Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 5.5 Referenzhandbuch

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 1

Adobe After Effects Help UsingHelp

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 1

Using Help

About online Help

Adobe Systems, Inc. provides complete documentation in the Adobe PDF Help system.

The Help system includes information on all the tools, commands, and features for both

Windows and Mac OS.The PDF format is designed for easy navigation online, and support

for third-party screen readers compatible with Windows.The Help can also be printed as a

desktop reference.

Navigating in Help

The Help will open in an Acrobat window with the bookmark pane open. If the bookmark

pane is not open choose Window > Bookmarks.You can also navigate using the

navigation bar, the index, or search the document.

At the top and bottom of each page is a navigation bar. Click Using Help to return to this

introduction. Clicking Contents, or Index will take you to that section.

The Next Page and the Previous Page arrows let you move through the pages

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Using bookmarks, the table of contents, the index, and Find

The contents of Help are shown as bookmarks in the bookmark pane.To view subtopics,

click the plus sign next to a bookmark. Each bookmark is a hyperlink to the associated

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To go to the information, click its bookmark. As the information is displayed in the

document pane, its bookmark is highlighted.

You can turn highlighting on or off by selecting the Highlight Current Bookmark option

from the bookmark pane menu.

To ﬁnd a topic using the table of contents:

Click Contents in the navigation bar at the top or bottom of any page.

Click a topic on the Contents page to move to the ﬁrst page of that topic.

In the bookmark pane, expand the topic to see its subtopics.

To ﬁnd a topic using the index:

Click Index in the navigation bar at the top or bottom of any page.

Click the appropriate letter at the top of the page.

You can also expand the Index bookmark, and click the letter in the bookmark pane.

Locate your entry, and click the page number link to view the information.

To view multiple entries, click Back to return to the same place in the index.

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 2

Adobe After Effects Help UsingHelp

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 2

To ﬁnd a topic using the Find command:

Choose Edit > Find.

Enter a word or a phrase in the text box, and click OK.

Acrobat will search the document, starting from the current page, and display the ﬁrst

occurrence of the word or phrase you are searching for.

To ﬁnd the next occurrence, choose Edit > Find Again.

Printing the Help ﬁle

Although the Help has been optimized for on-screen viewing, you can print pages you

select, or the entire ﬁle.

To print, choose Print from the File menu, or click the printer icon in the Acrobat toolbar.

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 3

Adobe After Effects Help Contents

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 3

Contents

Working with Projects, Windows, and Palettes 4

Preparing and Importing Footage 25

Building a Composition 50

Managing Layers 71

Animating Layers 95

Fine-tuning Animation 122

Working with Masks and Transparency 148

Applying Effects 170

3D Compositing 228

Creating Expressions 244

Managing Projects Effectively 264

Rendering a Movie 278

Using Property and Tracking Controls (PB only) 304

Using Motion Math (PB only) 317

Using Vector Paint (PB only) 333

Creating Particle Effects (PB only) 351

(5.5) Working with

After Effects 5.5 to Build a Composition 377

(5.5) Layers 381

(5.5) Working with Masks and Transparency 383

(5.5) Applying Effects 387

(5.5) 3D Compositing 391

(5.5) Expressions 397

(5.5) Rendering a Movie 402

Macintosh shortcuts 408

Windows shortcuts 423

Legal Notice 438

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 4

Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects,Windows, and Palettes

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 4

Working with Projects,

Windows, and Palettes

Working in a project

An After Effects

project

is a single ﬁle that stores references to all the footage you use in

that project. It also contains information about how you’ve arranged the footage in

compositions, including the details of any effects or animation you applied. Inside a

project, you create one or more compositions.After you have imported source footage

into the project, you can add footage items into the compositions.

Where you work with footage items

In a project, you work with footage items using primarily three windows: the

Project

window

, which lists all the source footage items you import; the

Composition window

which displays images as they relate in space; and the

Timeline window

, which displays

compositions and animation events in terms of time. Add footage items to a composition

by dragging them from the Project window into either the Composition window or the

Timeline window.

Each Composition window has a corresponding Timeline window.When you edit a

composition in a Composition window, After Effects automatically displays the corre-

sponding Timeline window, and vice versa.

Source footage

Project window

Composition window

Timeline window

As you work with compositions, you also use three other types of windows: Footage

windows, Layer windows, and Effect Controls windows.

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 5

Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects,Windows, and Palettes

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 5

•

Footage windows are useful for viewing and evaluating footage items in their original

form (see “Viewing imported footage” on page 50).

•

To view a layer’s original source independently of other layers or to trim footage, you

can open a Layer window (see “Composition, Layer, and Footage window controls”on

page 16).

•

As you work with effects, you use the Effect Controls window to modify and animate

the effects (see “Working with effects” on page 170).

