Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 5.5 Help Manual

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Summary of Contents for Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 5.5

Page 1 Using Help About online Help Adobe Systems, Inc. provides complete documentation in the Adobe PDF Help system. The Help system includes information on all the tools, commands, and features for both Windows and Mac OS. The PDF format is designed for easy navigation online, and support for third-party screen readers compatible with Windows.
Page 2 Adobe After Effects Help Using Help Using Help Contents Index Back To ﬁnd a topic using the Find command: 1 Choose Edit > Find. 2 Enter a word or a phrase in the text box, and click OK. Acrobat will search the document, starting from the current page, and display the ﬁrst occurrence of the word or phrase you are searching for.
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Using Motion Math (PB only) 317 Using Vector Paint (PB only) 333 Creating Particle Effects (PB only) 351 (5.5) Working with After Effects 5.5 to Build a Composition 377 (5.5) Layers 381 (5.5) Working with Masks and Transparency 383 (5.5) Applying Effects 387 (5.5) 3D Compositing 391...
Page 4 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Working in a project An After Effects project is a single ﬁle that stores references to all the footage you use in that project.
Page 5 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back Footage windows are useful for viewing and evaluating footage items in their original • form (see “Viewing imported footage” on page 50). To view a layer’s original source independently of other layers or to trim footage, you •...
Page 6 Also consider the key frame rate of the codec you have selected. See the Adobe Web site for more information on QuickTime compressors and codec key frame rates.
Page 7 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back If you will be using an MJPEG codec, keep in mind that the frame sizes and resolutions • available for rendering are determined by the speciﬁc MJPEG board you are using. Refer to the speciﬁcations for your MJPEG board.
Page 8 Show in the Import File dialog box to override the Mac OS ﬁle types. To open a Windows project on a Mac OS system, the project must have the correct .aep extension. For a list of common extensions and their associated ﬁle types, see the Adobe Web site.
Page 9 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back NTSC (29.97) drop-frame timecode When you work with a composition that is set to a frame rate of 29.97 fps, After Effects uses SMPTE 30-fps drop-frame timecode by default, making adjustments using the SMPTE-standard method of renumbering the ﬁrst two frame numbers of every minute,...
Page 10 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back When working with footage digitized from NTSC video, you usually use the 30-fps, drop- frame timecode base. This counts NTSC-created frames using standard drop-frame timecode for maximum device compatibility. For frames (or feet and frames) timecode, you can also change the starting frame number to match the time-counting method of another editing system you may be using.
Page 11 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back To import source footage items into an After Effects project: 1 Choose File > Import > File or Multiple Files. 2 Locate and select footage ﬁles and click Open.
Page 12 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back To undo the most recent change: Choose Edit > Undo. You can sequentially undo as many as 99 of the most recent changes made to the program in any After Effects window, depending on how many undo levels are set in Preferences.
Page 13 • narrow the search) and delete it or move it to another folder. (Mac OS) Use the Finder to locate the “Adobe After Effects 5 Prefs” ﬁle in the Preferences • folder in your System folder and delete it or move it to another folder.
Page 14 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back Using context menus In addition to the menus at the top of your screen, context menus display commands relative to the active tool or selected item.
Page 15 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back To display a window that is obscured by other windows, select it from the Window • menu. If both the Composition and Timeline windows are closed, double-click the compo- •...
Page 16 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back To move a ﬁle or folder from a folder to the top level of the Project window, drag the ﬁle • or folder to the gray information area at the top of the window.
Page 17 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back Displaying After Effects viewing controls in the Footage window By default, the Footage window displays movie controls for movie footage rather than the After Effects viewing controls found in the Layer and Composition windows. QuickTime and Video for Windows controls are fast and familiar tools for playing movie footage, and they play audio if it’s included in the footage.
Page 18 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back After Effects also provides grids that you can use to help arrange and align layers. Set the grid spacing using the Grids & Guides Preferences dialog box.
Page 19 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back To change proportional grid spacing: Choose Edit > Preferences > Grids & Guides, type Horizontal and Vertical values for Propor- tional Grid, and click OK.
Page 20 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back Viewing color and alpha channels You can preview the red, green, blue, and alpha channels of a still image or movie in a Footage window, Layer window, or Composition window. When you view a color channel, areas with that color are displayed according to the color value of each pixel.
Page 21 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back To take and view multiple snapshots: Do any of the following: Hold down Shift and press F5, F6, F7, or F8 to take separate snapshots.
Page 22 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back 2 Type a new time and click OK. To step forward or back a speciﬁed number of frames from the Go to Time dialog box, type + or +- in front of the number, such as +5 or +-5.
Page 23 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back If the tool is visible, click its icon. To view a tool tip, hold the mouse pointer over a tool. • A. Selection B. Pen C. Add Point D. Delete Point E. Convert Point F.
Page 24 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes Using Help Contents Index Back To change the Info palette RGBA display: Choose an option such as Percent or Web from the Info palette menu. Selecting Auto Color Display automatically switches between 8 bits per channel and 16 bits per channel depending on the project’s color depth.
Page 25 You can import and export the ﬁle formats listed below into After Effects 5.0. For more information and an extensive list of QuickTime-supported formats, see the Apple Web site. You can also check the Adobe Web site for updates. Supported formats include: File formats supported by After Effects: QuickTime, Direct Show (Windows only), AVI...
Page 26 • even-numbered resolution, and odd numbers for compositions using odd-numbered resolution. See the Adobe Web site for technical papers with more information. Crop the parts of the image that you do not want to be visible in After Effects. •...
Page 27 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back Changing the default duration of still images When you add a still image to a composition, its default duration is the duration of the composition. You can manually trim the duration of a still image and change the default duration of still footage in the Import Preferences dialog box.
Page 28 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back Importing ﬁles into a project With After Effects 5.0, you use the same Import File dialog box to import any usable ﬁle into After Effects. To save time and minimize the size and complexity of a project, import a footage item once and then use it multiple times in a composition.
Page 29 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back If you import a folder by dragging it from the desktop, the contents of that folder are imported as a sequence. To import the contents as individual footage ﬁles, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you drag.
Page 30 Many ﬁle formats can include an alpha channel, including Adobe Photoshop, ElectricImage IMAGE, TGA, TIFF, EPS, PDF, QuickTime (saved at a bit depth of Millions of Colors+), and Adobe Illustrator. For Adobe Illustrator EPS and PDF ﬁles, After Effects automatically converts empty areas to an alpha channel.
Page 31 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back Using straight or premultiplied alpha channels Footage ﬁles with alpha channels fall into two categories: straight and premultiplied. Although the alpha channels are the same, the color channels differ.
Page 32 Photoshop using layers, and preserve those layers in After Effects so that they are ready for animation. Preserving layers is also useful if you want to use a single Adobe Photoshop ﬁle as a source for both print and dynamic media.
Page 33 Contents Index Back Organize and name layers. If you change a layer name or delete a layer in an Adobe • Photoshop ﬁle after you have imported it into After Effects, After Effects is unable to ﬁnd the original layer name, and the Project window lists that layer as Missing.
Page 34 Using Adobe Photoshop layer effects (styles) In Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and later, you can use a layer effect (or style) to modify the layer to which it is applied. When you import an Adobe Photoshop ﬁle as a composition, and one or more of the layers contain layer effects, then After Effects includes the effects and the layer as two or more separate layers in the Timeline window.
Page 35 3 Click the underlined value you want to change and type a new value. A single Adobe Photoshop layer effect can become up to ﬁve layers and effects in After Effects. You may need to edit multiple copies to achieve the desired result.
Page 36 3 In Import File As, choose Footage, and then click Open. 4 In the Import Adobe Illustrator dialog box, select a layer to import from the ﬁle, or choose Merged Layers to import all layers in the ﬁle as a single layer in After Effects. Then click OK.
Page 37 Adobe Premiere clip as a layer, and as a folder containing each clip as an individual footage item. If your Adobe Premiere project contains bins, After Effects converts them to folders within the Adobe Premiere project folder.
Page 38 See “Importing ﬁles into a project” on page 28 for the procedure for importing. Import Adobe Premiere projects in the same way you import footage ﬁles: choosing File > Import > File, and locating the Adobe Premiere project ﬁle that you want to import.
Page 39 Some of the source footage you use may have been created digitally (for example, in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Premiere), but other footage may need to be transferred to the computer from analog sources, such as ﬁlm and videotape. When you work with After Effects, understanding some of the differences among media can help you decide how to handle footage as you transfer it between digital and analog devices.
Page 40 Note: DV video format is a form of digital video that can be downloaded directly to your hard disk for editing in applications such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. Many DV decks can connect directly to a computer using an IEEE 1394 (FireWire /i.Link)
Page 41 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back In interlaced video, a frame is divided into two ﬁelds. Each ﬁeld contains every other horizontal line in the frame. A TV displays the ﬁrst ﬁeld of alternating lines over the entire screen, and then displays the second ﬁeld to ﬁll in the alternating gaps left by the ﬁrst...
Page 42 Preparing a movie for import when ﬁnal output is NTSC inter- laced video You can edit and prepare video footage in other applications, such as Adobe Premiere, before importing it into After Effects. If you want to render the footage from After Effects as NTSC interlaced video, do not ﬁeld-render or create interlaced frames when you render...
Page 43 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back Using interlaced video in After Effects If you want to use interlaced or ﬁeld-rendered footage (such as from NTSC video) in an After Effects project, you will get the best results if you separate the video ﬁelds when you import the footage.
Page 44 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back Some programs, including After Effects and current versions of Media 100, label the ﬁeld order when rendering interlaced video ﬁles. When you import a labeled video ﬁle, After Effects honors the ﬁeld order label automatically.
Page 45 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back Phase occurs as a result of two conversions that happen during 3:2 pulldown: 24-fps ﬁlm is redistributed through 30-fps video, so each of four frames of 24-fps ﬁlm is spread out over ﬁve frames of 30(29.97)-fps video.
Page 46 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back To have After Effects determine the correct settings, click Guess 3:2 Pulldown. • If you know the phase of the 3:2 pulldown, choose it from the Remove Pulldown pop- •...
Page 47 Note: Make sure to reset the pixel aspect ratio to Square Pixels when you import a square- pixel ﬁle that happens to have a D1 or DV resolution—for example, an Adobe Photoshop image with a resolution of 720 x 480.
Page 48 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back If you are planning to render to the same pixel aspect ratio as your footage, you also need to set the pixel aspect ratio for the composition.
Page 49 Adobe After Effects Help Preparing and Importing Footage Using Help Contents Index Back Importing DDR-based footage To ﬁnd out if After Effects plug-ins are available for your digital disk recorder (DDR), contact your DDR manufacturer. You can bring DDR-based footage into an After Effects project in two ways. First, you can work with the footage while it remains on the DDR, essentially treating the DDR as a remote hard disk.
Page 50 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Building a Composition Working with imported footage After you have imported footage, you can view, edit, and change settings for your imported footage without using a Composition window.
Page 51 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back To open a movie in an After Effects Footage window: Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you double-click a movie in the Project window. In the After Effects Footage window, you can trim the footage and insert it into the Timeline window.
Page 52 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Setting the frame rate for footage You can change the frame rate for any movie or sequence of still images. For example, you can import a sequence of ten still images and specify a frame rate of 5 frames per second (fps).
Page 53 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Replacing footage throughout a project You can replace one footage item with another at any time while working on a project. This can be useful if you receive a new version of a source ﬁle used in your project, and you want to replace the original footage with the new version.
Page 54 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Working with missing source footage If After Effects cannot ﬁnd footage when you open a project, it appears in the Project window labeled Missing, and the name of the missing footage appears in italics. Any composition using that item as a layer replaces it with placeholder color bars.
Page 55 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back 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.
