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Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0, Manual

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ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0

User Guide

12

Use keyframes to animate layers

Preview your work

Previewing compositions is fast and convenient, even for complex projects, especially if you use OpenGL technology
to accelerate previews. You can change the speed and quality of previews by specifying their resolution and frame
rate, and by limiting the area and duration of the composition that you preview. For more information, see “Methods
for previewing compositions” on page 134.

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Summary of Contents for AFTER EFFECTS 7.0

Page 1: ...Chapter 1 User Guide...

Page 2: ...rademarks are the property of their respective owners MPEG Layer 3 audio compression technology is licensed by Fraunhofer IIS and Thomson This Program was written with MacApp 1985 1988 Apple Computer...

Page 3: ...be Stock Photos 40 Comp images 43 Buying stock photos 43 Stock Photos Accounts 45 Chapter 4 Planning and managing projects Planning projects 49 Project basics 54 Saving projects 57 Organizing projects...

Page 4: ...rs 153 Managing layers 158 Guide layers 161 Trimming 162 Markers 164 Switches 167 Audio layers 170 Creating Adobe Encore DVD buttons 172 Chapter 9 3D layers 3D layers overview 173 Working with 3D laye...

Page 5: ...4 Paint tools Using paint tools 313 Brushes 319 Paint strokes 322 Selecting colors 327 Chapter 15 Motion tracking Pro only Motion tracking overview Pro only 329 Tracker Controls panel Pro only 335 Tra...

Page 6: ...ering and exporting Rendering a movie 590 Using Post Render Action options 600 Using the Render Queue panel 602 Exporting to Macromedia Flash SWF format 609 Rendering to Windows Media RealMedia or MPE...

Page 7: ...n dialog box is not already open start the product and choose Help Activate 2 Follow the on screen instructions Important If you want to install the product on a different computer you must first tran...

Page 8: ...ofessionals or even websites you turn to for inspiration or troubleshooting information See also Using Help on page 3 To search Help topics on page 4 To navigate Help on page 4 To view support documen...

Page 9: ...in full on the Adobe website click its link An active Internet connection is required To display More Resources The More Resources section in Adobe Help Center provides easy access to some of the cont...

Page 10: ...option from the In menu This Product Searches Help for the selected product All Products Searches Help for all Adobe products you have installed 3 Click Search Topics matching the search words appear...

Page 11: ...and click the Bookmark button When the New Bookmark dialog box appears type a new name in the text box if desired and then click OK To delete a bookmark select it in the Bookmarks pane and click the D...

Page 12: ...e purchased online from the Adobe Store See also Adobe Studio on page 6 Adobe Studio Adobe Studio provides a wealth of tips tricks tutorials and instructional content in video PDF and HTML formats aut...

Page 13: ...bsites and valuable contacts For complete developer documentation and resources visit the Developers area of the Adobe website at http partners adobe com public developer main html For additional back...

Page 14: ...s on page 140 Timewarp Pro only Slow down and speed up footage with smooth crisp results and minimal artifacts See To apply the Timewarp effect Pro only on page 239 Adobe Bridge Simplify the everyday...

Page 15: ...ify layer properties 4 Animate 5 Preview your work 6 Export Import and organize footage After you start a project add your footage to the Project panel After Effects automatically interprets many comm...

Page 16: ...ls to composite or combine the images of multiple layers For more information see About compositions on page 109 and About layers on page 149 Work with layers in Timeline panel Add effects and modify...

Page 17: ...on feature you can animate and link properties using preset or customized scripts instead of keyframes You can apply any of the hundreds of preset animations included with After Effects or create and...

Page 18: ...en for complex projects especially if you use OpenGL technology to accelerate previews You can change the speed and quality of previews by specifying their resolution and frame rate and by limiting th...

Page 19: ...ols panel B Cache indicator in Timeline panel C Fast Previews Export Add one or more compositions to the render queue to render them at the quality settings you choose and create movies in the formats...

Page 20: ...contains groups of panels as well as panels that stand alone You customize a workspace by arranging the panels usually by dragging them in the layout that best suits your style of working You can crea...

Page 21: ...panel or out of the feature region when tracking roll the mouse wheel backward To zoom into the area under the pointer hold down Alt Windows or Option Mac OS as you roll the mouse wheel forward To zoo...

Page 22: ...onto which you can drop or move panels As you drag a panel the drop zones become highlighted The drop zone determines where and how the panel is inserted into the workspace Dragging a panel to a drop...

Page 23: ...roup by clicking its tab If the panel is not visible choose it from the Window menu to open it 2 Drag the panel by its tab onto the desired drop zone The application docks or groups the panel accordin...

Page 24: ...tically If you drag the divider between the bottom two they are resized but the topmost group doesn t change You can quickly maximize a panel beneath the pointer by pressing the tilde key Do not press...

Page 25: ...ow Workspace and select the desired workspace To create or modify a workspace As you modify a workspace the application tracks changes saving any modifications with the project The next time you open...

Page 26: ...the Project Composition Timeline Info Audio Time Controls and Effects Presets panels For information about specific panels search for the panel name in Help You can assign keyboard shortcuts to worksp...

Page 27: ...o evaluate trim and insert movies In addition to the shared controls the Layer panel also contains the View menu and the Render check box After Effects switches the view according to your actions For...

Page 28: ...s technique works with most tools To view optional panels for a tool click the desired tool icon and then click the panel icon if available See also Keys for selecting tools on page 642 To show or hid...

Page 29: ...h is fixed at the upper left corner of the image area The upper right portion of the Info panel displays the X and Y coordinates of the pointer As you drag a layer the lower portion of the Info panel...

Page 30: ...alternates and set access privileges in Bridge Note Adobe Version Cue is not included with Production Studio Bridge Center If you have Adobe Creative Suite 2 Adobe Bridge includes Bridge Center where...

Page 31: ...u organize your images by attaching keywords to them To start and quit Bridge and to return to an application Do any of the following To open Bridge from an application choose File Browse from your ap...

Page 32: ...nd the current application window See also The Bridge work area on page 25 To adjust the Bridge window You can adjust the Bridge window by moving and resizing the panels For example you can enlarge th...

Page 33: ...the menu and click Delete Reset To Default Workspace Restores the workspace to the default configuration To set Bridge preferences 1 Choose Edit Preferences Windows or Bridge Preferences Mac OS 2 Sel...

Page 34: ...cently Visited Folders To Display In The Look In Popup Sets the number of most recently viewed folders that appear in the Look In menu Language Sets the language used in the Bridge interface Double Cl...

Page 35: ...ng with an extra large thumbnail of the currently selected item Click the Back button or Forward button directly below the extra large thumbnail to go to the previous or next thumbnail Click the Switc...

Page 36: ...e when you perform certain Version Cue actions that don t automatically refresh the view in the content area Closing and reopening Bridge also refreshes the view You can also click Unfiltered at the t...

Page 37: ...manage not only Adobe Creative Suite files but also other Adobe and non Adobe files Do any of the following To delete files Select the files and click the Delete button or press Delete To copy files a...

Page 38: ...ired location in the panel To rotate images with Bridge You can rotate the view of JPEG PSD TIFF and camera raw file images in Bridge Rotating an image in Bridge may rotate it in the application in wh...

Page 39: ...again later 1 Choose Edit Find 2 In the Find dialog box choose a source folder from the Look In menu By default the menu displays the currently active folder Click the Browse button to navigate to an...

Page 40: ...add their own items to the Tools menu for added functionality in Bridge For information about creating your own scripts see Bridge JavaScript Scripting Reference 1 Select the files or folders you wan...

Page 41: ...ews may exist for the same property For example a property may be labeled Author in one view and Creator in another but both refer to the same underlying property Even if you customize these views for...

Page 42: ...bal positioning system GPS available in some digital cameras Photos without GPS information don t have GPS metadata Camera Raw Displays settings applied by the Camera Raw plug in Edit History Keeps a...

Page 43: ...document information about the file such as document title author description and keywords that can be used to search for the document You can also choose text from the menu to the right of the text...

Page 44: ...ion in the file that is EXIF information that is not modifiable by the user such as the f stop and the Photoshop file ID information as well as user modifiable information such as document title and k...

Page 45: ...keywords from a file select the file and then click the box next to the name of the keyword or keyword set that you want to remove To create a new keyword click the New Keyword button at the bottom of...

Page 46: ...d photos again after you purchase them See also About comp images on page 43 Benefits of Stock Photos accounts on page 45 Buying stock photos on page 43 Searching for images in Adobe Stock Photos Ther...

Page 47: ...a are displayed in batches There is a preference for changing the number of images displayed in a batch To view more images click More Results See also Search tips for stock photos on page 42 To view...

Page 48: ...the native currency of your billing country it is the supported currency for purchases made from your country When you purchase photos from Adobe Stock Photos your credit card will be billed in the su...

Page 49: ...and then choose Send To Recycle Bin Windows or Control click it and choose Move To Trash Mac OS For more information on using comps see the terms of service TOS which describe when and for how long yo...

Page 50: ...om the shopping cart at any time by clicking the Delete icon 3 Click Check Out 4 Do one of the following If you have an Adobe account enter your ID and password If you want to open an Adobe account cl...

Page 51: ...t a particular order click the order number highlighted in blue 4 In the Order Detail page you can see the billing information as well as a description of the photos you purchased Click Return To Your...

Page 52: ...d and then click Continue If your login is successful the Your Account page appears If you re having trouble logging into your account make sure that you have spelled your e mail address and password...

Page 53: ...default credit card type a new name in the Payment Nickname text box To change the default credit card number type the new number in the Credit Card Number text box and then choose the expiration date...

Page 54: ...ntry Or Region To change your default billing country choose the name of the country from the Billing Country menu The currency displayed next to the Billing Country menu may not be the native currenc...

Page 55: ...additional information go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help To check for upates click the Preferences button in Adobe Help Center and then c...

Page 56: ...pect ratios specify this ratio for each footage item in the Interpret Footage dialog box For more information see About pixel aspect ratio on page 96 See also To specify interpretation rules on page 7...

Page 57: ...erformance enhancing measures can improve rendering and screen redraw speed See also Improving performance when using effects on page 638 Improving performance by simplifying your project on page 639...

Page 58: ...RealPlayer and Windows Media Player Also consider the keyframe rate of the codec you have selected For more information about compression and about preparing output for DVD search for the Adobe DV Co...

Page 59: ...different volumes make sure that the appropriate volume is mounted before opening the project and that network volume names are the same on both systems It helps to store footage in the same folder as...

Page 60: ...nd frames You can change to another system of time display such as film frames or feet and frames of 16mm or 35mm film See To change timecode display on page 55 Video editing workstations often use SM...

Page 61: ...time in feet and frames assuming the frame rate of 35mm film 16 frames per foot Use for output to 35mm film Feet frames 35mm timecode showing 15 as the highest possible number of frames before the ne...

Page 62: ...owse for project templates choose File Browse Template Projects You can choose from several project templates located in the Adobe After Effects 7 0 Templates folder To use Bridge to browse for animat...

Page 63: ...the Collect Files feature to gather copies of all files in a project into a single folder See Collecting files in one location on page 598 To automatically save a project The Auto Save feature saves t...

Page 64: ...the Project panel using folders Solids are automatically placed in the Solids folder The folders you create in the Project panel exist only in the Project panel You can expand a folder to reveal its c...

Page 65: ...rdinate composition Reduce Project removes the nonsubordinate composition and the applied expression The message that appears after you choose Reduce Project reminds you of this possibility so you can...

Page 66: ...n aligned flowcharts You can also use the four buttons along the bottom of the Flowchart panel which are shortcuts for many of these menu commands For tool tips identifying the buttons in the Flowchar...

Page 67: ...l the more colors can be represented In After Effects you can work in 8 bpc 16 bpc or 32 bpc color mode for each project 16 bpc and 32 bpc color modes are available only in After Effects Professional...

Page 68: ...ng Choose File Project Settings and choose a color depth from the Color Depth menu In the Project panel Alt click Windows or Option click Mac OS the Project Color Depth button Project Color Depth butt...

Page 69: ...apply blending modes to create interesting interactions between layers You can use the HDR Compander effect to compress the dynamic range of HDR footage In this way you can use tools that don t suppor...

Page 70: ...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 environm...

Page 71: ...ors as they d appear without the working color space applied that is as raw color values in the color space of the monitor 1 Choose View Proof Setup Unmanaged 2 Choose View Proof Colors to toggle the...

Page 72: ...atically installed in folders inside the Adobe After Effects 7 0 folder You can otain other plug ins for After Effects from Adobe or third party vendors Many third party effects are available in the f...

Page 73: ...Scripting Guide on the After Effects disc To execute a script Pro only Do one of the following Choose File Scripts script name Choose File Scripts Run Script File locate and select a script and click...

Page 74: ...the link usually just by double clicking the item and selecting the file again To save time and minimize the size and complexity of a project import a footage item once and then use it multiple times...

Page 75: ...lowing types of audio files Advanced Audio Coding AAC AU Requires QuickTime Audio Interchange File Format AIFF requires QuickTime MP3 Requires QuickTime Video for Windows AVI WAV WAVE WAV Supported st...

Page 76: ...uthoring Format AAF Adobe Premiere 6 0 and 6 5 PPJ Adobe Premiere Pro 1 0 1 5 and 2 0 PRPROJ For additional information go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website Adobe periodically provides updates to s...

Page 77: ...ile type code for each footage type or codec If you don t know the code for a file or codec in a project press Alt Windows or Option Mac OS as you select the file in the Project panel The file type co...

Page 78: ...in your Import Preferences Choose Comp from the Default Drag Import As menu See also About still image sequences on page 75 To import footage with an alpha channel The alpha channel contains transpare...

Page 79: ...ning interpretation options each time you import an unlabeled alpha channel Guess Attempts to determine the type of alpha channel used in the image If After Effects cannot guess confidently it beeps I...

Page 80: ...t naming convention For example if you plan to import the file into After Effects on Windows use a three character file name extension Working with higher image resolutions After Effects supports a ma...

Page 81: ...folder that have the same file name pattern and file type as the one you selected Each image once imported into the sequence represents one frame Note When you render a composition that contains a num...

Page 82: ...Select the file format name Sequence option 5 If you want to import alphabetically select Force Alphabetical Order 6 Click Open To import a sequence of files as individual footage items Do either of t...

Page 83: ...ge You can use Adobe Bridge to preview camera raw images using the default image settings and to apply settings without opening the Camera Raw dialog box You can also copy and paste the settings from...

Page 84: ...e settings for the first camera raw image in the sequence to the rest of the images in the sequence if those images don t have specific settings 3 Optional Make one or more of the following adjustment...

Page 85: ...83 and To straighten images in Camera Raw on page 83 If you don t want to keep your adjustments Alt click Windows or Option click Mac OS Reset to reset all options to their default settings Detail Len...

Page 86: ...lick the Zoom tool Hand tool Moves the image in the preview panel if the preview image is set at a zoom level higher than 100 Hold down the spacebar to use the Hand tool while using another tool Doubl...

