After Effects cs4 note

Study a Shot like an Effects Artist

Seasoned visual effects supervisors miss nothing. Fully
trained eyes do not even require two takes, although in the
highest end facilities, a shot loops for several minutes while
the team picks it apart.
This process, though occasionally hard on the ego, makes
shots look good.
You can and should scrutinize your shot just as carefully in
After Effects. Specifi cally, throughout this book I encourage
you to get in the following habits:
. Keep an eye on the Info palette

. Loop or rock and roll previews.
. Zoom in to the pixel level, especially around edges.
. Examine footage channel by channel .
. Turn the Exposure control in the comp viewer up
and down to make sure everything still matches

. Assume there’s a fl aw in your shot; it’s the only way
around getting too attached to your intentions.
. Approach your project like a computer programmer
and minimize the possibility of bugs (careless errors).
Aspire to design in modules that anticipate what might
change or be tweaked.


The Timeline

The Timeline can be considered After Effects’ killer
application. More than any other feature, it extends After
Effects unique versatility to a wide range of work. With the
Timeline at the center of the compositing process, you
can time elements and animations precisely as you control
their appearance.
The Timeline panel is also a user-friendly part of the application
and full of hidden powers. By mastering its usage,
you can streamline your workfl ow a great deal, setting the
stage for more advanced work.
One major source of these hidden powers is the Timeline’s
set of keyboard shortcuts and context menus. These are
not extras to be investigated once you’re a veteran, but
small productivity enhancers that you can learn gradually
all the time.
Organization
The goal here isn’t to keep you organized but to get rid of
everything you don’t need and put what you do need right
at your fi ngertips.
Column Views
You can context-click on any column heading to see and
toggle available columns in the Timeline, or you can start
with the minimal setup shown in Figure 2.1 and then augment
or change the setup with the following tools:

. Lower-left icons : Most (but not quite all) of
the extra data you need is available via the three toggles
found at the lower left of the Timeline.
. Layer Switches and Transfer Controls are the
most-used; if you have plenty of horizontal space, leave
them both on, but the F4 key has toggled them since
the days when 1280 × 960 was an artist-sized display.
. Time Stretch toggles the space-hogging timing columns.
I’m unconvinced they’re needed; the one thing I
do with this huge set of controls is stretch time to either
double speed or half speed (50% or 200% stretch,
respectively), which I can do by context-clicking Time >
Time Stretch.
. Layer/Source (Alt/Option key toggles): What’s in a
name? Nothing until you customize it; clear labels and
color (below) boost your workfl ow.
. Parent: This one is so often on when you don’t need it
and hidden when you do (see “Spatial Offsets” later in
this chapter); use context-clicking to show/hide it.
. I can’t see why you would disable AV Features/Keys; it
takes effectively no space.
The game is to preserve horizontal space for keyframe data
by keeping only the relevant controls visible.


Color Commentary

When dissecting something tricky, it can help to use
. Solo layers to see what’s what
. Locks for layers that should not be edited further
. Shy layers to reduce the Timeline to only what’s
needed
. Color-coded layers and project items
. Tags in the comments fi eld
Solo layers hide visible layers that are not solo’d. They are
great except that other layers can stay mysteriously hidden
in subsequent comps and renders. For this reason, I like to
set Solo Switches to All Off in my default Render Settings.
I don’t often lock layers, but it makes a heck of a lot of
sense particularly for layers that you don’t want “nudged”
out of position, such as adjustment layers, track mattes,
and background solids (but once they’re locked, you can’t
adjust anything until you unlock them). If you’re a superorganized
person, you can use layer locks to check layers in
and out; the locked ones are completed—for now.
Employing shy layers provides a fantastic workaround
for the cluttered Timeline. Layers set to shy disappear
from the Timeline (once the Timeline’s own Shy toggle is
enabled) but remain visible in the Composition viewer. If
you’ve ever worked with an imported 3D track composition
from such software as SynthEyes or Boujou, you know that
they typically come with hundreds of null layers. I tend to
make these shy immediately, leaving only the camera and
background plate ready for compositing.
Colors are automagically assigned to specifi c types of layers
(like Cameras, Lights, and Adjustment Layers) according
to Preferences > Label Defaults. I often give unique colors
to track matte layers so I remember not to move them. On
someone else’s system, the colors may change according to
their preferences, although they will correspond.
Comments are generally the least used column in the
Timeline, but that could change if more people start using
a script called “Zorro-The Layer Tagger,” which manages


the process of adding tags to layers and using them to create
selection sets .
Layer Markers (and, new in CS4, Comp Markers) can hold
visible comments. You can add a layer marker for a given
point in time with the * key on your numeric keypad,
meaning you can add them while looping up a RAM Preview
in real time. Comp Markers are added using Shift and
the numbers atop your keyboard. I double-click them and
make notes, both for timing and when I want to make sure
a note won’t get lost in the hidden Comment column.

Navigation and Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts make a huge difference in your ability
to work speedily and effortlessly in the Timeline.

