Macromedia After Effects - CS5 Instruction Manual

Using

ADOBE® AFTER EFFECTS® CS5 & CS5.5

Legal notices

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

Last updated 11/28/2011

Chapter 1: What’s new

What’s new . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2: Workflows, planning, and setup

Setup and installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Planning and setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Working with After Effects and other applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Dynamic Link and After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 3: User interface

Workspaces, panels, and viewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

General user interface items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 4: Projects and compositions

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Timecode and time display units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Composition basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Precomposing, nesting, and pre-rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

iii

Chapter 5: Importing and managing footage items

Importing and interpreting footage items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Working with footage items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Importing and interpreting video and audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Preparing and importing 3D image files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Preparing and importing still images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Chapter 6: Layers and properties

Creating layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Selecting and arranging layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Managing layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Layer properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Blending modes and layer styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

3D layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Cameras, lights, and points of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Chapter 7: Views and previews

Previewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Modifying and using views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Chapter 8: Animation and keyframes

Animation basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Setting, selecting, and deleting keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

Contents

Editing, moving, and copying keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Assorted animation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Keyframe interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Time-stretching and time-remapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Animating with Puppet tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Tracking and stabilizing motion (CS5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Chapter 9: Color

Color basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Color management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Chapter 10: Drawing, painting, and paths

Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Creating shapes and masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Managing and animating shape paths and masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Chapter 11: Text

Creating and editing text layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Formatting characters and the Character panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Formatting paragraphs and the Paragraph panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Animating text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Examples and resources for text animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Chapter 12: Transparency, opacity, and compositing

Compositing and transparency overview and resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Alpha channels, masks, and mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Keying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Roto Brush and Refine Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Chapter 13: Effects and animation presets

Effects and animation presets overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Effect list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

3D Channel effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Audio effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Blur & Sharpen effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Channel effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Color Correction effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Distort effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Generate effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

Keying effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Matte effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Noise & Grain effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Perspective effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

Simulation effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Stylize effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

Contents

Text effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Time effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

Transition effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

Utility effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

Obsolete effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Chapter 14: Markers and metadata

Layer markers and composition markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

XMP metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613

Chapter 15: Memory, storage, and performance

Memory and storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620

Improve performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627

Chapter 16: Plug-ins, scripts, and automation

Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635

Chapter 17: Expressions

Expression basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637

Expression language reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651

Expression examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674

Chapter 18: Rendering and exporting

Basics of rendering and exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680

Rendering and exporting for Flash Professional and Flash Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698

Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706

Automated rendering and network rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707

Converting movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

Export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

Chapter 19: Keyboard shortcuts

Modify keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

Keyboard shortcuts reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

Last updated 11/28/2011

Chapter 1: What’s new

What’s new

New and changed features in After Effects CS4, CS5, and CS5.5, collected by Chris and Trish Meyer on the ProVideo

Coalition website.

For a complete list of what’s new and changed in Adobe After Effects CS5.5, see this post on the After Effects Region

of Interest blog.

What’s new in After Effects CS5

Online resources about new and changed features in After Effects CS5

New and changed features in After Effects CS4, CS5, and CS5.5, collected by Chris and Trish Meyer on the ProVideo

Coalition website.

For information on an update to the importer software for RED (R3D) files (for the RED camera Mysterium-X sensor and new color science),

see this post on the After Effects Region of Interest blog.

In After Effects CS5, bugs were fixed for the Apple ProRes 422 and ProRes 4444 codecs. However, there were still a couple of issues.

See this post on the After Effects Region of Interest blog for details about the After Effects CS5 (10.0.1) update:

• Several fixes and improvements for RED (R3D) import and workflow.

• The Apply Color LUT effect can now use .3dl files with floating point values or 3DMESH/Mesh keywords, or those

saved from an ASSIMILATE SCRATCH system (i.e. that have SCRATCH in the comments at the top of the file).

• QuickTime (.mov) files from JVC solid-state cameras can be imported.