Page 87: ...using the Temperature and Tint adjustments Note Leave White Balance set to As Shot to use the camera s white balance settings For cameras whose white balance settings are not recognized by After Effe...

Page 88: ...ure one and one half stops Hold down Alt Windows or Option Mac OS while moving the Exposure slider to preview where the highlights are clipped Clipping is the shifting of pixel values to either the hi...

Page 89: ...specific proportions click the Crop tool icon and choose a proportion from the pop up menu Choosing Custom opens the Custom Crop dialog box where you can specify the proportions or the dimensions of...

Page 90: ...a raw image Use this option if don t want to apply sharpening with the Camera Raw plug in Reducing noise in camera raw files The Detail tab of the Camera Raw dialog box has controls for reducing image...

Page 91: ...hold down Alt Windows or Option Mac OS to hide the blue yellow color fringing Similarly hold down Alt Windows or Option Mac OS while adjusting the blue yellow color fringing to hide the red cyan color...

Page 92: ...itive value is like a clockwise move Moving the Saturation slider to the left negative value desat urates the color and moving it to the right positive value increases saturation Adjustments made in t...

Page 93: ...om a read only volume like a CD or DVD be sure to copy the files to your hard drive first After Effects cannot write an XMP file to a read only volume and will default to writing the settings to the C...

Page 94: ...ou save them in the Camera Raw settings folder However you can use the Load Settings command to browse for and apply settings saved elsewhere 1 In the Camera Raw dialog box click the triangle next to...

Page 95: ...w composition with each layer in the Photoshop or Illustrator file becoming a separate layer in the compo sition and changing dimensions to match the composition size This option Composition is helpfu...

Page 96: ...ered Photoshop or Illustrator file as a composition the original file name is used twice in the Project panel for the file as a composition and for the folder containing each Photoshop or Illustrator...

Page 97: ...nt s size Select Merged Layers to merge all the layers into a single After Effects layer The layers in the referenced file don t merge To import layers as a single footage item by using commands 1 In...

Page 98: ...r Effects To remove the effect and the white solid either delete the adjustment layer or turn off the Video switch for the layer See also Audio Video and Layer switches on page 167 To continuously ras...

Page 99: ...fter Effects project into another Everything from the imported project including footage files compositions and folders appears inside a new folder in the current Project panel When you want to repeat...

Page 100: ...Studio only on page 632 To export an After Effects project to Adobe Premiere Pro Windows only on page 631 To import an Adobe Premiere Pro project The ability to import Adobe Premiere Pro projects into...

Page 101: ...with a widescreen aspect ratio of 16 9 HD video formats include interlaced and noninterlaced varieties Typically the highest resolution formats are inter laced at the higher frame rates because nonin...

Page 102: ...es If however the source footage has a frame rate slightly different from what you want to output to for example 30 fps footage and 29 97 fps final output you can make the footage frame rate match the...

Page 103: ...der than it does on a D1 or DV system D1 PAL footage looks slightly narrower The opposite effect occurs when you import anamorphic footage using D1 DV NTSC Widescreen or D1 DV PAL Widescreen Widescree...

Page 104: ...d from an application that doesn t support nonsquare pixels This setting can also beappropriateforfootagethatwastransferredfromfilm or for customized projects D1 DV NTSC 0 9 Your footage has a 720 x 4...

Page 105: ...Noninterlaced video frames are not separated into fields A progressive scan monitor will display a noninterlaced video frame by drawing all of the horizontal lines from top to bottom in one pass Comp...

Page 106: ...files You can manually separate fields for all other types of video footage in the Interpret Footage dialog box See Interpretation methods on page 73 1 Select the footage item in the Project panel 2 C...

Page 107: ...epeating 3 2 pattern The first frame of film is copied to fields 1 and 2 of the first frame of video and also to field 1 of the second video frame The second frame of film is then spread across the ne...

Page 108: ...rom different sources the phase may not be consistent If this is the case import the footage once for each phase Then add the footage to your composition as many times as there are phases and trim eac...

Page 109: ...otage or if you want to sacrifice quality for shorter rendering times choose Layer Frame Blending Frame Mix 4 Select Composition Make Movie 5 In the Render Queue panel next to Render Settings select t...

Page 110: ...the composition as a Cineon sequence See About still image sequences on page 75 Cineon files are commonly used to transfer motion picture film to a digital format To preserve the full dynamic range o...

Page 111: ...Current Gamma setting When you re ready to produce output from the Cineon file it is important that you reverse the conversion To convert from logarithmic to linear set Current Gamma to 1 Units Speci...

Page 112: ...Timeline panel Different image dimensions and pixel aspect ratios When an Avid editing system imports footage it is scaled to the dimensions of the project regardless of the original dimensions of the...

Page 113: ...179 To import RLA or RPF data into a camera layer Pro only After Effects imports camera data saved with RLA or RPF sequence files That data is incorporated into a camera layer that After Effects creat...

Page 114: ...ition When you import a Maya file with a 1 node camera After Effects creates a camera in the square pixel composition that carries the camera s focal length film size and transformation data When you...

Page 115: ...obe periodically provides updates to software and Help To check for updates click the Preferences button in Adobe Help Center and then click Check For Updates Follow the on screen instructions Creatin...

Page 116: ...he composition as it is resized Shutter Angle and Shutter Phase Specify settings for motion blur Rendering Plug In Select a 3D Rendering Plug in from the menu Preserve Frame Rate Click this option to...

Page 117: ...t However you can override some composition settings when rendering For example you might change the composition frame size to a smaller image size when rendering When you click the Advanced tab in th...

Page 118: ...ewing frame C Footage item partially outside the frame To set the anchor When you change the frame size of a composition by default the layers are centered within the new dimensions Use the Anchor con...

Page 119: ...1 NTSC or D1 PAL is chosen automatically when you choose the corresponding preset item 1 Prepare square pixel footage that fills the entire frame for any of the following final output formats DV NTSC...

Page 120: ...frame blending for the layer Setting the composition frame rate to twice the rate of the output format causes After Effects to display each field of interlaced source footage as its own separate frame...

Page 121: ...maintaining image clarity Deselect this option to maintain the composition size in the Composition panel but display layers with less clarity 3 Click OK You can also set the magnification using the me...

Page 122: ...3D Choose an option from the Antialiasing menu Advanced 3D Choose an option from the Shadow Map Resolution menu Composition panel About the Composition panel Use the Composition panel to preview the...

Page 123: ...Ratio Correction button Toggles between turning on and off pixel aspect ratio correction Turn on Pixel Aspect Correction to squash or stretch an image and correct a non square pixel aspect ratio Pixel...

Page 124: ...o draw a region of interest click the Region Of Interest button and then drag the marquee tool across the area of the Composition panel where you want images to appear To toggle between viewing the re...

Page 125: ...me column Includes a label a number assigned by After Effects and a source name or layer name for each layer Click on the column heading to alternate between viewing the source name and viewing the la...

Page 126: ...indicator Work area start and end brackets Indicates the part of the composition that will be rendered or previewed Timeline Options Displays the Timeline Options menu which includes functions affecti...

Page 127: ...vigator view drag the left and right time view brackets until the time ruler displays the portion you want To set a work area When you work on a composition you may want to preview or render only part...

Page 128: ...you add a layer you can move it to any position within the Composition panel When you add multiple footage items they appear in the composition in the order selected In the Composition panel layers a...

Page 129: ...osition right click Windows or Control click Mac OS the footage item in the Project panel and choose Reveal In Composition then select the specific instance you want to reveal composition name layer n...

Page 130: ...e in the After Effects Footage panel press Alt Windows or Option Mac OS as you double click a movie in the Project panel 2 To open a movie in the Footage panel double click a movie in the Project pane...

Page 131: ...s per second fps 1 Select an item in the Project panel 2 Choose File Interpret Footage Main 3 Select Conform to Frame Rate and enter a number in the Frames per Second text box Note If you remove 3 2 p...

Page 132: ...from an After Effects composition and paste it into an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence Adobe Premiere Pro converts footage layers to clips in the sequence and copies the source footage to the Adobe Premie...

Page 133: ...an effect that is also used by After Effects After Effects converts the effect and all of its settings and keyframes You can copy color mattes stills nested sequences and offline files into After Effe...

Page 134: ...t to speed up previewing or rendering of test movies You must have a file available to use as a proxy Using either method any masks attributes expressions effects and keyframes that you apply to the p...

Page 135: ...nd disk space when used in compositions and can slow down working and rendering in elaborate projects Using low resolution proxy items in place of actual items is a way to lighten the burden on your c...

Page 136: ...planet both rotate and revolve moving like the Earth which spins on its own axis and also travels around the sun By nesting you can apply rotation to the planet in one composition and then move that c...

Page 137: ...composition After Effects provides a preference that updates all panels of nested compositions when you move the current time indicator in any nested composition Choose Edit Preferences General Windo...

Page 138: ...ndered composition because the original nested compo sition remains in the project list If you make a significant change to the original nested composition simply render it again Prerendering a nested...

Page 139: ...Pre compose 3 Select Leave All Attributes In or Move All Attributes Into The New Composition and then click OK Leave All Attributes In Leaves the selected layer properties and keyframes in the origina...

Page 140: ...ine panel the Layer and Footage panels include time view brackets that you can use to magnify or shrink the part of the time ruler displayed Note To display the Time Controls panel choose Window Time...

Page 141: ...Controls panel choose RAM Preview Options or Shift RAM Preview Options 4 Set the Preview Options Frame Rate Either choose a desired frame rate from the list or type a frame rate in the box Choose Auto...

Page 142: ...lick the Previous Frame button To go to the beginning of the composition layer or footage item click the First Frame button To go to the end of the composition layer or footage click the Last Frame bu...

Page 143: ...k OK To set preferences for audio preview 1 Choose Edit Preferences Previews Windows or After Effects Preferences Previews Mac OS 2 In the Audio Preview section type a duration for the audio preview A...

Page 144: ...waveform you can identify a location in the layer by moving the current time indicator in the Timeline panel and listening to audio playback In the Timeline panel hold down Ctrl Windows or Command Mac...

Page 145: ...ayers up to 2048 x 2048 pixels After Effects downsamples larger layers during OpenGL preview Complex effects can slow down OpenGL preview If the preview is too slow turn off OpenGL and use another pre...

Page 146: ...f the Adobe website To use Wireframe for previews Wireframe mode represents each layer as a simple rectangle which increases playback speed and allows you to reposition a high resolution or data inten...

Page 147: ...of field blur Click the Draft 3D mode button in the Timeline See also About cameras on page 180 Camera settings on page 181 Modifying views Changing magnification in panels The lower left corner of a...

Page 148: ...tion panels you can display safe zones for titles and actions as well as grids used for aligning layers Television sets enlarge a video image and allow some portion of its outer edges to be cut off by...

Page 149: ...Safe and Title Safe margins The title safe or action safe percentage can be set to zero which turns the margins off To change grid spacing type a value for Gridline Every and then type a value for Sub...

Page 150: ...nnel displayed in the channel s own color instead of white choose the Colorize option from the Show Channel menu When you preview the alpha channel After Effects displays transparent and opaque areas...

Page 151: ...ition or Footage panel Displaying a snapshot does not replace the content of the panel If the snapshot has a different size or aspect ratio than the panel in which you display it the snapshot is resiz...

Page 152: ...ts creates a new viewer panel for that item 1 Click the tab at the top of a Composition Layer Footage or Effect Controls panel 2 Choose Locked from the menu To edit one composition while viewing anoth...

Page 153: ...n panel on the computer screen and simultaneously on the external monitor Renders Displays each frame on the computer screen and simultaneously on the external monitor as the frames render in the rend...

Page 154: ...ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7 0 User Guide 148 See also Improving performance by modifying screen output on page 640...

Page 155: ...on to another Use as many layers as necessary to create your composition A layer can be any of the following Any footage item in the Project panel list including audio Another composition in the proje...

Page 156: ...in the compo sition drag the item to the Timeline panel and release it in that layer position and starting time instead of dragging it to the Composition panel To create a layer from another compositi...

Page 157: ...Solids folder See also To change settings for a solid used by more than one layer on page 161 To create a light or camera layer You can use light and camera layers to create interesting results for th...

Page 158: ...Switches Adjustment Layer If you want to apply an effect to just part of an image draw a mask on an adjustment layer The mask restricts the area to which the effect applies You can animate the mask to...

Page 159: ...to a parent layer select the parent layer and choose Select Children from the context menu in the Composition or Timeline panel The child layers are added to the existing selection Note Selected laye...

Page 160: ...on evenly spaces selected layers between the two most extreme layers For example for a vertical distribution option the selected layers are distributed between the topmost and bottommost selected obje...

Page 161: ...with columns in the Timeline panel on page 119 To arrange a layer by dragging You can change the spatial position of a layer in a composition by selecting and dragging the layer in the Compo sition pa...

Page 162: ...rlap and whether they cut or cross dissolve from one to the next If you specify a cross dissolve After Effects creates opacity keyframes that control how the layers dissolve into each other Overlappin...

Page 163: ...which you want the layer to begin 3 Press Ctrl Alt V Windows or Command Option V Mac OS To duplicate a layer When you duplicate a layer After Effects copies all property keyframes expressions masks a...

Page 164: ...ss Enter or Return again to apply the new name Note To switch between displaying the original file name and the layer name you ve specified click the Source Name or Layer Name heading See also About t...

Page 165: ...deo switch to exclude or include layers in the Composition panel The Video switch is on by default so the layer appears in the Composition panel When you want to speed up redrawing or exclude a layer...

Page 166: ...default to the left of the layer name in the Timeline panel Do one of the following In the Timeline panel click the Lock switch for the layer to place lock or clear unlock the Lock icon Select one or...

Page 167: ...ition Guide layers About guide layers You can use rulers guide lines safe zones and grids in your layers and compositions to help you position and edit your footage You can also create guide layers fr...

Page 168: ...does not crop the image affect what portion of the image appears To trim layer footage You can trim by changing the In and Out points in the Layer panel or the Timeline panel depending on what you wa...

Page 169: ...t in time The length of the play time and the frames that appear remain unchanged Drag the dimmed outline If you drag the pale rectangle behind the duration bar the footage starts and ends at the same...

Page 170: ...You can place up to ten composition time markers within a composition If you remove a marker the other markers remain numbered as they were You can use layer time markers to mark important points in...

Page 171: ...delete markers on a layer right click Windows or Command click Mac OS on a marker and choose Delete This Marker or Delete All Markers from the menu that appears To add a layer time marker 1 With the...

Page 172: ...mats such as QuickTime Macromedia Flash SWF and others 1 Create a layer time marker and then double click it to open the Marker dialog box 2 For web links type the URL for the site 3 To activate a spe...

Page 173: ...layer contains vector graphics or masks Quality Toggles options for layer preview quality Effects Toggles layer effects on or off Frame Blending Toggles frame blending on or off Motion Blur Toggles mo...

