Adobe After Effects CS3
ANIMATING YOUR MESSAGE
To intrigue potential readers about my latest book,
An Artist Empowered,
I wanted to replace the static image of the book cover on my website
with a more 'e-motionally charged' promotional video that would also
include animation. My plan was to also post the video on YouTube,
Gather, and other relevant sites.
LET’S MAKE A MOVIE
For starters, After Effects CS3 is not a video editor like Final
Cut Express HD, which has many professional tools—from producing
feature length films to a three-to-four-minute video describing the
merits of my book. While I could choose from various title sequences and
effects available with FCE, I felt my talking head approach needed a
bit more eye-catching visual interest.
Without a quality presentation, the greatest of content can linger
unnoticed. We also live in a media saturated world of the dwindling
attention span further compounded by the quest for sound bites, quick
edits, text messaging shorthand, and where newsworthy often translates
into pandering and sensationalism instead of things that do matter. To
be realistic, art, books, and videos, which are my concerns here, and
perhaps yours, do compete in the realm of getting attention in a vast
sea of look at me.
MOTION OVER TIME
The introductory title sequence and animated interludes that I had
in mind for my promotional video would require another power player:
Adobe After Effects CS3, a high-end professional compositing, effects,
and animation tool. Although you might not have known it, you’ve seen
motion graphics and visual effects created with After Effects in film
titles (including Hollywood movies), video, DVD, and on the web.
After Effects animations are typically of short duration—from
several seconds to fewer than 30. This can be a simple, or a complex
undertaking as the possibilities and combinations for innovation are
limitless.
THE FAT LADY SINGS
While After Effects incorporates tools you will find in Photoshop,
Illustrator, and nonlinear video apps such as Final Cut Express or Adobe
Premiere, it is unlike any other image creation or editing program
because it works with motion and time in 2D imagery; and in 3D mode you
can also control camera angles and depth of field within compelling
environments—which, of course, you must also construct.
Finding a metaphor to describe After Effects is a good place to begin.
Antony Bolante, author of
After Effects CS3 Professional:
Visual QuickPro Guide from Peachpit, describes After Effects as the
opera of digital media. This metaphor works for me as opera incorporates
the gamut of theatrical elements: acting, drama, music, sound,
lighting, speech, art, costume, set design, and, to pull it all
together—direction.
After Effects is extremely flexible, allowing users with various
needs to create compositions (called comps) from disparate media sources
such as Photoshop, Illustrator, QuickTime movies, and 3D modeling
programs. AECS3 brings together typography and layout, photography and
digital imaging, digital video and audio editing, and 3D animation.
Animating elements over time, or motion graphics, is what After Effects
is about.
IN-HOUSE TOOLS
While After Effects will happily import files made with other apps,
AECS3 offers fabulous tools for creating original work directly from
within the program—most notably vector graphics (including the new and
innovative Shape Layers feature) and a state of the art typography
engine that renders out superb 2D and 3D text effects.
INDEPENDENT FILM
After working with AECS3 for nearly two months, my impression was
this: I was an auteur (writer, producer and director) with control over
all the elements in my 'Indie' production, from setting the stage,
animating my ‘actors’—to such advanced tools as sound, lighting, and
camera angles. This precise control over motion and time does demand
grasping many new concepts—familiarity with Photoshop and Illustrator
provides you with a slight edge.
HEAD’S UP
To say that After Effects is feature rich with tools and options
would be an understatement. Learning the intricacies of this app with
its many levels, parameters, and transformational properties is a
challenge. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, you can get a head’s up by
first focusing on the basics until they make sense: for example, as
apparent as it might seem, begin by taking the time necessary to
familiarize yourself with the application window (AE7 users will still
find this interface familiar), which, for all its complexity, is
extremely well thought out by its designers.
Getting a handle on the After Effects jargon, which draws heavily
from digital video editing (footage, keyframes), plus often-used
keyboard shortcuts will also get you up to speed. To easily switch
between apps, remember to invoke command > tab. Help from the
dropdown menu is comprehensive and can answer many of your questions.
Fortunately, there are also excellent tutorial books and videos to
jumpstart your adventure in the realm of After Effects. Please see
links in the tutorial section of the sidebar.
FIRSTIME USERS
When you add a file (called ‘footage’ by After Effects even if it’s
a still image) to the timeline of your comp, After Effects
automatically stores it as a layer and provides you with all the
transformational properties that can be applied to animate the elements
of that particular file (Photoshop, Illustrator, and on QuickTime
movies—various effects, trimming a clip or a slip edit).
