the Composition or Layer panel on an appropriate area. Key Color swatch: Click to select a color from the specified color space.
For information about keying in general, including links to tutorials and other resources, see Keying introduction and resources. The Color Key effect keys out all image pixels that are similar to a specified key color. This effect modifies only the alpha channel of a layer. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Key out a single color with the Color Key effect 1. Select the layer that you want to make partially transparent, and choose Effect > Keying > Color Key. 2.
2. Choose Lab, YUV, or RGB from the Color Space menu. If you have trouble isolating the subject using one color space, try using a different one. 3. Select the Key Color eyedropper, and then click in the matte thumbnail to select the area that corresponds to a color in the Composition panel you want to make transparent. Typically, this first color is the one that covers the largest area of the image. Note: To use the eyedroppers in the Layer panel, choose Color Range from the View menu in the Layer panel.
The imported image becomes the difference layer. Make sure that its duration is at least as long as the duration of the source layer. Note: If the shot doesn’t contain a full background frame, you may be able to assemble the full background by combining parts of several frames in After Effects or Photoshop. For example, you can use the Clone Stamp tool to take a sample of the background in one frame, and then paint the sample over part of the background in another frame. 4.
Using the transparency control bar beneath the histogram, you can adjust the range of pixels that are made transparent. The position and shape of the bar in relation to the histogram determine transparency. Pixels corresponding to the area covered by the bar remain opaque; pixels corresponding to the areas not covered by the bar are made transparent. 1. Select the layer you want to make partially transparent, and choose Effect > Keying > Extract. 2.
3. To extract more than one object, or to create a hole in an object, draw additional masks and then select them from the Additional Foreground and Additional Background menus. For example, to key out a person’s hair blowing in the wind against a blue sky, draw the inner mask inside the head, draw the outer mask around the outside edge of the hair, and then draw an additional mask around the gap in the hair where you can see sky.
3. Choose a color space from the Match Colors menu. In most cases, use the default RGB setting. If you have trouble isolating the subject using one color space, try using a different color space. 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. Matte Only Shows the alpha channel matte.
time to get the results you need. To the top Luma Key effect For information about keying in general, including links to tutorials and other resources, see Keying introduction and resources. The Luma Key effect keys out all the regions of a layer with a specified luminance or brightness. The quality setting of the layer doesn’t influence the Luma Key effect. Use this effect if the object from which you want to create a matte has a greatly different luminance value than its background.
Original greenscreen (upper-left) leaves green glow when keyed out (lower-left). Spill Suppressor removes glow (lower-right). Use the Spill Suppressor effect 1. Select the layer, and choose Effect > Keying > Spill Suppressor. 2. Choose the color you want to suppress in one of the following ways: If you already keyed out the color with a key in the Effect Controls panel, click the Color To Suppress eyedropper, and then click the screen color in the Key Color swatch for the key.
Stylize effects Brush Strokes effect Cartoon effect Color Emboss effect Emboss effect Find Edges effect Glow effect Mosaic effect Motion Tile effect Posterize effect Roughen Edges effect Scatter effect Strobe Light effect Texturize effect Threshold effect Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: CC Block Load effect (CS6 or later) CC Burn Film effect CC Glass effect CC Kaleida effect CC Mr.
Stroke Angle The direction in which the strokes are made. The image is effectively shifted in this direction, potentially causing some clipping at the layer boundaries. Applying the Grow Bounds effect before the Brush Strokes effect effectively extends the boundaries of the layer to prevent this clipping. Brush Size The size of the brush in pixels. Stroke Length The maximum length of each stroke, in pixels. Stroke Density Higher densities result in overlapping brush strokes.
scene with many subjects and a lot of detail. Before applying the Cartoon effect, consider either setting the composition to a lower frame rate or using the Posterize Time effect on the layer if you're trying to make a movie look like a cartoon. Consider that cartoons have much lower frame rates than live action footage. Chris Meyer provides a video tutorial about the Cartoon effect in the After Effects CS4 New Creative Techniques series on the Lynda.com website.
Cartoon effect applied with Render set to Fill & Edges Cartoon effect properties Render Fill, Edges, or Fill & Edges. Determines which operations to perform and which results to display. Detail Radius The radius for the blurring operation that is used to smooth the image and remove details before the operation to find edges. A larger radius for a blur means that more pixels are averaged together to determine each pixel value, so increasing the Detail Radius value increases the blurriness.
Edge Contrast The contrast in the grayscale representation of the edges. Performance If your computer includes a display card with a GPU that supports OpenGL, the Cartoon effect can use the GPU to accelerate its processing. To the top Color Emboss effect The Color Emboss effect works like the Emboss effect, without suppressing the original colors of the image. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Invert Inverts the image after the edges are found. If Invert isn’t selected, edges appear as dark lines on a white background. If selected, edges appear as bright lines on a black background. This effect works with 8-bpc color. To the top 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.
Note: You can create an arbitrary map (.amp) file by applying the Curves effect, selecting the pencil icon, then clicking the save (floppy disk) icon. Use an arbitrary map file in the Glow effect by clicking the Options link, then selecting the .amp file. Color Phase Where in the color cycle to begin color loops. By default, color loops begin at the origin of the first loop. A & B Midpoint The midpoint specifies the balance between the two colors used in the gradient.
Horizontal Phase Shift Offsets tiles horizontally instead of vertically. To the top 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. The Posterize effect then maps pixels to the closest matching level.
Offset (Turbulence) Determines the portion of the fractal shape that is used to create the roughness. Complexity Determines the level of detail in the roughness. Note: Increasing complexity results in longer rendering times. Reduce the Scale value rather than increasing Complexity to achieve similar results. Evolution Animating this setting results in changes of the roughness over time.
Strobe Light effect applied The Strobe Light effect performs an arithmetic operation on a layer or makes the layer transparent at periodic or random intervals. For example, every 5 seconds the layer could become completely transparent for one-tenth of a second, or the colors of a layer could invert at random intervals. This effect works with 8-bpc color. Strobe Color The color of the strobe light. Blend With Original The transparency of the effect.
Light Direction The angle at which light hits the texture. Texture Contrast The magnitude of the result. Texture Placement How the texture layer is applied to the effect layer: Tile Texture Applies the texture repeatedly. Center Texture Positions the texture in the middle. Stretch Texture To Fit Stretches the texture to the dimensions of the effect layer. To the top Threshold effect The Threshold effect converts grayscale or color images to high-contrast, black-and-white images.
Perspective effects 3D Glasses effect Bevel Alpha effect Bevel Edges effect Drop Shadow effect Radial Shadow effect CC Cylinder effect CC Environment effect (CS6 or later) CC Sphere effect CC Spotlight effect Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects. To the top 3D Glasses effect The 3D Glasses effect creates a single 3D image by combining a left and right 3D view.
images, it may appear that the green isn’t as bright as the red. However, viewing the images with red and green lenses produces an even result because green has a higher luminance value than red. Left View, Right View The layer to use as the left or right view. You only need to apply 3D Glasses to one layer in a composition. If you use a second layer, make sure that the two layers are the same size. The second layer doesn’t need to be visible in the composition.
Balance Specifies the level of balance in a balanced 3D view option. Use this control to reduce shadows and ghost effects. The default balance that 3D Glasses sets when you select the Balanced Colored Red Blue option is the ideal value: If you set Balance to 0.0, 3D Glasses creates no 3D depth, and if you set Balance too high, 3D Glasses produces a highly saturated output. Backward and forward compatibility After Effects CS5 projects using 3D Glasses that are opened in After Effects CS5.
To the top Drop Shadow effect The Drop Shadow effect adds a shadow that appears behind the layer. The alpha channel of the layer determines the shape of the shadow. When you add a drop shadow to a layer, a soft-edged outline of the alpha channel of the layer appears behind it, as if a shadow is cast on the background or underlying objects. Drop Shadow can create a shadow outside the bounds of the layer.
Softness The softness of the edges of a shadow. Render The type of shadow: The more transparent the pixels in the layer are, the closer the shadow color matches the colors of the layer. If the layer contains no semitransparent pixels, Glass Edge has little result. Note: Anti-aliased edges produce colors in a shadow edge when you choose Glass Edge, even if the layer is fully opaque. The colors of a layer shine through these anti-aliased edges, and the Shadow Color fills the center of the shadow.
Generate effects 4-Color Gradient effect Advanced Lightning effect Audio Spectrum effect Audio Waveform effect Beam effect Cell Pattern effect Checkerboard effect Circle effect Ellipse effect Eyedropper Fill effect Fill effect Fractal effect Gradient Ramp effect | CC Grid effect Lens Flare effect Paint Bucket effect Radio Waves effect Ramp effect | CS6 and earlier Stroke effect Vegas effect Write-on effect Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: CC Glue Gun effect CC Light Burst
To the top Advanced Lightning effect The Advanced Lightning effect creates simulations of electrical discharges. Unlike the Lightning effect, Advanced Lightning doesn’t self-animate. Animate the Conductivity State or other properties to animate the lightning. The Advanced Lighting effect includes the Alpha Obstacle feature, with which you can make the lightning go around designated objects.
visible. Complexity Specifies the complexity of the turbulence in the lightning. Min. Forkdistance Specifies the minimum pixel distance between new forks. Lower values create more forks in the lightning. Higher values result in fewer forks. Termination Threshold Specifies the level at which a path terminates, based on resistance in the atmosphere and possible alpha collision. At lower values, the path terminates more easily when encountering resistance or alpha obstacles.
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. Path The mask path along which to display the audio spectrum. Use Polar Path The path starts from a single point and appears as a radial graph. Start Frequency, End Frequency The lowest and highest frequencies, in hertz, to display. Frequency Bands The number of frequency bands into which to divide displayed frequencies.
This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Original (upper-left), and with effect applied (lower-left and right) Audio Layer The audio layer you want to display as a waveform. Start Point, End Point The position at which the waveform starts and ends, if Path is set to None. Path If set to None, the audio waveform is displayed along the path of the layer. Displayed Samples Number of samples to display in the waveform. Maximum Height Maximum height, in pixels, of a displayed frequency.
Original (left), and with a simulated beam (right) The Length control specifies the length of the beam based on a percentage of the Time specified. For example, a setting of 100% means that the visible beam length is at its maximum when the Time control is 50%. Time specifies the time of the beam’s travel from start to end as a percentage. The 3D Perspective control uses 3D perspective based on start and end thickness if Time is animated.
Disperse How randomly the pattern is drawn. Lower values cause more uniform or gridlike cell patterns. note: If you set the Disperse value above 1.0, set the layer to Best quality to avoid artifacts. Size The size of the cells. The default size is 60. Offset Determines the portion of the fractal shape used to create the pattern. Tiling Options Choose Enable Tiling to create a pattern built of repeating tiles.
