Page 1 CS 3 ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS ® ® PROFESSIONAL USER GUIDE...
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
............. . 67 Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro .
Page 4 Chapter 7: Views and previews Previewing ................124 Modifying and using views .
Page 5 Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences ......600 Exporting project information to other Adobe applications ....... 602 Encoding and compression options for movies .
Page 6 Chapter 19: Keyboard shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts ..............631 Index .
Page 7: Chapter 1: Getting Started
Insert the installation disc into your DVD drive, and follow the on-screen instructions. For each licensed copy of Adobe® After Effects® software, you can activate and use one copy of the full version of the application on one computer. You can also install additional copies on additional computers to use as After Effects render engines, which assist with network rendering.
Page 8: Adobe Help
• Legal notices Adobe Help Adobe Help resources Documentation for your Adobe software is available in a variety of formats. In-product and LiveDocs Help In-product Help provides access to all documentation and instructional content available at the time the software...
Page 9 Using Help in the product In-product Help is available through the Help menu. After you start the Adobe Help Viewer, click Browse to see Help for additional Adobe products installed on your computer.
Page 10 User Guide • Some topics are shared across two or more products. For instance, if you see a Help topic with an Adobe Photoshop® CS3 icon and an Adobe After Effects® CS3 icon, you know that the topic either describes functionality that is similar in the two products or describes cross-product workflows.
Page 11: Resources
The Adobe Creative Suite 3 Video Workshop offers over 200 training videos covering a wide range of subjects for print, web, and video professionals. You can use the Adobe Video Workshop to learn about any Creative Suite 3 product. Many videos show you how to use Adobe applications together.
Page 12 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you start the Adobe Video Workshop, you choose the products you want to learn and the subjects you want to view. You can see details about each video to focus and direct your learning.
Page 13 Extras You have access to a wide variety of resources that will help you make the most of your Adobe software. Some of these resources are installed on your computer during the setup process; additional helpful samples and documents are included on the installation or content disc.
Page 14 Bridge Home, a new destination in Adobe Bridge CS3, provides up-to-date information on all your Adobe Creative Suite 3 software in one convenient location. Start Adobe Bridge, then click the Bridge Home icon at the top of the Favorites panel to access the latest tips, news, and resources for your Creative Suite tools.
Page 15 Note: Bridge Home may not be available in all languages. Adobe Design Center Adobe Design Center offers articles, inspiration, and instruction from industry experts, top designers and Adobe publishing partners. New content is added monthly. You can find hundreds of tutorials for design products and learn tips and techniques through videos, HTML...
Page 16 Visit the Adobe Support website, at www.adobe.com/support, to find troubleshooting information for your product and to learn about free and paid technical support options. Follow the Training link for access to Adobe Press books, a variety of training resources, Adobe software certification programs, and more.
Page 17: What's New
Adobe Labs fosters a collaborative software development process. In this environment, customers quickly become productive with new products and technologies. Adobe Labs is also a forum for early feedback, which the Adobe development teams use to create software that meets the needs and expectations of the community.
Page 18 See “Working with Flash and After Effects” on page 30 and “Rendering and exporting to Flash formats” on page 597. To see a video tutorial on exporting to Flash Video, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0262. To see a video tutorial on exporting markers as cue points, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0255.
Page 19: Chapter 2: Workspace
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 20 User Guide Choose a workspace Each Adobe video and audio application includes several predefined workspaces that optimize the layout of panels for specific tasks. When you choose one of these workspaces, or any custom workspaces you’ve saved, the current workspace is redrawn accordingly.
Page 21 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Dragging panel (A) onto grouping zone (B) to group it with existing panels (C) Dock or group panels If the panel you want to dock or group is not visible, choose it from the Window menu.
Page 22 When you undock a panel in a floating window, you can add panels to the window or otherwise modify it, as you do the application window. You can use floating windows to make use of a secondary monitor, or to create a workspace like those in earlier versions of Adobe applications. ❖...
Page 23 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Dragging divider between panel groups to resize them horizontally A. Original group with resize icon B. Resized groups Open and close panels and windows Even if a panel is open, it may be out of sight, beneath other panels. Choosing a panel from the Window menu opens it and brings it to the front.
Page 24: Using The After Effects Interface
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Reset a workspace Reset a workspace to return to its original, saved layout of panels. ❖ With the workspace you want to reset active, choose Window > Workspace > Reset workspace name. Delete a workspace Choose Window >...
Page 25 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide You can scroll in a panel even if it is not currently active, as long as you move the pointer over it. For instance, you can scroll in the Composition panel even if the Effect Controls panel is currently active.
Page 26 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide A B C D E F J K L M Tools panel A. Selection B. Hand C. Zoom D. Rotation E. Orbit Camera, Track XY Camera, Track Z Camera F. Pan Behind G. Mask and shape tools H.
Page 27: Chapter 3: Planning And Managing Projects
Chapter 3: Planning and managing projects After Effects provides the tools you need to organize complex projects and maximize performance, so that you can concentrate on your creative work. Project basics About project files An After Effects project is a single file that stores compositions and references to all of the footage items that you use in that project.
Page 28 After Effects > Preferences > Auto-Save (Mac OS), and select Automatically Save Projects. Auto-saved files are saved in the Adobe After Effects Auto-Save folder, which is located in the same folder as the original project file. Auto-saved file names are based on the project name: After Effects adds “auto-save n” (where n is the number of the file in the auto-save series) to the end of the filename.
Page 29 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Nested compositions and other elements that make up the composition appear when you expand a composition tile. Mid-gray lines between tiles in the flowchart indicate that the Video or Audio switch for those items is deselected in the Timeline panel.
Page 30: Project Planning And Setup
Project planning and setup Workflow Whether you use Adobe After Effects to animate a simple title or create complex special effects, you generally follow the same basic workflow, though you may repeat some steps—such as the cycle of modifying layer properties, animating, and previewing until everything looks right.
Page 31 Effects. For example, if you want an image to fill your composition frame, configure the image in Adobe® Photoshop® so that the image size and pixel aspect ratio match the composition size and pixel aspect ratio. If the image is too large when you import it into After Effects, you’ll increase the memory and processor requirements of the compositions that use...
Page 32 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If possible, use uncompressed footage: less compression means better results for many operations, such as keying and motion tracking. Certain kinds of compression—such as that used in DV encoding—are especially bad for color keying, because they discard the subtle differences in color that you depend on for good bluescreen or greenscreen keying.
Page 33 Similarly, a large movie may take a long time to download over a dial-up network connection. For more information about compression, see the Compression Primer (English only) on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_dv_compressionprimer. When rendering your final movie, choose a file type and encoder appropriate for the final media. The corresponding decoder must be available on the system used by your intended audience;...
Page 34 • Match the color palette to the mobile devices that you are targeting. Mobile devices, in general, have a limited color gamut. Previewing in Adobe Device Central can help determine if the colors used are optimal for an individual device or range of devices.
Page 35 If you are already working in After Effects, you can create a new PSD document that matches your composition and project settings by choosing File > New > Adobe Photoshop File. Exchanging movies You can also exchange video files, such as QuickTime movies, between Photoshop and After Effects.
Page 36 Working with Flash and After Effects If you use Adobe® Flash® to create video or animation, you can use After Effects® to edit and refine the video. For example, you can export Flash animations and applications as QuickTime movies or Flash Video (FLV) files. You can then use After Effects to edit and refine the video.
Page 37 After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. You can import an Adobe Premiere Pro project into After Effects, or export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project. You can also import Adobe Premiere 6.0 and 6.5 projects into After Effects.
Page 38 You can create a color palette in Adobe Photoshop if the default Web Safe or System color palettes don’t give the results that you want.
Page 39 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Project paths When you move a project to a different computer and open it, After Effects attempts to locate the project’s footage files as follows: After Effects first searches the folder in which the project file is located; second, it searches the file’s original path or folder location;...
Page 40: Memory, Storage, And Performance
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Memory, storage, and performance Memory usage and storage 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.
Page 41 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide After Effects on the Mac OS X operating system can use up to 3.5 GB of RAM. After Effects on 32-bit Windows operating systems can use up to 3 GB of RAM; however, to use more than 2 GB in After Effects, you must configure Windows appropriately.
Page 42 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide create an image buffer. Like a hard disk, your address space can become fragmented; if you have Maximum RAM Cache Size set too high, the memory may become too fragmented to store the next rendered frame. By lowering the cache percentage, you reduce the chance of fragmentation.
Page 43 RAM and how to install RAM. • Stop or pause resource-intensive operations in other applications, such as video previews in Adobe Bridge. Improve performance by optimizing memory, cache, and multiprocessing settings •...
Page 44 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Improve performance by simplifying your project By simplifying and dividing your project, you can prevent After Effects from using memory and other resources to process elements that you are not currently working with. Also, by controlling when After Effects performs certain processing, you can greatly improve overall performance.
Page 45 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Deselect the Show Rendering Progress In Info Panel & Flowchart preference (in Display preferences) to prevent the details of each render operation for each frame from being written to the screen. • Hide Current Render Details in the Render Queue panel by clicking the triangle beside Current Render Details in the Render Queue panel.
Page 46: Plug-Ins And Scripts
For information on these plug-ins, see their documentation in this folder: Adobe After Effects CS3/Additional Documentation. When After Effects starts, it loads plug-ins from the Plug-ins folder, which is in the Adobe After Effects CS3\Support Files (Windows) or Adobe After Effects CS3 (Mac OS) folder by default. Several plug-ins come with After Effects and are automatically installed in this folder.
Page 47 For a complete description of the scripting capabilities available with After Effects, see the After Effects Scripting Guide on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_indepth. To exchange scripts and other useful tools with other After Effects users, visit the After Effects Exchange on the...
Page 48: Chapter 4: Adobe Bridge
DVD, film, and mobile devices. Bridge keeps native Adobe files (such as PSD and PDF) as well as non-Adobe files available for easy access. You can drag assets into your layouts, projects, and compositions as needed, preview files, and even add metadata (file information), making the files easier to locate.
Page 49: Bridge Workspace
Creative Suite 3 component, not the native application. For example, if you choose File > Browse in Adobe Premiere Pro and then double-click a Photoshop file, the file is added to the Premiere Pro Project panel, not opened in Photoshop.
Page 50 To limit the number of recent folders displayed in the Look In menu, enter a number in the Number Of Recent Items To Display text box in General preferences. Gives you quick access to folders as well as to Adobe Stock Photos, Version Cue, and Bridge Home. Favorites panel Shows the folder hierarchy.
Page 51 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Adjust Content panel display The Content panel displays thumbnails of the files and folders in the selected folder. By default, Bridge generates Quick Thumbnails and displays them in the Content panel with only file or folder names.
Page 52 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Generate quick or high-quality thumbnails You can specify that Bridge change high-quality thumbnails to quick thumbnails, or vice versa. ❖ Select the thumbnail in the Content panel, and choose Edit > Generate Quick Thumbnail or Edit > Generate High Quality Thumbnail.
Page 53: Viewing And Managing Files
About opening and managing files You can open files from Bridge, even files that were not made with Adobe software. When you use Bridge to open a file, the file opens in its native application or the application you specify. You can also use Bridge to place files in an open document in an Adobe application.
Page 54 You can assign names to labels in Labels preferences. The name is then added to the file’s metadata when you apply the label. Note: When you view folders, Bridge shows both labeled and unlabeled files until you choose another option. For a video on rating files, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0093. Label files ❖...
Page 55 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Stack files Stacks let you group files together under a single thumbnail. You can stack any type of file. For example, use stacks to organize image sequences, which often comprise many image files. Note: Bridge stacks are different from Photoshop image stacks, which convert groups of images to layers and store them in a Smart Object.
Page 56: Working With Images And Dynamic Media
Working with images and dynamic media Get photos from a digital camera or card reader For a video about using Bridge in a photography workflow, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0189. Adobe Bridge CS3 Photo Downloader A. Name of connected device B. Options for saving files C. Options for renaming files D. Options for converting and copying files E. Get Photos Connect your camera or card reader to the computer (see the device’s documentation, if necessary).
Page 57 User Guide • (Mac OS) In Bridge, choose File > Get Photos From Camera. In the Adobe Bridge CS3 Photo Downloader window, choose the name of the camera or card reader from the Get Photos From menu. If you click Advanced Dialog, thumbnail images of every photo on your camera’s memory card appear.
Page 58 You can preview many video and audio files in Bridge, including any files supported by the version of QuickTime you have installed on your computer, FLV (Adobe Flash Video) files, and SBST (Adobe Soundbooth) files. You can also scrub image stacks to preview image sequences.
Page 59 For example, a designer who uses several Creative Suite components may use a folder in Adobe Bridge to organizes a variety of files used in the same project. The designer can navigate to that folder in Adobe Bridge and, in turn, view how a Photoshop image, a Flash file, and an Illustrator file will look on a mobile device.
Page 60: Metadata And Keywords
(PSD, BMP, TGA, or TIF) from After Effects or Adobe Premiere Pro: After creating a LiveTrace preset for one of the still files in Adobe Illustrator, select the series of still files in Bridge and choose Tools > Illustrator > Live Trace.
Page 61 For example, you can use the XMP SDK to add fields to the File Info dialog box. For more information on XMP and the XMP SDK, visit the Adobe website. Working with metadata in Bridge and Adobe Creative Suite components Many of the powerful Bridge features that allow you to organize, search, and keep track of your files and versions depend on XMP metadata in your files.
Page 62 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.
Page 63: Chapter 5: Importing
Chapter 5: Importing You can import movies, photographs, vector graphics, music files, Flash cartoons, Photoshop images, Adobe Premiere Pro projects, and many more kinds of visual and audio footage items into After Effects. You can then assemble this dynamic media into a movie.
Page 64 • Video for Windows (AVI, WAV; requires QuickTime on Mac OS) • Waveform (WAV) Still-image formats • Adobe Illustrator (AI, AI4, AI5, EPS, PS; continuously rasterized) • Adobe PDF (PDF; first page only; continuously rasterized) • Adobe Photoshop (PSD) • Bitmap (BMP, RLE, DIB) •...
Page 65 • Video for Windows (AVI, WAV; requires QuickTime on Mac OS) 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 “Specify Video for Windows compression options”...
Page 66 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Import footage items using the Import dialog box Choose File > Import > File or File > Import > Multiple Files, or double-click an empty area of the Project panel. If you choose Import Multiple Files, then you can perform the next step more than once without needing to choose an Import command multiple times.
Page 67 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Important: In all of these cases, the information is used to make decisions about how to interpret data in the imported footage item. The interpretation settings in the Interpret Footage dialog box should match the settings used to create the source footage file.
Page 68 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specify alpha channel interpretation Alpha channels store transparency information in one of two ways: straight or premultiplied. Although the alpha channels are the same, the color channels differ. Straight (unmatted) channels store transparency information only in the alpha channel, not in any of the visible color channels.
Page 69 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Set the default alpha channel preferences Choose Edit > Preferences > Import (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Import (Mac OS). Choose options from the Interpret Unlabeled Alpha As menu. The options in this menu are similar to the options in the Interpret Footage dialog box.
Page 70 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: If you remove 3:2 pulldown from interlaced video footage, After Effects automatically sets the frame rate of the resulting footage item to four-fifths of the original frame rate. When removing 3:2 pulldown from NTSC video, the resulting frame rate is 24 fps.
Page 71 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If you display nonsquare pixels on a square-pixel monitor without alteration, images and motion appear distorted; for example, circles distort into ellipses. However, when displayed on a broadcast monitor, the images are correct. When you import D1 NTSC or DV source footage into After Effects, the image looks slightly wider than it does on a D1 or DV system.
Page 72 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Common pixel aspect ratios” on page 66 Change pixel aspect ratio for a footage item Select a footage item in the Project panel. Choose File > Interpret Footage > Main. Choose a ratio from the Pixel Aspect Ratio menu and click OK.
Page 73: Working With Footage Items
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Use square-pixel footage for output to D1/DV NTSC If you intend to create a movie for the D1 output format, use the D1 NTSC or D1 PAL composition settings preset. The correct pixel aspect ratio for D1 NTSC or D1 PAL is chosen automatically when you choose the corresponding composition settings preset.
Page 74 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Collect files in one location” on page 589 “Work with color labels” on page 153 “Shortcuts for working with projects” on page 632 Show information for items • To show information about a footage item or composition, select it in the Project panel. Information is displayed at the top of the Project panel next to the thumbnail image.
Page 75 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The QuickTime and Video for Windows player windows play the source file, not the edited and interpreted footage item based on the source file. You can use the Set In Point , Set Out Point , Ripple Insert Edit...
Page 76 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Remove items from a project • To remove an item from a project, select the item in the Project panel and press Delete. • To remove all unused footage items from a project, choose File > Remove Unused Footage.
Page 77 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Proxy items in Project panel A. Proxy assigned and in use B. Proxy assigned, but original in use C. No proxy assigned D. Proxy name See also “Work with render settings” on page 591 “Use a post-render action” on page 596 Work with placeholders and missing footage items For best results, set the placeholder to exactly the same size, duration, and frame rate as the actual footage.
Page 78 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide For best results, set a proxy so that it has the same aspect ratio as the actual footage item. For example, if the actual footage item is a 640 x 480-pixel movie, create and use a 160 x 120-pixel proxy. When a proxy item is imported, After Effects scales the item to the same size and duration as the actual footage.
Page 79: Importing From After Effects And Adobe Premiere Pro
Pro project, 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 80 • To import only one sequence, choose a sequence from the menu. • 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 After Effects.
Page 81 Adobe Premiere Pro. Each layer is placed on a separate track, and the last selected layer appears on Track 1. For example, if you select layers from top to bottom, the layers appear in the reverse order in Adobe Premiere Pro, with the bottommost layer on Track 1.
Page 82 You can copy color mattes, stills, nested sequences, and offline files as well. After Effects converts color mattes into solid layers and converts nested sequences into nested compositions. When you copy a Photoshop still image into After Effects, After Effects retains the Photoshop layer information. You cannot paste Adobe Premiere Pro titles or effects into After Effects.
Page 83: Importing Video And Audio
Note: When you first import a file, you may experience a slight delay while the media is being processed and cached. A database retains links to each of the cached media files. This media cache database is shared with Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore, and Adobe Soundbooth, so each of these applications can each read to and write from the same set of cached media files.
Page 84 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Sony’s high-definition version of its Digital Betacam format. A variant called HDCAM SR uses a tape with HDCAM a higher particle density to record video with greater color sampling and at higher bit rates. However, HDCAM SR is supported by decks only, and not camcorders.
Page 85 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Interlaced scanning of interlaced video fields compared with progressive scanning of noninterlaced video frame. A. For interlaced video, entire upper field is drawn to screen first, from top to bottom, in one pass. B. Next, entire lower field is drawn to screen, from top to bottom, in one pass.
Page 86 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide To very quickly give video footage a more film-like appearance, import the footage twice, and interpret each footage item with a different field order. Then add them both to the same composition and blend them together. The misin- terpreted layer will add some film-like blur.
Page 87 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown from video When you transfer 24-fps film to 29.97-fps video, you use a process called 3:2 pulldown, in which the film frames are distributed across video fields in a repeating 3:2 pattern. The first frame of film is copied to fields 1 and 2 of the first frame of video, and also to field 1 of the second video frame.
Page 88 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide In the Fields and Pulldown section, select Upper Field First or Lower Field First from the Separate Fields menu. Do one of the following and click OK: • If you know the phase of the 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown, choose it from the Remove Pulldown menu.
Page 89 Audition is only available for Windows. Neither Adobe Soundbooth nor Adobe Audition are available for Mac OS running on PowerPC processors. Select the layer that contains the audio that you want to edit. The item must be of a type that is editable in Adobe Soundbooth or Adobe Audition.
Page 90: Importing 3D Image Files
After Effects, add it to the composition, and mute the original audio in the audio-video clip by deselecting the Audio switch in the Timeline panel. Note: Any effects applied to audio in After Effects aren’t included in the copy that is sent to Adobe Soundbooth or Adobe Audition.
