Classroom in a Book Instructor Notes

Adobe After Effects 7.0

LESSON 1
Adobe After Effects 7.0 Instructor Notes
Lesson 1: Getting to Know the Workflow
Lesson 1 uses a sample project to provide an overview of the typical After Effects workflow, from creating a project to importing footage, creating a composition, applying effects, and outputting content. Along the way, students are introduced to the various elements of the After Effects workspace, which theyll need to understand as they proceed with the lessons in this book. Render Queue, Flowchart, Effect Controls, and Effects & Presets panels. Do any of the following:
To zoom into the center of the panel, or into the feature region when tracking, roll the mouse wheel forward. To zoom out of the center of the panel, or out of the feature region when tracking, roll the mouse wheel backward. To zoom into the area under the pointer, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you roll the mouse wheel forward. To zoom out of the area under the pointer, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as you roll the mouse wheel backward. To scroll vertically, roll the mouse wheel forward or backward. To scroll horizontally, hold down Shift as you roll the mouse wheel backward or forward. When you are in the Timeline panel, rolling backward moves you forward in time and vice versa.
Note: You can scroll in a panel even if it is not currently active as long as you move the pointer over it. For instance, you can scroll in the Composition panel even if the Effect Controls panel is currently active.
About the Adobe workspace
After Effects 7.0 offers a redesigned, unified user interface. Adobe video and audio applications provide a consistent, customizable workspace. Although each application has its own set of panels (such as Tools, Properties, Timeline, and so on), you move and group panels on your computer screen in the same way across products. The main window of a program is the application window. The various panels are organized in this window in an arrangement called a workspace. The default workspace contains groups of panels as well as panels that stand alone. You customize a workspace by arranging the panels, usually by dragging them, in the layout that best suits your style of working. You can create and save several custom workspaces for different tasksfor example, one for editing and one for previewing. You can drag panels to new locations, move panels into or out of a group, place panels alongside each other, and undock a panel so that it floats in a new window above the application window. As you rearrange panels, the other panels resize automatically to fit the window. You can use floating windows to create a workspace more like those in previous versions of Adobe applications, or to place panels on multiple monitors.
Using a scroll-wheel mouse
If your mouse has a wheel for scrolling, you can zoom in the Timeline, Project, Render Queue, Composition, Layer, Footage, Flowchart, Effect Controls, and Effects & Presets panels, and scroll in the Timeline, Project,

LESSON 2

Lesson 2: Creating a Basic Animation Using Effects and Presets
After Effects 7.0 lets you produce great-looking animations quickly using hundreds of fully customizable animation presets, including presets for animating text, effects, transitions, backgrounds, and behaviors. You can also use included project templates for DVD motion menus and motion graphics backgrounds. Lesson 2 explores how to create a composition using some of these new presets. At the end of the lesson, students export their animation in Flash format for use on the web. These notes provide additional background about animation presets and Flash export. For additional information, go to Adobe Studio on the Adobe website.

Saving animation presets

You can save settings of one or more effects as an animation preset. Saving an effect as an animation preset also saves any set keyframes, as well as expressions used in the effect. For example, if you created an explosion using several effects with complex parameter and animation settings within those effects, you can save all those settings as a single animation preset. You can then apply that animation preset to any other footage, or you can apply any single effect from that animation preset to any footage. The 20 most recently saved or applied animation presets appear under Recent Animation Presets in the Animation menu. Animation presets also appear in the Animation Presets menu in Effect Controls and in Effects & Presets. The Animation Presets menu in the Effect Controls panel lists only those animation presets that contain the current effect. For example, if the Mirror effect is selected, the menu will show only those presets that include the Mirror effect. If the Animation Presets category in Effects & Presets does not appear, choose the Show Animation Presets option from the Effects & Presets panel menu.

Note: When you apply an effect from the Animation Presets pop-up menu, only the current effect from the animation preset is applied.

About animation presets

Animation presets let you save and reuse specific configurations of properties and animations, including keyframes, effects, and expressions. After Effects includes hundreds of animation presets that you can drop into your projects and then modify to suit your needs. You can apply an entire animation preset to a layer, or you can apply a single effect or property from an animation preset. If a property or effect exists in the animation preset but not in the target layer, the property or effect is added to the target layer. See Gallery of animation presets for animated illustrations of animation presets included with After Effects. Many animation presets dont contain animation; rather, they contain combinations of effects, transform properties, and so on. You can save one or more properties with all of the desired settings to an animation preset without including keyframes. A particularly convenient category of animation presets is behaviors, which you can use to quickly and easily animate without keyframes. Animation presets can be saved as FFX files and transferred from one computer to another. By default, animation presets are stored in the Presets directory.
Exporting Flash animations
Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV) formats offer popular standards for producing interactive web contentand now you can output both formats directly from After Effects 7.0. The following tutorial explores the two formats to help students understand which to use for a given circumstance. It then details how to export these file types
from After Effects. You can use it to enhance the Lesson 2 Flash animation export exercise.
Note: Though you can generate SWF and FLV files from After Effects, incorporating these files into web content and adding interactivity is typically done through a Flash authoring application.
3. Press the Home key to ensure that the current-time indicator is at the start of the composition, and then drag MC_logo.ai from the Project panel to the Timeline panel. 4. Because the logo is too large for the banner, youll scale it to fit. With MC_logo.ai selected in the Timeline panel, press S to reveal its Scale property. Enter a scale value of 25%. 5. Now change the color of the logo so youll be better able to view the alpha channel later on. Choose Effect > Color Correction > Change To Color. In the Effect Controls panel, click the color swatch for To and then enter values of R=239, G=9, B=9 to create a bright red. Click OK, and then select Hue, Lightness & Saturation from the Change menu. 6. Select the Linked_Logo comp in the Project panel and choose Composition > Background Color. Click the color swatch and then enter values of R=0, G=88, B=238 to create a bright blue. Click OK twice to apply the new color.