Opacity The opacity of the colored rectangles. Blending Mode The blending mode to use to composite the checkerboard pattern on top of the original layer. These blending modes work identically to the ones in the Timeline panel, except for the default None mode, which renders the checkerboard pattern only. To the top Circle effect The Circle effect creates a customizable solid disk or ring. This effect works with 8-bpc color. Edge None creates a solid disk. The other options all create rings.
Average Pixel Color Which color values are sampled: Skip Empty Samples the average RGB color values, excluding the color values of transparent pixels. All Samples the average of all RGB color values, including color values of transparent pixels. All Premultiplied Samples the average of all RGB color values, premultiplied with the alpha channel. Including Alpha Samples the average of all RGB color and alpha channel values.
Mandelbrot or Julia set. Magnification specifies the magnification of the effect. Escape Limit specifies how many times the calculation looks for a color for a given pixel before it assigns the color black. It also sets the maximum number of line segments the Selection tool can use when tracing the path of a point. Higher numbers require longer render times. Color Specifies the color of the effect: Overlay Displays a ghosted version of the opposite set.
The Gradient Ramp effect creates a color gradient. You can create linear or radial ramps, and vary the position and colors of the ramp over time. Use the Start Of Ramp and End Of Ramp properties to specify the start and end positions. Use the Ramp Scatter control to disperse the ramp colors and eliminate banding. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color.
Single lens flare (lower-left) and multiple lens flares (lower-right) To the top Paint Bucket effect The Paint Bucket effect (formerly Basic Fill effect) is a nondestructive paint effect that fills an area with a solid color. It works much like the Paint Bucket tool in Adobe Photoshop. Use the Paint Bucket effect for colorizing cartoon-type outlined drawings or replacing areas of color in an image. This effect works with 8-bpc color. Fill Point The effect fills an area that contains the Fill Point.
Choke Contracts the area of the fill color. The Spread Radius value indicates the number of pixels the fill color shrinks from the edge of the fill area. Stroke Confines the fill to only the border of the selected area. The Stroke Width value indicates the width of the stroke, in pixels. Color The fill color. Opacity Opacity of the filled area. Blending Mode The blending mode to use to composite the result of the effect on top of the original layer.
Sides Three sides create a triangle, four create a square, and so on. Size values above 64 result in a smooth circle. You can also approximate a circle by setting Sides to 3, Curve Size to 1, and Curvyness to about 0.62. Curve Size Specifies how much of each side is curved at each point. Curvyness Specifies how extreme the curve is at each point of the wave. Star Specifies that the polygon is shaped like a star. To change the number of points on the star, change the number of sides.
Direction Specifies the initial direction of a wave if Velocity is greater than 0. By default, particles are emitted from the producer point in an expanding radial pattern. Velocity Specifies the speed at which the wave moves in the specified direction. Spin Controls the continued rotation of a shape after it is born. Lifespan (sec) Specifies the time, in seconds (including the fade-in and fade-out times), that the wave exists.
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. Specify whether the stroke appears on top of the image, on a transparent image, or if it reveals the original alpha channel. To use a path created in Illustrator, copy the path and paste it into a layer in After Effects. This effect works with 8-bpc color.
Threshold The percentage value at which everything below or above is mapped to either white or black. This property is important in determining the location of the edges that the effect strokes. Pre-Blur Smooths out the input layer before the threshold is sampled. Set this option to 0 if you have a high-contrast image and want the stroke to follow the edges very closely. Tolerance Defines how tightly the stroke conforms to the input layer.
To the top Write-on effect The Write-on effect animates strokes on a layer. For example, you can simulate the action of hand-writing of cursive text or signatures. note: A convenient way to animate Brush Position is to use Motion Sketch to create Position keyframes on a new solid layer and then use an expression on the Brush Position property to link it to the Position property on the new solid layer. (See Sketch a motion path with Motion Sketch and Add, edit, and remove expressions.
Distort effects Additional resources for Distort effects Resources for Digieffects FreeForm Bezier Warp effect Bulge effect Corner Pin effect Displacement Map effect Liquify effect Magnify effect Mesh Warp effect Mirror effect Offset effect Optics Compensation effect Polar Coordinates effect Reshape effect Ripple effect Smear effect Spherize effect Transform effect Turbulent Displace effect Twirl effect Warp effect Warp Stabilizer effect (CS5.
Aharon Rabinowitz provides a project on his All Bets Are Off website that demonstrates the use of the CC Page Turn effect to tear a piece of paper. To the top 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. Digieffects FreeForm is an effect that distorts 2D layers in 3D space, using displacement maps and meshes that you define, control, and animate.
Original (upper-left), and with variations of Bulge applied (lower-left and right) Horizontal Radius and Vertical Radius The width and height of the distorted area, in pixels. You can also set the radius values by dragging the selection handles in the layer. Bulge Height The apparent depth of the bulge. Positive values push the bulge toward the viewer. Negative values pull the bulge away from the viewer. Taper Radius The shallowness of the sides of the bulge.
The Displacement Map effect distorts a layer by displacing pixels horizontally and vertically based on the color values of pixels in the control layer specified by the Displacement Map Layer property. The type of distortion created by the Displacement Map effect can vary greatly, depending on the control layer and options you select. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color.
Original (upper-left), and with variations of Liquify applied (lower-left and right) 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. Mask properties Freeze Area Mask Determines the area of the image in which mask opacity and feather settings affect the distortion.
Reflection Copies pixels to the brush area. Clone Copies the distortions from around a source location to the current mouse location. Set the source location by Alt-clicking (Windows) or Optionclicking (Mac OS) the source point. Reconstruction Reverses distortions or applies them in different ways. Distort an image with the Liquify effect 1. Select the layer, and choose Effect > Distort > Liquify. 2. In the Layer panel, create a mask to freeze areas of the image, and then set mask properties. 3.
To the top Magnify effect The Magnify effect enlarges all or part of an image. This effect can act like a magnifying glass placed over an area of the image, or you can use it to scale the entire image far beyond 100% while maintaining resolution. This effect works with 8-bpc color. Original (upper-left), and with variations of Magnify applied (lower-left and right) Shape The shape of the magnified area. Center The center point of the magnified area.
Blending Mode The blending mode used to combine the magnified area with the original layer. The None option displays transparent pixels around the magnified area. Resize Layer If Resize Layer is selected, the magnified area can extend beyond the boundaries of the original layer. To the top Mesh Warp effect The Mesh Warp effect applies a grid of Bezier patches over a layer, which you can manipulate to distort areas of an image.
To the top Offset effect The Offset effect pans the image within a layer. Visual information pushed off one side of the image appears on the opposite side. One use of the Offset effect is to create a looping background from a layer. At Best quality, the offset is performed with subpixel precision. Lloyd Alvarez provides a simple expression on the AE Enhancers forum that you can apply to the Shift Center To property to simulate a poorly timed film projector.
1. Select the layer with the distortion, and choose Effect > Distort > Optics Compensation. 2. In the Effect Controls panel, adjust the FOV until a distorted edge or line appears straight. Note the FOV value. 3. Select the computer graphic layer you want to distort, and apply Optics Compensation to it using the FOV value from step 2. 4. Select Reverse Lens Distortion. 5. Remove Optics Compensation from the footage layer.
Chris Zwar provides a tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates the use of the Reshape effect to morph one face into another. This tutorial provides many useful tips regarding the use and editing of correspondence points. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Discrete Requires no keyframes because it calculates the distortion at each frame. Discrete produces the most accurate results but requires more rendering time. Linear (Default) Requires two or more keyframes and performs a straight-line interpolation between the keyframes. Linear produces steady changes between keyframes and sharp changes at keyframes. Smooth Requires three or more keyframes and approximates the distortion using cubic curves, producing distortions with graceful motion.
This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Radius Controls the distance the ripples travel from the center point. The Radius value is a percentage of the image size. If the center of the ripple is the center of the layer and the radius is set to 100, the ripples travel to the edge of the image. A value of 0 produces no ripples. Like ripples in water, ripples in the layer become smaller as they travel farther from the center.
right of the Offset button. To set an offset location, click the Offset button, and then click the image in the desired location. To set the offset position numerically, type a new value for each axis. When you don’t need the precision provided by Mask Offset, you can simply drag the source mask offset in the Composition panel. Note: Unwanted undulations may occur if the source mask is close to the boundary mask during animation.
Transform effect The Transform effect applies two-dimensional geometric transformations to a layer. This effect supplements the transform properties available for each layer in the Timeline panel. Anchor Point, Position, Rotation, Scale, and Opacity properties function much the same as the layer transform properties in the Timeline panel. You can specify the shutter angle for motion blur for this layer independently of the shutter angle for the composition.
Cycle The number of revolutions of the Evolution setting that the fractal cycles through before it repeats. The amount of time between Evolution keyframes determines the timing of the Evolution cycles. Note: The Cycle control affects only the state of the fractal, not geometrics or other controls, so you can get different results with different Size or Offset settings. Random Seed Specifies a value from which to generate the fractal noise.
Twirl Radius How far the twirl extends from the twirl center. This value is a percentage of width or height of the layer, whichever is greater. A value of 50, for example, produces a twirl that extends to the edges of the layer. To the top Warp effect Use Warp to distort or deform layers. The warp styles work much like the Warp effects in Adobe Illustrator and Warp Text in Adobe Photoshop. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Warping a layer To the top Warp Stabilizer effect (CS5.
Antialiasing Sets the amount of anti-aliasing, or edge smoothing, to perform on the image. In many cases, lower settings produce satisfactory results; a high setting can greatly increase rendering time. Anti-aliasing is performed only if the layer quality setting is Best. Adobe also recommends Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Utility effects Apply Color LUT effect Cineon Converter effect Color Profile Converter effect Grow Bounds effect HDR Compander effect HDR Highlight Compression effect Third-party effects: CC Overbrights effect (CS6 or later) To the top 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.
Note: Each computer monitor has unique display characteristics that affect your perception of color. For best results when evaluating tonal balance, use the Info panel in After Effects to see the true color values of pixels as you move the pointer over them. Pete O’Connell provides an article on the Creative COW website that describes the use of the Cineon Converter effect. Conversion Type How the Cineon file is converted.
Saturation Attempts to produce vivid colors in an image at the expense of color accuracy. This rendering intent is suitable for images, such as graphic logos, in which bright saturated colors are more important than the exact relationship between colors. Relative Colorimetric Compares the extreme highlight of the source color space to the extreme highlight of the destination color space and shifts all colors accordingly.
