IntroductionOverview| 00:06 | Hi, I am Trish Meyer of Chrish Design, and
welcome to lesson 1 in the After Effects Apprentice
| | 00:11 | series. In this basic animation lesson,
you'll learn how to create a simple project from
| | 00:17 | scratch. I'll show you how to create a composition,
import sources, and then animate their position,
| | 00:23 | scale, rotation, and opacity. And to add a
little jazz, we'll also apply a few effects.
| | 00:29 | When we finish the project, we'll render the
animation as a QuickTime movie. Then I'll
| | 00:34 | encourage you to create variations in the
section we call idea corner. In the second
| | 00:39 | half of this lesson, I'll go into more detail
on some of the features I introduced earlier,
| | 00:45 | such as creating motion paths, arranging layers,
importing layered files, and working with
| | 00:50 | alpha channels. I have designed this lesson as
a gentle introduction to animating in After
| | 00:56 | Effects for someone who is completely new to
the program. My goal is to get you started
| | 01:01 | on the right path from day 1. So in addition
to good working practices, I'll also cover
| | 01:06 | mistakes that beginners, and sometimes even
advanced users, tend to make. By the way,
| | 01:12 | I'll be using version CS5, but virtually all
of these features have existed for some time.
| | 01:18 | As I go along, I point out anything that's
new in CS5, as well as differences from CS4.
| | 01:24 | So let's get started by first looking
at the animation you're going to create.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:02 | Throughout these After Effects Apprentice
courses, you'll find that Trish and I focus
| | 00:06 | on core concepts of using
and learning After Effects.
| | 00:09 | Not specific tricks that only work
with certain pieces of footage.
| | 00:12 | Therefore, if you don't have any exercise
files, or if you want to use your own footage,
| | 00:16 | you'll still get a lot out of
just watching these videos.
| | 00:19 | That said, studies have shown that the best
way to learn something is to actually do it.
| | 00:24 | Therefore for the optimal learning experience
we suggest you do get access to the exercise files.
| | 00:28 | There are two ways to do that.
| | 00:31 | One is to get a lynda.com premium membership.
| | 00:34 | That will allow you to download the files
for After Effects CS4, CS5, CS5.5 or CS6.
| | 00:41 | These are the same files we're
using when we record these videos.
| | 00:44 | The other approach is to get a copy
of our book After Effects Apprentice.
| | 00:48 | The third edition covers CS5, CS5.5 and CS6.
| | 00:51 | If you're still using After Effects CS4,
then get the second edition of the book.
| | 00:55 | Those files are pretty close to the
ones we use throughout this video course.
| | 00:59 | Whenever there are differences
we'll note them as we teach.
| | 01:02 | Now either way we think it's a good value.
| | 01:04 | If you get the premium membership to lynda,
you could access to exercise files for hundreds
| | 01:08 | of other courses.
| | 01:10 | If you get one of our books, you've got some
additional text explanation for each of the
| | 01:13 | features we discuss and you've got a
desk reference next to you all the time.
| | 01:17 | Now throughout these lessons we're going
to be using a combination of After Effects
| | 01:20 | CS5, CS5.5 and CS6. Don't be thrown off by
any minor differences in the user interface,
| | 01:27 | most of the functionality of After Effects
is identical across all of these versions.
| | 01:32 | If there are differences from version to
version, we'll note it in the little caption that
| | 01:35 | runs along the bottom of the screen.
| | 01:37 | But all that said, we really hope you have a
lot of fun with these courses learning After Effects.
| | 01:42 | It's the application we've been using for
ages now, we have a great time with it, and
| | 01:46 | we hope you get the same
enjoyment out of it that we do.
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1. Getting StartedCreating a new project| 00:07 | In this first lesson, we'll create a
simple animation of a winter scene.
| | 00:11 | If you have the exercise files, notice
that we've given you the After Effects
| | 00:15 | project file, which you can use at the
end to compare your results with ours.
| | 00:19 | We've also created a folder of sources
that you can import into a blank project,
| | 00:24 | and we've also rendered the finished
movie from the After Effects project file.
| | 00:28 | So we can see what we will be creating,
| | 00:31 | let's play this in QuickTime player.
| | 00:32 | As you can see, it's pretty simple:
| | 00:37 | there are two foreground video layers,
a background video, and a colored
| | 00:42 | solid along the talk.
| | 00:44 | The title is in two parts:
| | 00:46 | one part that animates up from the bottom and
the snowflake which animates in a long curve.
| | 00:52 | Now that you're familiar with what
we're going to create, let's open a blank
| | 00:56 | project in After Effects.
| | 00:57 | I am using CS5, or if you
have CS4, that will work as well.
| | 01:02 | If you already have a project open,
you'll need to save it and then go File >
| | 01:07 | New > New Project, and that
will give you an untitled project.
| | 01:10 | When you first open After Effects, it
should open this untitled project for you.
| | 01:16 | Notice I'm using the Standard workspace.
| | 01:19 | You might want to select that as well so
your layout will look the same as mine.
| | 01:23 | Also, under Reset Standard, this will
make sure you go back to the original layout.
| | 01:29 | In CS5, you'll click Yes.
| | 01:30 | In CS4, this will say Discard Changes.
| | 01:33 | The next thing we'll do is create
two folders in the Project panel:
| | 01:38 | one to hold the compositions and the other to
hold the sources that we're going to import.
| | 01:43 | At the bottom of the Project
panel, click the New Folder icon.
| | 01:47 | It will make a new folder called Untitled.
| | 01:49 | We'll call this Comps. And on Mac,
we'll hit the Return key, and on Windows,
| | 01:54 | hit the main Enter key.
| | 01:56 | For our second folder, I'm just
going to make sure I click outside.
| | 02:00 | That way it will be created on the top level.
| | 02:04 | We'll call this Sources and hit Return.
| | 02:06 | Now what I mean by that is if I make a
new folder when one folder is selected,
| | 02:11 | it will make that second folder and
third folder inside, and they will be nested,
| | 02:17 | which is not a big deal because
it's pretty easy to reorganize them.
| | 02:20 | You can also drag folders to the
top, and they will be on the top level.
| | 02:24 | Now you can make as many folders as
you need to organize your sources and
| | 02:28 | your comps, but I think for this simple
animation, there should be enough to get started.
| | 02:33 | The next thing we'll do is save our
project, and we'll call this Basic Animation v1.
| | 02:42 | By calling it a version 1, it makes it very
easy to increment the number as that go along.
| | 02:48 | I don't need to do Save As;
| | 02:49 | I just need to select Increment and Save,
and it will increment the number to version 2.
| | 02:54 | You probably don't want to have
just one project file for the whole
| | 02:58 | animation, because if you miss
something else, you won't be able to go back
| | 03:02 | to an earlier version.
| | 03:03 | So it's good to keep incrementing the
number, just in case something bad happens.
| | 03:07 | So that's it for making a new project.
| | 03:10 | In the next movie, we'll create a
new composition, and then we'll sort
| | 03:13 | importing sources.
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| Creating a composition| 00:06 | Before we make a new composition,
I'm going to select the Comps folder.
| | 00:11 | That way the new comp I create will
automatically be sorted inside this folder.
| | 00:16 | Now there are various ways of making a new comp:
| | 00:18 | you can go under the Composition menu,
select New Composition, or use the
| | 00:22 | shortcut, Command+N on Mac, Ctrl+N on Windows.
| | 00:26 | I'd like to use the button at
the bottom of the Project panel:
| | 00:29 | Create a new Composition.
| | 00:31 | Whichever method you use, the
Composition Settings dialog will open.
| | 00:34 | Now the first thing we'll want to do
is give our composition a useful name.
| | 00:39 | No, Comp 1 is not useful name.
| | 00:41 | So let's call this First Animation.
| | 00:44 | You'll notice the
composition dialog has two tabs:
| | 00:47 | Basic and Advanced.
| | 00:48 | We'll look at some of the
advanced features later in this series.
| | 00:52 | For now, let's just focus on the Basic tab.
| | 00:54 | Here is where you select the Width,
Height, Pixel Aspect Ratio, and Frame Rate,
| | 00:59 | and these settings can all be saved as a preset.
| | 01:03 | You'll notice there's a lot of presets that
are already included in After Effects, for
| | 01:07 | NTSC, and PAL, common sizes and frame
rates, as well as high def and film.
| | 01:14 | For this animation, I'm
going to create a custom size.
| | 01:18 | So I'm going to type in a
width of 640 and a height of 480.
| | 01:23 | Now I'm doing that because I want to
use a pixel aspect ratio of square pixels.
| | 01:29 | We'll deal with non-square
pixels later in the series.
| | 01:32 | The frame rate is 29.97. That's fine.
That's the default NTSC frame rate,
| | 01:38 | A Resolution of Full, that's fine for this.
| | 01:40 | It means every pixel will be processed.
| | 01:43 | A start timecode of 0 is what you normally want.
| | 01:46 | For this animation, we only
need a duration of 4 seconds.
| | 01:50 | Notice I can type 400 and After
Effects will convert that to 4 seconds.
| | 01:56 | Now in CS5, the Background
Color appears in the Basic tab in
| | 02:00 | Composition Settings.
| | 02:02 | In CS4, the background color can be
found under the Main Composition menu.
| | 02:06 | So bear that in mind as
we go through this series.
| | 02:08 | When I click the OK button, my First
Animation comp appears in the Comp panel,
| | 02:13 | as well as the Timeline panel, and it
also appears inside the Comps folder.
| | 02:18 | Now if you're new to After Effects, you
might think that you have to save each
| | 02:22 | composition individually.
| | 02:24 | That's not how After Effects works.
| | 02:26 | When you save your project, you'll save
all the compositions that you've created
| | 02:31 | and links to all of your sources and so on.
| | 02:34 | So all you are saving is the actual
project file, which tends to be quite small,
| | 02:38 | by the way, because you're
only linking to your resources.
| | 02:41 | So in the next movie, we'll
start importing our sources.
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| Importing sources| 00:07 | Now, let's look at the various
ways you can import sources.
| | 00:11 | Before I import anything though, I
am going to select the Sources folder.
| | 00:15 | That way anything I import will be
automatically sorted inside this folder.
| | 00:19 | In the Pre-Roll lesson, we showed you how
to browse in Bridge and preview sources.
| | 00:25 | If you double-click anything in
Bridge at that point, it'll be added and
| | 00:28 | imported to your After Effects project.
| | 00:30 | You can also import using the
File > Import > File option.
| | 00:34 | The shortcut is Command+I
on Mac, Ctrl+I on Windows.
| | 00:39 | This opens the Import File dialog.
| | 00:42 | If I navigate to my Sources folder,
the first source I'm going to import for
| | 00:46 | this animation is Snowstorm Title.
| | 00:48 | This is a TIFF file with an alpha channel.
| | 00:52 | Because the Alpha channel is unlabeled,
it's asking me to interpret it either a
| | 00:56 | Straight or Premultiplied.
| | 00:59 | I'll cover these options
again at the end of this lesson.
| | 01:02 | For now, I'll just click on Guess,
and it correctly identified it as a source
| | 01:07 | with an alpha channel
that's pre-multiplied with white.
| | 01:11 | I'll click OK, and it will
be added to my Project panel.
| | 01:15 | At the top of the Project panel, it will
tell you the width and the height, and
| | 01:19 | also whether it has an alpha channel,
and how that alpha channel is interpreted.
| | 01:24 | If I want to see what this source looks
like, I double-click it, which opens it
| | 01:28 | in the Footage panel.
| | 01:29 | Now I know this has an alpha channel,
which means it has some kind of transparency.
| | 01:34 | I'm guessing this black is transparent.
| | 01:36 | If I click on the Transparency Grid at
the bottom of the Footage panel, I can
| | 01:40 | see how that transparency looks.
| | 01:43 | I can now also see that this
layer has a drop shadow baked in.
| | 01:47 | Another way to look at the alpha
channel is to click on the RGB icon, this
| | 01:51 | button at the bottom of the Footage panel.
| | 01:54 | This allows you to look at all the
different channels, as well as the alpha channel.
| | 01:59 | This shows you how the alpha
channel looks as a grayscale image.
| | 02:03 | An easy way to toggle the Alpha and RGB
back and forth is not to use the pop-up,
| | 02:08 | but just to press the Option key on
Mac or Alt key on Windows, and when you
| | 02:12 | click the button, it will toggle between
the alpha channel and the RGB channels.
| | 02:17 | Now let's import our Snowflake movie.
| | 02:20 | This time I'll use the shortcut,
Command+ I on Mac, Ctrl+I on Windows, and that
| | 02:25 | will open the Import File dialog.
| | 02:28 | The Snowflake movie is a QuickTime movie,
which also, by the way, has an alpha channel.
| | 02:33 | Again, you can see the Width, and Height,
also the Duration, and Frame Rate, and
| | 02:38 | the fact that it has an alpha channel.
| | 02:40 | Millions of Colors Plus
means it has an alpha channel.
| | 02:44 | Notice that After Effects
automatically knew it was pre-multiplied.
| | 02:48 | That's because After Effects made this movie.
| | 02:50 | If I double-click it and hit the
Spacebar to play it, you'll see that it's an
| | 02:56 | animated snowflake, and this was
created using shape layers in After Effects.
| | 03:02 | If you want to know exactly how this
was made, and you have the exercise files,
| | 03:06 | open up final project, and you'll
find the composition that includes this
| | 03:10 | animated shape layer.
| | 03:12 | Now I'm noticing the edges of this
shape layer looking a little bit crunchy.
| | 03:17 | That's because the magnification is not at 100%.
| | 03:22 | The default is to use Fit up to 100%.
| | 03:26 | What that means is as I resize the
Footage panel, it would automatically
| | 03:30 | scale the source to fit.
| | 03:33 | However, when it's at less than
100%, it can look a little bit crunchy.
| | 03:37 | As you go to 100%, the edges will look smooth.
| | 03:42 | Another way to import is to double-click
on the blank area of the Project panel.
| | 03:48 | Again, when the Import File opens, I
have a folder here of movies that I
| | 03:53 | can import as a folder.
| | 03:55 | In CS5, it says Open;
| | 03:57 | in CS4, it will say Import Folder.
| | 04:00 | Now because I double-clicked on the
Project panel, it didn't know it was supposed to
| | 04:05 | sort it into sources,
| | 04:06 | so I'll just drag it in there.
And let's see what we have.
| | 04:10 | We have three movies.
| | 04:11 | Two of them will be the foreground:
| | 04:14 | the man shoveling snow and the guy snowboarding.
| | 04:23 | For our background, we have a
slow pan of a snowy landscape.
| | 04:29 | If you want to recreate this animation
using your own sources, find two movies
| | 04:34 | for the foreground, and either a
still image or a slow-moving background.
| | 04:39 | So to recap, you can either File >
Browse in Bridge, or File > Import, or use
| | 04:44 | the shortcut, Command+I, or you can
double-click the Project panel to open
| | 04:49 | the Import File dialog.
| | 04:52 | Either way, once you're done,
don't forget to save your project.
| | 04:56 | In the next movie, we'll show you
how to add these sources to your first
| | 05:00 | animation composition.
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| Adding a layer to a comp| 00:07 | At the end of the last movie, we were
previewing our sources in the Footage panel.
| | 00:12 | So here again is where you can look at
your footage without actually using
| | 00:15 | them in an animation.
| | 00:17 | You'll notice the Footage panel docks in
the same frame as the Composition panel.
| | 00:22 | Since I don't want you to get confused,
go ahead and close the Footage panel,
| | 00:26 | leaving just the Composition panel open.
| | 00:29 | To add layers to a composition, an
easy way is to learn this shortcut:
| | 00:33 | File > Add Footage to Comp.
| | 00:36 | The shortcut is Command+Slash
on Mac, Ctrl+Slash on Windows.
| | 00:40 | The advantage to using this shortcut is that it
adds the layer to the center of our composition.
| | 00:45 | But let me undo, and I'll
show you another way to do that.
| | 00:50 | If you drag your source to a composition
before you release the mouse, you'll
| | 00:55 | notice that it has a tendency to
snap to the center of the comp.
| | 00:59 | It also wants to snap to all of the edges.
| | 01:02 | So if you want it centered, just find that
snappy behavior and then release the mouse.
| | 01:09 | However, once you release the mouse, it no
longer will snap to the center or the edges.
| | 01:14 | If you want that behavior
back, here is how you do it.
| | 01:17 | Start moving the layer first, and then
press Command+Shift on Mac, or Ctrl+Shift
| | 01:23 | on Windows, and it will have
that snappy behavior again.
| | 01:27 | If you remember, this layer had a drop shadow,
which we can't see on our black background.
| | 01:32 | So let's change the background color to white.
| | 01:35 | In CS5, you'll find that
under Composition Settings.
| | 01:38 | In CS4, there is a separate menu item
under Composition called Background Color.
| | 01:44 | In the Basic tab, click on the swatch
beside Background Color, and this will
| | 01:48 | open the Adobe color picker.
| | 01:50 | One nice feature in CS5 is it'll
preview the color that you're about to pick.
| | 01:55 | We're going to just set it to white.
| | 01:59 | We'll click OK and OK again.
