Adobe After Effects CS4 User Manual

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ADOBE® AFTER EFFECTS® CS4

Last updated 12/21/2009

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Copyright

This user guide is protected under copyright law, furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporated assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational content contained in this guide.

This user guide is licensed for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License. This License allows users to copy, distribute, and transmit the user guide for noncommercial purposes only so long as (1) proper attribution to Adobe is given as the owner of the user guide; and (2) any reuse or distribution of the user guide contains a notice that use of the user guide is governed by these terms. The best way to provide notice is to include the following link. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

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Updated Information/Additional Third Party Code Information available at http://www.adobe.com/go/thirdparty.

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Portions of the TIFF I/O plug-in were written with MacApp®: ©1985-1988 Apple Inc. APPLE INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The MacApp software is proprietary to Apple Inc. and is licensed to Adobe for distribution only for use in combination with Adobe After Effects.

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This product includes software developed by the OpenSymphony Group (http://www.opensymphony.com/).

This product contains either BISAFE and/or TIPEM software by RSA Data Security, Inc.

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Sorenson Spark video compression and decompression technology licensed from Sorenson Media, Inc.

Notice to U.S. Government end users: The Software and Documentation are “Commercial Items,” as that term is defined at 48 C.F.R. §2.101, consisting of “Commercial Computer Software” and “Commercial Computer Software Documentation,” as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §227.7202, as applicable. Consistent with 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §§227.7202-1 through 227.7202-4, as applicable, the Commercial Computer Software and Commercial Computer Software Documentation are being licensed to U.S. Government end users (a) only as Commercial Items and (b) with only those rights as are granted to all other end users pursuant to the terms and conditions herein. Unpublished-rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Adobe agrees to comply with all applicable equal opportunity laws including, if appropriate, the provisions of Executive Order 11246, as amended, Section 402 of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (38 USC 4212), and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the regulations at 41 CFR Parts 60-1 through 60-60, 60-250, and 60-741. The affirmative action clause and regulations contained in the preceding sentence shall be incorporated by reference.

Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, California 95110, USA.

Last updated 12/21/2009

Chapter 1: Getting started

Installation, activation, and registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Adobe Product Improvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

New features in After Effects CS4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 2: User interface

Workspaces, panels, and viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

General user interface items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

User interface changes from After Effects CS3 to After Effects CS4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Chapter 3: Workflows, planning, and setup

Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Planning and setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Working with After Effects and other applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Dynamic Link and After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

iii

Chapter 4: Projects and compositions

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Composition basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Precomposing, nesting, and pre-rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Chapter 5: Importing and managing footage items

Importing and interpreting footage items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Working with footage items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Importing and interpreting video and audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Preparing and importing 3D image files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Preparing and importing still images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Introduction to Camera Raw and importing camera raw files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Navigating, opening, and saving images with Camera Raw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Making color and tonal adjustments in Camera Raw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Retouching and transforming images with Camera Raw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Making local adjustments with Camera Raw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Correcting lens distortion and noise in Camera Raw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Camera Raw settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Chapter 6: Layers and properties

Creating layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Selecting and arranging layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Managing layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Layer properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Blending modes and layer styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

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Contents

3D layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Cameras, lights, and points of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Chapter 7: Views and previews

Previewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Modifying and using views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Chapter 8: Animation and keyframes

Animation basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Setting, selecting, and deleting keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Editing, moving, and copying keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Assorted animation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Keyframe interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Time-stretching and time-remapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Animating with Puppet tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Tracking and stabilizing motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Chapter 9: Color

Color basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Color management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Chapter 10: Drawing, painting, and paths

Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Creating shapes and masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Managing and animating shape paths and masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Chapter 11: Text

Creating and editing text layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Formatting characters and the Character panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Formatting paragraphs and the Paragraph panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Animating text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Examples and resources for text animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Chapter 12: Transparency, opacity, and compositing

Compositing overview and resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Alpha channels, masks, and mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Keying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Chapter 13: Effects and animation presets

Effects and animation presets overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Effect galleries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

3D Channel effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Audio effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Blur & Sharpen effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Channel effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Color Correction effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

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Contents

Distort effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Generate effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

Keying effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Matte effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Noise & Grain effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Paint effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Perspective effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Simulation effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Stylize effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

Text effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

Time effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Transition effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Utility effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

Obsolete effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613

Chapter 14: Markers and metadata

Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

XMP metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625

Chapter 15: Memory, storage, and performance

Memory and storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632

Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

Chapter 16: Plug-ins, scripts, and automation

Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641

Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645

Chapter 17: Expressions

Expression basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

Expression language reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

Expression examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

Chapter 18: Rendering and exporting

Basics of rendering and exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705

Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713

Exporting project information to other Adobe applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Encoding and compression options for movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Automated rendering and network rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Converting movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

Chapter 19: Keyboard shortcuts

General (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

Projects (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

Preferences (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

Activating tools (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Contents

Compositions and the work area (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

Time navigation (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

Previews (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Views (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

Footage (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

Effects and animation presets (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

Layers (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

Showing properties and groups in the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

Showing properties in the Effect Controls panel (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

Modifying layer properties (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

3D layers (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750

Keyframes and the Graph Editor (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751

Text (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752

Masks (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

Paint tools (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

Shape layers (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755

Markers (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756

Motion tracking (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756

Saving, exporting, and rendering (keyboard shortcuts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

Index ...............................................................................................................758

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Chapter 1: Getting started

For an introduction to the basic terminology, concepts, and workflows in After Effects, see “General workflow in After

Effects” on page 30.

Installation, activation, and registration

Before installing Adobe® After Effects® software, review complete system requirements and recommendations in the Read Me file. The Read Me file is on the installation disc, as well as on the website.

Install the software

1 Quit all applications that are running on your computer.

2 Insert the installation disc into your DVD drive, and follow the on-screen instructions.

For assistance with installation issues, see the Installation Support Center on the Adobe website.

After Effects support section of the Adobe

In addition to the full version of Adobe After Effects, you can also install additional copies on additional computers to use as After Effects render engines to assist with network rendering. You install render engines in the same manner as the full version of the application, but you do not activate them. You run the render engine using the Adobe After Effects Render Engine shortcut in the Adobe After Effects CS4 folder.

Important: The free trial version of Adobe After Effects software does not include some features that depend upon software licensed from parties other than Adobe. For example, mocha for After Effects, some effect plug-ins, and some codecs for encoding MPEG formats are available only with the full version of Adobe After Effects software.

More Help topics

“Network rendering with watch folders and render engines” on page 727

“Plug-ins” on page 641

“Scripts” on page 643

“Animation presets overview and resources” on page 387

Activate the software

If you have a single-user retail license for your Adobe software, you will be asked to activate your software. Activation is a simple, anonymous process that you must complete within 30 days of starting the software. During the installation process, your Adobe software attempts to contact Adobe to complete the license activation process. No personal data is transmitted.

A single-user retail license activation supports two computers. For example, you can install the software on a desktop computer at work and on a laptop computer at home.

For more information on product licensing and activation, see the Read Me file or go to the Adobe website at

www.adobe.com/go/activation.

Note: Before transferring an activation to a different computer, deactivate the software by choosing Help > Deactivate.

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Getting started

Register the software

1 If the registration dialog box isn’t already open, choose Help > Registration.

2 Follow the on-screen instructions.

Run the software in English when installed in other language

You can run After Effects in English or in the language in which you've installed and activated the software. For instructions, see

Todd Kopriva's blog.

Adobe Product Improvement Program

After you have used your Adobe software a certain number of times, a dialog box appears, asking whether you want to participate in the Adobe Product Improvement Program.

If you choose to participate, data about your use of Adobe software is sent to Adobe. No personal information is recorded or sent. The Adobe Product Improvement Program only collects information about the features and tools that you use in the software and how often you use them.

You can opt in to or opt out of the program at any time:

• To participate, choose Help > Product Improvement Program and click Yes, Participate.

• To stop participating, choose Help > Product Improvement Program and click No, Thank You.

Adobe provides more information about the Product Improvement Program in a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list on the

Adobe website.

Resources

For a complete list of the After Effects tips from the Tip Of The Day pane of the Welcome screen, see Todd Kopriva's blog.

Help and support

Community Help

Community Help is an integrated environment on Adobe.com that gives you access to community-generated content moderated by Adobe and industry experts. Comments from users help guide you to an answer.

Community Help draws on a number of resources, including:

• Videos, tutorials, tips and techniques, blogs, articles, and examples for designers and developers.

• Complete on-line product Help, which is updated regularly by the Adobe documentation team.

• All other content on Adobe.com, including knowledgebase articles, downloads and updates, Developer

Connection, and more.

Choose Help > product name Help in the application to access the Help and Support page, the portal to all of the Community Help content for your product. You can also use the Help search field in some Creative Suite 4 applications, or press F1 (Windows), to access Community Help for your product.

Last updated 12/21/2009

The sites searched by the default Community Help search engine are hand-selected and reviewed for quality by Adobe and Adobe Community Experts. Adobe experts also work to ensure that the top search results include a mixture of different kinds of content, including results from on-line product Help.

For more information on using Community Help, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/CommunityHelp/.

For a video overview of Community Help, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4117_xp.

For frequently asked questions about Community Help, see http://community.adobe.com/help/profile/faq.html

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Getting started

Product Help

Adobe provides a comprehensive user guide for each product in several formats, including on-line product Help, PDF, and printed book. Results from on-line product Help are included in your results whenever you search Community Help.

If you’re connected to the Internet, the Help menu within the product opens the product Help and Support page by default. This page is a portal to all of the Community Help content for the product. If you want to consult or search on-line product Help only, you can access it by clicking the product Help link in the upper-right corner of the Help and Support page. Be sure to select the This Help System Only option before you do your search.

If you’re not connected to the Internet, the Help menu within the product opens local Help, a subset of the content available in on-line product Help. Because local Help is not as complete or up-to-date as on-line product Help, Adobe recommends that you use the PDF version of product Help if you want to stay offline. A downloadable PDF of complete product Help is available from two places:

• The product’s Help and Support page (upper-right corner of the page)

• Local and web Help (top of the Help interface)

For more information on accessing product help, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/CommunityHelp/.

If you are working in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Fireworks, or Dreamweaver, and you want to turn off Community Help so that local Help opens by default, do the following:

1 Open the Connections panel (Window > Extensions > Connections).

2 From the Connections panel menu , select Offline Options.

3 Select Keep Me Offline and click OK.

Note: When you disable web services from the Connections panel, all other web services (such as Adobe Kuler and Adobe ConnectNow) are also disabled.

Printed resources

Printed versions of the complete on-line product Help are available for the cost of shipping and handling at

www.adobe.com/go/store.

Support resources

Visit the Adobe Support website at www.adobe.com/support to learn about free and paid technical support options.

Services, downloads, and video tutorials

You can enhance your software with various services, plug-ins, extensions, samples, and other assets.

For more information about extensions for After Effects, see “Scripts” on page 643 and “Plug-ins” on page 641.

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You can find additional free services, downloads, plug-ins, scripts, extensions, samples, examples, and tutorials by

After Effects Community Help. For a video overview that describes Community Help, see

using

www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4117_xp.

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Getting started

Adobe creative online services

Many Adobe Creative Suite® 4 applications include online features that bring the power of the Web to your computer to help you connect to community, collaborate, and get more from your Adobe software. Some services offer full or partial functionality when you’re offline, too.

Adobe Exchange

Visit the Adobe Exchange at www.adobe.com/go/exchange to download example projects, animation presets, plug- ins, scripts, and tutorials from Adobe and members of the community.

Adobe downloads

Visit www.adobe.com/go/downloads on the Adobe website to find free updates, tryouts, and other useful software.

Adobe Labs

Adobe Labs at www.adobe.com/go/labs gives you the opportunity to experience and evaluate new and emerging technologies and products from Adobe. At Adobe Labs, you have access to resources such as these:

• Prerelease software and technologies

• Code samples and best practices to accelerate your learning

• Early versions of product and technical documentation

• Forums, wiki-based content, and other collaborative resources to help you interact with like-minded users

Adobe Labs fosters a collaborative software development process. In this environment, customers quickly become productive with new products and technologies. Adobe Labs is also a forum for early feedback, which the Adobe development teams use to create software that meets the needs and expectations of the community.

Extras

The installation disc contains various extras to help you make the most of your Adobe software. Some extras are installed on your computer during the setup process; you can install others later, as needed, from the disc.

Adobe TV

Visit Adobe TV at http://tv.adobe.com to view video tutorials, video training, and other instructional and inspirational programs to help you get the most from your Adobe software.

Video tutorials: getting started, new features, and common procedures

Adobe and its partners provide a basic set of video tutorials on Adobe TV and in the Video Workshop on the Adobe website, in addition to excellent tutorials provided by other members of the community. (See “After Effects

community resources” on page 7.)

Many sections of After Effects Help refer to additional video tutorials in context to provide information about specific features.

For detailed information about new features, see “New features in After Effects CS4” on page 9.

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Note: Video tutorials on Adobe TV were created for After Effects CS4. Video tutorials on Video Workshop were created for After Effects CS3. Because most features don’t change substantially from one version to the next, most materials created for After Effects CS3 are still valid and useful for After Effects CS4. All video tutorials referred to within this section are still useful and valid for After Effects CS4. For details about changes between After Effects CS3 and After Effects CS4, see

Getting started

“User interface changes from After Effects CS3 to After Effects CS4” on page 22.

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Getting started

• Overview of After Effects:

• Introducing After Effects CS4 (Adobe TV)

• Overview of After Effects CS4 (Adobe TV)

• Overview of Creative Suite 4 Production Premium edition: Introducing CS4 Production Premium (Adobe TV)

• Working with workspaces and panels: Using shared elements of the After Effects, Encore, Soundbooth, and Adobe

Premiere Pro workspaces (Video Workshop)

• Creating and organizing projects and importing assets:

• Creating and organizing projects (Video Workshop)

• Creating projects (Adobe TV)

• Creating and using compositions: Creating compositions (Adobe TV)

• Creating and managing layers: Creating and managing layers (Video Workshop)

• Working with the Timeline panel: Working with the Timeline (Adobe TV)

• Animation essentials:

• Working with keyframes in the timeline (Video Workshop)

• Animation essentials (Adobe TV)

• Animating transforms: Animating transforms (Adobe TV)

• Animating text:

• Animating text (Video Workshop)

• Animating text (Adobe TV)

• Painting and cloning: Painting and masking (Video Workshop)

• Shape layers: About shape layers (Video Workshop)

• Previewing: Previewing animations (Adobe TV)

• Effects and animation presets:

• Applying effects in After Effects (Video Workshop)

• Applying effects (Adobe TV)

• Color correction: Correcting color with effects (Adobe TV)

• Rendering and exporting: Rendering and exporting (Video Workshop)

New features and common procedures

• Community Help: Adobe Community Help overview (Adobe TV)

• Using the XML project file format: Using the XML project file format (Adobe TV)

• Keying with Keylight: Keying with the Keylight plug-in (Video Workshop)

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Getting started

• Creating compositions for mobile devices: Creating After Effects mobile compositions (Adobe TV)

• Using 3D object layers from Photoshop: Using 3D object layers from Photoshop (Adobe TV)

• Animating x, y, and z components of Position with Separate Dimensions: Animating precisely with Separate

Dimensions (Adobe TV)

• Using color management features: Achieving consistent video color (Video Workshop)

• Using the Puppet tools:

• Using the Puppet tools (Video Workshop)

• Animating characters (Adobe TV)

• Using the Cartoon effect: Using the Cartoon effect (Adobe TV)

• Importing layered documents from Photoshop: Importing Photoshop files into After Effects (Video Workshop)

• Rotoscoping with Photoshop and After Effects: Rotoscoping using After Effects and Photoshop (Adobe TV)

• Importing and using Vanishing Point Exchange data from Photoshop:

• Working with Vanishing Point in Photoshop and After Effects (Video Workshop)

• Using Vanishing Point to map a 3D environment (Video Workshop)

• Rendering and exporting compositions for Flash Player and Flash Professional:

• overview (SWF, XFL, FLV, F4V): Exporting from After Effects to Flash (Adobe TV)

• XFL: Exporting from After Effects to Flash via XFL (Adobe TV)

• FLV and F4V: Creating FLV and F4V files (Adobe TV)

• Working with markers and XMP metadata:

• Understanding the digital video metadata workflow (Adobe TV)

• Converting metadata and markers to cue points (Adobe TV)

• Using markers and cue points (Adobe TV)

• Applying metadata in Adobe Bridge (Video Workshop)

• Working with markers and cue points (Video Workshop)

• Working with metadata and keywords in Adobe Bridge (Video Workshop)

• Using Adobe Bridge with After Effects:

• Using Adobe Bridge (Video Workshop)

• Using Adobe Bridge in a video production workflow (Video Workshop)

• Introducing Bridge CS4 (Adobe TV)

• Working with Premiere Pro, Encore, and After Effects:

• Using Dynamic Link (Video Workshop)

• Optimizing the video workflow between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro (Video Workshop)

• Animating Encore menus in After Effects (Video Workshop)

• Using Dynamic Link (Adobe TV)

• Creating Encore menus with After Effects (Adobe TV)

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Getting started

After Effects community resources

Resources on the Adobe website

Adobe provides documentation resources for After Effects on the After Effects Community Help section of the Adobe website. From the Community Help page, you can also search for community resources not on the Adobe website.

To make a feature request or file a bug report, fill out the feature request and bug report form on the Adobe website.

The Adobe After Effects User-to-User Forum is a great place to ask questions about After Effects and have them answered by other After Effects users.

You can subscribe to RSS feeds from Adobe Technical Support so that you can get notification of issues and workarounds related to After Effects (or other Adobe products).

For information on plug-ins available for After Effects, go to the After Effects plug-in page on the Adobe website.

To exchange scripts, projects, and other useful items with other After Effects users, go to the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website.

Michael Coleman, After Effects product manager, provides news and notes about After Effects on his Keyframes blog.

Todd Kopriva, After Effects documentation lead, provides links to instructional resources and reference material for After Effects users on his

After Effects Region of Interest blog.

Adobe provides resources for scripting and plug-in creation on the After Effects Developer Center section of the Adobe website. The Video Technology Center section of the Developer Center has information about all of the Adobe digital video and audio applications. The Adobe Developer Center newsletter, The Edge, occasionally includes material of interest to After Effects users, especially with regard to interactive video and video for the Web.

You can use the Adobe Community Publishing System (CPS) on the Adobe website to write and post articles directly to Adobe.com.

Resources on other websites

A good place to ask questions about After Effects—especially with regard to integration with 3D applications—is the

Mograph forum.

The ProVideo Coalition (PVC) website contains articles and blogs on topics of interest to professionals in the video industry. In addition to articles by Chris and Trish Meyer, the PVC website includes articles by Mark Christiansen, Frank Capria, Jim Feeley, Adam Wilt, Mark Curtis, and Scott Gentry.

The Toolfarm website provides forums, tutorials, and other resources related to After Effects and other Adobe products. The AE Freemart website is a division of Toolfarm that provides free tutorials about After Effects.

The AE Enhancers forum provides example scripts and useful information about scripting (as well as expressions and animation presets) in After Effects.

Jonas Hummelstrand provides tutorials, troubleshooting tips, and insights about After Effects and motion graphics in general on his

General Specialist website.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide instructional resources for After Effects in many places, including their CyberMotion

website.

Lutz Albrecht provides a list of After Effects error codes and some possible solutions on his Mylenium error code

database website.

John Dickinson provides tutorials and other resources for After Effects and related software on his Motionworks

website.

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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Getting started

Alan Shisko provides insights and tips about motion graphics on his Motion Graphics 'n Such blog.

Harry Frank provides tutorials on all areas of After Effects, with an emphasis on expressions and use of third-party plug-ins on his

graymachine website.

Andrew Kramer provides tutorials and training on his Video Copilot website.

Dan Ebberts provides scripting tutorials and useful scripts on the scripting portion of the MotionScript website. Dan also provides an excellent collection of example expressions and tutorials for learning how to work with expressions

expressions portion of the MotionScript website.

on the

Lloyd Alvarez provides a collection of useful scripts on his After Effects Scripts website.

Jeff Almasol provides a collection of useful scripts on his redefinery website.

Stu Maschwitz provides insights and tips about After Effects and video, visual effects, and compositing in general on

ProLost blog.

his

The Creative COW website provides several resources for After Effects users. Many of these resources feature Aharon Rabinowitz:

• Multimedia 101 podcast

• After Effects podcasts

• After Effects tutorials

• After Effects articles

• After Effects Basics forum

• After Effects forum

• After Effects Expressions forum

The Layers Magazine website provides articles and tutorials about After Effects and other Adobe creative products.

David Van Brink provides tips, insights, and downloadable utilities for After Effects and other digital video software

Omino website.

on his

Colin Braley provides tutorials—mostly about expressions—on his website.

Rich Young maintains a list of After Effects resources on his AE Portal News blog.

Rick Gerard provides tips and tricks on his AE Tips and Tricks website.

David Torno provides tips and tutorials about visual effects and compositing on his AE I Owe You blog.

Dean Velez provides many sample projects (some free) and other useful things on his Motion Graphics Lab website.

Jerzy Drozda, Jr. provides After Effects tutorials on his Maltaannon website.

Dale Bradshaw provides scripts and tricks on his Creative Workflow Hacks website.

Richard Harrington provides tutorials and other useful material about After Effects and other video software on his

Photoshop for Video website and Raster|Vector website. He also posts video tutorials on Adobe TV.

Sean Kennedy provides several video tutorials—including some about rotoscoping and motion tracking—on the SimplyCG website. They're all linked to from

his website.

Ayato Fuji provides tutorials on his ayato@web website. Some of the tutorials are a little out of date, but much of the material is still strong, especially for learning to use some of the Trapcode plug-ins.

Ko Maruyama, Stephen Schleicher, and Brian Maffitt are among the people who post about After Effects on the DMN

After Effects Channel.

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Chris Pirazzi provides technical details of digital video on his Lurker's Guide to Video website.

Chris Zwar provides articles, After Effects projects, scripts, and other resources on his website.

Christopher Green provides many useful scripts on his website.

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Getting started

New features in After Effects CS4

The new features listed here are only a few highlights from the hundreds of improvements and additions made for After Effects CS4.

For a complete list of new and changed features in After Effects CS4, see Todd Kopriva's blog on the Adobe website.

For a detailed list of changes to the user interface for After Effects CS4, see “User interface changes from After Effects

CS3 to After Effects CS4” on page 22.

• Create movies tailored to a set of mobile devices that you specify: “Create compositions for playback on mobile

devices” on page 56.

• Configure memory and multiprocessing settings more easily: “Memory & Multiprocessing preferences” on

page 635.

• Use XMP metadata and improved marker features to facilitate various stages of your work: “XMP metadata” on

page 625 and “Markers” on page 619.

• Save compositions for use in Adobe Flash® Professional: “Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash

Player” on page 705.

• Navigate among nested compositions more easily: “Opening and navigating nested compositions” on page 62.

• Animate each component of position separately: “Separate dimensions of Position to animate components

individually” on page 146.

• Find items more easily with search fields: “Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels”

on page 17.

• Use 3D object layers from Adobe Photoshop® Extended: “3D object layers from Photoshop” on page 185.

• Save a copy of your project in the new XML project file format to improve automation workflows: “About projects”

on page 49.

• Import or create an Adobe Premiere® Pro sequence using Dynamic Link: “Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and

After Effects” on page 42.

• Use Imagineer Systems mocha for After Effects to track motion: “Tracking and stabilizing motion” on page 261.

For more information about new features in After Effects CS4, go to the Adobe website:

www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_indepth.

Chris and Trish Meyer provide a discussion of new and changed features in After Effects on the ProVideo Coalition

website. Chris and Trish Meyer also provide a free chapter from their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects

on the Focal Press website that explains the new and changed features in After Effects CS4.

Last updated 12/21/2009

Chapter 2: User interface

Chris and Trish Meyer provide a video overview of the After Effects user interface on the Focal Press website.

Workspaces, panels, and viewers

Workspaces

Adobe video and audio applications provide a consistent, customizable user interface. Although each application has its own set of panels, you move and group panels in the same way in each application.

The main window of a program is the application window. Panels are organized in this window in an arrangement called a workspace.

Each application includes several predefined workspaces that optimize the layout of panels for specific tasks. You can also create and customize your own workspaces by arranging panels in the layout that best suits your working style for specific tasks.

You can drag panels to new locations, move panels into or out of a group, place panels alongside each other, and undock a panel so that it floats in a new window above the application window. As you rearrange panels, the other panels resize automatically to fit the window.

Example workspace A. Application window B. Grouped panels C. Individual panel

To increase the available screen space, use multiple monitors. When you work with multiple monitors, the application window appears on the main monitor, and you place floating windows on the second monitor. Monitor configurations are stored in the workspace.

For a video about workspaces, go to the Adobe website: www.adobe.com/go/vid0249.

Chris and Trish Meyer provide a video overview of the After Effects user interface on the Focal Press website.

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

More Help topics

“Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 739

Choose a workspace

• Choose Window > Workspace, and select the desired workspace.

• Choose a workspace from the Workspace menu in the Tools panel.

• If the workspace has a keyboard shortcut assigned, press Shift+F10, Shift+F11, or Shift+F12.

To assign a keyboard shortcut to the current workspace, choose Window > Assign Shortcut To [Workspace Name] Workspace.