To the top HDR Compander effect The HDR Compander (compressor/expander) effect gives you a way to work with tools that don’t support high-dynamic-range color—such as 8bpc and 16-bpc effects—without sacrificing the high dynamic range of footage. The HDR Compander effect works by first compressing the highlight values in the HDR image so that they fall within the range of an 8-bpc or 16bpc (low-dynamic-range) image, and then expanding the values back to the 32-bpc range.
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Transition effects Online resources about transitions and Transition effects About Transition effects and the Transition Completion property Block Dissolve effect Card Wipe effect Gradient Wipe effect Iris Wipe effect Linear Wipe effect Radial Wipe effect Venetian Blinds effect Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: CC Glass Wipe effect CC Grid Wipe effect CC Image Wipe effect CC Jaws effect CC Light Wipe effect CC Line Sweep effect (CS6 or later) CC Radial ScaleWipe effect CC S
To the top Block Dissolve effect The Block Dissolve effect makes a layer disappear in random blocks. The width and height of the blocks, in pixels, can be set independently. At Draft quality, the blocks are placed with pixel precision and have sharply defined edges; at Best quality, the blocks can be positioned with subpixel precision and have soft edges. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Rows & Columns Specifies the interaction of the numbers of rows and columns. Independent makes both the Rows and Columns sliders active. Columns Follows Rows makes only the Rows slider active. If you choose this option, the number of columns is always the same as the number of rows. Rows The number of rows, up to 1000. Columns The number of columns, up to 1000, unless Columns Follows Rows is selected.
Auto Focal Length Controls the perspective of the effect during the animation. If Auto Focal Length is unselected, the focal length you specify is used to find a camera position and orientation that place the corners of the layer at the corner pins, if possible. If not, the layer is replaced by its outline, drawn between the pins. If Auto Focal Length is selected, the focal length required to match the corner points is used, if possible. If not, it interpolates the correct value from nearby frames.
Tile Gradient Uses multiple tiled copies of the gradient layer. Center Gradient Uses a single instance of the gradient layer in the center of the layer. Stretch Gradient To Fit Resizes the gradient layer horizontally and vertically to fit the entire area of the layer. Invert Gradient Inverts the influence of the gradient layer; lighter pixels in the gradient layer create transparency at a lower Transition Completion value than do darker pixels.
In a video tutorial on the Artbeats website, Steve Holmes demonstrates the use of non-animated instances of the Linear Wipe effect to crop a layer from various angles with softly feathered edges. To the top 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. Start Angle The angle at which the transition starts. With a start angle of 0°, the transition starts at the top.
The Rolling Shutter Repair effect | CC, CS6 A common problem for DSLR and other CMOS sensor-based cameras is that they typically have a lag time between scanning lines of video. Since not all parts of the video are recorded at the same time, this can cause Digital cameras with CMOS sensors often have a rolling shutter, which captures a frame of video one scan line at a time. Due to time lag between scan lines, not all parts of the image are recorded at exactly the same time.
Text effects Numbers effect Timecode effect To the top Numbers effect The Numbers effect generates random or sequential numbers in different formats, such as decimal number, dates, and timecode—even the current date and time (at render time). You can use the Numbers effect to create counters of various kinds. The maximum offset for sequential numbers is 30,000. This effect works with 8-bpc color.
Display Options Specifies the use of a fill or stroke or a combination of both on the text. Fill Only fills the characters with a color. Stroke Only strokes the edges of the characters with a color. Fill Over Stroke overlaps the fill color onto the stroke color. Stroke Over Fill overlaps the stroke color onto the fill color. Size Size of the characters. Tracking Average distance between characters. Proportional Spacing Numbers use proportional spacing instead of monospacing.
Starting Frame The frame number assigned to the first frame of the layer. Text Position The position of the text overlay, in composition space. Text Size The size of text, in points. Text Color The color of the text. Show Box (CS5.5 and later) Specifies whether the colored box behind the timecode value will display or not. Box Color (CS5.5 and later) The color of the box behind the timecode value. Opacity (CS5.5 and later) The opacity of the box behind the timecode value. Composite on Original (CS5.
Simulation effects Common Lighting controls and Material controls Card Dance effect Caustics effect Foam effect Particle Playground effect Shatter effect Wave World effect Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: CC Ball Action effect CC Bubbles effect CC Drizzle effect CC Hair effect CC Mr.
Light Position Specifies the position of the light in x,y space. To position the light interactively, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the effect point for the light. Light Depth Specifies the position of the light in z space. Negative numbers move the light behind the layer. Ambient Light Distributes light over the layer. Increasing this value adds an even illumination to all objects and prevents shadows from being completely black.
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. For example, select a vertical grayscale gradient layer (black on top, white on bottom) from the Gradient Layer 1 menu, and then select Intensity 1 from the X Rotation Source menu.
inherent depth—hence the absence of z scaling. Source Specifies the gradient layer channel you want to use to control the transformation. For example, select Intensity 2 to use the intensity from Gradient Layer 2. Multiplier The amount of transformation applied to the cards. Offset The base value from which the transformation begins. It is added to the transformation value (a card’s center pixel value times the Multiplier amount) so that you can start the transformation from some place other than 0.
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. You can precompose the layer with the effect and apply the mask to the precomposition layer, or you can precompose the layer with the mask and apply the effect to the precomposition layer, depending on what result you want to achieve.
Lower values smooth the Caustics surface. Smoothing Specifies the roundness of the waves by blurring the water surface layer. High values eliminate detail. Low values show imperfections in the water surface layer. Water Depth Specifies depth. A small disturbance in shallow water moderately distorts the view of the bottom, but the same disturbance in deep water distorts the view greatly. Refractive Index Affects the way the light bends as it passes through the liquid.
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. For example, you can create swarms of ants, flocks of birds, or crowds of people. Note: On a frame-by-frame basis, Foam renders quickly, but the slightest adjustment in the initial settings is likely to result in very different output a few seconds into the simulation.
were hitting a wall. Rather, this value is a target lifespan; some bubbles pop early, and others may last until the end. Bubble Growth Speed Specifies how fast a bubble reaches full size. When a bubble is released from the producer point, it generally starts out rather small. If you set this value too high and you specify a small producer area, the bubbles pop each other, and the effect generates fewer bubbles than expected.
Universe Size Sets the boundaries of the bubble universe. When bubbles completely leave the universe, they pop and are gone forever. By default, the universe is the size of the layer. Values greater than 1 create a universe that stretches beyond the borders of the layer. Use higher values to make bubbles flow in from outside the frame, or make it possible to zoom out and bring them back into the picture. Using a value lower than 1 clips the bubbles before they reach the edge of the layer.
have excessively abrupt edges. Flow Map Steepness Controls the difference between white and black as they are used to determine steepness. If the bubbles are ricocheting randomly off the flow map, decrease this value. Flow Map Fits Specifies whether the flow map is relative to the layer or to the universe. The flow map resizes itself to fit whichever you specify.
layer in the Timeline panel animates the entire layer of particles. 3. Set up a particle generator to determine how particles are created. You can shoot a stream of particles from the Cannon, generate a flat plane full of particles from the Grid, or use the Layer Exploder to create particles from an existing layer. If you’ve already created particles, you can apply the Particle Exploder to explode them into more new particles. 4. Select your particles.
Velocity Specifies the initial speed of particles in pixels per second as they emanate from the Cannon. Velocity Random Spread Specifies the amount of random velocity of particles. A higher value results in more variation in the velocity of particles. For example, if you set Velocity to 20 and Velocity Random Spread to 10, particles leave the Cannon at velocities ranging from 15 to 25 pixels per second. Color Sets the color of dots or text characters.
source of the layer is transparent. To change the position of the exploding layer, precompose the layer with its new position (use the Move All Attributes Into The New Composition option), and then use the precomposed layer as the exploding layer. When you explode particles, the new particles inherit the position, velocity, opacity, scale, and rotation of the original particles. After layers or particles explode, Gravity, Repel, Wall, and Property Mapper controls influence the movement of particles.
Starts playing the layer from a frame chosen at random, within the range between the current time of the effect layer and the Random Time Max you specify. For example, if you choose Relative Random and specify a Random Time Max of 1, each particle starts playing from a layer frame chosen at random from between the current time and 1 second after the current time.
specified by the Particle Across and Particle Down controls. Deselect to generate only one instance of the text. (This option is available only if you select Use Grid alignment.) 3. Type text in the box. If Use Grid alignment is selected and you want to skip a grid intersection, type a space. To force the next character down to the next grid row, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS). 4. Click OK to close Edit Grid Text, and then click OK to close the Particle Playground dialog box. 5.
Rotation At particle creation, the Cannon and Grid set no rotation; the Particle Exploder takes rotation from the exploded dot, layer, or character. Use Auto-Orient Rotation to make particles rotate automatically along their respective trajectories. For example, a particle can point up as it climbs an arc, and point down as it descends. Rotation isn’t easily visible for a dot particle. It is easier to observe only when you replace the dot particle with text characters or a layer.
Particles From Specifies the particle generator or combination of particle generators whose particles you want to affect. Selection Map Specifies the layer map that influences which particles are affected. 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.
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. The complete tonal distribution between Min and Max is then scaled proportionally. 5. If using the Ephemeral Property Mapper, you can apply an operator to the value of a particle property and the value of the corresponding layer map pixel.
Gradient Force Copies the force adjustment based on areas of a layer map on both the x and y planes of motion. The pixel brightness values in the color channel define the resistance to particle force at each pixel, so the color channel acts like a layer map of hills and valleys that decrease or increase particle force. In the layer map, areas of equal brightness result in no adjustment, similar to flat land. Lower pixel values represent less resistance to a particle’s force, similar to a downhill grade.
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. In this case, the entire output range needs to be shifted down; lower both the Min and Max values. You have a layer map that modifies particles in the opposite direction from the one you want. Swap the Min and Max values, which has the same result as inverting the layer map.
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. Areas where the alpha channel has a value greater than 0 (semitransparent and opaque areas of a control layer) affect the particle value to a degree proportional to the value of the alpha channel.
Original (upper-left), and as Shatter is applied over time to reveal another layer (lower-left and right) Online resources about the Shatter effect Aharon Rabinowitz provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how make 3D extruded text in After Effects using the Shatter effect. Rick Janusz provides a video tutorial on the Forging Fire website that shows how to use the Shatter effect to create an extruded 3D object from a 2D element.
Shape controls specify the shape and appearance of the shattered pieces. Pattern Specifies the preset pattern to use for the exploded pieces. Custom Shatter Map Specifies the layer you want to use as the shape of the exploded pieces. White Tiles Fixed Prevents pure white tiles in a custom shatter map from being exploded. You can use this control to force certain parts of a layer to remain intact.