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2. Transforming and Animating LayersEditing interactively in the Composition panel| 00:07 | Now to make an animation, a layer
needs to change values over time.
| | 00:12 | So let's start learning how to change values.
| | 00:14 | If I select my layer and go down to the
Timeline, you'll notice a little arrow here
| | 00:19 | you can click on, and this
shows you the word Transform.
| | 00:22 | Click the arrow again, and it will
reveal all of the transformation properties.
| | 00:27 | By the way, we call clicking this
little arrow twirling up and twirling down.
| | 00:32 | In the Transform properties,
| | 00:34 | Anchor Point, Position, Scale,
and Rotation, as well as Opacity, you can edit
| | 00:39 | these values either very precisely in the
Timeline or interactively in the Comp panel.
| | 00:45 | You can edit all of these in the Comp
panel, with the exception of Opacity.
| | 00:49 | So we'll show you both ways,
along with the few tips and tricks.
| | 00:52 | The anchor point is the symbol
that's in the center of the layer.
| | 00:57 | It's the center around which
a layer rotates and scales.
| | 01:00 | Now we'll be editing and animating
the anchor point in the next lesson,
| | 01:04 | Advanced Animation.
| | 01:05 | But for now, I did want you to know where
it was, what it look like, and what it did.
| | 01:11 | To edit interactively in the Comp panel,
you simply pick up your layer and move
| | 01:14 | it around, and you'll notice the
value is changing for Position.
| | 01:18 | If I don't want to change both the X
and the Y values at the same time, and I
| | 01:22 | want to constrain it to maybe
left and right or up and down,
| | 01:26 | I need to add the Shift key,
and then it will constrain the motion.
| | 01:30 | Now, be careful. You don't want to press the
Shift key first and then click on a layer, because
| | 01:34 | you'll just deselect it.
| | 01:36 | If I want to move this layer up, I start
moving it up first, and then I add the Shift key.
| | 01:41 | You'll notice in the Timeline that
only the value for the Y axis is changing.
| | 01:46 | Anytime you want to reset these
values back to the default settings, in the
| | 01:50 | Timeline, you can click on the Reset button.
| | 01:53 | The Scale value could be changed
interactively by just dragging one of the
| | 01:57 | handles right in the Comp panel.
| | 01:59 | Now you'll notice the layer is
changing the width and the height.
| | 02:04 | If I add the Shift key after I start
dragging, it will constrain the aspect
| | 02:09 | ratio, and the X and the Y
values will stay in sync.
| | 02:12 | Again, you don't want to press the
Shift key first and then start dragging the
| | 02:16 | handle, or you'll just deselect it.
| | 02:18 | So start dragging first and then add Shift.
| | 02:21 | One thing you will want to watch out for
though is not dragging it past the 100%
| | 02:26 | if your source is a pixel-based image.
| | 02:29 | In that case, I'm just blowing up
pixels, and things will start to look a bit
| | 02:33 | soft pretty quickly. I'll undo.
| | 02:35 | Our next Transform property, Rotation,
if you want to edit that interactively in
| | 02:40 | the Comp panel, you do need to change tools.
| | 02:43 | In the Tools panel, the Rotation tool
shortcut is W. If I select the Rotation
| | 02:49 | tool and start dragging a handle, it
will rotate. Add the Shift key, and I can
| | 02:54 | lock it to 45-degree increments.
| | 02:56 | When I'm done rotating, I will want to
remember to go back to the Selection tool.
| | 03:00 | So rather than press W to use Rotation
and then I have to press V for the
| | 03:06 | Selection tool, a handy tip in After
Effects is to use a temporary tool.
| | 03:11 | That means you press W,
and you keep it pressed down.
| | 03:14 | After you finish rotating or
changing, whatever tool you're using,
| | 03:19 | when you let go off that tool, it will
automatically return to the previous tool.
| | 03:24 | In this case, that's the Selection tool.
| | 03:26 | It takes a little practice,
but notice how quick it is to press W, keep it
| | 03:30 | pressed down, change my
rotation, and let go of W.
| | 03:33 | Now, I don't have to go all the way up
here to the Tools panel, change a tool,
| | 03:38 | rotate, and go back to the Selection tool.
| | 03:41 | So I think it's well worth
learning how to use temporary tools.
| | 03:45 | Again, if you make a mess,
click on the Reset button.
| | 03:48 | In the next movie, we'll show you how
to edit these values precisely in the
| | 03:52 | timeline, and show you a
few little tips and tricks.
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| Editing numerically in the Timeline panel| 00:07 | In the last movie, we covered editing
transformations interactively in the Comp panel.
| | 00:12 | In this movie, we will cover editing
them directly in the Timeline panel.
| | 00:16 | The first property, Anchor Point, we
will cover in more detail in the Advanced
| | 00:20 | Animation lesson. But for now, I did want
to point out, where does this value come from?
| | 00:25 | 300 on the X axis and 60 on the Y axis.
| | 00:30 | If I double-click my title, it
will open it in its own Layer panel.
| | 00:34 | You will notice the Layer panel is
docked in the same frame as the composition.
| | 00:39 | In the Layer panel, I'm
going to turn on the Rulers,
| | 00:41 | View > Show Rulers,
| | 00:43 | and point out that at the top left-
hand corner, that's considered to be 0, 0.
| | 00:48 | So this value of 300 on the X axis and
60 pixels on the Y axis now makes sense.
| | 00:55 | The anchor point is in
relation to the layer itself.
| | 00:59 | Now I wanted to point out the Layer
panel mostly because beginners often
| | 01:03 | double-click a layer by accident,
and then they don't realize they are not in
| | 01:07 | the composition anymore.
| | 01:08 | So if you only see one layer, and
things look a lot different,
| | 01:12 | check that the Layer panel isn't forward.
| | 01:15 | If it is, just go back to the Composition panel.
| | 01:18 | The next property, Position,
has both an X and a Y value.
| | 01:23 | To understand where these values are
coming from, we will also turn on the
| | 01:26 | rulers for the composition.
| | 01:28 | Again, the top left-hand corner is 0, 0.
| | 01:32 | So a value of 320 pixels and 240
pixels on the Y axis is coming from the
| | 01:38 | position of the anchor point in
relation to the composition itself.
| | 01:41 | Now to edit these values in the Timeline,
the easiest way to do it is to click
| | 01:47 | on a value and then drag.
| | 01:49 | This is called scrubbing.
| | 01:51 | It's a very handy way of
editing the position value.
| | 01:55 | One advantage is that it's easy to
edit the X and the Y values separately.
| | 02:00 | In order to move quicker, I can press the
Shift key down, and now I'll move 10 times faster.
| | 02:06 | This is obviously more useful when you
are working on a high-def or film frame
| | 02:10 | where you have to move a lot of pixels very quickly.
| | 02:13 | If I just click on a value, I
can type in a precise value.
| | 02:18 | I can also type in a value and hit Tab--in
fact, hit Tab to go through all of the values.
| | 02:25 | To get out of this mode, just click outside.
| | 02:28 | Another way of editing precisely is to
press the Command key on Mac or the Ctrl
| | 02:33 | key on Windows and that will allow
you to edit in very fine increments.
| | 02:38 | Here I'm scrubbing 1/10 of the pixel at a time.
| | 02:41 | Another way, if you want to move in
whole-pixel increments, is to use what we call nudging.
| | 02:47 | In this case, I would be using
the arrow keys on my keyboard.
| | 02:51 | The Right Arrow key and the Left Arrow key
moves left and right one pixel at a time.
| | 02:57 | If I add the Shift key, you will
notice I am moving 10 pixels at a time.
| | 03:02 | Same with the up and down keys.
I can nudge 1 pixel up and down,
| | 03:06 | hold the Shift key and
nudge 10 pixels up and down.
| | 03:10 | So these are all ways to precisely
position your layer, as well as just dragging
| | 03:14 | around and positioning it by eye.
| | 03:17 | Anytime you want to reset the
property values to the default settings, just
| | 03:21 | click on the Reset button.
| | 03:22 | Our next property, Scale,
is pretty easy to explain.
| | 03:26 | You just again scrub and you will notice
that the X and the Y values stay in sync.
| | 03:31 | You don't have to hold down
the Shift key in this case.
| | 03:34 | The Chain Link icon is doing that for you.
| | 03:36 | It constrains the proportions.
| | 03:38 | If I turn off the Chain Link
icon, I can edit the X and the Y
| | 03:42 | values independently.
| | 03:44 | You can enter precise values;
| | 03:46 | maybe I want to have 50%
X scale and 100% Y scale.
| | 03:51 | And now I can edit these values separately.
| | 03:53 | However, if I want to maintain this
aspect ratio of 50 and 100, I can turn back
| | 03:58 | on the Chain Link icon.
| | 04:00 | And now when I edit one value, the
other value will be changed to remain at
| | 04:04 | the same aspect ratio.
| | 04:06 | Now one thing I notice
that beginners sometimes do--
| | 04:09 | let me just reset this to 100, 100--is
that they start editing interactively
| | 04:15 | in the compound, and they add the Shift key and
they think they're maintaining the aspect ratio,
| | 04:20 | but somehow they let go the Shift key
and you end up with slightly different
| | 04:25 | values of the X and Y. And you may
not notice that for a while, and then
| | 04:29 | later on you notice, oh, these two
values are, no matter what I do, they are
| | 04:34 | not staying the same.
| | 04:35 | So here is a nice little shortcut.
| | 04:37 | Turn off the Chain Link icon and then on
Mac, press Option, on Windows press Alt,
| | 04:43 | and turn back on this Chain Link.
| | 04:45 | When you do that, it copies the value form
the X to the Y, so that now they are the same.
| | 04:50 | Again, I could hold the Command key
or Ctrl key to scale very precisely.
| | 04:59 | You can hold down the Shift
key to scale in large increments.
| | 05:03 | And you will also notice that when
you go negative, everything goes upside
| | 05:07 | down and back to front.
| | 05:09 | This is After Effects' version of
flip horizontal and flip vertical.
| | 05:13 | For instance, let's say I wanted to
flip on one axis. I could do -100.
| | 05:19 | Again, I've turned off the Chain Link icon,
so that only one of the axes is being changed.
| | 05:24 | This is flipping horizontal, or I
could set the X axis to 100 and the Y to
| | 05:29 | -100 to flip vertical.
| | 05:31 | Again, press the Option key or
Alt key when you turn it back on.
| | 05:35 | It will copy the X to the Y and then back to 100%.
| | 05:39 | All of these shortcuts, by the way, are
listed on their Help > Keyboard Shortcuts, so
| | 05:43 | explore those at your own leisure.
| | 05:44 | I will click Rest again,
and let's play now with rotation.
| | 05:48 | The value that you probably want to
change is the second value, Degrees.
| | 05:53 | If you add just the first value, the
revolution, nothing will appear to happen,
| | 05:57 | because you are rotating in whole revolutions.
| | 06:00 | Undo. Again, pressing the Command Key,
| | 06:03 | you can rotate in very fine increments
or the Shift key in very large increments.
| | 06:07 | You will notice as I go pass 360
degrees, it goes to one revolution, 2
| | 06:12 | revolutions, and so on.
| | 06:14 | So if I want to animate counterclockwise,
I could start at 0 and then go negative.
| | 06:20 | The only transformation property you
can't animate in the Comp panel is Opacity.
| | 06:25 | You can scrub it from 0 to 100%,
but you can't go negative, or above 100%.
| | 06:31 | That just so you know, when you are
editing opacity, you are actually editing
| | 06:35 | the alpha channel for the layer.
| | 06:37 | So if I click on the RGB icon and
select Alpha Channel, you will notice when I
| | 06:42 | reduce the Opacity value, I am
making the layer's alpha channel darker.
| | 06:48 | Again, I can press the Option key on Mac
or Alt key on Windows and toggle easily
| | 06:53 | between the RGB channels and the alpha channel.
| | 06:56 | So now you know how to change values either
interactively or precisely in the Timeline.
| | 07:02 | In the next movie, we will show you how
to change these values over time, so you
| | 07:06 | can create an animation.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Animating position| 00:07 | Now that we know how to edit
values, let's make an animation.
| | 00:11 | The first thing I'll do is turn off the
rulers in the Comp panel, just to tidy things up.
| | 00:16 | I can also simplify the
Timeline by not displaying all of the
| | 00:20 | transformation properties.
| | 00:21 | For instance, since I only want to animate
position right now, I can press P for position.
| | 00:27 | The first letter of each
transformation name is its shortcut.
| | 00:31 | For instance, press A for anchor point, P
for position, S for scale and R for rotation.
| | 00:37 | The out one out is opacity.
| | 00:39 | O is the shortcut to jump to the out
point, so pressing O will jump to the out
| | 00:44 | point of the layer, and I,
will jump to the in point.
| | 00:48 | The shortcut for Opacity is T. You
can think of it as T for transparency.
| | 00:54 | I like to think of it as T as in Opacity.
| | 00:57 | Now you might want to see more
than just one property at a time.
| | 01:01 | So if I press P for position and I also
want to see scale, I add the Shift key
| | 01:08 | and go Shift+S. If I want to see opacity,
Shift+T. The Shift key also subtracts.
| | 01:16 | So Shift+T subtracts opacity,
Shift+S subtracts scale.
| | 01:20 | Now the advantage of using these
shortcuts is not only to simplify the Timeline;
| | 01:26 | it's that when you have a lot of layers,
you just won't have the space in the
| | 01:29 | Timeline to show every property all the time.
| | 01:33 | So let's animate position.
| | 01:35 | The first thing I want to point
out is the Current Time Indicator.
| | 01:39 | As you move the Current Time
Indicator left and right, you are updating the
| | 01:43 | current time of the composition.
| | 01:46 | The time updates at the bottom of
the Comp panel, as well as at the left-hand
| | 01:50 | side of the Timeline.
| | 01:51 | Now the current time is very
important to After Effects.
| | 01:55 | As you change values for a layer,
it's always made at the current time.
| | 02:00 | So I want to make my first keyframe at 0.
| | 02:02 | A handy shortcut, by the way, if you
add another point in time to return to 0,
| | 02:09 | press the Home key on the keyboard.
| | 02:12 | To make my first keyframe, I'm
going to toggle on the stopwatch.
| | 02:17 | The stopwatch is to the
left of the word Position.
| | 02:20 | As soon as I toggle it on, it creates
the first keyframe at the current point in
| | 02:26 | time with the current value.
| | 02:28 | Now since I want my title to animate
from below the comp into position, my first
| | 02:35 | keyframe should position
the layer below the comp.
| | 02:39 | Don't forget, as you drag the layer
down to add the Shift key, so you only
| | 02:42 | move in the Y axis.
| | 02:45 | You can also edit the Y axis only by
scrubbing the value in the timeline.
| | 02:50 | Now, notice I turned on the
stopwatch first and then edited the value.
| | 02:55 | I could have edited the value
first and then turned on the stopwatch.
| | 02:59 | It actually doesn't matter which order
you things in. But what you do want to
| | 03:03 | watch is for the second keyframe that
you move the Current Time Indicator to a
| | 03:07 | later point in time.
| | 03:09 | If you don't do that and you just
change the value of the layer, you are just
| | 03:13 | changing the value for the first keyframe.
So I am going to undo and make sure I
| | 03:18 | move to a later point in time.
| | 03:20 | Since I don't really know how fast I
want this layer to move, I will just move
| | 03:24 | it to 2 seconds for now.
| | 03:25 | I can change the timing of the keyframe later.
| | 03:29 | To make the second keyframe, all I
need to do is to change the value for the
| | 03:34 | current point in time.
| | 03:35 | Again, I can do that by dragging the
layer in the Comp panel, by scrubbing the
| | 03:40 | value, or by clicking and typing a precise value.
| | 03:45 | And notice I did not have to turn on
the stopwatch or turn on the keyframe icon
| | 03:50 | in the keyframe navigator or do
anything else except change the value.
| | 03:56 | By changing the value, it
automatically made a second keyframe for me.
| | 04:00 | Once I have made two keyframes at
different points in time with different
| | 04:05 | values, you will notice a motion
path appears between the two keyframes.
| | 04:09 | This motion path is a series of dots.
| | 04:12 | Each dot indicates where that layer
will be at each frame in the Timeline.
| | 04:17 | Now the motion path is only
visible when the layer is selected.
| | 04:20 | So if you deselect the layer, and you don't
see the motion path, just select the layer again.
| | 04:26 | The spacing between the dots is also
a good indication of how fast or slow
| | 04:30 | your layer is moving.
| | 04:32 | If the dots are very close together,
it's probably moving pretty slow.
| | 04:36 | If they are very spaced apart,
it may be moving quite quickly.
| | 04:40 | To preview the layer's animation, the
first thing you might want to do is just
| | 04:44 | drag the Current Time Indicator.
| | 04:46 | That gives you a general sense of whether or
not the layer is moving the way you intended.
| | 04:52 | However, to see it moving in real time,
you will have to initiate a preview.
| | 04:57 | There are two types of preview.
| | 04:59 | The Standard Preview you initiate a
clicking Play or by clicking the Spacebar.
| | 05:05 | Now the Standard Preview shows you the
motion path and the layer handles and
| | 05:10 | there are a couple of other
interface items, and that can be useful.
| | 05:14 | But it's more usual to initiate a RAM Preview.
| | 05:17 | At the right-hand side of the Preview
panel, click the RAM Preview button.
| | 05:21 | Since I had already done a standard preview;
| | 05:23 | it didn't take After Effects
anytime at all to do a RAM Preview.
| | 05:27 | You will notice that it's a clean preview.
| | 05:29 | It doesn't show you the motion path,
and it tends to be better optimized.
| | 05:33 | Normally, the RAM preview will always
play in real time, unless your composition
| | 05:38 | is very large and your computer is very slow.
| | 05:41 | If that's the case, it will display what
frame rate it's currently playing back at.
| | 05:46 | Now I can see that my
animation is a little slow.
| | 05:50 | I might like to speed it up.
| | 05:51 | For instance, if I drag the second
keyframe earlier in time, that will make the
| | 05:57 | animation go faster.
