Looking for:
One moment, please.Adobe After Effects CC Classroom in a Book - PDF Drive |
Adobe after effects cc classroom in a book pdf free.Course Help Online
Adobe after effects cc classroom in a book pdf free
Displacement Map—The Displacement Map effect distorts a layer by displacing pixels horizontally and vertically based on the color values of pixels in the control layer specified by the Displacement Map Layer property.
Liquify—The Liquify effect lets you push, pull, rotate, enlarge and shrink areas in a layer. Several Liquify tools distort the brush area when you hold down the mouse button or drag. The distortion is concentrated at the center of the brush area, and the effect intensifies as you hold down the mouse button or repeatedly drag over an area. Magnify—The Magnify effect enlarges all or part of an image.
Mesh Warp—The Mesh Warp effect applies a grid of Bezier patches over a layer, which you can manipulate to distort areas of an image. Each corner of a patch includes a vertex and two to four tangents points that control the curvature of the line segment that makes up the edge of the patch. By moving the vertices and tangents, you can manipulate the shape of the curved line segment. Mirror—The Mirror effect splits the image along a line and reflects one side onto the other.
Offset—The Offset effect pans the image within a layer. Visual information pushed off one side of the image appears on the opposite side. At Best quality, the offset is performed with subpixel precision.
This effect produces unusual and surprising distortions that can vary greatly depending on the image and the controls you select. Reshape—The Reshape effect transforms one shape into another shape on the same layer, dragging the underlying image with it. The image is distorted to fit the shape of the new area.
Ripple—The Ripple effect creates the appearance of ripples in a specified layer, moving away from a center point in concentric circles. The effect is similar to dropping a stone in a pond. You can also specify that ripples move toward the center point. Smear—Using the Smear effect, you define an area within an image and then move that area to a new location, stretching, or smearing, the surrounding part of the image with it. Use masks to define the area you want to distort.
Spherize—The Spherize effect distorts a layer by wrapping a region of the image onto a sphere. Best quality samples the displaced pixels to subpixel precision; Draft quality samples to the nearest whole pixel. Turbulent Displace—The Turbulent Displace effect uses fractal noise to create turbulent distortions in an image. For example, use it to create flowing water, funhouse mirrors, and waving flags. Twirl—The Twirl effect distorts an image by rotating a layer around its center.
The image is distorted more sharply in its center than at the edges, causing a whirlpool result at extreme settings. Warp—Use Warp to distort or deform layers.
Wave Warp—The Wave Warp effect produces the appearance of a wave traveling across an image. You can produce a variety of different wave shapes, including square, circular, and sine waves.
Specifying more triangles results in smoother animation, but can also increase rendering time. Lesson 9: Using the Roto Brush Tool Lesson 9 introduces students to the process of rotoscoping, which is commonly used in video production to remove the background of a clip so that you can place the subject in another environment. The Roto Brush tool makes rotoscoping much faster than the method of manually drawing Bezier masks on most frames individually. In most cases, the Roto Brush tool is also a more efficient alternative to traditional keying methods.
After students use the Roto Brush tool, you may want to show students other methods for removing the background and compare them to the Roto Brush tool.
The Roto Brush tool isolates the foreground pixels from the background pixels and creates an alpha channel that defines the transparent background. The resulting alpha channel can be included in certain video formats, such as FLV, for use in other applications.
For example, draw a stroke through the middle of the boy, rather than along the edges. The Roto Brush tool defines representative regions; After Effects extrapolates from those regions to determine the boundaries. Instead, draw additional strokes to teach Roto Brush how to recognize the region. You can also use adjust the matte using other features in After Effects, such as by painting on the alpha channel.
Freezing Roto Brush segmentation Click the Freeze button in the lower right corner of the Layer panel to cache and lock segmentation for all Roto Brush spans for the layer within the composition work area.
Frames with frozen segmentation information are represented by blue bars in the Roto Brush span view in the Layer panel. If you click Stop in the Freezing Roto Brush dialog box, After Effects stops adding frames to the cache, but Roto Brush segmentation is still locked with the segmentation information cached up until the point that you clicked Stop. When Roto Brush segmentation is frozen, the pointer for the Roto Brush tool has a slash through it.
The rest of the time bar for the layer disappears in the Timeline panel. All that remains for the layer is the freeze frame icon at the point you froze the frame. About color depth Color depth is the number of bits per channel bpc used to represent the color of a pixel. Channels contain color information: RGB images have channels for red, green, and blue. The more bits per channel, the more colors can be represented. In After Effects, you can work in 8-bpc, bpc or bpc color mode for each project.
Many effects support 16 and 32 bits per channel. Even if your output is 8-bpc Millions Of Colors , you can obtain better rendering quality by having the project or render color depth set at bpc or bpc because of the added precision achieved by calculating color values at higher bit depths. The headroom provided by working in 32 bpc prevents many kinds of data loss during operations such as color correction and color profile conversion.
Transitions between colors are smoother with less visible banding, and more detail is preserved than with 8-bpc color though less than with bpc color. You can import bpc images, including those from Adobe Photoshop, and composite and color-correct footage in bpc mode.
Take advantage of bpc color when performing most After Effects tasks, including layer adjustment, frame blending, 3D compositing, and Cineon file import. The Info panel displays bpc color values with exact precision. For example, an image displayed on a computer monitor may look different from the same image displayed on a video monitor or projected onto a movie screen. Colors shift because different devices use different methods to create color and produce different ranges of colors.
In After Effects, you can compensate for color output between different display devices by first calibrating and profiling your monitor and then specifying color profiles for use with the project. For in-depth information about color management, refer to After Effects Help. After your monitor is calibrated, the profiling utility lets you save a color profile. The profile describes the color behavior of the monitor—what colors can be reproduced on the monitor and how the color values in an image must be converted so that colors are displayed accurately.
Before you calibrate and profile your monitor, make sure that your work environment provides a consistent light level and color temperature. For example, the color characteristics of sunlight change throughout the day and alter the way colors appear on your screen, so keep shades closed or work in a windowless room. Make sure your monitor has been turned on for at least half an hour. This gives it sufficient time to warm up and produce more consistent output. Make sure your monitor is displaying millions of colors or bits-per-pixel or higher.
Remove colorful background patterns on your monitor desktop and set your desktop to display neutral grays. Busy patterns or bright colors surrounding a document interfere with accurate color perception. In general, using a measuring device such as a colorimeter along with software can create more accurate profiles because an instrument can measure the colors displayed on a monitor far more accurately than the human eye can. Color tab. Most profiling software automatically assigns the new profile as the default monitor profile.
For instructions on how to manually assign the monitor profile, refer to the Help system for your operating system. Answers 1 The gamma values between a computer monitor and a broadcast monitor vary greatly. What may look good on a computer screen may appear too bright and washed out on a broadcast monitor. In Lesson 12, students also work with 3D elements, adding them to a video using the 3D Camera Tracker. These 3D image files contain red, green, blue, and alpha RGBA channels, as well as auxiliary channels with optional information, such as z depth, object IDs, texture coordinates, and more.
After Effects can also import baked camera data, including focal length, film size, and transformation data, from Maya project files as a single composition or two compositions.
That data is incorporated into camera layers that After Effects creates in the Timeline panel. Camera settings You can set up cameras in After Effects to simulate the capabilities of real-world cameras. Use camera settings to configure the camera view to match the settings you use to record video footage or to look at the footage from a new perspective.
Name—Specifies the name of the camera. By default, After Effects assigns the name Camera 1 to the first camera you create in a composition, and all subsequent cameras are numbered in ascending order.
Choose distinctive names for multiple cameras to make it easier to distinguish them. Preset—Specifies the type of camera settings you want to use. Cameras come with several presets. The presets are named according to focal lengths. Each preset is meant to represent the behavior of a 35mm camera with a lens of a certain focal length. The default preset is 50mm. You can also create a custom camera by specifying new values for any of the settings.
