Adobe After Effects CS3 manual

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A good user manual

The rules should oblige the seller to give the purchaser an operating instrucion of Adobe After Effects CS3, along with an item. The lack of an instruction or false information given to customer shall constitute grounds to apply for a complaint because of nonconformity of goods with the contract. In accordance with the law, a customer can receive an instruction in non-paper form; lately graphic and electronic forms of the manuals, as well as instructional videos have been majorly used. A necessary precondition for this is the unmistakable, legible character of an instruction.

What is an instruction?

The term originates from the Latin word „instructio”, which means organizing. Therefore, in an instruction of Adobe After Effects CS3 one could find a process description. An instruction's purpose is to teach, to ease the start-up and an item's use or performance of certain activities. An instruction is a compilation of information about an item/a service, it is a clue.

Unfortunately, only a few customers devote their time to read an instruction of Adobe After Effects CS3. A good user manual introduces us to a number of additional functionalities of the purchased item, and also helps us to avoid the formation of most of the defects.

What should a perfect user manual contain?

First and foremost, an user manual of Adobe After Effects CS3 should contain:
- informations concerning technical data of Adobe After Effects CS3
- name of the manufacturer and a year of construction of the Adobe After Effects CS3 item
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- safety signs and mark certificates which confirm compatibility with appropriate standards

Why don't we read the manuals?

Usually it results from the lack of time and certainty about functionalities of purchased items. Unfortunately, networking and start-up of Adobe After Effects CS3 alone are not enough. An instruction contains a number of clues concerning respective functionalities, safety rules, maintenance methods (what means should be used), eventual defects of Adobe After Effects CS3, and methods of problem resolution. Eventually, when one still can't find the answer to his problems, he will be directed to the Adobe service. Lately animated manuals and instructional videos are quite popular among customers. These kinds of user manuals are effective; they assure that a customer will familiarize himself with the whole material, and won't skip complicated, technical information of Adobe After Effects CS3.

Why one should read the manuals?

It is mostly in the manuals where we will find the details concerning construction and possibility of the Adobe After Effects CS3 item, and its use of respective accessory, as well as information concerning all the functions and facilities.

After a successful purchase of an item one should find a moment and get to know with every part of an instruction. Currently the manuals are carefully prearranged and translated, so they could be fully understood by its users. The manuals will serve as an informational aid.

Table of contents for the manual

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    iv Blending modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Layer styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 W ork ing wit[...]

  • Page 5

    v Chapter 15: Effect refer ence Galleries of effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 3D Channel effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

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    1 C ha pt er 1: G et ting sta r ted Installation Requirements ❖ T o r e view comp lete system requir ements an d recommendatio ns for y our Ado be® s oftware , s ee the Read Me file on the ins ta llation disc. Install the software 1 Close any o ther Adobe ap plication s open on your co mpu ter . 2 Insert the installa tion disc into yo ur DVD dri[...]

  • Page 7

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 2 Read Me The installatio n dis c con tains the Read Me file for y our software. (This file is also copied to the a pplica tion folder during p roduct installation.) Open the file to read importan t informa tion about to pics such as the follo wing: • System r equirements • Ins tal latio n (including unins ta lling [...]

  • Page 8

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 3 Mos t versions of in- product and LiveDocs H elp let yo u search acros s the Help systems o f multiple products. T op ics may also con tain links to relevan t con tent on the w eb or to top ics in the Hel p of another p roduct. Think of H elp , both in the product and o n the web, as a h ub for acces sing additional c[...]

  • Page 9

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 4 Ado b e Hel p A. Back/F orwar d b utto ns ( previo usly visited lin ks) B. Expa nd ab le s ub to pic s C. Icons indicatin g s hared topic D. Previo us/Next button s (t opics in seq uentia l order) Acc essibility features Ad obe Help co nten t is accessible to people with disabili ties—such as mobility im pairments, [...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 32 “ A b out co mpr ession of m ovie files ” on page 618 “Pr eview a movie on a virtual mob ile de vice using After Effects ” on page 618 W orking with Photoshop and After Eff ec ts If yo u use Photoshop t o create still imag es, you can use After Effects to bring those still images to gether and make them move [...]

