Adobe After Effects CS5 manuale d’uso

Usin g ADOBE ® AF TER EFFE C T S ® C S5 & CS5. 5[...]

Last updated 11/28/2011 Legal notices Legal notices For legal notices, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/legalnotices/index.html.[...]

iii Last updated 11/28/2011 Contents Chapter 1: What’s new What’s new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 2: Workflows, planning, and setup Setup and installa[...]

iv USING AFTER EFFECTS Contents Last updated 11/28/2011 Editing, moving, and copying keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Assorted animation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

v USING AFTER EFFECTS Contents Last updated 11/28/2011 Text effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582 Time effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .[...]

1 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 1: What’s new What’s new New and changed features in After Effects CS4, CS5, and CS5.5, collected by Chris and Trish Meyer on the ProVideo Coalition website . For a complete list of what’s new and changed in Adobe After Effects CS5.5, see this post on the After Effects Region of Interest blog . What’s new i[...]

2 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Auto-keyframe mode: “ Auto-keyframe mode ” on page 198 • Apply Color LUT effect for using color lookup tables: “ Apply Color LUT effect ” on page 598 • Align panel improvements, including ability to align layers to the edges and center of a composition: “ Align or distribu[...]

3 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Removed ability to import AAF, OMF, PCX, Pixar, and Filmstrip files: “ Supported import formats ” on page 71 • Removed ability to import Premiere 6.5 projects. After Effects CS5 can import Premiere Pro projects: “ Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project ” on page 91 • Removed a[...]

4 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • When you are working with a composition that contains a 3D layer, a light, or a camera, the Composition panel shows a label in the top-left corner of each view (such as Top or Right) to indicate which view is associated with which camera perspective. To hide these labels, choose Show 3D[...]

5 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Double-clicking a Type tool creates a new text layer: “ Enter point text ” on page 333 Transparency, opacity, and compositing changes • After Effects now premultiplies channels with black when creating FLV files with transparency, which solves problems with fringes and halos in Fl[...]

6 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • After Effects writes startTimecode and altTimecode values into XMP metadata. You can view these values in the Start Timecode and Alternate Timecode fields in the Dynamic Media schema in the Metadata panel: “ XMP metadata in After Effects ” on page 614 • Removed the Clip Notes feat[...]

7 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Removed some color depth options from output module settings that used very few bits per pixel (bpp) from output modules: Black & White (1-bpp color), 4 Colors (2-bpp color), 16 Colors (4-bpp color), Thousands Of Colors (16- bpp color), and some grayscale options. This doesn’t aff[...]

8 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • New shortcuts to display entire composition duration in the Timeline panel: “ Zoom in or out in time for a composition ” on page 183 • Mouse scroll wheel no longer changes camera position when the Unified Camera tool is active. Rolling the mouse scroll wheel zooms in this context:[...]

9 USING AFTER EFFECTS What’s new Last updated 11/28/2011 • Source timecode: “ Source timecode (CS5.5 and later) ” on page 57. • Stereoscopic 3D improvements: “ Stereoscopic 3D camera rig (CS5.5) ” on page 175. • Light falloff: “ Light settings ” on page 170. • Saving a project backward (as an After Effects CS5 project): “ Sa[...]

10 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 2: Workflows, planning, and setup Setup and installation To submit a feature request or bug report about After Effects, choose Help > Send Feedback. Installing the software Before installing Adobe After Effects software, review complete system requirements and recommendations in the Read Me file. The Read Me fi[...]

11 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Network rendering with watch folders and render engines ” on page 709 “ Plug-ins ” on page 631 Activate the software Activation is a simple, anonymous process. After installation, your Adobe software attempts to contact Adobe to complete the lic[...]

12 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Import and organize footage After you create a project, import your footage into the project in the Project panel. After Effects automatically interprets many common media formats, but you can also specify how you want After Effects to interpret attributes such as frame r[...]

13 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Some people prefer to use the mouse and menus to interact with After Effects, whereas others prefer to use keyboard shortcuts for common tasks. For several steps in this example, two alternative commands are shown that produce the same result—the first demonstrating the[...]

14 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 13 In the Render Queue panel, click the underlined text to the right of Output To. In the Output Movie To dialog box, choose a name and location for the output movie file, and then click Save. For the location, choose something easy to find, like your desktop. 14 Click th[...]

15 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Acquiring, choosing, and preparing footage Before importing footage, first decide which media and formats you'll use for your finished movies, and then determine the best settings for your source material. Often, it’s best to prepare footage before importing it int[...]

16 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Composition settings After you prepare and import footage items, you use these footage items to create layers in a composition, where you animate and apply effects. When you create a composition, specify composition settings such as resolution, frame size, and pixel aspec[...]

17 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Screen dimensions, video frame rates, and color gamuts vary greatly from one mobile device to another. Adobe Device Central contains device profiles that provide information about these characteristics. You can create a set of After Effects compositions tailored for a sel[...]

18 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 If you are building cross-platform projects, it’s best if the full paths have the same names on Mac OS and Windows systems. If the footage and the project are on different volumes, make sure that the appropriate volume is mounted before opening the project and that netw[...]

19 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • To reveal a file in Adobe Bridge, select a file in the Project panel and choose File > Reveal In Bridge. • To use Adobe Bridge to open template projects, choose File > Browse Template Projects. • To use Adobe Bridge to browse for animation presets, choose An[...]

20 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 3D objects, 3D models, and 3D images In general, After Effects 3D functionality is limited to the manipulation of two-dimensional layers in three dimensions. Photoshop, however, can manipulate complete 3D models and output two-dimensional composites and cross-sections of [...]

21 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Working with Flash and After Effects If you use Adobe® Flash® to create video or animation, you can use After Effects to edit and refine the video. For example, from Flash you can export animations and applications as QuickTime movies or Flash Video (FLV) files. You can[...]

22 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • Tom Green provides a brief video tutorial on the Layers Magazine website that shows how to use the XFL format to export an After Effects composition for use in • Flash Professional • : http://www.layersmagazine.com/exporting-xfl-fomrat-from-after-effects-to-flash.[...]

23 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Rendering and exporting FLV and F4V files from After Effects When you render finished video from After Effects, select FLV or F4V as the output format to render and export video that can play in Flash Player. You can then import the FLV or F4V file into Flash and publish [...]

24 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Importing Flash SWF files into After Effects Flash has a unique set of vector art tools that make it useful for a variety of drawing tasks not possible in After Effects or Adobe® Illustrator®. You can import SWF files into After Effects to composite them with other vide[...]

25 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Working with Adobe Encore and After Effects You can use After Effects to quickly create buttons and button layers for use in Adobe Encore. Adobe Encore uses a naming standard to define a button and the role of individual layers as subpicture highlights and video thumbnail[...]

26 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Edit audio in Adobe Soundbooth While working in After Effects, you may want to use the more comprehensive audio-editing capabilities of Adobe Soundbooth to fine-tune your audio. You can use the Edit In Adobe Soundbooth command to start Soundbooth from within After Effects[...]

27 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Dynamic Link and After Effects Dynamic Link features of After Effects are available only with Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium edition and Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection edition. More Help topics “ Working with Adobe Encore and After Effects ” on page 2[...]

28 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects and Encore. You don’t have to render or save changes first. Online resources about Dynamic Link For a video tutorial introducing Dynamic Link, see the Adobe website . John Dickinson provides a video tutorial on the Motionworks website that shows how to use[...]

29 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • exporting • After Effects • projects to • Adobe Premiere Pro • using the Capture In • Adobe Premiere Pro • command in After Effects • importing • Adobe Premiere Pro • projects into • After Effects Linking to and from After Effects When you dynamica[...]

30 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • set In and Out points for it • add it to a sequence • edit it with • Adobe Premiere Pro • tools When you add a linked composition that contains both video and audio to a sequence, Adobe Premiere Pro inserts linked video and audio clips in the timeline. You can[...]

31 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 , however, works with the YUV color model. When you work with a dynamically linked composition, Adobe Premiere Pro either converts it to YUV or retains the RGB colors, depending on the output format. Dynamically linked compositions are rendered in the color depth of the A[...]

32 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: project. Create and link to After Effects compositions with Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only) You can create After Effects compositions, and dynamically link to them, from Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore. You can also dynamically link to exist[...]

33 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 or Encore project name, followed by Linked Comp [x] . 1 In 2 Adobe Premiere Pro 3 or Adobe Encore, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > New 4 After Effects 5 Composition. 6 If the 7 After Effects 8 Save As 9 dialog box appears, enter a name and location for the 10 Aft[...]

34 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 • Project panel or the Encore Project panel. • Drag an • After Effects • project file into the Adobe • Premiere Pro • Project panel. If the • After Effects • project file contains multiple compositions, the Import Composition dialog box opens. Note: You ca[...]

35 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 , you can change the composition without having to use the Edit Original command again. 1 Select the 2 After Effects 3 composition in the Adobe 4 Premiere Pro 5 or Encore Project panel, or choose a linked clip in the Timeline, and choose Edit > Edit Original. 6 Change [...]

36 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Adobe Premiere Pro sequence from After Effects launches Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro then creates a project and sequence with the dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, and audio sample rate of the originating project. (If Adobe Premiere Pro is already runn[...]

37 USING AFTER EFFECTS Workflows, planning, and setup Last updated 11/28/2011 Dynamic Link performance (Production Premium or Master Collection only) A linked clip can refer to a complex source composition. Actions you perform on the complex source composition require additional processing time. After Effects takes time to apply the actions and mak[...]

38 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 3: User interface Workspaces, panels, and viewers Workspaces and panels Adobe video and audio applications provide a consistent, customizable user interface. Although each application has its own set of panels, you move and group panels in the same way in each application. The main window of a program is the appli[...]

39 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 See this video tutorial about workspaces by Andrew Devis on the Creative Cow website for more details. More Help topics “ Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 721 Online resources about panels and workspaces For a video about panels and workspaces, [...]

40 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Dock, group, or float panels You can dock panels together, move them into or out of groups, and undock them so they float above the application window. As you drag a panel, drop zones —areas onto which you can move the panel—become highlighted. The drop zone you choose determines whe[...]

41 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do one of the following: • To move an individual panel, drag the gripper area in the upper-left corner of a panel’s tab onto the desired drop zone. Drag panel gripper to move one panel • To move an entire group, drag the group gripper in the upper-right corner onto the desired dr[...]

42 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 When you drag the divider between panel groups, all groups that share the divider are resized. 1 Do either of the following: • To resize either horizontally or vertically, position the pointer between two panel groups. The pointer becomes a double arrow . • To resize in both directio[...]

43 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Scroll bar for showing tabs of other panels More Help topics “ Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 721 Viewers A viewer is a panel that can contain multiple compositions, layers, or footage items, or multiple views of one such item. The Composition[...]

44 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Edit this, look at that (ETLAT) and locked Composition viewers If a Composition viewer is locked, the Timeline panel for another composition is active, and the Composition viewer for the active composition is not shown, then most commands that affect views and previews operate on the com[...]

45 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Open panel, viewer, and context menus Panel menus provide commands relative to the active panel or frame. Viewer menus provide lists of compositions, layers, or footage items that can be shown in the viewer, as well as commands for closing items and locking the viewer. Context menus prov[...]

46 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 If one or more layers are selected in a composition, the filtering operation in the Timeline panel only affects selected layers. In this case, unselected layers are not filtered out (hidden) if they don’t match the search query. However, if no layers are selected in the composition, th[...]

47 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 Click the swatch for a label to see the context menu that lists the label names. Alternatively, drag the right edge of the Label column heading to expand the column to read the label names. More Help topics “ Effects & Presets panel ” on page 392 “ Organize, view, manage, and t[...]

48 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 • To undo a change and all changes after it, choose Edit > History, and select the first change that you want to undo. • To revert to the last saved version of the project, choose File > Revert. All changes made and footage items imported since you last saved are lost. You cann[...]

49 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 General preferences • Levels Of Undo: “ Undo changes ” on page 47 • Path Point Size: Specifies size of Bezier direction handles and vertices for masks and shapes, direction handles for motion paths, and other similar controls. • Show Tool Tips: “ After Effects user interface [...]

50 USING AFTER EFFECTS User interface Last updated 11/28/2011 • Adobe After Effects CS5.5 and later contains a dropdown menu to choose drop-frame or non-drop-frame timecode for Indeterminate Media NTSC, which applies to imports like still image sequences in which timecode values are not present or are unknown. Output preferences • Segment Seque[...]

51 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 4: Projects and compositions Projects About projects An After Effects project is a single file that stores compositions and references to all of the source files used by footage items in that project. Compositions are collections of layers. Many layers use footage items (such as movies or still images) as a source[...]

52 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Project links embedded in QuickTime, Video for Windows, FLV, and F4V files When you render a movie and export it to a container format, you can embed a link to the After Effects project in the container file. Container formats include FLV, F4V, QuickTime (MOV), and Video for W[...]

53 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Auto-saved files are saved in the After Effects Auto-Save folder, which is located in the same folder as the original project file. Auto-saved filenames are based on the project name: After Effects adds “auto-save n ” (where n is the number of the file in the auto-save ser[...]

54 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 You can download example projects and template projects from many websites, including the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website. For more sources of After Effects example projects and template projects, see After Effects community resources on the Adobe website. See this[...]

55 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 • To delete elements, select them and press Delete. If the selected element is a footage item or composition, it is deleted from the project and no longer appears in the Timeline and Project panels. If the selected element is a layer, it is deleted from the composition in wh[...]

56 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 • To change time display units, choose File > Project Settings, and choose from the options in the Display Style section. Change time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later • To cycle through Timecode Base, or Frames / Feet + Frames (depending if you have the ?[...]

57 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: In After Effects CS5.5 and later, timecode is no longer a global setting for projects. You may have both drop-frame and non-drop-frame timecode in any composition within a project. Frames Displays frame number instead of time. Use this setting for convenience when doing [...]

58 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Composition basics For more information about creating compositions, see this video by Andrew Devis on the Creative Cow website . About compositions A composition is the framework for a movie. Each composition has its own timeline. A typical composition includes multiple layer[...]

59 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Creating layers ” on page 117 “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 “ Flowchart panel ” on page 54 “ Basics of rendering and exporting ” on page 680 Create a composition You can change composition settings at any time. However, it’s best [...]

60 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 3 Select Single Composition and other settings in the New Composition From Selection dialog box: Use Dimensions From Choose the footage item from which the new composition gets composition settings, including frame size (width and height) and pixel aspect ratio. Still Duration[...]

61 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 A Preview composition is also created. The Preview composition consists of a grid of device-specific compositions so that you can preview your master composition in the context of several mobile devices simultaneously. After you render and export the compositions, you can prev[...]

62 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Composition settings You can enter composition settings manually, or you can use composition settings presets to automatically set frame size (width and height), pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate for many common output formats. You can also create and save your own custom com[...]

63 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 For information on specific Basic composition settings not listed here, see the related sections: • “ Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio ” on page 81 • “ Frame rate ” on page 79 • “ Resolution ” on page 190 Advanced composition settings Anchor Click an[...]

64 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 During rendering, the image data and other information can be said to flow from each nested composition into the composition that contains it. For this reason, nested compositions are sometimes referred to as being upstream of the compositions that contain them, and the contai[...]

65 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 In the Advanced tab of the Composition Settings dialog box (Composition > Composition Settings), choose Preserve Resolution When Nested or Preserve Frame Rate When Nested Or In Render Queue for a composition to retain its own resolution or frame rate, and not inherit those [...]

66 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About precomposing and nesting ” on page 63 Opening and navigating nested compositions Nested compositions are sometimes referred to as being upstream of the compositions that contain them, and the containing compositions are said to be downstream of the[...]

67 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 To scroll through a long flow path, place the pointer over a composition button in the Composition Navigator and roll the mouse scroll wheel. The Composition Mini-Flowchart The Composition Mini-Flowchart is a transient control that you can use to quickly navigate within a comp[...]

68 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Pre-render a nested composition A complex nested composition can take a long time to render, either for previews or for final output. If you have a nested composition that you do not expect to work on further, you can save time during each rendering operation by pre-rendering [...]

69 USING AFTER EFFECTS Projects and compositions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Some effects ignore masks on the layer to which they’re applied. To have such an effect operate on a masked layer, pre-compose the layer with the mask applied, and then apply the effect to the pre-composed layer. (See “ About precomposing and nesting ” on page 63.)[...]

70 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 5: Importing and managing footage items Importing and interpreting footage items See this video tutorial on importing assets on the Creative Cow website by Andrew Devis. About imported files and footage items You import source files into a project as the basis for footage items and use them as sources for layers .[...]

71 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 To replace all uses of selected footage items with another footage item, select footage items in the Project panel, and then Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the new footage item onto a selected footage item in the Project panel. When After Effects imports[...]

72 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Still-image formats • Adobe Illustrator (AI, AI4, AI5, EPS, PS; continuously rasterized) • Adobe PDF (PDF; first page only; continuously rasterized) • Adobe Photoshop (PSD) • Bitmap (BMP, RLE, DIB) • Camera raw (TIF, CRW, NEF, RAF, ORF, MRW, DCR, MOS, RAW,[...]

73 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 • FLV, F4V Note: After Effects CS5 can import FLV files with video encoded using the On2 VP6 video codec; After Effects CS5 can’t import FLV files with video encoded with the Sorenson Spark video codec. As with any unsupported format, transcode the file to a for[...]

74 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Project formats • Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, CS3, CS4, CS5 (PRPROJ; 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 Windows only) • Adobe After Effects 6.0 and later binary projects in After Effects CS5 (AEP, AET) • Adobe After Effects 6.5 and later binary projects in After Effects [...]

75 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Import footage items by dragging If you always want the layered still-image files that you drag into After Effects to be imported as a composition, choose Edit > Preferences > Import (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Import (Mac OS), and choose [...]

76 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that you can use to make guessing the 3:2 pulldown, 24Pa pulldown, or alpha channel interpretation more convenient. Note: Select Preview in the Interpret Footage dialog box to preview the results of the settin[...]

77 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Locations of the interpretation rules file in After Effects CS5.5 (note that the file is located in the Preferences folder). • (Windows) <drive>Users<username>LibraryPreferencesAdobeAfter Effects 10.5. • (Mac OS) <drive>/Users/<usernam[...]

78 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 A footage item with premultiplied channels (top) appears with a black halo when interpreted as Straight-Unmatted (lower-left). When the footage item is interpreted as Premultiplied-Matted With Color and the background color is specified as black, the halo does not a[...]

79 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Frame rate The composition frame rate determines the number of frames displayed per second, and how time is divided into frames in the time ruler and time display. In other words, the composition frame rate specifies how many times per second images are sampled from[...]

80 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: When you import a sequence of still images, it assumes the frame rate specified by the Sequence Footage preference in the Import category. The default rate is 30 frames per second (fps). You can change the frame rate after importing by reinterpreting the foota[...]

81 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio Pixel aspect ratio ( PAR ) is the ratio of width to height of one pixel in an image. Frame aspect ratio (sometimes called image aspect ratio or IAR ) is the ratio of width to height of the image frame. A 4:3 frame aspect rat[...]

82 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects reads and writes pixel aspect ratios directly from QuickTime movies. For example, if you import a movie captured as widescreen (16:9 DV), After Effects automatically tags it correctly. Similarly, AVI and PSD files contain information that explicitly in[...]

83 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 New projects and compositions created in After Effects CS4 and later use the correct pixel aspect ratio values by default. Projects and compositions created in After Effects CS3 or earlier are upgraded to use the correct pixel aspect ratios when these projects are o[...]

84 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Common pixel aspect ratios Working with footage items Organize, view, manage, and trim footage items Compositions and footage items are listed in the Project panel. Unlike items in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel, the order of items in the Project panel[...]

85 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Scripts for managing footage items Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that automatically writes specified information about footage items or layers to the Comment fields for the respective items in the Project panel or Timeline panel. Christoph[...]

86 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Refresh footage items ❖ To refresh footage items selected in the Project panel to use the current versions of the source footage files, choose File > Reload Footage. View footage item in the Footage panel or media player assigned by operating system When items [...]

87 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Carl Larsen demonstrates the use of the Collect Files command and the Consolidate All Footage command in a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to organize, consolidate, and archive project files and footage. • To remove an item from a project[...]

88 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Proxy items in Project panel A. Proxy assigned and in use B. Proxy assigned, but original in use C. No proxy assigned D. Proxy name More Help topics “ Render settings ” on page 689 “ Post-render actions ” on page 695 Work with placeholders and missing footag[...]

89 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 For best results, set a proxy so that it has the same frame aspect ratio as the actual footage item. For example, if the actual footage item is a 640x480-pixel movie, create and use a 160x120-pixel proxy. When a proxy item is imported, After Effects scales the item [...]

90 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 See this video tutorial on the Video2Brain website by Todd Kopriva for information about saving time by pre- rendering and using proxies in After Effects. Loop a footage item If you intend to loop a visual footage item continuously in your project, you only need to [...]

91 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project Important: Importing an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects does not use Dynamic Link. After Effects can’t import a Premiere Pro project if one or more sequences in it are already dynamically linked to After Effects. [...]

