T354 - Week 5 - Spring 2008

Agenda:

• Look at artwork
• Review quiz
• After Effects (continued)
• In-class AE exercises

Announcements/Observations

Be very clear as to what you are making and what purpose it should serve. If your graphic is a promo for an upcoming show, you need to let viewers know what it is, why they should watch and when it is on. Conveying this information is what it is all about.

Don't rely on layer styles to jazz up your text. They are overused and tired. Instead try rendering out your text elements and playing with them in other ways (filters, track mattes, etc)

Putting the name, purpose & objective on your critique is important.

After Effects (continued)

Transfer Modes

Apply transfer modes. These work just like Photoshop.

Layer Modes

Use layer modes to set how the layer mixes with the layers beneath it. Some work on alpha channels (stencil and silhouette) Some use lightness (Screen) Others use color. Layer modes can’t be animated.

Anchor points

Objects revolve around their anchor points. Zooming in and out is also done around the layer's anchor point.

Everyone should carry out a few simple anchor point moves to make sure they understand this.

Precompose

You can precompose a layer or multiple layers in After Effects. Pre-composing is often the answer to vexing nesting problems. Say you wanted to animate a car going down the road and show the wheels turning. You could first rotate the wheels on the car, then pre-compose the car and the wheels. Then you can move the nested comp (the car with the spinning wheels) down the road.

To pre-compose layers, select the layers you want to pre-compose, (Command - select to pick layers that are not right next to each other) then choose pre-compose under the layer menu.

The car goes zoom - Copy the car.psd to your media folder. Try precomposing the wheels and the car so that it can drive hrough the frame.

In-class exercise. (Earth, moon & sun)

Using the supplied photoshop document, see if you can make the moon rotate around the earth and the earth rotate around the sun. (Celstial objects not to scale!)

Hint: You only need to animate roation.

Render out a half-sized, completed movie and put a copy into your week 5 folder.

Masks

You can use simple masks to isolate parts of a layer. These can be feathered and animated over time in interesting ways.

You can access masks through the layer window. (To get to the layer window, double click on the layer in the timeline.)

Masks are useful for quick & dirty “text builds.”

Dog Haiku example

Import it into AE- do some cool things to it to bring the text in. (scale blur, opacity etc.)

Duplicate & rename into separate layers for each element you’d like to animate in the Time Layout Window

Use the Layer window to make masks for each component

Use the time layout window to set new in points – stagger the in points to get the build effect

Effects

Similar to PhotoShop, the effects are organized into categories. Effects are applied to a layer (remember layers can contain comps, images or audio). Some effects can be manipulated by the properties of other layers.

Effect Categories (standard 6.5 version)

• 3D Channel
• Adjust - lets you alter levels, brightness, contrast & color.
• Audio - provides limited audio effects
• Blur & Sharpen - focus effects
• Channel - lets you tweak the color channels
• Distort - manipulate & distort the layers image
• Expression Controls
• Image Control
• Keying
• Matte tools
• Noise & Grain
• Paint
• Perspective
• Render
• Simulation
• Stylize
• Text
• Time
• Transition
• Video

To view effects in the Timeline, select the layer, then press E. To view the Effects Control Window (a floating window), press Shift-Apple-T (or Shift - Control - T).

You can set keyframes in the Effect Control Window by clicking the Stopwatch icon or Option - clicking the name of the effect.

The production bundle version of AE offers many more useful effects, and a number of 3rd party companies have built their business around supplying effect packages for After Effects.

Using Solids

Solids can be useful for adding effects (path text, lens flare, etc.) Create a solid layer and apply a lens flare effect. Now try animating the lens flare.

In-class work:

Make a 15-second animation that incorporates these elements, all generated within AE:

• Solid
• Text
• Mask (applied to solid)
• animated effect

Place the project file into your week 5 folder. Save it as "inclass.aep"

Homework:

• Animate a TV graphic (demo reel opening, promo, station ID, title etc.) You can use one of your earlier Photoshop works or create something new.
  • Incorporate at least one animated text element from AE (You must animate a text parameter (eg tracking, NOT just the basic transform properties.).
  • Incorporate at least one animated effect from AE. (actually animate the effect parameters)
  • Render out a half-sized square-pixel version to turn in and view in class (e.g. 360 x 270 or 320 x 240)
  • Use the T354 critique form.
• Bring in an idea for an animated midterm AE project. We will share these in class next week.
• Read CHapters 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 in the Meyer book

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