Adobe® After Effects® CC Help
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iii Contents Chapter 1: What's new New features summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Chapter 2: Workspace and workflow Planning and setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
iv AFTER EFFECTS Contents Chapter 6: Views and previews Previewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Modifying and using views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
v AFTER EFFECTS Contents Chapter 12: Effects and animation presets Effects and animation presets overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 Detail-preserving Upscale effect Effect list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 . . . . . . . . . . . .
vi AFTER EFFECTS Contents Export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741 Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742 Converting movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1 Chapter 1: What's new New features summary Create dynamic, visually stunning motion graphics and visual effects wherever inspiration strikes. After Effects connects with Creative Cloud mobile and desktop apps seamlessly, allowing your creativity to inspire you — wherever you are.
2 What's new For more information, see Creative Cloud Libraries and Using Adobe Stock. Import clips with Lumetri color effects New in After Effects CC 2015 | November 2015 Now you can bring your Premiere Pro clips in to After Effects along with the color grading changes that you have made to them using the Lumetri color effects. After Effects helps you preserve the Lumetri color adjustments in your Premiere Pro clip when you: • create an After Effects composition from the clip.
3 What's new To learn more about Character Animator Preview 3, see Getting Started with Adobe Character Animator . New Start experience New in After Effects CC 2015 | November 2015 Starting with this release, a new Start screen welcomes you when you launch After Effects or while you open a new project.
4 What's new This release of After Effects introduces an improved caching behavior, which replaces the earlier Preview Favors controls. After Effects renders and caches frames until the cache is full, after which the caching stops. After Effects no longer has an option to cache where preview continues indefinitely by discarding the oldest cached frames.
5 What's new Multi-touch zoom and pan gestures New in After Effects CC 2015 | November 2015 You can use multi-touch gestures (for example, zoom and pan) in the following panels: • Composition • Layer • Footage • Timeline Use the gestures in any touch-enabled device (for example, Microsoft Surface or Wacom Cintiq Touch) or multi-touch trackpad. For more information, see Using gestures.
6 What's new Importers for additional formats and codecs New in After Effects CC 2015 | November 2015 After Effects CC 2015 can natively import the following: • HEVC (H.265) footage • QuickTime (.mov) files with Avid DNxHR codec • Dolby Vision PQ color data in MXF files with the JPEG2000 codec For more information, see Importing and interpreting video and audio.
7 What's new • Move time to preview time: When you enable this option and use this shortcut to stop a preview, the Current Time will move to the position of the Preview Time. When this option is disabled, the Current Time stays at its previous position. For more information, seePreviewing . Mute Audio button behavior changes The Mute Audio button at the top of the Preview panel now does not control whether audio is played when you start a preview with the current shortcut.
8 What's new 1 Include Video: Enable to preview video. 2 Include Audio: Enable to preview audio. 3 Include Overlays & Layer Controls: Enable to show overlays (for example, grids and guides) and layer controls for selected layers. New configurable shortcuts This release includes the following audio-only preview shortcuts: • The keyboard shortcuts for audio-only previews: Numpad-.(period) and Option + Numpad-.(period) (Mac OS) or Alt + Numpad-.
9 What's new CycoreFX HD 1.8.1 plug-ins Enhanced in After Effects CC 2015 | November 2015 CycoreFX HD 1.8.1 plug-in package includes the following enhancements: CC Vignette: You can now add or remove a vignette. CC Vignette includes an option to preserve (pin) highlights for more realistic behavior. CC HexTile: CC Hextile generates honeycomb patterns. It repeats a hexagonal pattern, with several options that include a "smear" control.
10 What's new • Current Time Indicator (CTI) now draws as blue through its entire length at all times, including when preview is stopped • The External Video link was removed from the Preview panel. • Roving keyframes use a new, easier-to-distinguish icon. • The hit area for twirly triangles (ex., to expand folders in the Project panel or show layer properties in the Timeline panel) has been enlarged to the rectangle around the triangle to make them easier to use on touch devices.
11 Chapter 2: Workspace and workflow Planning and setup 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.
12 Workspace and workflow If possible, use uncompressed footage or footage encoded with lossless compression. Lossless compression means better results for many operations, such as keying and motion tracking. Certain kinds of compression—such as the compression used in DV encoding—are especially bad for color keying, because they discard the subtle differences in color that you depend on for good bluescreen or greenscreen keying.
13 Workspace and workflow For more information, see Improve performanceand Memory & Multiprocessing preferences . Planning for playback on computer monitors and mobile devices When you create a movie for playback on a personal computer—whether downloaded from the Web or played from a CD-ROM—specify composition settings, render settings, and output module settings that keep file size low.
14 Workspace and workflow Cross-platform project considerations After Effects project files are compatible with Mac OS and Windows operating systems, but some factors—mostly regarding the locations and naming of footage files and support files—can affect the ease of working with the same project across platforms.
15 Workspace and workflow More Help topics Adobe Story workflow Composition settings Output modules and output module settings Render settings Plug-ins Fonts Setup and installation To submit a feature request or bug report about After Effects, choose Help > Send Feedback. Installing the software Before installing Adobe After Effects software, review the complete system requirements .
16 Workspace and workflow General user interface items 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. • Click the button for the tool. If the button has a small triangle at its lower-right corner, hold down the mouse button to view the hidden tools. Then, click the tool you want to activate.
17 Workspace and workflow 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 resize columns, drag the bar next to a column name. Some columns cannot be resized. • To sort footage items in the Project panel, click the column heading. Click once more to sort them in reverse order.
18 Workspace and workflow See this video on the Video2Brain website to learn about the new features for searching and filtering in panels. Examples of searches in the Project panel • 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.
19 Workspace and workflow You can sequentially undo as many as 99 of the most recent changes made to the project. To avoid wasting time undoing accidental modifications, lock a layer when you want to see it but do not want to modify it. • To undo the most recent change, choose Edit > Undo [action] or Ctrl-Z • To undo a change and all changes after it, choose Edit > History, and select the first change that you want to undo. • To revert to the last saved version of the project, choose File > Revert.
20 Workspace and workflow 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. For example, you may repeat the cycle of modifying layer properties, animating, and previewing until everything looks right.
21 Workspace and workflow Read Trish and Chris Meyer’s step-by-step introduction to creating a basic animation in a PDF excerpt from their book, The After Effects Apprentice. For an overview of After Effects project navigtion, see the video tutorial, “Walking Through A Mini Project,” by Jeff Sengstack and Infinite Skills. Basic workflow tutorial: Create a simple movie This tutorial assumes that you have already started After Effects and have not modified the empty default project.
22 Workspace and workflow • Press the spacebar. Press the spacebar again to stop the preview. 11 Apply the Glow effect: • Choose Effect > Stylize > Glow. • Type glow in the search field at the top of the Effects & Presets panel to find the Glow effect. Double-click the effect name. 12 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.
23 Workspace and workflow Create a composition from clips in Adobe Premiere Pro You can replace selected clips in Adobe Premiere Pro with a dynamically linked After Effects composition based on those clips. The new composition inherits the sequence settings from Adobe Premiere Pro. 1 Open Premiere Pro and select the clips you want to replace. 2 Right-click any of the selected clips. 3 Select Replace With After Effects Composition.
24 Workspace and workflow 2 Change the composition in After Effects. Then, switch back to Adobe Premiere Pro to view your changes. The changes made in After Effects appear in Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro stops using any preview files rendered for the clip before the changes. 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.
25 Workspace and workflow Note: A linked After Effects composition will not support Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing. See Improve performance by optimizing memory, cache, and multiprocessing settings.
26 Workspace and workflow Projects (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS New project Ctrl+Alt+N Command+Option+N Open project Ctrl+O Command+O Open most recent project Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P Command+Option+Shift+P New folder in Project panel Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N Command+Option+Shift+N Open Project Settings dialog box Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K Command+Option+Shift+K Find in Project panel Ctrl+F Command+F Cycle through color bit depths for project Alt-click bit-depth button at bottom of Project Optio
27 Workspace and workflow Switch to workspace Shift+F10, Shift+F11, or Shift+F12 Shift+F10, Shift+F11, or Shift+F12 Close active viewer or panel (closes content first) Ctrl+W Command+W Close active panel or all viewers of type of active viewer (closes content first). For example, if a Timeline panel is active, this command closes all Timeline panels.
28 Workspace and workflow Activate Roto Brush tool Alt+W Option+W Activate and cycle through Camera tools (Unified Camera, Orbit Camera, Track XY Camera, and Track Z Camera) C C Activate Pan Behind tool Y Y Activate and cycle through mask and shape tools (Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Star) Q Q Activate and cycle through Type tools (Horizontal and Vertical) Ctrl+T Command+T Activate and cycle between the Pen and Mask G Feather tools.
29 Workspace and workflow 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 it
30 Workspace and workflow Toggle Mercury Transmit video preview / (on numeric keypad) / (on numeric keypad), Control+/ on main keyboard Take snapshot Shift+F5, Shift+F6, Shift+F7, or Shift+F8 Shift+F5, Shift+F6, Shift+F7, or Shift+F8 Display snapshot in active viewer F5, F6, F7, or F8 F5, F6, F7, or F8 Purge snapshot Ctrl+Shift+F5, Ctrl+Shift+F6, Ctrl+Shift+F7, or Command+Shift+F5, Command+Shift+F6, Ctrl+Shift+F8 Command+Shift+F7, or Command+Shift+F8 Fast Previews > Off Ctrl+Alt+1 Command+Opti
31 Workspace and workflow Set resolution to Full, Half, or Custom in Composition panel Ctrl+J, Ctrl+Shift+J, Ctrl+Alt+J Command+J, Command+Shift+J, Command+Option+J Open View Options dialog box for active Composition panel Ctrl+Alt+U Command+Option+U Zoom in time = (equal sign) on main keyboard = (equal sign) on main keyboard Zoom out time - (hyphen) on main keyboard - (hyphen) on main keyboard Zoom in Timeline panel to single-frame units (Press again to zoom out to show entire composition dura
32 Workspace and workflow Open Interpret Footage dialog box for selected footage item Ctrl+Alt+G Command+Option+G Remember footage interpretation Ctrl+Alt+C Command+Option+C Edit selected footage item in application with Ctrl+E which it’s associated (Edit Original) Command+E Replace selected footage item Ctrl+H Command+H Reload selected footage items Ctrl+Alt+L Command+Option+L Set proxy for selected footage item Ctrl+Alt+P Command+Option+P Effects and animation presets (keyboard shortcuts
33 Workspace and workflow Setting the sampling method for selected layers (Best/Bilinear) Alt+B Option+B Setting the sampling method for selected layers (Best/Bicubic) Alt+Shift+B Option+Shift+B Turn off all other solo switches Alt-click solo switch Option-click solo switch Turn Video (eyeball) switch on or off for selected layers Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V Command+Option+Shift+V Turn off Video switch for all video layers other Ctrl+Shift+V than selected layers Command+Shift+V Open settings dialog box
34 Workspace and workflow Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad. Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts) Note: This table contains double-letter shortcuts (for example, LL). To use these shortcuts, press the letters in quick succession.
35 Workspace and workflow Result Windows Mac OS Hide property or group Alt+Shift-click property or group name Option+Shift-click property or group name Add or remove property or group from set that is shown Shift+property or group shortcut Shift+property or group shortcut Add or remove keyframe at current time Alt+Shift+property shortcut Option+property shortcut Showing properties in the Effect Controls panel (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Toggle expansion of selected effects to
36 Workspace and workflow Increase or decrease Opacity (or Intensity for light layers) of selected layers by 10% Ctrl+Alt+Shift++ (plus) or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+(minus) on numeric keypad Control+Option+Shift++ (plus) or Control+Option+Shift+- (minus) on numeric keypad Increase Scale of selected layers by 1% Ctrl++ (plus) or Alt++ (plus) on numeric keypad Command++ (plus) or Option++ (plus) on numeric keypad Decrease Scale of selected layers by 1% Ctrl+- (minus) or Alt+- (minus) on numeric keypad Command+
37 Workspace and workflow With a camera tool selected, move the camera F and its point of interest to look at selected 3D layers F With a camera tool selected, move the camera Ctrl+Shift+F and its point of interest to look at all 3D layers Command+Shift+F Turn Casts Shadows property on or off for selected 3D layers Option+Shift+C Alt+Shift+C Keyframes and the Graph Editor (keyboard shortcuts) Note: (Mac OS) Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by the operating sy
38 Workspace and workflow Text (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS New text layer Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T Command+Option+Shift+T Align selected horizontal text left, center, or right Ctrl+Shift+L, Ctrl+Shift+C, or Ctrl+Shift+R Command+Shift+L, Command+Shift+C, or Command+Shift+R Align selected vertical text top, center, or bottom Ctrl+Shift+L, Ctrl+Shift+C, or Ctrl+Shift+R Command+Shift+L, Command+Shift+C, or Command+Shift+R Extend or reduce selection by one character to right or left in horizo
39 Workspace and workflow Auto leading for selected text Ctrl+Alt+Shift+A Command+Option+Shift+A Reset tracking to 0 for selected text Ctrl+Shift+Q Command+Shift+Control+Q Justify paragraph; left align last line Ctrl+Shift+J Command+Shift+J Justify paragraph; right align last line Ctrl+Alt+Shift+J Command+Option+Shift+J Justify paragraph; force last line Ctrl+Shift+F Command+Shift+F Decrease or increase font size of selected text Ctrl+Shift+, (comma) or Ctrl+Shift+.
40 Workspace and workflow Invert selected mask Ctrl+Shift+I Command+Shift+I Open Mask Feather dialog box for selected mask Ctrl+Shift+F Command+Shift+F Open Mask Shape dialog box for selected mask Ctrl+Shift+M Command+Shift+M Paint tools (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Swap paint background color and foreground X colors X Set paint foreground color to black and background color to white D D Set foreground color to the color currently under any paint tool pointer Alt-click Opti
41 Workspace and workflow Shape layers (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Group selected shapes Ctrl+G Command+G Ungroup selected shapes Ctrl+Shift+G Command+Shift+G Enter free-transform path editing mode Select Path property in Timeline panel and press Ctrl+T Select Path property in Timeline panel 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 crea
42 Workspace and workflow 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 Shift+arrow key attach point 10 pixels at current magnification Shift+arrow key Move feature region and search region 1 pixel Alt+arrow key at current magnification Option+arrow key Move feature region and search region 10 pixels at current magnification Option+Shift+a
43 Workspace and workflow • To reveal a file in Adobe Bridge, select a file in the Project panel and choose File > Reveal In Bridge. • To use Adobe Bridge to browse for animation presets, choose Animation > Browse Presets. Adobe Bridge is part of the Creative Cloud suite of applications and can be downloaded and installed through Creative Cloud. See the help documentation and the Adobe Bridge CC product page for more information. See this video to get an overview of Adobe Bridge CC.
44 Workspace and workflow By creating your new PSD document from the Photoshop New File dialog box with a Film & Video preset, you can start with a document that is set up correctly for a specific video output type. If you are already working in After Effects, you can create a new PSD document that matches your composition and project settings by choosing File > New > Adobe Photoshop File. Exchanging movies You can also exchange video files, such as QuickTime movies, between Photoshop and After Effects.
45 Workspace and workflow • Richard Harrington and Marcus Geduld also provide "After Effects Essentials for Flash Users", another excerpt from their book After Effects for Flash | Flash for After Effects. In this chapter, Richard and Marcus explain After Effects in terms that a Flash user can understand. http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.
46 Workspace and workflow 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.
47 Workspace and workflow If you edit an audio-only file (for example, a WAV file) in Adobe Audition, you change the original file. If you edit a layer that contains both audio and video (for example, an AVI file), you edit a copy of the source audio file. 1 Select the layer that contains the audio that you want to edit. The item must be of a type that is editable in Adobe Audition. 2 Choose Edit > Edit In Adobe Audition to open the clip in Edit view in Adobe Audition.
48 Workspace and workflow 3 The Install Directory is opened, with the Preferences file selected. Depending on your operating system, open either of the following files: • Adobe After Effects Win en_US Shortcuts.txt OR • Adobe After Effects Mac en_US Shortcuts.txt You can modify keyboard shortcuts in this text file. Note: If you modify a keyboard shortcut to a combination that already exists, it results in a conflict. Ensure that the new combination you enter has not been used already.
49 Workspace and workflow A Application window B Grouped panels C Individual panel To increase the available screen space, use multiple monitors. When you work with multiple monitors, the application window appears on the main monitor, and you place floating windows on the second monitor. Monitor configurations are stored in the workspace. Workspaces are stored in XML files in the preferences folder.
50 Workspace and workflow When you move the Tools panel from its position, the Workspace menu replaces the workspace bar. Note: Choose Window > Workspace > Edit Workspaces or click the chevron menu (>>) on the workspace bar to display the Edit Workspaces dialog box. You can select a workspace and reorder workspaces.
51 Workspace and workflow Choose a workspace • Choose Window > Workspace, and select the desired workspace. • Choose a workspace from the Workspace menu in the Tools panel. • 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.
52 Workspace and workflow 2 Choose the workspace you want to delete, and then click OK. Note: You cannot delete the currently active workspace. Dock, group, or float panels You can dock panels together, move them into or out of groups, and undock them so they float above the application window. As you drag a panel, drop zones—areas onto which you can move the panel—become highlighted. The drop zone you choose determines where the panel is inserted, and whether it docks or groups with other panels.
53 Workspace and workflow Dock or group panels 1 If the panel you want to dock or group is not visible, choose it from the Window menu. 2 Do one of the following: • To move an individual panel, drag the gripper area in the upper-left corner of a panel’s tab onto the desired drop zone. • To move an entire group, drag the group gripper in the upper-right corner onto the desired drop zone. The application docks or groups the panel, according to the type of drop zone.
54 Workspace and workflow Resize panel groups To quickly maximize a panel beneath the pointer, press the ` (accent grave) key. (The accent grave is the unshifted character under the tilde, ~, on standard US keyboards.) Press the key again to return the panel to its original size. When you drag the divider between panel groups, all groups that share the divider are resized. 1 Do either of the following: • To resize either horizontally or vertically, position the pointer between two panel groups.
55 Workspace and workflow Viewers 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.
56 Workspace and workflow To prevent this behavior, unlock the Composition viewer or show the Composition viewer for the composition that you want to view or preview. See this video on the Video2Brain website to learn about the improvements in ETLAT (edit-this-look-at-that) workflow in After Effects CS5.5 and later.
57 Workspace and workflow The Preferences menu To open the Preferences menu, go to: • Edit > Preferences > [category name] (Windows) • After Effects > Preferences > [category name] (Mac OS) Use the following keyboard shortcuts to open the Preferences > General menu: • Ctrl+Alt+; (semicolon) (Windows) • Command+Option+; (semicolon) (Mac OS) Reset preferences To restore the default preference settings, press and hold the following keys while the application is starting.
58 Workspace and workflow Reveal preferences Preferences, including keyboard shortcuts and workspaces, are stored as files in the following locations: • (Windows) \Users\\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\After Effects\13.0 • (Mac OS) /Users//Library/Preferences/Adobe/After Effects/13.
59 Workspace and workflow • Show Start Screen when Opening a Project: Select to display the Start screen dialog when you open an After Effects project (this option is not enabled by default). You can see a list of projects on the screen. Previews preferences • Adaptive Resolution Limit: Preview modes and Fast Previews preferences Also, see Fast Previews (CS6).
60 Workspace and workflow • Conformed Media Cache and Clean Database & Cache: Media cache • Create Layer Markers From Footage XMP Metadata and Write XMP IDs To Files On Import: XMP metadata in After Effects Video Preview preferences • Preview on an external video monitor 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:
61 Workspace and workflow The synchronization takes place via your Adobe Creative Cloud account. Settings are uploaded to your Creative Cloud account and then are downloaded and applied on the other computer. You can also synchronize settings from another Creative Cloud account. After Effects creates a user profile on your computer and uses it to synchronize settings to and from the associated Creative Cloud account.
62 Workspace and workflow Click Quit to clear the current preferences, and close After Effects. When the application is launched again, default preferences are set.
63 Workspace and workflow 4 Interpretation Rules 5 Render Settings Templates 6 Output Module Settings Templates Note: Synchronizable preferences refer to preferences that are not dependent on computer or hardware settings. Note: Keyboard shortcuts created for Windows synchronize only with Windows and Mac OS keyboard shortcuts synchronize only with Mac OS.
64 Chapter 3: Projects and compositions Projects About projects An After Effects project is a single file that stores compositions and references to all of the source files used by footage items in that project. Compositions are collections of layers. Many layers use footage items (such as movies or still images) as a source, though some layers—such as shape layers and text layers—contain graphics that you create within After Effects. A project file has the filename extension .aep or .aepx.
65 Projects and compositions Project links embedded in QuickTime, Video for Windows files When you render a movie and export it to a container format, you can embed a link to the After Effects project in the container file. To import the project, import the container file, and choose Project from the Import As menu in the Import File dialog box. If the container file contains a link to a project that has been moved, you can browse to locate the project.
66 Projects and compositions Create a template project • To convert a project to a template project, change the filename extension from .aep to .aet. • 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. Save and back up projects in After Effects • To save a project, choose File > Save.
67 Projects and compositions When you click a composition in the flowchart, it becomes active in the Project panel and the Timeline panel. When you click a layer, it becomes active in the Timeline panel. When you click a footage item, it becomes active in the Project panel. • To customize the appearance of the flowchart, use the Flowchart panel menu and the buttons along the bottom of the panel.
68 Projects and compositions A nested composition is sometimes called a precomposition, which is occasionally abbreviated in casual use to precomp or pre-comp. When a precomposition is used as the source footage item for a layer, the layer is called a precomposition layer. During rendering, the image data and other information can be said to flow from each nested composition into the composition that contains it.
69 Projects and compositions Changing the current time in one panel updates the current time in other panels associated with that composition. By default, the current time is also updated for all compositions related to the current composition by nesting.
70 Projects and compositions After Effects provides several ways to open a nested composition (precomposition): • Double-click the composition entry in the Project panel. • Double-click a precomposition layer in the Timeline panel. Alt-double-click (Windows) or Option-double-click (Mac OS) to open the precomposition layer as a layer in the Layer panel. Note: Double-clicking a precomposition layer when a paint tool or the Roto Brush tool is active opens the layer in the Layer panel.
71 Projects and compositions 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 Indicators that other compositions flow into these compositions • Tap the Shift key when a Composition, Layer, or Timeline panel is active. Note: Do not hold the Shift key down; press it briefly.
72 Projects and compositions 3 In the Render Queue panel, adjust settings as necessary, and click the Render button to render the composition. 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.
73 Projects and compositions If transformations are collapsed, the 3D properties of the layers in the nested composition are exposed to the containing composition. Thus, the nested composition can intersect with 3D layers, cast shadows on 3D layers, and receive shadows from 3D layers in the containing composition. The containing composition's camera and lights can also control the nested composition.
74 Projects and compositions You render a composition to create the frames of a final output movie, which is encoded and exported to any number of formats. (See Basics of rendering and exporting .) Simple projects may include only one composition; complex projects may include hundreds of compositions to organize large amounts of footage or many effects. In some places in the After Effects user interface, composition is abbreviated as comp. Each composition has an entry in the Project panel.
75 Projects and compositions Note: You can override some composition settings when rendering to final output. For example, you can use different frame sizes for the same movie. For more information see Render settingsand Output modules and output module settings. When you create a composition without changing settings in the Composition Settings dialog box, the new composition uses the settings from the previous time that composition settings were set.
76 Projects and compositions Create compositions for playback on mobile devices Screen dimensions and video frame rates vary from one mobile device to another. For information on acquiring footage for playback on mobile devices, see Planning for playback on computer monitors and mobile devices. Timeline panel Each composition has its own Timeline panel. You use the Timeline panel to perform many tasks, such as animating layer properties, arranging layers in time, and setting blending modes.
77 Projects and compositions • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a composition in the Project panel or Composition panel (not on a layer), and choose Composition Settings from the context menu. • To save a custom composition settings preset, set Width, Height, Pixel Aspect Ratio, and Frame Rate values in the Composition Settings dialog box, and then click the Save button .
78 Projects and compositions 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. • Ray-tracing quality controls the number of rays fired per pixel (for example, a value of 4 fires 16 or 4x4 rays, and 8 fires 64 rays). • A larger number produces a more accurate pixel at the expense of computation time.
79 Projects and compositions More Help topics Creating layers Preview video and audio Flowchart panel Basics of rendering and exporting About precomposing and nesting Show and hide layers in the Timeline panel The Graph Editor Columns Keyboard shortcuts Timecode and time display units 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.
80 Projects and compositions Options for time-display units Timecode Displays time as timecode in the time rulers of the Timeline, Layer, and Footage panels, using either Use Media Source (source timecode) or starting at 00:00:00:00. Select the Timecode option to use timecode instead of Frames. Note that there are no options for choosing frame rate or drop-frame/non-drop-frame, as source timecode is detected and used instead.
81 Chapter 4: Importing footage Importing and interpreting footage items 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. The same file can be the source for multiple footage items, each with its own interpretation settings. Each footage item can be used as the source for one or more layers. You work with collections of layers in a composition. You primarily work with footage items in the Project panel.
82 Importing footage To replace all uses of selected footage items with another footage item, select footage items in the Project panel, and then Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the new footage item onto a selected footage item in the Project panel. When After Effects imports video and audio in some formats, it processes and caches versions of these items that it can readily access when generating previews.
83 Importing footage • EPS • GIF • JPEG (JPG, JPE) • Maya camera data (MA) • Maya IFF (IFF, TDI; 16 bpc) • OpenEXR (EXR, SXR, MXR; 32 bpc) • PICT (PCT) • Portable Network Graphics (PNG; 16 bpc) • Radiance (HDR, RGBE, XYZE; 32 bpc) • SGI (SGI, BW, RGB; 16 bpc) • Softimage (PIC) 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.
84 Importing footage Project formats • Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, CS3, CS4, CS5 (PRPROJ; 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 Windows only) • Adobe After Effects 6.0 and later binary projects in After Effects CS5 (AEP, AET) • Adobe After Effects 6.5 and later binary projects in After Effects CS5.5 and later (AEP, AET) • Adobe After Effects CS4 and later XML projects (AEPX) The Automatic Duck Pro Import AE plug-in is now bundled with the application, and called Pro Import After Effects.
85 Importing footage Note: SWF files are imported with an alpha channel. Audio is not retained. Interactive content and scripted animation are not retained. Animation defined by keyframes in the main, top-level movie is retained. • Video for Windows (AVI, WAV; requires QuickTime on Mac OS) • Windows Media File (WMV, WMA, ASF; Windows only) • XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX Note: After Effects can import Sony XDCAM HD assets if they were recorded to MXF files.
86 Importing footage • To import a rendered output file from the Render Queue panel, drag the corresponding output module from the Render Queue panel into the Project panel. Note: If you drag an output module from the Render Queue panel into the Project panel before rendering, After Effects creates a placeholder footage item. References to the placeholder footage item are automatically replaced when the output module is rendered; the placeholder footage item itself is not replaced.
87 Importing footage Interpret a proxy using the Interpret Footage dialog box ? Select the original footage item in the Project panel and do one of the following: • Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Interpret Footage panel. button at the bottom of the Project • Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the footage item to the Interpret Footage button. • Choose File > Interpret Footage > Proxy.