| | 05:59 | You will notice now when I RAM-preview,
the first time it cached the frames it
| | 06:03 | actually played faster than real time.
| | 06:05 | That's because it's a very simple animation.
| | 06:08 | Normally, the first time you RAM-preview,
it will go slower than real time as
| | 06:12 | it's caching the frames.
| | 06:13 | Now I feel it's going a little fast.
| | 06:16 | As you are moving the second keyframe, there
are two ways of knowing what time it'll be at.
| | 06:22 | You can drag it and then in the Info
panel, it will update the keyframe time.
| | 06:27 | The method I like to use is to move the
Current Time Indicator to the position
| | 06:34 | I'd like the keyframe to be at.
| | 06:37 | And then as I drag the keyframe, I add
the Shift key, and it will snap to the
| | 06:42 | Current Time Indicator.
| | 06:43 | The Shift key makes
everything snap to everything else.
| | 06:47 | For instance, the Current Time Indicator
will snap to the keyframe if I add Shift.
| | 06:52 | So I will RAM-preview again,
and I think I like this tempo.
| | 06:56 | Now, I also wanted to point
out the keyframe navigator.
| | 07:00 | This exists on the left-hand side,
underneath the AV features column.
| | 07:06 | The AV features is the video switch,
audio switch, solo switch, and lock switch.
| | 07:12 | I like to drag this column to the
right-hand side, so that the keyframe
| | 07:16 | navigator appears right beside the keyframes.
| | 07:18 | Now, why is this useful?
| | 07:21 | Well, the keyframe navigator allows you to
click an arrow to jump amongst your keyframes.
| | 07:27 | You can go to the next
keyframe or the previous keyframe.
| | 07:30 | It's very important when you're
editing values to make sure you're parked
| | 07:34 | directly on the keyframe.
| | 07:36 | If you just drag the Current Time
Indicator and get a little sloppy and end up
| | 07:41 | one frame off, when you edit this value,
you will actually just create an extra
| | 07:46 | keyframe that you don't want. Let me undo.
| | 07:49 | So another reason to add the Shift key
is to make sure that when you land on a
| | 07:53 | keyframe, you actually park
directly on top of the keyframe.
| | 07:57 | You will notice that when you are
parked on a keyframe, the keyframe navigator
| | 08:02 | will be lit up in yellow.
| | 08:04 | When you're in between
keyframes, it will be grayed out.
| | 08:06 | So use the keyframe navigator to jump
between keyframes and make sure you're
| | 08:11 | parked directly on top of the
keyframe before you edit its value.
| | 08:15 | So now that I'm happy with my animation,
I am going to save it, and we will move on.
| | 08:20 | In this case, I'll do Increment and Save.
| | 08:23 | This will update version 2 to version 3,
and will save the project in the same
| | 08:28 | folder as version 2.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding more layers| 00:07 | Now, let's add the background layer to our comp.
| | 00:10 | We're going to use Landscape.mov.
| | 00:13 | I notice if I add it to the composition
and drop it, it will snap to the edges,
| | 00:17 | but it will also appear as
layer 1, upskewing the title.
| | 00:21 | Of course, this is easy to fix.
| | 00:22 | I can just drag it below the title in
the Timeline and now it appears as the
| | 00:26 | background layer. But let me
show you how to do this directly.
| | 00:30 | I'll delete the layer, and this time
I'll drag Landscape.mov directly to the
| | 00:35 | left-hand side of the Timeline panel.
| | 00:38 | When we use this method a layer will
begin at zero and will also automatically
| | 00:42 | be centered in the comp.
| | 00:43 | And I'd like to reduce the opacity of
this layer so the top is not quite so dark.
| | 00:48 | So I'll press T for Opacity and then scrub
the value, let's say 50%. That should work.
| | 00:55 | Another thing I'd like to do with
the background is turn on Lock switch.
| | 00:59 | That means that I can't accidentally select
the background when I want to select the title.
| | 01:05 | It also means I can't edit any of the values.
| | 01:07 | So if you want to edit it again, just turn off
the Lock switch, edit, and turn it back on again.
| | 01:13 | The next layer I'd like to
add is the Snowflake movie.
| | 01:17 | The Snowflake will appear as the O
in the title, and it will animate on a
| | 01:21 | curve into position.
| | 01:22 | Again, if I drag it to the comp
panel, it will sit on top of the title.
| | 01:27 | I actually would like it to sit
below the title and above the background.
| | 01:31 | So here is a good tip:
| | 01:32 | by dragging it to the left-hand
side of the Timeline, you'll be able to
| | 01:36 | choose where in the layer stack it
appears--at the top, in between, or below
| | 01:42 | the Landscape layer.
| | 01:43 | Let's drop it in between, so you can
see now it's sandwiched between my title
| | 01:48 | and the background layer.
| | 01:50 | While we're here, let me show you one
other method for adding a layer to a comp.
| | 01:54 | I'll take the Snowflake layer and delete it.
| | 01:57 | This time when I add the Snowflake
| | 02:00 | I'll add it to the right-hand side.
| | 02:02 | Again, I can decide where in the layer
stack it will be positioned, but I can
| | 02:06 | also decide where its in point will be.
| | 02:09 | As I drag the layer left and right,
you'll see a second time indicator
| | 02:14 | following my mouse.
| | 02:15 | The timecode readout on the left-
hand side of the Timeline panel will
| | 02:20 | also update as I drag.
| | 02:22 | When I release the mouse, that timecode
will become the in point for the layer.
| | 02:26 | What this means is that layers don't
have to begin at zero, so the snowflake only
| | 02:31 | appears as it passes the in point.
| | 02:33 | Of course I can change the layer's in point
simply by dragging the layer back and forth.
| | 02:38 | The new in and out points are
also updated in the Info panel.
| | 02:42 | Just be careful not to
drag the end of the layer;
| | 02:45 | that actually trims it.
| | 02:47 | This layer I actually want to start at 0,
so I'm going to show you a shortcut.
| | 02:52 | Press the Option key on Mac or
Alt key on Windows and press Home.
| | 02:56 | Option+Home sends a layer back to start at zero.
| | 03:01 | In the next movie, I'll animate the
snowflake along a curve and drop it
| | 03:04 | into position.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Editing motion paths| 00:07 | Now, I'm going to animate the snowflake
along a motion path so it drops into position.
| | 00:12 | If you remember, our title animates
from zero to 1 second and 10 frames.
| | 00:18 | I think I'd like the snowflake to
fall into position about 10 frames later,
| | 00:21 | so let's cover some tips on moving in time.
| | 00:24 | In the Preview panel, you can advance
one frame forward and one frame back.
| | 00:30 | You can also press the Shift key to
jump 10 frames forward and 10 frames back.
| | 00:36 | If you have an extended keyboard, I
prefer to use the Page Down and Page Up keys
| | 00:41 | to do the same thing.
| | 00:43 | Again, I can add the Shift key to jump
10 frames forward and 10 frames back.
| | 00:48 | If you want to go to a precise frame, you
can also click in the timecode area and
| | 00:53 | type 1 second and 20 frames
to jump to a specific frame.
| | 00:58 | Either way, this will be the point in
time where our snowflake ends up in its
| | 01:02 | final resting place.
| | 01:04 | So let's move it into position, and we'll drag
the handle, adding the Shift key to scale it.
| | 01:12 | If it was not quite exactly where you
want it, remember you can use the cursor
| | 01:15 | keys down and up, left and right to
nudge the layer one pixel at a time.
| | 01:21 | So this would be my final keyframe.
| | 01:23 | I need to turn on the stopwatch for position.
| | 01:27 | A shortcut is to press Option+P on Mac
or Alt+P on Windows, and this toggles on
| | 01:33 | the position stopwatch, and also
reveals the property in the Timeline.
| | 01:38 | Now we'll press Home to go back to zero.
| | 01:41 | Remember that our title is below the
comp at this point. And I'll take my
| | 01:45 | snowflake and drag it up to the right-hand side.
| | 01:48 | You'll see a motion path appearing.
| | 01:50 | I'll position it around here.
| | 01:54 | As I hit Play, you'll see
it's moving into position.
| | 01:58 | I don't need to create the keyframes in the
same order that they appear in the Timeline.
| | 02:05 | Now, my motion path by default is using
two keyframes, which are called Auto Bezier.
| | 02:09 | Auto Bezier keyframes will have two
dots that are just a little bigger than the
| | 02:15 | motion path, and these are
representing the handles.
| | 02:19 | As you click on the dot and drag,
you can see you can make a curve.
| | 02:23 | Again, there is a dot on this side as well.
| | 02:27 | If it's little hard to find, just
move the snowflake out of the way.
| | 02:30 | When we click on this handle and drag,
| | 02:34 | you'll see a visible handle.
| | 02:36 | This should create a slightly more
interesting motion path, and it also drops
| | 02:41 | straighter into position.
| | 02:48 | If you like, go ahead and create a
third keyframe, somewhere between the first
| | 02:52 | two, and that will allow you to
create an even more complex motion path.
| | 02:58 | And you can edit that and edit all of the
handles till you get a curve that you'd like.
| | 03:04 | As you can see, with three keyframes,
I can create a more interesting curve.
| | 03:07 | Let's see what that looks like. There we go.
| | 03:15 | Now, at this point you'll notice that
all of the dots look pretty much even.
| | 03:20 | If I wanted to be a little fussier, I'll
place the keyframes somewhat in the center.
| | 03:25 | Now in the next lesson, we'll be working
with velocity, as well as with the graph
| | 03:30 | editor, so you'll be able to fine-
tune your velocity along the curve.
| | 03:34 | At the end of this lesson, I'd also
talk about editing handles and some more
| | 03:38 | keyframe types, but for now,
that's close enough for jazz.
| | 03:41 | So I go to RAM Preview and see if
there any more changes I'd like to make.
| | 03:46 | Now one change it's very easy to make
is to just ease in to the final position.
| | 03:53 | I can select that last keyframe and
go under the Animation menu, Keyframe
| | 03:58 | Assistant > Easy Ease.
| | 04:01 | Now when I RAM-preview, you'll see that
it drops into position a little softer.
| | 04:06 | If I want, I can do the same thing
with the last keyframe to the title.
| | 04:10 | You'll notice that the shortcut for
Keyframe Assistant, Easy Ease is F9.
| | 04:15 | If you're on a Mac, you might want to change
Expose so it doesn't use the same shortcut.
| | 04:21 | Now when I RAM-preview you'll notice that
both layers softly finished their animation.
| | 04:25 | So I'm pretty happy with my animation.
| | 04:29 | It might be a good time now
to do an Increment and Save.
| | 04:32 | In the next movie, we'll show you how
to add scale and rotation animation to
| | 04:37 | our snowflake.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Animating scale, rotation, and opacity| 00:07 | At this point, my snowflake
is animating into position.
| | 00:11 | I think I'll make it more interesting by
also animating scale, rotation, and opacity.
| | 00:17 | I'll select the Snowflake layer, press
Shift+S to reveal Scale, Shift+R to add
| | 00:22 | Rotation, and Shift+T for Opacity.
| | 00:25 | Now I'd like these keyframes to
synchronize with the last position keyframe.
| | 00:31 | You can do that by adding the Shift
key or by using the Keyframe Navigator.
| | 00:36 | Now when I turn on the stopwatches for
Scale, Rotation, and Opacity, I know they
| | 00:41 | will be in sync with the Position keyframe.
| | 00:43 | When you're turning on multiple
stopwatches, by the way, you can just drag across
| | 00:48 | them, as opposed to
clicking each one individually.
| | 00:52 | I'll press Home to return to zero and
decide what Scale value it should have.
| | 00:56 | Let's say I think it needs
to be bigger, maybe even 100%.
| | 01:02 | Remember, I don't really want to go
above 100%, so let's just type 100%.
| | 01:10 | Since my snowflake will fade up over time,
I'll never actually see it quite this big.
| | 01:15 | For my Rotation value, I have to bear in
mind that my second keyframe is at 0 degrees.
| | 01:22 | So if my first keyframe is a
positive value, as it animates it will
| | 01:26 | animate counterclockwise.
| | 01:33 | If I want the layer to animate clockwise,
this value needs to be a negative value.
| | 01:43 | Feel free to set the Scale
and Rotation values to taste.
| | 01:48 | I'll press Home again and set
the Opacity at the beginning to 0%.
| | 01:52 | You'll see the layer will fade up
over time, rotate clockwise, and scale
| | 01:58 | down into position.
| | 01:59 | Now, if you remember, I did ease
into my last position keyframe.
| | 02:06 | When you're easing one property,
you may want to make sure the other
| | 02:09 | transformation properties are also easing.
| | 02:11 | So I'm going to select the Scale keyframe
and then Shift+Select the Rotation keyframe.
| | 02:17 | Another handy way to select multiple
keyframes is to marquee around them.
| | 02:23 | So with both keyframes selected,
I'll press F9 to apply Easy Ease.
| | 02:28 | I don't need to worry that the Opacity keyframe.
| | 02:30 | Now in the next movie, we'll be adding
our foreground videos, so let's save our
| | 02:35 | project, and we'll move on.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Finishing Your CompositionArranging layers| 00:07 | Now, let's add out foreground movies.
| | 00:10 | I'll move the Current Time Indicator
until the title has finished its animation.
| | 00:15 | That way I'll know how much
space I have to work with.
| | 00:18 | The first movie I'm going to add
is the movie of the snowboarder.
| | 00:22 | I'll drop it in the comp, and as I
scale it, I'll add the Shift key to
| | 00:26 | maintain the aspect ratio.
| | 00:27 | I'll just roughly position it for now.
| | 00:32 | The second movie will be on the right-
hand side and should be the same size
| | 00:36 | as the first movie.
| | 00:37 | An easy way to do this is to duplicate
the layer and then replace the source.
| | 00:42 | To duplicate a layer, select it,
and under the Edit menu, select Duplicate.
| | 00:47 | The shortcut is Command+D
on Mac Ctrl+D on Windows.
| | 00:50 | Note that After Effects does not offset
a duplicated layer, unlike other programs.
| | 00:56 | As I drag this duplicate to the right,
I'll add the Shift key to maintain the
| | 01:02 | same value on the Y axis.
| | 01:05 | Now I just need to replace the
source with the second movie.
| | 01:07 | So with the duplicate selected, in
the Project panel I'll select a movie I
| | 01:12 | like to use instead.
| | 01:14 | Press the Option key on Mac or Alt key
on Windows and just drag and drop it.
| | 01:18 | You'll notice it now has the
same position and scale and all
| | 01:22 | the transformations.
| | 01:23 | It would even have the same effects,
if effects have been applied to it.
| | 01:27 | At this point, I think I'd like
more space between the movies.
| | 01:31 | I'll select both layers,
press S to reveal Scale.
| | 01:35 | I can scrub these values, and both
layers will scale at the same time.
| | 01:40 | I can also press the Command key on Mac, Ctrl
key on Windows, and scale in finer increments.
| | 01:46 | If I want a precise value, I
can type it in. Let's say 40%.
| | 01:50 | When I press Return, both
layers will have the same size.
| | 01:54 | Now if you like to use shortcuts and
you have an extended keyboard, there are
| | 01:59 | some handy shortcuts you might like to learn.
| | 02:01 | For instance, the Plus key will rotate
a layer in one-degree increments while
| | 02:07 | the Minus key rotates it counterclockwise.
| | 02:09 | If I add the Option key, I can scale
in 1%-increments with plus and minus.
| | 02:16 | Add the Shift key to scale 10% at a time.
| | 02:19 | To adjust position in smaller increments,
I like to use the Up and Down Arrow keys.
| | 02:24 | However, if I press P for position, I
can scrub the value just for Y. Be careful
| | 02:31 | though, by typing in a precise value.
| | 02:33 | For instance, if I type in 190 for
the Y value, it'll copy both the X and Y
| | 02:40 | value to the second layer.
| | 02:42 | I think I better undo now.
| | 02:43 | So continue tweaking the layers until you
got them in exactly the position you'd like.
| | 02:49 | Maybe a little more space between the
layers would be nice, because I'll be
| | 02:52 | adding a drop shadow in a little while.
| | 02:55 | At the end of this lesson, I'll also
offer some tips for how to arrange layers
| | 02:59 | precisely, using grids,
guides, and the Align palette.
| | 03:03 | I think I'm happy with this placement.
| | 03:05 | In the next movie, I'll add the
red solid at the top of the comp.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding a solid| 00:06 | Now, I'd like to add a colored
bar across the top of the comp.
| | 00:11 | Our snowboarder is wearing a nice red jacket,
so something like this color might work.
| | 00:16 | For the height, I often use
the Info palette for measuring.
| | 00:19 | Remember that After Effects
considers 0 to be the top of the comp.
| | 00:23 | So as I move my cursor down, I could estimate
that around 60 pixels should be a good height.
| | 00:29 | I'll now select Layer > New > Solid.
| | 00:33 | When the Solid Settings open,
I'll first give it a good name.
| | 00:38 | Let's call this Solid Bar.
| | 00:40 | The Width, Height, and Color will
default to the last values I used.
| | 00:44 | By the way, you can click to Make Comp
Size button if you want to create a solid
| | 00:48 | the same width and height as your comp.
| | 00:51 | The width of 640 is the full width of the comp.
| | 00:54 | I figured out that my
height should be about 60 pixels.
| | 00:57 | For the color, I can click on the
eyedropper and then pick a color from the
| | 01:02 | snowboarder's jacket.
| | 01:03 | I'll click OK, and a solid bar will
be created in the middle of the comp.
| | 01:09 | The Solid Bar layer also
appears in the Timeline.
