Macromedia After Effects - CC User Manual

Adobe® Aer Eects® CC

Help

June 2014

Legal notices

For legal notices, see http://help.adobe.com/en_US/legalnotices/index.html.

Last updated 6/14/2014

Chapter 1: What's new

New features summary

Chapter 2: Workspace and workflow

Planning and setup

Setup and installation

General user interface items

Workflows

Dynamic Link and After Effects

Working with After Effects and other applications

Keyboard shortcuts reference

Workspaces, panels, and viewers

Modify keyboard shortcuts

Preferences

Sync Settings

After Effects keyboard shortcuts

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Chapter 3: Projects and compositions

Projects

Precomposing, nesting, and pre-rendering

Composition basics

Timecode and time display units

Chapter 4: Importing footage

Importing and interpreting footage items

Importing and interpreting video and audio

Preparing and importing 3D imagefiles

Working with footage items

CINEMA 4D and Cineware

Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro

Preparing and importing still images

Chapter 5: Layers and properties

Creating layers

Selecting and arranging layers

Managing layers

Layer properties

Blending modes and layer styles

3D layers

Cameras, lights, and points of interest

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Last updated 6/14/2014

AFTER EFFECTS

Content s

Chapter 6: Views and previews

Previewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Modifying and using views

Video preview with Mercury Transmit

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Chapter 7: Animation and Keyframes

Animation basics

Setting, selecting, and deleting keyframes

Editing, moving, and copying keyframes

Assorted animation tools

Tracking and stabilizing motion

Speed

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Keyframe interpolation

Time-stretching and time-remapping

Animating with Puppet tools

Tracking 3D camera movement

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Chapter 8: Color

Color basics

Color management

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Chapter 9: Drawing, painting, and paths

Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser

Overview of shape layers, pat

Creating shapes and masks

hs, and vector graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

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Managing and animating shape paths and masks

Shape attributes, paint operations, and path op

Mask Tracking

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Compositing Options and Mask Reference

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erations for shape layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

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Chapter 10: Text

Li ve Te xt Tem plates

Creating and editing text layers

Formatting characters and the Character panel

Examples and resources for text animation

Animating text

Extruding text and shape layers

Formatting paragraphs and the Paragraph panel

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Chapter 11: Transparency and compositing

Roto Brush, Refine Edge, and Refine Matte effects | CC

Alpha channels, masks, and mattes

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Compositing and transparency overview and resources

Keying

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Chapter 12: Effects and animation presets

Effects and animation presets overview

Detail-preserving Upscale effect

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AFTER EFFECTS

Content s

Effect list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Audio effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Blur and Sharpen effects

Channel effects

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Generate effects

Simulation effects

Tex t eff ects

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Perspective effects

3D Channel effects

Stylize effects

Distort effects

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Noise and Grain effects

Matte effects

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Color Correction effects

Obsolete effects

The Rolling Shutter Repair effect

Keying effects

Utility effects

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Transition effec ts

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611

Chapter 13: Markers

Layer markers and composition markers

XMP metadata

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618

Chapter 14: Memory, storage, performance

Improve performance

GPU (CUDA, OpenGL) features

Memory and storage

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Chapter 15: Expressions and automation

Plug-ins

Automation

Expression basics

Expression language reference

Expression examples

Scripts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

Chapter 16: Rendering and Exporting

Basics of rendering an

Converting movies

d exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708

Export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project

Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences

Automated rendering and network rendering

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722

Chapter 17: System Requirements

System requirements for After Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

Last updated 6/14/2014

Chapter 1: What's new

New features summary

This document describes the new and updated features in the June 2014 release of After Effects CC.

Key Cleaner effect and Advanced Spill Suppressor effect

The Key Cleaner effect recovers alpha-channel detail from a scene keyed by a typical keying effect, including recovering detail lost due to compression artifacts.

The Advanced Spill Suppressor effect removes color spill on a foreground subject from a colored background used for color ke

1 Standard - The Standard method is simpler, automatically detects the dominant key color, and requires less user

2 Ultra - The Ultra method is based on the spill suppression in the Ultra Key effect in Premiere Pro. See the Ultra Key

Starting with the 2014 version of After Effects, the Spill Sup category. Users are recommended to use the Advanced Spill Suppressor effect instead.