Page 56 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Creating a composition When you ﬁrst create a new project, you must create a composition before you can start working with your footage items. When you create a composition without changing settings in the Composition Settings dialog box, the new composition uses the same settings as the previous composition.
Page 57 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back For Rendering Plug-In, you may want to specify a third-party plug-in for rendering 3D • compositions. “Setting the rendering plug-in” on page 61. To change a composition’s settings: 1 Choose Composition >...
Page 58 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back The viewing frame occupies the center of the frame’s pixel area, which is centered in a larger work area. You can position items outside the frame if, for example, you want a layer to enter the frame from one side, cross the screen, and leave the frame on the other side.
Page 59 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Each motion-footage item in a composition can also have a frame rate, and the relationship between the footage-item frame rate and the composition frame rate deter- mines how smoothly the layer plays. For example, if the footage-item frame rate is 30 fps and the composition frame rate is 30 fps, whenever the layer advances one frame, the next composition frame is displayed.
Page 60 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Adjusting the appearance of low-resolution compositions When setting resolution, you can determine the size and appearance of the composition. When you lower the resolution of a composition, you can maintain image clarity by reducing the composition’s size.
Page 61 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back For information on adjusting the shutter angle and shutter phase for motion blur, see “Adjusting the shutter angle for motion blur” on page 91. Setting the anchor When you change the frame size of a composition, by default the layers are centered within the new dimensions.
Page 62 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Items added to a composition begin at the time indicated on the current-time marker in the Timeline window. For example, if the current time box displays 0:00:04:00 (4 seconds), when you place the item in the Composition window, the item begins its ﬁrst frame at 4...
Page 63 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Move multiple footage items into a folder in the Project window. For information on • creating folders, see “Working with the Project window” on page 15. 2 Drag the names of the footage items or the folder from the Project window onto a composition name in the Project window, into the Composition window, or into the Timeline window.
Page 64 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back E. Red, green, blue, and alpha channel icons Click one of the ﬁrst three icons to view the composition’s red, green, or blue channel. Areas with high values of that channel’s color are displayed as white.
Page 65 Then click OK. Using checkerboard backgrounds to display transparency You can toggle a checkerboard pattern on or off (like the checkerboard that Adobe Photoshop uses to indicate transparency). Viewing the checkerboard pattern may slow down window redraw.
Page 66 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Default controls and panels By default, the Timeline window contains a number of panels and controls. Optional panels are also available. See “Optional panels” on page 66. A. Composition tab Use to close or move the window. Click a tab to display its compo- sition in the current window.
Page 67 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back To display or hide optional panels: Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a Timeline window panel heading, and then choose the panel you want to display or hide in the Panels submenu.
Page 68 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back To change the width of a panel: Drag the raised vertical bar left or right to set the new width. If the panel does not have a raised vertical bar at its right edge, it cannot be resized.
Page 69 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back I. Zoom slider Drag to magnify a portion of the time graph or to see more of the time graph. You can also use the zoom-in icon ( ) or the zoom-out icon ( ).
Page 70 Adobe After Effects Help Building a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Setting up a work area When you work on a composition, you may want to preview or render only part of the composition. Do this by specifying a part of the composition time ruler as a work area. In the Timeline window, the work area appears in a lighter shade of gray.
Page 71 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Managing Layers Managing layers Layers are the components you use to build a composition. Any item you add to a compo- sition—such as a still image, moving image ﬁle, audio ﬁle, lights and cameras, or even another composition—becomes a new layer.
Page 72 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Creating new layers Of the numerous ways to create layers in an After Effects composition, the most obvious is to begin with a footage ﬁle you want to use. You can create a new layer from any footage item in your Project window, including audio.
Page 73 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Creating a new solid layer You can create solid images of any color or size (up to 32,000 x 32,000 pixels) using After Effects. After Effects treats solids as it does any other footage item: You can modify the mask, transform properties, and apply effects to the solid.
Page 74 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back For information about effects, see “Working with effects” on page 170. Note: Transformations on adjustment layers behave slightly differently; they transform only the matte but not the ﬁll. To change an existing layer into an adjustment layer: 1 In the Timeline window, select the name of the layer you want to make into an adjustment layer.
Page 75 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Changing the layer stacking order The Timeline window displays the layer stacking order. The uppermost layer appears at the top of the layer outline list, the second layer is immediately below it, and so on. Changing the order of footage layers modiﬁes the appearance of your composition by repositioning...
Page 76 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back When you distribute layers of different sizes, the spaces between layers may not be • uniform. For example, distributing layers by their centers will create equal space between the centers—but different-sized layers will extend by different amounts into the space between layers.
Page 77 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To move a layer in time by moving its In point: 1 In the Timeline window, drag the current-time marker to the time at which you want the layer to begin playing.
Page 78 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To arrange layers in a sequence: 1 In the Timeline window, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) and select layers in sequential order, beginning with the layer you want to appear ﬁrst.
Page 79 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Renaming a layer By default, the layer outline in the Timeline window uses the source footage names for layers. You can rename any layer at any time. Unique layer names can help you identify layers when you use the same source footage for more than one layer.
Page 80 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back 2 Click a color swatch or Eyedropper button, select new colors to replace the existing colors you want to change, and type new names for the colors, as needed.
Page 81 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Locking and unlocking a layer The Lock switch prevents accidental selection of layers that you do not want to alter. When a layer is locked, you cannot select it in either the Composition or Timeline windows. If you try to select or modify a locked layer, the layer ﬂashes in the Timeline window.
Page 82 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back When you use a footage item as a source for different layers, you can trim it differently in each layer. Trimming does not alter the original source ﬁle. Note: Trimming a still image layer changes the length of time the image appears in the composition;...
Page 83 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Moving a trimmed layer in time After you trim a layer by setting In and Out points, you can adjust the duration position in two ways that have different results.
Page 84 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Creating composition-time markers Composition-time markers appear on the time ruler in the Timeline window. After Effects automatically numbers them with a single digit that reﬂects the order in which you add them.
Page 85 When these movies are included in Web pages created by programs such as Adobe GoLive, the embedded URL is recognized at playback, initiating a jump to the speciﬁed URL. You can even target a speciﬁc frame within the site.
Page 86 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Creating chapter links You can also create a layer-time marker as a chapter reference point, similar to chapters used in CD-ROM and DVD discs. Like the chapters of a book, a chapter link divides a movie into segments.
Page 87 Collapsing transformation properties The Collapse Transformations/Continuously Rasterize layer switch ( ) in the Timeline window affects nested compositions and Adobe Illustrator ﬁles. However, it affects these layers differently. When the layer source is a composition, this switch acts as the Collapse Transformations switch.
Page 88 (see “Creating an adjustment layer” on page 73), or nest or precompose the layer with the switch applied and then apply the effect or mask. See “Importing an Adobe Illustrator, PDF, or EPS ﬁle” on page 35.
Page 89 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back In the Timeline window, click the Effect switch icon for a layer to toggle between • showing and hiding effects. Select a layer, choose Layer > Switches, and make sure that the Effect command is •...
Page 90 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back For more information, see “Using cameras” on page 235 and “Using lights” on page 239. About motion blur When you view one frame of motion-picture ﬁlm or video containing a moving object, the image is often blurred.
Page 91 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Adjusting the shutter angle for motion blur Adjust the intensity of motion blur by changing the shutter angle setting. The shutter angle is measured in degrees, simulating the exposure allowed by a rotating shutter. If you are not applying motion blur, shutter angle has no effect.
Page 92 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back After Effects also displays a Volume Unit (VU) meter that actively displays audio levels during playback. To view the VU meter and levels controls in more detail, increase the height of the Audio palette.
Page 93 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To preview audio and rendered images: 1 If the Time Controls palette is not open, choose Window > Time Controls. Click the double arrow ( ) on the Time Controls tab, as needed, until you see the RAM Preview...
Page 94 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Layers Using Help Contents Index Back 3 In the Audio palette, adjust volume in one of the following ways: To set the level of the left and right channels together, drag the center slider up or •...
Page 95 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Animating Layers About layer properties Each layer can contain several sets of properties. Layers that contain video or still images have mask and transform properties, such as mask shape or layer rotation. A layer can also include other properties, such as time remapping, video effects, and audio effects.
Page 96 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To collapse a layer outline heading: Click the triangle to the left of the layer name so that it points to the right. To expand or collapse all layer outline headings: Select the layer and then press the grave accent (`) key.
Page 97 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Time-vary stopwatch Each layer property has a time-vary stopwatch icon ( ) that you click to begin the animation process. Once the stopwatch is active for a speciﬁc property, After Effects automatically sets new keyframes whenever you change the current time and the property value.
Page 98 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Change the keyframe icons to numbers by choosing Use Keyframe Indices in the Timeline window menu, located on the right side of the window. Keyframes as indices (numbers) Setting keyframes You can set keyframes for any type of layer and any combination of layer properties at any point in time.
Page 99 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back 3 Move the current-time marker to the point where you want to add a new keyframe. If the current-time marker is after the last keyframe for that layer property, the new keyframe will have the same value as the preceding keyframe.
Page 100 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To delete all keyframes of one layer property: Click the stopwatch icon to the left of the name of the layer property to deactivate it. Note: When you deselect the stopwatch icon, keyframes for that property are permanently removed and the value of that property becomes the value at the current time.
Page 101 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Properties within the same dimension, for example, Opacity and Rotation, which have • adjustable parameters in one dimension; or Mask Feather and 2D scale, which have adjustable parameters in two dimensions Rotation, effect angle control, and effect slider control properties •...
Page 102 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back 5 Move the current-time marker to the time at which the ﬁrst keyframe appeared before you cut the keyframes. 6 Choose Edit > Paste. Copying a value from a layer without keyframes You can copy the current value of a layer property to another layer, even when the original layer contains no keyframes.
Page 103 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To set multiple keyframes to the same value: 1 Select the keyframes you want to change. See “Navigating and selecting keyframes” on page 99. All keyframes you select must be for the same property.
Page 104 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To nudge a layer by 1 pixel at the current magniﬁcation, press the Left, Right, Up, or • Down arrow key. To nudge a layer by 10 pixels at the current magniﬁcation, hold down Shift as you press •...
Page 105 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back 3 Press P to display the Position property for the layer. 4 If you cannot see the keyframe you want to modify in the Composition window, move the current-time marker in the Timeline window to the keyframe.
Page 106 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To move all points on a motion path in unison: 1 Display the Composition and Timeline windows for a composition. 2 In the Timeline window, select the layer containing the motion path you want to move.
Page 107 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To sketch a motion path: 1 In the Composition or Timeline window, select the layer for which you want to sketch a motion path. 2 In the Timeline window, set the work-area markers to the area in which you want to sketch motion.
Page 108 You can instantly create a motion path from any mask that you draw in After Effects (or from a path that you copy from Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop), by pasting the mask or path into a layer’s Position property, a layer’s Anchor Point property, or the effect point property of an effect.
Page 109 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Setting layer size By default, a layer appears at 100% of its original size in the Layer window. Change the scale of a layer over time by dragging the layer’s handles in the Composition window or by changing the Scale property values in the Timeline window.
Page 110 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To ﬂip vertically, type a negative Height value. • A. Width 100, Height 100 B. Width -100, Height 100 C. Width 100, Height -100 D. Width -100, Height -100...
Page 111 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Rotating a layer along a motion path You can make a layer rotate automatically as it moves along a motion path. For example, if you animate a toy airplane careening through the sky, you can apply auto-orient rotation to make the plane turn and change direction.
Page 112 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back You can also use the pan behind tool to move a layer’s anchor point without moving the layer’s relative position in the Composition window. When you select a layer in either the Composition or Timeline window and then select the pan behind tool, that layer’s anchor...
Page 113 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Understanding parent layers To assign one layer’s transformations to the transformations of another layer, use parenting. Parenting can affect all transform properties except opacity. Assign parent layers in the Parent column in the Timeline window. A layer can have only one parent, but a layer can be a parent to any number of 2D or 3D layers within the same composition.