| | 01:12 | To move my solid up, I'll
add Command+Shift on Mac,
| | 01:15 | Ctrl+Shift on Windows,
and it will snap to the edges.
| | 01:18 | Now if I'm not happy with the color--
it's too dark or too light--I can select
| | 01:23 | Layer > Solid Settings and click on
the color swatch and pick a new color.
| | 01:29 | Notice that there is a Preview button in CS5,
| | 01:32 | so as you adjust the color, it
will update in the Comp panel.
| | 01:36 | So we'll pick a color I
think looks a little better.
| | 01:39 | Click OK, OK again.
| | 01:41 | I think I'm happy with that.
| | 01:43 | By reducing the opacity, the
background movie will show through the solid.
| | 01:48 | I'll add the Command key on Mac,
Ctrl key on Windows so I can edit in
| | 01:52 | smaller increments.
| | 01:53 | At this point, I think I'll Increment and Save.
| | 01:56 | I just wanted to explain a little more
about how solids work in your project.
| | 02:01 | When I created the solid, it also created a
folder called Solids in the Project panel.
| | 02:08 | Inside the folder is the solid I created.
| | 02:11 | At the top of the Project panel, you'll
see its width and height, and also that
| | 02:15 | it was used one time.
| | 02:17 | You can use this footage item in multiple
comps or multiple items in the same composition.
| | 02:22 | For instance, if I select the solid
I'm already using and duplicate it, I can
| | 02:28 | use it again elsewhere in the comp.
| | 02:31 | Notice if I press T, it's also
duplicated the transformations.
| | 02:35 | For instance, if I scale this down
and then duplicate this version, each
| | 02:42 | instance could have different settings.
| | 02:45 | But they all originate from the same source.
| | 02:48 | I can also drag Solid Bar directly from the
Project panel into this comp, or any other comp.
| | 02:55 | In this case, it will
appear at its original size.
| | 02:58 | Now in the Project panel, it
tells me that this solid is 4 times.
| | 03:03 | Now I want to explain what happens
when you change the Solid Settings for a
| | 03:07 | solid you're already using.
| | 03:09 | Let's say I select this solid in the Comp panel.
| | 03:12 | I select Layer > Solid Settings to edit it.
| | 03:15 | There is a switch at the bottom of
Solid Settings that tells me whether any
| | 03:20 | change I make will affect all the
layers that use this solid or whether a new
| | 03:25 | solid will be created.
| | 03:27 | If I don't want my edits to update all
of the solids, I can turn the switch off,
| | 03:33 | and it immediately made
another solid: Solid Bar 2.
| | 03:36 | It confirmed that a new solid will be created.
| | 03:40 | Let's say I just change the color to blue.
| | 03:42 | When I click New, I now have two solids.
| | 03:48 | The Project panel tells me the blue
one is used one time and the red one
| | 03:53 | is used three times.
| | 03:55 | On the other hand, I might want
to update the color for all three.
| | 03:59 | In this case, when I update Solid
Settings, I'll turn on the switch.
| | 04:03 | Let's say I'd like this red
color to be a little darker.
| | 04:06 | So I hope that explains a little more about
how solids are managed in the Project panel.
| | 04:13 | Since I made a big mess, I think I
better select File > Revert to return to the
| | 04:19 | last version I saved.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying effects| 00:07 | At this point, we have all of
our major elements in place.
| | 00:11 | However, I think our videos are looking a
little bit flat and perhaps a little blue.
| | 00:17 | Our title has a bevel alpha
and a drop shadow applied.
| | 00:20 | I think it would look good if we
applied similar effects to the video layers.
| | 00:24 | Now, we will be looking at applying and
editing effects in more detail in a later lesson.
| | 00:28 | But for now, I think we
deserve some instant gratification.
| | 00:31 | I will select the first video, and
let's start by removing some of this blue.
| | 00:36 | As you can see, After Effects
comes bundled with lots of effects.
| | 00:40 | The first one I will apply is
Color Correction > Auto Color.
| | 00:44 | This will remove the blue cast.
| | 00:46 | The Effect Controls panel will open.
| | 00:49 | It's docked with the Project panel.
| | 00:51 | If you have extra space on your
monitor, you might prefer to see both
| | 00:55 | panels side by side.
| | 00:57 | To do that, in the Effect Controls,
click on the top left-hand corner and then
| | 01:02 | drag over to the right-hand side of the frame.
| | 01:04 | Now you will want to check that you
have enough space so that the Comp panel is
| | 01:08 | still being magnified at 100%.
| | 01:12 | If it's being squished, simply reduce
the width of the Project panel and reduce
| | 01:17 | the width of the Effect Controls.
| | 01:19 | Now Auto Color does a very good job
of removing the color cast, perhaps a
| | 01:24 | little too good a job.
| | 01:26 | If we scrub the value for Blend with
Original, this is the original image, and
| | 01:30 | this is the fully effective image.
| | 01:32 | By the way, this is a slider.
| | 01:34 | If you twirl down the little arrow,
you can see that it's a slider that
| | 01:38 | goes from 0 to 100%.
| | 01:40 | It is just as easy to scrub the value directly.
| | 01:43 | But let's add in some of the
original blue, somewhere around 40%.
| | 01:48 | By removing some of the blue, the red
jacket seems to pop a little better.
| | 01:53 | Next, we will add a bevel around the edges.
| | 01:55 | Now, After Effects offers two bevel effects:
| | 01:58 | Perspective > Bevel Alpha and Bevel Edges.
| | 02:01 | Let's look at Bevel Edges first.
| | 02:04 | You will see this is a very
high-contrast bevel with a chiseled look,
| | 02:09 | slightly old-fashioned, but certainly not in
keeping with what I have applied to the title.
| | 02:14 | So let's delete this effect, and this time,
we'll select Effect > Perspective > Bevel Alpha.
| | 02:22 | This follows the alpha channel of a
layer, so it is also very good for
| | 02:25 | applying to a title.
| | 02:27 | I had increased the Edge
Thickness so you can see how it looks.
| | 02:31 | It's a very soft bevel,
with a very anti-aliased look.
| | 02:35 | I will set it to around 10 or so, and that
should match the style I have in the title.
| | 02:40 | Feel free to also adjust the
Light Angle, Color, and Intensity.
| | 02:45 | Next, I will apply Effect >
Perspective > Drop Shadow.
| | 02:50 | I will increase the distance, so I can see it,
| | 02:54 | increase the softness to give it a nice
soft look, and perhaps reduce the Opacity
| | 02:59 | so it is not quite so dark.
| | 03:01 | Go ahead and tweak this to taste--the idea
of being that it somewhat matches the title.
| | 03:07 | You wouldn't want a very dark hard-
edged shadow on one element if another
| | 03:12 | element has a soft diffused shadow.
| | 03:14 | Now I need to apply all the
same effects to my second video.
| | 03:18 | Fortunately, we can just copy and paste.
| | 03:21 | So once you've finished tweaking all
of your parameters, click in the Effect
| | 03:25 | Controls to make sure it's the active panel.
| | 03:28 | Now when you select All--using Command+A
on Mac, Ctrl+A on Windows--you will be
| | 03:34 | selecting the effects.
| | 03:36 | Now you just have to copy,
select the second video, and paste.
| | 03:42 | The only difference is that the
second video wasn't quite as blue.
| | 03:46 | So I am going to adjust the Blend with
Original slider in the Auto Color effect.
| | 03:51 | I'd increase it slightly until
it visually matches the snowboarder.
| | 03:57 | Now let's do a RAM
preview and see where we are at.
| | 04:00 | Now it takes a little longer to
calculate a RAM preview when you have more
| | 04:04 | layers, especially when
you have also added effects.
| | 04:07 | Some effects can really
slow down your rendering.
| | 04:10 | Now I don't think I like the
snowflake going behind the videos.
| | 04:16 | I imagine it going in front of
the videos, but behind the title.
| | 04:20 | So let's see how the layers are
orderedm and we can rearrange them.
| | 04:23 | Let's stop the RAM preview and twirl
up our layers and see what we have.
| | 04:26 | Layer 1 is our solid bar.
| | 04:31 | Layers 2 and 3 are our videos.
| | 04:33 | Layers 4 and 5 make up the title,
and layer 6 is our background.
| | 04:37 | So if I select layers 2 and 3, I can
move the two video layers down in the layer
| | 04:43 | stack, so that they sit above the background.
| | 04:46 | Now when I RAM-preview, the snowflake
will play in front of the videos, but
| | 04:51 | still land behind the title.
| | 04:53 | I think that looks pretty good as a first proof.
| | 04:56 | So in the next movie, we'll render it to disk.
| | 04:58 | After that we can see if we have any
other ideas for how we might improve
| | 05:02 | this video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Rendering the final movie| 00:07 | Now, it's time to render my animation to disk.
| | 00:10 | Before I render, I'll make
sure to save the project.
| | 00:14 | And with the Comp panel active, I
will select Composition > Make Movie.
| | 00:18 | The shortcut is Command+M
on Mac, Ctrl+M on Windows.
| | 00:22 | When you make a movie, the Render
Queue will open, and it will add this
| | 00:26 | composition to the Render Queue.
| | 00:28 | You can also add a composition to the
Render Queue by dragging it directly
| | 00:32 | from the Project panel.
| | 00:34 | Notice the Render Queue opens in
the same frame as the Timeline.
| | 00:37 | Now in the Pre-Roll lesson, we covered
the Render settings in the Output module.
| | 00:42 | So just to recap, Best Settings
means it will render at quality and full
| | 00:47 | resolution, meaning
every pixel will be rendered.
| | 00:50 | The only setting I'd like
the change is Time Span.
| | 00:54 | The default is to use the work area only.
| | 00:56 | I want to make sure my time span is
set to the full length of the comp.
| | 01:01 | You might be able to want to update
the Render Setting template itself.
| | 01:04 | In the Output Module, I will click on
Lossless to open the Output Module Setting.
| | 01:10 | I can see that it's going to render a
QuickTime movie using the animation codec,
| | 01:14 | and it's going to save the RGB channels only.
| | 01:18 | The audio is also turned off.
| | 01:19 | In our case, this is okay since I don't
have an alpha and I don't need to render audio.
| | 01:26 | And the last thing I need to check is
where it will be rendered on my disk.
| | 01:30 | In Output To, the name of the comp is used
for the name of the movie its about to render.
| | 01:35 | If I click the name, it will
tell me where I am going to save it.
| | 01:39 | Adding it to the Finished
Movie folder is just fine.
| | 01:42 | For the name, I might want to add some
version number, or date, so I can tell
| | 01:47 | which version this is.
| | 01:49 | In this case, I'm rendering version 7;
perhaps I will add v7 to the end of my file name.
| | 01:55 | I might also have prf1.
| | 01:57 | This tells me this is the first
proof that I've shown someone else.
| | 02:00 | We will save this as a movie, and all we
have to do now is click the Render button.
| | 02:07 | As it renders, each frame
is shown in the Comp panel.
| | 02:11 | It tells you how much time has elapsed.
| | 02:13 | It will also tell you
how much time is remaining.
| | 02:17 | And the estimated time is based on
the frames it's already rendered.
| | 02:20 | Once the render is finished, I can twirl
down Output Module, and it shows me the
| | 02:25 | path of where the movie was saved to.
| | 02:27 | A nice tip is that if you click this path,
it will open the folder in the finder.
| | 02:34 | Now I can just double-click the
movie to open it in QuickTime player.
| | 02:37 | Let me hide everything else.
| | 02:39 | When I click Play, I can see my masterpiece.
| | 02:42 | And this is a good first proof.
| | 02:45 | In the next movie, I will offer some
ideas on how you might improve this
| | 02:48 | animation, perhaps by adjusting some
of the timing or even animating some
| | 02:53 | more elements.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Idea CornerCreating variations of the design| 00:07 | So this is the idea corner.
The idea is, you just play "what if?"
| | 00:12 | you experiment with some of the timing,
maybe add some more animation to some of
| | 00:16 | the other layers, and just
see what you end up with.
| | 00:19 | Now I don't know what I am going to end up with,
| | 00:20 | so the first thing I will do
is I'll File > Increment and Save.
| | 00:24 | That way I will have a new
version in case I make a big mess.
| | 00:28 | Another thing you could do is select the
composition, and Command+D to duplicate it.
| | 00:33 | Not only will you have a version of your
original comp, but this is also an easy
| | 00:37 | way to make variations.
| | 00:40 | This is all about experimentation,
so don't be afraid to try things.
| | 00:44 | I have only two elements
animating: the title, and the snowflake.
| | 00:48 | They also don't quite synchronize.
| | 00:50 | I will select all the layers and press U;
| | 00:54 | that will reveal all of the
keyframes that are applied.
| | 00:57 | You can see that I purposely let the
title animate a little ahead of the snowflake.
| | 01:02 | I could synchronize these keyframes.
| | 01:05 | Now the snowflake and title
stop at exactly the same time.
| | 01:09 | The problem with this though is
that I have slowed down the title.
| | 01:12 | So let me undo that, and here's another
way you can synchronize keyframes.
| | 01:17 | Take the entire layer
and move it 10 frames to the right.
| | 01:21 | Now the keyframes will synchronize, but the
speed of the snowstorm layer will be the same.
| | 01:25 | I think an obvious thing to do is to
animate the red solid and even the video layers.
| | 01:35 | I will select the red solid, hit Home,
and press UU to see if I've changed
| | 01:41 | any of the properties.
| | 01:42 | When I say UU I mean I'm pressing the
U shortcut twice in quick succession.
| | 01:48 | That reveals all properties that
are not at their default values.
| | 01:51 | So you can see that I have changed the
position from the default center, and
| | 01:56 | I've also reduced the Opacity to 75%.
| | 02:01 | So let's say I moved to this frame
where all of the other keyframes are, and I
| | 02:06 | turn on the stopwatch for Position.
| | 02:08 | I will return to 0, and I will scrub the Y
value so it appears above the composition.
| | 02:15 | I will RAM-preview that, and see if I like that.
| | 02:17 | Now this has promise, but I find
I'm not sure what to look at first.
| | 02:24 | If I look at the red solid, I sort of
missed the snowflake animation. And if I
| | 02:29 | focus on the snowflake, I'm
still distracted by the red solid.
| | 02:33 | I think it will be better if I
sequence them so that the animated solid
| | 02:37 | happens first, and then my
eye can follow the snowflake.
| | 02:41 | So let me go to maybe 20 frames,
and I'll move the keyframe for the solid back.
| | 02:51 | Then I will take the two layers, the
Snowflake and the Title, and I'll move
| | 02:58 | those later in time.
| | 02:59 | Now I will have to kind of guess,
and then we will see what it looks like.
| | 03:02 | No, that's not too bad.
| | 03:06 | Now my eye can look at the solid and then
follow the snowflake down into position.
| | 03:10 | Let's see what we could do with these videos.
| | 03:17 | Let's twirl up all the other layers, and we
will just concentrate on the two video layers.
| | 03:22 | Let's start with scale.
| | 03:24 | They are already scaled to 40%,
| | 03:27 | so let's say I scale them up over one second.
| | 03:30 | Let's just see how that looks.
| | 03:31 | I will go to one second, turn on
their stopwatches, press Home, select both
| | 03:36 | layers, and type zero.
| | 03:42 | A little bit too much going on.
| | 03:44 | I don't like the fact they are skating
together at the same time, and they're
| | 03:50 | also distracting us from
looking at the snowflake.
| | 03:52 | Again, this is just a timing issue.
| | 03:57 | Let's say I go to 15 frames, and the
movie on the left is a snowboarder, so I
| | 04:02 | will pull that keyframe over, and I will
pull that keyframe over to 15, and then
| | 04:08 | we'll see how that looks.
| | 04:09 | A little more promising. Still too
much going on in the first second.
| | 04:17 | So let's wait until the second video is
finished, and then we will start the title.
| | 04:21 | Let's see what that looks like. Getting there.
| | 04:32 | I also don't know if I like the fact that
one video stops and then the other one starts.
| | 04:38 | They look a little bit fast,
considering the speed the title is moving at, so
| | 04:43 | let's overlap the speed.
| | 04:44 | Let's take our snowboarder, and he can
move for 20 frames, and the other movie
| | 04:52 | then will also move for 20 frames.
| | 04:54 | So now they are overlapping their timing.
| | 04:56 | That's kind of promising.
| | 05:04 | I might in fact save this as version 8,
and then Increment and Save to version
| | 05:10 | 9. Maybe we will try something else.
And these again are all examples that you can
| | 05:15 | show your boss or your client,
and maybe they'll have other ideas, and you can
| | 05:19 | eventually arrive at the final animation.
| | 05:21 | Now since we have a solid bar across the
top, it could animate from left to right.
| | 05:27 | So let's take our solid bar,
press U to see what keyframes it has.
| | 05:32 | Now, animating down a few pixels in 20
frames is a pretty good speed. But if I
| | 05:38 | was going to animate it all the way
across, I would probably want to give it a
| | 05:41 | lot more time than that.
| | 05:43 | Let's move his keyframe over to
about there, one second 20 frames.
| | 05:48 | So let's go back to zero,
and I'll remove that keyframe.
| | 05:52 | That will make a jump to the same
position as the keyframe later in time.
| | 05:58 | Now it's easier for me to
drag it adding the Shift key.
| | 06:04 | It's quite interesting. I quite like that.
| | 06:06 | I think it should fade up though.
| | 06:07 | So let's add Shift+T, turn on the
stopwatch so it's at 75% in sync with the
| | 06:17 | Position keyframe,
and then maybe make it say 25%.
| | 06:21 | So, there is a little bit
more of a fade-up over time.
| | 06:27 | Now what we have is we have a
very strong left-to-right motion,
| | 06:30 | so it would make sense for these
videos to do something that echoed this bar.
| | 06:36 | Like perhaps, as the bar comes across,
the first video comes on, and as the
| | 06:41 | bar continues to move, second video comes on,
but maybe not scaling, maybe just a fade-up.
| | 06:48 | So let's take these scale
keyframes, and we will remove them.
| | 06:52 | Now when you are removing keyframes--
for instance, I have my first keyframe is
| | 06:55 | at zero and my second keyframe is at 40%--
| | 06:59 | if this is the size I want it to
remain at, I want to be sure I turn off the
| | 07:03 | stopwatch when I am parked on this keyframe,
or anywhere later when the value was at 40%.
| | 07:09 | So when I turn off the stopwatch,
this will be the value I have for the
| | 07:13 | entire composition.
| | 07:15 | Since I'm already past this keyframe,
I can turn off the stopwatch for the
| | 07:19 | second video as well.
| | 07:20 | So let's just look at fading.
| | 07:23 | Maybe they just need to fade up.
