Crash Course in Adobe After Effects

Written by Kurt Phillips

Last Updated on January 27, 2005
© Copyright Texas A&M University – Visualization Laboratory

Disclaimer: The Adobe After Effects version used in this tutorial is 6.0, but the important
features described in this document are available in earlier versions of After Effects.

Who is this document for?

This document is intended for After Effects novices. It serves as a quick guide to the
program’s most useful features, but by no means is a complete manual. See the
Resources section for further documentation.

OUTLINE
Working with NTSC Video
Project Bin
The AE Toolbar
Compositions
Timeline, Layers, and RAM Previews
Blending Modes, Quality, and Motion Blur
Effects
Masks
Keyframe Animation
The Render Queue
Resources
Working with NTSC Video

NTSC (National Television System Committee) is the video standard of North America.
The image is 720 pixels wide and 486 pixels tall, running at 29.97 frames per second.
Resolution is not important when working with video because it is independent of “dots
per inch.”; i.e. the NTSC image has fixed pixel dimensions regardless of its final size.
When working with video on the computer, these are the most important settings to make
sure your output plays on any standard television.

The Project Bin

The project bin is where you keep all of your project’s assets. Assets include anything
that you will visually use in your project, i.e. images, video clips, sound clips, etc.

Project Bin window

The main part of the project bin will list your assets, along with information about each
item (such as the type of the file, the size, the length, and the file’s location). To import
media into your bin, right click in an empty area and select Import > File. Here, you’ll
be presented with a familiar Finder or Explorer window to look for your media. You can
choose multiple files with the or CTRL keys and import then simultaneously. Since
After Effects is made by Adobe, it is well integrated with Photoshop and PSD files. If
you have layers set up in a PSD file, you can quickly import that file into After Effects
with all of the layers separate. When importing files, choose the PSD file and change
“Import As:” to “Cropped Composition”. This will make a composition for you with the
layers already set up. You can also organize your assets into folders for good
housekeeping. Click the folder icon in the lower left corner of the project bin to make a
new folder. Then, drag files into the new folder to keep things tidy.

It is important to point out that when you add an asset to the Project Bin, it is NOT
embedded in the project. All assets are linked files, so if you are moving your project to a
different computer, you must bring all of the source files with the project file.
The AE Toolbar

Select (V) – Selects objects

Rotate (W) – Rotates objects

Orbit Camera (C) – If your project is 3D, use this to orbit around

Pan (H or hold Spacebar) – Pan around the view

Zoom (Z) – Zoom in and out ( /CTRL + to zoom in, /CTRL – to zoom out)

Pan Behind (Y) – If you are using masks, this will pan the layer inside the mask

Brush ( /CTRL B) – (Paint Mode Only) Basic painting tool

Clone Stamp ( /CTRL B) – (Paint Mode Only) Repeat portions of an image

Eraser ( /CTRL B) – (Paint Mode Only) Basic erasing tool

Rectangular Mask (Q)

Type ( /CTRL T)

Pen Tool (G) – Helpful in making irregularly shaped masks

Compositions

A composition in After Effects is your work area. While most of the work will be done
in the timeline and effects windows, the composition window is where you can spatially
change things. Here, you can use the tools to move, rotate, and scale objects, draw paths,
and preview your work. To make a new composition, go to the main menu at the top of
the screen and choose Composition > New Composition.

Composition Settings window

Here, you will set up your composition. Keep a few things in mind here:
• Always name your comps.
• If your project will ever get to video, you might want to work in the NTSC D1
standard (this will set up the width, height, and frame rate accordingly). Of
course you can always work in different sizes and frame rates if you wish. A lot
of 2D animation is done in 15 frames per second.
• Set your duration here. ( hours ; minutes ; seconds ; frames )
• In the Advanced tab, you can change other things like the shutter angle, which
affects motion blur.
 The Composition window

Here are some of the most useful tools:

Zoom level: These are preset zoom levels. This will not affect the actual size of
your composition. You can also use the [ , ] and [ . ] keys to zoom in
and out.
Zone Overlays Toggle: Here, you can toggle the display of safe action and title safe zone
overlays. Use these guides to help judge where to put titles and
main action. This directly applies to NTSC video because most
televisions cut off some of the image. Keeping within these zones
will make sure your titles will never be cut off.
Masks Toggle: Toggle the display of masks.
Take Snapshot: This will take a snapshot of your composition. Directly related to…
Show Snapshot: While pressed, this button will show the last snapshot taken. This is handy
for quick visual comparisons between two different times.
Working Resolution: Changing the resolution here will help if your computer is
having a hard time working on full resolution video. It does
not effect the final output.
Region of Interest: With this tool, you can specify a rectangular region to be updated. This
also helps speed up previewing when you are working on a large project.
Toggle Transparency Grid: By default, After Effects makes the background of your
composition black. But it is not really black. If you turn on this
button, you will see a grid as the background instead of black.
This is really helpful when you nest compositions in other
compositions…more on that later…
Timeline, Layers, and RAM Previews