92 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Use Adobe Premiere Pro for capture (Production Premium and Master Collection only) If you have Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium or Master Collection, you can start Adobe Premiere Pro from inside After Effects and use it to capture footage for use in your Afte[...]

93 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 . (See “ About Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only) ” on page 27.) 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 sequenc[...]

94 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Adobe Premiere Pro Note: , with the bottom-most layer on Track 1. 11 Choose Edit > Copy. 12 In 13 Adobe Premiere Pro 14 , open a sequence in the Timeline panel. 15 Move the current-time indicator to the desired location, and choose either Edit > Paste or[...]

95 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Copy from Adobe Premiere Pro to After Effects You can copy a video or audio asset from an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence and paste it into an After Effects composition. After Effects converts assets to layers and copies the source footage items into its Project panel. [...]

96 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects , but you can paste text with attributes from the Adobe Premiere Titler into After Effects . 1 Select an asset from the 2 Adobe Premiere Pro 3 Timeline panel. 4 Choose Edit > Copy. 5 In 6 After Effects 7 , open a composition in the Timeline panel. 8[...]

97 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: When you import a Note: Premiere Pro Note: project into Note: After Effects Note: , features are converted in the same manner as they are converted when copying from Note: Premiere Pro Note: to Note: After Effects Note: . Importing and interpreting video and a[...]

98 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Each interlaced video frame consists of two fields . Each field contains half the number of horizontal lines in the frame; the upper field (or Field 1 ) contains the odd-numbered lines, and the lower field (or Field 2 ) contains the even- numbered lines. An interlac[...]

99 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 If your output will not be interlaced, it’s best to use noninterlaced source footage, to avoid the need to separate fields. However, if a noninterlaced version of your source footage is not available, interlaced footage will work fine. Always separate fields for i[...]

100 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Using the Next Frame button in the Preview panel, step forward at least five frames in the Footage panel. Moving areas should move consistently in one direction. If the moving areas move backward every other frame, the wrong field-separation option has been appli[...]

101 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 When importing interlaced video that was originally transferred from film, you can remove the 3:2 pulldown that was applied during the transfer from film to video as you separate fields so that effects you apply in After Effects don’t appear distorted. It’s imp[...]

102 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 The root of the P2 folder structure is a CONTENTS folder. Each essence item (an item of video or audio) is contained in a separate MXF wrapper file; the video MXF files are in the VIDEO subfolder, and the audio MXF files are in the AUDIO subfolder. The relationship[...]

103 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 For additional information on the Panasonic P2 format and workflows with Adobe digital video software, see the Adobe website: • Adobe workflow guides for P2, RED, XDCAM, AVCCAM, and DSLR cameras and footage • P2 workflow guide for Adobe digital video products ?[...]

104 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Importing PSD files as 3D scenes Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers website that turns a layered PSD file into a 3D scene in After Effects. The script creates a composition and adds expressions to the layers from the PSD file. When you move the lay[...]

105 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ 3D layers ” on page 158 “ Cameras, lights, and points of interest ” on page 165 Online resources about importing and using 3D files from other applications Lutz Albrecht provides a two-part document on the Adobe website about integrating [...]

106 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ 3D layers ” on page 158 “ Cameras, lights, and points of interest ” on page 165 Baking and importing Maya data After Effects imports camera data from Maya project files. Before importing Maya camera information, you need to bake it. Bakin[...]

107 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: After Effects doesn’t read World or Underworld coordinates in the LocatorShape. Use a transform node to place them. More Help topics “ 3D layers ” on page 158 “ Cameras, lights, and points of interest ” on page 165 Preparing and importing still imag[...]

108 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 • Set the pixel dimensions to the resolution and frame aspect ratio that you will use in After Effects. If you plan to scale the image over time, set image dimensions that provide enough detail at the largest size the image has in the project. After Effects suppo[...]

109 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 A sequence of still-image files (left) becomes one image sequence when imported into After Effects (right). More Help topics “ Output modules and output module settings ” on page 691 “ Import footage items ” on page 74 Import a still-image sequence as a sin[...]

110 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Select any file in the sequence. To import a subset of files in a sequence, select the first file, hold down Shift, and then select the last file to import. 3 Choose one of the following from the Import As menu: Composition - Retain Layer Sizes Import the layers,[...]

111 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 • Make sure that each layer has a unique name. This is not a requirement of the software, but helps to keep you from becoming confused. • If you think that you might add layers to the Photoshop file in Photoshop after you have imported it into After Effects, go[...]

112 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 If you import a layered Photoshop file as a merged file, After Effects merges the transparent areas and layer masks of all the layers into one alpha channel that is premultiplied with white. When you import a Photoshop file as a composition, vector masks are conver[...]

113 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Scaling and resizing Though it's not very well suited for movies, the content-aware scaling feature in Photoshop is very useful for extending and scaling still images. This feature can be useful when repurposing images for wide-screen formats that were created[...]

114 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile ” on page 278 “ Copy a path from Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks ” on page 310 “ Preparing still-image files for importing ” on page 107 Online resources for preparing [...]

115 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Cineon and DPX footage items A common part of the motion-picture film production workflow is scanning the film and encoding the frames into the Cineon or DPX file format. The DPX (Digital Picture Exchange) format is a standard format closely related to the Cineon f[...]

116 USING AFTER EFFECTS Importing and managing footage items Last updated 11/28/2011 Logarithmic Conversion Converts the Cineon sequence from log color space to the target gamma specified by the Current Gamma setting. When you’re ready to produce output from the Cineon file, it is important that you reverse the conversion. (To convert from logari[...]

117 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 6: Layers and properties Creating layers Layers overview Layers are the elements that make up a composition. Without layers, a composition is only an empty frame. Use as many layers as necessary to create your composition. Some compositions contain thousands of layers, whereas some compositions contain only one l[...]

118 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Creating and editing text layers ” on page 331 “ 3D layers ” on page 158 “ Cameras, lights, and points of interest ” on page 165 “ About shapes and shape layers ” on page 298 “ Null object layers ” on page 147 Layers in the Layer, Composition, and Timeline p[...]

119 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: By default, new layers begin at the beginning of the composition duration. You can instead choose to have new layers begin at the current time by deselecting the Create Layers At Composition Start Time preference (Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effect[...]

120 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Replace layer sources with references to another footage item 1 Select one or more layers in the Timeline panel 2 Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) a footage item from the Project panel onto a selected layer in the Timeline panel. Solid-color layers and solid-color foota[...]

121 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 If you want to apply an effect or transformation to a collection of layers, you can precompose the layers and then apply the effect or transformation to the precomposition layer. (See “ Precompose layers ” on page 65.) Use masks on an adjustment layer to apply an effect to on[...]

122 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Selecting and arranging layers Select layers Selected layers that also have properties selected are indicated with a hollow highlight in the Timeline panel. A selected layer that has no properties selected is indicated with a solid highlight. Top layer selected, but no properties[...]

123 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website with which you can tag layers and then select, shy, and solo layers according to their tags. The tags are appended to comments in the Comments field in the Timeline panel. More Help topics “ Parent and child l[...]

124 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 As you move the pointer over the layer frame in the Layer panel, the Info panel displays the coordinates of the pixel under the pointer in layer space. The X coordinate represents position on the horizontal axis, and the Y coordinate represents position on the vertical axis. Valu[...]

125 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Move layers by dragging in the Composition panel To snap the edges of a layer to grids or guides as you drag, choose View > Snap To Grid or View > Snap To Guides. • Select one or more layers, and then drag a selected layer using the Selection tool . When you move a layer [...]

126 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 The decision of whether to work with separate dimensions depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Using one property for position has the advantage of providing smooth motion more easily. Also, using a single property for position enables the use of roving keyframes, which [...]

127 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Select layers ” on page 122 “ Safe zones, grids, guides, and rulers ” on page 192 “ Align and justify text ” on page 344 Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer The beginning of the duration of a layer is its In point , and the end is its Out point . The[...]

128 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources for trimming, extending, and editing layers Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website that trims a layer to the duration of the layer above it in the layer stacking order. This is useful, for example, for trimming a layer to match a tra[...]

129 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do one of the following: • Select the layers from which to remove a section. • Select the Lock switch for layers that you do not want affected by the extraction. Press F2 to deselect all layers. Note: If no layers are selected, the following step removes the section from al[...]

130 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website with which you can move selected layers as a group, aligning the group to a specific time in the composition. More Help topics “ Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel ” on page 134 “ Select layers ” on pa[...]

131 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 • To overlap layers, select Overlap, enter a Duration value for the duration of the overlap, and select a transition. Select Cross Dissolve Front And Back Layers to use the transparency of the selected layers; otherwise, choose Dissolve Front Layer. • To leave gaps between th[...]

132 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 When you split a layer, both resulting layers contain all of the keyframes that were in the original layer in their original positions. Any applied track mattes retain their order, on top of the layer. After you split a layer, the duration of the original layer ends at the point [...]

133 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Additional resources for selecting and arranging layers Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that creates a panel with controls for moving various combinations of items in time: layer In point, layer Out point, layer source frames, keyframes, and markers. Tris[...]

134 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Timeline panel ” on page 61 “ Layers (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 728 Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel Many of characteristics of a layer are determined by its layer switches, which are arranged in the Timeline panel in columns. By default, the A/V Fea[...]

135 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Adjustment Layer Identifies the layer as an adjustment layer. (See “ Adjustment layers ” on page 120.) 3D Layer Identifies the layer as a 3D layer. If the layer is a 3D layer with 3D sublayers—as is the case for a text layer with per-character 3D properties—the switch use[...]

136 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 When a layer is locked, the Lock icon appears in the A/V Features column, which appears by default to the left of the layer name in the Timeline panel. • To lock or unlock a layer, click the Lock switch for the layer in the Timeline panel. • To unlock all layers in the active[...]

137 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Shy layers are still rendered, both for previews and for final output. To exclude layers from previews or final output, use the Video switch or make the layer a guide layer. • To toggle a layer between shy and not shy, click the Shy switch for the layer, or select the layer in [...]

138 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Because the default anchor point for a layer is the center of an object, odd-sized objects have non-integer anchor points and appear soft when positioned at integer values. To minimize blurriness and in-and-out of focus result, follow these guidelines: • Create graphics with od[...]

139 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Image from imported Illustrator file A. Original B. Enlarged with Continuously Rasterize switch turned off C. Enlarged with Continuously Rasterize switch turned on ❖ In the Timeline panel, click the layer’s Continuously Rasterize switch , which is the same as the Collapse Tra[...]

140 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Collapsed property group (left) compared to expanded property group (right) in layer outline Properties in the Effects property group ( effect properties ) are also layer properties. Many effect properties can also be modified in the Effect Controls panel. More Help topics “ Ef[...]

141 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Select a property or property group in the Timeline panel • To select a property or property group—including all values, keyframes, and expressions—click the name in the layer outline in the Timeline panel. Anchor Point property selected Copy or duplicate a property or prop[...]

142 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You can enter simple arithmetic expressions for property values and other number entries. For example, you can enter 2*3 instead of 6 , 4/2 instead of 2 , and 2e2 instead of 200 . Such entries can be especially useful when incrementing a value by a specific amount from its [...]

143 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Anchor point in center of text layer (left) compared to anchor point moved to the end of the text layer (right) When you use the Pan Behind tool to move the anchor point in the Composition panel (left), After Effects automatically compensates for the move so that the layer mainta[...]

144 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Scale or flip a layer As with other transformations, scaling of a layer occurs around the anchor point of the layer. If you move the anchor point away from the center of the layer, the layer may move when you flip it. Some layers—such as camera, light, and audio-only layers—d[...]

145 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 For a script that scales multiple compositions simultaneously, go to the AE Enhancers forum . Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website that scales selected layers to fit the composition frame, and provides options for cropping or letterboxing. Aharon R[...]

146 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 For more precision in setting audio levels by dragging sliders, increase the height of the Audio panel. ❖ In the Audio panel, to adjust volume, do one of the following: • To set the level of the left and right channels together, drag the center slider up or down. • To set t[...]

147 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 • To remove a parent from a layer, in the Parent column, click the menu of the layer to remove the parent from, and choose None. • 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 [...]

148 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 A composition can contain any number of null objects. A null object is visible only in the Composition and Layer panels and appears in the Composition panel as a rectangular outline with layer handles. Effects are not visible on null objects. ❖ To create a null object, select t[...]

149 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Brainstorm uses genetic algorithms to mutate and select property values used as input into each Brainstorm operation. You decide which variants to include as input to each generation and how much mutation (randomness) to use. Aharon Rabinowitz provides a video tutorial on the Cre[...]

150 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Brainstorm operates on all selected keyframes. For a property with no keyframes, Brainstorm operates on the global, constant value. If you use Brainstorm on a single one-dimensional property (such as Opacity, but not Position), the Randomness value that controls the amount of var[...]

151 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: If you use the Save As New Composition feature and the current composition contains expressions that refer to itself using the comp("<name>") format, then the saved compositions’ expressions will refer to the original composition, not each saved compositio[...]

152 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Blending mode reference ” on page 152 “ Mask modes ” on page 370 “ Split a layer ” on page 131 “ Color basics ” on page 263 Blending mode reference All blending modes described in this section are available for blending between layers. Some of t[...]

153 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Stencil (left) shows all layers below the stencil layer through the frame of the alpha channel of the stencil layer; silhouette (right) cuts a hole through all layers below the silhouette layer. Chris and Trish Meyer explain stencil blending modes in an article on the ProVideo Co[...]

154 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Add Each result color channel value is the sum of the corresponding color channel values of the source color and underlying color. The result color is never darker than either input color. Lighten Each result color channel value is the higher (lighter) of the source color channel[...]

155 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 If you have two layers with an identical visual element that you want to align, place one layer on top of the other and set the blending mode of the top layer to Difference. Then, you can move one layer or the other until the pixels of the visual element that you want to line up [...]

156 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Layer styles Photoshop provides a variety of layer styles—such as shadows, glows, and bevels—that change the appearance of a layer. After Effects can preserve these layer styles when importing Photoshop layers. You can also apply layer styles in After Effects and animate thei[...]

157 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Add, remove, and convert layer styles • To convert merged layer styles into editable layer styles, select one or more layers and choose Layer > Layer Styles > Convert To Editable Styles. • To add a layer style to selected layers, choose Layer > Layer Styles, and choo[...]

158 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Layer styles can be categorized as interior layer styles or exterior layer styles. Interior layer styles affect the opaque pixels of the layer to which they’re applied. Interior layer styles include Inner Glow, Inner Shadow, Color Overlay, Gradient Overlay, Satin, and Bevel And[...]

159 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Any layer can be a 3D layer, except an audio-only layer. Individual characters within text layers can optionally be 3D sublayers, each with their own 3D properties. A text layer with Enable Per-character 3D selected behaves just like a precomposition that consists of a 3D layer f[...]

160 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he demonstrates the creation of 3D reflections. Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he demonstrates the creation of a 3D room and the use of an animated camera [...]

161 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 If the axis that you want to manipulate is difficult to see, try a different setting in the Select View Layout menu at the bottom of the Composition panel. • To show or hide a set of persistent 3D reference axes, click the Grid And Guides Options button at the bottom of the Com[...]

162 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Show or hide 3D axes and layer controls ” on page 160 “ Selecting and arranging layers ” on page 122 “ Layer properties ” on page 139 “ 3D layers (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 732 Rotate or orient a 3D layer in the Composition panel 1 Select th[...]

163 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Coordinate systems: composition space and layer space ” on page 123 3D layer interactions, render order, and collapsed transformations The positions of certain kinds of layers in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel prevent groups of 3D layers fro[...]

164 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Effects on continuously rasterized vector layers with 3D properties are rendered in 2D and then projected onto the 3D layer. OpenGL rendering does not support this kind of projection, so results may differ when rendering using OpenGL. This projection does not occur for compositio[...]

165 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 The live Photoshop 3D layer in After Effects contains several expressions, which are used to attach it to a null layer. Use the null layer to manipulate the live Photoshop 3D layer, rather than directly manipulating the live Photoshop 3D layer’s Transform properties. To move se[...]

166 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 It’s often easiest to adjust a camera when using one of the custom 3D views. You can’t—of course—see the camera to manipulate it when you’re looking through the camera itself. Example of a camera A. Point of interest B. Frame C. Camera Note: If you import or open an Aft[...]

167 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The three things that affect depth of field are focal length, aperture, and focus distance. Shallow (small) depth of field is a result of long focal length, short focus distance, and a larger aperture (smaller F-stop). A shallower depth of fiel d means a larger depth-of-fie[...]

168 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Film Size The size of the exposed area of film, which is directly related to the composition size. When you modify Film Size, the Zoom value changes to match the perspective of a real camera. Focal Length The distance from the film plane to the camera lens. In After Effects, the [...]

169 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Create a light and change light settings A light layer can affect the colors of the 3D layers that it shines on, depending on the light’s settings and the Material Options properties of the 3D layers. Each light, by default, points to its point of interest . Lights can be used [...]

170 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Change light settings ❖ Double-click a light layer in the Timeline panel or select the layer and choose Layer > Light Settings. Select Preview in the Light Settings dialog box to show results in the Composition panel as you modify settings in the dialog box. Light settings L[...]

171 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: For After Effects CS5 and earlier, light falloff is not available. However, you can simulate light falloff using expressions or one of several third-party plug-ins created for this purpose. Dan Ebberts provides an expression on his MotionScript website that uses expressions[...]

172 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 You can also use the Camera tools to adjust a working 3D view , a 3D view that is not associated with a camera layer. You can think of 3D views as being virtual cameras through which you can view and preview a composition. The working 3D views include the custom views and the fix[...]

173 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Tips and online resources for moving and animating cameras and lights Before moving a camera, choose a view other than Active Camera. If you use Active Camera view, you are looking through the camera, which makes it harder to manage. By default, a camera's wireframe is only [...]

174 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Light Transmission The percentage of light that shines through the layer, casting the colors of the layer on other layers as a shadow. 0% specifies that no light passes through the layer, casting a black shadow. 100% specifies that the full values of the colors of the shadow-cast[...]

175 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Stereoscopic 3D Stereoscopic 3D video can be created with Adobe After Effects CS5, and there are new workflows and tools available for it in After Effects CS5.5 and later. For tutorials, details, and resources about stereoscopic 3D in After Effects CS5.5, see this article on the [...]

176 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 Getting started with stereoscopic 3D If you are working with stereoscopic 3D, you don’t necessarily need a 3D television. For example, you can use anaglyph (red-cyan) 3D glasses and view 3D stereoscopic footage right in the Composition panel. However, you can use a 3D televisio[...]

177 USING AFTER EFFECTS Layers and properties Last updated 11/28/2011 • If you want the depth of field to change over time, you can animate the focus distance of the master camera. Then, set the convergence point to converge from “Camera Position”, and set an expression linking the convergence Z offset to the master camera’s Focus Distance.[...]

178 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 7: Views and previews Previewing Preview video and audio You can preview all or part of your composition as you work, without rendering to final output. Though it is common to speak of rendering as if this term only applies to final output, the processes of creating previews to show in the Footage, Layer, and Com[...]

179 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do one of the following: • To preview using RAM Preview Options, click the RAM Preview button in the Preview panel or press 0 (zero) on the numeric keypad. • To preview using Shift+RAM Preview Options, Shift-click the RAM Preview button in the Preview panel or press Shift+0 (z[...]

180 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Ping Pong Repeatedly plays preview, alternating between backward and forward play. Preview only audio When you preview only audio, it 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 [...]

181 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 To view the VU meter and levels controls in more detail, increase the height of the Audio panel. Audio panel A. VU meter B. Level controls C. Level units D. Audio panel menu E. Level values Choose Options in the Audio panel menu to specify the following options: Units Choose whether[...]

182 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Move the current-time indicator (CTI) The most basic way of previewing frames is to manually preview by moving or dragging the current-time indicator (CTI) . The time ruler visually represents the time dimension of a composition, a layer, or a footage item. In a Layer or Footage pan[...]

183 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Zoom in or out in time for a composition • In the Timeline panel, click the Zoom In button or the Zoom Out button , or drag the zoom slider between the buttons. • On the main keyboard, press the = (equal sign) key to zoom in or press the – (hyphen) key to zoom out in time. •[...]

184 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Preferences ” on page 48 “ Render with OpenGL ” on page 696 Preview modes and Fast Previews preferences Each preview mode provides a different balance between quality and speed for playback and for updating of images during interactions, such as when you d[...]

185 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: When you are using OpenGL to render previews and are previewing on a video monitor, the preview shown on the video monitor doesn’t update as you interact with elements of your composition until you have released the mouse at the end of an interaction. (See “ Preview on an [...]

186 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Work area The work area is the part of the duration of a composition that is rendered for previews or final output. In the Timeline panel, the work area appears in a lighter shade of gray. • To set the work area start time or end time to the current time, press B (begin) or N (end[...]

187 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 • To view the most recent snapshot taken with the Take Snapshot button or Shift+F5, click and hold the Show Snapshot button at the bottom of the panel. • To view a specific snapshot, press and hold F5, F6, F7, or F8. • To purge a snapshot, hold down Ctrl+Shift (Windows) or Com[...]

