Jim Krause | Classes | P354 Program Graphics & Animation
Week 4
Agenda:
- Look at artwork
- Review/ take quiz (Tuesday)
- Tour of After Effects (Thursday)
- In-class exercise (1st AE)
Notes from looking at your work:
Photographs and video usually don't make good backgrounds for text. If you place text over an image be sure to do something to make it clearly pop out from the background.
You should strive to get a pleasing design by using principles of visual design. The rule of thirds, golden mean, and most importantly CRAP.
AE Book & other resources - If you don't purchase the book be sure you have access to other resources- such as LinkedIN Learning. There are hundreds of lessons there on After Effects, Photoshop, and Graphic Design. IU students, faculty, and staff get this for free.
Photoshop odds & ends -----------------------
Blending modes
Blending modes determine how an image blends with layers beneath it. It is an amazingly simple way to get interesting image effects. The best way to see how they operate is to start out with two uniques images on two layers. Toggle through the blending modes on the topmost layer.
Adjustment Layers
Adjustment layers are special layers that affect how the layers beneath them appear. This is a good way to create effects or carry out processes such as exposure adjustments. One great feature about them is that the layers below that are being affected are not actually modified. It's like a special efects layers off sorts.
- LinkedIN Adjustment Layers and Blend Modes (Richard Harrington)
- Here's a tutorial on using Adjustment Layers in PS CC
Thursday -----------------------------------------------------------
AE Tour
After Effects is an animation and compositing program that supports a broad range of formats and resolutions. After Effects can create a wide range of animations, from small web banners to large film and 4K video projects.
After Effects is format and resolution independent. You can work in square or non-square pixels.
Some have characterized it as Photoshop on wheels. It works with layers, just like Photoshop, but you can animate and move them.
Getting Started - Organizing projects and files
You can import a wide variety of different media into After Effects, which you can then animate. It's best if the source media files aren't compressed (MP3s, MPEG-2 video etc). This can cause problems.
Make sure all audio is PCM (uncompressed): AIFF or WAV files.
Using Flash files: Export them first as Quicktime using Flash, *then* bring them into After Effects.
Footage and Render files - Use Your Media Folder
Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects create render files, which can quickly fill up an internal hard drive. Use an external or dedicated drive for your media. This will make it easier to manage your media and to make backup copies.
Once you have created a media folder on a dedicated drive, go to the Preferences in your graphics/editing/animation software and set it for yor dedicated folder or drive.
AE project files MUST retain the same relationship with imported media files, just like with video editing software. Stop and think before you import and media! Be sure to move your media into your media folder before importing. It's important to understand that when you import footage files into AE, it uses pointers that reference your files *wherever* they are (Discs, thumb drives, USB drives, etc). “Importing” a file into your project doesn’t move it- it just sets up the initial relationship with the file.
It's crucial that your media source files retain the same physical relationship with your project files. A good way to guarantee this is to create a master media folder for a project. (If you'd like you can create sub folders within your master folder for your video, graphics & audio media.) Keep your project files (.aep files) and your media within your master folder. If you need to move or backup your project, move the entire master folder as a whole.
So if you want to work with a graphic or an audio clip, first copy it into your master folder (and maybe into its appropriate sub folder), then import it into your project.
Question: Say someone emailed you an MP3 that you wanted to include in your project. What would you do?
Answer: Copy it into your media folder, *then* import it.
Once again, for your sanity make sure you keep all your files in one master directory and maintain the relationship of your AEP project files and media files.
Speed & Safety
To play back animations in After Effects in real-time, you'll need a relatively decent CPU, as much RAM as possible, and a fast hard drive. Otherwise you likely encounter hiccups or stutters when playing back movies. CDs, DVDs, and network connections aren't usually fast enough to play back media in real-time. Internal hard drives, RAIDs, and external firewire or USBII drives are the best way to go. Because of this, it's best to work off of a portable firewire drive, or off of the internal scratch drive on the lab computers.
Create your master folder on your portable hard drive if you have one, or on the internal scratch drive of the lab computer you'll be working on. Give it an appropriate name (like T354_"your login name"). Assuming you have a portable firewire drive, you can simply take it with you when you leave the lab. However, it's wise to back up your projects onto CD or onto the lab server occasionally, as every hard drive is destined for the junkyard sooner or later.
Back up your work - To back up your work, make a practice of routinely copying the entire master folder (which contains all of your projects and media) onto another hard drive. In the Production lab, you can use the temporary network storage, but be sure to follow the naming conventions outlined on the wall. It's a good idea to asume that your hard drive will crash, so keep backup copies of your work. (I like my media in three places.)
Tour of the Interface
- Project window
- Timeline
- Composition Window
AE tour - Making a new project
The project window is a file that references other footage, files and layout info- similar to Avid's or Premiere's windows.
You can customize the view in the Project window (drag headers around)
Hold the control button down & see what happens.
You can also create new folders within the Project window.
Importing Photoshop layers individually verses importing as a comp. When you import individual layers from Photoshop you lose the positioning information.
Compare that with importing a Photoshop file as a comp. It retains all the layers and positioning.
Interpret imported alpha channels
(You can guess, choose straight, or pre-multiplied)
Creating compositions:
- Command+ N = create a new comp
- Command+ K = show comp settings
Add layers to comps can be done easily by dragging items into either the composition window or the timeline.
Warning: Wherever your time indicator is becomes the in point for your layer.
Change background color. The background layer can be set to any color you want. When you render/make a movie and choose “RGB + Alpha” and “Millions of Colors +”, it renders the background as transparent, making an alpha channel in the movie.
Basic Transform Properties
Basic properties you can animate in a layer incldue:
- S - Scale
- P - Position
- A - Anchor point
- R - Rotation
- T - OpaciTy.