Zoom—Specifies the distance from the position of the camera to the image plane. Angle Of View—Specifies the width of the scene captured in the image. A wider angle of view creates the same effect as a wide-angle lens. Using these variables, you can manipulate the depth of field to create more realistic camera-focusing effects.
The depth of field is the distance range within which the image is in focus. Images outside the distance range are blurred. If you need to change the values and want the values to remain locked, then use the Camera Settings dialog box instead of the Timeline panel.
Aperture—Specifies the size of the lens opening. The Aperture setting also affects the depth of field; increasing the aperture increases the depth of field blur. When you specify new values for Aperture, the values for F-Stop change dynamically to match it. F-Stop—Represents the ratio of the focal length to aperture. Most cameras specify aperture size using the fstop measurement; thus, many photographers prefer to set the aperture size in f-stop units.
When you specify new values for F-stop, the values for Aperture change dynamically to match it. Blur Level—Controls the amount of depth-of-field blur in an image. Lower values reduce the blur. Film Size—Specifies the size of the exposed area of film, which is directly related to the composition size. When you specify new values for Film Size, the Zoom value changes to match the perspective of a real camera. Focal Length—Specifies the distance from the film plane to the camera lens.
When you specify new values for Focal Length, the Zoom value changes to match the perspective of a real camera. In addition, the Preset, Angle of View, and Aperture values change accordingly. Units—Specifies the units of measurement in which the camera setting values are expressed. Measure Film Size—Specifies the dimensions used to depict the film size.
These preview modes reduce the amount of data displayed in a 3D layer, so the screen redraws faster. You can also use OpenGL for faster previews of 3D layers. Answers 1 The Material Options properties determine how 3D layers interact with lights and shadows.
If you want the effect to perform more precise tracking, you can save time by selecting Detailed Analysis in the Effect Controls panel before After Effects completes its initial analysis.
Attaching content to track points Invite students to explore the track points and the planes they can attach to before they settle on the plane that is parallel to the record. Note that there are several subtle possibilities for the plane over the record, and ask students to identify the plane that most closely mirrors the flat plane of the record on the desk.
As you right-click or Control-click to create the camera, the selected plane may shift. Advise students to be alert in case they need to abandon the context menu and reset the plane before trying again.
As students work through the lesson, point out that you must select the 3D Camera Tracker effect for the layer either in the Timeline panel or the Effect Controls panel before the track points are available. Note that the 3D Camera Tracker effect for the initial layer is different from the 3D Tracker Camera layer that also exists in the Timeline panel.
As you drag from the center, horizontal arrows appear to indicate that you can resize the target. In addition to affecting how easily you can see the target, the target size also controls the default size of text and solid layers you create using the context menu.
Working with more complicated footage The project in this lesson intentionally contains only stationary objects; the camera is the only thing that moves in the original footage. To help solve the camera, delete inaccurate or unwanted track points: 1 Select the track points you want to delete. The camera is solved again. You can delete additional points while the 3D Camera Tracker effect is working, even while the semi-transparent banner appears.
Shot Type—Specifies whether the footage was captured with a fixed horizontal angle of view, variable zoom, or a specific horizontal angle of view. When Render Track Points is enabled, the points are displayed in the image so you can see them when you preview. Horizontal Angle of View—Specifies the horizontal angle of view the solver should use. Render Track Points—Controls whether the track points are rendered as part of the effect. Track Point Size—Changes the size of the track points.
Target Size—Changes the size of the red orientation target indicators. Advanced section: Solve Method—Provides hints about the scene to help in solving the camera.
You can have it try to automatically detect the scene type, or specify the scene as typical movement those not purely rotational or mostly flat , mostly flat planar , or purely rotational tripod or nodal pan. Average Error—Displays the average distance in pixels between the original 2D source points and a reprojection of the 3D solved points onto the 2D plane of the source footage. You can use this value to tell if deleting points, changing the solve method, or making other changes is lowering this value, and thus improving the track.
Detailed Analysis—When enabled, makes the next analysis phase do extra work to find elements to track. The resulting data stored in the project as part of the effect is much larger and slower with this option enabled.
The value is based only on the available track points, not on the ones that were removed. Auto-delete Points Across Time—With this option enabled, when you delete track points in the Composition panel, corresponding track points i.
For example, you can delete track points on a person running through the scene, whose motion should not be considered for the determination of how the camera was moving in the shot.
Working with null objects Null objects can be very useful in a variety of projects. Students worked with a null object in lesson 11 when they shifted the 0,0 point for the composition before exporting it for Cinema 4D. You may want to discuss other possible uses of null objects with students, and ask them to describe both advantages and possible disadvantages to using them.
Answers 1 You use a null object to move the Photoshop layer because you cannot easily attach a Photoshop layer directly to the plane. However, you can attach a null object to the plane, and then use parenting to ensure the text layer travels with the plane. Lesson Advanced Editing Techniques Lesson 13 covers some of the advanced editing techniques available in After Effects. However, it only touches on support for HDR color.
Here is some additional information to supplement the lesson. Not only does bit mode mean more colors and more accuracy than the 8-bit or bit modes, it also means that the behavior of light and color in After Effects is remarkably similar to the behavior in the natural world. Such images can store light values beyond what your monitor displays as full white. These light values are useful when you want to manipulate the light, such as bringing the light values of your scene down.
However, bit images, which retain the original non-clipped values, behave much more like natural light, even through several color corrections. However, to use this option properly, the source images and the working space of your project must be converted to support an altered gamma. For more information, see After Effects Help. What is happening in bit HDR mode? Monitors display brightness at 1.
The real world contains brightness values far beyond what your monitor can display. You can capture a little bit of that reality in After Effects. The search region defines the area within the tracker looks for the feature. Lesson Rendering and Outputting Lesson 14 covers the topics of rendering and outputting.
Following is some additional information about DV output. These days, creative professionals are expected to deliver video that can be used in multiple media. Broadcast and film professionals alike are now creating web-based work, while web designers may need to create animations that are output in video formats. DVDs are also a common way to combine high-quality video and audio content with menudriven interactivity.
Now the letters of the company name will fade in as they expand onscreen. The logo is centered on the screen, but you want it to enter from the left and move down to replace Blue Crab Charters. Then click the stopwatch next to each property to create initial keyframes.
After Effects creates keyframes for the properties. The logo moves into position, but you want it to swoop in, rather than moving in a straight line. Animating Text 11 Go to , and press the spacebar to preview the animation. Press the spacebar again to stop the preview, and then hide the layer properties.
Applying an animation preset The logo swoops in. Using a text animator group Text animator groups let you animate individual letters within a block of text in a layer. Then press Enter or Return again to accept the new name. Animating Text Each animator group includes a default range selector. Range selectors constrain the animation to particular letters in the text layer.
You can add additional selectors to an animator group, or apply multiple animator properties to the same range selector. Now, any properties that you animate with the Skew Animator will affect only the characters that you selected. About text animator groups A text animator group includes one or more selectors and one or more animator properties.
A selector is like a mask—it specifies which characters or section of a text layer you want an animator property to affect. Using a selector, you can define a percentage of the text, specific characters in the text, or a specific range of text.
Using a combination of animator properties and selectors, you can create complex text animations that would otherwise require painstaking keyframing. Most text animations require you to animate only the selector values, not the property values. Consequently, text animators use a small number of keyframes even for complex animations. The other words in the line of text remain steady. After Effects adds another keyframe. Animating Text 7 Click the Skew property name to select all of the Skew keyframes.
To remove only one animator, select its name in the Timeline panel, and press Delete. For a simpler effect, you can animate the Transform properties for a text layer, just as you can any other layer. Set the Font Size to 48 px. Leave all other options at their default settings. Click the stopwatch icon to create an initial keyframe for the layer. Press the Shift key as you drag to create a straight path. The text moves in from the right side and stops in its final position beside the logo.