An easy way of applying these effects is by using the Keylight + Key Cleaner + Spill Suppressor animation preset. See the K

Note: U RG

ying. It has two methods for spill suppression:

input.

section in Premiere Pro for details about the Ultra Key.

pressor effect has been moved to the Obsolete effects

ey Cleaner and Advanced Spill Suppressor effectfor details on using these effects.

se the new Key Cleaner and Advanced Spill Suppressor effects with any keying effect that can provide the original

B data as input. The new effects are found under the Effects > Keying menu.

Last updated 6/14/2014

What's new

Compositing Options (including effect masks)

The Compositing Options property group for each effect includes a new Effect Opacity property, which provides similar functionality as the Blend With Original compositing to every effect. The Effect Opacity allows you to blend between the effect results and the image without applying the effect. You can precisely apply any effect to a particular area of an image by masking and matting the desired area.

You can also restrict the area of effects applied to a layer using a new mask. The Mask Reference option is found under th

e C

ompositing Options under each effect in the Timeline panel. Click the plus sign next to the Compositing Options

heading and choose a mask listed under the Mask Reference menu.

See the Compositing Options and Mask Referencearticle for detailed information.

Importing masks from Premiere Pro

When you import a clip from Premiere Pro that includes masks, the masks from Premiere Pro are preserved and converted to After Effects masks. This works for all methods of importing clips from Premiere Pro including:

• Using the Replace With After Effects Composition command in Premiere Pro

• Copying and pasting the sequence from Premiere Pro to After Effects

• Importing a Premiere Pro project into After Effects.

The mask shape, feather, opacity, expansion, and inversion properties are all preserved and the keyframes on those pro

perties are also included.

However some After Effects mask attributes, such as variable-width mask feathering, will not get imported into Prem

iere Pro.

Masks are either effect masks or layer masks and the mask mode is always set to Add when the mask is imported from Premiere Pro into After Effects.

Live text templates - Edit After Effects text templates in Premiere Pro

You can create text template compositions in After Effects wherein the source text can be edited in Premiere Pro. Any composition with text layers can be used as a text template, and any unlocked text layers in that composition can be edited in Premiere Pro.

See the Live Tex t Te mplates for more information.

Video preview on external monitor using Mercury Transmit

In the l ates t rel ease of A fter Effects, the vide o pre vie w system for ext ernal monitors ha s been repl aced w ith the Mercury Transmit-based system.

Last updated 6/14/2014

What's new

The Mercury Transmit system for video previews sends the contents of the Composition, Layer, or Footage panel to an external monitor. The external monitor can be one of the following:

• A video monitor connected through third-party video hardware such as AJA, Blackmagic, and Matrox I/O devices

• A DV device connected over FireWire

• A computer monitor connected to your video display card via such as HDMI, DVI, VGA, or DisplayPort.

For detailed information, see the Vid e o p re view with Merc u r y Transmitarticle.

Add fonts from Typekit in After Effects

You can download and install hundreds of fonts from within After Effects through the integration of Typekit with After Effects. Click File > Add Fonts from Typekit.. to launch the Typekit website.

For more information about using Typekit with Creative Cloud, see the Typ ekit Help C e nter .

Integration of Kuler panel into After Effects

The Kuler panel integrated into After Effects is one of the first instances of an HTML5 CEP panel built for After Effects. Using the Kuler panel, you can :

• Browse color themes that other users have shared through Creative Cloud

• Load color themes from your own library on Creative Cloud

• Create color themes on your iPhone or in your browser using various color models. You can use the color swatches

wi thi n ea ch c olor t hem e as a so urc e from whi ch t o sa mple colors for any purpose within After Effects. (This replaces the old workflow of creating a document in Illustrator that held your color swatches and then importing that file into After Effects as a a source from which to sample when matching colors in a logo or other other branded item.)

See the Adobe Kuler site at https://kuler.adobe.com and www.adobe.com/in/products/kuler.html

HTML5 panels using CEP infrastructure

After Effects now includes the CEP (Common Extensibility Platform) infrastructure for loading and using HTML5 panels. These panels have access to the entire After Effects scripting object model in addition to being able to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Hence a very wide variety of extensions can be created using this system.

Last updated 6/14/2014

What's new

Improvements to Curves effect user interface

The primary user interface element in the Curves effect (the curves themselves) is now resizable using buttons immediately above the curves. The icon-based buttons for Open, Save, Smooth, and Reset have been replaced with word-based buttons that make their functionality more discoverable and the interface has been changed to increase the size of the default window.