Page 91 Importing 3D images from Photoshop Extended and Illustrator 3D models in Photoshop Adobe Photoshop Extended can import and manipulate 3D models in several popular formats, including 3D Studio (.3ds) and Universal 3D (.u3d). You can manipulate these 3D models in Photoshop Extended and then save one or more frames as PSD files that you then import into After Effects.
Page 92 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Baking and importing Maya data After Effects imports camera data from Maya project files. Before importing Maya camera information, you need to bake it. This makes animating with keyframes easier later in your project. Baking places a keyframe at each frame of the animation.
Page 93: Importing Still Images
You can import individual still images into After Effects or import a series of still images as a sequence. You can import still images from Adobe applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator, or import images using the Adobe Stock Photos service using Adobe Bridge. For information about the still-image formats that After Effects imports, see “Supported import formats”...
Page 94 After Effects uses settings of the first image in the sequence to determine how to interpret the images in the sequence. If the image files in a sequence are of a layered file type—such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator documents—then you can choose to import the sequence as a standard footage item, or as a composition in which...
Page 95 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Import a still-image sequence as a single footage item Choose File > Import > File. Select any file in the sequence. To import a subset of files in a sequence, select the first file, hold down Shift, and then select the last file to import.
Page 96 To see a video tutorial on importing Photoshop files, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0252. A very convenient command within After Effects is Layer > New > Adobe Photoshop File, which adds a layer to a composition and then opens the source of that layer in Photoshop for you to begin creating a visual element, such as a background layer for your movie.
Page 97 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide It is often valuable to group layers into Smart Objects in Photoshop so that you can import meaningful collections of Photoshop layers as individual layers in After Effects. For example, if you used 20 layers to create your foreground object and 30 layers to create your background object in Photoshop, you probably don’t need to import all of those...
Page 98: Introduction To Camera Raw
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Importing Cineon sequences You can import Cineon 4.5 or Digital Picture Exchange (DPX) files directly into an After Effects project as individual frames or as a sequence of numbered stills. Once you have imported a Cineon file, you can use it in a composition and then render the composition as a Cineon sequence.
Page 99 About Camera Raw Camera Raw software is included as a plug-in with Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop, and also adds functionality to Adobe Bridge. Camera Raw gives each of these applications the ability to import and work with camera raw files.
Page 100 Metadata for adjustments made to images stored as DNG files can be embedded in the DNG file itself instead of in a sidecar XMP file or in the Camera Raw database. You can convert camera raw files to the DNG format using the Adobe DNG Converter. For more information on the DNG format and DNG Converter, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_ps_dng.
Page 101 To see a video tutorial on adjusting images with Camera Raw, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0006. To see a video tutorial on adjusting multiple images with Camera Raw, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0007. 4. Make other adjustments and image corrections.
Page 102 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide After Effects applies the settings for the first camera raw image in the sequence to all of the images in the sequence that do not have their own XMP sidecar files. After Effects does not check the Camera Raw database for image settings.
Page 103 Work with the Camera Raw cache in Bridge When you view camera raw files in Adobe Bridge, the thumbnails and previews use either the default settings or your adjusted settings. The cache in Bridge and the Camera Raw cache store data for the file thumbnails, metadata, and file information.
Page 104: Navigating, Opening, And Saving Images With Camera Raw
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: The Camera Raw cache holds data for about 200 images for each gigabyte of disk storage allocated to it. By default, the Camera Raw cache is set to a maximum size of 1 GB. You can increase its limit in the Camera Raw Preferences.
Page 105 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Shift-double-click a thumbnail in Bridge to open a camera raw image in Photoshop without opening the Camera Raw dialog box. Hold down Shift while choosing File > Open to open multiple selected images. • To import camera raw images in After Effects, select one or more camera raw files in Bridge, and then choose File >...
Page 106: Adjusting Color In Camera Raw
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Saves copies of the camera raw files in the PSD file format. You can specify whether to preserve cropped Photoshop pixel data in the PSD file. Adjusting color in Camera Raw Using histogram and RGB levels in Camera Raw A histogram is a representation of the number of pixels at each luminance value in an image.
Page 107 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide For highlights, pixels that are clipped in all color channels appear white. For shadows, pixels that are clipped in all color channels appear black. Clipping in one or two channels is shown by the primary color (red, green, blue) or a combined color (cyan, magenta, yellow).
Page 108 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Correcting the white balance A. Moving the Temperature slider to the right corrects a photo taken with a higher color temperature of light B. Moving the Temperature slider to the left corrects a photo taken with a lower color temperature of light C. Photo after color temperature adjustment Sets the white balance to compensate for a green or magenta tint.
Page 109 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: If you are comparing images based on their previews in Bridge, you may want to leave the Apply Auto Tone Adjust- ments preference deselected, which is the default. Otherwise, you’ll be comparing images that have already been adjusted.
Page 110 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Use the tone curve in the Parametric tab to adjust the values in specific tonal ranges in the image. The areas of the curve affected by the region properties (Highlights, Lights, Darks, or Shadows) depend on where you set the split controls at the bottom of the graph.
Page 111 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide In the Split Toning tab, adjust the Hue and Saturation properties for the highlights and shadows. Hue sets the color of the tone; Saturation sets the magnitude of the result. Adjust the Balance control to balance the influence between the Highlight and Shadow controls. Positive values increase the influence of the Shadow controls;...
Page 112: Modifying Images In Camera Raw
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original image (top), and after fixing chromatic aberration (bottom) Zoom into an area near the corner of the preview image. For the best results, the area should contain very dark or black detail against a very light or white background. Look for the color fringing.
Page 113 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: The Crop tool is active immediately after you use the Straighten tool. Crop selected images in Camera Raw In the Camera Raw dialog box, select the Crop tool To constrain your initial crop area to a specific aspect ratio, hold the mouse button down as you select the Crop tool, and choose an option from the menu.
Page 114: Camera Raw Settings
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Moving Luminance Smoothing slider right reduces grayscale noise (above right), and moving Color Noise Reduction slider right reduces chroma noise (below right). Camera Raw settings Save, reset, and load Camera Raw settings You can reuse the adjustments that you’ve made to an image. You can save all of the current Camera Raw image settings, or any subset of them, as a preset or as a new set of defaults.
Page 115 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 moved or renamed.
Page 116 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide In the Paste Camera Raw Settings dialog box, choose which settings to apply. Apply saved Camera Raw settings In Bridge or in the Camera Raw dialog box, select one or more files. In Bridge, choose Edit > Develop Settings or right-click a selected file. Or, in the Camera Raw dialog box, choose...
Page 117: Chapter 6: Compositions
Chapter 6: Compositions You bring together all sorts of visual elements in a composition—such as video footage, text, and vector graphics. You then blend and arrange these elements, moving and layering them with one another to create your movie. Composition basics Introduction to compositions A composition is the framework for a movie.
Page 118 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Creating layers” on page 137 “Preview video and audio” on page 124 “Work with the Flowchart panel” on page 22 “Rendering and exporting” on page 582 Create a composition You can change a composition’s settings at any time. However, it’s best to specify settings such as frame aspect ratio and frame size when you create the composition, with your final output in mind.
Page 119 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Arrange the layers in a sequence, optionally overlap them in Sequence Layers, Overlap, Duration, and Transition time, set the duration of the transitions, and choose a transition type. Create multiple composition from multiple footage items Select footage items in the Project panel.
Page 120 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Work with the Graph Editor” on page 186 “Work with columns” on page 18 Work with composition settings You can enter composition settings manually, or you can use composition settings presets to automatically set frame size (width and height), pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate for many common output formats.
Page 121 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Work with the region of interest The region of interest is the area of the composition that is previewed. Create a smaller region of interest to use less processing power and memory when previewing, thereby improving interaction speed and increasing RAM preview duration.
Page 122 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • On the main keyboard, press the = (equal sign) key to zoom in or press the – (hyphen) key to zoom out in time. • In the navigator view, drag the Time Navigator Start or Time Navigator End brackets to magnify or shrink a section of the time ruler.
Page 123: Nesting, Precomposing, And Pre-Rendering
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Nesting, precomposing, and pre-rendering About nesting and precomposing Nesting is the inclusion of one composition within another. The nested composition appears as a layer in the containing composition. If you want to group some layers that are already in a composition, you can precompose those layers. Precomposed layers are placed in a new composition (sometimes called a precomposition), and the new composition becomes the source for a single layer in the original composition.
Page 124 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide In the Advanced composition settings (Composition > Composition Settings), choose Preserve Resolution When Nested or Preserve Frame Rate When Nested Or In Render Queue for a composition to retain its own resolution or frame rate, and not inherit those settings from the containing composition. For example, if you deliberately used a low frame rate in a composition to create a jerky, hand-animated result, you should preserve the frame rate for that composition when it is nested.
Page 125 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: Apply your final output settings when you pre-render the nested composition. Select the composition in the Project or Composition panel. Choose Composition > Pre-render. The Pre-render command adds the composition to the render queue and sets the Import & Replace Usage post- render action to replace the composition with the rendered movie.
Page 126: Markers
To view a video tutorial on working with markers and cue points, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0255. Markers make it easier to align layers or the current-time indicator with specific points in time: When you drag a keyframe, the current-time indicator, or a layer duration bar in the Timeline panel, hold down Shift to snap these items to markers.
Page 127 Note: Numbering of composition-time markers begins at 0. In After Effects 7.0 and earlier, numbering started at 1. When you render a composition for comments using Adobe Clip Notes, the comments in composition-time markers are included as comments in the Clip Notes PDF. When you import the comments from a Clip Notes review back into After Effects, the reviewers’...
Page 128 QuickTime and Windows Media movies. Adobe Encore 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 DVD format, make sure that markers are at least 15 frames apart.
Page 129 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Work with scripts” on page 40 Synchronize markers to audio After Effects provides a quick way to add and label markers for significant points in a layer’s audio track, such as a rhythmic beat in music or spoken words in dialogue. After markers are created, you can use them to synchronize video or other effects.
Page 130: Chapter 7: Views And Previews
To see your composition as it will appear on a mobile device—such as a mobile phone—first render your composition to final output, and then use Adobe Device Central to view the movie.
Page 131 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Use standard preview Standard preview (commonly called spacebar play) plays video in the active Composition, Layer, or Footage panel from the current time. Standard previews play at a speed as close to that of real time as possible; however, for complex compositions, the speed of the preview may be much less than that of real time.
Page 132 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • RAM preview doesn’t generate interlaced fields, so a saved RAM preview never contains fields. Note: The 3D View of the active composition panel must be set to Active Camera for Save RAM Preview to work, even if the composition doesn’t contain 3D layers.
Page 133 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Audio panel A. VU meter B. Level controls C. Level units D. Audio panel menu E. Level values Choose Options on the Audio panel menu to specify the following options: Choose whether to display audio levels in decibels or in percentages. 100% equals 0 decibels (0 dB).
Page 134 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To go to a specific frame, click in the time ruler or click the current-time display in the Footage, Layer, Compo- sition, or Timeline panel. • To manually preview (scrub) video in the Timeline panel or go to a specific frame, drag the current-time indicator.
Page 135 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide You can use a different Fast Previews mode for each view in the Composition panel. For example, in Fast Previews a 4 Views layout, you could use OpenGL for the Active Camera view and Wireframe for Left, Right, and Top views.
Page 136 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Select a 3D view You can view your 3D layers from several angles, using orthogonal views or custom views that employ perspective. You can switch views at any time. The orthogonal views (Front, Back, Left, Top, Right, and Bottom) show layers’...
Page 137: Modifying And Using Views
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Set any of the following options: Displays RAM previews or standard previews on the external monitor only. Previews Displays RAM previews or standard previews simultaneously on the external monitor Mirror On Computer Monitor and on the computer screen. This may slow down the previews.
Page 138 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Zoom The Magnification Ratio control in the lower-left corner of a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel shows and controls the current magnification. By default, the magnification is set to fit the current size of the panel. When you change magnification, you change the appearance of the pixels in the panel that you are previewing, not the actual resolution of the composition.
Page 139 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Renders one-ninth of the pixels contained in the full-resolution image. Third Renders one-sixteenth of the pixels contained in the full-resolution image. Quarter Renders the image at the resolution you specify. Custom Viewing a color channel or alpha channel You can view red, green, blue, and alpha channels—together or separately—in a Footage, Layer, or Composition...
Page 140 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The Adjust Exposure control is useful for finding the black point or white point in an image. For example, drag the value control to the right (positive values) until the entire image is white except for one area; that area is the darkest area in the image.
Page 141 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To show or hide safe zones, grids, guides, or rulers, click the Grid And Guides Options button and choose the appropriate menu item, or use a menu command or keyboard shortcut in the View menu.
Page 142 23.976 fps (which is treated by After Effects as non-drop-frame timecode) and 59.94 fps. Timecode for 59.94 fps compositions and footage items matches that in Adobe Premiere Pro: When the timecode base is 30 fps, each timecode value repeats twice. When the timecode base is 60 fps drop-frame, frame numbers 0,1,2,3 are dropped in exactly the same places as where 0,1 are dropped for drop-frame timecode with a timecode base of 30 fps.
Page 143: Chapter 8: Layers And Properties
Layers in After Effects are similar to tracks in Adobe Premiere Pro. The primary difference is that each After Effects layer can have no more than one footage item as its source, whereas a Premiere Pro track typically contains multiple clips.
Page 144 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you make a change to a layer, you do not affect its source footage item. This means that you can use the same footage item as the source for more than one layer, and use the footage differently in each instance. (See “Importing and interpreting footage items”...
Page 145 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Shortcuts for working with layers” on page 638 “Precompose layers” on page 118 Create layers from footage items You can create a layer from any footage item in the Project panel, including another composition. After you add a footage item to a composition, you can modify and animate the resulting layer.
Page 146 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide To create a layer based on this trimmed footage item, click an Edit button at the bottom of the Footage panel: Creates the new layer at the top of the layer stacking order, with the In point set at the current time Overlay Edit in the Timeline panel.
Page 147: Selecting And Arranging Layers
Create a layer and new Photoshop footage item When you create a new Adobe Photoshop file from After Effects, Photoshop starts and creates a new PSD file. This PSD file consists of a blank Photoshop layer that has the same dimensions as your composition, with the appropriate title-safe and action-safe guides.
Page 148 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Top layer selected, but no properties selected; bottom layer selected with properties selected. To scroll the topmost selected layer to the top of the Timeline panel, press X. • To select a layer, click the layer in the Composition panel, click the layer’s name or duration bar in the Timeline panel, or click the layer’s name in the Flowchart panel.
Page 149 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: Because of their depth properties, the stacking order of 3D layers in the Timeline panel does not necessarily indicate their spatial position in the composition. • In the Timeline panel, drag the layer names to a new position in the layer stacking order.
Page 150 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Shortcuts for working with layers” on page 638 “Shortcuts for modifying properties” on page 641 Move layers by dragging in the Composition panel To snap a layer’s edges to grids or guides as you drag, choose View > Snap To Grid or View > Snap To Guides.
Page 151 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Select layers” on page 141 “Work with safe zones, grids, guides, and rulers” on page 134 “Align and justify text” on page 282 Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer The beginning of a layer’s duration is its In point, and the end is its Out point. The duration is the span between the In point and the Out point, and the bar that extends from the In point to the Out point is the layer duration bar.
Page 152 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Timeline panel overview” on page 113 “Work with the Layer panel” on page 138 “Shortcuts for working with layers” on page 638 Trim or extend layers in the Timeline panel Dragging the Out point of a layer duration bar.
Page 153 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Select the Lock switch for layers that you do not want affected by the extraction. Press F2 to deselect all layers. Note: If no layers are selected, the following step removes the section from all unlocked layers.
Page 154 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel” on page 151 “Select layers” on page 141 “Shortcuts for working with layers” on page 638 “Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer” on page 145 “Timeline panel overview”...
Page 155 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To overlap layers, select Overlap, enter a Duration value for the duration of the overlap, and select a transition. Select Cross Dissolve Front And Back Layers to use the transparency of the selected layers; otherwise, choose Dissolve Front Layer.
Page 156: Managing Layers
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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. If no layer is selected when you choose Edit > Split Layer, all layers are split at the current time.
Page 157 Collapse Transformations/Continuously Rasterize continuously rasterizes if the layer is a shape layer, text layer, or layer with a vector graphics file (such as an Adobe Illustrator file) as the source footage. Selecting this switch for a vector layer causes After Effects to rerasterize the layer for each frame, which improves image quality, but also increases the time required for previewing and rendering.
Page 158 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Select to render the layer with effects. The switch does not affect the setting for individual effects on the Effect layer. (See “Delete or disable effects and animation presets” on page 351.) Sets frame blending to one of three states: Frame Mix , Pixel Motion , or off.
Page 159 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When a layer is locked, the Lock icon appears in the A/V Features column, which appears by default to the left of the layer name in the Timeline panel. • To lock or unlock a layer, click the Lock switch for the layer in the Timeline panel.
Page 160 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Layer image quality A layer’s quality setting determines how precisely it is rendered, as well as influencing the precision of other calcula- tions involving the layer, such as motion tracking and the use of the layer as a control layer for a compound effect.
Page 161: Modify Layer Properties
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Image from imported Illustrator file A. Original B. Enlarged with Continuously Rasterize switch turned off C. Enlarged with Continuously Rasterize switch turned on ❖ In the Timeline panel, click the layer’s Continuously Rasterize switch , which is the same as the Collapse Trans- formations switch for nested composition layers.
Page 162 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Properties in the Effects property group (effect properties) are also layer properties. Many effect properties can also be modified in the Effect Controls panel. See also “Work with effects in the Effect Controls panel” on page 349 “Shortcuts for showing properties in the Timeline panel”...
Page 163 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide You can only duplicate some property groups, including shapes, masks, and effects. However, you can’t duplicate top- level property groups such as Contents, Masks, Effects, and Transforms. If you attempt to duplicate a top-level property group, the entire layer is duplicated, instead.
Page 164 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you use the Pan Behind tool to move the anchor point in the Composition panel (left), After Effects automatically compensates for the move so that the layer maintains its position relative to the composition frame (right).
Page 165 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To increase or decrease Scale for a selected layer by 1%, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you press + or – on the numeric keypad. • To increase or decrease Scale for selected layers by 10%, hold down Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS) as you press + or –...
Page 166 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Layer flipped with varying Height and Width values A. Width 100, Height 100 B. Width -100, Height 100 C. Width 100, Height -100 D. Width -100, Height -100 To flip a layer by dragging in the Composition panel, drag a layer handle across the layer’s anchor point. (See “Show or hide layer controls in the Composition panel”...
Page 167 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: Double-clicking an Audio Levels keyframe activates the Audio panel. The VU meter in the Audio panel displays the volume range for the audio as it plays. The red blocks at the top of the meter represent your system’s volume limit.
Page 168 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To parent a layer, in the Parent column, click the menu of the layer that you want to be the child, and choose a parent layer name from the menu. • To remove a parent from a layer, in the Parent column, click the menu of the layer to remove the parent from, and choose None.
Page 169 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To render a composition with its visible guide layers, click Render Settings in the Render Queue panel, and choose Current Settings from the Guide Layers menu in the Render Settings dialog box. • To render a composition without rendering guide layers, click Render Settings in the Render Queue panel, and choose All Off from the Guide Layers menu in the Render Settings dialog box.