The timeline is where you control the layering and temporal properties of your
composition. Here, you can quickly:
• Change start and end points of an object
• Move positions of objects with respect to time
• Adjust animation keyframes
• Adjust effects properties
• Change the layering order of objects

Timeline window

Layers in After Effects are handled similarly as they are in Photoshop. The timeline is
presented as a vertical stack of layers, with the top layer being the front-most object in
the composition. To add a layer to your composition, simply drag it from the bin into the
timeline. To reorder layers, click and drag a layer to a different position in the stack. In
the actual timeline portion of the window, each layer is represented by a horizontal bar,
with a start point, an end point, and position. If you click and drag on the start point, it
will change the start point of the clip; the same goes for the end point. To move a clip in
its entirety, click in the middle of the bar and drag it into position.

The top of the timeline window gives a few options that are worth mentioning. In the
actual timecode portion of the window, you can click and drag the icon through your
composition. This is called scrubbing. The grey bar going through this icon is the scrub
area, which defines the start and end point of playback. This bar is similar to a layer’s
bar, but this one is for the whole composition. If you wish to preview your composition,
press the spacebar to start playback.

Most likely, you won’t be able to watch

your composition in real time; therefore, it
is useful to use the RAM preview. This
will render each frame within the
composition’s playback range (as defined
by the white bar described earlier). Once
every frame is loaded into memory, it will
play back in real time. Use the button
to build a RAM preview.
RAM Preview window
Blending Modes, Quality, and Motion Blur

There are several ways to alter the appearance of your objects. By changing a layer’s
blending mode, you will change the way the layers are composited together. Blending
modes are changed in the timeline window. Between the layers stack and the actual
timeline is an area devoted to blending modes and layer options switches. You can use
the button at the bottom of this area to switch between these toolsets.

Blending Modes Switches

Normal – This is the default blending mode. It simply composites the layer on top of
underlying layers.
Multiply – This multiplies the color values in the next layer down by the color values in
the selected layer. This is most useful for compositing shadows.
Screen – This blending mode has the effect of superimposing a slightly transparent layer
on top of the underlying layer.
Overlay – This evenly mixes the colors between layers, preserving highlights and dark
areas.

There are many more blending modes. Experiment with them one by one to see what
kind of result they produce.

In the Switches area of the timeline, the icon represents the viewing quality of a layer.
For previewing purposes, the quality is set to by default. To see how the layer looks in
full quality, click on the icon and it will become a icon. This improvement is
reflected in the composition window. The results of this quality switch are usually
improvements on expensive calculations, such as antialiasing and motion blur quality.

Motion Blur is a special effect that can really breathe life into your animations. To apply
motion blur to an object, select its layer, and then in the switches area, check the box
under the category. You also need to enable motion blur by clicking the button.
To adjust the amount of motion blur in your composition, go to the Composition menu at
the top of the screen and choose Composition Settings. In the advanced tab, change the
shutter angle to affect the motion blur. A higher value increases the amount of motion
blur. Motion blur can be computationally expensive, so you might want to do a RAM
preview before outputting.
Effects

Effects are the best way to change the appearance of objects in your compositions. They
are applied in a similar stack style as the timeline, with a few differences. The biggest
difference to grasp is that effects are applied in a top-down fashion…opposite of the
timeline layer order. So, in the effects window, the bottom-most effect listed is the last
effect applied in the stack. To get the effects window, right-click on a layer name and
choose Effect > Effect Controls or you can just press F3.

The great thing about these effects is that after you apply one, it isn’t permanent; you can
adjust every parameter even after they have been applied. You can also turn effects off
without deleting them. In the following example, A Hue/Saturation adjustment is
applied, and then the layer is blurred using a Gaussian Blur. All of these parameters can
be adjusted later and even animated!

Effects window

There are many many effects available to use, so they best way to learn about them is to
try them out and see what they do. To apply an effect, right-click on a layer, go to
Effects, choose the effect category, and then choose an effect. Many of the available
effects are directly from Photoshop.
• Color correction tools like levels, curves, and hue/saturation
• Blurs like Gaussian, motion, and radial
• Distortions like bezier and mesh warps, ripples, and spherize
• Renders like clouds, lighting effects, and lens flares
• Stylize like emboss, glow, and brush strokes
Masks

Masks are an extremely powerful feature of After Effects. They define what area of a
layer is visible in a composition. They are computed on-the-fly based on geometrical
data that you supply in the form of rectangles, ellipses, or any oblong shape.

