Studio Practice: After Effects workshop notes

part one:

part two:

part three:

Importing files with layers

Importing as footage leads to this

but we want to import it as a composition

double click the composition to open it into the composition screen, the layers are already designed as assets

and now we can double check the size and change the duration through composition > composition settings

After Effects will crop the Photoshop file to size, so say if there is a long background layer that is to be panned it could instead just be imported separately.

all of the layers have the same bounding box and anchor point

but we if import it like this

they become separate! (this is probably going to be more helpful)

IMPORTANT

like InDesign, save all of your files together in a folder so After effects doesn't get confused. If a file goes missing, it will be replaced with a series of coloured bars on screen, though the animation and keyframes would still be in place. To get it back, right click it in the project tab and click replace footage

This may also come in handy if you want to work on the animation but are yet to have finished the assets

and After Effects can collect everything into a nice neat folder too

1. shy switch: hide layers that don't need to be seen (but needs to click that (below) first for it to work)

2. for comp layer, collapse transformations: useful for Illustrator files, will retain smooth vector edges (continuously rasterises) even when scaled up. might be useful for text. INFINITE SCALE

3. quality and sampling: affect quality of individual assets. diagonal straight line is fullest resolution. speeds up RAM preview

4. FX: to be used with the adjustment layer (7)

5. frame blending: only applies to video layers

6. motion blur: simulate reality a bit more (this, below, has to be checked too. the master switch) works better with faster moving items

7. adjustment layer: applying effects (brightness, contrast, hue, saturation)

you can search for the effect you want. drag and drop what you want to change on to the composition

and you can control the effect in the layers palettes like any other keyframe. the FX box is now available! the Hue tool could be good to use for a changing sky or something, but I think it could probably look quite tacky quite easily

if you want to apply an effect to the whole composition:

make a layer the size of the composition, drag and drop the desired effect again, click the adjustment layer box and then play around as before! useful for tweaks right at the end, e.g. in contrast or brightness, little changes!

8. 3D layer

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mode: blend modes (e.g. multiply, overlay, lighten etc)

trkmat: (track matte) sometimes referred to as masking

without track matte

track matte set to alpha

part 4:

repeating keyframes

create your sequence you want to repeat. highlight the keyframes by dragging the mouse over them

copy the sequence

drag the time position to where you want the next set of the sequence to begin and click edit > paste

BUT if you play this sequence the raindrop will go back up to the cloud to get to the next keyframe as a loop! which is not what you want!

right click the last keyframe in the sequence and select toggle hold keyframe

this will make the sequence stop at the point you selected, i.e. a raindrop at the bottom of the frame will not go back up to the top again to start the next set of the sequence

the icon will look like this

toggle keyframe acts as an on and off button. you can click it again to turn it off!

duplicate the layer, i.e. if you want more raindrops

to move this layer easily as one, select all of the keyframes you want to move (hint: press "position" or other property you want to change and it will highlight all keyframes)