Save, reset, or delete workspaces

Save a custom workspace

As you customize a workspace, the application tracks your changes, storing the most recent layout. To store a specific layout more permanently, save a custom workspace. Saved custom workspaces appear in the Workspace menu, where you can return to and reset them.

❖ Arrange the frames and panels as desired, and then choose Window > Workspace > New Workspace. Type a name

for the workspace, and click

Note: If a project saved with a custom workspace is opened on another system, the application looks for a workspace with a matching name. If it can’t find a match (or the monitor configuration doesn’t match), it uses the current local workspace.

OK.

Reset a workspace

Reset the current workspace to return to its original, saved layout of panels.

❖ Choose Window > Workspace > Reset workspace name.

Delete a workspace

1 Choose Window > Workspace > Delete Workspace.

2 Choose the workspace you want to delete, and then click OK.

Note: You cannot delete the currently active workspace.

Dock, group, or float panels

You can dock panels together, move them into or out of groups, and undock them so they float above the application window. As you drag a panel, drop zones—areas onto which you can move the panel—become highlighted. The drop zone you choose determines where the panel is inserted, and whether it docks or groups with other panels.

Docking zones

Docking zones exist along the edges of a panel, group, or window. Docking a panel places it adjacent to the existing group, resizing all groups to accommodate the new panel.

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Dragging panel (A) onto docking zone (B) to dock it (C)

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

Grouping zones

Grouping zones exist in the middle of a panel or group, and along the tab area of panels. Grouping a panel stacks it with other panels.

Dragging panel (A) onto grouping zone (B) to group it with existing panels (C)

Dock or group panels

1 If the panel you want to dock or group is not visible, choose it from the Window menu.

2 Do one of the following:

•

To move an individual panel, drag the gripper area in the upper-left corner of a panel’s tab onto the desired drop zone.

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Drag panel gripper to move one panel

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

• To move an entire group, drag the group gripper in the upper-right corner onto the desired drop zone.

User interface

Drag group gripper to move entire group

The application docks or groups the panel, according to the type of drop zone.

Undock a panel in a floating window

When you undock a panel in a floating window, you can add panels to the window and modify it similarly to the application window. You can use floating windows to make use of a secondary monitor, or to create workspaces like those in earlier versions of Adobe applications.

❖ Select the panel you want to undock (if it’s not visible, choose it from the Window menu), and then do one of the

following:

• Choose Undock Panel or Undock Frame from the panel menu. Undock Frame undocks the panel group.

• Hold down Ctrl (Windows®) or Command (Mac OS®), and drag the panel or group from its current location.

When you release the mouse button, the panel or group appears in a new floating window.

• Drag the panel or group outside the application window. (If the application window is maximized, drag the

panel to the Windows taskbar.)

Resize panel groups

To quickly maximize a panel beneath the pointer, press the ` (accent grave) key. (The accent grave is the unshifted character under the tilde, ~, on standard US keyboards.) Press the key again to return the panel to its original size.

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User interface

When you drag the divider between panel groups, all groups that share the divider are resized.

1 Do either of the following:

• To resize either horizontally or vertically, position the pointer between two panel groups. The pointer becomes a

double arrow

• To resize in both directions at once, position the pointer at the intersection between three or more panel groups.

The pointer becomes a four-way arrow

2 Hold down the mouse button, and drag to resize the panel groups.

Dragging divider between panel groups to resize them horizontally A. Original group with resize pointer B. Resized groups

Open, close, and show panels and windows

Even if a panel is open, it may be out of sight, beneath other panels. Choosing a panel from the Window menu opens it and brings it to the front of its group.

When you close a panel group in the application window, the other groups resize to use the newly available space. When you close a floating window, the panels within it close, too.

• To open or close a panel, choose the panel from the Window menu.

• To close a panel or window, click its Close button .

• To open or close a panel, use its keyboard shortcut.

• If a frame contains multiple panels, place the pointer over a tab and roll the mouse scroll wheel forward or backward

to change which panel is active.

• If a frame contains more grouped panels than can be shown at once, drag the scroll bar that appears above the tabs.

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Scroll bar for showing tabs of other panels

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User interface

More Help topics

“Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 739

Viewers

A viewer is a panel that can contain multiple compositions, layers, or footage items, or multiple views of one such item. The Composition, Layer, Footage, Flowchart, and Effect Controls panels are viewers.

Locking a viewer prevents the currently displayed item from being replaced when you open or select a new item. Instead, when a viewer is locked and a new item is opened or selected, After Effects creates a new viewer panel for that item. If you select the item from the viewer menu of a locked viewer, a new viewer isn't created; the existing viewer is used.

Instead of housing multiple items in a single viewer and using the viewer menu to switch between them, you can choose to open a separate viewer for each open composition, layer, or footage item. When you have multiple viewers open, you can arrange them by docking or grouping them, like any other panels.

For example, you can create one Composition viewer each for different 3D views (Top, Bottom, Back, Front, custom views) so that you can maximize each of the views with the ` (accent grave) keyboard shortcut, which maximizes or restores the panel under the pointer.

To create a custom workspace with multiple viewers, ensure that all viewers are unlocked before you save the workspace. Locked viewers are associated with a specific project context and are therefore not saved in the preferences file.

• To create a new viewer, choose New from the viewer menu. (See “Open panel, viewer, and context menus” on

page 17.)

• To lock or unlock a viewer, choose Locked from the viewer menu, or click the Toggle Viewer Lock button.

• To lock the current viewer, split the current frame, and create a new viewer of the same type in the new frame, press

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+N (Mac

OS).

• To cycle forward or backward through the items in the viewer menu list for the active viewer, press Shift+period (.)

or Shift+comma (,).

More Help topics

“Choose a viewer to always preview” on page 199

“Panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 739

“Previews (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 743

“Views (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 744

“About precomposing and nesting” on page 60

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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

Edit this, look at that (ETLAT) and locked Composition viewers

If a Composition viewer is locked, the Timeline panel for another composition is active, and the Composition viewer for the active composition is not shown, then most commands that affect views and previews operate on the composition for which the viewer is shown. For example, pressing the spacebar can start a standard preview for the composition visible in a locked Composition viewer rather than the composition associated with the active Timeline panel.

This behavior facilitates a working setup sometimes referred to as edit-this-look-at-that (ETLAT). The most common scenario in which this behavior is useful is the scenario in which you make a change in the Timeline panel for a nested (upstream) composition and want to preview the result of the change in a containing (downstream) composition.

Note: ETLAT behavior works for keyboard shortcuts for zooming, fitting, previewing, taking and viewing snapshots, showing channels, showing and hiding grids and guides, and showing the current frame on a video preview device.

To prevent this behavior, unlock the Composition viewer or show the Composition viewer for the composition that you want to view or preview.

General user interface items

Activate a tool

The Tools panel can be displayed as a toolbar (as shown here) or as a normal panel.

A B C D E F G H I J K L MN

Tools panel

A. Selection B. Hand C. Zoom D. Rotation E. Camera tools F. Pan Behind G. Mask and shape tools H. Pen tools I. Type tools J. Brush K. Clone Stamp L. Eraser M. Puppet tools N. Controls related to active tool

Note: Controls related to some tools appear only when the tool is selected in the Tools panel.

• Click the button for the tool. If the button has a small triangle at its lower-right corner, hold down the mouse button

to view the hidden tools. Then, click the tool you want to activate.

• Press the keyboard shortcut for the tool. (Placing the pointer over a tool button displays a tool tip with the name

and keyboard shortcut for the tool.)

• To cycle through hidden tools within a tool category, repeatedly press the keyboard shortcut for the tool category.

(For example, press G repeatedly to cycle through the pen tools.)

• To momentarily activate a tool, hold down the key for the desired tool; release the key to return to the previously

active tool. (This technique does not work with all tools.)

• To momentarily activate the Hand tool, hold down the spacebar, the H key, or the middle mouse button. (The

middle mouse button does not activate the Hand tool under a few circumstances, including when the Unified Camera tool is active.)

To pan around in the Composition, Layer, or Footage panel, drag with the Hand tool. Hold Shift, too, to pan faster.

To show or hide panels most relevant to the active tool, click the panel button if available. For example, clicking this button when a paint tool is active opens or closes the Paint and Brushes panels. Select the Auto-Open Panels option in the Tools panel to automatically open the relevant panels when certain tools are activated.

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User interface

More Help topics

“Activating tools (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 741

Open panel, viewer, and context menus

Panel menus provide commands relative to the active panel or frame. Viewer menus provide lists of compositions, layers, or footage items that can be shown in the viewer, as well as commands for closing items and locking the viewer. Context menus provide commands relative to the item that is context-clicked. Many items in the After Effects user interface have associated context menus. Using context menus can make your work faster and easier.

• To open a panel menu, click the button in the upper-right corner of the panel.

• To open a viewer menu, click the name of the active composition, layer, or footage item in the viewer tab.

• To open a context menu, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS). This action is sometimes referred to as

context-clicking.

Columns

The Project, Timeline, and Render Queue panels contain columns.

• To show or hide columns, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a column heading (or choose Columns

from the panel menu), and select the columns that you want to show or hide. A check mark indicates that the column is shown.

Note: In general, the search and filter functions in the Project and Timeline panels only operate on the content of columns that are shown.

• To reorder columns, select a column name and drag it to a new location.

• To resize columns, drag the bar next to a column name. Some columns cannot be resized.

More Help topics

“Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels” on page 17

Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels

The Project, Timeline, and Effects & Presets panels each contain search fields that you can use to filter items in the panel.

• To place the insertion point in a search field, click in the search field.

• To place the insertion point in the search field for the active panel, choose File > Find or press Ctrl+F (Windows)

or Command+F (Mac OS).

• To clear the search field, click the button that appears to the right of the text in the search field.

When you type in the search field, the list of items in the panel is filtered, showing some items and hiding others. Only items with entries that match the search query that you’ve typed are shown. The folders, layers, categories, or property groups that contain the matched items are also shown, to provide context.

In general, only text in columns that are shown is searched for this filtering operation. For example, you may need to show the Comments column to search and filter by the contents of comments. (See

“Columns” on page 17.)

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If one or more layers are selected in a composition, the filtering operation in the Timeline panel only affects selected layers. In this case, unselected layers are not filtered out (hidden) if they don’t match the search query. However, if no layers are selected in the composition, the filtering operation applies to all layers in the composition. This behavior matches that for showing and hiding of layer properties by pressing their property shortcut keys. (See

properties in the Timeline panel” on page 160.)

Clearing the search field and ending the search causes expanded folders and property groups to collapse (close). Therefore, it’s easier to work with the items that are found by the filter operation if you operate on them before you

clear the search field and end the search.

If the text that you type in the search field in the Project or Timeline panel contains spaces, the spaces are treated as AND operators. For example, typing dark solid matches footage items or layers named Dark Red Solid and Dark Gray Solid. Spaces are treated as space characters in the search field in the Effects & Presets panel. For example, typing

change color matches the Change Color effect, but not the Change To Color effect.

Examples of searches in the Project panel

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

“Show or hide

• To show only footage items for which the name or comment contains a specific string, start typing the string.

• To show only footage items for which the source file is missing, type the entire word missing. (This search works

whether or not the File Path column is shown, which is an exception to the general rule that only shown columns are searched.)

• To show only unused footage items, type the entire word unused.

• To show only used footage items, type the entire word used.

• To show only Cineon footage items, type Cineon with the Type column shown.

Examples of searches in the Timeline panel

• To show only layers and properties for which the name or comment contains a specific string, type the string. For

example, type starch to show pins created by the Puppet Starch tool.

• To show only properties that have an expression that uses a specific method, type the method name.

• To show only layers with a specific label, type the label name.

Click the swatch for a label to see the context menu that lists the label names. Alternatively, drag the right edge of the Label column heading to expand the column to read the label names.

More Help topics

“Effects & Presets panel” on page 392

“Organize, view, and manage footage items in the Project panel” on page 80

“Select layers” on page 143

Scroll or zoom with the mouse wheel

You can use the mouse wheel to zoom in the Timeline, Composition, Layer, and Footage panels. You can use the mouse wheel to scroll in the Timeline, Project, Render Queue, Flowchart, Effect Controls, Metadata, and Effects & Presets panels.

• To zoom into the center of the panel, or into the feature region when tracking, roll the mouse wheel forward.

• To zoom out of the center of the panel, or out of the feature region when tracking, roll the mouse wheel backward.

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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

• To zoom into the area under the pointer, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you roll the mouse

wheel forward.

• To zoom out of the area under the pointer, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you roll the mouse

wheel backward.

• To scroll vertically, roll the mouse wheel forward or backward.

• To scroll horizontally, hold down Shift as you roll the mouse wheel backward or forward. In the Timeline panel,

Shift-rolling backward moves forward in time and vice versa.

You can scroll or zoom with the mouse wheel in a panel even if it is not currently active, as long as the pointer is over it. For example, you can zoom in the Composition panel even if the Effect Controls panel is currently active.

More Help topics

“Adjust a camera view or working 3D view” on page 192

Undo changes

You can undo only those actions that alter the project data. For example, you can undo a change to a property value, but you cannot undo the scrolling of a panel or the activation of a tool.

You can sequentially undo as many as 99 of the most recent changes made to the project, depending on the Levels Of Undo setting (Edit default is 32.

> Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS)). The

To avoid wasting time undoing accidental modifications, lock a layer when you want to see it but do not want to modify it.

• To undo the most recent change, choose Edit > Undo [action].

• To undo a change and all changes after it, choose Edit > History, and select the first change that you want to undo.

• To revert to the last saved version of the project, choose File > Revert. All changes made and footage items imported

since you last saved are lost. You cannot undo this action.

More Help topics

“Lock or unlock a layer” on page 156

After Effects user interface tips

• Use ClearType text anti-aliasing on Windows. ClearType makes the outlines of system text, such as menus and

dialog boxes, easier to read. See Windows Help for information on how to enable ClearType text anti-aliasing.

• To show tool tips, select the Show Tool Tips preference (Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects >

Preferences

• Use a workspace that contains the Info panel, and leave that panel in front of other panels in its panel group

whenever possible. The Info panel shows messages about what After Effects is doing, information about items under the pointer, and much more.

• Use context menus.

• Use keyboard shortcuts.

> General (Mac OS)).

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User interface

More Help topics

“Open panel, viewer, and context menus” on page 17

“Keyboard shortcuts” on page 738

Preferences

• To open the Preferences dialog box, choose Edit > Preferences > [category name] (Windows) or After Effects >

Preferences > [category name] (Mac OS).

• To open the Preferences dialog box to the General category, press Ctrl+Alt+; (semicolon) (Windows) or

Command+Option+; (Mac OS).

• To restore default preference settings, hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS)

while the application is starting. To also restore default keyboard shortcuts, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the OK button.

This section provides links to pages in which the various preferences that aren’t self-explanatory are explained in context.

General preferences

• Levels Of Undo: “Undo changes” on page 19

• Show Tool Tips: “After Effects user interface tips” on page 19

• Create Layers At Composition Start Time: “Layers overview” on page 138

• Switches Affect Nested Comps: “About precomposing and nesting” on page 60

• Default Spatial Interpolation To Linear: “About spatial and temporal keyframe interpolation” on page 231

• Preserve Constant Vertex Count When Editing Masks: “Designate the first vertex for a Bezier path” on page 329

• Synchronize Time Of All Related Items: “About precomposing and nesting” on page 60

• Expression Pick Whip Writes Compact English: “Add, edit, and remove expressions” on page 647

• Create Split Layers Above Original Layer: “Split a layer” on page 152

• Allow Scripts To Write Files And Access Network: “Scripts” on page 643

• Enable JavaScript Debugger: After Effects scripting guide at the Adobe After Effects Developer Center on the

Adobe website

• Use System Color Picker: “Select a color or edit a gradient” on page 276

• Create New Layers At Best Quality: “Layer image quality and subpixel positioning” on page 157

• Preserve Clipboard Data For Other Applications: “Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro” on

page 86

• Use System Shortcut Keys (Mac OS only): “Keyboard shortcuts” on page 738

Previews preferences

• Adaptive Resolution Limit: “Preview modes” on page 200

• Enable OpenGL: “Render with OpenGL” on page 703

• Enable Adaptive Resolution With OpenGL: “Preview modes” on page 200

Last updated 12/21/2009

• Audio Preview Duration: “Preview video and audio” on page 195

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

Display preferences

• Motion Path: “Motion paths” on page 223

• Disable Thumbnails In Project Panel: “Composition thumbnail images” on page 59

• Show Rendering Progress In Info Panel And Flowchart: “Preview video and audio” on page 195

• Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, And Footage Panels: “Improve performance” on page 637

Import preferences

• Still Footage: “Create layers from footage items or change layer source” on page 139

• Sequence Footage: “Import a single still image or a still-image sequence” on page 103

• Interpret Unlabeled Alpha As: “Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight” on page 73

• Default Drag Import As: “Import footage items” on page 70

Output preferences

• Overflow Volumes, Segment Sequences At, Segment Movie Files At, and Audio Block Duration: “Overflow

volumes and segment settings” on page 731

Grids & Guides preferences

• Safe Margins: “Safe zones, grids, guides, and rulers” on page 207

Label Colors and Label Defaults preferences

• Label Colors and Label Defaults: “Color labels for layers and footage items” on page 156

Media & Disk Cache preferences

• Enable Disk Cache and Maximum Disk Cache Size: “RAM and disk caches” on page 633

• Conformed Media Cache and Clean Database & Cache: “The media cache” on page 634

• Create Layer Markers From Footage XMP Metadata and Write XMP IDs To Files On Import: “XMP metadata in

After Effects” on page 626

Video Preview preferences

• Output Device, Output Mode, Output Quality, Output During, and Scale And Letterbox Output To Fit Video

Monitor:

“Preview on an external video monitor” on page 203

Appearance preferences

• Cycle Mask Colors: “Control mask path color” on page 377

• Brightness: Brightens or darkens user interface (UI) colors.

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

Auto-Save preferences

• Automatically Save Projects and Maximum Project Versions: “Save and back up projects” on page 50

Memory & Multiprocessing preferences

• RAM To Leave For Other Applications: “Memory & Multiprocessing preferences” on page 635

• Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously, Minimum Allocation Per CPU, and CPUs To Leave For Other

Applications:

• Prevent DLL Address Space Fragmentation (Windows only): “Memory & Multiprocessing preferences” on

page 635

“Memory & Multiprocessing preferences” on page 635

Audio Hardware and Audio Output Mapping preferences

• Audio Hardware and Audio Output Mapping: “Preview video and audio” on page 195

User interface changes from After Effects CS3 to After Effects CS4

Many instructional materials—such as tutorials—created for After Effects CS3 or earlier are still useful for After Effects CS4. In many cases, basic functionality has changed only slightly, or only the names of user interface items have changed. You can get the most use from materials created for previous versions of After Effects if you know how the names and locations of user interface items have changed. For information about current functionality, follow the respective links.

For information about major new features, see “New features in After Effects CS4” on page 9.

For a complete list of new and changed features in After Effects CS4, see Todd Kopriva's blog on the Adobe website.

Panels

Align panel

• Changed name of panel from Align & Distribute to Align. See “Align or distribute layers in 2D space” on page 147.

Brushes panel

• Changed name of panel from Brush Tips to Brushes. See “Brushes and the Brushes panel” on page 297.

Character panel

• Added Line Join submenu to panel menu. Added Miter, Round, and Bevel to Line Join submenu. See “Change text

stroke line join” on page 350.

Composition panel

• Added Composition Navigator along top of panel. Added Show Composition Navigator, Flow Right To Left, Flow

Left To Right, Composition Navigator, and Composition Mini-Flowchart to panel menu. Added Composition Navigator and Composition Mini-Flowchart to context menu for a composition. See

nested compositions” on page 62.

“Opening and navigating

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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

• Added Transform > Flip Horizontal, Transform > Flip Vertical, Transform > Center In View, Open Footage, Open

Composition, Convert To Live Photoshop 3D, and Convert To Editable Text to context menu for a layer. See

or flip a layer” on page 164, “Move layers in space” on page 145, “Opening layers and layer sources” on page 139,

“3D object layers from Photoshop” on page 185, and “Convert text from Photoshop to editable text” on page 346.

“Scale

• Changed Create Outlines to Create Shapes From Text in context menu for a layer. See “Create shapes from text”

on page 319.

• Added Create Masks From Text in context menu for a layer. See “Create masks from text” on page 319.

• Added Use Display Color Management, Simulate Output, and Set Project Working Space to Show Channel menu.

“Enable or disable display color management” on page 292, “Simulate how colors will appear on a different

See

output device” on page 292, and “Choose a working color space and enable color management” on page 288

• Added Auto to Resolution/Down Sample Factor menu. Removed Auto-zoom When Resolution Changes

preference. See

“Resolution” on page 206.

• Changed Adaptive Resolution to Adaptive Resolution—OpenGL Off in Fast Previews menu. See “Preview modes”

on page 200.

Effects & Presets panel

• Added Blur & Sharpen > Bilateral Blur. See “Bilateral Blur effect” on page 440.

• Added Noise & Grain > Turbulent Noise. See “Turbulent Noise effect” on page 537.

• Added Obsolete effect category and moved Basic 3D, Basic Text, Lightning, and Path Text into this category. See

“Obsolete effects” on page 613.

• Added Stylize > Cartoon. See “Cartoon effect” on page 584.

• Upgraded the color depth of many effects so that these effects can work with 32-bpc color. See “Effects overview

and resources” on page 388.

Effect Controls panel

• Added Copy Expression Only to context menu for property. See “Save and reuse expressions” on page 652.

Layer panel

• Added Transform > Flip Horizontal, Transform > Flip Vertical, Transform > Center In View, Open Footage, Open

Composition, Convert To Live Photoshop 3D, and Convert To Editable Text to context menu for a layer. See

or flip a layer” on page 164, “Move layers in space” on page 145, “Opening layers and layer sources” on page 139,

“3D object layers from Photoshop” on page 185, and “Convert text from Photoshop to editable text” on page 346.

Mask Interpolation panel

“Scale

• Changed name of panel from Smart Mask Interpolation to Mask Interpolation. See “Animate a mask path with

Smart Mask Interpolation” on page 329.

Metadata panel

• Added new Metadata panel. See “XMP metadata” on page 625.

Preview panel

• Changed name of panel from Time Controls to Preview. See “Preview video and audio” on page 195.

Last updated 12/21/2009

Project panel

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

• Added text field for searching and filtering. Removed Find button from bottom of panel. See “Search and filter in

the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels” on page 17.

• Added Interpret Footage button to bottom of panel. See “Interpret footage items” on page 71.

• Changed Project Flowchart View to Project Flowchart. See “Flowchart panel” on page 51.

• Added label name next to label color swatch. See “Color labels for layers and footage items” on page 156.

• Added Composition Settings and Rename commands to context menu. See “Composition settings” on page 58 and

“Rename and sort items” on page 81.

Render Queue panel

• Moved information from All Renders heading to status bar at bottom of panel. Changed Current Render Details to

Current Render. The Render button does not become the Stop button when the render queue is rendering. The Stop, Pause/Continue, and Render buttons are separate buttons. Removed Log File entry. See

with the Render Queue panel” on page 691 and “Render and export a movie using the render queue” on page 692.

“Render and export

• Added plus and minus buttons to add and remove output modules. See “Add output modules to and remove output

modules from render items” on page 701.

• Changed Embedding to Include under Output Module heading. Possible values include Project Link, Source XMP

Metadata, and Project Link & Source XMP Metadata. See page 625.

“About projects” on page 49 and “XMP metadata” on

Smoother panel

• Changed name of panel from The Smoother to Smoother. See “Smooth motion and velocity by removing extra

keyframes” on page 229.

Timeline panel

• Added text field for searching and filtering. See “Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets

panels” on page 17.

• Added duration bar to markers. See “Layer markers and composition markers” on page 619.

• Added label name next to label color swatch. See “Color labels for layers and footage items” on page 156.

• Added Composition Flowchart and Composition Mini-Flowchart to panel menu and to context menu for when

pointer is not on a layer. Replaced Open Parent Composition button with Composition Mini-Flowchart button.

“Opening and navigating nested compositions” on page 62.

See

• Added Transform > Flip Horizontal, Transform > Flip Vertical, Transform > Center In View, Open Footage, Open

Composition, Convert To Live Photoshop 3D, and Convert To Editable Text to context menu for a layer. See

or flip a layer” on page 164, “Move layers in space” on page 145, “Opening layers and layer sources” on page 139,

“3D object layers from Photoshop” on page 185, and “Convert text from Photoshop to editable text” on page 346.

“Scale

• Changed Create Outlines to Create Shapes From Text in context menu for a layer. See “Create shapes from text”

on page 319.

• Added Create Masks From Text in context menu for a layer. See “Create masks from text” on page 319.

• Added Settings, Update Markers From Source (Replaces All Markers), and Lock Markers commands to context

menu for a composition marker. Added Update Markers From Source (Replaces All Markers) to context menu for a layer marker. See

“Layer markers and composition markers” on page 619.

• Added Copy Expression Only to context menu for a property. See “Save and reuse expressions” on page 652.

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

• Added name to Property submenu in Expression Language menu. See “Property attributes and methods

(expression reference)” on page 677.

• Added Separate Dimensions button in Graph Editor. See “Separate dimensions of Position to animate components

individually” on page 146.

• Change Brainstorm icon. See “Use Brainstorm to experiment and explore settings” on page 168.

• Added tooltip for most keyframes that shows time and value. See “View or edit a keyframe value” on page 218.