Page 170 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Brainstorm dialog box in Randomness mode A. Original composition (original in center tile when using Brainstorm on single numerical value) B. Maximize Tile C. Save As New Compo- sition D. Apply To Composition E. Use In Next Brainstorm F. Randomness control (Spread control when using Brainstorm on single numerical value) G.
Page 171 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide You can use Brainstorm on any property that has numeric values or options in a pop-up menu in the Timeline panel. Examples of properties on which you can’t use Brainstorm are Source Text, Mask Path, and the Histogram property for the Levels effect;...
Page 172: Blending Modes
Blending modes for layers control how each layer blends with or interacts with layers beneath it. Blending modes for layers in After Effects (formerly referred to as layer modes) are identical to blending modes in Adobe Photoshop. Most blending modes modify only color values of the source layer, not the alpha channel. The Alpha Add blending mode affects the alpha channel of the source layer, and the silhouette and stencil blending modes affect the alpha channels of layers beneath them.
Page 173 All blending modes described in this section are available for blending between layers. Some of these options are available for paint strokes, layer styles, and effects. For in-depth information about the concepts and algorithms behind these blending modes, see the PDF reference material on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_general_blendingmodes. Blending mode gallery source layer...
Page 174 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Soft Light Hard Light Linear Light Vivid Light Pin Light Hard Mix Difference Classic Difference Exclusion Saturation Color Luminosity Darker Color Lighter Color Stencil Alpha Stencil Luma Silhouette Alpha Silhouette Luma Alpha Add Luminescent Premul...
Page 175 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • The underlying color is the color of the composited layers below the source layer or paint stroke in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel. • The result color is the output of the blending operation; the color of the composite.
Page 176 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Multiplies the complements of the channel values, and then takes the complement of the result. The result Screen color is never darker than either input color. Using the Screen mode is similar to superimposing two different film negatives and printing the result.
Page 177: Layer Styles
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result color has luminance of the underlying color, and hue and saturation of the source color. This preserves Color the gray levels in the underlying color. This is useful for coloring grayscale image and for tinting color images.
Page 178 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you import a Photoshop file that includes layers as a composition, you can retain editable layer styles or merge layer styles into footage. When you import only one layer that includes layer styles, you can choose to ignore the layer styles or merge layer styles into footage.
Page 179 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Preparing and importing Photoshop files” on page 90 “Render order and collapsing transformations” on page 119 “How render order and collapsed transformations affect 3D layers” on page 177 Layer style settings Each layer style has its own collection of properties in the Timeline panel.
Page 180: Working With 3D Layers
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Exclude channels from blending You can exclude one or more of a layer’s color channels from blending operations. The Blending Options property group is only included for a layer if the layer has had a layer style added to it. To add a Blending Options property group without a layer style, add an arbitrary layer style and then immediately delete it;...
Page 181 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: After Effects 7.0 and earlier included a Standard 3D rendering plug-in; this plug-in is not included with After Effects CS3. In After Effects 6.0 and later, the default plug-in for rendering 3D layers has been the Advanced 3D rendering plug-in.
Page 182 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If the axis that you want to manipulate is difficult to see, try a different setting in the Select View Layout menu at the bottom of the Composition panel. • To show or hide a set of persistent 3D reference axes, click the Grid And Guides Options button at the bottom of the Composition panel, and choose 3D Reference Axes.
Page 183 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Rotate or orient a 3D layer in the Composition panel Select the 3D layer that you want to turn. Select the Rotation tool , and choose Orientation or Rotation from the Set menu to determine whether the tool affects Orientation or Rotation properties.
Page 184 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 3D layers intersecting (left), and 3D layers prevented from intersecting by intervening 2D layer (right) Just like 2D layers, other types of layers also prevent 3D layers on either side from intersecting or casting shadows on one another: •...
Page 185: Cameras, Lights, And Points Of Interest
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Cameras, lights, and points of interest Create a camera layer and change camera settings You can view 3D layers from any angle and distance using camera layers. Just as it’s easier in the real world to move cameras through and around a scene than it is to move and rotate the scene itself, it’s often easiest to get different...
Page 186 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Create a camera layer ❖ Choose Layer > New > Camera, or press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+C (Mac OS). Note: By default, new layers begin at the beginning of the composition duration. You can instead choose to have new layers begin at the current time by deselecting the Create Layers At Composition Start Time preference (Edit >...
Page 187 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The distance from the film plane to the camera lens. In After Effects, the camera’s position represents Focal Length the center of the lens. When you modify Focal Length, the Zoom value changes to match the perspective of a real camera.
Page 188 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Light settings Parallel emits directional, unconstrained light from an infinitely distant source. Spot emits light from a Light Type source that is constrained by a cone, like the spotlight used in stage productions. Point emits unconstrained omnidi- rectional light, like the rays from a bare light bulb.
Page 189 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Working with 3D layers” on page 174 “Auto-Orientation options” on page 150 Adjust a camera view Use the camera tools to adjust the camera view. These tools are specifically for manipulating the 3D views and are only available for compositions with 3D layers.
Page 190 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Ambient (nondirectional) reflectivity of the layer. 100% specifies the most reflectivity; 0% specifies no Ambient ambient reflectivity. Diffuse (omnidirectional) reflectivity of the layer. Applying diffuse reflectivity to a layer is like draping a Diffuse dull, plastic sheet over it. Light that falls on this layer reflects equally in all directions. 100% specifies the most reflec- tivity;...
Page 191: Chapter 9: Animation
You animate layer properties using keyframes, expressions, or both. To see a video tutorial on animating using keyframes, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0227. Some tools, such as Motion Sketch and the Puppet tools, automatically set keyframes for you to match motion that you sketch.
Page 192 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When a keyframe is selected, information regarding its value, speed, and interpolation method are shown in the Info panel. Different information is shown depending on whether the Timeline panel is in Graph Editor mode or layer bar mode.
Page 193 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Two animated properties (Position and Scale) shown in the Graph Editor There are two types of graphs available in the Graph Editor: value graphs, which show property values; and speed graphs, which show rates of change of property values. For temporal properties, such as Opacity, the Graph Editor defaults to the value graph.
Page 194 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Graph Options in the Graph Editor Click the Graph Options button at the bottom of the Graph Editor to select from the following options: Automatically selects the appropriate graph type for a property: speed graphs for spatial Auto-Select Graph Type properties (such as Position), and value graphs for other properties.
Page 195: Setting, Selecting, And Deleting Keyframes
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Setting, selecting, and deleting keyframes Set keyframes When the stopwatch is active for a specific property, After Effects automatically adds or changes a keyframe for the property at the current time whenever you change the property value.
Page 196 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Shortcuts for keyframes” on page 643 “Shortcuts for showing properties in the Timeline panel” on page 640 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 197 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 198: Editing, Moving, And Copying Keyframes
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Reverses selected keyframes in time. Time-Reverse Keyframes See also “Interpolation” on page 205 “Expressions” on page 543 Delete or disable keyframes • To delete any number of keyframes, select them, and then press the Delete key.
Page 199 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide You can change layer property values by moving the points (keyframes) on the value graph up or down. For example, you can increase a Rotation keyframe’s value by dragging a keyframe marker on the Rotation property’s value graph higher up on the graph.
Page 200 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Do one of the following: • To paste to the same property of the copied keyframes, select the destination layer. • To paste to a different property, select the destination property. Choose Edit > Paste.
Page 201 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Work with layer properties in the Timeline panel” on page 155 “About animation, keyframes, and expressions” on page 185 Move keyframes in 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 202 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Shortcuts for keyframes” on page 643 “Shortcuts for showing properties in the Timeline panel” on page 640 Move a layer duration bar but not its keyframes Make a note of the time at which the first keyframe appears.
Page 203 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Change multiple keyframe values at once You can change the values of multiple keyframes on multiple layers at one time; however, all keyframes you select must belong to the same layer property. The way the values change depends on the method you use to make the change: •...
Page 204 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you select multiple keyframes in the Graph Editor, a free-transform bounding box appears. Switch to the Graph Editor view and display the keyframes you want to adjust. Using the Selection tool, do one of the following: •...
Page 205: Creating And Modifying Motion Paths
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Creating and modifying motion paths Work with motion paths When you animate spatial properties—including Position and Anchor Point properties, as well as effect control point properties—the motion is shown as a motion path. Position motion paths appear in the Composition panel;...
Page 206 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Drag a keyframe in the Composition panel to move one Position keyframe. You can move multiple keyframes at one time by selecting them in the Timeline panel before you drag them in the Composition panel or Layer panel. To move the entire motion path, select all keyframes by clicking the property name in the Timeline panel before dragging a keyframe in the Composition panel.
Page 207 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: Though the results are different, the tools for manipulating motion-path curves with the Pen tool work in much the same way as those used to create and modify other Bezier paths, such as mask and shape paths.
Page 208: Assorted Animation Tools
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide You can paste any of these paths into the Position or Anchor Point property for a layer, or into an effect control point’s position property. The pasted keyframes are set to rove in time, except for the first and last ones, to create a constant velocity along the path.
Page 209 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: Previous versions of After Effects included an effect called Motion Blur. That effect is now named Directional Blur, to avoid confusion with motion blur applied to layers. • Click the Motion Blur layer switch for the layer in the Timeline panel.
Page 210 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide In addition to adding keyframes or eliminating unnecessary keyframes, The Smoother also applies Bezier interpo- lation at each keyframe when smoothing the temporal curve. In the Timeline panel, either select all the keyframes for a property to smooth the entire curve, or select at least three keyframes to smooth only a portion of a curve.
Page 211: Interpolation
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 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. For example, a value of 0.5 creates one keyframe every 2 seconds.
Page 212 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Interpolation is the process of filling in the unknown data between two known values. This usually means generating new values between two keyframes. For example, if you want a graphic element (such as a title) to move fifty pixels across the screen to the left, and you want it to do so in 15 frames, you’...
Page 213 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Shortcuts for keyframes” on page 643 “Shortcuts for showing properties in the Timeline panel” on page 640 Interpolation methods In layer bar mode, the appearance of a keyframe icon depends on the interpolation method you choose for the interval between keyframes.
Page 214 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide No interpolation No interpolation is the state in which there are no keyframes for a layer property—when the stopwatch is turned off and the I-beam icon appears in the Timeline panel under the current-time indicator. In this state, when you set the value of a layer property, it maintains that value for the layer’s duration, unless overridden by an expression.
Page 215 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Continuous Bezier interpolation Like Auto Bezier interpolation, Continuous Bezier interpolation creates a smooth rate of change through a keyframe. However, you set the positions of Continuous Bezier direction handles manually. Adjustments you make change the shape of the value graph or motion path segments on either side of the keyframe.
Page 216 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Change interpolation method with the Keyframe Interpolation dialog box The Keyframe Interpolation dialog box provides options for setting temporal and spatial interpolation and—for spatial properties only—roving settings. In layer bar mode or in the Graph Editor, select the keyframes you want to change.
Page 217: Speed
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Modify Bezier direction handles In the Graph Editor, keyframes that use Bezier interpolation have direction handles attached to them. You can retract, extend, or rotate the direction handles to fine-tune the Bezier interpolation curve. Retracting a direction handle makes a tighter, sharper Bezier curve. Extending a direction handle makes a larger, smoother Bezier curve.
Page 218 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Work with the Graph Editor” on page 186 “About animation, keyframes, and expressions” on page 185 About changes in speed When you animate a property in the Graph Editor, you can view and adjust the rate of change of the property in the speed graph, or on the motion path in the Composition or Layer panel.
Page 219 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • The interpolation type applied for a keyframe. For example, it is difficult to make a value change smoothly through a keyframe when the keyframe is set to Linear interpolation, but you can switch to Bezier interpolation at any time, which provides a smooth change through a keyframe.
Page 220 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • 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 221 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: If you want a handle to have influence over more than one keyframe, use roving keyframes. See also “Work with the Graph Editor” on page 186 “Modify Bezier direction handles” on page 211 Adjust the rate of change with the speed graph In the Timeline panel, expand the outline for the keyframe you want to adjust.
Page 222 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Dragging direction handle to create a peak Start or stop change gradually Direction handles can create gradual starts and stops, such as a boat slowing to a stop and then starting again. When you use this technique, the speed graph resembles a smooth U shape.
Page 223 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Click the Graph Editor button and display the speed graph for the property. Using the Selection tool, click a keyframe and drag the direction handle left or right. Change speed numerically You may want to specify speed more precisely than you can by dragging keyframes in the speed graph. In such cases, specify speed numerically in the Keyframe Velocity dialog box.
Page 224 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The original motion path (top) shows different velocities between keyframes. After the keyframes are set to rove (bottom), the motion path shows consistent speed over the range of keyframes. In layer bar mode or in the Graph Editor, set up the keyframes for the motion you want to smooth.
Page 225: Time-Stretching And Time-Remapping
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Click the Easy Ease , Easy Ease In , or Easy Ease Out button located at the bottom of the Graph Editor. Use Exponential Scale You can simulate a realistic acceleration of a zoom lens when working with 2D layers by using Exponential Scale, which converts linear scaling of a layer to exponential scaling.
Page 226 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If you time-stretch a layer so that the resulting frame rate is significantly different from the original frame rate, the quality of motion within the layer may suffer. For best results when time-remapping a layer, use the Timewarp effect.
Page 227 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Reverse a layer’s playback direction When you reverse a layer’s playback direction, all keyframes for all properties on the selected layer also reverse order. The layer itself maintains its original In and Out points relative to the composition.
Page 228 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Layer panel for time remapping A. Current-time indicator B. Time-remap value C. Remap-time marker D. Navigator bar • The Graph Editor provides a view of the changes you specify over time by marking your changes with keyframes and a graph similar to the one displayed for other layer properties.
Page 229 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The original duration of the source footage may no longer be valid when remapping time, because parts of the layer no longer play at the original rate. If necessary, set a new duration for the layer before you remap time.
Page 230 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Dragging the keyframe down slows down the layer. • To slow the layer down, drag the keyframe down. (If the layer is playing in reverse, drag up.) • To speed the layer up, drag the keyframe up. (If the layer is playing in reverse, drag down.) •...
Page 231 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Drag the remap-time marker to replace the frame at the current time marker. Move the current-time indicator on the lower time ruler to the last frame where you want change to occur. Move the remap-time marker on the upper time ruler to the frame you want to display at the time indicated on the lower time ruler: •...
Page 232 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide On the speed graph below the keyframe, drag a marker, watching the Speed value as you drag. • To lower the pitch, drag the speed graph marker down. • To increase the pitch, drag the speed graph marker up.
Page 233: Animating With Puppet Tools
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Choose Layer > Frame Blending > Pixel Motion. A check mark by the appropriate Frame Blending command (Frame Mix or Pixel Motion) indicates that it is applied to the selected layer. Also, the Frame Blending switch appears in the Switches column for the layer in the Timeline panel.
Page 234 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you place the first pin, the area within an outline is automatically divided into a mesh of triangles. An outline is only visible when the Puppet effect has been applied and a Puppet tool pointer is over the area that the outline defines.
Page 235 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Using the Puppet Pin tool , do one of the following in the Composition panel or the Layer panel: • Click any nontransparent pixel of a raster layer to apply the Puppet effect and create a mesh for the outline created by auto-tracing the layer’s alpha channel.
Page 236 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The distorted outline that is shown during recording does not take Starch pins into account. Use Draft Deformation This can improve performance for a complex mesh. Note: This procedure assumes that you have already placed Deform pins in the object to animate. For information on placing Deform pins, see “Manually animate an image with the Puppet tools”...
Page 237 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Apply paint strokes to a layer using the Brush tool with the Paint On Transparent option. This creates a raster layer with only the paint strokes, defined by an alpha channel. You can then use the Puppet tools to animate the paint strokes.
Page 238 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Sometimes, you want to animate an image from an initial position, through an intermediate position, and back to the initial position. Rather than manually dragging the pins back to their initial positions at the end of the animation, place the current-time indicator at the end time and click Reset.
Page 239 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide How far from the Overlap pin its influence extends. The influence ends abruptly; it does not decrease Extent gradually with distance from the pin. Extent is indicated visually by a fill in the affected parts of the mesh. The fill is dark if In Front is negative;...
Page 240: Chapter 10: Color
Chapter 10: Color After Effects gives you fine control over all aspects of color, allowing you to modify the colors of visual elements and control how colors appear on various devices. Color basics Set the color depth Color depth (or bit depth) is the number of bits per channel (bpc) used to represent the color of a pixel. The more bits for each RGB channel (red, green, and blue), the more colors can be represented.
Page 241 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Because 16-bpc frames use half the memory of 32-bpc frames, rendering previews in a 16-bpc project is faster, and RAM previews can be longer than in a 32-bpc project. 8-bpc frames use even less memory, but the tradeoff between quality and performance can be quite visible in some images at a project color depth of 8 bpc.
Page 242 Adobe Color Picker dialog box. If you click a gradient swatch for a shape layer’s stroke or fill, or click Edit Gradient in the Timeline panel, the Adobe Color Picker opens as the Gradient Editor, with additional controls for editing gradients included at the top of the dialog box.
Page 243 Press the Escape key to deselect the eyedropper. Select a color with the Adobe Color Picker Click a color swatch to display the Adobe Color Picker. (Optional) To prevent panels from updating with the results of your color selection until you accept the color by clicking OK, deselect Preview in the Color Picker dialog box.
Page 244 • To remove a stop, drag it away from the gradient bar, or select the stop and click Delete. • To edit a stop’s value, select it and adjust the Opacity value or use the Adobe Color Picker controls beneath the gradient editor controls.
Page 245 RGB. Although each of these color spaces defines color using the same three axes (R, G, and B), their gamuts and tone response curves are different. For information on color spaces and color management in After Effects, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_colormanagementpaper.
Page 246: Color Management
Gamma adjustments performed by After Effects CS3 on Windows are the same as gamma adjustments performed by After Effects CS3 on Mac OS. Also, by not using QuickTime codecs, After Effects preserves overbrights in 32-bpc projects. To avoid color shifts when working with projects created in After Effects 7.0 or earlier, or to match the colors in a project created in After Effects 7.0 or earlier, select Match Legacy After Effects QuickTime Gamma Adjustments...
Page 247 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If you don’t enable color management for your project, then the colors in your composition are dependent on the color characteristics of your monitor: the colors that you see are the colors that your monitor displays based on RGB numbers in your footage items.
Page 248 • Mac OS: Library/ColorSync/Profiles • Windows: WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\color When you create or install new profiles, put them in these folders. You can create a custom ICC profile using Adobe Photoshop. When you choose a profile—for input, output, or simulation—you will not see the motion-picture film profiles unless your footage is Cineon footage or you select Show All Available profiles.
Page 249 The working color space should match the output color space that has the largest gamut. For example, if you plan to output to Adobe RGB and sRGB, then use Adobe RGB as your working color space, because Adobe RGB has a larger gamut and can therefore represent more saturated colors.
Page 250 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Similarly, colors in a composition sent to Adobe Premiere Pro or Encore using Dynamic Link are in the After Effects project’s working color space. To manage colors in a dynamically linked composition, create a new composition and nest your composition within it;...