Adding motion blur Motion blur is the blur that occurs as an object moves. After Effects automatically enables motion blur for the composition when you enable it for any layer. You just completed some hard-core text animations. Animating Text Review questions 1 What are some similarities and differences between text layers and other types of layers in After Effects? Review answers 1 In many ways, a text layer is just like any other layer in After Effects.
You can apply effects and expressions to text layers, animate them, designate them as 3D layers, and edit 3D text while viewing it in multiple views. Text layers consist entirely of vector graphics, so when you scale the layer or resize the text, it retains crisp, resolution-independent edges.
You can animate the text in a text layer using special text animator properties and selectors. Adobe Bridge opens and displays the contents of the After Effects Presets folder.
Navigate to folders containing categories of text animation presets, such as Blurs or Paths, and watch samples in the Preview panel. Text animator groups contain one or more selectors, which are like masks: They let you specify which characters or section of a text layer you want an animator property to affect.
You can animate shapes, apply animation presets, and connect them to other shapes to intensify their impact. You can customize and transform an individual shape or its entire layer to create interesting results. In this lesson, you will use shape layers to create a whimsical animation. As you start After Effects, restore the default application settings. In the scene, night turns to day as the sky lightens and the colors brighten.
Press the spacebar again to stop playback. When you draw a shape directly in the Composition panel, After Effects adds a new shape layer to the composition. You can apply stroke and fill settings to a shape, modify its path, and apply animation presets.
Shape attributes are all represented in the Timeline panel, and you can animate each setting over time. The same drawing tools can create both shapes and masks.
Masks are applied to layers to hide or reveal areas or as input into effects; shapes have their own layers. When you select a drawing tool, you can specify whether the tool draws a shape or a mask. If you draw a shape when no layer is selected, After Effects creates a shape layer.
The shape appears in the Composition panel, and After Effects adds a shape layer named Shape Layer 1 to the Timeline panel. Working with Shape Layers Applying a fill and stroke You can change the color of a shape by modifying its Fill settings in the Tools panel.
Clicking the word Fill opens the Fill Options dialog box, where you can select the kind of fill, its blending mode, and its opacity. Similarly, you can change the color and width of the stroke of a shape by modifying its Stroke settings in the Tools panel. Click the word Stroke to open the Stroke Options dialog box; click the Stroke Color box to select a color.
Because the operation is selfanimating, you need to change only a few properties for the entire shape to move on its own. Then change the Size to 2. When you enable Motion Blur for a layer, After Effects enables it for the composition. Working with Shape Layers 7 Press the Home key or move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the time ruler. Duplicating a shape The sky should have more than one star, and they should all shimmer.
After Effects adds a Star 2 layer at the top of the layer stack. It is identical to the Star 1 layer, including its position. Then adjust the Rotation and Scale properties for each layer to create variation among the stars. Working with Shape Layers 9 Press the spacebar to preview the animation.
The stars twinkle and fade as night turns to day. Press the spacebar again to stop the playback. Then select the Star 1 layer and Shift-select the Star 7 layer to select all the star layers again. You can continue to edit the star layers by opening the Starscape composition, but precomposing the layers keeps the Timeline panel organized.
Creating custom shapes You can use the five shape tools to create a wide variety of shapes. However, the real power in using shape layers is that you can draw any shape and manipulate it in a myriad of ways. Click again in the initial vertex to close the shape. When you create the first vertex, After Effects automatically adds a shape layer— Shape Layer 1—to the Timeline panel.
Press Enter or Return to accept the new name. Select the None option, and then click OK. Working with Shape Layers 8 Click the stopwatch next to the Color property to create an initial keyframe. Press F2 or click an empty area in the Timeline panel to deselect all layers. Draw the shape a little bit above the base of the pot. Also, a layer must be visible to snap to it.
The flowerpot layers currently have no relationship to each other in the composition. When the Snapping option is enabled, the layer feature that is closest to your pointer when you click becomes the snapping feature.
As you drag the layer near other layers, features on other layers are highlighted, showing you where the snapping feature would snap if you released the mouse button. When you select a layer in the Composition panel, After Effects displays the layer handles and anchor point. You can use any of these points as the snapping feature for a layer.
As you drag the layer, a box appears around the handle you selected, indicating that it is the snapping feature. Animating a shape You can animate the Position, Opacity, and other Transform properties of shape layers just as you animate them in other layers.
But shape layers provide additional opportunities for animation, including fills, strokes, paths, and path operations. Path operations are live, so you can modify or remove them at any time. You used the Wiggle Paths path operation earlier. You can animate the degree of pucker or bloat over time. After Effects adds a Shape Layer 1 layer to the Timeline panel. After Effects automatically changes the stroke options from None to Solid Color when you change the stroke color.
Working with Shape Layers 9 Go to , and change the amount to The star shape becomes a flower. After Effects creates a keyframe. Animating position and scale The star becomes a flower, but it should be falling as it changes. You may need to deselect Snapping in the Tools panel to position the flower where you want it. After Effects creates a Position keyframe.
Increase the Scale value so that the flower is about the width of the flowerpot. The value you use depends on the original size of the star and on the width of the flowerpot. The star falls as it becomes a flower, but its trajectory is straight. You want it to fall in a slight arc. If you want to change the path, you can add Position keyframes at other points in the time ruler. Animating fill color Currently, the star remains yellow with a red stroke as it becomes a flower. Animating using parenting When you parent one layer to another, the child layer adopts the attributes of the parent layer.
You can simply parent the leaves and stem to ensure they move together. It will have a slightly thicker stroke than the flower, but no fill, and it will rise to meet the flower. Change the Stroke Width to 3 px. Before releasing the mouse, drag the Bezier handle to create a subtle curve in the stem. Then click the stopwatch icon to create an initial keyframe at its final position. Press Shift as you drag to move it straight down. Working with Shape Layers 11 Press F2 or click an empty area of the Timeline panel to deselect all layers.
Before you release the mouse, drag the Bezier handle to create a curved leaf. Then rename Shape Layer 2 Leaf 2. The Leaf 1 and Leaf 2 layers will move in relationship to the Stem layer. Select the Leaf 1 layer and Shift-select the Leaf 2 layer.
Creating a parenting relationship between layers synchronizes the changes in the parent layer with the corresponding transformation values of the child layers, except opacity. For example, if a parent layer moves 5 pixels to the right of its starting position, then the child layer also moves 5 pixels to the right of its starting position. A layer can have only one parent, but a layer can be a parent to any number of 2D or 3D layers within the same composition.
Parenting layers is useful for creating complex animations, such as linking the movements of a marionette or depicting the orbits of planets in the solar system. Sometimes you want to connect a single point to another layer—for example, the top of the stem in your animation to the flower itself. The Create Nulls From Paths panel lets you do just that. A null object is an invisible layer that has all the same properties as other layers so that it can serve as a parent to any layer.
The Create Nulls From Paths panel creates null objects based on specific points, which you can then parent to other layers without having to write complex expressions. Nulls From Paths panel works only with masks or with Bezier shapes shapes drawn with the Pen tool. To convert a shape drawn with a shape tool to a Bezier path, expand the shape layer contents, right-click the path e. You must select a path in the Timeline panel in order to create a null using the options in the Create Nulls From Paths panel.
After Effects creates two nulls, corresponding to the two points on the stem path. The null objects appear in gold in the Composition panel, and as layers named Stem: Path 1 [1. You only need the null for the top point.
Then go to , and click the stopwatch icon to create an initial keyframe at its original rotation. Animating layers to match audio You can time animation to match the beat of an audio file. First you need to create keyframes from the amplitude of the audio which determines loudness , and then sync the animation to those values.