88 Importing footage Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight Image files with alpha channels store transparency information in one of two ways: straight or premultiplied. Although the alpha channels are the same, the color channels differ. With straight (or unmatted) channels, transparency information is stored only in the alpha channel, not in any of the visible color channels.
89 Importing footage 4 In the Alpha section, select an interpretation method: Guess Attempts to determine the type of channels used in the image. If After Effects cannot guess confidently, it beeps. Ignore Disregards transparency information contained in the alpha channel. Straight - Unmatted Interprets the channels as straight. Premultiplied - Matted With Color Interprets channels as premultiplied.
90 Importing footage Conforming the frame rate of a footage item does not alter the original file, only the reference that After Effects uses. When conforming, After Effects changes the internal duration of frames but not the frame content. Afterward, the footage plays back at a different speed. For example, if you conform the frame rate from 15 fps to 30 fps, the footage plays back twice as fast.
91 Importing footage Note: Jeff Almasol provides a script on is redefinery website to set the frame rate and duration of the current composition and all compositions nested within it. Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio Pixel aspect ratio (PAR) is the ratio of width to height of one pixel in an image. Frame aspect ratio (sometimes called image aspect ratio or IAR) is the ratio of width to height of the image frame.
92 Importing footage 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. By ensuring that all footage items are interpreted correctly, you can combine footage items with different pixel aspect ratios in the same composition.
93 Importing footage 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. Projects and compositions created in After Effects CS3 or earlier are upgraded to use the correct pixel aspect ratios when these projects are opened in After Effects CS4 and later.
94 Importing footage 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. D1/DV NTSC 0.91 Footage has a 720x486 or 720x480 frame size, and the desired result is a 4:3 frame aspect ratio.
95 Importing footage Render settings Converting movies Importing and interpreting video and audio 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. Because of the speed of transmission, the afterglow of displays, and the persistence of vision, the viewer perceives each frame in full resolution.
96 Importing footage Separate video fields If you want to use interlaced or field-rendered footage (such as NTSC video) in an After Effects project, you get the best results if you separate the video fields when you import the footage. After Effects separates video fields by creating a full frame from each field, preserving all of the image data from the original footage. Separating fields is critical if you plan to make significant changes to the image.
97 Importing footage Some programs, including After Effects, label the field order when rendering interlaced video files. When you import a labeled video file, After Effects honors the field order label automatically. You can override this field order by applying different footage interpretation settings. If a file does not contain a field order label, you can match the original field order of your footage.
98 Importing footage 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.
99 Importing footage Import assets in Panasonic P2 format A P2 card is a solid-state memory device that plugs into the PCMCIA slot of a Panasonic P2 video camera. The digital video and audio data from the video camera is recorded onto the card in a structured, codec-independent format known as MXF (Media eXchange Format). Specifically, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects support the Panasonic Op-Atom variant of MXF, with video in AVC-Intra 50, AVC-Intra 100, DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, and DVCPRO HD formats.
100 Importing footage You cannot import spanned clips from a shot that spans two different cards as a single footage item. Rather, you must select a single MXF file belonging to the shot from each card to create a separate footage item for the part of the shot recorded on each card. For example, if a group of spanned clips for a single shot itself spans two cards, you must select a spanned clip from the group on card 1 and another from the group on card 2.
101 Importing footage The camera is on the negative z axis, at (x,y)=(0,0). The point of interest for the camera is in the center of the composition. The camera zoom is set according to the field of view in the Vanishing Point scene. The 3D layers for the planes in the scene have a parent layer with its anchor point at the center of the composition, so the whole scene can be transformed together. Vanishing Point exchange only works well for images that have square pixels in Photoshop.
102 Importing footage Softimage PIC files have a corresponding ZPIC file that contains the z-depth channel information. Although you can’t import a ZPIC file, you can access the additional channel information as long as the ZPIC file is stored in the same folder as the imported PIC file. Similarly, Electric Image (EI) files can have associated EIZ files with z-depth channel data.
103 Importing footage Note: To create an RLA or RPF file with the camera data in 3D Studio Max, save your rendering in RPF format with Coverage, Z Depth, and Alpha Channels enabled. Dave Scotland provides a pair of tutorials on the CG Swot website in which he demonstrates how to create RPF files in a 3D application and how to use RPF files in After Effects. The first part explains the RPF format and how to create RPF files in 3DS Max.
104 Importing footage 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. Note: After Effects doesn’t read World or Underworld coordinates in the LocatorShape.
105 Importing footage Create a folder ? Choose File > New > New Folder, or click the Create A New Folder icon at the bottom of the Project panel. Rename and sort items • To rename a composition, footage item, or folder, do one of the following: • Select the item in the Project panel, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS), and enter the new name. • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the item, choose Rename, and enter the new name.
106 Importing footage Trim footage items in the Footage panel You can use the Set In Point , Set Out Point , Ripple Insert Edit , and Overlay Edit controls in the Footage panel to trim a footage item and insert it into a composition. Trimming in the Footage panel can be more convenient than adding the footage item to a composition and then trimming its layer in the Timeline panel.
107 Importing footage If an expression in a selected composition refers to an element in a nonsubordinate composition, Reduce Project removes the nonsubordinate composition and the applied expression. A message appears after you choose Reduce Project to remind you of this possibility, so you can undo the command if needed. To avoid removing the expressions from a nonsubordinate composition, drag the nonsubordinate composition into the composition that refers to it.
108 Importing footage Work with proxies for footage items When you use a proxy, After Effects replaces the actual footage with the proxy in all compositions that use the actual footage item. When you finish working, you can switch back to the actual footage item in the project list. After Effects then replaces the proxy with the actual footage item in any composition. When you render your composition as a movie, you may choose to use either all the actual high-resolution footage items or their proxies.
109 Importing footage Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial with tips for working with proxies, output modules, and output module templates on the Video Copilot website. Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that creates, sets, and unsets proxies and placeholders. Charles Bordenave (nab) provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website with which you can create proxies for multiple selected items.
110 Importing footage Maxon CINEMA 4D Lite Maxon CINEMA 4D Lite R16 application gets installed along with After Effects. You can create, import, and edit Cinema 4D files. However, if you have another edition of CINEMA 4D, such as CINEMA 4D Prime, you can use it instead. The CINEMA 4D Lite application gives you the ability to edit, create, and work with native Cinema 4D files. The features in the Lite version are similar to CINEMA 4D Prime.
111 Importing footage Working with Cinema 4D files There are several options available to create, import, and edit Cinema 4D files from within 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.
112 Importing footage Create Cinema 4D files You can create a Cinema 4D file from within After Effects. 1 Choose File > New > Maxon CINEMA 4D File or Layer > New > Maxon CINEMA 4D File. 2 Specify a name and location of the file. 3 The CINEMA 4D application opens. 4 Create a C4D scene and choose File > Save to save the file. For more information, see this video by Jeff Sengstack on Creating CINEMA 4D files.
113 Importing footage Apply to All Each CINEMA 4D layer has its own Render settings. Click Apply to All to set the current settings to all other instances of the C4D file in the composition. If you want different layers to have different settings, then don't use this option. If settings are mismatched when they should be the same, it can slow down the rendering and cause render mismatches. Note: The Apply to All option has been removed in the October 2014 release of (Cineware) After Effects CC.
114 Importing footage 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 Multi-Passes. When the Defined Multi-Passes option is enabled, Add Image Layers restricts you to just adding the passes defined in the Cinema 4D render settings rather than adding all supported types.
115 Importing footage Click Cineware Effect > Options and choose from the following settings: • Cinema 4D Render Path - Choose the version of Cinema 4D (R14, R15, or R16) for rendering in After Effects. For example, you can choose to use Cinema 4D Studio, Broadcast, Prime, or Visualize if you have it installed. • Cinema 4D Executable Path - Choose the version of Cinema 4D to use when opening a .c4d file with Edit Original or when creating a new Cinema 4D file from After Effects.
116 Importing footage Switch render paths Follow the steps below to switch render paths (such as changing Cinema 4D rendering application): 1 Options > Browse To Set Render Path 2 Select the new application 3 Exit After Effects 4 Launch After Effects 5 Click Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache for the new settings to take effect. If you experience a connection failure after switching the renderer, exit After Effects, wait for 20-30 seconds, and then relaunch the application again.
117 Importing footage Learn tutorial: Insert 3D objects Learn how to create photorealistic visual content by inserting 3D objects directly into After Effects compositions using the Live 3D Pipeline with the included Maxon Cinema 4D Lite. Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro Import an After Effects project You can import one After Effects project into another.
118 Importing footage Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project Note: Importing an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects does not use Dynamic Link. After Effects can’t import a Premiere Pro project if one or more sequences in it are already dynamically linked to After Effects. (See Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.
119 Importing footage Use Adobe Dynamic Link to create dynamic links, without rendering, between new or existing compositions in After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. (See About Dynamic Link) Copy from After Effects to Adobe Premiere Pro 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.
120 Importing footage After Effects item Converted to in Adobe Premiere Pro Notes Time Stretch property Speed property Speed and time stretch have an inverse relationship. For example, 200% stretch in After Effects converts to 50% speed in Adobe Premiere Pro. Transform property values and keyframes Motion or Opacity values and keyframes The keyframe type—Bezier, Auto Bezier, Continuous Bezier, or Hold—is retained.
121 Importing footage Adobe Premiere Pro asset Converted to in After Effects Notes 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.
122 Importing footage Note: Illustrator files can have fractional dimensions (for example, 216.5x275.5 pixels). When importing these files, After Effects compensates for the fractional dimensions by rounding up to the next whole number of pixels (for example, 217x278 pixels). This rounding results in a black line at the right (width) or bottom (height) edge of the imported image. When cropping in Illustrator, make sure that the dimensions of the cropped area are whole numbers of pixels.
123 Importing footage When importing a sequence of still images, you can use the Force Alphabetical Order option in the Import dialog box to import a sequence with gaps in its numbering (for example, Seq1, Seq2, Seq3, Seq5). If you import a sequence with gaps in its numbering without selecting this option, After Effects warns you of missing frames and replaces them with placeholders. After Effects uses settings of the first image in the sequence to determine how to interpret the images in the sequence.
124 Importing footage If at any time you decide that you want access to the individual components of the footage item, you can convert it to a composition. See Convert a merged footage item into a composition. Import a still-image sequence as a composition When you import a Photoshop or Illustrator file as a composition, you have access to the individual layers, blending modes, adjustment layers, layer styles, masks, guides, and other features created in Photoshop or Illustrator.
125 Importing footage Because After Effects includes the Photoshop rendering engine, After Effects imports all attributes of Photoshop files, including position, blending modes, opacity, visibility, transparency (alpha channel), layer masks, layer groups (imported as nested compositions), adjustment layers, layer styles, layer clipping paths, vector masks, image guides, and clipping groups.
126 Importing footage 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.
127 Importing footage 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.
128 Importing footage In a thread on the After Effects user-to-user forum, JETalmage provides a script that converts sub-layers in Illustrator into top-level layers. This is a necessary step in preparing an Illustrator file for importing into After Effects if you intend to animate these items independently.
129 Importing footage When you choose DPX/Cineon Sequence from the Format menu in the Output Module Settings dialog box, you can then open the Cineon Settings dialog box to set output options. Choose whether to output DPX (.dpx) files or FIDO/Cineon 4.5 (.cin) files in the File Format section of the Cineon Settings dialog box.
130 Importing footage After Effects crashes when reading Illustrator files Issue XMP metadata in Adobe Illustrator CC (17.1) files (.ai, .eps, .pdf) causes After Effects to crash when reading that metadata. The crash occurs when you add a footage item from Illustrator to a composition. The crash affects all recent versions of After Effects, including After Effects CS6 (11.0) and After Effects CC (12.0, 12.1, 12.2). Solutions For After Effects CC: Update to the latest version of After Effects. Version 12.
131 Chapter 5: Layers and properties Creating layers Layers overview Layers are the elements that make up a composition. Without layers, a composition is only an empty frame. Use as many layers as necessary to create your composition. Some compositions contain thousands of layers, whereas some compositions contain only one layer. Layers in After Effects are similar to tracks in Adobe Premiere Pro.
132 Layers and properties • Layer > New > Null Object • Layer > New > Shape Layer • Layer > New > Adjustment Layer • Layer > New > Adobe Photoshop File • Layer > New > MAXON CINEMA 4D File It is possible to match the duration of the new layer to the duration of the selected layer. Earlier versions of After Effects created new layers at the top of the stack by default.
133 Layers and properties The Still Footage preference setting (Preferences > Import) controls the default duration of layers that use still footage items as their sources. By default, when you create a layer with a still image as its source, the duration of the layer is the duration of the composition. You can change the duration of the layer after it’s created by trimming the layer. Note: By default, new layers begin at the beginning of the composition duration.
134 Layers and properties Also creates the new layer at the top of the layer stacking order, with the In point set at the current time in the Timeline panel, but splits all other layers. Newly created split layers are moved later in time so that their In points are at the same time as the Out point of the inserted layer.
135 Layers and properties If you want to apply an effect or transformation to a collection of layers, you can precompose the layers and then apply the effect or transformation to the precomposition layer. (See Precompose layers.) Use masks on an adjustment layer to apply an effect to only parts of the underlying layers. You can animate masks to follow moving subjects in the underlying layers.
136 Layers and properties Apply an effect or animation preset Creating masks Preparing and importing Photoshop files Working with Photoshop and After Effects Selecting and arranging layers Select layers Selected layers that also have properties selected are indicated with a hollow highlight in the Timeline panel. A selected layer that has no properties selected is indicated with a solid highlight. To scroll the topmost selected layer to the top of the Timeline panel, press X.
137 Layers and properties • To select all layers that use the same color label, click the color label in the Timeline panel, and choose Select Label Group, or select a layer with that color label and choose Edit > Label > Select Label Group. • To select all child layers assigned to a parent layer, select the parent layer and choose Select Children from the context menu in the Composition or Timeline panel. The child layers are added to the existing selection.
138 Layers and properties You can modify the zero point of the rulers, but you can’t modify the origin of layer space. If the zero point differs from the origin, X' and Y' coordinates appear in the Info panel below the X and Y coordinates, indicating coordinates based on the zero point of the rulers. When you move the pointer over the composition frame in the Composition panel, the Info panel displays coordinates in composition space.
139 Layers and properties Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individually By default, each Position property has two or three components, with each holding the value for one of the spatial dimensions (axes). You can separate the components of a Position property into individual properties—X Position, Y Position, and (for 3D layers) Z Position. Separating dimensions allows you to modify or animate the position of a layer along the x axis, y axis, and z axis independently.
140 Layers and properties • When Selection is chosen in the Align Layers To menu, each alignment option aligns selected layers to the layer that most closely represents the new alignment. For example, for right-edge alignment, all selected layers align to the selected layer with the edge that is farthest to the right. • A distribution option evenly spaces selected layers between the two most extreme layers.
141 Layers and properties You can extend many kinds of layers for any duration, extending their In points and Out points out past their original times. This capability applies to time-remapped layers, shape layers, layers based on still-image footage items, camera layers, light layers, and text layers.
142 Layers and properties Remove part of the duration of a layer 1 In the Timeline panel, set the work area to include only the portion of the layers’ duration to remove: Move the current-time indicator to the time that the work area is to begin, and press B. Move the current-time indicator to the time at which the work area is to end, and press N. 2 Do one of the following: • Select the layers from which to remove a section.
143 Layers and properties Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website with which you can move selected layers as a group, aligning the group to a specific time in the composition. Arrange layers in time sequentially Use the Sequence Layers keyframe assistant to automatically arrange layers in a sequence.
144 Layers and properties Duplicating a layer is a shortcut with which you copy and paste the layer with one command. Duplicating a layer with a track matte preserves the relative ordering of the layer and its track matte. When you paste layers, they are placed in the order in which you selected them before copying. The first layer selected is the last one to be placed, so it ends up on the top in the layer stacking order.
145 Layers and properties Orient Towards Camera The layer is always oriented so that it faces the active camera. This option is available for 3D layers; this option is not available for 2D layers, cameras, or lights. 3D text layers have an additional option, Orient Each Character Independently, which orients each character around its individual anchor point. Selecting Orient Each Character Independently enables per-character 3D properties for the text layer if they aren’t already enabled.
146 Layers and properties Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel Timeline panel Copy and paste keyframes 3D layers Motion paths Managing layers Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that renders and exports each of the selected layers separately. For example, use this script if layers represent different versions of an effect or different parts of an effect that you want to render as separate passes for flexibility in how they get composited.
147 Layers and properties To show or hide columns in the Timeline panel, click the Layer Switches , Transfer Controls , or In/Out/Duration/Stretch button in the 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.
148 Layers and properties Toggles motion blur on or off for the layer. If the Enable Motion Blur blur setting of the layer is irrelevant. (See Motion blur.) composition switch is not selected, the motion Adjustment Layer Identifies the layer as an adjustment layer. (See Adjustment 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 percharacter 3D properties—the switch uses this icon: .
149 Layers and properties Color labels for layers, compositions, and footage items You can use labels (colored boxes in the Label column) in the Project panel and Timeline panel to organize and manage compositions, footage items, and layers. By default, different label colors indicate different kinds of footage items, but you can assign label colors to indicate whatever categories you choose. Rename label groups to help you to organize and categorize layers and footage items.
150 Layers and properties Layer image quality and subpixel positioning The quality setting of a layer determines how precisely it is rendered, as well as influencing the precision of other calculations involving the layer, such as motion tracking and the use of the layer as a control layer for a compound effect. The default quality of new layers is determined by the Create New Layers At Best Quality preference in the General preferences category.
151 Layers and properties When you apply an effect to a continuously rasterized layer, the results may differ from the results of applying the effect to a layer without continuous rasterization. This difference in results is because the default rendering order for the layer changes.
152 Layers and properties Layer properties in the Timeline panel Each layer has properties, many of which you can modify and animate. The basic group of properties that every layer has is the Transform group, which includes Position and Opacity properties. When you add certain features to a layer— for example, by adding masks or effects, or by converting the layer to a 3D layer—the layer gains additional properties, collected in property groups.
153 Layers and properties • To hide a property or property group, Alt+Shift-click (Windows) or Option+Shift-click (Mac OS) the name in the Timeline panel. • To show only the selected properties or property groups in the Timeline panel, press SS. The SS shortcut is especially useful for working with paint strokes. Select the paint stroke in the Layer panel, and press SS to open the property group for that stroke in the Timeline panel.
154 Layers and properties You can only duplicate some property groups, including shapes, masks, and effects. However, you can’t duplicate top-level property groups such as Contents, Masks, Effects, and Transforms. If you attempt to duplicate a top-level property group, the entire layer is duplicated, instead. Copy a value from a layer property that contains no keyframes You can copy the current value of a layer property to another layer, even when the original layer contains no keyframes.
155 Layers and properties The LockProperties script, available from the After Effects Scripts website, locks only specified properties so that you can prevent accidental changes. Layer anchor points Transformations, such as rotation and scale, occur around the anchor point (sometimes called transformation point or transformation center) of the layer. By default, the anchor point for most layer types is at the center of the layer.
156 Layers and properties Note: Moving an anchor point with the Pan Behind (Anchor Point) tool changes Position and Anchor Point values so that the layer remains where it was in the composition before you moved the anchor point. To change only the Anchor Point value, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) with the Pan Behind (Anchor Point) tool.
157 Layers and properties Scaling down a raster (non-vector) layer sometimes causes a slight softening or blurring of the image. Scaling up a raster layer by a large factor can cause the image to appear blocky or pixelated. Adobe Photoshop provides fine control over resampling methods used for scaling of images. For fine control of resampling, you can export frames to Photoshop to change the image size and then import the frames back into After Effects.
158 Layers and properties • To set the level of the right channel, drag the right slider up or down, or type a new value in the levels box at the bottom of the right slider. Parent and child layers To synchronize changes to layers by assigning one layer’s transformations to another layer, use parenting. After a layer is made a parent to another layer, the other layer is called the child layer.
159 Layers and properties • 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.
160 Layers and properties Note: The anchor point of a new null object layer appears in the upper-left corner of the layer, and the layer is anchored in the center of the composition at its anchor point. Change the anchor point as you would for any other layer. If a null object is visually distracting in your composition frame, consider dragging it out of the frame, onto the pasteboard.
161 Layers and properties A Original composition (original in center tile when using Brainstorm on single numeric value) B Maximize Tile C Save As New Composition D Apply To Composition E Use In Next Brainstorm F Randomness control (Spread control when using Brainstorm on single numeric value) G Back and Forward to previous and next generations H Playback controls With Brainstorm, you can rapidly accomplish the following: • Compare the results of multiple values for a single property so that you can find
162 Layers and properties If you use Brainstorm on a single one-dimensional property (such as Opacity, but not Position), the Randomness value that controls the amount of variation (mutation) is replaced by a Spread value. The variants that are presented in the Brainstorm dialog box are then not random, but represent a range of values around the central value.
163 Layers and properties More Help topics Effect Controls panel Layers (keyboard shortcuts) Modifying layer properties (keyboard shortcuts) Keyframes and the Graph Editor (keyboard shortcuts) Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts) Selecting and arranging layers Show or hide layer controls in the Composition panel Image size and resolution Preview video and audio Columns Expression Controls effects Render settings Blending modes and layer styles Work with layer blending m
164 Layers and properties Note: These shortcuts provide a convenient way to experiment with the appearance of various blending modes. • To apply a blending mode to selected layers, choose a blending mode from the menu in the Mode column in the Timeline panel or from the Layer > Blending Mode menu. • To show the Modes column in the Timeline panel, choose Columns > Modes from the panel menu, or click the at the lower-left corner of the Timeline panel.
165 Layers and properties through or blocking all layers underneath, precompose the layers that you want to affect and nest them in your composition. Chris and Trish Meyer explain stencil blending modes in an article on the ProVideo Coalition website. Utility category Options are Alpha Add and Luminescent Premul. These blending modes serve specialized utility functions.
166 Layers and properties Darker Color Each result pixel is the color of darker of the source color value and the corresponding underlying color value. Darker Color is similar to Darken, but Darker Color does not operate on individual color channels. Add Each result color channel value is the sum of the corresponding color channel values of the source color and underlying color. The result color is never darker than either input color.
167 Layers and properties If you have two layers with an identical visual element that you want to align, place one layer on top of the other and set the blending mode of the top layer to Difference. Then, you can move one layer or the other until the pixels of the visual element that you want to line up are all black—meaning that the differences between the pixels are zero and therefore the elements are stacked exactly on top of one another. Classic Difference The Difference mode from After Effects 5.
168 Layers and properties Layer styles Photoshop provides a variety of layer styles—such as shadows, glows, and bevels—that change the appearance of a layer. After Effects can preserve these layer styles when importing Photoshop layers. You can also apply layer styles in After Effects and animate their properties. You can copy and paste any layer style within After Effects, including layer styles imported into After Effects in PSD files.
169 Layers and properties • To remove all layer styles from selected layers, choose Layer > Layer Styles > Remove All. When a layer style is applied to a vector layer—such as a text layer, a shape layer, or a layer based on an Illustrator footage item—visual elements that apply to the edges of the contents of the layer apply to the outlines of the vector objects, such as text characters or shapes.
170 Layers and properties Use the Blend Ranges From Source option to use the advanced blending options set for the Photoshop file that determine what blending operations to perform based on the color characteristics of the input layer. Online resources about layer styles Dave Scotland provides a video tutorial on the CG Swot website that demonstrates how to create a metallic textured logo using layer styles in After Effects.
171 Layers and properties Any layer can be a 3D layer, except an audio-only layer. Individual characters within text layers can optionally be 3D sublayers, each with their own 3D properties. A text layer with Enable Per-character 3D selected behaves just like a precomposition that consists of a 3D layer for each character. All camera and light layers have 3D properties. By default, layers are at a depth (z-axis position) of 0.
172 Layers and properties Convert a 3D layer to a 2D layer ? Deselect the 3D Layer switch for the layer in the Timeline panel, or select the layer and choose Layer > 3D Layer. Show or hide 3D axes and layer controls 3D axes are color-coded arrows: red for x, green for y, and blue for z. • To show or hide 3D axes, camera and light wireframe icons, layer handles, and the point of interest, choose View > Show Layer Controls.
173 Layers and properties 3 In the Composition panel, do one of the following: • Drag the arrowhead of the 3D axis layer control corresponding to the axis around which you want to turn the layer. • 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.
174 Layers and properties 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 collapsed transformations (Collapse Transformations switch selected) does not
175 Layers and properties Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel Show or hide layer controls in the Composition panel Selecting and arranging layers Layer properties Coordinate systems: composition space and layer space Render order and collapsing transformations Precompose layers Continuously rasterize a layer containing vector graphics Preparing and importing Photoshop files Effects with a Comp Camera attribute Cameras, lights, and points of interest Create a camera layer and change camera set
176 Layers and properties A Point of interest B Frame C Camera Note: If you import or open an After Effects 5.x project containing a 3D composition that used a default camera, After Effects adds an AE 5.x Default Camera to the composition. Create a camera layer ? Choose Layer > New > Camera, or press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+C (Mac OS). Note: By default, new layers begin at the beginning of the composition duration.
177 Layers and properties Name The name of the camera. By default, Camera 1 is the name of first camera that you create in a composition, and all subsequent cameras are numbered in ascending order. You should choose distinctive names for multiple cameras to make it easier to distinguish them. Preset The type of camera settings you want to use. The presets are named according to focal lengths. Each preset is meant to represent the behavior of a 35mm camera with a lens of a certain focal length.
178 Layers and properties Camera Commands After Effects has camera commands that can be used separately or with the Create Stereo 3D Rig function. To use the camera commands, select a camera layer, and then choose Layer > Camera. Link Focus Distance to Point of Interest Creates an expression on the selected camera layer’s Focus Distance property, setting the property’s value to the distance between the camera and its point of interest.
179 Layers and properties A Point of interest B Light icon You can specify which 3D layers a light affects by designating the light as an adjustment layer: place the light in the Timeline panel above the layers on which you want it to shine. Layers that are above a light adjustment layer in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel do not receive the light, regardless of the positions of the layers in the Composition panel.
180 Layers and properties Note: Because the position in space of an Ambient light does not affect its influence on other layers, an Ambient light does not have an icon in the Composition panel. Intensity The brightness of the light. Negative values create nonlight. Nonlight subtracts color from a layer. For example, if a layer is already lit, creating a directional light with negative values also pointing at that layer darkens an area on the layer. Color The color of the light.
181 Layers and properties Adjust a 3D view or move a camera, light, or point of interest Camera layers and light layers each include a Point Of Interest property, which specifies the point in the composition at which the camera or light points. By default, the point of interest is at the center of the composition. You can move the point of interest at any time. A one-node camera ignores the point of interest. (See Camera settings.
182 Layers and properties Track Z Camera Adjusts the 3D view or camera along the line to the point of interest. If you are using an orthographic view, this tool adjusts the scale of the view. (To temporarily activate the Track Z Camera tool when the Unified Camera Tool is selected, hold the right mouse button.) 3 Drag in the Composition panel. You can continue a drag operation outside the panel after you’ve begun dragging within the panel.