The Vector Paint effects was removed for After Effects CS5. See these posts on the After Effects user-to-user forum for a discussion of alternatives and feedback. This post on the After Effects Region of Interest blog has more information about giving feedback in general.

See this post on the Premiere Pro Work Area blog for information about what’s new and changed in Adobe Media

Encoder CS5.

For details of new and changed features in After Effects CS4, see the After Effects CS4 Help document.

See this post on the After Effects Region of Interest for workarounds for two issues in After Effects CS5.

Top new features in After Effects CS5

• 64-bit After Effects CS5 application, with improved performance and memory features: “Memory, storage, and

performance” on page 620

• Roto Brush tool: “Roto Brush and Refine Matte” on page 379

• Refine Matte effect: “Roto Brush and Refine Matte” on page 379

• AVC-Intra import and improved RED (R3D) support: “Supported import formats” on page 71

• Imagineer mocha shape for After Effects plug-in and improved mocha for After Effects planar tracker application:

“Resources for Imagineer mocha shape for After Effects” on page 375 and “Resources for mocha for After Effects

(mocha-AE)” on page 246

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

What’s new

• Auto-keyframe mode: “Auto-keyframe mode” on page 198

• Apply Color LUT effect for using color lookup tables: “Apply Color LUT effect” on page 598

• Align panel improvements, including ability to align layers to the edges and center of a composition: “Align or

distribute layers in 2D space” on page 126

• Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse 3, with support for 32-bpc color: “Resources for Synthetic Aperture Color

Finesse” on page 270

• Digieffects FreeForm: “Resources for Digieffects FreeForm” on page 467

Other new and changed features in After Effects CS5

Added Help > Send Feedback command, which opens a web browser to the feature-request and bug-report form on

Adobe website.

the

Projects and compositions changes

• The default composition settings are now for a 30-second 1920x1080 HDTV composition: “Composition settings”

on page 62

• In previous versions, if you were entering or editing text when it was time for an auto-save, you would be forced

out of text-editing mode. Now, if you're in text-editing mode when it's time for an auto-save, that auto-save is skipped:

• The Frame Rate control in the Composition Settings dialog box now includes a menu that allows you to select from

a list of common frame rates:

• The composition background color setting is now located in the Composition Settings dialog box instead of on the

Composition menu, and the keyboard shortcut for accessing only the composition background color has been removed:

• When you double-click a precomposition layer when the Roto Brush tool or a paint tool is active, the

precomposition layer opens in a Layer panel. To open the nested composition in a Composition panel instead, Altdouble-click (Windows) or Option-double-click (Mac OS) the precomposition layer:

nested compositions” on page 66

“Save and back up projects in After Effects CS5” on page 52

“Change frame rate for a composition” on page 80

“Composition settings” on page 62

“Opening and navigating

Importing and managing footage items changes

• Added interpretation rules and gamma rules for ProRes media: “Interpret footage items” on page 75

• Added .mxr and .sxr as filename extensions recognized as OpenEXR files for import: “Supported import formats”

on page 71

• Added interpretation rule for RED (R3D) raw color data that interprets colors as HDTV (Rec. 709) gamma-

encoded (non-linear-light) 32-bpc color:

“Interpret footage items” on page 75

• Improvements in import of Illustrator files with multiple artboards created from Video & Film presets: “Preparing

and importing Illustrator files” on page 113

• After Effects can import multi-channel DPX files, such as those from a Northlight film scanner: “Cineon and DPX

footage items” on page 115

• Removed ability to open or import After Effects projects created by versions of After Effects 5.5 or earlier. After

Effects CS5 can open and import projects created by After Effects 6.0 and later: on page 90

“Import an After Effects project”

• Removed ability to open projects using project links in movies rendered and exported from After Effects CS3 or

earlier. After Effects CS5 can open projects using project links included in movies rendered and exported by After Effects CS4 and later:

“Import an After Effects project” on page 90

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

What’s new

• Removed ability to import AAF, OMF, PCX, Pixar, and Filmstrip files: “Supported import formats” on page 71