The new improvements have the following advantages:

• Click one of the three sizing icons at the top of the effect to adjust screen sizes.

• Channels will show separately and concurrently in White, Red Green Blue, and Gray(alpha).

• Channel selection is automatic when a curve or vertex is clicked to add or move a point.

• The curves are drawn more smoothly.

Auto Adjustment in Curves effect

To adjust the curves in the Curves effect automatically, click the Auto button beneath the curves in the Effect Controls panel. This automatic adjustment is based on a database of curve adjustments performed by color and photography experts on a broad range of input images. This will enable users to get a good starting point for their color adjustments.

The adjustment made to an image is based on the adjustments made to reference input images with similar color di

ibutions.

str

Miscellaneous updates

• Use File > Save As > Save A Copy As CC (12) to save a project as a copy for the previous version. To open a project

created in the latest version of After Effects in After Effects CS6, you have to save back from After Effects CC (12). See Project links embedded in QuickTime, Video for Windows filesfor detailed information.

• You can now import raw files from Sony F5, F55, and F65 cameras into After Effects. As with ARRIRAW files, the

source settings are not carried over when transferring a clip from Premiere Pro to After Effects.

• After Effects CC now installs mocha-AE version 3.2.1. Previous versions of After Effects CC installed mocha-AE

v3.1.0. See the release notes (pdf) on the Imagineer Systems website for details of what's new in mocha-AE v3.2.

Last updated 6/14/2014

What's new

• You cannot export to the following formats in the 2014 version of After Effects CC:

• FLV/F4V

• MPEG-2

• H.264

• WMV

• SWF

Note: You can still import files in the above formats into After Effects.

Last updated 6/14/2014

Chapter 2: Workspace and workflow

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 s difficult and time-consuming parts of your work, to uncover problems early.

e of equipment that your audience will use to view it. It’s best to do such tests before you have completed the

ame typ

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

For more information about encoding and compression options, see this FAQ entry: “FAQ: What is the best format for

rendering and exporting from After Effects?”

Storyboards and scripts (screenplays)

Before you begin shooting footage or creating animations, it is often best to start by planning your movie with storyboards and a script (screenplay).

You can use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to create storyboards. You can use Adobe Story to collaboratively w

te and manage screenplays. Adobe Story also converts information from a screenplay into XMP metadata that can

automate the creation of shooting scripts, shot lists, and more.

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 ima

ge 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 Pixel aspect ratio and frame

aspect ratio.

If you can shoot footage with consistent lighting and colors—and otherwise prevent the need to do a lot of tedious u

ty work in post-production—then you’ll have more time for creative work.

tili

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Workspace and workflow

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.

If possible, use footage with a frame rate that matches that of your output, so that After Effects doesn’t have to use frame b

nding or similar methods to fill in missing frames. See Frame rate.

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 ho tracking, consider shooting your scene in a manner that optimizes for motion tracking—for example, using tracking markers. See Motion tracking workflow.

w you shoot and acquire your footage. For example, if you know that you want to animate using motion

Also consider shooting at a larger frame size than what you ne production, whether for fake pans and zooms, or for stabilization.

for final delivery if you want "head-room" for post-

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 managementand Timecode and time display units .

If you enable color management for your project, the colors t when they view the movie that you create.

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

dynamic range color.

t you see are the same colors that your audience will see

to open the Project Settings dialog box. Alt-click

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 Composition settings.

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 fo Render Queue panel to encode and export a separate version of the composition for each format. See Output modules and

output module settings.

your output. Later, you can use output modules in the

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 Storage requirements for output files .

If your source footage files are on a slow disk drive (or across a slow network connection), then performance will be p

r. 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.

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Workspace and workflow

For more information, see Improve performanceand Memory & Multiprocessing preferences .

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 de

coder m 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.

For more information about encoding and compression options for After Effects, see this FAQ entry: “FAQ: What is

the best format for rendering and exporting from After Effects?”

ust be available on the system used by your intended audience; otherwise they will not be able to play the

Mobile devices

Many of the considerations for creating movies for playback on mobile devices, such as mobile phones and the Apple i

d, are similar to the considerations for creating movies for playback on personal computers—but the limitations are

Po 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.

Use these tips when shooting video for mobile devices:

•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 (for mobile devices):

•Use a lower frame rate (12-24 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.