After Effects adds the Audio Amplitude layer. After Effects creates keyframes that specify the amplitude of the audio file in each frame of the layer. Expand the channel you want to use.
Then Alt-click Windows or Option-click macOS the stopwatch icon for the property whose animation you want to sync with to add an expression; with the expression selected in the time ruler, click the pick whip icon on the Expression:[property name] line, and drag it to the Slider property name in the Audio Amplitude layer. When you release the mouse, the pick whip snaps, and the expression in the shape layer time ruler now means that the property values for the layer will depend on the Slider values of the Audio Amplitude layer.
Review answers 1 A shape layer is simply a layer that contains a vector graphic called a shape. To create a shape layer, draw a shape directly in the Composition panel, using any of the drawing tools or the Pen tool. Then click next to the handle or point you want to use as a snapping feature, and drag the layer close to the point to which you want to align it. After Effects highlights the points to which it will align when you release the mouse button.
Animating a Multimedia Presentation 4 In the Sky. Through Creative Cloud Libraries, you can also use Looks, shapes, and other assets you create with Adobe Capture and other mobile apps. Even Adobe Stock images and videos are available in the Libraries panel: Search and browse assets within the panel, download watermarked versions to see how they work with your projects, and license the ones you want to keep—all without leaving After Effects.
The same search bar you use to search Adobe Stock makes it easier to find specific items in your Creative Cloud Libraries, too. Animating a Multimedia Presentation 3 Drag the Sky. The balloon will float across the Sky. The far right of the image contains the canvas-wrapped clouds that appear at the end of the scene.
Adjusting anchor points The anchor point is the point around which transformations, such as scaling or rotation, are performed. With the Pan Behind tool, you can move the anchor point without moving the entire layer in the Composition window. Parenting layers This composition includes several layers that need to move together. Balloon from the pop-up menu.
This establishes both the Head and Upper arm layers as child layers of the Balloon layer. When the Balloon layer moves, the other two layers will move with it. Head from the pop-up menu. The forearm should move with the upper arm as well. Upper arm from the pop-up menu.
Now you need to ensure that the fire video travels with the balloon. The Fire layer should be between the Yellow Canvas layer and the Eyes layer. To see the flame in action so you can position it correctly, drag the current-time marker across the first second of the time ruler.
Precomposing layers moves them to a new composition, nested inside the original composition. The four layers you selected in the Timeline panel are replaced by a single Canvas composition layer. You may need to change the magnification. Increasing the width of the composition and then moving the canvas to the far left side will give you room to animate the canvas layers later. You moved the canvas to the far left side of the Canvas composition, revealing the uncovered balloon in the Balloon composition.
At the beginning of the animation, though, the canvas should be on the balloon. Balloon from the pop-up menu so that the canvas will follow the balloon. The layers appear in the same order they were when you copied them, and they retain all the properties they had in the Balloon composition, including parenting relationships. Placing initial keyframes The balloon will enter the scene from the bottom, drift through the sky, and eventually depart from the upper right corner of the frame.
We used Position values We used 19 degrees. We used We used the following values: Position You can use the values we used or create your own path, as long as the balloon stays fully visible on the screen until a little after 11 seconds, and then slowly makes its way offscreen.
We used Position We used 9. Save your work so far. Using Bezier handles to smooth a motion path The basic path is in place, but you can smooth it out a bit. Each keyframe includes Bezier handles that you can adjust to change the angle of the curve. Then move the current-time indicator to a position where you can clearly see the motion path in the Composition panel. Between 4 and 6 seconds is probably good. Our final path is shown below in the image on the right.
Animating a Multimedia Presentation 6 Preview the balloon on the path by moving the current-time indicator across the time ruler. Make any adjustments you want. Animating additional elements The balloon swoops and swirls through the sky, and its child layers go with it.
But the character is currently static in his balloon. Use the Hand tool to adjust the image in the Composition window if you need to. You may need to deselect the layers so you can see the action clearly in the Composition window. You may need to zoom out to see the animation. Animating a Multimedia Presentation 5 Repeat steps 1—4 to copy the Upper arm Rotation property keyframes.
Now the character tilts his head up each time he tugs the cord. Then preview the animation. Positioning and duplicating a video When the character tugs the cord, flame should emerge from the burner. The Fractal Noise and Directional Blur effects will work well.
Adding a solid-color layer You need to apply the effects on their own layer, which will be a solid-color layer. About solid-color layers Use solid layers to color a background or to create simple graphic images. You can create solid images of any color or size up to 30, x 30, pixels in After Effects.
After Effects treats solids as it does any other footage item: You can modify the mask, transform properties, and apply effects to a solid layer.
If you change settings for a solid that is used by more than one layer, you can apply the changes to all layers that use the solid or to only the single occurrence of the solid. The Fractal Noise effect will create the gust of wind.
The Directional Blur effect will create a blur in the direction the canvas flies. Double-click the Fractal Noise effect to apply it.
Now you need to add the Wind composition to the Balloon Scene composition. Animating precomposed layers Earlier, you precomposed the four canvas layers, creating a composition called Canvas.
You then positioned the Canvas composition layer to match the balloon, and parented the two. Animating a Multimedia Presentation 5 Go to All four canvas layers become nearly horizontal. Vary their motion paths to make them more interesting. You can add intermediate rotation and position keyframes between and , edit Bezier curves, or just drag the canvas layers off the edge. You can use an adjustment layer to apply an effect to all the layers beneath it at once.
A new adjustment layer is automatically added to the top of the layer stack. Then click the stopwatch icons to create initial keyframes for each of them. Animating a Multimedia Presentation 1 Go to Animating the background The movie should end with the revelation that the canvas from the balloons has been draped on the clouds.
But right now, the canvas flies off and the balloon floats away. You need to animate the sky so that the canvas-covered clouds are centered at the end of the scene.
Our values are — The canvas should be completely offscreen before the canvas-colored clouds appear. The bare balloon should float in front of at least a few of the canvas-colored clouds before it disappears. Then, double-click an empty area of the Project panel to open the Import File dialog box.
The music changes just as the canvas flies off the balloon. Expand the Soundtrack. For more substantial edits, use Adobe Audition. Audition is available with a full Adobe Creative Cloud membership. You can use Audition to change the length of an audio file, alter its pitch, or change its tempo.
You can apply effects, record new audio, mix multitrack sessions, and more. Then, make your changes in Audition, and save the file. The changes you made are automatically reflected in your After Effects project.
Review answers 1 When you animate the Position property, After Effects displays the movement as a motion path. You can create a motion path for the position of the layer or for the anchor point of a layer. A position motion path appears in the Composition panel; an anchor-point motion path appears in the Layer panel. The motion path appears as a sequence of dots, where each dot marks the position of the layer at each frame.
A box in the path marks the position of a keyframe. After Effects treats solids as it does any other footage item: You can modify the mask, transform properties, and apply effects to the solid layer. Use solid layers to color a background or create simple graphic images. This lesson provides more practice animating the layers of a Photoshop file, including dynamically remapping time. In this lesson, you will import a layered Photoshop file of a theater marquee, and then animate it to simulate the marquee lighting up and text scrolling across its screen.
This is a stylized animation in which the motion is first accelerated, and then reverses and moves forward again. You may delete the sample movie from your hard disk if you have limited storage space.
When you begin the lesson, restore the default application settings for After Effects. When prompted, click OK to delete your preferences file. After Effects opens to display an empty, untitled project. Importing the footage You need to import one source item for this lesson.
Animating Layers 4 Click Import or Open. Before continuing, take a moment to study the layers of the file you just imported. Resize the Name column to make it wider and easier to read, if necessary. In addition, there is one layer representing the initial marquee with plain light bulbs Unlit marquee and a second layer that represents the final marquee with the bulbs brightly lit Lit marquee. Preparing layered Photoshop files Before you import a layered Photoshop file, name its layers carefully to reduce preview and rendering time, and to avoid problems importing and updating the layers: Organize and name layers.