• Removed ability to import Premiere 6.5 projects. After Effects CS5 can import Premiere Pro projects: “Import an

Adobe Premiere Pro project” on page 91

• Removed ability to import and export FLV files with video encoded using the Sorenson Spark codec. After Effects

CS5 can import and export FLV files encoded with the On2 VP6 codec:

FLV or F4V file” on page 704

“Render and export a composition as an

• When you drag a completed output module to a folder in the Project panel, you import the output file or files into

that folder:

“Output modules and output module settings” on page 691

• Double-click a footage item in the Project panel to open it in a Footage viewer. Alt-double-click (Windows) or

Option-double-click (Mac OS) a footage item in the Project panel to open the source file in the media player assigned for that file type by the operating system. Press Enter on the numeric keypad to open selected footage items in a Footage viewer. The behavior in previous versions was less predictable and more complex, and was limited to specific media players: page 86

Layers and properties changes

“View footage item in the Footage panel or media player assigned by operating system” on

• Added Divide and Subtract blending modes: “Blending mode reference” on page 152

• The Label Colors and Label Defaults preferences categories have been combined into one Labels preference

category. Null Object and Text items have been added to the Label Defaults section, and a new label color control (Dark Green) has been added in the 16th position. Panel tabs include a square label that is the same color as the composition, footage item, or layer’s label if the Use Label Color For Related Tabs preference is selected in the Appearance preference category:

“Color labels for layers, compositions, and footage items” on page 136

• The Camera Settings dialog box includes a new Type option, which specifies if the camera is a one-node or two-

node camera:

“Camera settings” on page 166

• Shift-dragging with the Unified Camera tool selected temporarily activates the Orbit Camera tool and constrains

rotation to one axis:

“Move or adjust a camera or working 3D view with the Camera tools” on page 171

• Dragging with the Unified Camera tool selected and the right mouse button pressed temporarily activates the Track

Z Camera tool and modifies Position only: on page 171

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

• Dragging with the Unified Camera tool selected and the right mouse button pressed and Ctrl (Windows) or

Command (Mac OS) pressed temporarily activates the Track Z Camera tool and modifies both Position and Point Of Interest:

“Move or adjust a camera or working 3D view with the Camera tools” on page 171

Views and previews changes

• In After Effects CS4, the default center cut action-safe margin was 30%, and the default title-safe margin was 35%.

In After Effects CS5, the default center cut action-safe margin is 32.5%, and the default title-safe margin is 40%: “About title-safe and action-safe zones” on page 192

• Added Alternate RAM Preview preference, which is used to preview the specified number of frames when you press

Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) while starting a RAM preview: on page 179

“RAM preview a specified number of frames”

• In Previews preferences, added Viewer Zoom Quality and Color Management Quality controls: “Viewer Quality

preferences” on page 185

• New Alpha Boundary and Alpha Overlay view modes in the Layer panel, with keyboard shortcuts: “Layer panel

view options” on page 385 and “Views (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 726

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

What’s new

• When you are working with a composition that contains a 3D layer, a light, or a camera, the Composition panel

shows a label in the top-left corner of each view (such as Top or Right) to indicate which view is associated with which camera perspective. To hide these labels, choose Show 3D Labels from the Composition panel menu: “Choose a 3D view” on page 188

• When you click the Current Time control in the upper-left corner of the Timeline panel, you can now enter a time

directly in the box instead of opening the Go To Time dialog box: page 182

“Move the current-time indicator (CTI)” on

• When you click the Time Navigator in the Timeline panel, the Info panel shows the times of the beginning and end

of the Time Navigator duration:

“Zoom in or out in time for a composition” on page 183

• When you click the Work Area bar in the Timeline panel, the Info panel shows the times of the beginning and end

of the work area. The length (duration) of the work area is also shown:

“Work area” on page 186

• Default audio preview duration (Preferences > Previews) is now 30 seconds: “Preview video and audio” on page 178

• The resolution (down-sample factor) of a Layer viewer is now tied to the resolution of the Composition viewer for

the composition in which the layer is contained:

“Resolution” on page 190

• Removed Wireframe preview.