When you render your compositions into a movie, you work in the Render Queue window

to select rendering options and queue compositions for rendering (see “Using the Render

Queue window”on page 279).

How you start a project

Starting a project involves two tasks:(1) planning your project based on the formats of the

ﬁnal output and (2) creating a project ﬁle. Once you have planned your project and

learned how to perform some basic tasks related to working in After Effects, you’ll be

ready to start importing footage (see “Importing ﬁles into a project”on page 28).You then

create a composition and begin working with your source footage (see “Working with

imported footage” on page 50).

Planning your project

Planning your project before you start importing footage makes your work easier. A large

part of planning is simply determining the best settings for your source footage based on

the media for which you will render your ﬁnished project.This step is essential to

achieving optimal image quality. Rendering order and nesting may also be part of project

planning (see “Organizing a project using nesting”on page 265).

Choosing the right media

Before you start importing footage items into your project, decide which media you’ll use

for your ﬁnished movies.Then determine the best settings for your compositions and

source material. For example, if you will be rendering your project to videotape, create

footage at an image size, color bit-depth, and frame rate that will produce the best image

quality on videotape. Likewise, if your project is intended for streaming video on the Web,

the image size, color bit-depth, and frame rate may need to be reduced to work with the

data-rate limits of streaming video on the Web. However, any footage item that can be

imported can be used in any composition.

If you will be rendering a project to more than one media format, always match the

resolution setting for your composition to the highest resolution setting used for your

output.Then set up the Render Queue window to render a separate version of the project

for each format.

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 6

Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects,Windows, and Palettes

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 6

For ﬁlm and video, try to match import and composition settings with settings in the

output module used to render a movie. For example, to ensure smooth playback, the

footage frame rate selected in the Interpret Footage dialog box should match the setting

in the Composition Settings dialog box and the output module in the Render Queue

window. Also, the composition-frame size should be determined by the image size in the

playback medium. However, any footage item that can be imported can be used in any

composition. See “Preparing motion-footage frame rates for ﬁnal output” on page 42,

“Understanding basic composition settings”on page 57, and “Changing output module

settings”on page 284.

If you will be mixing source footage with different pixel aspect ratios, correctly specify this

ratio for each footage item in the Interpret Footage dialog box. See “About D1, DV, and

various pixel aspect ratio footage” on page 46.

The suggestions that follow will help you select composition settings. However, the best

way to ensure that your project is suitable for a speciﬁc medium is to make a test compo-

sition and view it using the same type of equipment your audience will use to view it.

Film

If you will be rendering for ﬁlm, consider both the aspect ratio of the frame size you

select for your composition and the frame rate of your source footage. For footage that

was transferred from ﬁlm to video using the 3:2 pulldown telecine method, you must

remove 3:2 pulldown before adding effects. See “Removing 3:2 pulldown from video

transferred from ﬁlm” on page 45.

CD-ROM

When you create a movie that you plan to render for playback from a CD-ROM,

you may need to specify import and composition settings that take into account the wide

range of hardware that your audience may be using, possibly including older single- or

double-speed CD-ROM drives.

To make your ﬁnal output compatible with older CD-ROM drives, try to reduce the data-

transfer rate of your ﬁnal output by specifying certain settings for footage items:

•

Lower the frame rate as far as you can in the Composition Settings dialog box without

making motion seem too jerky. Start at 15 frames per second (fps).

•

When rendering your ﬁnal composition, choose a ﬁle type and compressor/decom-

pressor (

codec

) appropriate for the ﬁnal media. For example, for a cross-platform CD-

ROM, you might specify a QuickTime codec or a codec designed for low data rates,such

as Indeo, Cinepak, or Sorenson Video. Regardless of which codec you select, however, it

must be available on the system used by your intended audience to ensure successful

playback. Also consider the key frame rate of the codec you have selected. See the

Adobe Web site for more information on QuickTime compressors and codec key frame

rates.

Videotape

If your ﬁnal output will be videotape, set up your composition with a speciﬁc

video format in mind, such as NTSC or PAL. Using broadcast-safe colors and maintaining

frame size and compression ratios are also important considerations.These guidelines will

help in setting up a composition intended for videotape:

•

Select a frame size in the Composition Settings dialog box that matches the frame size

of the destination video format.

•

Use only NTSC-safe colors when adding or changing color in a project.

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Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects,Windows, and Palettes

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 7

•

If you will be using an MJPEG codec, keep in mind that the frame sizes and resolutions

available for rendering are determined by the speciﬁc MJPEG board you are using.Refer

to the speciﬁcations for your MJPEG board.

Animated GIF

When you render an animated GIF, colors are dithered to an 8-bit palette.