Simply put, animation is change or motion over time. You animate a
layer or an effect on a layer by changing one or more of its
transformational properties over time. Basic transformational parameters
typically include: position, scale, opacity, and rotation. There are,
of course, advanced transformational parameters, especially when working
with 3D comps.
Layer properties can then be keyframed in the timeline to create an
animation over time. For example, you can animate a layer’s opacity
property from 0% to 100% (from one keyframe to another in the timeline)
to make the layer fade in. Any property with a stopwatch button to the
left of its name in the Timeline panel or Effect Controls panel can be
animated. But having the option to animate a property doesn’t mean you
have to—in fact, you will find yourself mostly working with a base set
of options, and subtly goes a long way in animation.
ARE WE THERE YET?
The final After Effects compositions (you add footage to your comps
to create animations) for my book promotional video aren’t yet ready;
however, I did want to show you where I'm heading; see the QuickTime
movies (1 through 4) in the sidebar; to conserve bandwidth for faster
loading, I reduced the file size of each movie with the very handy
Sorenson Squeeze with great results.
Text movement is good; however, note the added value of
incorporating film and sound (4: Film & Sound); sound quality is as
important if not more so than your video. To hear audio in your movie,
remember to check the audio output box in the AECS3 output module
settings before rendering (to QuickTime, Flash, other format) your
composition.
Film & Sound sequence: ocean waves stock footage courtesy of
Artbeats; ambient surf and waves sound courtesy of
sound-effect.com.
After Effects CS3 is a vast program; my goal here is to introduce
you to a few features plus several fundamental concepts of what the
program does, which may then also inspire you to get your feet wet.
Please see the sidebar for examples.
SUITE INTEGRATION
While introducing new tools and features, the current release of
After Effects is as much about seamless workflow with other apps in
Adobe’s Production Premium suite—something Adobe has been refining over
the years with great results. For example, AECS3 integration becomes
especially apparent when importing layers and effects directly from
Photoshop Extended and Illustrator CS3 files—another incredibly
efficient time saver.
PHOTOSHOP EXTENDED
Photoshop provides a variety of layer styles many of us are already
familiar with—such as shadows, glows, and bevels—that change the
appearance of a layer. After Effects can preserve these layer styles
when importing Photoshop layers. You can also apply layer styles
directly in After Effects and then animate their properties.
VIDEO LAYERS
Another significant feature in After Effects CS3 Professional is
support for the new Video Layers in PSD files created with Photoshop CS3
Extended. You can create new video layers by adding a video file as a
new layer or creating a blank layer.
You can edit or paint on individual video frames to create an
animation, add content, or to remove unwanted details. In addition to
using any brush tool, you can paint using the Clone Stamp, Pattern
Stamp, Healing Brush, or Spot Healing Brush. You can also edit video
frames using the Patch tool.
Note: Painting (or using any other tool) on video frames is often
called rotoscoping; traditionally, rotoscoping involves the
frame-by-frame tracing of live action images for use in animation.
Integration enables you to combine After Effects and Photoshop’s
toolsets when working on video rotoscoping and other design tasks. The
way this works is that a layered PSD file is saved on disk alongside the
movie file it incorporates. When you import the PSD file into After
Effects as a composition, it then references the associated movie file
for content on the corresponding layer.
In fact, all your AECS3 compositions are constructed solely from
links to the source files on your hard drive; this is incredibly
effiencient.
VANISHING POINT
Vanishing Point in Photoshop lets you specify 3D sets of planes of
perspective onto a 2D image. After importing your PSD file, you can then
use those planes as layers to build your 3D comps in After Effects—this
feature works quite well for subtle arrangements of perspective and
depth—from transforming a 2D image of a building into a 3D model to
sliding a flat album label insert onto the shape of a half open CD jewel
case.
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR
In Adobe Illustrator CS3, you can add vector graphics to
pre-production plans and create new film and video documents that
integrate directly into capture and production functions. The new Crop
Area tool in Illustrator CS3 provides a working environment that
includes dimensions and units tailored to your output. For video and
film, predefined Crop Area characteristics set up your workspace so that
it’s automatically prepared for the type of media that will display
your designs.
The next step would be to import your Illustrator file (already
properly sized for your comp) into After Effects as a Composition. This
way, all individual layers in the file remain separate so, if necessary,
they can be adjusted or animated separately in After Effects.
ADOBE BRIDGE
Not to be overlooked, Adobe Bridge CS3 acts a convenient go between
applications, file organization and sharing, and provides centralized
access to your project files, applications, and settings, along with
Adobe XMP (Extensible Markup Platform) metadata tagging and searching
capabilities.
