Recapped last weeks workshop:-
The different panels/panes and their uses
Temporal and spacial arrangement
Spacial is where the content is in the frame
Temporal is where it is in time in the composition
When previewing your composition use the RAM PREVIEW button in the preview panel, using the play button doesn't play your composition in real time and it wont play audio.
Todays workshop focusses on creating animations from assets made in of software
Photoshop//Illustrator//Indesign
Setting up a Photoshop document for screen.
Working in Pixels not mm or cm's
RGB colour mode
72 dpi resolution
Film and video presets are the same as the presets in After Effects
Guides - the guides mark out an action safe zone - anything in these areas will be cropped off.
This is because of the way T.V.'s are designed.
Any text should be kept within these margins so the text is readable. There may also be some distortion.
Action/Title safe button
You get additional guides for different sized screens as well in After Effects
The file type you use to place images and text into After Effects is the Photoshop format PSD.
Importing.
File//import//file
Find your image
Select what you want to import it as - footage is the default
This window also gives you the option to choose what to import it as.
Now the image has been added to the project panel.
After Effects works in a similar way to Indesign as it creates a link to the location of something that you have imported, so it's important to keep all the assets to your projects together in a file.
To add it to your composition panel you simple click and drag the image layer and drop it in.
Layered files.
Importing.
Same as importing an image but you need to change the Import As box from footage to composition.
This box will pop up again asking the same question as the previous window.
A new layer will appear and a folder.
Inside the folder are the individual layers - you rarely have to go into this folder.
Any element of your image needs to be on its own layer, this is important to do in Photoshop or Illustrator before importing it to After Effects.
Animating the layers.
Position
Time
Key Frames
Multiple key frames - select all the layers, click P for position and create the key frame.
Drag the layers to where you want them to end up
And watch them move.
Ultimately you want to create the finished piece in Photoshop or Illustrator and then animate it in After Effects.
Scale.
Import a composition and select all the layers the press S to bring up the scale function on all the layers. Then alter the yellow number by clicking and dragging left an right along the screen. The scale of the selected layers will change.
Retain layer sizes - this means that when you scale the layers they will remain in the same place but get bigger or smaller when you scale them. The standard composition option will scale around the central anchor point of the frame.
Retain layer sizes option
Standard composition option
Illustrator.
Imported as footage.
Illustrator documents don't work in pixels they work in vectors so you can scale them without losing any information or quality.
Still looks pixelated at the moment but this can be changed using the layer switches located in the composition panel.
The first one is the shy switch.
selecting this will hide the layer in the composition panel once you click the 'Hide shy layers' button.
'Hide shy layers' button.
The second switch is for illustrator files only. Rasterise Switch.
The third reduces the quality of that layer.
The 4th one turns on effects.
The 5th switch only applies to working with film.
The 6th switch is the motion blur switch. This does pretty much what it says on the button.
Just like Indesign, you have to keep all your assets for your project and compositions in the same file and keep them organised so that when you move from computer to computer the links will still work and you wont have any problems.
Always remember never to tamper with the links as they will get messed up and it makes more work for you.
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