Page 114 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To parent a layer: 1 In the Parent column in the Timeline window, do one of the following: Drag the pick whip of the layer you want to be the child layer to the layer you want to •...
Page 115 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back 3 Place the cursor over the underlined value and drag to the left or right to change the value. To change a layer value numerically in the Timeline window: 1 In the Timeline window, select the layer you want to modify.
Page 116 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Setting and animating effects Once you apply an effect to a layer, you can set keyframes for the effect property values. You can also set multiple keyframes to animate effects. The properties available vary depending on the effect.
Page 117 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Standard preview This option provides a preview of all frames in your composition. When you use this option, After Effects displays every frame as quickly as it can using the current settings of the layer switches, composition switches, and composition resolution.
Page 118 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Previewing animation When you preview a composition in After Effects, the more detail and precision you want to see, the more slowly the composition displays in standard preview and the more RAM is required for RAM preview.
Page 119 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back For Resolution, choose an option from the list. Choose Auto to use the current compo- • sition resolution. Select From Current Time to render the RAM preview from the current time.
Page 120 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To use the wireframe preview: 1 In the Timeline window, select the layers you want to preview. To preview all layers, make no selection. 2 Set the work area to the time span you want to preview.
Page 121 Adobe After Effects Help Animating Layers Using Help Contents Index Back To set the degradation limit: 1 Turn on dynamic resolution as outlined in the above procedure. 2 Click the Degradation Limit menu and select an option. The options represent the maximum fraction of data removed from a layer’s current composition resolution when...
Page 122 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Fine-tuning Animation Controlling change through interpolation After Effects provides several interpolation methods that affect how change occurs through and between keyframes. For example, if you are setting up motion, you can choose to make a layer change direction abruptly or smoothly through a curve.
Page 123 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Temporal interpolation and the Value graph Using the Value graph in the Timeline window, you can make precise adjustments to the temporal property keyframes you’ve created for your animation. The Value graph provides complete information about and control of the value at any point in time in a composition.
Page 124 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back In the following descriptions of interpolation methods, the effect of each method is described as if you had applied it to all the keyframes for a layer property. This is done to clarify the examples.
Page 125 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back 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 126 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back You can use Hold interpolation only for outgoing temporal interpolation (for the frames following a keyframe). If you create a new keyframe following a Hold keyframe, the new keyframe will use incoming Hold interpolation. See “Adjusting direction handles to create curves and corners”...
Page 127 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back To change an interpolation method directly in a window: 1 Display the Value graph in the Timeline window or the motion path in the Composition or Layer window. 2 Using the selection tool, press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you click the keyframe marker you want to change.
Page 128 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Adjusting direction handles to create curves and corners By default, Bezier interpolation creates a curved transition at a keyframe. Clicking the keyframe with the Convert Control Point tool ( ) creates a corner at the keyframe. On a Value graph, a corner results in an abrupt transition.
Page 129 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Mixing incoming and outgoing interpolation methods By default, a keyframe icon uses one interpolation method, but you can apply two methods: the incoming method applies to the property value as the current time approaches a keyframe, and the outgoing method applies to the property value as the current time leaves a keyframe.
Page 130 Editing with the pen tool is similar to modifying a path in a drawing application such as Adobe Illustrator. For more information on using the pen tools, see “Drawing a Bezier mask with the pen tool” on page 152.
Page 131 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back For best results with the pen tool, you should understand how Bezier interpolation affects the Value graph and the motion path. When you use Bezier interpolation on a graph or path, you can control the shapes of corners, making them into smooth curves or angled corners.
Page 132 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Value difference The difference between the values of adjacent keyframes. A large difference between keyframe values, such as the difference between 75% and 20% opacity, creates a faster rate of change than a smaller difference, such as the difference between 30% and 20% opacity.
Page 133 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back In the Composition or Layer window, the spacing between dots in a motion path indicates speed. Each dot represents a frame, based on the frame rate of the composition. Even spacing indicates a constant speed, and wider spacing indicates a higher speed.
Page 134 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back In the Timeline window, 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 135 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back By default, if you drag a handle beyond the top or bottom of the graph area, the graph line is automatically resized to ﬁt within the graph area. However, if you deselect the icon ( ) to the right of the property values, the graph line will not be resized;...
Page 136 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Creating a bounce or intense peak Use ease handles to simulate the type of acceleration seen in a bouncing ball. When you create this type of effect, the Speed or Velocity graph appears to rise quickly and peak.
Page 137 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back To adjust the inﬂuence of an ease handle on the previous or next keyframe: 1 In the Timeline window, expand the outline for the keyframe you want to adjust. Then click the triangle to the left of the property to display the Speed graph or the Velocity graph.
Page 138 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Roving keyframes are available only for spatial layer properties such as Position. In addition, a keyframe can rove only if it is not the ﬁrst or last keyframe in a layer, because a roving keyframe must interpolate its speed from the previous and next keyframes.
Page 139 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Select the keyframes you want to change and choose Animation > Keyframe Interpo- • lation. Then choose Lock to Time from the Roving pop-up menu. Automatically easing speed using the Easy Ease keyframe assistant Eliminate sudden changes in a property’s speed using the Easy Ease keyframe assistant.
Page 140 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Layer In-point holds the layer’s current starting time, and time-stretches the layer by • moving the Out point. Current Frame holds the layer at the position of the current-time marker (also the frame •...
Page 141 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Using the Time-Reverse Keyframes keyframe assistant For any property in a layer, you can select a range of keyframes and reverse their order. For example, you can reverse keyframes in the Position property to reverse the motion of an object.
Page 142 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back To reverse a layer’s playback direction without reversing the order of its keyframes, use time-remapping to reverse the layer (see “About time-remapping” on page 142). About time-remapping In After Effects you can easily expand, compress, play backwards, or freeze a portion of a layer’s duration using a process known as time-remapping.
Page 143 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back The Layer window provides a visual reference of the frames you change, as well as the • frame number. The window displays the current-time marker and a remap-time marker, which you move to select the frame you want to play at the current time.
Page 144 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Velocity: Time Remap The top value indicates the layer’s fastest speed. The bottom value is always a negative of the top value. The middle value indicates how fast the video is playing at the current time.
Page 145 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back 2 Choose Layer > Enable Time Remapping. 3 Click the triangle to the left of the layer name to expand the layer outline. 4 Click the triangle to the left of the Time Remap heading to display the time graph for time remapping.
Page 146 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back keyframe and choose Animation > Toggle Hold Keyframe, and then add another keyframe where you want the motion to start again. A. No change B. Fast motion C. Freeze frame D. Backward motion To remap time in a Layer window: 1 Open the Layer window for the layer you want to remap.
Page 147 Adobe After Effects Help Fine-tuning Animation Using Help Contents Index Back Time-remapping audio pitch The Velocity graph in the Time-remap property directly relates to the pitch of an audio ﬁle. By making subtle changes to the Velocity graph, you can create a variety of interesting effects.
Page 148 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Working with Masks and Transparency Understanding transparency in After Effects When part of a layer is transparent, that transparency information is stored in the layer’s alpha channel. If the alpha channel of a layer doesn’t meet your requirements, you can use any combination of masks, mattes, and keying to display or hide different parts of a layer.
Page 149 Specify the dimensions of the mask shape in the Mask Shape dialog box. • Paste a path copied from another layer or from Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. • For more information, see “Importing masks from Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop”...
Page 150 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Mask names appear in the order you create them in the Timeline window outline. To organize and keep track of your masks, rename them as you would rename layers (see “Renaming a layer”...
Page 151 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back To create a rectangular or oval mask the size of the layer: 1 Select a layer in the Composition window or display a layer in the Layer window.
Page 152 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back To use the motion path as a replacement for an existing mask, select the mask you want • to replace. 6 In the Timeline, expand the Mask property for the mask you want to create or replace and select the Mask Shape value name.
Page 153 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Position the pen tool over the control point you want to change and click the control • point when the pen tool icon becomes the corner point tool icon ( ).
Page 154 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back In the Layer window, press Shift as you drag a marquee over other unselected control • points. In either the Layer or Composition window, select a mask and press Shift as you click •...
Page 155 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back 4 Do any combination of the following: To move the mask or selected points, position the pointer inside the bounding box • and drag. To scale the mask or selected points, position the pointer on a bounding box handle •...
Page 156 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back To delete all masks: Select the layer containing the masks you want to remove and choose Layer > Masks > Remove All Masks. To move a control point: Using the selection tool ( ), drag the control point.
Page 157 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Mask feathering takes place only within the dimensions of the layer frame area. Therefore, a feathered mask shape should always be slightly smaller than the layer area. If a mask feather extends beyond the layer area, the feathered edge ends abruptly.
Page 158 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Specifying which parts of a mask are inside and outside The image area inside the mask outline is fully opaque, and the area outside the mask outline is transparent.
Page 159: Using Help | Contents | Index Back
Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back When you use the Pan Behind tool to pan a layer behind a mask, the mask’s position remains constant in the Composition window, but changes in the Layer window. The masked layer’s Position values change in relation to the composition.
Page 160: Using Help | Contents | Index Back
Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back To specify a mask as the target of all new shapes: In the Layer window, select the mask name from the Target pop-up menu. To specify no mask as a target for changes: In the Layer window, select None from the Target pop-up menu.
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Effects layers. Using the special path-editing tools available in these applications, you can create a wider variety of shapes for your After Effects masks. Path in Adobe Illustrator (left), and that same path imported into an After Effects Layer window as a mask (right) To import a path from Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop: 1 Open Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop and create a path.
Page 162: Working With Masks And Transparency
Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Creating visible lines and solid shapes from masks To outline or ﬁll a mask, apply the Stroke (outline) and/or the Fill effect. Each mask in a layer can have different ﬁll and stoke settings.
Page 163: Applying Effects
Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back None After Effects treats the mask as if it does not exist. The mask has no impact on the layer or composition. This option is useful when you want to use the mask’s path for an effect such as Stroke or Fill, but do not want it to create transparent areas in the layer.
Page 164: Layers
Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back To lock or unlock a mask: 1 In the Timeline window, expand the Mask property. 2 In the Switches column, click the box underneath the lock icon ( ) next to the mask you want to lock or unlock.
Page 165: Working With Masks And Transparency
Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Using alpha channel or luminance values for a track matte Deﬁne transparency in a track matte using values from either its alpha channel or the luminance of its pixels. Using luminance is useful when you want to create a track matte using a layer without an alpha channel or a layer imported from a program that can’t...
Page 166 Layer modes in After Effects are identical to layer modes in Adobe Photoshop. Layer modes cannot be animated using keyframes. If you want a layer mode to change at a certain time, split the layer at that time and apply the new layer mode to the part of the layer that continues.
Page 167 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Overlay Mixes colors between layers, preserving highlights and shadows to reﬂect the light and dark areas of the layer colors. Soft Light Darkens or lightens resulting colors, depending on the layer color. The effect is similar to shining a diffused spotlight on the layer.
Page 168 Adobe After Effects Help Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Luminescent Premul Prevents clipping of color values that exceed the alpha channel value after compositing by adding them to the composition. Useful for compositing rendered lens or light effects (such as lens ﬂare) from footage with premultiplied alpha channels.
Page 169 For information on using keying effects, see “Using keying effects” on page 176. Note: To get more powerful keying capabilities, use the advanced keying effects available in the Adobe After Effects Production Bundle. Using Help Contents Index...
Page 170: Applying Effects
Help topic at any time. For detailed information about an effect’s controls, and speciﬁc procedures on certain effects, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Working with effects When you apply an effect to a layer, the Effect Controls window opens; the effect is listed there.
Page 171 Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back To change the color of hot text in the Effect Controls window (or any window): 1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Display. 2 Click the Hot Text Color color swatch to select a color, or click the eyedropper to sample a color from anywhere on the screen.