Animation and keyframes changes

• When you place the pointer over a vertex (keyframe) in the Graph Editor, a tooltip now displays the layer name,

property name, time, and value:

“View or edit a keyframe value” on page 202

Color changes

• In the View > Simulate Output menu, Macintosh RGB and Windows RGB have changed to Legacy Macintosh RGB

(Gamma 1.8) and Internet Standard RGB (sRGB). This change corresponds with a change in gamma from 1.8 to

2.2 for Mac OS version 10.6 and later:

Drawing, painting, and paths changes

“Gamma and tone response” on page 271

• Added the Path Point Size preference, which specifies the size of Bezier direction handles and vertices for masks

and shapes, direction handles for motion paths, and some effect control points:

“General preferences” on page 49

• Selecting vertices, direction handles, and effect control points is easier. Instead of needing to click directly on the

point, you can click within a small area around each point:

“Select masks, segments, and vertices” on page 316

• Using Create Masks From Text now trims the new layer to match the original: “Create shapes or masks from text

characters” on page 309

• When you change a mask path color, the new color is used as the default mask path color for new masks: “Change

mask path color” on page 369

Text changes

• Added ability to orient each text character around its anchor point toward the active camera with Orient Each

Character Independently option in Auto-Orientation dialog box:

“Per-character 3D text properties” on page 354

• When you select certain properties in the Timeline panel for a text animation, anchors points are now shown in the

Composition panel:

“Text anchor point properties” on page 353

• Added No Break command in Character panel menu to create nonbreaking spaces: “Create a non-breaking space”

on page 339

• You can now enable or disable the Path Options for a text layer by clicking the visibility (eyeball) switch for the

Path Options property:

“Creating and animating text on a path” on page 355

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

What’s new

• Double-clicking a Type tool creates a new text layer: “Enter point text” on page 333

Transparency, opacity, and compositing changes

• After Effects now premultiplies channels with black when creating FLV files with transparency, which solves

problems with fringes and halos in Flash and Flash Player: on page 77

Effects and animation presets changes

“Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight”

• New Color Correction effects based on Photoshop adjustment layer types. When you import PSD files with these

adjustments, they are preserved:

• “Black & White effect” on page 449

• “Selective Color effect” on page 463

• “Vibrance effect” on page 466

• The results of changes in the Curves effect are now shown as you drag in the Effect Controls panel, rather than only

being shown when you release the mouse button:

“Curves effect” on page 456

• Removed entries in Effects & Presets panel and Effect menu for the Paint effect (and Paint category) and Puppet

effect (from Distort category), because there's no need to apply these effects directly. Use the corresponding tools to apply the effects: on page 239

“Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser” on page 285 and “Animating with Puppet tools”

• The histogram in the Levels effect provides the option to see individual color channels in context with other color

channels, as well as showing color channels as colorized:

“Levels effect” on page 460

• The Alpha Levels effect has been removed. Instead, use the Levels effect, which can be assigned to work only on an

alpha channel, has a histogram, and is a 32-bpc effect. Old projects that use the Alpha Levels effect will still open, and you will still be able to modify the Alpha Levels effect properties in these projects:

“Levels effect” on page 460

• The Vector Paint effect has been removed. Compositions created with a previous version of After Effects that use

the Vector Paint effect will still render, but you will not be able to modify the Vector Paint effect properties in these compositions. Instead, use paint tools and shape layers:

“Drawing, painting, and paths” on page 285

• Font preview support (the Show Font option) has been removed from the Basic Text, Path Text, and Numbers

effects.

