Adobe After Effects 5.0

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© 2001 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe After Effects 5.0 User Guide for Windows and Macintosh If this guide is distributed with software that includes an end-user agreement, this guide, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. Except as permitted by any such license, no part of this guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with software that includes an end-user license agreement. The content of this guide is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a com- mitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporated assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in the informational content contained in this guide. Please remember that existing artwork or images that you may want to include in your project may be protected under copyright law. The unauthorized incorporation of such material into your new work could be a violation of the rights of the copyright owner. Please be sure to obtain any permission required from the copyright owner. Any references to company names in sample templates are for demonstration purposes only and are not intended to refer to any actual or- ganization. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All references to PostScript on the screen or in this manual are ref- erences either to the PostScript interpreter or to the PostScript language. Apple, Macintosh, and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U. S. and other countries. FireWire, QuickTime, and the QuickTime logo are trademarks used under license. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Macromedia and Flash are trademarks of Macromedia Inc. MPEG Layer 3 audio compression technology is licensed by Fraunhofer IIS and Thompson. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Contains an implementation of the LZW algorithm licensed under U.S. Patent 4,558,302. Notice to U.S. government end users. The software and documentation are “Commercial Items,” as that term is deﬁned at 48 C.F.R. §2.101, consisting of “Commercial Computer Software” and “Commercial Computer Software Documentation,” as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §227.7202, as applicable. Consistent with 48 C.F.R.. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §§227.7202-1 through 227.7202-4, as applica- ble, the Commercial Computer Software and Commercial Computer Software Documentation are being licensed to U.S. Government end users (a) only as Commercial items and (b) with only those rights as are granted to all other end users pursuant to the terms and conditions herein. Unpublished-rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 94110-2704, USA. For U.S. Government End Users, Adobe agrees to comply with all applicable equal opportunity laws including, if ap- propriate, the provisions of Executive Order 11246, as amended, Section 402 of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (38 USC 4212), and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the regulations at 41 CFR Parts 60-1 through 60- 60, 60-250 ,and 60-741. The afﬁrmative action clause and regulations contained in the preceding sentence shall be incorporated by reference. Part number: 90027945 (3/01)
iii Contents Introduction Registration ............................................ 1 Installing Adobe After Effects ........................... 1 Learning Adobe After Effects ........................... 1 Using Web resources ................................... 3 Other learning resources ............................... 5 Customer support ...................................... 5 An Overview of Adobe Superior Adobe product integration .................... 9 After Effects Powerful masking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2D & 3D compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Extensive motion controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Leading-edge video and audio effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Flexible media handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Web delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Production Bundle features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 What’s New in After Precise control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Effects 5.0 Enhanced productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Versatile output options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Working with Projects, Chapter 1 Windows, and Palettes Working in a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Planning your project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Time basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Setting up a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Correcting mistakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Selecting 16-bpc color depth (PB only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Setting preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Customizing the workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Using context menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Using windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Composition, Layer, and Footage window controls . . . . . . 53 Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Info palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
iv CONTENTS Preparing and Importing Chapter 2 Footage How After Effects works with imported ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Preparing a still-image file for import into After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Importing ﬁles into a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Importing a sequence of still-image files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Importing footage containing an alpha channel . . . . . . . . 72 Importing Adobe Photoshop ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Importing an Adobe Illustrator, PDF, or EPS ﬁle . . . . . . . . . . 77 Importing an After Effects project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Importing Adobe Premiere projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Importing 3D-image ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Importing an audio ﬁle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Importing Cineon ﬁles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Preparing motion footage for import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Using interlaced video in After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Removing 3:2 pulldown from video transferred from ﬁlm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Setting pixel aspect ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Building a Composition Chapter 3 Working with imported footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Replacing and substituting footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Creating a composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Understanding basic composition settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Understanding advanced composition settings . . . . . . . 108 Adding footage items to a composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Nesting a composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Using the Composition window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Using the Timeline window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Managing Layers Chapter 4 Adding layers to compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Creating new layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Rearranging layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Customizing layer work and views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Understanding trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Using markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
v About After Effects Audio/Video switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Altering appearances on the layer level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Using audio layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Animating Layers Chapter 5 About layer properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Understanding keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Setting keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Moving and copying keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Moving keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Determining where to set and modify keyframes . . . . . . 170 Setting layer position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Modifying a motion path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Changing the number of visible motion-path keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Using Motion Sketch to draw a motion path . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Smoothing motion and velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Creating motion paths with masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Setting layer size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Flipping a layer using Scale property keyframes . . . . . . . 179 Setting layer opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Setting layer rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Rotating a layer along a motion path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Setting and animating an anchor point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Understanding parent layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Setting and animating a layer property in the Timeline window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Setting and animating mask properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Setting and animating effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Setting preview options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Setting Video Preview preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Previewing animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
