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Page 1 Chapter 1:...
Page 2 The content of this guide is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorpo- rated.
Page 3: Table Of Contents
........89 Importing After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro projects .
Page 4: Table Of Contents
................170 Creating Adobe Encore DVD buttons .
Page 5: Table Of Contents
Chapter 12: Masks, transparency, and keying Transparency overview ..............242 Creating and importing masks .
Page 6: Table Of Contents
............. . . 627 Exporting project information to other Adobe applications ....... 631...
Page 7: Installation And Registration
To register Register your Adobe product to receive complimentary support on installation and product defects and notifications about product updates. Registering your product also gives you access to the wealth of tips, tricks, and tutorials in Adobe Studio and access ®...
Page 8: Adobe Help Center
“To view support documents” on page 3 To check for updates Adobe periodically provides updates to software and to topics in Adobe Help Center. You can easily obtain these updates through Adobe Help Center. An active Internet connection is required.
Page 9: Using Help
The complete documentation for using your Adobe product is available in Help, a browser-based system you can access through Adobe Help Center. Help topics are updated periodically, so you can always be sure to have the most recent information available. For details, see “To check for updates” on page 2.
Page 10 To search Help topics Search using words or phrases to quickly find topics. You can search Help for one product or for all Adobe products you’ve installed. If you find a topic that you may want to view again, bookmark it for quick retrieval.
Page 11: Tips, Training, And Other Resources
To change the view By default, Adobe Help Center opens in Full view. Full view gives you access to the Product Help, Expert Support, and More Resources sections. Switch to Compact view when you want to see only the selected Help topic and you want to keep the Help window on top of your product workspace.
Page 12 In addition to the Total Training Video Workshop DVD included with your software, short Total Training web videos on a variety of products and topics are also available in Adobe Studio, and complete Total Training courseware can be purchased online from the Adobe Store.
Page 13 Adobe software certification programs; and more. • Visit the Adobe user forums, where users share tips, ask questions, and find out how others are getting the most out of their software. User forums are available in English, French, German, and Japanese from the main Support page of your local Adobe website.
Page 14: New Features
(See “To create a new Photoshop layer” on page 152, “Working with After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro” on page 94, and “About Adobe Dynamic Link (Adobe Production Studio only)” on page 632.) Recreate the effect of a defocused camera lens more easily and realistically with the new Lens Creative blur effects Blur, and use the new Smart Blur to create soft color without destroying fine detail.
Page 15: Workflow And Workspace Basics
Whether you use Adobe After Effects to animate a simple title or create complex special effects, you generally follow the same basic workflow. The After Effects 7.0 interface facilitates your work and adapts to each stage of the process. After Effects workflow...
Page 16 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Create one or more compositions. Any footage item can become 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, using 3D light sources and camera views.
Page 17 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Add effects to layers Animate You can make any combination of a layer’s properties change over time, using conventional keyframing, expressions, or even keyframe assistants. With the Graph Editor, you can add, delete, and modify keyframes, and specify inter- polation methods.
Page 18 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Use keyframes to animate layers Preview your work Previewing compositions is fast and convenient, even for complex projects, especially if you use OpenGL technology to accelerate previews. You can change the speed and quality of previews by specifying their resolution and frame rate, and by limiting the area and duration of the composition that you preview.
Page 19 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Previewing methods A. RAM preview in Time Controls panel B. Cache indicator in Timeline panel C. Fast Previews Export Add one or more compositions to the render queue to render them at the quality settings you choose, and create...
Page 20 As you rearrange panels, the other panels resize automatically to fit the window. You can use floating windows to create a workspace more like those in previous versions of Adobe applications, or to place panels on multiple monitors.
Page 21 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Example of workspace A. Application window B. Grouped panels C. Panels To scroll or zoom in panels If your mouse has a wheel for scrolling, you can zoom in the Timeline, Project, Render Queue, Composition, Layer, Footage, Flowchart, Effect Controls, and Effects &...
Page 22: Customizing The Workspace
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To display menus In addition to choosing from the menus at the top of your screen, you can choose from context menus, which display commands relative to the active tool or selected item. Panel menus display commands relative to the active panel.
Page 23 You can open a panel in a floating window. You can add panels to the floating window or otherwise modify it, as you do the application window. You can use floating windows to create a workspace like those in earlier versions of Adobe applications, or to make use of a secondary monitor. ❖...
Page 24 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) and drag the panel or group from its current location. When you release the mouse, the panel or group appears in a new floating window. • Drag the panel or group outside the application window. (If the application window is maximized, drag the panel to the Windows task bar.)
Page 25: Predefined Workspaces
Predefined workspaces To use an Adobe workspace Each Adobe video and audio application includes several workspaces for various tasks. For example, Adobe Encore ® DVD has workspaces for editing in the Timeline and for designing slideshows, menus, and navigation. You can choose a workspace at any time.
Page 26: Working With Panels
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Working with panels About panels By default, After Effects organizes panels in the Standard workspace configuration. You can choose from a number of preconfigured workspaces, customize these workspaces, or create new workspaces. Workspaces remember panel locations even if the panels aren’t open.
Page 27 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To work with panel columns You can work with columns in the Project, Timeline, and Render Queue panels. ❖ Do any of the following: • To display or hide a column, choose Columns from the panel menu and select the column you want to display or hide.
Page 28 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To display MOV or AVI movies in the standard Footage panel, Alt-double-click (Windows) or Option-double- click (Mac OS) the footage item in the Project panel. About the Tools panel Tool panel A. Selection B. Hand C. Zoom D. Rotation E. Orbit Camera, Track XY Camera, Track Z Camera F. Pan Behind G. Rectangular Mask, Elliptical Mask H.
Page 29 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To change the Info panel RGBA display, choose an option such as Percent or Web from the Info panel menu. Selecting Auto Color Display automatically switches between 8 bits per channel, 16 bits per channel, and 32 bits per channel depending on the project’s color depth.
Page 30: The Basics Of Bridge
About Adobe Bridge You can use Adobe Bridge to organize, browse, and locate the assets you need to create content for print, the web, television, DVD, film, and mobile devices. Adobe Bridge keeps native Adobe files (such as PSD and PDF) as well as non-Adobe application files available for easy access.
Page 31 For example, if you choose File > Browse from within Adobe Premiere and then double-click a Photoshop file, the file is added to the Premiere Project panel, not opened in Photoshop.
Page 32 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To use Bridge in Compact mode Switch to Compact mode when you want to shrink the Bridge window. In Compact mode, the panels are hidden and the content area is simplified. A subset of common Bridge commands remains available from the pop-up menu at the upper right portion of the window.
Page 33 You can save the current Bridge layout (that is, the work area configuration) as a workspace and reuse it later. By saving Bridge in various configurations, you can work in (and quickly switch between) different layouts of the work area. For instance, you might use one workspace to sort new photos and another to work with Adobe InDesign files.
Page 34 Look In menu. Sets the language used in the Bridge interface. Language Opens camera raw files in the Adobe Camera Raw dialog box in Double-Click Edits Camera Raw Settings In Bridge Bridge. Places the two cache files created for each folder you view in a centralized folder. A Use A Centralized Cache File centralized cache is generally easier to use than a distributed cache.
Page 35: Files And Folders In Bridge
Depending on the view you’re in, you can display extra file information by positioning the pointer over a thumbnail in the content area. For files in Version Cue projects (Adobe Creative Suite 2 only), you can also choose File >...
Page 36 Show Folders to display folders as well as individual files. • Show All Files to display all files regardless of type, even non-Adobe files that Bridge doesn’t normally display. • Show Graphic Files Only to display only files in graphic file formats, such as EPS, JPEG, BMP, PS, TIFF, and GIF.
Page 37 Note: If you have Adobe Creative Suite 2, you can also use Adobe Version Cue from Bridge to manage files you author. You can create and manage revisions to files kept in Version Cue projects. Version Cue is also a convenient environment for collaborative file management in workgroups.
Page 38 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select the files and drag them onto the desktop or into another folder. This action moves To drag files out of Bridge the file onto the desktop or folder. Select one or more files on the desktop, in a folder, or in another application that supports To drag files into Bridge drag and drop, and drag them into the content area in Bridge.
Page 39 (Optional) Select Include All Subfolders to expand the search to any subfolders in the source folder. (Optional) Select Search Past Versions Of Version Cue Files to include past versions of Adobe Version Cue files, as well as current ones, in the search (Adobe Creative Suite 2 only).
Page 40: Running Automated Tasks With Bridge
The Tools menu contains submenus for various commands available in the different Adobe applications. For instance, if you have Adobe Photoshop installed, you can use the commands under the Tools > Photoshop submenu to make picture packages and create Photomerge panoramas using photos you select in Bridge. Running these tasks from Bridge saves time because you don’t have to open each file individually.
Page 41: Metadata In Bridge
Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) standard on which Adobe Bridge and the Adobe Creative Suite applications are built. XMP is built on XML, and in most cases the information is stored in the file so that it cannot be lost. If it is not possible to store the information in the file itself, XMP metadata is stored in a separate file called a sidecar file.
Page 42 Displays settings applied by the Camera Raw plug-in. Camera Raw Keeps a log of changes made to images with Photoshop. Edit History Lists information about images obtained from Adobe Stock Photos. Adobe Stock Photos Lists any Version Cue version information about the file. Version Cue Note: Depending on the applications you are using, custom panels for various properties may appear here as well.
Page 43 Displays read-only information about the camera and settings used to take the photo, such as make, Camera Data 1 model, shutter speed, and f-stop. The Camera Data 1 option appears only if Adobe Photoshop or Production Studio is installed. Lists read-only file information about the photo, including pixel dimensions and resolution. The Camera Data 2 Camera Data 2 option appears only if Adobe Photoshop or Production Studio is installed.
Page 44 You can modify the metadata in the File Info dialog box and save it as a template for use with other files. Create a new file using an Adobe Creative Suite or Production Studio application. This creates a file without metadata from any other source.
Page 45 Bridge, select the keyword and then choose Persistent from the context menu. • To find a file using the keyword, choose Find from the panel menu. Note: You can’t modify keywords in search results for Adobe Stock Photos. See also “To search for files and folders with Bridge” on page 33...
Page 46: Adobe Stock Photos
Stock Photos and Adobe applications, you can download images from Adobe Stock Photos directly into many Adobe applications. In the design process, you need the flexibility to try different images before deciding which one you want. Adobe Stock Photos gives you the option to download low-resolution, complimentary (comp) versions of images you’re considering.
Page 47 “To view file and folder thumbnails in Bridge” on page 29 To search for stock photos In Bridge, click Adobe Stock Photos in the Favorites pane. In the text box at the top of the screen, type the word or phrase that describes the subject of the photos you want to search for.
Page 48 Note: The currency displayed in the Price & Keywords dialog box may not be the native currency of your billing country; it is the supported currency for purchases made from your country. When you purchase photos from Adobe Stock Photos, your credit card will be billed in the supported currency.
Page 49: Comp Images
Buying stock photos It’s simple to buy images through Adobe Stock Photos. When you find the photos you want to buy, put them in your shopping cart. The photos remain in your cart until you’re ready to complete your purchase. When you finish browsing, you can check out and have your images automatically downloaded to your computer.
Page 50 • If you have an Adobe account, enter your ID and password. • If you want to open an Adobe account, click Set Up An Account. You are prompted to enter your billing and account information. • If you want to buy the images without an account, click Continue As Guest. You are prompted to enter your billing information.
Page 51: Stock Photos Accounts
Stock Photos Accounts Benefits of Stock Photos accounts Creating an Adobe account makes purchasing photos quick and easy. When you log in with your e-mail address and password, you can work with your account in several ways: After you complete the registration process, modify your account information anytime by Manage your profile clicking the Your Account link in the navigation bar.
Page 52 • To sign up to get e-mail from Adobe Stock Photos about promotions or other special information, select the check box. To confirm your changes, click Save. To go back to the main Your Account page without saving changes, click Return To Your Account.
Page 53 In the Your Order History page, click the order number (highlighted in blue) of the photo you want to download again. In the Order Detail page, click the arrow under Download. The photo is downloaded. By default, purchased images are located at My Documents/AdobeStockPhotos/Purchased Images (Windows) or Documents/Adobe- StockPhotos/Purchased Images (Mac OS).
Page 54 Country menu. The currency displayed next to the Billing Country menu may not be the native currency of that country (not all currencies are supported). Instead, it’s the currency Adobe allows for that country. Your credit card is billed in the supported currency.
Page 55: Planning Projects
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for upates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 56 User Guide For example, if you want an image to fill the screen at 100% scale, you can 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 requirements of your project.
Page 57 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Render settings, such as frame rate, resolution, and quality, determine how After Effects processes your composition during rendering. Output settings, such as format and video and audio settings, determine how After Effects saves your rendered file. When choosing an output module, click the module name to customize settings in the Output Module Settings dialog box.
Page 58 After Effects (see “Exporting using QuickTime” on page 622), or use the Render Queue panel to generate streaming Real Media and Windows Media video. For more information about streaming video and tips on reducing data rate, search for the Adobe DV Compression Primer (English only) on the Adobe website.
Page 59 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Cross-platform project considerations After Effects project files are compatible with Mac OS and Windows platforms. You can do several things to ease the process of exchanging projects between platforms. File systems If you want to transfer a project that contains footage stored on a server from Mac OS to Windows, be sure to mount the server by using AppleShare (AFP).
Page 60: Project Basics
After Effects prompts you to save changes in the first project (and then closes it). You can create a new project from a preconfigured project template: choose File > Browse Project Templates. See “Working with Adobe Bridge” on page 56. •...
Page 61 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide drop-frame timecode skips, or drops, two frame numbers (not the actual frames of video) each minute except every tenth minute. Use for output to NTSC videotape. 30 fps drop-frame timecode as indicated by semicolons Note: When working with NTSC DV assets, you should usually use 30 fps drop-frame timecode.
Page 62 Adobe Bridge, search for Bridge in After Effects Help. Note: When working in Adobe Bridge, you’ll notice references to Version Cue. Version Cue is a set of features that help manage design workflow and collaboration in Adobe Creative Suite.
Page 63: Saving Projects
The Auto-Save feature saves the current project file at regular intervals, either to the same file, or to a new file. Auto- saved files are saved in a folder called “Adobe After Effects Auto-Save” located in the same folder as the project file.
Page 64: Organizing Projects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Naming of copies You can use the Duplicate command or the Copy and Paste commands to duplicate items selected in the Project, Composition, Timeline, Layer, or Footage panel. You can use the Increment And Save command to save a copy of a project.
Page 65 To delete an item from the project, select it and choose Edit > Clear. You can copy footage items from After Effects and paste them into an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence, as well as copy track items from Adobe Premiere Pro and paste them into an After Effects composition.
Page 66 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: The Flowchart panel shows you only the existing relationships. You cannot use it to change relationships between project elements. The elements included in the Flowchart panel depend on what is selected and on whether the compositions are nested compositions (used by other compositions as the source for a layer) or root compositions (not nested).
Page 67: Color
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for upates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 68 8-bpc color (though less than with 32-bpc color). You can import 16-bpc images, including those from Adobe Photoshop, and composite and color-correct footage in 16-bpc mode. Take advantage of 16-bpc color when performing most After Effects tasks, including layer adjustment, frame blending, 3D compositing, and Cineon file import.
Page 69 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Because we can see only a subset of the luminance values in a real-world scene in an HDR image on a monitor, it is sometimes necessary to adjust the exposure, or the amount of light captured in an image, when working with an HDR image.
Page 70 Do one of the following to calibrate and profile your monitor: • In Windows, use the Adobe Gamma utility, located in the Control Panel. Note: Don’t use Adobe Gamma to calibrate an LCD (flat panel) monitor—it doesn’t produce reliable results. Instead, use a hardware calibrator. •...
Page 71 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To choose a working color space If you don’t choose a working color space for a project, After Effects uses the color space of the monitor. For best results, choose a working color space that matches your output color space. For example, choose SDTV (Rec 601 NTSC) if you’re preparing footage for broadcast video, or choose sRGB IEC61966-2.1 if you’re preparing footage for...
Page 72: Plug-Ins And Scripts
You can find information about third-party plug-ins available for After Effects in the Support area of the Adobe website. For plug-ins to work with After Effects, they must be in the Plug-ins folder, which is in the Adobe After Effects 7.0\Support Files (Windows) or Adobe After Effects 7.0 (Mac OS) folder by default. For specific instructions about installing a plug-in, refer to its documentation.
Page 73 Note: Scripts created in After Effects 6.5 or earlier that use an index to access a property may not work as expected in After Effects 7.0. To resolve this issue, modify your scripts so that they contain equivalent expressions accessing properties by name.
Page 74: Importing Basics
You can import moving image files, still-image files, still-image sequences, audio files, layered files from Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, and other After Effects projects and projects created in Adobe Premiere Pro. As you build a project, you can import footage items at any time.
Page 75 16-bpc and 32-bpc files to 8-bpc (After Effects Professional edition supports 16-bpc and 32-bpc color). For more information on 16-bpc and 32-bpc color, see “About color depth” on page 61. Note: File formats that use Adobe Photoshop plug-ins include BMP, OpenEXR, PBM, PCX, Pixar, and Radiance. Supported audio file formats You can import any of the following types of audio files: •...
Page 76 • Video for Windows (AVI, WAV) You can import 10-bpc uncompressed YUV AVI files created in Adobe Premiere Pro into 16-bpc RGB After Effects projects. You can also render with 10-bpc YUV compression; see “Video for Windows compression options” on page 622.
Page 77 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Output type considerations” on page 51 “Preparing still-image files for importing” on page 73 To specify interpretation rules The interpretation rules file (interpretation rules.txt) specifies how After Effects interprets field order, alpha channel, frame rate, and pixel aspect ratio when importing footage.
Page 78 To import footage with an alpha channel The alpha channel contains transparency information for a footage item. Many file formats can include an alpha channel, including Adobe Photoshop, ElectricImage, TGA, TIFF, EPS, PDF, QuickTime (saved at a bit depth of Millions of Colors+), and Adobe Illustrator.
Page 79: Importing Still Images
You can import individual still images into After Effects or import a numbered sequence of still images as a sequence. You can import still images from Adobe applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator, or import Adobe Stock Photos from Adobe Bridge. For information about the still-image formats that After Effects imports, see “Supported...
Page 80 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Before you import a still image into After Effects, prepare it as completely as possible to reduce rendering time. It is usually easier and faster to prepare a file in its original application. Consider doing the following: •...
Page 81 As a sequence file where the layers in the file, if any, are merged. • As a sequence file (Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator files with layers only) where the same layer in each file—for example, layer 3—is imported and used in the sequence.
Page 82 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Imports only a specific layer from each file in the sequence. Layer Name Click OK. Note: To import a still-image sequence by dragging, drag the folder from the desktop to the After Effects Project panel.
Page 83: Importing Camera Raw Files
To work with the Camera Raw cache in Bridge You can use Adobe Bridge to preview camera raw images using the default image settings and to apply settings without opening the Camera Raw dialog box. You can also copy and paste the settings from one camera raw image to another in Bridge.
Page 84 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To change the location of the Camera Raw cache, click Select Location, browse to the new location, and click Select. To import a camera raw file The Camera Raw dialog box A. Tools B. Rotate buttons C. Camera, file name, and EXIF information D. View options E. RGB values F. Histogram G. Camera Raw menu H.
Page 85 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Apply the settings used in the previous camera raw image, or apply the default settings for your camera: Choose an option from the Settings menu. See “Working with Camera Raw settings” on page 86.
Page 86 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Using the histogram and RGB levels in Camera Raw The Camera Raw histogram shows all three channels (red, green, and blue) of the image simultaneously. The histogram changes automatically as you adjust the settings in the Camera Raw dialog box.
Page 87: Transforming Images In Camera Raw
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Transforming images in Camera Raw White balance controls for camera raw files A digital camera records the white balance at the time of exposure as a metadata entry. After Effects can read the white balance settings of some cameras and makes it the initial setting when you open the file in the Camera Raw dialog box.