• The Show Animation Presets option is now off by default in the panel menu of the Effect Controls panel: “Effect

Controls panel” on page 391

• The Effects & Presets panel command Reveal In Finder (Mac OS) or Reveal In Windows Explorer (Windows) now

works for Pixel Bender effects:

“Effects & Presets panel” on page 392

• The Exposure slider in the Exposure effect now has a range from -4 to 4 instead of -20 to 20 to allow for more precise

adjustment:

“Exposure effect” on page 457

• Changed behavior for copying effects when the Effect Controls panel is active. Even if a property of an effect is

selected, the effect itself (not just the selected properties visible in the Timeline panel) will be copied. Behavior when the Effect Controls panel isn't active is unchanged:

“Effect Controls panel” on page 391

Markers and metadata changes

• Added File > Go To Adobe Story menu command: “XMP metadata” on page 613

• Include Source XMP Metadata option is off by default in all output module templates: “Exporting XMP metadata

from After Effects” on page 616

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

What’s new

• After Effects writes startTimecode and altTimecode values into XMP metadata. You can view these values in the

Start Timecode and Alternate Timecode fields in the Dynamic Media schema in the Metadata panel:

metadata in After Effects” on page 614

“XMP

• Removed the Clip Notes features.

Memory, storage, and performance changes

• Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing can now use the virtual (logical) processor cores created

by hyperthreading on many modern computers:

“Render multiple frames simultaneously” on page 620

• Simplified Memory & Multiprocessing preferences, improved automatic RAM allocation between foreground and

background processes, added Details dialog box for observation of RAM usage, and improved performance of Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing:

“Memory & Multiprocessing preferences” on page 620

• After Effects now shares a memory pool with Premiere Pro, Adobe Media Encoder, and Encore: “Memory pool

shared between After Effects, Premiere Pro, Encore, and Adobe Media Encoder” on page 623

• The time that After Effects takes to start is reduced. The start-up time for the background processes used in Render

Multiple Frames Simultaneously multiprocessing is also reduced.

Plug-ins, scripts, and automation changes

• Esc key interrupts a running script: “Loading and running scripts” on page 633

• After Effects CS5 can load and run only 64-bit plug-ins, not 32-bit plug-ins: “Plug-ins” on page 631

• Pixel Bender Toolkit 2.0 included, and performance of Pixel Bender effects greatly improved: “Plug-ins” on

page 631

Rendering and exporting changes

• Removed QuickTime export functionality from File > Export menu. To export a QuickTime movie, use the render

“Rendering and exporting overview” on page 680

queue:

• Removed ability to export AAF, OMF, PCX, Pixar, Filmstrip, ElectricImage, Softimage PIC, and PICT files:

“Supported output formats” on page 682

• Pressing spacebar no longer stops the render queue: “Pause or stop rendering” on page 685

• Warning for mismatch in frame rate or dimensions between output module settings and other settings, and

automatic correction of mismatches:

“Warning for mismatch in frame rate or dimensions” on page 694

• Removed options dialog box for SGI output. The dialog box contained an option for using RLE (run-length

encoding). This option is now always on.

• Filename extensions are now enforced on output: “Specify filenames and locations for rendered output” on

page 688

• Cineon output module renamed to DPX/Cineon, and DPX is now default. To create Cineon files, choose

FIDO/Cineon 4.5 in the Cineon Settings dialog box:

“Cineon and DPX footage items” on page 115

• Added warning message explaining that custom format settings will be reset to defaults when opening a project

created in After Effects CS4 or earlier if the settings can’t be converted. This can happen with some output modules that reference FLV, F4V, H.264 (and variants), MPEG-2 (and variants), or WMV:

module templates” on page 692

“Create, manage, and edit output

• Added several output module templates for common formats, including F4V, FLV, H.264, and MPEG-2. Renamed

some existing output module templates for increased clarity: on page 692

“Create, manage, and edit output module templates”

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

What’s new

• Removed some color depth options from output module settings that used very few bits per pixel (bpp) from output

modules: Black & White (1-bpp color), 4 Colors (2-bpp color), 16 Colors (4-bpp color), Thousands Of Colors (16bpp color), and some grayscale options. This doesn’t affect higher color depths that are expressed in bits per channel (bpc). Remaining are color depth options for 256 Colors (8-bpp color), Millions Of Colors (8-bpc), Trillions Of Colors (16-bpc), and Floating Point (32-bpc):

“Output modules and output module settings” on

page 691

• Removed overflow volumes feature.