Page 172: Expressions
Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back To remove all effects applied to a layer: 1 In the Timeline or Composition window, select the layer or layers from which you want to remove all effects. 2 Choose Effect > Remove All.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back You can also change the property values for an effect in the Timeline window, although using the Effect Controls window is often quicker and easier. A. Click to expand or collapse an effect’s controls. B. Drag left to decrease or right to increase a value.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Placing an effect using effect points Some effects require that you identify speciﬁc positions on a layer to determine how the effect will be applied. Often, these effect points enable After Effects to properly position the effect on the layer.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back 2 Zoom in on the layer in the Composition window. The more you zoom in, the more accurate you can be. Effect points for effects are interpolated throughout the area of the image.
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Using Adobe Photoshop layer styles in After Effects After Effects supports the following layer styles from Adobe Photoshop: Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Bevel/Emboss, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, and Solid Fill. If you apply layer styles in Photoshop and then import the ﬁle into After Effects, the styles are also imported;...
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back If lighting changes, you may need to adjust keying controls for other frames. Place keyframes for the ﬁrst set of keying properties at the start of the bluescreen scene. If you are setting keyframes for one property only, use Linear interpolation.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Using a hold-out matte A hold-out matte (also known as a hold-back matte) is a duplicate of the layer you have keyed. The hold-out matte, however, is masked to include only the area of the image containing the key color that you want to preserve as opaque.
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Adobe Photoshop. When you register your copy of After Effects, you can download the following effects from the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site: Card Dance, Card Wipe, Caustics, Foam, and Wave World. Effects are categorized by functionality. Because you can add new effects and delete unused ones at any time, your menu and submenu selections may be different than those described here.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Image Control Change Color, Color Balance (HLS), Colorama, Equalize, Gamma/Pedestal/ Gain, Median, PS Arbitrary Map, and Tint Keying Color Key and Luma Key Perspective Basic 3D, Bevel Alpha, Bevel Edges, and Drop Shadow...
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Particle Playground effect, or extract values from the Unclamped RGB channel to produce a matte that generates glowing highlights. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Depth Matte (PB only) This effect reads the z-depth information in a 3D channel image ﬁle and can slice the image anywhere along that z axis.
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Material ID as well. Select Use Coverage to create a cleaner matte by removing the color stored behind object. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Adjust effects Use the Adjust effects to adjust color attributes such as brightness, balance, and levels in a layer.
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To create a variety of interesting tonal and color effects, create or import curves and arbitrary maps from Adobe Photoshop. Curves supports all settings ﬁles created in the Photoshop Curves dialog box: either Curves ﬁles (.acv) or Arbitrary map ﬁles (.amp).
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A. Channel B. Histogram C. Input Black D. Output Black E. Gamma F. Output White G. Input White For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Posterize Use this effect to specify the number of tonal levels (or brightness values) for each channel in an image.
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This effect repeats the sounds in the audio footage after a speciﬁed amount of time. It simulates sound bouncing off a surface, such as a wall some distance away. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Flange & Chorus (PB only) This effect combines two separate audio effects, Flange and Chorus, into a single effect.
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(unprocessed) audio is ignored, and only the tone plays. You can also apply this effect to a layer that has no audio, such as an Adobe Illustrator object, to synthesize audio. When you render the movie, make sure that you select an output format that supports audio—for example, QuickTime or Video for Windows.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Channel Blur This effect blurs a layer’s red, green, blue, or alpha channels individually. You can specify that the blur is horizontal, vertical, or both. At Best quality, the blur is smooth. Use this effect for glow effects or if you want a blur that does not become transparent near the edges of the layer.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Fast Blur Use this effect to blur an image. Specify whether the blur is horizontal, vertical, or both. At Best quality, the Fast Blur effect is a close approximation of a Gaussian Blur, but it blurs large areas more quickly.
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(hue, saturation, and luminance), and transparency values (alpha channel). For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Alpha Levels (PB only) This effect increases or decreases the transparency of a matte. Use it to adjust pure black or pure white areas of a matte to be semitransparent or to adjust grays (semitransparent areas) to be pure black and white.
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By carefully specifying the range, you can create a version of the image that faithfully resembles the original. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Compound Arithmetic This effect mathematically combines the layer to which it is applied with another layer.
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Matte effect. It is easier and faster to create traveling mattes using a track matte. See “Creating track mattes and traveling mattes” on page 164. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Shift Channels This effect replaces red, green, blue, and alpha channels in the image with other channels.
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A. Unaltered image B. Fitting a label to a jar C. Nesting that composition into another and reshaping the jar For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Bulge (PB only) This effect distorts an image around a speciﬁed point, making the image appear to bulge toward or away from the viewer, depending on the options you select.
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Displacement amount = maximum_displacement * (2 * (color value – 128)/256) A. Displacement map B. Map centered C. Map stretched D. Map tiled For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Mesh Warp (PB only) This effect applies a grid of Bezier patches (squares in the grid) over a layer, which you can manipulate to distort areas of an image.
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A. Original layer with grid applied B. Same layer with modiﬁed grid C. Final image For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Mirror This effect splits the image along a line and reﬂects one side onto the other. The Reﬂection Center speciﬁes the position of the line.The Reﬂection Angle determines which side is...
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For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. PS+Pinch See the Adobe Photoshop User Guide or online Help for information on using this effect. PS+Ripple See the Adobe Photoshop User Guide or online Help for information on using this effect.
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Wave Speed control, which does not require keyframes for animation. Animate ripples at varying speeds by creating keyframes for the Ripple Phase control. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Smear Using Smear, you deﬁne an area within an image and then move that area to a new...
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Transform in the Layer window menu, and then move the anchor point and the position to the upper left corner. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Twirl (PB only) This effect twirls the pixels of an image around a speciﬁed point at a speciﬁed amount.
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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.
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PS Arbitrary Map This effect applies an Adobe Photoshop arbitrary map ﬁle to a layer. An arbitrary map adjusts the brightness levels of an image, remapping a speciﬁed brightness range to darker or brighter tones.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back The Color Difference Key produces high-quality keying for all well-lit footage items shot against a bluescreen or greenscreen and works especially well with images that contain transparent or semitransparent areas, such as smoke, shadows, or glass.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back 5 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 window are adjusted.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back 11 Before closing the Effect Controls window, select Final Output from the View menu. Final Output must be selected for After Effects to render the transparency. To remove traces of reﬂected key color from the image, apply Spill Suppressor using Better for Color Accuracy.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Color Range Key (PB only) This key creates transparency by keying out a speciﬁed range of colors in either the Lab, YUV, or RGB color space. You can use this key on screens that consist of more than one color or on bluescreen or greenscreens that have been unevenly lit and contain different shades of the same color.
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Note: If there is no full-background frame in the shot, you may be able to assemble the full background by combining parts of several frames in After Effects or Adobe Photoshop. For example, you can use the Photoshop rubber stamp tool to take a sample of the background in one frame, and then paint the sample over part of the background in another frame.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Stretch to Fit stretches or shrinks the difference layer to the size of the source layer, but • it may distort background images. 9 Adjust the Matching Tolerance slider to specify the amount of transparency based on how closely colors must match between the layers.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back softness levels by adjusting White Softness (lighter areas) and Black Softness (darker areas). Drag the entire bar left or right to position it under the histogram. • A. Black point B. Black softness C. White softness D. White point E. Histogram Inner Outer (PB only) This key isolates a foreground object from its background.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back 4 Create additional open or closed paths to clean up other areas of the image, and then select them from the Cleanup Foreground or Cleanup Background menu. Cleanup Foreground paths increase the opacity along the path; Cleanup Background paths decrease the opacity along the path.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back You can also reapply this key to preserve a color that was made transparent by the ﬁrst application of the key. For example, if you are keying out a medium-blue screen, you might lose some or all of a light-blue piece of clothing your subject is wearing.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Click the Key Color swatch to select a color from the speciﬁed color space. • The selected color becomes transparent. Note: The eyedropper tools move the sliders accordingly. Use the sliders in steps 6 and 7 to ﬁne-tune the keying results.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back When the object you want to matte has a markedly different luminance value than its background, you can make the background value transparent by keying it out. For example, if you want to create a matte for musical notes on a white background, you can key out the brighter values;...
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Simple Choker (PB only) The Simple Choker shrinks or expands the edges of a matte in small increments to create a clean matte. A. Original matte B. Negative values used to spread borders C. Positive values used to choke...
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Note: You can now use the 3D layer features instead of this effect to create 3D effects. See “Working with 3D layers” on page 229. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Bevel Alpha This effect gives a chiseled and lighted appearance to the alpha boundaries of an image, often giving 2D elements a 3D appearance.
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Note: This effect is a visual effect, not an audio effect, and it must be applied to a video layer. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Audio Waveform This effect displays the waveform amplitude of an audio layer. You can display the audio waveform in a number of different ways, including along a Bezier path created by an open or closed mask of a layer.
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Pixels near the border appear chaotic (noisy), but as you zoom in, a quite startling and beautiful structure is revealed. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Using Help...
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For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. PS+Lens Flare (PB only) See the Adobe Photoshop User Guide or online Help for information on using this effect. Radio Waves This effect generates waves from an effect point and can be used to create pond ripples, sound waves, or intricate geometric patterns.
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Use the Segments controls to adjust the size, length, and rotation of the stroke. This effect uses the same Contour controls as the Radio Waves effect. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Simulation effects Use these effects to simulate real-world occurrences such as reﬂections of light, bubbles,...
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ﬂow around a logo, or ﬁll a logo with bubbles. You can also substitute bubbles with an image or a movie. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Particle Playground (PB only) Use this effect to create animations in which a large number of similar objects must be animated independently, such as a swarm of bees.
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Contents Index Back For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Brush Strokes This effect applies a rough painted look to an image. You can also use this effect to achieve a pointillist-style look by setting the length of the brush strokes to zero and increasing the stroke density.
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Rendering this effect at Best quality can change the appearance of the layer. This is especially true if you are using Adobe Photoshop arbitrary maps to color your glows. Glow supports Photoshop arbitrary map ﬁles (.amp), which are created and saved from the Curves dialog box.
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Scatter effect over the time range without keyframes by randomizing every frame. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Strobe Light This effect performs an arithmetic operation on a layer at periodic or random intervals. For example, every 5 seconds the layer could appear completely white for one-tenth of a second, or a layer’s colors could invert at random intervals.
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The Basic Text effect places text on an existing layer (unlike imported text created in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, which becomes its own layer). Use it for basic title text; for more ﬂexibility in working with text, import text created in an illustration or imaging program, or use the Path Text effect.
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Adobe After Effects Help Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Animate text on an existing layer; or, for additional control over placement of text, you can create a solid and animate the text on it. The layer on which you animate text is trans- parent, unless you specify compositing.
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Force (see Alignment below). For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Time effects Use these effects to manipulate the timing of a layer. These effects use the source of a layer as the basis of time, so all effects previously applied to a layer are ignored when Time effects are applied.
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Time Displacement effect automatically replaces pixels across time without keyframes. However, you can also set keyframes for other controls to vary the effect over time. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Transition effects Use these effects as transitions between one layer and another, or between several layers.
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ﬂip order. Use the effects controls to adjust randomness and jitter. You can vary the rows and columns to create venetian blind and chinese lantern effects. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Gradient Wipe This effect creates transitions based on the luminance values of a second layer, called the gradient layer.
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Key Out Unsafe or Key Out Safe, the background will be visible through affected or unaffected areas of the layer, respectively. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Reduce Interlace Flicker This effect reduces high vertical frequencies to make images more suitable for use in an interlaced medium (such as NTSC video).
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Although you can’t render movies containing embedded timecode information, you can render movies containing visible timecode. For more information, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site. Using Help Contents...