Page 174: ...nd rendering time When the layer source is an Adobe Illustrator file this switch acts as the Continuously Rasterize switch Selecting this switch causes After Effects to rerasterize the Adobe Illustrat...

Page 175: ...ng of the original layer See also To use Wireframe for previews on page 140 To show and hide effects Using the Effect switch you can control whether a layer s effects appear in both previews and rende...

Page 176: ...otion blurring applied to layers See also About motion blur on page 214 To apply motion blur to a layer on page 215 To set the shutter angle and phase for motion blur on page 215 Audio layers To chang...

Page 177: ...tune your audio layers The Edit In Adobe Audition command lets you start Adobe Audition from within After Effects If you edit an audio only file for example a WAV file in Adobe Audition you make chan...

Page 178: ...Layer Adobe Encore DVD Create Button 3 Enter a name for the button 4 Use the menus to assign up to three highlight layers and one video thumbnail layer and then click OK A new composition is created...

Page 179: ...gle Conventional After Effects 2D image left and image with 3D properties right You can specify any layer except an adjustment layer as 3D Though you can import composited files with 3D information in...

Page 180: ...ot appear as expected To ensure that the shadow remains where expected precompose but don t collapse the 3D and track matte layers then apply the shadow to the composition Compositions can contain bot...

Page 181: ...yers To designate a layer as 3D Designating a layer as 3D activates the additional layer properties Position z Anchor Point z Orientation X Rotation Y Rotation Z Rotation and Material Options Material...

Page 182: ...ations with multiple revolutions along a single axis See also Applying and changing interpolation methods on page 222 Adjusting 3D layers In the Composition panel 3D layers appear with three axes Axes...

Page 183: ...e y axis if you drag a top or bottom center handle the layer rotates along the x axis Note To specify what values the Rotation tool affects select the Rotation tool in the Tools panel and choose eithe...

Page 184: ...view to include the layers you have selected To view the keyboard shortcuts for setting views and other After Effects features see Keys for viewing panels on page 644 To select a 3D view Do one of th...

Page 185: ...both RAM previews and output files The 3D rendering plug in you specify becomes the default for future compositions 3D auto orientation options 3D layers include auto orientation options which you ap...

Page 186: ...e active camera view when creating final output and when nesting compositions If you have not created a custom camera then the active camera is the same as the default composition view Though you can...

Page 187: ...scending order If you delete a camera and are still using the After Effects default naming convention After Effects names the next camera you create with the lowest available number You should choose...

Page 188: ...n After Effects the camera s position represents the center of the lens When you specify new values for Focal Length the Zoom value changes to match the perspective of a real camera In addition the Pr...

Page 189: ...regardless of the light s position Parts of a light A Point of interest B Spotlight cone C Light Cameras and lights include a property that specifies the point in the composition at which the camera o...

Page 190: ...ype Color Sets the color of the light Casts Shadows Specifies whether the light source causes a layer to cast a shadow Shadow Darkness Sets the darkness level of the shadow This option is active only...

Page 191: ...he point of interest drag the point of interest icon Material Options properties In the Timeline panel 3D layers have an additional set of properties called Material Options These determine how a 3D l...

Page 192: ...A value of 100 specifies that the full color value of the shadow casting layer is projected onto the layer accepting the shadow Accepts Shadows Shows the shadow cast on this layer by another layer Ac...

Page 193: ...highlight Metal Specifies the color of the specular highlight A value of 100 specifies that the color is the color of the layer For example with a Metal value of 100 an image of a gold ring reflects...

Page 194: ...perty s value For example you can move a layer by typing new coordinate values for the Position property You can animate layer properties by moving keyframe positions in the Graph Editor For example t...

Page 195: ...ected To select Graph Options in the Graph Editor Click the Graph Options button at the bottom of the Graph Editor and select from the following options Auto Select Graph Type Automatically selects th...

Page 196: ...r Option click Mac OS with the Zoom tool To zoom using the mouse scroll wheel press Alt Windows or Option Mac OS while scrolling to zoom horizon tally press Ctrl Windows or Command Mac OS to zoom vert...

Page 197: ...o that it points to the right To expand or collapse all layer outline headings select the layer and then press Ctrl tilde To view modified properties in the layer outline When working on a composition...

Page 198: ...the Anchor Point Mask Shape Effect Point controls 3D Orientation and Position properties are spatial so they use speed graphs by default instead of value graphs 1 In the Timeline panel display a temp...

Page 199: ...stopwatch B Inactive stopwatch See also About interpolation on page 218 Keyframe icons In layer bar mode the appearance of a keyframe icon depends on the interpolation method you choose for the interv...

Page 200: ...panel A Keyframe at current time B No keyframe at current time C No keyframes for layer property Click a keyframe navigator arrow The arrow to the left moves the current time indicator to the previous...

Page 201: ...t time indicator location is not relevant nor is it relevant when you change a keyframe s interpolation method See also Interpolation methods on page 220 To set keyframes for layer properties 1 In the...

Page 202: ...eyframes of one layer property click the Stopwatch icon to the left of the name of the layer property to deactivate it Note When you deselect the Stopwatch icon keyframes for that property are permane...

Page 203: ...rs Displays the Sequence Layers assistant Time Reverse Keyframes Reverses selected keyframes in time See also Interpolation methods on page 220 About expressions on page 555 Editing moving and copying...

Page 204: ...ame to the desired time See also Using keyframes on page 192 To move a keyframe to a specific time 1 Move the current time indicator to the desired time 2 Do one of the following In layer bar mode hol...

Page 205: ...7 About masks on page 243 To copy and paste keyframes 1 In the Timeline panel display the layer property containing the keyframes you want to copy 2 Select one or more keyframes 3 Choose Edit Copy 4 I...

Page 206: ...alue exactly In other words you make an absolute change For example if you select several Position keyframes on a motion path and numerically specify a Position value for one of them all selected keyf...

Page 207: ...e keyframes To select all keyframes for a property Alt click Windows or Option click Mac OS a segment between two keyframes 3 Do any of the following To move keyframes in time or value position the po...

Page 208: ...s FFX files and transferred from one computer to another By default animation presets are stored in the Presets directory For additional information go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website Adobe perio...

Page 209: ...the Effect Controls panel lists only those animation presets that contain the current effect For example if the Mirror effect is selected the menu will show only those presets that include the Mirror...

Page 210: ...r proportionally in the Timeline panel select the layer press S to display the Scale property click the Constrain Proportions icon to the left of the Scale values and enter a new value for the x y or...

Page 211: ...layers A layer can rotate any number of degrees in relation to its original orientation You can rotate a layer as many times as you want which is useful when you want to spin an object continuously o...

Page 212: ...nels for a composition 2 In the Timeline panel select the layer you want to modify 3 Choose Layer Transform Auto Orient 4 Do one of the following and click OK To activate Auto Orient choose Orient Alo...

Page 213: ...roperties change when you drag the anchor point using the Pan Behind tool using the Pan Behind tool to change the anchor point of a moving layer alters the motion path If your layer contains a motion...

Page 214: ...for creating complex animations such as linking the movements of a marionette or depicting the orbits of planets in the solar system Dragging the pick whip to designate the saucer layer as the parent...

Page 215: ...dows or Control click Mac OS the layer in the Composition or Timeline panel and choose Select Children To make a child layer jump when a parent is assigned or removed hold down Alt Windows or Option M...

Page 216: ...odify when you use fewer keyframes to describe the path To create a motion path 1 In the Composition panel position the layer at the point where you want the motion to begin 2 In the Timeline panel Pr...

Page 217: ...the Composition panel move the current time indicator in the Timeline panel to the keyframe 5 In the Composition panel use the Selection tool to drag a keyframe marker or its control handles on the m...

Page 218: ...to create masks See Creating masks with the Pen tool on page 245 To change the number of visible motion path keyframes By default After Effects displays motion path keyframes and dots in the Compositi...

Page 219: ...Timeline panel select the layer for which you want to sketch a motion path 2 In the Timeline panel set the work area markers to the area in which you want to sketch motion 3 Choose Window Motion Sketc...

Page 220: ...erty 4 Paste the mask or path See also To import an Adobe Illustrator path as a mask on page 249 Assorted animation tools About motion blur When you view one frame of motion picture film or video cont...

Page 221: ...ur by changing the setting The shutter angle is measured in degrees simulating the exposure allowed by a rotating shutter If you are not applying motion blur shutter angle has no effect The shutter an...

Page 222: ...r You can add randomness to any property as it varies over time by using The Wiggler You can also use the wiggle expression to accomplish this See Property attributes and methods on page 584 Depending...

Page 223: ...ry choose Edit Undo The Wiggler to reset the keyframes adjust the values for Frequency and Magnitude and then reapply The Wiggler To convert audio to keyframes The Convert Audio To Keyframes keyframe...

Page 224: ...s to the way that change occurs After Effects provides several interpolation methods that affect how change occurs through and between keyframes For example if you are setting up motion you can choose...

Page 225: ...an make precise adjustments to the temporal property keyframes you ve created for your animation The value graph displays x values as red y values as green and z values 3D only as blue The value graph...

Page 226: ...he state in which there are no keyframes for a layer property when the stopwatch is turned off and the I beam icon appears in the Timeline panel under the current time indicator In this state when you...

Page 227: ...lly adjust the shape of the value graph or motion path segments on either side of the keyframe Unlike Auto Bezier or Continuous Bezier the two direction handles on a Bezier keyframe operate independen...

Page 228: ...d changing interpolation methods You can apply and change the interpolation method for any property keyframe You can apply changes using the Keyframe Interpolation dialog box or you can apply them dir...

Page 229: ...d then click the Hold Linear or Auto Bezier button at the bottom of the screen to change the interpolation method Interpolation buttons in the Graph Editor A Hold B Linear C Auto Bezier To modify Bezi...

Page 230: ...ed When you animate a property in the Graph Editor you can view and adjust the rate of change of the property in the speed graph or on the motion path in the Composition or Layer panel As you adjust t...

Page 231: ...ifference between keyframe values such as the difference between 75 and 20 opacity creates a faster rate of change than a smaller difference such as the difference between 30 and 20 opacity You can ad...

Page 232: ...m a keyframe See also To automatically ease speed on page 231 Adjusting rate of change with the speed graph After you have set the shape of a motion path or created keyframes for a property you may wa...

Page 233: ...h Editor button and select Edit Speed Graph from the Graph Options menu 3 Using the Selection tool click the keyframe you want to adjust 4 Optional Do one of the following To split the incoming and ou...

Page 234: ...g direction handle to create a peak See also Applying and changing interpolation methods on page 222 To start or stop change gradually Direction handles can create gradual starts and stops such as a b...

Page 235: ...act options available in the dialog box vary depending on the layer property you are editing and may also vary for plug ins For each speed is expressed as described in the following table To specify s...

Page 236: ...mes After the keyframes are set to rove right the motion path displays consistent speed over the range of keyframes 1 In layer bar mode or in the Graph Editor set up the keyframes for the motion you w...

Page 237: ...lens when working with 2D layers by using Exponential Scale which converts linear scaling of a layer to exponential scaling This is useful for creating a cosmic zoom for example Zooming optically wit...

Page 238: ...columns by choosing Columns In and Columns Out from the Timeline panel menu 3 Do one of the following To stretch the In point to the current time press Ctrl Windows or Command Mac OS as you click the...

Page 239: ...You can select and reverse keyframes across multiple layers and properties but each set of keyframes for a property is reversed only within its original time range and not that of any other selected p...

Page 240: ...ayer panel or the Graph Editor Remapping video in one panel displays the results in both Each provides a different view of the layer duration The Layer panel provides a visual reference of the frames...

Page 241: ...yback Similarly the value that appears in blue next to the Time Remap property name indicates which frame plays at the current time As you drag a value graph marker up or down this value changes accor...

Page 242: ...p value graph drag the keyframe marker up or down watching the Time Remap value as you drag To prevent the graph from dropping below the dotted line press Shift as you drag the graph marker Dragging t...

Page 243: ...ater time than the current time indicator To move the preceding portion of the layer backward set the remap time marker to an earlier time than the current time indicator To freeze a frame set the rem...

Page 244: ...ation Add Audio Levels Keyframe 5 In the Audio palette change the decibel value to 0 0 6 Press the Page Up key on your keyboard to move the current time indicator to the previous frame 7 In the Audio...

Page 245: ...rame Blending switch or by choosing the appropriate Frame Blending command again To enable or disable Frame Blending for previewing and rendering Select Enable Frame Blending from the Timeline panel m...

Page 246: ...vectors Weighting Controls the ratio of red green and blue channels used in analyzing an image Since images are analyzed based on brightness changing the channel weight can affect the results For exa...

Page 247: ...User Guide 241 9 If your image contains unwanted pixels or artifacts at the edges use the Source Crops option to specify image boundaries At the boundaries you specify pixels will be repeated to elimi...

Page 248: ...nnel in the After Effects Composition panel or the Adobe Premiere Pro Monitor panel white indicates complete opacity black indicates complete transparency and shades of gray indicate partial trans par...

Page 249: ...transparent Keying makes it easy to replace a background of a consistent color or brightness with another image which is especially useful when working with objects too complex to mask easily The tec...

Page 250: ...in a composition using any of the following methods Draw a path using the tools from the Tools panel Specify the dimensions of the mask shape numerically in the Mask Shape dialog box Convert a motion...

Page 251: ...d Mac OS to create a mask that extends from its center To create a mask the size of the layer You can use this procedure with rectangular or elliptical masks only 1 Select a layer in the Composition p...

Page 252: ...me side of the point as the direction line is adjusted Adjusting the direction lines on a smooth point left and a corner point right To create a Bezier mask using the Pen tool 1 With the Pen tool sele...

Page 253: ...copy the keyframes of any other property The motion path of the spaceship left is copied to the background layer center and used by the Vegas effect right 1 In the Composition panel display the motio...

Page 254: ...vert to masks Choices include Alpha Red Green Blue and Luminance Invert Inverts the input layer prior to searching for edges For example if you apply Auto trace to a square layer that contains a circu...

Page 255: ...cts as a mask right Note You can also use a copied Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop path as an After Effects motion path See To create a motion path from a mask on page 214 for more information Se...

Page 256: ...k with the Selection tool or select any portion of the mask and choose Edit Select All or press Crl A Windows or Command A Mac OS To add masks to the selection Alt Shift click Windows or Option Shift...

Page 257: ...in other layers and compositions It is particularly useful to store Bezier masks you ve spent a long time perfecting You can even create a project with compositions that exist just to store complex la...

Page 258: ...each mask more distinct you can manually change a mask s color using the Timeline panel or you can set After Effects to cycle mask colors To apply a new color to a mask outline To make it easier to wo...

Page 259: ...ne from keyframe to keyframe For this reason the results may be different from what you expect Free Transform points A Bounding box handle B Free Transform Points bounding box C Bounding box anchor po...

Page 260: ...te a vertex from a mask use the Delete Vertex tool to click the vertex To adjust the shape of a path segment Do one of the following with the Selection tool Drag a vertex Drag the direction handles ex...