  • Page 38

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 33 I t is often a good idea to prepa re a still image in P hotoshop befo re importing it in to After Effects. Examples of such prepa ration incl ude correcting color , s caling, and cr oppin g. It is o ften better for yo u to do something on ce to the source imag e in Photoshop than t o have After Effects perform the sa[...]

  • Page 39

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 34 Exporting Flash video (FL V) from After Effects When yo u render finished video from After Effects, select FL V as th e outp ut forma t in t he Render Queue panel to export directly to the Flash V ideo (FL V) f ormat. Y ou can specify size, com pressio n, and other ou tput o ptions. An y After Effects markers ar e ad[...]

  • Page 40

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 35 W orking with Adobe Pr emiere Pro and A f ter Eff ec ts Ad obe Premiere® Pr o is designed to capt ure, impo r t, and edit film and video . After Effects is desig ned to pr oduce motion graphics a nd visual e ffects fo r film, br oadcast t ele vision, D VD , a nd the w eb . Y o u can e asily ex change p ro je cts, co[...]

  • Page 41

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 36 2 Choose L ayer > A dobe Encore > A ssign T o Subp icture [nu mber] or A ssign T o Video Th umbna il. Export a button for use in Adobe Encor e 1 Open the composition tha t repr esents the but ton, and mo ve the cur ren t-time indicator t o t he desired frame. 2 Choose C ompositio n > Save F rame As > Pho [...]

  • Page 42

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 37 If yo u are buildin g cross-pla tform pr ojec ts, it ’ s best if the fu ll paths ha ve the same names o n Mac OS and W indo ws systems. I f the footage and the pro jec t are o n dif feren t volumes, make sur e that the app ropria te volume is mo unted befor e opening the project and tha t network vo lume names ar e[...]

  • Page 43

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 38 After Effects renders each frame of a co mposition o ne layer a t a time. For this r eas on, the memo r y requiremen t of each indi vidual la yer is mor e impo r tant than the d uration of the com position or the num ber of layer s in the com po- sit ion. T he me mor y requi reme nt for a comp os iti on is e quiv a l[...]

  • Page 44

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 39 The o p erating system imposes certain limits o n the a mount of memory that an app lication can use. After Effects o n the Mac OS X o perating system can use up t o 3.5 GB of RAM, although only a bout 3GB is actually ava ilable to the for eground a pplication, beca us e Mac OS X uses a ppro ximately 500MB t o load t[...]

  • Page 45

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 40 rendering a frame , memor y usage dro ps back down to , at mos t, t he amo unt set by the Maxim um RAM Cache Size pref erence. Y o u can specif y values o ver 100% (where 100% equals the amo unt of ph ysical RAM you ha ve installed) because virtual memory uses hard-disk space. V alues o ver 200% are no t recommended.[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 41 I fb a c k g r o u n dp r o c e s s e sa r eu s e df o rr e n d e r i n g ,t h e nt h em a i nf o r e g r o u n da p p l i c a t i o ni sn o ta l s ou s e df o rr e n d e r i n g . T h i sm e a n st h a tc r e a t i n gb a c k g r o u n dp r o c e s s e so n l ya d d st ot h et o t a ln u m b e ro fp r o c e s s e su[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 42 • Ad just the size o f the virtual memory paging file (W indo ws only). V irtual memory enables the sys tem to use har d- disk space to sto re informa tion normally sto red in RAM. Win dows manag es virtual memor y using a paging file. T o impr ove performance in Aft er Ef fects, adjus t the size of the paging file[...]

  • Page 48

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 43 • Deselect the C on tinuously Rasterize swit ch for a vector la yer until y ou need to view or render it in deta il. This prev ents After Effects from rasterizing the en tire laye r after each chang e. Se e “ Contin uously rasterize a la yer con taining vector grap hics ” on page 151. Improv e per formance by m[...]