• Added Wiggle Transform path operation to Add menu for shape layers. See “Alter shapes with path operations” on

page 337.

Tools panel

• Added Search Help field. See “Resources” on page 2.

• Added Unified Camera tool. See “Adjust a camera view or working 3D view” on page 192.

Tracker panel

• Changed name of panel from Tracker Controls to Tracker. See “Motion tracking controls” on page 268.

Wiggler panel

• Changed name of panel from The Wiggler to Wiggler. See “Add randomness to a property with the Wiggler” on

page 229.

Menus

File menu

• Added Save A Copy As XML. See “About projects” on page 49.

• Added Import > Adobe Premiere Pro Project. See “Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project” on page 86.

• Added Export > Adobe Flash Professional (XFL). See “Export a composition as an XFL file to Flash Professional”

on page 705.

• Added Adobe Dynamic Link > New Premiere Pro Sequence. Added Adobe Dynamic Link > Import Premiere Pro

Sequence. See

• Changed Browse to Browse In Bridge. See “Working with Adobe Bridge and After Effects” on page 37.

• Changed Adobe Flash (SWF) to Adobe Flash Player (SWF). See “Render and export a composition as a SWF file”

on page 709.

• Changed contents of File > Scripts menu. See “Scripts” on page 643.

• Removed Export > Flash Video (FLV). If you still see this item, you have a third-party FLV encoder installed. See

“Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player” on page 705.

• Removed Find Again. See “Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels” on page 17.

Composition menu

• Added Composition Mini-Flowchart. See “Opening and navigating nested compositions” on page 62.

• Change Composition Flowchart View to Composition Flowchart. See “Flowchart panel” on page 51.

“Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects” on page 42.

Layer menu

• Added Transform > Flip Horizontal and Transform > Flip Vertical. See “Scale or flip a layer” on page 164.

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

• Added Transform > Center In View. See “Move layers in space” on page 145.

• Added Arrange submenu and moved Bring Layer To Front, Bring Layer Forward, Send Layer To Back, and Send

Layer Backward into it. See

“Change the stacking order for selected layers” on page 144.

• Added Bring Render Item To Front, Bring Render Item Forward, Send Render Item To Back, and Send Render

Item Backward to Arrange submenu. These menu items replace the corresponding menu items for layers when a render queue item is selected. See

“Manage render items and change render statuses” on page 693.

• Added Convert To Live Photoshop 3D. See “3D object layers from Photoshop” on page 185.

• Changed Open Source Window to Open Layer Source. See “Opening layers and layer sources” on page 139.

• Changed Create Outlines to Create Shapes From Text. See “Create shapes from text” on page 319.

• Added Create Masks From Text. See “Create masks from text” on page 319.

Effect menu

• Added Blur & Sharpen > Bilateral Blur. See “Bilateral Blur effect” on page 440.

• Added Noise & Grain > Turbulent Noise. See “Turbulent Noise effect” on page 537.

• Added Obsolete effect category and moved Basic 3D, Basic Text, Lightning, and Path Text into this category. See

“Obsolete effects” on page 613.

• Added Stylize > Cartoon. See “Cartoon effect” on page 584.

Animation menu

• Added Separate Dimensions. See “Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individually” on

page 146.

Window menu

• Added Metadata. See “XMP metadata” on page 625.

• Changed Align & Distribute to Align. See “Align or distribute layers in 2D space” on page 147.

• Changed Brush Tips to Brushes. See “Brushes and the Brushes panel” on page 297.

• Changed Smart Mask Interpolation to Mask Interpolation. See “Animate a mask path with Smart Mask

Interpolation” on page 329.

• Change The Smoother to Smoother. See “Smooth motion and velocity by removing extra keyframes” on page 229.

• Change The Wiggler to Wiggler. See “Add randomness to a property with the Wiggler” on page 229.

• Changed Time Controls to Preview. See “Preview video and audio” on page 195.

• Changed Tracker Controls to Tracker. See “Motion tracking controls” on page 268.

Help menu

• Added Product Improvement Program. See “Adobe Product Improvement Program” on page 2.

• Changed Tip Of The Day to Welcome And Tip Of The Day.

Dialog boxes

New dialog boxes

• Added Adobe Flash Professional (XFL) Settings dialog box. See “Export a composition as an XFL file to Flash

Professional” on page 705.

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

• Added Import Premiere Pro Sequence dialog box. See “Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects” on

page 42.

• Added Save Copy As XML dialog box. See “About projects” on page 49.

Camera Settings dialog box

• Changed default units to millimeters. See “Camera settings” on page 187.

Composition Settings dialog box

• Added three HDTV and DVCPRO HD PAL presets to Presets menu. See “Composition settings” on page 58.

• Changed values for several entries in Pixel Aspect Ratio menu. Changed pixel dimensions for several square-pixel

presets. See

Composition Marker and Layer Marker dialog boxes

“Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio” on page 77.

• Added Duration field. Changed Flash Video Cue Point And Parameters to Flash Cue Point. See “Layer markers and

composition markers” on page 619.

Import File, Import Multiple FIles, and Replace Footage File dialog boxes

• Added Adobe Premiere Pro Dynamic Link (*.prproj) and Adobe Soundbooth (*.asnd) items to Format, Files Of

Type (Windows), and Enable (Mac OS) menus.

• Changed GIF to GIF, Generic QuickTime in Format, Files Of Type (Windows), and Enable (Mac OS) menus.

• Added *.f4v to the MPEG entry in Format, Files Of Type (Windows), and Enable (Mac OS) menus.

• Added *.3gp, *.3g2, *.mp4, *.m4v, *.m4a, *.qt, to the QuickTime entry in Format, Files Of Type (Windows), and

Enable (Mac OS) menus.

• (Windows only) Added *.asx to the Windows Media entry in the Format and Files Of Type menus.

See “Import footage items using the Import dialog box” on page 71 and “Supported import formats” on page 68.

PSD import dialog box

• Added Live Photoshop 3D option. See “3D object layers from Photoshop” on page 185.

Mask Shape dialog box

• Replaced Ellipse, Rectangle, and Bezier radio buttons with a menu from which one of these options can be chosen.

“Create a rectangular or elliptical mask numerically” on page 313.

See

Open dialog box

• Added Adobe After Effects XML Project (*.aepx) to Files Of Type menu. See “Create and open projects” on page 50.

Output Module Settings dialog box

• Added Include Source XMP Metadata option. Replaced Embed menu with Include Project Link option. Removed

Embed Project Link And Copy functionality. See

“Output module settings” on page 701.

• Replaced Adobe Flash Video entry in Format menu with FLV and F4V (H.264) entries. See “Rendering and

exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player” on page 705.

Output Module Templates dialog box

• Changed Embedding to Include. Possible values include Project Link, Source XMP Metadata, and Project Link &

Source XMP Metadata. See

“Output module settings” on page 701.

Last updated 12/21/2009

Preferences dialog box

See “Preferences” on page 20.

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

• Previews:

• Added Enable Adaptive Resolution With OpenGL.

• Replaced Accelerate Effects Using menu with Accelerate Effects Using OpenGL (When Possible).

• Import:

• Added Composition - Cropped Layers to Default Drag Import As menu.

• Changed Comp to Composition in Default Drag Import As menu.

• Output:

• Changed Minimum Diskspace Before Overflowing to Minimum Disk Space Before Overflowing.

• Grids & Guides:

• Added Center-cut Action-Safe and Center-cut Title-safe controls.

• Label Defaults:

• Added Adjustment menu.

• Media & Disk Cache:

• Changed name of Memory & Cache preferences category to Media & Disk Cache.

• Added Write XMP IDs To Files On Import and Create Layer Markers From Footage XMP Metadata options.

• Removed Maximum Memory Usage and Maximum RAM Cache Size controls. Functionality moved to new

controls in Memory & Multiprocessing preferences category.

• Appearance:

• Changed name of User Interface Colors preferences category to Appearance.

• Changed User Interface Brightness to Brightness.

• Memory & Multiprocessing:

• Changed name of Multiprocessing preferences category to Memory & Multiprocessing.

• Added several controls for configuring memory and multiprocessing.

• (Windows only) Moved Prevent DLL Address Space Fragmentation to this preferences category from Media &

Disk Cache preferences category.

Project Settings dialog box

• Added Compensate For Scene-referred Profiles option. See “Gamma and tone response” on page 282.

• Added Universal Camera Film Printing Density to Working Space menu. See “Choose a working color space and

enable color management” on page 288.

Welcome And Tip Of The Day dialog box

• Replaced Tip Of The Day dialog box with Welcome dialog box, which provides several new functions. Choose Help

> Welcome And Tip Of The Day.

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

User interface

Keyboard shortcuts and mouse actions

New keyboard shortcuts

• Place the insertion point in the search field for the active panel: Ctrl+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac OS). See

“Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels” on page 17.

• Open Composition Mini-Flowchart for active composition: Tap Shift. See “Compositions and the work area

(keyboard shortcuts)” on page 742.

• Activate the most recently active composition that is in the same composition hierarchy (network of nested

compositions) as the currently active composition: Shift+Esc. See

shortcuts)” on page 742.

• New adjustment layer: Ctrl+Alt+Y (Windows) or Command+Option+Y (Mac OS). See “Layers (keyboard

shortcuts)” on page 746.

• Center selected layers in view (modifies Position property to place anchor points of selected layers in center of

current view): Ctrl+Home (Windows) or Command+Home (Mac OS). See

shortcuts)” on page 749.

• Show only instances of missing effects in Timeline panel: FF. See “Showing properties and groups in the Timeline

panel (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 748.

• Increase or decrease Opacity (or Intensity for light layers) of selected layers by 1%: Ctrl+Alt++ (plus) or Ctrl+Alt+-

(minus) on numeric keypad (Windows); Control+Option++ (plus) or Control+Option+- (minus) on numeric keypad (Mac OS). See

“Modifying layer properties (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 749.

• Increase or decrease Opacity (or Intensity for light layers) of selected layers by 10%: Ctrl+Alt+Shift++ (plus) or

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+- (minus) on numeric keypad (Windows); Control+Option+Shift++ (plus) or Control+Option+Shift+- (minus) on numeric keypad (Mac OS). See

shortcuts)” on page 749.

“Compositions and the work area (keyboard

“Modifying layer properties (keyboard

Changed keyboard shortcuts

• Open Interpret Footage dialog box for selected footage item: Ctrl+Alt+G (Windows) or Command+Option+G

(Mac OS). Changed from Ctrl+F (Windows) and Command+F (Mac OS). See page 745.

“Footage (keyboard shortcuts)” on

• Most commands that affect views and previews have been modified subtly so that—if a Composition viewer is

locked—the commands operate on the composition for which the Composition viewer is shown. See

look at that (ETLAT) and locked Composition viewers” on page 16.

Mouse actions

“Edit this,

• Temporarily activate Hand tool (when any tool other than Unified Camera tool is active): Hold down spacebar or

the middle mouse button. See

“Activate a tool” on page 16.

• Temporarily activate Orbit Camera, Track XY Camera, or Track Z Camera tool: With Unified Camera tool active,

hold the left, middle, or right mouse button. See

“Adjust a camera view or working 3D view” on page 192.

• Activate a view in a multi-view layout in the Composition panel without affecting layer selection: Click within the

view with the middle mouse button. See

“Choose a view layout and share view settings” on page 204.

Last updated 12/21/2009

Chapter 3: Workflows, planning, and setup

Workflows

General workflow in After Effects

More Help topics

“Basic workflow tutorial: Create a simple movie” on page 31

Online resources for general workflow in After Effects

For a video introduction to After Effects, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4064_ae.

For a video introduction to Creative Suite 4 Production Premium edition, go to the Adobe website at

www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4087_vs.

Peachpit Press provides a basic step-by-step introduction to the general After Effects workflow in an excerpt from the

After Effects Classroom in a Book.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide a step-by-step introduction to creating a basic animation in a PDF excerpt from their book After Effects Apprentice on the

Focal Press website.

Overview of general workflow in After Effects

Whether you use Adobe After Effects to animate a simple title, create complex motion graphics, or composite realistic visual effects, you generally follow the same basic workflow, though you may repeat or skip some steps. For example, you may repeat the cycle of modifying layer properties, animating, and previewing until everything looks right. You may skip the step of importing footage if you intend to create graphical elements entirely in After Effects.

Import and organize footage

After you create a project, import your footage into the project in the Project panel. After Effects automatically interprets many common media formats, but you can also specify how you want After Effects to interpret attributes such as frame rate and pixel aspect ratio. You can view each item in a Footage panel and set its start and end times to fit your composition. For more information, see

Create, arrange, and composite layers in a composition

Create one or more compositions. Any footage item can be the source for one or more layers in a composition. You can arrange the layers spatially in the Composition panel or arrange them in time using the Timeline panel. You can stack layers in two dimensions or arrange them in three dimensions. You can use masks, blending modes, and keying tools to composite (combine), the images of multiple layers. You can even use shape layers, text layers, and paint tools to create your own visual elements. For more information, see page 138, “Transparency, opacity, and compositing” on page 373, “Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector

graphics” on page 306, and “Creating and editing text layers” on page 341.

“Importing and interpreting footage items” on page 67.

“Composition basics” on page 54, “Creating layers” on

Last updated 12/21/2009

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Workflows, planning, and setup

Modify and animate layer properties

You can modify any property of a layer, such as size, position, and opacity. You can make any combination of layer properties change over time, using keyframes and expressions. Use motion tracking to stabilize motion or to animate one layer so that it follows the motion in another layer. For more information, see

“Animation basics” on page 210,

“Expression basics” on page 646, and “Tracking and stabilizing motion” on page 261.

Add effects and modify effect properties

You can add any combination of effects to alter the appearance or sound of a layer, and even generate visual elements from scratch. You can apply any of the hundreds of effects, animation presets, and layer styles. You can even create and save your own animation presets. You can animate effect properties, too, which are simply layer properties within an effect property group. For more information, see

“Effects and animation presets overview” on page 387.

Preview

Previewing compositions on your computer monitor or an external video monitor 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. You can use color management features to preview how your movie will look on another output device. For more information, see

“Previewing” on page 195 and “Color management” on page 284.

Render and export

Add one or more compositions to the render queue to render them at the quality settings you choose and to create movies in the formats that you specify. In some cases, you export using the File > Export or Composition menu, rather than the Render Queue panel. For more information, see

“Basics of rendering and exporting” on page 688.

Basic workflow tutorial: Create a simple movie

This tutorial assumes that you have already started After Effects and have not modified the empty default project. This example skips the step of importing footage and shows you instead how to create your own synthetic visual elements. After you have rendered a final movie, you can import it into After Effects to view it and use it as you would any other footage item.

Some people prefer to use the mouse and menus to interact with After Effects, whereas others prefer to use keyboard shortcuts for common tasks. For several steps in this example, two alternative commands are shown that produce the same result—the first demonstrating the discoverability of menu commands and the second demonstrating the speed and convenience of keyboard shortcuts. You’ll likely find that you use some combination of keyboard shortcuts and menu commands in your work.

1 Create a new composition:

• Choose Composition > New Composition.

• Press Ctrl+N (Windows) or Command+N (Mac OS).

2 Change the Duration value in the Composition Settings dialog box by entering 5.00 (5 seconds), choose Web Video

from the Preset menu, and click OK.

3 Create a new text layer:

• Choose Layer > New > Text.

• Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+T (Mac OS).

4 Type your name. Press Enter on the numeric keypad or press Ctrl+Enter (Windows) or Command+Return (Mac

OS) on the main keyboard to exit text-editing mode.

Last updated 12/21/2009

5 Set an initial keyframe for the Position property:

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Workflows, planning, and setup

• Click the triangle to the left of the layer name in the Timeline panel, click the triangle to the left of the Transform

group name, and then click the stopwatch button

to the left of the Position property name.

• Press Alt+Shift+P (Windows) or Option+Shift+P (Mac OS).

6 Activate the Selection tool:

• Click the Selection Tool button in the Tools panel.

• Press V.

7 Using the Selection tool, drag your text to the bottom-left corner of the frame in the Composition panel.

8 Move the current-time indicator to the last frame of the composition:

• Drag the current-time indicator in the Timeline panel to the far right of the timeline.

• Press End.

9 Using the Selection tool, drag your text to the top-right corner of the frame in the Composition panel.

A new keyframe is created at this time for the Position property. Motion is interpolated between keyframe values.

10 Preview your animation using standard preview:

• Click the Play button in the Preview panel. Click Play again to stop the preview.

• Press the spacebar. Press the spacebar again to stop the preview.

11 Apply the Glow effect:

• Choose Effect > Stylize > Glow.

•

Type glow in the search field at the top of the Effects & Presets panel to find the Glow effect. Double-click the effect name.

12 Add your composition to the render queue:

• Choose Composition > Add To Render Queue.

• Press Ctrl+Shift+/ (Windows) or Command+Shift+/ (Mac OS).

13 In the Render Queue panel, click the underlined text to the right of Output To. In the Output Movie To dialog box,

choose a name and location for the output movie file, and then click Save. For the location, choose something easy to find, like your desktop.

14 Click the Render button to process all items in the render queue. The Render Queue panel shows the progress of

the rendering operation. A sound is generated when rendering is complete.

You’ve created, rendered, and exported a movie.

You can import the movie that you’ve created and preview it in After Effects, or you can navigate to the movie and play it using a movie player such as QuickTime Player, Windows Media Player, or Adobe Bridge.

More Help topics

“Keyboard shortcuts” on page 738

“Import footage items” on page 70

“General workflow in After Effects” on page 30

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Specific workflows in After Effects

Most sections of this document are organized according to general tasks that you can perform with After Effects. However, many questions are more focused on a specific end result rather than a specific task. For example, rather than wanting to know how to apply an effect to a layer and blend that layer with other layers, you may want to know how to make fire, smoke, clouds, or a tornado. This section is intended as a repository for links to resources that answer those specific, goal-focused questions.

If you add comments to this section that point to additional resources of this kind, the section will grow to be more useful and more complete.

Fire, explosions, muzzle flashes

Mark Christiansen provides tips and detailed techniques for creating and compositing fire, explosions, muzzle flashes, bullet hits, and energy blasts in the “Pyrotechnics: Creating Fire, Explosions, and Energy Phenomena in After Effects” chapter of

Fog, smoke, clouds

Mark Christiansen provides tips and detailed techniques for creating and compositing fog, smoke, mist, rain, and snow in the “Climate: Air, Water, Smoke, Clouds in After Effects” chapter of Press website.

After Effects Studio Techniques on the Peachpit Press website.

After Effects Studio Techniques on the Peachpit

Daniel Broadway provides tips for compositing fog or mist into a scene on his website.

Camera mapping, camera projection, camera moves, camera matching

Mark Christiansen provides tips and detailed techniques for working with cameras in the “Virtual Cinematography in After Effects” chapter of information about matching lens distortion, performing camera moves, performing camera projection (camera mapping), using rack focus, creating boke blur, using grain, and choosing a frame rate to match your story-telling.

After Effects Studio Techniques on the Peachpit Press website. This chapter includes

Planning and setup

Planning your work

Correct project settings, preparation of footage, and initial composition settings can help you to avoid errors and unexpected results when rendering your final output movie. Before you begin, think about what kind of work you’ll be doing in After Effects and what kind of output you intend to create. After you have planned your project and made some basic decisions about project settings, you’ll be ready to start importing footage and assembling compositions from layers based on that footage.

The best way to ensure that your movie is suitable for a specific medium is to render a test movie and view it using the same type of equipment that your audience will use to view it. It’s best to do such tests before you have completed the difficult and time-consuming parts of your work, to uncover problems early.

Aharon Rabinowitz provides an article on the Creative COW website about planning your project with the final delivery specifications in mind.

For a video tutorial on creating and organizing projects, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0221.

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Acquiring, choosing, and preparing footage

Before importing footage, first decide which media and formats you'll use for your finished movies, and then determine the best settings for your source material. Often, it’s best to prepare footage before importing it into After Effects.

For example, if you want an image to fill your composition frame, configure the image in Adobe Photoshop® so that the image size and pixel aspect ratio match the composition size and pixel aspect ratio. If the image is too large when you import it into After Effects, you’ll increase the memory and processor requirements of the compositions that use it. If the image is too small, you’ll lose image quality when you scale it to the desired size. See

frame aspect ratio” on page 77.

If you can shoot footage with consistent lighting and colors—and otherwise prevent the need to do a lot of tedious utility work in post-production—then you’ll have more time for creative work. Consider using Adobe OnLocation while shooting footage to make sure that you get the most out of your time and footage.

If possible, use uncompressed footage or footage encoded with lossless compression. Lossless compression means better results for many operations, such as keying and motion tracking. Certain kinds of compression—such as the compression used in DV encoding—are especially bad for color keying, because they discard the subtle differences in color that you depend on for good bluescreen or greenscreen keying. It’s often best to wait until the final rendering phase to use compression other than lossless compression. See

“Keying introduction and resources” on page 383.

If possible, use footage with a frame rate that matches that of your output, so that After Effects doesn’t have to use frame blending or similar methods to fill in missing frames. See

“Frame rate” on page 75.

“Pixel aspect ratio and

The kind of work that you’ll be doing in After Effects and the kind of output movie that you want to create can even influence how you shoot and acquire your footage. For example, if you know that you want to animate using motion tracking, consider shooting your scene in a manner that optimizes for motion tracking—for example, using tracking markers. See

“Motion tracking workflow” on page 264.

David Van Brink shows an excellent example on his omino pixel blog of why shooting in a high-definition format is useful even for standard-definition delivery, because the extra pixels give you a lot of room for synthetic (fake) camera work, such as zooms and pans in post-production.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide tips for planning and delivering high-definition and widescreen work in articles on the ProVideo Coalition website:

• The High-Def Checklist

• Open Wide: Creating That Widescreen Look

Project settings

Project settings fall into three basic categories: how time is displayed in the project, how color data is treated in the project, and what sampling rate to use for audio. Of these settings, the color settings are the ones that you need to think about before you do much work in your project, because they determine how color data is interpreted as you import footage files, how color calculations are performed as you work, and how color data is converted for final output. See “Color management” on page 284 and “Time display units” on page 52.

If you enable color management for your project, the colors that you see are the same colors that your audience will see when they view the movie that you create.

Note: Click the color depth indicator at the bottom of the Project panel to open the Project Settings dialog box. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) to cycle through color bit depths: 8 bpc, 16 bpc, and 32 bpc. See

high dynamic range color” on page 274.

“Color depth and

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Composition settings

After you prepare and import footage items, you use these footage items to create layers in a composition, where you animate and apply effects. When you create a composition, specify composition settings such as resolution, frame size, and pixel aspect ratio for your final rendered output. Although you can change composition settings at any time, it’s best to set them correctly as you create each new composition to avoid unexpected results in your final rendered output. For example, the composition frame size should be the image size in the playback medium. See

settings” on page 58.

If you’ll be rendering and exporting a composition to more than one media format, always match the pixel dimensions

for your composition to the largest pixel dimensions used for your output. Later, you can use output modules in the Render Queue panel to encode and export a separate version of the composition for each format. See

and output module settings” on page 700.

“Composition

“Output modules

Performance, memory, and storage considerations

If you work with large compositions, make sure that you configure After Effects and your computer to maximize performance. Complex compositions can require a large amount of memory to render, and the rendered movies can take a large amount of disk space to store. Before you attempt to render a three-hour movie, make sure that you have the disk space available to store it. See

If your source footage files are on a slow disk drive (or across a slow network connection), then performance will be poor. When possible, keep the source footage files for your project on a fast local disk drive. Ideally, you’ll have three drives: one for source footage files, one from which the application runs, and one for rendered output.

“Memory and storage” on page 632.

For more information, see “Improve performance” on page 637.

Planning for playback on computer monitors and mobile devices

When you create a movie for playback on a personal computer—whether downloaded from the Web or played from a CD-ROM—specify composition settings, render settings, and output module settings that keep file size low. Consider that a movie with a high data rate may not play well from an older CD-ROM drive that cannot read data from the disc fast enough. Similarly, a large movie may take a long time to download over a dial-up network connection.

When rendering your final movie, choose a file type and encoder appropriate for the final media. The corresponding decoder must be available on the system used by your intended audience; otherwise they will not be able to play the movie. Common codecs (encoders/decoders) include the codecs installed with media players such as Flash Player, Windows Media Player, and QuickTime Player.

Aharon Rabinowitz provides an article on the Creative COW website about planning your project with the final delivery specifications in mind.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide an article on the Artbeats website that describes some of the considerations for creating video for the Web.

Mobile devices

Many of the considerations for creating movies for playback on mobile devices, such as mobile phones and the Apple iPod, are similar to the considerations for creating movies for playback on personal computers—but the limitations are even more extreme. Because the amount of storage (disk space) and processor power are less for mobile phones than for personal computers, file size and data rate for movies must be even more tightly controlled.

Screen dimensions, video frame rates, and color gamuts vary greatly from one mobile device to another. Adobe Device Central contains device profiles that provide information about these characteristics. You can create a set of After Effects compositions tailored for a selected set of devices by using the File > New Document In > After Effects command in Adobe Device Central. (See

“Create compositions for playback on mobile devices” on page 56.)

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Use these tips when shooting video for mobile devices:

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• Tight shots are better. It’s hard to see a face on a tiny screen unless it’s shot in relative close-up.

• Light your subjects well, and keep them separated from the background; the colors and brightness values between

background and subject should not be too similar.

• Avoid excessive zooming and rolling, which hinder temporal compression schemes.

• Because stable (non-shaky) video is easier to compress, shoot video with a tripod to minimize the shaking of the

camera.