Bridge also serves as your dynamic environment for viewing animated
AECS3 presets on the fly, and then having the option of applying that
effect to your composition.
COMPOSITIONS: SPACE AND TIME
An After Effects composition (comp) has spatial dimensions plus a
temporal dimension, called duration, or length of time. A composition is
where you create all animation, layering, and effects.
When you create a new comp (the comp icon represents the After
Effects native file format), you are defining the size, video format,
and time duration of your animation. Should you change your mind, After
Effects does permit you to come back later to alter your original
settings. Every composition you create opens a comp window (which shows
how your animation looks) with a corresponding timeline (where you add
the source material for your animation as layers for that comp).
Compositions include one or more layers. Any item that you add to a
composition—such as a still image, moving image, audio file, light
layers, camera layers, or even another composition—becomes a new layer.
Simple projects may include only one composition, while elaborate
projects may include several compositions to organize large amounts of
footage or intricate effects sequences.
As Ko Maruyama often points out in his AECS3 Essentials Total Training video, one
handy feature for viewing the timeline or other panels with lots of
information is this: To quickly maximize a panel beneath the pointer,
press the tilde (~) key. (Do not press Shift.) Press the tilde key again
to return the panel to its original size.
SHAPE LAYERS
Still images and animations based on vector graphics are a mainstay
of print, web, video, and film design. Previously, many motion graphics
artists would create these elements in programs such as Adobe
Illustrator and animate them inside After Effects, or use web-oriented
software such as Adobe Flash.
Shape Layers is a new, powerful, fully integrated vector graphic
creation and animation tool. Based on the vector drawing standards of
Illustrator, this exciting new feature simplifies the process of
creating and animating shapes. Built-in parametric shapes include
polygons and stars as well as ellipses and squared or rounded
rectangles; in addition, you can draw your own shapes with the Pen tool.
Shape Layers can be used to create anything from simple abstract
objects to entire cartoons. You also have full control over fill,
stroke, and gradients.
ADD EFFECTS AND ANIMATE YOUR SHAPES
After Effects CS3 boosts vector graphics to the next level by
including the ability to animate nearly every parameter and also by
providing a wide variety of useful shape effects such as Twist, Pucker
& Bloat, Wiggle Paths, and the powerful Repeater effect. A Shape
Layer may have multiple shapes, and you have many options for how these
shapes are grouped and combined. They can also be used to create stroked
paths for underscores and other graphic elements. Shape Layers offer
artists, especially for those on deadline work, a quick and easy means
for creating sophisticated, beautiful shape-based animations.
PER-CHARACTER 3D TEXT
You can now add a new dimension to your text animation with the power to move and rotate individual characters in 3D space.
The remarkably versatile text engine in After Effects combines the
precision typesetting capabilities of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
with animation tools that provide control over how every line, word,
character, or range of characters will scale, rotate, move, fade, skew,
change color, track, fade, and blur. AECS3 adds another powerful
feature: the ability for each line, word, character, or range of
characters to move independently in 3D space—on the X, Y, and Z axis.
After Effects ships with hudreds of professionally created presets,
including 3D Text Animation Presets. You can also make and save your own
presets.
While you can create and animate text inside After Effects, you may
find yourself importing a Photoshop CS2 file with text as a
composition; with one simple click you can then convert the Photoshop
text into After Effects editable text.
PUPPET TOOLS, CLIP NOTES, AND MORE
Designers will also relish the new and innovative Puppet tool. As
the name implies, you can use the Puppet tools to quickly add natural
motion to raster images and vector graphics, including still images,
shapes, and text characters.
The Puppet effect works by deforming part of an image according to
the positions of pins that you place and move. These pins define what
parts of the image should move, what parts should remain rigid, and what
parts should be in front when parts overlap.
Clip Notes allows you to collaborate externally with others to
review and comment on projects. New color management capabilities allow
artists to maintain precise and predictable color from input to output.
And the new Adobe Device Central CS3 software makes it easy to prepare
content for delivery on mobile devices—from cell phones to iPods.
LATE FOR AN IMPORTANT DATE
This is, of course, a mere speck of what AECS3 has to offer and
what you can accomplish with this unique motion graphics program. With
fantastic new animation tools, time-saving features, plus impeccable
integration with other Adobe apps, After Effects CS3 is a must have
upgrade and an ideal entry release for new users who want to know how
far down does the rabbit hole go.
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