Page 261: ...eline panel and choose Layer Mask Reset Mask To change a mask shape numerically 1 Select the mask 2 In the Timeline panel expand the Mask properties 3 Next to the Mask Shape property click the underli...

Page 262: ...the Constrain Proportions switch next to the Mask Feather property so that the Constrain Proportions icon appears 3 Do one of the following Drag the underlined value for Mask Feather Right click Wind...

Page 263: ...on B Motion Blur switch See also About motion blur on page 214 To invert a mask The image area inside the mask outline is fully opaque and the area outside the mask outline is transparent If you want...

Page 264: ...ct on page 433 Reshape effect Pro only on page 430 Inner Outer Key effect Pro only on page 465 Wall controls for Particle Playground Pro only on page 508 To create a visible outline or solid shape fro...

Page 265: ...98 You apply a blending mode to the layer above the layers you want it to interact with When you specify blending modes it is helpful to think of the results in the following terms Underlying colors C...

Page 266: ...of blending modes Normal Dissolve Dancing Dissolve Darken Multiply Linear Burn Color Burn Classic Color Burn Add Lighten Screen Linear Dodge Color Dodge Classic Color Dodge Overlay Soft Light Hard Lig...

Page 267: ...plies the color values in the layers and divides the result by the maximum pixel value of either 8 bpc 16 bpc or 32 bpc pixels depending on which mode you are in The resulting color is never brighter...

Page 268: ...al layer color The lighter the original layer color the brighter the resulting color Pure black in the original layer does not change the underlying color Pure white in the original layer usually chan...

Page 269: ...e inverse of the Color mode Stencil Alpha Creates a stencil using the layer s alpha channel Stencil Luma Creates a stencil using the layer s luma values The lighter pixels of the layer are more opaque...

Page 270: ...ayer in the Timeline panel 2 Do one of the following Hold down Shift and press the plus key to cycle forward through each blending mode Hold down Shift and press the underscore key _ to cycle backward...

Page 271: ...the mask from all masks located above it in the Timeline panel The contents of the subtracted mask area appear as a hole in the Composition panel This option is useful when you want to create the appe...

Page 272: ...lowing Choose the Add Mask Shape Keyframe command Click the stopwatch icon next to the Mask Shape property for each mask in the Timeline panel Note You can quickly set an initial Mask Shape keyframe f...

Page 273: ...e The Info panel displays the progress of the interpolation and the number of keyframes created The Smart Mask Interpolation panel See also About interpolation on page 218 To use Smart Mask Interpolat...

Page 274: ...e Vertices Specifies that Smart Mask Interpolation adds vertices to facilitate quality interpolations In general Smart Mask Interpolation works best when the mask shapes have dense sets of vertices Al...

Page 275: ...se the Pan Behind tool to pan a layer behind a mask the mask s position remains constant in the Compo sition panel but changes in the Layer panel The masked layer s Position values change in relation...

Page 276: ...s you can gather such as film that you scan and digitize If appropriate for your footage strive for lighting that is constant for the duration of the color screen scene Use footage files with the leas...

Page 277: ...rent use the Difference Matte Key Add the Simple Choker and other effects as needed to refine the matte See also Matte Choker effect Pro only on page 466 Simple Choker effect Pro only on page 467 Abou...

Page 278: ...and then click an appropriate area in the Composition or Layer panel To preview transparency for different colors select the Key Color eyedropper hold down the Alt key Windows or Option key Mac OS an...

Page 279: ...escribed in step 10 3 Select the appropriate key color To key out a bluescreen use the default blue color To key out a non blue screen select a key color in one of the following ways Thumbnail eyedrop...

Page 280: ...al Output must be selected for After Effects to render the transparency To remove traces of reflected key color from the image apply Spill Suppressor using Better for Color Accuracy If the image still...

Page 281: ...effect creates transparency by comparing a source layer with a difference layer and then keying out pixels in the source layer that match both the position and color in the difference layer Typically...

Page 282: ...ogram displays a representation of the brightness levels in the layer showing the relative number of pixels at each level From left to right the histogram extends from the darkest a value of 0 to the...

Page 283: ...background colors This color decontamination process determines the background s contribution to the color in each border pixel and removes that contribution thus removing the halo that can appear if...

Page 284: ...d regions 9 Set Blend With Original to specify the degree to which the resulting extracted image blends with the original image See also Creating masks on page 244 Inner Outer Key effect Pro only on p...

Page 285: ...its track matte after you duplicate or split the layer Within the dupli cated or split layers the track matte layer remains on top of the fill layer For example if your project contains Layers A and B...

Page 286: ...r only when positioned over opaque areas in underlying layers With this option you can make a layer visible only when it is positioned over the layer below it It s useful for creating effects such as...

Page 287: ...een image The number s background is also blue B After keying the number s background is also transparent C Hold out matte containing the part of the image you want to remain opaque D When the hold ou...

Page 288: ...ering its shape as follows Geometric Softness Specifies in pixels the largest spread or choke Choke Sets the amount of choke Negative values spread the matte positive values choke it Gray Level Softne...

Page 289: ...te them as 3D layers and edit the 3D text while viewing it in multiple views As with layers imported from Adobe Illustrator text layers are continuously rasterized so when you scale the layer or resiz...

Page 290: ...ounding box which causes the text to reflow within the adjusted rectangle You can adjust the bounding box while you re entering text or after you create the text layer The text you enter appears in a...

Page 291: ...ppears as a new text pointer click to create a new text layer Shift click always creates a new layer 1 Select the Horizontal Type tool or the Vertical Type tool 2 In the Timeline panel double click th...

Page 292: ...ighted text If no text is highlighted changes you make in the Character panel affect the selected text layers and the text layer s selected Source Text keyframes if any exist If no text is highlighted...

Page 293: ...e of the first font or style beginning with that letter appears Continue typing until the correct font or style name appears To choose a font size The font size determines how large the type appears i...

Page 294: ...ames all text in a layer or all text across multiple selected layers In the Character panel do one of the following Click the Fill box to select a color in the Color dialog box Click the Stroke box to...

Page 295: ...cter panel To adjust scale or specify baseline shift Horizontal scale and vertical scale specify the proportion between the height and width of the text Unscaled characters have a value of 100 You can...

Page 296: ...arriage return at the end You use the Paragraph panel to set options that apply to entire paragraphs such as the alignment indentation and leading For point text each line is a separate paragraph For...

Page 297: ...which is right aligned Justifies all horizontal lines including the last which is force justified Justifies all vertical lines except the last which is top aligned Justifies all vertical lines except...

Page 298: ...tool select the text layer Note You can t convert the text layer if it s in text editing mode 2 Using the Text tool right click Windows or Control click Mac OS anywhere in the Composition panel and c...

Page 299: ...Adobe Every line Composer Considers a network of break points for a range of lines and thus can optimize earlier lines in the paragraph in order to eliminate especially unattractive breaks later on W...

Page 300: ...t a percentage for Tsume The greater the percentage the tighter the compression between characters At 100 the maximum value there is no space between the character s bounding box and its em box To spe...

Page 301: ...ets The text animation presets were created in an NTSC DV 720 x 480 composition and each text layer uses 72 point Myriad Pro Some preset animations move the text on off or through the composition The...

Page 302: ...ayer properties on page 188 To animate text with text animator groups Once you create and format your text layers use text animator groups to quickly and easily create elaborate anima tions A text ani...

Page 303: ...n rotated and with Grouping Alignment set to Character Word and Line 1 Select a text layer in the Timeline panel or select the specific characters you want to animate in the Composition panel 2 Do one...

Page 304: ...he left Raise the Grouping Alignment values to move each anchor point down and to the right To center the anchor point in a string of capital letters try a Grouping Alignment value of 0 50 To center t...

Page 305: ...vertical blur amounts can be specified separately See also About animation and layer properties on page 188 To add animator properties To add an animator group to a text layer select the text layer i...

Page 306: ...on and then drag the right selector bar to the right side of the last character in the range To move both the Start and End values by an equal amount set a value for Offset See also Using keyframes on...

Page 307: ...ters gradually move at an angle from bottom left to upper right You can specify Square Ramp Up Ramp Down Triangle Round and Smooth Original left and after selecting the entire word setting Based On to...

Page 308: ...index and stream path See also About mask modes on page 264 About the Expression selector The Expression selector lets you dynamically specify how much you want characters to be affected by an animato...

Page 309: ...lt the Amount property begins with the expression selectorValue textIndex textTotal See also About expressions on page 555 Working with masks in text layers Creating and animating text on a path Once...

Page 310: ...ange the text margins using the Right Margin and Left Margin properties in the Timeline panel Changing the Last Margin of path text in the Composition panel See also Creating masks with the Pen tool o...

Page 311: ...imations Example To offset characters This example illustrates how you can easily animate random characters so that they gradually form a legible word or phrase To do this specify a Character Offset v...

Page 312: ...panel 4 Choose Animation Animate Text Position 5 In the Timeline panel drag the Position property s y value to the left until all the characters are off the screen 6 Expand Range Selector 1 7 Click t...

Page 313: ...k the Center Text button in the Paragraph panel 4 Position the pointer away from the text in the Composition panel and when the type pointer changes to the move pointer drag to move the text to the ce...

Page 314: ...to limit an animation to a specific word Animating the skew values in the characters in the word Speeding 1 Create a new composition 2 Create a new text layer with the words Speeding Saucer 3 Positio...

Page 315: ...ator is at 0 seconds and click the End stopwatch and set End to 0 7 Move the current time indicator to 5 seconds and set End to 5 8 Adjust the y Position value so that the text appears at the bottom o...

Page 316: ...right edge of the text the value will be 5 9 Preview the animation 10 By default the Smoothness property is set to 100 To create a typewriter appearance expand the Advanced property and set Smoothness...

Page 317: ...dex and textTotal attributes with the wiggle expression to animate a line of text 1 Create a new composition 2 Create a new text layer 3 Expand the text layer in the Timeline panel to view the text pr...

Page 318: ...BE AFTER EFFECTS 7 0 User Guide 312 See also To create a composition on page 109 To enter point text on page 283 About the Expression selector on page 302 Methods for previewing compositions on page 1...

Page 319: ...um amount of paint coverage applied by the brush whereas Flow specifies how quickly paint is applied To simulate semi trans parent paint specify a low percentage value to simulate opaque paint specify...

Page 320: ...ties that can be animated You can interleave paint strokes with other effects that are already applied to the layer Click the View menu in the Layer panel and choose the view that you want to paint Se...

Page 321: ...e you can use the Clone Stamp tool to retouch footage remove wires or a microphone boom from footage or add elements to footage Removal of wire in moving footage with Clone Stamp tool You can clone a...

Page 322: ...pixels are applied continuously to reproduce the entire sampled area no matter how many times you stop and resume painting If Aligned is deselected each new stroke in the target layer no matter where...

Page 323: ...er See also Blending modes for paint strokes on page 324 To use the Clone Stamp tool manually 1 Open a composition that contains both the source layer and the target layer 2 Select the Clone Stamp too...

Page 324: ...ject Clone stamp presets let you store the Source Layer Aligned Lock Source Time Source Time Shift and Offset or Source Point values 1 Select the Clone Stamp tool 2 In the Paint panel click the Clone...

Page 325: ...ics for graphics tablets You can use a graphics tablet with each paint tool You can adjust the brush tip by using the graphic tablet s pen pressure pen tilt or position of the pen thumbwheel Specify b...

Page 326: ...h Tips panel select the brush tip you want to rename 2 Choose Rename Brush from the panel menu 3 Type a name for the brush tip in Choose Name and click OK To delete a preset brush tip 1 In the Brush T...

Page 327: ...djust diameter release the key and continue to drag to adjust hardness Both the cursor and Brush Tips panel update dynamically Diameter Controls the size of the brush Enter a value in pixels or drag a...

Page 328: ...and duration bar in the Timeline panel You can then use the Timeline panel to change the stroke s position in time and to animate each paint stroke s shape stroke options and transform properties Note...

Page 329: ...ange the order of an overlapping stroke drag the stroke up or down in the Timeline panel While you can t edit a stroke s shape you can change its shape by copying and pasting a mask to a selected stro...

Page 330: ...s Painting with black produces no change Painting any color onto an underlying color of white also produces no change Lighten Selects the underlying or blend color whichever is lighter as the result c...

Page 331: ...ss value Painting with white inverts the underlying color values painting with black produces no change Exclusion Creates a result similar to but lower in contrast than the Difference mode Painting wi...

Page 332: ...ly the stroke determines the stroke s duration the speed of your movements determines the speed of the stroke Note When you change the shape of an animated paint stroke After Effects alters the speed...

Page 333: ...s in the Timeline panel for each animated property When you render the work area After Effects interpolates brush shape and other animated properties for all frames between the two keyframes After Eff...

Page 334: ...or spectrum G Displays the green color component in the color slider with its maximum brightness at the top of the slider and its minimum brightness at the bottom When the color slider is set to minim...

Page 335: ...of a moving city bus or a star to the end of a sweeping wand Animating a still image to match the motion of action footage such as making a cartoon bumblebee pursue a swaying flower Adding effects th...

Page 336: ...ttachment for the target footage the layer image or effect that you want to synchronize with the motion footage You set up initiate and apply motion tracking with the Tracker Controls panel The Tracke...

Page 337: ...olor from the surrounding area A distinct shape at least within the search region A consistent shape and color throughout the shot Because of the changing nature of an image in motion digital tracking...

Page 338: ...se of the tracking The farther apart the regions the more accurate the calculations and the better the result Layer panel showing the feature region and search region for tracking rotation with two tr...

Page 339: ...can be particularly useful when using corner pinning on footage in which the feature and the desired location of the attach point are moving relative to one another See also About animation and layer...

Page 340: ...anel Pro only Once you have tracked a feature After Effects stores the tracking data with the layer in a track You can display this information by selecting Reveal Current Track In Timeline from the O...

Page 341: ...tracks In the Tracker Controls panel you control which layer you want to track which tracking data you want to use and the layer or effect to which you want to apply tracking Motion Source Specifies t...

Page 342: ...e Tracker Controls panel Tracker Plug in Sets the tracker plug in used to calculate the tracking data for this track By default this option displays Built in the only tracker plug in included with Aft...

Page 343: ...sform for Track Type or Raw if you haven t added the target footage to the composition yet Adds a track point for the motion source in the Layer panel Adds the new track to the Motion Trackers section...

Page 344: ...t components left and Selection tool pointer icons right A Search region B Feature region C Keyframe marker D Attach point E Moves search region F Moves both regions G Moves entire track point H Moves...

Page 345: ...ing as needed until you re satisfied with the motion path 3 To apply the motion path to the motion target click Apply in the Tracker Controls panel and choose one of the following in the Motion Tracke...

Page 346: ...en their attach points lies along the length of the feature you want to track 4 Use the Analyze buttons in the Tracker Controls panel to begin tracking 5 Click the Apply button to apply the motion pat...

Page 347: ...ult for many compression algorithms to compress your video As with tracking motion to apply that motion to a target you need to define a feature and search region However for stabilization you want to...