188 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Modifying and using views Choose a view layout and share view settings The Composition panel can show one, two, or four views at a time. By default, viewer options (such as grids and rulers) affect only the currently active view. • To choose a view layout, choose an option from th[...]

189 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Choose a view layout and share view settings ” on page 188 “ Views (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 726 Show or hide layer controls in the Composition panel You can assign different options to each view in the Composition panel, so that you can see any combination of camera [...]

190 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 To pan around in the Composition, Layer, or Footage panel while zoomed in, drag with the Hand tool, which you can activate by holding down the spacebar, the H key, or the middle mouse button. Hold Shift, too, to pan faster. For additional ways to zoom and scroll using the mouse scro[...]

191 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 View a color channel or alpha channel You can view red, green, blue, and alpha channels—together or separately—in a Footage, Layer, or Composition panel by clicking the Show Channel button at the bottom of the panel and choosing from the menu. When you view a single color channe[...]

192 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 • To reset exposure, click the Reset Exposure button. To return to the most recent nonzero setting, click the button again. Safe zones, grids, guides, and rulers In the Footage, Layer, and Composition panels, you can display safe zone margins, grids, rulers, and guide lines to ali[...]

193 USING AFTER EFFECTS Views and previews Last updated 11/28/2011 Compositions with a frame aspect ratio equal to or near 16:9 have two additional center-cut safe-zone indicators. The center-cut indicators show which parts of a 16:9 composition may be cut off when the image is shown on a 4:3 display. Such cropping is a concern when creating images[...]

194 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 8: Animation and keyframes Animation basics About animation, keyframes, and expressions Animation is change over time. You animate a layer or an effect on a layer by making one or more of its properties change over time. For example, you can animate the Opacity property of a layer from 0% at time zero to 100% at [...]

195 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 When the stopwatch is active for a specific property, After Effects automatically sets or changes a keyframe for the property at the current time whenever you change the property value. When the stopwatch is inactive for a property, the property has no keyframes. If you change [...]

196 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Two animated properties (Position and Scale) shown in the Graph Editor Two types of graphs are available in the Graph Editor: value graphs, which show property values; and speed graphs, which show rates of change of property values. For temporal properties, such as Opacity, the[...]

197 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Specify which properties are shown in the Graph Editor ❖ Click the Show Properties button at the bottom of the Graph Editor, and select from the following options: Show Selected Properties Displays selected properties in the Graph Editor. Show Animated Properties Displays ani[...]

198 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 • To zoom vertically, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) up with the Zoom tool to zoom in or down to zoom out. Note: You cannot pan or zoom vertically when Auto Zoom Height is selected. Auto Zoom Height and Fit Auto Zoom Height Toggles Auto Zoom Height mode, which aut[...]

199 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Auto-keyframe mode doesn’t automatically activate the stopwatch for properties that aren’t interpolated, such as menus, checkboxes, and the Source Text property. Auto-keyframe mode is off by default. When Auto-keyframe mode is off, modifying properties and animating w[...]

200 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 • To select all keyframes for a layer property, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a segment between two keyframes in the Graph Editor, or click the layer property name in the layer outline. • To select all keyframes for a property that have the same value, right-[...]

201 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 • RPF Camera Import Imports RPF camera data from third-party 3D modeling applications. • Sequence Layers Opens the Sequence Layers assistant. • Time-Reverse Keyframes Reverses selected keyframes in time. More Help topics “ Keyframe interpolation ” on page 215 “ Expr[...]

202 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Editing, moving, and copying keyframes View or edit a keyframe value Before you change a keyframe, make sure that the current-time indicator is positioned at an existing keyframe. If you change a property value when the current-time indicator is not at an existing keyframe, Aft[...]

203 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Do one of the following: • To paste to the same property of the copied keyframes, select the destination layer. • To paste to a different property, select the destination property. 6 Choose Edit > Paste. More Help topics “ Layer properties in the Timeline panel ” o[...]

204 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Layer properties in the Timeline panel ” on page 139 “ About animation, keyframes, and expressions ” on page 194 Move keyframes in time You can move keyframes in time, either individually or as a group. Jeff Almasol provides a versatile script on his [...]

205 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 2 In the layer outline, click the name of one or more layer properties containing the keyframes you want to keep at the same times. 3 Choose Edit > Cut. 4 Move or stretch the layer duration bar to its new In and Out points. 5 Move the current-time indicator to the compositio[...]

206 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Move or change keyframes in the Graph Editor A value graph in the Graph Editor displays the values for each keyframe and the interpolated values between keyframes. When the value graph of a layer property is level, the value of the property is unchanged between keyframes. When [...]

207 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 When you select multiple keyframes in the Graph Editor, a free-transform bounding box appears. 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[...]

208 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 The density of dots between the boxes in a motion path indicates the relative speed of the layer or effect control point. Dots close together indicate a lower speed; dots farther apart indicate a greater speed. Note: Right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) a keyframe to[...]

209 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Drag a keyframe in the Composition panel to move one Position keyframe. You can move multiple keyframes at one time by selecting them in the Timeline panel before you drag them in the Composition panel or Layer panel. To move the entire motion path, select all keyframes by clic[...]

210 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Though the results are different, the techniques for manipulating motion-path curves with the Pen tool work in much the same way as the techniques used to create and modify other Bezier paths, such as mask and shape paths. Sketch a motion path with Motion Sketch You can d[...]

211 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 You can paste any of these paths into the Position or Anchor Point property for a layer, or into the position property of an effect control point. The pasted keyframes are set to rove in time, except for the first and last ones, to create a constant velocity along the path. By [...]

212 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 When motion blur is enabled for a composition and the Timeline panel is zoomed in so that you can see individual frames, a light gray region around the current-time indicator indicates the shutter phase and shutter angle. The width of the column shows the shutter angle, and the[...]

213 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Additional resources about motion blur Mark Christiansen explains some of the concepts surrounding motion blur, shutter speed, and shutter angle on the ProVideo Coalition website . Trish and Chris Meyer provide instructions on the ProVideo Coalition website for shooting footage[...]

214 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Sketch a motion path with Motion Sketch ” on page 210 “ Select keyframes ” on page 199 Add randomness to a property with the Wiggler You can add randomness to any property as it varies over time by using the Wiggler. You can also use the wiggle expres[...]

215 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Convert audio to keyframes The Convert Audio To Keyframes keyframe assistant analyzes audio amplitude within the work area and creates keyframes for audio amplitude. ❖ With the composition active in the Composition panel or Timeline panel, choose Animation > Keyframe Assis[...]

216 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Because interpolation generates the property values between keyframes, interpolation is sometimes called tweening . Interpolation between keyframes can be used to animate movement, effects, audio levels, image adjustments, transparency, color changes, and many other visual and [...]

217 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Motion path interpolation A. Linear B. Auto Bezier C. Continuous Bezier D. Bezier E. Hold In some cases, the Auto Bezier spatial interpolation for Position keyframes can cause undesired back-and-forth ( boomerang ) motion between two keyframes with equal values. In such a case,[...]

218 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Examples of keyframe icons in Timeline panel in layer bar mode A. Linear B. Linear in, Hold out C. Auto Bezier D. Continuous Bezier or Bezier E. Linear in, Bezier out All interpolation methods used by After Effects are based on the Bezier interpolation method, which provides di[...]

219 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Bezier interpolation Bezier interpolation provides the most precise control because you manually adjust the shape of the value graph or motion path segments on either side of the keyframe. Unlike Auto Bezier or Continuous Bezier, the two direction handles on a Bezier keyframe o[...]

220 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 You can easily freeze the current frame for the duration of the layer using the Freeze Frame command. To freeze a frame, position the current time indicator at the frame you want to freeze. Make sure that the layer is selected and then choose Layer > Time > Freeze Frame. [...]

221 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Rove Across Time Smooths the rate of change through the selected keyframes by automatically varying their position in time, based on the positions of the keyframes immediately before and after the selection. Lock To Time keeps the selected keyframes at their current position in[...]

222 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Extending a Bezier direction handle in the speed graph More Help topics “ The Graph Editor ” on page 195 “ About animation, keyframes, and expressions ” on page 194 Speed Controlling speed between keyframes When you animate a property in the Graph Editor, you can view a[...]

223 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 For information about keyframe interpolation, see “ Keyframe interpolation ” on page 215. The following factors affect the speed at which a property value changes: • The time difference between keyframes in the Timeline panel. The shorter the time interval between keyfram[...]

224 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 More spatial distance between keyframes increases layer speed. • In layer bar mode or in the Graph Editor, adjust the time difference between two keyframes. Decrease speed by moving one keyframe farther away from the other, or increase speed by moving one keyframe closer to t[...]

225 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Speed graph controls A. Value at the current-time indicator B. Speed graph C. Direction handle (controls speed) By adjusting the rise and fall of the speed graph, you can control how quickly or slowly a value changes from keyframe to keyframe. You can control the values approac[...]

226 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: When you drag a direction handle beyond the top or bottom of the Graph Editor with Auto Zoom Graph Height on, After Effects calculates a new minimum or maximum value based on how far you dragged outside the graph, and it redraws the graph so that all the values you specif[...]

227 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Dragging the direction handle to make a gradual change Adjust influence of a direction handle on an adjacent keyframe Along with controlling the level of acceleration and deceleration, you can also extend the influence of a keyframe outward or inward in relation to an adjacent [...]

228 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 After you apply Easy Ease, each keyframe has a speed of 0 with an influence of 33.33% on either side. When you ease the speed of an object, for example, the object slows down as it approaches a keyframe, and gradually accelerates as it leaves. You can ease speed when coming int[...]

229 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Revert to a nonroving keyframe • Select the roving keyframe option from the keyframe menu, or drag the roving keyframe left or right. • Select the keyframes you want to change, and choose Animation > Keyframe Interpolation. Then choose Lock To Time from the Roving menu. [...]

230 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Time-stretching a layer redistributes keyframes along the new duration. If you time-stretch a layer so that the resulting frame rate is very different from the original frame rate, the quality of motion within the layer may suffer. For best results when time-remapping a layer, [...]

231 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Time-stretch a layer but not its keyframes When you time-stretch a layer, the positions of its keyframes stretch with it by default. You can circumvent this behavior by cutting and pasting keyframes. 1 Make a note of the time at which the first keyframe appears. (Placing a comp[...]

232 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 The Timewarp effect provides similar features with more control over some aspects of frame blending, but with additional limitations as a result of being applied as an effect. Frames from non-time-remapped footage are displayed at a constant speed in one direction. Time-remappi[...]

233 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 You can remap time in either the Layer panel or the Graph Editor. Remapping video in one panel displays the results in both. Each provides a different view of the layer duration: • The Layer panel provides a visual reference of the frames you change, as well as the frame numb[...]

234 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 By setting additional Time Remap keyframes, you can create complex motion results. Each time you add a Time Remap keyframe, you create another point at which you can change the speed or direction of playback. As you move the keyframe up or down in the value graph, you adjust wh[...]

235 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Drag the first keyframe to the current-time indicator, which moves the start and end keyframes. (If you are working in the Graph Editor, drag the bounding box—not the keyframe or a handle—so that both keyframes move.) Freeze a frame in the middle of the duration of a laye[...]

236 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Dragging the keyframe down slows down the layer. • To slow the layer down, drag the keyframe down. (If the layer is playing in reverse, drag up.) • To speed the layer up, drag the keyframe up. (If the layer is playing in reverse, drag down.) • To play frames backward, dra[...]

237 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Drag the remap-time marker to replace the frame at the current time marker. 5 Move the current-time indicator on the lower time ruler to the last frame where you want change to occur. 6 Move the remap-time marker on the upper time ruler to the frame you want to display at the t[...]

238 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Remove clicks from new In and Out points 1 If necessary, choose panel > Audio. 2 In the Timeline panel, select the audio (or audio and video) layer to which you applied time-remapping. 3 Expand the layer outline to display the Audio property and then the Audio Levels propert[...]

239 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Use frame blending to enhance the quality of time-altered motion in a layer that contains live-action footage—video, for example. You can apply frame blending to a sequence of still images, but not to a single still image. If you are animating a layer—for example, moving a [...]

240 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Puppet Starch tool Use this tool to place Starch pins, which stiffen parts of the image so that they are distorted less. Mesh created by placing Deform pins (left), and result of dragging a Deform pin When you place the first pin, the area within an outline is automatically div[...]

241 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources for the Puppet tools For a video tutorial on using the Puppet tools, go to the Adobe website . Trish and Chris Meyer give tips for using the Puppet tools on the ProVideo Coalition website . Aharon Rabinowitz provides a tutorial on the Creative COW website that [...]

242 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: If an image is too complex for the Puppet effect to generate a mesh with the current Triangle value, a “Mesh Generation Failed” message appears in the Info panel. Increase the Triangle value in the Tools panel and try again. 3 Click in one or more places within the ou[...]

243 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 You can modify the motion paths of the Deform pins using the same techniques that you use to modify any other motion paths. The motion path for a pin is shown only if it is the only pin selected. Try creating several duplicate meshes and sketching motion for each mesh. When you[...]

244 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 If the Puppet effect has not already been applied to a layer, outlines for that layer have not yet been calculated. When you click, the Puppet effect calculates outlines and determines whether you have clicked within an outline. If so, it creates a mesh defined by the outline i[...]

245 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Puppet Overlap controls When you are distorting one part of an image, you may want to control which parts of the image appear in front of other parts. For example, you may want to keep an arm in front of the face as you make the arm wave. Use the Puppet Overlap tool to apply Ov[...]

246 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Unwanted distortion in figure (upper left) is prevented with Starch pin (upper right and lower left) Each Starch pin has the following properties: Amount The strength of the stiffening agent. The influence of Starch pins is cumulative, meaning that the Amount values are added t[...]

247 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Todd Kopriva provides a basic introduction to using mocha-AE for motion tracking in "Overview of the mocha-AE interface and workflow" on the video2brain website. If you have questions and issues regarding mocha-AE, see the FAQ list for mocha for After Effects and the [...]

248 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 • Stabilizing footage to hold a moving object stationary in the frame to examine how a moving object changes over time, which can be useful in scientific imaging work. • Stabilizing footage to remove the jostling (camera shake) of a handheld camera. Depending on the encoder[...]

249 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources for motion tracking and stabilization Curtis Sponsler provides detailed instructions and explanations for tracking and stabilizing motion in a PDF excerpt from his book The Focal Easy Guide to After Effects . Chris and Trish Meyer provide a video tutorial on th[...]

250 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 As with many workflows in the real world, you may have to repeat some of these steps. You can track a layer as many times as desired and apply any combination of tracking results. 1. Set up the shot For motion tracking to go smoothly, you must have a good feature to track, pref[...]

251 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Attach point centered in feature region Attach point offset from feature region 5. Adjust the feature region, search region, and tracking options Place each feature region control tightly around its tracked feature, completely enclosing the tracked feature, but including as lit[...]

252 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 8. Apply tracking data If you’re using any Track Type setting other than Raw, you apply tracking data by clicking Apply, after making sure that the correct target is shown for Motion Target. You apply tracking data from a Raw tracking operation by copying keyframes from the t[...]

253 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do one of the following: • Click Track Motion in the Tracker panel (or choose Animation > Track Motion), click Edit Target, and choose the target to apply the tracking data to. • Click Stabilize Motion in the Tracker panel (or choose Animation > Stabilize Motion). T[...]

254 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Current Track The active tracker. You can modify settings for a tracker at any time by selecting the tracker from this menu. Track Type The tracking mode to use. The motion tracking itself is the same for each of these modes; they differ in the number of track points and how th[...]

255 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Motion tracking options These settings apply to a tracker, a group of track points that is generated in one tracking session. You can modify these settings by clicking Options in the Tracker panel. Track Name The name for a tracker. You can also rename a tracker by selecting it[...]

256 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: To show or hide motion paths in the Layer panel, select or deselect the Display Motion Paths option in the panel menu of the Tracker panel. (The panel menu is the menu that you access by clicking the icon in the upper-right corner of a panel.) You can also use commands in[...]

257 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Track point components and Selection tool pointer icons A. Search region B. Feature region C. Keyframe marker D. Attach point E. Moves search region F. Moves both regions G. Moves entire track point H. Moves attach point I. Moves entire track point J. Resizes region • To turn[...]

258 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Apply tracking data to a new target After you’ve tracked a motion source layer, you can apply the tracking data stored on that layer to any number of other target layers and effect control points. For example, you can apply the track to the position of a light bulb and to the[...]

259 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the feature and search regions only (not the attach point) to the correct location. 3 If you are correcting the track for one frame, go to step 4. If you are correcting the track for several contiguous frames, adjust the feature regi[...]

260 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 3 Switch Track Type to Stabilize. 4 Stabilize footage as you would in After Effects CS5. (See “ Track or stabilize motion with the point tracker ” on page 252.) Warp Stabilizer settings Analyze There is no need to press this button when you first apply Warp Stabilizer, it i[...]

261 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Borders Borders settings adjust how borders (the moving edges) are treated for footage that is stabilized. Framing Controls how the edges appear in a stabilizing result. Framing can be set to one of the following: • Stabilize Only : Displays the entire frame, including the mo[...]

262 USING AFTER EFFECTS Animation and keyframes Last updated 11/28/2011 Warp Stabilizer workflow tips 1 Apply the Warp Stabilizer. 2 While Warp Stabilizer is analyzing your footage, you can adjust settings or work on a different part of your project. 3 Choose Stabilization > Result > No Motion if you want to completely remove all camera motio[...]

263 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 9: Color Color basics Charles Poynton provides an excellent set of resources on his website regarding color technology and color terminology. Color depth and high dynamic range color Color depth (or bit depth ) is the number of bits per channel (bpc) used to represent the color of a pixel. The more bits for each [...]

264 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 To change the format in which color values are shown in the Info panel and in some effect controls, choose an option such as Percent or Web from the Info panel menu. Choosing Auto Color Display automatically switches between 8 bpc, 16 bpc, and 32 bpc, depending on the color depth of the project.[...]

265 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Special considerations for working with high dynamic range color You can use the HDR Compander effect to compress the dynamic range of a layer with an HDR footage item as its source. In this way, you can use tools that don’t support HDR color, such as 8-bpc and 16-bit effects. When you’re do[...]

266 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 A. Opacity stop B. Color stop C. Opacity midpoint D. Eyedropper E. New-color rectangle F. Original-color rectangle Choose a color picker ❖ Choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS), and do one of the following: • To use the co[...]

267 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 2 (Optional) To prevent panels from updating with the results of your color selection until you accept the color by clicking OK, deselect Preview in the Color Picker dialog box. The Preview option is not available in all contexts. Note: Selecting Preview is convenient for seeing the results of y[...]

268 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Edit a gradient A gradient is defined by color stops and opacity stops . Each stop has a location along the gradient and a value for color or opacity. The values between stops are interpolated. By default, the interpolation is linear, but you can drag the opacity midpoint or color midpoint betwe[...]

269 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 The Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse plug-in included with After Effects includes excellent color-correction tools. (See “ Resources for Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse ” on page 270.) More Help topics “ Broadcast-safe colors ” on page 283 Additional resources for color correction and a[...]

270 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Input sliders moved so that output uses full tonal range Histogram showing highlight clipping Histogram showing shadow clipping Resources for Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse Important: Color Finesse is not included with the free trial version of After Effects. See “ Third-party plug-ins inclu[...]

271 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Though many devices use red, green, and blue components to record or express color, the components have different characteristics—for example, blue for one camera is not exactly the same as blue for another camera. Each device that records or expresses color has its own color space. When an im[...]

272 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Many compositing operations, such as combining colors with blending modes, benefit from being performed in a linear color space. For the most natural and realistic blending of colors, work in a linear color space. If you have not enabled color management, you can still perform blending operation[...]

273 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 QuickTime and gamma in non-color-managed projects After Effects 7.0 and earlier used QuickTime codecs to decode several kinds of media, and the gamma adjustments performed by QuickTime on Windows were different from the gamma adjustments performed on Mac OS. The gamma adjustments performed by Af[...]

274 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 In the specific case of working within After Effects, ICC color profiles are used to convert to and from the working color space in the following general workflow: 1 An input color profile is used to convert each footage item from its color space into the working color space. A footage item may [...]

275 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 If a footage item has an embedded color profile (for example, the footage item is a Photoshop PSD file), then the colors intended by the person who created the image can be accurately reproduced in your composition. The color profile contains the information that determines how to convert the RG[...]

276 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources about color management This video from the After Effects CS5: Learn By Video series provides an introduction to color management, both explaining how it works and how to use it. Trish and Chris Meyer provide an overview of color management in an article on the Artbeats website .[...]

277 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Choosing a working color space is an essential step in managing color in a project. Colors of footage items are converted into the working color space as a common color space for compositing. For best results, when working with 8-bpc color, match the working color space to the output color space[...]

278 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 By performing operations in a linear color space, you can prevent certain edge and halo artifacts, such as the fringing that appears when high-contrast, saturated colors are blended together. Many color operations benefit from working in a linear color space, including those operations involved [...]