Before rendering your ﬁnal project,render a test composition so that you can adjust colors

if the results are not what you expected. If any source footage includes an alpha channel,

be sure that you know how it will affect your ﬁnal project before you start rendering.

Streaming video over the World Wide Web

Streaming video resembles a conventional

television signal in that video is sent to the viewer frame by frame, instead of by

downloading a large ﬁle to the hard disk. Streaming video on the Web is constrained by

the limited bandwidth (56 Kbps or less) of most consumer modems, which is even lower

than those used for CD-ROM playback. Use the same techniques that are listed for CD-

ROM playback, but adapt them for further reduction in ﬁle size and data-transfer rate.You

can export QuickTime streaming directly from After Effects. See “Exporting footage using

QuickTime components”on page 289.

Downloading video over the World Wide Web

If your ﬁnal output will be downloaded

as a ﬁle from the World Wide Web, the main concern is the size of the ﬁle, which directly

affects how long it takes to download the ﬁle.QuickTime and Microsoft Video for Windows

are formats often used when rendering ﬁnal output that will be downloaded.When you

render a QuickTime movie, After Effects automatically creates a movie that can play on

both Windows and Mac OS without modiﬁcation.

Intranet playback

intranet

is an in-house or private network that uses Internet

network protocols. Intranets generally use higher-quality communications lines than

standard telephone lines, so they are usually much faster than the Internet.The data-

transfer rate for playback can be 100K per second or faster, depending on the speed

of your intranet.

Flash (.swf) ﬁles

When you export compositions as Flash (.swf) movies, After Effects

maintains vectors as much as possible. However, some items cannot be represented as

vectors in the Flash ﬁle. See “Exporting to Macromedia Flash (SWF) format”on page 286.

Considerations for cross-platform projects

After Effects project ﬁles are compatible with both the Mac OS and Windows platforms.

You can do several things to ease the process of exchanging projects between platforms.

Project hierarchy

When you move a project to a different computer and open it, After

Effects attempts to locate the project’s footage ﬁles, ﬁrst looking in the folder in which the

project ﬁle is located, second using the ﬁle’s original path or folder location, and third

searching the root of the directory where the project is located.

If you are building cross-platform projects, it is best if the full paths have the same names

on Mac OS and Windows systems. If the footage is on a different volume than the project,

make sure that the appropriate volume is mounted before opening the project, and that

network volume names are the same on both systems.

It helps to store footage in the same folder as the project ﬁle or in another folder within

that folder. Here's a sample hierarchy:

c:\newproject\project_ﬁle.aep

c:\newproject\source\footage1.psd

c:\newproject\source\footage2.avi

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Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects,Windows, and Palettes

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 8

The newproject folder can then be copied in its entirety across platforms,and After Effects

will properly locate all of the footage.

File-naming conventions

When possible, name your footage and project ﬁles with

Windows-compatible ﬁlename extensions, such as .mov for QuickTime movies and .aep

for After Effects projects. If ﬁles will be used on the World Wide Web, be sure that ﬁlenames

adhere to the appropriate conventions for extensions and paths.

Mac OS ﬁle types

On Mac OS systems, footage ﬁles should have proper Mac OS ﬁle

types. Using services for Macintosh in Windows NT Server or Windows 2000 Server, you

can set up explicit extension-to-ﬁle-type mappings; see the system’s server documen-

tation. If footage ﬁles are not properly recognized on Mac OS systems, select All Files for

Show in the Import File dialog box to override the Mac OS ﬁle types.To open a Windows

project on a Mac OS system, the project must have the correct .aep extension.

For a list of common extensions and their associated ﬁle types, see the Adobe Web

site.

Resources

Ensure that all resources are available on both systems. Resources can include

fonts, effects, and compressors.

Time basics

Time is central to many operations in After Effects.You can view, specify, and manage time

in various ways.Whichever way you handle time, there are several speciﬁc time concepts

you should understand as you create a project.

Time display

The way you view and specify time in After Effects depends on the display style, or unit of

measure, that you use to describe time. By default, After Effects displays time in Society of

Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)

timecode

: hours, minutes, seconds, and

frames.You can change to another system of time display, such as ﬁlm frames, or feet and

frames of 16mm or 35mm ﬁlm. See “Setting time-display options”on page 9.

Video-editing workstations use SMPTE timecode that is often striped (encoded) onto

videotape for reference. If you are creating video that will be synchronized with video that

uses SMPTE timecode, use the default timecode display style.

Frame rate

Each composition you create can have its own

frame rate

. The frame rate is the number of

frames the rendered composition produces in every second when played back.The frame

rate you use is generally determined by the type of output you will produce. For example,

video for NTSC television plays at 29.97 frames per second (fps), and PAL plays at 25 fps.