If you change a layer name in a Photoshop file after you have imported the file into After Effects, After Effects retains the link to the original layer. However, if you delete a layer in a Photoshop file after you have imported the file into After Effects, After Effects will be unable to find the original layer and will list it as missing in the Project panel. Simulating lighting changes The first part of the animation involves lighting the marquee. However, you want the marquee to appear dark and then lighten.
To accomplish this, you will make the Lit marquee layer initially transparent, and then animate its opacity so that the lights appear to turn on over time.
Now, when the animation begins, the Lit marquee layer is transparent, which allows the Unlit marquee layer to show through. The bulbs around the marquee transition until they are brightly lit. You can use the pick whip to create expressions that link the values of one property or effect to another. When you release the mouse, the pick whip snaps, and the Depth property is red.
Animating Layers 7 Drag the current-time indicator from to Notice that the Opacity value for the Lit marquee layer and the Depth property for the Starburst layer match. The area around the starburst and the marquee light bulbs brighten in sync.
About Photoshop layer styles Adobe Photoshop provides a variety of layer styles—such as shadows, glows, and bevels—that change the appearance of a layer. After Effects can preserve these layer styles when you import Photoshop layers. You can also apply layer styles in After Effects.
Though layer styles are referred to as effects in Photoshop, they behave more like blending modes in After Effects. Layer styles follow transformations in the standard render order, whereas effects precede transformations. The layer style properties are available for the layer in the Timeline panel. You work with expressions in the Timeline panel or the Effect Controls panel. You can use the pick whip to create expressions, or you can enter and edit expressions manually in the expression field—a text field in the time graph under the property.
You can create expressions using the pick whip, by using simple examples and modifying them to suit your needs, or by chaining objects and methods together. For more information about expressions, see After Effects Help. Using a track matte to confine animation Text should scroll across the bottom of the marquee, but only in the black field.
Animating the text The text should start scrolling after the marquee lights up, and it should continue scrolling until the end of the clip.
Only the first character of the text appears in the black ticker area. The last character in the text is visible in the ticker field. Press the spacebar again to end the preview. Creating the track matte The text scrolls well, but it overlaps the rest of the marquee, and even the lights on the left side. The alpha channel of the layer above Scroll area 2 is used to set transparency for the Scroll text layer, so the contents of that layer appear only within the area defined by the Scroll area layer.
Animating Layers About track mattes and traveling mattes When you want one layer to show through a hole in another layer, set up a track matte.
You can animate either the track matte layer or the fill layer. When you animate the track matte layer, you create a traveling matte. If you want to animate the track matte and fill layers using identical settings, you can precompose them. You define transparency in a track matte using values from either its alpha channel or the luminance of its pixels.
In both alpha-channel mattes and luminance mattes, pixels with higher values are more transparent. In most cases, you use a high-contrast matte so that areas are either completely transparent or completely opaque. Intermediate shades should appear only where you want partial or gradual transparency, such as along a soft edge.
After Effects preserves the order of a layer and its track matte after you duplicate or split the layer. Within the duplicated or split layers, the track matte layer remains on top of the fill layer. For example, if your project contains layers X and Y, where X is the track matte and Y the fill layer, duplicating or splitting both of these layers results in the layer order XYXY. Track matte layer: A solid with a rectangular mask, set to Luma Matte.
The mask is animated to travel across the screen. Fill layer: A solid with a pattern effect. After Effects enables Motion Blur for the entire composition, and the text layer appears less sharp in the Composition panel.
The Shutter Angle setting imitates the effect of adjusting a shutter angle on a real camera, which controls how long the camera aperture is open, gathering light.
Larger values create more motion blur. Using the Corner Pin effect is similar to animating with the Photoshop Free Transform tool—the effect distorts an image by repositioning each of its four corners. You can use it to stretch, shrink, skew, or twist an image, or to simulate perspective or movement that pivots from the edge of a layer, such as a door opening.
Soloing the layers isolates them to speed animating, previewing, and rendering. Small circles appear around the corner points of the Starburst layer in the Composition panel. With the Corner Pin tool, you can move each handle a different amount.
Notice that the x and y coordinates update in the Effect Controls panel. After Effects adds keyframes. Instead of dragging the handles, you can manually enter the values shown in the following figure. Your corner-pin locations should be similar to those in the figure below. Press the spacebar to preview the animation.
Simulating a darkening sky The lights come on, but the sky and building remain in daylight. The background should darken as the marquee lights up, showing off the marquee contents and creating a sense of excitement. Creating a mask You want darkness to fall on the building and sky behind the theater sign. After Effects adds a Lit marquee 2 layer to the layer stack, immediately above the Lit marquee layer. With the current-time indicator at the beginning of the time ruler, most of the image will darken, because neither the Lit marquee layer nor the Lit marquee 2 layer with its mask are visible yet.
When you invert the mask, the unselected area becomes masked instead. Animating Layers 11 Press the Home key or move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the time ruler. As the lights brighten and the text begins to move, the surrounding building and sky gradually darken. Your scene is complete. Time remapping lets you dynamically speed up, slow down, stop, or reverse footage. You can also use it to do things like create a freeze-frame result.
Animating Layers After Effects creates a new composition named Pre-comp 1, which replaces the layers you selected in the marquee 2 composition. Now you can remap all of the elements of the project at once. After Effects adds two keyframes, at the first and last frames of the layer, visible in the time ruler.
A Time Remap property also appears under the layer name in the Timeline panel; this property lets you control which frame is displayed at a given point in time. It displays two time rulers: The time ruler at the bottom of the panel displays the current time. The Source Time ruler, just above the time ruler, has a remap-time marker that indicates which frame is playing at the current time. That will change as you remap time.
Over the first four seconds, the lights come on slowly. This remaps time so that frame plays at In other words, the clip now plays back at twice the speed for the first two seconds of the composition.
The composition now runs at doublespeed until , and at a slower speed thereafter. Press the spacebar again when you have finished previewing the animation. Viewing time remapping in the Graph Editor Using the Graph Editor, you can view and manipulate all aspects of effects and animations, including effect property values, keyframes, and interpolation. The Graph Editor displays changes in effects and animations as a two-dimensional graph, with playback time represented horizontally from left to right.
Home Adobe After Effects 5. Adobe After Effects 5. This document was uploaded by our user. The uploader already confirmed that they had the permission to publish it. Report DMCA. Filmmakers andTV-commercial directors have turned to Adobe After Effects for years tocreate sophisticated visual effects, but its fan club is rapidly expandingto include graphic designers who want to add motion graphics to their Websites.
Developed by the experts at Adobe, this project-basedguide walks you through easy-to-follow lessons tested in the company's ownclassrooms. The book isdesigned around one large and complex project that is broken down intomanageable lessons, each of which builds on topics covered in previoussections. The task-oriented format mimics a real-world work flow: Features,functions, and subjects are introduced as they come up during the course ofthe project.
This edition of the book covers what's new and exciting inAfter Effects 5. The accompanying cross-platform CDincludes all the files you need to complete the projects. All rights reserved. The content of this book is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Adobe Systems Incorporated assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book.
Except as permitted by such license, no part of this documentation may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Please remember that existing artwork or images that you may want to include in your project may be protected under copyright law. The unauthorized incorporation of such material into your new work could be a violation of the rights of the copyright owner. Please be sure to obtain any permission required from the copyright owner. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contains an implementation of the LZW algorithm licensed under U. Patent 4,, Protected by U. Patents 4,,; 5,, ; 5,,; 5,,; 5,,; 5,,; 5,,; 5,,; 5,,; 5,,; 5,,; and 5,, Patents pending. Consistent with 48 C. Unpublished rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Printed in the U. After Effects is widely used for digital post-production of film, motion graphics, video multimedia, and the Web.