279 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 3 In the Color Management tab of the Interpret Footage dialog box, choose a value from the Assign Profile menu. If you don’t see the profile that you want in the Assign Profile menu, select Show All Available Profiles. 4 Read the information in the Description area of the dialog box to confirm[...]

280 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Some file formats—such as Photoshop (PSD), PNG, TIFF, and JPEG—allow for the embedding of a color profile. If you embed a color profile in an output file, then you can be more certain that programs that use the file will correctly interpret its color information. After Effects chooses a rend[...]

281 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 • Choose View > Use Display Color Management. • Press Shift+/ (on the numeric keypad). Output simulation settings (including No Output Simulation) are remembered. More Help topics “ Viewers ” on page 43 “ Previewing ” on page 178 Simulate how colors will appear on a different outp[...]

282 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Output simulation applies only to a specific viewer (Composition, Layer, or Footage panel) and works only for previews. Color conversions for output simulation are performed when values are sent to the display. Actual color numbers in the project are not changed. As with all color space conversi[...]

283 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 To toggle between no output simulation and the most recently used output simulation, click the Show Channel And Color Management Settings button at the bottom of the viewer and choose Simulate Output. Simulate an output type in a movie rendered for final output Color management for output simula[...]

284 USING AFTER EFFECTS Color Last updated 11/28/2011 Keep in mind the following guidelines: • Avoid pure black and pure white values. • Avoid using highly saturated colors. • Render a test movie and play it on a video monitor to ensure that colors are represented accurately. Rather than using the Broadcast Colors effect to reduce the luminan[...]

285 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 10: Drawing, painting, and paths Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser Paint tools and paint strokes The Brush tool , Clone Stamp tool , and Eraser tool are all paint tools. You use each in the Layer panel to apply paint strokes to a layer. Each paint tool applies brush marks that modify the color or transp[...]

286 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Brushes and the Brushes panel ” on page 287 “ Paint tools (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 736 Common operations for paint tools and strokes • To show paint strokes on selected layers in the Timeline panel, press PP. • To select paint strokes in the Layer panel[...]

287 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Brushes and the Brushes panel To use the Brushes panel, first select a paint tool from the Tools panel. More Help topics “ Paint tools and paint strokes ” on page 285 “ Paint tools (keyboard shortcuts) ” on page 736 Choose a brush gallery display mode ❖ Choose a [...]

288 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Angled brushes create chiseled strokes: 45-degree brush (left), and -45-degree brush (right). Roundness The ratio between the short and long axes of a brush. A value of 100% indicates a circular brush, a value of 0% indicates a linear brush, and intermediate values indicat[...]

289 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Paint with the Brush tool Use the Brush tool to paint on a layer in the Layer panel with the current foreground color. Important: To specify settings for a paint stroke before you apply it, use the Paint and Brushes panels. To change and animate properties for a paint stro[...]

290 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 3 In the Layer panel, drag with the Brush tool to paint on the layer. Each time you release the mouse button, you stop drawing a stroke. When you drag again, you create a new stroke. Shift-drag to resume drawing the previous stroke. 4 Press 2 on the main keyboard to advanc[...]

291 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Displaying the clone source overlay while cloning between two different layers A. Clone source overlay B. Current stroke point C. Current sample point Important: To specify settings for a paint stroke before you apply it, use the Paint and Brushes panels. To change and ani[...]

292 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You can manually manipulate the time and coordinates from which sampling begins by modifying the Offset, Source Time Shift, Source Position, or Source Time values in the Paint panel. You can reset them to zero with the Reset button. 3 Alt-click (Windows) or Option-cl[...]

293 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Eraser tool If you use the Eraser tool in Layer Source & Paint or Paint Only mode, it creates Eraser strokes that can be modified and animated. In contrast, using the Eraser tool in Last Stroke Only mode only affects the last paint stroke drawn and does not create an E[...]

294 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Layer properties in the Timeline panel ” on page 139 “ Managing and animating shape paths and masks ” on page 312 “ Add, edit, and remove expressions ” on page 638 Animate a paint stroke by sketching with Write On If you choose Write On from [...]

295 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects interpolates a paint stroke (center) between two different shapes created with the same brush (left and right). Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector graphics About vector graphics and raster images Vector graphics are made up of lines and curves define[...]

296 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Aharon Rabinowitz’s “What are Raster and Vector Graphics?” video tutorial—part of the Multimedia 101 series on the Creative COW website—provides a general introduction to raster images and vector graphics. More Help topics “ Continuously rasterize a layer conta[...]

297 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Points on a path A. Four corner points B. Four smooth points C. Combination of corner and smooth points When you move a direction line for a smooth point, the curves on both sides of the point adjust simultaneously. By contrast, when you move a direction line on a corner p[...]

298 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About masks ” on page 367 “ About shapes and shape layers ” on page 298 “ Creating shapes and masks ” on page 301 “ Add, edit, and remove expressions ” on page 638 About shapes and shape layers Shape layers contain vector graphics objects[...]

299 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 You can download additional animation presets that take advantage of per-character 3D text animation from the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website. Chris Zwar provides an animation preset on his website that creates a target cross-hair using a single shape layer, wi[...]

300 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 A. Two shapes in a group B. Two paths in a compound shape C. Circle path with Wiggle Paths applied D. One stroke applied to all paths above it E. Star path in a group by itself F. One fill applied to all paths above it G. One path with two strokes When you add a shape attr[...]

301 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • Paint operations within a group are performed from the bottom to the top in the Timeline panel stacking order. This means, for example, that a stroke is rendered on top of (in front of) a stroke that appears after it in the Timeline panel. To override this default beha[...]

302 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • Specify the dimensions of the mask path numerically in the Mask Shape dialog box. (See “ Create a rectangular or elliptical mask numerically ” on page 302.) • Convert a shape path to a mask path by copying the shape’s path to the Mask Path property. • Convert[...]

303 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 4 Select Reset To, choose Rectangle or Ellipse from the Shape menu, and specify the size and location of the bounding box for the mask. More Help topics “ About masks ” on page 367 Create a mask from channel values with Auto-trace You can convert the alpha, red, green,[...]

304 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About masks ” on page 367 “ Keying introduction and resources ” on page 375 “ Work area ” on page 186 Creating shapes and shape layers You create a shape layer by drawing in the Composition panel with a shape tool or the Pen tool. You can the[...]

305 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 A polygon is a star without an Inner Radius or Inner Roundness property, so the name of the shape created for a polygon or a star is the same: polystar . You can create a mask by dragging with a shape tool on a selected layer in the Composition panel or Layer panel. You ca[...]

306 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Squares are created to be square according to the pixel aspect ratio of the composition. If the pixel aspect ratio of the composition is not 1, then squares only appear square in the Composition panel if the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio button is selected at the bottom [...]

307 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Create a manual Bezier path using the Pen tool 1 With the Pen tool selected and the RotoBezier option deselected in the Tools panel, click in the Composition panel where you want to place the first vertex. 2 Click where you want to place the next vertex. To create a curved[...]

308 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Drawing the first vertex in a curved path A. Placing the Pen tool B. Starting to drag (mouse button pressed) C. Dragging to extend direction lines 3 Place the Pen tool where you want the curved segment to end, and do one of the following: • To create a C-shaped curve, dr[...]

309 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 2 In the Tools panel, double-click the Rectangle , Rounded Rectangle , Ellipse , Polygon , or Star tool. More Help topics “ About masks ” on page 367 “ About shapes and shape layers ” on page 298 Create shapes or masks from text characters The Create Shapes From Te[...]

310 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the layer or text and choose Create Masks From Text from the context menu. The Video switch for the text layer is turned off. The new solid-color layer is created at the top of the layer stacking order. For characters tha[...]

311 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Andrew Devis shows how to use paths from Illustrator as motion paths in After Effects in this video on the Creative COW website . More Help topics “ About masks ” on page 367 “ About shapes and shape layers ” on page 298 “ Preparing and importing Illustrator file[...]

312 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 3 To create a new mask, select the layer on which to create the mask, and choose Layer > Mask > New Mask. 4 In the Timeline panel, click the name of the Mask Path property for the mask into which to paste the keyframes from the motion path. 5 Choose Edit > Paste. [...]

313 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Rotoscoping introduction and resources Rotoscoping (or just roto in casual usage) is the drawing or painting on frames of a movie, using visual elements in the movie as a reference. A common kind of rotoscoping is tracing a path around an object in a movie and using that p[...]

314 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Sean Kennedy provides several good tutorials on the SimplyCG website, including some for rotoscoping in After Effects. Sean maintains an index of these tutorials on his website . Scott Squires provides a pair of movies on his Effects Corner website that show how to rotosco[...]

315 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Selection modes for shapes on shape layers A. Layer selection B. Group selection C. Free-transform D. Path editing For information on selecting masks, see “ Select masks, segments, and vertices ” on page 316. Press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS) with a shape ve[...]

316 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • To select an entire path, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a segment or vertex of the path with the Selection tool, or select any portion of the path and press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS). • To select vertices by dragging, select a path or port[...]

317 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 3 Do any of the following: • To select one mask, click its name. • To select a contiguous range of masks, Shift-click the names of the first and last masks in the range. • To select discontiguous masks together, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the name[...]

318 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 • To scale the path or selected vertices, position the pointer on a bounding box handle and, when the pointer changes to a straight, double-sided arrow , drag to a new size. Hold down Shift as you drag to constrain the scale. Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) [...]

319 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 To temporarily switch from the Pen tool to the Selection tool, press V or Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS). • To add a vertex to a mask, use the Add Vertex tool to click the segment between two existing vertices. • To delete a vertex from a mask, use the Delete Verte[...]

320 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Designate the first vertex for a Bezier path To animate a path, After Effects designates the topmost vertex at the initial keyframe as the first vertex and numbers each successive vertex in ascending order from the first vertex. After Effects then assigns the same numbers [...]

321 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Regardless of the keyframe rate you choose, Smart Mask Interpolation always adds keyframes at the frame just after the first mask path keyframe and at the frame just before the second mask path keyframe. For example, if you interpolate between keyframes at 0 seconds [...]

322 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 First Vertices Match Specifies that Smart Mask Interpolation matches the first vertices in the two mask path keyframes. If not selected, Smart Mask Interpolation searches for the best first-vertex match between the two input mask paths. Note: To ensure good results, make s[...]

323 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Pan a layer behind its mask 1 Select the Pan Behind tool in the Tools panel. 2 Click inside the mask area in the Composition panel and drag the layer to a new position. Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers Adding attributes to shape laye[...]

324 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 New shapes are created with fill and stroke properties depicted by the swatch buttons next to the underlined Fill and Stroke text controls in the Tools panel. You can also modify the fill colors, stroke colors, fill type, and stroke type for selected shapes using these con[...]

325 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 By default, when you create a shape path by drawing with the Pen tool, the control points for the gradient are placed in the center of the layer. You can adjust these points after you finish drawing. You can modify the Start Point, End Point, Highlight Angle, and Highlight[...]

326 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Projecting Cap The stroke extends beyond the end of the path for a number of pixels equal to the stroke width in pixels. The end is squared off. Line Join options for strokes The Line Join property for a stroke determines the appearance of the stroke where the path suddenl[...]

327 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Alter shapes with path operations Path operations are similar to effects. These live operations act nondestructively on a shape’s path to create a modified path that other shape operations (such as fills and strokes) can apply to. The original path is not modified. Becau[...]

328 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 transformations are auto-animated, meaning that they change over time without the need to set any keyframes or add expressions. The Wiggle Transform operation is especially useful following a Repeater operation, because it allows you to randomize the transformations of eac[...]

329 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 Aharon Rabinowitz provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to combine multiple paths into a single compound shape using the Merge Paths path operation. The Merge Paths path operation has the following options, each of which performs different ca[...]

330 USING AFTER EFFECTS Drawing, painting, and paths Last updated 11/28/2011 The Offset property value is used to offset the transformations by a specific number of copies. 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[...]

331 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 11: Text Creating and editing text layers About text layers You can add text to a composition using text layers. Text layers are useful for many purposes, including animated titles, lower thirds, credit rolls, and dynamic typography. For a video tutorial on animating text, go to the Adobe website . You can animat[...]

332 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Best practices for creating text and vector graphics for video Text that looks good on your computer screen as you are creating it can sometimes look bad when viewed in a final output movie. These differences can arise from the device used to view the movie or from the compression scheme used to [...]

333 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Salahuddin Taha provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website that enables entry of Arabic text (which flows from right to left). Michael Cardeiro provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website that makes multiple versions of your compositions using information from a spreadsheet[...]

334 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You can also choose Edit > Paste to paste text that you have copied from any application that uses Unicode characters. Text receives the formatting of the first character in the text layer into which it is pasted. 3 To end text-editing mode, press Enter on the numeric keypad, select anot[...]

335 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 The pointer for a type tool changes, depending on whether it is over a text layer in the Composition panel. When the pointer for a type tool is directly over a text layer, it appears as the edit text pointer ; click to place the insertion point in the existing text. ❖ To select text with a type[...]

336 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 When you convert from paragraph text to point text, a carriage return is added at the end of each line of text, except the last line. To display the bounding box of paragraph text and automatically select a type tool, double-click the text layer in the Timeline panel. Change the direction of text[...]

337 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Preparing and importing Photoshop files ” on page 110 “ Layer styles ” on page 156 Formatting characters and the Character panel Use the Character panel to format characters. If text is selected, changes you make in the Character panel affect only the selected text. If [...]

338 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 The font size determines how large the type appears in the layer. In After Effects, the unit of measurement for fonts is pixels. When a text layer is at 100% scale value, the pixel values match composition pixels one-to-one. So if you scale the text layer to 200%, the font size appears to double;[...]

339 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Create a non-breaking space If a set of characters is set to be non-breaking, the characters animate together as if they were a single word. 1 Select the characters you want to prevent from breaking. 2 Choose No Break from the Character panel menu. Note: You open the panel menu by clicking the pa[...]

340 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Text fills and strokes For text, a fill is applied to the area inside the shape of an individual character; a stroke is applied to the outline of the character. 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 [...]

341 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Change text stroke line join The line join type for a stroke determines the shape of the stroke when two segments of the stroke intersect. You set the line join type for a text stroke with the Line Join setting in the panel menu of the Character panel, which you open by clicking the panel menu bu[...]

342 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Change the case of text You can enter or format text as uppercase characters, either all caps or small caps. When you format text as small caps, After Effects uses the small caps designed as part of the font, if they are available. If the font does not include small caps, After Effects generates [...]

343 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Original layer (left) and after tate-chuu-yoko is applied (right) 1 Select the characters that you want to rotate. 2 Choose Tate-Chuu-Yoko from the Character panel menu. (A check mark indicates that the option is turned on. To turn off the option, choose Tate-Chuu-Yoko again.) Note: You open the [...]

344 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Align and justify text You can align text to one edge of a paragraph (left, center, or right for horizontal text; top, center, or bottom for vertical text) and justify text to both edges of a paragraph. Alignment options are available for both point text and paragraph text; justification options [...]

345 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Hanging punctuation for Roman fonts Hanging punctuation controls whether punctuation marks fall inside or outside the margins. If hanging punctuation is turned on for Roman fonts, then periods, commas, single quotation marks, double quotation marks, apostrophes, hyphens, em dashes, en dashes, col[...]

346 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 • Animate the source text of the layer, so that the characters themselves change to different characters or use different character or paragraph formats over time. (See “ Select and edit text in text layers ” on page 334 and “ Writing expressions for source text ” on page 643.) • Use [...]

347 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Additional online resources for animation presets You can download additional animation presets that take advantage of per-character 3D text animation from the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website. For a list of animation presets included with After Effects CS5, see “ Animation preset li[...]

348 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 5 To refine the selection, expand Advanced and specify options and values as desired. For example, to animate opacity gradually from the first 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 En[...]

349 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 • To remove animators from a text layer, select the text layer in the Timeline panel, and choose Animation > Remove All Text Animators. • To copy an animator group, select it in the Timeline panel and choose Edit > Copy. To paste the animator group, select a layer and choose Edit > P[...]

350 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Text selectors Each animator group includes a default range selector. You can replace the default selector, add additional selectors to an animator group, and remove selectors from a group. Selectors are a lot like masks: You use selectors to specify which part of a range of text you want to affe[...]

351 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Amount Specifies how much the range of characters is affected by animator properties. At 0%, the animator properties do not affect the characters. At 50%, half of each property value affects the characters. This option is useful for animating the result of animator properties over time. Using an [...]

352 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Ease High and Ease Low Determines the speed of change as selection values change from fully included (high) to fully excluded (low). For example, when Ease High is 100%, the character changes more gradually (eases into the change) while it is fully to partially selected. When Ease High is -100%, [...]

353 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Fill color changes randomly using an expression animator. Text anchor point properties Text animators animate character position, rotation, and size-related properties relative to an anchor point. You can use the text property, Anchor Point Grouping, to specify whether the anchor point used for t[...]

354 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 To center the anchor point in a string of capital letters, try a Grouping Alignment value of 0%, -50%. To center the anchor point in a string of lowercase letters, or if you’re using both lowercase and uppercase letters, try 0%, -25%. When you select certain properties in the Timeline panel for[...]

355 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates how to use per-character 3D text animation to animate text along a path in the shape of a 3D tornado. Angie Taylor provides a tutorial on the Digital Arts website that shows how to use per-character 3D text animati[...]

356 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Force Alignment Positions the first character at the beginning of the path (or at the specified First Margin location), positions the last character at the end of the path (or at the specified Last Margin location), and evenly spaces the remaining characters between the first and last characters.[...]

357 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Angie Taylor provides a tutorial on the Digital Arts website that shows how to use per-character 3D text animation together with a common workaround for simulating extruded 3D text. Example: Animate characters with per-character 3D properties This example illustrates how you can easily animate in[...]

358 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating the offset values for the characters in the word Galaxy 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer with the word Galaxy . 3 Choose Animation > Animate Text > Character Offset. 4 In the Timeline panel, set the Character Offset value to 5. 5 Expand Range Selector 1. 6 Cli[...]

359 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating the color and position of the characters in the word Galaxy 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer with the word Galaxy and set the color to blue in the Character panel. 3 Choose Animation > Animate Text > Position. 4 In the Timeline panel, drag the y value of the P[...]

360 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating the tracking values for the characters 3579 (left and center) so that only the 7 in the middle remains (right) 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer and type 3579 . 3 With the text layer selected, click the Center Text button in the Paragraph panel. 4 Choose View > Sh[...]

361 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating the skew values in the characters in the word Speeding 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer with the words Speeding Saucer . 3 Choose Animation > Animate Text > Skew. 4 In the Timeline panel, set the Skew value to 35. 5 Expand Range Selector 1. 6 Make sure the cur[...]

362 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds and drag the start selector in the Composition panel to the right edge of the text (the value will be 5). 8 Preview the composition. Note: By default, the Smoothness property is set to 100%. To create a typewriter appearance, expand the Advanced prop[...]

363 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 “ Set or add keyframes ” on page 198 “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 Example: Animate text position with expressions This example uses the textIndex and textTotal attributes with the wiggle expression to animate a line of text. 1 Create a new composition. 2 Create a new text layer[...]

364 USING AFTER EFFECTS Text Last updated 11/28/2011 To see the expressions on a layer, select the layer and press EE . More Help topics “ Timecode and time display units ” on page 55 “ Time conversion methods (expression reference) ” on page 652[...]

365 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 12: Transparency, opacity, and compositing Compositing and transparency overview and resources Compositing overview To create a composite from multiple images, you can make parts of one or more of the images transparent so that other images can show through. You can make portions of a layer transparent using any [...]

366 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Rich Young collects resources and tutorials for various methods of creating vignettes. Rich Young collects resources for sky replacement on the ProVideo Coalition website . Chris Zwar provides tips on color keying and compositing on his website . Jeff Foster prov[...]

367 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Many file formats can include an alpha channel, including Adobe Photoshop, ElectricImage, FLV, TGA, TIFF, EPS, PDF, and Adobe Illustrator. AVI and QuickTime (saved at a bit depth of Millions Of Colors+), also can contain alpha channels, depending upon the codec ([...]

368 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Closed-path masks can create transparent areas for a layer. Open paths cannot create transparent areas for a layer but are useful as parameters for an effect. Effects that can use an open or closed mask path as input include Stroke, Path Text, Audio Waveform, Aud[...]

369 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Save a mask 1 In the Timeline panel for the composition containing the layer and mask you want to save, expand the layer and its mask properties. 2 Do one of the following: • To save an animated mask, select the mask keyframes you want to save. • To save a no[...]

370 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Mask modes Blending modes for masks ( mask modes ) control how masks within a layer interact with one another. By default, all masks are set to Add, which combines the transparency values of any masks that overlap on the same layer. You can apply a mode to each m[...]

371 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Add The mask is added to the masks above it in the stacking order. The influence of the mask is cumulative with the masks above it. Subtract The influence of the mask is subtracted from the masks above it. This option is useful when you want to create the appeara[...]