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back 3D Compositing Understanding 3D Many graphics programs, including After Effects, display images in two dimensions, or 2D, which means that these images exist in and can only be moved to locations along the horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) axes.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back Working with 3D layers Designating a layer as 3D activates the additional layer properties associated with manip- ulating and modifying that layer in a 3D environment: Z-position for the layer and anchor point, X- and Y- rotation, orientation, and the layer material options.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back When you drag one of the arrows with a selection or rotation tool, you adjust the layer’s location in space. If you are adjusting the position of a layer, the layer travels along the corresponding axis.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back To move the anchor point in 3D space using the axes: 1 Select the layer whose anchor point you want to move. 2 In the toolbox, click the pan behind tool ( 3 In the Composition window, position the pointer over the center of the axes and drag.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back Understanding Z scale Usually, scaling a layer’s Z axis has no effect on the layer because the layer itself has no depth. However, changing the position of the layer anchor point or establishing a parenting relationship with other layers adds depth to a layer either relative to its anchor point, or to child layers.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back In the timeline, when you expand a 3D layer and then expand the Material Options for that layer, the following properties appear: Casts Shadows Used to cast a shadow on layers within the range of that shadow. The direction and angle of the shadows is determined by the direction and angle of the light sources.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back Understanding 3D views You can view your 3D layers from several angles, using orthogonal views or custom views that employ perspective. The orthogonal views (Front, Back, Left, Top, Right, and Bottom) show a layer’s position in the composition but do not show perspective.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back Using cameras After Effects 3D layers can be viewed from any number of angles and distances using cameras. When you set a particular camera view for your composition, you look at the layers as though you were looking through that camera.
Page 236 Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back Understanding camera settings When you create a new camera, it becomes a new layer in the Timeline window and its name appears in the 3D View pop-up menu. Though the cameras’ locations in the layer order in the Timeline window do not affect their positions in the Composition window, they do determine which of the cameras is rendered.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back Focal Length In After Effects’ camera model, the distance from the ﬁlm plane to the camera lens. In After Effects, the camera’s position represents the center of the lens. When you specify new values for the focal length, the zoom changes to match the perspective of a real camera.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back 2 In the Composition window, choose a 3D view based on the position from which you want to view the transformation. The active camera’s point of interest icon and the bound- aries deﬁning its angle of view are not visible in the Active Camera view.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back The Local Axes mode aligns the axes to the surface of a particular 3D layer. The World Axes mode aligns the axes to the absolute coordinates of the composition.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back Light Type Parallel light rays emanate directional, unconstrained light from an inﬁnitely distant source. A Spot light emits light from a source that is constrained by a cone, like the spotlight used in stage productions.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back If the light auto-orientation is turned off, then the light rotates freely along the motion path independent of the orientation of the motion path or the location of a point of interest.
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Adobe After Effects Help 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back Previewing 3D You can reduce the amount of data displayed in a 3D layer to facilitate faster renders and screen redraws when you are animating them using Wireframe Interactions or Draft 3D mode.
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The sets of 3D layers do, however, share both cameras and lights, since these two elements are global to the composition. Using the Adobe render plug-in After Effects uses the included render plug-in to composite both RAM previews and output ﬁles. It is chosen by default. After selecting the 3D renderer, you still need to adjust your render and output settings through the Render Queue.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Creating Expressions Using expressions Expressions can create a relationship between two properties. For example, if a layer rotates and has the Drop Shadow effect applied, you can add an expression to the Rotation property to link the rotation values with the Drop Shadow’s Direction values so...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back 2 Create the expression by doing one of the following: Drag the pick whip ( ) to another property in the Timeline or Effect Controls window. If • you want, modify the pick whip results. See “Creating expressions with the pick whip”...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Converting expressions to keyframes In some situations, it may be useful to convert an expression to keyframes. For example, if you want to freeze the values in an expression for a period of time, you can convert the expression to keyframes and then adjust the keyframes accordingly;...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back To learn how to select a speciﬁc value in a vector or array, such as Position’s y value, see “Accessing speciﬁc values in a vector or array” on page 252.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Animating a clock Start with two layers: an hour hand and a minute hand. Set the anchor points for the hands at the center of the clock (see “Setting and animating an anchor point”...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back property as a “method” when the property takes arguments, or an “attribute” when it does not. When writing expressions, keep the following guidelines in mind: JavaScript is case-sensitive. •...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back To retrieve values from an object other than the layer containing the expression, insert the object in the expression. For example, if you write an expression on a layer named Solid1...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back 10 Click outside of the expression to activate it. Expression values The value of an expression is the value of the last statement evaluated. For example, in the following expressions the results are the same: x = rotation * 10;...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Position[0] is the x coordinate of position • Position[1] is the y coordinate of position • Position[2] is the z coordinate of position • The After Effects-speciﬁc elements Layer, Effect, and Mask use an indexing process that starts from 1.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back this_comp.layer( Insert the speciﬁc layer information you want, such as: this_comp.layer(1) Next, choose an attribute or method from the Layer, Light, or Camera menu. For example, if layer 1 has Position keyframes, choose “position,” and so on.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back 6 Click outside the expression to activate it. All layers follow the same path, and each is delayed .5 seconds from the previous. Creating a bulge between two layers Use an expression to synchronize the Bulge Center parameter of the Bulge effect in one layer with the position of another layer.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Headings represent expression objects. All elements listed below a heading are • attributes (that you can retrieve from the object) or methods (that you can call on the object). Many of the attributes and methods return other objects—look up those object types in this guide to determine how to continue your expression.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Array mul(v1, amount) {v1 is an array, amount is a number} Multiplies every element of the vector by the amount. Array div(v1, amount) {v1 is an array, amount is a number} Divides every element of the vector by the amount.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Array gauss_random(max_arr) {max_arr is an array} The resulting value is an array with the same dimension as max_arr, with 90% of the results ranging between 0 and max_arr and the remaining 10% beyond the edges. The results have a bell-shaped distribution.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Color conversion methods Array [4] rgb_to_hsl(rgba) {rgba is an array [4]} Converts a color in RGBA space to HSLA space. The input is an array specifying red, green, blue, and alpha, all in the range of 0.0 to 1.0.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Number pixel_aspect Returns the pixel aspect ratio of the footage, expressed as width/ height. Layer attributes and methods Number width Returns the width of the layer in pixels. It is the same as “source.width” .
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Mask mask(name) {name is a string} Returns a layer Mask object. The name can be the default name or a user-deﬁned name. Effect effect(index) {index is a number} Returns an Effect object. After Effects ﬁnds the effect by its index in the Effect Controls window, starting at 1 and counting down from the top.
Page 261 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Array [2 or 3] to_comp_vec(point, t=time) {point is an array[2 or 3], and t is a number} Transforms a vector from layer space to comp space. For example, “to_comp_vec([1, 0])” .
Page 262 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Effect attributes and methods Boolean active Returns a true value if the effect is turned on, or a false value if it is off. Property param(name) {name is a string} Returns a property within an effect. For example, “effect("Bulge").param("Bulge Height")”...
Page 263 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Number or Array wiggle(freq, amp, octaves=1, amp_mult=.5, t=time) {freq, amp, octaves, amp_mult, and t are numbers} Randomly shakes (wiggles) the value of the property. Freq is calculated in wiggles per second, amp is calculated in units of the property to which it is applied, octaves is the number of octaves of noise to add together, amp_mult is the amount that amp is multiplied by for each octave, and t is the base start time.
Page 264 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back Managing Projects Effectively Visualizing organization with Flowchart View After Effects provides a separate Flowchart View for each composition and for the overall project to help you keep a “big picture” perspective on complex projects. In Flowchart View, individual boxes (or tiles) represent each composition, layer, and footage item, including any applied effects.
Page 265 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back Customizing Flowchart View You can customize Flowchart View using the Flowchart View menu. Specify the type of lines between elements (angled or straight), justiﬁcation, what tiles appear (layers with or without showing effects), and ﬂow direction.
Page 266 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back Apply complex changes to an entire composition. For example, you can create a • composition containing multiple still images, nest the composition within the overall composition, and animate the nested composition so that all the still images change in the same ways over the same time period.
Page 267 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back To render the animation so that the shadows appear as if created by a single light source, you need to apply rotation before you apply the drop shadow effect.
Page 268 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back To nest a composition: Drag a composition icon from the Project window into another composition in the Timeline window. Note: If the target composition is currently active in the Composition window, you can also drag the composition icon you want to nest directly into the Composition window.
Page 269 When a layer contains an Adobe Illustrator ﬁle instead of a nested composition, the Collapse Transformations switch for that layer becomes the Continuously Rasterize switch, which you can use to improve the image quality of footage. See “Importing an Adobe Illustrator, PDF, or EPS ﬁle” on page 35 and “Collapsing transformation properties” on page 87.
Page 270 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back Saving time by prerendering nested compositions A complex nested composition can take a long time to preview and render. If you have a nested composition that you do not expect to work on any further, render the nested composition into a movie and use it as a proxy for the actual nested composition.
Page 271 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back When you precompose, one or more layers that you select move into a new composition. This new composition takes the place of the selected layers—something that does not occur in ordinary nesting.
Page 272 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back If the selected composition includes elements that are turned off (that is, the Video or • Audio switch is deselected in the Timeline window), the Reduce Project command does not remove that switched-off item.
Page 273: Choose Edit > Preferences > Previews
Deselect Continuously Rasterize for Illustrator ﬁles Deselect the Continuously Rasterize switch for an Adobe Illustrator ﬁle until you need to view or render it in detail. This prevents After Effects from rasterizing the entire ﬁle after each change, thus saving you time.
Page 274 Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back Allocate more memory (Mac OS 9.x only) Rendering performance on a Mac OS 9.x system is signiﬁcantly affected by the amount of RAM you allocate to After Effects. The more RAM you allocate, the faster it can render.
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4 Click OK. No matter which setting you choose, After Effects makes the image cache more compact when you choose About Adobe After Effects, when you perform a RAM preview, or when you are between renders in the Render Queue.
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Adobe After Effects Help Managing Projects Effectively Using Help Contents Index Back The memory requirements of a layer increase in the following situations: When you use larger image sizes. • When you add a mask in After Effects. • When the source of a layer is a composition. When a layer contains a composition, •...
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Using the Windows MP plug-in (Windows only) The MThread.aex plug-in enhances After Effects performance on multiprocessor systems under Windows NT. The Adobe MP Accelerator plug-in is installed automatically during the After Effects installation process. Using the Multiprocessor Support plug-in (Mac OS) The Adobe Multiprocessor Support plug-in enhances After Effects performance on Mac OS multiprocessor systems, such as Apple G4.
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The output module speciﬁes the compression scheme to be used in rendering the movie. The quality of the audio for a movie is determined by the settings in the output modules. For a list of compressors and ﬁle formats, see the Adobe Web site. Making (rendering) a movie Making a movie from your ﬁnal composition can take a few minutes or many hours,...
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back 8 Click the Render button. Note: To view more information about the composition as it renders, click the triangle to the left of Show Details. To view details of a completed rendering, review the log ﬁle.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back To pause rendering: Click the Pause button. Note: While the rendering process is paused, you will not be able to change settings or use After Effects in any other way, but you can use other applications.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Failed After Effects was unsuccessful in rendering the movie. Use a text editor to view the log ﬁle for speciﬁc information on why the rendering was unsuccessful. User Stopped The rendering process was stopped.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back 3:2 Pulldown Determines the phase of 3:2 pulldown introduction. See “Introducing 3:2 pulldown” on page 285. Motion Blur Determines when motion blur is applied. Use On for Checked Layers to render motion blur only for layers with motion blur enabled in the Switches panel in the Timeline window, regardless of the composition’s Enable Motion Blur setting.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Creating and using render settings templates You can create templates that save commonly used render settings. These templates appear in the Render Settings pop-up menu in the Render Queue window. You can specify a default render settings template for movie rendering as well as another for creating a single frame.
