Crash Course in Adobe After Effects

Short Description
Disclaimer: The Adobe After Effects version used in this tutorial is 6.0, but the important. features described in this document are available in earlier …

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Content
Crash Course in Adobe After Effects
Written by Kurt Phillips
Last Updated on January 27, 2005
. Copyright Texas A&M University - Visualization Laboratory
Disclaimer: The Adobe After Effects version used in this tutorial is 6.0, but the important
features described in this document are available in earlier versions of After Effects.
Who is this document for?
This document is intended for After Effects novices. It serves as a quick guide to the
program’s most useful features, but by no means is a complete manual. See the
Resources section for further documentation.
OUTLINE
Working with NTSC Video
Project Bin
The AE Toolbar
Compositions
Timeline, Layers, and RAM Previews
Blending Modes, Quality, and Motion Blur
Effects
Masks
Keyframe Animation
The Render Queue
ResourcesWorking with NTSC Video
NTSC (National Television System Committee) is the video standard of North America.
The image is 720 pixels wide and 486 pixels tall, running at 29.97 frames per second.
Resolution is not important when working with video because it is independent of “dots
per inch.”; i.e. the NTSC image has fixed pixel dimensions regardless of its final size.
When working with video on the computer, these are the most important settings to make
sure your output plays on any standard television.
The Project Bin
The project bin is where you keep all of your project’s assets. Assets include anything
that you will visually use in your project, i.e. images, video clips, sound clips, etc.
Project Bin window
The main part of the project bin will list your assets, along with information about each
item (such as the type of the file, the size, the length, and the file’s location). To import
media into your bin, right click in an empty area and select Import > File. Here, you’ll
be presented with a familiar Finder or Explorer window to look for your media. You can
choose multiple files with the or CTRL keys…