Composite in After Effects
This is a book about visual effects compositing. If you
use Adobe After Effects, the goal is to help you create
believable, fantastic moving images from elements that
were not shot together, and to do it with the least possible
effort. This fi rst section of the book focuses on effortlessness,
offering a jump-start (if you’re new) or a refresher
(if you’re already an After Effects artist) on the After
Effects workfl ow.
To be an outstanding compositor, you need to employ your
best skills as both an artist and an engineer. As an artist,
you make creative and aesthetic decisions, but if you are
not also able to understand how to put those decisions
together and how the process works, the artistry of your
work will suffer. Artists and engineers have much in common:
both understand and respect the tools, both know
that the tools themselves don’t make you a great designer,
and in both roles, iteration—multiple refi nements—are
often what separates a great effort from mediocrity.
This chapter and the rest of Section I focus on how to get
things done in After Effects as effortlessly as possible. It is
assumed that you already know your way around the basics
of After Effects and are ready to learn to work smarter.
Workspaces and Panels
Figure 1.1 is one way of looking at the most generic of
projects: it shows the Standard workspace that appears
when you fi rst open After Effects CS4, broken down into
its component parts. The interface consists of
If this book opens at too advanced
a level for you, check out Adobe
After Effects CS4 Classroom in a Book
(Adobe Press), a helpful beginner’s
resource.
5
I: Working Foundations
Figure 1.1 The Standard workspace layout, diagrammed in color. The top areas in red are informational only, while the
purple areas contain tools and settings. The blue areas of the Timeline and Effect panel contain stacks whose order will
change compositing order. Panel tabs, in yellow, can be grabbed to reorder the interface and contain menus at the upper
right to adjust their appearance. The layer stack, in green, is modal and can be swapped for the Graph Editor.
. The main application window contains some panel
groups—six of them by default (the Standard workspace),
as few as two (Minimal workspace), or as many
as 17 (All Panels workspace).
. Each group contains one or more panels each with a
tab in the upper left.
. Separating the panel groups are dividers; panels and
dividers are dragged to customize the workspace (more
on that in a moment).
. Some panels are viewers, with a pop-up menu in the tab
listing available clips.
. At the top is the Tools panel, which can be hidden but
only appears atop the application window (and thus has
no tab).
I call these out here to be done identifying them and to
reassure you that this, along with a bunch of menus and a
bunch more twirly arrows, is all there is to the After Effects
user interface.
All available panels in After Effects
are listed under the Window menu;
the most common include preset
keyboard shortcuts. Use these as
toggles to keep your workspace
clutter-free.
6
Chapter 1 Composite in After Eff ects
Are you a Zen roshi? Reveal the core essence of After
Effects with the Minimal workspace (via the Workspace
menu in Tools or Window > Workspace). Two of the most
important three panels in After Effects are
. The Composition panel, a viewer where you examine a
shot
. The Timeline panel, the true heart of After Effects,
where elements are layered and timed for individual
compositions (or shots). You will typically have many of
these open at any given time.
For the third, choose Window > Project (Cmd/Ctrl+0)
to add the Project panel. This is the Finder or Windows
Explorer of After Effects—nothing more than fi les and
folders representing the contents of your project.
At some point even a Zen roshi will assumedly need at least
two more panels. A completed composition typically goes
to the Render Queue (Cmd/Ctrl+Alt/Option+0) for fi nal
output (details about this important hub are found at the
end of the chapter), and you are likely to add layer effects
which are best adjusted in the Effect Controls (with a layer
selected, F3 or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+T), although most the
same controls can be found by twirling open the layer with
that essential little triangle to the left of the layer name.
Other panels (found in other workspaces, or by selecting
them under the Window menu) contain controls for specifi
c tools such as paint (Paint and Brush Tips), the most
signifi cant of which are covered in detail later in the book.
This is a book about visual effects compositing. If you
use Adobe After Effects, the goal is to help you create
believable, fantastic moving images from elements that
were not shot together, and to do it with the least possible
effort. This fi rst section of the book focuses on effortlessness,
offering a jump-start (if you’re new) or a refresher
(if you’re already an After Effects artist) on the After
Effects workfl ow.
To be an outstanding compositor, you need to employ your
best skills as both an artist and an engineer. As an artist,
you make creative and aesthetic decisions, but if you are
not also able to understand how to put those decisions
together and how the process works, the artistry of your
work will suffer. Artists and engineers have much in common:
both understand and respect the tools, both know
that the tools themselves don’t make you a great designer,
and in both roles, iteration—multiple refi nements—are
often what separates a great effort from mediocrity.
This chapter and the rest of Section I focus on how to get
things done in After Effects as effortlessly as possible. It is
assumed that you already know your way around the basics
of After Effects and are ready to learn to work smarter.
Workspaces and Panels
Figure 1.1 is one way of looking at the most generic of
projects: it shows the Standard workspace that appears
when you fi rst open After Effects CS4, broken down into
its component parts. The interface consists of
If this book opens at too advanced
a level for you, check out Adobe
After Effects CS4 Classroom in a Book
(Adobe Press), a helpful beginner’s
resource.
5
I: Working Foundations
Figure 1.1 The Standard workspace layout, diagrammed in color. The top areas in red are informational only, while the
purple areas contain tools and settings. The blue areas of the Timeline and Effect panel contain stacks whose order will
change compositing order. Panel tabs, in yellow, can be grabbed to reorder the interface and contain menus at the upper
right to adjust their appearance. The layer stack, in green, is modal and can be swapped for the Graph Editor.
. The main application window contains some panel
groups—six of them by default (the Standard workspace),
as few as two (Minimal workspace), or as many
as 17 (All Panels workspace).
. Each group contains one or more panels each with a
tab in the upper left.
. Separating the panel groups are dividers; panels and
dividers are dragged to customize the workspace (more
on that in a moment).
. Some panels are viewers, with a pop-up menu in the tab
listing available clips.
. At the top is the Tools panel, which can be hidden but
only appears atop the application window (and thus has
no tab).
I call these out here to be done identifying them and to
reassure you that this, along with a bunch of menus and a
bunch more twirly arrows, is all there is to the After Effects
user interface.
All available panels in After Effects
are listed under the Window menu;
the most common include preset
keyboard shortcuts. Use these as
toggles to keep your workspace
clutter-free.
6
Chapter 1 Composite in After Eff ects
Are you a Zen roshi? Reveal the core essence of After
Effects with the Minimal workspace (via the Workspace
menu in Tools or Window > Workspace). Two of the most
important three panels in After Effects are
. The Composition panel, a viewer where you examine a
shot
. The Timeline panel, the true heart of After Effects,
where elements are layered and timed for individual
compositions (or shots). You will typically have many of
these open at any given time.
For the third, choose Window > Project (Cmd/Ctrl+0)
to add the Project panel. This is the Finder or Windows
Explorer of After Effects—nothing more than fi les and
folders representing the contents of your project.
At some point even a Zen roshi will assumedly need at least
two more panels. A completed composition typically goes
to the Render Queue (Cmd/Ctrl+Alt/Option+0) for fi nal
output (details about this important hub are found at the
end of the chapter), and you are likely to add layer effects
which are best adjusted in the Effect Controls (with a layer
selected, F3 or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+T), although most the
same controls can be found by twirling open the layer with
that essential little triangle to the left of the layer name.
Other panels (found in other workspaces, or by selecting
them under the Window menu) contain controls for specifi
c tools such as paint (Paint and Brush Tips), the most
signifi cant of which are covered in detail later in the book.
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