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After Effects. When you open the output ﬁle in another application such as Adobe Premiere, 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.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Stretch Speciﬁes the size of your rendered movie. Select Lock Aspect To if you want to retain the existing frame aspect ratio when stretching the frame size. Select Low Stretch Quality when rendering tests, and select High Stretch Quality when rendering a ﬁnal...
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back To create a new output module template: 1 Choose Edit > Templates > Output Module. 2 Click New. 3 Type the output module settings you want, and then click OK.
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Composite on Original, Fill and Stroke/Options/Fill Over Stroke, and Advanced/ Mode/Difference. Multiple effects per layer are unsupported. Adobe Illustrator ﬁles Only stroked paths and ﬁlled paths in CMYK or RGB color spaces are supported. Note that if Rasterize is selected for Unsupported Features, unsupported elements in an Illustrator ﬁle will result in the rasterization of only the layer to which the...
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The source for each layer in the composition is rendered and added to the SWF ﬁle as a JPEG-compressed bitmap, unless the layer is a solid or its source is an Adobe Illustrator ﬁle. If the layer source is an Illustrator ﬁle, the source is automatically converted to the corre- sponding native SWF elements.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back RAM preview does not generate interlaced ﬁelds, so a saved RAM preview never • contains ﬁelds. If you require interlaced ﬁelds, render the movie normally. To save a RAM preview: 1 Choose Composition >...
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Back QuickTime and Video for Windows have several built-in, software-based compression algorithms. For a list of QuickTime compressors, see the Adobe Web site. Setting QuickTime compression options Choices you make in the Compression Settings dialog box require trade-offs between ﬁle size and movie quality.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back 8 If your compressor choice supports different image color depths, choose the appro- priate color depth in the Output Module Settings dialog box: Choose Millions of Colors+ if you want 24-bit color quality and you want your compo- •...
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“Changing output module settings” on page 284. Then click OK. Exporting a single frame of a composition You can save a single frame from a composition to any output format or as an Adobe Photoshop ﬁle with layers intact. One frame of the composition is rendered at the current time as set in the Composition window.
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ﬁles by setting the work area to a different portion of the compo- sition before rendering each portion. A ﬁlmstrip opens in Adobe Photoshop as a series of frames in a column, with each frame labeled by number, reel name, and timecode. If the column created by the ﬁlmstrip frames is more than 30,000 pixels tall, the frames continue in a second column.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Export source images for a graphics program in which the images can be edited or • retouched and imported back into After Effects as footage items. To export a range of frames as a sequence of stills: 1 Choose Composition >...
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Change Render Output To: Use to redirect the output modules to render ﬁles to a named folder in the collected ﬁles folder. This option ensures that you have access to your rendered ﬁles when you’re rendering the project from another system.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Rendering using a watch folder (PB only) The Production Bundle version provides a Watch Folder feature that speeds up the rendering process on a network. If you have a full licensed copy of the Production Bundle, you can set it up to work with render-only versions of After Effects.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back tories to complete their rendering tasks. Once you choose Collect Files, After Effects copies the project or composition and all source ﬁles to the watch folder. For more information on the Collect Files options, see “Collecting ﬁles in one location”...
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Compressing & Writing stage in the Show Details section of the Render Queue window. Note: Adobe does not provide technical support for general network conﬁguration; consult your network administrator.
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If you’re running a Windows system, you can also launch After Effects in watch-folder mode using a command-line option. Choose Start > Run, type "C:\Program Files\Adobe\After Effects\afterfx.exe" -wf C:\temp (adjust the application path as needed to reﬂect the exact folder name where you installed After Effects, and replace C:\temp with the path to your watch folder), and press Enter.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Working with overﬂow volumes A situation in which After Effects reaches a disk space limit while rendering a composition is called an overﬂow. Specify this limit for Minimum Diskspace Before Overﬂowing in the Output Preferences dialog box.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back a 320 x 240 movie. For a composition rendered at full resolution, the image quality is excellent when the Stretch Quality is set to High. Note: Do not use stretching to change the vertical dimensions of a movie when ﬁeld rendering is on.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back to 200% to create a 640 x 480 movie. For a composition rendered at full resolution, the image quality will usually be acceptable. Note: Do not use stretching to change the vertical dimensions of a movie with ﬁeld rendering.
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Adobe After Effects Help Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back To test ﬁeld-rendering order: 1 Create a simple composition with the correct frame size and frame rate. Choose an NTSC or PAL preset in the Composition Settings dialog box, and make the composition at least 3 seconds long.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Adding randomness (PB only) You can add randomness to any property as it varies over time by using The Wiggler. (You can also use the wiggle expression to accomplish this.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back 7 Set a Magnitude to specify the maximum size of the deviations. After Effects sets the speciﬁed magnitude to the units of the selected property, so a value for one property may produce very different results in another property.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Working with the Tracker/Stabilizer Controls (PB only) The Tracker/Stabilizer is a panel added to the Layer window once you select the Tracker/ Stabilizer controls from the Layer window menu. The window displays the layer you selected to track.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back K. Tracking accuracy Indicates how accurately each feature region is tracking at the current time. L. Options button Opens the Options dialog box, in which you further reﬁne tracking.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Deﬁning tracking settings (PB only) Use the Options dialog box, available from the Tracker/Stabilizer Controls, to specify the second layer or the effect, and to deﬁne other tracking settings. The controls are as follows: Layer menu Speciﬁes the layer you want to attach to the tracked layer.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Subpixel Matching Divides each pixel in the feature region into smaller divisions. The Tracker/Stabilizer tracks a selected feature region by matching pixels and fractions of pixels from one frame to the next.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back The rotation in the ﬁrst layer is deﬁned by two feature regions and the axis that runs between them. An arrow on the axis points from the ﬁrst feature region to the second. The Tracker/Stabilizer tracks the rotation by measuring the angle of the axis in relation to the ﬁrst feature region: as either feature region moves, the angle of the axis changes.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Place the track points anywhere in the motion footage layer; they do not need to be in the center or in the corner of the feature regions. The Tracker/Stabilizer applies the Corner Pin effect to the second layer, generating keyframes for the layer and Corner Pin effect keyframes for each corner.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back As with afﬁne corner pinning, you can place the track points for perspective corner pinning anywhere in the motion footage layer; they do not need to be in the center or in the corner of the feature regions.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Tracking a moving region or object (PB only) For best results, ﬁrst prepare the object or region you are tracking before you begin ﬁlming. Because The Tracker/Stabilizer compares pixels from one frame to the next to produce an accurate track, attaching high-contrast markers to the object or region lets After Effects more easily follow the motion from frame to frame.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back To delete a tracked area: 1 Reposition the In and Out points to include only the area of the track you want to delete.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back then examining the accuracy displayed in the Tracker controls panel for any frames with an obscured feature region. Type a value that is slightly larger than the largest accuracy value for the problem frames.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back 8 In the Motion Stabilizer panel, click Analyze. Watch the tracking to make sure it is accurate. If not, press any key to stop tracking, adjust the settings, and begin again.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Motion Math (PB only) Use Motion Math to write and run scripts that use a special language and mathematical equations to generate keyframes. Motion Math can create complex changes for any property, using scripts included with the Production Bundle or scripts that you write.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Working in the Motion Math window (PB only) All of your work running, editing, and writing scripts occurs in the Motion Math window. In this window, you load a new script, save a script you’ve written, and apply a script to a composition.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Blink (blink.mm and blink.mov) Varies the opacity using the cosine function, cycling through a speciﬁed range of opacity percentages, and then creates keyframes for the speciﬁed layer’s opacity.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Running and editing existing scripts (PB only) The following procedure outlines the overall process for loading and running a script. Note, however, that each of the prewritten scripts varies slightly in its application. Editing existing scripts makes it easy to create unique effects for your composition.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Motion Math scripts use the Motion Math language, a simpliﬁed version of the C programming language. You can write scripts in the Motion Math script editor, or you can write them in any text editor and then load them into the Motion Math script editor.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back The third type of assignment creates a keyframe by placing the value function or the effect_value function on the left. In the following example, the value function creates a rotation keyframe in layer 1 from the current value of the variable angle: value (layer1, rotation) = angle;...
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back When used on the right side of an assignment, the functions obtain values of speciﬁed properties and channels in a speciﬁed layer. In the following example, the current value of the Position property in the layer called square1 is multiplied by 1.5, and the result is...
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back If the condition is true, Motion Math executes the statement before the else clause. If the condition is false, Motion Math executes the statement after the else clause. In the following example, if the current time is less than 0.5, Motion Math creates a scale...
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back n = n+1; To prevent inﬁnite loops, Motion Math stops a loop after 32,000 cycles. You can also stop a loop by pressing the Escape key (Windows) or both the Command and . (period) keys (Mac OS) while the script is running.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back To specify effect properties, use either the pop_property function or the effect_value function. The pop_property function obtains the value of the property currently selected in the speciﬁed Property menu. After you select a layer and load a script into Motion Math, both Property menus list all properties for all effects in the selected layer.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back About vectors (PB only) In Motion Math, vectors contain values for properties that require two or more dimen- sions. For example, the Position property requires two dimensions: one for the x- coordinate and one for the y-coordinate.
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back The letter x is equivalent to the index 0, and the letter y is equivalent to the index 1. Using mathematical functions and operations on vectors (PB...
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Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back The pop_property () function obtains the current selection from the speciﬁed Property • menu. The pop_channel () obtains the current selection from the speciﬁed Channel menu.
Page 330 Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Composition, layer, and property functions (PB only) value (layer, property) When used on the right side of an equation, obtains the value of the speciﬁed property in the speciﬁed layer. When used on the left side, creates a keyframe for the speciﬁed property.
Page 331 Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back ceil (a) Obtains the smallest integer greater than or equal to a. cos (a) Obtains the cosine of a, where a is in radians. acos (a) Obtains the arc cosine of a, where a is a number between –1 and 1.
Page 332 Adobe After Effects Help Using Motion Math (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back - subtract * multiply / divide = assign Logical operations (use If statements) (PB only) && and || or ! not == equals != not equal <...
Page 333 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Using Vector Paint (PB only) About Vector Paint (PB only) Vector Paint is an effect you use directly within After Effects. You can apply the Vector Paint effect to solid layers, to existing images on a layer, and to create mattes.
Page 334 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back 6 In the Timeline window, move the Time Marker to the appropriate point in time. For information about timing, see “Playing back your painting (PB only)” on page 340 and “Painting with Shift-Paint Records (PB only)”...
Page 335 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Eraser tool ( ) Erase areas of the layer, using Brush Type settings deﬁned in the Effect Controls window. The Eraser pointer appears as a circle with an X through it. If you are using an installed tablet with stylus eraser support, Vector Paint automatically switches to eraser mode when you use the stylus eraser.
Page 336 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back apply a single setting to all the selected strokes, select a new value, option, or color, as appropriate. When you drag to change Radius, Feather, or Opacity values, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to reduce the size of the increments.
Page 337 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Color swatch ( ) Displays the current selection as a solid color. When clicked, opens the Color picker dialog box. If the Opacity setting is less than 100%, the Color Swatch icon appears checkered, not solid.
Page 338: Click Ok
Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back When you select multiple strokes that have different Brush Settings, a question mark [-?-] appears next to that Brush Setting in the Effect Controls window. If you edit that value, all of the selected strokes are reset to the new value.
Page 339 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back As you work, painting and erasing can block pixels in an original image, such as a footage ﬁle or solid. You can also paint on a virtual layer above or below that image (although this does not appear as a separate layer in the Timeline window).
Page 340 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back G. Track Original Matte The original image is not visible in the working view. Paint strokes are visible. Painting affects only the area within the original image alpha channel (that is, paint applied within the original circle area).