  • Page 49

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 44 • L o w e rt h ec o m p o s i t i o n ’ sm a g n i f i c a t i o n .W h e nA f t e rE f f e c t sd i s p l a y st h eC o m p o s i t i o n ,L a y e r ,a n dF o o t a g ep a n e l s at ma gnif icatio ns of 100% or gr eater , scr een redraw speed decreases. Improv e per formance when using effects Some effects, suc[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 45 Plug-ins comp iled for the M acintosh P owerPC processor a rchitecture do not run na tively o n Macint osh comp uters that use I ntel p rocessors. T o u se plug-ins c ompiled f or the P o werPC processor a rchit ec ture, y ou can r un After Effects CS3 under Rosetta. Rosetta is a softwar e transla tor fo r Mac OS X t[...]

  • Page 51

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 46 Fo r a complet e descr iptio n of the scripting ca pabilities ava ilable with After Effects, see t he After Effects Scripting Guide o n the Adobe websi te at www .adobe.com/devnet/after ef fects . T o exchan ge scripts and other useful tools wi th other After Effects us ers, visit the After Effects Exchan ge on the A[...]

  • Page 52

    47 C ha pt er 4: I m p orting Impor ting and interpr eting footage items W orking with impor ted files Y o u import foot age items in to a pr oject and use them as sources fo r layer s. Y ou wo rk with collections o f layer s in a composition to anima te, com posite, and a pply effects. Y ou can im p ort man y differen t kinds of files, collections[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 48 Supported impor t formats Some file-name extension s—such as MOV a nd A VI—denote contai ner file formats ra ther than denoting a specific audio , video , or image da ta format. Con tainer files can contain da ta encoded using various com pre ssion and encod ing sche mes. Aft er Effects can i mpo rt th ese con ta[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 49 • Radiance (HDR, RGBE, XYZE; 32 b pc) • SGI (SGI, BW , RGB; 16 b pc) • Softimage (PIC) • T arga (TGA, VD A, ICB , VS T) • TIFF (TIF) Y ou ca n impo r t files of a ny sti ll-image f ormat as a se quence. See “ Im portin g still im ages ” on pa ge 80. V ideo and animation formats • Animated GIF (GIF) ?[...]

  • Page 55

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 50 Fo r informatio n on importing A pp le Motio n projects int o After Ef fects, see the Ap ple websit e: www .adobe.com/g o/learn_ae_importmotion projects . See also “ Suppo r ted ou tput f ormats ” o n page 588 “I mport assets in Panasonic P2 f ormat ” on page 73 Import footage items Y o u can import media fil[...]

  • Page 56

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 51 Interpr et footage items After Effects uses a set of internal rules to inter pret each footage i tem that you import acco rding to its best guess fo r t h es o u r c ef i l e ’ sp i x e la s p e c tr a t i o ,f r a m er a t e ,c o l o rp r o f i l e ,a n da l p h ac h a n n e lt y p e .I fA f t e r E f f e c t sg u[...]

  • Page 57

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 52 Edit interpreta tion rules for all items of a specific kind The in terpretatio n rules file co ntains the rules that specif y h ow After Effects in terprets f o otage item s. In most cases, you won ’t nee d to c ust omiz e t he inte r pret ation r u les fi le. Wh en you i mpor t a fo ot age ite m, Af te r E f fec t[...]

  • Page 58

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 53 A foot age item wit h premu ltipl ied chan nels (to p) appears wi th a black ha lo when in ter pre ted as Str aight-U nm atted (bo ttom left). When the foot age i tem is i nterpret ed as Premulti plied-M atted W ith C olor and the ba ckgrou nd c olor is s pecified as b lack, the h alo does n ot appear (bottom right).[...]

  • Page 59

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 54 Se tt ing t he c ompo siti on f ram e rate t o tw ice the rate of t he o utput for mat cau se s Aft er Effe c ts to di spl ay e ach f i eld of in terlac ed so urc e fo otage as i ts o w n, separ ate fra me in the Com posi tion pan el. This pr ocess lets you set keyfram es on indiv idu al f iel ds and g ain prec i sio[...]