Page 348: ...eates anchor point keyframes for the footage If the image creeps in from the margins of the action safe zone increase the scale just enough to extend past the margins Find the frame that creeps in the...

Page 349: ...onfidence level is below the specified percentage value Continue Tracking Ignores the confidence level and continues tracking This is the default behavior Stop Tracking Stops the motion tracking Extra...

Page 350: ...e ship footage When you choose Parallel Corner Pinning the default positions of the attach points form a rectangle in the center of the motion footage layer left Moving the upper left tracking region...

Page 351: ...ing one point is inactive 5 If you want to track a range of frames define the work area you want to track in the Layer panel for the source footage 6 In the Layer panel move the current time indicator...

Page 352: ...nge the comparison method or precision of the frame to frame tracking To correct drifting by moving the feature region Pro only 1 Drag the current time indicator to the last well tracked frame 2 Do on...

Page 353: ...e Analyze Forward or the Analyze Backward button 7 Watch the tracking to make sure that it is accurate If the tracking is not accurate then click the button again to stop tracking adjust the settings...

Page 354: ...be Help Center and then click Check For Updates Follow the on screen instructions See also To modify properties with Expression Controls effects on page 561 Plug ins on page 66 Applying and controllin...

Page 355: ...cted drag the effect to the Effect Controls panel Note Applying an effect to a layer makes it the active layer To paste a layer s effects into other layers 1 In the Effect Controls panel select one or...

Page 356: ...rtain results change the default rendering order so that a transform property is rendered before an effect in a layer instead of after the effect Effects Presets panel Browse and apply effects and ani...

Page 357: ...bpc or 32 bpc project may result in a loss of color detail You can set the Effects Presets panel to list only 16 bpc or 32 bpc effects Each color depth is indicated with an icon the 32 bit Effect ico...

Page 358: ...panel is often quicker and easier By default when you apply an effect to a layer the controls you specify do not change for the duration of a layer Animate effect properties in the same way that you a...

Page 359: ...opper position it on the desired color and click to select the color Placing an effect using effect points Some effects require that you identify specific positions on a layer to determine how the eff...

Page 360: ...atic of analog video compression artifacts from digital cameras halftone patterns from scanned prints CCD noise from digital image sensors and the characteristic speckle pattern of chemical photograph...

Page 361: ...effect in a 200 x 200 pixel area Blending Matte Shows the current color matte or mask or the combination of both which results from the current settings of the Blend With Original controls group Fina...

Page 362: ...rough the grain 6 Choose Final Output from the Viewing Mode control To generate a color matching matte When a grain effect is first applied a neutral gray color is used to generate a default color mat...

Page 363: ...To Fit Resizes the masking layer to match the dimensions of the current layer 5 If you are using both a color matte and a layer mask choose one of the following from the Combine Match And Mask Using...

Page 364: ...ffect and then click and hold down Show Last Snapshot to display the snapshot of the image without the effect To remove noise or grain from an image To remove grain or visual noise use the Remove Grai...

Page 365: ...the chroma from the noise to clean up the image If the noise is very colorful increasing this control can help remove it Setting the amount too high may strip some chroma from the image itself Chroma...

Page 366: ...nder it 6 If you see unwanted streaking or blurs around moving objects reduce the Motion Sensitivity value and then preview or render it again 7 Try the following techniques if you want to improve the...

Page 367: ...ource Layer control in the Effect Controls panel to specify the source layer from which you want to sample the grain The Noise Source Layer control lists only layers that are in the Timeline panel The...

Page 368: ...y enough noise to match the destination layer to the source layer is applied to the destination 3 To modify the noise samples choose Noise Samples from the Viewing Mode menu change the Sampling Sample...

Page 369: ...ng with added or matched grain The Add Grain effect creates new grain or noise in an image by building the grain from nothing or by basing the grain s properties on presets The Match Grain effect also...

Page 370: ...s on the same frame adjust the Random Seed value Each Random Seed value represents one of 100 possible variations in the appearance changing the value doesn t make the results more or less random Twea...

Page 371: ...ise and the source However the result may be either lighter or darker than the original because the noise may have either a positive or negative value Add Combines the color values of the pixel in the...

Page 372: ...ights textures such as grass and water ripples fine detail such as hair or tree leaves and overexposed or underexposed areas lacking in information To manually reposition noise samples 1 In the Effect...

Page 373: ...the effect Sampled areas are automatically framed with a white outline If the noise sample boxes are hard to see you can change the noise sample box color Do one of the following adjacent to the Sampl...

Page 374: ...5 Matte effects gallery on page 376 Noise Grain effects gallery on page 376 Paint effects gallery on page 377 Perspective effects gallery on page 377 Simulation effects gallery on page 378 Stylize eff...

Page 375: ...pth Matte effect Pro only on page 382 Depth Of Field effect Pro only on page 382 Fog 3D effect Pro only on page 383 ID Matte effect Pro only on page 384 No effect applied Box Blur effect on page 390 C...

Page 376: ...fect on page 394 Unsharp Mask effect on page 394 No effect applied Alpha Levels effect Pro only on page 395 Arithmetic effect on page 395 Blend effect on page 396 Calculations effect on page 397 Chann...

Page 377: ...e 402 Solid Composite effect on page 402 No effect applied Auto Color effect on page 402 Auto Contrast effect on page 403 Auto Levels effect on page 403 Brightness Contrast effect on page 404 Broadcas...

Page 378: ...ves effect on page 413 Equalize effect on page 414 Exposure effect on page 414 Gamma Pedestal Gain effect on page 415 Hue Saturation effect on page 415 Leave Color effect on page 417 Levels effect on...

Page 379: ...23 Displacement Map effect Pro only on page 424 Liquify effect on page 425 Magnify effect on page 426 Mesh Warp effect Pro only on page 427 Mirror effect on page 428 Offset effect on page 428 Optics C...

Page 380: ...p effect on page 438 Wave Warp effect on page 439 No effect applied 4 Color Gradient effect on page 440 Advanced Lightning effect Pro only on page 440 Audio Spectrum effect on page 442 Audio Waveform...

Page 381: ...451 Lens Flare effect on page 452 Lightning effect on page 452 Paint Bucket effect on page 454 Radio Waves effect on page 455 Ramp effect on page 458 Scribble effect on page 458 Stroke effect on page...

Page 382: ...page 464 Inner Outer Key effect Pro only on page 465 Linear Color Key effect on page 465 Luma Key effect on page 466 Spill Suppressor effect Pro only on page 466 Matte Choker effect Pro only on page...

Page 383: ...e Alpha effect on page 472 Noise HLS effect and Noise HLS Auto effect on page 473 Remove Grain effect on page 474 Paint effect on page 474 Vector Paint effect Pro only on page 475 No effect applied 3D...

Page 384: ...yground effect Pro only on page 500 Shatter effect on page 514 Wave World effect on page 520 No effect applied Brush Strokes effect on page 523 Color Emboss effect on page 524 Emboss effect on page 52...

Page 385: ...Strobe Light effect on page 530 Texturize effect on page 530 Threshold effect on page 531 No effect applied Basic Text effect on page 531 Numbers effect on page 532 Path Text effect on page 534 Timec...

Page 386: ...page 544 No effect applied Block Dissolve effect on page 544 Card Wipe effect on page 545 Gradient Wipe effect on page 548 Iris Wipe effect on page 548 Linear Wipe effect on page 549 Radial Wipe effe...

Page 387: ...e blur areas in a 3D scene isolate 3D elements apply a foggy effect with depth and extract 3D channel information for use as parameters in other effects Note Apply 3D Channel effects to 2D layers that...

Page 388: ...ng behind a certain point In the other layer position every thing in front of that same point so that the two layers together make up the original image then insert a layer between them with the objec...

Page 389: ...h 8 bpc color Original left Gradient Layer center and with Fog 3D applied right Adjust the following controls for the Fog 3D effect Fog Color Specifies the color of the fog Fog Start Depth Determines...

Page 390: ...ed on their Material ID as well Original left with ID Matte applied using the near alien as the ID Selection center and composited over a new background right Adjust the following controls for the ID...

Page 391: ...e original sound and its echo in milliseconds Drag the slider to the right to increase the time between the original sound and its echo Delay Amount Specifies the level of the first delayed audio Drag...

Page 392: ...also Previewing audio on page 136 To use chorus without flange Pro only 1 For Voice Separation Time ms specify a value of about 40 For a deeper chorus effect increase this value 2 For Voices specify...

Page 393: ...keep To help isolate the unwanted sound apply the Audio Spectrum effect to a motion footage layer to see the magnitude of the frequencies in the range you define See Audio Spectrum effect on page 442...

Page 394: ...boost negative values cut If you have audio with an unwanted sound such as a beep from a forklift in the background you can isolate and cut the frequency range of the beep to attenuate the sound You...

Page 395: ...plays You can also apply the Tone effect to a layer that has no audio such as an Adobe Illustrator object to synthesize audio When you render the movie make sure that you select an output format that...

Page 396: ...n which to apply the blur Iterations Specifies how many times the effect is applied to the image Repeat Edge Pixels Repeats the pixels around the edges preventing the edges from darkening and becoming...

Page 397: ...udges and fingerprints or changes in visibility caused by atmospheric condi tions such as smoke or heat especially with animated blurring layers Compound Blur is especially effective in combination wi...

Page 398: ...want the blur added black areas in an alpha channel are treated as though they re at the front of the photo and white areas are treated as if they re far in the distance The way the blur appears depe...

Page 399: ...flicker on interlaced displays The Amount control specifies the amount of blur depending on the choice Spin or Zoom for Type For a Spin blur which applies blurs in circles around the center point the...

Page 400: ...Film grain and noise are removed from an image when you blur it To make the image look more realistic you may want to add noise back to the image so that the footage doesn t look retouched See Adding...

Page 401: ...ray values and more transparency A Gamma value greater than 1 creates lighter gray values and less transparency To convert grays in a matte to pure black or white Pro only 1 Set the Input Black Level...

Page 402: ...nd effect blends two layers using one of five modes This effect works with 8 bpc and 16 bpc color Original left matte created with Fractal Noise effect on a solid layer center result of Blend effect w...

Page 403: ...e panel Calculations effect The Calculations effect combines the channels of one image with the channels of another Use this effect to quickly and easily produce some of the same results as you get fr...

Page 404: ...e pixel has less saturation than a bright or pure blue pixel Min RGB and Max RGB specify that the lowest or highest value of the red green and blue channels of an image is the source To Specifies wher...

Page 405: ...nge of allowable values Stretch Second Source To Fit Scales the second layer to match the size width and height of the current layer If this option is deselected the second layer is placed at its sour...

Page 406: ...ffects the color channels only Alpha and Color affects all channels Red Green Blue and Alpha affect only the respective channels Direction Specifies the direction of scanning for values Horizontal Ver...

Page 407: ...esult right To create a traveling matte using the Set Matte effect set up the motion of the matte layer and precompose that layer with all properties Use the resulting composition as the layer from wh...

Page 408: ...control the opacity of the solid and apply blending modes all within the effect s controls This effect works with 8 bpc and 16 bpc color Adjust the following controls for the Solid Composite effect So...

Page 409: ...eutral Blend With Original Specifies the effect s transparency The higher you set this value the less the color contrast or levels are affected For example if you set this value to 100 the effect has...

Page 410: ...ors effect This effect works with 8 bpc color The Broadcast Colors effect alters pixel color values so that the layer can be accurately represented in a television broadcast Computers represent colors...

Page 411: ...k This is the default setting Reduce Saturation moves the pixel toward a gray of similar brightness making it less colorful Key Out Unsafe makes unsafe pixels transparent and Key Out Safe makes safe p...

Page 412: ...ss differences Invert Color Correction Mask Inverts the mask that determines which colors to affect If selected all colors will be color corrected except those selected by using Color To Change and ma...

Page 413: ...Channel Mixer effect The Channel Mixer effect modifies a color channel using a mix of the current color channels Use it to make creative color adjustments not easily done with the other color adjustm...

Page 414: ...bpc color Original left and with effect applied right See also Hue Saturation effect on page 415 Color Link effect The Color Link effect colorizes one layer with the average pixel values of another se...

Page 415: ...lls the entire effect layer with the average value of the source layer Opacity Specifies the transparency of the effect layer Blending Mode Specifies the blending mode that the effect uses to combine...

Page 416: ...bpc and 16 bpc color Original left and with effect applied right Colorama works by first converting a specified property to grayscale and then remapping the grayscale values to the specified color pal...

Page 417: ...ines properties from two layers Wrap Adds the values of the two properties for each pixel A pixel cannot be whiter than 100 so sum values above 100 are wrapped around the cycle again For example a sum...

Page 418: ...y Pixels option in determining the final change in opacity Note If you apply Colorama to a layer with an alpha channel and the Output Cycle does not contain alpha information the anti aliased edges of...

Page 419: ...ng the input scale while keeping up to 15 other values constant This effect works with 8 bpc 16 bpc and 32 bpc color Original left and with effect applied right When you apply the Curves effect After...

Page 420: ...k area Layer quality settings do not affect Equalize This effect works with 8 bpc color Original left and with effect applied right Equalize Specifies which equalization method to use RGB equalizes th...

Page 421: ...r effect See also High dynamic range footage Pro only on page 62 Gamma Pedestal Gain effect The Gamma Pedestal Gain effect adjusts the response curve independently for each channel For pedestal and ga...

Page 422: ...Values range from 100 to 100 Colorize Adds color to a grayscale image converted to RGB or adds color to an RGB image for example to make it look like a duotone image by reducing its color values to o...

Page 423: ...the image dissimilar to the selected color to appear as shades of gray At 50 those areas lose half of their color saturation Color To Leave Specifies the color that is to be left untouched Tolerance...

Page 424: ...d of the black value for the input image Pixels below the input black level are mapped as black on the input image The input black value is represented by the upper left triangle below the histogram O...

Page 425: ...ite balance in an image If an image was photographed with a lower color temperature of light yellowish the Cooling Filter 80 makes the image colors bluer to compensate for the lower color temperature...

Page 426: ...ontrols for the PS Arbitrary Map effect Phase Cycles through the arbitrary map Increasing the phase shifts the arbitrary map to the right as viewed in the Curves dialog box decreasing the phase shifts...

Page 427: ...onal Width towards zero then only the darkest regions are lightened On the other hand if you need to brighten up the midtones as well as the shadows increase the Shadows Tonal Width toward 100 Color C...

Page 428: ...sitions of vertices and tangents determine the size and shape of a curved segment Dragging these points reshapes the curves that form the edge thus distorting the image For example you can use Bezier...

Page 429: ...the selection handles in the layer Bulge Center Sets the center point from which the bulge is created Bulge Height Sets the depth of the bulge Positive values push the bulge toward the viewer Negativ...

Page 430: ...ment A color value of 128 produces no displacement For other values you can calculate the displacement amount in pixels using the following equation displacement maximum_displacement 2 color value 128...