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

also make compression easier.

Last updated 6/14/2014

Workspace and workflow

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 f 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 sys before opening the project and that network volume names are the same on both systems.

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 hi

/newproject/project_file.aep

ollows: After Effects first searches the folder in which the project file is located; second, it searches the file’s

iles as f

ms. If the footage and the project are on different volumes, make sure that the appropriate volume is mounted

chy:

erar

/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 fo

age.

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.

File-naming conventions

Name your footage and project files with the appropriate filename extensions, such as .mov for QuickTime movies and .

for After Effects projects. If files will be used on the Web, be sure that filenames adhere to applicable conventions

aep for extensions and paths.

Note: F

or After Effects CS6 and earlier versions, do not use high-ASCII or other extended characters in filenames that will

sed cross-platform.

be u

Supported file types

Some file types are supported on one platform but not others. See Supported import formatsand Supported output

formats.

Resources

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

If y

ou use a native After Effects effect in a project on one operating system, the effect will still work on the other

ope

rating 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.

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Workspace and workflow

More Help topics

Adobe Story workflow

Composition settings

Output modules and output module settings

Render settings

Plug-ins

Fonts

Setup and installation

To submit a feature request or bug report about After Effects, choose Help > Send Feedback.

Installing the software

Before installing Adobe After Effects software, review complete system requirements and recommendations in the Read Me file. The Read Me file is included in the Release Notes document available through the After Effects support

section of the Adobe website.

In addition to the full version of Adobe After Effects, you can also install additional copies on additional computers to us the full version of the application. You run the render engine using the Adobe After Effects Render Engine shortcut in the Adobe After Effects folder.

Limitations of the trial version

The trial version of After Effects includes all of the codecs that are included with the full version of After Effects. This m of Adobe After Effects software does not include some features that depend upon software licensed from parties other than Adobe. For example, Cycore (CC) effects, mocha-AE, mocha Shape, FreeForm, and Color Finesse are available only with the full version of Adobe After Effects software. (Keylight is included, however.) If your installation of After Effects is missing some third-party components, contact your system administrator to ensure that all licensed components have been installed correctly.

er Effects render engines to assist with network rendering. You install render engines in the same manner as

e as Aft

ns that you can import and export to all of the supported file formats using the trial version. The free trial version

Activate the software

Activation is a simple, anonymous process. After installation, 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 comp

uter 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.

Note: B

efore transferring an activation to a different computer, deactivate the software by choosing Help > Deactivate or

p > Sign Out.

Hel

Last updated 6/14/2014

Workspace and workflow

More Help topics

Network rendering with watch folders and render engines

Plug-ins

General user interface items

Activate a tool

The Tools panel can be displayed as a toolbar across the top of the application window or as a normal, dockable panel.

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 the Q key 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 T

ools panel to automatically open the relevant panels when certain tools are activated.

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 p a n e l me nu , c l i ck t h e 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 Mac OS) or Control-click (Mac OS). This action is sometimes

referred to as context-clicking.

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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.

• To sort footage items in the Project panel, click the column heading. Click once more to sort them in reverse order.

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 ite

ms 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 f show the Comments column to search and filter by the contents of comments. (See Columns .)

If one or more layers are selected in a composition, the filtering operation in the Timeline panel only affects selected l

n this case, unselected layers are not filtered out (hidden) if they don’t match the search query. However, if no

ayers. I 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 Show or hide

properties in the Timeline panel.)

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

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-

based operators. For example, typing dark solid matches footage items or layers named Dark Red Solid and Dark Gray Solid. In the Effects & Presets panel, spaces are treated as space characters in the search field. For example, typing change color matches the Change Color effect, but not the Change To Color effect.

Project, Timeline, and Effects & Presets panels accept or-based searching. In an or-based search, a comma denotes an or,

with and-based operators taking precedence over or-based ones. For example, sometimes the name of the property that determines the amount for a blur effect is Amount, sometimes it is Blurriness, and sometimes it is Blur Radius. If you search for Amount, Blurriness, Radius, then you will see the equivalent values for all of your blur effects.

his filtering operation. For example, you may need to

or t

When you type in a search field, recent search strings that match your input appear.

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This search method also allows a way to save items you use often via a menu that opens when you click the search icon in th e search field. The search menu consist s of t wo lists, s eparated by a divider. The top list cont ains the six most rece nt searches, with the most recent one at the top. The bottom list contains saved search items. As you type, the top list filters to show matching terms.