Page 88 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Fine-tunes the white balance to compensate for a green or magenta tint. Move the slider to the left (negative Tint values) to add green to the photo; move it to the right (positive values) to add magenta.
Page 89 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjusts the brightness or darkness of the image, much as the Exposure slider does. However, instead of Brightness clipping the image in the highlights (areas that are completely white, no detail) or shadows (areas that are completely black, no detail), Brightness compresses the highlights and expands the shadows when you move the slider to the right.
Page 90 In the Camera Raw dialog box, click the triangle next to the Settings menu and choose Preferences from the Camera Raw menu. • (Windows) In Adobe Bridge, choose Edit > Camera Raw Preferences. • (Mac OS) In Bridge, choose Bridge > Camera Raw Preferences.
Page 91 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To compensate for chromatic aberration in Camera Raw Chromatic aberration is a common defect caused by the failure of the lens to focus different frequencies (colors) to the same spot. In one type of chromatic aberration, the image from each color of light is in focus, but each image is a slightly different size.
Page 92: Camera Raw Settings
Alternatively, you can save only a subset of the Camera Raw settings. This lets you create presets for custom white balances, specific lens settings, and so forth. In Adobe Bridge, you can also update all settings or a subset.
Page 93 Stores the settings in a Camera Raw database file in the folder Document and Settings\[user Camera Raw Database name]\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw (Windows) or Users/[user name]/Library/Preferences (Mac OS). This database is indexed by file content, so the image retains camera raw settings even if the camera raw image file is renamed or moved.
Page 94 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specify the settings to save by doing one of the following: • Choose an option from the Subset menu. • Select or deselect settings in the Settings list. Click Save. In the Save Raw Conversion Settings dialog box, name the subset and save it to the Camera Raw settings folder.
Page 95: Importing Photoshop, Illustrator, Pdf, And Eps Files
Importing Photoshop, Illustrator, PDF, and EPS files Layered files You can import Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, EPS, and many PDF files directly into an After Effects project. After Effects imports attributes that were applied in Photoshop, including position, blending modes, opacity,...
Page 96 Adobe Photoshop. You can open the composition in After Effects and animate the layers. When you import an Adobe Photoshop file as a composition, guides in the file are imported as well. When you import a multilayered Adobe Illustrator file as a composition, the Adobe Illustrator layer blending modes are preserved.
Page 97 Transparency in Photoshop files Adobe Photoshop supports a transparent area and one optional layer mask (alpha channel) for each layer in a file. You can use these layer masks to specify how different areas within a layer are hidden or revealed. If you import one layer, After Effects combines the layer mask (if present) with the transparent area and imports the layer mask as a straight alpha channel.
Page 98 Adobe Photoshop adjustment layers affect the appearance of all layers below them. When you import an Adobe Photoshop file containing one or more adjustment layers as a composition, After Effects directly converts the Adobe Photoshop adjustment layers to After Effects adjustment layers.
Page 99: Importing After Effects And Adobe Premiere Pro Projects
See also “Improving performance by simplifying your project” on page 639 Importing After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro projects To import an After Effects project You can import one After Effects project into another. Everything from the imported project, including footage files, compositions, and folders, appears inside a new folder in the current Project panel.
Page 100 After Effects imports it into the Project panel as both a new composition containing each Adobe Premiere Pro clip as a layer, and as a folder containing each clip as an individual footage item. If your Adobe Premiere Pro project contains bins, After Effects converts them to folders within the Adobe Premiere Pro project folder.
Page 101: Preparing And Importing Video And Film
• To import audio, select Import Audio. To add a single item from a track in an Adobe Premiere Pro project, copy the item in Adobe Premiere Pro, and choose Edit > Paste in the Timeline panel of After Effects.
Page 102 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Developed jointly by several companies, HDV employs a form of MPEG-2 compression to enable high- definition video to be encoded on standard miniDV cassette media. Also known as MPEG-4 part 10 and AVC (Advanced Video Coding), H.264 can deliver video over a range of H.264...
Page 103 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide A 4:3 frame aspect ratio (left), and a wider 16:9 frame aspect ratio (right) Some video formats output the same frame aspect ratio but use a different pixel aspect ratio. For example, some NTSC digitizers produce a 4:3 frame aspect ratio, with square pixels (1.0 pixel aspect ratio), and a resolution of 640 x 480.
Page 104 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide It is important to set the pixel aspect ratio for a footage file to its original ratio, not the ratio of the final output. After Effects reads and writes pixel aspect ratios directly from QuickTime movies. For example, if you import a movie captured as widescreen (16:9 DV), After Effects automatically tags it correctly.
Page 105 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Each interlaced video frame consists of two fields. Each field contains half the number of horizontal lines in the frame; the upper field (or Field 1) contains all of the odd-numbered lines, and the lower field (or Field 2) contains all of the even-numbered lines.
Page 106 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “To remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown from video” on page 102 “To test field-rendering order” on page 597 To separate video fields in imported footage Separating fields is critical if you plan to make significant changes to the footage. When you scale, rotate, or apply effects to interlaced video, unwanted artifacts, such as crossed fields, are often introduced.
Page 107 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide If a file does not contain a field order label, you can match the original field order of your footage. If you are not sure which field order was used to interlace a footage item, use the procedure below to find out.
Page 108 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide It’s important to remove 3:2 pulldown from video footage that was originally film so that effects you add in After Effects synchronize perfectly with the original frame rate of film. Removing 3:2 pulldown reduces the frame rate by 1/5: from 30 to 24 fps or from 29.97 to 23.976 fps, which also reduces the number of frames you have to change.
Page 109 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide You can use After Effects to convert one type of footage to another. When converting footage, keep the following in mind: • Changes in resolution may result in a loss of picture clarity, especially when up-converting from a standard- definition format to an HD format.
Page 110: Importing Cineon Files
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To preserve audio pitch but not synchronization, or for clips without audio, right-click (Windows) or Control- click (Mac OS) the footage in the Project panel, select Interpret Footage > Main, select Conform To Frame Rate, and then enter 23.976 into the Conform To Frame Rate box.
Page 111: Importing Omf And Aaf Files
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To set options for Cineon files When you import Cineon or DPX files into an After Effects project, you can set Interpret Footage options that specify how After Effects converts the Cineon code values into color values.
Page 112 Composition size and pixel aspect ratio media file in the first sequence found. For more information on how video effects, audio effects, and transitions are converted when After Effects imports an AAF file, visit the support area of the Adobe website.
Page 113: Importing 3D Image Files
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Importing 3D image files How After Effects works with 3D image files After Effects can import 3D-image files saved in Softimage PIC, RLA, RPF, and Electric Image EI format. These 3D- image files contain red, green, blue, and alpha (RGBA) channels, as well as auxiliary channels with optional infor- mation, such as z depth, object IDs, texture coordinates, and more.
Page 114 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: The following transformation flags are not supported: query, relative, euler, objectSpace, worldSpace, worldSpace- Distance, preserve, shear, scaleTranslation, rotatePivot, rotateOrder, rotateTranslation, matrix, boundingBox, bound- ingBoxInvisible, pivots, CenterPivots, and zeroTransformPivots. After Effects skips these unsupported flags, and no warnings or error messages appear.
Page 115: Creating Compositions
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 116 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Either choose a preset from the Preset menu or specify basic composition settings as follows: Type values for frame size in the text boxes. As a general rule, frame size and aspect ratio should Width and Height match your intended output media.
Page 117: Composition Settings
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Add the new composition to the render queue. Add To Render Queue Arrange layers in a sequence. Sequence Layers Overlap layers from the footage. Overlap Control how layers in the footage overlap. Duration and Transition...
Page 118 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “To undo changes” on page 56 Setting frame size The Composition panel in After Effects contains the viewing frame and an area outside the frame that you can use to move layers into and out of the frame. For your convenience, After Effects includes a variety of presets, each containing settings for frame size, pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate.
Page 119 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Setting pixel aspect ratio for compositions While most computer monitors use square pixels, ITU-R 601 (D1) and DV video use non-square rectangular pixels. The Pixel Aspect Ratio option compensates for the non-square pixels of D1 video format. Set the pixel aspect ratio that corresponds to your final output format.
Page 120 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Setting frame rate The composition frame rate determines the number of frames displayed per second. Frame rate is usually deter- mined by the type of output you produce. NTSC video has a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second (fps), PAL video has a frame rate of 25 fps, and motion picture film has a frame rate of 24fps.
Page 121 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Example of an image at composition resolution and half resolution A. Original composition resolution B. Half resolution with same clarity but with reduction in screen size C. Half resolution with same screen size but with reduction in clarity To determine appearance of lower-resolution compositions When setting resolution, you can determine the size and appearance of the composition.
Page 122: Composition Panel
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To set the rendering plug-in You can animate layers in 3D space. This 3D environment includes shadows, specular highlights, rack focus, and an automatic method of compositing layers based on depth. The default 3D rendering plug-in is Advanced 3D. You can use the Advanced tab of the Composition Settings dialog box to specify the Standard 3D or Advanced 3D rendering plug-in.
Page 123 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Toggles RGB, Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha settings, and offers RGB Straight and Colorize Show Channel menu modifiers. RGB is the default setting, which displays the complete, full-color RGB picture. Red, Green, and Blue settings display the indicated color channel, with high color values displayed as white.
Page 124: Timeline Panel
“Organizing a project using nesting” on page 60 To turn the transparency grid on or off You can toggle a transparency grid on or off (like the grid that Adobe Photoshop uses to indicate transparency). ❖ Choose Transparency Grid from the Composition panel menu, or click the Toggle Transparency Grid button at the bottom of the Composition panel.
Page 125 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Default controls and columns in the Timeline panel A. Timeline tab B. Current time C. Switches/Modes column D. Layer Bar/Graph Editor area E. Audio/Video Switches column F. Source Name/Layer Name column G. Timeline panel switches H. Composition button Displays the composition name associated with the timeline.
Page 126 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide About the time graph The time graph portion of the Timeline panel contains a time ruler, markers to indicate specific times, duration bars for the layers in your composition while in layer bar mode, and the Graph Editor while in Graph Editor mode. Use the time graph to adjust the range of time shown in the Timeline panel, and to specify a range of time to render when creating or previewing a movie.
Page 127 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To magnify a portion of the time graph Do one of the following: • In the Timeline panel, click the Zoom In button or drag the zoom slider. • Press the = (equal sign) key on the main keyboard.
Page 128: Working With Footage
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Center of work area bar. • To expand the work area to the size of the composition, double-click the center of the work area bar. See also “About rendering” on page 590 Working with footage...
Page 129 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • The Timeline panel. When you drag the item into the Timeline, a highlight bar indicates where the layer will appear when you release the mouse button. If you drag the item over the time graph area, a time marker indicates where the layer’s In point will be when you release the mouse button.
Page 130 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The QuickTime and Video For Windows Footage panels do not display the results of settings made in the Interpret Footage dialog box, such as the alpha channel interpretation method. However, for any footage item that includes audio, the QuickTime and Video For Windows Footage panels play the audio, while the After Effects Footage panel does not.
Page 131 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide When you edit a still-image sequence selected in the Timeline or Composition panel, the individual image that is currently displayed opens. When you edit a still-image sequence selected in the Project panel, the first image in the sequence opens.
Page 132 Note: You can also paste assets from Adobe Premiere to an After Effects composition. You can’t, however, paste footage from After Effects into an Adobe Premiere sequence. If you want to work with all clips or a single sequence from an Adobe Premiere Pro project, use the Import command to import the project into After Effects.
Page 133 Move the current-time indicator to the desired location, and choose either Edit > Paste or Edit > Paste Insert. Note: You can copy multiple layers into Adobe Premiere Pro. Each layer is placed on a separate track. The order in which Adobe Premiere Pro places the layers depends on the order in which you selected them in After Effects;...
Page 134: Replacing And Substituting Footage
Mono and stereo audio tracks are imported as one or two layers. To copy from Adobe Premiere Pro to After Effects (Windows only) Select an asset from the Adobe Premiere Pro Timeline panel. Choose Edit > Copy. In After Effects, open a composition in the Timeline panel.
Page 135 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To work with placeholders and missing footage In After Effects, a placeholder appears as a still image of color bars. You can apply attributes, expressions, effects, and keyframes to a placeholder. When the actual footage item becomes available, you can replace the placeholder with it, and the applied attributes are transferred to the actual footage.
Page 136: Nesting
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Identifying proxy items in the Project panel In the Project panel, After Effects marks the footage name to indicate whether the actual footage item or its proxy is currently in use: • A box containing a black square indicates that a proxy item is currently in use throughout the project; the name of the proxy appears in boldface in the project list.
Page 137 When a layer contains an Adobe Illustrator file instead of a nested composition, the Collapse Transformations switch for that layer becomes the Continuously Rasterize switch, which you can use to improve the image quality of footage.
Page 138 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Collapsing transformations also adds some flexibility when you work with 3D layers in nested compositions. If you have a subordinate composition that has 3D objects within it without turning on Collapse Transformations, After Effects renders the composition as a 2D image of the 3D arrangement in the next higher composition. However, if you turn on Collapse Transformations, After Effects renders the 3D layers into the next higher composition so that they retain their 3D relationships among themselves and with other 3D layers there.
Page 139 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Render the composition into a movie again, using the same filename as the previous version of the movie. After rendering is complete, set up the movie as a proxy for the composition. The next time you view the compo- sition containing the movie, the new movie is displayed.
Page 140: Previewing Compositions
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 141 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Caches” on page 637 To preview a composition using RAM Preview RAM Preview allocates enough RAM to play the preview (with audio) as fast as the system allows, up to the frame rate of the composition.
Page 142 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: The more detail and precision you want to see, the more RAM is required for RAM Preview. You can control the amount of detail shown in either the standard or RAM Preview by changing the resolution, magnification, and preview quality of your composition.
Page 143 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Audio panel A. VU meter B. Level controls C. Level units D. Audio Options menu E. Level values Note: After Effects does not support audio in Type1 DV AVI files. Attempting to scrub (manually preview) audio in these files may cause a long delay.
Page 144: Preview Modes
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: To preview audio in the work area, select the layer and press Alt+period (Windows) or Option+period (Mac OS). To preview audio and rendered images If the Time Controls panel is not open, choose Window > Time Controls. Select RAM Preview Options, and then do one of the following: •...
Page 145 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide When OpenGL does not support a feature, it simply creates a preview without using that feature. For example, if your layers contain shadows and your OpenGL hardware does not support shadows, the preview will not contain shadows.
Page 146 Antialiasing Feature support in After Effects is also dependent on the OpenGL hardware; contact the hardware manufacturer for details. For information regarding specific OpenGL hardware, see the After Effects section of the Adobe website. To use Wireframe for previews Wireframe mode represents each layer as a simple rectangle, which increases playback speed and allows you to reposition a high-resolution or data-intensive layer quickly.
Page 147: Modifying Views
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To use Freeze Layer Contents in the Composition panel When OpenGL is enabled, layers that consist of moving images require significantly more memory on your OpenGL card to preview than do still-image layers. Freeze Layer Contents speeds playback by showing only the first frame encountered in a layer.
Page 148 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To zoom out Do one of the following: • Select the Zoom tool. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the center of the area in the panel you want to reduce. Each click additionally reduces the image. When the file has reached its maximum reduction level, the command has no effect.
Page 149 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To view a proportional grid, click the Title/Action Safe button and select Proportional Grid from the menu. • To snap a layer to a grid, with a Footage, Layer, or Composition panel active and the grid shown, choose View >...
Page 150 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Dragging a guide from the ruler • In the image area, drag a guide to reposition it. • To lock or unlock guides, choose View > Lock Guides. • In the image area, drag a guide line into a ruler to remove it.
Page 151: Settings And Tools For Previewing
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To adjust exposure of HDR footage (Pro only) You can adjust the exposure of HDR footage with the Exposure control . The Exposure control doesn’t affect how footage will render when you export a movie, only how it appears in the Composition panel.
Page 152 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Working with multiple viewers In After Effects, you may need to work on multiple compositions or layers at once, or you may need to work with multiple views of a single composition or layer. A type of panel called a viewer gives you added flexibility in arranging your workspace to facilitate this kind of work.
Page 153 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Previewing on an external video monitor You can preview the contents of your Layer, Footage, or Composition panel on an external video monitor. This requires additional hardware, such as a video digitizing card or a FireWire port. If you’re using a video digitizing card to connect an external video monitor, follow the directions that came with your video digitizing card to connect the monitor for viewing previews.
Page 154 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Improving performance by modifying screen output” on page 640...
Page 155: Creating And Adding Layers
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 156 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “About text layers” on page 283 “About 3D layers” on page 173 “About cameras” on page 180 “About lights and points of interest” on page 183 To create a layer from a footage item Of the numerous ways to create layers in an After Effects composition, the most obvious is to begin with a footage file that you want to use.
Page 157 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To add the layer to just the Project panel, choose File > Import > Solid. In the Solid Footage Settings dialog box, type a name for the layer or accept the color-based name supplied.
Page 158 Note: You can also create a new Photoshop file with your composition’s dimensions without adding it to a composition by choosing File > New > Adobe Photoshop File. The Photoshop file appears in the Project panel and has the dimensions...
Page 159: Selecting And Arranging Layers
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Selecting and arranging layers To select one or more layers Do any of the following: • To select a layer, click the layer’s name or duration bar in the Timeline panel or the layer’s name in the Flowchart panel.
Page 160 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: As you drag a layer name up or down, a horizontal line appears between other layer names, indicating the position to which the layer will move if you release the mouse. See also “About 3D layers”...
Page 161 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “About trimming” on page 162 “About time-remapping” on page 233 “About the Timeline panel” on page 118 To move a layer in time by dragging ❖ In the Timeline panel, drag the layer duration bar to the left or right. To snap the layer duration bar to significant points in time (such as markers, or the start or end of the composition), Shift-drag the layer duration bar.
Page 162 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide After you start dragging a layer, hold down Shift to constrain the dragging to horizontal or vertical movements, or hold down Ctrl+Shift (Windows) or Command+Shift (Mac OS) to snap to the frame edges or center.
Page 163 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide If you selected the Overlap option in step 3, select a Transition option to specify which layers’ opacity After Effects adjusts to create cross-dissolves: • If none of the selected layers uses an alpha channel or mask, select Dissolve Front Layer.
Page 164: Managing Layers
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide After you split a layer, the duration of the original layer ends at the point of the split, and the new layer starts at that point in time. To set the default stacking position of split layers Choose Edit >...
Page 165 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide You can customize the label colors at any time for an individual layer, for all similarly labeled layers in a composition, or at the default level. To change the color of a label In the Timeline panel, select a layer.
Page 166 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Shy layers still appear in the Composition panel. If you want to hide or show layers in the Composition panel, use the Video switch. Do any of the following: • To toggle a layer between shy and not shy, click the Shy switch for the layer, or select the layer in the Timeline panel and choose Layer >...
Page 167: Guide Layers
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To change settings for a solid used by more than one layer Select a solid layer. Choose Layer > Solid Settings. Enter the new settings, and then do one of the following: • Select Affect All Layers That Use This Solid to apply the changes to all layers that use the solid.
Page 168: Trimming
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To render visible guide layers with a composition ❖ In the Render Queue panel, do one of the following: • Choose Current Settings from the Render Settings menu to render the composition using the composition’s settings.
Page 169 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Do one of the following: • Drag either end of the layer duration bar in the Timeline panel. • Move the current-time indicator in the Layer panel to the time at which you want the footage to begin or end, and...
Page 170: Markers
Adobe Encore DVD can read chapter references in After Effects layer-time markers when you export to the AVI or MPEG-2 file format. To be compatible with DVDs, make sure that markers are at least 15 frames apart.
Page 171 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Dragging a composition time marker from the Comp marker bin. • Move the current-time indicator to the position you want to mark and press Shift + a number key (0-9) on the main keyboard.
Page 172 When you create a marker, you can type a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) under Web Links in the Marker dialog box to create an automatic link to that site. After Effects embeds this information within movies. When these movies are included in web pages created by programs such as Adobe GoLive , the embedded URL is recognized at playback, ®...