• Changed Segment Movie Files At preference to Segment Video-only Movie Files At preference: “Segment settings”

on page 713

• Removed some fractional audio sample rates and ability to set audio sample rate to an arbitrary, custom value in

output module settings. If you need to save audio with a sample rate other than those offered in After Effects, you can reprocess the audio in Adobe Audition:

“Output module settings” on page 693

• Removed Edit > Edit In Adobe Audition command: “Edit audio in Adobe Soundbooth” on page 26

Keyboard shortcuts and miscellaneous user interface changes

• To mitigate the problem of some new Apple keyboards lacking a numeric keypad, alternative shortcuts have been

added for common operations that have shortcuts that use the numeric keypad. These changes are for Mac OS only. For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, see

“Keyboard shortcuts” on page 720.

function shortcut using numeric keypad new shortcut

RAM preview 0 (zero on numeric keypad) Control+0 (zero on main keyboard)

Shift+RAM preview Shift+0 (zero on numeric keypad) Shift+Control+0 (zero on main

Preview only audio from the current time

Preview only audio in work area

Preview N frames Option+0 (zero on numeric

Add marker at current time (layer marker if layer selected, composition marker otherwise)

Add marker at current time (layer marker if layer selected, composition marker otherwise) and open marker dialog box

. (decimal on the numeric keypad) Control+. (period on main keyboard)

Option+. (decimal on numeric keypad)

keypad)

* (multiply on numeric keypad) Control+8 (on main keyboard)

Option+* (multiply on numeric keypad)

keyboard)

Control+Option+. (period on main keyboard)

Control+Option+0 (zero on main keyboard)

Option+Control+8 (on main keyboard)

• Pressing J or K goes to beginning, end, or base frame of Roto Brush span if viewing Roto Brush in Layer panel:

“Time navigation (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 724

• Pressing PP shows Roto Brush strokes as well as paint strokes and Puppet pins: “Showing properties and groups in

the Timeline panel (keyboard shortcuts)” on page 730

• New keyboard shortcuts for Look At Selected Layers and Look At All Layers commands: “3D layers (keyboard

shortcuts)” on page 732

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

What’s new

• New shortcuts to display entire composition duration in the Timeline panel: “Zoom in or out in time for a

composition” on page 183

• Mouse scroll wheel no longer changes camera position when the Unified Camera tool is active. Rolling the mouse

scroll wheel zooms in this context:

“Scroll or zoom with the mouse wheel” on page 47

• Many dialog boxes now have a Preview option that allows you to see the results of changes before you close the

dialog box. Dialog boxes for which the Preview option has been added include Interpret Footage, Composition Settings, Camera Settings, Solid Settings, Light Settings, 3D Rotation, and all transform property dialog boxes.

• In the Project, Render Queue, and Effect Controls panels, you can use the arrow keys to expand or collapse groups.

• Several more features now operate on the visible viewer in ETLAT mode, including keyboard shortcuts for toggling

grids, toggling guides, showing channels, working with snapshots, and sending a preview to an external video monitor:

“Edit this, look at that (ETLAT) and locked Composition viewers” on page 44

• Changed some user interface strings to make their meaning and function more clear.

• In Help menu, changed Community Help And Support to After Effects Support Center: After Effects Support

Center on the Adobe website

• In Composition panel, changed Show Last Snapshot to Show Snapshot: “Snapshots” on page 186

• In Mask Interpolation panel, changed Mask Shape to Mask Path in all items, including changing Add Mask

Shape Vertices to Add Mask Path Vertices:

“Animate a mask path with Smart Mask Interpolation” on page 320

• In the Output Module Settings dialog box, the Output Module Templates dialog box, and the Output Module

section of the Render Queue panel, Stretch has been renamed to Resize:

settings” on page 691

“Output modules and output module

• In several places relevant to importing Photoshop and Illustrator files as compositions, Composition - Cropped

Layers changed to Composition - Retain Layer Sizes: page 109

“Import a still-image sequence as a composition” on

• In the SWF Settings dialog box, the Prevent Import checkbox has been renamed to Prevent Editing to clarify its

“SWF export settings” on page 703

intent:

• Removed Preserve Clipboard Data For Other Applications preference. This option is now always on.

