Adobe After Effects CS3 - Manual (Page 352)

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Chapter 14: Effects and animation presets
Effects and animation presets overview
About animation presets
Animation presets let you save and reuse specific configurations of layer properties and animations, including
keyframes, effects, and expressions. After Effects includes hundreds of animation presets that you can drop into your
projects and then modify to suit your needs.
You can browse and apply animation presets in After Effects using the Effects & Presets panel or Adobe Bridge. To
open the Presets folder in Adobe Bridge, choose Browse Presets from the Effects & Presets panel menu or from the
Animation menu.
Many animation presets don’t contain animation; rather, they contain combinations of effects, transform properties,
and so on. A behavior animation preset uses expressions instead of keyframes to animate layer properties.
Animation presets can be saved and transferred from one computer to another. The filename extension for an
animation preset is .ffx.
The animation presets that are installed with After Effects are in the Presets folder located in the Program
Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS3\Support Files (Windows) or Applications/Adobe After Effects CS3 (Mac OS)
folder. Animation presets that you create are saved by default in the Presets folder located in My
Documents\Adobe\After Effects CS3 (Windows) or Documents/Adobe/After Effects CS3.
You can download additional animation presets—including a set of animation presets that make use of shape layers
and per-character 3D text animation—from the Adobe After Effects Exchange:
www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_cs3additionalanimationpresets .
You can also download animation presets from many After Effects commnuity websites, such as the AE Enhancers
forum:
www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_aeenhancershome .
You can add a single new animation preset or an entire folder of new animation presets to either of the Presets folders.
When After Effects starts, it searches both of the Presets folders and their subfolders for installed presets and adds
them to the Effects & Presets panel. After Effects ignores the contents of folders with names that begin and end in
parentheses; for example, the contents of the folder (archived_animation_presets) will not be loaded.
Note: Animation presets appear in the Effects & Presets panel only if they are located in one of the Presets folders or a
subfolder of one of the Presets folders. If you move a preset to a new folder, place a shortcut (Windows) or an alias
(Mac OS) of that folder in the Presets folder.
See also
“Apply an effect or animation preset” on page 351
“Save an animation preset” on page 353
“Use Adobe Bridge with After Effects” on page 28