• Avoid using auto-focus and auto-exposure features. When these features engage, they change the appearance of all

of the pixels in an image from one frame to the next, making compression using interframe encoding schemes less efficient.

Use these tips when working in After Effects:

• Use a lower frame rate (15-22 fps) for mobile devices.

• Use motion-stabilization tools and noise-reduction or blur effects before rendering to final output, to aid the

compressor in reducing file size.

• Match the color palette to the mobile devices that you are targeting. Mobile devices, in general, have a limited color

gamut. Previewing in Adobe Device Central can help determine if the colors used are optimal for an individual device or range of devices.

• Use Format Options presets available through the output module in the Render Queue panel. Presets are available

for 3GPP mobile devices, iPod video, and PlayStation Portable.

• Consider using cuts and other fast transitions instead of zooming in and out or using fades and dissolves. Fast cuts

also make compression easier.

After you’ve rendered your movie, you can view it exactly as it will appear on any of a large variety of mobile devices, using Adobe Device Central.

More Help topics

“Composition settings” on page 58

“Output modules and output module settings” on page 700

“Render settings” on page 697

Cross-platform project considerations

After Effects project files are compatible with Mac OS and Windows operating systems, but some factors—mostly regarding the locations and naming of footage files and support files—can affect the ease of working with the same project across platforms.

Project file paths

When you move a project file to a different computer and open it, After Effects attempts to locate the project’s footage files as follows: After Effects first searches the folder in which the project file is located; second, it searches the file’s original path or folder location; finally, it searches the root of the directory where the project is located.

If you are building cross-platform projects, it’s best if the full paths have the same names on Mac OS and Windows systems. If the footage and the project are on 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.

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It’s best to store footage in the same folder as the project file or in another folder within that folder. Here’s a sample hierarchy:

/newproject/project_file.aep

/newproject/source/footage1.psd

/newproject/source/footage2.avi

You can then copy the newproject folder in its entirety across platforms, and After Effects will properly locate all of the footage.

Use the Collect Files feature to gather copies of all the files in a project into a single folder. You can then move the folder

containing the copied project to the other platform. See “Collect files in one location” on page 695.

File-naming conventions

Name your footage and project files with the appropriate filename extensions, such as .mov for QuickTime movies and .aep for After Effects projects. Don’t use high-ASCII or other extended characters in filenames to be used crossplatform. If files will be used on the Web, be sure that filenames adhere to applicable conventions for extensions and paths.

Supported file types

Some file types are supported on one platform but not another. See “Supported import formats” on page 68 and “Supported output formats” on page 690.

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Resources

Ensure that all fonts, effects, codecs, and other resources are available on both systems. Such resources are often plug-ins.

If you use a native After Effects effect in a project on one operating system, the effect will still work on the other operating system to which you’ve transferred your project. However, some third-party effects and other third-party plug-ins may not continue to operate, even if you have versions of these plug-ins on the target system. In such cases, you may need to reapply some third-party effects.

More Help topics

“Plug-ins” on page 641

“Fonts” on page 347

Working with After Effects and other applications

For a video introduction to Creative Suite 4 Production Premium edition, go to the Adobe website at

www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4087_vs.

Working with Adobe Bridge and After Effects

Adobe® Bridge is the control center for Adobe Creative Suite software. Use Adobe Bridge to browse for project templates and animation presets; run cross-product workflow automation scripts; view and manage files and folders; organize your files by assigning keywords, labels, and ratings to them; search for files and folders; and view, edit, and add metadata.

• To open Adobe Bridge from After Effects, choose File > Browse In Bridge.

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• To reveal a file in Adobe Bridge, select a file in the Project panel and choose File > Reveal In Bridge.

• To use Adobe Bridge to open template projects, choose File > Browse Template Projects.

• To use Adobe Bridge to browse for animation presets, choose Animation > Browse Presets.

For video tutorials on using Adobe Bridge, go to the Adobe website:

• www.adobe.com/go/vid0090

• www.adobe.com/go/vid0251

• www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4011_bri

• www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4013_bri

More Help topics

“Template projects and example projects” on page 51

“Animation presets overview and resources” on page 387

Working with Photoshop and After Effects

If you use Photoshop to create still images, you can use After Effects to bring those still images together and make them move and change. In After Effects, you can animate an entire Photoshop image or any of its layers. You can even animate individual properties of Photoshop images, such as the properties of a layer style.

If you use After Effects to create movies, you can use Photoshop to refine the individual frames of those movies. You can remove unwanted visual elements, draw on individual frames, or use the superior selection and masking tools in Photoshop to divide a frame into elements for animation or compositing.

More Help topics

“Preparing and importing Photoshop files” on page 105

“3D object layers from Photoshop” on page 185

Comparative advantages for specific tasks

The strengths of After Effects are in its animation and automation features. This means that After Effects excels at tasks that can be automated from one frame to another. For example, you can use the motion tracking features of After Effects to track the motion of a microphone boom, and then automatically apply that same motion to a stroke made with the Clone Stamp tool. In this manner, you can remove the microphone from every frame of a shot, without having to paint the microphone out by hand on each frame.

In contrast, Photoshop has excellent tools for painting, drawing, and selecting portions of an image. Tracing a complex shape to create a mask is much easier with the Photoshop Quick Selection tool or Magnetic Lasso tool than with the masking tools in After Effects. Rather than hand-drawing a mask on each frame in After Effects, consider doing this work in Photoshop. Similarly, if you are applying several paint strokes by hand to get rid of dust, consider using the Photoshop paint tools.

Deciding which application to use for painting depends on the task. Paint strokes in Photoshop directly affect the pixels of the layer. Paint strokes in After Effects are elements of an effect, each of which can be turned on or off or modified at any time. If the purpose of applying a paint stroke is to permanently modify a still image, use the Photoshop paint tools. If you want to have complete control of each paint stroke after you’ve applied it, or if you want to animate the paint strokes themselves, use the After Effects paint tools.

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To see a video tutorial on rotoscoping with After Effects and Photoshop, visit the Adobe website at

www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4107_xp.

The animation and video features in Photoshop Extended include simple keyframe-based animation. After Effects uses a similar interface, though the breadth and flexibility of its animation features are far greater.

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3D objects, 3D models, and 3D images

In general, After Effects 3D functionality is limited to the manipulation of two-dimensional layers in three dimensions. Photoshop, however, can manipulate complete 3D models and output two-dimensional composites and cross-sections of these 3D models from any angle. After Effects can import and render 3D object layers from PSD files. You can set a layer based on a PSD 3D object layer to honor the active camera in an After Effects composition. When the camera moves around such a layer, it views the 3D object from various angles.

To see a video tutorial about using 3D object layers from Photoshop in After Effects, see the Adobe website:

www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4113_xp.

After Effects can also automatically create 3D layers to mimic the planes created by the Photoshop Vanishing Point feature.

To see video tutorials about using Vanishing Point data from Photoshop in After Effects, see the Adobe website:

• www.adobe.com/go/vid0286

• www.adobe.com/go/vid0287

Exchanging still images

After Effects can import and export still images in many formats, but you will usually want to use the native Photoshop PSD format when transferring individual frames or still image sequences between After Effects and Photoshop.

When importing or exporting a PSD file, After Effects can preserve individual layers, masks, layer styles, and most other attributes. When you import a PSD file into After Effects, you can choose whether to import it as a flattened image or with its layers separate and intact.

It is often a good idea to prepare a still image in Photoshop before importing it into After Effects. Examples of such preparation include correcting color, scaling, and cropping. It is often better for you to do something once to the source image in Photoshop than to have After Effects perform the same operation many times per second as it renders each frame for previews or final output.

By creating your new PSD document from the Photoshop New File dialog box with a Film & Video preset, you can start with a document that is set up correctly for a specific video output type. If you are already working in After Effects, you can create a new PSD document that matches your composition and project settings by choosing File > New > Adobe Photoshop File.

Exchanging movies

You can also exchange video files, such as QuickTime movies, between Photoshop and After Effects. When you open a movie in Photoshop, a video layer is created that refers to the source footage file. Video layers allow you to paint nondestructively on the movie’s frames, much as After Effects works with layers with movies as their sources. When you save a PSD file with a video layer, you save the edits that you made to the video layer, not edits to the source footage itself.

You can also render a movie directly from Photoshop. For example, you can create a QuickTime movie from Photoshop that can then be imported into After Effects.

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Color

After Effects works internally with colors in an RGB (red, green, blue) color space. Though After Effects can convert CMYK images to RGB, you should do video work in Photoshop in RGB.

If relevant for your final output, it is better to ensure that the colors in your image are broadcast-safe in Photoshop before you import the image into After Effects. A good way to do this is to assign the appropriate destination color space—for example, SDTV (Rec. 601)—to the document in Photoshop. After Effects performs color management according to color profiles embedded in documents, including imported PSD files.

Working with Flash and After Effects

If you use Adobe® Flash® to create video or animation, you can use After Effects to edit and refine the video. For example, from Flash you can export animations and applications as QuickTime movies or Flash Video (FLV) files. You can then use After Effects to edit and refine the video.

If you use After Effects to edit and composite video, you can then use Flash to publish that video. You can also export an After Effects composition as XFL content for further editing in Flash.

Flash and After Effects use separate terms for some concepts that they share in common, including the following:

• A composition in After Effects is like a movie clip in Flash Professional.

• The composition frame in the Composition panel is like the Stage in Flash Professional.

• The Project panel in After Effects is like the Library panel in Flash Professional.

• Project files in After Effects are like FLA files in Flash Professional.

• You render and export a movie from After Effects; you publish a SWF file from Flash Professional.

Additional resources

The following video tutorials provide additional detailed information about using Flash together with After Effects:

• “Importing and exporting XFL files between Flash and After Effects” at www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4098_xp.

• “Exporting an After Effects composition to Flash Professional using SWF, F4V/FLV, and XFL” at

www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4105_xp.

• “Converting metadata and markers to cue points for use in Flash” at www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4111_xp.

• Michael Coleman, product manager for After Effects, provides a video of a presentation from Adobe MAX on

Adobe TV in which he demonstrates the use of mocha for After Effects, After Effects, and Flash together to dynamically replace a video at run time in Flash Player:

http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15383v1008

• Tom Green provides a brief video tutorial on the Layers Magazine website that shows how to use the XFL format

to export an After Effects composition for use in Flash Professional:

xfl-fomrat-from-after-effects-to-flash.html

The following articles provide additional information about using Flash and After Effects together:

http://www.layersmagazine.com/exporting-

• Richard Harrington and Marcus Geduld provide an excerpt, "Flash Essentials for After Effects Users", of their book

After Effects for Flash | Flash for After Effects on the Peachpit website. In this chapter, Richard and Marcus explain Flash in terms that an After

Effects user can understand. http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1350895

• Richard Harrington and Marcus Geduld also provide "After Effects Essentials for Flash Users", another excerpt

from their book After Effects for Flash | Flash for After Effects. In this chapter, Richard and Marcus explain

Effects in terms that a Flash user can understand. http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1350894

After

• Tom Green provides a detailed article titled Integrating Flash CS4 with After Effects CS4 in the Flash Developer

Center:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/integrating_fl_ae.html

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Exporting QuickTime video from Flash

If you create animations or applications with Flash, you can export them as QuickTime movies using the File > Export > Export Movie command in Flash. For a Flash animation, you can optimize the video output for animation. For a Flash application, Flash renders video of the application as it runs, allowing the user to manipulate it. This lets you capture the branches or states of your application that you want to include in the video file.

Rendering and exporting FLV and F4V files from After Effects

When you render finished video from After Effects, select FLV or F4V as the output format to render and export video that can play in Flash Player. You can then import the FLV or F4V file into Flash and publish it in a SWF file, which can be played by Flash Player.

Importing and publishing video in Flash

When you import an FLV or F4V file into Flash, you can use various techniques, such as scripting or Flash components, to control the visual interface that surrounds your video. For example, you might include playback controls or other graphics. You can also add graphic layers on top of the FLV or F4V file for composite results.

Composite graphics, animation, and video

Flash and After Effects each include many capabilities that allow you to perform complex compositing of video and graphics. Which application you choose to use will depend on your personal preferences and the type of final output you want to create.

Flash is the more web-oriented of the two applications, with its small final file size. Flash also allows for run-time control of animation. After

Effects is oriented toward video and film production, provides a wide range of visual

effects, and is generally used to create video files as final output.

Both applications can be used to create original graphics and animation. Both use a timeline and offer scripting capabilities for controlling animation programmatically. After

Effects includes a larger set of effects, while the Flash

ActionScript® language is the more robust of the two scripting environments.

Both applications allow you to place graphics on separate layers for compositing. These layers can be turned on and off as needed. Both also allow you to apply effects to the contents of individual layers.

In Flash, composites do not affect the video content directly; they affect only the appearance of the video during playback in Flash Player. In contrast, when you composite with imported video in After

Effects, the video file you

export actually incorporates the composited graphics and effects.

Because all drawing and painting in After Effects is done on layers separate from any imported video, it is always nondestructive. Flash has both destructive and nondestructive drawing modes.

Exporting After Effects content for use in Flash

You can export After Effects content for use in Flash. You can export a SWF file that can be played immediately in Flash Player or used as part of another rich media project. When you export content from After

Effects in SWF format,

some of the content may be flattened and rasterized in the SWF file.

To edit your After Effects content further in Flash, export a composition as an XFL file. An XFL file is a type of Flash file that stores the same information as a FLA file, but in XML format. When you export a composition from

Effects as XFL for use in Flash, some of the layers and keyframes that you created in After Effects are preserved

After in the Flash version. When you import the XFL file in Flash, it unpacks the XFL file and adds the assets from the file to your FLA file according to the instructions in the XFL file.

The following video tutorials provide detailed information about exporting XFL files from After Effects:

• Importing and exporting XFL files between Flash and After Effects (Adobe.com)

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• Exporting XFL Format from After Effects to Flash (Tom Green, Layers Magazine)

Importing Flash SWF files into After Effects

Flash has a unique set of vector art tools that make it useful for a variety of drawing tasks not possible in After Effects or Adobe® Illustrator®. You can import SWF files into After as video with additional creative effects. Interactive content and scripted animation are not retained. Animation defined by keyframes is retained.

Each SWF file imported into After Effects is flattened into a single continuously rasterized layer, with its alpha channel preserved. Continuous rasterization means that graphics stay sharp as they are scaled up. This import method allows you to use the root layer or object of your SWF files as a smoothly rendered element in After capabilities of each tool to work together.

Effects to composite them with other video or render them

Effects, allowing the best

More Help topics

“Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player” on page 705

Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects

Adobe Premiere® Pro is designed to capture, import, and edit movies. After Effects is designed to create motion graphics, apply visual effects, composite visual elements, perform color correction, and perform other post-production tasks for movies.

You can easily exchange projects, compositions, sequences, tracks, and layers between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro:

• You can import an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects. You can also import Adobe Premiere® 6.0 and

6.5 projects into After Effects. (See

“Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project” on page 86.)

• You can export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project. (See “Export an After Effects project to

Adobe Premiere Pro” on page 715.)

• You can copy and paste layers and tracks between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. (See “Copy between After

Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro” on page 87.)

If you have Adobe Creative Suite® 4 Production Premium or Master Collection, you can also do the following:

• Start Adobe Premiere Pro from within After Effects and capture footage for use in After Effects. (See “Use Adobe

Premiere Pro for capture (Production Premium and Master Collection only)” on page 87.)

• Use Adobe Dynamic Link to work with After Effects compositions in Adobe Premiere Pro without first rendering

them. A dynamically linked composition appears as a clip in Adobe Premiere Pro.

• Use Adobe Dynamic Link to work with Adobe Premiere Pro sequences in After Effects without first rendering

them. A dynamically linked sequence appears as a footage item in After Effects.

• Start After Effects from within Premiere Pro and create a new composition with settings that match the settings of

your Premiere Pro project.

• Select a set of clips in Adobe Premiere Pro and convert them to a composition in After Effects.

For information on using Dynamic Link with After Effects and Premiere Pro, see “Dynamic Link and After Effects” on page 44 and the relevant sections of Adobe Premiere Pro Help.

For video tutorials about working with After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro using Dynamic Link, go to the Adobe website:

• www.adobe.com/go/vid0250

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• www.adobe.com/go/vid0256

• www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4108_xp

Working with Adobe Encore and After Effects

You can use After Effects to quickly create buttons and button layers for use in Adobe Encore®. Adobe Encore uses a naming standard to define a button and the role of individual layers as subpicture highlights and video thumbnails. When you select a group of layers in After Effects to use as an Adobe Encore button, After Effects precomposes the layers and names the precomposition according to the naming standards for buttons.

Highlight layer names receive the prefix (=1), (=2), or (=3), and video thumbnail names receive the prefix (%).

After Effects includes template projects that include entire DVD menus for you to use as a basis for your own DVD

menus. To use Adobe Bridge to browse and import these template projects, choose File > Browse Template Projects.

“Template projects and example projects” on page 51.)

(See

For information on using Dynamic Link with After Effects and Encore, see “Dynamic Link and After Effects” on page 44.

For video tutorials about using After Effects with Encore, go to the Adobe website:

• www.adobe.com/go/vid0258

• www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4108_xp

• www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4109_xp

More Help topics

“Web links, chapter links, cue points, and markers” on page 621

Create a button for Adobe Encore

1 In the Timeline panel, select the layers for use in the button.

2 Choose Layer > Adobe Encore > 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 with the button name. In keeping with the Adobe Encore naming standards, the prefix (+) is added to the name of the composition to indicate that it is a button.

Important: If you rename the button, be sure to retain the (+) prefix. The prefix ensures that Adobe Encore recognizes the file as a button.

Assign a subpicture highlight and video thumbnail to a layer

1 Select the layer.

2 Choose Layer > Adobe Encore > Assign To Subpicture [number] or Assign To Video Thumbnail.

Export a button for use in Adobe Encore

1 Open the composition that represents the button, and move the current-time indicator to the desired frame.

2 Choose Composition > Save Frame As > Photoshop Layers.

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Workflows, planning, and setup

Edit audio in Adobe Soundbooth or Adobe Audition

While working in After Effects, you may want to use the more comprehensive audio-editing capabilities of Adobe Soundbooth™ or Adobe Audition® to fine-tune your audio. You can use the Edit In Adobe Soundbooth or Edit In Adobe Audition command to start Adobe Soundbooth or Adobe Audition from within After Effects.

If you edit an audio-only file (for example, a WAV file) in Adobe Soundbooth or Adobe Audition, you change the original file. If you edit a layer that contains both audio and video (for example, an AVI file), you edit a copy of the source audio file.

1 Select the layer that contains the audio that you want to edit. The item must be of a type that is editable in Adobe

Soundbooth or Adobe Audition.

2 Choose Edit > Edit In Adobe Soundbooth or Edit > Edit In Adobe Audition to open the clip in Edit view in Adobe

Soundbooth or Adobe Audition.

3 Edit the file, and then do one of the following:

• If you’re editing an audio-only layer, choose File > Save to apply your edits to the original audio file, or choose File >

Save As to apply your edits to a copy of the audio file. If you choose File of the file into After Effects.

• If you’re editing a layer that contains both audio and video, choose File > Save As. After you save the file, import it

into After Effects, add it to the composition, and mute the original audio in the audio-video clip by deselecting the Audio switch in the Timeline panel.

Note: Any effects applied to audio in After Effects aren’t included in the copy that is sent to Adobe Soundbooth or Adobe Audition.

> Save As, you need to re-import the copy

Dynamic Link and After Effects

Dynamic Link features are available only with Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium edition and Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection edition.

More Help topics

“Working with Adobe Encore and After Effects” on page 43

“Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects” on page 42

“Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro” on page 86

About Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only)

In the past, sharing media assets among post-production applications has required you to render your work in one application before importing it into another—an inefficient and time-consuming workflow. If you wanted to make changes in the original application, you had to re render the asset. Multiple rendered versions of an asset consume disk space and can lead to file-management challenges.

Dynamic Link, a feature of Adobe Creative Suite® Production Premium and Master Collection, offers an alternative to this workflow: the ability to create dynamic links between After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Encore, and Soundbooth. Creating a dynamic link is as simple as importing any other type of asset, and dynamically linked assets appear with unique icons and label colors to help you identify them. Dynamic links are saved in project, composition, and document files generated by these applications.

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Changes you make in After Effects to a dynamically linked composition appear immediately in the linked clips in Adobe Premiere Pro, Encore, or Soundbooth. Changes you make to dynamically linked sequences in Adobe Premiere Pro appear immediately in After Effects, Encore, and Soundbooth. You don’t have to render or save changes first.

Note: Dynamic Link is a one-way delivery mechanism from one application to another. You can't pass information back and forth between two applications at the same time.

For a video tutorial on Dynamic Link, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4108_xp.

Tim Kolb provides a video tutorial on the Adobe website that shows the use of Dynamic Link with Premiere Pro, Encore, and After Effects to creative an interactive DVD menu.

Linking to and from Adobe Premiere Pro

You can send selected clips from Adobe Premiere Pro into After Effects as a composition or nested composition, replacing the clips in Adobe Premiere Pro with a dynamically linked composition.

With Dynamic Link, you can also send sequences from Adobe Premiere Pro into Encore for authoring to DVD, Bluray Disc, or SWF files.

Other ways to share content among Production Premium applications include copying and pasting between After

Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro, exporting After Effects projects to Adobe Premiere Pro, using the Capture In Adobe Premiere Pro command in After Effects, and importing Adobe Premiere Pro projects into After Effects. You cannot, however, import an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects if the project contains a dynamic link to an After Effects composition. For more information, see the relevant sections of each application’s Help documents.

Linking to and from After Effects

When you dynamically link to an After Effects composition from Adobe Premiere Pro, Encore, or Soundbooth, it appears in the host application’s Project panel. You can use the dynamically linked composition as you would any other asset. When you insert a linked composition into the host application timeline, a linked clip—which is simply a reference to the linked composition in the Project panel—appears in the Timeline panel. After Effects renders the linked composition on a frame-by-frame basis during playback in the host application.

In Adobe Premiere Pro, you can preview a dynamically linked After Effects composition in the Source Monitor, set In and Out points, add it to a sequence, and use Adobe Premiere Pro tools to edit it. When you add a linked composition that contains both video and audio to a sequence, Adobe Premiere Pro inserts linked video and audio clips in the timeline. You can unlink the video from the audio to edit the clips separately.

In Encore, you can use a dynamically linked After Effects composition to create a motion menu, or you can insert it into a timeline and use Adobe Encore tools to edit it. When you add a linked After Effects composition that contains both video and audio to an Encore timeline, Encore inserts separate video and audio clips in the timeline.

Outside of Dynamic Link, you can create After Effects compositions from Encore menus.

Linking to Soundbooth

In Soundbooth, you can dynamically link to After Effects compositions and Adobe Premiere Pro sequences. The resulting video previews provide helpful visual references for audio edits.

More Help topics

www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4108_xp

www.adobe.com/go/learn_dv_tutorial_dynlink_en

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Workflows, planning, and setup

Create and link to After Effects compositions with Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only)

Create a composition from clips in Adobe Premiere Pro

You can replace selected clips in Adobe Premiere Pro with a dynamically linked After Effects composition based on those clips. The new composition inherits the sequence settings from Adobe Premiere Pro.

1 In a sequence, select the clips you want in the composition.

2 Right-click any of the selected clips.

3 Select Replace With After Effects Composition.

Link to a new composition

When you link to a new composition from Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore, After Effects starts and creates a new project and composition with the dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, and audio sample rate of your Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore project. (If After Effects is already running, it creates a new composition in the current project.) The new composition name is based on the Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore project name, followed by Linked Comp [x].

Note: After Effects will not create a new composition by Dynamic Link if a composition is already open. Before creating a Dynamic Link to a new composition from Adobe Premiere Pro, close all After Effects compositions. You can leave After Effects itself open, however.

1 In Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Encore, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > New After Effects Composition.

If the After Effects Save As dialog box appears, enter a name and location for the After Effects project, and click Save.

When you link to a new After Effects composition, the composition duration is set to 30 seconds. To change the

duration, select the composition in After Effects, choose Composition > Composition Settings. Click the Basic tab, and specify a new value for Duration.

Link to an existing composition

For best results, composition settings (such as dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate) should match those used in the Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Encore project.

❖ Do one of the following:

• In Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > Import After Effects Composition. Choose

an After Effects project file (.aep), and then choose one or more compositions.

• In Adobe Premiere Pro, choose File > Import. Choose an After Effects project file and click Open, and then choose

a composition in the Import Composition dialog box and click OK.

• Drag one or more compositions from the After Effects Project panel to the Adobe Premiere Pro Project panel or

the Encore Project panel.

• Drag an After Effects project file into the Adobe Premiere Pro Project panel. If the After Effects project file contains

multiple compositions, the Import Composition dialog box opens.

Note: You can link to a single After Effects composition multiple times in a single Adobe Premiere Pro project. In an Adobe Encore project, however, you can link to an After Effects composition only once.

Encore and After Effects: If you are linking to Adobe Dynamic Link compositions that were created using Create After Effects Composition from Encore, turn off subpicture highlight layers in After Effects so that you can control their display in Encore.

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Dynamically linked After Effects compositions

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Workflows, planning, and setup

Modify a dynamically linked composition in After Effects (Production Premium or Master Collection only)

Use the Edit Original command in Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore to modify a linked After Effects composition. Once After Effects is open, you can make changes without having to use the Edit Original command again.