After Effects provides two tools for making masks. The first tool is the
rectangular/elliptical mask tool. The second, and more robust, tool is the pen tool. Using
the pen tool, you can draw a polygonal shape on your object to define an opaque area.

An object with a mask defined and then applied.

After drawing the mask, you can move the control vertices around to change the shape.
Even this can be animated, which makes this tool VERY powerful. It is also easy to
smooth out the shape of a mask but clicking and holding down the button on the pen tool.
A popup menu will appear where you can choose the ‘Convert Vertex Tool’. This
will convert any clicked control vertex to a smooth control vertex.

All control vertices changed to smooth

By default, masks are in Add mode, where the opaque area is inside the shape. You can
easily change the way the mask works by changing this mode. To bring up the mask
properties, click on the little arrow next to the layer name. Click the same arrow next
to Masks, and then change the Add dropdown to Subtract.

The same mask in Subtract mode

You can also feather the edges of a mask, by increasing the feather value in the mask’s
properties. To get this property, hit the arrow next to the Mask name, and then change
the Mask Feather value.

The mask with a feathered edge

Keyframe Animation

After Effects is a motion graphics program, so it is no surprise that it has very developed
animation tools. Any attribute you can find in the After Effects interface that has a
stopwatch icon can be animated. Just click on that icon and any changes made will
automatically set a keyframe at the current time. Be careful that you don’t click this
button again or animation will be turned off for that attribute and all of your keyframes
will be lost forever!

Keyframes can be manipulated in the timeline window. If you click the button next to
a layer until you get to an attribute that has been animated, you will see icons in the
timeline. These represent a keyframe. You can easily move a keyframe in the timeline
by clicking and dragging it around.

Keyframes set for a rotation attribute

By default, keyframes are interpolated linearly; that is, when moving from one keyframe
to another, the rate of change in the value is the same. The visual effect of this is abrupt
changes in the velocity of the attribute. In this case, the block is rotating one way, and
then it abruptly changes direction. This can be visually seen by looking at the attribute’s
animation curve. Click the button next to the animated attribute to reveal the curve.

Animation curve revealed

As you can see, the animation will be somewhat jerky due to the abrupt changes in the
curve. To smooth out the animation, you can change the keyframe type to smooth.
Right-click on a keyframe and choose Keyframe Assistant. From the drop down list
next to “Temporal Interpolation”, choose Auto Bezier and click OK. This will smooth
out the keyframe and present tangent handles that you can grab to change the curvature of
the animation curve. Alternately, you can simply hold /CTRL and click on a keyframe
to give it a smooth interpolation.

Smoothed keyframes with adjusted tangents

The Render Queue

When you are finally ready to output your composition to video or QuickTime, you will
be using the After Effects Render Queue. Click on your composition in the Project Bin,
and then go to Composition > Add to Render Queue. Here, you will set various output
attributes, mainly in three sections: Render settings, Output Module, and Output To.

The After Effects Render Queue window

To adjust the Render Settings, click on the blue text that reads “Current Settings”. Here,
you mainly want to set Quality to Best and Resolution to Full. You can also override
other settings like frame rate and shutter angle. When you are satisfied with your
settings, click OK.

Render Settings window

The Output Module window is where you define the format settings of your output
movie. Click on “Lossless” to open the window. Choose a Format (QuickTime,
Windows Media, Animated GIF, TIFF Sequence). Then, click on the Format Options
button to choose a specific compressor and set any related parameters. Click OK when
you are done.

Output Module Settings

You probably don’t know where the file is going to save, so click on the filename next to
Output To and specify where you want the file to be saved. Finally, click the big Render
button, and your project will be rendered!
Resources

I hope this ‘crash course’ in After Effects was helpful. By no means does this tutorial
cover every aspect of After Effects. To learn the more, check out one of the many books
available out there. You can also find tutorials everywhere online. If you are ever at a
loss as to what a particular tool does or what the options on a tool mean, look in the
Adobe Help menu right away. Their documentation is top-notch.

After Effects Help: Help > After Effects Help…

Books:
Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, Vol. 1: The Essentials
By Trish Meyer and Chris Meyer
ISBN: 1578202493

Adobe After Effects 6.0 Classroom in a Book

By The Adobe Creative Team
ISBN: 0321193792

Adobe After Effects 6.5 Studio Techniques

By Mark Christiansen
ISBN: 0321316207

Adobe After Effects 6.5 Magic

By James Rankin and Anna Ullrich
ISBN: 0321267230