Note: A shatter piece is made up of vertices (points or dots that define the corners of the shape), edges (lines that connect the dots), and planes (walls of the shape). Shatter determines when a shape has come in contact with a force sphere based on when a vertex comes in contact with the sphere. Gradient controls Gradient controls specify the gradient layer used to control the timing of an explosion and the pieces that the blast affects.
Gravity Determines what happens to the pieces after they break up and blow apart. The higher the gravity setting, the faster the pieces are sucked in the direction set by Gravity Direction and Gravity Inclination. Gravity Direction Defines the direction in (x,y) space that the pieces travel when affected by gravity. The direction is relative to the layer. If Gravity Inclination is set to -90 or 90, Gravity Direction has no effect.
Focal Length The zoom factor. Smaller numbers zoom in. Transform Order The order in which the camera rotates around its three axes, and whether the camera rotates before or after it is positioned using the other Camera Position controls. 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.
Wireframe view (upper-left), Height Map view (lower-left), and resulting image (lower-right). Result is used as Water Surface source for Caustics effect example. Wireframe view (left), Height Map view (center), and resulting image (right). Result is used as Input Phase for Colorama effect example. To understand how this effect works, consider the following information about the physics of waves: A wave consists of a peak and a trough.
Height Map controls Height Map controls specify the appearance of the height map. Note: While adjusting Brightness and Contrast, keep the wave surface layer between the cyan and violet rectangles. If a peak pokes through the cyan rectangle, it clips at pure white. If a trough pokes through the bottom of the violet rectangle, it clips at pure black. If you want to create a displacement map, try to avoid clipping because it shows up as flat peaks and valleys, which look unnatural.
Ground controls The Ground controls specify the appearance of the ground layer. Ground Specifies the layer that appears at the bottom of the water. If you use an animated layer for the ground, Wave World samples only the first frame. Wave World determines the intersection of the water surface with the edge of the ground, computes the waves bouncing off the shore, and properly adjusts the speed of the waves depending on the depth.
Obsolete effects Basic 3D effect Basic Text effect Lightning effect Path Text effect Effects in the Obsolete category are retained for compatibility with projects created with previous versions of After Effects. When updating projects or creating new projects, you should use alternative effects and techniques rather than effects in the Obsolete category.
Position The position of the text on the layer. Note: The Alignment setting in the Basic Text dialog box affects the behavior of the Position point. The point always positions the vertical center of the text relative to the layer. However, if the text is left-aligned, the point positions the left edge; if the text is center-aligned, the point positions the center; and if the text is right-aligned, the point positions the right edge.
on top of existing colors in the composition, primary colors often produce the best results. Bright colors often become much lighter, sometimes becoming white, depending on the brightness of colors beneath. Pull Force, Pull Direction The strength and direction of a force that pulls the lightning bolt. Use the Pull Force value with the Stability value to create a Jacob’s Ladder appearance. Random Seed An input value for the random noise generator that is the basis of the Lightning effect.
Vertex 2). Characters that don’t fit on the path are placed off the end in a straight line. Circle Shapes text around the circumference of a circle, defined by two control points (Tangent 1/Circle Point, and Vertex 1/Circle Center). If the text is longer than the circumference of the circle, the text overlaps itself. If an arbitrary path is chosen and if the path is closed, this property forms the text around the path, as opposed to looping it.
Vertical Writing Rotates each character so it’s vertical along the path. Rotate Roman Characters Rotates Roman characters vertically along the path; if Rotate Roman Characters isn’t selected, only nonRoman characters are rotated. Horizontal Shear Slants characters left or right, similar to italics. The slant is based on the point where the character intersects the path. To slant characters from their centers, set Baseline Shift to make the path go through the centers of the characters.
displayed with greater and greater opacity as the value of Visible Characters increases between whole numbers. The exact opacity of the character is equal to the fractional part of the Visible Characters value. For example, the eighth character is displayed at 10% opacity if the value of Visible Characters is 7.10 and Fade Time is 100%; the same character is displayed at 60% opacity if the value of Visible Characters is 7.60, and so on.
Noise and Grain effects Work with Grain effects Work with noise samples in Grain effects Working with added or matched grain Add Grain effect Dust & Scratches effect Fractal Noise effect Match Grain effect Median effect Noise effect Noise Alpha effect Noise HLS effect and Noise HLS Auto effect Remove Grain effect Turbulent Noise effect To the top Work with Grain effects Almost every digital image captured from the real world contains grain or visual noise caused by the recording, encoding, scanning, or re
Each grain effect is applied with default settings and is displayed in Preview viewing mode, which has a preview region framed by a white border and centered on the image. The preview region displays the results of the grain effect on a portion of your image, for speed and comparison purposes. The grain effects are almost fully automatic but also offer many controls to achieve precise results.
4. If you’re using both a color matte and a layer mask, choose one of the following from the Combine Match And Mask Using menu: Screen Makes the matte white wherever either the mask or the color match is white. Multiply Makes the matte white where both of the inputs are white. 5. Reduce the Amount value to let more of the original image show through the grain. 6. Choose Final Output from the Viewing Mode control.
9. Choose Final Output from the Viewing Mode control. Generate a layer matte In some cases, you may want to use a different layer or track as a mask for the layer that uses a grain effect. This type of mask allows unlimited control over exactly which parts of an image are modified and by how much. 1. Apply a grain effect to the image. 2. In the Effect Controls panel, choose the layer that you want to use as a mask from the Mask Layer control in the Blend With Original and Masking Layer controls groups.
pixels. (Larger preview regions can result in slower rendering.) 4. Select Show Box if you want to outline the preview region in color. If you want to change the outline color, next to Box Color do one of the following: Click the color swatch and select a color in the Color Picker dialog box. Click the eyedropper button, and click a color anywhere on the screen. 5. View the results: To view the fine detail of the noise structure, zoom into the preview region.
The samples appear as small white squares (24x24 pixels) overlaid on the source image. 2. Choose Manual from the Sample Selection pop-up menu in the Sampling controls group. 3. To remove the least desirable samples from the image, try reducing the Number Of Samples value. 4. To move a noise sample, do one of the following: Click the point parameter for the noise sample in the Noise Sample Points controls group. A cross hair appears in the composition, centered on that sample.
Adjusting the tones of added or matched grain The precise grain pattern present in any frame of film isn’t uniform throughout the frame but may depend on the tonal values of the content at each pixel. For example, in chemical film grain, the sizes of the silver halide crystals vary with the exposure level.
Tint Color Controls the color the added noise shifts toward. Saturation Controls the amount and vividness of the color. The Blending Mode in the Application controls determines how the color value of the generated noise combines with the color value of the underlying source layer at each pixel: Film Makes the generated grain appear embedded in the image. This mode affects darker colors more than lighter ones, just as the grain in a film negative appears.
a Blending Mode in the Application controls group. To define how much grain is added to each tonal area in your image and the midpoint, adjust the Shadows, Midtones, Highlights, and Midpoint values in the Application controls group. To animate the added grain, adjust the properties in the Animation controls group. To apply the effect to the entire image, choose Final Output from the Viewing Mode menu.
Radius How far the effect searches for differences among pixels. High values make the image blurry. Use the smallest value that eliminates the defects. Threshold How different pixels can be from their neighbors without being changed by the effect. Use the highest value that eliminates the defects.
Allow HDR Results No remapping is performed. Values outside the range of 0-1.0 are preserved. Transform Settings to rotate, scale, and position the noise layers. The layers appear as if they are at different depths if you select Perspective Offset. Complexity The number of noise layers that are combined (according to the Sub Settings) to create the fractal noise. Increasing this number increases the apparent depth and amount of detail in the noise.
Blending Mode The blending operation between the fractal noise and the original image. These blending modes are identical to the ones in the Modes column in the Timeline panel, with the following exceptions: None Renders the fractal noise only and does not composite on the original layer. Hue Renders the fractal noise as hue values instead of grayscale. The Saturation and Lightness of the original layer are maintained. If the original layer is grayscale, nothing happens.
The Match Grain effect uses noise sampling as its starting point. Basically, entire frames of new noise are synthesized to match the noise samples. You can modify the noise in many ways before the effect is applied to the new image, such as duplicating the noise from an image but making the noise larger and redder before applying the noise to another image. The Match Grain effect shares some controls with the Add Grain effect. (See Add Grain effect.
in the Composition panel, with its noise sample squares displayed. Compensation Samples Shows the noise samples that have been automatically extracted from the destination image. Preview Displays the current settings of the applied effect in a 200x200 pixel area. Blending Matte Shows the current color matte or mask, or the combination of both, which results from the current settings of the Blend With Original controls group.
This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) To the top Noise effect The Noise effect randomly changes pixel values throughout the image. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. 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.
Overflow How the effect remaps values that fall outside the grayscale range of 0-255: Clip Values above 255 are mapped to 255. Values below 0 are mapped to 0. Wrap Back Values above 255 or below 0 are reflected back into the 0-255 range. For example, a value of 258 (255+3) is reflected to 252 (255-3), and a value of -3 is reflected to 3. Wrap Values above 255 and below 0 are wrapped back around into the 0-255 range.
Grain Size This control is active only for the Grain type of noise. Noise Phase (Noise HLS only) An input value to the random number generator for the noise. When you set keyframes for Noise Phase, the effect cycles through the phases to create animated noise. Greater value differences between keyframes increase the speed of the noise animation. Noise Animation Speed (Noise HLS Auto only) The speed of the noise animation. To accelerate or decelerate the noise animation, animate this property.
3. Adjust the Passes value to control the maximum noise radius that can be detected: If your grain is large and chunky, try increasing the Passes value. A higher number of passes reduces larger-sized noise. If your render time is longer than desired because your file size is large, try lowering the number of passes to reduce the memory usage and render time. Note: Once the optimum number of passes is applied, additional passes have no effect. 4.
Add temporal filtering to a layer 1. Apply the Remove Grain effect to your image. 2. Place the Remove Grain preview region over the area of the image that has the most subtle changes from frame to frame or that has the most moving image detail. 3. Select Enable in the Temporal Filtering controls. 4. Adjust the Amount value to 100%. 5. Create a RAM preview of the composition or render and export it. 6.
The Evolution controls create subtle changes in the shape of the noise. Animating these controls results in smooth changes of the noise over time, creating results that resemble, for example, passing clouds or flowing water. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Controls Fractal Type The fractal noise is created by generating a grid of random numbers for each noise layer. The Complexity setting specifies the number of noise layers.