183 Layers and properties Andrew Devis of Creative Cow has created a 3 tutorial series on Animating a Camera: • Animating a Camera 1: Camera Difficulties • Animating a Camera 2: Simple Rig • Animating a Camera 3: Controllers & Point of View This video from video2brain demonstrates the command to create a new camera orbit null. Material Options properties 3D layers have Material Options properties, which determine how a 3D layer interacts with light and shadow.
184 Layers and properties Specify resolution to use for rendering shadows The Advanced 3D rendering plug-in is used to render compositions containing intersecting 3D layers. To render shadows, the plug-in uses shadow maps, which are images rendered from the point of view of each light source. Normally, shadow resolution is computed automatically based on the composition resolution and the quality settings of the layers.
185 Layers and properties Note: Altering this value changes how deep the Stereo 3D appears to go into and out of the scene. It can cause eye strain if pushed too far, however. Altering this value changes how deep the Stereo 3D appears to go into and out of the scene. It can cause eye strain if pushed too far, however. Altering this value changes how deep the Stereo 3D appears to go into and out of the scene. It can cause eye strain if pushed too far, however.
186 Layers and properties 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. Ordinary red and cyan anaglyph 3D glasses work best for this 3D stereoscopic workflow. • Increase or decrease Stereo Scene Depth to change how deep the 3D environment appears. • Turn on Converge Cameras and change the Convergence Z Offset to move different objects behind and in front of the screen.
187 Chapter 6: Views and previews Previewing Enhanced in After Effects CC 2015 | June 2015 • Uninterrupted preview: You can now make changes to the open project while a preview is playing back in After Effects. • Simplified and configurable preview: You can now customize Preview behaviors using the updated Preview panel. If you're new to After Effects, you will find the default Preview intuitive with real-time playback of cached frames.
188 Views and previews To configure settings for Preview, do the following: 1 The Preview panel is open by default in most Workspaces within After Effects. However, if the Preview panel is closed, select Window > Preview to open it. 2 In the Preview panel, you can modify the following settings to configure Preview behavior: Shortcut Choose a keyboard shorctut to play/stop a preview: Spacebar, Numpad 0, and Shift + Numpad 0.
189 Views and previews • Work Area - Extended by Current Time: Work area is dynamically extended the work area with reference to the position of the current-time indicator (CTI). • If the CTI is placed before the work area, the length of the range is from the current time to the work area end point.
190 Views and previews • Whether the CTI stays at the current time or moves to the playback time (the time at which you stopped the preview). Using Preview Shortcut to stop a Preview Using the preview keyboard shortcuts (Spacebar, Numpad-0, or Shift + Numpad-0) to stop a preview, results in different stop behaviors: • Spacebar: CTI moves to the playback time. If frame rendering is interrupted, playback of the cached frames begins. • Numpad-0: CTI stays at the current time.
191 Views and previews Loop options for previews Click the Loop Options button in the Preview panel until it shows the desired state: Loop Play Once Repeatedly plays preview from beginning to end. Plays preview once. Preview only audio When you preview only audio, it plays immediately at real-time speed, unless you’ve applied Audio effects other than Stereo Mixer, in which case you may have to wait for audio to render before it plays.
192 Views and previews Choose Options in the Audio panel menu to specify the following options: Units Choose whether to display audio levels in decibels or in percentages. 100% equals 0 decibels (0 dB). Slider Minimum The minimum audio level to display in the Audio panel. Additional tips and options for previewing • With all previewing methods—as with rendering to final output—a layer is only visible in rendered previews if its Video layer switch is selected.
193 Views and previews Note: Select Show Rendering Progress In Info Panel And Flowchart (Edit > Preferences > Display (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Display (Mac OS)) to see additional information in the Info panel or the project Flowchart panel during rendering, either for previews or for final output. Move the current-time indicator (CTI) The most basic way of previewing frames is to manually preview by moving or dragging the current-time indicator (CTI).
194 Views and previews • To go to a specific frame, click in the time ruler; click the current-time display in the Footage, Layer, Composition, or Timeline panel; or press Alt+Shift+J (Windows) or Option+Shift+J (Mac OS). You can also drag the current-time display in the Timeline panel to modify the value. • Shift-drag the current-time indicator to snap to keyframes, markers, In and Out points, the beginning or end of the composition, or the beginning or end of the work area.
195 Views and previews • When Primary Viewer is disabled, the most recently active viewer or view is used for audio and external video preview. • When you switch to a different viewer or view, that viewer or view takes control of audio and external video preview. Note: When multiple views are open, previews use the frontmost composition view for 2D compositions and the Active Camera view for 3D compositions. To turn off the Active Camera, deselect Previews Favor Active Camera in the Preview panel menu.
196 Views and previews You can change the adaptive resolution limit in Edit > Preferences > Previews (Windows) or Premiere Pro > Preferences > Previews (Mac OS). Draft Available in Ray-traced 3D compositions only. This option reduces the ray-tracing quality (number of rays fired by the ray tracer) to 1. Fast Draft When laying out a complex scene, or if you are working in a ray-traced 3D composition, you can use Fast Draft mode for previewing.
197 Views and previews • More Accurate Except Cached Preview • More Accurate The Zoom Quality preference affects the quality of scaling performed for pixel aspect ratio correction in the Composition and Layer panels. Note: The More Accurate Except Cached Preview option uses the more accurate operations for manual and numpad 0 previews, but uses the faster operations for previews.
198 Views and previews • To move the work area, drag the center of the work area bar left or right. • 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. Snapshots When you want to compare one view to another in a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel, take a snapshot.
199 Views and previews • Adobe Monitor x: These are your attached computer monitors that can receive video preview data through the graphics card. • Third-party video hardware: These entries differ depending on what third-party hardware you have connected. AJA Kona 3G, Blackmagic Playback and Matrox Player are typical examples. 3 Choose Disable video output when in the Background option to prevent video frames from being sent to the external monitor when After Effects is not the foreground application.
200 Views and previews Choose a 3D view You can view your 3D layers from several angles, using orthographic views, custom views that employ perspective, or camera views. The working 3D views include the custom views and the fixed orthographic views (Front, Left, Top, Back, Right, or Bottom). The orthographic views show layer positions in the composition but do not show perspective. The working 3D views are not associated with a camera layer.
201 Views and previews • To zoom in to or out from the center of the view using the mouse scroll wheel, place the pointer over the panel and move the scroll wheel. • To zoom in on or out from a specific point using the mouse scroll wheel, place the pointer over the panel and hold Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you move the scroll wheel. • To zoom in on a specific point using the Zoom tool , click the area in the panel you want to magnify.
202 Views and previews Note: The Auto setting is ignored for compositions for which the Advanced composition setting Preserve Resolution When Nested is selected. Full Renders each pixel in a composition. This setting gives the best image quality, but takes the longest to render. Half Renders one-quarter of the pixels contained in the full-resolution image—half the columns and half the rows. Third Renders one-ninth of the pixels contained in the full-resolution image.
203 Views and previews To check the quality of a composite, drag the Adjust Exposure control far to the left and far to the right and look for places where the composited elements differ too much in color or luminance. This technique—sometimes called gamma slamming—is useful for ensuring that a composite will look good and be convincing in contexts other than the one in which you’re working.
204 Views and previews About title-safe and action-safe zones Television sets enlarge a video image and allow some portion of its outer edges to be cut off by the edge of the screen. This kind of cropping is known as overscan. The amount of overscan is not consistent between television sets, so you should keep important parts of a video image within certain margins, in areas known as safe zones. Safe-zone margins represent the percentage of image dimensions not included in the safe zone.
205 Views and previews About alpha channels and mattes Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight Video preview with Mercury Transmit Video preview using Mercury Transmit-based system In the June 2014 release of After Effects CC, the video preview system for external monitors has been replaced with the Mercury Transmit-based system. What is Mercury Transmit? Mercury Transmit is a software interface used by Adobe digital applications to send video frames to external video device.
206 Views and previews If you are previewing an image that does not exactly match the preview monitor's pixel dimensions, the third-party I/O device will scale the image. The manner of scaling differs between devices and is in some cases controllable through the Setup options for the device. The setting of the Resolution menu in the Composition panel determines the resolution for the external video preview.
207 Chapter 7: Animation and Keyframes Face Tracking Face Tracking Overview Face Tracking lets you accurately detect and track human faces. Simple mask tracking lets you quickly apply effects only to a face, such as selective color correction or blurring a person’s face, and more. However, with Face Tracking, you can track specific parts of the face such as pupils, mouth, and nose, allowing you to isolate and work on these facial features with greater detail.
208 Animation and Keyframes 2 Drag the footage from the Project panel into a Composition to add a layer. 3 Position the current time indicator (CTI) to a frame showing a front, upright view of the face you want to track. Face detection is improved if the initial frame to track has a face looking forward and is oriented upright.
209 Animation and Keyframes 4 Draw a closed mask loosely around the face, enclosing the eyes and mouth. The mask defines the search region to locate facial features. If multiple masks are selected, the topmost mask is used. 5 With the Mask selected, select Window > Trackerto open the Tracker panel. Set the tracking Method to Face Tracking (Outline Only).
210 Animation and Keyframes 6 In the Tracker panel, track forward or backward one frame at a time to ensure that tracking is functioning correctly, and then, click the button to begin analyzing all frames. 7 Once the analysis is complete, face tracking data is made available within the composition. Tracking detailed features and extracting facial measurements 1 In After Effects, select File > Import > File. Browse to the location of the footage, and add it to the Project.
211 Animation and Keyframes 3 Position the Current Time Indicator to a frame showing a front, upright view of the face you want to track. Face detection is improved if the initial frame to track has a face looking forward and is oriented upright. 4 Draw a closed mask loosely around the face, enclosing the eyes and mouth. The mask defines the search region to locate facial features. If multiple masks are selected, the topmost mask is used.
212 Animation and Keyframes 5 With the Mask selected, select Window > Trackerto open the Tracker panel. Set the tracking Method to Face Tracking (Detailed Features). 6 In the Tracker panel, track forward or backward one frame at a time to ensure that tracking is functioning correctly, and then, click the button to begin analyzing all frames. 7 After the analysis is complete, the tracking data is made available within a new Effect called Face Track Points.
213 Animation and Keyframes 8 Move the current-time indicator to a frame showing a neutral expression on the face (the rest pose). Face measurements on other frames are relative to the rest pose frame. In the Tracker panel, click Set Rest Pose. 9 In the Tracker Panel, click Extract & Copy Face Measurements. A Face Measurements effect is added to the layer, and keyframes are created based on calculations made from the Face Track Points keyframe data.
214 Animation and Keyframes Face tracking data reference Face Track Points Left Eye Tracking data for the position of the left eye. Face tracker records x and y coordinates for the following points on the left eye: • Left Eyebrow Inner • Left Eyebrow Middle • Left Eyebrow Outer • Left Eye Inner • Left Eye Pupil • Left Eye Outer Right Eye Tracking data for the position of the right eye.
215 Animation and Keyframes • Right Eye Inner • Right Eye Pupil • Right Eye Outer Nose Tracking data for the position of the Nose. Face tracker records x and y coordinates for the following points on the nose: • Nose Bridge • Nose Tip • Right Nostril • Left Nostril Mouth Tracking data for the position of the Mouth.
216 Animation and Keyframes • Left Eyelid Openness • Left Eye Gaze X • Left Eye Gaze Y Right Eye Indicates various points of measurement for the right eye, and includes the following data points: • Right Eyebrow Distance • Right Eyelid Openness • Right Eye Gaze X • Right Eye Gaze Y Mouth Indicates various points of measurement for the mouth, and includes the following data points: • Mouth Offset X • Mouth Offset Y • Mouth Scale Width • Mouth Scale Height Animation basics About animation, keyframes, and
217 Animation and Keyframes Keyframes Keyframes are used to set parameters for motion, effects, audio, and many other properties, usually changing them over time. A keyframe marks the point in time where you specify a value for a layer property, such as spatial position, opacity, or audio volume. Values between keyframes are interpolated.
218 Animation and Keyframes To toggle between layer bar mode and Graph Editor mode, click the Graph Editor button press Shift+F3. in the Timeline panel or Two types of graphs are available in the Graph Editor: value graphs, which show property values; and speed graphs, which show rates of change of property values. For temporal properties, such as Opacity, the Graph Editor defaults to the value graph. For spatial properties, such as Position, the Graph Editor defaults to the speed graph.
219 Animation and Keyframes 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 Animated Properties Displays animated properties of selected layers in the Graph Editor. Show Graph Editor Set Displays properties that have the Graph Editor switch selected.
220 Animation and Keyframes • To zoom vertically, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) up with the Zoom tool to zoom in or down to zoom out. Note: You cannot pan or zoom vertically when Auto Zoom Height is selected. Auto Zoom Height and Fit Auto Zoom Height Toggles Auto Zoom Height mode, which automatically scales the height of the graph so that it fits the height of the Graph Editor. The horizontal zoom must still be adjusted manually.
221 Animation and Keyframes To activate the stopwatch and enable keyframing, do one of the following • Click the Stopwatch icon next to the property name to activate it. After Effects creates a keyframe at the current time for that property value. • Choose Animation > Add [x] Keyframe, where [x] is the name of the property you are animating. Add a keyframe without changing a value ? Do one of the following: • Click the keyframe navigator button for the layer property.
222 Animation and Keyframes For instructions for moving the current-time indicator to other elements and times, see Move the current-time indicator (CTI). Select keyframes In layer bar mode, selected keyframes are yellow. Unselected keyframes are gray. In Graph Editor mode, the appearance of a keyframe icon depends on whether the keyframe is selected, unselected, or semi-selected (another keyframe in the same property is selected). Selected keyframes are solid yellow.
223 Animation and Keyframes Convert Audio To Keyframes Analyzes amplitude within the composition work area and creates keyframes to represent the audio. Convert Expression To Keyframes Analyzes the current expression and creates keyframes to represent the property values it describes. Easy Ease Automatically adjusts the influence into and out of a keyframe to smooth out sudden changes. Easy Ease In Automatically adjusts the influence into a keyframe.
224 Animation and Keyframes Editing, moving, and copying keyframes View or edit a keyframe value Before you change a keyframe, make sure that the current-time indicator is positioned at an existing keyframe. If you change a property value when the current-time indicator is not at an existing keyframe, After Effects adds a new keyframe.
225 Animation and Keyframes • To paste to a different property, select the destination property. 6 Choose Edit > Paste. Edit keyframe values using a spreadsheet or text editor You can copy and paste keyframe data as tab-delimited text for use in a spreadsheet program (such as Microsoft Excel) or other text-editing program. You can use a spreadsheet program to perform numerical analysis on keyframe data or create or edit keyframe values.
226 Animation and Keyframes Move keyframes to another time With multiple keyframes selected, you can copy or delete them simultaneously or move the keyframes together without changing their positions relative to each other. 1 Select one or more keyframes. 2 Drag any of the selected keyframe icons to the desired time. If you selected multiple keyframes, then all of the selected keyframes maintain their relative distance from the keyframe that you drag.
227 Animation and Keyframes • If you change a value graphically in the Composition or Layer panel, all selected keyframes change using the difference between the old and new values, not the values themselves. In other words, you make a relative change. For example, if you select several Position keyframes on a motion path and then drag one of them 10 pixels to the left, they all move 10 pixels to the left of their original positions.
228 Animation and Keyframes 1 Switch to the Graph Editor view and display the keyframes you want to adjust. 2 Using the Selection tool, do one of the following: • To select keyframes, Shift-click the keyframes or drag to draw a marquee around the keyframes. • To select all keyframes for a property, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a segment between two keyframes. 3 Do any of the following: • To move keyframes in time or value, place the pointer inside the bounding box and drag.
229 Animation and Keyframes Assorted animation tools 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.
230 Animation and Keyframes 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. To move the entire motion path, select all keyframes by clicking the property name in the Timeline panel before dragging a keyframe in the Composition panel. Add a keyframe to a motion path using the Pen tool 1 Display the motion path that you want to modify in the Composition panel or Layer panel.
231 Animation and Keyframes Note: Though the results are different, the techniques for manipulating motion-path curves with the Pen tool work in much the same way as the techniques used to create and modify other Bezier paths, such as mask and shape paths. Sketch a motion path with Motion Sketch 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.
232 Animation and Keyframes By default, the duration of the pasted motion path is 2 seconds. You can adjust the duration by dragging the first or last keyframe in the Timeline panel. 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.
233 Animation and Keyframes If you want to smooth live-action video to which you assigned a frame rate much lower or higher than the original, use frame blending, not motion blur. Motion blur settings in the Advanced tab of Composition Settings 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.
234 Animation and Keyframes Smooth motion and velocity by removing extra keyframes Smooth motion paths, value curves, and velocity curves to eliminate bumpiness or excess keyframes using the Smoother, which adds keyframes or removes unnecessary keyframes. You can also use the smooth expression method for this purpose, without removing keyframes. (See Property attributes and methods (expression reference).
235 Animation and Keyframes 3 For Apply To, select the type of curve you want the Wiggler to change. If you selected keyframes for a property that varies spatially, you can select Spatial Path to add deviations to the motion, or Temporal Graph to add deviations to the velocity. If you selected keyframes for a property that does not vary spatially, you can select only Temporal Graph.
236 Animation and Keyframes Nathan Gambles provides an expression on the Video Copilot website that ducks (reduces the volume of) audio on one layer when the volume of audio on another layer increases. This technique is useful, for example, for automatically decreasing the volume of a soundtrack when dialog occurs. This expression for the Stereo Mixer effect depends on the Convert Audio To Keyframes keyframe assistant having been applied to the other audio layer.
237 Animation and Keyframes Note: You can stabilize shaky footage a lot easier using the Warp Stabilizer. For more information, see Stabilize motion with the Warp Stabilizer effect . Uses for motion tracking and stabilization Motion tracking has many uses. Here are some examples: • Combining elements filmed separately, such as adding video to the side of a moving city bus or a star to the end of a sweeping wand.
238 Animation and Keyframes 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.
239 Animation and Keyframes Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Artbeats website that demonstrates the use of 3D tracking software that solves for camera movement so that additional elements can be composited into the scene and appear to honor the same camera movement. This video tutorial uses Pixel Farm PFHoe, but the techniques can be applied to almost any matchmoving software.
240 Animation and Keyframes Jeff Foster provides a tutorial on the ProVideo Coalition website that demonstrates the use of mocha for After Effects to replace a sign on the side of a moving truck in a shaky video clip. Note: After Effects also includes the mocha shape for After Effects (mocha shape AE) plug-in, which converts paths from mocha-AE into mattes in After Effects. (See Resources for Imagineer mocha shape for After Effects.
241 Animation and Keyframes Set the attach point offset The attach point is where the target layer or effect control point will be placed. The default attach point position is in the center of the feature region. You can move the attach point to offset the position of the target relative to the position of the tracked feature by dragging the attach point in the Layer panel before tracking.
242 Animation and Keyframes Because of the changing nature of an image in motion, automatic tracking is rarely perfect. In moving footage, the shape of a feature changes, along with the lighting and surrounding objects. Even with careful preparation, a feature generally changes during a shot and at some point no longer matches the original feature. If the change is too great, After Effects may not be able to track the feature, and the track point will wander or drift.
243 Animation and Keyframes Note: For parallel corner-pinning only: To change which point is inactive, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the feature region of the point to make inactive. (One point must remain inactive to keep the lines parallel.) 1 Select the layer to track in the Timeline panel. 2 Do one of the following: • Click Track Motion in the Tracker panel (or choose Animation > Track Motion), click Edit Target, and choose the target to apply the tracking data to.
244 Animation and Keyframes Note: Layers are available in the Motion Source menu if they have source footage items that can contain motion or if they are composition layers. You can precompose a layer to make it available in the Motion Source menu. Current Track The active tracker. You can modify settings for a tracker at any time by selecting the tracker from this menu. Track Type The tracking mode to use.
245 Animation and Keyframes Motion tracking options These settings apply to a tracker, a group of track points that is generated in one tracking session. You can modify these settings by clicking Options in the Tracker panel. Track Name The name for a tracker. You can also rename a tracker by selecting it in the Timeline panel and pressing Enter on the main keyboard (Windows) or Return (Mac OS). Tracker Plug-in The plug-in used to perform motion tracking for this tracker.
246 Animation and Keyframes Motion tracking properties in the Timeline panel Each time you click Track Motion or Stabilize Motion in the Tracker panel (or choose Animation > Track Motion or Animation > Stabilize Motion), After Effects creates a new tracker for the layer in the Timeline panel. Each tracker contains track points, which are property groups that store the tracking data after tracking has been performed.
247 Animation and Keyframes 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.
248 Animation and Keyframes Apply tracking data to a new target After you’ve tracked a motion source layer, you can apply the tracking data stored on that layer to any number of other target layers and effect control points. For example, you can apply the track to the position of a light bulb and to the effect control point of the Lens Flare effect. 1 In the Tracker panel, choose the tracked layer from the Motion Source menu.
249 Animation and Keyframes 3 If you are correcting the track for one frame, go to step 4. If you are correcting the track for several contiguous frames, adjust the feature region and search region if necessary, and click Analyze. 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 feature region, and begin again.
250 Animation and Keyframes Warp Stabilizer VFX / Warp Stabilizer settings Analyze There is no need to press this button when you first apply Warp Stabilizer; it's 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.
251 Animation and Keyframes • Stabilize, Crop: Crops the moving edges without scaling. Stabilize, Crop is identical to using Stabilize, Crop, Autoscale, 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.
252 Animation and Keyframes The following settings are available only in After Effects CC: Objective Determines the aim for the effect: for stabilizing, for temporary stabilization to perform visual effects work, or to composite a layer into a shaky scene. Choose an objective: • Stabilize Default option for normal stabilization • Reversible Stabilization and Reverse Stabilization Use these options to apply an effect to a region.
253 Animation and Keyframes Motion paths Tracking 3D Camera Movement | CC, CS6 Speed Control 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.
254 Animation and Keyframes • The difference between the values of adjacent keyframes. A large difference between keyframe values, such as the difference between 75% and 20% opacity, creates a faster rate of change than a smaller difference, such as the difference between 30% and 20% opacity. You can adjust the rate of change by increasing or decreasing the value of a layer property at a keyframe. • The interpolation type applied for a keyframe.
255 Animation and Keyframes • 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. In the speed graph, changes in the graph height indicate changes in speed.
256 Animation and Keyframes A Incoming direction handle B Speed control C Outgoing direction handle Note: If you want a handle to have influence over more than one keyframe, use roving keyframes. 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.
257 Animation and Keyframes 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.
258 Animation and Keyframes 3 Using the Selection tool, click a keyframe and drag the direction handle left or right. Change speed numerically You may want to specify speed more precisely than you can by dragging keyframes in the speed graph. In such cases, specify speed numerically in the Keyframe Velocity dialog box. The options and units in the dialog box vary depending on the layer property you are editing and may also vary for plug-ins. 1 Display the speed graph for the keyframe you want to adjust.
259 Animation and Keyframes 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.
260 Animation and Keyframes Tracking 3D camera movement 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. Feel free to adjust settings or work on a different part of your project while analysis is taking place.
261 Animation and Keyframes 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.
262 Animation and Keyframes If necessary, adjust the position and scale of the shadow catcher layer so the cast shadow appears as desired. This command also creates a shadow-casting light (a light that is switched on, and casts shadows) if one does not exist in the composition. 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.
263 Animation and Keyframes Ground plane and origin in 3D Camera Tracker effect In After Effects CC, you can define a ground plane (reference plane) and origin, for example, the (0,0,0) point of the coordinate system within the 3D Camera Tracker effect. 1 Analyze the scene using the 3D Camera Tracker effect 2 Select a set of tracking points. This action causes the bullseye target to appear, showing the plane defined by the selected tracking points.
264 Animation and Keyframes Animating with Puppet tools 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. Note: Though the Puppet tools work within an effect (the Puppet effect), you don’t apply the effect using the Effect menu or the Effects & Presets panel. Use the Puppet tools in the Tools panel to directly apply and work with the effect in the Layer panel or Composition panel.
265 Animation and Keyframes 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 Create smooth motion with roving keyframes.) You can have multiple meshes on one layer.
266 Animation and Keyframes 2 Using the Puppet Pin tool , do one of the following in the Composition panel or the Layer panel: • Click any nontransparent pixel of a raster layer to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline created by auto-tracing the alpha channel of a layer. • Click within a closed path on a vector layer to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline defined by that path.
267 Animation and Keyframes Note: This procedure assumes that you have already placed Deform pins in the object to animate. For information on placing Deform pins, see Manually animate an image with the Puppet tools. 1 Select one or more Deform pins. 2 Go to the time at which to begin recording motion. 3 In the Composition panel or Layer panel, hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) key to activate the Puppet Sketch tool. Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) the pins to animate.
268 Animation and Keyframes To distort multiple disjoint characters or shapes as one object, surround the individual objects with a mask (with mask mode set to None), and use the mask path as the outline with which to create the mesh. You can delete the mask after you have created the mesh. If the Puppet effect has already been applied to a layer, outlines appear with a yellow highlight as you move a Puppet tool pointer over them.
269 Animation and Keyframes A higher number of triangles gives smoother results but takes longer to render. Small objects, like text characters, usually distort well with only 50 triangles, whereas a large figure may require 500. The number of triangles used may not match the Triangle value exactly; this value is a target only. • To expand the mesh beyond the original outline, increase the Expansion property in the options section of the Tools panel or in the Timeline panel.
270 Animation and Keyframes Puppet Starch controls When you are distorting one part of an image, you may want to prevent other parts from being distorted. For example, you may want to preserve the rigidity of an arm as you move a hand to make it wave. Use the Puppet Starch tool to apply Starch pins to the part of an object that you want to keep rigid. You apply Puppet Starch pins to the original outline, not to the deformed image.
271 Animation and Keyframes For information on the Timewarp effect, see Timewarp effect . Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website that demonstrates time-stretching, timeremapping, and frame blending. Time-stretch a layer Speeding up or slowing down an entire layer by the same factor throughout is known as time-stretching.
272 Animation and Keyframes 3 Do one of the following: • To stretch the In point to the current time, press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you click the In time for the layer in the In column. • To stretch the Out point to the current time, press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you click the Out time for the layer in the Out column. Time-stretch a layer but not its keyframes When you time-stretch a layer, the positions of its keyframes stretch with it by default.
273 Animation and Keyframes The Timewarp effect provides similar features with more control over some aspects of frame blending, but with additional limitations as a result of being applied as an effect. When you apply time-remapping to a layer containing audio and video, the audio and video remain synchronized. You can remap audio files to gradually decrease or increase the pitch, play audio backward, or create a warbled or scratchy sound. Still-image layers cannot be time-remapped.
274 Animation and Keyframes • 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. 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.
275 Animation and Keyframes As with other layer properties, you can view the values of the Time Remap graph as either a value graph or a speed graph. If you remap time and the resulting frame rate is very different from the original, the quality of motion within the layer may suffer. Apply frame blending to improve time remapping for slow motion or fast motion. Note: Use the information shown in the Info panel to guide you as you work with time-remapping.
276 Animation and Keyframes 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 nontime-remapped layer), as does the portion of the layer between the third and fourth keyframes.
277 Animation and Keyframes Remap time in a Layer panel 1 Open the Layer panel for the layer you want to remap. 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.
