3 main panes - Project, Composition & Timeline
- Spatial arrangement: When working in After Effects, you can arrange elements spatially within the frame (composition window)
- Temporal arrangement: The timeline is used to create a temporal arrangement - what happens at a particular moment in time as your animation plays.
- Pixels are used as the dimensions of the frame - this is specified by the chosen preset
- When using the PAL specification, we have 25 frames per second (25 still images for every second of video)
- The duration will be set to 5 seconds as specified in the brief
Photoshop & Illustrator
After Effects is similar to InDesign - you do not necessarily create anything 'new' as all work is done in Photoshop and Illustrator and then imported. The software is used to create an arrangement of images and text.
- Resolution: 72dpi
- Colour mode: RGB
- Units of measurements: Pixels (1050 x 576 - The composition size is used as a reference in Photoshop)
In the 'Preset' dialogue box you can create a Photoshop document based on the chosen setting used for your video/film. This will produce a document which uses the same dimension and aspect ratio.
Guides/Zones
The guides specify two 'zones'. The outside rectangle is referred to as the 'Action safe' zone because anything you put inside these guides will be viewable however the video is presented. There is a chance that any content outside of these guides will be cropped. The inside guide box is referred to as the 'Title safe zone', used when working primarily with text.
This can also be viewed in After Effects. It also shows the area in which will be shown when the video is displayed on a standard screen (as opposed to the preset widescreen).
Using Photoshop & Illustrator files
- Photoshop file
- Transparent background (must be saved a .psd format to retain transparency)
- Widescreen preset (exact size) to get an idea of the scale
- Text fit to the title safe zone
Don't enlarge Photoshop files in After Effects, much like any other program - the image will pixelate/blur
Importing files
Text
When importing a file as 'footage' (see image below), the video will occupy one layer in the composition - it is the simplest type of asset you can work with.
After Effects reminds you once more which asks you to make the same choice.
You need to keep all imported content (text and image) in the same folder as your After Effects project. After Effects will show you the path of the file within the 'Project' dialogue box. This file can then be 'dragged and dropped' into the composition pane or the timeline window. When dragged into the Timeline window, the image will be centered automatically.
Shatter
The following is a segmented each image, with each section on an individual layer. We can continue to work with these layers when the file is imported into After Effects. This is useful if you want to animate particular sections individually. As we are now working with layers, this needs to be imported as a 'composition' as opposed to a 'footage'. Again, we are asked to confirm this choice.
The layers are shown in the Project dialogue box. The one Photoshop folder is separated into several, individual Photoshop files. You will rarely need to open this folder and use those files as we use the composition instead.
Any After Effects project can contain more than one composition - there is now two in this case. The 'Scatter' composition can be opened simply by double clicking it. Each layer can now be animated independently. It is useful to check the composition settings to ensure it is set at the correct size.
As this word will eventually 'shatter' into several pieces, position keyframes need to be added on all layers. As all sections are positioned together at the start, you can add the same keyframe to multiple layers simply by selecting all layers.
When a keyframe is activated on one layer, the same keyframe will be added to the rest.
I then added another keyframe later on in the timeline simply by moving each individual section outside of the composition window. These keyframes were added a random intervals to give the impression the word was shattering spontaneously.
I then added two more keyframes for each layer so the sections of the word return to their original state.
Scale
When importing a .psd consisting of separate layers as a 'Composition', the size of the layer is the size of all the components combined (the anchor points fit the size of the text'. Here I have simply increased and decreased the scale of the whole image by higlighting all layers. As you can see, the scale is increased from the central anchor point.
When rotating an individual letter. the image rotates, but around the central anchor point of the entire word.
However, this can change when importing a Photoshop file as 'Composition - Retain File Sizes'. The size of the layer is the size of the content - when all layers are highlighted and you wish to rotate the text, the letters rotate using their own central anchor point.
Illustrator
You can also create a document in Illustrator using the same profile settings as After Effects. The artboard consists of a grey checkerboard with green guides (Action/Title safe zones). Similarly to the other files, we import this as 'footage'.
Even though this is an Illustrator (vector) file, After Effects automatically rastorises the image so when the scale is increased, the image becomes pixelated. This can be altered simply though a layer setting - as highlighted below) which tells After Effects to continuously rasterise the image no matter what scale.
Layer settings
Shy tool
The 'Shy' switch allows you to temporarily hide a layer in order to simplify the timeline.
Quality
Wire, draft or best - For if you want particular layers to be of the highest quality in order to see how it would look when imported or conversely, speed up loading times by converting the layers to a lower quality.
Motion Blur
The motion blur tool (the icon consisting of 3 overlapping circles) adds a more realistic transition but will increase RAM preview loading time. Here I have added the blur
Adjustment Layer
Much like Photoshop, an adjustment layer will affect all layers below.
Collecting files
After Affects automatically collects all source images and creates a new folder containing the After Effects project and copies of all files. This can then be transported to another computer.
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