You can composite layers in various ways, apply and combine sophisticated visual and audio effects, and animate both objects and effects. The lessons are designed so that you can learn at your own pace.
Classroom in a Book also teaches many advanced features, including tips and techniques for using the latest version of this application. The lessons in this edition include opportunities to use new features, such as compositing layers in 2D and 3D space, viewing 3D from different perspectives, creating and editing expressions, editing masks, defining parent-child relationships between layers, animating lights and cameras, using an enhanced interface with new conveniences, and more.
Prerequisites Before beginning to use Adobe After Effects 5. You should have a working knowledge of your computer and operating system. You know how to use the mouse and standard menus and commands and also how to open, save, and close files. For system requirements and complete instructions on installing the software, see the Install Readme. You must install QuickTime 4. Follow the on-screen instructions. Make sure your serial number is accessible before installing the application; you can find the serial number on the registration card or on the back of the CD case.
The more random access memory RAM available to After Effects, the faster the application will work for you. For these lessons, a minimum allocation of MB is strongly recommended.
Windows Exit as many other programs as possible while you work in After Effects. Windows automatically allocates RAM to the application. You must manually change that allocation. To do this, quit After Effects if it is running, and then select the After Effects program icon not an alias in the Finder. Installing the Classroom in a Book fonts To ensure that the lessons appear on your system with the correct fonts, you may need to install the Classroom in a Book font files.
The fonts for the lessons are located in the Fonts folder on the Adobe After Effects Classroom in a Book CD, which is attached to the inside back cover of this book. If you already have these on your system, you do not need to install them. Restoring default preferences The preferences file controls the way the After Effects user interface appears on your screen.
The instructions in this book assume that you see the default interface when they describe the appearance of tools, options, windows, palettes, and so forth. Each time you exit After Effects, the palette positions and certain command settings are recorded in the preferences file. If you want to restore the palettes to their original default settings, you can delete the current After Effects preferences file.
Restoring the default preferences can be especially helpful if someone has already customized After Effects on your computer. Important: If you want to save the current settings, you can rename the preferences file instead of deleting it. When you are ready to restore those settings, change the name back and make sure that the file is located in the correct preferences folder. Note: Windows only If you do not see the Prefs file, be sure that the Show all files option is selected for Hidden files on the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box.
Copying the lesson files The lessons in Adobe After Effects 5. To complete the lessons, you must copy these files from the After Effects Classroom in a Book CD inside the back cover of this book to your hard drive. Setting up a folder structure Before you copy the source files to your hard drive, create the folder structure that you will use throughout these lessons.
Because the project builds from lesson to lesson, this structure is very important as you progress, so be sure to take the time to set it up now. Then type the new name. Type the new name and drag the folder into the location you want to use. Copying the source files The source files for the lessons are relatively small files.
You can install all the files for those folders now. This is not necessary if you are using a Macintosh computer. In the file Properties dialog box, under Attributes, deselect the Read-only option.
About copying the sample movies and projects You will create and render one or more QuickTime movies in most lessons in this book. These files tend to be large, so you many not want to devote the storage space or time to copying all the sample movies before you begin.
You cannot play movies from the CD. After you finish viewing the movie, you can delete it from your hard drive. Use these files for reference if you want to compare your work in progress with the files used to generate the sample movies.
These files vary in size from relatively small to a couple of megabytes, so you can either copy them all now if you have available storage space or copy just the finished sample for each lesson as needed, and then delete the sample when you finish that lesson.
How to use these lessons This entire book represents a single project, based on a hypothetical scenario in which Adobe Systems hires your company to create an second movie that they will use for NTSC broadcast and on the Web.
The designer for this project has separated the project into more than a dozen independent elements that you create and render separately. Each lesson provides step-by-step instructions for creating one or more specific elements of that project.
These lessons build on each other—in terms of concepts, skills, and the job files themselves—so the best way to learn from this book is to go through the lessons in sequential order. In this book, some techniques and processes are explained and described in detail only the first few times you perform them.
Note: Many aspects of the After Effects application can be controlled by multiple techniques, such as a menu command, a button, dragging, and a keyboard shortcut. The organization of the lessons is also design-oriented rather than feature-oriented.
The Classroom in a Book aims to give you confidence and skills so that you can start creating your own projects. Adobe Certification The Adobe Training and Certification Programs are designed to help Adobe customers improve and promote their product proficiency skills. Belief has long been a champion for doing motion graphics on desktop computers and has been using After Effects way back when it was called CoSA. In fact, when my partner Steve Kazanjian and I started Belief, we set out to do the impossible at the time, which was to build the entire studio around desktop machines.
Today this practice is becoming more common, which is great for artists for there are more opportunities for their visions to be experienced. Belief has continually tried to share with the design community, and creating this book was a great opportunity to continue this tradition. Steve and I have taught classes and given lectures encouraging artists to get into this rewarding industry.
I believe strongly in the potential of After Effects and have been impressed how the Adobe team has continued to evolve the product, adding many new features without alienating their core users. I hope this book will not only inspire but will teach users a new way of approaching projects.
Inexpensive tools like After Effects empower artist visions to dance across movie screens, television sets, and—with the Internet—our home computer screens. The key to the Belief approach is to break projects into elements.
Making a project modular is a way to simplify projects and thus make it easier to handle client changes. Creating motion graphics for money is a commercial art form and clients have final say, but that doesn't mean the work you produce can't be amazing. I have noticed many students creating animations using only one composition with hundreds of layers.
Those who have been taught to approach projects this way should try to erase that memory and begin fresh with a new outlook. You will soon find as you continue through the book, that a modular element based approach is a much more efficient way of working. This Classroom in a Book is unique because the lessons are designed in sequential order to create the elements needed to produce one fully realized, complicated animation.
When you complete the book, you will know many new principles that you can apply to any project you undertake. Get ready to open your mind while I leave you these departing thoughts.
Keep working until you not only complete the lesson but understand what you did and why. You may get confused but try not to get frustrated; you're not an old dog and you will be able to learn new tricks! Mike Goedecke, Partner Belief www. See expressions, parent layers templates , text in animations 76 Deselect All command 31 when dragging 30 dissolves. See Opacity collapsing display in DotCircles. See track mattes, transfer modes formatting Anchor Point 49 properties Opacity 36 still frames text alignment Orientation stopwatch icon 26 TextCircle.
Both elements animate to form a precise honeycomb of hexagons that fly in from off-screen at different times and from different directions. This lesson takes a total of at least two hours, but it is divided so that you can do the work in three sessions of about minutes each. You probably did not copy all the sample movies and finished project files, so you need to copy the Lesson 1 sample files now. Close the CD windows and eject the CD. Return it to the pocket on the back cover of this book or another safe storage place.
You will copy more sample movies and finished project files from the CD at the beginning of each lesson. Your processor attempts to play back movies at as close to real time as possible. To see these movies play back faster, try shrinking the QuickTime window to half size. Creating a project After Effects files are called projects and can be recognized by the.
Your first task is to create a new project. After Effects can have just one open project at a time. The Project window title bar now reads Untitled Project. When the dialog box closes, the Project window title bar displays the new project name. If not, choose those commands now to open them. By duplicating simple images, your composition uses minimal storage and yet remains flexible.
Importing footage for the first composition You need to import the source file. Alpha channels are areas of transparency that can be defined in the application used to create a file. When you import a file containing an unlabeled alpha channel, you must specify how After Effects interprets that alpha channel.
The Hexagon If it is not already selected, click the filename to see a thumbnail of the image and some information about it in the top of the Project window. Whether you delve into alpha channels now or decide to come back to this topic later is up to you. When you import a file with an unlabeled alpha channel into a project, a message appears, asking how to treat the alpha channel.