Maybe feedback I was getting was that the
| | 07:27 | animation was getting a little bit busy.
| | 07:32 | So that's about where the first video
could be finished, so we will say about 25
| | 07:37 | frames, and this is the snowboarder,
| | 07:40 | so we will turn on the opacity
at 25 frames. Go back to zero.
| | 07:45 | Change the opacity to 0%.
| | 07:48 | Now as the bar comes across,
the first video fades up.
| | 07:52 | And it's going to fade up over 25 frames.
| | 07:54 | Since I have already created these
opacity keyframes, here is a nice little tip:
| | 08:00 | click on the word Opacity,
and it will select both keyframes.
| | 08:04 | I will copy and I will decide at what
point my second video should be finished--
| | 08:10 | perhaps around here, about 115.
| | 08:13 | So if I back up 25 frames, so, 10, 10, 1,
2,3,4,5, this will be where my car in
| | 08:20 | snow should start fading up.
| | 08:22 | So I will paste those opacity keyframes here.
| | 08:25 | Now, let's see what this looks like.
| | 08:26 | Now, it doesn't mean that
this is better than version 8.
| | 08:33 | It just means it's
another alternative animation.
| | 08:36 | Sometimes it's nice to show your boss
or client a few options, so they can
| | 08:41 | either go in one direction or another.
| | 08:44 | At this point, I think that the
title could even be a little bit later.
| | 08:50 | So let's take our two title layers, then
we will just move those a little bit later.
| | 08:55 | Now let's press U to see what the
keyframes are, see if it's worth
| | 08:58 | synchronizing anything.
| | 08:59 | Maybe they start at one second.
| | 09:03 | And now I have to make sure I have
enough time at the end to read the title
| | 09:10 | before it's finished.
| | 09:13 | I think I just about got away with it,
but I might want to back it up five frames.
| | 09:17 | The last thing you want to do is to have
the viewer not have time to read the title.
| | 09:23 | So I hope you had fun creating
your first animation in After Effects.
| | 09:26 | Next, I will offer a few bonus movies
that will go into more detail on some of
| | 09:31 | the features we've touched upon in this lesson.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. More on KeyframesExploring spatial keyframes| 00:07 | Now earlier in this lesson, you
animated the snowflake along a curve,
| | 00:11 | but I thought it'd be useful to give
you a better, guided tour of how the
| | 00:15 | different keyframes work in the Comp panel.
| | 00:17 | The position keyframe in the Comp panel,
by the way, is called a spatial keyframe.
| | 00:22 | Spatial simply means space.
| | 00:24 | It has a value on X and Y, unlike say
Opacity, which has a value in percent.
| | 00:30 | When I turn on the stopwatch for
Position and create the first keyframe and,
| | 00:35 | then I will go to a later point in
time and I'll move the Snowflake,
| | 00:39 | it might look like After Effects
creates motion paths in a straight line.
| | 00:43 | So you might think if I make a third
keyframe and drag it over here, this
| | 00:48 | would be a straight line, but it's not.
| | 00:50 | The middle keyframe--actually all of the
keyframes--are defaulting to Auto Bezier keyframes,
| | 00:55 | Auto meaning automatic.
| | 00:58 | You can think of it like After
Effects is making an automatic curve.
| | 01:01 | Now where does it get this curve from?
| | 01:03 | Well, you see there is two dots to the
left and right of the keyframe, and you
| | 01:07 | can tell that's an Auto Bezier
keyframe because it doesn't have visible
| | 01:11 | handles, and the orientation of that
handle is determined by the position of
| | 01:15 | the keyframe before and after.
| | 01:17 | For instance, if you look at this
keyframe and the third keyframe, and you
| | 01:22 | drew a line between them, this line would be
parallel to the line between these two dots.
| | 01:28 | If that's not clear, let me show
you a couple of other examples.
| | 01:31 | If I move these two keyframes so now the
first and last keyframe is making a vertical line,
| | 01:37 | these two dots are also making a vertical line.
| | 01:40 | I could also make it diagonal.
| | 01:42 | It doesn't matter what I do, no matter
where I put the first and last keyframe,
| | 01:47 | these handles automatically
curve around to make this curve.
| | 01:51 | Now, let's change the keyframe type.
| | 01:55 | Let's say I take one of
these dots and I click on it.
| | 01:58 | Now I have visible handles.
| | 02:00 | This is called a continuous Bezier keyframe.
| | 02:02 | Now I like to say it doesn't
so much called as its behavior.
| | 02:07 | As you can see, it's just kind of like a seesaw.
| | 02:11 | I can adjust one handle
independently of the other, but not the angle.
| | 02:15 | They always stay connected in a continuous line.
| | 02:19 | But if you break the handles,
you will have control over both
| | 02:22 | sides independently.
| | 02:24 | To break the handles, I will use the Pen tool.
| | 02:27 | If you click on the Pen tool,
you will see the options available:
| | 02:30 | Pen tool, Add Vertex tool--add points
in other words--Delete Vertex tool--or
| | 02:36 | delete a point--and Convert Vertex tool.
| | 02:39 | Check out the symbols for the Convert
Vertex tool, because you will be seeing
| | 02:42 | that when we start editing.
| | 02:43 | Now I mentioned before that I don't
really like to change tools because then I
| | 02:48 | have to keep going back to the Selection tool.
| | 02:50 | So you can use the Pen tool
temporarily by just using its shortcut, and the
| | 02:55 | shortcut again is G. So, if I want to
break these handles, I simply press and
| | 03:00 | hold down the G key, drag that
handle, and then release the G key.
| | 03:05 | So you can see it goes
back to the Selection tool.
| | 03:08 | Now that the handles are broken, I have
control over both sides independently.
| | 03:12 | You will also see that the outgoing
handle of the first keyframe is automatic,
| | 03:17 | but I can drag that up and make a real keyframe.
| | 03:21 | And if you can't quite see the dots,
and you want to get the handle and you
| | 03:25 | can't quite see where it is,
here's a good little shortcut:
| | 03:29 | On the Mac, press Command+
Option; On Windows, Ctrl+Alt.
| | 03:33 | The keyframe itself is usually easy to see.
| | 03:35 | So click on the keyframe itself
and just drag the handle out.
| | 03:39 | So now I have handles that are broken.
| | 03:43 | If I press the G key again, and click, I
will now have continuous Bezier handles.
| | 03:48 | Now sometimes you want to get rid
of the handles completely, so you want
| | 03:51 | to retract the handles. There is no
need to pull them in and try to get them
| | 03:55 | into that point; all you need to do is
press G again and click on the keyframe itself.
| | 04:01 | That will retract the handles.
| | 04:03 | If I press G again, and click on the
keyframe, we'll get back to the Automatic
| | 04:07 | Bezier keyframes we started with.
| | 04:09 | So if you haven't tried this before,
create at least three keyframes and
| | 04:14 | concentrate on the one in the middle.
| | 04:16 | There is your automatic keyframes,
click and drag to get continuous, press G
| | 04:21 | to break the handles.
| | 04:23 | Now they are broken. Press G again
if you want to make them continuous.
| | 04:28 | Press G to retract and G to
pop out the handles again.
| | 04:31 | You can see it doesn't take very long
to get this down, and it's something you
| | 04:36 | are going to use over and over again
in After Effects, not only to edit a
| | 04:41 | motion path for position but also anchor
point and maybe when moving a camera along a path.
| | 04:46 | The camera would use position keyframes.
| | 04:48 | And you will also have handles when you
are editing masks as well as shape layers.
| | 04:52 | Now one more thing I wanted to point
out is when you are moving along the path,
| | 04:56 | you'll see these dots.
| | 04:58 | I think we mentioned before that each dot is
the position of the anchor point at each frame.
| | 05:04 | If I press the G key as I move along the
path, the cursor will change to the Add
| | 05:09 | Vertex tool, and if I click, I will get
a keyframe at that frame, which is
| | 05:14 | back here somewhere, about frame 15.
| | 05:16 | Now this is unusual for After Effects
because normally keyframes are always
| | 05:22 | created at the current time, so
whatever the time is in the timecode when you
| | 05:26 | make a keyframe, that's
where the keyframe would be.
| | 05:29 | But this is one way where you can
look at the motion path and say I need a
| | 05:32 | keyframe right there, and you can just create it.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using hold keyframes| 00:07 | I sometimes see beginners have this
problem, so I thought it would be worth
| | 00:10 | going through an example and then
introducing you to the hold keyframe.
| | 00:14 | Let's say I make a motion path like this and
then I go later in time and I add a keyframe.
| | 00:20 | When I add this keyframe
by clicking on the diamond,
| | 00:23 | it will use the same value
as the previous keyframe.
| | 00:26 | So now I've two automatic Bezier
keyframes right on top of each other. Now, I'll
| | 00:32 | go later in time and drag this keyframe over.
| | 00:35 | When I RAM-preview, you can see it
holds on the value between the second
| | 00:39 | and third keyframe.
| | 00:40 | So you don't really need to make
a hold keyframe in this instance.
| | 00:44 | Now I get the result that I'm looking
for because I had two automatic keyframes
| | 00:50 | on top of each other.
| | 00:51 | Now After Effects knows that when two
automatic keyframes have the same value,
| | 00:56 | it will retract, or remove, the
outgoing handle from the first one, and also
| | 01:01 | remove the incoming handle from the
second one, so the handles don't get in
| | 01:04 | the way of each other.
| | 01:06 | But look what happens if I
don't have automatic keyframes.
| | 01:09 | I'll turn on the Stopwatch again.
| | 01:10 | That's my first keyframe.
| | 01:12 | I'll go later in time and move it up
here, and I'll move later in time, make
| | 01:18 | another keyframe over here.
| | 01:20 | And then we realize, Oh dear!
| | 01:22 | Didn't really want that to happen.
| | 01:23 | I want a straight line.
| | 01:24 | So we edit it and then we edit that.
| | 01:28 | So now what we have is a Bezier
keyframe, not a continuous Bezier, but Bezier,
| | 01:33 | meaning the handles have broken.
| | 01:34 | So I have the Bezier keyframe at one second.
| | 01:38 | I RAM-preview and I get this great
idea that I should really pause a little
| | 01:43 | while on that second keyframe.
| | 01:47 | So it would make sense, and I
think I'm being very clever,
| | 01:50 | I take the second keyframe and I copy it,
| | 01:53 | Command+C, and then I paste it at two seconds.
| | 01:56 | Well, what I've just done is paste a
keyframe that had two handles sticking
| | 02:01 | out to another keyframe that also
has two handle sticking out, and you can
| | 02:06 | see it right in the Comp panel. There is a
loop that's being created by all those handles.
| | 02:11 | Now when I RAM-preview, I can see I
have a what I call a loop-the-loop.
| | 02:17 | It wobbles around in between when it's
really should be holding on the value.
| | 02:22 | And it doesn't makes sense
if I'm new to After Effects.
| | 02:25 | I see this is this value, this is this
value, and it looks like it's staying in
| | 02:28 | the same place, but in between
the handles are creating a circle.
| | 02:32 | Now this is where the whole
keyframe comes in really handy.
| | 02:37 | You don't need to go in there and start
| | 02:38 | trying to figure out how to retract one
handle and retract the other handle and
| | 02:42 | so on; all you need to do is
select this keyframe at one second--
| | 02:47 | the keyframe that's supposed to be
holding its value and it's not holding its
| | 02:51 | value--and you make it a Hold keyframe.
| | 02:54 | So I'll select it and under the
Animation menu, I'll select Toggle Hold Keyframe.
| | 03:01 | In the Timeline, the right-
hand side became a square.
| | 03:04 | Now my problem went away.
| | 03:06 | It's now holding on that value.
| | 03:08 | So that's what a Hold Keyframe does;
| | 03:11 | it literally holds on the value
until it hits the next keyframe.
| | 03:15 | And if the next keyframe has the same
Position value, it will just continue
| | 03:19 | from that point onwards.
| | 03:21 | Now a Hold keyframe is what you need
to use whenever you want to hold a value.
| | 03:28 | I sometimes see beginners create
projects with a lot of extra keyframes.
| | 03:32 | For instance, they want to hold on a
value, and let's say they want to go there,
| | 03:43 | but they don't actually want to
interpolate between these two positions.
| | 03:47 | By making that a Hold keyframe
it will just jump to this point.
| | 03:52 | So we'll animate up to here,
hold on that value, and then jump.
| | 03:58 | And there are a lot of other
ways you can use a Hold keyframe.
| | 04:06 | We'll address some of them in a future lesson.
| | 04:08 | But for now just remember whenever you
want to hold on value and then either
| | 04:13 | continue or have it jump to a new value,
that's where the Hold keyframe comes in.
| | 04:17 | What I see people do is sometimes this:
| | 04:21 | they don't want to interpolate, so
they go through this frame and then they
| | 04:25 | back up one frame, and they take
this keyframe and then they copy it.
| | 04:30 | So it looks like it's holding,
but sometimes you end up with these strange
| | 04:35 | problems, like it's moving in between,
where it's not really holding, and you also have
| | 04:40 | a problem that between these
two frames is a second field.
| | 04:43 | So if you field-render, you'll have a
little jump, but the image will be here on
| | 04:48 | the second field, as it
jumped from here to here.
| | 04:51 | So bear in mind, you never ever
want to do this kind of workaround.
| | 04:54 | Let's delete that keyframe, that extra
keyframe, and by simply changing this
| | 04:59 | keyframe to a Hold keyframe,
I solve all my problems.
| | 05:02 | Now I see a lot of advanced users still
don't know how to use a Hold keyframe.
| | 05:08 | So don't forget that guy is really handy.
He is hiding here under the Animation
| | 05:13 | menu and it has a shortcut.
| | 05:15 | There are various ways you can use them.
| | 05:17 | You can Command+Click to go back to Linear
and Command+Option+Click to make it Hold.
| | 05:22 | That's probably more information than
you needed to know in your first lesson,
| | 05:25 | so we'll just leave it there.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding common keyframe mistakes| 00:07 | I've been teaching After Effects for a
little while, and I think I've seen every
| | 00:10 | beginner mistake out there.
| | 00:12 | It's interesting how beginners
always make the exact same mistakes.
| | 00:16 | So I thought it would be useful if I
put together a movie of all these little
| | 00:19 | common "gotchas," so maybe your first
day in After Effects you can avoid these.
| | 00:24 | Let's say I want to animate my snowflake.
| | 00:26 | I will press P for Position, turn on
the stopwatch for position, and we will
| | 00:31 | make a little animation of
it moving across the frame.
| | 00:33 | Then I decide I will think I
will animate scale as well.
| | 00:38 | I will just make this smaller.
| | 00:39 | Somehow I think that this
will make scale animate.
| | 00:43 | Well, if I don't turn on the stopwatch
for scale, I won't have a scale animation.
| | 00:47 | So be sure to turn the stopwatch on
for all of the properties you want to
| | 00:51 | animate, and of course turn on the
stopwatch for the correct property.
| | 00:55 | You will be surprised how you start
off animating position and you turn on
| | 00:59 | Rotation when you meant to click on Scale.
| | 01:01 | But you will get out of
that habit pretty quickly.
| | 01:04 | So let me reset, and let me show you
something I notice a lot of animators doing.
| | 01:08 | They, let's say, want to animate position.
| | 01:11 | They set the first keyframe, and then
they go to another point in time where they
| | 01:15 | want to have a second keyframe.
| | 01:17 | Now some animation programs require that you
click a button before you change the value.
| | 01:23 | Let's say we scrub it on X. In After
Effects you don't need to do that. If you
| | 01:29 | go to another point in time where there
is no keyframe, you can simply scrub the
| | 01:35 | value and it will create that keyframe for you.
| | 01:39 | Another mistake I see people make is
that they were a little heavy-handed and
| | 01:43 | they select the layer and they click
it a little heavy, and before you know it
| | 01:47 | they have a keyframe that they didn't want.
| | 01:48 | If that happens, don't panic
and turn off the stopwatch.
| | 01:53 | That deletes all of your keyframes.
| | 01:55 | Then they make it worse by
turning on the stopwatch again.
| | 01:58 | Now that just makes a keyframe, the
first keyframe, using the current value.
| | 02:03 | After Effects does 99 levels of
undo, so don't be afraid to use them.
| | 02:08 | Undo, undo, and there we are.
| | 02:10 | This is the keyframe I didn't want.
| | 02:11 | I don't need to turn off the stopwatch;
| | 02:14 | I just need to remove the keyframe.
| | 02:16 | I can either do it this way is if I
simply select it and hit the Delete key.
