For more information, please see full course syllabus of Intro to Adobe After Effects
For more information, please see full course syllabus of Intro to Adobe After Effects
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Layers
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- Intro 0:00
- Layers 0:05
- Understanding Layers
- Switches and Blending Mode
- The Type Tool
- Creating Solids
- Creating Shape Layers
- Creating Mask
- Adjustment Layer
Adobe After Effects CS5
I. Introduction | ||
---|---|---|
Introduction to After Effects | 9:04 | |
The Design of After Effects | 3:40 | |
Interface Tour | 15:21 | |
II. Compositions | ||
Creating Compositions | 5:07 | |
Using Layers | 5:36 | |
Keyframe Animation | 8:17 | |
Effects | 4:51 | |
Working in 3D Space | 4:32 | |
Rendering Movies | 8:00 | |
Settings Preferences | 3:16 | |
Organization | 2:27 | |
Creating a Composition | 14:01 | |
Layers | 18:42 | |
III. Animation | ||
Intro to Animation | 38:25 | |
Animation, Part 1 | 4:45 | |
Animation, Part 2 | 10:51 | |
Animation, Part 3 | 17:07 | |
Animation, Part 4 | 6:01 | |
Animation, Part 5 | 13:14 |
Transcription: Layers
Hi, welcome back to educator.com. This next lesson is on layers.0000
First thing you have to do is understand layers.0005
The layers in After Effects are very similar to Photoshop.0008
where each layer has a set of properties and values and you can make all the controls and what not in there.0011
So, let us go over to After Effects real quick.0019
So, here we are in the layers, palette here/timeline.0021
It is kind of like having Photoshop combined with an editing program.0025
So you can see here as I click on each layer that highlights the actual bar here which represents layer itself.0030
And you can move it around like in editing program. And all the values are here.0037
Now, depending on what you are working on you can pull up columns or have them show or not show.0042
In the columns menu here you are going to hit control columns.0049
And in this case we have some things turned off and turned on.0053
If I want to turn off the modes, the blending mode it disappears.0057
You kind of save space here. It just depends on the project you are working on.0062
Let us open that back up again, columns, modes. We have our mode showing here.0066
So, you know when you open up a layer.0072
This is where we are going to be setting all of our key frames once we get to the animation.0075
Anchor point, position, scale, rotation, opacity.0079
When we add a filter it will show up in here.0082
So, this is, again, this is where are all of our layers. Where all the magic happens.0086
Where we control things. Making them in the 3D layers, motion blur, blending modes.0089
So, you are going to spend a lot of time in this menu here and, again, you are going to see over to the side.0096
The next is switches and blending modes.0108
Let us jump back to After Effects.0112
So, again, like in Photoshop we can change the different blending modes.0114
I will show you a quick example here.0119
If I open up this pre-comp here. Let me open up my blending modes.0121
As you can see a new composition. Where are all my blending modes?0126
Well, you want to control click columns. Open up the modes and here we have our modes.0129
So, for instance, here is this wall hit. Let me find a bullet holes.0136
So, I will go to this one right here. Layer six is our bullet hole one.0146
And if I want to quickly show you the blending modes here similar to Photoshop. Turn this back on.0152
So, here is this layer here. So, let us say right now it is set to normal.0162
I want to make a dissolve. I kind of zoom in here.0168
I will go to full resolution and you could see the changes with each setting, darkened as this.0173
You are going to be in here a quite a bit too.0183
So, you have a lot of control.0185
Again if you are familiar with Photoshop, you are going to have some fun in After Effects. I guarantee you.0187
Let us put this back on normal.0193
Another layer aspect is the type tool.0196
Now, the type tool we can do an entire lesson on. But for now, let us just briefly play with the type tool.0202
So, over here, if we go to our titles here and this sequence here.0209
Let us just double-click that and we get this comp here.0217
Let us see if we can do a quick little RAM preview hitting zero on our keypad.0223
Now, you can see the text coming in here. This text was created within After Effects with the type tool.0228
So, let us just create a new composition, Command-N. Here we have a blank canvas here.0235
Let us turn this to black, Command-K. And let us create some text.0243
So, what we want to do, we have our type tool here. Click that.0254
And again, it is a lot like Photoshop. You have a text box.0259
I have my character palette, my paragraph pallet up here on the right side and let us just type in educator.com.0264
Now, you can see, I have to do some resizing here. I can grab this text box here.0280