You can specify how much the noise evolves over a period of time by animating Evolution. The more revolutions within a given amount of time, the more rapidly the noise changes. Large changes in the Evolution value over a short period of time may result in flashing. Evolution Options Turbulence Factor The amount by which the speed of smaller noise features differs from the speed of larger noise features.
Matte effects Matte Choker effect Simple Choker effect For information on the Refine Matte effect and the Roto Brush effect, see Roto Brush effect and Refine Matte effect reference. Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: mocha shape effect See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects. To the top 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.
Gray Level Softness Specifies how soft to make the edges of the matte. At 0%, the matte edges contain only fully opaque and fully transparent values. At 100%, the matte edges have a full range of gray values but may appear blurred. 3. Set stage-two controls (the next three properties) to choke the matte by the same amount as the amount by which you spread it in stage one. 4. (Optional) Use the Iterations property to specify how many times After Effects repeats the spread-and-choke sequence.
Color Correction effects Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects Auto Levels effect Black & White effect Brightness & Contrast effect Broadcast Colors effect Change Color effect Change To Color effect Channel Mixer effect Color Balance effect Color Balance (HLS) effect Color Link effect Color Stabilizer effect Colorama effect Curves effect Equalize effect Exposure effect Gamma/Pedestal/Gain effect Hue/Saturation effect Leave Color effect Levels effect Levels (Individual Controls) effect Photo Filter effect PS
Auto Color effect. This is useful, for example, in reducing the flicker of old film or for correcting for the flickering color of a light source. These effects work with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Temporal Smoothing The range of adjacent frames, in seconds, analyzed to determine the amount of correction needed for each frame, relative to its surrounding frames. If Temporal Smoothing is 0, each frame is analyzed independently, without regard for surrounding frames.
To the top Brightness & Contrast effect The Brightness & Contrast effect adjusts the brightness and contrast of an entire layer (not individual channels). The default value of 0.0 indicates that no change is made. Using the Brightness & Contrast effect is the easiest way to make simple adjustments to the tonal range of the image. It adjusts all pixel values in the image at once—highlights, shadows, and midtones. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color.
Saturation Transform Positive values increase saturation of matched pixels (moving toward pure color); negative values decrease saturation of matched pixels (moving toward gray). Color To Change The central color in the range to be changed. Matching Tolerance How much colors can differ from Color To Change and still be matched. Matching Softness The amount that the effect affects unmatched pixels, in proportion to their similarity to Color To Change.
Softness The amount of feather to use for the edges of the correction matte. Higher values create smoother transitions between areas affected by the color change and unaffected areas. View Correction Matte Shows a grayscale matte that indicates the amount to which the effect affects each pixel. White areas are changed the most, and dark areas are changed the least. To the top Channel Mixer effect The Channel Mixer effect modifies a color channel using a mix of the current color channels.
Source Layer The layer from which to sample colors. If you choose None, the layer to which the effect is applied is used as the source layer, taking into account any masks and other effects applied to the layer. If you choose the name of the layer from the menu, the source layer without masks and effects is used. Sample Specifies what values are sampled and what operation is performed on them. Clip The percentage of pixels to ignore at the extreme channel values.
tint an image or radically change its color palette. Colorama works by first converting a specified color attribute to grayscale and then remapping the grayscale values to one or more cycles of the specified output color palette. One cycle of the output color palette appears on the Output Cycle wheel. Black pixels are mapped to the color at the top of the wheel; increasingly lighter grays are mapped to successive colors going clockwise around the wheel.
To duplicate a triangle, Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) the triangle. To delete a triangle, drag it away from the wheel. To change the opacity, select a triangle on the color wheel and then drag the attached triangle above the opacity slider. Make sure that Modify Alpha is selected if you want the opacity information to affect your output. Note: When you animate the Output Cycle, the position and color of a triangle are interpolated between keyframes.
Composite Over Layer Shows modified pixels composited on top of the original layer. Deselect this option to show only modified pixels. 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. The higher you set this value, the less the effect affects the layer.
pixel. Photoshop Style equalizes by redistributing the brightness values of the pixels in an image so that they more evenly represent the entire range of brightness levels. Amount To Equalize How much to redistribute the brightness values. At 100%, the pixel values are spread as evenly as possible; lower percentages redistribute fewer pixel values. To the top Exposure effect Use the Exposure effect to make tonal adjustments to footage, either to one channel at a time or to all channels at once.
Channel Range The definition of the color channel chosen from the Channel Control menu. Two color bars represent the colors in their order on the color wheel. The upper color bar shows the color before the adjustment; the lower bar shows how the adjustment affects all of the hues at full saturation. Use the adjustment slider to edit any range of hues. Master Hue Specifies the overall hue of the channel chosen from the Channel Control menu.
2. Do any of the following: Drag one or both of the white triangles to adjust the amount of feather without affecting the range. Drag one or both of the vertical white bars to adjust the range. Increasing the range decreases the fall-off, and vice versa. To the top Leave Color effect The Leave Color effect desaturates all colors on a layer except colors similar to the color specified by Color To Leave. For example, a movie of a basketball game could be decolored except for the orange of the ball itself.
Note: The Levels (Individual Controls) effect functions like the Levels effect but allows you to adjust the individual color values for each channel, so you can add expressions to individual properties or animate one property independently of the others. (See Levels (Individual Controls) effect.) Channel The channels to be modified. Histogram Shows number of pixels with each luminance value in an image. (See Color correction, color grading, and color adjustment.
To ensure that the image isn’t darkened by the effect, select Preserve Luminosity. To retain Photo Filter adjustment layers created in Photoshop, import the Photoshop file into your After Effects project as a composition rather than as footage. If you changed your default Photoshop color settings, After Effects may not be able to exactly match the color of the Photo Filter. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. In After Effects CS6 or later, this effect works in 32-bit color.
Even though Selective Color uses CMYK colors to adjust an image, you can use it on RGB images. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Choose from one of two values from the Method menu: Relative Changes the existing amount of cyan, magenta, yellow, or black by its percentage of the total. For example, if you start with a pixel that is 50% magenta and add 10%, 5% is added to the magenta (10% of 50% = 5%) for a total of 55% magenta.
Shadow Tonal Width and Highlight Tonal Width The range of adjustable tones in the shadows and highlights. Lower values restrict the adjustable range to only the darkest and lightest regions, respectively. Higher values expand the adjustable range. These controls are useful for isolating regions to adjust. For example, to lighten a dark area without affecting the midtones, set a low Shadow Tonal Width value so that when you adjust the Shadow Amount, you’re lightening only the darkest areas of an image.
Vibrance effect The Vibrance effect adjusts saturation so that clipping is minimized as colors approach full saturation. Colors that are less saturated in the original image are affected by the Vibrance adjustments more than are colors that are already saturated in the original image. The Vibrance effect is especially useful for increasing saturation in an image without over-saturating skin tones.
Markers 629
Layer markers and composition markers Composition markers Layer markers Web links, chapter links, cue points, and markers Scripts and utilities for working with markers Online resources about markers Use composition markers and layer markers to store comments and other metadata and mark important times in a composition or layer. Composition markers appear in the time ruler for the composition, whereas layer markers each appear on the duration bar of a specific layer.
markers, expressions and scripts can work with XMP metadata. To the top Composition markers Composition markers appear as small triangles in the time ruler in the Timeline panel. You can have any number of composition markers in a composition. If you remove a numbered composition marker, the other markers remain numbered as they were. If you change the comment from the default number, that number may be reused by a composition marker created later.
To replace all layer markers with markers containing temporal metadata from the source file for the layer, right-click (Windows) or Controlclick (Mac OS) a layer marker and choose Update Markers From Source. Note: In After Effects CS6 or later, adding a layer marker no longer deselects other objects (masks, and effects, for example).
Jeff Almasol provides scripts on his redefinery website that do the following: rd_CopyMarkers copies layer markers from one layer to any number of other layers. rd_KeyMarkers creates new layer markers (either on the selected layer or on a new null layer) with comments that provide information about keyframes at the same times. rd_MapTextFileToMarkers sets keyframes for the Source Text property of a text layer and sets the values to text from a text file.
XMP metadata About XMP metadata XMP metadata in After Effects About file, clip, and project XMP metadata Show or hide XMP metadata Edit XMP metadata To the top About XMP metadata Metadata is—in the simplest sense—data about data. In practical terms, metadata is a set of standardized information about a file, such as author name, resolution, color space, copyright, and keywords applied to the file.
Embedding XMP metadata versus including XMP metadata in sidecar files In most cases, XMP metadata for a file is stored in the file itself. If it isn’t possible to write the information directly into the file, XMP metadata is stored in a separate file called a sidecar file, with the filename extension .xmp. For information on which file formats After Effects can write XMP metadata directly into, see XMP metadata in After Effects.
Note: Because writing the ID to a file is considered a modification, the modification date of a source file may be updated the first time the file is imported. Working with XMP metadata in After Effects The Metadata panel In After Effects, the Metadata panel (Window > Metadata) shows static metadata only. Project metadata is shown at the top of the panel, and Files metadata is shown at the bottom. Temporal metadata is visible in After Effects only as layer markers.
FLV and F4V QuickTime (.mov) Video for Windows (.avi) 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. When you render and export a file and include the source XMP metadata in the output file, XMP metadata is written to an output file before the first frame of the composition is rendered.
Soundbooth Separates metadata in these sections: Adobe Premiere Pro and Soundbooth also provide a Speech Analysis section with metadata that appears only in those applications. File Displays properties for the currently displayed audio or ASND file. This metadata is stored directly in such files, so it appears in other applications. (Adobe Bridge, however, does not display metadata for ASND files.) Clip Displays properties for multitrack clips you select in the Editor panel.
Integer Displays whole numbers that you drag or click to change. Real Displays fractional numbers that you drag or click to change. Text Displays a text box (for properties similar to Location). Boolean Displays a check box (for On or Off properties). To the top Edit XMP metadata In Adobe video applications, similarly named properties are linked in the Metadata and Project panels. However, the Metadata panel provides more extensive properties and lets you edit them for multiple files simultaneously.
Memory, storage, performance 640
Memory and storage | CS5.
Adobe Media Encoder.) If you know that you will be using a specific application along with After Effects, check its system requirements and set this value to at least the minimum amount of RAM required for that application. Because performance is best when adequate memory is left for the operating system, you can’t set this value below a minimum baseline value.
computer system and compositions. When After Effects temporarily disables multiprocessing with Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously If After Effects can’t use background processes to render multiple frames simultaneously, a message appears in the Info panel, and After Effects uses only the main foreground process to render all frames. These messages include the following: “Insufficient RAM. Multiprocessing is off.” “Incompatible effect or expression. Multiprocessing is off.” “Incompatible preview mode.