| | 02:20 | So remember if you accidentally turn off
the stopwatch, don't just turn it back on;
| | 02:25 | that won't get you all your keyframes back.
| | 02:27 | That's what undo is for.
| | 02:30 | Another misconception you might
have is that you can simply select the
| | 02:33 | keyframe and then when you scrub
the value it will edit the selected a
| | 02:37 | keyframe; it won't.
| | 02:39 | It will make a keyframe or
edit an existing. After Effects,
| | 02:44 | when you're scrubbing these values,
will always edit at the current time.
| | 02:48 | That's the time shown in the
Timeline on the Comp panel.
| | 02:51 | So if you select a keyframe and scrub a
value, you will never edit that keyframe.
| | 02:56 | Let me remove that extra keyframe.
| | 03:00 | Remember that After
Effects is very time sensitive.
| | 03:03 | You're always editing at the current time.
| | 03:05 | If there is no keyframe there when you
make a change, you will make a new keyframe.
| | 03:10 | If there is a keyframe there when you make
a change, you will just edit this keyframe.
| | 03:13 | Here is where you also get into trouble.
| | 03:17 | You might move to a keyframe you want to
edit, and you will end up just being a little off.
| | 03:22 | Now it's pretty obvious
here that I'm quite a bit off.
| | 03:24 | As I move the time marker, you can see
that I have quite a number of pixels on
| | 03:30 | my monitor for every second of time.
| | 03:32 | Like here is 0, and here is
1 second, here is 2 second.
| | 03:37 | So that number of pixels on my
monitor is just for 30 frames.
| | 03:40 | So now when I am one frame off, I can see that.
| | 03:43 | But that's only because
I have a very short comp;
| | 03:46 | it's only five seconds long.
| | 03:48 | Let's say this was five minutes long.
| | 03:51 | In that case, this number of pixels on the
monitor would be one minute's worth of time.
| | 03:56 | So if I go 1 pixel off, I could be one
or two frames away from the keyframe.
| | 04:02 | That's where you start adding keyframes.
| | 04:04 | They are right on top of each other.
| | 04:05 | Sometimes you can't even see it.
| | 04:07 | They are literally on top of each other.
| | 04:09 | Only when you zoom in in time using
these time markers--and you can use the
| | 04:15 | Plus and Minus keys on the keyboard--
| | 04:17 | you zoom in enough to see that
you had to keyframes one frame apart.
| | 04:21 | It's very common on longer comps.
| | 04:24 | So it's very important when you move to a
keyframe that you end up directly on the keyframe.
| | 04:30 | Get in this good habit from day one.
| | 04:32 | As you scrub to a keyframe, add
the Shift key, and it will snap.
| | 04:37 | That way you won't end up one frame off.
| | 04:39 | You can also use the keyframe navigator
to jump between keyframes on each track.
| | 04:45 | That's useful if you have a lot of
keyframes that are very close together.
| | 04:48 | Scrubbing the time marker might be
snapping to other keyframe on other layers even.
| | 04:53 | Now there is one way you can edit
a keyframe without moving there.
| | 04:57 | If you double-click a keyframe, it
will give you the values of that keyframe.
| | 05:02 | What I find most useful about
these dialogs is the Units pop-up.
| | 05:06 | For instance, with position I can
edit in pixels, percentage of source,
| | 05:11 | or percentage of comp.
| | 05:13 | So I could set that position to be 50-
50 in the comp, say, and it will make a
| | 05:19 | keyframe equal to 50-50.
| | 05:21 | Now I didn't see any change, because
I was parked on a different keyframe.
| | 05:25 | This is the keyframe I edited.
| | 05:26 | So you can see that even if you double-
click a keyframe, you can't see the result
| | 05:31 | until you move to that keyframe.
| | 05:33 | Let's look at a few other issues.
| | 05:35 | I will reset and back to 0.
| | 05:38 | If you want to animate a layer,
sometimes it makes sense to animate it backwards.
| | 05:42 | For instance, let's say I want to
fade-up this layer over one second.
| | 05:47 | Rather than turning on the on the
stopwatch at 0, I could move to one second
| | 05:52 | and then turn on the stopwatch, because
this is the value I want to have at the
| | 05:56 | end of my fade up.
| | 05:58 | Turn on the stopwatch and
then at 0 scrub down to 0%.
| | 06:02 | Now let's say I want to remove this fade up.
| | 06:05 | I don't like it, and I'd like
to return the layer to 100%.
| | 06:09 | If I turn off the stopwatch now, the value
will be at 0% constantly for the entire layer.
| | 06:18 | If, however, I thought about it and I
move to the second keyframe where it says
| | 06:22 | 100% and then turn off the stopwatch, that will
be the value that's copied to the entire layer.
| | 06:29 | Another piece of advice is that
keyframes don't have to begin at 0.
| | 06:33 | Sometimes I will see someone and they
will want to fade out a layer at the end.
| | 06:37 | So they will turn on the stopwatch at
time zero, go to, say, four seconds, make a
| | 06:43 | keyframe, then hit N to go to
the end, and fade it down to 0.
| | 06:48 | It's holding at 100% and then fading away.
| | 06:52 | I think it should be pretty obvious that
this first keyframe is not doing anything.
| | 06:58 | It doesn't need to be there.
| | 06:59 | I can delete it, and I'll
have exactly the same result.
| | 07:03 | All the values before the first keyframe
will be the value of the first keyframe.
| | 07:08 | So just like you don't have to turn on
all the stopwatches at time 0, you don't
| | 07:12 | even have to turn on the stopwatch
for the property you're animating.
| | 07:15 | Just turn it on when you
want the animation to begin.
| | 07:19 | In the next movie, I will
explain how Auto Keyframe mode works.
| | 07:22 | This is a new feature in CS5.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Auto-keyframe mode| 00:07 | In this movie, I'll cover a new feature
added in CS5 called Auto-keyframe mode.
| | 00:13 | I'll start with a blank
project and drag in my title.
| | 00:16 | I'll move it down into position.
| | 00:19 | Next, I'll add the Snowflake movie.
| | 00:22 | If you remember from earlier in the lesson,
the snowflake will animate into position.
| | 00:27 | Just so you can see what's going to
happen, I'll twirl down Transformations.
| | 00:30 | Now earlier what we saw that if you
turn on the stopwatch for Position or Scale
| | 00:35 | or Rotation, it will then remember the
value of a keyframe at this point in time,
| | 00:40 | and then you can start making an animation.
| | 00:43 | The idea behind Auto-keyframe mode is that
you don't have to turn on the stopwatches.
| | 00:48 | Now you enable Auto-keyframe mode by
clicking on the large stopwatch in the Timeline.
| | 00:53 | When it's enabled, it will appear in red.
| | 00:56 | As soon as you make any change to the
layer, it will figure out what property
| | 01:00 | you're trying to animate and
turn on the stopwatch for you.
| | 01:03 | For instance if I scale the
layer, the Scale stopwatch came on.
| | 01:08 | When I move the layer, the
Position stopwatch came on.
| | 01:11 | So these are the values at this point in time.
| | 01:16 | Let's say I move to two seconds where the
animation will finish, and I'll move my
| | 01:20 | snowflake into position.
| | 01:23 | You'll see a second position keyframe
appear, but that's normal. Nothing special.
| | 01:27 | That's the way After Effects will work.
| | 01:29 | As soon as you move the layer,
a second keyframe is created.
| | 01:32 | As soon as I change the value, whether
I do it interactively or in the Timeline,
| | 01:37 | another keyframe is created.
| | 01:39 | So this animation was started by me
just interactively moving and editing the
| | 01:44 | layer in the Comp panel.
| | 01:45 | Now let's say I'd also like this
layer to fade up over 2 seconds.
| | 01:50 | Sometimes it might make sense, even
though Auto-keyframe mode is on, to enable
| | 01:55 | the stopwatch manually.
| | 01:57 | That's because at this point in
time, I wanted to have this value.
| | 02:01 | If I want Auto-keyframe mode to work,
I'll have to kind of fiddle with the value
| | 02:05 | to get it to turn on the stopwatch.
| | 02:07 | Now I can hit Home to return
to 0 and set my first Keyframe.
| | 02:11 | Now this snowflake will fade
on and move down into position.
| | 02:15 | After this, everything is just as normal.
| | 02:19 | If I make a change, that will
update an existing keyframe.
| | 02:25 | The idea behind Auto-keyframe mode
is it's designed for someone who often
| | 02:29 | forgets to turn on a stopwatch.
| | 02:32 | However, there are pros
and cons to this feature.
| | 02:35 | For instance, if I select the title and press
P for position, it currently has no keyframes.
| | 02:41 | That's because I moved it into
position before I enabled Auto-keyframe mode.
| | 02:47 | So if I don't twirl down Position
I may fool myself into thinking that I
| | 02:52 | already made a keyframe
for its final resting place.
| | 02:55 | At time 0, I'll make my first Keyframe, and
when I hit Play, I don't get the animation.
| | 03:03 | That's because the stopwatch
was never turned on at 2 seconds.
| | 03:06 | So in this case where I want that
exact value back. I've got no choice but to
| | 03:11 | Undo until I can figure out what that
value was, and then at two seconds, turn on
| | 03:16 | the stopwatch so I can make
a keyframe with this value.
| | 03:19 | Now I can return to 0 and
either drag or scrub the value.
| | 03:23 | So you do need to keep an eye on the properties.
| | 03:26 | I would be careful about having
everything twirled up and just assuming that
| | 03:30 | the keyframes are being created and stopwatch
is turned on exactly the way I'd like them to be.
| | 03:36 | Now I mentioned there were pros and cons.
| | 03:38 | Another con I found is that
sometimes you end up with extra keyframes.
| | 03:43 | Let's say I add in a movie, and I'd like
this Snowboarding movie to be in the
| | 03:47 | top left-hand corner.
| | 03:48 | Now I still have Auto-keyframe mode enabled.
| | 03:51 | If I place it in position and then
I look in my animation and I say,
| | 03:57 | I think it's a little big,
| | 03:58 | it's kind of obscuring my snowflake,
| | 04:00 | let's try it like that.
| | 04:03 | Then you go. Well, maybe it's a little
small. I'll make it little bit bigger.
| | 04:09 | You're probably guessing,
| | 04:11 | I bet Trish is making a whole
bunch of keyframes here, and I am.
| | 04:13 | If I press U, you'll see I made all
these keyframes that I--I really didn't
| | 04:18 | intend to animate this layer at all.
| | 04:20 | So I would keep a close eye on whether
Auto-keyframe mode is enabled or not, and I
| | 04:25 | would turn it on and use it very
specifically and then disable it as soon as you
| | 04:30 | think you're finished with it;
| | 04:32 | otherwise, I think you'll end up with
a lot of extra keyframes you didn't
| | 04:35 | intend to make.
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|
|
6. More on Arranging LayersWorking with action- and title-safe areas| 00:07 | If you are creating video to be played
back on a television set, you need to
| | 00:11 | know about the safe areas.
| | 00:13 | While you are working After Effects
shows you the entire video frame all the
| | 00:18 | way out to the edges;
| | 00:19 | however, if you play this back on a
television screen, the very edge of the
| | 00:24 | composition will be lost underneath
the bezel. Also, unless your viewer has a
| | 00:29 | flat-screen TV, the outer
area might also be distorted.
| | 00:34 | If you click on the Grids and
Guides button, you can turn on the
| | 00:37 | Title/Action Safe overlay.
| | 00:39 | The outer box is action safe,
and the inner box is title safe.
| | 00:44 | The idea is that any important
imagery you want the viewer to see should be
| | 00:49 | placed inside of the action-safe zone,
and if you add a title, you might want to
| | 00:55 | check that it sits inside the title-safe zone.
| | 00:59 | In this case, I might want to scale
it down just a touch to make sure
| | 01:03 | it's completely safe.
| | 01:04 | Now you can toggle on and off the
title- action-safe zones using the shortcut,
| | 01:09 | the Apostrophe key. Or you can also
press the Option key on Mac, Alt key on
| | 01:14 | Windows, and click on the Guides button.
| | 01:17 | If you happen to be working in a 16:9
wide-screen composition, notice when I
| | 01:22 | toggle on the title- action safe, I see
two sets of zones. I see the outer action
| | 01:28 | safe and title safe and the
inner action safe and title safe.
| | 01:33 | Now if I know this animation will only
ever be seen on a wide-screen TV--perhaps
| | 01:38 | this were a tradeshow where I can control
what the audience will see--I can go ahead
| | 01:43 | and place my images all the way
out to the outside action-safe zone.
| | 01:47 | However, if I am working on an
animation that will also be seen on a standard
| | 01:52 | 4:3-aspect ratio television, then I need
to be aware that the left-hand and the
| | 01:57 | right-hand size will be
cropped off for that viewer.
| | 02:00 | They will just never see any
imagery on the left- and right-hand sides.
| | 02:04 | This is called center-cut by the way.
| | 02:06 | So in this case, my composition looks
good in wide screen but should also be
| | 02:11 | acceptable when the edges are cropped off.
| | 02:13 | Now, in this animation, as I scrub, I
can see that all the important information
| | 02:17 | is actually inside the action-safe zone.
| | 02:22 | Finally, the percentages used for
title- action safe can be set under
| | 02:26 | Preferences > Grids & Guides.
| | 02:29 | Under Safe Margins, you can customize
the percentage use for action- and title-
| | 02:33 | safe zones, as well as the center-cut
safe zones that appear in a 16:9 comp.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using grids and guides| 00:07 | After Effects has a number of features
to help you arrange layers precisely.
| | 00:12 | These include the proportional grid, the
regular grid, guides, as well as the Align panel.
| | 00:21 | Let's look at the proportional grid first.
| | 00:23 | This divides the frame into a
number of divisions, width and height.
| | 00:28 | In this case, I've used four across and four down.
| | 00:31 | This is a legacy grid from an
earlier version of After Effects.
| | 00:34 | One of the drawbacks is
that you cannot snap to it;
| | 00:39 | however, you can use it as a simple
grid to just help you align things by eye.
| | 00:43 | I'll turn off the proportional
grid and turn on the regular grid.
| | 00:48 | Instead of dividing the frame into a
number of divisions width and height,
| | 00:54 | the regular grid is determined by how
many pixels are in the grid. In this
| | 00:58 | case, there's 80 pixels, width and height,
and then the grid is divided into four subdivisions.
| | 01:04 | So depending on how many pixels are in
your comp, you may not have a whole number
| | 01:10 | of grids in the width and height.
| | 01:12 | Under Preferences > Grids & Guides,
you can set the color for the grid, which
| | 01:16 | also by the way sets the color for
the proportional grid, and then you can
| | 01:20 | tweak the settings.
| | 01:21 | For instance in the grid, if I set
the gridline to every 100 pixels with four
| | 01:27 | subdivisions--maybe we'll change that to two--
| | 01:30 | you'll see what this looks like.
| | 01:32 | Notice I have my proportional grid
simplified to just four divisions, width and
| | 01:36 | height; the default is eight.
| | 01:39 | I'll click OK, and now my grid is 100
pixels wide and tall, divided into quarters.
| | 01:45 | But you'll notice that I don't have an
even number of pixels when I get to the
| | 01:49 | edges, but perhaps for this animation,
it's more important that I can count in
| | 01:54 | 100-pixel increments.
| | 01:55 | And by the way, you can turn
on both grids at the same time.
| | 01:59 | If I toggle on Proportional Grid, it
will overlay on top of the regular grid.
| | 02:04 | So here it's pretty obvious
that the grids are not in sync.
| | 02:07 | Sometimes I'll toggle on the
proportional grid simply to see if my math is
| | 02:12 | correct for the main grid.
| | 02:14 | Now what's nice about the regular
grid is that your layers will snap to the
| | 02:19 | lines and the anchor point will
also snap to where lines intersect.
| | 02:24 | Now if your layers are not snapping,
check the View menu to make sure Snap
| | 02:29 | to Grid is enabled.
| | 02:30 | You can also toggle on and off the
grid from this menu. So I'll turn off the
| | 02:34 | grid, and this time we'll look at the guides.
| | 02:38 | In order to view the guides, you do
need to show the rulers. You can enable it
| | 02:42 | from the View menu, or also
from the Grids & Guides pop-up.
| | 02:47 | Once the rulers are visible, you
can pull a vertical guide out from the
| | 02:51 | left-hand side. And as I drag, the Info
panel will update with its current position.
| | 02:57 | I can pull horizontal guides from the top.
| | 03:01 | Layers will snap to these guides.
| | 03:03 | If they are not snapping, again, check the View
menu and make sure Snap to Guides is enabled.
| | 03:09 | You can also lock guides, so you don't
accidentally move them, as well as clear guides.
| | 03:14 | So I hope that was helpful.
| | 03:16 | In the next movie, we'll look at the
Align panel, which can help you arrange
| | 03:20 | and distribute layers.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Aligning and distributing| 00:06 | The Align panel is very useful when
you need to align layers or distribute
| | 00:11 | layers across the comp.
| | 00:13 | You open it by selecting the Align
panel from the Window menu, and it will open
| | 00:17 | on the right-hand side of the Timeline.
| | 00:19 | I don't like to give up valuable
Timeline space, so I am going to drop it so it
| | 00:24 | shares the same frame as
the Effects & Presets panel.
| | 00:28 | The Align panel is divided into two
sections: options for aligning layers and
| | 00:33 | options for distributing them.
| | 00:36 | To see this in action, I'll
Shift+Click my two video layers.
| | 00:39 | Notice they don't quite align at the
top, but they are actually the same height.
| | 00:45 | As soon as I select the layers, I can
choose to align them to the selection--
| | 00:49 | meaning themselves--or to the composition.