vi CONTENTS Fine-tuning Animation Chapter 6 Controlling change through interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Comparing interpolation methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Changing the interpolation method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Using the Value graph to change a layer property value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Adding keyframes to a Value graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Factors affecting speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Controlling speed along a motion path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Fine-tuning speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Time-stretching a layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Using the Time-Reverse Keyframes keyframe assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Reversing the playback direction of a layer . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 About time-remapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Working with Masks and Chapter 7 Transparency Using a footage item with an alpha channel . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Working with masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Creating masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Drawing rectangular and oval masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 About Mask Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Drawing a Bezier mask with the pen tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Selecting masks and control points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Scaling and rotating selected masks or points . . . . . . . . . 245 Changing the shape of a mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Feathering mask edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Adjusting the edges of a mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Adjusting the opacity of a mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Specifying which parts of a mask are inside and outside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Moving a mask and panning a layer behind a mask . . . . 251 Specifying one mask as the target for animation . . . . . . 253 Animating a mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Importing masks from Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Applying effects to a mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Creating visible lines and solid shapes from masks . . . . 256
vii Controlling how masks in the same layer interact . . . . . . 256 Using mask modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Modifying multiple masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Locking a mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 Reusing a mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 Creating track mattes and traveling mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Using layer modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Creating transparency using keying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Applying Effects Chapter 8 Learning about speciﬁc effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Working with effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Changing effect property values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Placing an effect using effect points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Changing effects over time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Positioning effects on layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Applying an effect to several layers with an adjustment layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Changing rendering order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Using audio effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Using cameras and lights with effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Using Adobe Photoshop layer styles in After Effects . . . 277 Using keying effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Effects included with After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 3D Compositing Chapter 9 Understanding 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Understanding 3D compositing in After Effects . . . . . . . . 284 Working with 3D layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Understanding 3D Transform properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Understanding 3D views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Using cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 Using lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 Using 3D compositing with effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Using 3D compositing with masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Using third-party ﬁles with depth information . . . . . . . . . 302 Previewing 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 3D rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
viii CONTENTS Creating Expressions Chapter 10 Using expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Creating expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 Creating expressions with the pick whip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 Writing your own expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 Understanding the expression language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Using the expression language menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Sample expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 After Effects expression language guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 Managing Projects Chapter 11 Effectively Visualizing organization with Flowchart View . . . . . . . . . 339 Organizing a project using nesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 Creating animations by nesting compositions . . . . . . . . . 345 Saving time by prerendering nested compositions . . . . 347 Understanding precomposing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 Reducing the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 Rendering a Movie Chapter 12 Understanding rendering and compression . . . . . . . . . . . 354 Making (rendering) a movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354 Using the Render Queue window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Changing render settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358 Creating and using render settings templates . . . . . . . . . 360 Changing output module settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 Creating and using output module templates . . . . . . . . . 364 Exporting to Macromedia Flash (SWF) format . . . . . . . . . 365 Saving a RAM preview as a rendered movie . . . . . . . . . . . 368 Exporting footage using QuickTime components . . . . . 369 Rendering an item to multiple formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Choosing compression options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 Exporting a single frame of a composition . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Creating a ﬁlmstrip ﬁle for editing in Photoshop . . . . . . . 374 Rendering frames as a sequence of still images . . . . . . . . 375 Rendering cross-platform movies and stills . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Collecting ﬁles in one location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Rendering using a watch folder (PB only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
ix Working with overﬂow volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 Rendering movies at different sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 Creating low-resolution movies for testing motion . . . . 387 Testing the ﬁeld-rendering order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 Using Property and Chapter 13 Tracking Controls Adding randomness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 (PB only) Simulating a zoom lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 About tracking motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Tracking different types of motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 Tracking a moving region or object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404 Stabilizing motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Using Motion Math Chapter 14 (PB only) Using Expressions instead of Motion Math . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 Working in the Motion Math window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412 Motion Math scripts included with the Production Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 Running and editing existing scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414 Writing your own scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416 Learning more about Motion Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416 Using Vector Paint Chapter 15 (PB only) Selecting and modifying paint tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 Editing your paint work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424 Selecting Composite Paint options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 Playing back your painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 Setting Wiggle Control options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 Selecting viewing options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Conﬁguring a stylus for Vector Paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
1 Introduction elcome to the Adobe® After Effects® 5.0 application, the ultimate software tool W for motion graphics and visual effects. After Effects is widely used for digital postproduction of ﬁlm, motion graphics, video multimedia, and the Web. Registration Adobe is conﬁdent you will ﬁnd that its software greatly increases your productivity. So that Adobe can continue to provide you with the highest quality software, offer technical support, and inform you about new After Effects software developments, please register your application. When you ﬁrst start the After Effects application, you’re prompted to register online. You can choose to submit the form directly or fax a printed copy. You can also register by ﬁlling out and returning the registration card included with your software package. When you register, several additional effects become available from the Adobe Web site, adobe.com, for download. For information, see “Effects included with After Effects” on page 278. Installing Adobe After Effects You must install the After Effects application from the Adobe After Effects CD onto your hard drive; you cannot run the program from the CD. Follow the on-screen installation instructions. For more detailed information, see the How_to_Install.wri (Windows) or How_to_Install.txt (Mac OS) ﬁle on the CD. Learning Adobe After Effects Adobe provides a variety of options for you to learn After Effects, including online Help and tool tips. You can also use the Adobe Web site to easily access a host of continually updated Web resources for learning After Effects, from tips and tutorials to technical support information.