I think right now is set to -- let us select everything -- to bold. Take off the bold.0287
I have Helvetica medium for now. And what you want to do is you can just hit the enter button which says OK, that is what I want to do.0293
We are going to go back to the move tool here or hit the letter V and we can just move this here.0305
So, here we have some nice text. Let me show you some presets and how to get. You can animate in, animate out.0311
Let us go back to this here. So, you can create as many of this as you would like.0322
You can duplicate this, Command-D and you could go back and pull this below there and you can give this a new name.0325
You have to reactivate it. You have to click the layer or you can just select the type tool and select that, the actual text.0336
Test layer you can back up. Fix our mistake there, click enter.0349
Now, over here to the right. You still have all your text options here.0357
If I select this again, back to our text tool. Now, we can go over here, we can change the color.0363
If you keep this active here you can actually highlight inside the text, the font menu here.0374
And we can, using the arrow keys, we can toggle between all the different fonts.0381
I am kind of a font addict myself. I can never have enough fonts.0385
You can change the actual size of your text. You can align everything up, down, bigger or smaller, taller.0389
You have different stroke options here.0408
If I want to turn my stroke line on. I will go to nice white stroke.0411
I can increase the size of the stroke.0416
I, of course, have bold, italic, capitols. So, it is a pretty powerful tool, I must say.0422
You will definitely be using that quite a bit in the future.0431
So, another aspect of layers. We have solids, creating solids.0436
We could stay right in this for now.0446
A solid is another thing that is generated within After Effects.0448
So, let us say you want to put a white card on this, for instance.0452
We can go to layer, new and solid. And it is going to create a solid right in the composition.0460
So, it is basically a white card more or less. And there it is.0471
Now, this is like a sheet of paper and you can grab this and move it around.0476
So, it stays that the size of wisdom that comp settings we first created it.0482
But you can still resize the solid anytime you want.0487
Solids come in handy for all kinds of things. Solid will be your best friend as well.0492
Command-Y is the quick command to create more solids.0499
You can change the color of the solid. Color this here.0501
You can bring solid in. Zoom back in here.0507
You can create a solid at any size. Let us say you just want a very small solid for some reason.0517
Layer, solid and you can change to, you know, 50 pixels by 50 pixels.0525
You are probably thinking what are you doing? What are these for?0535
You can use the solid for pretty much anything. So, let me delete some of these.0540
before we go to the next thing. So, solid is, like I said, you can use these for covering things up.0547
There are times where I will get a piece of footage and let us say the footage. You can put this underneath layers.0553
The footage it will just be like a 4 by 3 size and I need more white or black on the sides.0566
You can just create a quick solid and add to the left or right. You can mask things, which will get into next.0571
That is just basically how you create a solid. It will make more sense, I guarantee you.0581
Another aspect of layers are the shape layers. Let us create a shape layer.0585
So, as you can see we have a blank, empty composition here.0592
Shape layer is nice because they are generated within After Effects.0597
So, we can do here is we can click the lips tool. We can click and drag and here we have the lips.0600
So, if you notice like now we have a shape layer. It automatically creates a layer.0610
And it just places it here in your composition and we have all these options now.0615
So, for instance, here is the lips. We still have our transform options here.0622
But, for now let us just check out this lips, path, stroke, fill, transform.0626
So, what we can do here is we can open this up and you can resize this here.0633
As the stroke options here.0637
If we want to make the stroke bigger.0640
If we want to take off the stroke. Go to zero.0643
It is pretty powerful though. We have the fill color.0647
You can actually change the fill from one color to another, setting key frames.0652
There is all kinds of shapes in here. Play around with it.0658
We have the start tools nice. Move this around here.0662
You can change the color right here in the top menu if you would like.0670
You can always use the top menu, like Photoshop or the actual menu inside the layer itself.0673
So, these are great tools. You are going to use these once in a while or maybe all the time, who knows.0682
Let us jump back over here.0688
So, masks. Masks are something that you will probably need on a regular basis as well.0691
It is similar to like a last linked something out of the scene in Photoshop.0699