Page 251 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide In some cases, files that you import will have ICC profiles embedded in them. When you import these files, you can be confident that the colors that you see are as the producer of the footage originally intended. After Effects can read and write embedded color profiles for Photoshop (PSD), TIFF, PNG, and JPEG files.
Page 252 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The output color profile for a render item determines what calculations are performed when converting a rendered composition’s colors from the project’s working color space to the color space for the output medium. If a working space has not been set—that is, if color management is not on for the project—then you cannot assign an output...
Page 253 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When display color management is off, the RGB color values are sent directly to your monitor, without any conversion through the monitor profile. RGB numbers are preserved; color appearance is not preserved. When display color management is on for a viewer, a yellow plus sign appears in the Show Channel button at the bottom of the viewer.
Page 254 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If Preserve RGB is selected, the color values are not converted in this step. Instead, the numerical RGB color values are preserved and are re-interpreted to be in the color space of the simulated device. One use of this simulation is to see how a movie will look when played back on a device other than the one for which it was intended or a device that does not perform color management.
Page 255 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If you don’t see an entry for the output type that you want to simulate, you can create your own output Custom simulation preset by choosing Custom. You can specify a profile to use for each of the conversion or reinterpretation steps.
Page 256 Note: After Effects 7.0 had an Expand ITU-R 601 Luma Levels option in the Interpret Footage dialog box. When opened in After Effects CS3 or later, footage items in projects created with this option will have a corresponding assigned profile.
Page 257 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • If you need the settings for the interpretation of the Cineon footage item to change over time, then you can apply the Cineon Converter effect to a layer that uses the Cineon footage item as its source.
Page 258: Chapter 11: Masks, Transparency, And Keying
An alpha channel provides a way to store images and their transparency information in a single file without disturbing the color channels. When you view an alpha channel in the After Effects Composition panel or an Adobe Premiere Pro Monitor panel, white indicates complete opacity, black indicates complete transparency, and shades of gray indicate partial trans-...
Page 259 Many file formats can include an alpha channel, including Adobe Photoshop, ElectricImage, Adobe Flash Video (FLV), TGA, TIFF, EPS, PDF, and Adobe Illustrator. AVI and QuickTime (saved at a bit depth of Millions Of Colors+), also can contain alpha channels, depending upon the codecs used to generate these file types. For Adobe Illustrator EPS and PDF files, After Effects automatically converts empty areas to an alpha channel.
Page 260: Creating And Importing Masks
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide A mask path consists of segments and vertices. Segments are the lines or curves that connect vertices. Vertices are where each segment of a path starts and ends. For more information on paths, see “About paths” on page 312.
Page 261 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Paste a path copied from another layer or from Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks. (See “Copy a path from Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks” on page 323.) • Convert a text layer to one or more editable masks by using the Create Outlines command and then linking the mask paths to the resulting shape paths.
Page 262 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The motion path of the spaceship (top) is copied to the background layer (bottom left) and used by the Vegas effect (bottom right). In the Timeline panel, click the name of the Position property or Anchor Point property from which you want to copy the motion path.
Page 263: Working With Masks And Mattes
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To create mask keyframes across a range of frames, set a work area that spans that range. Select one or more layers. Choose Layer > Auto-trace. Select one of the following: Creates mask keyframes at only the current frame.
Page 264 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Select masks, segments, and vertices Unlike layers, masks can have more than one level of selection. You can select a mask as a whole path, which is appro- priate when you want to move or resize a mask. However, if you want to change the path of a mask, select one or more points on it.
Page 265 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Lock or unlock masks Locking a mask prevents you from selecting it in the Timeline, Composition, and Layer panels or setting it as a target in the Layer panel. Use this feature to avoid unwanted changes to the mask.
Page 266 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Control mask path color To help you identify and work with masks, the Composition and Layer panels outline a mask’s path with color, and the Timeline panel displays that same color next to the mask’s name. By default, After Effects uses the color yellow for all masks.
Page 267 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Compound masks that result when different modes are applied to the circle mask. The masks 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 The mask has no direct influence on the alpha channel of the layer.
Page 268 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The mask is added to the masks above it in the stacking order. In areas where the mask does not overlap Difference the masks above it, the mask operates as it would alone on the layer. In areas where the mask overlaps the masks above it, the influence of the mask is subtracted from the masks above it.
Page 269 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 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 270: Animating Masks
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Define transparency for the track matte by choosing one of the following options from the TrkMat menu for the fill layer: No transparency created; next layer above acts as a normal layer. No Track Matte Opaque when alpha channel pixel value is 100%.
Page 271 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The Smart Mask Interpolation panel Choose Window > Smart Mask Interpolation. Select at least two adjacent mask path keyframes. Set options in the Smart Mask Interpolation panel, and then click Apply. Note: To interrupt the interpolation process, press Esc. The Info panel indicates that the process has been interrupted and reports the number of keyframes created.
Page 272 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies that Smart Mask Interpolation adds vertices to facilitate quality interpolations. Add Mask Shape Vertices In general, Smart Mask Interpolation works best when the mask paths have dense sets of vertices. Also, a vertex on the first mask path cannot match the middle of a curve or straight-line segment on the second mask path, so sometimes you must add vertices before matching to produce the desired result.
Page 273 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you use the Pan Behind tool in the Composition panel, After Effects automatically makes two adjustments. In the Layer panel, the mask is moved in relation to its layer (top), and in the Composition panel, the layer is moved in relation to the composition (bottom).
Page 274: Keying
To see a video tutorial on keying with Keylight, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0229. Adobe® Creative Suite® Production Premium Edition also includes Adobe Ultra®, which can quickly key out a poorly lit background shot with a low-quality webcam. For more information on Adobe Ultra, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_ultra.
Page 275 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Once you have used a key to create transparency, use Matte effects to remove traces of key color and create clean edges. • Start with the highest-quality materials you can gather, such as film that you scan and digitize.
Page 276 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Apply one or more keying effects to mask out the remainder of the background. Apply Matte effects as necessary to fine-tune the matte. See also “Creating and importing masks” on page 254 “Matte effects” on page 448 Use a hold-out matte Use a hold-out matte (also known as a hold-back matte) to patch a scene to which a keying effect has been applied.
Page 277 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Creating and importing masks” on page 254 “Matte effects” on page 448 Close a hole in a matte 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 278: Chapter 12: Text
285 and “Work with per-character 3D text properties” on page 291.) You can copy text from other applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, or any text editor, and paste it into a text layer in After Effects. Because After Effects also supports Unicode characters, you can copy and paste these characters between After Effects and any other application that also supports Unicode (which includes all Adobe applications).
Page 279 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When working with text, you may find it useful to hide the layer controls, such as highlights and vertices, while showing grids, guides, and safe zones. (See “Show or hide layer controls in the Composition panel” on page 131 and “Work with safe zones, grids, guides, and rulers”...
Page 280 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you enter point text, it is created using the properties currently set in the Character panel. You can change these properties later by selecting the text and modifying settings in the Character panel. Do one of the following to create a text layer: •...
Page 281 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Convert point or paragraph text Note: When you convert paragraph text to point text, all characters outside the bounding box are deleted. To avoid losing text, resize the bounding box so that all text is visible prior to conversion.
Page 282 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If you imported the Photoshop document as merged layers, then you must first select the layer and choose Layer > Convert To Layered Comp to decompose the imported Photoshop document into its layers. Add the Photoshop text layer to your composition and select it.
Page 283: Formatting Characters
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. If the formatting for a character specifies a font that is unavailable on your computer system, another font will be substituted, and the missing font name will appear in brackets.
Page 284 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Click the arrow to the right of the Font Family menu text box, and press the key for the first letter of the font family name. Press the key again to advance through the font families with names that begin with that letter.
Page 285 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Choose one of the following in the Character panel to control the stroke’s position: The stroke of only selected text appears over or behind the fill. Stroke Over Fill, Fill Over Stroke Strokes appear over or behind fills in the entire text layer.
Page 286 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To adjust kerning manually, click between two characters with a type tool, and set a numeric value for Kerning in the Character panel. Note: If a range of text is selected, you can’t manually kern the characters. Instead, use tracking.
Page 287 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Blending modes” on page 166 “Work with per-character 3D text properties” on page 291 Work 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 288: Formatting Paragraphs
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Formatting paragraphs Work with the Paragraph panel A paragraph is any range of text with a carriage return at the end. Use the Paragraph panel to set options that apply to entire paragraphs, such as the alignment, indentation, and leading (line spacing). For point text, each line is a separate paragraph.
Page 289 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Indent and space paragraphs Indentation specifies the amount of space between text and the bounding box or line that contains the text. Inden- tation affects only the selected paragraph or paragraphs, so you can easily set different indentations for paragraphs.
Page 290: Animating Text
• Use text animators and selectors to animate many properties of individual characters or a range of characters. To see a video tutorial on animating text, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0226. To smooth the edges and movement of animated text, enable motion blur for the text layer. See “Use motion blur”...
Page 291 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Animate text with text animators Animating text with animators and selectors consists of three basic steps: • Add an animator to specify which properties to animate. • Use a selector to specify which characters are affected by the animator.
Page 292 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Animate menu In the Timeline panel, adjust the animator property values. Often, you simply set the property that you want to animate to its ending value and then use the selectors to control everything else.
Page 293 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The position of the characters. You can specify values for this property in the Timeline panel, or you can Position modify it by selecting it in the Timeline panel and then dragging the layer in the Composition panel using the Selection tool, which changes to a move tool when positioned over text characters.
Page 294 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To add a selector using the Composition panel, select a range of characters in the Composition panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the text, and choose Add Text Selector from the context menu. Choose Range, Wiggly, or Expression from the submenu.
Page 295 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The amount to offset the selection from that specified by the Start and End properties. To set Offset in the Compo- Offset sition panel while you edit the Start or End values, Shift-click the Start or End selector bars with the Selection tool.
Page 296 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The variation of wiggle, based on the phase of your animation Temporal and Spatial Phase (revolutions + degrees) in time (temporal) or per character (spatial). Scales the wiggled selection’s dimensions by the same value. This is useful when wiggling the Scale Lock Dimensions property.
Page 297 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Set a text layer’s anchor point properties Text animators animate character position, rotation, and size-related properties relative to an anchor point. You can use the text property, Anchor Point Grouping, to specify whether the anchor point used for transformations is that of each character, each word, each line, or the entire text block.
Page 298 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Per-character 3D layers can decrease rendering performance. When you convert a layer from per-character 3D to 2D, the animator properties and dimensions specific to per-character 3D layers are lost. Re-enabling per-character 3D will not restore values for these properties.
Page 299: Examples Of Text Animation
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Text path properties Use the Path Options properties to specify a path and alter the way that individual characters appear on the path— perpendicular to the path, aligned to the left or right, reversed, and so on. Animating Path Options properties is an easy way to animate text along a path.
Page 300 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Example: Offset characters This example illustrates how you can easily animate random characters so that they gradually form a legible word or phrase. To do this, specify a Character Offset value and animate the range selector.
Page 301 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Example: 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 302 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Example: Animate text tracking This example shows you how easy it is to isolate characters when tracking a line of text. Using the Tracking and Line Anchor animator properties, you can easily move all but one or a few characters.
Page 303 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Example: Use selectors to animate specific words There are many ways to use selectors. This example shows how you can use them to limit an animation to a specific word. Animating the skew values in the characters in the word Speeding Create a new composition.
Page 304 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Expand the Range Selector 1 and click the stopwatch icon for Start. In the Composition panel, drag the start selector to the left edge of the text (the value will be at 0). Move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds and drag the start selector in the Composition panel to the right edge of the text (the value will be 5).
Page 305 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Create a composition” on page 112 “Enter point text” on page 273 “Work with selectors” on page 287 “Set keyframes” on page 189 “Preview video and audio” on page 124 Example: Animate text position with expressions...
Page 306 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide A new text layer is created, with an expression on the Source Text property that makes the text show the current time in the project’s current time display format. You can use other expressions in the Global category to display time in another format.
Page 307: Chapter 13: Drawing And Painting
Paint effect in the effect stacking order are ignored; the paint strokes are applied on a transparent layer. To see a video tutorial on using the drawing and painting tools, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0223.
Page 308 Panels button For some painting, drawing, cloning, and retouching tasks, you may want to take advantage of the sophisticated paint tools provided by Adobe Photoshop. See “Working with Photoshop and After Effects” on page 28. See also “Blending mode reference” on page 167 “Work with layer properties in the Timeline panel”...
Page 309 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Work with paint tools and paint strokes” on page 301 “Common paint tool settings in the Paint panel” on page 302 Choose a brush gallery display mode ❖ Choose a display mode from the Brush Tips panel menu: Text Only, Small Thumbnail, Large Thumbnail, Small List, or Large List.
Page 310 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The ratio between the brush’s short and long axes. A value of 100% indicates a circular brush, a value of Roundness 0% indicates a linear brush, and intermediate values indicate elliptical brushes. Brush strokes using 100% roundness (left) and varying percentages (right) Controls the brush stroke’s transition from 100% opaque at the center to 100% transparent at the edges.
Page 311 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Common paint tool settings in the Paint panel” on page 302 “Select a color or edit a gradient” on page 236 “Blending mode reference” on page 167 “Work with layer properties in the Timeline panel” on page 155...
Page 312 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Press 2 on the main keyboard to advance the number of frames specified by the Custom duration setting, and then repeat the previous step. Note: To move back the Custom number of frames, press 1 on the main keyboard.
Page 313 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Displaying the clone source overlay while cloning between two different layers A. Clone source overlay B. Current stroke point C. Current sample point Important: To specify settings for a paint stroke before you apply it, use the Paint and Brush Tips panels. To change and animate properties for a paint stroke after you’ve applied it, use the stroke’s properties in the Timeline panel.
Page 314 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Open the source layer in a Layer panel and move the current-time indicator to the frame from which to begin sampling. Note: You can manually manipulate the time and coordinates from which sampling begins by modifying the Offset, Source Time Shift, Source Position, or Source Time values in the Paint panel.
Page 315 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Work with clone presets Use clone presets to save and reuse clone source settings: Source Layer, Aligned, Lock Source Time, Source Time Shift, Offset, and Source Position values. Clone presets are saved in the preferences file, so they can be reused in other projects.
Page 316 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Work with layer properties in the Timeline panel” on page 155 “Add, edit, and remove expressions” on page 545 Animate a paint stroke by sketching with Write On If you choose Write On from the Duration menu in the Paint panel, the End property is automatically animated to match the motion that you used to draw the stroke.
Page 317: Shape Layers Overview
Vector graphics from Flash SWF, PDF, EPS, and Illustrator files can be continuously rasterized. To see a video tutorial on using the drawing and painting tools, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0223.
Page 318 Segments are the lines or curves that connect vertices. Vertices define where each segment of a path starts and ends. Some Adobe applications use the terms anchor point and path point to refer to a vertex. You change the shape of a path by dragging its vertices, the direction handles at the end of each vertex’s direction lines (or tangents), or the path segment itself.
Page 319 A closed path is continuous and has no beginning or end; for example, a circle is a closed path. For shape paths, you can use the Merge Paths path operation (similar to the Pathfinder effects in Adobe Illustrator) to combine multiple paths into one path. (See “Merge Paths options” on page 332.) A path itself has no visual appearance in rendered output;...
Page 320 You can save your favorite shapes as animation presets. (See “Save an animation preset” on page 352.) To see a video tutorial introducing shape layers, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0224. To see a video tutorial on animating shapes, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0225.
Page 321 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide A. Two shapes in a group B. Two paths in a compound shape C. Circle path with Wiggle Paths applied D. One stroke applied to all paths above it E. Star path in a group by itself F. One fill applied to all paths above it G. One path with two strokes When you add a shape attribute using the Add menu in the Tools panel or Timeline panel, the attribute is added within the group that is selected.
Page 322 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Paint operations within a group are performed from the bottom to the top in the Timeline panel stacking order. This means, for example, that a stroke is rendered on top of (in front of) a stroke that appears after it in the Timeline panel.
Page 323: Creating Shapes And Masks
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Creating shapes and masks Creating shapes and shape layers You create a shape layer by drawing in the Composition panel with a shape tool or the Pen tool. You can then add shape attributes to existing shapes or create new shapes within that shape layer. By default, if you draw in the Compo- sition panel when a shape layer is selected, you create a new shape within that shape layer, above the selected shapes or group of shapes.
Page 324 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: Each shape tool retains the settings of the most recent drawing operation with that tool. For example, if you draw a star and modify the number of points to be 10, then the next star that you draw will also have 10 points. To reset a tool’s settings and create a shape with the default settings, double-click the tool in the Tools panel.
Page 325 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To keep the inner radius of a star constant as you move the mouse to increase the outer radius, hold the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) key. • To increase or decrease the inner roundness of a star, press the Page Up key or the Page Down key.
Page 326 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Creating a RotoBezier path is similar to creating a manual Bezier path. The primary difference is that direction lines for vertices and curvature for path segments are automatically calculated. Create a manual Bezier path using the Pen tool With the Pen tool selected and the RotoBezier option deselected in the Tools panel, click in the Composition panel where you want to place the first vertex.
Page 327 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide A vertex appears, and the Pen tool pointer changes to an arrowhead. Drag to modify the length and direction of both direction lines for a vertex, and then release the mouse button. Drawing the first vertex in a curved path A.
Page 328 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The conversion of a RotoBezier path to a manual Bezier path does not change the shape of the path. Select a mask in the Layer, Composition, or Timeline panel, or select a shape path in the Composition or Timeline panel.
Page 329 Choose Edit > Paste. Path drawn in Adobe Illustrator (left) and pasted into After Effects as a mask (right) Note: You can also use a copied Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks path as an After Effects motion path. See “Create a motion path from a mask, shape, or paint path”...
Page 330: Managing And Editing Shapes
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Some shape path operations, such as Trim Paths, also use the first vertex as input to determine how to modify the path. Note: By default, when you add a vertex to a path, the new vertex appears on the path throughout the path’s duration but reshapes the path only at the time at which it was added.
Page 331 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Selection modes for shapes on shape layers A. Layer selection B. Group selection C. Free-transform D. Path editing For information on selecting masks, see “Select masks, segments, and vertices” on page 258. Press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac OS) with a shape vertex selected to select all vertices on that path.