• To save a search item, Shift-click it in the top list of the search menu. Up to ten items may be saved.

• To delete a saved search item from either list, hover the mouse over the the item to highlight it, and then press Delete

or Backspace.

See this video on the Video2Brain website to learn about the new features for searching and filtering in panels.

Examples of searches in the Project panel

• 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. (See Color labels for layers, compositions, and footage

items.)

Click the swatch for a label to see the context menu that lists the l Label column heading to expand the column to read the label names.

abel names. Alternatively, drag the right edge of the

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.

• To zoo m int o the area und er the pointe r, hold d own A lt (Wind ows) or Option (Mac O S) as you roll th e mouse w heel

forward. In the Timeline, Footage, and Layer panels, this action zooms in time when the pointer is over the time navigator or time ruler.

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

wheel backward. In the Timeline, Footage, and Layer panels, this action zooms in time when the pointer is over the time navigator or time ruler.

• 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, Footage,

and Layer panels, Shift-rolling backward moves forward in time and vice versa when the pointer is over the time navigator or time ruler.

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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.

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.

To avoid wasting time undoing accidental modifi cation s, lock a laye r when you want t o see it but do not want to modify it.

• To undo the most recent change, choose Edit > Undo [action] or Ctrl-Z

• 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.

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 > > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences

> General (Mac OS)).

• 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.

• In Windows, disable the Aero compositing mode. Hardware acceleration of panels and OpenGL features perform

better in After Effects when Windows is operating in Basic mode. For information, see the Microsoft website.

• Use context menus.

• Use keyboard shortcuts.

More Help topics

Activating tools (keyboard shortcuts)

Effects and Presets panel

Organize, view, manage, and trim footage items

Select layers

Zoom an image for preview

Zoom in or out in time for a composition

Move or adjust a camera or working 3D view with the Camera tools

Lock or unlock a layer

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Workflows

General workflow in After Effects

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.

1. Import and organize footage

After you create a project, import your footage into the project in the Project panel. After Effects automatically i

nte

rprets 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 Importing and interpreting footage items .

2. 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 a

ange the layers spatially in the Composition panel or arrange them in time using the Timeline panel. You can stack

rr 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 Composition basics, Creating layers, Compositing and

transparency overview and resources, Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector graphics , and Creating and editing text layers .

3. 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 p

perties 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, Expression basics, and Tracking and stabilizing motion (CS5) .

4. 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 f

m 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 .

5. Preview

Previewing compositions on your computer monitor or an external video monitor is fast and convenient, even for co

lex projects. You can change the speed and quality of previews by specifying their resolution and frame rate, and

mp 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 Previewingand Color

management.

6. Render and export

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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. You can use File > Export or Composition > Add to Render Queue.

For more information, see Basics of rendering and exporting and the encoding quick start section in Adobe Media Encoder.

Online resources for general workflow in After Effects

Read a basic step-by-step introduction to the general workflow in an excerpt from After Effects Classroom in a Book.

Read Trish and Chris Meyer’s step-by-step introduction to creating a basic animation in a PDF excerpt from their book,

The After Effects Apprentice.

For an overview of After Effects project navigtion, see the video tutorial, “Walking Through A Mini Project,” by Jeff Sengstack and Infinite Skills.

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 sh

tcuts 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.

5 Set an initial keyframe for the Position property:

• 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.

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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 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.

13 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 usi

ng a movie player such as QuickTime Player or Windows Media Player.

More Help topics

Activating tools (keyboard shortcuts)

Import footage items

Dynamic Link and After Effects

Dynamic Link features work only between applications of the same major version, such as After Effects CC 2014 with Premiere Pro CC 2014. Dynamic Link features do not work between applications that are not of the same major version, such as After Effects CC and Premiere Pro CS6. For CS6 versions of the applications, Dynamic Link features are only available with the Creative Suite Production Premium and Creative Suite Master Collection editions; Dynamic Link features do not work between CS6 applications that have been installed and activated as separate applications.

About Dynamic Link

In the past, sharing media assets among post-production applications required you to render and export your work from one application before importing it into another. This workflow was inefficient and time-consuming. If you wanted to change the original asset, you rendered and exported the asset again. Multiple rendered and exported versions of an asset consume disk space, and they can lead to file-management challenges.