278 Animation and Keyframes 5 Move the current-time indicator to the frame where you want change to begin, and then click the Add A Keyframe button. 6 On the speed graph below the keyframe, drag a marker, watching the Speed value as you drag. • 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.
279 Animation and Keyframes 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.
280 Animation and Keyframes Because interpolation generates the property values between keyframes, interpolation is sometimes called tweening. Interpolation between keyframes can be used to animate movement, effects, audio levels, image adjustments, transparency, color changes, and many other visual and audio elements. After you create keyframes and motion paths to change values over time, you may want to make more precise adjustments to the way that change occurs.
281 Animation and Keyframes Online resources about keyframe interpolation Aharon Rabinowitz provides some video tutorials—including “How Does Computer Animation Work?” and “What is interpolation?”—that introduce animation as part of the Multimedia 101 series.
282 Animation and Keyframes No interpolation No interpolation is the state in which a layer property has no keyframes—when the stopwatch is turned off and the Ibeam 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. By default, no interpolation is applied to a layer property.
283 Animation and Keyframes If you apply Continuous Bezier interpolation to all keyframes of a property, After Effects adjusts the values at each keyframe to create smooth transitions. After Effects maintains these smooth transitions as you move a Continuous Bezier keyframe on either the motion path or the value graph. 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.
284 Animation and Keyframes Linear, Bezier, Continuous Bezier, Auto Bezier, and Hold Apply a temporal interpolation method using default values. 4 If you selected keyframes of a spatial layer property, choose one of the following options for Spatial Interpolation: Current Settings Preserves the interpolation settings already applied to the selected keyframes. Linear, Bezier, Continuous Bezier, and Auto Bezier Apply a spatial interpolation method using default values.
285 Animation and Keyframes Modify Bezier direction handles in the Graph Editor In the Graph Editor, keyframes that use Bezier interpolation have direction handles attached to them. You can retract, extend, or rotate the direction handles to fine-tune the Bezier interpolation curve in a value graph. You can retract or extend the direction handles to fine-tune the curve in a speed graph. By default, when you retract or extend a direction handle, the opposite handle on the keyframe moves with it.
286 Chapter 8: Color Creative Cloud Libraries in After Effects About Creative Cloud Libraries Creative Cloud Libraries makes your assets available to you anywhere. Create images, colors, text styles, color looks, and more in Photoshop, Illustrator, and mobile apps like Adobe Shape CC or Adobe Hue CC, and then easily access them across other desktop and mobile apps for a seamless creative workflow. To learn more, see Creative Cloud Libraries.
287 Color Accessing Creative Cloud Libraries You can access libraries in the following ways: Across projects Whatever you save in the Libraries panel becomes available for use across After Effects projects that you are working on. Across computers Libraries are synced to Creative Cloud. Your Library becomes available on any computer that you are signed into using your Creative Cloud with your Adobe ID.
288 Color To apply a look from the Libraries panel, do any of the following: • Select a layer in the composition, right-click on a look in the Libraries panel, and choose Apply Look. • Drag a look from the Libraries panel onto a layer in the Composition, Layer, Effect Controls, or Timeline panels. • Drag a look from the Libraries panel onto the title row of an existing Apply Color LUT effect on a layer in the Timeline or Effect Controls panels.
289 Color Color depth and high dynamic range color Color depth (or bit depth) is the number of bits per channel (bpc) used to represent the color of a pixel. The more bits for each RGB channel (red, green, and blue), the more colors each pixel can represent. In After Effects, you can work in 8-bpc, 16-bpc, or 32-bpc color. In addition to color bit depth, a separate characteristic of the numbers used to represent pixel values is whether the numbers are integers or floating-point numbers.
290 Color Set the project color depth to 32 bpc to work with HDR footage or to work with over-range values—values above 1.0 (white) that aren’t supported in 8- or 16-bpc mode. Over-range values preserve the intensity of highlights, which is as useful for synthetic effects such as lights, blurs, and glows as it is for working with HDR footage. The headroom provided by working in 32 bpc prevents many kinds of data loss during operations such as color correction and color profile conversion.
291 Color Kert Gartner provides some visual examples and a brief explanation on his VFX Haiku website that demonstrate the benefits of working with 32-bpc color. Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he demonstrates the advantages of using 32-bpc color with motion blur.
292 Color • To use the Adobe Color Picker, keep the Use System Color Picker box unchecked and select Window > Extensions > Adobe Color Themes. Jeff Almasol provides the PickerSwitcher script on his redefinery website, which toggles the Use System Color Picker setting. Use this script when you prefer to use the Adobe Color Picker for certain tasks, but the operating system color picker for others, and want a quick way to change this setting.
293 Color For HSB, specify hue (H) as an angle, from 0° to 360°, that corresponds to a location on the color wheel. Specify saturation (S) and brightness (B) as percentages (0–100). H Displays all hues in the color slider. Selecting a hue in the color slider displays the saturation and brightness range of the selected hue in the color spectrum, with the saturation increasing from left to right and brightness increasing from bottom to top.
294 Color • To remove a stop, drag it away from the gradient bar, or select the stop and click Delete. • To edit the value of a stop, select it and adjust the Opacity value or use the Adobe Color Picker controls beneath the gradient editor controls. • To choose a gradient type, click the Linear Gradient or Radial Gradient button in the upper-left corner of the Gradient Editor dialog box. Note: Use the Style property to choose a gradient type for the Gradient Overlay layer style.
295 Color 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. After Effects includes many built-in effects for color correction, including the Curves effect, the Levels effect, and other effects in the Color Correction effects category.
296 Color 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. After Effects CC and CS6 include Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse 3. (See Plug-ins.
297 Color Color models and color spaces A color model is a way of describing color using numbers so that computers can operate on them. The color model used within After Effects is the RGB color model, in which each color is described in terms of amounts of red, green, and blue light added together to make the color. Other color models include CMYK, HSB, YUV, and XYZ. A color space is a variant of a color model.
298 Color System gamma, device gamma, and the difference between scene and viewing environment The gamma value for an entire system—from capture, through production, to display in the viewing environment—is the product of the gamma values used for each of the phases in the system. This product is not always 1.0, as it would be if the operations performed for encoding exactly matched (inverted) the operations performed for decoding. One reason for a system gamma other than 1.
299 Color • Ensure that colors in the Composition panel match colors in QuickTime player The Match Legacy After Effects QuickTime Gamma Adjustments option is selected by default for projects created in After Effects 7.0 or earlier. You should create new projects without this option selected.
300 Color 5 An output color profile for each output module is used to convert the rendered composition from the working color space to the color space of the output medium. You choose an output color profile in the Output Module Settings dialog box. (See Assign an output color profile.) 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.
301 Color • Windows: WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color • Windows: Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Color\Profiles You can create a custom ICC profile using Adobe Photoshop. In Photoshop, choose Edit > Color Settings. The RGB and CMYK menus in the Working Spaces area of the Photoshop Color Settings dialog box include options for saving and loading ICC profiles and defining custom profiles.
302 Color 4 Do one of the following to calibrate and profile your monitor: • 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.
303 Color To manage colors in a dynamically linked composition or for video previews, create a new composition and nest your composition within it; then apply the Color Profile Converter effect to the nested composition, with Input Profile set to Project Working Space. For video previews, then set Output Profile to match the color space of the video preview device. (See Color Profile Converter effect .
304 Color On the ProVideo Coalition website, Mark Christiansen provides some examples of the results of enabling linear blending, as well as explaining a little more what linear blending means. Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile You control color management for each footage item using the Interpret Footage dialog box. The input color profile determines what calculations are performed when converting the colors of a footage item into the working color space for the project.
305 Color Note: When you export to SWF format, you use the Export menu, not the Render Queue panel, so the output module settings are not available for this output type. If color management is enabled for the project, After Effects automatically converts colors from the working color space of the project to the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color space when exporting to SWF.
306 Color 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. This behavior is adequate for most uses, but you sometimes need to see how the colors are actually going to look when viewed through a system that does not use color management.
307 Color If Preserve RGB is selected, the color values are not converted in this step. Instead, the numeric RGB color values are preserved and are re-interpreted to be in the color space of the simulated device. One use of this simulation is to see how a movie will look when played back on a device other than the one for which it was intended or a device that does not perform color management. Note: Use Preserve RGB when simulating the combination of a capture film stock and a print film stock. 3.
308 Color Note: The DPX Theater Preview and DPX Standard Camera profiles provided by After Effects 7.0 for use with the Proof Colors command have been replaced by the Kodak 2383 and Kodak 5218 profiles used with the Simulate Output command. Custom If you don’t see an entry for the output type that you want to simulate, you can create your own output simulation preset by choosing Custom. You can specify a profile to use for each of the conversion or reinterpretation steps.
309 Color Broadcast-safe colors Analog video signal amplitude is expressed in IRE units (or volts in PAL video). Values between 7.5 and 100 IRE units are considered broadcast-safe; colors in this range do not cause undesired artifacts such as audio noise and color smearing. (In practice, some spikes over 100 IRE are legal, but for simplicity 100 IRE is considered the legal maximum here.) This range of 7.
310 Color Interpret footage items Output modules and output module settings Render and export a movie using the render queue Viewers Previewing Last updated 11/30/2015
311 Chapter 9: Drawing, painting, and paths Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser Paint tools and paint strokes The Brush tool , Clone Stamp tool , and Eraser tool are all paint tools. You use each in the Layer panel to apply paint strokes to a layer. Each paint tool applies brush marks that modify the color or transparency of an area of a layer without modifying the layer source.
312 Drawing, painting, and paths • To select paint strokes in the Layer panel, use the Selection tool to click a paint stroke or drag a box around portions of multiple paint strokes. To momentarily activate the Selection tool, press and hold V. • To show only selected paint strokes in the Timeline panel, select paint strokes and press SS.
313 Drawing, painting, and paths Create and manage preset brushes • To create a new preset brush, specify the desired settings in the Brushes panel, and then choose New Brush from the Brushes panel menu or click the Save Current Settings As New Brush button . • To rename a preset brush, select the brush and choose Rename Brush from the panel menu. • To delete a preset brush, choose Delete Brush from the panel menu or click the Delete Brush button .
314 Drawing, painting, and paths Hardness Controls the transition of a brush stroke from 100% opaque at the center to 100% transparent at the edges. Even with high Hardness settings, only the center is fully opaque. Spacing The distance between the brush marks in a stroke, measured as a percentage of the brush diameter. When this option is deselected, the speed at which you drag to create the stroke determines the spacing.
315 Drawing, painting, and paths • To select a foreground color from anywhere on the screen with the eyedropper, select the eyedropper in the Paint panel and then click to sample the color under the pointer. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) to sample the average color of a 3-pixel by 3-pixel square. You can quickly activate the eyedropper for use within the Layer panel by pressing Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) when the pointer is in the Layer panel.
316 Drawing, painting, and paths The Clone Stamp tool samples the pixels from a source layer and applies the sampled pixel values to a target layer; the target layer can be the same layer or a different layer in the same composition. If the source layer and target layer are the same, the Clone Stamp tool samples paint strokes and effects in the source layer, in addition to the layer source image.
317 Drawing, painting, and paths 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. Select Aligned in the Paint panel to make the position of the sample point (Clone Position) change for subsequent strokes to match the movement of the Clone Stamp tool in the target Layer panel.
318 Drawing, painting, and paths After clone strokes have been created, their properties in the Timeline panel can be modified and animated. For example, you can clone a bird flying across the screen by cloning it in one frame, tracking the motion of the bird, and then linking the Clone Position property to the Attach Point property of tracker with an expression. You can set a blending mode for clone strokes, just as for other paint strokes.
319 Drawing, painting, and paths Rotoscoping is a special case of painting or drawing on individual frames in which some item in the frame is being traced. Often, rotoscoping refers to drawing animated masks rather than paint strokes. (See Rotoscoping introduction and resources.
320 Drawing, painting, and paths If you are not satisfied with the way that the path is interpolated, consider creating your path as a mask, using Smart Mask Interpolation to fine-tune the interpolation, and then copying the Mask Path property keyframes to the paint stroke Path property. (See Animate a mask path with Smart Mask Interpolation.
321 Drawing, painting, and paths Raster images each consist of a fixed number of pixels, and are therefore resolution-dependent. Raster images can lose detail and appear jagged (pixelated) if they are scaled up. Some images are created as vector graphics in another application but are converted to pixels (rasterized) when they are imported into After Effects. If a layer is continuously rasterized, After Effects reconverts the vector graphics to pixels when the layer is resized, preserving sharp edges.
322 Drawing, painting, and paths A Four corner points B Four smooth points C Combination of corner and smooth points When you move a direction line for a smooth point, the curves on both sides of the point adjust simultaneously. By contrast, when you move a direction line on a corner point, only the curve on the same side of the point as the direction line is adjusted. A path can either be open or closed.
323 Drawing, painting, and paths About shapes and shape layers Shape layers contain vector graphics objects called shapes. By default, a shape consists of a path, a stroke, and a fill. (See About pathsand Strokes and fills for shapes.) You create shape layers by drawing in the Composition panel with the shape tools or the Pen tool. (See Creating shapes and masks .) Shape paths have two varieties: parametric shape paths and Bezier shape paths.
324 Drawing, painting, and paths A group is a collection of shape attributes: paths, fills, strokes, path operations, and other groups. Each group has its own blending mode and its 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.
325 Drawing, painting, and paths The rules for rendering a shape layer are similar to the rules for rendering a composition that contains nested compositions: • Within a group, the shape at the bottom of the Timeline panel stacking order is rendered first. • All path operations within a group are performed before paint operations. This means, for example, that the stroke follows the distortions in the path made by the Wiggle Paths path operation.
326 Drawing, painting, and paths About text layers About masks Creating shapes and masks Add, edit, and remove expressions Creating shapes and masks Create masks You can create one or more masks for each layer in a composition using any of the following methods: • Draw a path using the shape tools or Pen tool. Drawing a mask path is similar to drawing a shape path. (See Create a shape or mask by dragging with shape toolsand Create a Bezier shape or mask using the Pen tool.
327 Drawing, painting, and paths To create a mask that you can move independently of the primary layer that it is masking, do the following: 1Create 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. Because the solid layer is a child layer, it can also be animated independently of its parent.
328 Drawing, painting, and paths Threshold Specifies, as a percentage, the value that a pixel’s channel must have for that pixel to be considered part of an edge. Pixels with channel values over the threshold are mapped to white and are opaque; pixels with values under the threshold are mapped to black and are transparent. Minimum Area Specifies the smallest feature in the original image that will be traced.
329 Drawing, painting, and paths With the ability to bevel and extrude objects in After Effects, you can extrude the artwork (for example, extruded logos), as well. See Extruding text and shape layers . To convert a vector art footage layer to shape layer: ? Choose Layer > Create Shapes from Vector Layer. A matching shape layer will appear above the footage layer, and the footage layer will be muted. The following issues are known: • Not all features of Illustrator files are currently preserved.
330 Drawing, painting, and paths Note: Each shape tool retains the settings of the most recent drawing operation with that tool. For example, if you draw a star and modify the number of points to be 10, then the next star that you draw will also have 10 points. To reset settings for a tool and create a shape with the default settings, double-click the tool in the Tools panel. (See Create a shape or mask the size of the layer.
331 Drawing, painting, and paths Create a Bezier shape or mask using the Pen tool You can create a Bezier mask using the Pen tool on a selected layer in the Composition panel or Layer panel. You can create a shape with a Bezier path using the Pen tool on a selected shape layer in the Composition panel. If you draw with the Pen tool in the Composition panel with no layer selected, you create a shape on a new shape layer. Creating a RotoBezier path is similar to creating a manual Bezier path.
332 Drawing, painting, and paths Shift-drag to constrain the angle of the direction lines to whole multiples of 45°. Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to modify only the outgoing direction line. 1 Place the Pen tool where you want the curve to begin, and hold the mouse button down. A vertex appears, and the Pen tool pointer changes to an arrowhead. 2 Drag to modify the length and direction of both direction lines for a vertex, and then release the mouse button.
333 Drawing, painting, and paths Create a shape or mask the size of the layer 1 Select the destination for the new mask or shape: • To create a shape on an existing shape layer, select the shape layer. • To create a shape on a new shape layer with the dimensions of the composition, deselect all layers by pressing F2. • To create a mask, select a layer in the Timeline panel, Layer panel, or Composition panel. To create a mask on a in the Tools panel with a shape tool active.
334 Drawing, painting, and paths 2 Do one of the following: • Choose Layer > Create Masks From Text. • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the layer or text and choose Create Masks From Text from the context menu. The Video switch for the text layer is turned off. The new solid-color layer is created at the top of the layer stacking order. For characters that consist of compound paths—such as i and e—multiple masks are created and combined with the Subtract mask mode.
335 Drawing, painting, and paths To paste multiple paths into multiple shape paths simultaneously, first create and select multiple placeholder shape paths in After Effects. Trish and Chris Meyer provide details of this technique, plus related tips and tricks on the ProVideo Coalition website. Andrew Devis shows how to use paths from Illustrator as motion paths in After Effects in this video on the Creative COW website.
336 Drawing, painting, and paths Create a shape 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 To create a new shape layer, press F2 to deselect all layers, then click in the Composition panel with the Pen tool to create a single-point Bezier path.
337 Drawing, painting, and paths Motion paths Select a shape group in group selection mode Managing and animating shape paths and masks You animate mask paths and shape paths in much the same way that you animate other properties: set keyframes for the Mask Path or Path property, set paths at each keyframe, and After Effects will interpolate between these specified values.
338 Drawing, painting, and paths • In After Effects CC and CS6, use the Variable-width mask feathering | CC, CS6feature 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.
339 Drawing, painting, and paths Free-transform mode Multiple vertices on one or more Bezier paths are selected. A free-transform bounding box is shown around the vertices in the Composition panel. By operating on this box, you can move multiple vertices with a single transformation. Transformations apply to the vertices themselves, which are contained within the Path property in the Timeline panel. Path-editing mode Only vertices are selected.
340 Drawing, painting, and paths Select paths and vertices in path-editing mode To specify the size of Bezier direction handles and vertices for masks and shapes, choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS), and edit the Path Point Size value. • To select a vertex, click the vertex with the Selection tool. To add vertices to the selection, Shift-click them. • To select a path segment, click the segment with the Selection tool.
341 Drawing, painting, and paths To use the Selection tool when the Pen tool is selected, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS). Select masks in the Timeline panel 1 Click the right arrow next to a layer name to expand it. 2 Click the right arrow next to the Masks heading to expand it, revealing all masks on that layer. 3 Do any of the following: • To select one mask, click its name. • To select a contiguous range of masks, Shift-click the names of the first and last masks in the range.
342 Drawing, painting, and paths 3 To move the anchor point of the bounding box, place the Selection tool over the bounding box anchor point the Selection tool changes to a move anchor point icon until . Drag to position the anchor point. 4 Do any combination of the following: • To move the path or selected vertices, position the pointer inside the bounding box and drag.
343 Drawing, painting, and paths Adjust a path segment ? Do one of the following with the Selection tool: • Drag a vertex. • Drag the direction handles extending from an adjoining smooth vertex. • Drag a curved segment. Dragging a curved segment on a RotoBezier mask also moves the vertices. Toggle a vertex between a smooth point and a corner point ? Click the vertex with the Convert Vertex tool .
344 Drawing, painting, and paths Some shape path operations, such as Trim Paths, also use the first vertex as input to determine how to modify the path. Note: By default, when you add a vertex to a path, the new vertex appears on the path throughout the duration of the path but reshapes the path only at the time at which it was added. When you delete a vertex from a path at a specific point in time, the vertex is deleted from the path throughout the duration of the path.
345 Drawing, painting, and paths Quality Specifies how strictly Smart Mask Interpolation matches vertices from one keyframe to another. A value of 0 specifies that a particular vertex in the first keyframe matches only the same-numbered vertex in the second keyframe. For example, the tenth vertex in the first keyframe must match the tenth vertex in the second keyframe. A value of 100 means that a vertex in the first keyframe can potentially match any vertex in the second keyframe.
346 Drawing, painting, and paths When you use the Pan Behind (Anchor Point) tool to pan a layer behind a mask, the position of the mask remains constant in the Composition panel but changes in the Layer panel. The Position values of the masked layer change in relation to the composition. As you pan past the edges of the layer frame, the Mask Path values on the layer also change.
347 Drawing, painting, and paths Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers 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. By default, the new attributes are inserted into the selected shape group or groups according to the following rules: • New paths are added below existing paths and groups.
348 Drawing, painting, and paths 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. Radial gradient The fill or stroke consists of colors and opacity values defined by a linear gradient, which are mapped onto the composition along a radius extending outward from the Start Point at the center to the End Point at the circumference of a circle.
349 Drawing, painting, and paths A Highlight control point B Start Point C 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.
350 Drawing, painting, and paths Line Join options for strokes The Line Join property for a stroke determines the appearance of the stroke where the path suddenly changes direction (turns a corner). Miter Join A pointed connection. The Miter Limit value determines the conditions under which a beveled join is used instead of a miter join. If the miter limit is 4, then when the length of the point reaches four times the stroke weight, a bevel join is used instead. A miter limit of 1 causes a bevel join.
351 Drawing, painting, and paths Alter shapes with path operations Path operations are similar to effects. These live operations act nondestructively on a shape’s path to create a modified path that other shape operations (such as fills and strokes) can apply to. The original path is not modified. Because path operations are live, you can modify or remove them at any time.
352 Drawing, painting, and paths transformations are auto-animated, meaning that they change over time without the need to set any keyframes or add expressions. The Wiggle Transform operation is especially useful following a Repeater operation, because it allows you to randomize the transformations of each repeated shape separately. (See Using the Repeater to replicate shapes.
353 Drawing, painting, and paths 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. The Merge Paths path operation has the following options, each of which performs different calculations to determine the output path: Merge Merges all input paths into a single compound path.
354 Drawing, painting, and paths The Offset property value is used to offset the transformations by a specific number of copies. For example, if the Copies value is 10 and the Offset value is 3, then the original shape is transformed by 3 times the amount specified in the Transform property group, and the last copy is transformed by 12 times the amount specified in the Transform property group. Animating the Offset property is a good way to easily create interesting results.
355 Drawing, painting, and paths To use the mask tracker, select a mask and click the Mask Path setting under the mask. Right-click the selected mask and select Track Mask to begin tracking a mask. When a mask is selected, the Tracker panel switches to mask tracking mode, and displays the following controls: • Track forward either one frame at a time or until the end of the layer. • Track backward either one frame at a time or until the end of the layer.
356 Drawing, painting, and paths How to use the Track Mask effect (Learn tutorial) Watch this tutorial to learn how to use the Track Mask effect in After Effects to add and shape mask elements that move accurately through your Premiere Pro sequence. How to use the Rigid Mask Tracker (Learn tutorial) See this tutorial to learn how to use the rigid mask tracker in After Effects.
357 Drawing, painting, and paths Effect Opacity Property The property group of each effect includes a Compositing Options property group. There is a new Effect Opacity property which provides similar functionality to every effect as the Blend With Original controls. With the Effect Opacity property, you can change the global opacity and it will affect the entire effect. There is no need to add a mask separately.
358 Drawing, painting, and paths Changes to a mask that is referenced by an effect will change where the effect is composited. For example, you can feather the mask or use per-vertex feathering to change the edge of the effect composite. Changing the opacity changes the overall intensity of the effect per for every mask. You can also use mask modes and combine multiple masks to apply an effect only to the area of intersection of masks. For more information, see the Mask modessection.
359 Chapter 10: Text Live Text Templates About Live Text Templates You can create text template compositions in After Effects wherein the source text can be edited in Premiere Pro. Any composition with text layers can be used as a text template, and unlocked text layers in that composition can be edited in Premiere Pro. Using Live Text Templates in After Effects 1 Create an After Effects composition with one or more text layers.
360 Text Learn tutorial Watch this tutorial to learn how to create live text templates in After Effects that are editable in Premiere Pro. Creating and editing text layers About text layers You can add text to a composition using text layers. Text layers are useful for many purposes, including animated titles, lower thirds, credit rolls, and dynamic typography. You can animate the properties of entire text layers or the properties of individual characters, such as color, size, and position.
361 Text Text formatting is included in the Source Text property. Use the Source Text property to animate formatting and to change the characters themselves (for example, change the letter b to the letter c). 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.
362 Text Scripts and expressions for working with text Christopher Green provides a script (crg_Text_from_File.jsx) on his website that creates one or multiple text layers based on the contents of a text file. You can either create one text layer from all of the text, or you can create one layer for each line in the text file. The script also provides options for leading and other spacing.
363 Text Note: The pointer for a type tool changes depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition panel. When ; click to create a new text layer. Shiftthe pointer is not directly over a text layer, it appears as a new text pointer click always creates a new text layer. 2 Enter text characters by typing. Press Enter on the main keyboard (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to begin a new line.
364 Text The pointer for a type tool changes, depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition panel. When the pointer for a type tool is directly over a text layer, it appears as the edit text pointer ; click to place the insertion point in the existing text. ? To select text with a type tool, do one of the following: • To select a range of text, drag over the text. • To select a range of text, click, move the pointer, and then Shift-click. • To select a word, double-click it.
365 Text When you convert from paragraph text to point text, a carriage return is added at the end of each line of text, except the last line. To display the bounding box of paragraph text and automatically select a type tool, double-click the text layer in the Timeline panel. Change the direction of text Horizontal text flows from left to right; multiple lines of horizontal text lie from top to bottom. Vertical text flows from top to bottom; multiple lines of text lie from right to left.
366 Text More Help topics Examples and resources for text animation Apply an effect or animation preset Formatting paragraphs with the Paragraph panel Type Preparing and importing Photoshop files Layer styles Formatting characters and the Character panel After Effects offers a wide range of creative options for formatting and customizing text. Use the Character panel to format characters. If text is selected, changes you make in the Character panel affect only the selected text.
367 Text When you select a font, you can select the font family and its font style independently. The font family (or typeface) is a collection of fonts sharing an overall design; for example, Times. A font style is a variant version of an individual font in the font family; for example, regular, bold, or italic. The range of available font styles varies with each font.
368 Text Note: Values for kerning and tracking affect Japanese text, but normally these options are used to adjust the aki (spacing) between Roman characters. Create a non-breaking space If a set of characters is set to be non-breaking, the characters animate together as if they were a single word. 1 Select the characters you want to prevent from breaking. 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.
369 Text Text fills and strokes For text, a fill is applied to the area inside the shape of an individual character; a stroke is applied to the outline of the character. After Effects applies a stroke to a character by centering the stroke on the character’s path; half of the stroke appears on one side of the path, and the other half of the stroke appears on the other side of the path.
370 Text ? 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.
371 Text Format text as superscript or subscript Superscript characters are reduced in size and shifted above the text baseline; subscript characters are reduced in size and shifted below the text baseline. If the font does not include superscript or subscript characters, After Effects generates faux superscript or subscript characters. • Click the Superscript button or the Subscript button in the Character panel. • Choose Superscript or Subscript from the Character panel menu.
372 Text 1 Select the characters that you want to rotate. 2 Choose Tate-Chuu-Yoko from the Character panel menu. (A check mark indicates that the option is turned on. To turn off the option, choose Tate-Chuu-Yoko again.) Note: You open the panel menu by clicking the panel menu button in the upper-right tab of the panel. Using tate-chuu-yoko does not prevent you from editing and formatting text; you can edit and apply formatting options to rotated characters as you do to other characters.
