After Effects 2

Following on from last weeks workshop.

change the speed of movements in a composition including multiple layers by clicking and dragging to select all key layers. Press the alt key and click on the first or last key frame. If you click the first that last will stay in the same place but the others will move relative to each other keeping the interactions the same but changing the pace, move further apart slower, move closer together faster.

This allows us to concentrate on the interactions in the composition, making sure we get these right and then experiment with the speed of the animation afterwards. 

We are going to look at how to prepare images in photoshop so they can be transferred to after effects.

instead of paper sizes in photoshop there is an option called 'Film and Video' that has a number of options relevant to film and animation.

colours have to be RGB to work in After Effects.

The document has guide marks on that are recommendations as to where it is safe to animate without fear of it being cropped depending on which device it is used on.

If you want to work with transparency created in Photoshop you need to save the file as a Photoshop file, if not a JPEG is fine.

Consider how large the image will need to be in the animation, prepare the image at the largest size you could need it, if not the image will become pixelated when scaled up.

We can work with images much larger than our composition and pan around them during the animation. To make these images in photoshop we can start with our video preset then alter the canvas size.

After effects works the same way as Indesign in that all the elements of your project need to be saved in the same file and not me moved or modified.

To open files in After Effects go to file-import-file and select the file you want.

You can import an image as 'footage'. this will allow it to occupy its own layer.

if you import more than one file at a time you are not given the import options, they will be opened the same way as the last file you imported.

You can drag them onto your composition window or drag it into your timeline, if you drag it to the timeline it is automatically placed in the centre of the composition, very useful if the image is the same size as the composition size.

Working with layered photoshop files in after effects.

We open the file in the same way as we previously did except we do not use the 'footage' setting.

We can choose 'composition', this will open up a composition and a file in the project section of after effects. to open the composition we double click on it.

We then open composition settings from the composition tab and make sure all our setting are correct like format and duration.

There is only 10 seconds in view at the top of the timeline but we can use the slider to move along the timeline or the handles on the slider to zoom in and out. 

because we opened the file as a composition the anchor points of each layer is the same regardless of the layers size and placement. This could be useful in some circumstances and a problem in others. To open the images with their own individual anchor points we can open the file as 'composition- retain layer sizes'. 

If you have 2 objects on the same layer you will not be able to animate them independently.

You can select all the moving elements and set a final key frame for all of them by selecting them all at the same time and then go earlier in the timeline and work backwards to a finished point.

To export go the the composition menu then add to render queue. this will open a new tab in place of the timeline.

In format options choose h264, this setting is perfect for uploading to the internet, so is ideal for this project uploading to vimeo.

once you click save you need to also click render as well or the composition will not be saved.