Page 341 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Choosing a Playback mode (PB only) There are six modes for playing back the strokes in your paint composition: All Strokes Displays all strokes for the full duration of the layer, regardless of the position of the Time Marker when you drew them.
Page 342 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back For information about setting Vector Paint Preferences, see “Selecting viewing options (PB only)” on page 347. Setting playback speed (PB only) The Playback Speed value in the Effect Controls window can change the timing at which painted strokes appear in previews and rendered compositions.
Page 343 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back You can also change the playback speed by dragging the value itself or the slider below it: left to decrease the speed, right to increase it.
Page 344 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back First, choose the Shift-Paint Records option you want to apply before you paint the • strokes that will use this option. These options are available only on the Shift-Paint Records submenu of the Vector Paint contextual menu.
Page 345 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Set the Wiggle/sec value by using the slider in the Effect Controls window (preset to values between 0 and 30), by dragging the underlined Wiggle/sec value (to a value from 0 to 100), or by clicking the Wiggle/sec value and typing a number from 0 to 100.
Page 346 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Checking the Stylus Radius and Stylus Opacity ﬂags for strokes drawn with a pressure- sensitive pen allows pressure information to be recorded. This information then contributes to the variation of the stroke while wiggling is enabled.
Page 347 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back If Individual Stroke Seeds is not selected, all strokes use the same wiggle seed, so they all have the same spatial wiggle values. For example, two strokes exactly on top of each other will wiggle equally.
Page 348 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Changing stroke weight with Stylus Radius (PB only) Under Brush Settings in the Vector Paint effects, the Stylus Radius option affects stylus sensitivity. When you select this option, the pressure of the pen on the tablet changes the weight of the stroke as it is drawn.
Page 349 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Vector Paint keyboard shortcuts (PB only) Important: To enable Vector Paint keyboard shortcuts, Vector Paint must be selected in the Effect Controls window and the Composition window must be active.
Page 350 Adobe After Effects Help Using Vector Paint (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Shift + Alt + Page Up (Windows) or Shift + Option + Page Up (Mac OS): Move selected strokes 10 frames earlier on the Timeline. Shift + Alt + Page Down (Windows) or Shift + Option + Page Down (Mac OS): Move selected strokes 10 frames later on the Timeline.
Page 351 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Use the Particle Playground effect to create animations in which a large number of similar objects must be animated independently, such as a swarm of bees. Particle effects simulate the physical interactions between objects in the real world.
Page 352 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back 3 Set up a particle generator to determine how particles are created. You can shoot a stream of particles from the Cannon, generate a ﬂat plane full of particles from the Grid, or use the Layer Exploder to create particles from an existing layer.
Page 353 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back How particles ﬁrst appear on the layer (PB only) Use the Cannon to create a stream of particles from a speciﬁc point on the layer, or use the Grid to generate a plane of particles.
Page 354 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Improving performance with Particle Playground (PB only) You can animate a large number of similar objects so that they move independently but produce a consistent group behavior overall, such as animating falling snow, swarming bees, or exploding ﬁreworks.
Page 355 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back When creating particles using the Cannon, you can adjust the following options: Position Determines the X, Y coordinates from which particles are created. Barrel Radius Sets the size of the Cannon’s barrel radius. Negative values create a circular barrel, and positive values create a square barrel.
Page 356: Do One Of The Following
Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back When creating particles using the Grid, adjust the following: Position Determines the X, Y coordinates of the grid center. When a grid particle is created, it is centered over its grid intersection, regardless of whether it is a dot, a layer, or a text character.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back When you explode particles, the new particles inherit the position, velocity, opacity, • scale, and rotation of the original particles. After you explode layers or particles, the movement of particles is inﬂuenced by the •...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back To explode particles: 1 In the Effect Controls window, click the right-facing triangle next to Particle Exploder so that it points downward. 2 Specify options. 3 To apply the effect to a subset of particles, specify the Affects properties as necessary (see “Using Affects options to specify particles (PB only)”...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Specifying the frames you want to map (PB only) A multiframe layer is any layer whose source varies over time, such as a movie or a compo- sition.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back If you choose Relative and specify a Time Offset of 0, all particles shows the frame of the source layer that corresponds to the Playground layer's current time. However, if you choose Relative and specify a Time Offset of 0.1 (and your composition is set to 30 fps),...
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back 4 For Use Layer, select a layer from the menu. The menu lists all layers used in the compo- sition. 5 For Time Offset Type, specify how you want particles to take frames from times other than the current time.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back 4 Click OK. 5 Click the right-facing triangle next to Cannon so that it points downward. 6 Click the underlined Font Size value, type a value of 10 or greater, and click OK.
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Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Use Repel to avoid collisions between particles. Repel is useful for pushing particles • apart, such as after applying the Layer Exploder. Use Repel to cause particles to attract by typing a negative value.
Page 364 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Rotation At particle creation, the Cannon and Grid set no rotation; the Particle Exploder takes rotation from the exploded dot, layer, or character. Use Auto-Orient Rotation to make particles rotate automatically along their respective trajectories;...
Page 365 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Repelling and attracting particles (PB only) Use Repel to control how nearby particles repel or attract each other. This feature simulates adding a positive or negative magnetic charge to each particle. You can specify which particles, layers, or characters are the repelling force and which are repelled.
Page 366 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back 2 From the Boundary menu, choose None. About Property Mappers (PB only) Control speciﬁc properties of individual particles using the Property Mapper. You can’t alter a speciﬁc particle directly, but you can use a layer map to specify what will happen to any particle that passes over a speciﬁc pixel in the layer.
Page 367 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back operator such as Add, each time a particle passes over a different layer map pixel, the value of the layer map pixel is added to the original value of the particle.
Page 368 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back 4 For each of the Map Red To, Map Green To, and Map Blue To option groups, choose a property from the menu to associate it with the color channel as necessary. You don’t have to map properties to all of the color channels.
Page 369 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back You have a layer map that modiﬁes particles in the opposite direction from the one you • want. Swap the Min and Max values, which will have the same effect as inverting the layer map.
Page 370 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Using a layer map to specify particles affected by a Property Mapper (PB only) In both the Persistent and Ephemeral Property Mappers, you can use the layer map’s alpha channel to make more subtle changes to the value of a particle property.
Page 371 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Gradient Force Copies the force adjustment based on areas of a layer map on both the X and Y planes of motion. The pixel brightness values in the color channel deﬁne the resis- tance 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 372 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Using layer-map RGB channels to alter multiple properties independently (PB only) In both the Persistent or Ephemeral Property Mappers, you can control up to three particle properties independently by using a single RGB image as a layer map.
Page 373 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back Selection Map Choose a layer map that inﬂuences which particles are affected by the current option (see “About layer maps (PB only)” on page 374). Selection is based on the brightness, or luminance, of each pixel in the layer, so a particle is affected more or less as it passes over layer map pixels of different brightness.
Page 374 Layer maps are often created by painting them 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 375 If you want to create different layer maps for each channel, use a program that can edit individual color channels, such as 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 376 Adobe After Effects Help Creating Particle Effects (PB only) Using Help Contents Index Back If you want particles to be visible in front of the layer map, make sure that the layer with • Particle Playground applied is in front of the layer map.
Page 377 Composition Deleting the preference ﬁle upon launching Delete the preference ﬁle while After Effects 5.5 launches to save the step of manually deleting the preference ﬁle from its folder. To delete the preference ﬁle upon launch, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you launch the application, and click OK to conﬁrm deletion.
Page 378 Project window and, subsequently, have the new source appear in all the compositions that use the replaced (old) source. In After Effects 5.5, you can replace every instance of a layer’s source by dragging within the Project window. To perform this global replacement, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you drag the new item in the Project window to the item you want it to replace.
Page 379 New to After Effects 5.5 is the ability to quickly reset the anchor point to be the center of the layer. Once you reset the anchor point, the layer retains the same position value but changes its visual location to account for the new anchor point position.
Page 380 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Working with After Effects 5.5 to Build a Composition Using Help Contents Index Back Undoing composition settings If you make a mistake in your composition settings after you have closed the Composition Settings window, you can now undo them. To undo the composition settings immediately after you’ve closed the settings window, choose Edit >...
Page 381 Duplicating and splitting a layer and its track matte After Effects 5.5 now preserves the order of a layer and its track matte when you duplicate them or split them. In the duplicated or split set, the track matte layer remains on top of the ﬁll layer.
Page 382 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Layers Using Help Contents Index Back Previewing audio A new feature aids you in creating quick previews of the composition. Previewing audio in the work area As you work, you may need to quickly preview audio in the work area of the Timeline window without rendering frames or wireframes of the video.
Page 383 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back (5.5) Working with Masks and Transparency Using Smart Mask Interpolation (Production Bundle only) Previous versions of After Effects provided limited controls for interpolating masks. Now, Smart Mask Interpolation increases your ability to control how mask shape keyframes are created and gives you greater possibility for smooth, realistic animation.
Page 384 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back rate of 10 per second, then mask shape keyframes are added at frame numbers 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, and 29.
Page 385 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Working with Masks and Transparency Using Help Contents Index Back Speciﬁes that a vertex is added at each indicated percent of the mask shape outline Percentage of Outline length. For example, a value of 5 means that a vertex is added at each successive segment of the outline that represents 5% of the total perimeter.
Page 386 Pin Light A combination of the Lighten and Darken layer modes After Effects 5.5 also includes updates to some layer modes so that they now match the Adobe Photoshop® 6 blend modes. These updated layer modes are Color Dodge, Color Burn, and Difference.
Page 387 Time Time Difference Using Levels (Individual Controls) After Effects 5.5 adds the Levels (Individual Controls) effect in the Effect > Adjust category. This effect functions exactly like the Levels effect; however, the Levels (Individual Controls) effect simultaneously displays all the adjustable tracks for each channel. Because you have access to each parameter of each channel individually, you can add expressions to individual properties or keyframe one property independently of the others.
Page 388 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back The following options indicate the particular point on the pivot frame that remains constant throughout the footage. Place the effect points to select an area for stabilization. If you select multiple points, consider that Color Stabilizer is most effective when those points vary widely in color or brightness.
Page 389 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Selecting multiple points in the Mesh Warp effect You can now select more than one grid point in the Mesh Warp effect. This is useful if you want to move a group of points in the same direction. To select multiple grid points, hold down Shift as you click the points you want to select.
Page 390 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Applying Effects Using Help Contents Index Back Explorer Folders (Windows) or Finder Folders (Mac OS): to show your effects as they • appear in your ﬁle system folders. If a Folder A contains only Folder B, a listing for “Folder A”...
Page 391 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back (5.5) 3D Compositing Importing camera data from Maya ﬁles You can now import the camera data from Maya ASCII project ﬁles (.ma). After Effects imports these ﬁles as compositions. For each Maya ﬁle, After Effects creates either one or...
Page 392 In After Effects 5.5, you can create multiple composition views, with each view in its own window. You can add additional views to any composition or use one of the new built-in multiple-view workspaces.
Page 393 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back If you are working in 3D, choose a new 3D view from the 3D View Popup menu. • If you are working in 2D, choose a new magniﬁcation view or deﬁne a region of interest •...
Page 394 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back To display the magniﬁcation level, RGBA channels, safe zones, or Layer Wireframe mode • in all open views, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the corresponding button or menu in the Composition window.
Page 395 Using the Advanced 3D Renderer The Advanced 3D Renderer, previously available as a Web download only, is now installed with After Effects 5.5. Use the Advanced 3D Renderer to render compositions whose animations have intersecting 3D layers. The Advanced 3D Renderer not only accurately calculates the look of intersecting layers but also accurately calculates anti-aliasing, motion blur, and layer modes for the intersecting layers.