Page 332 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To select vertices by dragging, select a path or portion of a path to enter path-editing mode, and then drag with the marquee-selection tool to draw a marquee-selection box around the vertices to select. To add vertices to the selection, hold down the Shift key as you draw additional marquee-selection boxes.
Page 333 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Adding attributes to shape layers After a shape layer has been created, you can add attributes by using the Add menu in the Tools panel or in the Timeline panel. By default, the new attributes are inserted into the selected shape group or groups according to the following rules: •...
Page 334 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The fill or stroke consists of colors and opacity values defined by a linear gradient, which are Radial gradient mapped onto the composition along a radius extending outward from the Start Point at the center to the End Point at the circumference of a circle.
Page 335 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Controls for mapping gradient colors in Composition panel A. Highlight control point B. Start Point C. End Point Select the group in which the gradient is contained. With the Selection tool active, drag the Start Point, End Point, or Highlight controls in the Composition panel.
Page 336 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Line Join options for strokes The Line Join property for a stroke determines the appearance of the stroke where the path suddenly changes direction (turns a corner). A pointed connection. The Miter Limit value determines the conditions under which a beveled join is Miter Join used instead of a miter join.
Page 337 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Alter shape paths with path operations Path operations are live, which means that you can modify or remove them at any time. Path operations apply to all paths above them in the same group; as with all shape attributes, you can reorder path operations by dragging, cutting, copying, and pasting in the Timeline panel.
Page 338 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Merge Paths options The Merge Paths path operation takes all of the paths above it in the same group as input. The output is a single path that combines the input paths. The input paths are still visible in the Timeline panel, but they are essentially removed from the rendering of the shape layer, so they don’t appear in the Composition panel.
Page 339 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original shape (top left), one instance of the Repeater operation applied (top right), and two instances of the Repeater operation applied (bottom right) If the original shape is numbered 0, the next copy is numbered 1, and so on, then the result of the Repeater is to apply each transformation in the Transform property group n times to copy number n.
Page 340: Chapter 14: Motion Tracking
Chapter 14: Motion tracking With motion tracking, you can stabilize shaky footage, analyze the motion of objects in a scene, and match the motion of composited graphics with those objects. Motion tracking overview About motion tracking With motion tracking, you can track the movement of an object and then apply the tracking data for that movement to another object—such as another layer or an effect control point—to create compositions in which images and effects follow the motion.
Page 341 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Layer panel with track point A. Search region B. Feature region C. Attach point The feature region defines the element in the layer to be tracked. The feature region should surround Feature region a distinct visual element, preferably one object in the real world. After Effects must be able to clearly identify the tracked feature throughout the duration of the track, despite changes in light, background, and angle.
Page 342 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide For best results, prepare the object or region that you are tracking before you begin shooting. Because After Effects compares image data 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 343 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Attach point offset from feature region 5. Adjust the feature region, search region, and tracking options Place each feature region control tightly around its tracked feature, completely enclosing the tracked feature, but including as little of the surrounding image as possible.
Page 344 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: If the layer that you’re attaching has motion blur enabled, make sure that the Shutter Phase value is set to -1/2 times the Shutter Angle value. This centers the motion blur on the attach point. Otherwise, the attached object may appear to lead or lag the object that it’s attached to.
Page 345 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Analyze Backward : Analyze from the current-time indicator backward to the beginning of the trimmed layer duration. • Analyze Forward : Analyze from the current-time indicator to the end of the trimmed layer duration.
Page 346 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: To determine an acceptable confidence threshold, track the motion and then examine the Confidence values for the track point in the Timeline panel for problematic frames. Specify a confidence value that is slightly larger than the largest confidence value for the problematic frames.
Page 347: Tracking Motion
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Tracking motion Track or stabilize motion Tracking motion and stabilizing motion are essentially the same process, only with a different target and result. Use Track Motion to track motion and apply the results to a different layer or effect control point. Use Stabilize Motion to track motion and apply the results to the tracked layer to compensate for that motion.
Page 348 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide After Effects creates keyframes for the target layer. When tracking position and applying this position data to a target, you can choose to apply only the x (horizontal) or y (vertical) component of motion. For example, you can apply the tracking data to the x axis to make a speech bubble (the motion target) remain at the top of the frame even when the actor’s head (the motion source) moves...
Page 349 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Track point components and Selection tool pointer icons A. Search region B. Feature region C. Keyframe marker D. Attach point E. Moves search region F. Moves both regions G. Moves entire track point H. Moves attach point I. Moves entire track point J. Resizes region •...
Page 350 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Apply tracking data to a new target After you’ve tracked a motion source layer, you can apply that layer’s stored tracking data to any number of other target layers and effect control points. For example, you can apply the track to a light bulb’s position and to the Lens Flare effect’s control point.
Page 351 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the feature and search regions only (not the attach point) to the correct location. If you are correcting the track for one frame, go to step 4. If you are correcting the track for several contiguous frames, adjust the feature region and search region if necessary, and click Analyze.
Page 352: Chapter 15: Effects And Animation Presets
You can browse and apply animation presets in After Effects using the Effects & Presets panel or Adobe Bridge. To open the Presets folder in Adobe Bridge, choose Browse Presets from the Effects & Presets panel menu or from the Animation menu.
Page 353 Add menu—are called effects in Adobe Illustrator, but they function differently from other effects in After Effects. Because effects are implemented as plug-ins, you can install and use additional effects that parties other than Adobe provide. You can add a single new effect or an entire folder of new effects to the Plug-ins folder, which is located by default in the Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS3\Support Files (Windows) or Applications/Adobe After Effects CS3 (Mac OS) folder.
Page 354 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Expression Controls effects Expression Controls effects do not modify existing layer properties; rather, these effects add layer properties that expressions can refer to. (See “Using Expression Controls effects” on page 551.) Preventing edge clipping with the Grow Bounds effect Because an effect is applied to a layer, the results of some effects are constrained to the layer’s bounds, which can...
Page 355: Working With Effects And Animation Presets
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Working with effects and animation presets Work with effects in the Effect Controls panel When you apply an effect to a layer, the Effect Controls panel opens, listing the effect you just applied and controls to change the property values for the effect.
Page 356 • To apply the most recently applied effect to one or more layers, select the layers, and then press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+E (Mac OS). • To apply an animation preset to one or more layers using Adobe Bridge, select the layers, choose Animation > Browse Presets, navigate to the animation preset, and then double-click it.
Page 357 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Delete or disable effects and animation presets After you’ve applied effects to a layer, you can temporarily disable one or all the effects on the layer to concentrate on another aspect of your composition. Effects that are disabled do not appear in the Composition panel and typically are not included when the layer is previewed or rendered.
Page 358 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Save an animation preset You can save any combination of properties and their keyframes and expressions as an animation preset. This includes effects and their properties. For example, if you created an explosion using several effects with complex property settings, keyframes, and expressions, you can save all of those settings as a single animation preset.
Page 359 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Changing the Random Seed value doesn’t make things more or less random; it only makes them seem random in a different way. You can add randomness to any property with the expressions in the Random Numbers category.
Page 360: Chapter 16: Effect Reference
Chapter 16: Effect reference After Effects includes hundreds of built-in effects, each of which has properties that you can animate to give your layers a dynamic look or achieve a particular result. Galleries of effects 3D Channel effects gallery No effect applied “3D Channel Extract effect”...
Page 361 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Box Blur effect” on page 375 “Channel Blur effect” on page 375 “Compound Blur effect” on page 375 “Directional Blur effect” on page 376 “Gaussian Blur effect” on page 377 “Fast Blur effect” on page 376 “Lens Blur effect”...
Page 362 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Calculations effect” on page 382 “Channel Combiner effect” on page 382 “Compound Arithmetic effect” on page 383 “Invert effect” on page 383 “Minimax effect” on page 384 “Remove Color Matting effect” on page 384 “Set Channels effect” on page 385 “Set Matte effect”...
Page 363 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Broadcast Colors effect” on page 388 “Change Color effect” on page 389 “Change To Color effect” on page 389 “Channel Mixer effect” on page 390 “Color Balance effect” on page 391 “Color Balance (HLS) effect” on page 391 “Color Link effect”...
Page 364 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “PS Arbitrary Map effect” on page 399 “Shadow/Highlight effect” on page 400 “Tint effect” on page 401 “Tritone effect” on page 402 Distort effects gallery No effect applied “Bezier Warp effect” on page 402 “Bulge effect” on page 403 “Corner Pin effect”...
Page 365 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Polar Coordinates effect” on page 410 “Reshape effect” on page 411 “Optics Compensation effect” on page 409 “Ripple effect” on page 413 “Smear effect” on page 413 “Spherize effect” on page 415 “Transform effect” on page 415 “Turbulent Displace effect”...
Page 366 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Audio Waveform effect” on page 421 “Beam effect” on page 421 “Cell Pattern effect” on page 422 “Checkerboard effect” on page 423 “Circle effect” on page 424 “Ellipse effect” on page 424 “Eyedropper Fill effect” on page 424 “Fill effect”...
Page 367 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Keying effects gallery “Color Difference Key effect” on “Color Key effect” on page 439 “Color Range effect” on page 440 page 438 “Inner/Outer Key effect” on page 443 “Difference Matte effect” on page 441 “Extract effect” on page 442 “Linear Color Key effect”...
Page 368 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Add Grain effect” on page 456 “Dust & Scratches effect” on page 458 “Fractal Noise effect” on page 458 “Match Grain effect” on page 461 “Median effect” on page 463 “Noise effect” on page 463 “Noise Alpha effect”...
Page 369 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Bevel Edges effect” on page 481 “Drop Shadow effect” on page 481 “Radial Shadow effect” on page 482 Simulation effects gallery “Card Dance effect” on page 484 “Caustics effect” on page 486 “Foam effect” on page 488 “Particle Playground effect”...
Page 370 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide “Motion Tile effect” on page 517 “Posterize effect” on page 517 “Roughen Edges effect” on page 518 “Scatter effect” on page 519 “Strobe Light effect” on page 519 “Texturize effect” on page 520 “Threshold effect” on page 520...
Page 371 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Time effects gallery “Echo effect” on page 527 “Posterize Time effect” on page 528 “Time Difference effect” on page 529 “Time Displacement effect” on page 530 “Timewarp effect” on page 531 Transition effects gallery No effect applied “Block Dissolve effect”...
Page 372: 3D Channel Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Utility effects gallery “Cineon Converter effect” on page 539 “Color Profile Converter effect” on “Grow Bounds effect” on page 541 page 540 “HDR Compander effect” on page 541 “HDR Highlight Compression effect” on page 542...
Page 373 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 3D Channel Extract effect The 3D Channel Extract effect makes auxiliary channels visible as either grayscale or multichannel color images. You can then use the resulting layer as a control layer for other effects. For example, extract the depth information in a 3D channel image file and then use it as an influence map in the Particle Playground effect, or extract values from the unclamped RGB channel to produce a matte that generates glowing highlights.
Page 374 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), with effect applied (bottom left), and with effect applied and Invert Alpha selected (bottom right) The z axis value at which to slice the image. Everything with a depth value less than this Depth value is matted out.
Page 375 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide To show the depth of an object in the Info panel, click the object in the Composition panel or Layer panel using the Selection tool while the effect is selected. How much blur is applied to objects outside the focal plane.
Page 376: Audio Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “About 3D layers” on page 174 ID Matte effect Many 3D programs tag each element in a scene with a unique Object ID. The ID Matte effect uses this information to create a matte that excludes everything in the scene except the element you want.
Page 377 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Preview video and audio” on page 124 Bass & Treble effect The Bass & Treble effect boosts (increases) or cuts (decreases) the low frequencies (bass) or the high frequencies (treble) of the audio. For greater control, use the Parametric EQ effect.
Page 378 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Alternates assignment of voices to one of the two channels so that the first voice appears in the left Stereo Voices channel, the second in the right channel, the third in the left, and so on. To hear stereo voices, you must preview or render in stereo.
Page 379 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The amount of amplitude modulation. Amplitude Modulation See also “Preview video and audio” on page 124 Parametric EQ effect The Parametric EQ effect emphasizes or attenuates specific frequency ranges. Parametric EQ is useful for enhancing music, such as boosting low frequencies to bring up bass.
Page 380: Blur & Sharpen Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Stereo Mixer effect The Stereo Mixer effect mixes the left and right channels of audio and pans the entire signal from one channel to the other. Inverts the phase of both channels of the stereo signal. Use this control to prevent two sounds at the Invert Phase same frequency from canceling each other out.
Page 381 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Some blur effects have a Repeat Edge Pixels option. Select this option to make the blur algorithm operate as if the pixel values beyond the edge of the layer are the same as those of the edge pixels. This option keeps edges sharp, preventing them from darkening and becoming more transparent—the result of being averaged with a lot of zeroes.
Page 382 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), blur layer (bottom left), and result (bottom right) The maximum amount, in pixels, that any part of the affected layer can be blurred. Maximum Blur Stretches the control layer to the dimensions of the layer to which it is applied; otherwise, the Stretch Map To Fit control layer is centered on the effect layer.
Page 383 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Gaussian Blur effect The Gaussian Blur effect blurs and softens the image and eliminates noise. The layer’s quality setting doesn’t affect Gaussian Blur. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color.
Page 384 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The roundness of the edges of the iris. Iris Blade Curvature The rotation of the iris. Iris Rotation The size of the iris. Increase this value for greater blur. Iris Radius All pixels with a brightness value greater than Specular Threshold are treated as specular Specular Threshold highlights.
Page 385 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Sharpen effect The Sharpen effect increases the contrast where color changes occur. The layer’s quality setting doesn’t affect Sharpen. This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Smart Blur effect The Smart Blur effect blurs an image while preserving lines and edges within the image.
Page 386: Channel Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The greatest difference between adjacent pixels for which contrast isn’t adjusted. A lower value produces Threshold a greater result. A value that is too low causes contrast for the entire image to be adjusted and can generate noise or cause unexpected results.
Page 387 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Set the pixel’s channel value to zero if the pixel’s original value is greater than the value specified; Block Above otherwise, leave the original value. • Set the pixel’s channel value to zero if the pixel’s original value is less than the value specified;...
Page 388 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: You can create a crossfade without applying an effect by animating the Opacity property of one layer on top of another. However, this technique doesn’t work if the frontmost layer has any transparent portions (which allow the other layer to show through, even when at full opacity).
Page 389 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Which values to use as input; the first several items in the menu are actually multichannel combinations of From input and output options, so they don’t require you to set a To value. • Saturation Multiplied uses the saturation value multiplied by the lightness value, where lightness is the minimum distance to black or white.
Page 390 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Which channel or channels to invert. Each group of items operates in a particular color space, inverting Channel either the entire image in that color space or just a single channel.
Page 391 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Use Background Color to specify the new background color. To allow this effect to generate color values outside of the range 0.0-1.0 when working in 32-bpc color, deselect Clip HDR Values. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color.
Page 392: Color Correction Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Composites the new matte with the current layer, rather than replacing it. The Composite Matte With Original resulting matte allows the image to show through only where the current matte and the new matte both have some opacity.
Page 393 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Input sliders moved so that output uses full tonal range Histogram showing highlight clipping Histogram showing shadow clipping Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects The Auto Color effect adjusts the contrast and color of an image after analyzing the shadows, midtones, and highlights of the image.
Page 394 For more information, see the Color Finesse documentation in the following folder: Adobe After Effects CS3/Additional Documentation/Color Finesse 2. The Broadcast Colors effect alters pixel color values to keep signal amplitudes within the range allowed for broadcast television.
Page 395 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: A more reliable way to keep colors within the broadcast-safe range for your output type is to use color management features to set the output color profile accordingly, such as to SDTV (Rec. 601 NTSC). This ensures that color values between 0.0 and 1.0 in your working color space are converted to broadcast-safe values.
Page 396 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Change To Color offers flexibility and options unavailable in the Change Color effect. These options include tolerance sliders for hue, lightness, and saturation for exact color matching, and the ability to select the exact RGB values of the target color that you wish to change to.
Page 397 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 398 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The blending mode to use to combine the effect result with the original layer. These blending modes Blending Mode aren’t available when averaging alpha channel values in the layer. Color Stabilizer effect The Color Stabilizer effect samples the color values of a single reference frame, or pivot frame, at one, two, or three points;...
Page 399 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide How input values are combined: Add Mode • Adds the values of the two attributes for each pixel. Values above 100% are wrapped around the cycle again. Wrap For example, a sum of 125% wraps around to 25%.
Page 400 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Modifies alpha channel values. Modify Alpha Note: If you apply Colorama to a layer with an alpha channel, and the Output Cycle doesn’t contain alpha information, the anti-aliased edges of the layer may appear pixelated. To smooth the edges, deselect Modify Alpha. If Modify Alpha is selected and the Output Cycle contains alpha information, the output is affected even if you’ve selected None from the...
Page 401 The Equalize effect alters an image’s pixel values to produce a more consistent brightness or color component distri- bution. The effect works similarly to the Equalize command in Adobe Photoshop. Pixels with 0 alpha (completely transparent) values aren’t considered, so masked layers are equalized based on the mask area.
Page 402 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Adjust all channels simultaneously. Master Adjust channels individually. Individual Channels Simulates the exposure setting on the camera that captures the image, multiplying all light intensity values Exposure by a constant.
Page 403 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide number of degrees of rotation around the wheel from the pixel’s original color. A positive value indicates clockwise rotation; a negative value indicates counterclockwise rotation. Values range from –180 to +180. Specify the overall saturation and lightness of the channel chosen from the Master Saturation, Master Lightness Channel Control menu.
Page 404 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The flexibility of the color-matching operation. 0% decolors all pixels except those that exactly match Tolerance Color To Leave. 100% causes no color change. The softness of the color boundaries. High values smooth the transition from color to gray.
Page 405 • To use a color preset for the filter color, choose an option from the Filter pop-up menu. • To select a custom color for the filter color, click the Color control’s color swatch to select a color using the Adobe Color Picker, or click the eyedropper and click a color anywhere on the computer screen.
Page 406 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 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 407 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If this option is selected, frames beyond a scene change are ignored when surrounding frames are Scene Detect analyzed for temporal smoothing. The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the Blend With Original effect result composited on top.
Page 408: Distort Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) See also “Colorama effect” on page 392 Tritone effect The Tritone effect alters a layer’s color information by mapping bright, dark, and midtone pixels to colors you select.
Page 409 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The positions of the vertices and tangents determine the size and shape of a curved segment. Dragging these points reshapes the curves that form the edge, thus distorting the image. For example, you can use Bezier Warp to reshape one image to fit another, as in wrapping a label around a jar.
Page 410 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original image (top left), corner moved (bottom left), and final image (bottom right) Displacement Map effect The Displacement Map effect distorts a layer by displacing pixels horizontally and vertically based on the color values of pixels in the control layer specified by the Displacement Map Layer property. The type of distortion created by the Displacement Map effect can vary greatly, depending on the control layer and options you select.
Page 411 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 412 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Copies the distortions from around a source location to the current mouse location. Set the source Clone location by Alt-clicking (Windows) or Option-clicking (Mac OS) the source point. Reverses distortions or applies them in different ways.
Page 413 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), and with variations of Magnify applied (bottom left and right) The shape of the magnified area. Shape The center point of the magnified area. Center Percentage by which to scale the magnified area.