  • Page 60

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 55 Change frame ra te for a composition 1 Choose C ompositio n > C ompositio n S ettings. 2 Do one of the f ollowing: • Choose a composition settin gs preset from the Pr eset menu. • Set the Frame Rat e value. Not e: J eff Alma sol pro vides a script to set th e frame r at e and du ra tion of t he curren t comp o[...]

  • Page 61

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 56 Squa re and n onsqua re pixe ls A. Squ are p ix el s an d 4 :3 fram e a spe ct ratio B. N onsq uare p ixels and 4:3 fr ame as pect ra tio C. N onsquar e pixels d ispla yed on a sq uar e-pixel monitor If a footag e item uses nonsqua re pixels, After Effects displa ys the pixel aspect ratio next to the footag e item ?[...]

  • Page 62

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 57 Change pixel aspect ratio f or a composition 1 Choose C ompositio n > C ompositio n S ettings. 2 Do one of the f ollowing: • Choose a composition settin gs preset from the Pr eset menu. • Choose a value from the Pix el Aspect Ratio menu . Common pix el aspect ratios Use squar e -pix el footage f or output to D[...]

  • Page 63

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 58 4 Choose C om p osition > N ew C om position, and then do one o f the following: • If your final outp ut is DV , c hoose NTSC DV , 720 x 480 for Preset, a nd D1/DV NTSC (0.9) f or Pix el Aspect Ratio . • If yo ur fina l out put is D1, ch o ose NTSC D1, 720 x 486 for Pr eset, and D1/DV NTSC (0.9) for P ixel Asp[...]

  • Page 64

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 59 Rename and sort items • T o rename a compositio n, footage item, or folder , select it in the Pro jec t panel, p ress Ent er (Win dows) or Return (Mac OS), type the new name, a nd then press En ter or Return aga in. Not e: The na mes of i tems in the Pr oject pa nel ca n be no mor e than 31 c har acters lon g. The [...]

  • Page 65

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 60 Rev eal footage items • T o reveal where a footage i tem is used in a composition, right-clic k (Windo ws) or Contr ol-click (Mac OS) the foo tage it em in the Pr oject pan el and c hoose Reveal I n Co mpos itio n; th en select the spec ific insta nce yo u w ant t o rev ea l ( composition name , layer name ). • T[...]

  • Page 66

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 61 If the select ed co mpo sitio n i ncl udes ite ms that ar e t urned off (tha t i s, th e V id eo o r A ud io s witc h is dese lected in the Timeline panel), the Red uce Project comman d do es not re move those items. If an exp ression in a selected com p osition r efers to an elemen t in a nonsubor dinate com positio[...]

  • Page 67

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 62 W ork with placeholders and missing footage items Fo r best results, set the placeholder to exactly the same size, d uration, a nd f rame ra te as the actual footage. If After Effects cannot find sour ce footage when you o pen a project, the footage i tem appears in the Pr oject panel labeled Missing, and the nam e o[...]

  • Page 68

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 63 Create plac eholders for output Y o u can cr e ate p laceholder files tha t can be u sed in differen t com positions. F or exa mple, y ou can cr eate a placeholder for a n item in the render q ueue that will creat e a 24-fps movie and then drag tha t placeholder int o a 30-f ps com po- sition. T hen, when you render [...]

  • Page 69

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 64 Import an Adobe Premier e Pro project The abili ty to import A dobe Premiere P ro pro jec ts int o Af ter Ef fects eliminates the need to r ender the pro je ct in Premier e Pro befo re app lying visual effects and anima tions in After Effects. When you im port an Adobe Pr emiere Pro p roject, After Effects imports it[...]

  • Page 70

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 65 Cop y between After Eff ec ts and Adobe P remiere Pro Y o u can copy a nd paste lay ers and assets between A dobe After Effects and Ado be Premiere Pr o. F or a video on the workflow between After Effects and A dobe Premier e Pro , see w ww .adobe.com/g o/vid0256 . • Fr om the After Effects Timeline panel, yo u can[...]