Page 173: Switches
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Switches Audio/Video and Layer switches The Timeline panel contains two kinds of switches: Audio/Video Switches and Layer Switches. By default, these columns appear to the left (Audio/Video Switches) and right (Layer Switches) sides of each layer name, but you can hide a column or arrange columns in a different order.
Page 174 When the layer source is an Adobe Illustrator file, this switch acts as the Continuously Rasterize switch. Selecting this switch causes After Effects to rerasterize the Adobe Illustrator file for each frame, which improves image quality, but also increases the time required for previewing and rendering.
Page 175 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Choose Layer > Quality, and then choose an option: Displays and renders a layer using subpixel positioning, anti-aliasing, 3D shading, and complete calculation of Best any applied plug-in effects. Best provides the slowest display and rendering time.
Page 176: Audio Layers
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Time-stretching” on page 231 “About time-remapping” on page 233 Using three dimensions Use the 3D switch to turn a layer into a 3D layer that you can manipulate in three dimensions. When you select the 3D switch for a layer, you can add camera and light layers to take full advantage of the additional dimension.
Page 177 If you edit an audio-only file (for example, a WAV file) in Adobe Audition, you make changes to the original file. If you edit a layer that contains both audio and video (for example, an AVI file) in Adobe Audition, you edit a copy of the layer’s audio file.
Page 178: Creating Adobe Encore Dvd Buttons
Choose Composition > Save Frame As > Photoshop Layers. Enter a name and location, and click OK. Important: If you rename the button, be sure to retain the (+) prefix. The prefix ensures that Adobe Encore DVD recog- nizes the file as a button.
Page 179: D Layers Overview
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 180 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “How After Effects works with 3D image files” on page 107 About z scale Usually, scaling a layer’s z axis has no effect on the layer because the layer itself has no depth. To add depth, you can change the position of the layer’s anchor point or establish a parenting relationship with other layers.
Page 181: Working With 3D Layers
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Using masks with 3D layers You can draw a mask on any 3D layer in After Effects. The mask coordinates correspond to the layer coordinates in 2D space. However, the mask itself has no 3D properties except those of the layer itself, so you cannot draw a mask along the z axis.
Page 182 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide About 3D rotation You can adjust 3D rotation two ways: by changing a layer’s Orientation values or changing its X, Y, and Z Rotation values. You can use the rotation tool to change Orientation or X, Y, or Z Rotation values.
Page 183: Working With 3D Views
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide In the Timeline panel, select the layer whose axes you want to show or hide. Choose View > Show Layer Controls or View > Hide Layer Controls. Note: Hiding the axes also hides such layer controls as the camera and light wireframe icons, layer handles, and the point of interest.
Page 184 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide 3D views The three custom views place you at a certain height and angle within the composition, depending on the view you choose. Adjust your angle and height within custom views with the camera tools.
Page 185 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To set or replace 3D view shortcuts ❖ Choose View > Assign Shortcut to n, where n is the currently selected view; then select F10, F11, or F12 from the menu. After Effects replaces the view shown in the menu with the current-composition 3D view.
Page 186: Cameras, Lights, And Points Of Interest
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: If you specify Orient Towards Point Of Interest and then change a camera's Orientation or X, Y, or Z Rotation properties, the camera is offset by the new values. For example, you could set a camera up this way to depict the perspective of a passenger looking out the side window of a car as it moves.
Page 187 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To create a camera Each camera has a set of properties, which include focal length, aperture, and focus distance. Using these properties, you can create custom cameras that simulate a large range of real cameras.
Page 188 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: If you change the settings of the Zoom or Focus Distance options in the Timeline panel, the Focus Distance value becomes unlocked from the Zoom value. If you need to change the values and want the values to remain locked, then use the Camera Settings dialog box instead of the Timeline panel.
Page 189 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Aligns the axes to the view you have selected. For example, suppose that a layer has been rotated View Axis mode and the view changed to a custom view; any subsequent transformation made to that layer while in View Axis mode happens along the axes corresponding to the direction from which you are looking at the layer.
Page 190 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Sets the brightness of the light. Negative values create nonlight. Nonlight subtracts color from a layer. For Intensity example, if a layer is already lit, creating a directional light also pointing at that layer and employing negative values creates an area of negative light, or a dark area, on the layer.
Page 191 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Using the Selection or Rotation tool, do one of the following: • To move the camera, light, or the point of interest, position the pointer over the axis you want to adjust, and drag.
Page 192 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Material Options examples Casts Shadows Light Transmission Accepts Shadows Accepts Lights Ambient Diffuse Specular Shininess Metal Casts a shadow on layers within the range of that shadow. The direction and angle of the shadows Casts Shadows are determined by the direction and angle of the light sources.
Page 193 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the size of the specular highlight. This value is active only if the Specular setting is greater than Shininess zero. A value of 100% produces a reflection with a small specular highlight. A value of 0% produces a reflection with a large specular highlight.
Page 194: Animation And Layer Properties
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button in Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 195 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To toggle between layer bar mode and Graph Editor mode, click the Graph Editor button in the Timeline panel. Two animated properties (Position and Scale) displayed in the Graph Editor Working with the Graph Editor In the Graph Editor, each property is represented by its own graph.
Page 196 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Using the Snap button When you drag a keyframe in the Graph editor with the Snap button toggled, the keyframe snaps to the following items: • Keyframes (both vertically and horizontally) • Current-time indicator •...
Page 197 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To view layer properties As you add layers to a composition, they appear in the layer outline in the Timeline panel. The layer outline is visible in the Timeline panel in either Graph Editor mode or in layer bar mode. You can expand the layer outline to display layer properties and change property values.
Page 198: Setting, Selecting, And Deleting Keyframes
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: If you are changing Anchor Point values, note that the anchor point’s coordinates are relative to the Layer panel, not the Composition panel. To set a layer property value in the Graph Editor A value graph in the Graph Editor displays the values for each keyframe and the interpolated values between keyframes.
Page 199 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: You can also animate layer properties using expressions. Expressions can operate on layer properties with or without keyframes. (See “About expressions” on page 555.) Each layer property has a time-vary Stopwatch icon that you click to begin the process of animating with keyframes.
Page 200 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Keyframes in the Graph Editor with direction handles To move the current-time indicator to a keyframe After you set the initial keyframe for a property, After Effects displays the keyframe navigator, which you can use to move from keyframe to keyframe or to set or remove keyframes.
Page 201 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To select all keyframes that follow or precede a selected keyframe, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a keyframe, and choose Select Previous Keyframes or Select Following Keyframes. Note: The Select Previous/Following Keyframes commands aren’t available if more than one keyframe is selected.
Page 202 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Move the current-time indicator to the point where you want to add a new keyframe. If the current-time indicator is after the last keyframe for that layer property, the new keyframe will have the same value as the preceding keyframe.
Page 203: Editing, Moving, And Copying Keyframes
Using the Pen tool to edit a keyframe for a spatial property in the Composition or Layer panel is similar to modifying a path in a drawing application such as Adobe Illustrator. (See “Creating masks with the Pen tool” on page 245.) For best results with the Pen tool, you should understand how Bezier interpolation affects graphs and the paths.
Page 204 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Drag an existing keyframe to a new location. • Adjust the direction handles or change the interpolation method. See also “Applying and changing interpolation methods” on page 222 To move keyframes to another time With multiple keyframes selected, you can copy or delete them simultaneously or move the keyframes together without changing their positions relative to each other.
Page 205 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Effect color properties • Mask properties and spatial properties (effect points, anchor points) You can copy keyframes from only one layer at a time. When you paste keyframes into another layer, they appear in the corresponding property in the destination layer.
Page 206 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To copy a value from a layer property that contains no keyframes You can copy the current value of a layer property to another layer, even when the original layer contains no keyframes. This can save you the time of having to set up a property the same way on various layers.
Page 207 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To edit multiple keyframes in the Graph Editor You can edit and move multiple keyframes simultaneously using the Graph Editor. When you select multiple keyframes with the Show Transform Box button toggled, a free-transform bounding box surrounds the selected keyframes, and an anchor point appears in the center of the bounding box to mark the center point for the transfor- mation.
Page 208: Animation Presets
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 209 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To apply one or more components of an animation preset Make sure that Show Animation Presets and Show Preset Contents are selected in the Effects & Presets panel menu. Expand the preset in the Effects & Presets panel.
Page 210: Animating Layers
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Animating layers To scale a layer By default, a layer appears at 100% of its original size in the Layer panel. Change the scale of a layer over time by dragging the layer’s handles in the Composition panel or by changing the x, y, and z components of the Scale property in the Timeline panel.
Page 211 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “About anchor points” on page 206 To move a layer Every layer appears at a specific position in the Composition panel. You determine the initial position when you add a layer to a composition. You can move a layer by dragging it in the Composition panel, by changing the Position property value in the Timeline panel, or by using keys on your keyboard.
Page 212 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Click the second underlined value and enter the number of degrees by which to rotate the layer. To rotate a selected layer by nudging it 1 degree ❖ Press + or – on the numeric keypad.
Page 213 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Moving an anchor point Move an anchor point in the Layer panel. As you do so, the selected layer moves in the Composition panel, so you can view its position in relation to other layers. If Snap To Guides or Snap To Grids is enabled, the anchor point will snap to them.
Page 214 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select the Pan Behind tool. In the Composition panel, use the Pan Behind tool to drag the anchor point to a new location. Notice that the Position and Anchor point values change for that layer.
Page 215 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Alternately, when you remove a parent from a child layer, you can choose to have the child layer jump to show that its transform properties are now relative to the composition. Jumping a layer is useful to depict a change in focus for a particular layer or layers’ animation. For example, you could animate one child layer to encircle a parent layer, then jump the child to another layer that may be positioned away from the first parent layer.
Page 216: Creating And Modifying Motion Paths
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Creating and modifying motion paths About motion paths When you animate position values, After Effects displays the movement as a motion path. You can create a motion path for the position of the layer or for the anchor point of a layer. A position motion path appears in the Compo- sition panel;...
Page 217 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Composition panel with spaceship layer selected A. Layer handle B. Direction handle on direction line C. Layer keyframe D. Motion path E. Composition panel menu See also “About changes in speed” on page 224 “Interpolation methods”...
Page 218 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Move the layer by dragging it in the Composition panel or by changing its Position property value. Drag a layer in the Composition panel to add a new position keyframe. To add a keyframe to a motion path using the Pen tool Display the Timeline and Composition panels for a composition.
Page 219 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To move all points on a motion path in unison Display the Composition and Timeline panels for a composition. In the Timeline panel, select the layer containing the motion path you want to move.
Page 220: Assorted Animation Tools
You can instantly create a motion path from any mask that you draw in After Effects (or from a path that you copy from Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop), by pasting the mask or path into a layer’s Position property, a layer’s Anchor Point property, or the effect point property of an effect.
Page 221 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Frame blending” on page 238 To apply motion blur to a layer The Motion Blur switch creates a true motion blur based on the layer’s movement in a composition and what you specify for the shutter angle and phase.
Page 222 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide When you apply The Smoother to properties that change spatially (such as position), you can smooth only the spatial curve (the curve defined by the motion). When you apply The Smoother to properties that change only in time (such as opacity), you can smooth only the value and velocity curves (the curve defined by the value or the velocity).
Page 223 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adds the same set of deviations to all dimensions. All Dimensions The Same Set Frequency to specify how many deviations (keyframes) per second After Effects adds to the selected keyframes. A low value produces only occasional deviations, while a high value produces more erratic results. A value between 0 and 1 creates keyframes at intervals of less than one per second.
Page 224: Interpolation
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 225 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “About changes in speed” on page 224 “About the Graph Editor” on page 188 Spatial interpolation and the motion path When you apply or change spatial interpolation for a property such as Position, you automatically adjust the motion path in the Composition panel.
Page 226 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Timeline keyframe icons in layer bar mode A. Linear B. Linear in, Hold out C. Auto Bezier D. Continuous Bezier or Bezier E. Linear in, Bezier out See also “About changes in speed” on page 224...
Page 227 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Auto Bezier interpolation Auto Bezier interpolation creates a smooth rate of change through a keyframe. You might use Auto Bezier spatial interpolation to create the path of a car turning on a curving road.
Page 228 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Even though Hold interpolation is available only as a temporal interpolation method, the keyframes on the motion path are visible, but they are not connected by layer-position dots. For example, if you animate a layer’s Position...
Page 229 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Smooths the rate of change through the selected keyframes by automatically varying their Rove Across Time position in time, based on the positions of the keyframes immediately before and after the selection. keeps the selected keyframes at their current position in time. They stay in place unless you move them Lock To Time manually.
Page 230: Speed
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Modifying a Bezier direction handle See also “Interpolation methods” on page 220 Speed About speed graphs You can fine-tune nearly all changes over time using the speed graph in the Graph Editor. The speed graph provides information about and control of the value and rate of change for all spatial and temporal values at any frame in a composition.
Page 231 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Motion path in Composition panel (left) compared to speed graph in Graph Editor (right) A. Dots are close together, indicating lower speed (left); speed is constant (right). B. Dots are far apart, indicating greater speed (left); speed is constant (right).
Page 232 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide More spatial distance between keyframes increases layer speed. • In layer bar mode or in the Graph Editor, adjust the time difference between two keyframes. Decrease speed by moving one keyframe farther away from the other, or increase speed by moving one keyframe closer to the other.
Page 233 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: Like the value graph, the speed graph displays x, y, and z (3D only) values in different colors: x values are red, y values are green, and z values are blue. You can control the values approaching and leaving a keyframe together, or you can control each value separately.
Page 234 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To create a bounce or peak Use direction handles to simulate the type of acceleration seen in a bouncing ball. When you create this type of effect, the speed graph appears to rise quickly and peak.
Page 235 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To adjust influence of a direction handle on an adjacent keyframe Along with controlling the level of acceleration and deceleration, you can also extend the influence of a keyframe outward or inward in relation to an adjacent keyframe. Influence determines how quickly the speed graph reaches the value you set at the keyframe, giving you an additional degree of control over the shape of the graph.
Page 236 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To smooth motion over several keyframes Using the roving keyframe option in After Effects, you can easily create smooth movement across several keyframes at once. Roving keyframes are keyframes that are not linked to a specific time; their speed and timing are determined by adjacent keyframes.
Page 237: Time
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Select the keyframes you want to change and choose Animation > Keyframe Interpolation. Then choose Lock To Time from the Roving menu. To automatically ease speed Although you can manually adjust the speed of a keyframe by dragging direction handles, using Easy Ease automates the work.
Page 238 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Enhancing time-altered motion by blending frames” on page 169 “To apply the Timewarp effect (Pro only)” on page 239 To time-stretch a layer from a specific time In the Timeline or Composition panel, select the layer.
Page 239 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: For best results, replace the layer with a composition that has the same frame size as the layer, and reverse the layer inside the composition. This is the most accurate way to reverse footage. For more information on this process, called nesting, see “About nesting”...
Page 240 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Footage is usually displayed at a constant speed in one direction. Time-remapping distorts time for a range of frames within a layer. You can also time-remap layers containing audio or both audio and video. When you apply time-remap to a layer containing audio and video, the audio and video remain synchronized.
Page 241 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Using keyframes” on page 192 “About animation and layer properties” on page 188 Working with the Time Remap graph When remapping time in the Graph Editor, use the values represented in the Time Remap graph to determine and control which frame of the movie plays at which point in time.
Page 242 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Drag the first keyframe to the current-time indicator, which moves the start and end keyframes. To freeze the last frame without changing the speed In a Composition or Timeline panel, select the layer you want to remap.
Page 243 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To remap time in a Layer panel Open the Layer panel for the layer you want to remap. Choose Layer > Time > Enable Time Remapping. A second time ruler appears in the Layer panel above the default time ruler and the navigator bar.
Page 244 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Previewing audio” on page 136 To change the pitch of an audio layer In a Composition or Timeline panel, select the layer you want to remap. Choose Layer > Time > Enable Time Remapping.
Page 245 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Frame blending slows previewing and rendering. To speed things up, you can apply frame blending without using it to redraw or render. The Quality setting you select also affects frame blending. When the layer is set to Best quality, frame blending results in smoother motion but may take longer to render than when set to Draft quality.
Page 246 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Set a value for either Speed or Source Frame. If you are using Source Frame, set at least two keyframes to time- remap the layer. If you are using Pixel Motion as your interpolation method, adjust any of the following Tuning parameters: Specifies how many motion vectors are created during interpolation.
Page 247 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide If your image contains unwanted pixels or artifacts at the edges, use the Source Crops option to specify image boundaries. At the boundaries you specify, pixels will be repeated to eliminate unwanted artifacts.
Page 248: Transparency Overview
An alpha channel provides a way to store both images and their transparency information in a single file without disturbing the color channels. When you view the alpha channel in the After Effects Composition panel or the Adobe Premiere Pro Monitor panel, white indicates complete opacity, black indicates complete transparency, and shades of gray indicate partial trans- parency.
Page 249 Fortunately, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects recognize both straight and premulti- plied channels, so either type will produce satisfactory results for most projects.
Page 250: Creating And Importing Masks
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 251 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “To rename a layer” on page 158 To create a mask by dragging You can use this procedure with rectangular or elliptical masks only. Select a layer in the Composition panel or display a layer in the Layer panel.
Page 252 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide On curved mask segments for Bezier masks, each selected vertex displays one or two direction lines, ending in direction handles. The direction lines always touch the curve at the vertices. As a path exits one vertex, the angle and length of that vertex’s direction line shapes the path.
Page 253 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To convert a mask to a RotoBezier mask You can convert any existing mask to a RotoBezier mask. However, Bezier masks that have adjusted direction lines change shape when converted to RotoBezier because After Effects calculates RotoBezier segments automatically. You can convert RotoBezier masks to Bezier without affecting the mask shape.
Page 254 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “About motion paths” on page 210 To create a mask from a channel with Auto-trace You can convert the alpha, red, green, blue, or luminance channel of a layer to one or more masks by using the Auto- trace command.
Page 255 To import an Adobe Illustrator path as a mask You can use an Adobe Illustrator path as a mask in an After Effects layer composition by copying the path in Adobe Illustrator and pasting it directly into the Layer or Composition panel in After Effects. After Effects creates a mask for each closed path copied from Adobe Illustrator.
Page 256: Working With Masks
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “About text layers” on page 283 Working with masks To view masks ❖ Do one of the following: • To view masks in the Composition panel, choose View Options from the Composition panel menu, select Masks in the Layer Controls section of the View Options dialog box, and then click OK.
Page 257 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Do any of the following: • To select one mask, click its name. • To select a contiguous range of masks, Shift-click the names of the first and last masks in the range. •...
Page 258 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To delete all masks, select the layer containing the masks you want to remove and choose Layer > Masks > Remove All Masks. To duplicate a mask If you create a mask on one area of a layer and want to put a copy of it on another area of the layer, use the Duplicate command.
Page 259 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide When you create a new mask shape while a mask is chosen in the Target menu, the targeted mask is replaced by the new shape. You can change this behavior by choosing None from the Target menu so that any new mask shape you create in the Layer panel creates a new mask instead of replacing an existing mask.
Page 260: Modifying Masks
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To close the free-transform bounding box, double-click anywhere in the Composition or Layer panel. Modifying masks Changing the shape of a mask In the Layer or Composition panel, you can freely change the shape of a mask. You can move, delete, or add vertices to reshape a mask;...
Page 261 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Clicking a vertex instead of dragging sets the vertex to a corner point (100% tension); clicking again sets the vertex to a smooth point (33% tension). Dragging up or to the right decreases the selection’s tension, increasing the curve of adjacent path segments;...
Page 262 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Setting the Mask Feather property A. Masked layer with 5-pixel feather B. Masked layer with 40-pixel feather C. Result with 5-pixel feather D. Result with 40-pixel feather Mask feathering takes place only within the dimensions of the layer frame area. Therefore, a feathered mask shape should always be slightly smaller than the layer area and should never move to the very edge of the layer.
Page 263 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: The mask must contain keyframes that create enough movement to result in a realistic motion blur. Select one or more masks. Choose Layer > Masks > Motion Blur, and choose one of the following options: To control the mask’s blur using the Motion Blur button.