| | 00:52 | Let's try selection first.
| | 00:55 | As you roll over each option,
helpful tooltips pop up.
| | 00:59 | In this case, the three icons on the
right will align layers vertically.
| | 01:05 | Since both layers are the same height,
I can choose any one of these icons and
| | 01:09 | I'll get the same result.
| | 01:12 | If I add the Snowflake into the mix,
because it's a different height, there will
| | 01:16 | be a difference when I align to the
top, center, or bottom. But notice I can't
| | 01:22 | quite control which layer moves.
| | 01:25 | Now I might have wanted only the
snowflake to move, but I find the Align panel
| | 01:29 | has a mind of its own.
| | 01:32 | You can also align layers to
the edges of the composition.
| | 01:35 | This is a new feature in CS5.
| | 01:37 | If I select it, all of the switches will
now refer to aligning to the composition.
| | 01:43 | So I could align the layers to the top
of the composition, center, or bottom.
| | 01:49 | To explain the options in
Distribute Layers, let me bring forward my
| | 01:53 | second composition.
| | 01:55 | Here I have a number of snowflakes,
roughly just duplicated and put in a line.
| | 02:00 | I probably have space for another one here.
| | 02:02 | Let me duplicate it and move it around.
| | 02:04 | And you can see I can be as sloppy as
I need to be because the Align panel
| | 02:08 | will come to my rescue.
| | 02:10 | The first thing I might want to do is
align the snowflake to the left edge.
| | 02:15 | Again, set Align Layers to
Composition and click on the left icon.
| | 02:19 | I'll select the rightmost one
and align to the right-hand side.
| | 02:23 | Now I can select all and distribute
them, which will even up the space in
| | 02:28 | between each snowflake.
| | 02:29 | Again, as you roll over the options,
tooltips will pop up to help you make your choice.
| | 02:35 | Horizontal center sounds like the good one,
| | 02:38 | though I often find I click the wrong
one, so just undo and try a different one,
| | 02:41 | until you arrive at the
result you're looking for.
| | 02:43 | Now I also might want to center
these so that they are in a straight
| | 02:48 | line vertically as well.
| | 02:50 | In that case, I'll need to switch back
to Align to Selection, choose my vertical
| | 02:54 | center alignment, and that
should straighten them up.
| | 02:58 | Remember that Align layers to
Composition is new in CS5, so if you are using
| | 03:02 | CS4, you'll miss out on this
feature of aligning to the top, center, and
| | 03:07 | bottom of the composition.
| | 03:09 | If you're using CS4 and you need this
feature, remember you can start dragging
| | 03:14 | layers and then add Command+Shift on Mac,
Ctrl+Shift on Windows, and the layers will
| | 03:18 | snap to the edges of the comp,
| | 03:20 | so you're not totally out of luck.
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|
|
7. SidebarsImporting layered Photoshop files| 00:07 | In this movie, I will be covering the
various ways of importing a layered
| | 00:11 | Photoshop file into After Effects.
| | 00:13 | First, let's have a look
at the file in Photoshop.
| | 00:16 | It has a number of layers, and if you
look at the Layer panel, you will see that
| | 00:20 | many of them have layer styles applied.
| | 00:22 | Provided I import this file as a
composition, I'll be able to edit these
| | 00:27 | layer styles if I wish.
| | 00:28 | So in After Effects, I will double-
click the Project panel. That will open
| | 00:32 | the Import File dialog.
| | 00:34 | The Butterfly Arrangement
is the file I want to import.
| | 00:38 | The Import As pop-up will allow me
to choose Footage or Composition.
| | 00:42 | Let's start with Footage, and note when I
click Open a second dialog appears with the
| | 00:48 | same options in the Import Kind pop-up.
| | 00:51 | So you will want to check in this
dialog that you are importing it using
| | 00:54 | the method you prefer.
| | 00:55 | If I choose Footage, I have a
choice between merged layers and choosing
| | 01:00 | an individual layer.
| | 01:02 | Let's look at merged layers first.
| | 01:04 | I will click OK, and a
single image will be imported.
| | 01:07 | If I double-click and open it in the
Footage panel, you will see that it's a
| | 01:11 | flattened merged file.
| | 01:13 | Now if I make a mistake and I meant
to import this as a composition, I could
| | 01:17 | select File > Replace Footage > With
Layered Comp, and it will replace the
| | 01:22 | footage item with a composition with the
same names of footage item and a folder
| | 01:27 | with all layers inside.
| | 01:29 | So that's a work-around you might find useful.
| | 01:32 | However, let's look at some
of the other options we have.
| | 01:34 | I will import again as footage, and
this time I'll choose a layer, let's say
| | 01:42 | Nectar Plants, the title.
| | 01:45 | I have an option of merging any layer
styles into the footage, or ignoring them,
| | 01:49 | but notice I don't have an option to edit them.
| | 01:52 | The next pop-up allows me to choose
whether the layer size should be based on
| | 01:56 | the layer itself or the
canvas size in Photoshop.
| | 01:59 | Let's pick Layer Size, click OK,
and here's my individual image.
| | 02:06 | I could make a composition
and just add it to the comp.
| | 02:09 | So this is useful when all you need
is one the layer from a layered file.
| | 02:16 | You don't have to import the entire file.
| | 02:19 | Let's delete that, and this time
we will import it as a composition.
| | 02:23 | Again, I have two options here that
are repeated in the next dialog, so
| | 02:29 | sometimes I just ignore the first dialog.
| | 02:31 | The two options you have, Import this
Composition or Retain Layer Sizes, determine
| | 02:38 | what size will layers be
when you open the composition.
| | 02:41 | By the way, in CS4, Retain layer
Sizes shows up as Cropped Layers.
| | 02:47 | In Composition, each layer will be the
same size as the composition, and the
| | 02:52 | anchor point will be the center of the layer.
| | 02:54 | That's handy if you plan to go back to
Photoshop and change some of the sizes of the layers.
| | 02:59 | The second option is more useful.
| | 03:01 | It means that each layer will
only be as big as it needs to be.
| | 03:04 | When I select that, I have
other options and each check.
| | 03:09 | The first one asks whether I'd like
to be able to edit the layer styles or
| | 03:13 | whether I should merge the
layer styles into footage.
| | 03:15 | Let's go and pick Editable Layer Styles.
| | 03:18 | The next option, Live Photoshop 3D, is
only applicable if any of my layers in
| | 03:23 | Photoshop use the Photoshop 3D features,
such as a model or the new Repousse in CS5.
| | 03:30 | I don't need to worry about that option
with this file. Click OK. Now, you will see I
| | 03:36 | have a composition that's named after
the Photoshop file, and a folder with all
| | 03:41 | the individual layers.
| | 03:44 | If I open the composition, you can see
that each layer is available to be animated.
| | 03:49 | Now remember those layer styles. If I
select layer one and twirl it down, I want
| | 03:55 | it to point out a little bug. At least
in CS5, the version I'm using, the twirlie
| | 04:01 | to the left of layer styles is missing.
| | 04:04 | However, they are still
applied, and they're still editable.
| | 04:08 | Here's a little trick: double-click
layer styles and the truly magically appears,
| | 04:13 | and these of the layer styles applied.
| | 04:15 | I can delete them, or I can edit them.
| | 04:20 | I just wanted to point that out.
In CS4 this seems to work just fine.
| | 04:25 | Now because we imported using the
second option, Retain Layer Sizes, you will
| | 04:30 | notice that each layer is
only as large as it needs to be.
| | 04:33 | So the handles are matching
the layer size pretty precisely.
| | 04:37 | If I had used the first option, each
layer would have handles at the corner of
| | 04:41 | the comp and each layer's anchor
point would be in the center of the layer.
| | 04:45 | So that's not very useful
when you want to rotate or scale.
| | 04:49 | Speaking of scale, bear in mind that
every layer you import will come in at 100%.
| | 04:56 | You already know that you shouldn't
be scaling layers above 100% because
| | 04:59 | they'll just get soft.
| | 05:00 | So you do have to watch out for
this. Quite often you don't have enough
| | 05:04 | resolution to scale things larger, only smaller.
| | 05:07 | So that covers the basics of
importing Photoshop layered files.
| | 05:11 | If you importing an Illustrator layered
file, it works pretty much the same way,
| | 05:16 | except for some of the options, like
editable layer styles and Photoshop 3D--
| | 05:19 | those buttons will be missing.
| | 05:21 | But you can import as a flattened image or as
a composition with all the objects in place.
| | 05:27 | Now if you are a good Photoshop user,
but you are new to After Effects, you might
| | 05:30 | think this is a great way to work.
| | 05:32 | In Photoshop you could compose all of
your objects, scale them, apply effects, and
| | 05:38 | so on, and then in After
Effects, import it as a composition.
| | 05:42 | However, I almost never work this way.
Unless I receive a file from a client, I
| | 05:47 | would never create an arrangement of
Photoshop 1st. There's very little that I did
| | 05:52 | in Photoshop that I couldn't
have done in After Effects.
| | 05:56 | I also have the problem that my
butterfly could only be sized up to a certain
| | 06:01 | size, the original size in Photoshop.
| | 06:03 | So quite often when you work in
Photoshop, you end up throwing away resolution.
| | 06:08 | In After Effects if the original file was
larger, you can always return to that size.
| | 06:13 | I would like to say that After Effects
is totally nondestructive. Any effects I
| | 06:19 | apply or any transformations I added,
| | 06:21 | I can undo them today,
tomorrow, anytime in the future.
| | 06:25 | So bear that in mind when you
are importing layered files.
| | 06:28 | See if you can gradually start doing more and
more of your work directly in After Effects.
| | 06:33 | For instance, if you're working with
this layer in After Effects, I would have
| | 06:37 | the entire image to work with.
| | 06:39 | In Photoshop, it's been cropped off.
| | 06:41 | Now I have been limited
in what I could do with it.
| | 06:44 | I could scale it this way, make it smaller,
but I can't show the whole object, so
| | 06:50 | in this situation I am limited
in what I can do with this layer.
| | 06:53 | So I hope that gives you some food for thought.
| | 06:56 | It's tempting to want to do a lot of work
in Photoshop if you're familiar with it,
| | 07:00 | but as you gain more experience in After
Effects I think you will realize it's a
| | 07:04 | very good way to compose and arrange layers.
| | 07:06 | You will find it easier to set up your
animations from scratch directly in the
| | 07:11 | program, and everything will always be editable.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding alpha channels| 00:07 | Now if you remember, earlier in this
lesson, when we imported our snowstorm
| | 00:11 | title, After Effects asked us what
type of alpha channel this layer had.
| | 00:17 | At the time, we clicked on Guess,
and After Effects correctly guessed
| | 00:21 | that it was pre-multiplied with white.
| | 00:23 | I thought it would be useful to explain,
in a little more detail, the difference
| | 00:27 | between straight and pre-multiplied.
| | 00:28 | Now you will not see this dialog,
unless the alpha channel is unlabeled.
| | 00:34 | Unlabeled alpha channels may come
from outside of the Creative Suite.
| | 00:39 | Photoshop, Illustrator, and After
Effects always label their alpha channels, but
| | 00:44 | if you don't ever see this dialog box,
I do want to point out that there's a
| | 00:48 | preference that someone may have set
| | 00:50 | that will always get the dialog.
| | 00:52 | Click OK and I'll show you Preferences
> Import. The default is to always ask
| | 00:58 | the user if After Effects
comes across an unlabeled alpha.
| | 01:02 | If someone had set this preference to
Guess, After Effects will always guess,
| | 01:06 | and sometimes it guesses incorrectly.
| | 01:08 | So I like to leave it set to Ask User.
| | 01:11 | That way it makes me think whenever I
come across an unlabeled alpha channel.
| | 01:15 | Now if I drag this title I just imported
into my composition, I can see it has a
| | 01:23 | nice shadow fading out to transparency.
| | 01:27 | Again, my background color is transparency.
| | 01:30 | I can also refer to the alpha channel
in order to see transparency. But I did
| | 01:35 | want to point out that underneath the
hood, After Effects processes all layers
| | 01:40 | for transparency as if they
had a straight alpha channel.
| | 01:43 | You can see this view by checking on the
Channel's pop up and selecting RGB straight. Whoa!
| | 01:50 | This looks a little strange, but this is
actually what's going on underneath the hood.
| | 01:55 | The drop shadow surrounding the letters
is being extended all the way out well
| | 02:00 | past the edge of the shadow.
| | 02:03 | You could think of this as it's bleeding.
| | 02:05 | It's bleeding the color all the way
past the edge of the alpha channel.
| | 02:10 | So when the alpha channel is
used, you get a nice clean image.
| | 02:14 | So even though the black drop shadow
was originally mixed with a white color,
| | 02:19 | After Effects has un-multiplied the white
and has returned the shadow to be 100% black.
| | 02:24 | Now you will never work in this view,
but it's sometimes worth looking at it
| | 02:29 | just to reiterate how After
Effects renders internally.
| | 02:32 | Now to explain the differences between
straight and pre-multiplied, I created a
| | 02:37 | couple of files that I will open in Photoshop.
| | 02:41 | First, I'd like to remind you what a
normal Photoshop layered file would look like.
| | 02:46 | I probably would have created it as a
layered file on a transparent background.
| | 02:51 | In that case, the
channels would simply say RGB.
| | 02:54 | It would not have a separate alpha channel.
| | 02:57 | That's because each layer in
Photoshop has an alpha channel built-in.
| | 03:01 | When I save this file and import it into
After Effects, the alpha channel would be labeled,
| | 03:08 | so After Effects would
not ask me to interpret it.
| | 03:11 | I just wanted to point out this
version first, before we see the two odd
| | 03:15 | versions I've created.
| | 03:17 | The first one is pre-multiplied with white.
| | 03:20 | This is the same file we imported earlier.
| | 03:23 | In this case, my image is on the
background, and I have RGB and alpha, four
| | 03:29 | channels--a 32-bit file, in other words--and
the transparency is built into the alpha channel.
| | 03:36 | Now you probably know that the background
layer in Photoshop has no alpha channel,
| | 03:40 | so that's why we had to create
the alpha channel separately.
| | 03:43 | Now normally, you would not create a
file like this directly in Photoshop, but
| | 03:48 | if you were rendering, let's say a
3-D animation from another program,
| | 03:53 | when it renders with an alpha channel,
it will be in the form of a 32-bit file:
| | 03:58 | RGB and a separate alpha.
| | 04:01 | Whether or not it's a pre-multiplied
alpha will be determined by how you save
| | 04:05 | it, from that program.
| | 04:07 | If I had saved it as pre-multiplied
with white or black or yellow or blue or
| | 04:12 | any color, any areas that are
semi-transparent in the color channels would be
| | 04:17 | mixed with that background color.
| | 04:19 | In this case, it's mixed with white.
| | 04:22 | This is why we call this a
pre-multiplied with white file. Now, After Effects
| | 04:26 | needs to know this, because it needs to
remove the white from that black drop shadow.
| | 04:31 | Let's look at the other file I have created.
| | 04:34 | This is a straight alpha channel.
| | 04:36 | Again, I'd never create this directly
in Photoshop, but this could simulate
| | 04:41 | a frame rendered from a 3-D program, if
you set it to render with a straight alpha.
| | 04:46 | In this case, the black shadow would
be extended all the way past the edge
| | 04:51 | of the alpha channel.
| | 04:52 | In fact, you may not even
see this white background.
| | 04:56 | It would be just totally black all
the way to the edge of the frame.
| | 05:00 | The alpha channel, by the
way, is the same in all files.
| | 05:04 | So when After Effects asks you to
interpret the alpha channel, it's kind of like
| | 05:08 | a trick question, because the alpha
channel is the same in both versions.
| | 05:13 | The difference is how the
color channels are created.
| | 05:16 | Are the semi-transparent pixels, mixed
with the background color, or do they
| | 05:21 | bleed past the edge of the
semitransparent pixels in the alpha?
| | 05:26 | Let's return to After Effects, and I
wanted to point out one other thing.
| | 05:31 | What happens if you interpret
the alpha channel incorrectly?
| | 05:35 | In this case, this is my regular title,
which has a black shadow. I know it
| | 05:39 | has a black shadow.
| | 05:40 | I've seen it in Photoshop.
| | 05:42 | And yet when I import it into After
Effects, it has this odd white halo.
| | 05:46 | This might be an indication that After
Effects guessed incorrectly, or maybe I
| | 05:50 | guessed it incorrectly.
| | 05:51 | Now this is easy to fix.
| | 05:54 | You don't need to re-import the file;
the dialog that you saw for interpreting
| | 05:59 | the alpha can be brought up again at any time.
| | 06:02 | So here is the title I am using in
this composition, Snowstorm title, and it's
| | 06:07 | being interpreted as
having a straight alpha channel.
| | 06:11 | Now, we know that's not correct.
| | 06:12 | It should be pre-multiplied with white.
| | 06:14 | So if you think the alpha channel is
interpreted incorrectly, select the footage
| | 06:19 | item in the Project panel and click
on the Interpret Footage button at the
| | 06:24 | bottom left-hand corner of the Project panel.
| | 06:26 | When the Interpret Footage dialog opens,
at the top will be the alpha channel
| | 06:31 | options you saw before.
| | 06:33 | The other options below, we will
cover those in the later lesson.
| | 06:37 | So again the options for alpha are to
ignore the alpha, consider it as a straight
| | 06:42 | alpha--meaning don't do any correction
around the edges to try to remove any
| | 06:45 | color--and then pre-multiplied
with whichever color you like.
| | 06:50 | If I click Guess, it will correctly
guess it's pre-multiplied with white.
| | 06:55 | When I click OK, After Effects will
update its alpha channel interpretation.
| | 07:00 | You can see that it clearly has
a nice clean alpha channel.
| | 07:03 | Now the opposite may also be true.
| | 07:06 | Quite often, you may have a title with a
nice white glow on a black background,
| | 07:11 | so, the opposite of a black shadow on
a white background. In that case, the
| | 07:15 | correct interpretation would
be pre-multiplied with black.
| | 07:19 | And if you use straight, then instead of
white glow, you would have a black halo.
| | 07:26 | But generally speaking, if the
edges look a little weird, do check the
| | 07:30 | interpretation, and make sure
that it's correctly interpreted.
| | 07:33 | I will leave you with this final thought.
| | 07:36 | Here are my three files:
the layered Photoshop file,
| | 07:40 | the file pre-multiplied with white with the
white removed, and the straight alpha channel.
| | 07:45 | If you're wondering what the
difference is, there shouldn't be a difference.
| | 07:50 | If After Effects has correctly interpreted
the alpha channel for each individual file,
| | 07:55 | they should all look
identical when placed in the composition.
| | 07:59 | In addition, the alpha
channels are also identical.
| | 08:02 | Remember what type of alpha
channel it has is a trick question.
| | 08:06 | The alpha channels in this case are
exactly the same in each file, and I hope
| | 08:11 | that helps you understand a
little about the differences between a
| | 08:15 | pre-multiplied and a straight alpha.
| | 08:17 | Alpha channels is a big subject, but I
hope that's enough to get you started,
| | 08:21 | especially when you're importing sources.