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Dynamic Link offers an alternative to this workflow. You can create dynamic links between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. Creating a dynamic link is as simple as importing any other type of asset. Dynamically linked assets appear with unique icons and label colors to help you identify them. Dynamic links are saved in projects generated by these applications.

Create and link to After Effects compositions with Dynamic Link

You can create new After Effects compositions, and dynamically link to them from Adobe Premiere Pro. You can also dynamically link to existing After Effects compositions from Adobe Premiere Pro.

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 Open Premiere Pro and select the clips you want to replace.

2 Right-click any of the selected clips.

3 Select Replace With After Effects Composition.

After Effects opens (if it is not already open) and a new linked composition is created.

Create a dynamically linked composition from Adobe Premiere Pro

Creating a new dynamically linked composition from Adobe Premiere Pro launches After Effects. After Effects then creates a project and composition with the dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, and audio sample rate of the originating project. (If After Effects is already running, it creates a composition in the current project.) The new composition name is based on the Adobe Premiere Pro project name, followed by Linked Comp [x].

1 In Adobe Premiere Pro, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > New After Effects Composition. In the 2014 version

of Premiere Pro, you can import compositions using Media Browser. See the following sections in Premiere Pro for more information:

• Import files with Media Browser

• Adobe Dynamic Link

2 If the After Effects Save As dialog box appears, enter a name and location for the After Effects project, and click Save.

When you create a dynamically linked 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

c tab, and specify a new value for Duration.

asi

Link to an existing composition

For best results, match composition settings (such as dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate) to the settings in the Adobe Premiere Pro.

❖ Do one of the following:

• In Adobe Premiere Pro, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > ImportAfter Effects Composition. Choose an After

Effects project file (.aep), and then choose one or more compositions.

• In Adobe Premiere Pro, choose an After Effects project file and click Open. Then choose a composition in the

displayed dialog box and click OK.

• Drag one or more compositions from the After Effects Project panel to the Adobe Premiere Pro Project panel.

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• Drag an After Effects project file into the Premiere Pro Project panel. If the After Effects project file contains

multiple compositions, the Import Composition dialog box opens.

Note: Y

ou can link to a single After Effects composition multiple times in a single Adobe Premiere Pro project.

Dynamically linked <span class="uicontrol">After Effects</span> compositions

Modify a dynamically linked composition in After Effects

Use the Edit Original command in Adobe Premiere Pro to modify a linked After Effects composition. Once the composition is open in After Effects, you can change the composition without having to use the Edit Original command again.

1 Select the Af ter Effec ts composition in Adobe Premiere Pro, or choose a lin ked clip in the Timeline, and choose Edit

> Edit Original.

2 Change the composition in After Effects. Then, switch back to Adobe Premiere Pro to view your changes.

The changes made in After Effects appear in Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro stops using any preview files rend

ered for the clip before the changes.

Note: You can change the name of the composition in After Effects after creating a dynamic link to it from Adobe Premiere Pro

. Adobe Premiere Pro does not update the linked composition name in the Project panel. Adobe Premiere Pro does retain

the dynamic link, however.

Delete a dynamically linked composition or clip

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 from the timeline of an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence or timeline at any time.

❖ In Adobe Premiere Pro, select the linked composition or clip and press the Delete key.

Create a linked sequence in Adobe Premiere Pro with Dynamic Link

Link to a new sequence

Creating an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence from After Effects launches Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe Premiere Pro then creates a project and sequence with the dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, and audio sample rate of the originating project. (If Adobe Premiere Pro is already running, it creates a 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, match sequence settings and project settings in Adobe Premiere Pro (such as dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate) to those settings in the After Effects project.

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Do one of the following:

• In After Effects, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > Import Premiere Pro Sequence. Choose an Adobe Premiere

Proproject, and then choose one or more sequences.

• Drag one or more sequences from the Adobe Premiere Pro Project panel to the After Effects Project panel.

Dynamic Link performance

A linked clip can refer to a complex source composition. Actions you perform on the complex source composition require additional processing time. After Effects takes time to apply the actions and make the final data available to Adobe Premiere Pro. In some cases, the additional processing time delays preview or playback.

To reduce playback delays, do one of the following:

• take the linked composition offline

• disable a linked clip to temporarily stop referencing a composition

• 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 a faster processor.

Note: A linked After Effects composition will not support Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing. See

prove performance by optimizing memory, cache, and multiprocessing settings.