372 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Results for different Mask Feather values A. Masked layer with 5-pixel feather B. Masked layer with 40-pixel feather C. Result with 5-pixel feather D. Result with 40-pixel feather You can also extend or contract the mask edges using the Mask Expansion property to[...]

373 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Defining the transparency of a layer based on the luminance of the track matte’s pixels is useful when you want to create a track matte using a layer without an alpha channel or a layer imported from a program that can’t create an alpha channel. In both cases[...]

374 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Define transparency for the track matte by choosing one of the following options from the TrkMat menu for the fill layer: No Track Matte No transparency created; next layer above acts as a normal layer. Alpha Matte Opaque when alpha channel pixel value is 100%.[...]

375 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Aharon Rabinowitz provides a short video tutorial about the Preserve Underlying Transparency option on the Creative COW website . Tim Clapham provides an explanation and demonstration on his website of the Preserve Underlying Transparency switch. Resources for Im[...]

376 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 You often see composites made with keying techniques in movies, for example, when an actor appears to dangle from a helicopter or float in outer space. To create this effect, the actor is filmed in an appropriate position against a solid- color background screen.[...]

377 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 For tips on shooting footage so that color keying is easier and more successful, see Jonas Hummelstrand’s General Specialist website . Alex Lindsay provides an article on the ProVideo Coalition website about setting up and lighting a green background in prepara[...]

378 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 • To key dark areas or shadows, use the Extract Key on the Luminance channel. • To make a static background scene transparent, use the Difference Matte Key. Add the Simple Choker and other effects as needed to refine the matte. • After you have used a key t[...]

379 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Example of using a hold-out matte A. Original bluescreen image. The background for the number is also blue. B. After keying, the background for the number is also transparent. C. Hold-out matte containing the part of the image you want to remain opaque D. When th[...]

380 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 With the Roto Brush tool, you draw strokes on representative areas of the foreground and background elements, and then After Effects uses that information to create a segmentation boundary between the foreground and background elements. The strokes that you make [...]

381 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Try for a segmentation boundary that is within a couple of pixels of your desired edge. You can modify properties in the Roto Brush effect, such as Smooth, to refine the initial segmentation further. (See “ Roto Brush effect and Refine Matte effect reference ?[...]

382 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 • When you've gotten everything as good as you can with the Roto Brush effect, you can touch up the matte further using other compositing features in After Effects—such as by painting on the alpha channel. (See “ Compositing and transparency overview a[...]

383 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 You can use expressions on the Roto Brush effect's Path property in the same manner as the Paint effect's Path property. When drawing a stroke with the Roto Brush tool, a new stroke is created even if another stroke is selected. This differs from the st[...]

384 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 • Use Alternate Color Estimation Subtly changes the process by which the Roto Brush effect determines what is foreground and what is background. Sometimes checking it helps with segmentation; sometimes it doesn't. Invert Foreground/Background Inverts which[...]

385 USING AFTER EFFECTS Transparency, opacity, and compositing Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: If you click Stop in the Freezing Roto Brush dialog box, After Effects stops adding frames to the cache, but Roto Brush segmentation is still locked with the segmentation information cached up until the point that you clicked Stop. To unfreeze Roto Brush se[...]

386 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 13: Effects and animation presets Effects and animation presets overview Animation presets overview and resources For a video tutorial on applying and working with effects and animation presets, go to the Adobe website . With animation presets , you can save and reuse specific configurations of layer properties a[...]

387 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Animation presets are loaded and initialized only when the Effects & Presets panel is shown. If the Effects & Presets panel is closed or hidden behind another panel, the animation presets are not initialized. After Effects CS5 can use animation presets created by [...]

388 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Effects are sometimes mistakenly referred to as filters . The primary difference between a filter and an effect is that a filter permanently modifies an image or other characteristic of a layer, whereas an effect and its properties can be changed or removed at any time. I[...]

389 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Animating effects You animate effect properties in the same way that you animate any other properties—by adding keyframes or expressions to them. In most cases, even effects that rely on animation for their normal use require that you set some keyframes or expressions. [...]

390 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Plug-ins ” on page 631 “ Effects & Presets panel ” on page 392 “ Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel ” on page 134 Resources for Cycore FX (CC) effects Note: The Cycore FX (CC) effect plug-ins are not included with the trial[...]

391 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • You can create a control layer by precomposing a white solid layer, a black solid layer, and a mask on the top layer that determines which areas are white and black. Increasing the feather of a mask softens the transition between black and white values. • The contra[...]

392 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • To expand or collapse all property groups for selected effects, press Ctrl+` (accent grave) (Windows) or Command+` (accent grave) (Mac OS). • To reset all of the properties of an effect to their default values, click Reset at the top of the entry for the effect in t[...]

393 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Apply an effect or animation preset Chris & Trish Meyer give tips on applying and using effects in an article on the ProVideo Coalition website . • To apply an effect or animation preset to a single layer, drag the effect or animation preset from the Effects & P[...]

394 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 You can’t disable an animation preset or delete it from a layer as a unit. You can, of course, individually delete or disable the effects, keyframes, and expressions that it comprises. • To delete one effect from a layer, select the effect name in the Effect Controls [...]

395 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Rather than removing effects or animation presets entirely, consider creating a subfolder in the Plug-ins or Presets folder for effects or animation presets that you seldom use. After Effects ignores the contents of folders with names that begin and end with parentheses, [...]

396 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Randomness and random seeds Because true randomness is not repeatable, many effects simulate randomness by using a calculation that generates seemingly random results for each value of a Random Seed property. Multiple instances of the same effect give the same results if [...]

397 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Red Speed • River • Rose Light • Silk • Smoke Rising • Sweeping Curves Behaviors • Autoscroll - horizontal • Autoscroll - vertical • Drift Over Time • Fade In Over Layer Below • Fade In+Out - frames • Fade In+Out - msec • Fade Out Over Layer Be[...]

398 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Colorize - sky blue • Colorize - sky orange • Colorize - sunset gradient • Contrast - luminance • Contrast - saturation • Dimension - bevel+shadow • Dimension - glow+shadow • Grayscale • Inset Video - framed • Inset Video - torn edges • Left Third [...]

399 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Invert Alpha • Keying - blue blur • Keying - green blur • Levels - computer to video • Levels - video to computer • Reduce DV blockiness • Sample Image Expression Shapes Backgrounds • Box Swarm • Kaleidoscopic • Nerve Net - Circular • Nerve Net - L[...]

400 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Geo Logo* • Graph Paper* • Honeycomb* • Iris Flare* • Kaleidorganic* • Kaleidoscopic Seaweed* • Light Bulb Sign* • Mandathorns* • Neon Flower* • Protection* • Pulsing Snake* • Radar Stopwatch* • Spiral Magic* • Swoop* • Tunnel Drain* • Wo[...]

401 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Sprites - Animated 2* • Pulsing Circles* • Spiralgear* • Sunflower - animated* Sprites - Still • Alien Calligraphy • Alien Face • Box - dashed lines • Bullseye • Circular - half round • Circular - tri dash • Crosshair - brackets • Crosshair - round ?[...]

402 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Sound Effects • Blaster • Busy • CallAdobe • DialTone-US • DTMF • PhoneCompany • RingingPhone-US Synthetics • Blue Bars • Cells • Digital • Ethereal • Gold Ambiance • Lightning - Horizontal • Lightning - Vertical • Mosaic • Orange Streaks ?[...]

403 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • 3D Fly Down & Unfold • 3D Fly Down Behind Camera • 3D Fly Down Random & Rotate Y • 3D Lines Zoom In • 3D Rain Down Words & Colors • 3D Random Spike Tumble • 3D Resolve Position • 3D Rotate around Circle • 3D Rotate in by Character • 3D Ro[...]

404 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Decoder Fade In • Drop In By Character • Espresso Eye Chart • Fade Up And Flip • Fade Up Characters • Fade Up Lines • Fade Up Words • Fly In From Bottom • Fly In With A Twist • Pop Buzz Words • Raining Characters In • Random Fade Up • Random Sh[...]

405 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Stretch Out Each Line • Stretch Out Each Word • Twirl Off Each Line • Twirl Off Each Word Blurs • Blur By Word • Bullet Train • Evaporate • Foggy • Jiggy • Transporter Curves and Spins • Bloom Flower • Clockwise Entry • Counter Rotate • Dust [...]

406 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Dictionary • Frame Number • Inch Worm • Text Bounce Fill and Stroke • Chasing Strokes • Fill Color Wipe • Flicker Color - scale • Flicker Color • Flicker Green • Inflammation • Pulse Blue • Pulse Orange • Pulsing Strokes • Rotate Hue • Slid[...]

407 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • 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 ?[...]

408 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Back Flip • Blow Away • Bounce In • Bungee • Chaotic • Clay Pigeons • Dot.Com • Elbow Room • Explosion • Hop, Skip, And A Jump • Pendulum • Punching Bag • Question • Rattle • Roll Bounce • Sequential Jump • Six-Shooter • Slide Bounce [...]

409 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Fly In By Words • Front - Back • Frontside - Backside • Ideas • Incoming • Jetstream 2 • Jetstream • Multi-Line Flip • Outgoing - Incoming • Pneumatic • Production • Stack Right Left • Weekdays • Word Processor • Zippy Organic • Autumn ?[...]

410 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Quiver • Ripple • Rubber Floor • Rubber • Sea-Sick • Shuffle • Simmer • Slice And Dice • Sprouts • Tag Team • Wheatfield • Wind Current • Wobble Paths • 360 Loop • Antelope • Ants • Back Stage • Balance • Balloon Man • Balloon •[...]

411 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Organism • Paper Clip • Pipes • Raquetball • Rat Nest • Reel To Reel • Rope Bridge • Serpent • Slippery Slope • Spiral Long • Spiral • Springy • Squirmy • Stairwell • Symmetry • Tchotchke • Walk Of Stars • Zig-Zag Rotation • Drip Do[...]

412 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Wiggly Scale Wipe • Zoom Away • Zoom Forward Tracking • Contract • Decrease Tracking • Extend • Increase Tracking • Magnify • Spasm • Stretchy Transform • Separate XYZ Position See “ Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individua[...]

413 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Ovals - concentric PAL • Ovals - random NTSC • Ovals - random PAL Transitions - Movement • Card Wipe - 2D fractured • Card Wipe - 3D pixelstorm • Card Wipe - 3D swing • Fly to Inset • Slide - drop • Slide - straight • Slide - swoop • Slide - variab[...]

414 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Clock Wipe • Corner Reveal • Grid Wipe • Iris - cross • Iris - diamond • Iris - points • Iris - round • Iris - square • Iris - star unfold • Iris - star • Iris - sunburst unfold • Iris - sunburst • Linear Wipe • Paint On - NTSC • Paint On -[...]

415 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Blur & Sharpen effects • “ Bilateral Blur effect ” on page 433 • “ Box Blur effect ” on page 434 • “ Camera Lens Blur effect (CS5.5) ” on page 434 • “ Channel Blur effect ” on page 435 • “ Compound Blur effect ” on page 436 • “ Direct[...]

416 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Color Correction effects • “ Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects ” on page 448 • “ Auto Levels effect ” on page 448 • “ Black & White effect ” on page 449 • “ Brightness & Contrast effect ” on page 449 • “ Broadcast Colors effect ” o[...]

417 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • “ Displacement Map effect ” on page 469 • “ Liquify effect ” on page 470 • “ Magnify effect ” on page 472 • “ Mesh Warp effect ” on page 473 • “ Mirror effect ” on page 474 • “ Offset effect ” on page 474 • “ Optics Compensation e[...]

418 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Checkbox Control effect • Color Control effect • Layer Control effect • Point Control effect • Slider Control effect Generate effects • “ 4-Color Gradient effect ” on page 483 • “ Advanced Lightning effect ” on page 484 • “ Audio Spectrum effec[...]

419 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • “ Color Range effect ” on page 505 • “ Difference Matte effect ” on page 506 • “ Extract effect ” on page 508 • “ Inner/Outer Key effect ” on page 509 • “ Linear Color Key effect ” on page 510 • “ Luma Key effect ” on page 512 • “[...]

420 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Third-party effects: • CC Cylinder effect • CC Sphere effect • CC Spotlight effect Simulation effects • “ Card Dance effect ” on page 542 • “ Caustics effect ” on page 544 • “ Foam effect ” on page 546 • “ Particle Playground effect ” on page[...]

421 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • “ Scatter effect ” on page 580 • “ Strobe Light effect ” on page 580 • “ Texturize effect ” on page 581 • “ Threshold effect ” on page 582 Third-party effects: • CC Burn Film effect • CC Glass effect • CC Kaleida effect • CC Mr. Smoothie [...]

422 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Third-party effects: • CC Glass Wipe effect • CC Grid Wipe effect • CC Image Wipe effect • CC Jaws effect • CC Light Wipe effect • CC Radial ScaleWipe effect • CC Scale Wipe effect • CC Twister effect Utility effects • “ Apply Color LUT effect ” on p[...]

423 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects The 3D Channel effects work on 2D layers—specifically, 2D layers with 3D information in auxiliary channels. The sources of these 2D layers are image sequences that represent 3D scenes that have been rendered out of a 3D[...]

424 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The ProEXR package from the fnord software website also includes the ProEXR Comp Creator plug-in. This plug-in can create a layer from each of the channels of an OpenEXR file. For example, the layers can represent the output from a set of render passes from a 3D applicati[...]

425 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Surface Normals This channel maps the direction vector of each point on the surface of an object to the RGB channels. The vectors are relative to the camera. Third-party plug-ins can use this channel as the basis for dynamic relighting and relief rendering. This chann[...]

426 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Feather The amount of feather along the edges of the matte. Invert Select to matte out everything with a depth greater than the Depth value. Deselect to matte out everything with a depth less than the Depth value. More Help topics “ About 3D Channel effects, including P[...]

427 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects ” on page 423 “ Preparing and importing 3D image files ” on page 103 “ 3D layers ” on page 158 Fog 3D effect The Fog 3D effect simulates fog by behaving as though a scattering medium is in t[...]

428 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About 3D Channel effects, including ProEXR effects ” on page 423 “ Preparing and importing 3D image files ” on page 103 “ 3D layers ” on page 158 ID Matte effect Many 3D programs tag each element in a scene with a unique Object ID. The ID Ma[...]

429 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Audio effects Trish and Chris Meyer provide tips about audio effects on the ProVideo Coalition website . Backwards effect The Backwards effect reverses the audio of a layer by playing the audio from the last frame to the first frame. The frames remain in their original or[...]

430 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The default settings for the Flange & Chorus effect are for flange. To create a chorus result, use values something like the following: 40 for Voice Separation Time (or higher for a greater chorus result), 4 for Voices, 0.1 for Modulation Rate, 50% for Modulation Dept[...]

431 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Audio Spectrum effect ” on page 485 “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 Modulator effect The Modulator effect adds both vibrato and tremolo to audio by modulating (varying) the frequency and amplitude. Modulation Type The type of waveform to[...]

432 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Harry Frank and Aharon Rabinowitz provide a video tutorial on the All Bets Are Off website that shows how to use the Backwards effect and the Reverb effect to create a creepy reverse echo result. Reverb Time The average time, in milliseconds, between the original audio an[...]

433 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 “ Set or add keyframes ” on page 198 Blur & Sharpen effects Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: • CC Radial Blur effect • CC Radial Fast Blur effect • CC Vector Blur e[...]

434 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The Bilateral Blur effect preserves the details in the logo and face. Threshold The radius of the blur is automatically decreased in areas where an edge or other prominent detail feature exists. The Threshold value determines how the Bilateral Blur effect decides what are[...]

435 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Descriptions of the Camera Lens Blur effect’s properties also apply to the camera layer’s Camera Options properties group with the same (or similar) names. Iris Properties Iris properties include Shape, Roundness, Aspect Ratio, Rotation, and Diffraction Fringe. [...]

436 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: If you have noise or artifacts primarily in one color channel—such as MPEG compression artifacts in the blue channel of DV footage—use Channel Blur to clean up the noise in that channel, leaving the other channels sharp. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and[...]

437 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Direction The direction of the blur. The blur is applied equally on either side of the center of a pixel; therefore, a setting of 180° and a setting of 0° produce the same results. More Help topics “ About Blur & Sh[...]

438 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Lens Blur effect The Lens Blur effect simulates the blurring of objects not in the focal plane of a camera. The appearance of the blur depends on the control layer used as a depth map and the iris settings for the simulated camera aperture. In After Effects CS5.5 and late[...]

439 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ About Blur & Sharpen effects ” on page 433 Radial Blur effect The Radial Blur effect creates blurs around a point, simulating the result of a zooming or rotating camera. You can specify the level of anti-aliasing applied at Best quality; no anti[...]

440 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) More Help topics “ About Blur & Sharpen effects ” on page 433 Smart Blur effect The Smart Blur effect blurs an image while preserving lines and edges within the image. For example, you can use the Smart Blur effect [...]

441 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Radius The distance from the edge at which pixels are adjusted for contrast. If you specify a low value, only pixels near the edge are adjusted. Threshold The greatest difference between adjacent pixels for which contrast i[...]

442 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Block Above Set the channel value of the pixel to zero if the original value of the pixel is greater than the value specified; otherwise, leave the original value. • Block Below Set the channel value of the pixel to zero if the original value of the pixel is less th[...]

443 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Calculations effect The Calculations effect combines channels of one layer with the channels of a second layer. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Input Channel The channel to extract and use as input to the blending operation. RGBA displays all channels norma[...]

444 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 set the color channels to 1.0. When you select Hue Only, the applied hue value is combined with 50% lightness and 100% saturation. When you select Lightness Only, the applied lightness value is combined with 0% saturation, which then gives the hue no influence. When you s[...]

445 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Channel Which channel or channels to invert. Each group of items operates in a particular color space, inverting either the entire image in that color space or only a single channel. • RGB/Red/Green/Blue RGB inverts all t[...]

446 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with Remove Color Matting effect applied (right) Use Background Color to specify the new background color. To allow this effect to generate color values outside the range 0.0-1.0 when working in 32-bpc color, deselect Clip HDR Values. The Remove Color[...]

447 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Sometimes, it’s easier and faster to create traveling mattes by using a track matte instead of using the Set Matte effect. However, using the Set Matte effect provides some advantages over defining a layer as a track matte layer. The layer used as the matte with the Set[...]

448 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 See “ Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects ” on page 632. Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects The Auto Color effect adjusts the contrast and color of an image after analyzing the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image. The Auto Contrast effect adj[...]

449 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) More Help topics “ Color correction, color grading, and color adjustment ” on page 268 Black & White effect The Black & White effect converts a color image to grays[...]

450 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The Broadcast Colors effect alters pixel color values to keep signal amplitudes within the range allowed for broadcast television. Use the Key Out Unsafe and Key Out Safe settings for How To Make Color Safe to determine which portions of the image the Broadcast Colors eff[...]

451 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Invert Color Correction Mask Inverts the mask that determines which colors to affect. More Help topics “ Color correction, color grading, and color adjustment ” on page 268 Change To Color effect The Change To Color effect (formerly Change Color HLS effect) changes a [...]

452 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Color correction, color grading, and color adjustment ” on page 268 Channel Mixer effect The Channel Mixer effect modifies a color channel using a mix of the current color channels. Use this effect to make creative color adjustments not easily done [...]

453 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Color Link effect The Color Link effect colorizes one layer with the average pixel values of another layer. This effect is useful for quickly finding a color that matches the color of a background layer. This effect works with 8-bpc color. John Dickinson provides a video [...]

454 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 White Point Place this point on a bright area to stabilize. Sample Size Radius, in pixels, of sampled areas. More Help topics “ Color correction, color grading, and color adjustment ” on page 268 Colorama effect The Colorama effect is a versatile and powerful effect f[...]

455 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Output Cycle controls Use Preset Palette Presets for the Output Cycle. The top palettes are designed for quick color correction and adjustment tasks. The bottom choices offer a variety of built-in color palettes for creative results. Output Cycle Customize the output colo[...]

456 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Matching Tolerance How far a color can be from Matching Color and still be affected by the Colorama effect. When Matching Tolerance is 0, the Colorama effect only affects the exact color selected for Matching Color. When Matching Tolerance is 1, all colors are matched; th[...]

457 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 2 If the image has more than one color channel, choose the channel you want to adjust from the Channel menu. RGB alters all channels using a single curve. 3 Use the Bezier tool and the Pencil tool to modify or draw a curve. (To activate a tool, click the Bezier button or [...]

458 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Offset Darkens or brightens the shadows and midtones with minimal change to the highlights. Gamma Correction The amount of gamma correction to use for adding an additional power-curve adjustment to the image. Higher values make the image lighter; lower values make the ima[...]

459 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Colorize Hue, Colorize Saturation, Colorize Lightness Specify the hue, saturation, and lightness of the color range chosen from the Channel Control menu. After Effects displays only the sliders for the Channel Control menu choice. More Help topics “ Color correction, co[...]

460 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Edge Softness The softness of the color boundaries. High values smooth the transition from color to gray. Match Colors Determines whether RGB values or HSB values are compared. Choose Using RGB to perform more strict matching that usually decolors more of the image. For e[...]

