After Effects Tutorial

AFTER EFFECTS for DIGITAL VIDEO CREATION

Premiere - editing, cutting, sound

After Effects - special effects, motion graphics, compositing, titles

Drag and drop movie files into After Effects (making sure to keep files referenced correctly),

and save the project file where the footage is.

NEW: 1920 x 1080 (or 1280 x 720)

Estimate duration of sequence

Square pixels 1.0

25 fps

Dynamic Link (use premiere to scale to frame size)

Colour Correction:

Effects > Color Correction > presets

(but premiere is better for this)

Keyframes:

Click the stopwatch (on the clip's property) at the point on the timeline where you want add a keyframe.

RAM preview (shortcut = 0):

This will render out the current project for a true preview includ. sound.

Masking:

Using rectangle / ellipse tool etc, when you select footage first, it will cut that hole out.

Pen tool will allow for custom shapes (eg. person silhouette).

Feather the mask: Adjust mask expansion and mask feather until it suits.

Key frame the mask to allow for movement of interviewee.

Duplicate Layer:

Ctrl + D to duplicate layers.

Try roto brush tool? Auto tracking.

Use masks to eliminate unwanted background material.

By using an offset duplicate layer underneath a hole to eliminate distractions.

Colour Key:

Allows you to select a colour range (green screen etc)

send your subject to france or jail or wherever etc.

Motion Tracking:

track motion will give a tracking point.

then click analyse. 

parent this tracking point with a null object so you can also parent text to the null.

Titles:

make sure to put a slightly transparent rect (or whatever) behind text to allow the viewer to see everything (all text - so no letters are lost within the shot)

Expressions:
alt + left click on the property (eg. position) and type for example wiggle[5, 10]
can also connect things (1 layers scale affects another's position)

more example code:
temp = transform.position[1];
[temp.temp]

or just google what you want the expression to do