More Help topics

Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects

Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro

Working with After Effects and other applications

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.

• 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 browse for animation presets, choose Animation > Browse Presets.

Adobe Bridge is part of the Creative Cloud suite of applications and can be downloaded and installed through Creative Clo

ud. See the help documentation and the Adobe Bridge CC product page for more information.

See this video to get an overview of Adobe Bridge CC.

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. (See

Template projects and example projects.)

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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.

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 and drawing.

Deciding which application to use for painting depends on the task. Paint strokes in Photoshop directly affect the pixels o

f t

he 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 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. If the purpose of applying a paint stroke is to permanently modify a still image, use the Photoshop paint tools. If you are applying several paint strokes by hand to get rid of dust, consider using the Photoshop paint tools.

The animation and video features in Photoshop Extended include simple keyframe-based animation. After Effects uses a si

milar i

nterface, though the breadth and flexibility of its animation features are far greater.

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

ure.

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 othe

r attributes. When you import a PSD file into After Effects, you can choose whether to import it as a flattened image

or as a composition 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 pre

tion include correcting color, scaling, and cropping. It is often better for you to do something once to the source

para 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 w

h 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.

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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.

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 and animation 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 b

e you import the image into After Effects. A good way to do this is to assign the appropriate destination color

efor 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.

Flash and After Effects use separate terms for some concepts that they share in common. The following table lists the dif

ences between the terms used in the two applications:

fer

After Effects Flash Professional

Composition Movie Clip

Composition frame (Composition panel) Stage

Project panel Library panel

Project files FLA files

Render and export a movie Publish SWF file

Additional resources

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

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

• Robert Powers provides a video tutorial on the Slippery Rock NYC website that shows the basics of using After

Effects from the perspective of someone who is familiar with Flash Professional.

Exporting QuickTime video from Flash

If you create animations or applications with Flash, you can export them as QuickTime movies using the File > Export > Ex

port 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.

Importing and publishing video in Flash

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When you import a movie 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 movie 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 g

phics. 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 c

tr ol of a nim ation . Af ter Ef fect s is or ien ted to ward v ide o an d fi lm p roduc tion, provi des a wide r ange o f vi sua l ef fec ts,

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 c

abilities for controlling animation programmatically. After Effects includes a larger set of effects.

Both applications allow you to place graphics on separate layers for compositing. These layers can be turned on and off as needed. Bo

In Flash, composites do not affect the video content directly; they affect only the appearance of the video during p

yback 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.

th also allow you to apply effects to the contents of individual layers.

Because all drawing and painting in After Effects is done on layers separate from any imported video, it is always nond

ructive. Flash has both destructive and nondestructive drawing modes.

est

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 A

dobe® Illustrator®. You can import SWF files into After Effects to composite them with other video or render them 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 p

res

erved. 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 Effects, allowing the best capabilities of each tool to work together.

Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects

Ad obe Pre mier e Pro is d esig ned t o captu re, imp or t, a nd e dit m ovi es. A fter Ef fec ts is desi gned to cr eat e mo tion graphi cs, 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

iere Pro:

Prem

• You can import an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects. (See Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project.)

• You can export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project. (See Export an After Effects project as an

Adobe Premiere Pro project .)

• You can copy and paste layers and tracks between After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. (See Copy between After

Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro.)

Last updated 6/14/2014

Workspace and workflow

If you have Adobe Premiere Pro, you can do the following:

• Use Adobe Dynamic Link to work with After Effects compositions in Adobe Premiere Pro. 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. 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 and the relevant sections of Adobe Premiere Pro Help.

Working with Adobe Media Encoder and After Effects

You can use Adobe Media Encoder to export video from After Effects. Use Adobe Media Encoder to encode formats like H.264, MPEG-2, and WMV. Formats such as these are encoded at a higher quality than the Render Queue. Other formats, are available in Adobe Media Encoder, but not in After Effects. For example, the DNxHD format is available in Adobe Media Encoder CC, but not in After Effects CC.

For details about using Adobe Media Encoder with After Effects, see Adobe Media Encoder.

See this tutorial to learn how to export After Effects compositions using Adobe Media Encoder.

Edit in Adobe Audition

While working in After Effects, you can use the more comprehensive audio-editing capabilities of Adobe Audition to fine-tune your audio. You can use the Edit in Adobe Audition command to start Adobe Audition from within After Effects.