Page 414 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Mesh Warp effect The Mesh Warp effect applies a grid of Bezier patches over a layer, which you can manipulate to distort areas of an image. Each corner of a patch includes a vertex and two to four tangents (points that control the curvature of the line segment that makes up the edge of the patch).
Page 415 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Offset effect The Offset effect pans the image within a layer. Visual information pushed off one side of the image appears on the opposite side. At Best quality, the offset is performed with subpixel precision.
Page 416 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Select the computer graphic layer you want to distort, and apply Optics Compensation to it using the FOV value from step 2. 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...
Page 417 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Reshape effect The Reshape effect transforms one shape into another shape on the same layer, dragging the underlying image with it. The image is distorted to fit the shape of the new area. You create or import up to three masks to define the area you want to distort: the source mask, the destination mask, and the boundary mask (optional).
Page 418 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide distortion through space. To control the precision of the effect, you can add, delete, or move the points on either mask. A mask can have an unlimited number of points, but the more points it has, the longer the effect takes to render.
Page 419 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 420 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide You can animate the position, size, and rotation of the source mask as it moves to its offset position. You can also animate the original position of the source mask in the Layer panel. Processing can take up to several minutes with certain settings. Computation time increases as the source mask gets closer to the boundary mask.
Page 421 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Drag the Percent slider as needed, and choose a setting for Elasticity. Spherize effect The Spherize effect distorts a layer by wrapping a region of the image onto a sphere. The layer’s quality setting influ- ences the Spherize effect.
Page 422 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Evolution Options provide controls that render the effect for one short cycle and then loop it for Evolution Options the duration of the layer. Use these controls to prerender turbulence elements into loops, and thus speed up rendering time.
Page 423 A value of 50, for example, produces a twirl that extends to the edges of the layer. Warp effect Use Warp to distort or deform layers. The warp styles work much like the Warp effects in Adobe Illustrator and Warp Text in Adobe Photoshop.
Page 424: Generate Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Generate effects 4-Color Gradient effect The 4-Color Gradient effect produces a four-color gradient. The gradient is defined by four effect points, the positions and colors of which can be animated using the Positions & Colors controls. The gradient is actually composed of four solid-color circles blended together, each with an effect point as its center.
Page 425 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies the amount of turbulence in the lightning path. Higher values result in a more complex strike Turbulence containing more branches and forks, and lower values produce simpler strikes with fewer branches. Specifies what percentage of a branch is forked. Its value is influenced by Turbulence and Alpha Obstacle Forking settings.
Page 426 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), and with effect applied (bottom left and right) The audio layer you want to use as input. Audio Layer Specifies the position at which the spectrum starts or ends if Path is set to None.
Page 427 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Audio Waveform effect Apply the Audio Waveform effect to a video layer to display the audio waveform amplitude of an audio layer. You can display the audio waveform in a number of different ways, including along an open or closed mask path.
Page 428 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. Original (left), and with a simulated beam (right) The Length control specifies the length of the beam based on a percentage of the Time specified. For example, a setting of 100% means that the visible beam length is at its maximum when the Time control is 50%.
Page 429 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Values above 255 or below 0 are reflected back into the 0-255 range. For example, a value of 258 Wrap Back (255+3) is reflected to 252 (255-3), and a value of -3 is reflected to 3. With this setting, Contrast values above 100 increase complexity and detail.
Page 430 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The opacity of the colored rectangles. Opacity The blending mode to use to composite the checkerboard pattern on top of the original layer. These Blending Mode blending modes work identically to the ones in the Timeline panel, except for the default None mode, which renders the checkerboard pattern only.
Page 431 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Maintains the original layer’s alpha channel. If you choose Including Alpha in the Average Maintain Original Alpha Pixel Color menu, the original alpha is stenciled over the sampled color. The effect’s transparency. The result of the effect is blended with the original image, with the Blend With Original effect result composited on top.
Page 432 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specify the settings for the specified set. X (Real) and Y (Imaginary) specify the pixels at the center Mandelbrot, Julia of the image for either the Mandelbrot or Julia set. Magnification specifies the magnification of the effect. Escape Limit specifies how many times the calculation looks for a color for a given pixel before it assigns the color black.
Page 433 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Use the Hand tool to pan the image. Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to pan the opposite fractal. For example, when viewing the Julia set, press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to pan the Mandelbrot set and see how the Julia set depends on the center point of the Mandelbrot set.
Page 434 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Single lens flare (bottom left) and multiple lens flares (bottom right) Lightning effect The Lightning effect creates lightning bolts and other electrical visuals, including a Jacob’s Ladder result (as seen in old horror movies) between two specified points in a layer. This effect is automatically animated without keyframes or expressions.
Page 435 The Paint Bucket effect (formerly Basic Fill effect) is a nondestructive paint effect that fills an area with a solid color. It works much like the Paint Bucket tool in Adobe Photoshop. Use the Paint Bucket effect for colorizing cartoon-type outlined drawings or replacing areas of color in an image.
Page 436 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Specifies that the effect fills only the fill point area’s RGB channel with the new color. Straight Color • Specifies that the effect fills only the transparent areas near the fill point. You must set a fill point Transparency in a transparent area for this option to work.
Page 437 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Polygon wave type with square stroke profile (bottom left), and Image Contour wave type with Sine stroke profile (bottom right) The point from which the waves appear. Producer Point 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.
Page 438 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies the center point of the shape, relative to the source layer. For example, if you isolate a shape Source Center that is positioned in the left half of the frame, the shape radiates to the left by default; you can move the source center anywhere on the layer.
Page 439 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies the amount of time it takes the wave to fade into view. Fade-in Time is measured in seconds Fade-in Time and begins with 0 opacity at birth. For example, if the Lifespan is 3 seconds and Fade-in Time is 1 second, the stroke is completely transparent at birth and fades smoothly to full opacity at 1 second.
Page 440 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The mask to use if Scribble is set to Single Mask. Mask Controls whether the fill is drawn inside the path or creates a scribble along the path. Left Edge draws the Fill Type fill along the path’s left edge; Right Edge draws the fill along the path’s right edge. The left and right edges of a path are determined by the direction in which the path is drawn.
Page 441 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide On Transparent replaces the original image with the scribble. On Original Image composites the scribble Composite on the original image. Reveal Original Image shows the original image through the scribble. 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.
Page 442 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Determines how to adjust the layers if the size of the input layer differs from that of the layer If Layer Sizes Differ to which Vegas is applied. Center centers the input layer in the composition at its original size. Stretch To Fit scales the input layer to match the layer to which Vegas is applied.
Page 443 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies the opacity of the midpoint of the stroke. This control works in terms of relative opacity, Mid-point Opacity not absolute opacity. Setting it 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 444: Keying Effects
Adobe After Effects CS3/Additional Documentation/Keylight. To see a video tutorial on keying with Keylight, visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/vid0229. Adobe Creative Suite Production Premium Edition also includes Adobe Ultra, which can quickly key out a poorly lit background shot with a low-quality webcam.
Page 445 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Select the Black eyedropper, and then click inside the matte thumbnail on the lightest area of black to specify transparent regions. The transparency values in the thumbnail and Composition panel are adjusted. Select the White eyedropper, and then click inside the matte thumbnail on the darkest area of white to specify opaque regions.
Page 446 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide In the Effect Controls panel, specify a key color in one of two ways: • Click the Key Color swatch to open the Color dialog box and specify a color. • Click the eyedropper, and then click a color on the screen.
Page 447 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Select the Plus eyedropper, and then click other areas in the matte thumbnail to add other colors or shades to the range of colors keyed out for transparency. Select the Minus eyedropper, and then click areas in the matte thumbnail to subtract other colors or shades from the range of colors keyed out.
Page 448 Note: The controls for this effect are similar to those of the Extract effect in Adobe Premiere Pro, but the purpose and results of the effect are different.
Page 449 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Use the Extract effect In the Effect Controls panel, the Extract effect displays a histogram for a channel specified in the Channel menu. The histogram displays a representation of the brightness levels in the layer, showing the relative number of pixels at each level.
Page 450 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: Make sure that the mask mode for all masks is set to None. If you want, move the masks around to find the location that provides the best results. To extract more than one object, or to create a hole in an object, draw additional masks and then select them from the Additional Foreground and Additional Background menus.
Page 451 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide You can adjust the key color, the matching tolerance, and the matching softness. The matching tolerance specifies how closely pixels must match the key color before they start becoming transparent. The matching softness controls the softness of edges between the image and the key color.
Page 452 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 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. Deselecting the option causes the original image to appear in the Composition panel so that you can select a color to preserve.
Page 453 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Drag the Tolerance slider to specify the range of values to be keyed out. Lower values key out a smaller range of values near the threshold. Higher values key out a wider range of values.
Page 454: Matte Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide From the Color Accuracy menu, choose Faster to suppress blue, green, or red. Choose Better to suppress other colors, because After Effects may need to analyze the colors more carefully to produce accurate transparency. The Better option may increase rendering time.
Page 455: Noise & Grain Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left) contains unwanted edges after keying (bottom left) that are removed with Simple Choker (bottom right). See also “Keying overview” on page 268 Noise & Grain effects Work with Grain effects Almost every digital image captured from the real world contains grain or visual noise caused by the recording, encoding, scanning, or reproduction processes and by the equipment used to create the image.
Page 456 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Three types of grain effects: matching (top left), adding (bottom left), and removing (bottom right) Apply a grain effect Each grain effect is applied with default settings and is displayed in Preview viewing mode, which has a preview region framed by a white border and centered on the image.
Page 457 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 458 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 459 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Select Show Box if you want to outline the preview region in color. If you want to change the outline color, next to Box Color do one of the following: • Click the color swatch and select a color in the Color Picker dialog box.
Page 460 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Noise samples for the Match Grain and Remove Grain effects are always extracted from the source layer without regarding any effects or masks already applied to the layer; this method results in more accurate sampling. If you want the samples to include the existing effects, you must precompose or prerender the source layer with the effects and then apply the grain effect to the resulting source layer.
Page 461 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Working with added or matched grain The Add Grain effect creates new grain or noise in an image by building the grain from nothing or by basing the grain’s properties on presets. The Match Grain effect also creates new grain in an image but by matching the grain in a different image.
Page 462 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Several factors can affect the apparent color of the grain that these effects generate, including the following: • The color value of the underlying pixel in the source image. • The Saturation value of the noise.
Page 463 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The distribution of the added noise over the color channels does affect the overall color of the resulting image. With a dark background, the noise tends to add to the image visually, so a red tint or more noise in the red channel gives a reddish hue to the image.
Page 464 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Dust & Scratches effect The Dust & Scratches effect reduces noise and defects by changing dissimilar pixels within a specified radius to be more like their neighboring pixels. To achieve a balance between sharpness of the image and hiding defects, try various combinations of Radius and Threshold settings.
Page 465 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Remaps values on an infinite curve so that all values stay in the range. This option reduces contrast Soft Clamp and makes noise appear gray with few areas of pure black or pure white. When used as a luma matte, the layer contains subtle areas of transparency.
Page 466 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Specifies the number of revolutions that the noise cycles through before it repeats. The Cycle (in Revolutions) speed of these Evolution cycles is determined by the amount of time between Evolution keyframes. This option affects only the evolution of the noise, not Transform or other controls.
Page 467 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Prerender this layer, and import it into your project. Select the file in the Project panel, and choose File > Interpret Footage. Then set Loop to the number of loops required for the duration of the layer in the project.
Page 468 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If there already is significant noise in the destination layer before choosing a noise source layer and this causes a grain mismatch, adjust the Compensate For Existing Noise slider to avoid grain build-up. Do any of the following: •...
Page 469 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Click a Compensation Sample Point’s point parameter in the Effect Controls panel, and then click where you want to move the point in the Composition panel. Choose Final Output from the Viewing Mode control.
Page 470 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide How to apply the noise to the alpha channel: Original Alpha • Produces equal amounts of noise in the transparent and opaque areas of the clip. • Produces noise in the opaque areas only. Clamp •...
Page 471 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) The type of noise. Uniform produces uniform noise. Squared creates high-contrast noise. Grain produces Noise grainlike noise similar to film grain. The amount of noise added to hue values.
Page 472 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Remove noise or grain from an image Select the layer you want to affect. Choose Effect > Noise & Grain > Remove Grain. Adjust any of the following using the Noise Reduction Settings controls group: •...
Page 473 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Controls the extent to which adjacent pixels with low variations in value are smoothed out by the Clean Solid Areas noise reduction process. This is helpful for large areas of solid color that need to be as clean as possible. Settings that are too high can smooth out nearly solid areas of the image, resulting in an artificial appearance.
Page 474: Paint Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Paint effects Paint effect Apply the Paint effect using the paint tools. This effect works with 8-bpc, 16-bpc, and 32-bpc color. See also “Work with paint tools and paint strokes” on page 301 Vector Paint effect For most drawing and painting tasks, use shape tools and paint tools, not the Vector Paint effect.
Page 475 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you use Vector Paint on a layer, you can start over at any time by deleting all strokes or the Vector Paint effect itself. To delete the effect, select Vector Paint in the Effect Controls panel and press Delete or Backspace.
Page 476 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Work with Vector Paint brushes Vector Paint includes three brush types: Paint, Air, and Square. These brush types define the shapes and performance of both the Paintbrush tool and the Eraser tool. All brush types but the Air brush include a Feather setting.
Page 477 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The pressure variation of the pen on the tablet alters the opacity of the stroke as you draw. Light pressure results in lower opacity values, while increased pressure creates more opaque strokes. The Opacity value defines the maximum of the Opacity range.
Page 478 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide If Color Clone is enabled in the Effect Controls panel, this swatch represents the sampled color. Shift-click the Color Swatch to open the Set Value dialog box for Opacity without turning off Color Clone. Smoothing a Vector Paint stroke The Smoother command in the Vector Paint options menu removes points from a selected stroke or strokes.
Page 479 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Play back your strokes using standard (spacebar) preview or RAM preview, or by viewing the results of a rendered composition. Note: Regardless of how you record your strokes and which Playback mode you select when recording, you can always switch to another Playback Mode at any time.
Page 480 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 Playback Mode is set to Past Strokes, Hold Strokes, or Animate Strokes.
Page 481 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 482 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When Displacement Detail values are set very high, the stroke may not resemble its original shape at all. This approach is useful in creating randomly animated strokes. Set the Displacement Detail value by using the slider in the Effect Controls panel (preset to values between 0 and 100) or by clicking the underlined Displacement Detail value and typing a number between 0 and 1000.
Page 483 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 484: Perspective Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Before you paint, the original image is visible in the working view. Painting affects only areas J. As Inverse Matte within the original image alpha channel. Paint strokes block (rather than reveal) the original image, appearing to erase the original image.
Page 485 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) To avoid problems with flipped views, keep in mind the following guidelines: • 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 486 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Performs the same operation as Red Green LR but also balances the colors to reduce Balanced Red Green LR shadows or ghosting effects caused by one view showing through the other. Setting a high value reduces the overall contrast.
Page 487 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Adds a glint of light that reflects off the surface of the layer, as if an overhead light were shining Specular Highlight on the surface. When Draw Preview Wireframe is selected, the specular highlight is indicated by a red plus sign (+) if it isn’t visible on the layer (that is, if the center of the highlight doesn’t intersect the layer) and a green plus sign (+)
Page 488 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) To render the shadow without the image, select Shadow Only. Note: To apply a drop shadow to a layer that rotates, rotate the layer using the Transform effect and then apply the Drop Shadow effect.
Page 489: Simulation Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Creates a colored shadow based on the color and opacity of the layer. If the layer contains semitrans- Glass Edge parent pixels, the shadow uses both the color and transparency of the layer. This option creates the appearance, for example, of sun shining through stained glass.
Page 490 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Takes into account the position of the viewer. It models the reflection of the light source back to Specular Reflection the viewer. It can create the illusion of shininess. For realistic effects, you can animate this control by using higher and higher values to mask the transition from filtered to nonfiltered versions of the layer.
Page 491 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide For example, select a vertical grayscale gradient layer (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 492 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Camera System and Camera Position controls Specifies whether to use the effect’s Camera Position properties, the effect’s Corner Pins properties, Camera System or the default composition camera and light positions to render 3D images of the cards.
Page 493 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), and with Bottom set to the text layer (bottom left) and Water Surface set to the whirl layer with Surface Opacity set to 0% (bottom right) To get the most realistic results from Caustics, render the Bottom layer separately, with Render Caustics enabled and Surface Opacity at 0.
Page 494 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies the roundness of the waves by blurring the water surface layer. Very high values eliminate Smoothing detail. Very low values show imperfections in the water surface layer. Specifies depth. A small disturbance in shallow water moderately distorts the view of the bottom, but Water Depth the same disturbance in deep water distorts the view significantly.
Page 495 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), with Foam applied (bottom left), and with a robot layer used as the Bubble Texture Layer (bottom right) 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.
Page 496 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide upper-left corner of the screen if you don’t select Zoom Producer Point. If you select Zoom Producer Point, the point moves with the universe as it is zoomed out, and the point ends up closer to the center of the screen.
Page 497 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Controls whether bubbles bounce off each other, stick to each other, or pass through each other. At a value Repulsion of 0, bubbles don’t collide; they pass through each other. The higher the Repulsion value, the more likely bubbles are to interact with each other when they collide.
Page 498 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Determines the direction that the bubble rotates. Fixed releases the bubble from the producer Bubble Orientation right side up and keeps it that way. Use this control if the bubble has built-in highlights and shading, as all of the preset bubbles do.
Page 499 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Particles shooting out of the spacecraft layer (top left), text characters used as particles shooting out of a ray gun (bottom left), and Layer Exploder used on spacecraft layer (bottom right) 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.
Page 500 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you use another layer as a source for particles, Particle Playground ignores any changes you made to that layer within that composition, such as changing the Position values. Instead it uses the layer in its original state. To keep changes for a layer when you use it as a particle source, precompose the layer.
Page 501 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide With the Grid, a new particle appears on every frame at each grid intersection. You can’t adjust this frequency, but if you want to turn off the Grid or make the Grid stop generating particles at specific times, set the Particle Radius/Font Size control to 0, or use keyframes to animate the value of the Particles Across and Particles Down controls.