1 Select the After Effects composition in the Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore Project panel, or choose a linked clip in

the Timeline, and choose Edit

2 Make changes in After Effects, and then switch back to Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore to view your changes.

The changes made in After Effects will appear in Adobe Premiere Pro, but any preview files Adobe Premiere Pro may have rendered for the clip prior to the changes will be invalidated.

Note: If you change the name of the composition in After Effects after you’ve created a dynamic link to it from Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro doesn’t update the linked composition name in the Project panel, but retains the dynamic link.

> Edit Original.

Delete a dynamically linked composition or clip (Production Premium or Master Collection only)

You can delete a linked composition from an Encore project if the composition isn’t used in the project. You can delete a linked composition from an Adobe Premiere Pro project at any time, even if the composition is used in a project.

You can delete linked clips, which are simply references to the linked composition in the Project panel, from the timeline of an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence or from an Encore menu or timeline at any time.

❖ In Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore, select the linked composition or clip and press the Delete key.

Create and link to Premiere Pro sequences with Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only)

Link to a new sequence

When you link to a new Adobe Premiere Pro sequence from After Effects, Premiere Pro starts and creates a new project and sequence with settings that match your After Effects project. If Premiere Pro is already running, it creates a new sequence in the current project.

❖ In After Effects, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > New Premiere Pro Sequence.

Link to an existing sequence

For best results, sequence settings and project settings in Premiere Pro (such as dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate) should match settings used in the After Effects project.

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Do one of the following:

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Workflows, planning, and setup

• In After Effects, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > Import Premiere Pro Sequence. Choose a Premiere Pro

project, and then choose one or more sequences.

• Drag one or more sequences from the Premiere Pro Project panel to the After Effect Project panel.

Saving and Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only)

You must save your After Effects project at least once before you can create a dynamic link from Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore to a composition within it. However, you don’t have to subsequently save changes to an After to see changes to a linked composition in Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore.

If you use the Save As command to copy an After Effects project that contains compositions referenced by Dynamic Link, then Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore uses the original composition—not the new copy—as its source for the linked composition. You can relink a composition to the new copy at any time.

Effects project

Performance and Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only)

Because a linked composition may reference a complex source composition, actions you perform on a linked composition may require additional processing time as After Effects applies the actions and makes the final data available to Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore. In some cases, the additional processing time may delay preview or playback.

If you’re working with complex source compositions and experiencing playback delays, you can take the composition offline or disable a linked clip to temporarily stop referencing a dynamically linked composition, or render 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 Dynamic Link (Production Premium or Master Collection only)

After Effects works with the RGB (red, green, blue) color model. Adobe Premiere Pro, however, works with the YUV color model. When you work with a dynamically linked composition, Adobe Premiere Pro either converts it to YUV or retains the RGB colors, depending on the output format.

Dynamically linked compositions are rendered in the color depth of the After Effects project (8, 16, or 32 bpc, depending on project settings). Set the After Effects project color depth to 32 bpc if you’re working with HDR (high dynamic range) assets.

In Adobe Premiere Pro, choose Project > Project Settings > Video Rendering, and select Maximum Bit Depth to have

Adobe Premiere Pro process at the highest possible quality. However, this option may slow processing.

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Chapter 4: Projects and compositions

Projects

About projects

An After Effects project is a single file that stores compositions and references to all of the source files used by footage items in that project. Compositions are collections of layers. Many layers use footage items (such as movies or still images) as a source, though some layers—such as shape layers and text layers—contain graphics that you create within After Effects.

A project file has the filename extension .aep or .aepx. A project file with the .aep filename extension is a binary project file. A project file with the .aepx filename extension is a text-based XML project file.

The name of the current project appears at the top of the application window.

A template project file has the filename extension .aet. (See “Template projects and example projects” on page 51.)

More Help topics

“Automation” on page 645

XML project files

Text-based XML project files contain some project information as hexadecimal-encoded binary data, but much of the information is exposed as human-readable text in and edit some details of the project without opening the project in After Effects. You can even write scripts that modify project information in XML project files as part of an automated workflow.

For a video tutorial about the XML project file format, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4065_ae.

Elements of a project that you can modify in an XML project file:

• Marker attributes, including comments, chapter point parameters, and cue point parameters

• File paths of source footage items, including proxies

• Composition, footage item, layer, and folder names and comments

Note: Footage item names are exposed in string elements in XML project files only if the names have been customized. Footage item names derived automatically from the names of source files and solid color names are not exposed in

Some strings, such as workspace and view names, are exposed as human-readable strings, but modifications made to these strings are not respected when After Effects opens the project file.

Important: Do not use the XML project file format as your primary file format. The primary project file format for After Effects CS4 is the binary project file (.aep) format. Use the XML project file format to save a copy of a project and as an intermediate format for automation workflows.

string elements

string elements. You can open an XML project file in a text editor

To save an XML project (.aepx) file as a binary project (.aep) file, choose File > Save As and enter a file name ending

with .aep, without the x. (See “Save and back up projects” on page 50.)

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Projects and compositions

Project links embedded in QuickTime, Video for Windows, FLV, and F4V files

When you render a movie and export it to a container format, you can embed a link to the After Effects project in the container file. Container formats include FLV, F4V, QuickTime (MOV), and Video for Windows (AVI).

To import the project, import the container file, and choose Project from the Import As menu in the Import File dialog box. If the container file contains a link to a project that has been moved, you can browse to locate the project.

Create and open projects

Only one project can be open at a time. If you create or open another project file while a project is open, After Effects prompts you to save changes in the open project, and then closes it. After you create a project, you can import footage into the project.

• To create a project, choose File > New > New Project.

• To open a project, choose File > Open Project, locate the project, and then click Open.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that creates and saves a new project for each selected composition in the current project.

Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website that gives you the ability to specify a project or template project that After Effects opens each time that After Effects starts.

More Help topics

“Import an After Effects project” on page 86

Save and back up projects

• To save a project, choose File > Save.

• To save a copy of the project with a new automatically generated name, choose File > Increment And Save, or press

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+S (Mac OS).

A copy of the current project is saved in the same folder as the original project. The name of the copy is the name of the original followed by a number. If the name of the original ends with a number, that number is increased by 1.

• To save the project with a different name or to a different location, choose File > Save As.

The open project takes the new name and location; the original file remains unchanged.

• To save the project as a copy in the XML project file format, choose File > Save A Copy As XML. (See “About

projects” on page 49.)

• To save a copy of the project with a different name or to a different location, choose File > Save A Copy.

The open project retains its original name and location, and a copy is created with the new settings but is not opened.

• To automatically save copies of projects at regular intervals, choose Edit > Preferences > Auto-Save (Windows) or

After Effects

Auto-saved files are saved in the Adobe After Effects Auto-Save folder, which is located in the same folder as the original project file. Auto-saved filenames are based on the project name: After Effects adds “auto-save n” (where n is the number of the file in the auto-save series) to the end of the filename. Maximum Project Versions specifies how many versions of each project file you want to save. When the number of versions saved reaches the maximum you specify, the Auto-Save feature overwrites them starting with the oldest file.

> Preferences > Auto-Save (Mac OS), and select Automatically Save Projects.

• To save a copy of the project and copies of assets used in the project to a single folder on disk, use the Collect Files

command. (See

“Collect files in one location” on page 695.)

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You can’t directly save an After Effects CS4 project for use in After Effects CS3 or earlier.

Jerzy Drozda, Jr. (Maltaannon) provides instructions on his website for a manual—but still relatively efficient—way

of copying data from an After Effects CS4 project into an After Effects CS3 project.

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Projects and compositions

Template projects and example projects

A template project is a file with the filename extension .aet. You can use the many template projects included with After Effects—including DVD menu templates—as the basis for your own projects, and you can create new templates based on your projects.

When you open a template project, After Effects creates a new, untitled project based on the template. Saving changes to this new project does not affect the template project.

A great way to see how advanced users use After Effects is to open one of the template projects included with After

Effects, open a composition to activate it, and press U or UU to reveal only the animated or modified layer properties. Viewing the animated and modified properties shows you what changes the designer of the template project made to create the template.

Often, the creator of a template project locks layers that should be left unmodified, and leaves layers that should be modified unlocked. This is a convenient way to prevent accidental or inappropriate modifications.

You can download example projects and template projects from many websites, including the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website. For more sources of After Effects example projects and template projects, see “After Effects

community resources” on page 7.

More Help topics

“Lock or unlock a layer” on page 156

Open a template project

• To browse and open template projects using Adobe Bridge, choose File > Browse Template Projects. Double-click

a template project to open it.

• To open a template project, choose File > Open Project. On Windows, choose Adobe After Effects Project Template

from the Files Of Type menu.

Create a template project

• To convert a project to a template project, change the filename extension from .aep to .aet.

• To save a copy of a project as a template project, choose File > Save A Copy, and then rename the copy with the

filename extension .aet.

Flowchart panel

In the flowchart for each project or composition, individual boxes (or tiles) represent each composition, footage item, and layer. Directional arrows represent the relationships between components.

Note: The Flowchart panel shows you only the existing relationships. You cannot use it to change relationships between elements.

Nested compositions and other elements that make up the composition appear when you expand a composition tile.

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Mid-gray lines between tiles in the flowchart indicate that the Video or Audio switch for those items is deselected in the Timeline panel. Black or light gray lines indicate that the switch is selected, depending on the Brightness setting in the Appearance preferences.

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Projects and compositions

• To open the project flowchart, press Ctrl+F11 (Windows) or Command+F11 (Mac OS), or click the Project

Flowchart

button at the top of the vertical scroll bar on the right edge of the Project panel.

• To open a composition flowchart, select the composition and choose Composition > Composition Flowchart, or

click the Composition Flowchart

button at the bottom of the Composition panel.

• To activate (select) an item, click its tile in the Flowchart panel.

When you click a composition in the flowchart, it becomes active in the Project panel and the Timeline panel. When you click a layer, it becomes active in the Timeline panel. When you click a footage item, it becomes active in the Project panel.

• To customize the appearance of the flowchart, use the Flowchart panel menu and the buttons along the bottom of

the panel.

For tool tips identifying the buttons in the Flowchart panel, let your pointer hover over a button until the tool tip

appears.

• To delete elements, select them and press Delete. If the selected element is a footage item or composition, it is

deleted from the project and no longer appears in the Timeline and Project panels. If the selected element is a layer, it is deleted from the composition in which it appears.

• To access the context menu for a selected element, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the icon to the

left of the name in the element tile. The icons have various appearances, depending on the element type, such as

and compositions . For example, you can use the context menu for a layer to work with masks and

layers effects, or to change switches, apply transformations, and adjust layer image quality.

Note: When you change element properties in the Flowchart panel, be careful to context-click the icon in the tile, not the name of the element. The context menu associated with the element icon is different from the one that opens from the element name.

More Help topics

“Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel” on page 154

Time display units

Many quantities in After Effects are either points in time or spans of time, including the current time, layer In and Out points, and durations of layers, footage items, and compositions.

By default, After Effects displays time in Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) timecode: hours, minutes, seconds, and frames. You can change to another system of time display, such as frames, or feet and frames of 16mm or 35mm film.

Video-editing workstations often use SMPTE timecode that is recorded onto videotape for reference. If you are creating video that will be synchronized with video that uses SMPTE timecode, use the default timecode display style.

You may want to see time values in feet plus frames format, for example, if you are preparing a movie for eventual output to film; or in simple frame numbers if you plan to use your movie in an animation program such as Flash. The format you choose applies to the current project only.

Important: Changing the time display format does not alter the frame rate of your assets or output—it changes only how frames are numbered for display in After Effects.

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Projects and compositions

Change time-display units

• To cycle through Timecode Base, Frames, and Feet + Frames, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS)

the current-time display. The current-time display is in the upper-left corner of the Timeline panel and at the bottom of the Layer, Composition, and Footage panels. (See

“Timeline panel” on page 57.)

• To change time display units, choose File > Project Settings, and choose from the options in the Display Style

section.

Options for time-display units

Timecode Base Displays time as timecode, using the frame rate that you specify as the timecode base. Auto uses the

rounded frame rate of the footage item or composition. If an item doesn’t have timecode (such as an audio file), After Effects uses a default value (30 fps for English, Japanese, and Korean versions of After Effects, or 25 fps for French, German, Spanish, and Italian versions) or the last non-auto value you specified in the Project Settings dialog box. You can also specify that After Effects use a specific frame rate.

Note: You can specify specific frame rates for display in the Timecode Base menu; however, in most cases, you should leave the timecode base set to Auto.

Drop Frame versus Non-Drop Frame Two of the more commonly used combinations of time display settings are 30 fps

drop-frame timecode and 30 fps non-drop-frame timecode. When the frame rate is a non-integer number—as is the case with the NTSC frame rate of 29.97 frames per second—a compromise of one sort or another must be made in displaying time. Either the time display can accurately show clock time (after one hour, the time display shows 1:00:00:00) or the time display can be continuously numbered (frame n is always followed by frame n + 1, modulo the number of frames per second). Drop-frame timecode does the former; non-drop-frame timecode does the latter. In the case of NTSC 30 fps drop-frame timecode, two frame numbers are skipped for each minute, except for every tenth minute. Drop-frame timecode is conventionally indicated by separating the time units with semicolons. The most common case for which drop-frame versus non-drop-frame timecode is relevant is 29.97 fps NTSC, but it also applies to 23.976 fps (which After Effects treats as non-drop-frame timecode) and 59.94 fps.

Timecode for 59.94 fps compositions and footage items matches that in Adobe Premiere Pro: When the timecode base is 30 fps, each timecode value repeats twice. When the timecode base is 60 fps drop-frame, frame numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 are dropped in the same places as where 0 and 1 are dropped for drop-frame timecode with a timecode base of 30 fps.

Feet + Frames Displays number of feet of film, plus frames for fractional feet, for 16mm or 35mm film. Numbering

starts at the frame number that you specify with the Start Numbering Frames At value.

Frames Displays frame number instead of time. Use this setting for convenience when doing work that you are

integrating with a frame-based application or format, like Flash or SWF.

Online resources about timecode

Trish and Chris Meyer provide an article on the ProVideo Coalition website that describes the difference between drop-frame and non-drop-frame timecode.

Chris Pirazzi provides technical details about timecode on his Lurker's Guide to Video website.

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Composition basics

About compositions

A composition is the framework for a movie. Each composition has its own timeline. A typical composition includes multiple layers that represent components such as video and audio footage items, animated text and vector graphics, still images, and lights. You add a footage item to a composition by creating a layer for which the footage item is the source. You then arrange layers within a composition in space and time, and composite using transparency features to determine which parts of underlying layers show through the layers stacked on top of them. (See

properties” on page 138 and “Transparency, opacity, and compositing” on page 373.)

A composition in After Effects is similar to a movie clip in Flash Professional or a sequence in Premiere Pro.

You render a composition to create the frames of a final output movie, which is encoded and exported to any number of formats. (See

Simple projects may include only one composition; complex projects may include hundreds of compositions to organize large amounts of footage or many effects.

In some places in the After Effects user interface, composition is abbreviated as comp.

Each composition has an entry in the Project panel. Double-click a composition entry in the Project panel to open the composition in its own Timeline panel. To select a composition in the Project panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) in the Composition panel or Timeline panel for the composition and choose Reveal Composition In Project from the context menu.

“Rendering and exporting overview” on page 688.)

“Layers and

Use the Composition panel to preview a composition and modify its contents manually. The Composition panel contains the composition frame and a pasteboard area outside the frame that you can use to move layers into and out of the composition frame. The offstage extents of layers—the portions not in the composition frame—are shown as rectangular outlines. Only the area inside the composition frame is rendered for previews and final output.

The composition frame in the Composition panel in After Effects is similar to the Stage in Flash Professional.

When working with a complex project, you may find it easiest to organize the project by nesting compositions— putting one or more compositions into another composition. You can create a composition from any number of layers by precomposing them. If you are finished modifying some layers of your composition, you can precompose those layers and then pre-render the precomposition, replacing it with a rendered movie. (See

pre-rendering” on page 60.)

You can navigate within a hierarchy of nested compositions using the Composition Navigator and Composition MiniFlowchart. (See

Use the Flowchart panel to see the structure of a complex composition or network of compositions.

Timeline button Click this button at the bottom of the Composition panel to activate the Timeline panel for the

current composition.

Press the backslash (\) key to switch activation between the Composition panel and Timeline panel for the current

composition.

Comp button Click this button in the upper-right corner of the Timeline panel to activate the Composition panel

for the current composition.

Flowchart button Click this button at the bottom of the Composition panel to activate the Flowchart panel for the

current composition.

“Opening and navigating nested compositions” on page 62.)

“Precomposing, nesting, and

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Projects and compositions

More Help topics

“Creating layers” on page 138

“Preview video and audio” on page 195

“Flowchart panel” on page 51

“Basics of rendering and exporting” on page 688

Create a composition

You can change composition settings at any time. However, it’s best to specify settings such as frame aspect ratio and frame size when you create the composition, with your final output in mind. Because After Effects bases certain calculations on these composition settings, changing them late in your workflow can affect your final output.

Note: You can override some composition settings when rendering to final output. For example, you can use different frame sizes for the same movie. For more information see

module settings” on page 700.

When you create a composition without changing settings in the Composition Settings dialog box, the new composition uses the settings from the previous time that composition settings were set.

Note: New compositions do not inherit the previous Preserve Frame Rate When Nested Or In Render Queue and Preserve Resolution When Nested settings.

“Render settings” on page 697 and “Output modules and output

You can create a set of After Effects compositions tailored for a selected set of devices by using the File > New Document In > After Effects command in Adobe Device Central. See

devices” on page 56.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that creates and saves a new project for each selected composition in the current project. If a folder is selected in the Project panel when you create a new composition, the new composition is placed in the selected folder.

“Create compositions for playback on mobile

More Help topics

“Composition settings” on page 58

“About precomposing and nesting” on page 60

Create a composition and manually set composition settings

❖ Choose Composition > New Composition, or press Ctrl+N (Windows) or Command+N (Mac OS).

Create a composition from a single footage item

❖ Drag the footage item to the Create A New Composition button at the bottom of the Project panel or choose

File > New Comp From Selection.

Composition settings, including frame size (width and height) and pixel aspect ratio, are automatically set to match the characteristics of the footage item.

Create a single composition from multiple footage items

1 Select footage items in the Project panel.

2 Drag the selected footage items to the Create A New Composition button at the bottom of the Project panel, or

choose File > New Comp From Selection.

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3 Select Single Composition and other settings in the New Composition From Selection dialog box:

Use Dimensions From Choose the footage item from which the new composition gets composition settings, including

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frame size (width and height) and pixel aspect ratio.

Still Duration The duration for the still images being added.

Add To Render Queue Add the new composition to the render queue.

Sequence Layers, Overlap, Duration, and Transition Arrange the layers in a sequence, optionally overlap them in time,

set the duration of the transitions, and choose a transition type.

Create multiple compositions from multiple footage items

1 Select footage items in the Project panel.

2 Drag the selected footage items to the Create A New Composition button at the bottom of the Project panel, or

choose File > New Comp From Selection.

3 Select Multiple Compositions and other settings in the New Composition From Selection dialog box:

Still Duration The duration of the compositions created from still images.

Add To Render Queue Add the new compositions to the render queue.

Duplicate a composition

1 Select the composition in the Project panel.

2 Choose Edit > Duplicate or press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Command+D (Mac OS).

Create compositions for playback on mobile devices

Screen dimensions and video frame rates vary from one mobile device to another. Adobe Device Central contains a database of device profiles that provide information about these characteristics. Using this information, you can create movies that play correctly and look as you intend on the mobile devices that you choose.

For information on acquiring footage for playback on mobile devices, see “Planning for playback on computer

monitors and mobile devices” on page 35.

For a video tutorial about creating compositions for mobile devices, go to the Adobe website at

www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4110_xp.

1 In Adobe Device Central, choose File > New Document In > After Effects.

2 Select one or more devices.

3 In the New Composition tab, select Create Master Composition.

4 Click Create in the lower-right corner of the New Composition tab.

If After Effects is already running, then the new compositions are created in the existing project. If After Effects is not already running, then After Effects starts and the new compositions are created in a new project.

You do your design, animation, and other work in the Device Master composition. You use the device-specific compositions for previews and to render for final output.

The Device Master composition is nested and centered in each of the device-specific compositions. The frame rate, height, and width settings for the Device Master composition are each set to the maximum of the values for the devicespecific compositions. You can resize or move the nested Device Master composition within each device-specific composition—for example, to tweak layout for different frame aspect ratios. A guide layer for each device in the Device Master composition facilitates your design work.

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A Preview composition is also created. The Preview composition consists of a grid of device-specific compositions so that you can preview your master composition in the context of several mobile devices simultaneously.

After you render and export the compositions, you can preview and test the resulting movies on the simulated devices within Adobe Device Central.

More Help topics

“Basics of rendering and exporting” on page 688

Timeline panel

Each composition has its own Timeline panel. You use the Timeline panel to perform many tasks, such as animating layer properties, arranging layers in time, and setting blending modes. The layers at the bottom of the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel are rendered first and—in the case of 2D image layers— appear farthest back in the Composition panel and in the final composite.

To cycle forward through Timeline panels, press Alt+Shift+period (.) (Windows) or Option+Shift+period (.) (Mac

OS). To cycle backward through Timeline panels, press Alt+Shift+comma (,) (Windows) or Option+Shift+comma (,) (Mac OS).

The current time for a composition is indicated by the current-time indicator (CTI), the vertical red line in the time graph. The current time for a composition also appears in the current time display in the upper-left corner of the Timeline panel. For more information on moving the current-time indicator, see on page 198.

“Move the current-time indicator”

A B C

A. Current-time display B. Current-time indicator (CTI) C. Time ruler D. Layer switches E. Time graph

The left side of the Timeline panel consists of columns of controls for layers. The right side of the Timeline panel—the time graph—contains a time ruler, markers, keyframes, expressions, duration bars for layers (in layer bar mode), and the Graph Editor (in Graph Editor mode).

Press the backslash (\) key to switch activation between the Composition panel and Timeline panel for the current

composition.

More Help topics

“Show and hide layers in the Timeline panel” on page 157

“Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel” on page 154

“The Graph Editor” on page 211

“Columns” on page 17

“Keyboard shortcuts” on page 738

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Composition settings

You can enter composition settings manually, or you can use composition settings presets to automatically set frame size (width and height), pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate for many common output formats. You can also create and save your own custom composition settings presets for later use. Resolution, Start Timecode (or Start Frame), Duration, and Advanced composition settings are not saved with composition settings presets.

Note: The limit for composition duration is three hours. You can use footage items longer than three hours, but time after three hours does not display correctly. The maximum composition size is 30,000x30,000 pixels. A 30,000x30,000 8-bpc image requires approximately 3.5 GB; your maximum composition size may be less, depending on your operating system and available RAM.

Working with composition settings

• To open the Composition Settings dialog box to change composition settings, do one of the following:

• Select a composition in the Project panel or activate the Timeline or Composition panel for a composition, and

choose Composition

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a composition in the Project panel or Composition panel (not

on a layer), and choose Composition Settings from the context menu.

• To save a custom composition settings preset, set Width, Height, Pixel Aspect Ratio, and Frame Rate values in the

Composition Settings dialog box, and then click the Save button

• To delete a composition settings preset, choose it from the Preset menu in the Composition Settings dialog box,

and click the Delete button

• To restore default composition settings presets, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Delete

or the Save button in the Composition Settings dialog box.

button

• To scale an entire composition, choose File > Scripts > Scale Composition.jsx.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website to set the frame rate and duration of the current composition and all compositions nested within it.

> Composition Settings, or press Ctrl+K (Windows) or Command+K (Mac OS).

Christopher Green provides a script (Selected_Comps_Changer.jsx) on his website with which you can change the composition settings for compositions selected in the Project panel.

Basic composition settings

For information on specific Basic composition settings not listed here, see the related sections.

Start Timecode or Start Frame Timecode or frame number assigned to the first frame of the composition. This value

does not affect rendering; it merely specifies where to start counting from.

Advanced composition settings

For information on specific Advanced composition settings not listed here, see the related sections.

Anchor Click an arrow button to anchor layers to a corner or edge of the composition as it is resized.

More Help topics

“Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio” on page 77

“Frame rate” on page 75

“Resolution” on page 206

“Specify resolution to use for rendering shadows” on page 194

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“About precomposing and nesting” on page 60

“Motion blur” on page 227

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Set composition background color

❖ Choose Composition > Background Color, and then click the color swatch or use the eyedropper to pick a color.

Note: When you add one composition to another (nesting), the background color of the containing composition is preserved, and the background of the nested composition becomes transparent. To preserve the background color of the nested composition, create a solid-color layer to use as a background layer in the nested composition.

More Help topics

“Select a color or edit a gradient” on page 276

“Create or modify a solid-color layer or footage item” on page 141

Composition thumbnail images

You can choose which frame of a composition to show as a thumbnail image (poster frame) for the composition in the Project panel. By default, the thumbnail image is the first frame of the composition, with transparent portions shown as black.

• To set the thumbnail image for a composition, move the current-time indicator to the desired frame of the

composition in the Timeline panel, and choose Composition

•

To add a transparency grid to the thumbnail view, choose Thumbnail Transparency Grid from the Project panel menu.

> Set Poster Time.

• To hide the thumbnail images in the Project panel, choose Edit > Preferences > Display (Windows) or After

> Preferences > Display (Mac OS) and select Disable Thumbnails In Project Panel.

Effects

Zoom in or out in time

• In the Timeline panel, click the Zoom In button or the Zoom Out button , or drag the zoom slider between

the buttons.

