Getting Started: After Effects
Post date: Feb 10, 2016 4:37:35 PM
Watch these four videos:
Greenscreen Compositing with After Effects Speed Art
Getting Started with AE
1. Find After Effects in your Applications folder and drag it to your Dock. Then start it up.
Click the New project button
2. Then press the New Composition button
3. Set the Preset to HDTV 1080 29.27 and the duration to 0;00;10;00
4. Set the workspace to Text to get all the text control windows open and available:
4. Layer > New > Text to create a text layer.
5. Layer > New > Solid to create a solid shape. Choose a color for it and drag it below your name in the timeline so it is behind your name.
6. Type your name. Change the font, the size, the color in the text pallet. Don't use red text! Look how ugly it is below. Click the text layer in the timeline or select your text if nothing is changing.
7. In the timeline, twirl down the text layer's twirler. Change the anchor point to center your text over it's center.
8. Press the stopwatch for position, scale, and rotation. This starts the key framing. (Don't press it again! unless you want to delete all your keyframes!)
8b. Move the time marker to 1 second, move your text (drag it in the window or use the transform numbers by opening the transform twirler.).
Use the selection tool to move things around.
9. Move the time marker over 1 more second, move your text, and repeat until you are done.
10. Try some rotation and scale keyframes. Click the stopwatch once to set an initial keyframe and then move the timer and rotate or scale. You may want to move the anchor point so the center of your text is in the middle.
For fun, add Effect > Time > Echo or Wide time.
For best results, find some places where you want the text to be readable, copy all the keyframes, and past the keyframes a little later. This makes the text stop and the echos will catch up.
11. IMPORTANT! AE doesn't save for you. FILE > SAVE AS tonyf_text_001, make a new folder on your hard drive called After Effects and save this file into there.
Go here to Make it into a movie:
Here are some great tutorials getting you started in After Effects with files you can download. http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/
Here is a good video showing some more advanced text editing techniques. Watch it!