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| Understanding the background color| 00:07 | I thought it would be helpful to
explain the significance of the background
| | 00:10 | color to After Effects.
| | 00:12 | This composition has a black background color.
| | 00:15 | The background color
indicates which areas are transparent.
| | 00:19 | You can also see which areas of the
comp are transparent by selecting the alpha
| | 00:23 | channel from the RGB channels pop-up.
| | 00:26 | Any areas that are solid white are fully opaque.
| | 00:30 | Any areas that are black
indicate full transparency.
| | 00:34 | Wherever you see shades of gray, you
are looking at shades of transparency.
| | 00:38 | I will toggle off the alpha channel
and turn off the transparency grid.
| | 00:43 | Now sometimes the black
background color is not that useful.
| | 00:48 | You can change it in CS5
under Composition settings;
| | 00:51 | in CS4, Background Color is a
menu item under Composition.
| | 00:55 | So if I change the background color to
white, I can clearly see the drop shadow
| | 01:01 | effects on the video layers and the title.
| | 01:04 | Just to make it clear that the background color
is transparency, let me create a new solid layer.
| | 01:10 | I will make this white, and any size will do.
| | 01:16 | There is my white solid.
| | 01:19 | If I align the solid to the top of the
comp, I can't see the difference between
| | 01:25 | the white solid and the white background,
unless I turn on the transparency grid,
| | 01:29 | or view the alpha channel.
| | 01:32 | Now, you can see the white solid exists
in RGB color space, just like the videos.
| | 01:41 | So by all means, go ahead and change
the background color to whatever color is
| | 01:44 | most useful, but be aware that if
you render with an alpha channel, the
| | 01:49 | background color will be the transparent areas.
| | 01:51 | Let me delete the white solid,
and show you one more example.
| | 01:56 | In my second composition, I have a
row of snowflakes on a blue background.
| | 02:00 | The blue was created with the background color.
| | 02:03 | Now we haven't done nesting yet;
| | 02:05 | we will do that in a later lesson.
| | 02:07 | But all I mean by nesting is that I
can take the Snowflake composition in the
| | 02:11 | Project panel and simply drag it to the main
composition, just as if I'd drag in a movie.
| | 02:18 | However, you'll notice the blue
background color has disappeared.
| | 02:22 | That's because the blue
background is transparency.
| | 02:25 | So when I nest it, it drops out.
| | 02:27 | If I want to see that blue background,
I need to create it in RGB color space.
| | 02:34 | I can do that with a
solid layer or a shape layer.
| | 02:37 | Now we will get to shape
layers in the future lesson,
| | 02:40 | so let's just create a solid
layer since you know how to do that.
| | 02:44 | On problem I found with eyedropper-ing
a color is that it won't eyedropper
| | 02:49 | the background color.
| | 02:50 | So if want this exact
color, this is simple trick.
| | 02:54 | I can open the Composition settings,
click on the color swatch, and copy the
| | 02:59 | value for that color.
| | 03:02 | Now when I create a new solid, I can click
on the color swatch and paste that value.
| | 03:06 | The solid appears at the top of the comps,
so I will just drag it down to the bottom.
| | 03:11 | When I toggle on and off the solid,
there is no difference in this comp between
| | 03:16 | viewing the solid blue color
and the background blue color.
| | 03:19 | But there is a big difference when
I return to the main composition.
| | 03:24 | Unlike the background color, the solid
layer will be visible in the next comp.
| | 03:29 | So I hope that explains a little more
about background colors versus solid
| | 03:33 | layers, and when you might
need to use one versus the other.
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| Avoiding problems with switches| 00:07 | I'm going to leave you with one good piece
of advice, and that's about switches.
| | 00:12 | On my first day in a class, I always have a
few students who just like to click switches.
| | 00:18 | They don't seem to do anything,
but they click them anyway, and that's fine.
| | 00:21 | I like to make people
explore and ask questions.
| | 00:24 | But I have one rule:
| | 00:26 | if you turn on the switch, and it
doesn't seem to do anything, put it back in
| | 00:31 | the position it was originally in.
| | 00:33 | It will do something;
| | 00:34 | you just haven't created
the right environment yet.
| | 00:38 | Now, some switches are pretty obvious.
A lock switch, well, that looks like a lock switch.
| | 00:42 | So when you try to move the layer, when
you try to animate it, it's flashing at
| | 00:47 | you, and it will probably remember, oh
yeah, maybe that lock switch locked the
| | 00:51 | layer and now I can't edit it.
| | 00:53 | But there are other
switches that are not that obvious.
| | 00:56 | For instance, the shy layer, this
little guy, Kilroy we call him, you turn that
| | 01:01 | on and nothing seems to happen.
| | 01:03 | It's like okay. And then the next day,
you are working with your project and
| | 01:07 | you click this switch, and suddenly
your layer disappears from the Timeline.
| | 01:12 | You don't make the
connection between the two switches;
| | 01:14 | you think that this switch makes
layers disappear. That's not true.
| | 01:18 | It's only when both switches are enabled.
| | 01:21 | This is the shy switch.
| | 01:23 | It says if a layer is shy,
and you turn on the master shy switch,
| | 01:28 | that layer will be hidden in the Timeline.
| | 01:31 | Other switches, something
really obvious will happen.
| | 01:34 | Like the adjustment layer switch, the
layer will disappear and you will go hm,
| | 01:38 | let's turn that off again.
| | 01:40 | Later on I can learn how that works.
| | 01:41 | As we go through this series, we will
go through all of these switches and you
| | 01:45 | will learn what each one does in context.
| | 01:48 | Now I will leave you with one switch
that has a nice warning message when
| | 01:54 | you try to turn it off.
| | 01:55 | It's called Live Update, and the first
time you try to turn it off, it gives you
| | 01:59 | this big, nasty warning message.
| | 02:02 | And I am not surprised, because I am
sure Adobe, this must be their number one
| | 02:05 | tech support issue, and that's why
this warning message appears now.
| | 02:09 | In the earlier version, you have got no warning.
| | 02:11 | So people would turn off the switch,
not know what it did, and then they would
| | 02:16 | think After Effects was broken.
| | 02:18 | So let me explain what it does.
| | 02:19 | Because it's only going to give you a
warning once per session, and someone
| | 02:23 | might be using your computer and
change it to Never Again, and you'll never
| | 02:27 | again get this warning message.
| | 02:29 | So I will click OK, and now you will
see that as I am scrubbing my Timeline,
| | 02:35 | After Effects is not showing me
that animation I just created.
| | 02:38 | As I am scrubbing this value, I can see
handles are moving, but the layer is not scaling.
| | 02:44 | Until I release the mouse,
I don't see the result.
| | 02:46 | The same with Rotation;
| | 02:48 | the handles are moving, but I have to
release the mouse first before I see the
| | 02:51 | result. Same with Position.
| | 02:54 | I just assume I have broken the program,
so I reinstall it and I get on tech
| | 02:58 | support and I am on the forums, and I
didn't make the connection between a
| | 03:03 | switch that I turned off, maybe an hour
ago, that didn't seem to do anything.
| | 03:08 | So switches do have
consequences, and especially Live Update.
| | 03:11 | So if you didn't know what that meant, it
just means that it turns off this Live Update.
| | 03:16 | So when you make changes, I have to
release the mouse first before I see the result.
| | 03:22 | Sometimes that's actually useful,
especially if you have a very slow computer
| | 03:26 | and you're changing something with
lots of effects, and it's just not
| | 03:29 | interactive anyway. But you can get the
same result by holding down the Option
| | 03:33 | key, so you can
temporarily override Live Update.
| | 03:37 | That's a better way to go, I
think, than turning off the switch.
| | 03:41 | So I hope this advice was useful.
| | 03:43 | Again, in your first day with After
Effects, or your first project, that's a
| | 03:46 | little overwhelming, so hopefully some
of these tips will help you avoid the
| | 03:50 | little common "gotchas" that trip you up.
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| Exploring the Global Performance Cache (new in CS6)| 00:07 | As of version CS6, After Effects has made
some major changes in the way that it manages
| | 00:12 | the cache of your previously
rendered and previewed frames.
| | 00:16 | After Effects refers to this as its Global
Performance Cache and that encompasses both
| | 00:21 | RAM and disk-based caches, and these are the
subjects I want to cover in this sidebar movie.
| | 00:27 | As you may know by now, when you have
performed a RAM preview on a composition, this green
| | 00:33 | bar will indicate frames that have been cached
or previously calculated and stored in RAM.
| | 00:38 | They need to be stored into RAMS so that After
Effects can play them back in real time for your preview.
| | 00:43 | Any change you make to your composition will
cause this green bar to be erased, indicating
| | 00:48 | it no longer has proper frames stored in RAM.
| | 00:52 | For example, if I change the initial scale
of the snowflake layer to 95%, you'll see
| | 00:58 | that the green bar has disappeared just for
the range in between those two scale keyframes.
| | 01:04 | From the second scale keyframe onward, the
value remains the same, so there is no need
| | 01:08 | to invalidate or remove those cached frames.
| | 01:12 | If I wanted to preview this composition again,
I would need to press 0 on numeric keypad
| | 01:16 | or otherwise start a RAM preview.
| | 01:18 | After Effects would calculate the missing
frames and they can preview the entire composition
| | 01:22 | once it has a green bar for the
entire length of your work area or comp.
| | 01:27 | However, big change in After Effect CS6, is
you can now go back to previously cached
| | 01:32 | states and After Effects will retrieve
those frames that were previously thrown away.
| | 01:37 | If I go ahead and move my time indicator back
to the side of this comp and Undo my Change
| | 01:42 | Value, I'll go back to my 100% scale for this
first keyframe and I will still have a green
| | 01:48 | bar above my timeline.
| | 01:51 | What After Effects has done is reached into
its RAM, pulled these previously cached frames
| | 01:55 | out of it and restored them in
to the current preview cache.
| | 01:59 | This will save you a lot of
time you're playing what if.
| | 02:01 | For example, I can go ahead and Redo my
Change Value on a keyframe and I will not lose my
| | 02:07 | cache, because After Effects knows I've previously
rendered these frames, let's use these instead.
| | 02:12 | You can also do things like apply Effects,
edit them to see how you like their effect.
| | 02:17 | I'll go later in this composition, decide
I don't like that blurry snowflake, turn
| | 02:22 | off the effect, and you'll see the green bar
reappears as After Effects finds frames in
| | 02:29 | memory that matches the
current state of the composition.
| | 02:33 | So it's very cool, and indeed this is
not restricted to the same composition.
| | 02:37 | I can take this composition, duplicate it,
open up this second comp, and you'll see a
| | 02:42 | green bar appear for it immediately even
though I've not RAM previewed this comp yet.
| | 02:47 | That's because After Effects has analyzed
this particular combination of layers and
| | 02:52 | parameters, realized it has already calculated
this condition or this state before and restored
| | 02:58 | the cache from those previously
calculated frames were in memory. Very nice.
| | 03:02 | If I want to have a second version of this,
I can go ahead and change this to something
| | 03:06 | like, let's say 80% for this first keyframe.
| | 03:09 | I can either RAM preview this now, or take
advantage of another feature, introduce an
| | 03:13 | After Effects CS6, which is Composition Cache Work Area
in Background, the shortcut is Command+Return or Ctrl+Return.
| | 03:22 | This means, if you have a busy project with a
lot of compositions you don't need to wait
| | 03:27 | for each composition to fully preview
before you can go on to the next comp.
| | 03:31 | You can say cache this one on the background
and change to your previous composition and
| | 03:36 | continue working while the other comp
is now rendering in the background.
| | 03:40 | The Info panel keeps you informed of what's
going on, including when it is done with the
| | 03:43 | other composition.
| | 03:44 | I can switch back to other comp now.
| | 03:46 | And now, we'll see a blue bar for
those frames that it calculated.
| | 03:51 | A blue bar indicates that these frames
have been cached to disk not to RAM.
| | 03:56 | In the case of Composition Cash Work Area
in Background, After Effects is trying not
| | 04:00 | to take away from the RAM you're using while
working on another comp, because using other
| | 04:04 | resources is using a processor you're not
using right now and saving those frames off to disk.
| | 04:10 | Whenever you want to preview a composition
that has frames on the disk rather than in
| | 04:15 | RAM, you just RAM preview again, and it will quickly
load them from disk into RAM and playback to preview.
| | 04:22 | Another nice improvement in the way After
Effects handles this cache is that when you
| | 04:25 | save a project, it will transfer this RAM
cache for particular slow or difficult to
| | 04:31 | calculate frames, to the disk cache.
| | 04:34 | After Effects makes a judgment, whether or
not a frame would be easier just to render
| | 04:38 | all over again or to store off to disk and
retrieve and chooses the faster option.
| | 04:44 | I can hit Command+S to Ctrl+S to save this
project, but to drive a point home, I'm actually
| | 04:48 | going to quit this project and
pretend that I came back another day.
| | 04:53 | Let's say, it's the next day, you start up
After Effects again, it'll take a moment
| | 04:58 | to initialize, and you reopen a previously cached
project, so just the one we were just working on.
| | 05:08 | I'll open this one and you'll notice that
these cache bars will automatically fill in.
| | 05:14 | When I saved and quit, what After Effects
did was save the RAM cached frames to the
| | 05:19 | disk cache, and now that I've reopened the
same project, After Effects when looking through
| | 05:25 | its disk cache and found out that it still had
frames connected to this particular project.
| | 05:30 | In this case, After Effects made a decision
that it would be just as quick to render these
| | 05:33 | simple frames as we retrieve them from disk,
that's why you don't see a blue bar, but just
| | 05:38 | the act of scrubbing the time indicator through
these frames causes them to be rendered into RAM.
| | 05:43 | But you might ask why is the bar blue instead
of green? Again, After Effects does not want
| | 05:48 | to waste resources, so it's keeping these
frames on disk until you say you need them.
| | 05:53 | If I go ahead and press 0 on the numeric
keypad to initiate a new RAM preview, it will copy
| | 05:59 | those frames from disk into RAM very quickly,
faster than it could render and I get a near
| | 06:04 | immediate preview of a project that I had
already closed and quit from my previous work
| | 06:09 | session. Very nice.
| | 06:11 | It's a feature you don't see on the screen,
but it's going to save you a lot of time when
| | 06:16 | you're working on projects.
| | 06:17 | Now one more point about this disk cache.
| | 06:19 | I'm going to open up the Preferences > Media
& Disk Cache and there's a very important
| | 06:25 | tip in this dialogue.
| | 06:27 | For improved performance, choose a disk cache
folder on a fast hard drive or even better
| | 06:32 | a solid-state drive; the faster your cache
drive, the more After Effects will use it,
| | 06:40 | because that drive will be faster than re-
rendering frames, and the faster that those frames will
| | 06:45 | be retrieved from disk and put back into RAM.
| | 06:48 | Now the default happens to be your system
drive and that's not really your best drive
| | 06:52 | for your cache because your system is
competing for resources on that drive as well.
| | 06:57 | The best thing you can do is choose or even
install another fast drive and point the cache to that.
| | 07:04 | In this case I have a RAID
attached to this computer.
| | 07:07 | So I'm going to choose folder, this isn't the
current folder that After Effects is using for my cache.
| | 07:13 | Go over to a folder I created earlier on my
RAID drive, choose that one instead, and now
| | 07:19 | I will get much faster cache performance.
| | 07:23 | Don't confuse the disk cache with the
Conformed Media Cache; this one is for MPEG and
| | 07:27 | other format files and After Effects used to
decode and convert into something and access more quickly.
| | 07:32 | You can empty the disk cache if you need to.
| | 07:34 | You can have multiple disk caches.
| | 07:37 | Some freelancers will actually dedicate a
different folder per client or per project,
| | 07:42 | and if necessary, copy and move that cache
folder with them, say if they have to go into
| | 07:47 | remote location to work.
| | 07:49 | But most important thing is put it on your
fastest drive, give it a lot of room. I'm
| | 07:53 | going to bump this up to 100 GB, just so I
can save more frames for more projects on
| | 07:58 | to my disk drive and will speed up
your working practices in After Effects.
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