If you edit an audio-only file (for example, a WAV file) in Adobe Audition, you change the original file. If you edit a l

that contains both audio and video (for example, an AVI file), you edit a copy of the source audio file.

ayer

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

Audition.

2 Choose Edit > Edit In Adobe Audition to open the clip in Edit view in 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. You can also

choose File > Save As to apply your edits to a copy of the audio file. If you choose File > Save As, import the copy 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. Then, 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 incl

Tutorials and resources about using Adobe Audition to modify audio from After Effects can be found on this post from

the After Effects Region of Interest blog.

uded in the copy that is sent to Adobe Audition.

Last updated 6/14/2014

Workspace and workflow

More Help topics

Adobe Bridge

Template projects and example projects

Animation presets overview and resources

Preparing and importing Photoshop files

3D object layers from Photoshop

Video and animation overview

Vanishing Point

Web links, chapter links, cue points, and markers

Importing from Adobe After Effects

Keyboard shortcuts reference

General (keyboard shortcuts)

Result Windows Mac OS

Select all Ctrl+A Command+A

Deselect all F2 or Ctrl+Shift+A F2 or Command+Shift+A

Rename selected layer, composition, folder, effect, group, or mask

Open selected layer, composition, or footage item

Move selected layers, masks, effects, or render items down (back) or up (forward) in stacking order

Move selected layers, masks, effects, or render items t

o bottom (back) or top (front) of

stacking order

Extend selection to next item in Projec t panel, Render Queue

Extend selection to previous item in Project panel, Render Queue panel, or Effect Controls panel

Duplicate selected layers, masks, effects, text selectors, animators, puppet meshes, shapes, render items, output modules, or compositions

panel, or Effect Controls panel

Enter on main keyboard Return

Enter on numeric keypad Enter on numeric keypad

Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow or Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow Command+Option+Down Arrow or

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down Arrow or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up Arrow

Shift+Down Arrow Shift+Down Arrow

Shift+Up Arrow Shift+Up Arrow

Ctrl+D Command+D

Command+Option+Up Arrow

Command+Option+Shift+Down Arrow or Command+Option+Shift+Up Arrow

Quit Ctrl+Q Command+Q

Last updated 6/14/2014

+ 705 hidden pages

Macromedia After Effects - CC User Manual

Legal notices

Contents

Chapter 1: What's new

New features summary

Key Cleaner effect and Advanced Spill Suppressor effect

Compositing Options (including effect masks)

Importing masks from Premiere Pro

Live text templates - Edit After Effects text templates in Premiere Pro

Video preview on external monitor using Mercury Transmit

Add fonts from Typekit in After Effects

Integration of Kuler panel into After Effects

HTML5 panels using CEP infrastructure

Improvements to Curves effect user interface

Auto Adjustment in Curves effect

Miscellaneous updates

Chapter 2: Workspace and workflow

Planning and setup

Planning your work

Storyboards and scripts (screenplays)

Acquiring, choosing, and preparing footage

Project settings

Composition settings

Performance, memory, and storage considerations

Planning for playback on computer monitors and mobile devices

Cross-platform project considerations

Setup and installation

Installing the software

Activate the software

General user interface items

Activate a tool

Open panel, viewer, and context menus

Columns

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

Scroll or zoom with the mouse wheel

Undo changes

After Effects user interface tips

Workflows

General workflow in After Effects

Overview of general workflow in After Effects

Online resources for general workflow in After Effects

Basic workflow tutorial: Create a simple movie

Dynamic Link and After Effects

About Dynamic Link

Create and link to After Effects compositions with Dynamic Link

Create a composition from clips in Adobe Premiere Pro

Create a dynamically linked composition from Adobe Premiere Pro

Link to an existing composition

Modify a dynamically linked composition in After Effects

Delete a dynamically linked composition or clip

Create a linked sequence in Adobe Premiere Pro with Dynamic Link

Link to a new sequence

Link to an existing sequence

Dynamic Link performance

Working with After Effects and other applications

Working with Adobe Bridge and After Effects

Working with Photoshop and After Effects

Comparative advantages for specific tasks

Exchanging still images

Exchanging movies

Color

Working with Flash and After Effects

Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects

Working with Adobe Media Encoder and After Effects

Edit in Adobe Audition

Keyboard shortcuts reference

General (keyboard shortcuts)