Page 264 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Effects that you can apply to a mask You can apply the following standard After Effects effects to a mask shape: Path Text, Audio Waveform, Audio Spectrum, Stroke, Fill (closed paths only), Vegas, and Smear (closed paths only).
Page 265: Blending Modes And Mask Modes
Blending modes for layers in After Effects (formerly referred to as layer modes) are identical to blending modes in Adobe Photoshop. You can’t animate blending modes by using keyframes. If you want a blending mode to change at a certain time, split the layer at that time and apply the new blending mode to the part of the layer that continues.
Page 266 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Gallery of blending modes Normal Dissolve Dancing Dissolve Darken Multiply Linear Burn Color Burn Classic Color Burn Lighten Screen Linear Dodge Color Dodge Classic Color Dodge Overlay Soft Light Hard Light Linear Light Vivid Light...
Page 267 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Difference Classic Difference Exclusion Saturation Color Luminosity Stencil Alpha Stencil Luma Silhouette Alpha Silhouette Luma Alpha Add Luminescent Premul Composites the layer on top of underlying layers. Normal Randomly replaces layer colors with colors from underlying layers, based on layer transparency. (The Dissolve Advanced 3D rendering plug-in doesn’t support the Dissolve blending mode.)
Page 268 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The Color Burn mode from After Effects 5.0 and earlier, renamed Classic Color Burn. Use it to Classic Color Burn preserve compatibility with older projects; otherwise, use Color Burn. Classic Color Burn darkens the resulting color based on the original layer color.
Page 269 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Enhances the contrast of the underlying layer that is visible beneath a mask on the source layer. The mask Hard Mix size determines the contrasted area; the inverted source layer determines the center of the contrasted area.
Page 270 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Stencil (left) shows all layers below through the frame of the stencil layer’s alpha channel; silhouette (right) cuts a hole through all layers below. Click Switches/Modes at the bottom of the Timeline panel. Click Normal to open the Mode menu for the layer you want to use as a stencil or silhouette, and then choose one of the following: Creates a stencil using the layer’s alpha channel.
Page 271 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Mask shapes that result when different modes are applied to the circle mask. The shapes in this illustration have different Mask Opacity values. A. Original masks B. None C. Add D. Subtract E. Intersect F. Lighten G. Darken H. Difference To apply a mask mode In the Timeline panel, select the layer containing the mask to which you want to apply a mode and press M.
Page 272: Animating Masks
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Animating masks About mask animation You can change all of a layer’s Mask property’s values—Mask Shape, Mask Feather, Mask Opacity, or Mask Expansion—over time by using keyframes. To animate a mask shape, After Effects designates the topmost vertex at the initial keyframe as the first vertex and numbers each successive vertex in ascending order from the first vertex.
Page 273 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To designate a vertex as the first vertex Create an animated mask shape. In the Timeline panel, move the current-time indicator to the point where you want to designate a new first vertex. Select the vertex you want to designate as the first vertex.
Page 274 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: Regardless of the keyframe rate you choose, Smart Mask Interpolation always adds keyframes at the frame just after the first mask shape keyframe and at the frame just before the second mask shape keyframe. For example, if you interpolate between keyframes at 0 seconds and 1 second in a 30-fps composition with a keyframe rate of 10 per second, mask shape keyframes are added at frame numbers 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, and 29.
Page 275 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide matches the first vertices, the second vertices, the third vertices, and so forth. If the two shapes have unequal numbers of vertices, this action may produce undesirable results. Specifies that Smart Mask Interpolation matches the first vertices in the two mask shape First Vertices Match keyframes.
Page 276: Keying
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Click inside the mask area in the Composition panel and drag the layer to a new position. Keying About keying After Effects includes several effects that key out, or make transparent, parts of an image. Each effect is called a key, and the color specified for transparency is called the key color.
Page 277 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “To set background or pasteboard color” on page 117 “To create a solid-color layer” on page 150 Recommendations for sequencing and combining keys When creating transparency in footage, you may need to try different keys before you are satisfied with the results.
Page 278 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide You can also reapply this key to preserve a color that was made transparent by the first application of the key. For example, if you are keying out a medium-blue screen, you might lose some or all of a light-blue piece of clothing your subject is wearing.
Page 279 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To preserve a color after applying Linear Color Key In the Effect Controls panel or Timeline panel, turn off any current instances of keys or matte effects by deselecting the Effect option to the left of the key name or tool name. This displays the original image in the Compo- sition panel so that you can select a color to preserve.
Page 280 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust transparency values for each partial matte and for the final matte by dragging one or more of the following slider bars in the Matte Controls section: • Black slider bars adjust the transparency levels of each matte. You can adjust the same levels using the Black eyedropper.
Page 281 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To use the Color Range effect Select the layer you want to make transparent, and then choose Effect > Keying > Color Range. Choose the Lab, YUV, or RGB color space from the Color Space menu. If you’re having trouble isolating the subject using one color space, try using a different one.
Page 282 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide If the difference layer is not the same size as the source layer, choose one of the following controls from the If Layer Sizes Differ menu: Places the difference layer in the center of the source layer. If the difference layer is smaller than the source Center layer, the rest of the layer is filled with black.
Page 283 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Extract effect (Pro only)” on page 464 To use the Spill Suppressor effect Select the layer and choose Effect > Keying > Spill Suppressor. Choose the color you want to suppress in one of the following ways: •...
Page 284 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Create additional open or closed masks to clean up other areas of the image, and then select them from the Cleanup Foreground or Cleanup Background menu. Cleanup Foreground masks increase the opacity along the mask;...
Page 285: Mattes
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Mattes About track mattes and traveling mattes When you want one layer to show through a hole in another layer, set up a track matte. You’ll need two layers—one to act as a matte, and another to fill the hole in the matte. You can animate either the track matte layer or the fill layer.
Page 286 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Opaque when alpha channel pixel value is 0%. Alpha Inverted Matte Opaque when a pixel’s luminance value is 100%. Luma Matte Opaque when a pixel’s luminance value is 0%. Luma Inverted Matte After Effects converts the next layer above into a track matte, turns off the video of the track matte layer, and adds a track matte icon next to the track matte layer’s name in the Timeline panel.
Page 287 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Using a hold-out matte A hold-out matte (also known as a hold-back matte) is a duplicate of the layer you have keyed. The hold-out matte, however, is masked to include only the area of the image containing the key color that you want to preserve as opaque.
Page 288 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Matte Choker effect (Pro only)” on page 466 “Simple Choker effect (Pro only)” on page 467 To close a hole in a matte (Pro only) The sequence of choking and spreading occurs in two stages, each with its own set of identical controls. Typically, stage two does the opposite of stage one.
Page 289: Creating Text
3D layers, and edit the 3D text while viewing it in multiple views. As with layers imported from Adobe Illustrator, text layers are continuously rasterized, so when you scale the layer or resize the text, it retains crisp, resolution-independent edges. The main differences between text layers and other layers are that you cannot open a text layer in its own Layer panel, and that you can animate the text in a text layer using special text animator properties and selectors.
Page 290 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The small line through the I-beam marks the position of the text baseline. For horizontal text, the baseline marks the line on which the text rests; for vertical text, the baseline marks the center axis of the text characters.
Page 291: Formatting Characters
User Guide To convert text from Photoshop to editable text Text layers from Adobe Photoshop retain their style and remain editable in After Effects. Import the Adobe Photoshop text as footage or as a composition. Open the Adobe Photoshop composition or add the layer to a composition.
Page 292 In addition to the fonts installed on your system, After Effects uses font files in this local folder: Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts Windows Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts Mac OS X If you install a Type 1, TrueType, OpenType , or CID font into the local Fonts folder, the font appears in Adobe appli- ® cations only.
Page 293 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To choose a font family and style When you select a font, you can select the font family and its font style independently. The font family is a collection of fonts sharing an overall typeface design; for example, Times. A font style is a variant version of an individual font in the font family;...
Page 294 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The Character panel lets you apply both color fill and color stroke to text, control the stroke width, and control the stacking position of the fill and stroke. You can change these properties for individual, selected characters; selected Source Text keyframes;...
Page 295 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Some fonts include robust kern-pair specifications. For other fonts, or for two different typefaces or sizes in a line, you may want to use the optical kerning option. Optical kerning adjusts the spacing between adjacent characters based on their shapes.
Page 296: Formatting Paragraphs
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To format as superscript or subscript You can enter or format text as superscript or subscript characters. Superscript characters are reduced in size and shifted above the text baseline; subscript characters are reduced in size and shifted below the text baseline. If the font does not include superscript or subscript characters, After Effects generates faux superscript or subscript characters.
Page 297 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To align and justify text You can align text to one edge of a paragraph (left, center, or right for horizontal text; top, center, or bottom for vertical text) and justify text to both edges of a paragraph. Alignment options are available for both point text and paragraph text;...
Page 298 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To specify hanging punctuation for Roman fonts Hanging punctuation controls whether punctuation marks fall inside or outside the margins. If hanging punctuation is turned on for Roman fonts, then periods, commas, single quotation marks, double quotation marks, apostrophes, hyphens, em dashes, en dashes, colons, and semicolons appear outside the margins.
Page 299 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide A. Horizontal point text B. Horizontal point text converted to vertical C. Horizontal paragraph text D. Horizontal paragraph text converted to vertical Using the Selection tool , select the text layer. Note: You can’t convert the text layer if it’s in text-editing mode.
Page 300 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Working with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text After Effects provides several options for working with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) text. Characters in CJK fonts are often referred to as double-byte characters because they require more than one byte of information to express each character.
Page 301: Animating Text
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 302 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To animate the source text Use the Source Text property to change and animate the character and paragraph features of the text characters themselves (for example, change the letter b to the letter c). Because you can mix and match formatting within a text layer, you can easily create animations that transform every detail of a word or phrase.
Page 303 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Text animator groups animate a character’s position, shape, and size-related properties relative to each character's own anchor point. The text property Anchor Point Grouping lets you reposition each character’s anchor point relative to its word, line, or entire text block. In addition, you can control the alignment of the anchor point relative to the anchor point group and the font with the Grouping Alignment property.
Page 304 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Selector bars surrounding the three middle characters VEN To refine the selection, expand Advanced and specify options and values as desired. For information about using selectors, see “About selectors” on page 299. Because all of the animator groups that you add to a text layer appear with the name “Animator” in the Timeline panel, you may want to rename them using more descriptive names.
Page 305: Selectors
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The width of the character’s stroke (outline). Stroke Width The space between each character in a word. Tracking The alignment for the tracking in each line of text. A value of 0% specifies left align, 50% specifies Line Anchor center align, and 100% specifies right align.
Page 306 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: Only add selectors to existing animator groups—you can’t create an animation unless you have a property to animate. To add a new selector to an animator group ❖ In the Timeline panel, select an animator group and choose Selector from the Add menu; then choose either Range or Wiggly from the submenu.
Page 307 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left) and with VEN selected by the range selectors, Based On set to Character, Shape set to Triangle, and Scale set to 40% (right) If you have only one selector, Mode specifies the interaction between the selector and the text. With one Mode selector, you can use the Subtract mode to invert the selector;...
Page 308 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Wiggly selector properties The Wiggly selector includes the following properties: Specifies how each selector combines with the selectors above it, similar to how multiple masks combine Mode when you apply a mask mode. For example, if you want to wiggle only a specific word, use a Range selector on that word and then add a Wiggly selector and set it to Intersect mode.
Page 309: Working With Masks In Text Layers
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Fill color changes randomly using an expression animator. See also “About expressions” on page 555 To add an Expression selector to an animator group In the Timeline panel, select an animator group. Choose Selector > Expression from the Add menu.
Page 310 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To position text along a mask’s path Create a text layer and type the desired text. With the text layer selected, use the Pen tool to draw a mask in the Composition panel. In the Timeline panel, expand the Path Options property for the text layer and select the mask from the Path menu.
Page 311: Examples Of Text Animations
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Positions the first character at the beginning of the path (or at the specified First Margin location), Force Alignment positions the last character at the end of the path (or at the specified Last Margin location), and evenly spaces the remaining characters between the first and last characters.
Page 312 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “To specify ranges with the Range selector” on page 300 “Using keyframes” on page 192 “Methods for previewing compositions” on page 134 Example: To animate characters with the Wiggly selector This example demonstrates how easy it is to animate the position of individual characters. It also shows how the Wiggly selector can create a dramatic change to the animation simply by adding it to the layer.
Page 313 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: If you add the Fill Hue property to Animator 1 and then add the Wiggly selector, both the position and the colors wiggle, instead of just the colors. See also “To create a composition” on page 109 “To enter point text”...
Page 314 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Drag the Line Anchor value until the 7 is positioned in approximately its original position in the center of the Composition panel. Click the Show Last Snapshot button in the Composition panel to see the exact location of the 7 in its original location.
Page 315 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Range selector properties” on page 300 “Using keyframes” on page 192 “Methods for previewing compositions” on page 134 Example: To change transitions between characters Using different Shape options, you can significantly change the appearance of an animation.
Page 316 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Writing text on using the Opacity property Create a new composition. Create a text layer with the characters 01234. Position the pointer away from the text in the Composition panel and when the type pointer changes to the move pointer , drag to move the text to the center of the panel.
Page 317 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Choose Add > Selector > Expression. If the Wiggly selector doesn’t come before the Expression selector, drag the Wiggly selector above the Expression selector. Expand the Expression Selector. Expand the Amount property group to reveal the expression. The following expression appears by default:...
Page 318 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “To create a composition” on page 109 “To enter point text” on page 283 “About the Expression selector” on page 302 “Methods for previewing compositions” on page 134...
Page 319: Using Paint Tools
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 320 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To use the Brush tool Use the Brush tool to paint on a layer with the current foreground color. With the Brush tool, you can modify the color and transparency of a layer without altering the source footage.
Page 321 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select the Brush tool in the Tools panel. In the Paint panel, choose Custom from the Duration menu, and specify the duration in frames. Select paint options as desired. Paint in the layer. Press Ctrl + Page Down (Windows) or Command + Page Down (Mac OS) to advance the number of frames specified by the Custom duration setting.
Page 322 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the number of seconds between the sample and the clone stroke. This property appears Clone Time Shift only when Lock To Source is not selected. When using the Clone Stamp tool, you set a starting sample point (Source Position) in the source layer and then drag in the target layer to apply the sample.
Page 323 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Moving the clone source overlay around while in the Difference blending mode can help you line up elements or see differences between frames as you move through time. You can temporarily display the clone source overlay by pressing Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS).
Page 324 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Do one of the following to control where each new stroke samples in the source layer: • Deselect Aligned to make each new stroke begin sampling from the starting sample point (Source Position). Optionally, to adjust the starting sample point’s position, adjust the Source Position’s x and y values or click Reset to set them both to zero.
Page 325: Brushes
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To temporarily use the Eraser tool with the Last Stroke Only option while using the Clone Stamp or Brush tool, Ctrl+Shift-drag (Windows) or Command+Shift-drag (Mac OS) over the stroke you want to erase. You can also use this shortcut while using the Eraser tool in Layer Source And Paint or Paint Only mode.
Page 326 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies how much the flow of brush marks varies in a stroke. Options include Off, Pen Pressure, Pen Tilt, and Flow Stylus Wheel. Creating and managing preset brush tips You can customize an existing brush tip and save it as a preset brush tip. You can create custom brush tips, rename preset brush tips, and delete preset brush tips.
Page 327 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To customize brush tip shape properties A brush stroke is made up of many individual brush tip marks. The brush tip you select determines the shape, diameter, and other properties of a brush mark. You can customize brush tips by changing the brush tip properties.
Page 328: Paint Strokes
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Controls the brush stroke’s transition from 100% opaque at the center to 100% transparent at the edges. Hardness Even with high hardness settings, only the center is fully opaque. Enter a percentage value or drag a new value.
Page 329 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Each paint stroke is labeled numerically in the Effects section of the Timeline panel and is named for the tool that created it. For example, brush strokes are named as Brush 1, Brush 2; Clone Stamp strokes are named as Clone 1, Clone 2.
Page 330 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To specify a blending mode for a paint stroke You can apply blending modes to a paint stroke after it has been applied to a layer. In the Timeline panel, click the triangle to the left of the layer to expand the Paint section.
Page 331 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide if it were screened. This is useful for adding highlights to an image. If the blend color is darker than 50% gray, the underlying color is darkened, as if it were multiplied. This is useful for adding shadows to an image. Painting with pure black or white results in pure black or white.
Page 332 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To enable Paint On Transparent You can hide or display the layer that you paint on by enabling the Paint On Transparent option. You can enable the Paint On Transparent option in the Timeline panel or Effect Controls panel. When you enable this option, paint strokes appear on a transparent background instead of on the source layer.
Page 333: Selecting Colors
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To animate a paint stroke by stroke targeting Open a layer and select a paint tool in the Tools panel. In the Paint panel, choose Single Frame, Constant, or Custom from the Duration menu.
Page 334 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select the component you want to use to display the color spectrum: Displays all hues in the color slider. Selecting a hue in the color slider displays the saturation and brightness range of the selected hue in the color spectrum, with the saturation increasing from left to right and brightness increasing from bottom to top.
Page 335: Motion Tracking Overview (Pro Only)
Chapter 15: Motion tracking (Pro only) Motion tracking overview (Pro only) Uses of motion tracking (Pro only) Using conventional editing techniques, it is difficult and time-consuming to synchronize visual effects or other images with moving footage. The motion tracking features of After Effects let you easily create composites and dynamic visual effects regardless of whether the subjects or the camera (or both) are moving.
Page 336 For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 337 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide For best results, first prepare the object or region you are tracking before you begin filming. Because After Effects compares pixels from one frame to the next to produce an accurate track, attaching high-contrast markers to the object or region lets After Effects more easily follow the motion from frame to frame.
Page 338 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Feature and search region moving through footage 5. Using rotation track points In addition to tracking the position of a feature, you can also track its rotation. You can apply rotation values to another layer or to stabilize the same layer. When you select the Rotation option, After Effects displays two feature and search regions.
Page 339 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide For example, if you wanted to animate a flying saucer hovering over an undercover spy, you would position the feature region on a small, distinct area on the spy. If you left the attach point centered in the feature region, the saucer would be attached to that point (and would appear to have already landed on the spy).
Page 340 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Tracks position and/or rotation to stabilize jerky camera movement or to fix drift of the subject from its Stabilize mark. When tracking position, this option creates one track point and generates anchor point keyframes. When tracking rotation, this option creates two track points and produces rotation keyframes.
Page 341: Tracker Controls Panel (Pro Only)
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Motion Trackers properties in the Timeline panel See also “About animation and layer properties” on page 188 Tracker Controls panel (Pro only) Source, Current Track, and Target controls (Pro only) You use the Tracker Controls panel to control all types of motion tracking and stabilization. In this panel, you specify your motion source layer and motion target layer, choose the type of tracking you want to use, and set special tracking options.
Page 342 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide by clicking Edit Target and choosing a new target from the Layer pop-up menu in the Motion Target dialog box. The Edit Target button is not available if Raw is selected for Track Type.
Page 343: Tracking Motion (Pro Only)
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Displays the Tracker Plug-in Options dialog box, which includes options for the AE Original Built-in Options Tracker. This command is only available if you choose to use the older After Effects tracker plug-in. Note: When you begin tracking, After Effects sets the quality of the motion source layer to Best and the resolution to 100% to improve the image quality and make the selected feature region easier to find.
Page 344 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adding new track points (Pro only) To use tracking data with expressions, you may want to track additional features. You can add track points by choosing New Track Point from the panel options menu. Each new point tracks position only. You cannot apply the additional tracking data directly to a target layer, but you can refer to the data in expressions.
Page 345 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To resize the feature or search region, drag a corner handle. • To make all of the region’s sides match the length of the longest side and to resize the region relative to the original region’s center point, Shift-drag a corner handle.
Page 346 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Click Edit Target to open the Motion Target dialog box, which lists all the layers in the composition (except the motion source layer) as well as any point controls in effects applied to the motion source layer.
