Adobe After Effects CS3 User Manual
Adobe, After effects, Professional user guide
Table of contents
Document Outline
- Contents
- Chapter 1: Getting started
- Chapter 2: User interface
- Chapter 3: Planning and managing projects
- Project basics
- Project planning and setup
- Workflow
- Use Adobe Bridge with After Effects
- Planning your project
- Planning for playback from film, videotape, and DVD
- Planning for playback on computer monitors and mobile devices
- Working with Photoshop and After Effects
- Working with Flash and After Effects
- Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
- Work with Adobe Encore and After Effects
- Creating an animated GIF movie
- Cross-platform project considerations
- Memory, storage, and performance
- Plug-ins and scripts
- Chapter 4: Importing
- Importing and interpreting footage items
- Working with footage items
- Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro
- Importing video and audio
- Work with the media cache
- Types of video and film
- About high-definition (HD) video
- About interlaced and noninterlaced video
- Separate video fields
- Determine the original field order
- Remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown from video
- Import assets in Panasonic P2 format
- Importing AAF and OMF files (Windows only)
- Importing DDR-based footage
- Edit audio in Adobe Soundbooth or Adobe Audition
- Importing 3D image files
- Importing still images
- Introduction to Camera Raw
- Navigating, opening, and saving images with Camera Raw
- Adjusting color in Camera Raw
- Using histogram and RGB levels in Camera Raw
- Preview highlight and shadow clipping in Camera Raw
- White balance controls in Camera Raw
- Adjust tone in Camera Raw
- Fine-tune tone curves in Camera Raw
- Clarity, Saturation, and Vibrance controls in Camera Raw
- HSL / Grayscale controls in Camera Raw
- Tone a grayscale image in Camera Raw
- Adjust color rendering for your camera in Camera Raw
- Compensate for chromatic aberration in Camera Raw
- Compensate for lens vignetting in Camera Raw
- Modifying images with Camera Raw
- Camera Raw settings
- Chapter 5: Compositions
- Chapter 6: Views and previews
- Chapter 7: Layers and properties
- Creating layers
- Selecting and arranging layers
- Select layers
- Change the stacking order for selected layers
- About coordinate systems
- Move layers in space
- Align or distribute layers in 2D space
- Trim, extend, or slip-edit a layer
- Remove part of a layer’s duration
- Place a layer in time
- Arrange layers in time sequentially
- Copy or duplicate a layer
- Split a layer
- Auto-Orientation options
- Managing layers
- View and change layer information
- Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel
- Exclude a layer from previews and final output
- Solo a layer
- Lock or unlock a layer
- Work with color labels
- Show and hide layers in the Timeline panel
- Layer image quality
- Continuously rasterize a layer containing vector graphics
- Modify layer properties
- Blending modes
- Layer styles
- Working with 3D layers
- Cameras, lights, and points of interest
- Chapter 8: Animation
- Animation basics
- Setting, selecting, and deleting keyframes
- Editing, moving, and copying keyframes
- Edit a keyframe in the Graph Editor
- View or edit a keyframe value
- Copy and paste keyframes
- Edit keyframe values using a spreadsheet
- Move keyframes in to another time
- Move a keyframe to a specific time
- Expand or contract a group of keyframes in layer bar mode
- Move a layer duration bar but not its keyframes
- Copy a value from a layer property that contains no keyframes
- Change multiple keyframe values at once
- Edit multiple keyframes in the Graph Editor
- Creating and modifying motion paths
- Assorted animation tools
- Interpolation
- Speed
- Time-stretching and time-remapping
- Animating with Puppet tools
- Chapter 9: Color
- Color basics
- Color management
- Why you should use color management
- Color management and color profiles
- Calibrate and profile your monitor
- Choose a working color space and enable color management
- Linearize working space and enable linear blending
- Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile
- Assign an output color profile
- Enable or disable display color management
- Simulate how colors will appear on a different output device
- Broadcast-safe colors
- Working with Cineon footage items
- Chapter 10: Masks, transparency, and keying
- Transparency overview
- Creating and importing masks
- Working with masks and mattes
- View mask paths
- Select masks, segments, and vertices