Page 502 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies the radius of the particles resulting from the explosion. This value must be smaller Radius Of New Particles than the radius of the original layer or particle. Specifies, in pixels per second, the maximum speed of the range within which Particle Velocity Dispersion Playground varies the velocity of the resulting particles.
Page 503 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide advances as the current time advances. However, the range is always between the current time and one second earlier than the current time. • Takes a frame at random from the layer, by using a time between 0 and the Random Time Max Absolute Random you specify.
Page 504 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Click the Font Size value, type a value of 10 or greater, and press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS). If you want to stop replacing default particles with text, delete all text from the text box in the Edit Grid Text dialog box.
Page 505 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Gravity controls Use Gravity controls to pull existing particles in a direction you specify. Particles accelerate in the direction of gravity. Apply in a vertical direction to create falling particles, such as rain or snow, or rising particles, such as champagne bubbles.
Page 506 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: The simulation space is not bounded by the dimensions of the layer to which Particle Playground is applied. You may need to use a selection map that is larger than the Particle Playground layer so that dots that are not visible are still affected by Selection Map.
Page 507 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Choose a property for each of the Map Red To, Map Green To, and Map Blue To controls. You don’t have to map properties to all of the color channels. For example, if you want to change scale over an image map, you can map the color red to scale without setting other properties.
Page 508 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Copies the force adjustment based on areas of a layer map on both the x and y planes of motion. The Gradient Force pixel brightness values in the color channel define the resistance to particle force at each pixel, so the color channel acts like a layer map of hills and valleys that decrease or increase particle force.
Page 509 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • You set the initial velocity of a particle and then use a layer map to affect the X Speed value. However, you find that the difference between the fastest and slowest particles is too great. By raising the Min value and lowering the Max value for the layer map channel that is mapped to the X Speed value, you narrow the resulting range of particle speeds.
Page 510 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 511 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 512 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), and as Shatter is applied over time to reveal another layer (bottom left and right) See also “Common Lighting controls and Material controls” on page 483 View controls The View control specifies exactly how a scene appears in the Composition panel by using the following views: Displays the pieces with textures and lighting—as they will look at final output.
Page 513 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Use this control when your shatter map uses images or letters such as O: Set the portion you don’t want to blow out, such as the centers of the O and the background, to pure white and set the rest to another pure color.
Page 514 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Gradient controls Gradient controls specify the gradient layer used to control the timing of an explosion and the pieces that are affected by the blast. Specifies which pieces in the force sphere shatter according to the corresponding luminance of Shatter Threshold the specified gradient layer.
Page 515 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Determines what happens to the pieces after they break up and blow apart. The higher the gravity setting, Gravity the faster the pieces are sucked in the direction set by Gravity Direction and Gravity Inclination.
Page 516 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The zoom factor. Smaller numbers zoom in. Focal Length The order in which the camera rotates around its three axes, and whether the camera rotates before Transform Order or after it is positioned using the other Camera Position controls.
Page 517 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Wireframe view (top left), Height Map view (bottom left), and resulting image (bottom right). Result is used as Water Surface source for Caustics effect example. Wireframe view (left), Height Map view (center), and resulting image (right). Result is used as Input Phase for Colorama effect example.
Page 518 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Height Map controls Height Map controls specify the appearance of the height map. Note: While adjusting Brightness and Contrast, keep the wave surface layer between the cyan and violet rectangles. If a peak pokes through the cyan rectangle, it clips at pure white. If a trough pokes through the bottom of the violet rectangle, it clips at pure black.
Page 519 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies how waves bounce off the edges of the layer and back into the scene. Reflect Edges Specifies when the waves start moving. By default, the effect starts with a still surface without Pre-roll (seconds) waves or ripples.
Page 520: Stylize Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies where in the wave phase the wave actually begins. For example, with the default setting of 0˚, the Phase first disturbance in the liquid is a convex wave (projecting upward from the surface of the water). With Phase set to 180˚, the first disturbance in the liquid is a concave wave.
Page 521 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color. Original (left), and with effect applied (right) See also “Emboss effect” on page 515 Emboss effect The Emboss effect sharpens the edges of objects in an image and suppresses colors. The effect also highlights the edges from a specified angle.
Page 522 Rendering the Glow effect at Best quality can change the appearance of the layer. This change is especially true if you use Adobe Photoshop arbitrary maps to color the glows. Be sure to preview at Best quality before you render the effect.
Page 523 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies whether the glow is horizontal, vertical, or both. Glow Dimensions Mosaic effect The Mosaic effect fills a layer with solid-color rectangles, pixelating the original image. This effect is useful for simulating low-resolution displays and for obscuring faces. You can also animate it for a transition. At Best quality, the edges of the rectangles are anti-aliased.
Page 524 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (left), and with effect applied (right) Roughen Edges effect The Roughen Edges effect makes an alpha channel rough and can add color to simulate rust and other kinds of corrosion. This effect gives rasterized text or graphics a naturally rough look, like that of old typewriter text.
Page 525 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: The Cycle control affects only the state of the fractal, not geometrics or other controls, so you can get different results with different Size or Offset settings. • Specifies a value from which to generate the roughness texture. Animating this property results in Random Seed flashing from one set of fractal shapes to another within the same fractal type.
Page 526 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Texturize effect The Texturize effect gives a layer the appearance of having the texture of another layer. For example, you could make the image of a tree appear as if it had the texture of bricks, and control the depth of the texture and the apparent light source.
Page 527: Text Effects
The Basic Text effect places text on an existing layer—unlike text created on text layers or imported text created in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, either of which becomes its own layer. Use text layers for greater control over text formatting and text animation. (See “Text” on page 272.) This effect works with 8-bpc color.
Page 528 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left); after applying the Numbers effect (bottom left); and after setting Type to Numbers, Time, and Hexadecimal on three different layers (bottom right) The following options and values are available in the Font Style dialog box: Font, Style, Direction, and Alignment.
Page 529 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 530 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 531 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • The amount of kerning to apply. Kerning Value Specifies the orientation or rotation values of each character. Orientation • Each character is rotated by the specified number of degrees from its current angle. The center Character Rotation of rotation is on the point where the character intersects the path.
Page 532 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Advanced controls The number of characters that appear at the current time. Animate Visible Characters to display Visible Characters one or more characters at a time to create the appearance of typing characters. Positive values specify the number of visible characters from the beginning of the text to the end.
Page 533: Time Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To move only the Vertex 1/Circle Center, drag its cross hair. • To automatically snap the Tangent 1/Circle Point on top of the Vertex 1/Circle Center, select the Pen tool and then click the outer circle of Tangent 1 (Windows) or Command-click the outer circle (not the cross hair) of Tangent 1 (Mac OS).
Page 534 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Echo effect The time, in seconds, between echoes. Negative values create echoes from previous frames; Echo Time (seconds) positive values create echoes from upcoming frames. The number of echoes. For example, if the value is 2, the result is a combination of three frames: Number of Echoes the current time, the current time + Echo Time, and the current time + (2 * Echo Time).
Page 535 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Posterize Time effect See also “Precompose layers” on page 118 Time Difference effect The Time Difference effect calculates the color difference between two layers and is a useful aid in color correction; use it to extract color differences when matching a clean background plate with foreground footage. It’s also good for creating mattes to be used to apply trails of smoke, fire, or echoing effects.
Page 536 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Uses the most opaque of the original source and Target layers’ alpha channels. • Sets the alpha channel to completely opaque. Full On • Uses the lightness of the RGB difference as alpha. Lightness Of Result •...
Page 537 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Displacement amount in seconds = maximum_displacement_time * (2 * (luminance_value – 128) / 256) After Effects displaces each pixel in the image by replacing a pixel in the image at the current time with the pixel in the same position at another time.
Page 538 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Timewarp effect Method options These options determine how interpolated frames are generated: Duplicates the last frame shown. Whole Frames Creates a new frame by blending existing frames. Frame Mix Creates a new frame by analyzing the pixel movement in nearby frames and creating motion vectors.
Page 539: Transition Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Controls the quality of the motion blur. A higher value results in a smoother motion blur. Shutter Samples Matte, warp, and crop controls The layer to use as a matte for defining the foreground and background areas of the image. White areas...
Page 540 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), and with effect applied (bottom left 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 541 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies the interaction of the numbers of rows and columns. Independent makes both the Rows Rows & Columns and Columns sliders active. Columns Follows Rows makes only the Rows slider active. If you choose this option, the number of columns is always the same as the number of rows.
Page 542 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide configuration, the image may look unusual (strangely sheared, for example). But if you know the focal length that you are trying to match, this control is the easiest way to get correct results. Jitter controls Adding jitter (Position Jitter and Rotation Jitter) makes this transition more realistic.
Page 543 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide How the gradient layer’s pixels are mapped to the pixels of the layer to which the effect is Gradient Placement applied: • Uses multiple tiled copies of the gradient layer. Tile Gradient • Uses a single instance of the gradient layer in the center of the layer.
Page 544 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), and with effect applied (bottom left and right) Radial Wipe effect The Radial Wipe effect reveals an underlying layer using a wipe that circles around a specified point. At Best quality, the edges of the wipe are anti-aliased.
Page 545: Utility Effects
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Original (top left), and with effect applied (bottom left and right) Utility effects Cineon Converter effect The Cineon Converter effect provides a high degree of control over color conversions of Cineon frames, but in most cases you should convert the colors in a Cineon file using color management features.
Page 546 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The white point used for the layer in After Effects. Internal White Point Increase or decrease Gamma to lighten or darken midtones, respectively. Gamma The rolloff value used to correct bright highlights. If adjusting the brightest areas makes the rest of Highlight Rolloff the image appear too dark, use Highlight Rolloff to adjust these bright highlights.
Page 547 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Compares the extreme highlight of the source color space to that of the destination color Relative Colorimetric space and shifts all colors accordingly. Out-of-gamut colors are shifted to the closest reproducible color in the desti- nation color space.
Page 548 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Because the first instance of the HDR Compander effect compresses the range of values through sampling, some precision is lost. For this reason, use the HDR Compander effect only if you’re willing to trade off some precision in values for the sake of high dynamic range.
Page 549: Chapter 17: Expressions
Chapter 17: Expressions Use expressions to create relationships between layer properties using a simple scripting language. You can use expressions without knowing anything about programming; After Effects automatically creates expressions for you when you link one property to another using the pick whip. Animating with expressions is often much faster and easier than animating with keyframes.
Page 550 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide B C D Expression interface in the Timeline panel in layer bar mode A. Enable Expression switch B. Show Post-Expression Graph button C. Pick whip D. Expression Language menu E. Expression field While you are editing an expression, previews of all sorts are suspended; a red bar appears at the bottom of panels that are waiting for you to exit text-editing mode.
Page 551 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide When you are animating text, you can use the Expression selector to dynamically specify how much you want characters to be affected by an animator property through the use of expressions. You can add one or more Expression selectors to an animator group, and that animator group can contain one or more properties.
Page 552 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “About animation, keyframes, and expressions” on page 185 Add, disable, or remove an expression • To add an expression to a property, select the property in the Timeline panel and choose Animation > Add Expression or press Alt+Shift+= (Windows) or Option+Shift+= (Mac OS);...
Page 553 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The format of expressions created by the pick whip is determined by the Expression Pick Whip Writes Compact English preference (Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS)). By default, the pick whip creates compact English expressions, which use the Timeline panel’s name for the properties...
Page 554 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The element is a global attribute whose value is a Comp object representing the current composition. thisComp To determine what can follow in your expression, look up the return value for under “Global thisComp thisComp objects”...
Page 555 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Work with the Graph Editor” on page 186 “Creating and modifying motion paths” on page 199 Writing expressions for source text The Source Text property of a text layer is interpreted by expressions as a JavaScript String. You can use the pick whip to retrieve the source text from another text layer;...
Page 556 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Type at the beginning of the comment and at the end of the comment. Any text between ignored. For example: This is a multiline comment. */ Save and reuse expressions Once you have written an expression, you can save it for future use by copying and pasting it into a text-editing appli- cation, such as Notepad, Simple Text, or even Stickies.
Page 557: The Expression Language
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Using Expression Controls effects Use Expression Controls effects to add a control that you can use to manipulate one or many properties’ values by linking the property to the control using expressions. A single control can affect several properties at once.
Page 558 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Spaces between words are ignored, except within a string. In JavaScript, a value stored in an object is called a property. However, After Effects uses the term property to refer to layer attributes as defined in the Timeline panel. Consequently, for clarity, After Effects documentation refers to a JavaScript property as a method when the property takes arguments, or an attribute when it does not.
Page 559 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Dimension Property Rotation ˚ Opacity % Scale [x=width, y=height] Position [x, y] Anchor Point [x, y] Scale [width, height, depth] 3D Position [x, y, z] 3D Anchor Point [x, y, z] Color [red, green, blue, alpha] You can access the individual elements of an Array by using brackets and an index number to indicate which element you want.
Page 560 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide x = thisComp.layer("Layer A").position[0]; y = thisComp.layer("Layer B").position[1]; [x,y] You can create an expression that refers to just one value within the Array of a 2D or 3D property. By default, the first value is used, unless you specify otherwise. For example, if you drag the pick whip from Layer A’s Rotation property to Layer B’s Scale property, the following expression appears:...
Page 561: After Effects Expression Elements Reference
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Expression time Time within an expression is always in composition time (not layer time) and is measured in seconds. The default time for any expression is the current composition time at which the expression is being evaluated. The following expressions both use the default composition time and return the same values: thisComp.layer(1).position...
Page 562 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • “Other Math methods” on page 562 • “Comp attributes and methods” on page 562 • “Footage attributes and methods” on page 564 • “Layer subobjects attributes and methods” on page 565 • “Layer General attributes and methods” on page 565 •...
Page 563 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Represents the composition time, in seconds, at which the expression is being evaluated. Return type: Number. colorDepth Returns the project’s color depth value. For example, returns 16 when the project’s color depth is 16 bits colorDepth per channel.
Page 564 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Argument type: t, fps, and framesPerFoot are Numbers; isDuration is a Boolean. Converts the value of t to a String representing feet of film and frames. See for an explanation of the timeToFrames t, fps, and isDuration arguments. The framesPerFoot argument specifies the number of frames in one foot of film. It defaults to 16, which is the most common rate for 35mm footage.
Page 565 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide The value of each component of value is constrained to fall between the values of the corresponding values of limit1 and limit2. Return type: Number. dot(vec1, vec2) Argument type: vec1 and vec2 are Arrays. Returns the dot (inner) product of the vector arguments.
Page 566 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Return type: Number or Array. random(maxValOrArray) Argument type: maxValOrArray is a Number or Array. If maxValOrArray is a Number, this method returns a number between 0 and maxValOrArray. If maxValOrArray is an Array, this method returns an Array with the same dimension as maxValOrArray, with each component ranging between 0 and the corresponding component of maxValOrArray.
Page 567 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Interpolation methods For all of the Interpolation methods, the argument is often , though it can have other values, instead. time value , the interpolation between values happens over a duration. If , then the expression maps one...
Page 568 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Argument type: t, tMin, and tMax are Numbers, and value1 and value2 are Numbers or Arrays. Similar to , except that the tangent is 0 only on the tMax side and interpolation is linear on the tMin side.
Page 569 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Retrieves the layer that is relIndex layers above or below otherLayer. For example, thisComp.layer(thisLayer, returns true if the next layer down in the Timeline panel is active. 1).active Return type: MarkerProperty. marker Important: You cannot access a composition-time marker by marker number. If you have a project created in a previous version of After Effects that uses composition marker numbers in expressions, you must change those calls to use instead.
Page 570 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Returns the composition’s height, in pixels. Return type: Number. duration Returns the composition’s duration, in seconds. Return type: Number. displayStartTime Returns the composition start time, in seconds. Return type: Number. frameDuration Returns the duration of a frame, in seconds.
Page 571 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Layer subobjects attributes and methods Return type: Comp or Footage. source Returns the source Comp or source Footage object for the layer. Default time is adjusted to the time in the source. Example: source.layer(1).position Return type: Effect.
Page 572 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide idx = index; if (hasParent) { idx = parent.index; thisComp.layer(idx).position.wiggle(5,20) Return type: Number. inPoint Returns the In point of the layer, in seconds. Note: In general, the value of is greater than the value of .
Page 573 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Layer Properties attributes and methods When you add masks, effects, paint, or text to a layer, After Effects adds new properties to the Timeline panel. There are too many of these properties to list here, so use the pick whip to learn the syntax for referring to them in your expressions.
Page 574 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Returns the layer-time marker that is nearest in time to t. For example, this expression returns the time of the marker on the layer nearest to the time of 1 second: marker.nearestKey(1).time This expression returns the time of the marker on the layer nearest to the current time: marker.nearestKey(time).time...
Page 575 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Return type: Property. metal Returns the metal component value as a percentage. Layer Space Transforms methods Use layer space transform methods to transform values from one space to another, such as from layer space to world space.
Page 576 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Transforms a vector from layer space to world space. Example: p1 = effect("Eye Bulge 1")("Bulge Center"); p2 = effect("Eye Bulge 2")("Bulge Center"); toWorld(sub(p1, p2)) Return type: Array [2 or 3]. fromWorldVec(vec, t=time) Argument type: vec is an Array [2 or 3], and t is a Number.
Page 577 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Light attributes and methods Light objects have the same attributes and methods as Layer objects, except for source effect mask width , and all of the material properties. height anchorPoint scale opacity audioLevels timeRemap Return type: Property [3].
Page 578 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Mask attributes and methods Note: You can link Mask Path properties to other path properties (paths in a shape layer and brush strokes), but the properties are not accessible for direct numerical manipulation through expressions.
Page 579 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide v = wiggle(5, 10); [v[0], v[0]] This example, on a two-dimensional property, wiggles only along the y axis: freq = 3; amp = 50; w = wiggle(freq,amp); [value[0],w[1]]; Return type: Number or Array. temporalWiggle(freq, amp, octaves=1, amp_mult=.5, t=time) Argument type: freq, amp, octaves, amp_mult, and t are Numbers.
Page 580 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 plays until the layer’s Out point. The segment to loop is determined by the specified number of keyframes. The numKeyframes value sets the number of keyframe segments to loop;...
Page 581 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Example: Animating with the propertyGroup method and propertyIndex attribute Values of propertyGroup relative to brush stroke’s Position property A. propertyGroup(4) B. propertyGroup(3) C. propertyGroup(2) D. propertyGroup(1) E. Position’s propertyIndex value is 2; Rotation’s propertyIndex value is 4.
Page 582 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Return type: Number. index Returns the index of the keyframe. MarkerKey attributes You can access values for composition-time markers and layer-time markers using the same methods. Access layer- time markers through the object; access composition-time markers through the thisLayer.marker...
Page 583: Expression Examples