Page 347 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide In the Layer panel for the motion source, move the current-time indicator to the frame from which tracking should begin. Using the Selection tool, position and size the feature region so that it surrounds the feature you want to track.
Page 348 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Creates a track point for the motion source in the Layer panel for the motion source. In the Tracker Controls panel, select Position or Rotation as appropriate. If you select Rotation, After Effects adds an additional track point, connected by a line, in the Layer panel.
Page 349 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide An X appears in the Layer panel at the center of the feature region at each keyframe. To adjust the motion path, do any of the following in the Layer panel: • To move the entire track point (feature region, search region, and attach point) at a particular keyframe, drag a keyframe marker with the Selection tool.
Page 350 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide After Effects gives you two corner-pinning options when tracking: Parallel Corner Pinning and Perspective Corner Pinning. These options create multiple track points and apply them to the target layer using the Corner Pin effect.
Page 351 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Corner Pin effect (Pro only)” on page 423 To track motion using either parallel or perspective corner pinning (Pro only) To track motion using either parallel or perspective corner pinning, you select the layer and adjust settings in the Tracker Controls panel.
Page 352 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Correcting a drifting feature region (Pro only) As an image moves in a shot, the lighting, surrounding objects, and angle of the object can all change, making the once distinct feature no longer identifiable at the subpixel level. It takes time to develop an eye for choosing a trackable feature.
Page 353 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • If the area is partially obscured during tracking, set a tolerance value for Extrapolate Motion if Confidence Is Below_%. You can determine the proper value by creating a trial track and then examining the confidence value displayed in the Timeline panel for any frames with an obscured feature region.
Page 354: Working With Effects
All effects are stored in Adobe After Effects 7.0 > Support Files > Plug-ins (Windows) or Adobe After Effects 7.0 > Plug-ins (Mac OS). Because effects are implemented as plug-ins, you can use additional effects from other Adobe plug-in–compatible applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, and you can use effects provided by parties other than...
Page 355 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “To apply an animation preset” on page 202 “Improving performance when using effects” on page 638 To apply an effect with the Effect menu In the Timeline or Composition panel, select a layer.
Page 356 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To remove all effects applied to one or more layers, select the layer or layers from which you want to remove all effects in the Timeline or Composition panel, and choose Effect > Remove All.
Page 357 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Shows the individual effects, animators, and properties that make up an animation preset. Show Presets Contents To see a preset’s components, click the triangle to the left of the preset’s name. Note: Animation presets appear in the Effects & Presets panel only if they are located in the After Effects application folder or a subfolder of the application folder.
Page 358: Modifying Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • It can be relocated anywhere in the Timeline panel’s stacking order. • It cannot interact with other effects with Comp Camera attributes, 3D layers, or shadows. • The image is rendered on the layer, not the composition, so make sure that you apply these effects to layers that are the same size as the composition and are exactly centered in the composition.
Page 359 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Change the value using one of the following methods: • Drag the slider left or right, if available. • Drag the underlined value or type a new value directly over the existing value. •...
Page 360: Using Noise & Grain Effects
DVD creation and video streaming. See also “Adobe Media Encoder Filters options” on page 614 About grain effects Effects such as Add Grain, Match Grain, and Remove Grain allow you to manipulate grain that appears more or less evenly over the whole image.
Page 361 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The Remove Grain and Match Grain effects use a two-step process to manipulate grain without affecting the edges, sharpness, or highlights of an image. First, the grain is sampled, either automatically or manually; second, the grain is analyzed and portrayed by a mathematical model, which the effect uses to add, remove, or match the grain.
Page 362 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Any mask or matte works in a similar way: The white pixels in it exclude that area of the original image from processing by the grain effect; the black pixels process normally. At 100% Amount, the white areas fully blend with the original so that they are completely excluded from the processing.
Page 363 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select Invert Match if you want to invert the matte so that the white areas become black and the black areas become white. (The matching color will be black in the matte and will be processed by the grain effect regardless of the Amount setting.
Page 364 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select Show Box if you want to outline the preview region in color. If you want to change the outline color, do one of the following adjacent to Box Color: • Click the color swatch to choose a color in the Color Picker dialog box.
Page 365 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Choose Effect > Noise & Grain > Remove Grain. Adjust any of the following using the Noise Reduction Settings controls group: • To adjust the overall amount of noise in the image, adjust the Noise Reduction value.
Page 366 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Displays the current settings of the applied effect in a 200 x 200 pixels area. Preview Shows the current color matte or mask, or the combination of both, which results from the current Blending Matte settings of the Blend With Original controls group.
Page 367 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To match noise or grain between images The Match Grain effect matches the noise between two images. This is especially useful for compositing and in bluescreen/greenscreen work. The Match Grain effect only adds noise and can’t remove it, so if the destination is already noisier than the source, an exact match is not possible.
Page 368 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Shows the current color matte or mask, or the combination of both, which results from the current Blending Matte settings of the Blend With Original controls group. Renders the full active frame, using the current settings of the effect.
Page 369 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Digital video footage shown using three variations of Add Grain effect Note: The actual grain of your image may vary from the film presets, because of factors such as exposure and scanning resolution. You can use the Add Grain effect’s controls to do the following: •...
Page 370 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To define the midpoint of the image’s tonal range for grain application purposes, adjust the Midpoint slider. By default, this is centered at 0.5, which represents the middle of the range of pixel values, 127 for 8-bit images and 16384 in 16-bit images.
Page 371 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Blending and adjusting the color of added or matched grain You can adjust the color, saturation, and blending behavior of the grain that is generated by the Add Grain or Match Grain effect to suit your needs.
Page 372 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The number of samples in automatic mode is high to ensure that the algorithm has enough good noise data, even if finding good samples in a particular image is difficult. In addition, the automatic mode may override the number of samples you’ve set if the effect can’t find enough good samples.
Page 373 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To change the noise sample box color You can set the Remove Grain or Match Grain effect’s viewing mode to Noise Samples to see the areas sampled by the effect. Sampled areas are automatically framed with a white outline. If the noise sample boxes are hard to see, you can change the noise sample box color.
Page 374: Galleries Of Effects
“Transition effects gallery” on page 380 • “Utility effects gallery” on page 380 Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions. See also...
Page 375 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide 3D Channel effects gallery No effect applied “3D Channel Extract effect (Pro only)” “Depth Matte effect (Pro only)” on “Depth Of Field effect (Pro only)” on on page 381 page 382 page 382 “Fog 3D effect (Pro only)” on page 383 “ID Matte effect (Pro only)”...
Page 376 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Lens Blur effect” on page 392 “Radial Blur effect” on page 393 “Sharpen effect” on page 393 “Smart Blur effect” on page 394 “Unsharp Mask effect” on page 394 Channel effects gallery No effect applied “Alpha Levels effect (Pro only)”...
Page 377 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Set Channels effect” on page 401 “Set Matte effect” on page 401 “Shift Channels effect” on page 402 “Solid Composite effect” on page 402 Color Correction effects gallery No effect applied “Auto Color effect” on page 402 “Auto Contrast effect”...
Page 378 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Color Balance (HLS) effect” on “Color Link effect” on page 408 “Color Stabilizer effect (Pro only)” on page 408 page 409 “Colorama effect” on page 410 “Curves effect” on page 413 “Equalize effect” on page 414 “Exposure effect”...
Page 379 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Distort effects gallery No effect applied “Bezier Warp effect (Pro only)” on “Bulge effect (Pro only)” on page 423 “Corner Pin effect (Pro only)” on page 422 page 423 “Displacement Map effect (Pro only)”...
Page 380 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Transform effect” on page 435 “Turbulent Displace effect” on page 436 “Twirl effect” on page 438 “Warp effect” on page 438 “Wave Warp effect” on page 439 Generate effects gallery No effect applied “4-Color Gradient effect” on page 440 “Advanced Lightning effect (Pro only)”...
Page 381 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Eyedropper Fill effect” on page 448 “Fill effect” on page 449 “Fractal effect” on page 449 “Grid effect” on page 451 “Lens Flare effect” on page 452 “Lightning effect” on page 452 “Paint Bucket effect” on page 454 “Radio Waves effect”...
Page 382 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Inner/Outer Key effect (Pro only)” on “Difference Matte effect (Pro only)” on “Extract effect (Pro only)” on page 464 page 465 page 464 “Linear Color Key effect” on page 465 “Luma Key effect” on page 466 “Spill Suppressor effect (Pro only)”...
Page 383 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Match Grain effect” on page 471 “Median effect” on page 471 “Noise effect” on page 472 “Noise Alpha effect” on page 472 “Noise HLS effect and Noise HLS Auto “Remove Grain effect” on page 474 effect”...
Page 384 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Simulation effects gallery “Card Dance effect” on page 491 “Caustics effect” on page 494 “Foam effect” on page 496 “Particle Playground effect (Pro only)” on “Shatter effect” on page 514 “Wave World effect” on page 520...
Page 385 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Scatter effect (Pro only)” on page 529 “Strobe Light effect” on page 530 “Texturize effect” on page 530 “Threshold effect” on page 531 Text effects gallery No effect applied “Basic Text effect” on page 531 “Numbers effect”...
Page 386 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “Time Displacement effect (Pro only)” on “Timewarp effect (Pro only)” on page 542 page 544 Transition effects gallery No effect applied “Block Dissolve effect” on page 544 “Card Wipe effect” on page 545 “Gradient Wipe effect” on page 548 “Iris Wipe effect”...
Page 387: D Channel Effects (Pro Only)
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “HDR Compander effect” on page 553 “HDR Highlight Compression effect” on page 554 3D Channel effects (Pro only) About 3D Channel effects (Pro only) After Effects Professional provides tools to integrate 3D scenes into 2D composites and to make changes to those 3D scenes.
Page 388 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for the 3D Channel Extract effect: Specifies the channel that you want to extract from the 3D channel image file. 3D Channel Specify the value that is mapped to white or black.
Page 389 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for the Depth Of Field effect: Specifies the specific distance, or plane, along the z axis that you want to focus on in the 3D scene. Focal Plane Identify this distance by clicking different parts of the 3D scene in the Composition panel, while keeping an eye on the z-axis values that appear in the Info panel.
Page 390: Audio Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies how much the gradient layer affects the resulting fog. Layer Contribution See also “About 3D layers” on page 173 ID Matte effect (Pro only) The ID Matte effect isolates elements in a 3D channel image file. Many 3D programs tag each element in a scene with a unique Object ID.
Page 391 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Backwards effect The Backwards effect reverses an audio footage item by playing it from the last frame to the first frame. The frames remain in their original order when viewed in the Timeline panel. Select Swap Channels to swap left and right channels.
Page 392 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for the Flange & Chorus effect: Specifies the time in milliseconds that separates each voice. Each voice is a delayed Voice Separation Time (ms) version of the original sound. Low values are commonly used for flange, and higher values for chorus.
Page 393 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Change the focus from one sound to another over time. For example, in audio that contains both music and voice, you can fade out the music while gradually bringing in the voice. •...
Page 394 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the amount of amplitude modulation. Amplitude Modulation See also “Previewing audio” on page 136 Parametric EQ effect (Pro only) The Parametric EQ effect either emphasizes or attenuates specific frequency ranges. Parametric EQ is useful for enhancing music, such as boosting low frequencies to bring up bass.
Page 395 You can also apply the Tone effect to a layer that has no audio, such as an Adobe Illustrator object, to synthesize audio. When you render the movie, make sure that you select an output format that supports audio.
Page 396: Blur & Sharpen Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Blur & Sharpen effects Box Blur effect The Box Blur effect blurs an image based on the average color value of neighboring pixels. You can adjust the size of the area that the effect uses to calculate the average value for a given pixel; a larger radius makes the image blurrier.
Page 397 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Compound Blur effect The Compound Blur effect blurs pixels in the selected layer based on the luminance values of a blur layer, also known as a blurring map. The blur layer, which can be any layer that contains pixels of different luminance values, is overlaid on top of the selected layer, and the pixels of both layers are matched, one to one.
Page 398 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left); with effect applied (right) Gaussian Blur effect The Gaussian Blur effect blurs and softens the image and can reduce the visibility of noise. Specify whether the blur is horizontal, vertical, or both. The layer’s quality setting does not affect Gaussian Blur.
Page 399 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The rotation of the iris. Iris Rotation The size of the iris. Increase this value for greater blur. Iris Radius To introduce specular highlights, set Specular Threshold. All pixels with a brightness value greater than Specular Threshold are treated as specular highlights.
Page 400 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left); with effect applied (right) Smart Blur effect The Smart Blur effect blurs an image while preserving its edges. For example, you can use the Smart Blur effect to smoothly blur shaded areas while retaining crisp edges.
Page 401: Channel Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Channel effects Alpha Levels effect (Pro only) The Alpha Levels effect increases or decreases the transparency of a matte. Use Alpha Levels to adjust pure black or pure white areas of a matte to be semitransparent, or to adjust grays (semitransparent areas) to be pure black and white.
Page 402 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left); matte created with Fractal Noise effect on a solid layer (center); result (right) Specifies the mathematical operation to perform between the value you specify for each channel and the Operator existing value of that channel for each pixel in the image: •...
Page 403 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the fading level between the blended image and the original image. A setting of 0% Blend With Original shows only the secondary layer (or just the layers specified with Blend in Crossfade mode). At 100%, only the first layer is visible.
Page 404 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the blending mode used for the blending of the original layer and second layer. Blending Mode Ensures that the effect layer’s alpha channel is not modified. Preserve Transparency Channel Combiner effect The Channel Combiner effect extracts, displays, and adjusts various channels in your image.
Page 405 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left); effect applied to layer created from solid with Fractal Noise effect (center); result (right) Adjust the following controls for the Compound Arithmetic effect: Specifies the layer to use with the current layer in the given operation.
Page 406 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Minimax effect The Minimax effect enlarges or reduces a matte for a specific channel or all channels. It assigns each pixel the minimum or maximum pixel value found within a specified radius. For example, a white solid layer with a square mask shrinks one pixel on each side using Minimum and a radius of 1.
Page 407 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Set Channels effect The Set Channels effect copies channels from other layers to the red, green, blue, and alpha channels of the current layer. For example, you can take the luminance of one layer and put it into the color channel of the selected layer. All source layers are centered in the current layer.
Page 408: Color Correction Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Shift Channels effect The Shift Channels effect replaces red, green, blue, and alpha channels in the image with other channels. In Take Channel From, specify which channel to use as a source. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Page 409 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Specifies the duration of time surrounding the current frame, from which After Effects deter- Temporal Smoothing mines the amount of correction needed for the current frame relative to the surrounding frames. For example, if Temporal Smoothing is set to 2 seconds, After Effects analyzes all frames 1 second before and after a given frame to determine the appropriate level of adjustment for that frame.
Page 410 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Auto Levels clips the white and black pixels by 0.5%—that is, it ignores the first 0.5% of either extreme when identi- fying the lightest and darkest pixels in the image. This ensures that white and black values are based on representative rather than extreme pixel values.
Page 411 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide An unsafe level merely means that if some portions of your movie exceed the safe level, they will not look as you intended when viewed on a television monitor. Here are some guidelines for using color in movies intended for broadcast: •...
Page 412 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the amount to increase or decrease the saturation of the selected colors. Positive Saturation Transform values saturate the selected regions (moving toward pure color); negative values desaturate the selected regions (moving toward gray).
Page 413 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the color change operation the effect performs. Setting To Color performs a direct change of Change By affected pixels to the target color. Transforming To Color transforms affected pixel values towards the target color, using HLS interpolation.
Page 414 After Effects that use the Color Balance (HLS) effect. For new projects, use the Hue/Saturation effect, which operates the same as the Hue/Saturation command in Adobe Photoshop. You can convert a movie to grayscale by setting the Saturation to –100.
Page 415 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies which values the effect samples from the source layer and subsequently applies to the effect layer. Sample • Averages all RGB values from all opaque pixels in the source layer. This is useful if you are selecting a Average specific region of pixels defined with a mask.
Page 416 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The following controls indicate the particular point on the pivot frame that remains constant throughout the footage. Place the effect points to select an area for stabilization. If you select multiple points, consider that Color Stabilizer is most effective when those points vary widely in color and brightness.
Page 417 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To adjust hue levels with the Colorama effect Expand the Input Phase control, and choose Hue from the Get Phase From menu. Expand the Output Cycle control, and choose Hue Cycle from the Use Preset Palette menu.
Page 418 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: When you keyframe the Output Cycle, a triangle’s position and color are interpolated between keyframes. For best results, make sure that all keyframes have the same number of Output Cycle triangles. Controls how the Output Cycle pixels are applied to the Input Phase. The default value of 1 maps Cycle Repetitions the Output Cycle once from Input Phase black to Input Phase white.
Page 419 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Specifies whether a pixel is close to the Matching Color. Use Matching Mode if Matching Matching Mode Tolerance doesn’t increase the selection in the desired areas. In general, use RGB for high-contrast graphics and Chroma for photographic images.
Page 420 (Windows) and Photoshop lookup files (Mac OS) created by using the Pencil tool, and .acv files (Windows) and Photoshop spline files (Mac OS) created by using the Graph tool. The Curves effect does not support Adobe Photoshop color tables (.act).
Page 421 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select a value from the Channels menu in the Effect Controls panel: Adjust all channels simultaneously. Master Adjust channels individually. Individual Channels Set any of the following options: This setting simulates the exposure setting on the camera that captures the image, multiplying all light Exposure intensity values by a constant.
Page 422 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Adjust the following controls for the Hue/Saturation effect: Specifies the color channel you want to adjust. Choose Master to adjust all colors at once. Channel Control Specifies the definition of the color channel chosen in the Channel Control menu. Two color bars Channel Range represent the colors in their order on the color wheel.
Page 423 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To modify the range of Hue/Saturation effect adjustments From the Channel Control menu, choose an individual color. (By default, the range of color selected when you choose a color component is 30˚ wide, with 30˚ of fall-off on either side. Setting the fall-off too low can produce dithering in the image.)
Page 424 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) The gamma of any curve is its slope, expressed as the ratio of the logarithms of the output to input values. For example, a gamma value of 1.0 equals an output-to-input ratio of 1:1. Moving the midpoint of the curve up (in an RGB readout) lowers the gamma value;...
Page 425 You can choose a color preset to apply a hue adjustment to an image, or you can specify a custom color using the Adobe Color Picker or the eyedropper.
Page 426 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), Curves dialog box in Photoshop showing map used (center), result (right) You can import and apply an arbitrary map file with Options in the Effect Controls panel. When loaded into After Effects, the specified arbitrary map is applied to the layer or to one or more channels of the layer, depending on how it was created.
Page 427 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) • To correct the shadow and highlight of a given frame relative to surrounding frames, specify a duration of time in seconds for the Temporal Smoothing control.
Page 428: Distort Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Tint effect The Tint effect alters an image’s color information. For each pixel, the luminance value specifies a blend between two colors. Map Black To and Map White To specify the colors to which dark and bright pixels are mapped. Intermediate pixels are assigned intermediate values.
Page 429 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specify the ending and starting tangents for the bottom segment. Bottom Right Tangent, Bottom Left Tangent Specifies the ending vertex for the bottom segment or the starting vertex for the left segment. Left Bottom Vertex Specify the ending and starting tangents for the left segment.
Page 430 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left) and with two variations of Corner Pin applied (center and right) Displacement Map effect (Pro only) The Displacement Map effect distorts a layer by displacing pixels horizontally and vertically based on the color values of pixels in a second layer, called the displacement map.
Page 431 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Liquify effect The Liquify effect lets you push, pull, rotate, enlarge and shrink areas in a layer. Several Liquify tools distort the brush area when you hold down the mouse button or drag. The distortion is concentrated at the center of the brush area, and the effect intensifies as you hold down the mouse button or repeatedly drag over an area.
Page 432 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide In the Layer panel, create a mask to freeze areas of the image, and then set mask properties. In the Effect Controls panel do the following: • Choose the mask you created from the Freeze Area Mask pop-up menu.
Page 433 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the percentage of magnification (or scale) of the area you select. The values represent the Magnification percentage of the scale. Specifies how the effect links the Size, Magnification, and Feather amounts so that they increase or decrease Link proportionally.