Let us create a new composition.0704
So, let us take a layer from our elements over here and let us add this Western town here. Command-/.0708
I am going to shrink this down a bit so I am going to open up the properties. Here we go.0724
Here is our Western town and let us just add this wood wall in here.0731
Again, you can hit Command-/ to get this into the comp or you can drag it over manually.0739
So, let us say, for the hack of it. We want to have this wood texture in our background instead of the sky.0748
So, let us put this behind our Western town and let us turn this off for now. This wood wall.0754
And so, the mask tool is similar to the pen tool in Photoshop.0763
So, you are going to click this tool here. Here is our pen tool and we are going to create a mask.0771
So, let us just say I want a mask, a really rough, raw mask here.0775
I am going to click on top of my horizon line on the Western town document here and it creates a mask.0779
So, in this case, it is leaving the sky not the town.0791
What it did is here is our Western town layer. If you open this up it is added the mask.0799
If I click invert, it inverts the mask here. Let us even click on our transparency grid there.0805
So, it temporally removes the actual background. You can set key frames later on.0812
So, let us say we want to do it sort of the opposite way where we actually want to. Double-click this.0820
Let me delete this mask. You just click the word mask and you hit delete.0829
Let us say we want to reverse that. Let us say I want to not invert the mask.0833
I would go like this. I would just start click in my horizon line again, there.0839
So, it works back with that. I do not have to click on invert, in there.0847
Again, I could go back. Now, If I want to turn on my wood wall it shows up in the back there.0850
Now, of course you can go back in with your masking tool and you can perfect your mask, refine it. I like to zoom in quite a bit.0858
Masks, again, are like your handles in Photoshop. You kind of click and drag.0871
I hold down option and I pull through a few of my handles here.0876
Now, let us say we get the mask nice and perfect, how we want it.0884
You can always move this by hitting command and the actual. That is your point, pull this open.0891
Now, let us say i want to temporarily take a look at this. You can click the visibility button here.0903
That is nice. Now, let us say I want to make the mask with a little more blur on the edges here.0911
I am going to open up that mask property and I can feather the mask.0921
So I can give it maybe 28. A little much, back it off.0926
You can see it has all these great properties.0932
You can even drop the opacity, here, of the mask. You can expand the mask.0934
So, in this case it is getting bigger or I can decrease. I can expand, I can contract, basically.0942
So, masks are a great way to, sort of, subtract or add something to a saying.0951
You will be using masks all the time.0961
Adjustment layers. Adjustment layers just like in Photoshop.0966
Let us go back to that same composition.0971
An adjustment layer is a layer that we create. Go to layers, new, adjustment layer.0975
So, the filter usually filters.0981
Depending on what you are doing with your project you can add effects just to that one adjustment layer.0988
So, it does not affect the layers below it.0994
So, in this case, let us say we want to have a little bit overall blur to this town here.0995
We are going to go to effect, blur, and scouting and let us give it a nice tug to the right here.1001
And you can see it is affecting just this adjustment layer. You will even say adjustment layer.1013
You can rename that if you want. So, let us turn this off temporally.1019
So, you can see it is just affecting the adjustment layer. I can open that up.1024
There is my effect and there are all the values there.1027
Now, I still have transformation options here if I wanted to drop the opacity down a bit.1034
Let us put the opacity back up.1047
I can even create as many adjustment layers as I want.1051
Sometimes when I am trying out effects I am not sure if I want them.1055
I will make several adjustment layers. I will make new, adjustment layer.1059
Let us see, if I want to have more contrast. I am going to brightness and contrast.1064
And I will just give it a nice tag here, Brightness. I will even drop the opacity back down on this layer here.1071
Again, I think if you are doing this kind of a thing or experimenting with adjustment layers.1082
You might want to rename them. Rename your layer here, hit return.1087
This was the blur layer. This was the contrast layer.1096
So, that, it kind of gives you an idea.1101
Well, again once you start getting these layers built up in here it is hard to keep track of what is what.1105
So it is fun. It is a lot of fun and that is layers.1112
Thanks for watching educator.com. I look forward to seeing you again.1119
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