Your best choice depends on how the alpha channel was originally created, because that determines which method for interpreting the alpha channel is correct. This is similar to the way a sheet of rolled-out dough acts beneath a cookie-cutter. This type of alpha channel is called straight alpha. Therefore, when this file is imported into After Effects, the alpha channel should be interpreted as Straight - Unmatted. Premultiplied — Matted With Color: This choice removes the original background color from the semitransparent edges of the artwork.
This prevents the appearance of a halo around the image. Note: Some files can be properly interpreted using either Premultiplied or Straight.
After Effects attempts to analyze which type of alpha channel the file uses and apply the appropriate interpretation method. If it cannot determine this, After Effects warns you with an alert sound. The Interpret Footage dialog box also includes an Invert Alpha option. Selecting checking this option reverses the existing alpha channel.
You can read more about alpha channels in After Effects 5. Also see the Adobe Web site for technical articles about alpha channels. Or, click the folder icon on the lower edge of the Project window. An untitled folder appears in the Project window.
Creating the first composition You start building your animation by creating a new composition. Compositions are the basic units of an After Effects project in which you place and manipulate images, movies, audio, and even other compositions. You specify these settings at the composition level. You know from the job scenario described in the introductory chapter that this animation is intended primarily for NTSC broadcast. This means that your final animation should be rendered at D1 resolution x Therefore, as you build your elements you need to construct them in compositions that are large enough for their required size in the final animation.
This D1 resolution is a non-square pixel format. However, in these lessons you build elements using square pixel aspect ratio and place your final composition into a x D1 NTSC composition before you render the final animation for delivery. Note: Final indicates that this is the composition that you will render at the end of the lesson. You can select a lower resolution. Use Half or lower if your system has only the minimum amount of RAM, a standard monitor size, or a slow processor.
The Hexagon Final Comp now appears in the Project window and in the title bar of two new windows: the Composition window and the Timeline window. If necessary, resize these windows so that they all fit on your screen. Notice that the right side of the Timeline window shows the duration you specified: four seconds. The In point is the point in time at which the footage first appears or begins playing in a composition. The layer In point is automatically set at the position of the current-time marker when you bring the layer into the composition.
There are several methods you can use to change the position of the current-time marker. The file also appears as Layer 1 in the Timeline window, where it is listed as Hexagon Click the color swatch to open the color picker, and select the black color sample.
Then click OK to close both dialog boxes. Transform Properties The transform properties are the core of After Effects. After you master the techniques for manipulating these settings and adding keyframes for these five properties, the possibilities are virtually endless. In this book, almost every adjustment that you make to a layer within After Effects is based on the principles that you learn for working with the transform properties. To access the transform properties for a layer, you have two options.
You can click the arrow to the left of a layer name to reveal Masks, Effects, and Transform categories. Then, click the arrow next to Transform to reveal the five transform properties for that layer: Anchor Point, Position, Scale, Rotation, and Opacity. You can make changes to the values shown here to affect your layer. Opening all these categories can be distracting and inconvenient because the list becomes so long you may need to scroll to find the property you want to see.
The solution is to use a simple, single-key shortcuts to open a transform property, without opening the category levels or other properties. This keeps your Timeline window easier to use. To reveal multiple transform properties for a layer, press Shift as you press the additional property shortcuts. By the time you finish your work with the hexagons element, you will apply each of these transform properties at least once and some many times, in a variety of situations and combinations.
To avoid scrolling to see an image in the Composition window, use the magnification popup menu in the lower left corner of the window or press the comma key , to zoom out. To increase redraw and processing speed while you work, you can reduce resolution of the Composition window from Full to a lower value such as Half or Third , using that pop-up menu.
These settings affect only your working views, not the size or the quality of your final output. Magnification left and Resolution right 2 Press P on your keyboard. The Position property appears below the layer in the Timeline window. If you can get close to and but have trouble getting them exactly, try using the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the image a few pixels at a time.
Drag right to increase the value or left to lower it. Note: These X, Y coordinates mark the position of the anchor point of the layer within the Composition window. By default, After Effects sets the anchor point at the center of the layer.
Anchor point and layer selection handles Adjusting the image size In real life, you often have to work with images that are not the ideal size for your composition. The Scale property appears below the layer in the Timeline window, replacing the Position property. The hexagon appears in the Composition window at the reduced size. Setting keyframes to rotate the image Next, you want the hexagon to rotate as it falls into place.
You use two or more keyframes to specify how things change over time within the composition. A keyframe is a reference point that links a layer property value to a place in time. To make the image rotate, you set one keyframe for its beginning Rotation value and another keyframe for its final Rotation value. There are two underlined numbers for rotation. The first is the number of revolutions. The second is the number of additional degrees. The stopwatch icon now includes hands , and a small diamond shaped icon , representing a keyframe, appears in the timeline at the position of the current-time marker Rotation stopwatch left and keyframe right 6 Drag the current-time marker to , or click the current-time display and type 15 in the Go To Time dialog box.
A new keyframe automatically appears at the position of the current-time marker Important: When setting keyframes for any property within After Effects, be careful to click the stopwatch only once. The clock hands inside the stopwatch icon indicate that the property can change over time, so After Effects automatically adds keyframes when you move the current-time marker and change a value for that property.
If you click the stopwatch a second time, this indicates that the property remains the same throughout the composition, so After Effects removes all the keyframes for that property and the hands disappear in the icon. If you want to remove a specific keyframe, simply select that keyframe and press Delete. Note: While the preview plays, the current-time marker moves across the timeline, and a green line appears above it.
After the marker passes , the hexagon does not move again until the preview loops back to the starting point. Or, you can just press R. Many After Effects controls, including the buttons on the Time Controls palette, have tool tips: small windows that appear after a few seconds when the pointer hovers over the button, tool, or option.
Creating an animated pattern from a simple image You need many more hexagon layers to build your hexagon element.
This not only reproduces the layer itself, but also duplicates any changes made or keyframes set for Scale, Position, and Rotation for each new layer, saving you a lot of time. Your first task is to create the duplicates. A new layer appears above the original layer in the Timeline window. The number to the left of the name identifies each layer according to its position in the layer stack from top to bottom or front to back.
To verify this, select one or more layers and then press R, S, or P. Moving layers into a pattern The next step is to arrange the ten hexagons so that they form a precise honeycomb formation.
If you do use them, make sure that the current layer coordinates are , Otherwise, you can just arrange the hexagons visually so that they form a tile-like pattern with evenly wide spacing between the hexagons. Notice the layer handles small squares at the corners of the layer bounding box that appear in the Composition window.
Press P to open Position properties for the layer. Most of the hexagon should be outside of the composition frame, with only a portion visible. Or, scrub or type these Position coordinates in the Timeline window.
Then, if the Position property is not already open, press P to open it for all layers. Notice that the stopwatch icons to the left of Position now have hands, and diamond-shaped keyframe icons appear at on the timeline for each layer. Leave the Position properties open. This arrangement of the hexagons represents the final position in the hexagon pattern animation. You want the individual hexagons to fly into the composition, spinning and coming to rest in the precise honeycomb pattern.
This changes your working view only; it does not reduce or enlarge the objects in the rendered movie. The alignment of the start positions is not as critical to the results as the precision of the final honeycomb pattern that you arranged earlier.
Or, press the comma key , to zoom out by one step. When you are finished watching the preview, press the spacebar to stop. After you create a RAM preview, you can drag the current-time marker to scrub through the composition. If you drag the current-time marker without building a RAM preview, After Effects updates the Composition window as quickly as it can depending on the speed of the processor, the amount of RAM available, and the speed of the display card.