Page 434 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To select multiple vertices, Shift-click the vertices. Adjust the following controls for the Mesh Warp effect: Specify up to 31 patches vertically (Rows) or horizontally (Columns). For broader distortion, use Rows, Columns fewer patches. For finer control, use more. Drag the vertices and tangents to change the grid shape. The image follows the grid shape according to the elasticity setting and the boundary created by the adjacent patch.
Page 435 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Optics Compensation effect (Pro only) Use the Optics Compensation effect to add or remove camera lens distortion. Elements composited with mismatched lens distortion cause anomalies in the animation. For example, tracked objects in a distorted scene don’t match the scene area because linear objects don’t follow the distortion of the scene.
Page 436 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select Reverse Lens Distortion. Remove Optics Compensation from the footage layer. Polar Coordinates effect The Polar Coordinates effect distorts a layer by transposing each pixel in the layer’s (x,y) coordinate system to the corresponding position in the polar coordinate system, or the reverse. This effect produces unusual and surprising distortions that can vary greatly depending on the image and the controls you select.
Page 437 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide By default, After Effects assigns the masks a function (source, destination, or boundary) based on the order in which you create or import them. You can also specify different masks. Use a closed path for each mask. All three masks must be on the same layer as the footage to which you will apply the Reshape effect, although you can copy masks from another layer.
Page 438 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Requires three or more keyframes and approximates the distortion using cubic curves, producing distor- Smooth tions with graceful motion. To use the Reshape effect (Pro only) Open the layer in a Layer panel.
Page 439 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Animated Ripple effect Adjust the following controls for the Ripple effect: Controls the distance the ripples travel from the center point. The Radius value is a percentage of the image Radius size. If the center of the ripple is the center of the layer and the radius is set to 100, the ripples travel to the edge of the image.
Page 440 To use Smear, first create or import two masks: the source mask and the boundary mask. You can create masks on the layer in After Effects or use masks created in Adobe Illustrator. To use a mask created in Illustrator, copy the mask and paste it into a layer in After Effects.
Page 441 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Create or paste the masks you will use as the boundary mask and the source mask. Position the boundary mask to specify the area of the layer you do not want Smear to affect.
Page 442 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left) and with variations of Transform applied (center and right) Adjust the following controls for the Transform effect: Scales height up or down as a percentage of the current layer height. Scale Height Scales width up or down as a percentage of the current layer width.
Page 443 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the portion of the fractal shape that is present in the Composition panel, altering the Offset (Turbulence) shape of the distortion on your layer. Because the fractal shapes used are infinite in all directions, what appears in the Composition panel is only a small portion of the entire fractal.
Page 444 Warp effect Use Warp to distort or deform After Effects layers. The 15 warp styles work much like the Warp effects in Adobe Illustrator and Warp Text in Adobe Photoshop. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Page 445 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Warping a layer Wave Warp effect The Wave Warp effect produces the appearance of a wave traveling across an image. You can produce a variety of different wave shapes, including square, circular, and sine waves. The Wave Warp effect is automatically animated at a constant speed across the time range (without keyframes or expressions).
Page 446: Generate Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Generate effects 4-Color Gradient effect The 4-Color Gradient effect produces a four-color gradient. Each color is controlled by one of four individual effect points, which can be animated. Use 4-Color Gradient to create color backgrounds, mix color palettes, and generate color gradients.
Page 447 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for Advanced Lightning: Changes the path of the lightning. Conductivity State These controls adjust various characteristics of the lightning’s core. Core Settings These controls adjust the lightning’s glow. Glow Settings Note: To disable the glow, set Glow Opacity to 0.
Page 448 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Calculates collisions only on the main core. The forks are not affected. This control is Main Core Collision Only relevant only when you select Alpha Obstacle. Specifies the type of fractal turbulence used to create the lightning.
Page 449 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the inside and outside colors of the bands. Inside Color, Outside Color Specifies that overlapping spectrums are blended. Blend Overlapping Colors If value is greater than 0, the frequencies displayed rotate through the hue color space.
Page 450 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies a starting point for randomizing the effect. Random Seed starts the randomizing Random Seed (Analog) at a different point, changing the appearance of the waveform. Specifies the inside and outside colors of the waveform.
Page 451 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for the Cell Pattern effect: Choose a pattern from the menu. HQ denotes high-quality patterns that render with more definition Cell Pattern than their unmarked counterparts. Mixed Crystals is available only as a high-quality option. The patterns appear as pictured below: Note: The Static Plates option is identical in appearance to the Plates option.
Page 452 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Because of the complexity of the cell shapes that generate the cell patterns, render time can be Evolution Options great. For this reason, Evolution Options provide controls that render the effect for one short cycle and loop it for the duration of your project.
Page 453 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the horizontal width of the checkerboard pattern. If you choose Width Slider in the Size From menu, Width this value determines both the width and height of the checkerboard pattern. If you choose Width & Height Sliders in the Size From menu, this value determines the width only.
Page 454 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the amount of feather applied to the edge of the circle. Increasing this amount softens the edges of Feather the circle, blending it with whatever appears behind it. Decreasing this amount sharpens the edge of the circle.
Page 455 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies which color values the effect samples within the area defined by the sample point and Average Pixel Colors sample radius. Skip Empty samples the average RGB color values, excluding those of transparent pixels. The All option samples the average of all RGB color values, including those of transparent pixels.
Page 456 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for the Fractal effect: Specifies the set used. Mandelbrot is the typical Mandelbrot set. Mandelbrot Inverse is the Mandelbrot Set Choice set mathematically inverted. Julia always changes depending on the center point from the Mandelbrot set and can produce the set of all possible Julia sets.
Page 457 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Using tools with the Fractal effect When the Fractal effect is selected in the Effect Controls panel, you can use After Effects tools in the following way. (If you don’t want the Fractal tools active, deselect the effect before using tools.) •...
Page 458 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the horizontal width of the grid cells. If you choose Width Slider in the Size From menu, this value Width specifies both the width and height of the grid cells. If you choose Width & Height Sliders in the Size From menu, this value specifies the width only.
Page 459 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the number of segments that form the main lightning bolt. Higher values produce more detail Segments but reduce the smoothness of motion. Specifies the size of undulations in the lightning bolt as a percentage of the layer width.
Page 460 The Paint Bucket effect (formerly Basic Fill effect) is a non-destructive paint tool that fills a selected area with a solid color. It works much like the Paint Bucket tool in Adobe Photoshop. Use Paint Bucket for colorizing cartoon-type outlined drawings or replacing selected areas of color in an image.
Page 461 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies how the effect treats the edges of the filled area. Stroke • Anti-aliases the edges of the filled area. Antialias • Creates a feathered edge for the filled area. Feather Softness values create a more gradually disappearing Feather edge.
Page 462 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies whether parameters can be animated for individual waves. Birth specifies that each Parameters Are Set At wave maintains the same parameter settings over time. Each Frame specifies that the waves change as the parameters change.
Page 463 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the shape in the source layer that you want to use as the emitted wave. Contour numbers the Contour shapes by their order in the frame from top to bottom, left to right. The shape in the top left corner is number 1.
Page 464 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Ramp effect The Ramp effect creates a color gradient, blending it with the original image contents. Create linear or radial ramps, and vary the position and colors of the ramp over time. Use the Start Of Ramp and End Of Ramp controls to specify the start and end positions.
Page 465 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Controls the ends of scribble lines. Use Round for stroked lines with semicircular ends; use Butt for End Cap stroked lines with squared ends; and use Projecting for stroked lines with squared ends that extend half the line width beyond the end of the line, making the weight of the line extend equally in all directions around the line.
Page 466 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Stroke effect The Stroke effect creates a stroke or border around a mask or along a Bezier path. You can also specify stroke color, opacity, and spacing, as well as brush characteristics. Specify whether the stroke appears on top of the image, on a transparent image, or if it reveals the original alpha channel.
Page 467 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Sets the threshold for the selected channel. The threshold is the percentage value at which everything Threshold below or above is mapped to either white or black. For example, if a grayscale file were an altitude map with white high and black low;...
Page 468 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the opacity of the midpoint of the stroke. This works in terms of relative opacity, not Mid-point Opacity absolute opacity. Setting this to 0 makes the change in opacity smooth from the start point to the end point, as if there were no midpoint at all.
Page 469: Keying Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies whether the stroke is applied to the original layer or to a transparent layer. Paint Style Keying effects Color Difference Key effect (Pro only) The Color Difference Key effect creates transparency from opposite starting points by dividing an image into two mattes, Matte Partial A and Matte Partial B.
Page 470 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “To key out a single color with the Color Key effect” on page 274 Color Range effect The Color Range effect creates transparency by keying out a specified range of colors in either the Lab, YUV, or RGB color space.
Page 471 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left) and background layer (center) are combined using Extract (right). See also “To use the Extract effect” on page 276 Inner/Outer Key effect (Pro only) The Inner/Outer Key effect isolates a foreground object from its background. Even objects with wispy, intricate, or undefinable edges can be clipped from their backgrounds with minimal work.
Page 472: Matte Effects (Pro Only)
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Luma Key effect The Luma Key effect keys out all the regions of a layer with a specified luminance or brightness. The layer’s quality setting does not influence the Luma Key effect. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Page 473: Noise & Grain Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left) shows areas of unwanted transparency after using Color Key (center) that are removed with Matte Choker (right). See also “To close a hole in a matte (Pro only)” on page 282 Simple Choker effect (Pro only) The Simple Choker effect shrinks or expands the edges of a matte in small increments to create a cleaner matte.
Page 474 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Dust & Scratches effect The Dust & Scratches effect reduces noise by changing dissimilar pixels. To achieve a balance between sharpness of the image and hiding defects, try various combinations of radius and threshold settings. Draft and Best quality settings give the same results.
Page 475 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left), result with two kinds of noise (center and right) Controls for the Fractal Noise effect Specifies the fractal shape you want to use to create the noise. Fractal Type Specifies the type of noise.
Page 476 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Fractals are generated by repeating instances of a noise function derived from the Fractal Type and Sub Settings Noise Type. In each instance, the following controls affect how each iteration value is calculated. Complexity deter- mines the number of iterations that are calculated.
Page 477 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To create a seamless loop using Fractal Noise Select a layer in the Timeline panel, and choose Effect > Noise & Grain > Fractal Noise. Set two keyframes for Evolution. Adjust the time between keyframes and the number of Evolution revolutions until you are satisfied with the animation of the noise.
Page 478 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Noise effect The Noise effect randomly changes pixel values throughout the image. The layer’s quality setting does not affect Noise.
Page 479 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for the Noise Alpha effect: Specifies the type of noise the effect uses. Unique Random creates equal amounts of black and white noise. Noise Squared Random creates high-contrast noise. Uniform Animation creates animated noise, and Squared Animation creates animated contrast.
Page 480: Paint Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for either the Noise HLS effect or the Noise HLS Auto effect: Specifies the type of noise the effect adds. Uniform produces evenly distributed pixel noise. Squared produces Noise sparse, high-contrast noise that is distributed randomly. Grain produces grain-like noise that is useful for simulating film.
Page 481 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Paint strokes applied to background and foreground layers See also “To specify paint tool options” on page 313 Vector Paint effect (Pro only) Vector Paint strokes are made up of many tiny points that create the stroke path. You cannot isolate or individually adjust these individual points, but you can affect them using Vector Paint features such as smoothing and wiggling.
Page 482 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Select the paint tool you want to use from the Vector Paint toolbar. In the Effect Controls panel, select the options you want for Brush Settings and Composite Paint. In the Timeline panel, move the current-time indicator to the appropriate point in time.
Page 483 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide With increased Feather and reduced Opacity settings, Paint brushstrokes may resemble Air brushstrokes. However, when you paint a single stroke that crosses itself, the two brush types produce different results. Air brushstrokes build up opacity as the stroke crosses itself. Paint brushstrokes don’t build up opacity within the same stroke, whether they cross themselves or not.
Page 484 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide When you select multiple strokes that have different Brush Settings, a question mark [-?-] appears next to that Brush Setting in the Effect Controls panel. If you edit that value, all of the selected strokes are reset to the new value.
Page 485 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide When you select a path and choose Smoother, a dialog box appears in which you can type a Max Error value. This value sets the tolerance for the smoothing. Higher values remove more points on the path, resulting in a smoother stroke.
Page 486 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: Note the position of the current-time indicator when you begin drawing strokes. This position affects the appearance of strokes in all modes except All Strokes. Adjust the following controls to affect the way that strokes appear in the composition:...
Page 487 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide By changing the playback speed, you can change the timing for stroke appearances in previews and rendered compo- sitions. In the Effect Controls panel under Vector Paint, make sure that the Playback Mode option is one of the following: Past Strokes, Hold Strokes, or Animate Strokes.
Page 488 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: You cannot use the Undo command to reverse the Re-timer after you apply it. However, you can apply the Re- timer again, using the inverse of the value you typed previously to revert to the original value. For example, if you changed the Re-timer value to 200% and then wanted to go back to the earlier setting, choose Re-timer again and type a value of 50%.
Page 489 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide No Displacement Variation (left), Medium Displacement Variation (center), and High Displacement Variation (right) Determines how much the original shape of the path is altered while wiggling. Greater values Displacement Detail increase the detail of displacement (or change in shape) in the stroke. Lower values produce less displacement, leaving the path closer to its original shape.
Page 490 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Low Pressure Detail (left), Medium Pressure Detail (center), and High Pressure Detail (right) When selected, this option creates a different random wiggle seed for each stroke on a layer. Individual Stroke Seeds Because the Wiggle Controls apply to all strokes on a layer, the wiggle parameters are always the same. To randomize the wiggling of the individual strokes, select the Individual Stroke Seeds option.
Page 491 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Composite Paint options The imported image is visible. A. In Original (default setting), before painting The paint strokes appear above the original image. B. In Original, with paint stroke An erasure stroke removes underlying portions of both the paint C.
Page 492: Perspective Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: You do not need to switch colors when you paint in the alpha channel, even if you paint with gray. The changes to the opacity of the painted area are determined by the values shown for Opacity and Feather under Brush Settings in the Effect Controls panel, not by the color of paint.
Page 493 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To avoid problems with flipped views, keep the following guidelines in mind: • Use the same vertical dimensions for the composition and source images. A one-pixel difference produces the same result as moving the position one pixel vertically.
Page 494 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide value: If you set Balance to 0.0, 3D Glasses creates no 3D depth, and if you set Balance too high, 3D Glasses produces a highly saturated output. About red, blue, and green lenses When you work with red and blue images, the blue color in glasses with red and blue lenses is actually cyan, not blue.
Page 495 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Bevel Alpha effect The Bevel Alpha effect gives a chiseled and lighted appearance to the alpha boundaries of an image, often giving 2D elements a 3D appearance. If the layer’s alpha channel is completely opaque, the effect is applied to the bounding box of the layer.
Page 496 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Radial Shadow effect The Radial Shadow effect creates a shadow from a point light source over the layer it’s applied to, rather than from an infinite light source (as with the Drop Shadow effect). The shadow is cast from the alpha channel of the source layer, allowing the color of that layer to influence the color of the shadow as light passes through semi-transparent areas.
Page 497: Simulation Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: Anti-aliased edges produce colors in a shadow edge when you choose Glass Edge, even if the original layer is fully opaque. The layer’s original colors shine through these anti-aliased edges, while the Shadow Color fills the center of the shadow.
Page 498 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Consider the following example: If you select a vertical grayscale gradient (black on top, white on bottom) from the Gradient Layer 1 menu and then select Intensity 1 from the X Rotation Source menu, Card Dance uses the intensity of the gradient to animate the x-axis rotation of the cards.
Page 499 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Camera System and Camera Position controls for the Card Dance effect Camera System specifies whether to use the Camera Position, Corner Pins, or Comp Camera controls. Comp Camera tracks the composition's camera and light positions and renders a 3D image on the layer.
Page 500 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Distributes light over the layer. Increasing it adds an even illumination to all objects and prevents Ambient Light shadows from being totally black. Turning Ambient Light all the way to pure white and setting all other light controls to 0 makes the object fully lit and eliminates any 3D shading from the scene.
Page 501 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies how a scaled-down bottom layer is tiled. Once uses only one tile, basically turning tiling off. Repeat Mode Tiles uses the traditional tiling method of abutting the right edge of one bottom layer tile to the left edge of another bottom layer tile.
Page 502 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Lighting controls for the Caustics effect Specifies which type of light you want to use. Distant Source simulates sunlight and casts shadows in one Light Type direction, where all the light rays strike the object from virtually the same angle. Point Source is similar to a light bulb and casts shadows in all directions.
Page 503 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide You can also substitute any image or movie for bubbles. For example, you can create swarms of ants, flocks of birds, or crowds of people. Note: On a frame-by-frame basis, Foam renders quickly, but the slightest adjustment in the initial settings is likely to result in very different output a few seconds into the simulation.
Page 504 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the maximum life of a bubble. This value is not absolute; if it were, the bubbles would all pop after Lifespan the same lifespan, as if they were hitting a wall. Rather, this value is a target lifespan; some bubbles pop early, and others may last until the end.
Page 505 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Zoom and Universe Size controls for the Foam effect Zooms in or out around the center of the bubble universe. To create really large bubbles, increase the Zoom Zoom value instead of the Size value because large bubble sizes can be unstable.
Page 506 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Flow Map controls for the Foam effect The Flow Map controls specify the map that the flow of the foam follows: Specifies the layer used to control the direction and speed of the bubbles. Use a still image layer; if you Flow Map select a movie as the flow map layer, only the first frame is used.
Page 507 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Start by creating a stream or plane of particles, or by exploding an existing layer into particles. Once you have a layer of particles, you can control their properties, such as speed, size, and color. However, the possibilities available in Particle Playground go beyond the obvious.
Page 508 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The Particle Playground effect renders with anti-aliasing when the layer to which it is applied is set to Best quality. It also applies motion blur to moving particles when both the Motion Blur switch and the Enable Motion Blur option are enabled.
Page 509 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Grid controls for Particle Playground (Pro only) The Grid creates a continuous plane of particles from a set of grid intersections. The movement of Grid particles is completely determined by the Gravity, Repel, Wall, and Property Mapper settings. By default, the Force control of Gravity is on, so Grid particles fall toward the bottom of the frame.
Page 510 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Some Persistent Property Mapper and Ephemeral Property Mapper options can make explosions more realistic. For example, change Opacity to make the resulting particles fade out, or change the Red, Green, and Blue color channels to make resulting particles change color as they appear to cool.
Page 511 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide instead of cycling through different frames as the effect layer advances in time. For example, if you choose Absolute and specify a Time Offset of 0, every particle shows the first frame of the source layer for its entire lifespan. If you want to show a frame other than the first frame, move the layer earlier in time until the frame you want to show corresponds to the In point of the Particle Playground layer.
Page 512 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Set the following options: • For Font/Style, choose the font and style for Grid characters. • For Alignment, click Left, Center, or Right to position text in the text box at the Position specified in the Grid control, or click Use Grid to position each letter in the text on consecutive grid inter-sections.
Page 513 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide At particle creation, the Cannon and Grid set no rotation; the Particle Exploder takes rotation from the Rotation exploded dot, layer, or character. Use Auto-Orient Rotation to make particles rotate automatically along their respective trajectories. For instance, a particle can point up as it climbs an arc, and point down as it descends.
Page 514 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Wall controls for Particle Playground (Pro only) Wall controls contain particles, limiting the area within which particles can move. A wall is a closed mask that you create by using a mask tool, such as the Pen tool. When a particle hits the wall, it bounces off at a velocity based on the force with which it hit.
Page 515 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide In both the Persistent and Ephemeral Property Mappers, you can control up to three particle properties indepen- dently by using a single RGB image as a layer map. Particle Playground achieves this by extracting brightness values separately from the red, green, and blue channels in the image.
Page 516 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Copies the amount of inertia that holds a stationary particle in place, typically within a range of 0.0– Static Friction 1.0. At zero, a particle moves when any other force, such as gravity, is present. If you increase this value, a stationary particle requires more of another force to start moving.