- Change a mask path numerically
- Lock or unlock masks
- Copy, cut, save, reuse, and delete masks
- Control mask path color
- Mask modes
- Adjust the edges of a mask
- Adjust mask feather
- About track mattes and traveling mattes
- Convert a layer into a track matte
- Preserve underlying transparency during compositing
- Animating masks
- Keying
- Chapter 11: Text
- Creating and editing text layers
- Formatting characters
- Using the Character panel
- Work with fonts
- Use smart quotes
- Specify leading to control spacing between lines
- Work with text fills and strokes
- Specify kerning and tracking
- Adjust scale or specify baseline shift
- Change the case of text
- Format as superscript or subscript
- Blend overlapping characters in a text layer
- Work with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text
- Formatting paragraphs
- Animating text
- Examples of text animation
- Example: Animate characters with per-character 3D properties
- Example: Offset characters
- Example: Animate characters with the Wiggly selector
- Example: Animate text tracking
- Example: Use selectors to animate specific words
- Example: Create a write-on animation
- Example: Animate text with multiple selectors
- Example: Animate text position with expressions
- Example: Animate text as a timecode display
- Chapter 12: Drawing and painting
- Using paint tools
- Shape layers overview
- Creating shapes and masks
- Creating shapes and shape layers
- Create a shape or mask by dragging with shape tools
- Create a shape or mask the size of the layer
- Create shapes from text characters
- Create a Bezier shape or mask using the Pen tool
- Convert a path between manual Bezier and RotoBezier
- Modify a Bezier mask path or shape path
- Copy a path from Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks
- Designate the first vertex for a Bezier path
- Managing and editing shapes
- Chapter 13: Motion tracking
- Chapter 14: Effects and animation presets
- Chapter 15: Effect reference
- Galleries of effects
- 3D Channel effects gallery
- Blur & Sharpen effects gallery
- Channel effects gallery
- Color Correction effects gallery
- Distort effects gallery
- Generate effects gallery
- Keying effects gallery
- Matte effects gallery
- Noise & Grain effects gallery
- Paint effects gallery
- Perspective effects gallery
- Simulation effects gallery
- Stylize effects gallery
- Text effects gallery
- Time effects gallery
- Transition effects gallery
- Utility effects gallery
- 3D Channel effects
- Audio effects
- Blur & Sharpen effects
- Channel effects
- Color Correction effects
- Using histograms to adjust color
- Auto Color and Auto Contrast effects
- Auto Levels effect
- Brightness & Contrast effect
- Broadcast Colors effect
- Change Color effect
- Change To Color effect
- Channel Mixer effect
- Color Balance effect
- Color Balance (HLS) effect
- Color Link effect
- Color Stabilizer effect
- Colorama effect
- Curves effect
- Equalize effect
- Exposure effect
- Gamma/Pedestal/Gain effect
- Hue/Saturation effect
- Leave Color effect
- Levels effect
- Levels (Individual Controls) effect
- Photo Filter effect
- PS Arbitrary Map effect
- Shadow/Highlight effect
- Tint effect
- Tritone effect
- Distort effects
- Bezier Warp effect
- Bulge effect
- Corner Pin effect
- Displacement Map effect
- Liquify effect
- Magnify effect
- Mesh Warp effect
- Mirror effect
- Offset effect
- Optics Compensation effect
- Polar Coordinates effect
- Puppet effect
- Reshape effect
- Ripple effect
- Smear effect
- Spherize effect
- Transform effect
- Turbulent Displace effect
- Twirl effect
- Warp effect
- Wave Warp effect
- Generate effects
- 4-Color Gradient effect
- Advanced Lightning effect
- Audio Spectrum effect
- Audio Waveform effect
- Beam effect
- Cell Pattern effect
- Checkerboard effect
- Circle effect
- Ellipse effect
- Eyedropper Fill effect
- Fill effect
- Fractal effect
- Grid effect
- Lens Flare effect
- Lightning effect
- Paint Bucket effect
- Radio Waves effect
- Ramp effect
- Scribble effect
- Stroke effect
- Vegas effect
- Write-on effect
- Keying effects
- Matte effects
- Noise & Grain effects
- Paint effects
- Perspective effects
- Simulation effects
- Stylize effects
- Text effects
- Time effects
- Transition effects
- Utility effects
- Galleries of effects
- Chapter 16: Expressions
- Working with expressions
- About expressions
- Add, edit, and remove expressions
- Example: Use the expression language reference to write an expression
- Show expressions and the expression graph
- Writing expressions for source text