• On the main keyboard, press the = (equal sign) key to zoom in or press the – (hyphen) key to zoom out in time.

• In the navigator view, drag the Time Navigator Start or Time Navigator End brackets to magnify or shrink a section

of the time ruler.

Dragging Time Navigator End bracket to show more of time ruler.

When zoomed in time, press D to center the time graph on the current time.

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Precomposing, nesting, and pre-rendering

About precomposing and nesting

If you want to group some layers that are already in a composition, you can precompose those layers. Precomposing layers places them in a new composition, which replaces the layers in the original composition. The new nested composition becomes the source for a single layer in the original composition. The new composition appears in the Project panel and is available for rendering or use in any other composition. You can nest compositions by adding an existing composition to another composition, just as you would add any other footage item to a composition. Precomposing a single layer is useful for adding transform properties to a layer and influencing the order in which elements of a composition are rendered.

Nesting is the inclusion of one composition within another. The nested composition appears as a layer in the containing composition.

A nested composition is sometimes called a precomposition, which is occasionally abbreviated in casual use to precomp or pre-comp. When a precomposition is used as the source footage item for a layer, the layer is called a precomposition layer.

During rendering, the image data and other information can be said to flow from each nested composition into the composition that contains it. For this reason, nested compositions are sometimes referred to as being upstream of the compositions that contain them, and the containing compositions are said to be downstream of the nested compositions that they contain. A set of compositions connected through nesting is called a composition network. You can navigate within a composition network using the Composition Navigator and Mini-Flowchart. (See

navigating nested compositions” on page 62.)

“Opening and

Precompositions in After Effects are similar to Smart Objects in Adobe Photoshop.

More Help topics

“Precompose layers” on page 61

“Create layers from footage items or change layer source” on page 139

“3D layer interactions, render order, and collapsed transformations” on page 184

“Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel” on page 154

“Parent and child layers” on page 166

Uses for precomposing and nesting

Precomposing and nesting are useful for managing and organizing complex compositions. By precomposing and nesting, you can do the following:

Apply complex changes to an entire composition You can create a composition that contains multiple layers, nest the

composition within the overall composition, and animate and apply effects to the nested composition so that all of the layers change in the same ways over the same time period.

Reuse anything you build You can build an animation in its own composition and then drag that composition into

other compositions as many times as you want.

Update in one step When you make changes to a nested composition, those changes affect every composition in

which it is used, just like changes made to a source footage item affect every composition in which it is used.

Alter the default rendering order of a layer You can specify that After Effects render a transformation (such as

rotation) before rendering effects, so that the effect applies to the rotated footage.

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Add another set of transform properties to a layer The layer that represents the composition has its own properties, in

addition to the properties of the layers that it contains. This allows you to apply an additional set of transformations to a layer or set of layers.

For example, you can use nesting to make a planet both rotate and revolve (moving like the Earth, which spins on its own axis and also travels around the Sun). To create such a system, animate the Rotation property of the planet layer, precompose that layer, modify the Anchor Point property of the precomposition layer, and then animate the Rotation property of the precomposition layer.

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Preferences and composition settings that affect nested compositions

Because a precomposition is itself a layer, you can control its behavior using layer switches and composition switches in the Timeline panel. You can choose whether changes made to the switches in the containing composition are propagated to the nested composition. To prevent layer switches from affecting nested compositions, choose Edit Preferences Affect Nested Comps.

In the Advanced tab of the Composition Settings dialog box (Composition > Composition Settings), choose Preserve Resolution When Nested or Preserve Frame Rate When Nested Or In Render Queue for a composition to retain its own resolution or frame rate, and not inherit those settings from the containing composition. For example, if you deliberately used a low frame rate in a composition to create a jerky, hand-animated result, you should preserve the frame rate for that composition when it is nested. Similarly, the results of rotoscoping may look wrong when converted to a different frame rate or resolution. Use this setting instead of the Posterize Time effect, which is less efficient.

> General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS), and then deselect Switches

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that makes toggling the Preserve Resolution When Nested or

Preserve Frame Rate When Nested Or In Render Queue preference setting more convenient.

Changing the current time in one panel updates the current time in other panels associated with that composition. By default, the current time is also updated for all compositions related to the current composition by nesting. To prevent compositions related by nesting from updating their current times when you change the current time in one composition, deselect the Synchronize Time Of All Related Items preference (Edit or After Effects

> Preferences > General (Mac OS)).

> Preferences > General (Windows)

Online resources about precomposing and nesting

Angie Taylor provides an extensive discussion and explanation of animation using nesting, parenting, expressions, and null object layers in a PDF excerpt from her book

Visual Effects, and Motion Graphics.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide an introduction to precomposing and nesting in a PDF excerpt from the “Parenting and Nesting” chapter of their book

Artist.

After Effects Apprentice: Real-World Skills for the Aspiring Motion Graphics

Creative After Effects 7: Workflow Techniques for Animation,

Precompose layers

Precomposing layers places them in a new composition (sometimes called a precomposition), which replaces the layers in the original composition. Precomposing a single layer is useful for adding transform properties to a layer and influencing the order in which elements of a composition are rendered.

1 Select the layers in the Timeline panel, and choose Layer > Pre-compose or press Ctrl+Shift+C (Windows) or

Command+Shift+C (Mac OS).

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2 Select one of the following:

Leave All Attributes In Leaves the properties and keyframes of the precomposed layer in the original composition,

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applied to the new layer that represents the precomposition. The frame size of the new composition is the same as the size of the selected layer. This option is not available when you select more than one layer, a text layer, or a shape layer.

Move All Attributes Into The New Composition Moves the properties and keyframes of the precomposed layers one

level further from the root composition in the composition hierarchy. When you use this option, changes you applied to the properties of the layers remain with the individual layers within the precomposition. The frame size of the new composition is the same as the frame size of the original composition.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that precomposes selected layers to the duration of the selected layers, with options for head and tail durations for more editing flexibility.

More Help topics

“About precomposing and nesting” on page 60

Opening and navigating nested compositions

Nested compositions are sometimes referred to as being upstream of the compositions that contain them, and the containing compositions are said to be downstream of the nested compositions that they contain. The root composition is the most downstream; the most deeply nested composition is the most upstream. A composition flow path is a chain of compositions that are related to one another by containing or being nested within one another. A composition network is the entire set of compositions that are related to one another through nesting.

After Effects provides several ways to open a nested composition (precomposition):

• Double-click the composition entry in the Project panel.

• Double-click a precomposition layer in the Timeline panel. Alt-double-click (Windows) or Option-double-click

(Mac OS) to open the precomposition layer as a layer in the Layer panel.

• To open the most recently active composition in the same composition network as the currently active

composition, press Shift+Esc.

• Use the Composition Navigator.

• Use the Composition Mini-Flowchart.

The Composition Navigator

The Composition Navigator is a bar along the top edge of the Composition panel that shows the composition active in that viewer in relation to other compositions in the same composition network. The compositions shown are the most recently active compositions in the flow path of the currently active composition.

A B C D

upstreamdownstream

A. Active (current) composition B. Arrow for opening Composition Mini-Flowchart C. Panel menu button D. Ellipsis

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Arrows between the composition names indicate the direction in which pixel information flows for this flow path. The default is to show compositions in the Composition Navigator bar with downstream compositions on the left and upstream compositions on the right. This default is indicated by the Flow Right To Left option in the Composition panel menu. To show compositions in the other order, choose Flow Left To Right. This setting is a global preference; it applies to all compositions and to the Composition Mini-Flowchart view.

The names of downstream compositions are dim to indicate that their contents are not used or shown in the active composition.

• To show or hide the Composition Navigator bar, choose Show Composition Navigator from the Composition

panel menu.

• To activate any composition shown in the Composition Navigator bar, click the composition name.

• If the flow path is too long to show in the Composition panel, an ellipsis button appears at the left or right edge

of the Composition Navigator bar. To temporarily show the entire flow path, click the ellipsis button.

To scroll through a long flow path, place the pointer over a composition button in the Composition Navigator and roll the mouse scroll wheel.

The Composition Mini-Flowchart

The Composition Mini-Flowchart is a transient control that you can use to quickly navigate within a composition network. When you open the Composition Mini-Flowchart, it shows the compositions immediately upstream and downstream of the selected composition.

A B C D

A. Indicator that composition does not flow into other compositions B. Flow direction C. Active (current) composition D. Upstream compositions E. Indicators that other compositions flow into these compositions

Colors in the Composition Mini-Flowchart are based on the label colors assigned to compositions in the Project panel. If a composition is used multiple times within one composition, the multiple instances of the nested composition appear as one entry with a number in parentheses indicating the number of instances.

To open the Composition Mini-Flowchart, do one of the following:

• Tap the Shift key when a Composition, Layer, or Timeline panel is active.

Note: Do not hold the Shift key down; press it briefly. Tapping the Shift key to open the Composition Mini-Flowchart doesn’t work if the insertion point is in a search field, text field, or expression field.

• Click the arrow to the right of a composition name in the Composition Navigator bar.

• Choose Composition Mini-Flowchart from the Composition menu, the Composition panel menu, or the Timeline

panel menu.

• Click the Composition Mini-Flowchart button at the top of the Timeline panel.

As with the Composition Navigator, you can choose whether to show the flow direction from left to right or from right to left. Arrows indicate the direction of the flow. If a composition has a

next to it instead of an arrow, then the

composition either does not have any compositions flowing into it or it does not flow into any compositions.

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Upstream compositions in the Composition Mini-Flowchart are sorted from top to bottom either alphabetically or by layer order. To switch between these sorting orders, press the S key when the Composition Mini-Flowchart is open. When sorting by layer order, a composition used multiple times is sorted according to its topmost instance in the stacking order. Downstream compositions are always sorted alphabetically.

To navigate among and select compositions in the Composition Mini-Flowchart, use the arrow keys or click the arrow

buttons on either side of a composition. To activate the selected composition, press the spacebar or Enter

or (Windows) or Return (Mac OS). To close the Composition Mini-Flowchart without taking any action, press Esc, tap Shift, or click outside the Composition Mini-Flowchart.

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More Help topics

“About precomposing and nesting” on page 60

Pre-render a nested composition

A complex nested composition can take a long time to render, either for previews or for final output. If you have a nested composition that you do not expect to work on further, you can save time during each rendering operation by pre-rendering the nested composition into a movie and replacing the composition with the rendered movie. You can still modify the original nested composition, because it remains in the Project panel. If you make a significant change to the original nested composition, just render it again.

Pre-rendering a nested composition is especially beneficial when you will use it multiple times in a project.

Note: Apply your final output settings when you pre-render the nested composition.

1 Select the composition in the Project or Composition panel.

2 Choose Composition > Pre-render.

The Pre-render command adds the composition to the render queue and sets the Import & Replace Usage post-render action to replace the composition with the rendered movie.

3 In the Render Queue panel, adjust settings as necessary, and click the Render button to render the composition.

Note: An alternative to replacing the composition with the movie is to use the rendered movie as a proxy for the nested composition.

More Help topics

“Post-render actions” on page 702

“Placeholders and proxies” on page 83

“Basics of rendering and exporting” on page 688

Render order and collapsing transformations

A composition consists of layers stacked on top of one another in the Timeline panel. When the composition is rendered—either for previewing or for final output—the bottom layer is rendered first. Within each raster (nonvector) layer, elements are applied in the following order: masks, effects, transformations, and layer styles. For continuously rasterized vector layers, transformations occur before masks and effects.

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Transformations are changes to those properties grouped under the Transform category in the Timeline panel, including Anchor Point, Position, Scale, Rotation, and Opacity. What you see in the Layer panel is the result of the rendering before transformations are performed.

Note: For additional control over when transformations are performed, you can apply the Transform effect and reorder it with respect to other effects.

In a group of effects or masks, items are processed from top to bottom. For example, if you apply the Circle effect and then apply the Magnify effect, the circle is magnified. However, if you drag the Magnify effect above (before) the Circle effect in the Effect Controls or Timeline panel, the circle is drawn after the magnification and isn’t magnified.

After a layer has been rendered, rendering begins for the next layer. The rendered layer below may be used as input to the rendering of the layer above—for example, for determining the result of a blending mode.

If a composition contains other compositions nested within it, the nested composition is rendered before other layers in the containing composition.

Note: Some effects ignore masks on the layer to which they’re applied. To have such an effect operate on a masked layer, pre-compose the layer with the mask applied, and then apply the effect to the pre-composed layer. (See

“About

precomposing and nesting” on page 60.)

Collapsing transformations

If the Collapse Transformations switch is selected for a nested composition, then the transformations for the nested composition are not performed until after the masks and effects for the containing composition are rendered. This render order allows the transformations for the nested composition and the containing composition to be combined— or collapsed—and performed together. The same is true for vector layers that are not continuously rasterized.

Note: Instead of a Collapse Transformations switch, vector layers have a Continuously Rasterize switch in the same location. Vector layers include shape layers, text layers, and layers with vector graphic files as the source footage. Text layers and shape layers are always continuously rasterized.

Collapsing transformations can, for example, preserve resolution when a layer is scaled down by half in a nested composition, and the nested composition is scaled up by a factor of two in the containing composition. In this case, rather than performing both transformations and losing image data in the process, one transformation can be performed—doing nothing, because the individual transformations cancel each other.

If transformations are not collapsed, a nested composition that contains 3D layers is rendered as a 2D image of the 3D arrangement, using the default composition camera. This rendering prevents the nested composition from intersecting with 3D layers, casting shadows on 3D layers, and receiving shadows from 3D layers in the containing composition. The nested composition is also not controlled by the cameras and lights of the containing composition.

If transformations are collapsed, the 3D properties of the layers in the nested composition are exposed to the containing composition. Thus, the nested composition can intersect with 3D layers, cast shadows on 3D layers, and receive shadows from 3D layers in the containing composition. The containing composition's camera and lights can also control the nested composition.

Essentially, collapsing transformations for a nested composition tells After Effects to not flatten and crop the layers in the precomposition. Because an adjustment layer operates on the composite of all of the layers beneath it within the same composition, an adjustment layer within a nested composition with collapsed transformations will force the flattening and cropping that collapsing transformations would normally prevent.

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When a closed mask (with mask mode other than None), a layer style, or an effect is applied to a nested composition with collapsed transformations, the layers in the nested composition are first rendered on their own, then masks and effects are applied, and then the result is composited into the main composition. This rendering order means that the blending modes of the nested layers are not applied to any underlying layers in the main composition, and that 3D layers above and below the collapsed layer cannot intersect or cast shadows on each other.

More Help topics

“3D layer interactions, render order, and collapsed transformations” on page 184

“Change the stacking order for selected layers” on page 144

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Chapter 5: Importing and managing footage items

Importing and interpreting footage items

About imported files and footage items

You import source files into a project as the basis for footage items and use them as sources for layers. The same file can be the source for multiple footage items, each with its own interpretation settings. Each footage item can be used as the source for one or more layers. You work with collections of layers in a composition.

You primarily work with footage items in the Project panel. You can use the Footage panel to evaluate footage and perform simple editing tasks, such as trimming the duration of a footage item.

You can import many different kinds of files, collections of files, or components of files as sources for individual footage items, including moving image files, still-image files, still-image sequences, and audio files. You can even create footage items yourself within After Effects, such as solids and precompositions. You can import footage items into a project at any time.

When you import files, After Effects does not copy the image data itself into your project but creates a reference link to the source of the footage item, which keeps project files relatively small.

If you delete, rename, or move an imported source file, you break the reference link to that file. When a link is broken, the name of the source file appears in italics in the Project panel, and the File Path column lists it as missing. If the footage item is available, you can reestablish the link—usually just by double-clicking the item and selecting the file again.

You can find footage items for which the source items are missing by typing missing in the search field in the Project

panel. See “Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels” on page 17.

To reduce rendering time and increase performance, it is often best to prepare footage before you import it into After Effects. For example, it is often better to scale or crop a still image in Photoshop before you bring it into After Effects, rather than scaling and cropping the image in After Effects. It is better to perform an operation once in Photoshop than to force After Effects to perform the same action many times per second—once for each frame in which the image appears.

To save time and minimize the size and complexity of a project, import a source item as a single footage item and then use it multiple times in a composition. It is occasionally useful, however, to duplicate a footage item and interpret each differently. For example, you can use the same footage at two different frame rates.

If you use another application to modify a footage item that is used in a project, the changes appear in After Effects the next time that you open the project or select the footage item and choose File > Reload Footage.

To replace the source footage item for a layer with another footage item, without affecting changes made to the layer

properties, select the layer and then Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the new footage item onto the layer in the Timeline panel.

To replace all uses of a footage item with a new footage item, select the currently used footage item and then Alt-drag

(Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the new footage item onto it in the Project panel. All layers that refer to the current footage item as their source will use the new footage item as their source.

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Importing and managing footage items

When After Effects imports video and audio in some formats, it processes and caches versions of these items that it can readily access when generating previews. This caching greatly improves performance for previews, because the video and audio items do not need to be reprocessed for each preview. See

“The media cache” on page 634.

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More Help topics

“Create layers from footage items or change layer source” on page 139

“Footage (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 745

Supported import formats

Some filename extensions—such as MOV, AVI, MXF, FLV, and F4V—denote container file formats rather than denoting a specific audio, video, or image data format. Container files can contain data encoded using various compression and encoding schemes. After Effects can import these container files, but the ability to import the data that they contain is dependent on which codecs (specifically, decoders) are installed.

By installing additional codecs, you can extend the ability of After Effects to import additional file types. Many codecs must be installed into the operating system (Windows or Mac OS) and work as a component inside the QuickTime or Video for Windows formats. Contact the manufacturer of your hardware or software for more information about codecs that work with the files that your specific devices or applications create.

Importing and using some files requires the installation of additional import plug-ins. For example, importing and interpreting R3D files from RED cameras requires a current version of the REDCODE importer plug-in. (For more information on using R3D files, see the

Adobe Premiere Pro can capture and import many formats that After Effects can’t import natively. You can bring data from Adobe Premiere Pro into After Effects in many ways. (See on page 42.)

Audio formats

RED website.)

“Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects”

• Adobe Sound Document (ASND; multi-track files imported as merged single track)

• Advanced Audio Coding (AAC, M4A)

• Audio Interchange File Format (AIF, AIFF)

• MP3 (MP3, MPEG, MPG, MPA, MPE)

• Video for Windows (AVI, WAV; requires QuickTime on Mac OS)

• Waveform (WAV)

Still-image formats

• Adobe Illustrator (AI, AI4, AI5, EPS, PS; continuously rasterized)

• Adobe PDF (PDF; first page only; continuously rasterized)

• Adobe Photoshop (PSD)

• Bitmap (BMP, RLE, DIB)

• Camera raw (TIF, CRW, NEF, RAF, ORF, MRW, DCR, MOS, RAW, PEF, SRF, DNG, X3F, CR2, ERF)

• Cineon (CIN, DPX; converts to project color bit depth: 8, 16, or 32 bpc)

• Discreet RLA/RPF (RLA, RPF; 16 bpc, imports camera data)

• EPS

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• GIF

• JPEG (JPG, JPE)

• Maya camera data (MA)

• Maya IFF (IFF, TDI; 16 bpc)

• OpenEXR (EXR; 32 bpc)

Note: 3D Channel effect plug-ins from fnord software are included with After Effects to provide access to multiple layers and channels of OpenEXR files. (See

“Using channels in OpenEXR files” on page 430.)

• PCX

• PICT (PCT)

• Pixar (PXR)

• Portable Network Graphics (PNG; 16 bpc)

• Radiance (HDR, RGBE, XYZE; 32 bpc)

• SGI (SGI, BW, RGB; 16 bpc)

• Softimage (PIC)

• Targa (TGA, VDA, ICB, VST)

• TIFF (TIF)

You can import files of any still-image format as a sequence. See

“Preparing and importing still images

” on page 102.

Video and animation formats

• Animated GIF (GIF)

• DV (in MOV or AVI container, or as containerless DV stream)

• Electric Image (IMG, EI)

• Filmstrip (FLM)

• FLV, F4V

Note: In general, FLV files contain video and audio data encoded using the On2 VP6 or Sorenson Spark video codec with the MP3 audio codec, whereas F4V files contain video encoded using the H.264 codec and audio data encoded using the AAC codec.

• Media eXchange Format (MXF)

Note: MXF is a container format. After Effects can only import some kinds of data contained within MXF files. After Effects can import the Op-Atom variety used by Panasonic DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, and DVCPRO HD video cameras to record to Panasonic P2 media. After Effects can also import XDCAM HD files in MXF format.

• MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 formats: MPEG, MPE, MPG, M2V, MPA, MP2, M2A, MPV, M2P, M2T, M2TS

(AVCHD), AC3, MP4, M4V, M4A

Note: Some MPEG data formats are stored in container formats with filename extensions that are not recognized by After Effects; examples include .vob and .mod. In some cases, you can import these files into After Effects after changing the filename extension to one of the recognized filename extensions. Because of variations in implementation in these container formats, compatibility is not guaranteed.

• Open Media Framework (OMF; raw media [or essence] only; Windows only)

• PSD file with video layer (requires QuickTime)

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• QuickTime (MOV; 16 bpc, requires QuickTime)

Note: David Van Brink provides the qt_tools toolset on his omino website. This toolset is useful for converting and examining QuickTime files.

• SWF (continuously rasterized)

Note: SWF files are imported with an alpha channel. Audio is not retained. Interactive content and scripted animation are not retained. Animation defined by keyframes in the main, top-level movie is retained.

• Video for Windows (AVI, WAV; requires QuickTime on Mac OS)

You can import 10-bpc uncompressed YUV AVI files created in Adobe Premiere Pro into 16-bpc RGB After Effects projects. You can also render with 10-bpc YUV compression. (See “Video for Windows compression settings” on

page 717.)

• Windows Media File (WMV, WMA, ASF; Windows only)

• XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX

Note: After Effects can import Sony XDCAM HD assets if they were recorded to MXF files. After Effects cannot import XDCAM HD assets in IMX format. After Effects can import Sony XDCAM EX assets stored as essence files with the .mp4 filename extension in a BPAV directory. For information about the XDCAM format, see the Sony website.

this PDF document on

Project formats

• Advanced Authoring Format (AAF; Windows only)

• Adobe Premiere 6.0 and 6.5 (PPJ)

• Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, CS3, CS4 (PRPROJ; 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 Windows only)

• Adobe After Effects 5.0 and later binary projects (AEP, AET)

• Adobe After Effects CS4 XML projects (AEPX)

• XML Forms Data Format (XFDF; for importing of Clip Notes comments)

For information on importing Apple Motion projects into After Effects, see the Apple website.

Though you can't natively import Final Cut Pro projects directly into After Effects, you can import Final Cut Pro projects into Premiere Pro and then bring that project's components into After Effects.

Richard Harrington provides an article on the ProVideo Coalition website that describes several methods for importing Final Cut Pro projects into After Effects.

More Help topics

“Supported output formats” on page 690

“Import assets in Panasonic P2 format” on page 96

Import footage items

You can import media files into your project either by using the Import dialog box or by dragging.

Imported footage items appear in the Project panel.

If the Interpret Footage dialog box appears after you import a footage item, it contains an unlabeled alpha channel, and you must select an alpha channel interpretation method or click Guess to let After Effects determine how to interpret the alpha channel.

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More Help topics

“Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight” on page 73

“Import a single still image or a still-image sequence” on page 103

“Footage (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 745

Import footage items using the Import dialog box

1 Choose File > Import > File, choose File > Import > Multiple Files, or double-click an empty area of the Project

panel.

If you choose Import Multiple Files, then you can perform the next step more than once without needing to choose an Import command multiple times.

To display only supported footage files (excluding project files), choose All Footage Files from the Files Of Type

(Windows) or Enable (Mac OS) menu.

2 Do one of the following:

• Select a file, and then click Open.

• Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) multiple files to select them, and then click Open.

• Click a file and then Shift-click another file to select a range of files, and then click Open.

• Select an entire folder, and then click Import Folder.

Note: If the Sequence option is selected, multiple files from the folder are imported as a sequence of still images.

Import footage items by dragging

If you always want the layered still-image files that you drag into After Effects to be imported as a composition, choose

Edit > Preferences > Import (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Import (Mac OS), and choose Composition or Composition - Cropped Layers from the Default Drag Import As menu. (See

composition” on page 105.)

“Import a still-image sequence as a

• To import a single file, drag it from Windows Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac OS) into the Project panel.

• To import the contents of a folder as a sequence of still images that appear in the Project panel as a single footage

item, drag a folder from Windows Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac OS) into the Project panel.

• To import the contents of the folder as individual footage items that appear in the Project panel in a folder, Alt-drag

a folder from Windows Explorer (Windows) or Option-drag a folder from the Finder (Mac OS) into the Project panel.

• To import a rendered output file from the Render Queue panel, drag the corresponding output module from the

Render Queue panel into the Project panel.

Note: If you drag an output module from the Render Queue panel into the Project panel before rendering, After Effects creates a placeholder footage item. References to the placeholder footage item are automatically replaced when the output module is rendered; the placeholder footage item itself is not replaced.

Interpret footage items

After Effects uses a set of internal rules to interpret each footage item that you import according to its best guess for the source file’s pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, color profile, and alpha channel type. If After Effects guesses wrong, or if you want to use the footage differently, you can modify these rules for all footage items of a particular kind by editing the interpretation rules file (interpretation rules.txt), or you can modify the interpretation of a specific footage item using the Interpret Footage dialog box.