373 Text Eran Stern provides a set of video tutorials on the Creative COW website that show how to use the text animation features to create a variety of simple animations, including some that use punctuation and other non-alphanumeric symbols as simple vector graphics elements: • After Effects Text Tricks - Part 1 • After Effects Text Tricks - Part 2 Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates how to use per-character 3D text animation to animate text along a path i
374 Text Example: Offset characters This example illustrates how you can easily animate random characters so that they gradually form a legible word or phrase by specifying a Character Offset value and animating the range selector. 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer with the word Galaxy. 3 Choose Animation > Animate Text > Character Offset. 4 In the Timeline panel, set the Character Offset value to 5. 5 Expand Range Selector 1.
375 Text 3 Choose Animation > Animate Text > Position. 4 In the Timeline panel, drag the y value of the Position property to the left until all of the characters are out of the frame. 5 Expand Range Selector 1. 6 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%. 7 Preview the composition. 8 Collapse the Animator 1 group.
376 Text 9 Preview the animation. 10 With the current-time indicator at 0, take a snapshot of the Composition panel. You will use this snapshot, and the grids, to determine the original location of the number 7 at the end of the animation. 11 Move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds. 12 Click the Show Snapshot button. 13 In the Timeline panel, select Animator 1 and choose Line Anchor from the Add menu.
377 Text 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 Move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds and drag the start selector in the Composition panel to the right edge of the text (the value will be 5). 8 Preview the composition.
378 Text 5 Add an Expression selector by selecting the Add menu, then choosing Selector > Expression. Expand the Expression selector to reveal its options. 6 Expand the Amount property to reveal the expression.
379 Text As with other layers in After Effects, you can animate entire text layers. However, text layers offer additional animation features with which you can animate the text within the layers. You can animate text layers by using any of the following methods: • Animate the Transform properties, as you would any other layer, to change the entire layer, not its text contents. • Apply text animation presets. (See Text animation presets.
380 Text Animate text with text animators Animating text with animators and selectors consists of three basic steps: • Add an animator to specify which properties to animate. • Use a selector to specify how much each character is affected by the animator. • Adjust the animator properties. Note: To always affect all characters in the layer, delete the default selector. In this case, animating a text layer is not much different from animating any other layer.
381 Text For example, to animate opacity gradually from the first character to the last, you can add an animator for Opacity, set the Opacity value (in the Animator property group) to 0, and then set keyframes for the End property of the default selector to 0% at 0 seconds and 100% at a later time. You can create elaborate animations using several animators and several selectors, each of which adds its influence to the text animation.
382 Text • To rename an animator group, make sure that it is the only thing selected, and then press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS); or right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the name and choose Rename. • To reorder an animator group, drag it to a new location in the stacking order in the Timeline panel. Animator properties Anchor Point Anchor point for the characters: the point about which transformations—such as scaling and rotation— are performed. (See Text anchor point properties.
383 Text Use a Wiggly selector to vary a selection within a specified amount over time. Use expression selectors to use expressions to dynamically specify how much you want characters to be affected by an animator property. • To add a selector using the Timeline panel, select an animator group in the Timeline panel and choose Selector from the Add menu for the animator group, or choose Animation > Add Text Selector. Choose Range, Wiggly, or Expression from the submenu.
384 Text 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.
385 Text Random Seed Calculates the randomized order of a range selector when the Randomize Order option is set to On. When Random Seed is zero, the seed is based on its animator group. If you want to duplicate an animator group and retain the same randomized order as in the original animator group, set Random Seed to a value other than zero.
386 Text 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. In addition, you can control the alignment of the anchor points of the characters relative to the anchor point of the group with the Grouping Alignment property.
387 Text 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 select certain properties in the Timeline panel for a text animation, anchors points are shown in the Composition panel.
388 Text Angie Taylor provides a tutorial on the Digital Arts website that shows how to use per-character 3D text animation together with a common workaround for simulating extruded 3D text. Creating and animating text on a path 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.
389 Text More Help topics About animation, keyframes, and expressions Apply an effect or animation preset Examples and resources for text animation Expression basics Mask modes Example: Animate characters with per-character 3D properties Create masks Mask modes Extruding text and shape layers About beveled and extruded text and shape layers In computer graphics, an extruded object is one that appears to be three-dimensional.
390 Text Existing capabilities like soft shadows, motion blur, depth-of-field blur, intra-character shadowing, projection of an image onto a surface with any light type, and intersection of layers are supported. 2D layer backdrops at the bottom of the stacking order are visible, and you can look through translucent objects to see them. In this video by Todd Kopriva and video2brain, learn how to use the Ray-traced 3D renderer to render extruded text and shape layers.
391 Text Monitoring and changing the composition renderer With the addition of the new Ray-traced renderer, a Current Renderer button has been added to the upper-right corner of the Composition panel to make it easier to tell which composition renderer ("Classic 3D" or "Ray-traced 3D") is in use, and to modify renderer settings. This button appears only when there are 3D layers, including cameras and lights, in the composition.
392 Text Bending a footage layer In the Ray-traced renderer, 3D footage and nested composition layers have the following geometry options for curving them around a vertical axis: • Curvature: The amount of bend (as a percentage). It defaults to 0% (no bend), but can go between -100% and 100% to simulate video walls or the flapping of wings. • Segments: The smoothness of or number of facets in the bend, with a lower number producing a coarser look with wider facets.
393 Text • Transparency Rolloff: For a transparent surface, controls the amount of transparency relative to the viewing angle. Transparency will be the specified value when viewing directly at a surface and more opaque when viewing at a glancing angle (for example, along the edges of a curved object if looking directly at it). • Index of Refraction: Controls how light bends through 3D layers, and hence how objects behind a semitransparent layer appear. For a list of indexes, see http://en.wikipedia.
394 Text 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.
395 Text Align and justify text You can align text to one edge of a paragraph (left, center, or right for horizontal text; top, center, or bottom for vertical text) and justify text to both edges of a paragraph. Alignment options are available for both point text and paragraph text; justification options are available only for paragraph text. • To specify alignment, in the Paragraph panel, click an alignment option: : Aligns horizontal text to the left, leaving the right edge of the paragraph ragged.
396 Text Hanging punctuation for Roman fonts Hanging punctuation controls whether punctuation marks fall inside or outside the margins. If hanging punctuation is turned on for Roman fonts, then periods, commas, single quotation marks, double quotation marks, apostrophes, hyphens, em dashes, en dashes, colons, and semicolons appear outside the margins. ? To enable or disable hanging punctuation for Roman fonts, choose Roman Hanging Punctuation from the Paragraph panel menu.
397 Chapter 11: Transparency and compositing Roto Brush, Refine Edge, and Refine Matte effects | CC Separating a foreground object, such as an actor, from a background is a crucial step in many visual effects and compositing workflows. When you’ve created a matte that isolates an object, you can replace the background, selectively apply effects to the foreground, and much more.
398 Transparency and compositing Roto Brush & Refine Edge effect This effect is applied automatically when the first Roto Brush or Refine Edge stroke is drawn in the layer panel. Use this effect to control the settings for the Roto Brush & Refine Edge tools. After you have created a segmentation boundary and the boundary edges that need refining, use the Roto Brush Matte and Refine Edge Matte properties to improve the matte.
399 Transparency and compositing • Work with resolution set to Full when using the Roto Brush or Refine Edge tools. Fast Previews modes, such as Adaptive Resolution, don’t work well with these tools, because switching resolutions requires a full recalculation of the segmentation and transparency information. For this reason, Fast Previews modes are turned off when you draw a Roto Brush or Refine Edge stroke. Both the Composition and Layer panels share the Fast Previews setting. (See Resolution .
400 Transparency and compositing The magenta outline that appears around the foreground object in Alpha Boundary view mode is the segmentation boundary, the rough line that separates the foreground from the background. You can also view the segmentation using other view modes. (See Layer panel view options .) 5 Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to draw a background stroke on the area that you want to define as the background.
401 Transparency and compositing 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.
402 Transparency and compositing 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. (See Roto Brush & Refine Edge, Refine Hard Matte, and Refine Soft Matte effect reference .
403 Transparency and compositing When Roto Brush & Refine Edge segmentation is frozen, the pointer for the Roto Brush & Refine Edge tools has a slash through it. It indicates that new strokes won't affect the result untill you unfreeze. The information that is cached and locked is the result of Roto Brush & Refine Edge strokes and the properties in the Roto Brush Propagation property group of the Roto Brush & Refine Edge effect.
404 Transparency and compositing Roto Brush & Refine Edge, Refine Hard Matte, and Refine Soft Matte effect reference The Roto Brush & Refine Edge effect properties in the Roto Brush Propagation property group affect segmentation between foreground and background and how that segmentation information is used for contiguous frames in a span. Other properties of the Roto Brush & Refine Edge effect affect the matte that is generated based on the initial segmentation.
405 Transparency and compositing Invert Foreground/Background Inverts which strokes are considered foreground strokes and which strokes are considered background strokes in the segmentation phase. Fine-tune Roto Brush Matte Enable or disable finer adjustments for Roto Brush Matte. These controls are used to adjust the segmentation boundary defined by foreground and background strokes.
406 Transparency and compositing Contrast Contrast of the alpha channel in the refined area. Shift Edge The amount of expansion of the matte relative to the value of the Feather 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). Chatter Reduction Enable or disable Chatter Reduction. Choose More Detailed or Smoother (Slower).
407 Transparency and compositing Reduce Chatter Increase this property to reduce erratic changes to edges from one frame to the next. This property determines how much influence the current frame should have when performing a weighted average across adjacent frames to make the matte edges not move erratically from one frame to the next. If the Reduce Chatter value is high, the chatter reduction is strong, and the current frame is considered less.
408 Transparency and compositing Contrast Contrast of the alpha channel in the refined area. Shift Edge The amount of expansion of the matte relative to the value of the Feather 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). Chatter Reduction Enable or disable Chatter Reduction. Choose More Detailed or Smoother (Slower).
409 Transparency and compositing A Separated color channels B Alpha channel represented as a grayscale image C Composite using all four channels with a background showing through transparent areas Many file formats can include an alpha channel, including Adobe Photoshop, ElectricImage, FLV, TGA, TIFF, EPS, PDF, and Adobe Illustrator.
410 Transparency and compositing About masks A mask in After Effects is a path that is used as a parameter to modify layer attributes, effects, and properties. The most common use of a mask is the modification of an alpha channel of a layer, which determines the transparency of the layer at each pixel. Another common use of a mask is as a path along which to animate text. (See Creating and animating text on a path.) For more information on paths in general, see About paths.
411 Transparency and compositing Mathias Möhl provides the CopyMask2Layers script, with which you can copy masks from one layer to others while preserving the masks’ position and shape. Copy, cut, duplicate, or paste a mask Note: When working with a mask path—rather than the entire mask, including its other properties—select the Mask Path property. This is especially important when transferring mask paths to shape paths, motion paths, and so on.
412 Transparency and compositing 2 Click the color swatch to the left of the mask name, pick a new color, and click OK. Cycle through colors for mask paths 1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Appearance. 2 Select Cycle Mask Colors. Mask modes Blending modes for masks (mask modes) control how masks within a layer interact with one another. By default, all masks are set to Add, which combines the transparency values of any masks that overlap on the same layer.
413 Transparency and compositing 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. Add The mask is added to the masks above it in the stacking order. The influence of the mask is cumulative with the masks above it.
414 Transparency and compositing Expand or contract the edges of a mask To expand or contract the area influenced by a mask, use the Mask Expansion property. Mask expansion affects the alpha channel but not the underlying mask path; the mask expansion is essentially an offset that determines how far, in pixels, from the mask path the influence of the mask on the alpha channel extends. 1 In the Timeline panel, expand the Mask properties of the layer you want to adjust.
415 Transparency and compositing Variable-width mask feathering | CC, CS6 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.
416 Transparency and compositing Enable the Hold option from the context menu above the feather point. The feather point handle changes to be pointy in the direction of constant radius. To quickly create a feathered edge for a specific mask segment: Hold down the Shift key as you click the mask segment (between vertices, not above them). The pointer changes to indicate that you are in this mode. Drag from the segment to adjust the extent.
417 Transparency and compositing Defining the transparency of a layer based on the luminance of the track matte’s pixels is useful when you want to create a track matte using a layer without an alpha channel or a layer imported from a program that can’t create an alpha channel. In both cases—using alpha channel mattes and using luminance mattes—pixels with higher values are more transparent. In most cases, you use a high-contrast matte so that areas are either completely transparent or completely opaque.
418 Transparency and compositing If you choose an option other than No Track Matte, After Effects converts the next layer above into a track matte, turns off the video of the track 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.
419 Transparency and compositing Resources for Imagineer mocha shape for After Effects After Effects includes Imagineer Systems mocha for After Effects (mocha-AE), a stand-alone planar tracking application that can export tracking data for use in compositions in After Effects. (See Resources for mocha for After Effects (mocha AE).) After Effects also includes the mocha shape for After Effects (mocha shape) plug-in, which converts paths from mochaAE into mattes in After Effects.
420 Transparency and compositing Layers can also be composited together without modifying the transparency of the layers themselves. For example, you can use blending modes or some of the Channel effects to blend image data from multiple layers into a composite. (See Blending modes and layer styles and Channel effects.) After Effects also includes the mocha shape for After Effects (mocha shape AE) plug-in, which converts paths from mocha-AE into mattes in After Effects.
421 Transparency and compositing 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.
422 Transparency and compositing Jeff Foster provides free sample chapters from his book The Green Screen Handbook: Real World Production Techniques. The sample chapters 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.
423 Transparency and compositing • For evenly lit footage, adjust keying controls on only one frame. Choose the most intricate frame of the scene, one involving fine detail such as hair and transparent or semitransparent objects, such as smoke or glass. If the lighting is constant, the same settings you apply to the first frame are applied to all subsequent frames. If lighting changes, you may need to adjust keying controls for other frames.
424 Transparency and compositing A Original bluescreen image. The background for the number is also blue. B After keying, the background for the number is also transparent. C Hold-out matte containing the part of the image you want to remain opaque D When the hold-out matte is placed on top of the keyed image, the background for the number is now opaque. 1 Duplicate the layer containing the color screen. 2 Apply keying effects and Matte effects to the original layer to create transparency.
425 Chapter 12: Effects and animation presets Effects and animation presets overview Animation presets overview and resources With animation presets, you can save and reuse specific configurations of layer properties and animations, including keyframes, effects, and expressions. For example, if you created an explosion using several effects with complex property settings, keyframes, and expressions, you can save all of those settings as a single animation preset.
426 Effects and animation presets Animation presets are loaded and initialized only when the Effects & Presets panel is shown. If the Effects & Presets panel is closed or hidden behind another panel, the animation presets are not initialized. 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.
427 Effects and animation presets Note: If you open a project that uses an effect for which After Effects has not loaded the plug-in, a warning dialog box appears, and instances of the effect have Missing: at the beginning of its name in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel. To show all instances of missing effects in 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.
428 Effects and animation presets The order in which After Effects renders masks, effects, layer styles, and transform properties—called the render order—may affect the final result of an applied effect. By default, effects appear in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel in the order in which they were applied. Effects are rendered in order from top to bottom in this list. To change the order in which effects are rendered, drag the effect name to a new position in the list.
429 Effects and animation presets Bob Donlon provides the following tutorial about the CC Particle Systems II effect on the Adobe website: • simulating fire Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on his website that demonstrates the CC Particle System II and CC Mr. Mercury effects. Compound effects and control layers Several effects rely on a control layer (or layer map) as input.
430 Effects and animation presets When you apply an effect with a Comp Camera attribute to a 2D layer, the effect can track the camera and light positions within the composition and render a 3D image on the 2D layer that it is applied to.
431 Effects and animation presets Effects and Presets panel Browse and apply effects and animation presets with the Effects & Presets panel. An icon identifies each item in the panel by type. Numbers within the icons for effects indicate whether the effect works on a maximum of 8, 16, or 32 bits per channel. You can scroll through the list of effects and animation presets, or you can search for effects and animation presets by typing any part of the name in the search box at the top of the panel.
432 Effects and animation presets Note: Applying an effect or animation preset to a layer selects the layer. By default, when you apply an effect to a layer, the effect is active for the duration of the layer. However, you can make an effect start and stop at specific times or make the effect more or less intense over time by using keyframes or expressions or by applying the effect to an adjustment layer. Animation presets are applied at the current time.
433 Effects and animation presets Remove an effect or animation preset You can remove an effect or animation preset from the folder in which After Effects searches for these items, preventing it from being loaded and from being shown in the Effects & Presets panel or Effect menu. 1 Select the effect or animation preset in the Effects & Presets panel. 2 Choose Reveal In Explorer (Windows) or Reveal In Finder (Mac OS) from the panel menu. 3 Move the effect (.aex) or animation preset (.
434 Effects and animation presets • 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).
435 Effects and animation presets • 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 - posit
436 Effects and animation presets • 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 P
437 Effects and animation presets Image - Utilities • Compress-Expand Dynamic Range • Crop Edges • Flip + Flop • 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
438 Effects and animation presets Elements 2* • Box Grid* • Crosshatch Focus* • 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_fad
439 Effects and animation presets • Dancing Knot • Mandala - animated • Phase Scope • SpiroMandala • TwinkleStar Sprites - Animated 2* • 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 • R
440 Effects and animation presets • I Ching* (hexagrams and trigrams) • Pictograms* • Schematic* (antennas, batteries, capacitors, diodes, grounds, inductors, logic symbols, resistors, transformers, transistors, tubes) Sound Effects • Blaster • 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
441 Effects and animation presets • 3D Flutter In From Left • 3D Flutter In Random Order • 3D Flutter Out From Right • 3D Fly Down & Unfold • 3D Fly Down Behind Camera • 3D Fly Down Random & Rotate Y • 3D Lines Zoom In • 3D Rain Down Words & Colors • 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 P
442 Effects and animation presets Animate In • Center Spiral • Characters Shuffle In • Decoder Fade In • Drop In By Character • Espresso Eye Chart • Fade Up And Flip • Fade Up Characters • Fade Up Lines • Fade Up Words • Fly In From Bottom • Fly In With A Twist • Pop Buzz Words • 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-Lin
443 Effects and animation presets • Random Word Fly Off • Slide Off Right By Character • Slide Off Right By Word • Stretch Out Each Line • Stretch Out Each Word • Twirl Off Each Line • Twirl Off Each Word Blurs • Blur By Word • Bullet Train • Evaporate • Foggy • Jiggy • Transporter Curves and Spins • 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 I
444 Effects and animation presets 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 • Stroke Ease Down • Wiggly Stroke Width By Line • Wiggly Stroke Width Graphical • Bars Blinky • Bars Lime • Blue Note • Cut Shapes • Exchange • Green Dots • Hazard •
445 Effects and animation presets 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 • Doppler • Electro Magnet • Helicopter • Insert Text • Kinematic • Mechanical • Pistons • Rack & Pinion • Roadtrip • Scale Bounce • Screen Roll • Stairstep • Subma
446 Effects and animation presets • Underscore • Warp 9.8 Miscellaneous • Angle Fly-In • Back Flip • Blow Away • Bounce In • Bungee • Chaotic • Clay Pigeons • Dot.
447 Effects and animation presets • 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 • Insec
448 Effects and animation presets • 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 Last updated 11/3
449 Effects and animation presets • Loop On And Off • Lyrical • Organism • 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 Last updated 1
450 Effects and animation presets • Scale Up Word • Scale Up • Wiggly Scale Wipe • Zoom Away • Zoom Forward Tracking • Contract • Decrease Tracking • Extend • Increase Tracking • Magnify • Spasm • Stretchy Transform • Separate XYZ Position See Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individually.
451 Effects and animation presets • Ovals - concentric NTSC • Ovals - concentric PAL • Ovals - random NTSC • Ovals - random PAL Transitions - Movement • 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
452 Effects and animation presets • Clam Shell • Clock Wipe • Corner Reveal • Grid Wipe • Iris - cross • Iris - diamond • Iris - points • Iris - round • Iris - square • Iris - star unfold • Iris - star • Iris - sunburst unfold • Iris - sunburst • Linear Wipe • Paint On - NTSC • Paint On - PAL • Radial Wipe - bottom • Radial Wipe - top • Venetian Blinds • Wedge Wipe More Help topics Working with Adobe Bridge and After Effects Plug-ins Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel Cameras, lights, and po
453 Effects and animation presets Detail-preserving Upscale effect The Detail-preserving Upscale effect is capable of scaling up images by large amounts while preserving details in the image. 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.
454 Effects and animation presets Blur & Sharpen effects • Bilateral Blur effect • Box Blur effect • Camera Lens Blur effect • Channel Blur effect • Compound Blur effect • 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 Channel eff
455 Effects and animation presets 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
456 Effects and animation presets • 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.
457 Effects and animation presets Expression Controls effects See Expression Controls effects.
458 Effects and animation presets 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 • Advanced Spill Suppressor effect Third-party effects: • CC Simple Wire Removal effect • Keylight Matte effects • Matte Choker effect • Roto Brush and Refine Matte • Simple Choker effect Third-party effects: • mocha shape Noise & Grain effects • Add
459 Effects and animation presets • Bevel Edges effect • Drop Shadow effect • Radial Shadow effect Third-party effects: • CC Cylinder effect • CC Environment effect (CS6) • CC Sphere effect • CC Spotlight effect 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.
460 Effects and animation presets • Mosaic effect • Motion Tile effect • Posterize effect • Roughen Edges effect • Scatter effect • Strobe Light effect • Texturize effect • Threshold effect Third-party effects: • CC Block Load effect (CS6) • CC Burn Film effect • CC Glass effect • CC Kaleida effect • CC Mr.
461 Effects and animation presets • Card Wipe effect • Gradient Wipe effect • Iris Wipe effect • Linear Wipe effect • Radial Wipe effect • Venetian Blinds effect 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) Utility effects • Apply Color LUT effect • Cineon Converter effect • Color Profile Conve
462 Effects and animation presets Use the Advanced Lighting effect instead. See Advanced Lightning effect. • Path Text effect Use text layers instead. See Creating and animating text on a path. Audio effects Trish and Chris Meyer provide tips about audio effects on the ProVideo Coalition website. Backwards effect The Backwards effect reverses the audio of a layer by playing the audio from the last frame to the first frame. The frames remain in their original order in the Timeline panel.
463 Effects and animation presets Modulation Depth The amount of modulation. Voice Phase Change The modulation phase difference in degrees between each subsequent voice. Divide 360 by the number of voices to find the optimum value. Invert Phase Inverts the phase of the processed (wet) audio, emphasizing more of the high frequencies; not inverting the phase emphasizes more of the low frequencies.
464 Effects and animation presets Parametric EQ effect The Parametric EQ effect emphasizes or attenuates specific frequency ranges. Parametric EQ is useful for enhancing music, such as boosting low frequencies to bring up bass. If you have audio with an unwanted sound (such as a beep from a forklift in the background), you can isolate and cut the frequency range of the beep to attenuate the sound. Using this effect, you can enhance up to three different bands of audio.
465 Effects and animation presets 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. You can have up to five tones for each instance of the Tone effect, to create a chord. When you apply this effect to a layer with audio, the dry (original, unprocessed) audio is ignored, and only the tone plays.
466 Effects and animation presets Some blur effects have a Repeat Edge Pixels option. Select this option to make the blur algorithm operate as if the pixel values beyond the edge of the layer are the same as the values of the edge pixels. This option keeps edges sharp, preventing them from darkening and becoming more transparent—the result of being averaged with a lot of zeroes. Deselect this option to make the blur algorithm operate as if the pixel values beyond the edge of the layer are zero.
467 Effects and animation presets This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Iterations How many times the blur is sequentially applied to the image. A value around 3 gives a blur similar in quality to Fast Blur. A higher number of iterations creates smoother transitions between colors and increases the blur, but it also increases the render time. The default value creates boxy results. Camera Lens Blur effect The effect is a replacement for the Lens Blur effect.
468 Effects and animation presets Note: In addition to enabling the Use Linear Working Space check box, be sure to work in 32-bpc color. Working with a lower color bit depth causes quantization. Forward and backward compatibility If the Camera Lens Blur effect is added to an After Effects CS5.5 and later project, and then saved as an After Effects CS5 project (see Save and back up projects in After Effects CS5.5 and later .), a warning appears stating that the effect is missing.
469 Effects and animation presets Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he demonstrates the use of the Directional Blur effect to make a gun slide look as if it is moving quickly. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Direction The direction of the blur. The blur is applied equally on either side of the center of a pixel; therefore, a setting of 180° and a setting of 0° produce the same results.
470 Effects and animation presets In After Effects CS5.5 and later, the Lens Blur effect has been replaced by the Camera Lens Blur effect. (See Camera Lens Blur effect (CS5.5) .) Richard Bird provides a video tutorial on the AETUTS+ website that shows how to use the Lens Blur effect to create a tilt-shift result. Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website that demonstrates how to use the Lens Blur effect to create the look of a shallow depth of field.
471 Effects and animation presets You can specify the level of anti-aliasing applied at Best quality; no anti-aliasing is applied at Draft quality. At Draft quality, the blur appears somewhat grainy. You may prefer the draft results for special effects, but the grain may flicker on interlaced displays. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Type Spin blurs in arcs around the Center point, as if the camera were rotating; Amount specifies degrees of rotation.
472 Effects and animation presets This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Radius How far the filter searches for dissimilar pixels to blur. Threshold How different the values of pixels should be before they are eliminated. Mode What parts of the image receive the blur. Normal specifies that the blur be applied to the entire selection, whereas Edge Only and Overlay Edge specify that the blur be applied only to the edges of color transitions.
473 Effects and animation presets The Color Difference Key effect creates transparency from opposite starting points by dividing an image into two mattes, Matte Partial A and Matte Partial B. Matte Partial B bases the transparency on the specified key color, and Matte Partial A bases transparency on areas of the image that don’t contain a second, different color. By combining the two matte, the Color Difference Key creates well-defined transparency values.
474 Effects and animation presets • Gamma sliders control how closely the transparency values follow a linear progression. At a value of 1 (the default), the progression is linear. Other values produce nonlinear progressions for particular adjustments or visual effects. 10 When adjusting individual mattes, choose from the View menu to compare the mattes with and without adjustments: • Choose Uncorrected to view a matte without adjustments. • Choose Corrected to view a matte with all adjustments.
475 Effects and animation presets The Color Range effect creates transparency by keying out a specified range of colors in either the Lab, YUV, or RGB color space. You can use this key on screens that consist of more than one color or on bluescreens or greenscreens that have been unevenly lit and contain different shades of the same color. This effect works with 8-bpc color. Use the Color Range effect 1 Select the layer that you want to make partially transparent, and choose Effect > Keying > Color Range.
476 Effects and animation presets A Original image B Background image C New background image D Final composite image Use the Difference Matte effect 1 Select a motion footage layer as the source layer. 2 In the source layer, find a frame that consists only of background, and save the background frame as an image file. (See Render and export a single frame of a composition.) 3 Import the image file into After Effects, and add it to the composition. The imported image becomes the difference layer.
