After Effects workshop 3

Its possible to import a photoshop file with multiple layers from photoshop into After effects. First you must change the selection options when importing. Instead of importing as footage, import as composition or import as composition-retain layer size.

If you select composition in the selection box, double click the file and it will appear with all the layers in the composition box. 

Go to composition settings  and make sure the image is the right size and that the duration is correct. 

When you import as a composition it crops the images to the size of the canvas, so you can add the original file though as a footage file to keep the original size if you anted a panning background for example. This will also be a good thing when it comes to adding audio.

If you select all and either select rotate or scale, the images group together and move as a group around the same anchor point. 

However if you choose composition- retain layer size when importing the same image they don't rotate around a common anchor point, but their own anchor point. This is a much better option if you know you will want to move layers around individually. 

KEEP ALL FILES TOGETHER IN A FILE.

If you lose a file while you're working, the animation and adjustments will all still be there so you'd just need to put the file back. To do this, right click on missing file in the project section, and go to replace footage- file. 

There are some really useful tools which we learnt about today. 

Shy Switch- allows to simplify a complex composition. Click the master icon to enable it, and any layers that are selected with this tool will disappear, which allows you to focus on the layers you're working on a bit more. 

Continuously rasterise- works with illustrator files only, and it retains the quality of a vector when enlarging etc.

\ - quality and Sampling-If you click it next to the layer it temporarily lowers the quality in order to speed everything up.

 Motion blur- simulates effects that look more effective. Must use masters switch to turn this one on too. This blurs the movement and scale. For it to work best the key frames must be closer together . If you add to layers it will increase RAM preview.

Efftects (fx) - this makes it possible to change the brightness and contrast of one layer, just like in photoshop. Select the layer you want to work with, and then go to the effects and presets bar on the right hand side, Find the effect you want and then drag it unto the frame. Adjust these on the left hand side . Can set the effects with key frames too, so if you wanted a single layer to get darker over time, you can do this using key frames in the effects drop down bar.

Creating Adjustment layer- (half black half white circle) Make a new solid shape and click 'make comp size' as shown below. Then click the half black half white circle and the shape becomes transparent. This way you can apply adjustments to all of the layers.

Like these two below.

Toggle switches/modes (bottom of the timeline bar)

mode- can change to multiply,screen etc just like on photoshop

Track matte- must have 2 layers, track matte menu-alpha matte- applies transparency to a selected layer so masked clouds with photoshop shape. Alpha refers to transparency.

With everything I learnt today I made this, there are only changes for the first few seconds, just to show what we've been doing.