Page 431: ...When Mask Opacity is set to 100 the area within the mask is not affected by the distortion when it s set to 50 the area within the mask is somewhat affected If you set the opacity to 100 make sure to...

Page 432: ...onstruction tool and then choose a mode from the Reconstruction Mode pop up menu Revert Changes unfrozen areas back to their predistorted state Displace Reconstructs unfrozen areas to match the displa...

Page 433: ...the image but produces pixelated edges at higher values Soft uses spline algorithms If you scale the image beyond 100 Soft reduces edge pixelation and maintains image quality Soft works well at large...

Page 434: ...t push an image out of its patch Mirror effect The Mirror effect splits the image along a line and reflects one side onto the other Reflection Center specifies the position of the line Reflection Angl...

Page 435: ...oint of view This is useful when using custom lenses that are not centered However in most cases this control should be left untouched Optimal Pixels Maintains as much pixel information as possible th...

Page 436: ...controls for the Polar Coordinates effect Interpolation Specifies the amount of distortion At 0 there is no distortion Type of Conversion Specifies the conversion process to use Choose one of the foll...

Page 437: ...n a fluid fashion The other settings fall between The more fluid elasticity settings require more rendering time If the final image doesn t follow the curve as expected use the following elasticity gu...

Page 438: ...choose the source destination and boundary masks 9 Adjust the Percent control and choose an option for Elasticity 10 In the Composition panel add delete or move correspondence points on the masks to...

Page 439: ...oint When you specify a wave speed the ripples are automatically animated at a constant speed without keyframes across the time range A negative value makes the ripples move toward the center and a va...

Page 440: ...ask Mask Offset Specifies a destination position for the source mask The offset is a position specified by x and y coordi nates which appear to the right of the Offset button To set an offset location...

Page 441: ...he nearest whole pixel The Radius option specifies the radius of the sphere in pixels You can exceed the highest slider value by clicking the Radius value and typing a higher number in the dialog box...

Page 442: ...effect uses fractal noise to create turbulent distortions in an image This effect is useful for adding distorted movement to a layer For example use it to create flowing water funhouse mirrors and wav...

Page 443: ...over a greater number of frames Options include the following Cycle Evolution Creates a cycle of evolution that loops over a set amount of time Cycle Evolution returns the evolution state to its star...

Page 444: ...an image a specified amount around a specified point Pixels nearer the center point are twirled faster than pixels in outer regions resulting in a whirlpool appearance Because distortion in this effec...

Page 445: ...egrees makes the waves travel diagonally from upper right to lower left Wave Speed Sets the speed cycles per second at which the waves travel When you specify Wave Speed the ripples are automatically...

Page 446: ...g circles The amount of blending depends on the location of the effect points Jitter Specifies the amount of jitter noise in the gradient when blending is applied Jitter uses a controlled noise type t...

Page 447: ...g mode When deselected only the lightning is visible Lightning Type Specifies the characteristics of the lightning Note The type determines the nature of the Direction Outer Radius contextual control...

Page 448: ...a Bezier path of a layer Apply the effect to a layer that contains a solid or an image and that may contain audio Note Audio Spectrum uses the audio source footage without time remapping effects stret...

Page 449: ...Apply the Audio Waveform effect to a video layer to display the audio waveform amplitude of an audio layer You can display the audio waveform in a number of different ways including along a Bezier pat...

Page 450: ...effect The Beam effect simulates the movement of a beam such as a laser beam You can make the beam shoot or you can create a wand like beam with stationary start and end points This effect uses a 3D...

Page 451: ...alue is 285 255 30 the resulting value is 225 255 30 As a result more defined subtle detail appears when Contrast is set above 100 Disperse Specifies how randomly the pattern is drawn thus affecting t...

Page 452: ...control Create new cell pattern animations by reusing previously created Evolution cycles and changing only the Random Seed value Typing a new Random Seed value alters the cell pattern without disturb...

Page 453: ...customizable solid circle or ring This effect works with 8 bpc color Original image left circle with no edge center circle specifying a Thickness Feather Radius edge Adjust the following controls for...

Page 454: ...s panel In addition to width and height you can specify the thickness softness and color of the ellipse The Width and Height controls specify the width and height of the ellipse in pixels Values range...

Page 455: ...hich you apply the stroke and fill determines the visible width of the stroke If the fill is applied before the stroke the full stroke brush size is visible If the stroke is applied before the fill th...

Page 456: ...from the Palette menu this control specifies whether everything inside or outside the set is transparent Palette Specifies the palette to use when drawing the set Lightness Gradient creates a gradien...

Page 457: ...e center point by 1 pixel Press Shift as you press an arrow key to adjust the point by 10 pixels Press Ctrl Windows or Command Mac OS as you press an arrow key to adjust the center point of the opposi...

Page 458: ...opaque areas of the grid Color Specifies the RGB color values of the grid Opacity Specifies the opacity of the grid Blending Mode Specifies how the grid interacts with the original layer Lens Flare ef...

Page 459: ...e a Jacob s Ladder effect and cause the lightning bolt to snap back to a position along the start line after it has been pulled in the Pull Force direction A Stability value that is too low does not a...

Page 460: ...r menu Fill Selector Specifies the channels to fill with the new color Color Alpha Specifies that the effect fills the fill point s RGB and alpha channels with the new color Straight Color Specifies t...

Page 461: ...iginal layer All of these blending modes appear in the Mode menu in the Timeline panel except for Fill Only Use Fill Only if you don t wish to composite the fill with the original image Only the fill...

Page 462: ...aped like a star To change the number of points on the star change the number of sides Star Depth Specifies the star s angles by controlling the distance between inner points and the star s center Mas...

Page 463: ...ting displacement maps for use as water ripples Stroke controls for the Radio Wave effect Stroke controls specify the appearance of the wave s stroke Profile Controls the appearance of the stroke that...

Page 464: ...with a single line Scribble breaks these paths into several simpler paths each of which it then fills with a zigzagged stroke This effect works with 8 bpc color Masks left Scribble applied to outside...

Page 465: ...overlap of the scribbled line Curviness Controls the amount of curve at the end of each scribbled stroke Specify a value between 0 and 100 degrees Curviness Variation Determines the amount of variance...

Page 466: ...number of lights or longer pulses and then animate it to create the effect of lights chasing around the object This effect works with 8 bpc color Image contours of the spaceship are used to create ani...

Page 467: ...the length of a segment s stroke in relation to its maximum possible length For example if Segments is set to 1 the maximum length of a stroke is one complete trip around the object outline If Segment...

Page 468: ...layer Change the stroke length at keyframes to make the length of the stroke expand and contract as it is drawn Brush Spacing Specifies the time interval in seconds between dabs of color as the strok...

Page 469: ...and works especially well with images that contain transparent or semitransparent areas such as smoke shadows or glass This effect works with 8 bpc and 16 bpc color Original left and background layer...

Page 470: ...color in the difference layer Typically it is used to key out a static background behind a moving object which is then placed on a different background Often the difference layer is simply a frame of...

Page 471: ...nal masked layer left and the background layer center are combined using Inner Outer Key right See also To use the Inner Outer Key effect on page 277 Linear Color Key effect The Linear Color Key effec...

Page 472: ...f the screen and onto the subject If you are not satisfied with the results from using the Spill Suppressor try applying the Hue Saturation effect to a layer after keying and then decrease the saturat...

Page 473: ...and the Matte view provides a black and white view of the image with black areas indicating transparency and white areas indicating opacity Choke Matte sets the amount of choke Negative values spread...

Page 474: ...a Channel checkbox to apply the filter to the alpha channel Fractal Noise effect The Fractal Noise effect creates textures and objects that cannot be described using simple geometric shapes Use this e...

Page 475: ...This option reduces contrast and makes fractals appear gray with few areas of pure black or pure white When used as a luma matte the layer contains subtle areas of transparency Wrap Back Remaps trian...

Page 476: ...revolutions set for Evolution Cycle in Revolutions Specifies the number of revolutions that the fractal noise cycles through before it repeats The speed of these Evolution cycles is determined by the...

Page 477: ...e is set to 2 locate the frame on the timeline where the Evolution value is 2 Note If you set keyframes for other Fractal Noise controls return them to their initial settings where the cycle begins to...

Page 478: ...may not be recognizable Noise Type Randomly changes the red green and blue values of the image s pixels individually when Use Color Noise is selected Otherwise the same value is added to all channels...

Page 479: ...is control is active only if you choose Uniform Random or Squared Random To produce flashing noise animate the Random Seed control To create smoothly animated noise animate the Noise Phase value Noise...

Page 480: ...animated noise Greater value differences between keyframes increase the speed of the noise animation Noise Animation Speed Noise HLS Auto only Specifies the speed of the noise animation To increase th...

Page 481: ...ck and rendered You can also adjust the playback speed to fit the timing you want You can also create new strokes by blending existing strokes both in space and in time Vector Paint supports the Wacom...

Page 482: ...ined in the Effect Controls panel When you use the Paint tool the pointer appears as a circle or square in the actual size of the brush Eraser tool Erase areas of the layer using Brush Type settings d...

Page 483: ...licking the Color swatch and then using the Color Picker or by using the eyedropper to sample a color from the desktop When one or more strokes of the same color are selected this swatch displays the...

Page 484: ...e strokes you can transform them such as by rotating scaling vertically horizontally or both or nudging repositioning one pixel at a time Tools for editing paint work with Vector Paint Pro only Use th...

Page 485: ...s This setting overrides normal mouse coordinates to use the higher resolution of the tablet recording strokes with greater precision and subpixel accuracy Note Wacom tablets do not support High Res C...

Page 486: ...e Vector Paint Preferences dialog box to specify how previous and forward strokes appear when Onion Skin is the active Playback Mode To open Vector Paint Preferences use the Vector Paint options menu...

Page 487: ...ck Past Strokes At Playback Speed 1 0 each stroke appears in completed form at the frame in which you started drawing and remains visible for the duration of the layer playtime When you increase Playb...

Page 488: ...ame is calculated according to the composition frame rate at the time of drawing For example if the current time indicator is at 0 00 when you draw three strokes then the start point is 0 00 for the f...

Page 489: ...ation Determines how much the Radius and Opacity values of the stroke vary while wiggling For strokes that have Stylus Radius enabled the Radius wiggles For strokes that have Stylus Opacity enabled th...

Page 490: ...cts of the layer the strokes affect including what happens when you preview and render the composition As you paint and erase you can either hide or display the footage image You have similar viewing...

Page 491: ...strokes are visible Painting affects only the area within the original image alpha channel that is paint applied within the original circle area Erasures remove only existing paint pixels H Track Ori...

Page 492: ...l and open the Vector Paint Preferences dialog box in any of the following ways Click the menu button in the Vector Paint toolbar in the Composition panel and choose Options Right click Windows or Con...

Page 493: ...this value may result in erratic animation Swap Left Right Swaps the left and right views 3D View Specifies the rendering mode the effect uses to combine the views Stereo Pair Scales both layers to fi...

Page 494: ...d to the left of the viewer Because the light comes from above the image must be tilted backward to see this reflection This can enhance the realism of the 3D appearance The specular highlight can be...

Page 495: ...visual results This effect works with 8 bpc color Original left and with effect applied right Drop Shadow effect The Drop Shadow effect adds a shadow that appears behind the layer When you add a drop...

Page 496: ...es another effect s light source Projection Distance Specifies the distance of the surface on which the shadow falls from the layer and the light source This value affects the size of the shadow By de...

Page 497: ...r appears over the shadow If this box is not checked only the shadow appears Resize Layer Specifies whether or not the effect considers the original layer s bounding box as the edge of the layer If th...

Page 498: ...Defines what appears on the back sides of the cards when they rotate into view or when the camera rotates around to the back of the layer You can use any image file in the composition its visibility...

Page 499: ...find a camera position and orientation that positions the corners of the layer at the corner pins If this isn t possible the layer is replaced by its outline drawn between the pins When Auto Focal Le...

Page 500: ...ontrol the overall light level and shading in a scene Then adjust Specular Reflection and Highlight Sharpness to control the strength and spread of highlights Finally adjust Ambient Light to fill in t...

Page 501: ...the light bends as it passes through the liquid A value of 1 does not distort the bottom The default value of 1 2 accurately simulates water To add distortion increase the value Surface Color Specifi...

Page 502: ...ht strikes the surface and is independent of the viewer s position Specular Reflection Takes into account the position of the viewer It models the reflection of the light source back to the viewer It...

Page 503: ...he bubbles can be produced Producer Orientation Adjusts the rotation orientation of the area from which the bubbles can be produced Producer Orientation has no noticeable effect when Producer X Size a...

Page 504: ...of the wind that pushes the bubbles in the direction specified by Wind Direction Wind Direction Sets the direction in which the bubbles blow Animate this control to create turbulent wind effects Bubbl...

Page 505: ...choose the layer you want to use as the bubble Note The preset bubble textures are prerendered 64 x 64 images If you zoom in above 64 x 64 the bubble appears blurry To avoid this use a higher resoluti...

Page 506: ...s to start off screen and be affected by the flow map as they arrive on screen Simulation Quality Increases the accuracy and therefore the realism of the simulation However the higher the value the lo...

Page 507: ...or use the Layer Exploder to create particles from an existing layer If you ve already created particles you can apply the Particle Exploder to explode them into more new particles 4 Select your parti...

Page 508: ...first turn the Cannon off by setting Particles Per Second to zero The Cannon creates particles in a continuous stream as though they were shot out of a cannon Position Specifies the x y coordinates f...

Page 509: ...ated only when the value is 1 or more Note If the Width Height Particles Across and Particles Down controls are not available the Use Grid option has been turned off in the Edit Grid Text dialog box C...

Page 510: ...new particles to a multiframe layer use the Time Offset Type control to specify how you want to use the layer s frames For example use Absolute to map an unchanging image onto a particle or use Relat...

Page 511: ...e between 0 and 1 second into the layer s duration Time Offset Specifies the frame from which to start playing sequential frames from the layer Affects Specifies which particles are affected by the La...

Page 512: ...s Color control However using this method you change only the color of each new particle as it s created To control the color for the lifespan of particles you must create a layer map and use one of t...

Page 513: ...value particles fall at slightly different rates Although pure gravity accelerates all objects equally increasing the Force Random Spread value can produce more realistic results with subjects such a...

Page 514: ...athering creates a gradual rather than abrupt change For example if you set Older Younger Than to 10 and Age Feather to 4 about 20 of particles start changing when they re 8 seconds old 50 change when...

Page 515: ...ed and Max is the value to which a white pixel is mapped The complete tonal distribution between Min and Max is then scaled proportionally See Using Min and Max controls for Property Mappers Pro only...

Page 516: ...planes of motion The pixel brightness values in the color channel define the resistance to particle force at each pixel so the color channel acts like a layer map of hills and valleys that decrease or...

Page 517: ...color changes aren t dramatic enough you can lower the Min value and raise the Max value to increase the contrast of the color changes You set the initial velocity of a particle and then use a layer m...