Page 517 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide modate Japanese characters. For more information about the ASCII character values for a font you’re using, see the documentation for the font, use a utility such as Character Map (Windows), or contact the font manufacturer.
Page 518 Creating a layer map for Particle Playground (Pro only) Layer maps are often created by painting in an image-editing program such as Adobe Photoshop, although you can use any program that can save an image compatible with After Effects. The key to creating a good layer map is to remember that the brightness value of each pixel influences an effect property.
Page 519 Adobe Photoshop, and then paint or paste each layer map into its own channel. Save the layer map as an RGB image in a format After Effects can import.
Page 520 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Improving performance with Particle Playground (Pro only) Keep the following in mind when working the Particle Playground effect: • When you’re generating a Particle Playground effect, keep an eye on the Info panel to see how many particles are being produced.
Page 521 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Displays the wireframe front-view representation of the layer, plus a blue represen- Wireframe Front View + Forces tation of each force sphere. Displays the wireframe view, plus a blue representation of the force spheres. This view includes Wireframe + Forces camera controls, so you can position everything accurately in 3D space.
Page 522 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Defines the size of the blast sphere. The radius is the distance from the center of a circle (or sphere) to the Radius edge. By adjusting this value, you can fine-tune exactly which pieces explode. Changing this value can vary the speed and completeness of the explosion.
Page 523 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Physics controls for the Shatter effect Physics controls specify the way the pieces move and fall through space. Specifies the speed at which pieces rotate around the axis set by the Tumble Axis control, allowing Rotation Speed you to simulate different rotation speeds for different materials.
Page 524 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide chosen layer is mapped to the applicable side. With Opacity at 0, the applicable side is transparent. Tinted Layer + Opacity combines the tinted chosen layer and the Opacity amount. With Opacity at 1, the tinted chosen layer is mapped to the applicable side.
Page 525 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Lighting controls for the Shatter effect Lighting controls specify the lighting for the Shatter effect. Specifies which type of light you want to use. Distant Source simulates sunlight and casts shadows in one Light Type direction, where all the light rays strike the object from virtually the same angle.
Page 526 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: The custom shatter map determines the shapes of the pieces your layer shatters into, but not when the pieces shatter. The timing is determined by the Force controls and can be further controlled by a gradient layer.
Page 527 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Wireframe controls for the Wave World effect Wireframe controls fine-tune the appearance of the wireframe model. These controls do not affect the grayscale output. Rotates the wireframe preview around the horizontal axis (right and left). As you adjust this Horizontal Rotation control, the distortion of the wireframe model keeps the entire wireframe model in full view.
Page 528 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies how quickly a wave’s energy is absorbed by the liquid it is travelling through. The higher the Damping value, the quicker the wave energy is absorbed, and the shorter the distance the wave travels.
Page 529: Stylize Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the angle of the wave producer area for the Line and Ring types. This control sets the orientation of Angle the line and thus controls the initial direction of the waves, which emanate from either side of the line, perpendicular to its length.
Page 530 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide leaving the layer transparent between the strokes. Paint on White and Paint on Black let you apply your strokes over a white or black background. Specifies the percentage of effect applied—the higher you set this value, the more of the original Blend With Original layer you can see in the background.
Page 531 Rendering the Glow effect at Best quality can change the appearance of the layer. This is especially true if you are using Adobe Photoshop arbitrary maps to color your glows. Be sure to preview your Glow effect at Best quality before you render it.
Page 532 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide file created using the Curves dialog box in Adobe Photoshop. Selecting this option displays a standard Open dialog box for locating the arbitrary map file. For information about arbitrary maps, see Photoshop Help. Specifies the beginning and ending colors for the glow, if A & B Colors is selected for Glow Colors.
Page 533 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Motion Tile effect The Motion Tile effect replicates the source image across the output image. It is called Motion Tile because, when changing the placement of the tiles, it uses motion blur to accentuate the movement if motion blur is enabled. Tile Center controls the position of the main tile.
Page 534 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Roughen Edges effect The Roughen Edges effect roughs up the edges of a layer’s alpha channel by using calculations. It gives rasterized text or graphics a naturally rough look, like that of eroded metal or typewriter text.
Page 535 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Evolution controls for the Roughen Edges effect You can adjust the following Evolution controls: Creates subtle changes in the shape of the roughness. Animating this setting results in smooth changes or Evolution evolution of the roughness over time. Set keyframes for Evolution to determine how much the roughness will evolve over the period of time between keyframes.
Page 536 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies whether scattering changes at each frame. To animate scattering without keyframes, Scatter Randomness select the Randomize Every Frame option. If this option is not selected, scattering remains the same at each frame unless keyframes are created for the Scatter Amount and Grain properties.
Page 537: Text Effects
Original (left) and after applying Basic Text (center) and selecting Composite On Original (right) The Basic Text effect places text on an existing layer—unlike imported text created in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, which becomes its own layer. This effect can be used for basic title text; for more flexibility in working with text, import text created in an illustration or imaging program.
Page 538 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The following options and values are available in the Basic Text dialog box, which opens automatically when you apply the effect: Font, Style, Direction, Alignment, and Show Font. To edit the text after you close this dialog box, click Edit Text in the Effect Controls panel.
Page 539 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Specifies a decimal number with 5 digits to the left of the decimal place at all times. Number [Leading Zeros] • Specify the standard timecode formats (XX:XX:XX:XX) using Timecode [30], Timecode [25], and Timecode [24] the stated frame rate.
Page 540 The Path Text effect lets you animate text along a path. You can define a path as a straight line, a circle of any diameter, or a Bezier curve. You can also import a path created in another application, such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.
Page 541 Specifies the ending vertex of a Bezier curve and the angle of a line. For circles or loops, Vertex 2 is Vertex 2 ignored. Specifies an arbitrary path. You can use a mask created in the Layer panel or in Adobe Illustrator. Custom Path Reverses the path.
Page 542 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Controls the horizontal distance between two characters. If you change the text, specified kerning is Kerning preserved for all unchanged character pairs. You cannot use the Undo command to undo kerning changes. To change horizontal spacing between characters over time, use Kerning Jitter Max or create keyframes for Tracking.
Page 543 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the distance in pixels between the path and the bottom of the characters. Depending on the Baseline Shift path shape, text may appear to be better spaced when the path passes through the centers of the characters. To do this, set Baseline Shift to a negative value so that the centers of characters lie on the path.
Page 544 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Sets a maximum amount, in degrees, that characters are randomly rotated after Character Rotation Jitter Max Rotation is applied. • Sets a maximum amount, as a percentage, that characters are randomly scaled after Horizontal Scale Jitter Max Scale and Vertical Scale are applied.
Page 545: Time Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide This effect works with 8-bpc color. Original (left), with SMPTE HH:MM:SS:FF timecode applied (center), and with Feet + Frames (35mm) timecode applied (right) You can adjust the following controls for the Timecode effect: Specifies whether timecode is displayed in the SMPTE format of HH:MM:SS:FF, in frame numbers, Display Format in Feet + Frames (35mm), or Feet + Frames (16mm).
Page 546 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Adjust the following controls for the Echo effect: Specifies the time, in seconds, between echoes. Negative values seek backward in time; positive Echo Time (seconds) values echo forward in time. Specifies the number of frames to combine for the Echo effect. For example, if two echoes are...
Page 547 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Echo Operator: Composite in Front Press the spacebar to preview the trail effect, use RAM Preview for a quicker preview, or render the composition to view the effect in real time. Posterize Time effect The Posterize Time effect locks a layer to a specific frame rate.
Page 548 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the point in time in the comparison layer, in seconds, where the layers are compared. If this Time Offset control is set to 0.00, the comparison occurs at the current time. To compare the effect layer to a point 3 seconds into the comparison layer, for example, change the Time Offset value to 3.
Page 549 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The Time Displacement effect automatically replaces pixels across time without keyframes. However, you can also set keyframes for other controls to vary the effect over time. To better understand how pixels are displaced in time, think of the displacement occurring in steps, as follows: After Effects overlays the displacement map layer on top of the effect layer (the layer you are distorting).
Page 550: Transition Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Choose a displacement map from the Time Displacement Layer menu, which lists all layers in the composition. Grayscale maps are recommended. Note: After Effects uses the layer you select in its original form, without any masking, effects, or transformations you may have applied.
Page 551 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left) and after applying the Block Dissolve effect (center and right) Card Wipe effect This effect simulates a group of cards displaying a picture and then flipping to display another picture. Card Wipe provides control over the number of rows and columns of cards, the flip direction, and the transition direction (including the ability to use a gradient to determine flip order).
Page 552 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specifies the axis around which each card flips. Choose an axis for precision flipping, or Random for a more Flip Axis realistic effect. Specifies the direction in which the cards flip around their axes. With the x axis selected, Positive flips Flip Direction the cards up and Negative flips them down;...
Page 553 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide configuration, the image may look odd (strangely sheared, for example). But if you know the focal length that you are trying to match, this is the easiest way to get correct results. Lighting controls for the Card Wipe effect Specifies which type of light you want to use.
Page 554 The Ramp effect is a good starting point because it can generate a variety of grayscale gradients. To make completely custom gradients, paint them in a program such as Adobe Photoshop, or draw them in a program such as Adobe Illustrator.
Page 555 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left) and after applying the Iris Wipe effect (center and right) Linear Wipe effect The Linear Wipe effect performs a simple linear wipe of a layer in a specified direction. At Draft quality, the edge of the wipe is not anti-aliased;...
Page 556: Utility Effects
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left) and after applying the Venetian Blinds effect (center and right) Utility effects Cineon Converter effect The Cineon Converter effect provides a high degree of control over color conversions of Cineon frames. In After Effects, you can convert the color in a Cineon file using controls in the Interpret Footage dialog box or using the Cineon Converter effect.
Page 557 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide “To set options for Cineon files” on page 105 “About color depth” on page 61 To control the tonal balance of a Cineon file Import the Cineon file into After Effects, and add it to a composition.
Page 558 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide See also “Color management” on page 64 Rendering intents Rendering intent options determine how source colors are adjusted. For example, colors that fall inside the desti- nation gamut may remain unchanged, or they may be adjusted to preserve the original range of visual relationships when translated to a smaller destination gamut.
Page 559 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Original (left); the Wave Warp effect is constrained by the dimensions of the layer (center); Grow Bounds fixes this problem (right). HDR Compander effect The HDR Compander (compressor/expander) effect gives you a way to work with tools that don’t support HDR—...
Page 560 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide HDR Highlight Compression effect The HDR Highlight Compression effect compresses the highlight values in a high-dynamic-range image so that they fall within the value range of a low-dynamic-range image. Adjust the amount of compression by setting the effect’s Amount property.
Page 561: Creating And Modifying Expressions
Chapter 18: Expressions Creating and modifying expressions About expressions When you want to create and link complex animations, such as multiple car wheels spinning, but would like to avoid creating tens or hundreds of keyframes by hand, try using expressions instead. With expressions, you can create relationships between layer properties and use one property’s keyframes to dynamically animate another layer.
Page 562 For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 563 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Drag the pick whip to a property to create a link to the property’s value. See also “About animation and layer properties” on page 188 Selecting values with the pick whip When you use the pick whip, you can drag it to a property’s name or to its values. If you drag to the property’s name, the resulting expression displays all the values as one.
Page 564 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Symbol Function divide multiply perform opposite of original, such as counterclockwise instead of clockwise Using complex math functions provides great flexibility. For example, you could use the math function /36 0 *1 0 0 change an expression’s range from 0-360 to 0-100.
Page 565 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Add expression elements to the expression field by choosing them from the Expression Language menu. Select a layer property and choose Animation > Add Expression. Click the Expression Language menu icon and choose Global > thisComp. The element appears in the...
Page 566 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The element is a global attribute whose value is a Comp object representing the current composition. t hisC omp To determine what can follow in your expression, look up the return value for under “Global...
Page 567: Working With Expressions
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To modify properties with Expression Controls effects Use Expression Controls effects to manipulate one or many properties’ values in your expressions. These effects provide controls that you can refer to in any expression. A single control can affect several properties at once. You can apply Expression Controls effects to any layer;...
Page 568 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To toggle between layer bar mode and Graph Editor mode, press Shift+F3. • To view only properties with expressions, select one or more layers, and then press EE on the keyboard. • To show the expression field in the Graph Editor, choose Show Expression Editor from the Choose Graph Type And Options menu at the bottom of the Graph Editor.
Page 569 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To apply an expression to a different property in the same layer or a different layer without copying keyframes, select the layer property that contains the expression, choose Edit > Copy Expression Only, select a different property in the desired layer, and choose Edit >...
Page 570: The Expression Language
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The expression language About the expression language The After Effects expression language is based on JavaScript 1.2, with an extended set of built-in objects. After Effects uses only the core standard JavaScript 1.2 language, not the web browser–specific extensions. Instead of browser extensions, After Effects contains its own set of extension objects such as Layer, Comp, Footage, and Camera that you can use to access most of the values in an After Effects project.
Page 571 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide The default global object for any expression is the layer on which the expression is written. For example, if you add an expression to the Scale property of Layer A and you want the expression to return Layer A’s Position property’s values, you can use any of the following expressions, as they are equivalent: t hisC omp.layer("L ayer A").p osit ion...
Page 572 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide [myAr r ay[0], 5] [ 1 0 , 5 ] The Position property arrays are indexed as follows: • is the x coordinate of position. p osition[0] • is the y coordinate of position.
Page 573 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Generally, it is best to use the name of a layer, effect, or a mask instead of a number to avoid confusion and errors if the layer, effect, or mask is moved, or if the parameters are changed during product updates and upgrades. When you use a name, always enclose it in straight quotes.
Page 574: Commonly Used Attributes And Methods
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide t hisC omp.layer(“nested comp”).s ourc e.layer(1).p osit ion Note: If you use a specific time in an expression, After Effects ignores the remapped time. Commonly used attributes and methods The hasParent attribute Use the attribute to determine if a layer has a parent.
Page 575 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Keyframe-looping methods You can use keyframe-looping methods to repeat a series of keyframes. You can use these methods on any property except marker. Keyframes or duration values that are too large are clipped to the maximum allowable value. Values that are too small result in a constant loop.
Page 576: After Effects Expression Elements Reference
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Animating a brush stroke with an expression Open a new composition, and choose Layer > New > Solid to create a new solid layer. Click Make Comp Size in the Solid Footage Settings dialog box.
Page 577 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Some argument descriptions include a number in square brackets—this number indicates the dimension of the expected property or Array. If a specific dimension is not included, any dimension will work. Some return value descriptions include a number in square brackets—this number specifies the dimension of the returned property or Array.
Page 578 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Argument type: t and fps are Numbers; isDuration is a Boolean. Converts the value of t, which defaults to the current composition time, to an integer number of frames. The number of frames per second is specified in the fps parameter, which defaults to the frame rate of the current composition ).
Page 579 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Vector Math methods Vector Math functions are global methods that perform operations on arrays, treating them as mathematical vectors. Unlike built-in JavaScript methods, such as , these methods are not used the prefix . Unless otherwise Mat h.sin...
Page 580 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Returns the distance between two points. The point2 parameter is optional. For example, lengt h(p oi nt1, p oint2) the same as lengt h(sub(p oint1, p oint2)) Return type: Array [3]. lookAt(fromPoint, atPoint) Argument type: fromPoint and atPoint are Arrays [3].
Page 581 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Return type: Number or Array. gaussRandom(minValOrArray, maxValOrArray) Argument type: minValOrArray and maxValOrArray are Numbers or Arrays. If minValOrArray and maxValOrArray are Numbers, this method returns a random number. Approximately 90% of the results are between minValOrArray and maxValOrArray, and the remaining 10% are outside of this range. If the arguments are Arrays, this method returns an Array of random numbers with the same dimension as the argument with the greater dimension.
Page 582 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Return type: Number or Array. easeOut(t, value1, value2) Argument type: t is a Number, and value1 and value2 are Numbers or Arrays. Similar to , except that the tangent is 0 only on the value2 side and interpolation is linear on the value1 side.
Page 583 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Retrieves the layer by name. Names are matched by layer name, or source name if there is no layer name. If duplicate names exist, After Effects uses the first one in the Timeline panel. Example: t hisC omp.layer("S ol id 1")
Page 584 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Returns the name of the composition. Footage attributes and methods To use footage from the Project panel as an object in an expression, use the global method, as in fo ot age , and then use any of the attributes below. You can also access a footage object using the fo ot age("f ilename")
Page 585 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide After Effects finds the mask by its index in the Timeline panel, starting at 1 and counting from the top. Layer General attributes and methods Return type: Number. width Returns the width of the layer, in pixels. It is the same as s ourc e.
Page 586 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Return type: Property [2 or 3]. position Returns the position value of the layer, in world space if the layer has no parent or in the parent’s layer space if there is a parent.
Page 587 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Returns the x rotation value, in degrees, for a 3D layer. Return type: Property [1]. rotationY Returns the y rotation value, in degrees, for a 3D layer. Return type: Property [1]. rotationZ Returns the z rotation value, in degrees, for a 3D layer.
Page 588 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Transforms a point from layer space to view-independent world space. Example: to World. e f fe c t ("Bu l ge" )("Bu lge C enter") Return type: Array [2 or 3]. fromWorld(point, t=time) Argument type: point is an Array [2 or 3], and t is a Number.
Page 589 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Return type: Property. aperture Returns the camera’s aperture value, in pixels. Return type: Property. blurLevel Returns the camera’s blur level value as a percentage. Return type: Boolean. active Returns true if the camera’s video switch is on, the current time is between the camera’s In and Out points, and...
Page 590 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Return type: Property. param(name) Argument type: name is a String. Returns a property within an effect. Effect point controls are always in layer space. Example: ef fe c t("Bu l ge")("Bu l ge Hei g ht" ) Return type: Property.
Page 591 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Argument type: t is a Number. Returns the spatial speed value at the specified time. Return type: Number or Array. wiggle(freq, amp, octaves=1, ampMult=.5, t=time) Argument type: freq, amp, octaves, ampMult, and t are Numbers.
Page 592 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Loops a segment of time that is measured from the last keyframe on the layer back toward the layer’s In point. The loop occurs from the last keyframe on the layer to the layer’s Out point. The segment to loop is delineated by the specified duration.
Page 593: Pick-Whip Expression Examples
Start with a composition containing two layers: one to be used as the switch that you’ll rotate, and one to be used as the object that changes in opacity as you rotate the switch. This example uses two Adobe Illustrator files and named one “robot”...
Page 594: Manually Entered Expression Examples
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Drag the pick whip to the hour hand’s Rotation property. The following expression appears: t hisC omp.layer("hour hand").rot at ion To make the minute hand rotate 12 times as fast as the hour hand, add...
Page 595 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Duplicate the last layer five times. All layers follow the same path, and each is delayed 0.5 seconds from the previous. (See “To duplicate a layer” on page 157.) Example: To create a bulge between two layers This example expression synchronizes the Bulge Center parameter of the Bulge effect in one layer with the position of another layer.
Page 596: Rendering A Movie
Adobe After Effects 7.0 Professional supports file formats at 32, 16, and 8 bits per channel (bpc). The Standard edition exports these files at 8 bpc. Unless otherwise noted, all file formats are exported at 8 bpc.
Page 597 Adobe Premiere Pro project (PRPROJ; Windows only) Supported still-image file formats You can output the following still image or still image sequence file formats from After Effects: • Adobe Photoshop (PSD, 8, 16, and 32 bpc) • Bitmap (BMP, RLE) •...
Page 598 For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 599 (using programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Audition). When exporting from post-production software, you must determine the file settings appropriate to the film stock you will use, or decide how to best translate your editing decisions to film.
Page 600 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Changing the rendering order Sometimes, projects require a visual effect that cannot be achieved by using the default rendering order. For example, you may be constructing an animation in which you want a rotated object to have a drop-shadow effect. By default, After Effects renders an effect before rotation, which creates shadows that all have different light-source orientations.