  • Page 71

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 66 Cop y from Adobe Premier e Pro to After Eff ec ts Y o uc a nc o p y av i d e oo ra u d i oa s s e tf r o ma nA d o b eP r e m i e r eP r os e q u e n c ea n dp a s t ei ti n t oa nA f t e rE f f e c t sc o m p o - sition. After Effects conv er ts assets to f o otage la yers and copies the sour ce footage in to its P [...]

  • Page 72

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 67 Impor ting video and audio W ork with the media cache When After Effects imports video and a udio in some f ormats, it processes and caches versio ns of these i tems that i t can readily access when genera ting pr evie ws. I mported a udio files a re each conf ormed to a new .cfa file, and MPEG files are indexed to a[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 68 A database r etains links to each of the cached media files. This media cach e da tabase is shared with A dobe Pr emiere Pro , A dobe Encore, and A dobe Soundbo oth, so each o f these applica tions can each read fro m and write to the same set o f c ach ed m edia fil es. I f y ou chan ge th e l ocat ion o f the da ta[...]

  • Page 74

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 69 T o a pply digital effects t o motio n-picture film usin g After Effects, y ou m ust first transfer the film to a digital forma t. Y o u can transfer film in two wa ys: • U se a film scanner to tra nsfer each analog film frame dir ectly to a digital mo vie frame. This method best p reser ves the image quality . U s[...]

  • Page 75

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 70 the data ra te. H.264 is built in to the A pple QuickT ime 7 multimedia ar chitectur e, and it ’ s supported b y both HD-D VD and Blu-ra y Disc, two newer DVD fo rmats. Uncompressed HD H igh-def inition video in an unco mpr essed forma t. Wi thout com pres sion to reduce the video ’ s data ra te, uncom pressed vi[...]

  • Page 76

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 71 The terms progressive and noninterlaced are th us closely relat ed and are often used in terchang eably , but progressive refe rs to the recor ding or drawin g of the scan lines by a camera o r monito r , whereas noni nterlaced refers t o the fac t that the video da ta itself isn ’ t separat ed into fields. For exa[...]

  • Page 77

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 72 Determine the original field order The field or der for an in terlaced video footage i tem determines the order in which the tw o video f ields (upper an d lower) a re displa yed. A system tha t draws the upper lines befo re the lower lines is called upper -field first ; on e t hat draws the l ower lines befor e the [...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 73 When yo u app ly 3:2 p ulldown to f oota ge, one fr ame o f the fil m (A) is sepa ra ted in to two o r th ree i nterlace d video fields (B) which a re gr ouped in to video fram es cont ain ing two fields ea ch. When im porting interlaced video that was o rig inally transferr ed f rom film, yo u can remov e the 3:2 pu[...]

  • Page 79

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 74 The root o f the P2 f older structure is a C ONTENTS folder . E ach essence i t e m( a ni t e mo fv i d e oo ra u d i o )i sc o n t a i n e d in a separate MXF wra pper file; the video MXF files ar e in the VIDEO su bfolder , and the a udio MXF files ar e in the A UDI O subfo lder . The rela tionships between es s en[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 75 Fo r additional info rmation o n t he P anasonic P2 forma t and workflow s with Adobe digital video software , s ee the Ad obe website: • P2 wor kf low guide fo r Adobe digital video pr oducts: w ww .adobe.com/g o/learn_dva_p2workflowguide • Dave H elmly’ s video in troduction to the P2 wo rkflow in After Effec[...]

  • Page 81

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 76 Missing media R e f e r e n c e dm e d i at h a ti sn o ta c c e s s i b l ed u r i n gt h ei m p o r to p e r a t i o na p p e a r sa sp l a c e h o l d e rf o o t a g e in After Effects. Empty sequences If a sequence co ntains no tracks, the co mposition cr eated when it is impo r ted is set at D V resol ution (720[...]

