Chris Meyer

Chapter 8 – Motion Blur and More

When images are captured on film or video, objects that are moving appear blurred, while static objects appear sharp. This is due to the fact that the camera is capturing samples of time, and the camera shutter is kept open for some of that time. The faster the object moves, the more distance it will cover while the shutter is open, and the less distinct the image. This motion blur makes for smoother motion and is a quality often lacking in computer-generated animation.

Import and Interpret

This reference chapter will discuss specific issues regarding importing different types of footage items - as well as entire projects - into After Effects. Central to handling the footage you import is the Interpret Footage dialog, where you indicate how After Effects interprets and handles your source files as it hands their images off to your comps.

Stencils and the “T”

The previous chapter was devoted to Track Mattes: having one layer create transparency for one other layer. Stencils, however, create transparency for all layers underneath. You can use a layers luminance or alpha channel as a stencil, and invert it as well. This chapter also covers the Preserve Transparency switch, and an obscure but useful mode called Alpha Add.

Vector Paint Effect

The Vector Paint effect has been largely made obsolete by the new Paint tools in After Effects, but it still has its fans for a couple of reasons: Vector Paint offers an onion skin mode plus the ability to wiggle the paint stroke paths, with no loss in quality.

Frame Rate Manipulation

Reality is fine, but its not always what you want. Sometimes you need a captured movie to play back more quickly, more slowly, or backward, or to stop altogether. After Effects has options to Time Stretch a clip, which gives it a new constant speed, or Time Remap it, which allows the speed to change over time. Both often result in staggered motion compared with the original clip, so at the end of this chapter we will discuss Frame Blending which can help smooth out the result.

Chapter 38 – Integrating with 3D Applications

Real 3D programs have several advantages over After Effects: For example, their objects have real depth, and the texturing and lighting options are far more advanced. However, this power often comes with a significant speed penalty, which can be a problem when accommodating client changes. After Effects is also the better tool in which to refine the final look of your 3D worlds. Offloading portions of the work from your 3D program to After Effects will save time while giving you more power and flexibility - but it requires some effort to set up.

Applying and Using Effects

One of the richest areas for exploration in After Effects is its “effects” side. The variety of effects supplied with After Effects ranges from the extremely utilitarian to the extremely wild, each with anywhere from one to 127 parameters that you can adjust. Fortunately, virtually all effects share the same basic methods of adjusting and animating those parameters.

Chapter 3 – Basic Animation

One of the most important skill sets in motion graphics is learning how to animate transformations : Anchor Point, Position, Scale, Rotation, and Opacity. Fortunately, many rules and techniques for creating transform keyframes can be applied to virtually all the other parameters throughout After Effects. And once you learn how to manipulate the handles of a 2D Bezier motion path, you can employ these same skills when using the Pen tool to create vector shapes for masks (Chapter 10) and shape layers (Chapter 30).

The Puppet Tools

One of the major new features in After Effects CS3 is the introduction of the Puppet Tools. These provide a new way to warp layers, including shape and text layers created inside After Effects. Applications include creating character animation or just imparting fun movement to otherwise inanimate objects.

Chapter 24 – Presets and Variations

If you can copy and paste it, you can save it: That is the philosophy behind Animation Presets. Presets allow you to save static values or keyframed animations for text, masks, effects, layer styles, and transformations. These presets are saved to individual files on disk and presented in the Effects & Presets panel for later application to any layer in any project. You can later edit these values to suit their new application.