Page 518: ...as a matrix of numbers In many cases you never see the actual layer map in the final movie you see only the result of an effect applying the layer map s pixel values to the corresponding pixels in a...

Page 519: ...use the resulting composition as the layer map Otherwise Particle Playground ignores any property settings The contrast between adjacent pixel values determines how smoothly the values change across t...

Page 520: ...ect Enable Field Rendering in the Particle Playground options dialog box Then Particle Playground calculates the simulation at double the frame rate of the current composition which is what field rend...

Page 521: ...Consequently the layer breaks into more and smaller pieces Animating this control is not recommended as it can cause sudden jumps in the number and size of shatter pieces Direction Rotates the orient...

Page 522: ...for the Shatter effect Gradient controls specify the gradient layer used to control the timing of an explosion and the pieces that are affected by the blast Shatter Threshold Specifies which pieces i...

Page 523: ...between the behavior of large versus small pieces Setting it to 0 makes all pieces behave the same regardless of their size Gravity Determines what happens to the pieces after they break up and blow a...

Page 524: ...mera position X Rotation Y Rotation Z Rotation Rotate the camera around the corresponding axis Use these controls to look at the layer from the top side back or any other angle X Y Position Specifies...

Page 525: ...to nonfiltered versions of the layer Highlight Sharpness Controls shininess Very shiny surfaces produce small tight reflections while duller surfaces spread the highlight out into a larger region Spe...

Page 526: ...t example To understand how this effect works consider the following information about the physics of waves A wave consists of a peak and a trough The amplitude of a wave is the height or distance bet...

Page 527: ...e slope of the waves in relation to the Brightness Results are visible only in Height Map view Higher values result in rounder peaks and narrower valleys while lower values result in smoother valleys...

Page 528: ...sts the steepness of the ground by expanding and contracting the height of the displaced wireframe The mesh is locked at the black level so it always grows up from the bottom in other words you cannot...

Page 529: ...are scattered randomly by a small amount to give a more natural effect This effect alters the alpha channel as well as the color channels if you have masked out a portion of the image the brush stroke...

Page 530: ...l level in Draft quality The Direction control specifies the apparent direction from which the highlight source is shining in degrees A setting of 45 causes the shadow to be cast from the northeast di...

Page 531: ...pecifies the properties on which you want to apply the glow Glow Threshold Sets a threshold as a percentage brightness to which the glow is not applied A lower percentage produces more glow a higher p...

Page 532: ...the colors that glow You can choose to use these colors by choosing them from the Glow Colors menu Glow Dimensions Specifies whether the glow is horizontal vertical or both To apply a basic glow using...

Page 533: ...Mirror Edges When Phase is set to 0 selecting this causes the edges of the layer to be mirrored with the surrounding tiles Phase Controls the horizontal or vertical shift of the tiles that are adjace...

Page 534: ...reate sharper edges Fractal Influence Specifies how much of the introduced roughness is influenced by fractal calculations Scale Specifies the scale of the fractal used to calculate the roughness Stre...

Page 535: ...ou set the evolution to occur over five revolutions and you set the Cycle value to 2 then the evolution loops twice The timing or speed of these Evolution cycles is determined by the amount of time al...

Page 536: ...d and then be without the effect for 0 9 seconds If this value is set lower than the Strobe Duration the strobe effect is constant Random Strobe Probability Specifies the probability that any given fr...

Page 537: ...nt over time Basic Text also gives you the choice of either compositing the text over the layer image or using the text by itself Best quality creates anti aliased text that animates smoothly This eff...

Page 538: ...o outline the characters Stroke Width specifies the size of the outline around each character Size Specifies the size of the characters Tracking Specifies the average distance between characters Line...

Page 539: ...Random the number is bounded by 0 and the slider value Random Values Generates random values limited by the Value Offset Random Max setting If Value Offset Random Max is 0 values are random across th...

Page 540: ...path over time make sure to create initial keyframes for all four path control points moving a control point without an initial keyframe does not move it over time You may find it easier to animate a...

Page 541: ...the path Tangent 1 Circle Point Specifies the following points starting tangent for a Bezier curve diameter of a circle and starting or ending point of text depending on specified alignment and diame...

Page 542: ...m the initial rasterization size specified for Size Setting the scaling percentage greater than 100 may result in blurred edges For best results set Size to a point size that does not require scaling...

Page 543: ...fractional part of the Visible Characters value For example the eighth character is displayed at 10 opacity when the value of Visible Characters is 7 10 and Fade Time is 100 the same character is disp...

Page 544: ...Dragging the outer circle of a point dynamically updates the shape of the curve in the Composition panel To constrain the point to its current vertical or horizontal coordinate press Shift while dragg...

Page 545: ...de Starting Frame Specifies the timecode count at the beginning of the layer You can set the Starting Frame slider to correspond to the layer s In point or if you combine a layer with another composit...

Page 546: ...m all the echoes Screen emulates combining the echoes by sandwiching them optically This is similar to Add but it will not overload as quickly Composite in Back uses the echoes alpha channels to compo...

Page 547: ...rize Time effect Animating the value of the Frame Rate slider can give unpredictable results For this reason the only interpolation of the frame rate allowed is Hold This effect works with 8 bpc and 1...

Page 548: ...aque of the original source and Target layers alpha channels Full On Sets the alpha channel to completely opaque Lightness Of Result Uses the lightness of the RGB difference as alpha Max Of Result Use...

Page 549: ...he pixel in the same position at another time The other time is the displacement amount in seconds for the pixel calculated in step 3 Suppose you specified 2 seconds as the maximum time displacement A...

Page 550: ...composition This method however can significantly increase rendering time 1 In the Composition panel select the layer you want to distort 2 Apply the Time Displacement effect 3 Choose Layer Pre compo...

Page 551: ...width of the area that is actively changing from the original to the new image Back Layer Specifies the image to be revealed by the transition You can use any file in the composition its visibility ca...

Page 552: ...Camera tracks the composition s camera and light positions and renders a 3D image on the layer Camera Position controls for the Card Wipe effect X Rotation Y Rotation Z Rotation Rotate the camera aro...

Page 553: ...es objects form defining shading Shading depends on the angle at which the light strikes the surface and is independent of the viewer s position Specular Reflection Takes into account the position of...

Page 554: ...adients paint them in a program such as Adobe Photoshop or draw them in a program such as Adobe Illustrator Adjust the following controls for the Gradient Wipe effect Transition Completion Specifies t...

Page 555: ...ial Wipe effect reveals an underlying layer using a wipe that circles around a specified point At Best quality the edges of the wipe are anti aliased The Start Angle control specifies the position or...

Page 556: ...ly specifying the range you can create a version of the image that faithfully resembles the original Adjust the following controls for the Cineon Converter effect Conversion Type Specifies how the Cin...

Page 557: ...e true color values of pixels as you move the pointer over them See also About Cineon files on page 104 To import a Cineon sequence on page 104 To set options for Cineon files on page 105 About color...

Page 558: ...ortant than the exact relationship between colors Relative Colorimetric Compares the extreme highlight of the source color space to that of the destination color space and shifts all colors accordingl...

Page 559: ...hoose Effect Utility HDR Compander 2 In the Effect Controls panel select Compress Range for the Mode property 3 Set Gain and Gamma Gain specifies the maximum value to be represented in the compressed...

Page 560: ...ight Compression effect compresses the highlight values in a high dynamic range image so that they fall within the value range of a low dynamic range image Adjust the amount of compression by setting...

Page 561: ...text editor and then copy it into the expression field When you add an expression to a layer property a default expression appears in the expression field In Graph Editor view the expression field ap...

Page 562: ...be website Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help To check for updates click the Preferences button in Adobe Help Center and then click Check For Updates Follow the on screen instruc...

Page 563: ...tion of the cursor If text is already selected in the expression field that text is replaced by the new expression text If the cursor is not in the expression field all text in the field is replaced b...

Page 564: ...ifference between the two expression formats create the same pick whip expression with the preference selected and deselected Note Because the default is set to use compact English this document uses...

Page 565: ...r 1 change index to 1 as follows thisComp layer 1 5 Next add a period and choose an attribute or method from any of the Layer Light or Camera menus For example if Layer 1 has Position keyframes that y...

Page 566: ...ime time 2 9 From Property attributes and methods on page 584 notice that the valueAtTime method returns a number or Array When an expression returns a Number Array or Boolean such as true or false yo...

Page 567: ...n choose Effect Expression Controls effect name See also To create a null object on page 209 Expression Controls effects After Effects includes the following Expression Controls effects for which you...

Page 568: ...on to other layers in a project and may use specific layer names it doesn t always work to simply save and load expressions into a project If you want to save an expression for use in another project...

Page 569: ...ression creating a keyframe at every frame and then disables the expression In the Timeline panel select the property in which the expression is written and choose Animation Keyframe Assistant Convert...

Page 570: ...of properties To access a value use a chain of object references separated by the period operator To chain object references past the layer level for example to chain effect properties masks or text...

Page 571: ...parated by commas and surrounded by brackets as in this example 10 23 You can assign an Array to a variable making it easy to refer to Array values in other areas of the expression For example myArray...

Page 572: ...position 1 9 y The following is even more succinct 9 position 1 This is an important point so let s look at one more example If you want to combine the x position value from Layer A with the y positio...

Page 573: ...value as one of the value parameters instead of doubling the one rotation value remove the duplicate expression and insert a value For example to use the rotation value for the scale s height and 10 f...

Page 574: ...and vary the results based on the name of an object For example the following expression wiggles the position of a layer differently if the layer is named hero amp 20 if name hero amp 40 wiggle 5 amp...

Page 575: ...type does not accept a keyframes or duration argument The active and enabled attributes You can use the active attribute in an expression to return a Boolean value that reports the status of a layer c...

Page 576: ...meric keypad to activate the expression 8 Select Brush 1 and press Ctrl D Windows or Command D Mac OS multiple times to duplicate the brush 9 Press the spacebar to preview your animation In this examp...

Page 577: ...r width and get the same result thisProperty Return type Property Represents the property containing the expression For example if you write an expression on the Rotation property you can start an exp...

Page 578: ...is a Number ntscDropFrame and isDuration are Booleans Converts t to a String representing NTSC timecode See timeToFrames for an explanation of the t and isDuration parameters If ntscDropFrame is false...

Page 579: ...t Return type Array Argument type vec is an Array amount is a Number Divides every element of the vector by the amount clamp value limit1 limit2 Return type Number or Array Argument type value limit1...

Page 580: ...ranging between 0 and the corresponding component of maxValOrArray random minValOrArray maxValOrArray Return type Number or Array Argument type minValOrArray and maxValOrArray are Numbers or Arrays If...

Page 581: ...a value that linearly interpolates from value1 to value2 as t ranges from 0 to 1 Returns value1 when t 0 Returns value2 when t 1 linear t tMin tMax value1 value2 Return type Number or Array Argument...

Page 582: ...space to HSLA space The input is an Array of normalized red green blue and alpha channel values all in the range of 0 0 to 1 0 The resulting value is an Array of hue saturation lightness and alpha ch...

Page 583: ...linear time markTime 5 markTime 100 0 numLayers Return type Number Returns the number of layers in the composition activeCamera Return type Camera Returns the Camera object for the camera through whi...

Page 584: ...pe String Returns the name of the footage Layer subobjects attributes and methods source Return type Comp or Footage Returns the source Comp or source Footage object for the layer Default time is adju...

Page 585: ...the layer in seconds hasVideo Return type Boolean Returns true if the layer has video or false if it doesn t hasAudio Return type Boolean Returns true if the layer has audio or false if it doesn t act...

Page 586: ...type Property Returns the value of the Time Remap property in seconds if Time Remap is enabled marker key index Return type Marker Number Argument type index is a Number Returns the value of the Marke...

Page 587: ...rn type Property Returns the diffuse component value as a percentage specular Return type Property Returns the specular component value as a percentage shininess Return type Property Returns the shini...

Page 588: ...ge 2 Bulge Center toWorld sub p1 p2 fromWorldVec vec t time Return type Array 2 or 3 Argument type vec is an Array 2 or 3 and t is a Number Transforms a vector from world space to layer space Example...

Page 589: ...and all of the material properties pointOfInterest Return type Property 3 Returns the light s point of interest values in world space intensity Return type Property Returns the light s intensity value...

Page 590: ...expansion value in pixels invert Return type Boolean Returns true if the mask is inverted or false if it is not Property attributes and methods value Return type Number or Array Returns the property...

Page 591: ...5 loopIn type cycle numKeyframes 0 Return type Number or Array Loops a segment of time that is measured from the first keyframe on the layer forward toward the layer s Out point The loop occurs from t...

Page 592: ...h abs time nearestKey time time easeOut d 0 1 100 0 key markerName Return type Key Returns the keyframe for the marker key with this name Use only on marker properties nearestKey t Return type Key Ret...

Page 593: ...animation Notice that the Opacity property of the robot layer is animated yet there are no opacity keyframes See Methods for previewing compositions on page 134 Note Make sure to use rotation values...

Page 594: ...the expression as follows position 2 5 Manually entered expression examples Example To position one layer between two others This example expression positions and maintains one layer at a balanced dis...

Page 595: ...Ripple with this expression 1 Start with two layers Make one layer a magnifying glass or similar object with a hole in the middle and name it Magnifier See About layers on page 149 2 Create a motion...

Page 596: ...release To play from DVD from CD ROM or as streaming video on the World Wide Web To import into nonlinear editing systems such as Adobe Premiere Pro Avid or Apple Final Cut Pro for final output To br...

Page 597: ...r Effects can read and render QuickTime files in 16 bpc color depth When you select a QuickTime codec that supports 16 bpc color depth in the Output Module dialog box such as the None16 codec Trillion...

Page 598: ...en aspect ratio of 16 9 HD video formats include interlaced and noninterlaced varieties Typically the highest resolution formats are inter laced at the higher frame rates because noninterlaced video a...

Page 599: ...film In any case you will need to consider the important ways film and video formats differ such as in their image resolutions and frame rates and how to reconcile those differences For the production...

Page 600: ...properties in the other layers To apply an adjustment layer to some but not all of the layers below it you must either nest or precompose the adjustment layer with those layers Nesting or precomposing...

Page 601: ...nformation about your OpenGL card by choosing Edit Preferences Previews Windows or After Effects Preferences Previews Mac OS and clicking the OpenGL Info button Note that only features supported by Op...

Page 602: ...t two movies from one render each with a different field order See About field separation and pulldown on page 99 and To test field rendering order on page 597 Render the composition at a reduced reso...

Page 603: ...en play the thumbnail on your system to get a good idea of what motion will be like in your final full sized movie You can also enlarge the thumbnail in a movie playing application to see playback at...

Page 604: ...er the movie normally 1 Choose Composition Save RAM Preview 2 Type a name specify a location and click Save Note The 3D View of the active composition panel must be set to Active Camera for Save RAM P...

Page 605: ...omputers is out of proportion to the time spent actually rendering frames The optimal number depends on many variables related to the network configuration and the computers on it experiment to determ...