  • Page 82

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 77 • I fy o u ’ r ee d i t i n gal a y e rt h a tc o n t a i n sb o t ha u d i oa n dv i d e o ,c h o o s eF i l e>S a v eA s .A f t e ry o us a v et h ef i l e ,i m p o r t it in to After Effects, add it t o the com p osition, and m ute the o riginal audio in the audio-video clip b y deselecting the A udio switc[...]

  • Page 83

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 78 Importing 3D images from Photoshop Extended and Illustrator 3D models in Photoshop Ad obe Pho toshop Extended ca n im p ort and manip ulate 3D models in several popular fo rmats, including 3D S tudio (.3ds) and U niv ersal 3D (.u3d). Y ou can mani pulate these 3D models in Phot oshop Extended and then sav e one or mo[...]

  • Page 84

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 79 Baking and impor ting Maya da ta After Effects im ports camera data from M aya pro jec t files. Before im p orting Ma ya camera info rmation, you need to bake i t .T h i sm a k e sa n i m a t i n gw i t hk e y f r a m e se a s i e rl a t e ri ny o u rp r o j e c t .B a k i n gp l a c e sak e y f r a m ea te a c hf r [...]

  • Page 85

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 80 See also “W orkin g with 3D lay ers ” on page 171 “ Cameras, lights, and poin ts of in terest ” on page 176 Impor ting still images Preparing still-image files f or impor ting Y o u can import individual still imag es into After Effects or im port a series of still images as a sequence. Y ou can import still [...]

  • Page 86

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 81 • Set the pixel dimensio ns to the resol ution and frame as pe ct ratio that y ou will use in After Effects. If you pla n to s c a l et h ei m a g eo v e rt i m e ,s e ti m a g ed i m e n s i o n st h a tp r o v i d ee n o u g h d e t a i la tt h el a r g e s ts i z et h ei m a g eh a si nt h e pro ject. After Effe[...]

  • Page 87

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 82 A sequen ce of still-i mage files (left) bec omes one i mage sequ ence when im por ted in to A fter Effects (righ t). See also “W ork wi th outpu t module settings ” on page 599 “I mport footage i tems ” on page 50 Import a still-image sequence as a single footage item 1 Choose File > Import > File. 2 S[...]

  • Page 88

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 83 Import a still-image sequence as a composition When you impor t a Photoshop or Illus tr ator fil e as a composit ion, you have acce ss to the ind ividu al laye rs, blen ding modes, adjustme nt layer s, layer styles, masks, guides, and other feat ures creat ed in Photoshop o r Illustrato r . The imported co mposition [...]

  • Page 89

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 84 A very convenien t command wi thin Af ter Effects is Layer > N ew > Adobe Phot oshop File, which adds a lay er to a compo sit ion and then op ens th e sourc e of that layer in Photoshop for you to beg in cre ating a vis ua l eleme nt, such as a backgr ound la yer fo r yo ur movie. The layer in Photosho p is cre[...]

  • Page 90

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 85 Before y ou import a la yered Pho toshop file int o Afte r Effects, p repare i t thoroughly t o reduce p review a nd rendering time. A v oid pr oblems im p orting and u pdating Pho toshop lay ers by doin g the followin g: • Organize an d name layer s. If you ch ange a lay er name in a Photosho p fi le after yo u ha[...]

  • Page 91

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 86 Cineon files are co mmonly used to transfer motio n-picture film to a digital forma t. T o preser ve the full dynamic rang e of motion-p icture film, Cineon files are sto red using logarithmic 10-bpc colo r . H owever , Aft er Ef fects inter- nally uses 8-bpc, 16-bpc, or 32-bpc colo r , depending o n the color bit de[...]

  • Page 92

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 87 When yo u shoot JPEG files with your came ra, t he camera a uto matically pr ocesses t he JPEG to enhance an d com press the image . Y ou generally h ave li ttle con trol o ver ho w this processin g occurs. Shooting camera ra w image s with y our camera gives y ou grea ter con trol tha n shooting JP EG images, becau [...]