Page 396 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) 3D Compositing Using Help Contents Index Back To choose the Advanced 3D Renderer: 1 Choose Composition > Composition Settings. 2 Click the Advanced tab. 3 Choose Advanced 3D from the Rendering Plug-in menu. Note: The 3D Renderer setting is remembered as a preference. The last 3D renderer you select appears in the Rendering Plug-in menu the next time you access it.
Page 397 Layer Control Contains a layer menu that lists all of the layers in the active composition. Creating an expression for a single property When you write an expression in After Effects 5.5, you do not need to specify the property on which the expression is written. The default object for the expression is now the property on which the expression is written, followed by the layer containing the expression.
Page 398 (pos1 + pos2 + pos3) / 3 Using new keyframe-looping methods After Effects 5.5 includes four new keyframe-looping methods usable on any property except marker. They are as follows: loop_in(type = “cycle” , num_keyframes = 0) Loops a segment of time that is measured from the ﬁrst keyframe on the layer forward toward the layer’s Out point.
Page 399 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back Setting values for keyframes and duration Deﬁne segments by setting values for the keyframe and duration parameters according to the following descriptions of their function: Keyframes Sets the number of keyframe segments to loop. For the loop_in expression, the speciﬁed range is measured from the ﬁrst keyframe.
Page 400 = random() Using the “.name” attribute After Effects 5.5 adds the expression “.name” to Comp, Footage, Layer, Mask, and Effect objects. This is useful when you want to apply the same expression to several layers, varying the behavior based on the name of an object. For example, the following expression wiggles the position of a layer differently depending on whether or not the layer is named “hero”:...
Page 401 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Expressions Using Help Contents Index Back marker Returns the marker property for a layer. A marker property is unlike other properties such as Position in that the only methods and attributes available from it are key(), nearest_key, and num_keys.
Page 402 (5.5) Rendering a Movie Dragging footage to the render queue In After Effects 5.5, you can simultaneously create a composition from source footage and immediately prepare that footage for rendering. You do this by dragging source footage from the Project window to the render queue. This procedure is useful if you want to change some aspect of the source footage’s format, such as frame rate or compression...
Page 403 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Using postrender actions in the render queue The render queue has become more interactive with the Project window and has more options to create varied outputs and automate the rendering process. These options, called postrender actions, improve workﬂow because you can now queue speciﬁc events...
Page 404 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Creating a proxy from a still or moving image The Create Proxy command provides a quick way to create a still or movie proxy from footage or compositions selected in the Project or Timeline window. The command opens the render queue and sets a render item for the selected footage with Set Proxy chosen as the postrender action.
Page 405 ﬁle will be rendered by only one machine. Working with new ﬁle export options After Effects 5.5 features several new ﬁle export options. Rendering as a RealMedia ﬁle Use the RealMedia Output Plug-in to generate RealMedia ﬁles that can then be embedded in Web pages for both streaming and downloading.
Page 406 Adobe After Effects Help (5.5) Rendering a Movie Using Help Contents Index Back Speciﬁes the type of audio in the ﬁle. Choose Voice Only for movies that contain only Audio Content speech. Choose Voice with Background Music for clips that contain both voice and music audio. Choose Music for monophonic music-only clips.
Page 407 QuickTime codec supports 16 bits per channel. Contact the speciﬁc video hardware or codec manufacturer for more information concerning that product’s support of 16 bits per channel. Also, see the After Effects 5.5 Readme ﬁle for information concerning the codecs that support 16 bits per channel.
Page 408: Macintosh Shortcuts
Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Macintosh shortcuts Working with footage items (Project window) RESULT ACTION Open last project When opening a Hold down project, suppress opening of all windows (except the Project window) Open selected...
Page 409 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Scan for changed footage New folder Remember footage interpretation Apply footage inter- pretation Set proxy ﬁle Project Settings Command Shift Option Viewing windows (Composition, Layer, and Footage windows) RESULT...
Page 410 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Display channel + 1, 2, 3, or 4 (RGBA) Display channel + 1, 2, 3, or 4 (RGBA) in color Display channel in + click channel color icon Display unmatted...
Page 411 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Scroll selected layer to top of Timeline window Scroll current time to center of window Go to time Command Shift Option Moving around (Composition, Timeline, Footage, and Layer windows)
Page 412 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back RAM preview every + 0 on numeric other frame keypad Save RAM preview + 0 on numeric keypad Scrub video Drag or -drag current-time marker, depending on Preview Preferences...
Page 413 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Select noncon- -click layers tiguous layers Deselect all layers + A, or F2 Lock selected layers Unlock all layers Split selected layer Activate Composition window with layer Display selected layer...
Page 414 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Stretch layer to ﬁt horizontally, preserving frame aspect ratio Reverse a layer’s playback Set In point [ (left bracket) Set Out point ] (right bracket) Trim In point of a...
Page 415 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Change property Drag underlined value values in Switches/ Modes panel Change property -drag underlined value x 10 values Change property -drag underlined value / 10 values Command Shift Option...
Page 416 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Audio Waveform Effects Expressions Mask Feather Mask Shape Mask Opacity Mask properties Material options (3D) Opacity Position Rotation Time Remapping Scale Show all animating values Set layer property + property...
Page 417 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Open Anchor Point dialog box Zoom to or from ; (semicolon) frame view Zoom in time = on main keyboard Zoom out time - (hyphen) on main keyboard Command...
Page 418 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Rectangle tool or Q, or + Q to toggle Oval tool: Draws a between tools rectangular or ellip- tical mask in the Layer window; double-click to reset the mask...
Page 419 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Nudge keyframe 1 frame forward Nudge keyframe 1 frame backward Select all visible keyframes Go to previous visible keyframe Go to next visible keyframe Switch interpolation -click keyframe between Linear and...
Page 420 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Nudge layer scaling + + (plus) on numeric keypad Nudge layer scaling – + – (minus) on numeric keypad Note: Nudging counts pixels at the current magniﬁcation, not at actual size. For example, nudging an item 1 pixel at 50% magniﬁcation is the same as nudging the item 2 pixels at 100% magniﬁcation.
Page 421 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Exit free transform Return mode Command Shift Option Working with effects (Effect Controls window) RESULT ACTION Expand/collapse ` (grave accent) effect controls Add keyframe for -click effect effect control...
Page 422 Adobe After Effects Help Macintosh shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Toggle Casts Shadows property Command Shift Option Using markers (Composition and Timeline windows) RESULT ACTION Set layer-time marker on numeric keypad Remove layer-time -click marker marker Go to previous visible...
Page 423: Windows Shortcuts
Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Windows shortcuts Working with footage items (Project window) RESULT ACTION When opening a Hold down project, suppress opening of all windows (except the project window) Open last project + Alt +...
Page 424 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back New folder + Alt + Remember footage + Alt + C interpretation Apply footage inter- + Alt + V pretation Set proxy ﬁle + Alt + P Project Settings...
Page 425 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Display channel Alt + 1, 2, 3, or 4 (RGBA) Display channel Alt + + 1, 2, 3, or 4 (RGBA) in color Display channel in + click channel...
Page 426 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Scroll selected layer to top of Timeline window Scroll current time to center of window Go to time Control Shift Moving around (Composition, Timeline, Footage, and Layer windows) RESULT...
Page 427 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back RAM preview every + 0 on numeric other frame keypad Save RAM preview + 0 on numeric keypad Scrub video Drag or Alt-drag current-time marker, depending on Preview Preferences...
Page 428 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Select noncon- -click layers tiguous layers Deselect all layers + A, or F2 Lock selected layers Unlock all layers Split selected layer Activate Composition window with layer Display selected layer...
Page 429 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Stretch layer to ﬁt + Alt + vertically, preserving frame aspect ratio Reverse a layer’s + Alt + R playback Set In point [ (left bracket) Set Out point...
Page 430 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Change property Drag underlined value values in Switches/ Modes panel Change property -drag underlined value x 10 values Change property -drag underlined value / 10 values Control Shift Zooming...
Page 431 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Effects Expressions Mask Feather Mask Shape Mask Opacity Mask properties Material options (3D) Opacity Position Rotation Time Remapping Scale Show all animating values Set layer property + property value in dialog box...
Page 432 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Open Anchor Point + Alt + A dialog box Zoom to or from ; (semicolon) frame view Zoom in time = on main keyboard Zoom out time - (hyphen) on main...
Page 433 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Rectangle tool or Q, or + Q to toggle Oval tool: Draws a between tools rectangular or ellip- tical mask in the Layer window; double-click to reset the mask...
Page 434 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Nudge keyframe 1 Alt + frame forward Nudge keyframe 1 Alt + frame backward Select all visible + Alt + A keyframes Go to previous visible keyframe Go to next visible...
Page 435 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Nudge layer scaling + + (plus) on numeric keypad Nudge layer scaling – + – (minus) on numeric keypad Note: Nudging counts pixels at the current magniﬁcation, not at actual size. For example, nudging an item 1 pixel at 50% magniﬁcation is the same as nudging the item 2 pixels at 100% magniﬁcation.
Page 436 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Exit free transform Enter mask Control Shift Working with effects (Effect Controls window) RESULT ACTION Expand/collapse ` (grave accent) effect controls Add keyframe for Alt-click effect effect control property name...
Page 437 Adobe After Effects Help Windows shortcuts Using Help Contents Index Back Toggle Casts Alt + Shadows property Control Shift Using markers (Composition and Timeline windows) RESULT ACTION Set layer-time marker on numeric keypad Remove layer-time -click marker marker Go to previous visible...
Page 438 Adobe Systems Incorporated. Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with software that includes an end-user license agreement.
Page 439 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Index Numerics perspective setting and replacing...
Page 440 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z adjustment layers Glow effect and...
Page 441 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z in the Timeline window...
Page 442 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Best quality Brightness & Contrast effect...
Page 443 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z settings Collapse Transformations switch...
Page 444 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Comment panel naming Comp attributes and methods...
Page 445 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z coordinates temporal 108, Copy command...
Page 446 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Default Height of Timeline Graphs command...
Page 447 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Easy Ease keyframe assistant Brightness &...
Page 448 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Equalize Path Text Extract...
Page 449 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Smear EPS files, importing...
Page 450 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Material properties for 3D layers...
Page 451 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z footage Footage window 4, 14,...
Page 452 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z F-stop camera setting Hard Light layer mode...
Page 453 Continuous Bezier footage items deceleration and footage items with alpha channel frames for smooth motion layers from Adobe Illustrator 5.0 and later Hold masks from Adobe Illustrator Linear masks from Adobe Photoshop mixing methods multiple footage items...
Page 454 Last Painted option (Vector Paint contextual and Value graph menu) changing interpolation Layer Audio script controlling speed between layer duration bar 101, copying and pasting layer effects from Adobe Photoshop creating for Motion Math Layer Exploder deleting controls excess dissolving a layer fine-tuning speed between...
Page 455 Adobe Photoshop frame blending Layer Switches panel hiding and showing Layer Tangents command hiding in Composition window Layer window 4, In point menu including and excluding audio...
Page 456 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z order lights Out point...
Page 457 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Luminescent Premul layer mode...
Page 458 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z matte view, defined smoothing...
Page 459 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z changing keyframe number Multiply layer mode...
Page 460 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Oval Mask tool oval masks, drawing...
Page 461 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z parallax.mm/parallax.mov script layer maps and...
Page 462 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z pixels Posterize Time effect...
Page 463 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Preset camera setting building...
Page 464 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z PS+Pinch effect RAM (random access memory) preview...
Page 465 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z and frame blending Reshape effect...
Page 466 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z rotation tool testing rotoscoping...
Page 467 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z frame rate for footage...
Page 468 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Society of Motion Picture and Television...
Page 469 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z blending 334, closing take-snapshot icon...
Page 470 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Effect switch in time-stretching...
Page 471 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z deleting a tracked area...
Page 472 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hold interpolation and noninterlaced...
Page 473 Adobe After Effects Help Index Using Help Contents Index Back A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z window, snapshot workspace windows...

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