Page 606: ...ns in the Render Queue panel Note Choosing Pre render from the Composition menu adds a selected composition to the render queue and sets the Post Render Action option to Import Replace Usage 1 Place t...

Page 607: ...sing a watch folder 1 Choose Edit Preferences Output Windows or After Effects Preferences Output Mac OS 2 Select Use Default File Name And Folder To introduce 3 2 pulldown If you are creating output f...

Page 608: ...eue panel affect only rendering and do not change the original compositions The top section of the Render Queue panel monitors the item that After Effects is rendering In the bottom section you can ar...

Page 609: ...he Shift key to select multiple queued items 2 Click the underlined Output To file name of any item 3 Choose the hard disk to which you want to render the files The file paths for all selected items c...

Page 610: ...displays the current render settings either default settings or settings you made when you created the composition You can change these settings or override them for all layers or compositions When yo...

Page 611: ...ng See Enhancing time altered motion by blending frames on page 169 Field Render Determines the field rendering technique used for the rendered composition Choose Off if you are rendering for film or...

Page 612: ...nders Started Lists which items in the queue have started rendering Total Time Elapsed Shows the time elapsed for all items that have been rendered or are currently being rendered Log File Shows the n...

Page 613: ...arrow next to Render Settings in the Render Queue panel and choose Make Template to specify default render settings templates or create a new render settings template To apply an additional output mod...

Page 614: ...d with a color depth of Millions of Colors Trillions of Colors or Floating Point have labeled alpha channels information describing the alpha channel is stored in the file Therefore you do not have to...

Page 615: ...Select a location for the file type a file name and then click OK To load a saved output module template file click Load select the template file click Open and then click OK You can also create an ou...

Page 616: ...oping by writing HTML code to control the Flash Player deselect Loop Continuously Prevent Import Creates a SWF file that digital image or video editing programs can t import Include Object Names Inclu...

Page 617: ...the Audio Waveform effect or the Frequency Bands value in the Audio Spectrum effect or decrease the frame rate to make the SWF file smaller Resolution The SWF Exporter always creates files at full re...

Page 618: ...marker on page 166 This option also adds a frame label to each SWF frame that has a layer time marker You can specify how the browser opens the web link with standard target commands for example _blan...

Page 619: ...for various project types If you re experienced with MPEG encoding you can further fine tune projects for specific playback situations by customizing the presets in the Export Settings dialog box In...

Page 620: ...cified server automatically Adobe Media Encoder Filters options Noise grain and similar artifacts can interfere with the efficient compression of images For this reason the size of the final output fi...

Page 621: ...g Passes Specifies the number of times the encoder will analyze the clip before encoding Multiple passes increases the time it takes to encode the file but generally results in more efficient compress...

Page 622: ...h allow you to output variations of a movie suited to different network speeds The player software associated with the format detects and selects the most appropriate version to ensure smooth playback...

Page 623: ...og box allows you to upload the exported file to an FTP File Transfer Protocol server that has storage space allocated for file sharing FTP is a common method for transferring files over a network and...

Page 624: ...n the Export Settings dialog box s panel menu available in any pane such as Video or Filters select XMP Info and then enter information in the appropriate fields See also About metadata on page 35 Ren...

Page 625: ...m camera motion and excessive film grain The codec you use must be available to your entire audience For instance if you use a hardware codec on a capture card your audience must have the same capture...

Page 626: ...consistently achieving their stated data rate For broadband connections set the data rate for streaming video to 128 kilobits per second Downloading a video file over the web The data rate is less imp...

Page 627: ...gher quality produces better image quality but results in a bigger movie file Note that this quality is unrelated to each layer s quality setting in After Effects Key Frame Every In QuickTime terminol...

Page 628: ...Use when compressing video for playback from CD No Compression Use for a depth setting of Millions of Colors when an alpha channel is required Cinepak Use when compressing 16 bit and 24 bit video for...

Page 629: ...ite flattened image of all the layers This ensures that the file is compatible with applications that don t support Photoshop layers such applications display the composited image and ignore the layer...

Page 630: ...at lies within the frame border however you can paint on the gray lines dividing the frames of the filmstrip without damaging the file You can edit the red green blue and alpha channels in the filmstr...

Page 631: ...future compositions Rendering compositions containing both 2D and 3D layers If a composition contains both 2D and 3D layers After Effects renders the 3D layers in independent noninteractive groups det...

Page 632: ...er right 1 Choose Composition Composition Settings 2 Click the Advanced tab 3 Choose Advanced 3D from the Rendering Plug in menu 4 To specify the shadow map resolution click Options and choose an opti...

Page 633: ...t and all source files to a folder B on a server Computers with the render engine installed C open the project and render a still frame sequence to a designated output folder D on the server Network c...

Page 634: ...rs is out of proportion to the time spent actually rendering frames The optimal number depends on many variables related to the network configuration and the computers on it experiment to determine th...

Page 635: ...al computer To start After Effects in watch folder mode automatically save a project with the file name Watch This Folder aep After Effects watches the folder containing the project if you open that p...

Page 636: ...sure that you have the same fonts installed on each system Note Do not share plug ins across a network Make sure that you have a copy of the plug ins folder on each system that is running After Effec...

Page 637: ...to the next volume in the Minimum Diskspace Before Overflowing text box and then click OK To specify segment settings You can specify a size for your output so that After Effects renders files in seg...

Page 638: ...ou would any other asset When you insert a linked composition into the target product s timeline a linked clip which is simply a reference to the linked composition in the Project panel appears in the...

Page 639: ...er the composition and replace the dynamically linked composition with the rendered file If you commonly work with complex source compositions try adding RAM or using a faster processor Color and Adob...

Page 640: ...le Adobe Premiere Pro project In an Adobe Encore DVD project however you can link to an After Effects composition only once Adobe Encore DVD and After Effects If you are linking to DVD menus or button...

Page 641: ...mposition offline if system resources are low preventing you from smoothly playing back or previewing or if you want to share your project without having to open it on a system with Production Studio...

Page 642: ...etching You add shadows or depth of field effects If you have no problems viewing each frame of a full resolution best quality preview of a composition then you have enough memory to render the compos...

Page 643: ...cache are automatically purged when you quit After Effects To purge the RAM cache and disk cache choose Edit Purge Image Caches Blue bars in the Timeline panel mark frames that are cached to disk Gre...

Page 644: ...o store information normally stored in RAM Windows manages virtual memory using a paging file To improve performance in After Effects adjust the size of the paging file to a maximum of twice the amoun...

Page 645: ...all of the projects into a single project by choosing File Import File Prerender nested compositions Render a completed composition as a movie so that After Effects doesn t rerender the composition ev...

Page 646: ...mposition limit which portion of the composition is rendered to the screen during previews See To change the region of interest on page 118 Deselect Show Cache Indicators Deselect Show Cache Indicator...

Page 647: ...ed decreases Multiprocessor plug in On multiprocessor systems After Effects uses a multiprocessor plug in to accelerate processor intensive operations such as movement rotation motion blur and blendin...

Page 648: ...ys for working with the Graph Editor on page 651 Keys for setting the work area on page 651 Keys for using masks on page 652 Keys for using the Effect Controls panel on page 652 Keys for 3D animation...

Page 649: ...ind tool Y Y Mask tools Rectangular and Ellip tical Q or Shift Q to select and cycle through tools Q or Shift Q to select and cycle through tools Type tools Horizontal and Vertical Ctrl T to select an...

Page 650: ...ophe Suspend image updates Caps Lock Caps Lock Take multiple up to four snap shots Shift F5 F6 F7 and F8 Shift F5 F6 F7 and F8 Display snapshot in active panel F5 F6 F7 and F8 F5 F6 F7 and F8 Display...

Page 651: ...ayer to top of the Timeline panel X X Scroll current time to center of panel while zoomed D D Zoom out time Zoom in time Result Windows Mac OS Go to the beginning of a composi tion Home or Ctrl Alt Le...

Page 652: ...dicator Command drag current time indi cator Wireframe preview Alt 0 on numeric keypad Option 0 on numeric keypad Display rectangle instead of alpha outline during wireframe preview Ctrl Alt 0 on nume...

Page 653: ...key Command Option Up Arrow key Send layer to back Ctrl Shift Alt Down Arrow key Command Shift Option Down Arrow key Bring layer to front Ctrl Shift Alt Up Arrow key Command Shift Option Up Arrow key...

Page 654: ...ng Ctrl Alt comma Command Option comma Move In point to beginning of composition Alt Home Option Home Move Out point to end of compo sition Alt End Option End Constrain rotation to 45 incre ments Shif...

Page 655: ...PP Reveal modified properties UU UU Rotation R R Time Remapping RR RR Scale S S Set layer property value in dialog box works with P R F and M Ctrl Shift property shortcut Command Shift property short...

Page 656: ...visible keyframes and properties Ctrl Alt A Command Option A Go to previous keyframe J J Go to next keyframe K K Switch interpolation between Linear and Auto Bezier Alt click keyframe Graph Editor or...

Page 657: ...drag a keyframe with Selec tion tool Option drag a keyframe with Selection tool Switch to Pen tool and add keyframe Ctrl click a segment between two keyframes with Selection tool Command click a segm...

Page 658: ...c OS Reset oval or rectangle mask to fill frame Double click Rectangular or Ellip tical Mask tool Double click Rectangular or Oval Mask tool Scale around center point in Free Transform mode Ctrl drag...

Page 659: ...w 2 defaults to custom view 1 F11 F11 View Custom View 3 defaults to active camera F12 F12 Return to previous view Esc Esc Move the camera and its point of interest to look at selected objects Shift A...

Page 660: ...agging Append a straight paint stroke to the last stroke Shift Click Shift Click Set starting sample point to color currently under Clone Stamp tool pointer Alt click Option click Select Last Stroke O...

Page 661: ...ommand Left Arrow Right Arrow Select word line or paragraph Double click triple click quadruple click or quintuple click Double click triple click quadruple click or quintuple click Toggle All Upperca...

Page 662: ...Option Command 5 Show files with label 1 red Alt Control 6 Option Command 6 Show files with label 2 yellow Alt Control 7 Option Command 7 Show files with label 3 green Alt Control 8 Option Command 8...

Page 663: ...t Right Arrow Left Arrow Up Arrow or Down Arrow Shift Right Arrow Left Arrow Up Arrow or Down Arrow Rotate image clockwise Control Rotate image counterclockwise Control Launch File Bridge in maximized...

Page 664: ...from Adobe Photoshop 92 lights 183 Adobe After Effects conversion of layers in Adobe Premiere Pro 126 copying layers to Adobe Premiere Pro 126 workflow overview 9 Adobe Bridge See also Bridge window...

Page 665: ...63 ambient expression element 581 Anamorphic 2 1 setting 98 anchor points about 206 masks or vertices 253 moving 207 setting 112 text layers 298 anchorPoint expression element 579 Angle Control effect...

Page 666: ...ting to grayscale 531 Blend effect 396 blending paint strokes Vector Paint 475 RGB colors 66 blending modes about 259 applying 259 Calculations effect 397 Checkerboard effect 447 Circle effect and 448...

Page 667: ...Blur effect 390 Channel Combiner effect 398 Channel effects Alpha Levels effect 395 Arithmetic effect 396 Blend effect 396 Calculations effect 397 Channel Combiner effect 398 Compound Arithmetic effe...

Page 668: ...s preference 19 columns 21 118 comments in expressions 560 comp expression element 571 Comp Camera attribute 174 351 Comp expression elements 576 Comp Flowchart View command 60 compact mode 26 Compact...

Page 669: ...Digital Disk Recorders DDRs 102 Digital Picture Exchange files DPX importing 69 104 direction handles and lines 223 229 246 Directional Blur effect 391 Discreet RLA RPF formats importing 70 disk cache...

Page 670: ...e 503 Exponential Scale keyframe assistant 231 Export Cache command 28 Export command 622 export settings Audio options 616 filters options 614 Video options 614 Export To DVD command 613 exporting Af...

Page 671: ...ing 32 moving files 58 navigating 30 project hierarchy 53 renaming 58 showing and hiding contents 58 working in 58 font size changing 287 changing in Metadata panel 36 fonts choosing 287 footage addin...

Page 672: ...using 142 Group of Pictures See GOPs Grow Bounds effect 552 guide layers 149 161 guides creating 143 H H 264 95 592 halos removing 400 handheld cameras 341 hand tinted images 407 hanging punctuation 2...

Page 673: ...d 30 inverting masks 257 IPTC IIM legacy 35 IPTC Core 35 IPTC information 36 IPTC metadata editing 36 Iris Wipe effect 548 isolating layers 160 J JavaScript as expression language 564 JPE format expor...

Page 674: ...8 placing in time 154 renaming 158 rendering 2D and 3D 625 selecting 153 sequencing 156 shy 159 solid color 150 161 soloing 160 605 source 68 splitting 157 stacking order 153 updating 61 viewing name...

Page 675: ...ons 3D 185 186 math expressions 576 Matte Choker effect 282 466 Matte effects Matte Choker effect 466 Simple Choker effect 467 matte view 270 matted alpha channels 73 243 mattes See also alpha channel...

Page 676: ...ns about 60 130 collapsing transformations 131 common uses for 61 opacity 131 options 131 prerendering 132 synchronizing time displays 131 3D layers 132 network rendering 627 new features in After Eff...

Page 677: ...dio 389 masks 269 3D layer 177 Paragraph panel 290 paragraph text See also text converting to point 292 param expression element 584 Parametric EQ effect 388 parent expression element 579 parent layer...

Page 678: ...sets pressure setting 319 preview modes about 138 Adaptive Resolution 140 Draft 3D mode 141 Freeze Layer Contents 141 Live Update mode 141 OpenGL 138 Wireframe 140 previews about 134 alpha and color c...

Page 679: ...enaming files 34 Render Queue panel 602 604 606 rendering about 590 audio 608 considerations for project planning 50 effects 348 elapsed time 606 field order 100 file naming 603 filmstrip for Adobe Ph...

Page 680: ...ing frame rate 76 frame blending 239 import as individual footage files 76 importing as composition 76 importing sequence of still images 75 rendering still images 624 Set Channels effect 401 Set Firs...

Page 681: ...tereo Mixer effect about 389 conversion in Adobe Premiere Pro 126 still images See also individual file formats changing duration 74 exporting 590 frame rate 125 importing 73 supported formats 69 590...

Page 682: ...expressions 572 Time Difference effect 541 Time Displacement effect 542 Time effects Echo effect 539 Posterize Time effect 541 Time Difference effect 541 Time Displacement effect 542 Timewarp effect 5...

Page 683: ...Undo command 56 Unfiltered menu 30 Unicode characters 299 uninstalling software 1 unlocking layers 160 unmatted channels 73 243 Unqueued status 606 Unsharp Mask controls Remove Grain effect 360 Unshar...

Page 684: ...es 81 wide angle lens 181 width expression element 577 578 579 wiggle expression element 585 Wiggler The 216 Wiggly selector 299 302 306 310 Windows Media format exporting 612 importing 70 specifying...

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