Note: An example of a practical result of the shared memory pool is that starting Premiere Pro will decrease the amount of RAM available to After Effects for RAM previews; quitting Premiere Pro will immediately free RAM for After Effects and extend the possible duration of RAM previews. Memory & Multiprocessing Details dialog box The Memory & Multiprocessing Details dialog box contains additional information about installed RAM and current and allowed RAM usage.
Error: “Unable to allocate enough memory to render the current frame....” Either decrease the memory requirements for the rendering of this frame, or install more RAM. Error: “Unable to allocate [n] MB of memory....” Either decrease the memory requirements for the rendering of this frame, or install more RAM. Error: “Image buffers of size [width]x[height] @ [depth] bpc ([n] GB) exceed internal limits...” Decrease the memory requirements for the rendering of this frame.
To the top Caches: RAM cache, disk cache, and media cache As you work on a composition, After Effects temporarily stores some rendered frames and source images in RAM, so that previewing and editing can occur more quickly. After Effects does not cache frames that require little time to render. Frames remain uncompressed in the image cache.
with limitations regarding inadequate RAM to hold or render a single frame of your composition. For the best performance with disk caching, select a folder that’s on a different physical hard disk than your source footage. If possible, the folder should be on a hard disk that uses a different drive controller than the disk that contains your source footage. A fast hard drive or SSD with as much space allocated as possible is recommended for the disk cache folder.
Improve performance Improve Improve Improve Improve Improve Improve performance before starting After Effects performance by optimizing memory, cache, and multiprocessing settings performance using Global Performance Cache | CC, CS6 performance by simplifying your project performance by modifying screen output performance when using effects You can improve performance by optimizing your computer system, After Effects, your project, and your workflow.
Allocate adequate memory for other applications. See Memory & Multiprocessing preferences. Use multiple processors to render multiple frames simultaneously by selecting the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously preference. See Memory & Multiprocessing preferences. Enable caching frames to disk for standard previews by selecting the Enable Disk Cache preference. In After Effects, assign as much space as possible to the Disk Cache folder (on a separate fast drive) for best performance. See Disk cache.
Display (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Display (Mac OS), and select Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, And Footage Panels. Close unneeded panels. After Effects must use memory and processor resources to update open panels, which may slow the work that you are doing in another panel. Create a region of interest. If you are working on a small part of your composition, limit which portion of the composition is rendered to the screen during previews. See Region of interest (ROI).
GPU (CUDA, OpenGL) features | CC, CS6 OpenGL, the GPU, and After Effects OpenGL is a set of standards for high-performance processing of 2D and 3D graphics on the graphics processing unit (GPU) for a wide variety of applications. OpenGL provides fast rendering for previews (Fast Draft mode). After Effects also provides acceleration to display certain interface elements, and for ray-traced 3D rendering. Unlike previous versions of After Effects, the GPU plays a major role.
When working with ray-traced 3D compositions, it is important to have the proper hardware installed in your computer to work smoothly. An NVIDIA video display card that has on-board CUDA technology is required for working with ray-traced 3D compositions with GPU acceleration.
Memory and storage | CC, CS6 Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects Advantages of a 64-bit application and 64-bit address space Memory & Multiprocessing preferences Memory pool shared between After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore, and Adobe Media Encoder Memory & Multiprocessing Details dialog box Memory (RAM) requirements for rendering Purging memory (RAM) Troubleshooting memory issues Online resources about memory and multiprocessing Storage requirements for output files Caches: RAM cache, disk cache, a
Todd Kopriva provides information about optimum memory and processor settings on the Adobe website. RAM Reserved For Other Applications Increase this value to leave more RAM available for the operating system and for applications other than After Effects and the application with which it shares a memory pool. (See Memory pool shared between After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore, and Adobe Media Encoder.
multiprocessing, even when you have enough RAM for all of the processors. After Effects is a multi-threaded application that can also use other forms of multiprocessing beyond just Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing, and it is possible for the processors to become “overscheduled” if these threads are competing for the same resources as the background processes used for rendering with Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing.
preferences panel by the icons for each of these applications at the top of the panel. The icons are dimmed for the applications that are not running. A memory balancer prevents swapping of RAM to disk by dynamically managing the memory allocated to each of the applications. Each application registers with the memory balancer with some basic information: minimum memory requirements, maximum memory able to be used, current memory in use, and a priority.
an out-of-memory alert, free memory or reduce the memory requirements of the most memory-intensive layers, and then try again. You can free memory immediately with commands from the Edit > Purge menu: All Memory Image Cache Memory All Memory & Disk Cache (CC) Troubleshooting memory issues Error: “Unable to allocate enough memory to render the current frame....” Either decrease the memory requirements for the rendering of this frame, or install more RAM. Error: “Unable to allocate [n] MB of memory....
Because video is typically compressed during encoding when you render to final output, you can’t just multiply the amount of memory required for a single frame by the frame rate and composition duration to determine the amount of disk space required to store your final output movie. However, such a calculation can give you a rough idea of the maximum storage space you may need. For example, one second (approximately 30 frames) of uncompressed standard-definition 8-bpc video requires approximately 40 MB.
Effects Team blog. In this video by Todd Kopriva and video2brain, learn about the global performance cache and persistent disk cache, and see how these features make rendering and re-rendering layers much quicker and easier. Note: The disk cache is not used for RAM previews. It is only used for standard previews. (See Use standard preview to play video.) Global RAM cache RAM caching is vastly improved over previous versions.
Reusable frames are recognized on duplicated layers or duplicated compositions; Cache is not automatically destroyed by a render queue render at anything other than Current Settings. In this video by Learn by Video you'll see how the RAM and disk caches are used to save time, and how you can render compositions in the background so that you don't need to wait for a preview to be rendered before you can resume work.
1. Set the work area in each composition you want to cache. 2. Select the compositions in the Project panel. 3. Do one of the following: Choose Composition > Cache Work Area in Background Press Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Cmd+Enter (MacOS) Choose Cache Work Area in Background from the contextual menu To cancel the current and all pending background cache renders: Choose Composition > Cancel Caching Work Area in Background.
A faster graphics pipeline enhances the Global Performance Cache by drawing interface items much more quickly. Previously, the operating system handled this. Now OpenGL handles these tasks, For more information, see Render with OpenGL. Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Expressions and automation 663
Plug-ins Installing and loading plug-ins Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects C/C++ plug-ins and the After Effects SDK Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit Where to find more plug-ins for After Effects 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.
Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects After Effects comes with several third-party plug-ins. These plug-ins are installed by default with the full version of Adobe After Effects software. Some of these plug-ins are not included with the trial version of Adobe After Effects software. Foundry Keylight Keylight installs its documentation in the plug-in’s subfolder in the Plug-ins folder. For more information, see Keying effects, including Keylight.
The Pixel Bender language is also used to write effects and filters for use with other Adobe software, including Flash and Photoshop. For more information about Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit, go to the Pixel Bender section of the Adobe website. Tom Beddard provides several Pixel Bender plug-ins and supporting materials on his subblue website, including a Droste effect and Fractal Explorer effect.
Automation After Effects and other Adobe software with which it’s integrated provide many different means for automating various processes. You can automate animation and image processing within After Effects with expressions, scripts, and plug-ins. You can automate rendering with aerender, network rendering, and post-render actions. You can also automate some tasks using workflow automation scripts in Adobe Bridge.
Expression basics About expressions Add, edit, and remove expressions Example: Use the expression language reference to write an expression Show expressions and the expression graph Writing expressions for source text Add comments to an expression Save and reuse expressions Expression Controls effects Convert an expression to keyframes The expression language Expression errors Many of the examples in this section are based on examples provided by Dan Ebberts.
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.
menu is helpful for determining valid elements and their correct syntax; use it as a reference for available elements. When you choose any object, attribute, or method from the menu, After Effects automatically inserts it in the expression field at the insertion point. If text is selected in the expression field, the new expression text replaces the selected text. If the insertion point is not in the expression field, the new expression text replaces all text in the field.
If the layer, mask, or effect that you drag the pick whip to does not have a unique name in its local context, After Effects renames it. For example, if you have two or more masks named “Mask” on the same layer, and you drag the pick whip to one of them, After Effects renames it “Mask 2”. The format of expressions created by the pick whip is determined by the Expression Pick Whip Writes Compact English preference (Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS)).
3. Select the Position property for Solid 2 and choose Animation > Add Expression or Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click the stopwatch button for the property. The following expression appears by default: transform.position 4. Type the following directly over transform.position: thisComp 5. The element thisComp is a global attribute whose value is a Comp object representing the current composition.
To the top 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. For more information on the JavaScript String object, consult a JavaScript reference resource. You can use "\r" in a string expression to start a new line of text.
Save and reuse expressions Once you have written an expression, you can save it for future use by copying and pasting it into a text-editing application or by saving it in an animation preset or template project. However, because expressions are written in relation to other layers in a project and may use specific layer names, you must sometimes modify an expression to transfer it between projects. You can define your own functions within expressions using normal JavaScript function syntax.
You apply Expression Controls effects to a layer in the same ways that you apply other effects, such as dragging the effect onto the layer from the Effects & Presets panel. You can apply Expression Controls effects to any layer; however, it is useful to apply them to a null layer, which you can simply use as a controlling layer. You then add expressions to properties on other layers to take input from that control.
JavaScript is a case-sensitive language. Semicolons are required to separate statements or lines. Spaces between words are ignored, except within a string. In JavaScript, a value stored in an object is called a property. However, After Effects uses the term property to refer to layer components as defined in the Timeline panel. For this reason, After Effects refers to JavaScript properties as either methods or attributes.
[10, 23] You can assign an Array object to a variable, making it easy to refer to array values in other areas of the expression. For example: myArray = [10, 23] The dimension of an Array object is the number of elements in the array. The dimension of myArray is 2. Different properties in After Effects have different dimensions depending on the number of value arguments they have. In the expression language, the values of properties are either single values (Number objects) or arrays (Array objects).
y = position[1]; [9,y] The following is even more succinct: [9, position[1]] This is an important point, so let’s look at one more example. If you want to combine the x position value from Layer A with the y position value from Layer B, you would use the following: 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.
current composition time at which the expression is being evaluated. The following expressions both use the default composition time and return the same values: 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.layer(1).position.
Expression language reference Global objects, attributes, and methods (expression reference) Time conversion methods (expression reference) Vector Math methods (expression reference) Random Numbers methods (expression reference) Interpolation methods (expression reference) Color Conversion methods (expression reference) Other Math methods (expression reference) Comp attributes and methods (expression reference) Footage attributes and methods (expression reference) Layer Sub-objects attributes and methods (e
thisProperty Return type: Property. Represents the property containing the expression. For example, if you write an expression on the Rotation property, you can start an expression with thisProperty to refer to the Rotation property. time Return type: Number. Represents the composition time, in seconds, at which the expression is being evaluated. colorDepth Return type: Number. Returns the project color depth value. For example, colorDepth returns 16 when the project color depth is 16 bits per channel.