461 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Click the histogram to alternate between showing colorized versions of the histograms for all color channels and only showing the histogram for the channel or channels selected in the Channel menu. Input Black and Output Black Pixels in the input image with a luminance va[...]

462 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 You can use the Photo Filter effect controls to do the following: • To use a color preset for the filter color, choose an option from the Filter pop-up menu. • To select a custom color for the filter color, click the color swatch for the Color control to select a colo[...]

463 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 To convert .acv and Photoshop spline files, load the .acv file (Windows) or the Photoshop spline file (Mac OS) in the Curves dialog box, click the Pencil tool, and then save the file as an .amp file (Windows) or Photoshop lookup file (Mac OS). Phase Cycles through the arb[...]

464 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Auto Amounts If this option is selected, the Shadow Amount and Highlight Amount values are ignored, and amounts are used that are automatically determined to be appropriate for[...]

465 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Midtone Contrast The amount of contrast that the effect applies to the midtones. Higher values increase the contrast in the midtones alone, while concurrently darkening the shadows and lightening the highlights. A negative value reduces contrast. Black Clip, White Clip Ho[...]

466 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Vibrance effect The Vibrance effect adjusts saturation so that clipping is minimized as colors approach full saturation. Colors that are less saturated in the original image are affected by the Vibrance adjustments more than are colors that are already saturated in the or[...]

467 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Resources for Digieffects FreeForm Note: Digieffects FreeForm is not included with the free trial version of After Effects. See “ Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects ” on page 632. Digieffects FreeForm is an effect that distorts 2D layers in 3D space, usi[...]

468 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Bulge effect The Bulge effect distorts an image around a specified point, making the image appear to bulge toward or away from the viewer, depending on the options you select. Eran Stern explains how to use the Bulge effect in a video tutorial on the Motionworks website .[...]

469 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original image (upper-left), corner moved (lower-left), and final image (lower-right) The AE Enhancers forum describes and links to an animation preset from Donat van Bellinghen for scaling a set of Corner Pin effect points. The CC Power Pin effect—one of the Cycore FX [...]

470 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The effect uses the control layer specified by Displacement Map Layer, without considering any effects or masks. If you want to use the control layer with its effects, precompose it. If the control layer isn’t the same size as the layer to which the effect is applied, i[...]

471 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website that demonstrates the use of the Liquify effect to distort (morph) a human face into the face of a demon. Mask properties Freeze Area Mask Determines the area of the image in which mask opacity and feath[...]

472 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Undo distortions with the Liquify effect Use the Reconstruction tool and its modes to reverse distortions or redo them in new ways. 1 Select the Reconstruction tool, and then choose a mode from the Reconstruction Mode pop-up menu: Revert Changes unfrozen areas back to the[...]

473 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Feather The amount of edge feather, in pixels. Opacity The opacity of the magnified area, as a percentage of the opacity of the original layer. Scaling The type of scaling used to magnify the image: • Standard This method maintains sharpness in the image but produces pi[...]

474 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Each patch becomes a boundary for the distortion. For example, when you stretch a patch, the area of the image in the patch stretches, squishing the area of the image in the adjacent patch. The boundary of the adjacent patch protects the image inside it from being s[...]

475 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Resize Resizes the layer when the applied distortion stretches the layer beyond its boundaries. To use this control, first select Reverse Lens Distortion, and then choose an option. Off doesn’t resize the layer. Max 2X resizes the layer to a maximum of twice the origina[...]

476 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Type of Conversion The conversion process to use: • Rect To Polar Moves pixels by using (x,y) coordinates from each pixel as (r, ) coordinates. For example, an (x,y) coordinate of (2,3) becomes a polar coordinate with a radius of 2 and a degree of 3. Horizontal lines di[...]

477 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The other settings fall between. The more fluid elasticity settings require more rendering time. If the final image doesn’t follow the curve as expected, use the following elasticity guidelines: • In general, use the stiffest setting possible that doesn’t create a p[...]

478 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 9 Adjust the Percent control, and choose an option for Elasticity. 10 In the Composition panel, add, delete, or move correspondence points on the masks to control the distortion: • To add a point, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the mask. • To delete a po[...]

479 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Smear effect Using the Smear effect, you define an area within an image and then move that area to a new location, stretching, or smearing , the surrounding part of the image with it. Use masks to define the area you want to distort. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bp[...]

480 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 keyframes, add more keyframes. For example, a distortion representing a 90-degree rotation between two keyframes appears as a folding of the image. To make this distortion more fluid, add a keyframe for every 10°. Use the Smear effect 1 Open the layer in a Layer panel. 2[...]

481 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Turbulent Displace effect The Turbulent Displace effect uses fractal noise to create turbulent distortions in an image. For example, use it to create flowing water, funhouse mirrors, and waving flags. Rhys Enniks provides a demonstration of the Turbulent Displace effect i[...]

482 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 5 In the Timeline panel, move the current-time indicator to the time where the cycle completes. For example, if the Cycle value is 2, find the frame where the Evolution value is 2 revolutions. 6 Move the current-time indicator back one frame, to prevent a duplicate frame [...]

483 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Wave Warp effect The Wave Warp effect produces the appearance of a wave traveling across an image. You can produce a variety of different wave shapes, including square, circular, and sine waves. The Wave Warp effect is automatically animated at a constant speed across the[...]

484 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Blending Mode The blending mode to use in combining the gradient with the layer. Advanced Lightning effect The Advanced Lightning effect creates simulations of electrical discharges. Unlike the Lightning effect, Advanced Lightning doesn’t self-animate. Animate the Condu[...]

485 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Composite On Original Composites the lightning with the original layer using the Add blending mode. When deselected, only the lightning is visible. Complexity Specifies the complexity of the turbulence in the lightning. Min. Forkdistance Specifies the minimum pixel distan[...]

486 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (upper-left), and with effect applied (lower-left and right) Audio Layer The audio layer you want to use as input. Start Point, End Point Specifies the position at which the spectrum starts or ends if Path is set to None. Path The mask path along which to display[...]

487 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Audio Waveform effect Apply the Audio Waveform effect to a video layer to display the audio waveform of a layer that contains audio (and optionally video). You can display the audio waveform in several different ways, including along an open or closed mask path. Note: Aud[...]

488 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Randomness and random seeds ” on page 396 Beam effect The Beam effect simulates the movement of a beam, such as a laser beam. You can make the beam shoot, or you can create a wandlike beam with a stationary start or end point. The beam looks best wh[...]

489 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Contrast/Sharpness Specifies the contrast of the cell pattern when you use the Bubbles, Crystals, Pillow, Mixed Crystals, or Tubular cell pattern. The control specifies sharpness for any of the Plate or Crystallize options. Note: The option chosen from the Overflow menu a[...]

490 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc color. Anchor The point of origin of the checkerboard pattern. Moving this point offsets the pattern. Size From How the dimensions of the rectangles are determined: • Corner Point The dimensions of each rectangle are the dimensions of the re[...]

491 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Eyedropper Fill effect The Eyedropper Fill effect (formerly the Color Picker effect) applies a sampled color to the source layer. This effect is useful for quickly picking a solid color from a sample point on the original layer or picking a color value from one layer and [...]

492 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Spaceship layer (upper-left) composited over layer with Mandelbrot fractal with Lightness Gradient palette (lower-left) and Jul ia fractal (lower- right) Set Choice Specifies the set used. Mandelbrot is the typical Mandelbrot set. Mandelbrot Inverse is the Mandelbrot set [...]

493 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 High Quality Settings Specify the oversampling settings for the effect: • Oversample Method Specifies the method used to oversample the effect: Edge Detect-Fast-May Miss Pixels performs a simple edge detection and oversamples only those pixels. This option is the fastes[...]

494 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The anti-aliasing of the grid borders may cause the visible thickness to vary. Feather The softness of the grid. Invert Grid Inverts the transparent and opaque areas of the grid. Color The color of the grid. Opacity The opacity of the grid. Blending Mode The blendin[...]

495 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Alpha Channel Specifies that the effect fills either the opaque or transparent areas in the whole image, depending upon the alpha channel value at the point you set the fill point. Tolerance How far the color values of a pixel can be from the Fill Point color values a[...]

496 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Polygon wave type with square stroke profile (lower-left), and Image Contour wave type with Sine stroke profile (lower-right) Producer Point The point from which the waves appear. Parameters Are Set At Specifies whether parameters can be animated for individual waves. Bir[...]

497 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Value Channel The color attributes of the source layer used to define the image contours. Invert Input Inverts the chosen value channel option. Value Threshold Specifies the threshold for the chosen value channel. It determines the percentage value at which everything bel[...]

498 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 fade out at 2 seconds. If the sum of Fade-in Time and Fade-out Time is greater than the Lifespan value, the intersection point of the two fades is calculated so that the wave doesn’t reach full transparency. If either Fade-in Time or Fade-out Time is longer than the Lif[...]

499 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Edge Options Options for the edge of the scribble if Fill Type is set to an edge. • Edge Width Controls the width of the edge. • End Cap Controls the ends of scribble lines. Use Round for stroked lines with semicircular ends; use Butt for stroked lines with squared en[...]

500 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Stroke effect The Stroke effect creates a stroke or border around the path defined by one or more masks. You can also specify stroke color, opacity, and spacing, as well as brush characteristics. Specify whether the stroke appears on top of the image, on a transparent ima[...]

501 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Image Contours If Image Contours is chosen from the Stroke menu, you specify what layer to take the image contours from and how to interpret the input layer. • Input Layer The layer whose image contours are used. High-contrast, grayscale layers, and alpha channels work [...]

502 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Hardness Determines how sharp or blurry the edges of the stroke are. A value of 1 creates a slight blur; a value of 0.0 blurs the line so that few solid areas of color remain. Start, End Opacity Specify the opacity at the beginning or end of the stroke. Mid-point Opacity [...]

503 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Keying effects After Effects includes several built-in keying effects, as well as the Academy Award–winning Keylight effect, which excels at professional-quality color keying. For information on the Keylight effect, see its documentation in the folder in which the Keyli[...]

504 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 2 In the Effect Controls panel, choose Matte Corrected from the View menu. To view and compare the source image, both partial mattes, and the final matte at the same time, choose [A, B, Matte] Corrected, Final from the View menu. Other views available in the View menu are[...]

505 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Color Key effect Note: Though the color keying effects built into After Effects can be useful for some purposes, you should try keying with Keylight before attempting to use these built-in keying effects. Some keying effects have been superseded by more modern effects lik[...]

506 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Poorly lit greenscreen (upper-left) and background layer (lower-left) are combined using Color Range Key (lower-right). More Help topics “ Keying introduction and resources ” on page 375 “ Matte Choker effect ” on page 514 “ Simple Choker effect ” on page 515 [...]

507 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Difference Matte Key effect A. Original image B. Background image C. New background image D. Final composite image More Help topics “ Keying introduction and resources ” on page 375 “ Matte Choker effect ” on page 514[...]

508 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 9 Adjust the Matching Tolerance slider to specify the amount of transparency based on how closely colors must match between the layers. Lower values produce less transparency; higher values produce more transparency. 10 Adjust the Matching Softness slider to soften the ed[...]

509 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Drag the entire bar left or right to position it under the histogram. Inner/Outer Key effect Note: Though the color keying effects built into After Effects can be useful for some purposes, you should try keying with Keylight before attempting to use these built-in key[...]

510 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Set Edge Thin to specify how much of the border of the matte is affected by the key. A positive value moves the edge away from the transparent region, increasing the transparent area; a negative value moves the edge toward the transparent region and increases the size o[...]

511 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 4 In the Effect Controls panel, choose Final Output from the View menu. The view you choose appears in the right thumbnail and in the Composition panel. To see other results, work in one of the other views: Source Only Shows the original image without the key applied. Mat[...]

512 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Luma Key effect For information about keying in general, including links to tutorials and other resources, see “ Keying introduction and resources ” on page 375. The Luma Key effect keys out all the regions of a layer with a specified luminance or brightness. The qual[...]

513 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 If you’re not satisfied with the results from using the Spill Suppressor, try applying the Hue/Saturation effect to a layer after keying, and then decrease the saturation value to de-emphasize the key color. (See “ Hue/Saturation effect ” on page 458.) This effect w[...]

514 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Matte Choker effect The Matte Choker effect repeats a sequence of choking and spreading the matte to fill undesired holes (transparent areas) in opaque regions. The repetition is necessary because the entire matte must be choked and spread; the spreading fills the hole, b[...]

515 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Simple Choker effect The Simple Choker effect shrinks or expands the edges of a matte in small increments to create a cleaner matte. The Final Output view displays the image with the effect applied, and the Matte view provides a black-and-white view of the image with blac[...]

516 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The Remove Grain and Match Grain effects use a two-step process to manipulate grain without affecting the edges, sharpness, or highlights of an image. First, the grain is sampled, either automatically or manually; second, the grain is analyzed and portrayed by a mathemati[...]

517 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Any mask or matte works in a similar way: The white pixels in it exclude that area of the original image from processing by the grain effect; the black pixels process normally. At 100% Amount, the white areas fully blend with the original so that they are completely exclu[...]

518 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Select Invert Match if you want to invert the matte so that the white areas become black and the black areas become white. (The matching color is black in the matte and is processed by the grain effect regardless of the Amount setting. The inversion doesn’t affect any[...]

519 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 3 To change the dimensions of the preview region, change the Width and Height values in the Effect Controls panel to the desired size, in pixels. (Larger preview regions can result in slower rendering.) 4 Select Show Box if you want to outline the preview region in color.[...]

520 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Manually reposition noise samples Automatic grain or sample selection generally gives acceptable results for the Match Grain or Remove Grain effect, but you can choose to manually position and resize each sample or change the sample number. For example, you may want to re[...]

521 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Working with added or matched grain The Add Grain effect creates new grain or noise in an image by building the grain from nothing or by basing the properties of the grain on presets. The Match Grain effect also creates new grain in an image but by matching the grain in a[...]

522 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Several factors can affect the apparent color of the grain that these effects generate, including the following: • The color value of the underlying pixel in the source image. • The Saturation value of the noise. • The Tint Color and Tint Amount values, if you have [...]

523 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The distribution of the added noise over the color channels does affect the overall color of the resulting image. With a dark background, the noise tends to add to the image visually, so a red tint or more noise in the red channel gives a reddish hue to the image. With a [...]

524 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Dust & Scratches effect The Dust & Scratches effect reduces noise and defects by changing dissimilar pixels within a specified radius to be more like their neighboring pixels. To achieve a balance between sharpness of the image and hiding defects, try various comb[...]

525 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Because the controls for the two effects are nearly identical, you can use most instructions and tutorials created for the Fractal Noise effect to instead guide your use of the Turbulent Noise effect. (See “ Turbulent Noise effect ” on page 534.) Controls Fracta[...]

526 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 the appearance at 2 revolutions, and so on. To return the Evolution setting to its original state (for example, to create a seamless loop), use the Cycle Evolution option. You can specify how much the noise evolves over a period of time by animating Evolution. The more re[...]

527 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Set a value for Cycle. The evolution completes the number of revolutions you specify for Cycle in the amount of time determined by the distance between Evolution keyframes. Determine the Cycle value by considering how much of this cycle you need to render before it repe[...]

528 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Working with added or matched grain ” on page 521 Match noise or grain between images 1 Make sure that the source and the destination layers are in the same composition. 2 Select the destination layer to which you want to add grain. 3 Choose Effect [...]

529 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 To use this control automatically, set the Compensate For Existing Noise slider to 100%. You can then view the noise samples in the destination layer by choosing Compensation Samples in the Viewing Mode menu. You can also reposition the samples in the destination image by[...]

530 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Amount Of Noise The amount of noise to add. Noise Type Use Color Noise adds random values to the red, green, and blue channels individually. Otherwise, the same random value is added to all channels for each pixel. Clipping[...]

531 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Cycle Specifies the numbers of revolutions of the Noise Phase that the noise cycles through before it repeats (available only when Cycle Noise is selected). Alter the timing of the Noise Phase keyframes to adjust the speed of the Noise Phase cycles. To save time anima[...]

532 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Good degraining depends on good noise sampling. The results of the automatic sampling depend on the image content and noise type. You can also change the number, size, and position of the samples to get the best results for a particular image. The Temporal Filtering[...]

533 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Adjust any of the following in the Fine Tuning controls group to improve the balance between noise reduction and retained sharpness: Chroma Suppression Suppresses some of the chroma from the noise to clean up the image. If the noise is colorful, increasing this control [...]

534 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Sharpen an image with Unsharp Mask controls The Remove Grain effect contains Unsharp Mask controls, which increase the contrast of edges and fine details to help restore some of the sharpness that may have been lost during the grain reduction process. ❖ Do any of the fo[...]

535 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Wrap Back Remaps triangularly, so that values above 1.0 or below 0 fall back into the range. This option reveals subtle detail when Contrast is set above 100. When used as a luma matte, the layer reveals more detailed textured areas of transparency. • Allow HDR Resu[...]

536 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Saturation Renders the fractal noise as saturation values instead of grayscale. The Hue and Lightness of the original layer are maintained. If the original layer is grayscale, nothing happens. For a description of each blending mode, see “ Blending mode reference ?[...]

537 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Ghost effects occur if the luminance values of one color exceed the luminance values of another color to such an extent that you can see the first color through the wrong lens of anaglyph glasses. For example, an excessive red luminance value becomes visible through the b[...]

538 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Red Blue LR Tints the Right View layer red and the Left View layer blue (cyan) using the luminance values of each layer. • Balanced Red Green LR Performs the same operation as Red Green LR but also balances the colors to reduce shadows or ghosting effects caused by [...]

539 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Bevel Edges effect The Bevel Edges effect gives a chiseled and lighted 3D appearance to the edges of an image. Edge locations are determined by the alpha channel of the source image. Unlike Bevel Alpha, the edges created wi[...]

540 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: To apply a drop shadow to a layer that rotates, rotate the layer using the Transform effect and then apply the Drop Shadow effect. You can also use nesting, precomposing, or an adjustment layer to achieve this result. If you don’t use one of these methods, the sha[...]

541 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Shadow Only Select to render only the shadow. Resize Layer Select to allow the shadow to extend beyond the original boundaries of the layer. Simulation effects Third-party effects in this category included with After Effects: • CC Ball Action effect • CC Bubbles effec[...]

542 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Material controls The Material controls specify reflection values. Diffuse Reflection Gives objects form-defining shading. Shading depends on the angle at which the light strikes the surface and is independent of the position of the viewer. Specular Reflection Takes into [...]

543 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), gradient layer (center), and with Card Dance applied (right) Apply Card Dance to the layer to use for the front of the cards. To set the view, use the rotation or perspective controls, or match the perspective of the effect in any scene by corner-pinning.[...]

544 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Position, Rotation, and Scale controls Position (X, Y, Z), Rotation (X, Y, Z), and Scale (X, Y) specify the transformation properties you want to adjust. Because Card Dance is a 3D effect, you can control these properties separately for each axis of the cards. However, be[...]

545 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website in which he demonstrates how to use the Caustics effect with the Wave World effect. Note: The Caustics effect ignores masks and alpha channels on the layer to which it is applied. You can precompose the laye[...]

546 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Water controls Water Surface Specifies the layer to use as the surface of the water. Caustics uses the luminance of this layer as a height map for generating a 3D water surface. Light pixels are high, and dark pixels are low. You can use a layer created by using the Wave [...]

547 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (upper-left), with Foam applied (lower-left), and with a robot layer used as the Bubble Texture Layer (lower-right) You can also substitute any image or movie for bubbles. For example, you can create swarms of ants, flocks of birds, or crowds of people. Note: On [...]

548 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 upper-left corner of the screen if you don’t select Zoom Producer Point. If you select Zoom Producer Point, the point moves with the universe as it is zoomed out, and the point ends up closer to the center of the screen. Production Rate Determines the rate at which bubb[...]

549 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Pop Velocity Controls how popping bubbles affect each other. When a bubble pops, it affects other bubbles around it by leaving a hole that other bubbles can fill, pushing other bubbles away, or popping other bubbles. The higher the value, the more popping bubbles affect o[...]

550 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Bubble Velocity faces the bubble in the direction of its motion. This setting is the most useful for flocking-style animations. Environment Map Specifies the layer that is reflected in the bubbles. If you want to use this layer only for the reflection, turn off the video [...]

551 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc color. Particles shooting out of the spacecraft layer (upper-left), text characters used as particles shooting out of a ray gun (lower-left), and Layer Exploder used on spacecraft layer (lower-right) Start by creating a stream or plane of part[...]

552 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 When you use a layer as a source for particles, Particle Playground ignores any changes you’ve made to that layer within that composition, such as changing the Position values. Instead, it uses the layer in its original state. To keep changes for a layer when you use it[...]

553 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 With the Grid, a new particle appears on every frame at each grid intersection. You can’t adjust this frequency, but if you want to turn off the Grid or make the Grid stop generating particles at specific times, set the Particle Radius/Font Size control to 0, or use key[...]