What’s new in After Effects CS5.5

For a complete list of what’s new and changed in Adobe After Effects CS5.5, see this post on the After Effects Region

of Interest blog.

See this series on the video2brain website for video training about every new and changed feature in After Effects CS5.5.

Chris & Trish Meyer provide free video tutorials about new features in After Effects CS5.5. For the tutorials, see this

Adobe TV video series.

New and changed features in After Effects CS4, CS5, and CS5.5, collected by Chris and Trish Meyer on the ProVideo

Coalition website.

Top new features in After Effects CS5.5

• Warp Stabilizer effect: “Stabilize with the Warp Stabilizer effect” on page 259.

• Camera Lens Blur effect: “Camera Lens Blur effect (CS5.5)” on page 434.

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

What’s new

• Source timecode: “Source timecode (CS5.5 and later)” on page 57.

• Stereoscopic 3D improvements: “Stereoscopic 3D camera rig (CS5.5)” on page 175.

• Light falloff: “Light settings” on page 170.

• Saving a project backward (as an After Effects CS5 project): “Save and back up projects” on page 52.

• Plus many more.

Last updated 11/28/2011

Chapter 2: Workflows, planning, and setup

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 on the installation disc, as well as being included in the Release Notes document available through the

For assistance with installation issues, see the Creative Suite Help and Support section on the Adobe website.

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. You run the render engine using the Adobe After Effects Render Engine shortcut in the Adobe After Effects CS5 or After Effects CS5.5 folder.

After Effects support section of the Adobe website.

Limitations of the trial version for Adobe After Effects CS5.5 and later

The trial version of After Effects CS5.5 and later includes all of the codecs that are included with the full version of After Effects CS5.5 and later. This means that you can import and export to all of the supported file formats using the trial version. The free trial version of Adobe After Effects CS5.5 and later 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. For more information about limitations of the trial version for After Effects CS5.5, see the

Limitations of the trial version for Adobe After Effects CS5

The free trial version of Adobe After Effects CS5 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 and decoding MPEG formats are available only with the full version of Adobe After Effects software. 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. For more information about limitations of the trial version for After Effects CS5, see the

After Effects CS5 and later is a 64-bit application

After Effects CS5 and later is a 64-bit application, so it can only run on 64-bit operating systems. If you are installing Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium or Master Collection edition on a computer with a 32-bit operating system, then you can install After Effects CS4 and Premiere Pro CS4 using an intaller that is included with the suite. To activate the CS4 versions of these applications, you must use a separate serial number. For assistance, contact

Service.

Adobe website.

Adobe Customer

For more information about installing and activating the 32-bit applications, see the Adobe website.

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More Help topics

“Network rendering with watch folders and render engines” on page 709

“Plug-ins” on page 631

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 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.

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

Workflows

General workflow in After Effects

More Help topics

“Basic workflow tutorial: Create a simple movie” on page 12

Online resources for general workflow in After Effects

For a video introduction to After Effects, go to the Adobe website.

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

See this post on the After Effects Region of Interest blog for a collection of resources for getting started with After

Effects.

This video from the After Effects CS5: Learn by Video series provides an introduction to the basic terminology,

workflow, concepts, and user interface items in After Effects.

This video from the “After Effects CS5: Learn by Video” series provides an introduction to the basic terminology,

workflow, concepts, and user interface items in After Effects.

See this page on the After Effects Region of Interest blog for a collection of resources for getting started with After

Effects.

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.

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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

“Importing and interpreting footage items” on page 70.

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

“Composition basics” on page 58, “Creating layers” on page 117, “Transparency, opacity, and compositing” on page 365, “Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector

graphics” on page 295, and “Creating and editing text layers” on page 331.

