Specifications

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A Digital Video Primer
Text/character generation: With Aer Eects, you can type and edit text directly in the Compo-
sition panel using the Adobe-standard Type tool, and format text using familiar, Adobe-standard
Character and Paragraph panels, as well as keyboard shortcuts. You can then composite or
animate the text, like any other video source. If you’ve ever worked with text in Photoshop or
Illustrator, you’ll be right at home using the text tools in Aer Eects. You can ne-tune the look
of text using kerning, tracking, baseline shi, and other interactive options that provide instant
visual feedback.
A single text layer and only two keyframes were used to create this 2D text animation. Scale, Opacity, Rotation,
and Character Oset properties were animated for a single text selector, so that the property changes resolve
into a clear, recognizable word.
Text animation: Animating text used to be a labor-intensive process, in which every letter was
placed on a separate layer and individually animated. With Aer Eects, you can animate char-
acters, words, or lines within a single text layer, animate properties that move smoothly across
the same range, and animate the entire text layer as a unit. Animated text remains fully
editable throughout the design process, so making late-stage copy changes is easy. To choose
which part of a text layer you want to animate, you dene a selector that applies to specic
characters or a certain percentage range of the overall text string. Because you can animate the
selector, for example, by moving it from the start of the text to the end, it’s easy to create anima-
tions that ripple a property change, such as a change in color or scale, across the text on a layer.
Each selector you create can animate multiple properties, from standard ones, such as position
and opacity, to text-specic options, such as baseline shi and tracking. You can animate a ran-
dom wiggle across a range of text, and you can also apply a wiggle to other animated properties
that apply to text. For example, you could create an animation in which a random scale change
ripples across an entire range of text, and, at the same time, wiggle the rotation of each letter in
the range.
Adding effects
Aer Eects provides precision tools for creating a limitless range of visual and audio eects
from the most utilitarian color correction and audio sweetening tools to extremely sophisticated
distortion and time-remapping features. Aer Eects comes with hundreds of eect plug-ins and
animation presets, and you can expand your eects toolkit even further with numerous third-
party plug-ins. You can apply an unlimited number of eects to every layer, and save your most
frequently used eects (including keyframes) as animation presets.
3D image created in After Eects
WORKING IN 3D
The tools in After Eects make it easy to create elabo-
rate 3D motion graphics and visual eects.
View 3D compositions from dierent perspec-
tives: View a composition from six dierent preset
vantage points (front, back, top, bottom, left, and
right), the active camera, and three additional user-
denable custom views. You can switch views easily
with keyboard shortcuts.
Dene cameras and lenses: Create one or more
cameras to dene the perspectives from which your
audience views your 3D animation, and then cut
between cameras to create complex scenes. For
example, you might dene a camera using a wide
angle 15mm preset, then cut to a second camera
created using a 200mm lens to capture close-ups
from a dierent perspective. In addition to standard
preset lenses, you can create and save custom camera
presets.
Define lights to illuminate layers in 3D space:
Create as many lights as you need, and then adjust
and animate each light’s properties, controlling its
illumination and color, as well as the shadow it casts.
For example, spotlights provide dramatic lighting
eects by pointing a cone of light at the point you
dene.
Control how layers interact with light sources:
Specify material properties that dene how a light
aects the surface of a layer, as well as how layers
interact with lights. You can define and animate
Ambient, Diusion, Specular, and Shininess values.
Animate 3D layer properties: Animate many prop-
erties of 3D layers, lights and cameras, such as position,
rotation, and orientation, to create a wide range of
eects. You can also automatically orient 3D layers
towards a camera, or animate lights and cameras
along a path or towards a point of interest you dene.