From the course: After Effects Hidden Gems

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Adjustment layers: The basics

Adjustment layers: The basics - After Effects Tutorial

From the course: After Effects Hidden Gems

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Adjustment layers: The basics

- [Voiceover] In this hidden gem, I'll cover adjustment layers from the ground up. Next week I'll offer some more advanced tips. First, it's important to understand how adjustment layers really work. Here, I have a simple composition with three layers. In After Effects, layers render from the bottom up, so layer three renders first, layer two is composited on top, and now you have a single image, and layer one is composited on top of that image. You might think you're looking at three layers, but After Effects has just one image stored in memory, and it's a flat 2D image, so now let's create an adjustment layer. I'll select Layer, New, Adjustment Layer, there's also a shortcut, and initially nothing appears to happen. In the timeline though, you'll see a new layer, adjustment layer one, with this black and white switch enabled. If you turn off this switch, you'll see a white solid, and it added that solid to the Solids folder in the project panel. You could just create a solid or a…

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