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The interpretation settings tell After Effects the following about each footage item:

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• How to interpret the interaction of the alpha channel with other channels (See “Alpha channel interpretation:

premultiplied or straight” on page 73.)

• What frame rate to assume for the footage item (See “Frame rate” on page 75.)

• Whether to separate fields and, if so, what field order to assume (See “Separate video fields and determine field

order” on page 93 and “Determine the original field order” on page 93.)

• Whether to remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown (See “Remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown from video” on page 94.)

• The pixel aspect ratio of the footage item (See “Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio” on page 77.)

• The color profile of the footage item (See “Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile” on page 289.)

Important: In all of these cases, the information is used to make decisions about how to interpret data in the imported footage item—to tell After Effects about the input footage. The interpretation settings in the Interpret Footage dialog box should match the settings used to create the source footage file. Do not use the interpretation settings to try to specify settings for your final rendered output.

Generally, you don’t need to change interpretation settings. However, if a footage item isn’t of a common kind, After Effects may need additional information from you to interpret it correctly.

You can use the controls in the Color Management section of the Interpret Footage dialog box to tell After Effects how to interpret the color information in a footage item. This step is usually only necessary when the footage item does not contain an embedded color profile.

When you preview in the Footage panel, you see the results of the footage interpretation operations.

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that you can use to make guessing the 3:2 pulldown, 24Pa pulldown, or alpha channel interpretation more convenient.

More Help topics

“Footage (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 745

Interpret a single footage item using the Interpret Footage dialog box

❖ Select a footage item in the Project panel and do one of the following:

• Click the Interpret Footage button at the bottom of the Project panel.

• Drag the footage item to the Interpret Footage button.

• Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.

• Press Ctrl+Alt+G (Windows) or Command+Option+G (Mac OS).

Interpret a proxy using the Interpret Footage dialog box

❖ Select the original footage item in the Project panel and do one of the following:

• Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Interpret Footage button at the bottom of the Project panel.

• Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the footage item to the Interpret Footage button.

• Choose File > Interpret Footage > Proxy.

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Apply Interpret Footage settings to multiple footage items

You can ensure that different footage items use the same settings by copying interpretation settings from one item and applying them to others.

1 In the Project panel, select the item with the interpretation settings that you want to apply.

2 Choose File > Interpret Footage > Remember Interpretation.

3 Select one or more footage items in the Project panel.

4 Choose File > Interpret Footage > Apply Interpretation.

Edit interpretation rules for all items of a specific kind

The interpretation rules file contains the rules that specify how After Effects interprets footage items. In most cases, you don’t need to customize the interpretation rules file. When you import a footage item, After Effects looks for a match in the interpretation rules file, and then determines interpretation settings for the footage item. You can override these settings after importing, using the Interpret Footage dialog box.

In most cases, the name of the interpretation rules file is interpretation rules.txt; however, some updates to After Effects install a new interpretation rules file with a name that indicates the updated version number, and the updated application uses this new file. If you’ve made changes to the old interpretation rules file, you may need to apply those changes to the new file, too.

Locations of the interpretation rules file:

• (Windows XP and 32-bit Windows Vista) C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files\

• (64-bit Windows Vista) C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files\

• (Mac OS) Applications/Adobe After Effects CS4/

1 Quit After Effects.

2 As a precaution, make a backup copy of the interpretation rules file. By default, this file is in the same location as

the After Effects application.

3 Open the interpretation rules file in a text editor.

4 Modify the settings according to the instructions in the file.

Note: You must supply a four-character file-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 code and codec code (if the file is compressed) appear in the last line of the file description at the top of the Project panel.

5 Save interpretation rules.txt.

Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight

Image files with alpha channels store transparency information in one of two ways: straight or premultiplied. Although the alpha channels are the same, the color channels differ.

With straight (or unmatted) channels, transparency information is stored only in the alpha channel, not in any of the visible color channels. With straight channels, the results of transparency aren’t visible until the image is displayed in an application that supports straight channels.

With premultiplied (or matted) channels, transparency information is stored in the alpha channel and also in the visible RGB channels, which are multiplied with a background color. Premultiplied channels are sometimes said to be matted with color. The colors of semitransparent areas, such as feathered edges, are shifted toward the background color in proportion to their degree of transparency.

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Some software lets you specify the background color with which the channels are premultiplied; otherwise, the background color is usually black or white.

Straight channels retain more accurate color information than premultiplied channels. Premultiplied channels are compatible with a wider range of programs, such as Apple QuickTime Player. Often, the choice of whether to use images with straight or premultiplied channels has been made before you receive the assets to edit and composite. Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects recognize both straight and premultiplied channels, but only the first alpha channel they encounter in a file containing multiple alpha channels. Adobe Flash recognizes only premultiplied alpha channels. (For more information about how Flash Professional and Flash Player interpret premultiplied channels, see

Todd Kopriva's blog on the Adobe website.)

Setting the alpha channel interpretation correctly can prevent problems when you import a file, such as undesirable colors at the edge of an image or a loss of image quality at the edges of the alpha channel. For example, if channels are interpreted as straight when they are actually premultiplied, semitransparent areas retain some of the background color. If a color inaccuracy, such as a halo, appears along the semitransparent edges in a composition, try changing the interpretation method.

A footage item with premultiplied channels (top) appears with a black halo when interpreted as Straight-Unmatted (lower-left). When the footage item is interpreted as Premultiplied-Matted With Color and the background color is specified as black, the halo does not appear (lowerright).

You can use the Remove Color Matting effect to remove the fringes from the semi-transparent areas of a layer by unmultiplying it.

Aharon Rabinowitz provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that describes how and when to use the Remove Color Matting effect.

More Help topics

“Remove Color Matting effect” on page 451

Set the alpha channel interpretation for a footage item

1 In the Project panel, select a footage item.

2 Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.

3 If you want to switch the opaque and transparent areas of the image, select Invert Alpha.

4 In the Alpha section, select an interpretation method:

Guess Attempts to determine the type of channels used in the image. If After Effects cannot guess confidently, it beeps.

Ignore Disregards transparency information contained in the alpha channel.

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Straight - Unmatted Interprets the channels as straight.

Premultiplied - Matted With Color Interprets channels as premultiplied. Use the eyedropper or color picker to specify

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the color of the background with which the channels were premultiplied.

Set the default alpha channel preferences

1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Import (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Import (Mac OS).

2 Choose options from the Interpret Unlabeled Alpha As menu. The options in this menu are similar to the options

in the Interpret Footage dialog box. Ask User specifies that the Interpret Footage dialog box opens each time a footage item with an unlabeled alpha channel is imported.

Frame rate

The composition frame rate determines the number of frames displayed per second, and how time is divided into frames in the time ruler and time display. In other words, the composition frame rate specifies how many times per second images are sampled from the source footage items, and it specifies the time divisions at which keyframes can be set.

Composition frame rate is usually determined by the type of output that you are targeting. NTSC video has a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second (fps), PAL video has a frame rate of 25 fps, and motion picture film typically has a frame rate of 24 fps. Depending on the broadcast system, DVD video can have the same frame rate as NTSC video or PAL video, or a frame rate of 23.976. Cartoons and video intended for CD-ROM or the web are often 10–15 fps.

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 in the Composition panel. This process lets you set keyframes on individual fields and gain precision when animating masks.

When you render a movie for final output, you can choose to use the composition frame rate or another frame rate. The ability to set the frame rate for each output module is useful when you are using the same composition to create output for multiple media.

Each motion-footage item in a composition can also have its own frame rate. The relationship between the footageitem frame rate and the composition frame rate determines how smoothly the layer plays. For example, if the footageitem frame rate is 30 fps and the composition frame rate is 30 fps, then whenever the composition advances one frame, the next frame from the footage item is displayed. If the footage-item frame rate is 15 fps and the composition frame rate is 30 fps, then each frame of the footage item appears in two successive frames of the composition. (This assumes, of course, the simple case in which no time stretching or frame blending has been applied to the layer.)

Ideally, use source footage that matches the final output frame rate. This way, After Effects renders each frame, and the final output does not omit, duplicate, or interpolate frames. 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 composition frame rate by conforming it.

Conforming the frame rate of a footage item does not alter the original file, only the reference that After Effects uses. When conforming, After Effects changes the internal duration of frames but not the frame content. Afterward, the footage plays back at a different speed. For example, if you conform the frame rate from 15 fps to 30 fps, the footage plays back twice as fast. In most cases, conform the frame rate only when the difference between the footage frame rate and the output frame rate is small.

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Note: Conforming can change the synchronization of visual footage that has an audio track, because changing the frame rate changes the duration of the video but leaves the audio unchanged. If you want to stretch both audio and video, use the Time Stretch command. (See

“Time-stretch a layer” on page 245.) Keyframes applied to the source footage remain at their original locations (which retains their synchronization within the composition but not the visual content of the layer). You may need to adjust keyframe locations after conforming a footage item.

You can change the frame rate for any movie or sequence of still images. For example, you can import a sequence of ten still images and specify a frame rate for that footage item of 5 frames per second (fps); this sequence would then have a duration of two seconds when used in a composition.

Lower frame rates tend to give the impression of unreality, so many people prefer to work at a lower frame rate such as 24 frames per second for creative work instead of working at the 29.97 frames per second that is standard for NTSC video.

Note: If you remove 3:2 pulldown from interlaced video footage, After Effects automatically sets the frame rate of the resulting footage item to four-fifths of the original frame rate. When removing 3:2 pulldown from NTSC video, the resulting frame rate is 24 fps.

The frame rate of the composition should match the frame rate of the final output format. In most cases, you can simply choose a composition settings preset. In contrast, set the frame rate for each footage item to the frame rate of the original source footage.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide tips and tricks regarding conforming footage items to a specific frame rate in an article (PDF) on

Artbeats website.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide links to technical reference materials about frame rates and other details of digital video

ProVideo Coalition website.

on the

More Help topics

“Render settings” on page 697

“Converting movies” on page 732

Change frame rate for a footage item

1 Select the footage item in the Project panel.

2 Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.

3 Select Conform To Frame Rate, enter a new frame rate for Frames Per Second, and then click OK.

Instead of using Interpret Footage to change a footage item’s frame rate, you can time-stretch a layer based on the footage item. For example, time-stretch a layer by 100.1% to convert between 30fps and 29.97fps. Time-stretching

modifies the speed of audio as well as video. (See

“Time-stretch a layer” on page 245.)

Change frame rate for a composition

1 Choose Composition > Composition Settings.

2 Do one of the following:

• Choose a composition settings preset from the Preset menu.

• Set the Frame Rate value.

Note: Jeff Almasol provides a script on is redefinery website to set the frame rate and duration of the current composition and all compositions nested within it.

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Pixel aspect ratio and frame aspect ratio

Pixel aspect ratio (PAR) is the ratio of width to height of one pixel in an image. Frame aspect ratio (sometimes called image aspect ratio or IAR) is the ratio of width to height of the image frame.

416

A 4:3 frame aspect ratio (left), and a wider 16:9 frame aspect ratio (right)

Most computer monitors use square pixels, but many video formats—including ITU-R 601 (D1) and DV—use nonsquare rectangular pixels.

Some video formats output the same frame aspect ratio but use a different pixel aspect ratio. For example, some NTSC digitizers produce a 4:3 frame aspect ratio, with square pixels (1.0 pixel aspect ratio), and a frame with pixel dimensions of 640x480. D1 NTSC produces the same 4:3 frame aspect ratio but uses nonsquare pixels (0.91 pixel aspect ratio) and a frame with pixel dimensions of 720x486. D1 pixels, which are always nonsquare, are vertically oriented in systems producing NTSC video and horizontally oriented in systems producing PAL video.

If you display nonsquare pixels on a square-pixel monitor without alteration, images and motion appear distorted; for example, circles distort into ellipses. However, when displayed on a video monitor, the images are correct. When you import D1 NTSC or DV source footage into After Effects, the image looks slightly wider than it does on a D1 or DV system. (D1 PAL footage looks slightly narrower.) The opposite occurs when you import anamorphic footage using D1/DV NTSC Widescreen or D1/DV PAL Widescreen. Widescreen video formats have a frame aspect ratio of 16:9.

Note: To preview non-square pixels on a computer monitor, click the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction button at the bottom of the Composition panel.

Square and nonsquare pixels A. Square pixels and 4:3 frame aspect ratio B. Nonsquare pixels and 4:3 frame aspect ratio C. Nonsquare pixels displayed on a square-pixel monitor

If a footage item uses nonsquare pixels, After Effects displays the pixel aspect ratio next to the thumbnail image for the footage item in the Project panel. You can change the pixel aspect ratio interpretation for individual footage items in the Interpret Footage dialog box. By ensuring that all footage items are interpreted correctly, you can combine footage items with different pixel aspect ratios in the same composition.

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After Effects reads and writes pixel aspect ratios directly from QuickTime movies. For example, if you import a movie captured as widescreen (16:9 DV), After Effects automatically tags it correctly. Similarly, AVI and PSD files contain information that explicitly indicates the pixel aspect ratio of the images.

If a footage item does not contain information that explicitly indicates the pixel aspect ratio of the image, After Effects uses the pixel dimensions of the footage item frame to make a guess. When you import a footage item with either the D1 pixel dimensions of 720x486 or the DV pixel dimensions of 720x480, After Effects automatically interprets that footage item as D1/DV NTSC. When you import a footage item with the D1 or DV pixel dimensions of 720x576, After Effects automatically interprets that footage item as D1/DV PAL. However, you can make sure that all files are interpreted correctly by looking in the Project panel or the Interpret Footage dialog box.

Note: Make sure to reset the pixel aspect ratio to Square Pixels when you import a square-pixel file that happens to have a D1 or DV pixel dimensions—for example, a non-DV image that happens to have pixel dimensions of 720x480.

The pixel aspect ratio setting of the composition should match the pixel aspect ratio of the final output format. In most cases, you can simply choose a composition settings preset. In contrast, set the pixel aspect ratio for each footage item to the pixel aspect ratio of the original source footage.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide tips and tricks regarding pixel aspect ratio in two PDF documents on the Artbeats website:

• Pixel aspect ratio, part 1

• Pixel aspect ratio, part 2

Chris Pirazzi provides technical details about aspect ratios on his Lurker's Guide to Video website.

Upgrade pixel aspect ratios to correct values

After Effects CS3 and earlier used pixel aspect ratios for standard-definition video formats that ignore the concept of clean aperture. By not accounting for the fact that clean aperture differs from production aperture in standarddefinition video, the pixel aspect ratios used by After Effects CS3 and earlier were slightly inaccurate. The incorrect pixel aspect ratios cause some images to appear subtly distorted.

Note: The clean aperture is the portion of the image that is free from artifacts and distortions that appear at the edges of an image. The production aperture is the entire image.

The BBC provides technical details and guidelines on the BBC website regarding dimensions and aspect ratios for PAL video, including an explanation of the discrepancy in pixel aspect ratios. The same concepts apply to NTSC video.

Chris Meyer explains why the corrected pixel aspect ratios are better and how some workflows are affected in the “New Pixel Aspect Ratios” video in the

Pixel aspect ratio values in After Effects CS4 have been corrected as follows:

format value in After Effects CS4 previous value

D1/DV NTSC 0.91 0.9

D1/DV NTSC Widescreen 1.21 1.2

D1/DV PAL 1.09 1.07

D1/DV PAL Widescreen 1.46 1.42

This discrepancy is limited to these older, standard-definition formats for which clean aperture differs from production aperture. This discrepancy doesn’t exist in newer formats.

After Effects CS4 New Creative Techniques series on the Lynda.com website.

New projects and compositions created in After Effects CS4 use the correct pixel aspect ratio values by default.

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Projects and compositions created in After Effects CS3 or earlier are upgraded to use the correct pixel aspect ratios when these projects are opened in After Effects CS4.

Note: If you have a custom interpretation rules file, then you should update it with the correct pixel aspect ratio values.

If you use square-pixel footage items that are designed to fill the frame in a composition with non-square pixels, you may find that the change in pixel aspect ratios causes a difference in behavior between After Effects CS4 and earlier versions. For example, if you previously created 768x576 square-pixel footage items to use in a PAL D1/DV composition, you should now create those items with square-pixel dimensions of 788x576.

Composition settings presets for square-pixel equivalents of standard definition formats have changed as follows:

format pixel dimensions in

NTSC D1 square-pixel equivalent

NTSC D1 Widescreen squarepixel equivalent

PAL D1/DV square-pixel equivalent

PAL D1/DV Widescreen square-pixel equivalent

After Effects CS4

720x534 720x540

872x486 864x486

788x576 768x576

1050x576 1024x576

previous pixel dimensions

Change pixel aspect ratio interpretation for a footage item

1 Select a footage item in the Project panel.

2 Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.

3 Choose a ratio from the Pixel Aspect Ratio menu and click OK.

Change pixel aspect ratio for a composition

1 Choose Composition > Composition Settings.

2 Do one of the following:

• Choose a composition settings preset from the Preset menu.

• Choose a value from the Pixel Aspect Ratio menu.

Common pixel aspect ratios

Pixel aspect ratio When to use

Square pixels 1.0 Footage has a 640x480 or 648x486 frame size, is 1920x1080 HD (not

D1/DV NTSC 0.91 Footage has a 720x486 or 720x480 frame size, and the desired result is

D1/DV NTSC Widescreen

1.21 Footage has a 720x486 or 720x480 frame size, and the desired result is

HDV or DVCPRO HD), is 1280x720 HD or HDV, or was exported from an application that doesn’t support nonsquare pixels. This setting can also be appropriate for footage that was transferred from film or for customized projects.

a 4:3 frame aspect ratio. This setting can also be appropriate for footage that was exported from an application that works with nonsquare pixels, such as a 3D animation application.

a 16:9 frame aspect ratio.

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Pixel aspect ratio When to use

Importing and managing footage items

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

D1/DV PAL 1.09 Footage has a 720x576 frame size, and the desired result is a 4:3 frame

D1/DV PAL Widescreen

Anamorphic 2:1 2.0 Footage was shot using an anamorphic film lens, or it was

HDV 1080/DVCPRO HD 720, HD Anamorphic 1080

DVCPRO HD 1080 1.5 Footage has a 1280x1080 frame size, and the desired result is a 16:9

1.46 Footage has a 720x576 frame size, and the desired result is a 16:9 frame

1.33 Footage has a 1440x1080 or 960x720 frame size, and the desired result

aspect ratio.

anamorphically transferred from a film frame with a 2:1 aspect ratio.

is a 16:9 frame aspect ratio.

frame aspect ratio.

Working with footage items

Organize, view, and manage footage items in the Project panel

Compositions and footage items are listed in the Project panel. Unlike items in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel, the order of items in the Project panel has no influence on the appearance of the movies that you create. You can organize footage items and compositions however you like, including organizing them using folders. Solid-color footage items are automatically placed in the Solids folder.

Folders that you create in the Project panel exist only in the Project panel. You can expand a folder to reveal its contents, and put folders inside other folders. To move a file or folder to the top level of the Project panel, drag it to the gray information area at the top of the panel.

You can use the search field in the Project panel to find footage items that meet various criteria, such as those with missing source files. See

“Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels” on page 17.

More Help topics

“Collect files in one location” on page 695

“Color labels for layers and footage items” on page 156

“Projects (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 739

Scripts for managing footage items

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that automatically writes specified information about footage items or layers to the Comment fields for the respective items in the Project panel or Timeline panel.

Christopher Green provides a script (Project_Items_Renamer.jsx) on his website with which you can rename compositions and footage items selected in the Project panel. You can search and replace text in the names, append characters to the beginning or end of the names, or trim a specified number of characters from the beginning or end of the names.

Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website with which you can search an After Effects project and replace the file paths for the sources of footage items. This is convenient for swapping out source files, updating a project after moving sources, or updating a project after moving it to a different computer system.

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Importing and managing footage items

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Show information for items

• To show information about a footage item or composition, select it in the Project panel. Information is displayed

at the top of the Project panel next to the thumbnail image.

• To show the file creator ID for a footage item, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) it in the Project panel.

Create a folder

❖ Choose File > New > New Folder, or click the Create A New Folder icon at the bottom of the Project panel.

Rename and sort items

• To rename a composition, footage item, or folder, do one of the following:

• Select the item in the Project panel, press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS), and enter the new name.

• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the item, choose Rename, and enter the new name.

• To rename the Comment column, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the column heading and

choose Rename This.

You can use the Comment column to create a custom sorting option. Rename the column, enter corresponding information for each item (for example, camera number), and then sort by that column.

• To sort items by entries in any column, click the column name in the Project panel.

Copy items

• To duplicate or copy an item in the Project panel, select it and choose Edit > Duplicate or Edit > Copy.

• To copy a footage item to Windows Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac OS), drag the footage item from the

Project panel to the desktop.

Reveal footage items

• To reveal where a footage item is used in a composition, 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 name).

• To reveal the source footage item for a layer in the Project panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS)

the layer in the Timeline panel, and then choose Reveal Layer Source In Project.

• To reveal the location of a footage item in Adobe Bridge, Windows Explorer, or the Finder, right-click (Windows)

or Control-click (Mac OS) the footage item in the Project panel and choose Reveal In Bridge, Reveal In Windows Explorer, or Reveal In Finder.

Refresh footage items

❖ To refresh footage items selected in the Project panel to use the current versions of the source footage files, choose

File > Reload Footage.

The Footage panel

When you double-click a movie in the Project panel, it opens by default in the Footage panel or in a player window: QuickTime (.mov) files open in a QuickTime Player window; Video for Windows (.avi) files open in a Video for Windows player window. Still images always appear in the Footage panel. The AVI player window does not support the playback of certain AVI files; these files open in the After Effects Footage panel. Such files include files created with the Microsoft DirectX DV codec and all files over 2 GB.

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Importing and managing footage items

To open a QuickTime or Video for Windows movie in the Footage panel instead of a player window, Alt-double-click (Windows) or Option-double-click (Mac OS) the footage item in the Project panel.

The QuickTime and Video for Windows player windows play the source file, not the edited and interpreted footage item based on the source file.

You can use the Set In Point , Set Out Point , Ripple Insert Edit , and Overlay Edit controls in the Footage panel to trim a footage item and insert it into a composition. Trimming in the Footage panel can be more convenient than adding the footage item to a composition and then trimming its layer in the Timeline panel.

When items are previewed in the Footage panel, they show the results of the footage interpretation operations. (See “Interpret footage items” on page 71.)

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More Help topics

“Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer” on page 148

“Footage (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 745

Edit footage in its original application

You can open and edit a footage item in the application in which it was created, directly from an After Effects project. The original application must be installed on the computer that you are using, which must have enough available RAM for it to run. When you edit and save changes to the footage in the original application, the changes are applied to all instances of the footage when After Effects becomes the active application.

Note: If you’re editing footage that has an alpha channel, make sure that you’re viewing and editing all of the channels, including the alpha channel, in the other application. Otherwise, changes you make may not be applied to the alpha channel, and it may become misaligned with the color channels.

When you edit a still-image sequence selected in the Timeline or Composition panel, the individual image that is currently displayed opens. When you edit a still-image sequence selected in the Project panel, the first image in the sequence opens.

1 In the Project panel, Composition panel, or Timeline panel, select the footage item or a layer that uses the footage

item as its source. If you selected a still-image sequence from the Composition or Timeline panel, move the currenttime indicator to the frame displaying the still image you want to edit.

2 Choose Edit > Edit Original.

3 Edit the footage in its original application, and save the changes.

Remove items from a project

Before reducing your project, removing unused footage, or consolidating footage, consider making a backup by incrementing and saving your project first. (See

Carl Larsen demonstrates the use of the Collect Files command and the Consolidate All Footage command in a video tutorial on the

Creative COW website that shows how to organize, consolidate, and archive project files and footage.

• To remove an item from a project, select the item in the Project panel and press Delete.

• To remove all unused footage items from a project, choose File > Remove Unused Footage.

• To remove all duplicate footage items from a project, Choose File > Consolidate All Footage. After Effects considers

footage items to be duplicates only if they use the same Interpret Footage settings.

When a duplicate item is removed, layers that refer to the duplicate item are updated to refer to the remaining copy.

“Save and back up projects” on page 50.)

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Importing and managing footage items

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• To remove unselected compositions and unused footage items from selected compositions in the Project panel,

choose File

> Reduce Project. This command is available only when the Project panel is active.

This command removes both unused footage items and all other compositions that are not included within a selected composition as nested (subordinate) compositions.

If the selected composition includes items that are turned off (that is, the Video or Audio switch is deselected in the Timeline panel), the Reduce Project command does not remove those items.

If an expression in a selected composition refers to an element in a nonsubordinate composition, Reduce Project removes the nonsubordinate composition and the applied expression. A message appears after you choose Reduce Project to remind you of this possibility, so you can undo the command if needed. To avoid removing the expressions from a nonsubordinate composition, drag the nonsubordinate composition into the composition that refers to it. Then deselect the Audio and Video switches for the composition that you added.

Placeholders and proxies

When you want to temporarily use a substitute for a footage item, use either a placeholder or a proxy.

Placeholder A still image of color bars used to temporarily take the place of a missing footage item. Use a placeholder

when you are building a composition and want to try out ideas for a footage item that is not yet available. After Effects generates placeholders automatically, so you do not have to provide a placeholder footage item.

Proxy Any file used to temporarily replace a footage item, but most often a lower-resolution or still version of an

existing footage item used to replace the original. Often, storyboard images are used as proxies. You can use a proxy either before you have the final footage or when you have the actual footage item but you want to speed up previewing or rendering of test movies. You must have a file available to use as a proxy.