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 194,

“Expression basics” on page 637, and “Tracking and stabilizing motion (CS5)” on page 246.

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 386.

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 178 and “Color management” on page 273.

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 680.

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.

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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.

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.

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).

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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 720

“Import footage items” on page 74

“General workflow in After Effects” on page 11

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.

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 write 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.

Note: To start the Adobe Story service from within After Effects, choose File > Go To Adobe Story.

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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

aspect ratio” on page 81.

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 375.

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 79.

“Pixel aspect ratio and frame

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 249.

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 273 and “Timecode and time display units” on page 55.

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 263.

“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 62.

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 691.

“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.

“Storage requirements for output files” on page 624.

For more information, see “Improve performance” on page 627 and “Memory & Multiprocessing preferences” on page 620.

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.

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?”

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.

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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

Use these tips when shooting video for mobile devices:

“Create compositions for playback on mobile devices” on page 60.)

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

• 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 62

“Output modules and output module settings” on page 691

“Render settings” on page 689

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.

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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.

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 686.

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 71 and “Supported output formats” on page 682.

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 631

“Fonts” on page 337

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.

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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:

• What is Adobe Bridge?

• New features in Adobe Bridge CS5

• Metadata and keywords in Adobe Bridge

More Help topics

“Template projects and example projects” on page 53

“Animation presets overview and resources” on page 386

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.

More Help topics

“Preparing and importing Photoshop files” on page 110

“3D object layers from Photoshop” on page 164

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 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 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 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.

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:

• Working with Vanishing Point in Photoshop and After Effects

• Using Vanishing Point to map a 3D environment

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 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 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.

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 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.

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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

• and Flash together to dynamically replace a video at run time in Flash Player:

http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_aefl_vid15383v1008_en

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• 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

• : http://www.layersmagazine.com/exporting-xfl-fomrat-from-after-effects-to-flash.html

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

• Tom Green provides a detailed article titled Integrating

• Flash Professional

• CS4 with

• After Effects

• CS4 in the Flash Developer Center: http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_aefl_integrating_fl_ae_en

• 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 > 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.

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

Workflows, planning, and setup

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)

• Exporting XFL Format from After Effects to Flash (Tom Green, Layers Magazine)

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

Workflows, planning, and setup

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 698

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. (See “Import an Adobe Premiere Pro project”

on page 91.)

• 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” on page 719.)

• 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 92.)

If you have Adobe Creative Suite 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 92.)

• 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 27 and the relevant sections of Adobe Premiere Pro Help.

For a video tutorial about working with After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro using Dynamic Link, go to the Adobe

website.

Last updated 11/28/2011

USING AFTER EFFECTS

Workflows, planning, and setup

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 53.)

(See

For information on using Dynamic Link with After Effects and Encore, see “Dynamic Link and After Effects” on page 27.

For video tutorials about using After Effects with Encore, go to the Adobe website:

• Creating Encore menus with After Effects

• Using Dynamic Link

Paul Tuersley provides a script on the After Effects script website for importing subtitles into After Effects and

controlling their formatting.

More Help topics

“Web links, chapter links, cue points, and markers” on page 611

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.

Last updated 11/28/2011

+ 713 hidden pages

Macromedia After Effects - CS5 Instruction Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Legal notices

Contents

Chapter 1: What’s new

What’s new

What’s new in After Effects CS5

Online resources about new and changed features in After Effects CS5

Top new features in After Effects CS5

Other new and changed features in After Effects CS5

What’s new in After Effects CS5.5

Top new features in After Effects CS5.5

Chapter 2: Workflows, planning, and setup

Setup and installation

Installing the software

Activate the software

Workflows

General workflow in After Effects

Online resources for general workflow in After Effects

Overview of general workflow in After Effects

Basic workflow tutorial: Create a simple movie

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

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

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

Exchanging still images

Exchanging movies

Color

Working with Flash and After Effects

Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects

Working with Adobe Encore and After Effects

Create a button for Adobe Encore

Assign a subpicture highlight and video thumbnail to a layer

Export a button for use in Adobe Encore