Page 601 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Click the underlined text after Output To to specify the name and location of the output file. Note: You can locate a previously rendered item or check the destination of a queued render item by expanding the Output Module and clicking the underlined file path listed below it, or by right-clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac OS) the Output Module.
Page 602 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide resulting composition rendered at full resolution and best quality will have excellent image quality, better than if you had rendered using a reduced resolution. This method produces the highest quality reduced-size movie but is slower than nesting.
Page 603 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Note: Do not use stretching to change the vertical dimensions of a movie with field rendering. Stretching vertically mixes the field order, which distorts any motion. Use either cropping or composition nesting if you need to vertically resize a field-rendered movie.
Page 604 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide In the composition, change the color of the solid in the Composition panel, and add a new title, such as “Lower Field First, ” to identify it. Render the composition again, choosing Lower Field First from the Field Render menu in the Render Settings dialog box.
Page 605 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Removes all unused footage items and compositions from the collected files when the following Reduce Project options are chosen in the Collect Source Files pop-up menu: For All Comps, For Selected Comps, and For Queued Comps.
Page 606: Using Post-Render Action Options
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Using Post-Render Action options About Post-Render Action options After a composition is rendered, After Effects can automate simple tasks through options available in the Post- Render Action menu. These options allow you to prerender footage items and then replace existing footage or set proxies.
Page 607 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To create placeholders for output You can create placeholder files that can be used in different compositions. For example, you can create a placeholder for an item in the render queue that will create a 24-fps movie and then drag that placeholder into a 30-fps compo- sition.
Page 608: Using The Render Queue Panel
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Specify a name and output designation for the proxy. Specify Render settings, and click Render. Note: To create a still image proxy from a movie or sequence file, open the footage in the Footage panel and set as the poster frame the frame you want to use as the proxy.
Page 609 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To remove a composition from the Render Queue panel, select it and press Delete or choose Edit > Clear • To rearrange compositions in the Render Queue panel, drag a composition up or down the queue. A heavy black line appears between compositions, indicating where the composition will be placed.
Page 610 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • To use a file naming template, choose a template from the Output To pop-up menu. To make a file naming template the default template, hold down Control (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) and choose the desired template from the Output To pop-up menu.
Page 611 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • (the default setting) Uses the disk cache settings defined in the Memory & Cache preferences. Current Settings Determines whether you use OpenGL to render (see “To render with OpenGL” on page 595). Use OpenGL Renderer Determines whether to use proxies when rendering.
Page 612 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Lets you re-render part of a sequence of files without wasting time on previously rendered frames. Skip Existing Files When rendering a sequence of files, After Effects locates files that are part of the current sequence, identifies the missing frames, and then renders only those frames, inserting them where they belong in the sequence.
Page 613 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To create and use render settings templates You can create templates that save commonly used render settings. These templates appear in the Render Settings pop-up menu in the Render Queue panel. For example, you can specify a default render settings template for movie rendering and another for creating a single frame.
Page 614 Embed When you open the output file in another application such as Adobe Premiere Pro, you can use the Edit Original command to edit the source project in After Effects. Selecting Project Link creates a link between the output file and the source project.
Page 615: Exporting To Macromedia Flash (Swf) Format
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To create and use output module templates You can create templates that save commonly used output module settings. These templates appear in the Output Module pop-up menu in the Render Queue panel. You can specify a default output module template for movie rendering and another for creating a single frame.
Page 616 For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 617 Objects added this way include JPEG- compressed bitmap images, SWF movie clips created in Adobe Illustrator, and text characters applied with the Path Text effect.
Page 618: Rendering To Windows Media, Realmedia, Or Mpeg (Windows Only)
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Referencing also works across layers, so if multiple layers in the composition share the same source, the source is added once to the composition and is then referenced for every additional layer that shares the source. If the source is an Illustrator file or layer, a SWF movie clip is created and referenced.
Page 619 In After Effects, you can create MPEG-2 and MPEG-2 DVD video. In Adobe Premiere Pro, you can create various types of MPEG video by using the File > Export > Adobe Media Encoder command or export directly to DVD- compliant video by using the Export To DVD command (any video you export to DVD is automatically transcoded to MPEG-2 if it isn’t already in that format).
Page 620 When exporting a movie file for delivery media other than full-screen, full frame-rate television, it is often necessary to deinterlace the frames, crop the image, or apply certain filters. Through the Export Settings dialog box, the Adobe Media Encoder offers these tasks as pre-rendering options, because it’s best to perform them prior to encoding the file.
Page 621 (Adobe After Effects does not support multiple encoding passes.) Specifies the number of megabits per second of playback for the encoded file.
Page 622 To add Alternates or Audiences In the Adobe Media Encoder Export Settings dialog box, specify a format that supports streaming media (QuickTime, RealMedia, or Windows Media) and choose a streaming option from the Preset menu.
Page 623 MPEG multiplexer preset options Multiplexer preset options control how After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro merge MPEG video and audio data into a single stream. The exact options available depend on the MPEG format you choose.
Page 624: Rendering To Omf (Pro Only)
Some Adobe programs, such as Adobe Bridge, can use or write XMP information. You can specify XMP metadata to be included with a file you export using the Adobe Media Encoder when you specify an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format.
Page 625: Compression Options
The data rate should maximize quality while fitting the entire program within the space available DVD production on the DVD. In Adobe Premiere Pro, the DVD data rate is automatically adjusted by the Adobe Media Encoder when you choose File > Export > Export To DVD.
Page 626 If you use Adobe Premiere Pro, use the Get Properties For command to analyze the data rate of files you export. To specify QuickTime compression options In the Render Queue panel, click the underlined name of the output module.
Page 627 Video for Windows codecs installed on your computer). You can render with 10-bpc YUV compression to create 10-bpc AVI files for use with HD footage in Adobe Premiere Pro: choose 10-bit YUV (4:2:2 YUV) from the Compressor menu.
Page 628: Exporting Footage Using Quicktime Components
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • For Microsoft Video 1, choose a level for the temporal compression quality of the movie. Temporal compression compresses a movie by comparing successive frames and keeping only changed data. High temporal quality maintains smoothness of motion. Lower temporal quality tends to produce jerkiness of motion because a pixel doesn’t change unless the difference between frames is great.
Page 629: Exporting And Rendering Single Frames, Filmstrip Files, And Still Sequences
About single-frame export You can save a single frame from a composition to any supported still image format, such as an Adobe Photoshop file with layers intact. One frame of the composition is rendered at the current time as set in the Composition panel.
Page 630 Note: If you simply want to export a single frame, you don’t need to use Filmstrip format. A filmstrip opens in Adobe Photoshop as a series of frames in a column, with each frame labeled by number, reel name, and timecode. If the column created by the filmstrip frames is more than 30,000 pixels tall, the frames continue in a second column.
Page 631: D Rendering
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide • Export source images for a graphics program in which the images can be edited or retouched and imported back into After Effects as footage items. Choose Composition > Make Movie. Type a file name.
Page 632 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide To render shadows, the plug-in uses shadow maps, which are images rendered from the point of view of each light source. Normally, a shadow’s resolution is computed automatically based on the composition resolution and the quality settings (switches).
Page 633: Rendering Over A Network
Network rendering with watch folders (Pro only) The Adobe After Effects Professional Watch Folder feature speeds up the rendering process on a network. If you have a full licensed copy of After Effects Professional, you can set it up to work with render-only versions of After Effects.
Page 634 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide When rendering across a network that includes volumes using different network or operating systems, such as Windows, Mac OS, Novell, and UNIX , make sure that you specify output files using a file-naming convention that’s ®...
Page 635 (Windows only) To start After Effects in watch-folder mode from the command line, choose Start > Run, and then enter the following, modifying the application path to the exact name of the folder in which you installed After Effects, and replacing C:\[temp] with the path to your watch folder: “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 7.0\Support Files\afterfx.exe" -wf C:\[temp] Note: You can also use this command line in batch files.
Page 636 After Effects on the same computer running Mac OS X. Note: Adobe does not provide technical support for general network configuration; consult your network administrator. Note: If you are rendering a project using After Effects Professional effects on multiple systems, each system must be running After Effects Professional.
Page 637: Exporting Project Information To Other Adobe Applications
When you export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project, Adobe Premiere Pro uses the settings from the first composition in the After Effects project for all subsequent sequences. Keyframes, effects, and other properties are converted in the same way as when you paste an After Effects layer into an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence.
Page 638 In Adobe Premiere Pro, you can preview the linked composition in the Source Monitor, set In and Out points, add it to a sequence, and use any of the Adobe Premiere Pro tools to edit it. When you add a linked composition that contains both footage and audio layers to a sequence, Adobe Premiere Pro inserts linked video and audio clips in the timeline.
Page 639 Saving and Adobe Dynamic Link (Adobe Production Studio only) You must save your After Effects project at least once before you can create a dynamic link from Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Encore DVD to a composition within it. However, you don’t have to subsequently save changes to an After Effects project to see changes to a linked composition in Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Encore DVD.
Page 640 Adobe Premiere Pro displays the Import Composition dialog box. Note: You can link to a single After Effects composition multiple times in a single Adobe Premiere Pro project. In an Adobe Encore DVD project, however, you can link to an After Effects composition only once.
Page 641 Note: If you change the name of the composition in After Effects after you’ve created a dynamic link to it from Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro doesn’t update the linked composition name in the Project panel, but retains the dynamic link.
Page 642: Memory
Chapter 20: Performance and memory Memory Memory usage Memory requirements for viewing and rendering increase with the resolution of the composition frame, the memory requirement of the most memory-intensive layer in the composition, and the size of the project file. After Effects renders each frame of a composition one layer at a time.
Page 643 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide After Effects on the Mac OS X operating system can use up to 3.5 GB of RAM. After Effects on the 32-bit Windows XP Professional operating system can use up to 3GB of RAM; however, to use more than 2GB in After Effects, you must configure Windows appropriately.
Page 644: Simple Ways To Improve Performance
After Effects: Make sure that you’ve installed the current version of After Effects, including any available updates. Visit the Adobe website for details. Make sure that you’ve installed the latest versions of drivers and plug-ins.
Page 645 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Choose Stiff Elasticity for the Mesh Warp, Reshape, and Smear effects in the Distort effects category. See “Mesh Warp effect (Pro only)” on page 427, “Reshape effect (Pro only)” on page 430, and “Smear effect” on page 433.
Page 646 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Deselect the Continuously Rasterize switch for an Illustrator file until you need to view or render it in detail. This prevents After Effects from rasterizing the entire file after each change. See “Using the Collapse Transformations/Continuously Rasterize switch” on page 168 and “To continuously rasterize an Illustrator file”...
Page 647 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Display audio waveforms only when necessary. See “Audio Waveform effect” on page 443. Deselect Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction. For best results, select Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction for previewing only. (See “To correct pixel aspect ratio for previewing”...
Page 648: Default Keyboard Shortcuts
For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website. Adobe periodically provides updates to software and Help. To check for updates, click the Preferences button Adobe Help Center, and then click Check For Updates. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Page 649 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Selection tool Rotation tool Camera tools (Orbit, Track XY, and C or Shift + C to select and cycle C or Shift + C to select and cycle Track Z)
Page 650 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Replace a selected layer’s source Ctrl + Alt + / Command + Option + / footage in Composition panel with selected footage Replace a selected layer’s source Alt-drag footage item from...
Page 651 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Keys for moving around the Timeline panel You can find most keyboard shortcuts in menu commands and tool tips. Additional shortcuts appear in the table below. Result Windows Mac OS Go to beginning of the work area...
Page 652 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Keys for previewing Use these shortcuts in the Timeline panel. You can find most keyboard shortcuts in menu commands and tool tips. Additional shortcuts appear in the table below. Result Windows Mac OS Start/pause playback...
Page 653 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Nudge layer scaling +1% Ctrl + + (plus) on numeric keypad Option + + (plus) on numeric keypad Nudge layer scaling -1% Ctrl + - (minus) on numeric Option + - (minus) on numeric...
Page 654 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Trim In point of a layer Alt + [ (left bracket) Option + [ (left bracket) Trim Out point of a layer Alt + ] (right bracket) Option + ] (right bracket)
Page 655 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Expressions Mask Feather Mask Shape Mask Opacity Mask Properties Material options (3D) Opacity Position Paint Effects Reveal modified properties Rotation R*** R*** Time Remapping Scale Set layer property value in dialog...
Page 656 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Set composition resolution to Ctrl + Alt + J Command + Option + J custom Keys for modifying keyframes Use these shortcuts in the Timeline panel. You can find most keyboard shortcuts in menu commands and tool tips. Additional shortcuts appear in the table below.
Page 657 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Keys for working with the Graph Editor You can find most keyboard shortcuts in menu commands and tool tips. Additional shortcuts appear in the table below. Result Windows Mac OS Select all keyframes Alt-click segment between two...
Page 658 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Set beginning of work area to current time Set end of work area to current time Set work area to selected layers Ctrl + Alt + B Command + Option + B...
Page 659 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide You can find most keyboard shortcuts in menu commands and tool tips. Additional shortcuts appear in the table below. Result Windows Mac OS View Custom View 1 (defaults to front) View Custom View 2 (defaults to...
Page 660 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Toggle Paint panel background color and foreground colors Set Paint panel foreground color to black and background color to white Set foreground color to the color Alt-click Option-click currently under any paint tool...
Page 661 Alt + Left Arrow/Right Arrow Option + Left Arrow/Right Arrow tracking 20/1000 ems Keys for working with Adobe Bridge This is not a complete list of keyboard shortcuts. This table lists only those shortcuts that are not displayed in menu commands or tool tips.
Page 662 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Open Adobe Bridge from other Control + Alt + O, Control + Shift + Command + Option + O, Creative Suite application Command + Shift + O Switch to previous Bridge window Shift + Control + ~...
Page 663 Result Windows Mac OS Move to the first item Home Home Move to the last item Add to selection (discontiguous) Control-click Command-click Refresh tree and thumbnail panes F5 Add an item to the selection Shift + Right Arrow, Left Arrow, Up Shift + Right Arrow, Left Arrow, Up Arrow, or Down Arrow Arrow, or Down Arrow...
Page 664: Index
4-Color Gradient effect 440 Import After Effects Composition Audio options 616 command 634 command 613 Link Media command 635 filters options 614 AAC format linking to compositions 633, 634 Video options 614 importing 69 managing performance 633 Adobe PDF files. See PDF files...
Page 665 442 searching with keywords 41 Animate Text command 297 displaying waveform 443 shopping cart 44 animated GIF format editing in Adobe Audition 171 viewing order details 45 behavior when rendering 52 importing 68 Adobe Studio 6 animating including and excluding 171...
Page 666 After Effects 127 binary keys 271 Reduce Interlace Flicker effect 393 Audio volume property bit rate encoding 615 Sharpen effect 393 conversion in Adobe Premiere bitmap format Smart Blur effect 394 Pro 126 exporting 591 Unsharp Mask effect 394...
Page 667 INDEX 661 bubbles, creating with Cell Pattern focus distance 181 characters. See text effect 444 f-stop 182 Checkbox Control effect 561 Build Cache For Subfolders points of interest 183 Checkerboard effect 446 command 28 preset 181 checkered color swatch (Vector Bulge effect 423, 589 Paint) 478 settings 181...
Page 668 Comp Flowchart View command 60 Color Balance (HLS) effect 408 codecs compact mode 26 Color Balance effect 407 coneAngle (expression element) 583 Compact view, in Adobe Help Color Link effect 408 coneFeather (expression Center 5 element) 583 Color Stabilizer effect 409...
Page 669 Audiences settings 616 Magnify effect 426 pixel aspect ratio 98 audio settings 616 Mesh warp effect 427 D1/DV PAL Dynamic Link. See Adobe Dynamic Mirror effect 428 Link about 97 Offset effect 428 pixel aspect ratio 98 Optics Compensation effect 429...
Page 670 Export To DVD command 613 turning off and on 349 saving 562 exporting viewing 350 Source Text property 560 After Effects project to Adobe Effects & Presets panel 349, 350, 351 temporarily disabling 556 Premiere Pro 631 Eject command 31 3D layer elements 580...
Page 671 582 importing 69 items 68 f-stops, camera setting 182 rendering 624 keyboard shortcuts 643 Full view, in Adobe Help Center 5 Filmstrip Focus command 26 looping 125 filters. See effects organizing 58 Find command 33 pixel aspect ratio 96...
Page 672 590 exporting 590 hard disk cache 637 importing 69 importing 69 hasAudio (expression element) 579 Illustrator. See Adobe Illustrator GIF format, animated 52 hasParent (expression element) 568, image area 23 global objects 564, 571 image noise, defined 84 Global Positioning System (GPS)
Page 673 Interpretation Rules file 71 adding 195 indenting paragraphs 291 invert (expression element) 584 adding to a motion path 212 InDesign. See Adobe InDesign Invert effect 399 controlling speed between 225 index (expression element) 579, 586 Invert Selection command 30 copying 198...
Page 674 583 Inner/Outer Key effect 465 creating 150 lightTransmission (expression element) 581 Linear Color Key effect 465 creating from Adobe Premiere Pro 126 Line Anchor animator 307 Luma Key effect 466 dissolving 503 linear (expression element) 575 Spill Suppressor effect 466...
Page 675 Microsoft Video encoder 622 Simple Choker effect 467 color 252 Minimax effect 400 matte view 270 conversion in Adobe Premiere Mirror effect 428 matted alpha channels 73, 243 Pro 126 mistakes, correcting and undoing 56 creating motion paths from 214...
Page 676 INDEX 670 creating from masks 214 multiplexer preset options 618 Noise HLS effect 474 Easy Ease keyframe assistant 226 presets 613 Remove Grain effect 358 keyframes 210 MThread multiprocessor plug-in 641 noise (expression element) 575 modifying 210, 213 mul (expression element) 573 Noise Alpha effect 472 Motion Sketch 213 multiple computers, rendering...
Page 677 Photo Filter effect 419 Paint effect 474 gravity and particles 507 Photoshop Layers command 623 Paint On Transparent option 326 layer maps 512 Photoshop. See Adobe Photoshop Paint panel 313 masking particles 508 PIC format paint strokes modifying properties with layer...
Page 678 99 changing 237 Preferences command Project panel Pixar format in Bridge 27 creating folders in 58 exporting 590 Premiere Pro. See Adobe Premiere importing footage 71 importing 69 projects premultiplied channels 73, 243 pixel aspect ratio about 49 prerendering 132...
Page 679 100 importing 69 Radial Blur effect 393 file naming 603 rgbToHsl (expression element) 576 Radial Shadow effect 490 filmstrip for Adobe Photoshop 624 Ripple effect 432 Radial Wipe effect 549 frame blending 239 RLA format Radiance format log file 606...
Page 680 Foam effect 497 resources 7 shadowDarkness (expression Particle Playground effect 501 scripting guides element) 583 Shatter effect 514 Adobe Bridge 34 shadowDiffusion (expression Wave World effect 520 element) 583 Script Editor 67 single frame, exporting 623 shadows 183, 185 scripts...
Page 681 290 Smoother, The 215 stars, rating files with 33 super-slow motion 239 smoothing curves 216 start frame 115 support documents, in Adobe Help smoothing motion 230 startTime (expression element) 579 Center 3 SMPTE stencil blending modes 263 support options. See technical...
Page 682 134 toCompVec (expression superscript and subscript 290 Time Stretch property, conversion in element) 582 text animation presets 295 Adobe Premiere Pro 127 Toggle Hold Keyframe 222 text animator groups 298, 299 timecode tonal adjustments 415 Text effects about 54...
Page 683 288 Twirl effect 438 vectors 566, 573 training resources 6, 7 Type 1 fonts 286 Vegas effect 460 transfer modes, conversion in Adobe type. See text velocity Premiere Pro 127 controlling 227 transfer modes. See blending modes direction handles 227...
Page 684 616 View Axis mode 182 Wireframe 140, 169 viewing area 134 WM9 HDTV 95, 592 views WMV format in Adobe Help Center 5 importing 70 orthogonal 177 work area 3D 177 keyboard shortcuts 651 vignetting, correcting in camera raw...

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