Time Navigation

Many users—particularly editors—learn time navigation
shortcuts right away. Others primarily drag the current
time indicator, which can quickly become tedious. See if
there are any here you don’t already know:
. Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down correspond
to moving to the fi rst or last frame of the composition,
one frame backward, and one frame forward,
respectively.


. Shift+Page Up and Shift+Page Down skip ten frames
backward or forward, respectively.
. Shift+Home and Shift+End navigate to the work area
In and Out points respectively, and the B and N keys set
these points at the current time.
. I and O keys navigate to the beginning and end frames
of the layer.
. Press Alt+Shift+J/Opt+Shift+J or click on the current
time status at the upper left of the Timeline to navigate
to a specifi c frame or timecode number. In this dialog,
enter +47 to increment 47 frames or –47 to decrement
the same number; if you entered –47, that would navigate
to a negative time position instead of offsetting by
that number.

Make Layers Behave

We were reviewing film-outs of shots in progress from The
Day After Tomorrow at The Orphanage when my shot began
to loop; it looked out a window at stragglers making their
way across a snow-covered plaza and featured a beautiful
matte painting by Mike Pangrazio. About two-thirds
through the shot came a subtle pop. At some point, the
shot had been lengthened, and a layer of noise and dirt I
had included at approximately 3% transparency (for the
window itself) had remained shorter in a subcomposition.
With power comes responsibility. After Effects allows you to
time the entrance and exit of layers in a way that would be
excruciating in other compositing applications that have
no built-in sense of a layer start or end. To avoid the gotcha
where a layer or comp comes up short, it is wise to make
everything way longer than you ever expect you’ll need—
overengineer in subcomps and trim in the master comp.
To add a layer beginning at a specifi c time, drag the element
to the layer area; a second time indicator appears
that moves with your cursor (horizontally). This determines
the layer’s start frame. If other layers are present
and visible, you can also place it in layer order by dragging
it between them.



Here are some other useful tips and shortcuts:

. Ctrl+/ (Cmd+/) adds a layer to the active composition.
. Ctrl+Alt+/ (Cmd+Opt+/) replaces the selected layer in
a composition (as does option dragging one element
over another—either in the Timeline or the Project
panel—this can be hugely useful).
. J and K navigate to the previous or next visible
keyframe, layer marker, or work area start/end,
respectively.
. Ctrl+Alt+B/Cmd+Option+B sets the Work Area to the
length of any selected layers. To reset the Work Area to
the length of the composition, double-click it.
. Numeric keypad numbers select layers with that
number.
. Ctrl+Up Arrow (Cmd+Up Arrow) selects the next layer
up; down works the same.
. Ctrl+] (Cmd+]) and Ctrl+[ (Cmd+[) move a layer
up or down one level in the stack. Ctrl+Shift+] and
Ctrl+Shift+[ move a layer to the top or bottom of the
stack.
. Context-click > Invert Selection to invert the layers currently
selected. (Locked layers are not selected, but shy
layers are selected even if invisible.)
. Ctrl+D (Cmd+D) to duplicate any layer (or virtually any
selected item).
. Ctrl+Shift+D (Cmd+Shift+D) splits a layer; the source
ends and the duplicate continues from the current
time.
. [ and ] move the In or Out points of selected layers to
the current time. Add Alt (Option) to set the current
frame as the In or Out point, trimming the layer.
. Double-ended arrow icon over the end of a trimmed
layer lets you slide it, preserving the In and Out points
while translating the timing and layer markers (but not
keyframes).
. Alt+PgUp/PgDn (Option+PgUp/PgDn) nudges a layer
and its keyframes forward or backward in time. Alt/
Option+Home or End moves the layer’s In point to the
beginning of the comp, or the Out point to the end.


Layer > Transform (or context-click a layer > Transform)
includes three ways to fi ll a frame with the selected layer:
. Ctrl+Alt+F (Cmd+Option+F) centers a layer and fi ts
both horizontal and vertical dimensions of the layer,
whether or not this is non-uniform scaling.
. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H/Cmd+Option+Shift+H centers but
fi ts only the width.
. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G/Cmd+Option+Shift+G centers but
fi ts only the height.
Those shortcuts are a handful; context-clicking the layer
for the Transform menu is nearly as easy.

Timeline Views

After Effects has a great keyframe workfl ow. These shortcuts
will help you work with timing more quickly, accurately,
and confi dently:
. The ; key toggles all the way in and out on the Timeline:
single frame to all frames. The slider at the bottom
of the Timeline zooms in and out
more selectively.
. The scroll wheel moves you up and down the layer
stack.
. Shift+scroll-wheel moves left and right in a zoomed
Timeline view.
. Alt/Option+scroll zooms dynamically in and out of
the Timeline, remaining focused around the cursor
location.
. The \ key toggles between a Timeline and its Composition
viewer, even if previously closed.
. The Comp Marker Bin contains markers you can
draw out into the Timeline ruler. You can replace their
sequential numbers with names.