Any masks, attributes, expressions, effects, and keyframes that you apply to the layer are retained when you replace its placeholder or proxy with the final footage item.

In the Project panel, After Effects marks the footage name to indicate whether the actual footage item or its proxy is currently in use:

• A filled box indicates that a proxy item is currently in use throughout the project. The name of the proxy appears

in bold type at the top of the Project panel when the footage item is selected.

• An empty box indicates that the footage item is in use throughout the project, though a proxy has been assigned.

• No box indicates that no proxy is assigned to the footage item.

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Proxy items in Project panel A. Proxy assigned and in use B. Proxy assigned, but original in use C. No proxy assigned D. Proxy name

More Help topics

“Render settings” on page 697

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“Post-render actions” on page 702

Work with placeholders and missing footage items

For best results, set the placeholder to the same size, duration, and frame rate as the actual footage.

If After Effects cannot find source footage when you open a project, the footage item appears in the Project panel labeled Missing, and the name of the missing footage appears in italics. Any composition using that item replaces it with a placeholder. You can still work with the missing item in the project, and any effects you applied to the original footage remain intact. When you replace the placeholder with the source footage, After Effects places the footage in its correct location in all the compositions that use it.

You can find footage items for which the source items are missing by typing missing in the search field in the Project panel. See “Search and filter in the Timeline, Project, and Effects & Presets panels” on page 17.

• To use a placeholder, choose File > Import > Placeholder.

• To replace the selected footage item with a placeholder, choose File > Replace Footage > Placeholder.

• To replace a placeholder with the actual footage item, select the placeholder you want to replace in the Project panel,

choose File

> Replace Footage > File, and locate the actual footage.

Work with proxies for footage items

When you use a proxy, After Effects replaces the actual footage with the proxy in all compositions that use the actual footage item. When you finish working, you can switch back to the actual footage item in the project list. After Effects then replaces the proxy with the actual footage item in any composition.

When you render your composition as a movie, you may choose to use either all the actual high-resolution footage items or their proxies. You may want to use the proxies for a rendered movie if, for example, you simply want to test motion using a rough movie that renders quickly.

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Importing and managing footage items

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For best results, set a proxy so that it has the same frame aspect ratio as the actual footage item. For example, if the actual footage item is a 640x480-pixel movie, create and use a 160x120-pixel proxy. When a proxy item is imported, After Effects scales the item to the same size and duration as the actual footage. If you create a proxy with a frame aspect ratio that is different from the frame aspect ratio of the actual footage item, scaling takes longer.

❖ In the Project panel, do any of the following:

• To locate and use a proxy, select a footage item, choose File > Set Proxy > File, locate and select the file you want to

use as a proxy, and click Open.

• To toggle between using the original footage and its proxy, click the proxy indicator to the left of the footage name.

• To stop using a proxy, select the original footage item, and choose File > Set Proxy > None.

Create a proxy

Use the Create Proxy command to create a proxy from footage or compositions selected in the Project panel or the Timeline panel. This command adds the selected footage to the Render Queue panel and sets the Post-Render Action option to Set Proxy.

1 Select a footage item or composition in the Project or Timeline panel.

2 Choose one of the following commands:

• File > Create Proxy > Still to create a still image proxy.

• File > Create Proxy > Movie to create a moving image proxy.

3 Specify a name and output destination for the proxy.

4 In the Render Queue panel, specify render settings, and click Render.

Note: To create a still image proxy from a movie or sequence footage item, open the footage item in the Footage panel and set as the poster frame the frame that you want to use as the proxy.

Create placeholders for output

You can create placeholder files that can be used in different compositions. For example, you can create a placeholder for an item in the render queue that will create a 24-fps movie and then drag that placeholder into a 30-fps composition. Then, when you render the 30-fps composition, After Effects first renders the placeholder at 24 fps and uses this rendered version as it renders the 30-fps composition.

❖ Drag the Output Module heading for a queued item from the Render Queue panel to the Project panel. After Effects

creates a placeholder for output in the Project panel and sets the Post-Render Action option for the item to Import & Replace Usage.

Additional resources for working with placeholders and proxies

Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial with tips for working with proxies, output modules, and output module templates on the

Jeff Almasol provides a script on his redefinery website that creates, sets, and unsets proxies and placeholders.

Charles Bordenave (nab) provides a script on the After Effects Scripts website with which you can create proxies for multiple selected items.

Video Copilot website.

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Importing and managing footage items

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Loop a footage item

If you intend to loop a visual footage item continuously in your project, you only need to create one cycle of the footage item in After Effects.

1 In the Project panel, select the footage item to loop.

2 Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.

3 Type an integer value for Loop and click OK.

Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro

Import an After Effects project

You can import one After Effects project into another. Everything from the imported project—including footage items, compositions, and folders—appears inside a new folder in the current Project panel.

You can import an After Effects project from a different operating system, as long as you maintain the filenames, folder names, and either full or relative paths (folder locations) for all files in the project. To maintain relative paths, the source footage files must reside on the same volume as the project file. Use the File > Collect Files command to gather copies of all files in a project or composition into a single location. (See page 36.)

“Cross-platform project considerations” on

Note: When you render a movie and export it to the QuickTime (MOV), Video for Windows (AVI), FLV, or F4V container format, you can embed a link to the project in the container file. To import the project, import the MOV, AVI, FLV, or F4V file, and choose Project from the Import As menu in the Import File dialog box. If the file contains a link to a project that has been moved, you can browse to locate the project.

1 Choose File > Import > File.

2 Select the After Effects project to import, and click Open.

If the operating system that you are using does not support a file format, if the file is missing, or if the reference link is broken, After Effects substitutes a placeholder item containing color bars. You can reconnect the placeholder to the appropriate file by double-clicking the entry in the Project panel and navigating to the source file. In most cases, you need to relink only one footage file. After Effects locates other missing items if they’re in the same location.

More Help topics

“Collect files in one location” on page 695

“Placeholders and proxies” on page 83

Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project

Important: Importing an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects does not use Dynamic Link. After Effects can’t import a Premiere Pro project if one or more sequences in it are already dynamically linked to After Effects. (See

with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects” on page 42.)

When you import an Adobe Premiere Pro project, After Effects imports it into the Project panel as both a new composition containing each Adobe Premiere Pro clip as a layer, and as a folder containing each clip as an individual footage item. If your Adobe Premiere Pro project contains bins, After Effects converts them to folders within the Adobe Premiere Pro project folder. After Effects converts nested sequences to nested compositions. You can also import Adobe Premiere 6.0 and 6.5 projects into After Effects.

“Working

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Importing and managing footage items

Note: After Effects on Mac OS can’t import Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 projects. After Effects on Mac OS can import Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and CS4 projects and Adobe Premiere 6.0 and 6.5 projects.

Not all features of an Adobe Premiere Pro project are preserved when the project is imported into After Effects. The same features are preserved when you import a Premiere Pro project into After Effects as when you copy and paste between Premiere Pro and After Effects.

After Effects preserves the order of clips in the timeline, the footage duration (including all trimmed In and Out points), and marker and transition locations. After Effects bases the arrangement of layers in the Timeline panel on the arrangement of clips in the Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline panel. After Effects adds Adobe Premiere Pro clips to the Timeline panel as layers in the order in which they appeared—from the bottom up and from left to right—in the Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline panel. After Effects preserves changes made to the speed of a clip, for example, with the

> Speed command, and these changes appear as a value in the Stretch column in the After Effects Timeline panel.

Clip

After Effects imports effects common to Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, and preserves keyframes for these effects. In Adobe Premiere Pro, an After Effects icon in the Effects panel denotes common effects used by both applications.

Transitions and titles (except for dissolves) included in your Adobe Premiere Pro project appear in the After Effects composition as solid layers with their original location and duration.

Audio Level keyframes are preserved.

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

1 Choose File > Import > File or File > Import > Adobe Premiere Pro Project.

If you choose Import > Adobe Premiere Pro Project, then only Adobe Premiere Pro projects are shown.

2 Select a project, and click OK.

3 Do any of the following:

• To import only one sequence, choose a sequence from the menu.

• To import audio, select Import Audio.

To add a single item from a track in an Adobe Premiere Pro project, copy the item in Adobe Premiere Pro, and choose Edit > Paste in After Effects.

More Help topics

“Copy between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro” on page 87

“About precomposing and nesting” on page 60

Use Adobe Premiere Pro for capture (Production Premium and Master Collection only)

If you have Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium or Master Collection, you can start Adobe Premiere Pro from inside After Effects and use it to capture footage for use in your After Effects project.

❖ Choose File > Import > Capture In Adobe Premiere Pro.

Copy between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro

• From the After Effects Timeline panel, you can copy layers based on audio or video footage items (including solids)

and paste them into the Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline panel.

• From the Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline panel, you can copy assets (any items in a track) and paste them into the

After Effects Timeline panel.

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• From either After Effects or Adobe Premiere Pro, you can copy and paste footage items to the other’s Project panel.

Note: You can’t, however, paste footage items from the After Effects Project panel into the Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline panel.

If you want to work with all clips or a single sequence from an Adobe Premiere Pro project, use the Import command instead to import the project into After Effects.

Use Adobe Dynamic Link to create dynamic links, without rendering, between new or existing compositions in After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro.

For a video demonstrating some ways to exchange items between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro, see

www.adobe.com/go/vid0256.

Copy from After Effects to Adobe Premiere Pro

You can copy a layer based on a footage item from an After Effects composition and paste it into an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence. Adobe Premiere Pro converts these layers to clips in the sequence and copies the source footage item to its Project panel. If the layer contains an effect that is also used by Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro converts the effect and all of its settings and keyframes.

You can also copy nested compositions, Photoshop layers, solid-color layers, and audio layers. Adobe Premiere Pro converts nested compositions to nested sequences, and solid-color layers to color mattes. You cannot copy shape, text, camera, light, or adjustment layers to Adobe Premiere Pro.

1 Start Adobe Premiere Pro (you must start Adobe Premiere Pro before you copy the layer in After Effects).

2 Select a layer (or layers) from the After Effects Timeline panel.

Note: If you select multiple layers and the layers don’t overlap in After Effects, they’re placed on the same track in Adobe Premiere Pro. On the other hand, if the layers overlap in After Effects, the order in which you select them determines the order of their track placement in Adobe Premiere Pro. Each layer is placed on a separate track, and the last selected layer appears on Track 1. For example, if you select layers from top to bottom, the layers appear in the reverse order in Adobe Premiere Pro, with the bottom-most layer on Track 1.

3 Choose Edit > Copy.

4 In Adobe Premiere Pro, open a sequence in the Timeline panel.

5 Move the current-time indicator to the desired location, and choose either Edit > Paste or Edit > Paste Insert.

Results of pasting into Adobe Premiere Pro

When you paste a layer into an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence, keyframes, effects, and other properties in the copied layer are converted as follows:

After Effects item Converted to in Adobe Premiere Pro Notes

Audio volume property Channel Volume filter

Blending modes Blending modes supported by

Effect properties and keyframes

Premiere Pro are converted

Adobe

Effect properties and keyframes, if the effect also exists in Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe Premiere Pro lists unsupported effects as offline in the Effect Controls panel. Some After Effects effects have the same names as those in Adobe Premiere Pro, but since they’re actually different effects, they aren’t converted.

Expressions Not converted

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After Effects item Converted to in Adobe Premiere Pro Notes

Layer markers Clip markers

Masks and mattes Not converted

Stereo Mixer effect Channel Volume filter

Time Remap property Time Remapping effect

Importing and managing footage items

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Time Stretch property Speed property Speed and time stretch have an inverse

Transform property values and keyframes

Motion or Opacity values and keyframes

relationship. For example, 200% stretch in After Effects converts to 50% speed in Adobe Premiere Pro.

The keyframe type—Bezier, Auto Bezier, Continuous Bezier, or Hold—is retained.

Copy from Adobe Premiere Pro to After Effects

You can copy a video or audio asset from an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence and paste it into an After Effects composition. After Effects converts assets to layers and copies the source footage items into its Project panel. If the asset contains 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, too. After Effects converts color mattes into solidcolor layers and converts nested sequences into nested compositions. When you copy a Photoshop still image into After Effects, After Effects retains the Photoshop layer information. You cannot paste Adobe Premiere Pro titles into After Effects, but you can paste text with attributes from the Adobe Premiere Titler into After Effects.

1 Select an asset from the Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline panel.

2 Choose Edit > Copy.

3 In After Effects, open a composition in the Timeline panel.

4 With the Timeline panel active, choose Edit > Paste. The asset appears as the topmost layer in the Timeline panel.

Note: To paste the asset at the current-time indicator, place the current-time indicator and press Ctrl+Alt+V (Windows) or Command+Option+V (Mac

OS).

Results of pasting into After Effects

When you paste an asset into an After Effects composition, keyframes, effects, and other properties in a copied asset are converted as follows:

Adobe Premiere Pro asset Converted to in After Effects Notes

Audio track Audio layers Audio tracks that are either 5.1 surround

Bars and tone Not converted

Blending modes Converted

Clip marker Layer marker

Color mattes Solid-color layers

Crop filter Mask layer

or greater than 16-bit aren’t supported. Mono and stereo audio tracks are imported as one or two layers.

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Adobe Premiere Pro asset Converted to in After Effects Notes

Frame Hold Time Remap property

Importing and managing footage items

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Motion or Opacity values and keyframes

Sequence marker Markers on a new solid-color layer To copy sequence markers, you must

Speed property Time Stretch property Speed and time stretch have an inverse

Time Remapping effect Time Remap property

Titles Not converted

Universal counting leaders Not converted

Video and audio transitions Opacity keyframes (Cross dissolve

Video effect properties and keyframes

Volume and Channel Volume audio filters

Transform property values and keyframes

only) or solid-color layers

Effect properties and keyframes, if the effect also exists in After Effects

Stereo mixer effect Other audio filters are not converted.

Keyframe type—Bezier, Auto Bezier, Continuous Bezier, or Hold—is retained.

either copy the sequence itself or import the entire Adobe Premiere Pro project as a composition.

relationship. For example, 50% speed in Adobe Premiere Pro is converted to 200% stretch in After Effects.

After Effects doesn’t display unsupported effects in the Effect Controls panel.

Importing and interpreting video and audio

High-definition (HD) video

High-definition (HD) video refers to any video format with pixel dimensions greater than those of standard-definition (SD) video formats. Typically, standard-definition refers to digital formats with pixel dimensions close to those of

analog TV standards, such as NTSC and PAL (around 480 or 576 vertical lines, respectively). The most common HD formats have pixel dimensions of 1280x720 or 1920x1080, with a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9.

HD video formats include interlaced and noninterlaced varieties. Typically, the highest-resolution formats are interlaced at the higher frame rates, because noninterlaced video at these pixel dimensions would require a prohibitively high data rate.

You can reap benefits from shooting and editing in high-definition formats even if you output to standard definition. For example, the quality of high-definition clips remains high when you zoom into them or pan across them in the context of standard-definition projects.

HD video formats are designated by their vertical pixel dimensions, scan mode, and frame or field rate (depending on the scan mode). For example, 1080i60 denotes interlaced scanning of 60 interlaced 1920x1080 fields per second, whereas 720p30 denotes progressive scanning of 30 noninterlaced 1280x720 frames per second. In both cases, the frame rate is approximately 30 frames per second.

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Trish and Chris Meyer provide tips for planning and delivering high-definition and widescreen work in articles on the ProVideo Coalition website:

• The High-Def Checklist

• Open Wide: Creating That Widescreen Look

Adobe digital video applications include presets that are designed for working with various high-definition formats. Some of the most common high-definition video formats you may encounter include the following:

High-definition video recording formats

AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) High-definition format based on an MPEG-4 AVC video codec for

file-based (tapeless) cameras. AVCHD was introduced by Sony and Panasonic. For more information about AVCHD, see the article

DVCPRO HD or DVCPRO100 Panasonic’s high-definition variant of its DVCPRO format, which also includes

AVCHD on the Wikipedia website.

DVCPRO25 and DVCPRO50. Whereas DVCPRO25 and DVCPRO50 support data rates of 25 Mbits/s (megabits per second) and 50 Mbit/s, respectively, DVCPRO HD supports a data rate of 100 Mbit/s, from which it gets its other name, DVCPRO100. DVCPRO HD footage can be captured to Panasonic P2 media. For more information about DVCPRO HD, see the DVCPRO section of the article

HDCAM Sony’s high-definition version of its Digital Betacam format. A variant called HDCAM SR uses a tape with a

DV on the Wikipedia website.

higher particle density to record video with greater color sampling and at higher bit rates. However, HDCAM SR is supported by decks only, and not camcorders. For more information about HDCAM and HDCAM SR, see the article

HDCAM on the Wikipedia website.

XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX High-definition formats developed by Sony for file-based (tapeless) cameras. For more

information about XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX, see the article

HDV Developed jointly by several companies, HDV employs a form of MPEG-2 compression to enable high-

XDCAM on the Wikipedia website.

definition video to be encoded onto standard miniDV cassette media. For more information about HDV, see the

HDV on the Wikipedia website.

article

High-definition codecs

H.264 An MPEG-4-based codec that supports encoding in high definition for Blu-ray Disc media, and the FLV |F4V

formats. For more information about H.264, see the article

v210 An uncompressed codec that supports encoding in high definition at 10-bit 4:2:2 in component YCbCr.

H.264/MPEG-4 AVC on the Wikipedia website.

Supported by the Uncompressed Microsoft AVI format.

UYVY A codec that supports encoding in high definition in YUV 4:2:2. Supported by the Uncompressed Microsoft

AVI format.

MPEG2 A codec that supports encoding in high-definition for Blu-ray Disc. File extensions: .m2v, .wav (audio only).

VC-1 A codec that supports encoding in high-definition for Windows Media Video. For more information about VC-

1, see the article

Windows Media Video 9 A codec that supports encoding in high-definition for Windows Media Video. For more

information about Windows Media 9, see the article

VC-1 on the Wikipedia website.

Windows Media Video on the Wikipedia website.

More Help topics

HDV Vs HD: A Primer

Uncompressed Vs. Compressed by Bob Turner

Video Codec And Pixel Format Definitions

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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Interlaced video, noninterlaced video, and progressive scanning

Interlacing is a technique developed for transmitting television signals using limited bandwidth. In an interlaced system, only half the number of horizontal lines for each frame of video are transmitted at a time. Because of the speed of transmission, the afterglow of displays, and the persistence of vision, the viewer perceives each frame in full resolution. All of the analog television standards use interlacing. Digital television standards include both interlaced and noninterlaced varieties. Typically, interlaced signals are generated from interlaced scanning, whereas noninterlaced signals are generated from progressive scanning.

Each interlaced video frame consists of two fields. Each field contains half the number of horizontal lines in the frame; the upper field (or Field 1) contains the odd-numbered lines, and the lower field (or Field 2) contains the evennumbered lines. An interlaced video monitor displays each frame by first drawing all of the lines in one field and then drawing all of the lines in the other field. Field order specifies which field is drawn first. In NTSC video, new fields are drawn to the screen approximately 60 times per second, corresponding to a frame rate of approximately 30 frames per second.

Interlaced scanning of interlaced video fields compared with progressive scanning of noninterlaced video frame. A. For interlaced video, entire upper field (odd-numbered lines) is drawn to screen first, from top to bottom, in one pass. B. Next, entire lower field (even-numbered lines) is drawn to screen, from top to bottom, in one pass. C. For noninterlaced video, entire frame (all lines in counting order) is drawn to screen, from top to bottom, in one pass.

Noninterlaced video frames aren’t separated into fields. A progressive-scan monitor displays a noninterlaced video frame by drawing all the horizontal lines, from top to bottom, in one pass. Computer monitors are almost all progressive-scan monitors, and most video displayed on computer monitors is noninterlaced.

The terms progressive and noninterlaced are thus closely related and are often used interchangeably, but progressive scanning refers to the recording or drawing of the scan lines by a camera or monitor, whereas noninterlaced refers to the fact that the video data itself isn’t separated into fields.

Chris Pirazzi provides technical details of fields and interlacing on his Lurker's Guide to Video website.

Trish and Chris Meyer provide a variety of materials about interlacing, field order, field dominance, field rendering, and separating fields:

• article (PDF) introducing interlacing and field separation on the Artbeats website

• article introducing interlacing and field order on the ProVideo Coalition website

• article clarifying meanings of the terms field order and field dominance on the ProVideo Coalition website

• video overview of fields and interlacing on the Lynda.com website

Last updated 12/21/2009

Importing and managing footage items

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Separate video fields and determine field order

If you want to use interlaced or field-rendered footage (such as NTSC video) in an After Effects project, you get the best results if you separate the video fields when you import the footage. After Effects separates video fields by creating a full frame from each field, preserving all of the image data from the original footage.

Separating fields is critical if you plan to make significant changes to the image. When you scale, rotate, or apply effects to interlaced video, unwanted artifacts, such as crossed fields, are often introduced. By separating fields, After Effects accurately converts the two interlaced frames in the video to noninterlaced frames, while preserving the maximum amount of image quality. Using noninterlaced frames allows After Effects to apply edits and effects consistently and at the highest quality.

After Effects creates field-separated footage from a single formerly interlaced frame by splitting it into two independent frames. Each new frame has only half the information of the original frame, so some frames may appear to have a lower resolution than others when viewed at Draft quality. When you render the final composition, After Effects reproduces high-quality interlaced frames for output. When you render a movie at Best quality, After Effects interpolates between the scan lines of a field to produce maximum image quality.

If your output will not be interlaced, it’s best to use noninterlaced source footage, to avoid the need to separate fields. However, if a noninterlaced version of your source footage is not available, interlaced footage will work fine.

Always separate fields for interlaced footage. Never separate fields for noninterlaced footage items.

You can only remove pull-down after you have separated fields.

When you render a composition containing field-separated footage, set the Field Rendering option to the same field order as your video equipment. If you don’t field-render the composition, or if you field-render with the incorrect settings, the final movie may appear too soft, jerky, or distorted.

To quickly give video footage a more film-like appearance, import the footage twice, and interpret each footage item with a different field order. Then add them both to the same composition and blend them together. The misinterpreted

layer adds some film-like blur.

After Effects automatically separates fields for D1 and DV video footage items. You can manually separate fields for all other types of video footage in the Interpret Footage dialog box.

1 Select the footage item in the Project panel.

2 Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.

3 Choose an option from the Separate Fields menu.

4 Click Preserve Edges (Best Quality Only) to increase image quality in nonmoving areas when the image is rendered

at Best quality. Then click OK.

Note: If the field settings in the Interpret Footage dialog box are correct for the input footage and the field settings in the Render Settings dialog box are correct for the output device, you can mix footage items of different field orders in a composition. If either of these settings is incorrect, however, the frames will be in the correct order, but the field order may be reversed, resulting in jerky, unacceptable images.

FieldsKit from RE:Vision Effects creates full noninterlaced frames from fields and vice versa. For information, see the

RE:Vision Effects website.

Determine the original field order

The field order for an interlaced video footage item determines the order in which the two video fields (upper and lower) are displayed. A system that draws the upper lines before the lower lines is called upper-field first; one that draws the lower lines before the upper lines is called lower-field first. Many standard-definition formats (such as DV NTSC) are lower-field first, whereas many high-definition formats (such as 1080i DVCPRO HD) are upper-field first.

Last updated 12/21/2009

Importing and managing footage items

USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4

Note: Upper-field first corresponds to Even Field First in an Electric Image file.

The order in which the fields are displayed is important, especially when the fields contain motion. If you separate video fields using the wrong field order, motion does not appear smooth.

Some programs, including After Effects, label the field order when rendering interlaced video files. When you import a labeled video file, After Effects honors the field order label automatically. You can override this field order by applying different footage interpretation settings.

If a file does not contain a field order label, you can match the original field order of your footage. If you are not sure which field order was used to interlace a footage item, use this procedure to find out.

1 Select the item in the Project panel.

2 Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.

3 In the Interpret Footage dialog box, select Upper Field First from the Separate Fields menu, and then click OK.

4 In the Project panel, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you double-click the footage to open it in the

Footage panel.

5 If the Preview panel is not visible, choose Window > Preview.

6 In the Footage panel, find a segment that contains one or more moving areas.

7 Using the Next Frame button in the Preview panel, step forward at least five frames in the Footage panel. Moving

areas should move consistently in one direction. If the moving areas move backward every other frame, the wrong field-separation option has been applied to the footage.

Remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown from video

When you transfer 24-fps film to 29.97-fps video, you use a process called 3:2 pulldown, in which the film frames are distributed across video fields in a repeating 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 next two fields of video—field 2 of the second video frame and field 1 of the third frame of video. This 3:2 pattern is repeated until four frames of film are spread over five frames of video, and then the pattern is repeated.

The 3:2 pulldown process results in whole frames (represented by a W) and split-field frames (represented by an S). The three whole video frames contain two fields from the same film frame. The remaining two split-field frames contain a video frame from two different film frames. The two split-field frames are always adjacent to each other. The phase of 3:2 pulldown refers to the point at which the two split-field frames fall within the first five frames of the footage.

Phase occurs as a result of two conversions that happen during 3:2 pulldown: 24-fps film is redistributed through 30fps video, so each of four frames of 24-fps film is spread out over five frames of 30(29.97)-fps video. First, the film is slowed down 0.1% to match the speed difference between 29.97 fps and 30 fps. Next, each film frame is repeated in a special pattern and mated to fields of video.

Adobe After Effects CS4 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Copyright

Contents

Chapter 1: Getting started

Installation, activation, and registration

Install the software

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Adobe Product Improvement Program

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