- Add comments to an expression
- Save and reuse expressions
- Using Expression Controls effects
- Convert an expression to keyframes
- The expression language
- After Effects expression elements reference
- Using the expression elements reference
- Global objects
- Time conversion methods
- Vector Math methods
- Random Numbers methods
- Interpolation methods
- Color Conversion methods
- Other Math methods
- Comp attributes and methods
- Footage attributes and methods
- Layer Sub-objects attributes and methods
- Layer General attributes and methods
- Layer Properties attributes and methods
- Layer 3D attributes and methods
- Layer Space Transforms methods
- Camera attributes and methods
- Light attributes and methods
- Effect attributes and methods
- Mask attributes and methods
- Property attributes and methods
- Key attributes and methods
- MarkerKey attributes
- Expression examples
- Example: Make a layer revolve in a circle
- Example: Rotate the hands of a clock
- Example: Position one layer between two others
- Example: Create a trail of images
- Example: Create a bulge between two layers
- Example: Fade a 3D layer’s opacity based on distance from camera
- Example: Make a 3D layer invisible if facing away from camera
- Example: Flip layer horizontally if facing away from camera
- Example: Animate scale at each layer-time marker
- Example: Start or stop wiggle at specific time
- Example: Match camera’s focal plane to another layer
- Working with expressions
- Chapter 17: Rendering and exporting
- Basics of rendering and exporting
- About rendering and exporting
- Supported output formats
- Render and export a movie using the render queue
- Work in the Render Queue panel
- Rendering and exporting movies using QuickTime components
- Render with OpenGL
- Collect files in one location
- Specify file names and locations for rendered output
- Work with render settings
- Work with output module settings
- Use a post-render action
- Rendering and exporting to Flash formats
- Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences
- Exporting project information to other Adobe applications
- Export an After Effects project to Adobe Premiere Pro
- About Dynamic Link (Production Premium only)
- Saving and Dynamic Link (Production Premium only)
- Managing performance and Dynamic Link (Production Premium only)
- Color and Dynamic Link (Production Premium only)
- Link to a new composition with Dynamic Link (Production Premium only)
- Link to an existing composition with Dynamic Link (Production Premium only)
- Delete a dynamically linked composition or clip (Production Premium only)
- Edit a dynamically linked composition in After Effects (Production Premium only)
- Offline compositions and Dynamic Link (Production Premium only)
- Encoding and compression options for movies
- Format options and export settings
- About the Adobe Media Encoder
- About MPEG
- Filter options for encoding
- Video options for encoding
- Audio options for encoding
- Alternates and Audiences options for encoding
- Others options for encoding
- Media Encoder MPEG multiplexer preset options
- Add XMP metadata to an exported file
- Preview a movie on a virtual mobile device using After Effects
- About compression of movie files
- About data rate
- Specify QuickTime compression settings
- Specify Video for Windows compression options
- Render a composition to OMF (Windows only)
- Automated rendering and network rendering
- Converting movies
- Reviewing movies with Clip Notes comments
- Basics of rendering and exporting
- Chapter 18: Keyboard shortcuts
- Using and modifying keyboard shortcuts
- Shortcuts, general
- Shortcuts for working with projects
- Shortcuts for working with preferences
- Shortcuts for panels, viewers, workspaces, and windows
- Shortcuts for activating tools
- Shortcuts for working with compositions and the work area
- Shortcuts for working with previews
- Shortcuts for time navigation
- Shortcuts for working with footage
- Shortcuts for using and modifying views
- Shortcuts for effects and animation presets
- Shortcuts for working with layers
- Shortcuts for showing properties in the Timeline panel
- Shortcuts for modifying properties
- Shortcuts for 3D layers
- Shortcuts for keyframes
- Shortcuts for working with text
- Shortcuts for working with masks
- Shortcuts for working with paint tools
- Shortcuts for working with shape layers
- Shortcuts for working with markers
- Shortcuts for motion tracking
- Shortcuts for saving, exporting, and rendering
- Using and modifying keyboard shortcuts
- Index