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide For example, if you have a parameter named “background color”, then you can use the following expression to access its value at the nearest marker: thisComp.marker.nearestKey(time).parameters["background color"] Expression examples Example: Make a layer revolve in a circle You can create an expression without using properties from other layers.
Page 584 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide (thisComp.layer(1).position + thisComp.layer(2).position)/2 Example: Create a trail of images This example expression instructs a layer to be at the same position as the next higher layer in the Timeline panel, but delayed by a specified amount of time (in this case, 0.5 seconds). You can set similar expressions for the other geometric properties.
Page 585 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide startFade = 500; // Start fade 500 pixels from camera. endFade = 1500; // End fade 1500 pixels from camera. try{ // Check whether there's a camera. C = thisComp.activeCamera.toWorld([0,0,0]); }catch(err){ // No camera, so assume 50mm.
Page 586 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide n = 0; t = 0; if (marker.numKeys > 0){ n = marker.nearestKey(time).index; if (marker.key(n).time > time) n--; if (n > 0) t = time - marker.key(n).time; amp = 15; freq = 5; decay = 3.0;...
Page 587 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Add, edit, and remove expressions” on page 545 Example: Match camera’s focal plane to another layer ❖ Apply the following expression to a camera layer’s Focus Distance property to have its focus distance match the distance to the anchor point of a layer named “target”:...
Page 588: Chapter 18: Rendering And Exporting
Note: Some kinds of exporting don’t involve rendering and are for intermediate stages in a workflow, not for final output. For example, you can export a project as an Adobe Premiere Pro Project by choosing File > Export > Adobe Premiere Pro Project.
Page 589 If you output your movie in the H.264 format for mobile devices, then you can use Adobe Device Central to view your movie as it will appear on any of a large number of mobile devices. Adobe Device Central emulates cellular phones, portable media players (such as the Apple iPod), and many other common viewing devices.
Page 590 To find out whether your video codec supports 16-bpc color depth, contact the manufacturer directly. Video project formats • Adobe Premiere Pro project (PRPROJ; Windows and Mac OS on Intel-based Mac only) Still-image formats • Adobe Photoshop (PSD; 8, 16, and 32 bpc) •...
Page 591 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Choose Composition > Add To Render Queue. • Drag the composition to the Render Queue panel. Click the triangle next to the Output To heading in the Render Queue panel to choose a name for the output file based on a naming convention, and then choose a location;...
Page 592 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Render item statuses Each render item has a status, which appears in the Status column in the Render Queue panel: The render item is listed in the Render Queue panel but is not ready to render. Confirm that you have...
Page 593 When you first start After Effects, it attempts to determine if your OpenGL card meets the requirements, and then enables or disables OpenGL as appropriate. For information regarding specific OpenGL hardware, visit the After Effects section of the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_openglsupport.
Page 594 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide OpenGL in After Effects supports the following features: • Shadows, except point light shadows (Colored shadows appear gray.) • Lights (eight maximum) • Masks • Alpha channels • Track mattes • Intersecting layers • Transformations for 2D and 3D layers •...
Page 595 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Collect files in one location The Collect Files command gathers copies of all of the files in a project or composition into a single location. This is useful as a step before rendering, for archiving, or for moving a project to a different computer system or user account.
Page 596 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: If rendering time is unusually long, you may have set Maximum Number Of Machines too high, and the network overhead required to track rendering progress among all computers is out of proportion to the time spent actually rendering frames.
Page 597 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide To make a file naming template the default template, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you choose the template from the Output To menu. In the Render Queue panel, choose Custom from the Output To menu.
Page 598 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide See also “Work with composition settings” on page 114 “Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel” on page 151 Change render settings • To change render settings for a render item, click the underlined render settings template name next to the Render Settings heading in the Render Queue panel, and choose settings in the Render Settings dialog box.
Page 599 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Determines whether the disk cache preferences are used during rendering. Read Only writes no new Disk Cache frames to the disk cache while After Effects renders. Current Settings (default) uses the disk cache settings defined in the Memory &...
Page 600 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Work with output module settings Output module settings apply to each render item and determine how the rendered movie is processed for final output. Use output module settings to specify file format, output color profile, compression options, and other encoding options for final output.
Page 601 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 602 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Specifies the number for the starting frame of a sequence. For example, if this option is set to 38, After Starting # Effects names the first frame [file_name]_00038. The Use Comp Frame Number option adds the starting frame number in the work area to the starting frame of the sequence.
Page 603: Rendering And Exporting To Flash Formats
About render and export of Flash formats You can render and export movies from After Effects as Adobe Flash (SWF) files or Flash Video (FLV) files. Incor- porating these movies into web pages and adding interactivity is typically accomplished using the Flash authoring application.
Page 604 IEC61966-2.1 color space for output. This output color space is appropriate for movies shown in a web browser. (See “Color management” on page 240.) Select the composition you want to export, and then choose File > Export > Adobe Flash (SWF). Type a filename (making sure to include the .swf extension) and location, and then click Save.
Page 605 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Each mask is exported as a separate SWF object, the name of which is the layer name followed by the mask name. If all masks use Difference mode, all masks are exported as one SWF object, and the name is the layer name. Each text character is exported as a separate SWF object.
Page 606: Rendering And Exporting Still Images And Still-Image Sequences
(using programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Soundbooth). When exporting from post- production software, you must determine the file settings appropriate to the film stock you’ll use, or you’ll need to decide how to best translate your editing decisions to film.
Page 607 Export a single frame of a composition You can export a single frame from a composition, either as an Adobe Photoshop (PSD) file with layers intact or as a rendered image. This is useful for editing files in Adobe Photoshop, preparing files for Adobe Encore, creating a proxy, or exporting an image from a movie for posters or storyboards.
Page 608: Exporting Project Information To Other Adobe Applications
User Guide Note: You can also use the video layers feature in Adobe Photoshop Extended to edit video files not in filmstrip format, and you can rotoscope with paint tools in After Effects without using the filmstrip format. For help in choosing whether to use filmstrip format, or whether to use Photoshop or After Effects for a given task, see Photoshop Help.
Page 609 • 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 610 • Drag one or more compositions from the After Effects Project panel to the Adobe Premiere Pro or the Encore Project panel. • In Adobe Premiere Pro, choose File > Import. Choose an After Effects project file and click Open, and then choose a composition in the Import Composition dialog box and click OK.
Page 611 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 612: Encoding And Compression Options For Movies
Project panel with an offline composition. You can temporarily suppress a linked clip in Adobe Premiere Pro by selecting the clip and choosing Clip > Enable. To relink the clip, choose Clip > Enable again (a check mark next to the command indicates that the clip is enabled).
Page 613 When you export a movie file for delivery media other than full-screen, full frame-rate television, you usually need 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-encoding options, because it’s best to perform them prior to encoding the file.
Page 614 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro add metadata to MPEG-2 files that Encore can read for aid in authoring and building DVDs. This metadata contains information that enables Encore to multiplex audio and video, automati- cally generate DVD chapter points, and open clips in the applications from which they were rendered.
Page 615 A high-quality encoding format developed for multichannel digital sound and the SurCode for Dolby Digital 5.1 most common encoder for DVD-video. (This codec is available only in Adobe Premiere Pro.) • A high-quality encoder developed by MainConcept media technologies, and included MainConcept MPEG Audio with Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Soundbooth.
Page 616 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Determines the audio type. Audio Format Specifies the output bit rate of the audio. Generally, higher bit rates increase both quality and file size. This Bit Rate option is available for Dolby® Digital, MainConcept MPEG, and some Windows Media audio codecs.
Page 617 (Not supported for Windows Media, QuickTime, or Adobe Flash Video). Media Encoder 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 618 Rendering may take a few minutes, depending on the size of the file. When rendering is complete, a temporary file is displayed in the Adobe Device Central Emulator tab. To continue testing, double-click the name of a different device in the Device Sets or Available Devices lists.
Page 619 In Adobe Premiere Pro, use the File > Get Properties For command to analyze the data rate of files you export. Specify QuickTime compression settings In the Render Queue panel, click the underlined name of the output module.
Page 620 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Note: (Mac OS only) If you intend to use key frames in the movie, hold down Option and adjust the Quality slider to control the temporal compression of the movie. Temporal compression compresses a movie by comparing successive frames and keeping only changed data.
Page 621 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 622: Automated Rendering And Network Rendering
The executable file is located in the same folder as the primary After Effects application. The default locations: • Windows: \Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS3\Support Files • Mac OS: /Applications/Adobe After Effects CS3 You use the program by entering the command...
Page 623 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide This example command tells After Effects to render frames 1 through 10 of Composition_1 in project_1.aep to a numbered sequence of Photoshop files using a multi-machine render: aerender -project c:\projects\project_1.aep -comp "Composition_1" -s 1 -e 10 -RStemplate "Multi-Machine Settings"...
Page 624 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Argument Description is the number of frames to advance before rendering a new increment –i increment frame. A value of 1 (the default) causes normal rendering of all frames. Higher values render a frame and use it...
Page 625 You run the render engine using the Adobe After Effects Render Engine shortcut in the Adobe After Effects CS3 folder. (See “Installation” on page 1.) Note: For more information, see the Read Me file on the installation DVD or visit the Adobe After Effects support website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_support.
Page 626 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 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 compatible with all rendering or destination volumes.
Page 627 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Choose File > Collect Files to copy completed projects to your specified watch folder. Once you choose Collect Files, After Effects copies the project or composition and all source files to the watch folder. Note: After Effects can’t copy source files that are larger than 2 GB using the Collect Files command: you must copy them manually to the (Footage) folder in the Collect Files folder.
Page 628 Current Render Details section of the Render Queue panel. Note: Adobe does not provide technical support for general network configuration; consult your network administrator. Install After Effects on each computer that will be used to render the project. Make sure that you have the same fonts installed on each computer.
Page 629: Converting Movies
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Open the Render Queue panel on each computer and click Render. You do not need to start rendering on each computer simultaneously, but to ensure equal workloads, start them at approximately the same time. As each computer finishes rendering a frame, After Effects searches the Output folder for the next unrendered frame and starts rendering again.
Page 630 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • Changes in frame rate may require the use of frame blending to smooth out the interpolated frames. For longer footage items, this can result in very long render times. Import the footage you’re converting into a composition using the preset of the format you’re converting to.
Page 631 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide • To preserve audio pitch but not synchronization, or for clips without audio, right-click (Windows) or Control- click (Mac OS) the footage item in the Project panel, select Interpret Footage > Main, select Conform To Frame Rate, and then enter 23.976 in the Conform To Frame Rate box.
Page 632 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide This is the fastest method to create reduced-size movies. For Render the composition at a reduced resolution example, if you create a 640 x 480 composition, you can set the composition resolution to one half, reducing the size of the rendered composition to 320 x 240.
Page 633 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Create a composition and render source footage items simultaneously You can simultaneously create a composition from source footage and prepare it for rendering. This process is useful when you want to change some characteristic of the source footage, such as frame rate or compression method, and have that rendered version available in your project.
Page 634: Reviewing Movies With Clip Notes Comments
Use Clip Notes to submit a movie to reviewers for comments. When you render a movie for Clip Notes comments, a copy of the movie or a link to the movie is included in an Adobe PDF file. The movie can be in Windows Media (Windows only) or QuickTime format.
Page 635 Timeline panel. To view the PDF, a reviewer must have Adobe Acrobat Standard, Acrobat Professional, or Adobe Reader (version 7.0.5 or later). Adobe Reader is available as a free download from www.adobe.com/go/learn_dv_download_adobereader.
Page 636 Choose File > Import > Adobe Clip Notes. Select the XFDF file that contains the comments, and click Open.
Page 637 Chapter 19: Keyboard shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts Use keyboard shortcuts to speed up common tasks. Note: Some shortcuts are marked with an asterisk (*) to remind you to make sure that Num Lock is on when you use the numeric keypad. Shortcuts, general Result Windows...
Page 638 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Shortcuts for working with projects Result Windows Mac OS New project Ctrl+Alt+N Command+Option+N Open project Ctrl+O Command+O Open most recent project Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P Command+Option+Shift+P New folder in Project panel Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N Command+Option+Shift+N Open Project Settings dialog box...
Page 639 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Open or close Brush Tips panel Ctrl+9 Command+9 Open or close Effect Controls F3 or Ctrl+Shift+T F3 or Command+Shift+T panel for selected layer Open Flowchart panel for project Ctrl+F11 Command+F11 flowchart...
Page 640 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Cycle through tools Alt-click tool button in Tools panel Option-click tool button in Tools panel Activate Selection tool Activate Hand tool Temporarily activate Hand tool Hold down spacebar. Hold down spacebar.
Page 641 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Shortcuts for working with compositions and the work area Result Windows Mac OS New composition Ctrl+N Command+N Open Composition Settings Ctrl+K Command+K dialog box for selected composi- tion Set composition background Ctrl+Shift+B Command+Shift+B color Set beginning or end of work area...
Page 642 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Toggle Output Device preference Ctrl+/ (on numeric keypad) Command+/ (on numeric keypad) between Desktop Only and video preview device Take snapshot Shift+F5, Shift+F6, Shift+F7, or Shift+F5, Shift+F6, Shift+F7, or Shift+F8 Shift+F8...
Page 643 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Shortcuts for working with footage Result Windows Mac OS Import one file or image sequence Ctrl+I Command+I Import multiple files or image Ctrl+Alt+I Command+Option+I sequences Open movie in an After Effects Alt-double-click Option-double-click Footage panel...
Page 644 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Zoom to 100% in Composition, / (on main keyboard) / (on main keyboard) Layer, or Footage panel Zoom to fit in Composition, Layer, Shift+/ (on main keyboard) Shift+/ (on main keyboard)
Page 645 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS New solid layer Ctrl+Y Command+Y New null layer Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Y Command+Option+Shift+Y Select layer (1-999) by its number 0-9 on numeric keypad* 0-9 on numeric keypad* (enter digits rapidly for two-digit and three-digit numbers)
Page 646 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Move In point or Out point of [ (left bracket) or ] (right bracket) [ (left bracket) or ] (right bracket) selected layers to current time Trim In point or Out point of...
Page 647 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Show only Time Remap property Show only Scale property Show only Effects property group E Show only mask property groups Show only Material Options prop- erty group (3D) Show only expressions...
Page 648 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Move selected layers 10 pixels at Shift+arrow key Shift+arrow key current magnification (Position) Move selected layers 1 frame Alt+Page Up or Alt+Page Down Option+Page Up or Option+Page earlier or later Down...
Page 649 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS New camera Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C Command+Option+Shift+C Move the camera and its point of Ctrl+Alt+Shift+\ Command+Option+Shift+\ interest to look at selected 3D objects Turn Casts Shadows property on Alt+Shift+C Option+Shift+C or off for selected 3D layers Shortcuts for keyframes Note: (Mac OS) Shortcuts involving function keys F9-F12 may conflict with shortcuts used by the operating system.
Page 650 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Shortcuts for working with text Result Windows Mac OS New text layer Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T Command+Option+Shift+T Align selected horizontal text left, Ctrl+Shift+L, C, or R Command+Shift+L, C, or R center, or right Align selected vertical text top,...
Page 651 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Turn All Caps on or off for selected Ctrl+Shift+K Command+Shift+K text Turn Small Caps on or off for Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K Command+Option+Shift+K selected text Turn Superscript on or off for Ctrl+Shift+= (equals) Command+Shift+= (equals)
Page 652 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Shortcuts for working with masks Result Windows Mac OS New mask Ctrl+Shift+N Command+Shift+N Select all points in a mask Alt-click mask Option-click mask Select next or previous mask Alt+` (grave accent) or Alt+Shift+` Option+` (grave accent) or...
Page 653 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Join current paint stroke to the Hold Shift while beginning stroke Hold Shift while beginning stroke previous stroke Set starting sample point to point Alt-click Option-click currently under Clone Stamp tool...
Page 654 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Result Windows Mac OS Set rounded rectangle roundness Left Arrow when dragging to Left Arrow when dragging to to 0 (sharp corners); decrease create shape create shape polygon and star outer roundness Set rounded rectangle roundness...
Page 655 AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide Shortcuts for saving, exporting, and rendering Result Windows Mac OS Save project Ctrl+S Command+S Increment and save project Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S Command+Option+Shift+S Save As Ctrl+Shift+S Command+Shift+S Add active composition or Ctrl+Shift+/ (on main keyboard) Command+Shift+/ (on main...
Page 656 604 acceptsShadows (expression rendering a frame to 601 element) 568 Link Media command 606 text from 272 accessibility linking to compositions 604 transparency 90 of Help 4 managing performance 603 Adobe Premiere 6.0 and 6.5 31 action-safe zone 134...
Page 657 616 arrays (expressions) 552 running, in Bridge 54 aeselflink 36 Asian text. See CJK text automation After Effects. See Adobe After Effects aspect ratio 65 post-render actions 596 aligning frame 64 rendering 616 layers 144 pixel 64, 66...
Page 658 422 Fractal Noise 460 point of interest 182 Bulge effect 403 Lightning effect 429 settings 180 buttons for Adobe Encore 31 Magnify effect and 407 tools 183 for overlapping text 280 capital letters 280 Paint Bucket effect and 430...
Page 659 Color Link effect 391 creating 112 Clip Notes 629, 630 color management importing layered files as 89 Clone Stamp tool 301, 306 about 240 offline, with Adobe Dynamic Link 606 See also paint tools camera raw 244 resolution 132 codecs color profiles 241...
Page 660 623, 624 Difference Matte effect 441 duration copying and pasting diffuse (expression element) 568 about 135 between Adobe Premiere Pro and digital disk recorders (DDRs) 83 time-stretching 219 After Effects 74 Digital Picture Exchange (DPX) duration (expression element) 564...
Page 661 Filter panel 43 exporting vectors 554 filters. See effects about 582 viewing 548 Find Edges effect 515 After Effects project to Adobe Premiere Pro 602 extending layers 145 first vertex 323 Clip Notes 628 Extensible Metadata Platform Flange & Chorus effect 371...
Page 662 269 Group As Stack command, in about 57 Gaussian Blur effect 377 Bridge 49 Adobe Photoshop files 141 gaussRandom (expression grouping shapes 314, 316 element) 560 importing and interpreting 60 Grow Bounds effect 541 Generate effects...
Page 663 Adobe Illustrator files 91 Keyframe Velocity dialog box 217 field order 80 Adobe Photoshop files 90 keyframe-looping methods 573 frame rate 89 Adobe Premiere 6.0 and 6.5 keyframes separating fields 79 projects 73 about 185 invert (expression element) 572 Adobe Premiere Pro projects 73...
Page 664 INDEX 658 effects 268 creating from Adobe Premiere loopInDuration (expression Pro 74 element) 574 for a single frame 269 guide 162 looping Keylight 268 image quality 154 footage items 72 linear keys 444 locking and unlocking 152 Fractal Noise effect 460...
Page 665 84, 86 correcting drift 344 Match Grain effect 461 media cache 77 feature region 334 Median effect 463 Media Encoder. See Adobe Media search region 334 Encoder Noise Alpha effect 463 stabilizing motion 341 media player setup 27 Noise effect 463...
Page 666 Photo Filter effect 399 Offset effect 409 anchor point 157 photos, in Bridge 50, 51 offset, keyframe-looping audio 374 Photoshop. See Adobe Photoshop argument 573 masks 266 PIC format, importing 84 OMF (Open Media Framework) Paragraph panel 282 pick whip, creating expressions...
Page 667 69 preferences Puppet tools remap-time marker 221 resetting 20 about 227 Remove Color Matting effect 384 Premiere Pro. See Adobe Premiere automatically animating 229 Remove Grain effect 465 manually animating 228 Remove Unused Footage premultiplied channels 62, 253 command 70...
Page 668 INDEX 662 resizing scale shape layers 313, 317 movies 625, 626 exponential 219 shapes resolution paths and points 326 adding attributes 327 compositions 132 tracking 341 creating 317, 319 revealing footage items 69 scale (expression element) 567 duplicating 326 Reverb effect 373 scaling modifying 322 reversing audio 370...
Page 669 INDEX 663 SMPTE timecode 135 Stereo Mixer effect 374 tablets, graphics 304 snapshots 129 Stereo Mixer effect, conversion in Adobe Premiere Pro 75 tate-chuu-yoko text 281 software still images technical support 1 activation 1 changing duration 145 template projects 21...
Page 670 62, 253 Time Stretch property, conversion in tracking, text 279 Adobe Premiere Pro 75 Unsharp Mask controls, Remove transfer modes, conversion in Adobe Grain effect 467 timecode 135 Premiere Pro 75 Unsharp Mask effect 379 Timecode effect 527 transfer modes.
Page 671 INDEX 665 View Axis mode 177 floating windows 14 value (expression element) 557, 572, viewers 19 multiple monitors 17 views resetting 18 value graphs 193, 207, 223 orthogonal 130 resizing panel groups 16 valueAtTime (expression 3D 130 saving custom layouts 17 element) 572 vignetting, correcting in camera raw World Axis mode 177...

Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual

Chapter 1: Getting Started

Chapter 2: Workspace

Chapter 3: Planning and Managing Projects

Chapter 4: Adobe Bridge

Chapter 5: Importing

Chapter 6: Compositions

Chapter 7: Views and Previews

Chapter 8: Layers and Properties

Chapter 9: Animation

Chapter 10: Color

Chapter 11: Masks, Transparency, and Keying

Chapter 12: Text

Chapter 13: Drawing and Painting

Chapter 14: Motion Tracking

Chapter 15: Effects and Animation Presets

Chapter 16: Effect Reference

Chapter 17: Expressions

Chapter 18: Rendering and Exporting

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Summary of Contents for Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL

Table of Contents