When you set up changes over time, After Effects treats the changes as continuous

throughout a composition timeline. Each frame is rendered as a slice out of the timeline at

the frame rate you specify. Because After Effects treats time continuously, it is possible to

change a composition’s frame rate at any time or override the frame rate of a composition

when you render the ﬁnal movie. See “Setting frame rate”on page 58.

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Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects,Windows, and Palettes

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 9

NTSC (29.97) drop-frame timecode

When you work with a composition that is set to a frame rate of 29.97 fps, After Effects

uses SMPTE 30-fps drop-frame timecode by default, making adjustments using the

SMPTE-standard method of renumbering the ﬁrst two frame numbers of every minute,

except at every tenth minute. For example, the frame after 59:29 is labeled 1:00:02 instead

of 1:00:00. Non-drop-frame timecode is also available. In both cases, frames are not

discarded or skipped; they are merely numbered differently.

After Effects displays drop-frame timecode by using semicolons between the numbers

and displays non-drop-frame timecode using colons between the numbers. In the Project

Settings dialog box,you can choose how 29.97-fps compositions and footage display their

timecode. See “Setting time-display options”on page 9.

Duration

Each video footage item, layer, and composition in a project has its own duration.

Duration determines the beginning and ending times of the timelines in the Footage,

Layer, and Timeline windows. It is important to notice which duration you are viewing

while you edit in multiple windows. See “Understanding trimming”on page 81 and

“Positioning a layer in time” on page 76.

Frames and ﬁelds

Each frame in an interlaced video source is made up of

ﬁelds

. It’s important not to confuse

frames with ﬁelds. For video, every frame contains two interlaced ﬁelds. If you want to use

interlaced video as source footage, you’ll usually want After Effects to separate the inter-

laced ﬁelds. Separating ﬁelds ensures maximum image quality when you apply anima-

tions and effects to video that was originally interlaced. If you’re producing a movie for

videotape, you can render the composition to ﬁelds in a process known as

ﬁeld-rendering

See “Interlaced and noninterlaced footage” on page 40 and “Field rendering”on page 44.

Setting time-display options

After Effects supports several methods of measuring and displaying time.The method you

choose applies to time display in the current project and in any subsequent project you

create. Changing the method does not alter the frame rate of footage or a composition—

it changes only how frames are numbered.You can choose from three time-display

options:

•

Timecode, which counts frames in frames per second (hours, minutes, seconds, frames).

•

Frames, which counts frames of footage without reference to time.

•

Feet and Frames, which counts feet of 16mm or 35mm motion-picture ﬁlm, and counts

fractions of feet in frames; 35mm ﬁlm has 16 frames per foot, and 16mm ﬁlm has 40

frames per foot.

Timecode

Frames

Feet and Frames

ABC

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Adobe After Effects Help Working with Projects,Windows, and Palettes

Using Help | Contents | Index Back 10

When working with footage digitized from NTSC video, you usually use the 30-fps, drop-

frame timecode base.This counts NTSC-created frames using standard drop-frame

timecode for maximum device compatibility. For frames (or feet and frames) timecode,

you can also change the starting frame number to match the time-counting method of

another editing system you may be using.

To change the time display:

Open the project and choose File > Project Settings.

Select a time setting:

•

To use timecode, click Timecode Base, and then select a frame rate from the Timecode

pop-up menu.

•

To use drop-frame time code for footage and compositions with a frame rate of 29.97

fps, click Timecode Base, and then select 30 fps from the Timecode Base pop-up menu

and Drop Frame from the NTSC menu.

•

To use non-drop-frame timecode for footage and compositions with a frame rate of

29.97 fps, click Timecode Base and then select 30 fps from the Timecode Base pop-up

menu and Non-Drop Frame from the NTSC menu.

•

To use frames for the display style, click Frames.

•

To use feet and frames for the display style, click Feet + Frames, and then choose a ﬁlm

type from the Feet + Frames pop-up menu.

If desired, type a value in the Start Numbering Frames At option.This value applies only

when you have chosen Frames or Feet + Frames.

Click OK.

To instantly cycle through Timecode, Frames, and Feet + Frames, Ctrl+click (Windows)

or Command+click (Mac OS) the timecode display at the bottom of the Composition

window or at the top of the Timeline window.

Setting up a project

After you create a new project, you import footage into the project.You can also specify

project settings or application-wide preferences.

Creating a new project

By default, After Effects opens a new Project window when you start the application.

When you know the media for your ﬁnal project, you are ready to create a project by

importing your footage items into a new Project window.You can also open a new Project

window at any time from the File menu. See “Working with the Project window”on

page 15.

To create a new project after closing the current project in After Effects:

Choose File > New > New Project.

Importing footage items

When you import a footage item, After Effects creates only a reference to the ﬁle and does

not copy or move the ﬁle itself.These references to your source ﬁles are displayed in the

Project window.

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