  • Page 93

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 88 Not e: In Photoshop , the Camera Ra w dialog box is a utomatically suppressed when you use a ba tch of files for a w eb photo gallery , p ictur e packa ge, or con tact sh eet. As new ver sions of Cam era R aw become a vailable, yo u can update this so ft ware b y installing a new versio n of the plug-in. Y ou can che[...]

  • Page 94

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 89 3. Adjust color . Color ad justments inc lude whi te balance, t one, and s atura tion. Y ou can m ake most a djustmen ts on the B asic tab, a nd then use contr ols on the o ther tabs t o fine-tune the resul ts. I f you wan t Camera Raw to an alyze y our image and a pply ap proxima te tonal adj ustments, click A ut o [...]

  • Page 95

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 90 After Effects applies the settin gs for the first camera ra w image in the sequence to all of the images in the sequence that do no t have their own XMP sidecar files. After Effects does not check the Camera Raw da tabase for image settings. Not e: Camer a ra w files ar e uncom pre ssed. Their la rge size ma y incr e[...]

  • Page 96

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 91 Not e: S o m ec o n t r o l s ,s u c ha st h eW o r k f l o wO p t i o n sl i n k ,t h a ta r ea v a i l a b l e w h e ny o uo p e nt h eC a m e r aR a wd i a l o gb o x from A dob e Bridge or Pho tosho p are n ot ava ilab le when you open t he Camer a Raw di alog box fr om Aft er Effects. Camera Ra w S ettings menu [...]

  • Page 97

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 92 Not e: T he Camera Ra w cache holds data for a bout 200 images for each gigabyte of disk storage allocated to it. B y default, the Ca mera Ra w cach e is set to a maxim um size o f 1 GB. Y ou ca n incr ease its li mit i n the Cam era Ra w prefer ences. 1 In A dobe Bridge, choose Edit > Camera Raw Pr eferences (W i[...]

  • Page 98

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 93 • T o process JPEG o r TIFF ima ges in Camera Raw , select o ne or mor e JP EG o r TIFF files in A dobe Bridge, and then choose File > Open In Camera Raw or pr ess Ctrl+R (W indows) or Command+R (M ac OS). When yo u f inish making adju stments in the Camera Raw dialog box, click Done to accep t change s and clos[...]

  • Page 99

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 94 Forma t options Digital N egative Sa ves a cop y of the camera ra w fi le in the DNG file fo rmat. • Compressed (lossless) U ses lossless com pressio n, meaning that no informa tion is lost while reducin g the file size. • Con vert T o Linear Image Sto res th e image data in an in terpolated (demosa iced) fo rmat[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 119 See also “W ork wi th scr ipt s” o n page 45 Synchr onize markers to audio After Effects pro vides a quick way to add a nd label markers fo r signif ican t p oin ts in a layer ’ s a udio track, such as a rhythmic beat in m usic or spoken wo rds in dialogue. After marker s are crea ted, you can use them to sync[...]

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    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 362 Ke ying effects galler y Matte eff ec ts galler y N oise & Grain eff ec ts galler y “Co lor Differ ence Key eff ect” on page 440 “Col or Key effect ” on page 442 “Col or Range eff ect” on pa ge 442 “Diff erence M atte eff ect” on p age 443 “Extra ct effect” o n page 445 “I nner/Ou ter Key e[...]

  • Page 368

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 363 Pain t effects galler y P erspec tive effects gallery “ A dd Gra in effect ” on page 459 “Dust & Scra tche s effect” o n page 460 “Fr actal N oise effect ” on page 461 “M at ch Gra in effect ” on page 464 “M edian effe ct” on pa ge 466 “N oise effect ” on page 466 “N oise Alp ha effect [...]

  • Page 369

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 364 Simulation effects gallery Stylize effects gallery “Bevel Ed ges effect” o n page 484 “Dro p Shadow eff ect” on pa ge 484 “Rad ial Shado w effect” on pa ge 485 “Ca rd Dance eff ect” on pa ge 487 “ Ca ustics effect ” on page 489 “F oam effect ” on page 491 “P article Pla ygroun d effect” o[...]