554 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Radius Of New Particles Specifies the radius of the particles resulting from the explosion. This value must be smaller than the radius of the original layer or particle. Velocity Dispersion Specifies, in pixels per second, the maximum speed of the range within which Parti[...]

555 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Absolute Random Takes a frame at random from the layer, by using a time in the range from 0 to the Random Time Max you specify. Choose Absolute Random when you want each particle to represent a different single frame of a multiframe layer. For example, if you choose A[...]

556 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Using Selection Text values to differently affect subsets of text You can differently affect only certain subsets of text particles by specifying Selection Text values. To open the Particle Playground options dialog box, click Options at the top of the Particle Playground[...]

557 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Gravity controls Use Gravity controls to pull existing particles in a direction you specify. Particles accelerate in the direction of gravity. Apply in a vertical direction to create falling particles, such as rain or snow, or rising particles, such as champagne bubbles. [...]

558 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The simulation space is not bounded by the dimensions of the layer to which Particle Playground is applied. You may need to use a selection map that is larger than the Particle Playground layer so that the selection map affects dots that are not visible. Characters [...]

559 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 4 Specify the minimum and maximum values you want the layer map to produce for each Map To group. Min is the value to which a black pixel is mapped, and Max is the value to which a white pixel is mapped. The complete tonal distribution between Min and Max is then scaled p[...]

560 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 result in no adjustment, similar to flat land. Lower pixel values represent less resistance to a particle’s force, similar to a downhill grade. Higher pixel values represent more resistance to a particle’s force, similar to an uphill grade. For best results, use a sof[...]

561 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • You use a layer map to affect the Scale property of particles and find that the smallest particles aren’t small enough while the largest resulting particles are too large. In this case, the entire output range needs to be shifted down; lower both the Min and Max val[...]

562 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The alpha channel in a control layer modifies the color values in the control layer before Particle Playground uses the control layer’s pixel values. Areas where the alpha channel value is 0 (transparent areas of a control layer) don’t affect particle values. Areas wh[...]

563 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc color. Original (upper-left), and as Shatter is applied over time to reveal another layer (lower-left and right) More Help topics “ Precompose layers ” on page 65 “ Reverse the playback direction of a layer ” on page 231 Online resourc[...]

564 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Wireframe + Forces Displays the wireframe view, plus a blue representation of the force spheres. This view includes camera controls, so you can position everything precisely in 3D space. Render control The Render control renders the whole scene (the default), the unshatte[...]

565 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: To begin the shattering at a time other than layer time zero, animate the Radius property, not the Strength property. Pieces inside the force sphere defined by the Radius property are pulled outside the frame by gravity even if Strength is set to 0. Use Hold keyfram[...]

566 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Any application of z-axis rotation appears only when a second force hits the layer. The pieces do not rotate from the first blast if only z-axis rotation is selected. Randomness Affects the initial velocities and spins generated by the force sphere. When this contro[...]

567 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 same pixel information on both sides. Side Layer maps an extrusion of the chosen layer to the extruded sides of the piece, as if the chosen layer is also mapped to the front and back, and the layer has been sliced through. Note: If you choose a layer with an effect applie[...]

568 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Use the Colorama effect to posterize the colors of an image to these eight colors. Turn off Interpolate Palette in the Colorama effect controls. See “ Colorama effect ” on page 454. The alpha channel determines whether a shattered piece exists. A white alpha cha[...]

569 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 To understand how this effect works, consider the following information about the physics of waves: A wave consists of a peak and a trough. The amplitude of a wave is the height, or distance, between the peak and trough. The wavelength is the distance from one peak to the[...]

570 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Transparency Controls the clarity of the water by adjusting how opaque the alpha channel is in shallower areas. For example, you can easily see to the bottom of a pool filled with fresh water, but you can see only an inch or two into a pool filled with coffee. This contro[...]

571 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You can create a pulsing wave effect by animating the steepness of the ground so that the ground pokes through the water, producing waves. Then use the Wave Strength control to intensify the effect. Producer 1 and Producer 2 controls The Producer controls specify th[...]

572 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Brush Strokes effect The Brush Strokes effect applies a rough painted look to an image. You can also use this effect to achieve a pointillist style by setting the length of the brush strokes to 0 and increasing the stroke density. Although you specify the direction of str[...]

573 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 The Cartoon effect works in three stages: 1 It smooths the image and removes minor variations with a blurring operation similar to that used by the Bilateral Blur effect. Modify the Detail Radius and Detail Threshold properties to control this phase. 2 It finds edges in t[...]

574 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Cartoon effect applied with Render set to Fill Cartoon effect applied with Render set to Edges Cartoon effect applied with Render set to Fill & Edges[...]

575 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Cartoon effect properties Render Fill, Edges, or Fill & Edges. Determines which operations to perform and which results to display. Detail Radius The radius for the blurring operation that is used to smooth the image and remove details before the operation to find edg[...]

576 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (left), and with effect applied (right) More Help topics “ Emboss effect ” on page 576 Emboss effect The Emboss effect sharpens the edges of objects in an image and suppresses colors. The effect also highlights the edges from a specified angle. The quality se[...]

577 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Glow effect The Glow effect finds the brighter parts of an image and then brightens those pixels and surrounding pixels to create a diffuse, glowing aura. The Glow effect can also simulate overexposure of brightly lit objects. You can base the glow on either the original [...]

578 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 A & B Midpoint The midpoint specifies the balance between the two colors used in the gradient. Lower percentages use less of the A color. Higher percentages use less of the B color. Color A, Color B The color of the glow if you choose A & B Colors for Glow Colors.[...]

579 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Posterize effect The Posterize effect posterizes colors; the number of colors is reduced and gradual color transitions are replaced by abrupt color transitions. You specify the number of tonal levels (or brightness values) for each channel in an image. The Posterize effec[...]

580 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Evolution Options Evolution Options provide controls that render the effect for one short cycle and then loop it for the duration of your layer. Use these controls to pre-render your roughen elements into loops, and thus speed up rendering time. Use the following controls[...]

581 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 This effect works with 8-bpc color. Strobe Color The color of the strobe light. Blend With Original The transparency of the effect. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the effect result composited on top. The higher you set this value, the le[...]

582 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Threshold effect The Threshold effect converts grayscale or color images to high-contrast, black-and-white images. Specify a certain level as a threshold; all pixels lighter than the threshold convert to white and all pixels darker convert to black. This effect works with[...]

583 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 • Hexadecimal Base-16 numbers (digits from 0 to F). Hexadecimal numbers increment by 0x1 for every 0.0000125 that the Value/Offset/Random Max value increases, and increments by 0x10000 for every 1.0 that the Value/Offset/Random Max value increases. If you select Random,[...]

584 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Time Source (CS5.5 and later) The source used for the effect. • Layer Source Timecode is displayed according to the timecode from the source footage of the layer. • Composition Timecode is displayed according to the timecode from the composition. • Custom Allows acc[...]

585 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Echo effect The Echo effect combines frames from different times in a layer. The Echo effect has a variety of uses, from a simple visual echo to streaking and smearing effects. The results of this effect are visible only if the layer contains change across time, such as m[...]

586 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Posterize Time effect The Posterize Time effect locks a layer to a specific frame rate. It’s useful on its own as a special effect, but it also has more subtle uses. For example, 60-field-per-second video footage can be locked to 24 frames per second (and then field ren[...]

587 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Time Offset The relative time in the comparison layer, in seconds, where the layers are compared. If this control is set to 0.00, the comparison occurs at the current time. To compare the effect layer to a point 3 seconds into the comparison layer, for example, change the[...]

588 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Like the Displacement Map effect, the Time Displacement effect uses a displacement map, but it bases the movement of pixels in the layer on luminance values in the map. Pixels in the layer that correspond to bright areas in the displacement map are replaced by pixels in t[...]

589 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 4 Choose Effect > Time > Time Displacement. 5 Choose a displacement map from the Time Displacement Layer menu, which lists all layers in the composition. Grayscale maps are recommended. Note: After Effects uses the layer you select in its original form, without any [...]

590 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Adjust Time By controls Choose Speed to specify a time adjustment as a percentage. Choose Source Frame to specify a time adjustment by identifying which source frame is to play at which time. If you choose Source Frame for Adjust Time By, then you must animate the Source [...]

591 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Source Crops If the image contains unwanted pixels or artifacts at the edges, use Source Crops controls to specify image boundaries. Pixels from the boundaries are repeated to fill the area beyond the boundaries to the edges of the layer. More Help topics “ Composition [...]

592 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Block Dissolve effect The Block Dissolve effect makes a layer disappear in random blocks. The width and height of the blocks, in pixels, can be set independently. At Draft quality, the blocks are placed with pixel precision and have sharply defined edges; at Best quality,[...]

593 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Randomness and random seeds ” on page 396 “ Common Lighting controls and Material controls ” on page 541 “ About Transition effects and the Transition Completion property ” on page 591 Basic controls Transition Width The width of the area th[...]

594 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Corner Pins controls Corner Pinning is an alternative camera control system. Use it as an aid for compositing the result of the effect into a scene on a flat surface that is tilted with respect to the frame. Upper Left Corner, Upper Right Corner, Lower Left Corner, Lower [...]

595 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (upper-left), and with effect applied (lower-left and right) The gradient layer can be a still image or a moving image. The gradient layer must be in the same composition as the layer to which you apply Gradient Wipe. You can create gradient layers in many ways, [...]

596 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Original (upper-left), and with effect applied (lower-left and right) More Help topics “ About Transition effects and the Transition Completion property ” on page 591 Linear Wipe effect The Linear Wipe effect performs a simple linear wipe of a layer in a specified dir[...]

597 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Radial Wipe effect The Radial Wipe effect reveals an underlying layer using a wipe that circles around a specified point. At Best quality, the edges of the wipe are anti-aliased. Start Angle The angle at which the transition starts. With a start angle of 0°, the transiti[...]

598 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Utility effects Apply Color LUT effect Apply the Apply Color LUT effect to a layer to transform the colors of the layer according to a color lookup table (LUT). LUTs are sometimes used to perform manual color correction or color management tasks. Note: In general, within [...]

599 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Pete O’Connell provides an article on the Creative COW website that describes the use of the Cineon Converter effect. Conversion Type How the Cineon file is converted. Log To Linear converts an 8-bpc logarithmic non-Cineon layer that you plan to render as a Cineon seque[...]

600 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 When specifying a rendering intent, you can choose to use black point compression. Black point compression ensures that the shadow detail in the image is preserved by simulating the full dynamic range of the output device. The following rendering intents are available for[...]

601 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You should not need to use this effect when working with effects that work with 32-bpc color, because these effects have been updated to automatically compensate for layer size. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Original (upper-left); the Wave [...]

602 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Select Expand Range for Mode for the second instance of the HDR Compander effect. 8 Set Gain and Gamma to the same values as set in the first instance of the HDR Compander effect. A more convenient way to use the HDR Compander effect is to apply the Compress-Expand Dyna[...]

603 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Wireframe is selected, the specular highlight is indicated by a red plus sign (+) if it isn’t visible on the layer (that is, if the center of the highlight doesn’t intersect the layer) and a green plus sign (+) if the highlight is visible. Preview Draws a wireframe ou[...]

604 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Branch Width The average width of each branch as a fraction of the width of the lightning bolt. Speed How fast the lightning bolt undulates. Stability How closely the lightning follows the line defined by the start and end points. Lower values keep the lightning bolt clos[...]

605 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Handles appear in the Composition panel only if the effect is selected in the Effect Controls panel and if you aren’t animating text along a mask or path. If you want to move a Bezier path across the composition, and you don’t want to change its shape, animate t[...]

606 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Tracking Average distance between characters. Kerning Controls the horizontal distance between two characters. If you change the text, specified kerning is preserved for all unchanged character pairs. You cannot use the Undo command to undo kerning changes. To change hori[...]

607 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Baseline Shift Specifies the distance in pixels between the path and the bottom of the characters. Depending on the path shape, text may appear to be better spaced if the path passes through the centers of the characters. You can set Baseline Shift to a negative value so [...]

608 USING AFTER EFFECTS Effects and animation presets Last updated 11/28/2011 Move vertices, circle centers, and tangents • To move the Vertex 1/Circle Center and the Tangent 1/Circle Point together, drag the outer circle of the Vertex 1/Circle Center. • To move only the Vertex 1/Circle Center, drag its cross hair. • To automatically snap the[...]

609 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 14: Markers and metadata Layer markers and composition markers Use composition markers and layer markers to store comments and other metadata and mark important times in a composition or layer. Composition markers appear in the time ruler for the composition, whereas layer markers each appear on the duration bar [...]

610 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 If you add one composition to another, the original composition becomes nested as a layer in the containing composition. All of the composition markers from the nested composition become layer markers in the timeline of the containing composition. These markers are not linked to t[...]

611 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 • To remove a composition marker, drag the marker to the Comp Marker Bin button or Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the marker. • To lock all composition markers on a composition, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a marker on the composition, and ch[...]

612 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 To convert selected properties to cue point parameters in layer markers, choose File > Scripts > Convert Selected Properties To Markers.jsx. This script adds a layer marker on the layer at the same time as each keyframe for each selected property. The markers’ cue point pa[...]

613 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 Online resources about markers To view video tutorials on working with markers, cue points, and XMP metadata go to the Adobe website: • Converting metadata and markers to cue points : video tutorial demonstrating using Soundbooth, Flash Professional, and After Effects to create [...]

614 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 XMP metadata included in an F4V or FLV file can be read and used by ActionScript, so you can use XMP metadata to add interactivity to a video playing in Flash Player. One application of this feature is searching within an FLV file for temporal metadata, which can allow the user to[...]

615 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 The After Effects scripting interface provides additional tools for using and interacting with XMP metadata. Importing files with XMP metadata into After Effects After Effects can import XMP metadata from many formats, including the following: • camera formats: AVCHD, HDV, P2, X[...]

616 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 To see Files metadata in the Metadata panel, you must first select a file in the Project panel. You can then add or change information in any of the metadata categories. If you select multiple files, then changes that you make will be made in all of the selected files. Any changes[...]

617 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 • Windows Media (.wmv) • some MPEG formats (.mpg, .m2v, .mp4) Note: XMP metadata is written to sidecar (.xmp) files for some MPEG formats. For files of other types, the Include Source XMP Metadata option is unavailable. When you render and export a file and include the source [...]

618 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 , and Soundbooth divide the Metadata panel into separate sections for different asset types. Adobe Premiere Pro Separates metadata in these sections: • Clip Displays properties for clip instances you select in the Project panel or Timeline panel. This metadata is stored in proje[...]

619 USING AFTER EFFECTS Markers and metadata Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Do any of the following: • To save a customized set of displayed metadata, click • Save Settings • . Then enter a name, and click OK. • To display a previously saved set of metadata, select it from the menu. • To delete a previously saved set of metadata, select it fro[...]

620 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 15: Memory, storage, and performance Memory and storage Memory (RAM) usage in 64-bit After Effects Advantages of a 64-bit application and 64-bit address space The 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 an[...]

621 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects can start additional processes of the After Effects application to run in the background to assist the main foreground application with the rendering of frames for RAM previews or final output. These background processes have the name AfterFX.exe (Windows[...]

622 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 CPUs Reserved For Other Applications Set this value to a number other than 0 to prevent After Effects from using all of the CPUs (processor cores) in your computer system. For example, if you have a computer with 8 CPUs, setting this value to 2 leaves 6 CPUs for After [...]

623 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Particle Playground • Shadow/Highlight Note: Some third-party effects—such as CC Time Blend and RE:Vision Effects Video Gogh—are also incompatible with the Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing feature. Memory pool shared between After Effects[...]

624 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Adding per-character 3D properties • Precomposing without collapsing transformations • Using certain blending modes, layer styles, or effects, especially those involving multiple layers • Applying certain output options, such as 3:2 pulldown, cropping, and re[...]

625 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The value 2,097,152 is a conversion factor that accounts for the number of bytes per megabyte (2 20 ), the number of bits per byte (8), and the number of channels per pixel (4). Some example frame sizes and memory requirements, in megabytes (MB) per frame: • DV[...]

626 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The disk cache is not used for RAM previews. It is only used for standard previews. (See “ Use standard preview to play video ” on page 180.) • After Effects CS5 : Choose Edit > Preferences > Media & Disk Cache (Windows) or After Effects > Pref[...]

627 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 A database retains links to each of the cached media files. This media cache database is shared with Adobe Media Encoder, Premiere Pro, Encore, Soundbooth, so each of these applications can each read from and write to the same set of cached media files (Note: Adobe Aud[...]

628 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Make sure that your system has enough RAM. Optimum performance is achieved with computer systems with at least 2 GB of installed RAM per processor core. See the documentation for your operating system and computer for details on how to check the amount of installed[...]

629 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Before rendering, put all of your source footage files on a fast, local disk—not the one that you’re rendering and exporting to. A good way to do this is with the Collect Files command. See “ Collect files in one location ” on page 686. • Pre-render neste[...]

630 USING AFTER EFFECTS Memory, storage, and performance Last updated 11/28/2011 • Select Draft 3D in the Timeline panel menu, which disables all lights and shadows that fall on 3D layers. It also disables the depth-of-field blur for a camera. • Deselect Live Update in the Timeline panel menu to prevent After Effects from updating compositions [...]

631 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 16: Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Plug-ins Plug-ins are small software modules—with filename extensions such as .aex, .pbk, .pbg, and .8bi—that add functionality to an application. After Effects effects are implemented as plug-ins, as are some features for importing and working with certain file formats. [...]

632 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 On Mac OS, press Command+Option+Shift+Help to generate a list of all plug-ins loaded into After Effects (including version numbers). For information on using this command on Windows or with a Macintosh keyboard that doesn't have a Help button, see Todd Kopriva’[...]

633 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 Pixel Bender effect plug-ins and the Pixel Bender Toolkit Increasingly, many effect plug-ins for After Effects are written in the Adobe Pixel Bender language. Pixel Bender is designed to improve the performance of image-processing operations by taking advantage of mul[...]

634 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The path for After Effects CS5.5 and later differs in the version number portion of the path. Several scripts come with After Effects and are automatically installed in the Scripts folder. Loaded scripts are available from the File > Scripts menu. If you edit[...]

635 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 Writing and modifying scripts You can write your own scripts for use in After Effects by using the script editor, which is part of the ExtendScript Toolkit. The ExtendScript Toolkit provides a convenient interface for creating, debugging, and testing your own scripts.[...]

636 USING AFTER EFFECTS Plug-ins, scripts, and automation Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Expressions ” on page 637 “ Plug-ins ” on page 631 “ Scripts ” on page 633 “ Automated rendering and network rendering ” on page 707 “ Post-render actions ” on page 695[...]

637 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 17: Expressions Expression basics Many of the examples in this section are based on examples provided by Dan Ebberts. Dan Ebberts also has an excellent collection of example expressions and tutorials for learning how to work with expressions on his MotionScript website . The AE Enhancers forum provides many examp[...]

638 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 When you are animating text, you can use the Expression selector to specify how much you want an animator property to affect each text character. You can add one or more Expression selectors to an animator group, and that animator group can contain one or more properties. More Help topics [...]

639 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 For example, you can double the result by typing *2 at the end of the expression; or you can halve the result by typing /2 at the end of the expression. As you develop comfort editing expressions, you can combine these simple operations—and more. For example, you can add /360*100 to the [...]

640 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Edit an expression with the pick whip If you are not familiar with JavaScript or the After Effects expression language, you can still take advantage of the power of expressions by using the pick whip. You simply drag the pick whip from one property to another to link the properties with an[...]

641 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Because the default is to use compact English, this document uses compact English in most examples and illustrations. 1 Drag the pick whip to another property in the Timeline panel or Effect Controls panel. 2 Optionally, modify the default expression in the expression field. Note: If[...]

642 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 6 Again, look at the expression elements reference to see that layer(index) returns a Layer object. Look at “ Layer General attributes and methods (expression reference) ” on page 661, and find the element you want to use. For example, if you want to get the values of the Position prop[...]

643 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Writing expressions for source text The Source Text property of a text layer is interpreted by expressions as a JavaScript String. You can use the pick whip to retrieve the source text from another text layer; however, only the style of the first character of the destination layer is used.[...]

644 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 • Type /* at the beginning of the comment and */ at the end of the comment. Any text between /* and */ is ignored. For example: /* This is a multiline comment. */ For examples of this type of comment, see “ Save and reuse expressions ” on page 644. Save and reuse expressions Once you[...]

645 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: As with pasting keyframes and other items, you can often paste the item into the target layer and rely on After Effects to determine which property should be the target of the paste operation. For example, this works for copying Position properties from one layer to another, but you [...]

646 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Aharon Rabinowitz’s three-part “After Effects Expression Controls” series of video tutorials on the Creative COW website introduces the Expression Controls effects and shows some basic examples of their uses. Harry Frank provides a clock project on his graymachine website , in which [...]

647 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Accessing attributes and methods You use the expression language to access attributes and methods of layer properties. To access a value, use a chain of object references separated by the period ( . ) operator. To chain object references past the layer level (for example, to refer to effec[...]