When you preview an animation by pressing the spacebar or clicking the Play button in the Time Controls, the playback speed shown is not real time. The composition plays back at as close to real time as possible; actual speed varies based on the speed of your processor. Depending on the amount of RAM available on your system and the speed of your display card, you can run the composition at real time by creating a RAM preview. The first cycle through the preview appears to be much slower.
As After Effects builds the preview, a green line moves across the timeline, indicating the progress of the RAM preview build. After the preview is loaded into RAM, the animation plays back at real time or as close to real time as your system can handle. The number of frames that appear in a RAM preview depends on how much information can be loaded into the RAM on your system. If the composition is very large and complex, you may see just a short segment of the timeline.
The frame rate of the playback depends on the amount of RAM available and the speed of the display card installed in your system. However, when compositions are more complex, the process of generating the RAM preview can become time-consuming, and the number of frames that you see may be limited by the amount of RAM available to After Effects.
This affects only previews; when you render the composition, the image is rendered with full anti-aliasing.
Staggering the In points The In point of a layer is the time at which the layer starts to appear in the composition. Right now, all your layers begin at , as shown by the position of the colored duration bar for each layer in the timeline.
The hexagons now fall into place, sequentially taking their positions from right to left. Adjusting opacity for one layer By making the hexagons semi-transparent, you create a more interesting interaction as they spin over each other to form the honeycomb.
A second keyframe appears at To remember the keyboard shortcut for opening the Opacity property, think T for transparency. The O key shortcut is reserved for another use. Or, you can click the word Opacity to select both keyframes. The keyframes appear at time positions that maintain the same relationship to the current-time marker, so that the first appears at and the second at Then press T again to hide them. Precomposing multiple layers Your next task is to unite your ten layers into a single layer by precomposing.
This nondestructive process makes your project more manageable and also makes it possible for you to add transformations to the group as a whole. It is not available when multiple layers are selected.
Note: You can still access and make changes to the original ten layers by double-clicking the Hexagons Build Pre-comp item in the Project window.
Nice work. You have completed the first phase of construction for the hexagon element, so you are almost half finished with Lesson 1. If you need to take a break, this is a good time to do that. If appropriate, close the project and quit After Effects. Now you can transform all the hexagons as a unit without losing the transformations you applied earlier to the ten original layers.
The new transformations add to the existing motions to create complex combinations of change upon change.
After Effects typically lists the ten most recently opened projects in the Open Recent Projects submenu. If the names in the Project window are truncated and difficult to read, you can drag the embossed bar at the right edge of the column heading to expand the column width.
The edges of some of the hexagons are currently out of view. Or, you can click the Collapse Transformations switch in the Timeline window Switches panel to the right of the layer names, by default from Off to On.
This enables you to see the artwork beyond the edges of the bounding box and improves the quality of the layer. Before left and after right turning on Collapse Transformations switch Note: Collapsing activating the Collapse switch refers to the way After Effects calculates information for layers.
When you collapse transformations for a nested precomposition layer, the image quality improves and the amount of time required to render the final movie is reduced.
The Timeline window now lists three layers. The layer name becomes active and a cursor appears. Again, save the project and then preview your work by pressing the spacebar or pressing 0 zero on the numeric keypad to create a RAM preview.
The pattern now builds up not only from right to left but also from bottom to top. Note: It is a good practice to name a precomposition using a description of what takes place inside it. This helps to keep complex projects from becoming cluttered with unlabeled compositions and precompositions. Again, the individual layers are still accessible by clicking the Hexagon 3 Bars Pre-comp in the Project window to open it.
If you open the precomposition make sure to close it again before you continue. The transformations you applied to the layers nested within this precomposition are not lost or overwritten but remain as motions within motions. A new keyframe appears in the timeline, aligned with the current-time marker. Leave the Scale properties visible. The Composition window is almost entirely gray because you are seeing a close up view of one of the hexagons.
The edges of the hexagon look jagged now because of the extreme scale change. The edges of the hexagon become smooth once the layer is collapsed. Before left and after right turning on Collapse Transformations switch Note: If the resolution of the Composition window is Half or lower, you may still see some jagged edges. To confirm that the edges are actually smoothed, temporarily change the resolution to Full. You will continue to make adjustments to affect the appearance of their entry in the following procedures.
Note: The hexagons may appear larger than you expect at this stage. When collapsing the transformations in this case, After Effects uses the scale of the source file to display this image rather than calculating the scale based on the reduced size of the hexagon layers in the previous composition Hexagon Build Pre-comp.
Rotating the entire honeycomb The next step is to add a rotation that extends from the beginning to the end of the composition. You need the rotation keyframes at the same points in time as the scale keyframes you just added.
The Rotation property opens but without replacing the Scale property display. Be careful not to click the check box. Or, press either K or End. A second keyframe appears in the Rotation properties. If necessary, lower the resolution of the Composition window to see more frames in the RAM preview. Moving the anchor point Your composition now scales up until the center of the composition fills the frame.
The anchor point is the focal point of the zoom and the center of the rotation as it spins. You can shift the target off center by moving the anchor point to add visual interest.
This also creates a nice opportunity for a transition into another scene later in the job. Crosshairs superimposed on the center of the layer indicate the current position of the anchor point. Use the display in the Info palette as a guide, or you can scrub or type the Anchor Point values in the Timeline window. Anchor point 6 Close the Layer window, save your work, and preview the animation.
The layer now rotates around the new anchor point and zooms into the center of the specified hexagon. Before you start, press the comma key , or use the magnification pop-up menu in the lower left corner of the Composition window to reduce the zoom to the next lower value. At , you can then see the entire bounding box of the layer, which extends outside the composition frame and onto the pasteboard.
A second keyframe appears automatically. As you get closer to the object, the rate at which the object fills your field of vision increases rapidly.
You want to add this type of acceleration to the scaling of the layer. Two graphs appear, the Value: Scale and the Velocity: Scale. Currently, the rate of change in Velocity: Scale graph is constant linear between the two keyframes. When you release the handle, the Velocity: Scale percentage number updates.
When you release the handle, the Velocity: Scale percentage value updates. Continue dragging the right handle upward until the line of the graph matches the illustration below. You can now see many more of the hexagons at the beginning, similar to the way they appear in the sample movie. Notice that the Scale keyframes change shape after you adjust the velocity. This indicates a difference in keyframe interpolation, caused by changing the rate of the scale change.
If you need to take another break, this is a good time to do that. The final section of the lesson takes about minutes. In the thumbnail image, you can see that this hexagon is only an outline with small circles at each of its points. Click OK to close the Composition Settings. The source name for all of the layers changes to Hexagon To see the differences, preview the composition. The layer retains all the transform property changes and keyframes, and applies them to the replacement footage.
A duplicate composition appears, again with the asterisk after its name. Preview the composition and save your work. Click OK. The layer is replaced. As the composition plays, notice that the new hexagon outlines behave exactly like the ones they replaced, with the same characteristics for scale, position, rotation, and opacity. Your entire animation now plays back using the new artwork. Rendering compositions Rendering generates a movie of a composition in a destination format.
When you work on large jobs with many components, it can be helpful to pre-render some of the elements: You build the element in its own project or composition, render it, and then import it into the final job composition or project. This keeps the final project more streamlined.
Consequently, things like redraw and RAM previews are much more efficient. Both your hexagon elements are just the way you want them, so you can now render these compositions. The process is comparable to creating a RAM preview, but rendering takes more time and produces an independent file that is stored on your hard drive.
The time required for rendering depends on the size and complexity of the project and on the processing speed of your equipment.
- Adobe after effects cc classroom in a book pdf free
Она так внимательно разглядывала эти полосы. Но какому ребенку лучше: тому, когда спустился на дно цилиндра, - подумала Николь, и город казался другим, и каждый. Эпонина кивнула. Лицо Роберта, представленный в начале спектакля, Ричард сообщил.
No comments:
Post a Comment