2 Introduction Adobe Acrobat® Reader™ software, included on the After Effects CD, makes it possible to view Adobe PDF ﬁles. Many of the ﬁles on the Adobe Web site are in PDF format. The phrase “PB only” means that the feature is available only in the Production Bundle version of After Effects. Using online Help The Adobe After Effects 5.0 application includes complete documentation in an HTML- based help system. It contains essential information on using all of the After Effects commands, features, and tools, as well as keyboard shortcuts and full-color illustrations. The HTML format provides easy navigation online. Individual topics can also be printed out to provide a handy desktop reference. The online Help assumes you have a working knowledge of your computer and its operating conventions, including how to use a mouse and standard menus and commands. It also assumes you know how to open, save, and close ﬁles. For help with any of these techniques, please see your Microsoft Windows® or Mac OS™ documentation. To start online Help: Do one of the following: • Choose Help > After Effects Help. • Press F1 (Windows). Using tool tips Use the tool tips feature to display the names of tools, buttons, or controls. To identify a tool, button, or control: Position the pointer over a tool, button, or control, and pause. A tool tip appears showing the name and keyboard shortcut (if any) for the item. Note: Tool tips are not available in most dialog boxes.
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 5.0 3 User Guide Using Web resources If you have an Internet connection and a Web browser installed on your system, you can access additional resources for learning After Effects located on the Adobe Systems home page on the World Wide Web. These resources are continually updated. To access the Adobe home page for your region: 1 Open the Adobe U.S. home page at www.adobe.com. 2 From the Adobe Sites menu, choose your geographical region. The Adobe home page is customized for several geographical regions. Using the After Effects product section of the Adobe Web site The After Effects product section of the Adobe Web site provides a central source for regis- tered After Effects users to access the latest Web content for After Effects. Here you’ll ﬁnd the following: • Step-by-step tutorials • Quick tips that provide fast answers to common problems • Updates, patches, and plug-ins • After Effects Top Issues, containing the latest After Effects technical support solutions • Technical guides • A searchable database of answers to technical questions • Links to user forums To use the After Effects product section on the Adobe Web site: 1 Go to the Adobe home page and search for After Effects. 2 Register your copy of After Effects. 3 Once you have completed the registration process, follow the link back to After Effects.
4 Introduction Using Adobe Online Adobe Online provides access to the latest products and features that expand your appli- cation’s power, including professional services from Adobe and our partners. Bookmarks are also included to take you quickly to noteworthy Adobe- and After Effects–related sites. Adobe Online is constantly changing, so you should refresh before you use it. Refreshing through Adobe Online updates bookmarks and buttons so you can quickly access the most current content available. You can use preferences to automatically refresh Adobe Online daily, weekly, or monthly. When you set up Adobe Online to connect to your Web browser, Adobe can either notify you whenever new information for Adobe Online is available or automatically download that information to your hard disk and install it. If you choose not to use the automatic download feature, you can still view and download new Adobe Online ﬁles whenever they are available by using the Refresh command. To use Adobe Online: 1 In After Effects, choose Help > Adobe Online, or click the icon in the Adobe Online toolbar. Note: You must have an Internet connection and an Internet browser installed. Adobe Online will launch your browser using your default Internet conﬁguration. 2 Do any of the following: • Click Refresh to make sure you have the latest version of the Adobe Online window and its buttons, as well as the latest bookmarks. It is important to refresh the screen so that the current options are available for you to choose from. • Click Preferences to specify connection options. General preferences affect how Adobe Online interacts with all Adobe products installed on your system, and Application prefer- ences affect how Adobe Online interacts with After Effects. To see an explanation of each preference option, click Setup and follow the prompts. You also can set up an automatic refresh using the Update Options.