648 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 You can access the individual elements of an Array object by using brackets and an index number to indicate which element you want. The elements in an Array object are indexed starting from 0. Using the previous example, myArray[0] is 10 and myArray[1] is 23 . The following two expressions[...]

649 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 x = thisComp.layer("Layer A").position[0]; y = thisComp.layer("Layer B").position[1]; [x,y] You can create an expression that refers to just one value within the array of a 2D or 3D property. By default, the first value is used, unless you specify otherwise. For example[...]

650 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 thisComp.layer(1).position thisComp.layer(1).position.valueAtTime(time) To use a relative time, add an incremental time value to the time argument. For example, to get the Position value 5 seconds before the current time, use the following expression: thisComp.layer(1).position.valueAtTime[...]

651 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Expression language reference Use the After Effects expression elements along with standard JavaScript elements to write your expressions. 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 [...]

652 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 posterizeTime(framesPerSecond) Return type: Number. Argument type: framesPerSecond is a Number. The framesPerSecond value becomes the frame rate from which the rest of the expression operates. This expression allows you to set the frame rate for a property to be lower than the frame rate o[...]

653 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 timeToCurrentFormat(t = time + thisComp.displayStartTime, fps = 1.0 / thisComp.frameDuration, isDuration = false) Return type: String. Argument type: t and fps are Numbers; isDuration is a Boolean. Converts the value of t to a String representing time in the current Project Settings displa[...]

654 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Argument type: value , limit1 , and limit2 are Numbers or Arrays. The value of each component of value is constrained to fall between the values of the corresponding values of limit1 and limit2 . Chris and Trish Meyer provide additional information about the clamp method in an article on t[...]

655 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Argument type: offset is a Number, timeless is a Boolean. The random and gaussRandom methods use a seed value that controls the sequence of numbers. By default, the seed is computed as a function of a unique layer identifier, the property within the layer, the current time, and an offset v[...]

656 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 If minValOrArray and maxValOrArray are Numbers, this method returns a random number. Approximately 90% of the results are in the range from minValOrArray to maxValOrArray , and the remaining 10% are outside this range. If the arguments are Arrays, this method returns an Array of random num[...]

657 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Argument type: t is a Number, and value1 and value2 are Numbers or Arrays. Similar to linear with the same arguments, except that the interpolation eases in and out so that the velocity is 0 at the start and end points. This method results in a very smooth animation. ease(t, tMin, tMax, va[...]

658 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Other Math methods (expression reference) Chris and Trish Meyer provide additional information about these methods in an article on the ProVideo Coalition website . degreesToRadians(degrees) Return type: Number. Argument type: degrees is a Number. Converts degrees to radians. radiansToDegr[...]

659 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Returns the MarkerKey object of the marker with the specified name. The name value is the name of the marker, as typed in the comment field in the marker dialog box, for example, marker.key("1") . For a composition marker, the default name is a number. If more than one marker in [...]

660 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 shutterPhase Return type: Number. Returns the shutter phase of the composition, in degrees. bgColor Return type: Array [4]. Returns the background color of the composition. pixelAspect Return type: Number. Returns the pixel aspect ratio of the composition. name Return type: String. Returns[...]

661 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects finds the effect by its name in the Effect Controls panel. The name can be the default name or a user- defined name. If multiple effects have the same name, the effect closest to the top of the Effect Controls panel is used. Example: effect("Fast Blur")("Blurri[...]

662 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: In general, the value of outPoint is greater than the value of inPoint . However, if a layer is reversed in time, the value of inPoint is greater than the value of outPoint . Similarly, the value of startTime can be greater than the value of inPoint . outPoint Return type: Number. Re[...]

663 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Layer Properties attributes and methods (expression reference) When you add masks, effects, paint, or text to a layer, After Effects adds new properties to the Timeline panel. There are too many of these properties to list here, so use the pick whip to learn the syntax for referring to the[...]

664 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 marker.nearestKey(1).time This expression returns the time of the marker on the layer nearest to the current time: marker.nearestKey(time).time marker.numKeys Return type: Number. Returns the total number of markers on the layer. name Return type: String. Returns the name of the layer. Lay[...]

665 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Layer Space Transforms methods (expression reference) Use layer space transform methods to transform values from one space to another, such as from layer space to world space. The “from” methods transform values from layer space to the named space (composition or world). The “to” m[...]

666 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Transforms a vector from layer space to composition space. Example: toCompVec([1,0]) fromCompVec(vec, t=time) Return type: Array [2 or 3]. Argument type: vec is an Array [2 or 3], and t is a Number. Transforms a vector from composition space to layer space. Example (2D layer): dir=sub(posi[...]

667 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Returns the aperture value of a camera, in pixels. blurLevel Return type: Property. Returns the blur level value of a camera as a percentage. 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 camer[...]

668 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Argument type: name is a String. Returns a property within an effect. Effect control points are always in layer space. Example: effect("Bulge").param("Bulge Height") param(index) Return type: Property. Argument type: index is a Number. Returns a property within an effec[...]

669 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 speed Return type: Number. Returns a 1D, positive speed value equal to the speed at which the property is changing at the default time. This element can be used only for spatial properties. speedAtTime(t) Return type: Number. Argument type: t is a Number. Returns the spatial speed value at[...]

670 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 amount that amp is multiplied by for each octave, and t is the base start time. For this function to be meaningful, the property it samples must be animated, because the function alters only the time of sampling, not the value. Example: scale.temporalWiggle(5, .2) smooth(width=.2, samples=[...]

671 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 David Van Brink provides an instructional article and sample project on his omino pixel blog that show how to use the Echo effect, the Particle Playground effect, and the loopOut method to animate a swarm of stylized swimming bacteria. loopInDuration(type="cycle", duration=0) Ret[...]

672 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Returns the index of a property relative to other properties in its property group, including property groups within masks, effects, text animators, selectors, shapes, trackers, and track points. name Return type: String. Returns the name of the property or property group. Example: Animati[...]

673 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 d = Math.abs(time - nearestKey(time).time); easeOut(d, 0, .1, 100, 0) value Return type: Number or Array. Returns the value of the keyframe. time Return type: Number. Returns the time of the keyframe. index Return type: Number. Returns the index of the keyframe. MarkerKey attributes (expre[...]

674 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Contents of Chapter field in marker dialog box. url Return type: String. Contents of URL field in marker dialog box. frameTarget Return type: String. Contents of Frame Target field in marker dialog box. eventCuePoint Return type: Boolean. Setting for cue point type in marker dialog box. Tr[...]

675 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Chris Zwar provides an example project on his website for automatically arranging still images or videos into a grid (like a video wall). You can easily adjust position and spacing with sliders that are connected to a system of expressions. There are three compositions in the project—one[...]

676 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Expression example: Position one layer between two others This example expression positions and maintains one layer at a balanced distance between two other layers. 1 Start with three layers. (See “ Creating layers ” on page 117.) 2 Animate the positions of the first two layers in the [...]

677 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Expression example: Fade opacity of a 3D layer based on distance from camera ❖ Apply the following expression to the Opacity property of a 3D layer: startFade = 500; // Start fade 500 pixels from camera. endFade = 1500; // End fade 1500 pixels from camera. try{ // Check whether there&apo[...]

678 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 n = 0; t = 0; if (marker.numKeys > 0){ n = marker.nearestKey(time).index; if (marker.key(n).time > time) n--; } if (n > 0) t = time - marker.key(n).time; amp = 15; freq = 5; decay = 3.0; angle = freq * 2 * Math.PI * t; scaleFact = (100 + amp * Math.sin(angle) / Math.exp(decay * t)[...]

679 USING AFTER EFFECTS Expressions Last updated 11/28/2011 Expression example: Match camera focal plane to another layer ❖ Apply the following expression to the Focus Distance property of a camera layer to have its focus distance match the distance to the anchor point of a layer named “target”: target = thisComp.layer("target"); V1[...]

680 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 18: Rendering and exporting Basics of rendering and exporting Rendering and exporting overview Rendering is the creation of the frames of a movie from a composition. 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 composit[...]

681 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Using the Render Queue panel, you can render the same composition to different formats or with different settings, all with one 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 cinem[...]

682 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Supported output formats Important: The trial version of After Effects CS5 doesn't include some features that depend on third-party software components that are only included in the full version of After Effects. The import and export of some formats are not supported in t[...]

683 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 • Radiance (HDR, RGBE, XYZE) • SGI (SGI, BW, RGB, 16 bpc) • Targa (TGA, VBA, ICB, VST) • TIFF (TIF; 8, 16, and 32 bpc) Audio-only formats • Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) • MP3 • WAV More Help topics “ Supported import formats ” on page 71 “ Save and b[...]

684 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Click the triangle next to the Output To heading in the Render Queue panel to choose a name for the output file based on a naming convention, and then choose a location; or click the text next to the Output To heading to enter any name. (See “ Specify filenames and location[...]

685 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 • To remove a render item from the render queue (change its status from Queued to Unqueued), deselect its entry in the Render column. The item remains in the Render Queue panel. • To change the status of a render item from Unqueued to Queued, select its entry in the Render [...]

686 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 To view more information about the current render operation, click the triangle to the left of the Current Render heading. The Current Render pane collapses (closes) after a short time. To expand the pane so that it does not collapse after a time-out period, Alt-click (Windows)[...]

687 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Carl Larsen demonstrates the use of the Collect Files command and the Consolidate All Footage command in a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to organize, consolidate, and archive project files and footage. 1 Choose File > Collect Files. 2 In the Colle[...]

688 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 The names of these folders appear in parentheses to signal to any attending render engines that they should not search these folders for projects. David Torno provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website that exports specified information about a project. Specify file[...]

689 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Name output files automatically The Use Default File Name And Folder preference ensures that all compositions added to the render queue are automatically assigned a unique output filename (except for files created by saving RAM previews, which still use the composition name). W[...]

690 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: The default render settings template is assigned to a render item when it is created. To change which render settings template is the default, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you choose a render settings template from the menu. Create, edit, and manage ren[...]

691 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Color Depth Current Settings (default) uses the project bit depth. (See “ Color depth and high dynamic range color ” on page 263.) Frame Blending On For Checked Layers renders frame blending only for layers with the Frame Blending switch set, regardless of the Enable Frame [...]

692 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Before rendering, check the Audio Output settings in the Output Module Settings dialog box to ensure that they are correct. To render audio, Audio Output must be selected. If your composition does not include audio, do not select Audio Output, so that the size of the rend[...]

693 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Changes to an existing template do not affect render items that are already in the render queue. • To specify a default output module settings template to be used when processing movies, individual frames, RAM previews, pre-rendered movies, or proxies, choose a template[...]

694 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Resize Specifies the size of your output movie. Select Lock Aspect Ratio To if you want to retain the existing frame aspect ratio when resizing the frame. Select Low Resize Quality when rendering tests, and select High Resize Quality when creating a final movie. (See “ Scalin[...]

695 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Important: The embedded version of the Adobe Media Encoder used to manage export settings within After Effects output modules does not provide all of the features of the full, stand-alone Adobe Media Encoder application. For information about the full, stand-alone Adobe Media E[...]

696 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: You choose Post-Render Action options in the Output Module group, so be aware that changing the Output Module template could also change the Post-Render Action option. (See “ Output modules and output module settings ” on page 691.) 1 Expand the Output Module group in[...]

697 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 OpenGL in After Effects can render the following features: • Shadows, except point light shadows (Colored shadows appear gray.) • Lights (eight maximum) • Masks • Alpha channels • Track mattes • Intersecting layers • Transformations for 2D and 3D layers • GPU-ac[...]

698 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Render settings ” on page 689 “ Preview video and audio ” on page 178 Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player You can render and export movies from After Effects as movies that can play in Adobe Flash Player. SWF files play nat[...]

699 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Working with Flash and After Effects ” on page 21 “ Basics of rendering and exporting ” on page 680 About XFL files XFL files are essentially the XML equivalent of FLA files. An XFL file is a compressed archive folder that contains a Library folder an[...]

700 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Working in Flash Professional with a FLA document created from an XFL file The Library panel in Flash Professional is similar to the Project panel in After Effects. When Flash Professional creates a FLA document from an XFL file, it creates symbols, folders, and video clips and[...]

701 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 • The layer is not a 3D layer. Stage 2: Remaining source files are converted to PNG sequences or FLV files, if possible. 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 fi[...]

702 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects relies on the embedded version of the Adobe Media Encoder to create FLV files. The Adobe Media Encoder can’t create FLV files with pixel dimensions greater than 1920x1080. When you export a composition to the XFL format from a 32-bpc project, the rendering of co[...]

703 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 More Help topics “ Working with Flash and After Effects ” on page 21 “ Basics of rendering and exporting ” on page 680 SWF export settings JPEG Quality Specifies the quality of rasterized images. The higher the quality, the larger the file. (If you select Rasterize for [...]

704 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 _top Loads the web link into the top frame in the current window. _level0 Loads another SWF file into level 0. The current file typically plays at level 0; another file loaded into level 0 usually replaces the current file. The URL must refer to another SWF file. _level1 Loads [...]

705 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 You can play a movie in an FLV or F4V container file in many different ways, including the following: • Import the file into the Flash Professional authoring application and publish the video in a SWF file. • Play the movie in the Adobe Media Player (AMP). • Preview the m[...]

706 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences Rendering and exporting a sequence of still images You can export a rendered movie as a sequence of still images, in which case each frame of the movie is output as a separate still-image file. When you render one m[...]

707 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 PSD files generated by Save Frame As > Photoshop Layers have the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 ICC color profile embedded if color management is disabled for the project (the project's working color space is set to None). If color management is enabled for the project (the project&[...]

708 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 To render just Composition_1 to a specified file, enter this command: aerender -project c:projectsproject_1.aep -comp "Composition_1" -output c :outputproject_1project_1.avi To render everything in the render queue with current settings in the project file, enter[...]

709 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website that takes items that are ready to render in the render queue and sends them to render in the background using aerender. More Help topics “ Basics of rendering and exporting ” on page 680 Network rendering[...]

710 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 When you have multiple render engines on multiple computers monitoring a watch folder, they cooperate to achieve optimal efficiency. If your queued render items are set to Skip Existing Files (a Render Settings option), the render engines all work on a single render item at onc[...]

711 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 When you install an After Effects render engine on a computer, it contains all the plug-ins included with After Effects. If a composition uses a plug-in from another manufacturer, the plug-in must be present on all computers that will render the composition. However, support fo[...]

712 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 7 Select Enable Watch Folder Render, click Collect, and name the Collect Files folder. 8 Save the Collect Files folder to a networked computer, preferably to a networked server. 9 Monitor the progress of the render engines by using a web browser to view HTML pages saved in the [...]

713 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 When you render a still-image sequence with multiple computers, rendering in each copy of After Effects starts at approximately the same time. By specifying that each copy skip existing frames or frames in progress, multiple computers can render the project simultaneously, writ[...]

714 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 After Effects can render sequences and movie files into segments that are limited to a specified number of files or by file size. This is useful when preparing a movie for a medium such as CD-ROM, for which file or folder size may need to be limited to chunks of 650 MB or less.[...]

715 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 5 In the Render Queue panel, next to Render Settings, choose the appropriate preset from the menu. For example, if you’re converting to DV footage, select DV Settings from the menu. 6 In the Render Queue panel, next to Output Module, choose the appropriate output module prese[...]

716 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Scaling a movie down Several methods exist for producing a reduced-size movie from your composition, each with tradeoffs between speed and quality: Nest the composition Create a new composition at the smaller dimensions, and nest the large composition inside it. For example, if[...]

717 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 Scaling a movie up Increasing the size of the output from a rendered composition reduces the image quality of a movie and is not recommended. If you must enlarge a movie, to maintain highest image quality, enlarge a composition that was rendered at full resolution and highest q[...]

718 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 2 Adjust the render settings as desired, and click Render. More Help topics “ Render settings ” on page 689 “ Render and export with the Render Queue panel ” on page 683 Introduce 3:2 pulldown If you are creating output for film that’s been transferred to video, or if[...]

719 USING AFTER EFFECTS Rendering and exporting Last updated 11/28/2011 5 Click the underlined Render Settings name, and then choose Upper Field First from the Field Render menu. 6 Click OK, and then click Render to make the movie. 7 In the composition, change the color of the solid in the Composition panel, and add a new title, such as “Lower Fi[...]

720 Last updated 11/28/2011 Chapter 19: Keyboard shortcuts Modify keyboard shortcuts To modify keyboard shortcuts, use the KeyEd Up script from Jeff Almasol, which is available on the Adobe After Effects Exchange website . Sebastien Perier provides instructions on his website for assigning keyboard shortcuts to scripts so that you can run a script [...]

721 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Projects (keyboard shortcuts) Preferences (keyboard shortcuts) Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts) Note: (Mac OS) Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by the operating system. See Mac OS Help for instructions to reassign[...]

722 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Open or close Info panel Ctrl+2 Command+2 Open or close Preview panel Ctrl+3 Command+3 Open or close Audio panel Ctrl+4 Command+4 Open or close Effects & Presets panel Ctrl+5 Command+5 Open or close Character panel Ctrl+6 Command+6 Open or close Paragraph panel Ctrl+7 Command+7 [...]

723 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Activating tools (keyboard shortcuts) Note: You can activate some tools only under certain circumstances. For example, you can activate a camera tool only when the active composition contains a camera layer. To momentarily activate a tool with a single-letter keyboard shortcut, hold[...]

724 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Compositions and the work area (keyboard shortcuts) Time navigation (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS New composition Ctrl+N Command+N Open Composition Settings dialog box for selected composition Ctrl+K Command+K Set beginning or end of work area to current time B or N B o[...]

725 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Previews (keyboard shortcuts) Go to previous In point or Out point Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Left Arrow Command+Option+Shift+Left Arrow Go to next In point or Out point Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Right Arrow Command+Option+Shift+Right Arrow Scroll to current time in Timeline panel D D Result Windows Mac O[...]

726 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad. Views (keyboard shortcuts) Take snapshot Shift+F5, Shift+F6, Shift+F7, or Shift+F8 Shift+F5, Shift+F6, Shift+F7, or Shift+F8 Display snapshot in activ[...]

727 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Footage (keyboard shortcuts) Zoom in Timeline panel to single-frame units (Press again to zoom out to show entire composition duration.) ; (semicolon) ; (semicolon) Zoom out in Timeline panel to show the entire composition duration (Press again to zoom back in to the duration specif[...]

728 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Effects and animation presets (keyboard shortcuts) Layers (keyboard shortcuts) Note: Some operations do not affect shy layers. 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 Comm[...]

729 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad. Turn off Video switch for all video layers other than selected layers Ctrl+Shift+V Command+Shift+V Open settings dialog box for selected solid, light,[...]

730 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts) Note: This table contains double-letter shortcuts (for example, LL). To use these shortcuts, press the letters in quick succession. Result Windows Mac OS Find in Timeline panel Ctrl+F Command+F Toggle expansion[...]

731 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Showing properties in the Effect Controls panel (keyboard shortcuts) Modifying layer properties (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Toggle expansion of selected effects to show all properties Ctrl+` (accent grave) Command+` (accent grave) Toggle expansion of property group an[...]

732 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 3D layers (keyboard shortcuts) Note: (Mac OS) Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by the operating system. See Mac OS Help for instructions to reassign Dashboard & Expose shortcuts. Decrease Scale of selected layers by 1% Ctrl+- (minus) or A[...]

733 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Keyframes and the Graph Editor (keyboard shortcuts) Note: (Mac OS) Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by the operating system. See Mac OS Help for instructions to reassign Dashboard & Expose shortcuts. Text (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windo[...]

734 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Extend or reduce selection by one word to right or left in horizontal text Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow or Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow Command+Shift+Right Arrow or Command+Shift+Left Arrow Extend or reduce selection by one line up or down in horizontal text Shift+Up Arrow or Shift+Down Arrow Sh[...]

735 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Masks (keyboard shortcuts) Justify paragraph; right align last line Ctrl+Alt+Shift+J Command+Option+Shift+J Justify paragraph; force last line Ctrl+Shift+F Command+Shift+F Decrease or increase font size of selected text by 2 units Ctrl+Shift+, (comma) or Ctrl+Shift+. (period) Comman[...]

736 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Paint tools (keyboard shortcuts) Invert selected mask Ctrl+Shift+I Command+Shift+I Open Mask Feather dialog box for selected mask Ctrl+Shift+F Command+Shift+F Open Mask Shape dialog box for selected mask Ctrl+Shift+M Command+Shift+M Result Windows Mac OS Swap paint background color [...]

737 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad. Shape layers (keyboard shortcuts) Markers (keyboard shortcuts) Result Windows Mac OS Group selected shapes Ctrl+G Command+G Ungroup selected shapes Ct[...]

738 USING AFTER EFFECTS Keyboard shortcuts Last updated 11/28/2011 Motion tracking (keyboard shortcuts) Saving, exporting, and rendering (keyboard shortcuts) Go to a composition marker (0-9) 0-9 on main keyboard 0-9 on main keyboard Display the duration between two layer markers or keyframes in the Info panel Alt-click the markers or keyframes Opti[...]