There are countless other layer properties one can animate, but these are common to all visible layers.
To reveal the properties, press the highlighted keyboard shortcut (S, P, R, A, T) corresponding to what you want to see. Holding the Shift key and pressing another shortcut key will reveal it as well.
Keyframes
For any animation to happen you need at least two keyframes.
You can set an initial keyframe for a layer by clicking on the stopwatch icon. Anytime you change the parameter you've clicked the stopwatch icon for, a new keyframe is automatically created wherever your position indicator is. An X will appear in the keyframe box.
You can navigate from keyframe to keyframe by the little left-right arrow icons. You can remove a keyframe by highlighting it and pressing delete or by unchecking the check box to the left.
Keyframe interpolation - You can set how keyframes react temporally and spatially (time and space).
- Temporal keyframes effect how the keyframe is applied over time (slow down, speed up, stop)
- Spatial keyframes effect how the keyframe effects the layer within the space of the composition (E.g., X, Y, Z).
You can set keyframes to be linear, auto bezier, or continous bezier.
Linear keyframes mean the change will occor at a constant rate. Spatially, objects would move in a straight line. Temporally, objects effects will take place at a steady rate of speed.
We'll explore other types of Auto Bezier and Continuous Bezier keyframes next week.
Project Window
The project window is a lot like Premiere's. This is where imported files will appear. You can create bins and compositions and organize them.
Timeline
This is similar to that of Permiere's as well. You can Zoom in and out like in Premiere (+ or - keys).
To move one frame earlier or later, use the Page Down or Page Up key. (One reason to use an extended keyboard.) DON"T USE THE ARROW KEYS. This will move whatever layer is selected.
To play your compositions: Pressing the spacebar does NOT always do the trick. It's wise to set a Work Area using the B and N keys. This will force RAM previews to play within the Work Area. Press the 0 key on the numeric keypad to in itiate a RAM preview.
- To Rename Layers: Highlight the layer and press return. Then you can rename it.
- To Duplicate Layers: Cmd/Ctrl + D
Composition Window
Guides
Find the button to turn on the safe text grid in your comp window. Use it!
You can create and use guides in the comp window. They work just like in Photoshop: Show rulers (Cmd or Ctrl + R), then drag the guides in from the edges using the Move Tool (V).
Keyboard shortcuts:
Command - / adds footage to the center of a comp
Command - Option - F fits layer to comp size
Command D duplicates a layer
Command - shift - \ resize window to fill screen
Command B: sends layer to back
Command F: sends layer to front
Command Up Arrow: send layer up one level
Command Down Arrow: send layer down one level
Press tab key to hide or display all open palettes & toolbox
Command - G displays "Go to ________"
Pressing the period key zooms in (in Comp window)
Pressing the comma key zooms out (in Comp window)
Pressing Command apostrophe key shows grid (in Comp window)
Work area: b for beginning, n for ending
Type 0 (on numeric keypad) for real time wire frame preview
For layer windows:
u = Show any keyframes
m = Mask
f = Feather
e = Effect
a = Anchor point
p = Position
s = Scale
r = Rotation
t = Opacity (transparency)
l = Audio levels (levels)
By holding down the shift key you can add or subtract properties. So S + (shift + p) = scale and position
Making a Movie:
To make a movie, select your composition, then press Control-Command-M or choose "Add to Render Queue" from the drop-down Composition menu at the top of the screen.
The first things it asks is for the name and where to save it.
You should then get the render window, with your composition at the bottom of the list of items to render. Click on the Render settings: Current Settings to open up quality and resolution settings. You can select "best" for quality and pick a size for resolution (full, half etc). Be sure to think about if you want to render your entire comp or just the work area. This selection is near bottom of the left hand side of the window.
Once you OK this, back at the render window click on "Output module: Lossless" to open up the format settings. I'd go with Quicktime, under the format drop down menu. Under format options, simply select the codec you want to use (DV, HDV, etc.). If you have audio, you need to check the "audio output" box or you won't get a soundtrack. Once you "ok" this you should be back at the render window. Select render and it will start making your movie.
In-class Exercise - 1st AE:
Do some basic animation with one of your TV graphics. You'll first have to import your Photoshop file as a composition (not as footage). Then make sure the composition length is set to something meaningful, like 15 seconds or so.
Animate your graphic fading up from black at the beginning and fading out to black at the end. You can easily do this by adding a black solid as the topmost layer in your AE compostion. Then simply add some opacity keyframes. On the black solid layer put a keyframe at frame 0- then make it 100, add another keyframe 15 frames in and make it 0. Get the idea? Do the reverse at the end of your timeline.
After you master the fade up from black and fade down at the end, try animating some of the layers. For example you can make the main title slide in using position keyframes.
Output a Quicktime Movie using Apple ProRes 422 (1920x1080) movie saved as your username. Upload it to the appropriate Canvas assignment.
Tutorials
(Start in-class if time allows) Work through two of Trish Meyers tutorials. They will provide an excellent start to AE.
Homework:
- Read and work through the first 3 chapters of Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects
- Animate a 15 second 16x9 HD-sized promo, title, or message (something with a purpose). It should start and end in black. Consider your graphic's message and the order and timing needed to animate and reveal the components in a logical and aesthetically pleasing manner.
- Render out a full-sized, (H.264, ProRes 422, or DNXHD - NOT ANIMATION) at 29.97 fps called your username for viewing in class (E.g. 1280x720 or 1920 x 1080).
- Note: After Effects homework requires filling out a Critique Form. Please be sure to fill out "What did you create?" and "Objective/Purpose". This is important. Please consider if you put CRAP to work.
- Bring in a Photoshop graphic (promo or title, etc.) that you would like to animate. It can be one of your existing works.