477 Effects and animation presets 12 Before closing the Effect Controls panel, make sure to select Final Output from the View menu to ensure that After Effects renders the transparency. Extract effect The Extract effect creates transparency by keying out a specified brightness range, based on a histogram of a specified channel. It’s best used to create transparency in an image shot against a black or white background or against a background that is dark or bright but consists of more than one color.
478 Effects and animation presets Use the Inner/Outer Key effect To use the Inner/Outer key, create a mask to define the inside and outside edge of the object you want to isolate. The mask can be fairly rough—it doesn’t need to fit exactly around the edges of the object. In addition to masking a soft-edged object from its background, Inner/Outer Key modifies the colors around the border to remove contaminating background colors.
479 Effects and animation presets Linear keys create a range of transparency across an image. A linear key compares each pixel in the image to the key color you specify. If the color of a pixel closely matches the key color, it becomes completely transparent. Pixels that don’t match as well are made less transparent, and pixels that don’t match at all remain opaque. The range of transparency values, therefore, forms a linear progression.
480 Effects and animation presets 6 Adjust matching tolerance in one of the following ways: • Select the Plus (+) or the Minus (-) eyedropper, and then click a color in the left thumbnail image. The Plus eyedropper adds the specified color to the key color range, increasing the matching tolerance and the level of transparency. The Minus eyedropper subtracts the specified color from the key color range, decreasing the matching tolerance and the level of transparency. • Drag the matching tolerance slider.
481 Effects and animation presets Key out a luminance value with the Luma Key effect 1 Select the layer that you want to make partially transparent, and choose Effect > Keying > Luma Key. 2 Select a Key Type to specify the range to be keyed out. 3 Drag the Threshold slider in the Effect Controls panel to set the luminance value you want the matte to be based on. 4 Drag the Tolerance slider to specify the range of values to be keyed out. Lower values key out a smaller range of values near the threshold.
482 Effects and animation presets 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. • In Spill Suppressor, click the Key Color swatch and choose a color from the color wheel.
483 Effects and animation presets • CC Simple Wire Removal effect Note: The Key Color property is already linked with an expression to the Keylight effect's Screen Colour property, so you don't need to change it unless you want to use a different color for the despill process. To use a different color for the despill process, just disable or remove the Keylight expression. See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects.
484 Effects and animation presets Follow the steps below to apply the Keylight effect with the Key Cleaner and Advanced Spill Suppressor effect: 1 Use the Keylight + Key Cleaner + Advanced Spill Suppressor animation preset (in the Image-Utlities folder inder Animation Presets) to apply the three effects in order to the layer.
485 Effects and animation presets Noise and Grain effects 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 reproduction processes and by the equipment used to create the image.
486 Effects and animation presets 2 Choose a viewing method from the Viewing Mode control in the Effect Controls panel: 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. Final Output Renders the full active frame, using the current settings of the effect.
487 Effects and animation presets Generate a color-matching matte When a grain effect is first applied, a neutral gray color is used to generate a default color-matching matte, so that in most images a visible matte appears. The Color Matching group of controls uses color matching to precisely define a matte. The matte isolates portions of the image where the layer that uses the grain effect is blended with the input. 1 Apply a grain effect to the image.
488 Effects and animation presets 5 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. 6 Choose Final Output from the Viewing Mode control.
489 Effects and animation presets Work with noise samples in Grain effects Noise sampling is the first and most important step in removing noise from an image or in matching the noise of one image in another image. Normally, this process is entirely automatic. For fine control, you can switch to Manual mode and adjust the samples using the Sampling controls group in the Effect Controls panel.
490 Effects and animation presets Change the sampling source frame By default, the Remove Grain and Match Grain effects take noise samples from the first frame of the layer, but you can choose to sample the noise from a different frame. Changing the frame may be useful if large lighting or exposure variations occur between frames within the layer. 1 Decide which frame you want to sample; make sure that the project settings Display Style is set to Frames, numbering from zero.
491 Effects and animation presets By default, the grain or noise generated by the Add Grain and Match Grain effects moves at the same speed as the source material to accurately simulate realistic noise. Slowing down the noise processes may be useful for aesthetic effect or to keep the added noise from buzzing and drawing attention to itself. These effects have an internal randomizer that changes the positions of the noise pixels between frames.
492 Effects and animation presets Screen Multiplies the inverse brightness values of the noise and the source. The effect is like printing from a multiple exposure on a negative. The result is always brighter than the original. Overlay Combines the behavior of Film and Multiply: Both shadows and highlights get less grain, while midtones get a full application of grain. Add Grain effect The Add Grain effect generates new noise from nothing and does not take samples from existing noise.
493 Effects and animation presets Note: The values of the Tweaking controls are relative to the noise sampled in the source layer: a value of 1.0 leaves that property of the source noise unchanged, while higher and lower values alter the applied noise. Adjust any of the following controls in the Tweaking controls group: Intensity Controls the amount of variation in brightness and color strength between pixels in the generated noise, which determines the visibility of the noise.
494 Effects and animation presets The Evolution controls create subtle changes in the shape of the fractal noise. Animating these controls results in smooth changes of the noise over time, creating results that resemble, for example, passing clouds or flowing water. Chris Zwar provides an article on the Creative COW website that explains how the Fractal Noise effect works, including many details and images regarding the inner workings of the effect.
495 Effects and animation presets Note: Increasing Complexity results in longer rendering times. If appropriate, try reducing the Size rather than increasing Complexity to achieve similar results and avoid longer rendering. A trick to increase apparent complexity without increasing rendering time is to use a negative or very high Contrast or Brightness setting and choose Wrap Back for Overflow. Sub Settings The fractal noise is generated by combining layers of noise.
496 Effects and animation presets 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.
497 Effects and animation presets Note: The Match Grain effect samples the noise on the frame in the source layer that corresponds to the first frame in the destination layer. If the source layer is not present at that frame, or if the noise samples contain transparent areas, no noise is sampled or applied. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Match noise or grain between images 1 Make sure that the source and the destination layers are in the same composition.
498 Effects and animation presets 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. Final Output Renders the full active frame, using the current settings of the effect. 8 Animate the added grain, if desired. 9 Choose Final Output from the Viewing Mode control.
499 Effects and animation presets Noise effect The Noise effect randomly changes pixel values throughout the image. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. 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. Otherwise, the same random value is added to all channels for each pixel. Clipping Clips color channel values. Deselecting this option causes more apparent noise.
500 Effects and animation presets To produce flashing noise, animate the Random Seed control. To create smoothly animated noise, animate the Noise Phase value. Noise Phase Specifies the placement of noise. This control is active only if you choose Uniform Animation or Squared Animation. Noise Options (Animation) How noise is animated. Alter the timing of the Noise Phase keyframes to adjust the speed of the Noise Phase cycles.
501 Effects and animation presets Remove Grain effect To remove grain or visual noise, use the Remove Grain effect. This effect uses sophisticated signal processing and statistical estimation techniques in an attempt to restore the image to how it would look without the grain or noise. While many techniques, such as applying a mild Gaussian Blur effect or the Median effect, reduce the visibility of noise in an image, the tradeoff is an unavoidable loss of sharpness and highlights.
502 Effects and animation presets Note: Once the optimum number of passes is applied, additional passes have no effect. 4 Choose one of the following from the Mode pop-up menu: Multichannel Degrains all channels of a color image together, which generally produces the best results on color images. This mode takes advantage of correlations between channels to improve the accuracy of the denoising process. Single Channel Degrains each channel independently.
503 Effects and animation presets 7 Try the following techniques if you want to improve the results: • To quickly reduce noise in a movie that has a lot of buzzing noise, set the Noise Reduction value to zero and the Temporal Filtering Amount to 100%, and render the movie. • To speed up previews, apply temporal filtering to your layer after all the settings for a single frame have been adjusted.
504 Effects and animation presets Clip Remaps values so that any value above 1.0 is displayed as pure white, and any value below 0 is displayed as pure black. The Contrast value influences how much of the image falls outside this range. Higher values result in a mostly black and/or white image with less gray area. Therefore, higher contrast settings display less subtle detail. When used as a luma matte, the layer has sharper, better-defined areas of transparency.
505 Effects and animation presets You can easily create new noise animations by reusing previously created Evolution cycles and changing only the Random Seed value. Using a new Random Seed value alters the noise pattern without disturbing the Evolution animation. Opacity The opacity of the noise. Blending Mode The blending operation between the noise and the original image.
506 Effects and animation presets About Transition effects and the Transition Completion property All Transition effects except the Iris Wipe effect have a Transition Completion property. When this property is 100%, the transition is complete, and the underlying layers show through; the layer to which the effect is applied is entirely transparent. You typically animate this property from 0% to 100% over the time of the transition.
507 Effects and animation presets Basic controls Transition Width The width of the area that actively changes from the original to the new image. Back Layer The layer that appears in segments on the backs of the cards. You can use any layer in the composition; its Video switch can even be turned off. If the layer has effects or masks, precompose the layer first. Rows & Columns Specifies the interaction of the numbers of rows and columns. Independent makes both the Rows and Columns sliders active.
508 Effects and animation presets Focal Length The distance from the camera to the image. 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’s 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.
509 Effects and animation presets The gradient layer can be a still image or a moving image. The gradient layer must be in the same composition as the layer to which you apply Gradient Wipe. You can create gradient layers in many ways, such as using the Ramp effect or creating them in Photoshop or Illustrator. Transition Softness The degree to which the transition is gradual for each pixel.
510 Effects and animation presets Linear Wipe effect The Linear Wipe effect performs a simple linear wipe of a layer in a specified direction. At Draft quality, the edge of the wipe isn’t anti-aliased; at Best quality, the edge of the wipe is anti-aliased and the feather is smooth. Wipe Angle The direction that the wipe travels. For example, at 90° the wipe travels from left to right. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. In After Effects CS6 or later, this effect works in 32-bit color.
511 Effects and animation presets Venetian Blinds effect The Venetian Blinds effect reveals an underlying layer using strips of specified direction and width. At Draft quality, the strips are animated with pixel precision; at Best quality, the strips are animated with subpixel precision. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
512 Effects and animation presets Additional resources about Channel effects Satya Meka provides the Separate RGB effect plug-in on the After Effects Scripts website. This effect—which was written with Pixel Bender—offsets, scales, and rotates each color channel of an image separately. Chris Forrester provides a video tutorial on his website that shows how to use the Channel Mixer, Shift Channels, and Set Matte effects to create mattes from color ID passes from 3D applications.
513 Effects and animation presets Note: To use a layer as a control layer for the Blend effect but not show the layer in the rest of the composition, deselect the control Video switch for the control layer. (See Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel.) Mode Blending mode: • Color Only colorizes each pixel in the original image based on the color of each corresponding pixel in the secondary image.
514 Effects and animation presets Channel Combiner effect The Channel Combiner effect extracts, displays, and adjusts channel values for a layer. Note: You can use this effect to view any channel as a grayscale image by choosing the channel from the From menu and choosing Lightness Only from the To menu. This effect works with 8-bpc color.
515 Effects and animation presets Stretch Second Source To Fit Scales the second layer to match the size (width and height) of the current layer. If this option is deselected, the second layer is placed at the current size of its source, aligned with the upper left corner of the source layer. 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.
516 Effects and animation presets Direction The axis along which to scan for values. Horizontal & Vertical scans all directions. Remove Color Matting effect The Remove Color Matting effect removes color fringes (halos) from layers with premultiplied color channels. Halos often occur when an area of partial transparency retains the color of the original background and is composited into a context with a different background color.
517 Effects and animation presets Sometimes, it’s easier and faster to create traveling mattes by using a track matte instead of using the Set Matte effect. However, using the Set Matte effect provides some advantages over defining a layer as a track matte layer. The layer used as the matte with the Set Matte effect can be anywhere in the layer stacking order, unlike a track matte layer, which must be directly above the matted layer in the layer stacking order.
518 Effects and animation presets More Help topics Blending modes and layer styles Distort effects You can use each of the Distort effects to distort (morph) an image.
519 Effects and animation presets The positions of the vertices and tangents determine the size and shape of a curved segment. Dragging these points reshapes the curves that form the edge, thus distorting the image. For example, you can use Bezier Warp to reshape one image to fit another, as in wrapping a label around a jar.
520 Effects and animation presets Pin All Edges Prevents the edges of the layer from bulging. Corner Pin effect The Corner Pin effect distorts an image by repositioning each of its four corners. Use it to stretch, shrink, skew, or twist an image or to simulate perspective or movement that pivots from the edge of a layer, such as a door opening. You can also use it to attach a layer to a moving rectangular region tracked by the motion tracker.
521 Effects and animation presets The displacement is determined from the color values of the displacement map. The color values range from 0 to 255. Each value is converted into a scale ranging from -1 to 1. The displacement amount is calculated by multiplying the converted value by the maximum displacement amount you specify. A color value of 0 produces maximum negative displacement (–1 * maximum displacement). A color value of 255 produces maximum positive displacement.
522 Effects and animation presets Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot websitethat 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. Areas outside the mask are distorted; areas within the mask are distorted according to Mask Opacity and Mask Feather settings.
523 Effects and animation presets 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 Altclicking (Windows) or Option-clicking (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.
524 Effects and animation presets Shape The shape of the magnified area. Center The center point of the magnified area. Magnification Percentage by which to scale the magnified area. Link How the Magnification setting affects the size and edge feathering of the magnified area. Setting Link to any value other than None disables the Resize Layer option. None The size and edge feathering of the magnified area don’t depend on the Magnification setting.
525 Effects and animation presets The Mesh Warp effect is commonly used to morph a pair of images to create a transition from one image to another. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. To select multiple vertices, Shift-click the vertices. Rows, Columns Specify up to 31 patches vertically (Rows) or horizontally (Columns). For broader distortion, use fewer patches. For finer control, use more. Drag the vertices and tangents to change the grid shape.
526 Effects and animation presets 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. For example, if you set this value to 100%, the effect has no visible result on the layer; if you set this value to 0%, the original image doesn’t show through. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
527 Effects and animation presets Polar Coordinates effect The Polar Coordinates effect distorts a layer by transposing each pixel in the (x,y) coordinate system of the layer to the corresponding position in the polar coordinate system, or the reverse. This effect produces unusual and surprising distortions that can vary greatly depending on the image and the controls you select.
528 Effects and animation presets By default, After Effects assigns the masks a function (source, destination, or boundary) based on the order in which you create or import them. You can also specify different masks. Use a closed path for each mask. All three masks must be on the layer to which you apply the Reshape effect, although you can copy masks from another layer. Source Mask The mask that contains the image area you want to reshape.
529 Effects and animation presets A mask can have an unlimited number of correspondence points, but the more correspondence points it has, the longer the effect takes to render. If the distortion appears twisted, try adding more correspondence points at distinguishing points along the masks. (If the arc lengths of the curves between correspondence points are too different, twisting may result.
530 Effects and animation presets Ripple effect The Ripple effect creates the appearance of ripples in a specified layer, moving away from a center point in concentric circles. The effect is similar to dropping a stone in a pond. You can also specify that ripples move toward the center point. Animate ripples at a constant speed using the Wave Speed control. This control doesn’t require keyframes for animation. Animate ripples at varying speeds by creating keyframes for the Ripple Phase control.
531 Effects and animation presets You can animate the position, size, and rotation of the source mask as it moves to its offset position. You can also animate the original position of the source mask in the Layer panel. Processing can take up to several minutes with certain settings. Computation time increases as the source mask gets closer to the boundary mask. Processing is interrupted when you click a control. Source Mask Specifies a mask as the source mask.
532 Effects and animation presets Spherize effect The Spherize effect distorts a layer by wrapping a region of the image onto a sphere. The quality setting of the layer influences the Spherize effect. Best quality samples the displaced pixels to subpixel precision; Draft quality samples to the nearest whole pixel. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Transform effect The Transform effect applies two-dimensional geometric transformations to a layer.
533 Effects and animation presets Cycle Evolution Creates a loop that forces the Evolution state to return to its starting point. 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.
534 Effects and animation presets 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. Warp Stabilizer effect (CS5.5 and later) Warp Stabilizer is a new option for stabilizing unsteady footage. For details see Stabilize motion with the Warp Stabilizer effect (CS5.5 and later).
535 Effects and animation presets More Help topics Tracking and stabilizing motion (CS5) Motion blur Utility effects Third-party effects: • CC Overbrights effect (CS6 or later) 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.
536 Effects and animation presets The 10 bits of data available in each Cineon channel for each pixel make it easier to enhance an important range of tones while preserving overall tonal balance. By carefully specifying the range, you can create a version of the image that faithfully resembles the original. Note: Each computer monitor has unique display characteristics that affect your perception of color.
537 Effects and animation presets The result of choosing a rendering intent depends on the graphical content of an image and on the profiles used to specify color spaces. Some profiles produce identical results for different rendering intents. When specifying a rendering intent, you can choose to use black point compression. Black point compression ensures that the shadow detail in the image is preserved by simulating the full dynamic range of the output device.
538 Effects and animation presets Note: You should not need to use this effect when working with effects that work with 32-bpc color, because these effects have been updated to automatically compensate for layer size. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. HDR Compander effect The HDR Compander (compressor/expander) effect gives you a way to work with tools that don’t support highdynamic-range color—such as 8-bpc and 16-bpc effects—without sacrificing the high dynamic range of footage.
539 Effects and animation presets A more convenient way to use the HDR Compander effect is to apply the Compress-Expand Dynamic Range animation preset. This animation preset consists of an expression and two instances of the HDR Compander effect: The first instance has Compress Range selected, and the second has Expand Range selected. The expression automatically sets the Gain and Gamma for the second instance to be the same as that which you set for the first instance.
540 Effects and animation presets 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. Temporal Smoothing can result in smoother looking corrections over time.
541 Effects and animation presets The Black & White effect is based on the Black & White adjustment layer type in Photoshop. Richard Harrington provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates the use of the Black & White effect. 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.
542 Effects and animation presets Hue Transform The amount, in degrees, to adjust hue. Lightness Transform Positive values brighten the matched pixels; negative values darken them. 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.
543 Effects and animation presets Change By How to change colors. Setting To Color performs a direct change of affected pixels to the target color. Transforming To Color transforms affected pixel values toward the target color, using HLS interpolation; the amount of change for each pixel depends on how close the color of the pixel is to the From color. Tolerance How much colors can differ from the From color and still be matched.
544 Effects and animation presets Color Link effect The Color Link effect colorizes one layer with the average pixel values of another layer. This effect is useful for quickly finding a color that matches the color of a background layer. This effect works with 8-bpc color. John Dickinson provides a video tutorial on his Motionworks website in which he demonstrates the use of the Color Link effect to blend a foreground layer with a background layer. Source Layer The layer from which to sample colors.
545 Effects and animation presets Colorama effect The Colorama effect is a versatile and powerful effect for converting and animating colors in an image. Using the Colorama effect, you can subtly 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.
546 Effects and animation presets • To add a triangle, click in or near the wheel, and select a color from the color picker. Click slightly to the left of the top arrows for the end color, and slightly to the right for the start color. • 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.
547 Effects and animation presets Matching Mode What color attributes are compared to determine matching. In general, use RGB for high-contrast graphics and Chroma for photographic images. Mask Layer The layer to use as a matte. Masking Mode specifies what attribute of the Mask Layer is used to define the matte. The matte determines which pixels of the layer to which the effect is applied are affected by the effect. Composite Over Layer Shows modified pixels composited on top of the original layer.
548 Effects and animation presets Equalize RGB equalizes the image based on red, green, and blue components. Brightness equalizes the image based on the brightness of each 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.
549 Effects and animation presets Hue/Saturation effect The Hue/Saturation effect adjusts the hue, saturation, and lightness of individual color components in an image. This effect is based on the color wheel. Adjusting the hue, or color, represents a move around the color wheel. Adjusting the saturation, or purity of the color, represents a move across its radius. Use the Colorize control to add color to a grayscale image converted to RGB, or to add color to an RGB image.
550 Effects and animation presets 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. Leave Color effect The Leave Color effect desaturates all colors on a layer except colors similar to the color specified by Color To Leave.
551 Effects and animation presets By choosing Alpha from the Channel menu, you can use the Levels effect to convert completely opaque or completely transparent areas of a matte to be semitransparent, or to convert semitransparent areas to be completely opaque or completely transparent. Because transparency is based on the monochrome alpha channel, the controls for this effect refer to complete transparency as black and complete opacity as white.
552 Effects and animation presets Photo Filter effect The Photo Filter effect mimics the technique of putting a colored filter in front of the camera lens to adjust the color balance and color temperature of the light transmitted through the lens and exposing the film. You can choose a color preset to apply a hue adjustment to an image, or you can specify a custom color using the color picker or the eyedropper.
553 Effects and animation presets You can import and apply an arbitrary map file with Options in the Effect Controls panel. When loaded into After Effects, the specified arbitrary map is applied to the layer or to one or more channels of the layer, depending on how it was created. If you don’t select an arbitrary map, After Effects applies the default map (linear distribution of brightness) to the layer. Although you can’t import .
554 Effects and animation presets Shadow/Highlight effect The Shadow/Highlight effect brightens shadowed subjects in an image and reduces the highlights in an image. This effect doesn’t darken or lighten an entire image; it adjusts the shadows and highlights independently, based on the surrounding pixels. You can also adjust the overall contrast of an image. The default settings are for fixing images with backlighting problems. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
555 Effects and animation presets want these colors to be more vivid. The higher the Color Correction value, the more saturated these colors become. The more significant the correction that you make to the shadows and highlights, the greater the range of color correction available. Note: If you want to change the color over the whole image, use the Hue/Saturation effect after applying the Shadow/Highlight effect. Midtone Contrast The amount of contrast that the effect applies to the midtones.
556 Effects and animation presets The Vibrance effect is especially useful for increasing saturation in an image without over-saturating skin tones. The saturation of colors with hues in the range from magenta to orange is affected less by Vibrance adjustments. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. To affect less-saturated colors more than more saturated colors and protect skin tones, modify the Vibrance property. To adjust the saturation of all colors equally, modify the Saturation property.
557 Effects and animation presets and casts shadows in all directions. First Comp Light uses the first light layer in the composition, which can use a variety of settings. Light Intensity Specifies the power of the light. The higher the value, the brighter the layer. Other lighting settings affect the overall light intensity as well. Light Color Specifies the color of light. Light Position Specifies the position of the light in x,y space.
558 Effects and animation presets 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. Card Dance uses the intensity of the gradient to animate the x-axis rotation of the cards.
559 Effects and animation presets Note: Rows and columns are always evenly distributed across a layer, so unusually shaped rectangular tiles don’t appear along the edges of a layer—unless you use an alpha channel. Back Layer The layer that appears in segments on the backs of the cards. You can use any layer in the composition; its Video switch can even be turned off. If the layer has effects or masks, precompose the layer first. Gradient Layer 1 The first control layer to use to make the cards dance.
560 Effects and animation presets Focal Length Overrides the other settings if the results you’ve obtained aren’t what you need. If you set the Focal Length to something that doesn’t correspond to what the focal length would be if the pins were actually in that configuration, the image may look unusual (strangely sheared, for example). But if you know the focal length that you are trying to match, manually setting Focal Length is the easiest way to get correct results.
561 Effects and animation presets a certain way. Reflected abuts each edge of a bottom layer tile to a mirrored copy of the tile. This option can eliminate a hard edge where the two tiles meet. If Layer Size Differs Specifies how to handle the bottom layer when it is smaller than the composition. Blur Specifies the amount of blur applied to the bottom layer. To make the bottom sharp, set this control to 0. Higher values make the bottom appear increasingly blurry, especially where the water is deeper.
562 Effects and animation presets Foam effect This effect generates bubbles that flow, cling, and pop. Use the controls for the effect to adjust attributes for the bubbles such as stickiness, viscosity, life span, and bubble strength. You can control exactly how the foam particles interact with each other and with their environment, and specify a separate layer to act as a map, controlling precisely where the foam flows. For example, you can have particles flow around a logo or fill a logo with bubbles.
563 Effects and animation presets upper-left corner of the screen if you don’t select Zoom Producer Point. If you select Zoom Producer Point, the point moves with the universe as it is zoomed out, and the point ends up closer to the center of the screen. Production Rate Determines the rate at which bubbles are generated. This control does not affect the number of bubbles per frame. Rather, the rate is the average number of bubbles generated every 30th of a second. Higher numbers yield more bubbles.
564 Effects and animation presets Pop Velocity Controls how popping bubbles affect each other. When a bubble pops, it affects other bubbles around it by leaving a hole that other bubbles can fill, pushing other bubbles away, or popping other bubbles. The higher the value, the more popping bubbles affect one another. Viscosity Specifies the rate at which bubbles decelerate after being released from the producer point, and controls the speed of the flow of the bubbles.
565 Effects and animation presets Bubble Velocity faces the bubble in the direction of its motion. This setting is the most useful for flocking-style animations. Environment Map Specifies the layer that is reflected in the bubbles. If you want to use this layer only for the reflection, turn off the video switch for a layer. Reflection Strength Controls how much of the selected Environment Map is reflected in the bubbles. The higher the value, the more the reflection obscures the original bubble texture.
566 Effects and animation presets This effect works with 8-bpc color. Start by creating a stream or plane of particles, or by exploding an existing layer into particles. Once you have a layer of particles, you can control their properties, such as speed, size, and color. You can replace the default dot particles with images from an existing layer to create, for example, an entire snowstorm from a single snowflake layer. You can also use text characters as particles.
567 Effects and animation presets Particle content and particle generators Particle Playground can generate three kinds of particles: dots, a layer, or text characters. You can specify only one kind of particle per particle generator. Create particles by using the Cannon, the Grid, the Layer Exploder, and the Particle Exploder. The Grid creates particles in an organized grid format with straight rows and columns. The exploders create particles randomly, like firecracker sparks.
568 Effects and animation presets Note: By default, the Cannon is on and the Grid is off. If you are using the Grid and want to stop the Cannon from generating particles, turn off the Cannon by setting its Particles Per Second value to 0. Position Specifies the (x,y) coordinates of the grid center. When a grid particle is created, it is centered over its grid intersection, regardless of whether it is a dot, a layer, or a text character.
569 Effects and animation presets Affects Specifies which particles the Layer Exploder and Particle Exploder affect. Layer Map controls By default, the Cannon, Grid, Layer Exploder, and Particle Exploder create dot particles. To replace the dots with a layer in the composition, use the Layer Map. For example, if you use a movie of a single bird flapping its wings as a particle source layer, After Effects replaces all dots with an instance of the bird movie, creating a flock of birds.
570 Effects and animation presets Replace default Cannon particles with text You can use text characters as particles. For example, you can type a message that the Cannon shoots across the frame. You can also change the attributes of any three sets of characters. For example, you can make some of the characters larger or brighter than others. 1 In the Effect Controls panel, click Options. 2 Click Edit Cannon Text.
571 Effects and animation presets Note: The string matching is case-sensitive, and it does include punctuation marks and other symbols. As with all text features, consider using this feature with symbol fonts, like wingdings. Changing a particle over its lifespan Some controls affect the particle from birth: Cannon, Grid, Layer Exploder, and Particle Exploder.
572 Effects and animation presets Force Random Spread Specifies a range of randomness for the Force. At zero, all particles fall at the same rate. At a higher value, particles fall at slightly different rates. Although pure gravity accelerates all objects equally, increasing the Force Random Spread value can produce more realistic results with subjects such as leaves falling through air, where enough air resistance exists to vary the rates of descent of the leaves.