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. Converts the value of t to a String representing time in the current Project Settings display format. See timeToFrames for a definition of all of the arguments. An optional ntscDropFrame argument was added to the timeToCurrentFormat() function in After Effects CS5.5 and later. Default: ntscDropFrame = thisComp.
Normalizes the vector so that its length is 1.0. Using the normalize method is a short way of performing the operation div(vec, length(vec)). length(vec) Return type: Number. Argument type: vec is an Array. Returns the length of vector vec. length(point1, point2) Return type: Number. Argument type: point1 and point2 are Arrays. Returns the distance between two points. The point2 argument is optional. For example, length(point1, point2) is the same as length(sub(point1, point2)).
If minValOrArray and maxValOrArray are Numbers, this method returns a number in the range from minValOrArray to maxValOrArray. If the arguments are Arrays, this method returns an Array with the same dimension as the argument with the greater dimension, with each component in the range from the corresponding component of minValOrArray to the corresponding component of maxValOrArray.
Argument type: t is a Number, and value1 and value2 are Numbers or Arrays. Returns a value that linearly interpolates from value1 to value2 as t ranges from 0 to 1. Returns value1 when t <= 0. Returns value2 when t >= 1. ease(t, value1, value2) Return type: Number or Array. 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.
Argument type: degrees is a Number. Converts degrees to radians. radiansToDegrees(radians) Return type: Number. Argument type: radians is a Number. Converts radians to degrees. To the top Comp attributes and methods (expression reference) layer(index) Return type: Layer, Light, or Camera. Argument type: index is a Number. Retrieves the layer by number (order in the Timeline panel). Example: thisComp.layer(3) layer(name) Return type: Layer, Light, or Camera. Argument type: name is a String.
Returns the total number of composition markers in the composition. numLayers Return type: Number. Returns the number of layers in the composition. activeCamera Return type: Camera. Returns the Camera object for the camera through which the composition is rendered at the current frame. This camera is not necessarily the camera through which you are looking in the Composition panel. width Return type: Number. Returns the composition width, in pixels.
Returns the width of the footage item, in pixels. height Return type: Number. Returns the height of the footage item, in pixels. duration Return type: Number. Returns the duration of the footage item, in seconds. frameDuration Return type: Number. Returns the duration of a frame in the footage item, in seconds. ntscDropFrame Return type: Boolean. Returns true if the timecode is in drop-frame format. (After Effects CS5.5 and later.) pixelAspect Return type: Number.
To the top Layer General attributes and methods (expression reference) width Return type: Number. Returns the width of the layer, in pixels. It is the same as source.width. height Return type: Number. Returns the height of the layer, in pixels. It is the same as source.height. index Return type: Number. Returns the index number of the layer in the composition. parent Return type: Layer, Light, or Camera. Returns the parent Layer object of the layer, if it has one. Example: position[0] + parent.
Argument type: point is an Array [2], radius is an Array [2], postEffect is a Boolean, and t is a Number. Samples the color and alpha channel values of a layer and returns the average alpha-weighted value of the pixels within the specified distance of the point as an array: [red, green, blue, alpha].
Argument type: name is a String. Returns the MarkerKey object of the layer 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("ch1"). If more than one marker on the layer has the same name, this method returns the marker that occurs first in time (in layer time). The value for a marker key is a String, not a Number.
Returns the diffuse component value as a percentage. specular Return type: Property. Returns the specular component value as a percentage. shininess Return type: Property. Returns the shininess component value as a percentage. metal Return type: Property. Returns the metal component value as a percentage. To the top 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.
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. Transforms a vector from composition space to layer space. Example (2D layer): dir=sub(position, thisComp.layer(2).position); fromCompVec(dir) toWorldVec(vec, t=time) Return type: Array [2 or 3]. Argument type: vec is an Array [2 or 3], and t is a Number. Transforms a vector from layer space to world space.
in the Timeline panel. Returns false otherwise. To the top Light attributes and methods (expression reference) Light objects have the same attributes and methods as Layer objects, except for source, effect, mask, width, height, anchorPoint, scale, opacity, audioLevels, timeRemap, and all of the material properties. pointOfInterest Return type: Property [3]. Returns the point of interest values for a light in world space. intensity Return type: Property.
for direct numerical manipulation through expressions. maskOpacity Return type: Property. Returns the opacity value of a mask as a percentage. maskFeather Return type: Property. Returns the feather value of a mask, in pixels. maskExpansion Return type: Property. Returns the expansion value of a mask, in pixels. invert Return type: Boolean. Returns true if the mask is inverted or false if it is not.
amp_mult is the amount that amp is multiplied by for each octave. This value controls how fast the harmonics drop off. The default is 0.5; make it closer to 1 to have the harmonics added at the same amplitude as the base frequency, or closer to 0 to add in less detail. t is the base start time. This value defaults to the current time. Use this parameter if you want the output to be a wiggle of the property value sampled at a different time. Example: position.wiggle(5, 20, 3, .
Todd Kopriva provides an example project on his blog that demonstrates the use of the loopIn and loopOut methods, and all of the loop types. Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum that automatically adds wiggle, smooth, and loop expressions to selected properties. loopOut(type="cycle", numKeyframes=0) Return type: Number or Array. Loops a segment of time that is measured from the last keyframe on the layer back toward the In point of the layer.
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. name Return type: String. Returns the name of the property or property group. Example: Animating with the propertyGroup method and propertyIndex attribute Values of propertyGroup relative to Position property of a brush stroke A. propertyGroup(4) B. propertyGroup(3) C. propertyGroup(2) D. propertyGroup(1) E.
time Return type: Number. Returns the time of the keyframe. index Return type: Number. Returns the index of the keyframe. To the top MarkerKey attributes (expression reference) You can access values for composition markers and layer markers using the same methods. Access layer markers through the thisLayer.marker object; access composition markers through the thisComp.marker object.
cuePointName Return type: String. Contents of cue point Name field in marker dialog box. parameters Return type: associative array of String values. Contents of Parameter Name and Parameter Value fields in marker dialog box. For example, if you have a parameter named “background color”, then you can use the following expression to access its value at the nearest marker: thisComp.marker.nearestKey(time).
Expression examples Online resources for expression examples Expression example: Make a layer revolve in a circle Expression example: Rotate the hands of a clock Expression example: Position one layer between two others Expression example: Create a trail of images Expression example: Create a bulge between two layers Expression example: Fade opacity of a 3D layer based on distance from camera Expression example: Make a 3D layer invisible if facing away from camera Expression example: Flip layer horizontally
You can create an expression without using properties from other layers. For example, you can make a layer revolve in a perfect circle. 1. Select a layer, press P to reveal its Position property in the Timeline panel, and Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the stopwatch to the left of the property name. 2. Enter the following in the expression field: [(thisComp.width/2), (thisComp.height/2)] + [Math.sin(time)*50, -Math.
To the top Expression example: Create a trail of images This example expression instructs a layer to be at the same position as the next higher layer in the Timeline panel, but delayed by a specified amount of time (in this case, 0.5 seconds). You can set similar expressions for the other geometric properties. 1. Start with two solid-color layers that are scaled to approximately 30% of the composition size. (See Solid-color layers and solid-color footage items.) 2.
startFade = 500; // Start fade 500 pixels from camera. endFade = 1500; // End fade 1500 pixels from camera. try { // Check whether there's a camera C = thisComp.activeCamera.toWorld([0,0,0]); } catch(err) { // No camera, so assume 50mm w = thisComp.width * thisComp.pixelAspect; z = (w/2)/Math.tan(degreesToRadians(19.
Expression example: Start or stop wiggle at specific time You can use any expression in place of the wiggle expression used here, to begin and end the influence of any expression at a specific time.
Scripts Loading and running scripts Scripts included with After Effects Writing and modifying scripts Where to find additional useful scripts A script is a series of commands that tells an application to perform a series of operations. You can use scripts in most Adobe applications to automate repetitive tasks, perform complex calculations, and even use some functionality not directly exposed through the graphical user interface.
You can use this command-line technique—together with the software that comes with a customizable keyboard—to bind the invocation of a script to a keyboard shortcut. Jeff Almasol provides a set of scripts that includes the Launch Pad script, which creates a docking panel from which you can run any other scripts that you have installed. The same package of Jeff’s scripts includes KeyEd Up, a script with which you can modify keyboard shortcuts.
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Rendering and Exporting 709
Basics of rendering and exporting Rendering and exporting overview Supported output formats Render and export with the Render Queue panel Collect files in one location Specify filenames and locations for rendered output Support for paths in templates Render settings Output modules and output module settings Encoding and compression options for movies QuickTime (MOV) encoding and compression settings Post-render actions Render with OpenGL To the top Rendering and exporting overview What is rendering? Rend
The Render Queue panel The primary way of rendering and exporting movies from After Effects is through the Render Queue panel. (See Render and export with the Render Queue panel.) Note: You do not need to render a movie multiple times to export it to multiple formats with the same render settings. You can export multiple versions of the same rendered movie by adding output modules to a render item in the Render Queue panel.
3. Encode the file as you normally would by choosing presets and an output location in Adobe Media Encoder. In After Effects CC, you can add a composition to Adobe Media Encoder from After Effects. Do one of the following: Choose Composition > Add To Adobe Media Encoder Queue Choose File > Export > Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue Press Ctrl+Alt+M (Windows) or Command+Option+M (Mac OS) You can add After Effects compositions into Adobe Media Encoder, as well. See, Import items into the Encoding Queue.
MPEG-2 DVD MPEG-2 Blu-ray MPEG-4 MXF OP1a (After Effects CS5.5 and later) Export support for additional video codecs in an MXF OP1a wrapper: (After Effects CS6) AVC-Intra Class 50 720 AVC-Intra Class 100 720 AVC-Intra Class 100 1080 XDCAM EX 35 NTSC 1080 (4:2:0) XDCAM EX 35 PAL 1080 (4:2:0) QuickTime (MOV) SWF Video for Windows (AVI; Windows only) Windows Media (Windows only) To create an animated GIF movie, first render and export a QuickTime movie from After Effects.
Use the Render Queue panel to render compositions, apply render settings and output module settings, and obtain information on the rendering process. When you place a composition into the Render Queue panel, it becomes a render item. You can add many render items to the render queue, and After Effects can render multiple items in a batch, unattended.
