Project Planning And Setup - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual

AFTER EFFECTS CS3 24
User Guide
See also
"Lock or unlock a layer" on page 152

Project planning and setup

Workflow
Whether you use Adobe After Effects to animate a simple title or create complex special effects, you generally follow
the same basic workflow, though you may repeat some steps—such as the cycle of modifying layer properties,
animating, and previewing until everything looks right. You can choose a predefined workspace to facilitate each
stage of your work, or create your own workspaces adapted to your needs.
Import and organize footage
After you create a project, add your footage to the Project panel. After Effects automatically interprets many common
media formats, but you may also specify how you want After Effects to interpret attributes such as frame rate and
pixel aspect ratio. You can view each item in a Footage panel and set its start and end times to fit your composition.
For more information, see "Importing and interpreting footage items" on page 57.
Create and arrange layers in a composition
Create one or more compositions. Any footage item can be the source for one or more layers in a composition. You
can arrange the layers spatially in the Composition panel or arrange them in time using the Timeline panel. You can
stack layers in two dimensions, or arrange them in three dimensions using 3D light sources and camera views. You
can use masks, blending modes, and keying tools, to composite, or combine the images of multiple layers. You can
even use shape layers, text layers, and paint tools to create your own visual elements. For more information, see
"Compositions" on page 111, "Layers and properties" on page 137, "Drawing and painting" on page 301, and "Text"
on page 272.
Add effects and modify layer properties
You can add any combination of effects and modify any of a layer's properties, such as size, position, and opacity.
Using effects, you can alter a layer's appearance or sound, and even generate visual elements from scratch. You can
apply any of the hundreds of effects, animation presets, and layer styles. You can even create and save your own
animation presets. For more information, see "Effects and animation presets" on page 346.
Animate
You can make any combination of a layer's properties change over time, using keyframes and expressions. Use the
Tracker Controls panel to stabilize motion or to animate one layer so that it follows the motion in another layer. For
more information, see "Animation" on page 185, "Expressions" on page 543, and "Motion tracking" on page 334.
Preview
Previewing compositions on your computer monitor or an external video monitor is fast and convenient, even for
complex projects, especially if you use OpenGL technology to accelerate previews. You can change the speed and
quality of previews by specifying their resolution and frame rate, and by limiting the area and duration of the compo-
sition that you preview. You can use color management features to preview how your movie will look on another
output device. For more information, see "Views and previews" on page 124 and "Color management" on page 240.