  • Page 370

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 365 T ext effects galler y “M oti on T ile effect ” on page 520 “ Post erize effect” on pa ge 521 “Rou ghen Edges effect ” on page 521 “Sca tter effect ” on page 522 “ Stro be Ligh t effect” o n page 523 “T extu rize effect” on pa ge 523 “Thre shold effect ” on page 524 No effect appl ied “[...]

  • Page 371

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 366 T ime effects galler y T r ansition effects galler y “Echo eff ect” on p age 531 “ Pos terize T ime effect ” on page 532 “T im e Differenc e effect” o n page 532 “T ime Displa cement effe ct” on pa ge 533 “T imewarp effect ” on page 535 No effect appl ied “Blo ck Dissolve eff ect” on pa ge 53[...]

  • Page 372

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 367 Utility effects galler y 3D Channel effects About 3D Channel effects The 3D Channel effects work o n 2D layers—specifically , 2D layers wi th 3D information in a uxiliary channels. The sources o f thes e 2D lay ers are 3D scenes that ha ve been rendered out o f a 3D app lication. U se 3D Channel effects to integra[...]

  • Page 373

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 368 3D Channel Extract effec t The 3D C hannel Extract effect makes a uxiliary channels visib le as ei ther grayscale or m ultic hannel color ima ges. Y ou can then use the resul ting layer as a con trol la yer for o ther ef fects. For exa mple, extract the depth info rmation in a 3D channel imag e fi le and then use it[...]

  • Page 374

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 369 Original (t op left), with effect a pplied (b ottom left), and wi th effect app lied an d In vert Alpha se lected (bott om right) Depth The z axis val ue at which t o slice the image. E verything with a depth value les s than this Depth value is ma tted o ut. T o determi ne the dept h of an ob ject, click i t in the[...]

  • Page 375

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 370 T o sho w the dept h of an ob ject in th e In fo pane l, clic k the ob ject in the Co mpos ition pa nel o r Layer pa nel usi ng the Select ion tool wh ile the eff ect is selecte d. Maximum Radius Ho w much bl ur is applied t o objects outside the focal plane . Focal Plane T hickness D etermines what dep t hs ar e in[...]

  • Page 376

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 371 See also “ A bout 3D lay ers ” on page 171 ID Matte eff ec t Man y 3D pr og rams tag each elemen t in a scene with a unique Object ID . The ID Ma tte effect uses t his informa tion to crea te a matte tha t excludes everything in the s cene except the elemen t you wan t. Original (top left), wi th ID Ma tte a ppl[...]

  • Page 377

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 372 See also “P review video and audio ” on page 120 Bass & T r eble effect The Bass & T reble effect b oosts (increases) or cuts (decreases) the low freq uencies (bass) or the high frequencies (trebl e) of the audio . Fo r greater co ntrol , use t he P arametric EQ effect. See also “P review video and aud[...]

  • Page 378

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 373 Stereo V oices Al ternates assignmen t of voices to o ne of the two cha nnels so t hat the first vo ice appears in the left cha nnel , the second in the right cha nnel , the th ird in the left, and so on. T o hea r st ereo voi ces, y ou m ust pr eview or render in ster eo. Dry O ut, W et O ut The am ounts of the o r[...]

  • Page 379

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 374 Amplitude Modulation The amo unt of a mplit ude modulation. See also “P review video and audio ” on page 120 Par ametric EQ effect The P arametric EQ effect emphasizes o r att enuates s pe cific frequency ra nges. P arametric EQ is useful f or enhancing music, s uch as bo osting low freq uencies to bring up bass[...]

  • Page 380

    AFTER EFFECTS CS3 User Guide 375 Stereo Mix er effect The Stereo Mixer effect mix es the left a nd right chan nels of a udio and pan s the entire signal from one channel to the othe r . Inv er t Phase In verts the phase of both channels o f the stereo signal. U se this con trol to pr event two soun ds at the same frequency from canceling each o the[...]