Rendering a composition into a movie can take a few seconds or many hours, depending on the composition’s frame size, quality, complexity, and compression method. As After Effects renders the item, you are unable to work in the program. An audio alert indicates when rendering is complete. Render item statuses Each render item has a status, which appears in the Status column in the Render Queue panel: Unqueued The render item is listed in the Render Queue panel but is not ready to render.
While rendering is paused, you cannot change settings or use After Effects in any other way. To stop rendering with the purpose of starting the same render over again, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) Stop. The render item for which rendering was stopped is assigned the status User Stopped, and a new item with the status of Queued is added to the Render Queue panel. The new item uses the same output filename and has the same duration as the original render item.
To the top Collect files in one location The Collect Files command gathers copies of all of the files in a project or composition into a single location. Use this command before rendering, for archiving, or for moving a project to a different computer system or user account.
Maximum Number Of Machines Use to specify the number of render engines or licensed copies of After Effects that you want to allocate to render the collected project. Below this option, After Effects reports how many items in the project will be rendered using more than one computer.
1. In the Render Queue panel, choose Custom from the Output To menu. 2. If you want to base the new file naming template on an existing template, choose the existing template from the Preset menu. 3. Click in the Template box where you want to insert a file naming rule, and do any of the following: To add a preset property to the filename, choose the property from the Add Property menu. Enter text in the Template box.
Click the triangle to open the Render Settings menu, or click the underlined text to open the Render Settings dialog box. Change render settings To change render settings for a render item, click the underlined render settings template name next to the Render Settings heading in the Render Queue panel, and choose settings in the Render Settings dialog box.
been written, the path to the log file appears under the Render Settings heading and Log menu. Quality The quality setting to use for all layers. (See Layer image quality and subpixel positioning.) Resolution Resolution of the rendered composition, relative to the original composition dimensions. (See Resolution.) Note: If you render at reduced resolution, set the Quality option to Draft. Rendering at Best quality when reducing resolution produces an unclear image and takes longer than Draft quality.
To the top Output modules and output module settings Output module settings apply to each render item and determine how the rendered movie is processed for final output. Use output module settings to specify file format, output color profile, compression options, and other encoding options for final output.
To edit an existing output module settings template, choose a template from the Settings Name menu, click Edit, and specify output module settings. Note: Changes to an existing template do not affect render items that are already in the render queue. To specify a default output module settings template to be used when processing movies, individual frames, RAM previews, pre-rendered movies, or proxies, choose a template from a menu in the Defaults area of the Output Module Templates dialog box.
frame. Select Low Resize Quality when rendering tests, and select High Resize Quality when creating a final movie. (See Scaling a movie down and Scaling a movie up.) Crop Used to subtract or add rows or columns of pixels to the edges of the output movie. You can specify the number of rows or columns of pixels to be added or subtracted from the top, left, bottom, and right sides of the movie. Use positive values to crop, and use negative values to add rows or columns of pixels.
QuickTime (MOV) encoding and compression settings 1. In the Render Queue panel, click the underlined name of the output module. 2. Choose QuickTime from the Format menu. 3. Click Format Options in the Video Output section. 4. In the QuickTime Options dialog box, choose a codec and set options according to the specific codec and your needs: Quality A higher Quality setting produces better image quality but results in a bigger movie file.
Set Proxy Sets the rendered file as a proxy for the specified item. Drag the pick whip to the item in the Project panel item to specify it. To the top Render with OpenGL OpenGL is a set of standards for high-performance processing of 2D and 3D graphics on the graphics processing unit (GPU) for a wide variety of applications. For After Effects CS5.5, and earlier users, OpenGL provides fast rendering for previews and final output by moving rendering from the CPU to the GPU on the display card.
All blending modes except Dissolve and Dancing Dissolve Layer styles Metal property settings for 3D layers Cone feather settings for light layers 2D motion blur Adjustment layers Anti-aliasing Depth-of-field blur Nested compositions note: In After Effects CS5.5, and earlier, OpenGL is not used to render a nested composition if the precomposition layer has a mask or a non-GPU-accelerated effect applied to it. Note: In After Effects CS5.
Converting movies Convert footage items between video formats Convert DV footage from PAL to NTSC using pulldown Scaling a movie down Scaling a movie up Create a composition and render source footage items simultaneously Introduce 3:2 pulldown Test field-rendering order To the top Convert footage items between video formats You can use After Effects to convert one kind of video to another.
9. Click the Render button to render your movie. To the top Convert DV footage from PAL to NTSC using pulldown Because After Effects can easily convert film (24 fps) to video (29.97 fps) using 3:2 pulldown, you can perform a clean PAL-to-NTSC transfer by setting up 25-fps PAL video to act like 24-fps film. This lets you apply 3:2 pulldown to the footage when converting to 29.97 fps. This technique works especially well for progressive (noninterlaced) PAL video. 1.
640x480 composition and render it at full resolution, you can set the Resize value in the Output Module Settings dialog box to 50% to create a 320x240 movie. For a composition rendered at full resolution, the image quality is excellent when the Resize Quality is set to High. Note: Do not use resizing to change the vertical dimensions of a movie when field rendering is on. Resizing vertically mixes the field order, which distorts motion.
frames to Photoshop to change the image size and then import the frames back into After Effects. For a list of plug-ins that provide high-quality scaling—including some designed to create high-definition images from standard-definition sources— see the Toolfarm website. For a script that scales multiple compositions simultaneously, see the AE Enhancers forum.
When you render a composition containing separated footage, set the Field Rendering option to the same field order as your video equipment. If you field-render with the incorrect settings, the final movie may appear too soft, jerky, or distorted. A simple test can determine the order in which your video equipment requires fields. Note: The field order might get altered if you change the hardware or software of your production setup.
Export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project You can export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project without rendering. Note: After Effects projects saved as Adobe Premiere Pro projects cannot be opened by all versions of Adobe Premiere Pro. When you export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project, Adobe Premiere Pro uses the settings from the first composition in the After Effects project for all subsequent sequences.
Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player Export a composition as an XFL file to Flash Professional Render and export a composition as a SWF file Render and export a composition as an FLV or F4V file You can render and export movies from After Effects as movies that can play in Adobe Flash Player. SWF files play natively in Flash Player, whereas an FLV or F4V file must be contained in (or linked to from) a SWF file to play in Flash Player.
This video from the After Effects CS5: Learn By Video series demonstrates export to XFL. Exporting a composition to XFL format 1. To export the selected composition as an XFL file, choose File > Export > Adobe Flash Professional (XFL). 2. In the Adobe Flash Professional (XFL) Settings dialog box, choose what After Effects will do with layers with unsupported features: Ignore Layers with unsupported features are not included in the XFL output.
preserve the appearance of the layers. How features and data are preserved when exporting a composition to XFL format When a composition is exported as an XFL file, After Effects goes through multiple stages, attempting at each stage to export the maximum amount of information from layers and their source files.
The layer is either based on a video footage item (including a solid) or is a shape layer or text layer. (The layer is not a camera layer, light layer, or audio-only layer.) There is no adjustment layer above the layer. Layers above do not use blending modes other than Normal. The layer does not have a track matte. The layer does not have the Preserve Transparency option set, nor does any layer above it. The layer is not a 3D layer. Stage 4: Remaining layers are rendered and rasterized together in bins.
referenced. Text characters are added as vectors once and then referenced on all subsequent frames, unless you choose Fill Over Stroke from the Fill And Stroke options menu; in that case, the characters are added as vectors on every frame. Note: If color management is enabled for the project, then colors are converted from the working color space of the project to the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color space for output. This output color space is appropriate for movies shown in a web browser. (See Color management.
_blank Loads the web link into a new browser window. _parent Loads the web link into the parent frame of the frame in which the current file is playing. _self Loads the web link into the current frame. _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. The URL must refer to another SWF file.
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. Play the movie in the Adobe Media Player (AMP). Preview the movie using Adobe Bridge. After Effects markers can be included as cue points in an output FLV or F4V file.
Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences Rendering and exporting a sequence of still images Render and export a single frame of a composition To the top 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. When you render one movie using multiple computers on a network, the movie is always output as a still-image sequence.
To export a single frame as an Adobe Photoshop file with layers, choose Composition > Save Frame As > Photoshop Layers. To change the default output settings for the Save Frame As > File command, change the settings for the Frame Default render settings template (See Create, edit, and manage render settings templates.) Adobe also recommends Twitter™ and Facebook posts are not covered under the terms of Creative Commons.
Automated rendering and network rendering Automating rendering with aerender Network rendering with watch folders and render engines Render a still-image sequence with multiple computers Segment settings To the top Automating rendering with aerender The executable file aerender (aerender.exe on Windows) is a program with a command-line interface with which you can automate rendering. The executable file is located in the same folder as the primary After Effects application.
ERRORS : Reports only fatal and problem errors. ERRORS_AND_PROGRESS : (default) Reports errors and progress of rendering. –reuse Reuse the currently running instance of After Effects (if found) to perform the render. When an already running instance is used, aerender saves preferences to disk when rendering has completed, but does not quit After Effects. If this argument is not used, aerender starts a new instance of After Effects, even if one is already running.
–log log_file_path log_file_path is a file path or URI specifying the location of the log file. If this argument is not used, aerender uses standard output (stdout). –sound sound_flag If sound_flag is ON, a sound is played when rendering is complete. Default is OFF. –close close_flag close_flag specifies whether or not to close the project when rendering is complete, and whether or not to save changes: DO_NOT_SAVE_CHANGES : (default) The project is closed without saving changes.
Windows locations: C:\Users\\Documents C:\Users\Public\Documents\Adobe You cannot use a watch folder and multiple render engines to simultaneously render a single movie file. However, you can use multiple render engines to render a movie as a sequence of still-image files. You can then use a post-render action to create a single movie file from that stillimage sequence. (See Post-render actions.
Does the license agreement for the plug-in allow installing multiple copies on a network for the purposes of rendering? Are there any other limitations or tips that apply to using the plug-in for network rendering? Collect Files folder considerations When you use the File > Collect Files command, files relevant to a project are copied to a single folder.
Track dependencies of a watch-folder render You can track render dependencies when you render over a network by setting Post-Render Action options. When you set these options, After Effects confirms that all of the items that it needs to render are ready and available. For example, if one item depends on another to render, and the first has not finished rendering or has received an error, the second does not render.
Effects. When using third-party plug-ins, also be sure that the same plug-ins are available on all computers and that you have sufficient licenses for the plug-ins. 2. Open the project on one computer, select the composition, and then choose Composition > Add To Render Queue. 3. Specify a sequence format in the Output Module area, and specify a folder in the Output To area. This folder must be available for all the computers that are rendering. 4.