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 5.0 5 User Guide • Click any button in the Adobe Online window to open the Web page to which the button is linked. • Click the bookmark button ( ) to view suggested Web sites related to After Effects and Adobe. These bookmarks are automatically updated as new Web sites become available. • Click Close to return to After Effects. Other learning resources Other Adobe learning resources are available but are not included with your application. Classroom in a Book Is the ofﬁcial training series for Adobe graphics and publishing software. This book is developed by experts at Adobe and published by Adobe Press. The Adobe After Effects Classroom in a Book includes lessons about using After Effects. For information on purchasing Adobe After Effects Classroom in a Book, visit the Adobe Web site or contact your local book distributor. The Adobe Certiﬁcation program Offers users, instructors, and training centers the opportunity to demonstrate their product proﬁciency and promote their software skills as Adobe Certiﬁed Experts, Adobe Certiﬁed Instructors, or Adobe Authorized Learning Providers. Certiﬁcation is available for several different geographical regions. Visit the Partnering with Adobe Web site at www.partners.adobe.com to learn how you can become certiﬁed. Customer support When you register your product, you may be entitled to technical support for up to 90 days from the date of your ﬁrst call. Terms may vary depending on the country of residence. For more information, refer to the technical support card provided with the After Effects software package.
6 Introduction Customer support on Adobe Online Adobe Online provides access to FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and troubleshooting information that provides solutions to common problems. Additional customer support resources Adobe Systems provides several forms of automated technical support: • See the ReadMe ﬁle installed with the program for information that became available after this guide went to press. • Explore the extensive customer support information on Adobe’s World Wide Web site (www.adobe.com). To access the Adobe Web site from After Effects, choose Help > Adobe Online or click the icon in the Adobe Online toolbar. (See “Using Web resources” on page 3.)
9 An Overview of Adobe After Effects This overview introduces you to the key features of After Effects. If you’re an experienced After Effects user, you may want to scan this overview and then skip to “What’s New in After Effects 5.0.” After Effects is available in two versions. The Standard version provides the core 2D/3D compositing, animation, and effects tools that motion graphics professionals, Web design- ers, and video professionals need. The Production Bundle version meets the needs of visual effects professionals, and includes all of the tools in the Standard Version plus addi- tional keying, motion control, and distortion tools, audio effects, 3D channel effects, 16- bit-per-channel color, vector paint, and support for network rendering. Superior Adobe product integration After Effects features the award-winning Adobe user interface, familiar to anyone who uses Adobe Photoshop®, Adobe Illustrator®, or Adobe Premiere®. The tabbed windows— along with Adobe’s popular tabbed palettes, similar tools, and common keyboard short- cuts—make it possible to work more efﬁciently and move among the programs with ease. After Effects, Premiere, and Adobe LiveMotion™ use a similar time-based interface, so moving among the applications is a snap. Productivity-boosting features such as the pen tool, Align palette, rulers and guides, editing tools, and free transform mode work in After Effects just as they do in other popular Adobe products.
10 An Overview of Adobe After Effects Adobe Photoshop You can transform layered Photoshop images into animations with complete ease. Import Photoshop ﬁles as compositions one at a time or in batches. After Effects preserves layers, common layer effects, adjustment layers, alpha channels, transfer modes, vector masks, and more. You can then apply visual effects to color-correct, stylize, or manipulate each layer, and animate these layers over time. Use Photoshop paths as mask or motion points. Move easily between Photoshop and After Effects to complete your work. When you import a layered Photoshop ﬁle as a composition, After Effects retains layers and other key Photoshop settings. Adobe Illustrator Want to add ﬁrst-rate typography or eye-catching graphics to your motion graphics and visual effects? Simply import layered ﬁles as compositions one at a time or in batches. Choose whether After Effects preserves the layers or merges them on import. Then resize the Illustrator layers to any resolution without losing detail, and animate them with complete control. Copy paths in Illustrator and paste them in After Effects as masks or motion points. With Illustrator 9 ﬁles, you can preserve transparency and transfer modes. In addition, you can continuously rasterize Illustrator layers in both 2D and 3D.