573 Effects and animation presets Age Feather Specifies the age range in seconds within which the Older/Younger Than value is feathered, or softened. Feathering creates a gradual, rather than abrupt, change. For example, if you set Older/Younger Than to 10 and Age Feather to 4, about 20% of particles start changing when they’re 8 seconds old, 50% change when they’re 10 seconds old (the Older/Younger Than value), and the remainder change by the time they’re 12 seconds old.
574 Effects and animation presets Note: Because particle properties use many kinds of units, such as pixels, degrees, and seconds, you may want to compress or expand the range of values from the layer map so that all the resulting values are usable in the measurement system of a specific particle property. First, use the Min and Max controls, which define the range of values to use from the layer map.
575 Effects and animation presets If you are using a layer map for Gradient Force where flat areas equal no adjustment, and you are using the Min and Max controls (not the Min or Max operators) to set the range of values for Gradient Force, set them to positive and negative values of the same number (for example, –30 and +30). This ensures that the middle of the range remains centered at zero. X Force Copies the coercion along the x axis of motion. Positive values push a particle to the right.
576 Effects and animation presets • 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.
577 Effects and animation presets Max Compares the brightness value of the layer map to the value of the particle property and uses the higher value. To amplify existing values of properties, try applying the Add operator with positive values or the Multiply operator with values above 1.0. To attenuate (tone down) property value changes, try applying the Multiply operator using values in the range 0.0–1.0.
578 Effects and animation presets To specify field rendering with a Particle Playground effect, select Enable Field Rendering in the Particle Playground options dialog box. Then Particle Playground calculates the simulation at double the frame rate of the current composition, which is what field rendering requires. Shatter effect Note: For information on properties shared by several of the Simulation effects, see Common Lighting controls and Material controls. The Shatter effect explodes images.
579 Effects and animation presets Wireframe Front View Displays the layer from a full-screen, straight-on camera angle with no perspective. Use this view to adjust effect points and other parameters that are hard to see from an angle. In addition, the outlines of the shatter map are visible so you can precisely position, rotate, and scale the shatter pattern. It’s handy to toggle between this view and the perspective view you use for the scene.
580 Effects and animation presets Depth Specifies the current center point in z space, or how far in front of or behind the layer the blast point is. Adjust Depth to determine how much of the blast radius is applied to the layer. The blast radius defines a sphere, and the layer is basically a plane; therefore, only a circular slice of the sphere intersects the plane. The farther away the layer is from the center of the blast, the smaller the circular slice.
581 Effects and animation presets Note: Some shapes have a balance point that falls outside the actual area of the shape—for example, the letters C and U. When designing a gradient layer in such a situation, avoid using grayscale versions of letters. Instead, use larger shapes that cover the balance point of each character. Invert Gradient Inverts the pixel values in the gradient. White becomes black, and black becomes white.
582 Effects and animation presets Front Mode, Side Mode, Back Mode Determine the appearance of the front, sides, and back of the pieces. Color applies the selected color to the applicable side of the piece. Layer takes the layer chosen in the corresponding Layer menu and maps it to the applicable side of the piece. Tinted Layer blends the chosen layer with the selected color; the effect is similar to viewing the layer through a colored filter.
583 Effects and animation presets the image may look unusual (strangely sheared, for example). But if you know the focal length that you are trying to match, this option is the easiest way to get correct results. Creating a custom shatter map All layers in After Effects are represented as an RGBA image, including black-and-white images. The Shatter effect calculates the luminance threshold of each channel to create a custom shatter map.
584 Effects and animation presets To understand how this effect works, consider the following information about the physics of waves: A wave consists of a peak and a trough. The amplitude of a wave is the height, or distance, between the peak and trough. The wavelength is the distance from one peak to the next. Frequency is the number of waves per second passing a fixed point. View controls View controls specify the method used to preview the Wave World effect.
585 Effects and animation presets Gamma Adjustment Controls the slope of the waves in relation to the Brightness. Results are visible only in Height Map view. Higher values result in rounder peaks and narrower valleys, while lower values result in smoother valleys and pointier peaks. Render Dry Areas As Specifies how the water surface is rendered when a dry area exists. Dry areas are created when a portion of the ground layer rises above the surface of the water.
586 Effects and animation presets Steepness Adjusts the steepness of the ground by expanding and contracting the height of the displaced wireframe. The mesh is locked at the black level, so it always grows up from the bottom. In other words, you cannot adjust the bottom of a canyon to be deeper; instead, you can adjust the rim to be higher. To make the canyon deeper, combine a higher Steepness setting with a lower Height setting.
587 Effects and animation presets Obsolete effects 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.
588 Effects and animation presets Lightning effect If you are working on a project that was created in an older version of After Effects and the Lightning effect is applied to one or more layers, you can continue to use this effect; otherwise, use the Advanced Lightning effect. (See Advanced Lightning effect.) This effect works with 8-bpc color. Start Point, End Point Where the lightning begins and ends. Segments The number of segments that form the main lightning bolt.
589 Effects and animation presets Random Seed An input value for the random noise generator that is the basis of the Lightning effect. If the random movement of the lightning interferes with another image or layer, enter a new value for Random Seed until you find one that works for you. Blending Mode The blending mode to use to composite the lightning on top of the original layer. These blending modes work identically to the ones in the Timeline panel.
590 Effects and animation presets 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.
591 Effects and animation presets Horizontal Scale, Vertical Scale Resize the characters by the specified percentage in the horizontal and vertical directions. Text is scaled from the initial rasterization size, specified for Size. Setting the scaling percentage greater than 100 may result in blurred edges. For best results, set Size to a point size that doesn’t require scaling beyond 100% to achieve the largest desired text size.
592 Effects and animation presets For Fade Time values between 0% and 100%, the opacity of the character is defined as a range across the halfway point between whole-number values of Visible Characters. For example, if Fade Time is 20%, the eighth character begins to appear at a Visible Character value of 7.40 and is fully opaque at 7.60. If Fade Time is set to 60%, the same character begins to appear at a value of 7.20 and is fully opaque at 7.80. Mode The blending mode used if characters overlap.
593 Effects and animation presets 2 In the Effect Controls panel, specify a key color in one of two ways: • Click the Key Color swatch to open the Color dialog box and specify a color. • Click the eyedropper, and then click a color on the screen. 3 Drag the Color Tolerance slider to specify the range of color to key out. Lower values key out a smaller range of colors near the key color. Higher values key out a wider range of color.
594 Effects and animation presets 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. • In Spill Suppressor, click the Key Color swatch and choose a color from the color wheel. To use the eyedropper in the Layer panel, choose Spill Suppressor from the View menu in the Layer panel.
595 Effects and animation presets This effect works with 8-bpc color. Lightning Type Specifies the characteristics of the lightning. note: The type determines the nature of the Direction/Outer Radius contextual control. In the Breaking type, the branches are focused toward the Direction point as the distance between Origin and Direction increases. Origin Specifies the point of origin for the lightning.
596 Effects and animation presets Fractal Type Specifies the type of fractal turbulence used to create the lightning. Core Drain Specifies the percentage by which the core strength is drained when creating a new fork. Increasing this value reduces the opacity of the core where new forks appear. Because forks draw their strength from the main core, decreasing this value reduces the opacity of the forks as well. Fork Strength Specifies the opacity of the new fork.
597 Effects and animation presets Thickness Thickness of the bands. Softness How feathered or blurry the bands appear. Inside Color, Outside Color Inside and outside colors of the bands. Blend Overlapping Colors Specifies that overlapping spectrums are blended. Hue Interpolation If the value is greater than 0, the frequencies displayed rotate through the hue color space.
598 Effects and animation presets Maximum Height Maximum height, in pixels, of a displayed frequency. Audio Duration Duration of audio, in milliseconds, used to calculate the waveform. Audio Offset Time offset, in milliseconds, used to retrieve the audio. Thickness The thickness of the waveform. Softness How feathered or blurry the waveform appears. Inside Color, Outside Color The inside and outside colors of the waveform. Waveform Options Mono combines the left and right channels of the audio layer.
599 Effects and animation presets This effect works with 8-bpc color. Cell Pattern The cell pattern to use. HQ denotes high-quality patterns that render with more definition than their unmarked counterparts. Mixed Crystals is available only as a high-quality option. note: The Static Plates option is identical in appearance to the Plates option. However, when evolving, the static plates retain a uniform lightness value, whereas the plates shift the lightness of the cell pattern.
600 Effects and animation presets Cycle The number of revolutions of the Evolution setting that the cell pattern 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 cell pattern, 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 cell pattern.
601 Effects and animation presets Blending Mode The blending mode used to combine the shape and the original layer. These blending modes behave like the blending modes in the Timeline panel, except for None, which displays only the shape, without the original layer. Ellipse effect The Ellipse effect draws an ellipse. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Eyedropper Fill effect The Eyedropper Fill effect (formerly the Color Picker effect) applies a sampled color to the source layer.
602 Effects and animation presets Set Choice Specifies the set used. Mandelbrot is the typical Mandelbrot set. Mandelbrot Inverse is the Mandelbrot set mathematically inverted. Julia always changes depending on the center point from the Mandelbrot set and can produce the set of all possible Julia sets. Julia Inverse is the inverse of the Julia set. To see a Julia set, you may want to set the magnification to a negative value, because these sets tend to fill up the complex plane outside the normal boundary.
603 Effects and animation presets Oversample Method Specifies the method used to oversample the effect: Edge Detect-Fast-May Miss Pixels performs a simple edge detection and oversamples only those pixels. This option is the fastest, especially in areas with a lot of solid color, such as black, and it generally produces results indistinguishable from Brute Force. Brute Force-Slow-Every Pixel oversamples every pixel in the image. It is slow but precise.
604 Effects and animation presets Corner Point The dimensions of each rectangle are the dimensions of the rectangle with opposite corners defined by the Anchor and Corner points. Width Slider The height and width of a rectangle are equal to the Width value, meaning that the rectangles are squares. Width & Height Sliders The height of a rectangle is equal to the Height value. The width of a rectangle is equal to the Width value. Border The thickness of the grid lines.
605 Effects and animation presets Color & Alpha Specifies that the effect fills the RGB and alpha channels of the fill area with the new color. Straight Color Specifies that the effect fills only the RGB channels of the fill area with the new color. Transparency Specifies that the effect fills only the transparent areas near the fill point. You must set a fill point in a transparent area for this option to work. Opacity Specifies that the effect fills only the opaque areas near the fill point.
606 Effects and animation presets Producer Point The point from which the waves appear. Parameters Are Set At Specifies whether parameters can be animated for individual waves. Birth specifies that each wave maintains the same parameter settings over time. Each Frame specifies that the waves change as the parameters change.
607 Effects and animation presets Source Center Specifies the center point of the shape, relative to the source layer. For example, if you isolate a shape that is positioned in the left half of the frame, the shape radiates to the left by default; you can move the source center anywhere on the layer. Value Channel The color attributes of the source layer used to define the image contours. Invert Input Inverts the chosen value channel option.
608 Effects and animation presets Fade-in Time Specifies the amount of time it takes the wave to fade into view. Fade-in Time is measured in seconds and begins with 0 opacity at birth. For example, if the Lifespan is 3 seconds and Fade-in Time is 1 second, the stroke is completely transparent at birth and fades smoothly to full opacity at 1 second. Fade-out Time Specifies the amount of time it takes the wave to fade out of view. Fade-out Time is measured backward in time from the end of the Lifespan.
609 Effects and animation presets John Dickinson provides an example on his Motionworks website of an EKG (electrocardiogram) simulation created using the Vegas effect. Stroke What to base the stroke on: Image Contours or Mask/Path. Image Contours If Image Contours is chosen from the Stroke menu, you specify what layer to take the image contours from and how to interpret the input layer. Input Layer The layer whose image contours are used.
610 Effects and animation presets Blend Mode Determines how the stroke is applied to the layer. Transparent creates the effect on a transparent background. Over places the stroke over the existing layer. Under places the stroke behind the existing layer. Stencil uses the stroke as an alpha channel mask, filling the stroke with the pixels of the original layer. Color Specifies the color of the stroke, unless Stencil is chosen for Blending Mode. Width Specifies the width of the stroke in pixels.
611 Effects and animation presets More Help topics Randomness and random seeds About masks Randomness and random seeds Matte effects 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.
612 Effects and animation presets 2 Set stage-one controls (the first three properties) to spread the matte as far as possible without altering its shape, as follows: Geometric Softness Specifies (in pixels) the largest spread or choke. Choke Sets the amount of choke. Negative values spread the matte; positive values choke it. 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.
613 Effects and animation presets See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects. About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects The 3D Channel effects work on 2D layers—specifically, 2D layers with 3D information in auxiliary channels. The sources of these 2D layers are image sequences that represent 3D scenes that have been rendered out of a 3D application. Use 3D Channel effects to integrate 3D scenes into 2D composites and to modify those 3D scenes.
614 Effects and animation presets ProEXR plug-ins, IDentifier and EXtractoR The EXtractoR and IDentifier plug-ins from fnord software are included with After Effects to provide access to multiple layers and channels of OpenEXR files. Documentation for fnord ProEXR plug-ins is available in a PDF document on the fnord software website, which includes links to a sample multi-channel EXR file and an After Effects project that uses it.
615 Effects and animation presets Background RGB This channel contains all RGB pixel values of the background without any foreground objects. It is mostly used to store dynamic environmental effects unique to 3D programs such as skies or backgrounds generated from procedural textures. This channel is anti-aliased. Unclamped RGB This channel contains the colors from the 3D application as they were presented to the 3D application’s renderer before it applied exposure and gamma adjustments.
616 Effects and animation presets Focal Plane The distance along the z axis of the focal plane from the camera. To show the depth of an object in the Info panel, click the object in the Composition panel or Layer panel using the Selection tool while the effect is selected. Maximum Radius How much blur is applied to objects outside the focal plane. Focal Plane Thickness Determines what depths are in focus on either side of the focal plane.
617 Effects and animation presets 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).
618 Effects and animation presets More Help topics Importing and using 3D files from other applications 3D layers Stylize effects 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. Smoothie effect • CC Plastic effect (CS6 or later) • CC RepeTile effect • CC Threshold effect • CC Threshold RGB effect See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects.
619 Effects and animation presets Stroke Randomness Creates nonuniform strokes. The more randomness, the more the strokes vary from the brush and stroke settings you’ve specified. Paint Surface Specifies where brush strokes are applied: Paint On Original Image Puts the strokes on top of the unmodified layer. This setting is the default. Paint On Transparent Causes only the strokes themselves to appear, leaving the layer transparent between the strokes.
620 Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/30/2015
621 Effects and animation presets 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.
622 Effects and animation presets Edge Black Level When this property is 0, only the pixels that have been identified as being part of an edge receive a stroke; when Render is set to Edges, the image is white except in areas with a pure black stroke. Increase the Edge Black Level property by a small amount to add shades of gray in the Edges phase of rendering. Increase this property by a larger amount to approach a result that resembles white strokes on a black background.
623 Effects and animation presets Find Edges effect The Find Edges effect identifies the areas of an image that have significant transitions and emphasizes the edges. Edges can appear as dark lines against a white background or colored lines against a black background. With the Find Edges effect applied, images often look like sketches of the original. Invert Inverts the image after the edges are found. If Invert isn’t selected, edges appear as dark lines on a white background.
624 Effects and animation presets To reduce the layer to the glow only, choose None for Composite Original and None for Glow Operation. To achieve a glow effect for text that knocks out (blocks) all layers below it, choose Silhouette Alpha for Glow Operation. These glow effects are more noticeable if the image has a feathered edge. Glow Colors The colors of the glow. A & B Colors creates a gradient glow using the colors specified by Color A and Color B controls.
625 Effects and animation presets Output Width, Output Height Dimensions of the output image as a percentage of the input layer dimensions. Mirror Edges Flips adjacent tiles to form mirror images. If Phase is set to 0, selecting this option causes the edges of the layer to be mirrored with the surrounding tiles. Phase The horizontal or vertical offset of the tiles. Horizontal Phase Shift Offsets tiles horizontally instead of vertically.
626 Effects and animation presets 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. Note: Although the Evolution value is set in units called revolutions, it’s important to realize that these revolutions are progressive.
627 Effects and animation presets Strobe Light effect 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.
628 Effects and animation presets Texture Layer The source of the texture. 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.
629 Effects and animation presets 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. The following options and values are available in the Font Style dialog box: Font, Style, Direction, and Alignment.
630 Effects and animation presets Apply the Current Time Format animation preset to a text layer to show the current time in the format corresponding to the time display setting for the project. Colin Braley provides a tutorial and example project on his website that show how to use an expression on the Source Text property to animate text to overcome some of the limitations of the Numbers effect. For a similar example, see Example: Animate text as a timecode display.
631 Effects and animation presets Apply the Current Time Format animation preset to a text layer to show the current time in the format corresponding to the time display setting for the project. Colin Braley provides a tutorial and example project on his website that show how to use an expression on the Source Text property to animate text to overcome some of the limitations of the Timecode effect. For a similar example, see Example: Animate text as a timecode display.
632 Effects and animation presets 3D Glasses effect The 3D Glasses effect creates a single 3D image by combining a left and right 3D view. You can use images from 3D programs or stereoscopic cameras as sources for each view. For more information about stereoscopic 3D, see Cameras, lights, and points of interest . The method you use to create the combined images dictates how you view them.
633 Effects and animation presets You can also use Convergence Offset (Scene Convergence) to realign uncalibrated camera views of rendered material, such as, photos or images rendered from 3D programs. These are generally misaligned and require a negative Convergence Offset value. If the original footage was shot with correct convergence, changing this value isn’t necessary. Keyframing this value may result in erratic animation.
634 Effects and animation presets This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Bevel Edges effect The Bevel Edges effect gives a chiseled and lighted 3D appearance to the edges of an image. Edge locations are determined by the alpha channel of the source image. Unlike Bevel Alpha, the edges created with this effect are always rectangular, so images with nonrectangular alpha channels don’t produce the proper appearance. All edges have the same thickness.
635 Effects and animation presets Radial Shadow effect The Radial Shadow effect creates a shadow from a point light source over the layer it’s applied to, rather than from an infinite light source (as with the Drop Shadow effect). The shadow is cast from the alpha channel of the source layer, allowing the color of that layer to influence the color of the shadow as light passes through semitransparent areas. You can use this effect to make a 3D layer appear to cast a shadow onto a 2D layer.
636 Chapter 13: Markers Layer markers and composition markers Use composition markers and layer markers to store comments and other metadata and mark important times in a composition or layer. Composition markers appear in the time ruler for the composition, whereas layer markers each appear on the duration bar of a specific layer. Both kinds of markers can hold the same information. Markers can refer to a single point in time or to a duration.
637 Markers Note: If the layer uses a file (rather than a composition) as its source, this command restores the layer markers to those representing the temporal XMP metadata for the source file. If you add one composition to another, the original composition becomes nested as a layer in the containing composition. All of the composition markers from the nested composition become layer markers in the timeline of the containing composition. These markers are not linked to the original composition markers.
638 Markers Apply layer markers Layer markers appear as small triangles on the duration bar of a layer. You can have any number of layer markers on a layer. Layer markers are retained when you render and export a movie to a QuickTime container. For alternative keyboard shortcuts, see Markers (keyboard shortcuts). • To add a layer marker to selected layers at the current time, choose Layer > Add Marker or press * (multiply) on the numeric keypad.
639 Markers To create a web link, chapter link, or cue point from a marker, do the following: 1 Double-click a marker to open the marker dialog box. 2 Enter information in the appropriate boxes in the marker dialog box: • To create a web link, enter a Uniform Resource Locator in the URL box in the Chapter And Web Links area of the marker dialog box. To activate a specific frame in a site, enter the filename of the frame for Frame Target.
640 Markers More Help topics Scripts Preview video and audio MarkerKey attributes (expression reference) About XMP metadata XMP metadata in After Effects Sharing markers with After Effects, Encore, and Flash Chapter points XMP metadata 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.
641 Markers After Effects scripts and expressions can read and use data stored in markers. Because XMP metadata for source footage items can be converted to layer markers, expressions and scripts can work with XMP metadata. Scripts can also operate on the XMP metadata for a file outside of the After Effects context, both for the automation of common tasks and for creative uses.
642 Markers • common multimedia container formats: FLV, F4V, QuickTime (MOV), Video for Windows (AVI), Windows Media (ASF, WAV) • authoring formats: InDesign documents, Photoshop documents (PSD), other native document formats for Adobe applications • MPEG formats (MP3, MPEG-2, MPEG-4) • SWF When you import a file that contains XMP metadata, After Effects shows a “Reading XMP metadata from footage” status message while it reads the metadata from the source file.
643 Markers When you create a layer based on a footage item that contains XMP metadata, the temporal metadata can be converted to layer markers. ? To enable the automatic conversion of XMP metadata to layer markers, select the Create Layer Markers From Footage XMP Metadata preference in the Media & Disk Cache preferences category. During this conversion, After Effects shows a “Reading XMP markers from footage” status message. These layer markers are fully editable, just as any other layer markers.
644 Markers XMP metadata that is written to a file is inserted in an XML data structure separate from the audio and video data itself. You can view this plain-text XML data just as you view any other plain-text data, and you can use and manipulate it with scripts of various kinds. Note: After Effects writes startTimecode and altTimecode values into XMP metadata. You can view these values in the Start Timecode and Alternate Timecode fields in the Dynamic Media schema in the Metadata panel.
645 Markers Show or hide XMP metadata To optimize the Metadata panel for your workflow, show or hide entire schemas or individual properties, displaying only those that you need. 1 From the options menu for the Metadata panel, select Metadata Display. 2 To show or hide schemas or properties, select or deselect them from the list. Save, switch, or delete metadata sets If you use multiple workflows, each requiring different sets of displayed metadata, you can save sets and switch between them.
646 Chapter 14: Memory, storage, performance Improve performance You can improve performance by optimizing your computer system, After Effects, your project, and your workflow. Some of the suggestions here improve performance not by increasing rendering speed but by decreasing time that other operations require, such as opening a project.
647 Memory, storage, performance • In After Effects CC and CS6, OpenGL and the GPU are important for new features, such as Ray-Traced 3D rendering on the GPU, Fast Draft previews, faster blitting to the screen, and a GPU enhanced Cartoon effect. For more information. See Render with OpenGL. • On Windows, disable the Aero compositing mode. Hardware acceleration of panels and OpenGL features perform better in After Effects when Windows is operating in Basic mode. For information, see the Microsoft website.
648 Memory, storage, performance • Pre-render nested compositions. Render a completed composition as a movie so that After Effects doesn’t rerender the composition every time it is displayed. See Pre-render a nested composition. • Substitute a low-resolution or still-image proxy for a source item when not working directly with that item. See Placeholders and proxies. • Lower the resolution for the composition. See Resolution. • Isolate the layer you’re working on by using the Solo switch. See Solo a layer.
649 Memory, storage, performance • Deselect Live Update in the Timeline panel menu to prevent After Effects from updating compositions dynamically. See Preview modes and Fast Previews preferences. • Display audio waveforms in the Timeline panel only when necessary. See Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts). • Disable pixel aspect ratio correction by clicking the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction button at the bottom of a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel.
650 Memory, storage, performance • OpenGL swap buffer (OpenGL with looser requirements) IMPORTANT: In general, After Effects does not require CUDA features of any specific set of Nvidia GPUs. Only the GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer requires this. The other GPU features work on any GPU that meets certain basic requirements, including AMD and Intel GPUs. Continue reading for more features.
651 Memory, storage, performance Feature support levels For OpenGL SwapBuffer This level simply requires a GPU that can do OpenGL 1.5, or greater, with Shader Model 3.0, or greater. Most ATI and NVIDIA cards, and the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chipset (available in the MacBook Air, Mac Mini, various Windows machines, etc.) and 4000 (Windows only at this time) are supported. If your GPU does not support these requirements, software OS blitting like CS5.
652 Memory, storage, performance After Effects CC System Requirements Expect the software to run slowly if your system just meets the requirements. More memory, faster hard drives, faster CPUs, and stronger GPU/video cards can all help to speed up the system. Preferences There are several settings in the Preferences menu that can enhance performance. To access the Preferences menu, click the Edit menu on Windows or the After Effects menu on Mac OS.
653 Memory, storage, performance Cinema 4D footage and Cineware The Cineware plug-in allows for quick and easy porting of Cinema4D files into After Effects. It offers an unprecedented level of interactivity between the products. Cinema4D is a full featured 3D rendering program, and as such these footage layers will be rendered before being displayed. These layers render slower than native After Effects layers, so there have been several settings implemented into this plug-in to speed up your work.
654 Memory, storage, performance Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects Advantages of a 64-bit application and 64-bit address space The maximum amount of RAM that a 32-bit application can use is 4 GB, which is much less than the amount of RAM that can be installed in modern computers and addressed by 64-bit operating systems. After Effects is now a 64-bit application, so each process can use all of the RAM addressed by 64-bit Windows and Mac OS operating systems.
655 Memory, storage, performance The number of background processes that can run on your computer also depends on the total amount of installed system RAM and the amount of RAM that is assigned to the After Effects application. The amount of RAM required for each background process varies depending on your system configuration and compositions.
656 Memory, storage, performance Note: If Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously is off, the RAM allocation is still available for the Cache Work Area in Background feature. 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.
657 Memory, storage, performance Memory pool shared between After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Adobe Media Encoder After Effects shares a memory pool with Adobe Media Encoder, and Premiere Pro. This is indicated in the Memory & 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.
658 Memory, storage, performance • Adding shadows or depth-of-field effects when using 3D layers After Effects requires a contiguous block of memory to store each frame; it cannot store a frame in pieces in fragmented memory. For information about how much RAM is required to store an uncompressed frame, see Storage requirements for output files . Note: For tips on decreasing memory requirements and increasing performance, see Improve performance by simplifying your project.
659 Memory, storage, performance Some example frame sizes and memory requirements, in megabytes (MB) per frame: • DV NTSC (720x480) frame in an 8-bpc project: 1.3 MB • D1/DV PAL (720x576) frame in an 8-bpc project: 1.
660 Memory, storage, performance In After Effects CC, choose Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache to purge the contents of all RAM caches (like the existing All Memory command) and the contents of the disk cache (like the existing Empty Disk Cache button in the Media & Disk Cache preferences). Note: Purging the disk cache for one version of After Effects doesn't purge the cache for other versions. For example, purging the disk cache from After Effects CC won't affect the disk cache for After Effects CS6.
661 Memory, storage, performance 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. The disk cache folder can’t be the root folder of the hard disk.
662 Memory, storage, performance Cache work area in background You can fill the disk cache for a composition's work area (or multiple work areas in the same or multiple compositions) while continuing to work. When you do not expect to make changes to a composition, especially if it is used in downstream compositions, you can render the frames to the disk cache in the background.
663 Memory, storage, performance A database retains links to each of the cached media files. This media cache database is shared with Adobe Media Encoder, Premiere Pro, Encore, Soundbooth, so each of these applications can each read from and write to the same set of cached media files. If you change the location of the database from within any of these applications, the location is updated for the other applications, too.
664 Memory, storage, performance You can disable App Nap in the Terminal or check the "Prevent App Nap" box in the Finder > Get Info dialog box for the application.
665 Chapter 15: Expressions and automation Plug-ins Plug-ins are small software modules—with filename extensions such as .aex, .pbk, .pbg, and .8bi—that add functionality to an application. After Effects effects are implemented as plug-ins, as are some features for importing and working with certain file formats. The Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in, for example, provides After Effects with its ability to work with Camera Raw files.
666 Expressions and automation 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.
667 Expressions and automation More Help topics Effects overview and resources 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.
668 Expressions and automation After you add an expression to a property, you can continue to add or edit keyframes for the property. An expression can take the value of a property as determined by its keyframes and use that as input to generate new, modified values.
669 Expressions and automation A good way to begin working with expressions is to create a simple expression with the pick whip and then adjust the behavior of the expression using simple math operations, such as those listed in the following table: Symbol Function + add - subtract / divide * multiply *-1 perform opposite of original, such as counterclockwise instead of clockwise For example, you can double the result by typing *2 at the end of the expression; or you can halve the result by typ
670 Expressions and automation Edit an expression with the pick whip If you are not familiar with JavaScript or the After Effects expression language, you can still take advantage of the power of expressions by using the pick whip. You simply drag the pick whip from one property to another to link the properties with an expression, and the expression text is entered in the expression field at the insertion point.
671 Expressions and automation 2 Optionally, modify the default expression in the expression field. Note: If you use the pick whip to create an expression to refer to a layer, and that layer has the same name as another layer in the same composition, then the targeted layer’s name changes. The new layer name is the old layer name with a numeral at the end. This change is necessary to ensure that the expression unambiguously refers to a single layer in the composition.
672 Expressions and automation 7 From Layer General attributes and methods (expression reference), you can see that the position attribute returns a property. Look up Property attributes and methods (expression reference)and notice that you can add a time factor to the expression. To add a specific time, such as current time plus 2 seconds, type .valueAtTime(time+2)at the end of the expression to get the following: thisComp.layer(1).position.
673 Expressions and automation Adding a text layer to a composition and adding an expression to its Source Text property can be a great way to examine the property values of other layers. For example, the following expression on a Source Text property reports the name and value of the Opacity property for the next layer in the layer stacking order: thisComp.layer(index + 1).name + "\rOpacity = " + thisComp.layer(index + 1).opacity.
674 Expressions and automation function average(a, b) { return (a + b) / 2; } average(position, thisComp.layer(1).position); Note: You must define each function fully within each expression in which it is used. There is no global library of functions that you can add to. If you want to save an expression for use in another project, you should add comments to the expression. (See Add comments to an expression.
675 Expressions and automation If you apply an animation preset from the Animation Presets > Shapes > Backgrounds category, you can see a custom Animated Shape Control effect in the Effect Controls panel. This custom effect is a specialized expression control effect that was created specifically for these animation presets. You can copy and paste this effect to other layers, or you can save it as an animation preset itself so that you can apply it elsewhere.
676 Expressions and automation Though the expression language is based on a scripting language, a subtle but important difference exists between a script and an expression: Whereas a script tells an application to do something, an expression says that a property is something. For more information about JavaScript, see a JavaScript reference resource. When creating expressions, keep in mind the following: • The value of an expression is the value of the last statement evaluated.
677 Expressions and automation You do need to include the layer and property when retrieving them from outside the layer and property on which the expression is written. For example, an expression written on the Opacity property of Layer B, linking it to the Rotation property of Layer A would look like this expression: thisComp.layer("Layer A").rotation To see more examples of how this works, use the pick whip to link one layer property to another, and look at the expressions it creates.
678 Expressions and automation The Position property arrays are indexed as follows: • position[0] is the x coordinate of position. • position[1] is the y coordinate of position. • position[2] is the z coordinate of position. Colors are represented as four-dimensional arrays [red, green, blue, alpha]. In projects with a color depth of 8 bpc or 16 bpc, each value in a color array ranges from 0 (black) to 1 (white). For example, red can range from 0 (no color) to 1 (red).
679 Expressions and automation However, though a function like audioLevels does return a two-dimensional value (the left and right channel levels), it is not called a vector because it does not represent a point or direction. Some functions in After Effects accept vector arguments, but they are generally only useful when the values passed represent a direction. For example, cross(vec1, vec2) computes a third vector that is at right angles to the input vectors.
680 Expressions and automation To show expressions that have errors, select one or more layers, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a selected layer in the Timeline panel, and choose Reveal Expression Errors from the context menu. Some expressions rely on the names of layers or properties in your project; if you change the name of a layer or property that is involved in an expression, After Effects attempts to update the expression to use the new name.
681 Expressions and automation Animation presets overview and resources Color depth and high dynamic range color Expression language reference Use the After Effects expression elements along with standard JavaScript elements to write your expressions. You can use the Expression Language menu at any time to insert methods and attributes into an expression, and you can use the pick whip at any time to insert properties.
682 Expressions and automation posterizeTime(framesPerSecond) Return type: Number. Argument type: framesPerSecond is a Number. The framesPerSecond value becomes the frame rate from which the rest of the expression operates. This expression allows you to set the frame rate for a property to be lower than the frame rate of the composition.
683 Expressions and automation 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.ntscDropFrame.
684 Expressions and automation dot(vec1, vec2) Return type: Number. Argument type: vec1 and vec2 are Arrays. Returns the dot (inner) product of the vector arguments. cross(vec1, vec2) Return type: Array [2 or 3]. Argument type: vec1 and vec2 are Arrays [2 or 3]. Returns the vector cross product of vec1 and vec2. Refer to a math reference or JavaScript guide for more information. normalize(vec) Return type: Array. Argument type: vec is an Array. Normalizes the vector so that its length is 1.0.
685 Expressions and automation Use true for the timeless argument to not use the current time as input to the random seed. Using true for the timeless argument allows you to generate a random number that doesn’t vary depending on the time of evaluation. The offset value, but not the timeless value, is also used to control the initial value of the wiggle function.
686 Expressions and automation If minValOrArray and maxValOrArray are Numbers, this method returns a random number. Approximately 90% of the results are in the range from minValOrArray to maxValOrArray, and the remaining 10% are outside this range. If the arguments are Arrays, this method returns an Array of random numbers with the same dimension as the argument with the greater dimension.
687 Expressions and automation 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. This method results in a very smooth animation. ease(t, tMin, tMax, value1, value2) Return type: Number or Array. Argument type: t, tMin, and tMax are Numbers, and value1 and value2 are Numbers or Arrays.
688 Expressions and automation Other Math methods (expression reference) Chris and Trish Meyer provide additional information about these methods in an article on the ProVideo Coalition website. degreesToRadians(degrees) Return type: Number. 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.
689 Expressions and automation Returns the MarkerKey object of the marker with the specified name. The name value is the name of the marker, as typed in the comment field in the marker dialog box, for example, marker.key("1"). For a composition marker, the default name is a number. If more than one marker in the composition has the same name, this method returns the marker that occurs first in time (in composition time). The value for a marker key is a String, not a Number.
690 Expressions and automation shutterPhase Return type: Number. Returns the shutter phase of the composition, in degrees. bgColor Return type: Array [4]. Returns the background color of the composition. pixelAspect Return type: Number. Returns the pixel aspect ratio of the composition. name Return type: String. Returns the name of the composition.
691 Expressions and automation effect(name) Return type: Effect. Argument type: name is a String. After Effects finds the effect by its name in the Effect Controls panel. The name can be the default name or a userdefined name. If multiple effects have the same name, the effect closest to the top of the Effect Controls panel is used. Example: effect("Fast Blur")("Blurriness") effect(index) Return type: Effect. Argument type: index is a Number.
692 Expressions and automation Note: In general, the value of outPoint is greater than the value of inPoint. However, if a layer is reversed in time, the value of inPoint is greater than the value of outPoint. Similarly, the value of startTime can be greater than the value of inPoint. outPoint Return type: Number. Returns the Out point of the layer, in seconds. startTime Return type: Number. Returns the start time of the layer, in seconds. hasVideo Return type: Boolean.
693 Expressions and automation Layer Properties attributes and methods (expression reference) When you add masks, effects, paint, or text to a layer, After Effects adds new properties to the Timeline panel. There are too many of these properties to list here, so use the pick whip to learn the syntax for referring to them in your expressions. anchorPoint Return type: Property [2 or 3]. Returns the anchor point value of the layer in the coordinate system of the layer (layer space).
694 Expressions and automation This expression returns the time of the marker on the layer nearest to the current time: marker.nearestKey(time).time marker.numKeys Return type: Number. Returns the total number of markers on the layer. name Return type: String. Returns the name of the layer. Layer 3D attributes and methods (expression reference) orientation Return type: Property [3]. Returns the 3D orientation value, in degrees, for a 3D layer. rotationX Return type: Property.
695 Expressions and automation Layer Space Transforms methods (expression reference) Use layer space transform methods to transform values from one space to another, such as from layer space to world space. The “from” methods transform values from the named space (composition or world) to the layer space. The “to” methods transform values from the layer space to the named space (composition or world).
696 Expressions and automation 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.
697 Expressions and automation active Return type: Boolean. Returns true if the camera is the active camera for the composition at the current time: the Video switch for the camera layer is on, the current time is in the range from the In point of the camera layer to the Out point of the camera layer, and it is the first (topmost) such camera layer listed in the Timeline panel. Returns false otherwise.
698 Expressions and automation Mask attributes and methods (expression reference) Note: You can link Mask Path properties to other path properties (paths in a shape layer and brush strokes), but the properties are not accessible 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.
699 Expressions and automation Argument type: freq, amp, octaves, amp_mult, and t are Numbers. Randomly shakes (wiggles) the value of the property. freq value is the frequency in wiggles per second. amp value is the amplitude in units of the property to which it is applied. octaves is the number of octaves of noise to add together. This value controls how much detail is in the wiggle.
700 Expressions and automation Loops a segment of time that is measured from the first keyframe on the layer forward toward the Out point of the layer. The loop plays from the In point of the layer. The numKeyframes value determines what segment is looped: The segment looped is the portion of the layer from the first keyframe to the numKeyframes+1 keyframe. For example, loopIn("cycle", 3) loops the segment bounded by the first and fourth keyframes. The default value of 0 means that all keyframes will loop.
701 Expressions and automation value sets the number of composition seconds in a segment to loop; the specified range is measured backward from the last keyframe. For example, loopOutDuration("cycle", 1) loops the last second of the entire animation. The default of 0 means that the segment to loop begins at the layer In point. See the entry for loopIn for more information. key(index) Return type: Key or MarkerKey. Argument type: index is a Number. Returns the Key or MarkerKey object by number.
702 Expressions and automation A propertyGroup(4) B propertyGroup(3) C propertyGroup(2) D propertyGroup(1) E Position propertyIndex value is 2; Rotation propertyIndex value is 4. In this example, the propertyGroup method for each brush stroke targets the Brush property group because that group is two property groups up from the Rotation property. The propertyIndex attribute in each Brush stroke then returns a unique value for each Brush stroke.
703 Expressions and automation index Return type: Number. Returns the index of the keyframe. 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.
704 Expressions and automation Setting for cue point type in marker dialog box. True for Event; false for Navigation. 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.
705 Expressions and automation Marcus Geduld provides some examples from his book, After Effects Expressions, on the Focal Press website. In the "String Manipulation" section, Marcus shows how to use basic JavaScript to manipulate the text in the Source Text property of a layer. He even shows how to use an array of strings so that a layer's Source Text property can be set to a specific word from a list.
706 Expressions and automation Expression example: Position one layer between two others This example expression positions and maintains one layer at a balanced distance between two other layers. 1 Start with three layers. (See Creating layers.) 2 Animate the positions of the first two layers in the Timeline panel. (See Motion paths.) 3 Select the third layer, press P to reveal the Position property, and Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the stopwatch button to the left of the property name.
707 Expressions and automation Expression example: Fade opacity of a 3D layer based on distance from camera ? Apply the following expression to the Opacity property of a 3D layer: startFade = 500; // Start fade 500 pixels from camera. 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.
708 Expressions and automation 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.
709 Expressions and automation 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. For example, you can direct After Effects to reorder the layers in a composition, find and replace source text in text layers, or send an e-mail message when rendering is complete.
710 Expressions and automation Jeff Almasol provides a script that creates a simple console panel. The console panel includes a text area in which you can enter ExtendScript commands to be evaluated. There is no capturing of errors or messages; this console is only a simple way of entering commands without having to create a script first. For information, see Jeff Almasol's redefinery website. On the AE Scripts website, Lloyd Alvarez offers a tip on how to run .
711 Chapter 16: Rendering and Exporting Basics of rendering and exporting Rendering and exporting overview What is rendering? Rendering is the creation of the frames of a movie from a composition. The rendering of a frame is the creation of a composited two-dimensional image from all of the layers, settings, and other information in a composition that make up the model for that image. The rendering of a movie is the frame-by-frame rendering of each of the frames that make up the movie.
712 Rendering and Exporting Aharon Rabinowitz provides an introduction to rendering in his “What is Rendering?” video tutorial—part of the Multimedia 101 podcast series on the Creative COW website. There are two ways you can use Adobe Media Encoder to create an output file from After Effects. You can output files by using the Render Queue or you can import compositions directly into the standalone version of Adobe Media Encoder.
713 Rendering and Exporting Using the Render Queue panel, you can render the same composition to different formats or with different settings, all with one click of the Render button: • You can output to a sequence of still images, such as a Cineon sequence, which you can then transfer to film for cinema projection. • You can output using lossless compression (or no compression) to a QuickTime container for transfer to a nonlinear editing (NLE) system for video editing.
714 Rendering and Exporting When rendering of a render item is complete, it remains in the Render Queue panel with its status changed to Done until you remove the item from the Render Queue panel. You cannot rerender a completed item, but you can duplicate it to create a new item in the queue with the same settings or with new settings. After an item has been rendered, you can import the finished movie as a footage item by dragging its output module from the Render Queue panel into the Project panel.
715 Rendering and Exporting • Render with a new filename: Choose Duplicate, click the underlined filename next to Output To, enter a new filename, and click Save. Pause or stop rendering If the disk (to which an output module is writing) runs out of space, After Effects pauses the render operation. You can clear additional disk space and then resume rendering and exporting. • To pause rendering, click Pause. To resume rendering, click Continue.
716 Rendering and Exporting Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that renders and exports each of the selected layers separately. You might find this script useful if layers represent different versions of an effect or different parts of an effect that you want to render as separate “passes” for flexibility in how they get composited. Christopher Green provides a script (Queue_Comp_Sections.
717 Rendering and Exporting Video and animation formats • 3GPP (3GP) • H.264 and H.264 Blu-ray • MPEG-2 • MPEG-2 DVD • MPEG-2 Blu-ray • MPEG-4 • 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. Then import the QuickTime movie into Photoshop Extended and export the movie to animated GIF using Save For Web & Devices.
718 Rendering and Exporting When you use the Collect Files command, After Effects creates a new folder and the following information is saved in the new folder: • A new copy of the project • Copies of the footage files • Proxy files as specified • A report describing the files, effects, and fonts necessary to re-create the project and render the compositions.
719 Rendering and Exporting Note: If rendering time is unusually long, you may have set Maximum Number Of Machines too high, and the network overhead required to track rendering progress among all computers is out of proportion to the time spent actually rendering frames. The optimal number depends on many variables related to the network configuration and the computers on it; experiment to determine the optimal number for your network.
720 Rendering and Exporting 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. Note: Make sure that the insertion point is outside the square brackets ([ ]) of preset properties.
721 Rendering and Exporting Change render settings • To change render settings for a render item, click the render settings template name next to the Render Settings heading in the Render Queue panel, and choose settings in the Render Settings dialog box. • To apply a render settings template to selected render items, click the triangle next to the Render Settings heading in the Render Queue panel, and choose a template from the menu.
722 Rendering and Exporting Render settings reference Each of these settings overrides composition settings, project settings, or layer switch settings. Log You can choose how much information After Effects writes to a render log file. If you choose Errors Only, After Effects only creates the file if errors are encountered during rendering. If you choose Plus Settings, a log file is created that lists the current render settings.
723 Rendering and Exporting use this option to render an image sequence on multiple computers. (See Render a still-image sequence with multiple computers.) Note: The current image sequence must have the same name as the existing image sequence, and the starting frame number, frame rate, and time span must be the same. You must render to the folder that contains the previously rendered frames.
724 Rendering and Exporting Change output module settings • To change output module settings for a render item, click the underlined output module settings template name next to the Output Module heading in the Render Queue panel, and choose settings in the Output Module Settings dialog box. • To apply an output module settings template to selected render items, click the triangle next to the Output Module heading in the Render Queue panel, and choose a template from the menu.
725 Rendering and Exporting Include Project Link Specifies whether to include information in the output file that links to the source After Effects project. When you open the output file in another application, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, you can use the Edit Original command to edit the source project in After Effects. Include Source XMP Metadata Specifies whether to include XMP metadata in the output file from the files used as sources for the rendered composition.
726 Rendering and Exporting If you choose such a constrained output format, and your composition, its render settings, or its output module settings and the message “Settings mismatch” at don’t match the constraints, then After Effects shows a yellow warning icon the bottom of the Output Module Settings dialog box. Click the warning icon to see a detailed message that describes how the output file will be modified to meet the format constraints.
727 Rendering and Exporting Note: For more information on QuickTime, see the Apple website. 5 Click OK. 6 Specify other settings in the Output Module Settings dialog box. Post-render actions You can use post-render actions to automate simple tasks that occur after a composition is rendered.
728 Rendering and Exporting For Quadro 4000 drivers and CUDA drivers for MacOS, see this blog post. For information regarding specific OpenGL hardware, go to the After Effects section of the Adobe website. On Windows, disable the Aero compositing mode. Hardware acceleration of panels and OpenGL features perform better in After Effects when Windows is operating in Basic mode. For information, see the Microsoft website.
729 Rendering and Exporting • Quadro FX 3700M • Quadro FX 3800 • Quadro FX 3800M • Quadro FX 4800 • Quadro FX 5800 • Quadro 2000 • Quadro 2000D • Quadro 2000M • Quadro 3000M • Quadro 4000 • Quadro 4000M • Quadro 5000 • Quadro 5000M • Quadro 5010M • Quadro 6000 • Quadro K2000 • Quadro K2100M • Quadro K3000M • Quadro K3100M • Quadro K4000 • Quadro K4000M • Quadro K4100M • Quadro K5000 • Quadro K5000M • Quadro K5100M • Quadro K6000 • Tesla C2075 Mac OS • GeForce GTX 285 • GeForce GTX 675MX • GeForce GTX 680
730 Rendering and Exporting • Quadro K5000 Using untested and unsupported GPUs with After Effects In the October 2013 release of After Effects CC, a new option was introduced under Edit > Preferences > Previews > GPU Information to enable the users to use untested and unsupported GPUs. Check the "Enable untested, unsupported GPU for CUDA acceleration of ray-traced 3D renderer" box so that After Effects uses the GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer with any GPU that meets minimum requirements.
731 Rendering and Exporting 3 Choose GoPro CineForm as the video codec in the QuickTime Options dialog box. Adjust the compression settings using the Quality slider under the Basic Video Settings. The slider can be moved from a range of 1 to 5, with 1 for the Low setting and 5 for Film Scan 2 setting. The default value is 4 (Film Scan). 1. Low 2. Medium 3. High 4. Film Scan 5.
732 Rendering and Exporting The encoded pixel format is based on the color depth and alpha channel settings that you choose in the Output Module Settings dialog box. There are three Channels settings that can be set, RGB, Alpha, and RGB+Alpha: • Set Channels to RGB or Alpha to encode to 10bpc YUV. In this case, Depth can only be set to Millions Of Colors. • Set Channels to RGB+Alpha to encode to 12bpc RGBA. In this case Depth can be set to Millions of Colors+ or Trillions of Colors+.
733 Rendering and Exporting Other considerations • You can edit the basic video settings, such as Frame Rate and Aspect ratio by unchecking the boxes next to each of these settings. For unsupported sizes such as GoPro 2.7K, change the resolution settings and down-scale to 1080,2K, or 4K or upscale to 6K. • Due to the frame size limitations, frame width sizes should be divisible by 16, and frame height sizes should be divisible by 8, regardless of bit depth. For example, the frame size of GoPro 2.
734 Rendering and Exporting A layered Photoshop file saved from After Effects may look different from the frame viewed in After Effects if the frame uses features that Photoshop doesn’t support. For example, if the frame contains a blending mode that isn’t available in Photoshop, a blending mode that most resembles it is substituted in the layer, but the embedded composite image (viewable only by applications that don’t support Photoshop layers) looks the same.
735 Rendering and Exporting The version and build number of the application are written to standard output (stdout). The render may be performed either by an already running instance of After Effects or by a newly started instance. By default, aerender starts a new instance of After Effects, even if one is already running. To instead use the currently running instance, use the –reuse argument. This example command tells After Effects to render frames 1 through 10 of Composition_1 in project_1.
736 Rendering and Exporting Argument Description –s start_frame start_frame is the first frame to render. If this argument is not used, aerender uses the start frame in the file. –e end_frame end_frame is the last frame to render. If this argument is not provided, aerender uses the end frame in the file. –i increment increment is the number of frames to advance before rendering a new frame. A value of 1 (the default) causes normal rendering of all frames.
737 Rendering and Exporting Network rendering with watch folders and render engines You can render one or more compositions from a project using multiple computers over a network in a fraction of the time that a single computer would require. Network rendering involves copying the project and source files to a networked folder, and then rendering the project. (A network of computers used together to render a single composition is sometimes called a render farm.
738 Rendering and Exporting Network considerations When working with multiple render engines on multiple computers, keep in mind the following guidelines: • When possible, identify folders using absolute file paths so that the paths are correctly identified for all render engines. Identifying folders using absolute file paths may mean mapping network drives to a particular drive letter on all computers (for example, H:\renders\watch\). Avoid using relative paths (for example, \\renders\watch).
739 Rendering and Exporting Set up watch-folder rendering 1 Install the After Effects render engine on as many computers as you want to involve in network rendering. (For information on installing After Effects as a render engine, see Setup and installation .) Note: If rendering time is unusually slow, you may be rendering to too many computers, and the network overhead required to track rendering progress among all computers is out of proportion to the time spent actually rendering frames.
740 Rendering and Exporting Start in watch-folder mode Watch-folder mode applies only to rendering from a folder on your local computer. • To start After Effects in watch-folder mode automatically, save a project with the filename Watch This Folder.aep. After Effects watches the folder containing the project if you open that project. • To start After Effects in watch-folder mode when you start your computer, create a shortcut (Windows) or alias (Mac OS) to the Watch This Folder.
741 Rendering and Exporting 7 Unless the network can handle large file transfers rapidly, copy the project file and all its source footage to each rendering computer. 8 Open the Render Queue panel on each computer and click Render. You do not need to start rendering on each computer simultaneously, but to ensure equal workloads, start them at approximately the same time.
742 Rendering and Exporting 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. Keyframes, effects, and other properties are converted in the same way as when you paste an After Effects layer into an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence. (See Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro .) 1 Choose File > Export > Adobe Premiere Pro Project.
743 Rendering and Exporting When you export a composition as an XFL file, After Effects attempts to export individual layers and keyframes, preserving as much information for direct use in Flash Professional as it can. If After Effects can’t export an element of a composition as unrendered data in an XFL file, the element is either ignored or rendered into a PNG or FLV item, depending on whether you choose to ignore unsupported features.
744 Rendering and Exporting Working in Flash Professional with a FLA document created from an XFL file The Library panel in Flash Professional is similar to the Project panel in After Effects. When Flash Professional creates a FLA document from an XFL file, it creates symbols, folders, and video clips and organizes them in the Library panel.
745 Rendering and Exporting Stage 2: Remaining source files are converted to PNG sequences or FLV files, if possible. If the only reason that a layer’s source file can’t be passed through to the XFL file is that it doesn’t use a PNG sequence, JPEG sequence, or FLV file as its source, then the layer’s source is transcoded or rasterized to a PNG sequence or FLV file, which is included in the XFL file.
746 Rendering and Exporting When you export a composition to the XFL format from a 32-bpc project, the rendering of colors with values under 0 and over 1 does not produce results that preserve the appearance of the composition in After Effects. You should only work in an 8-bpc or 16-bpc project when creating a composition that you intend to export to Flash Professional in XFL format. Audio is not exported to the XFL file.
747 Rendering and Exporting Unsupported Features Specifies whether to rasterize features that SWF format doesn’t support. Choose Ignore to exclude unsupported features, or choose Rasterize to render all frames that contain unsupported features as JPEGcompressed bitmap images and include them in the SWF file.
748 Rendering and Exporting property aren’t supported, and only Normal blending mode is supported. Nested compositions aren’t supported and are rasterized. Masks Only masks with Add mask mode or Difference mask mode are supported; multiple masks in a layer must use the same mask mode. If Add mode is specified, partial opacity and the Inverted option are also supported. Mask feather is not supported.
749 Rendering and Exporting You render and export a movie to the FLV or F4V container format using the render queue, just as you do with other formats. (See Render and export a movie using the render queue.) To include the alpha channel in the FLV output, use the On2 VP6 codec and select Encode Alpha Channel in the Video tab of the export settings dialog box. After Effects premultiplies channels with black when encoding transparency in FLV files.
750 Rendering and Exporting • Changes in frame rate may require the use of frame blending to smooth out the interpolated frames. For longer footage items, the use of frame blending can result in very long render times. 1 Import the footage you’re converting into a composition using the preset of the format you’re converting to. Example: if you’re converting NTSC to PAL, add your NTSC footage item to a composition with the appropriate PAL composition settings preset.
751 Rendering and Exporting 6 Choose Custom from the Render Settings menu. 7 In the Render Settings pane, enable Field Rendering (choose the field order required by your output type), select any option from the 3:2 Pulldown menu, and then click OK. 8 Choose the output type from the Render Queue Output Module menu (for example, Microsoft DV NTSC 32 kHz). 9 Specify a name and destination for the output file using the controls to the right of the Output To heading in the Render Queue panel.
752 Rendering and Exporting Note: When rendering at reduced resolution, set the quality of the composition to Draft. Rendering at Best quality while reducing resolution does not produce a clean image and takes longer to render than rendering at Draft quality. Scaling a movie up Increasing the size of the output from a rendered composition reduces the image quality of a movie and is not recommended.
753 Rendering and Exporting Note: If the Use System Shortcut Keys option is enabled in General preferences (Mac OS), the shortcut is Ctrl+Cmd+M. 2 After Effects creates both a new item in the render queue and a new composition in the Project panel for each footage item. 3 Adjust the render settings as desired, and click Render. Introduce 3:2 pulldown If you are creating output for film that’s been transferred to video, or if you want to simulate a film look for animation, use 3:2 pulldown.
754 Rendering and Exporting 8 Render the composition again, choosing Lower Field First from the Field Render menu in the Render Settings dialog box. 9 Record both movies to the same device. 10 Play both movies. One movie will look distorted and have jumpy horizontal motion or shape distortion during vertical motion. The other movie will play back smoothly, with sharply defined edges. Use the field order for the smooth-playing movie whenever you render movies with that particular hardware configuration.
755 Chapter 17: System Requirements System requirements for After Effects System requirements for After Effects Last updated 11/30/2015