Note: With the marker in place, the link is invoked automatically at the four-second mark. If you prefer that the user initiate the link, you could simply add a link to the SWF file after placing it on a web page (as opposed to embedding the link within the SWF file as you just did.)

Create a comp

Youll start by creating a comp, which youll then turn into a common example of SWF content: a logo animation that links to a companys home page, used as a web advertisement.
1. Create a new After Effects project by choosing File > New > New Project, and then import MC_logo.ai from the folder you copied to your desktop. 2. Choose Composition > New Composition. Name the composition Linked_Logo, and from the Preset menu, choose Web Banner 468 x 60. Enter a duration of 500 (to make the composition 5 seconds), and then click OK.

Export the comp to SWF

Now that the animation is complete, you can export the comp to SWF. After Effects creates the SWF file, and then places it in an HTML file for convenient viewing.
1. Choose File > Export > Macromedia Flash (SWF). Choose a location for the file, name it Logo_Ad.swf, and then click Save.
Note: Be sure to include the.swf extension so that the HTML file After Effect generates can locate the SWF file.
3. In the Flash Video Encoding Settings dialog box, choose Flash 8 - Medium Quality (400 kbps) from the Please Select A Flash Video Encoding Profile menu. Then click Show Advanced Settings. 4. In the Encode Video section, select Encode Alpha Channel. Then deselect Encode Audio, since the animation doesnt include any audio. You can leave the other settings at their defaults. Click OK.
Note: Two codecs are available for FLV export. You must use the On2 VP6 codec to include an alpha channel.
2. In the SWF Settings dialog box, choose Rasterize from the Unsupported Features menu, and then select Include Layer Marker Web Links.
Note: The SWF format doesnt support several effects; choose to rasterize the unsupported features to make sure that all effects are included in the SWF file. See After Effects Help for more information on SWF settings.
5. Specify a location for the FLV file, name it Logo_ad, and then click Save. After Effects exports the FLV file. 6. To view the FLV file, do either of the following: Add the file to a web page, and then open the web page in a browser with Flash Player installed. Open the file in a third-party standalone player. A quick search on the Internet should locate several standalone players available for download.

To blend overlapping characters in a text layer
1. In the Timeline panel, expand the text layer and the More Options group. 2. Choose a blending mode from the Inter-Character Blending menu.
Note: To blend a text layer with the layers beneath it, specify a blending mode from the Modes column in the Timeline panel.

About fonts

A font is a complete set of charactersletters, numbers, and symbolsthat share a common weight, width, and style. In addition to the fonts installed on your system, After Effects uses font files in this local folder: Windows Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts Mac OS X Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts If you install a Type 1, TrueType, OpenType, or CID font into the local Fonts folder, the font appears in Adobe applications only.
To change the direction of text
The Vertical Type and Horizontal Type tools let you enter text that flows horizontally or vertically. Horizontal text flows from left to right; multiple lines of horizontal text lie from top to bottom. Vertical text flows from top to bottom; multiple lines of text lie from right to left. When you convert the vertical or horizontal orientation of a text layer, the results from paragraph text (justifiable text that wraps within a bounding box) are very different from the results of point text (independent lines of text) because paragraph text flows relative to its bounding box while point text lies relative to the Composition panel. For example, when you convert paragraph text from horizontal to vertical or vice versa, the texts bounding box doesnt change its orientation, but the flow of text inside the box does.

To use smart quotes

Smart quotes, or printers quotation marks, use a curved left or right quotation mark instead of straight quotation marks. To apply smart quotes, choose Use Smart Quotes from the Character panel menu.
To edit text in text layers
You can edit text in text layers at any time. If you set the text to follow a path, designate it as a 3D layer, transform it, or animate it, you can still continue to edit it.

About the Expression selector
The Expression selector lets you dynamically specify how much you want characters to be affected by an animator property through the use of expressions. You can add one or more Expression selectors to an animator group, and that animator group can contain one or more properties.

LESSON 4

Lesson 4: Animating a Multimedia Presentation
Lesson 4 builds a complex animation involving multiple layers, several types of keyframes, audio, and more. It starts from a layered, imported Photoshop file. These notes provide additional background and teaching material on how After Effects works with Photoshop and Illustrator files. shop or Illustrator file becoming a separate layer in the composition and changing dimensions to match the composition size. This option, Composition, is helpful when you need to align layers manually. As a single still-footage item imported from any one layer in the Photoshop or Illustrator file. As a single still-footage item merged as you import multiple Photoshop or Illustrator layers.

Layered files

You can import Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, EPS, and many PDF files directly into an After Effects project. After Effects imports attributes that were applied in Photoshop, including position, blending modes, opacity, visibility, transparency (alpha channel), layer masks, layer groups (imported as nested compositions), adjustment layers, common layer styles (Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Bevel and Emboss, and Color Fill), layer clipping paths, vector masks, image guides, and clipping groups. You can also create a new Photoshop file and add it as the top layer in a composition from within After Effects, or use After Effects to create a new Photoshop file without adding it to a specific composition. When you import an Illustrator file, After Effects makes all empty areas transparent by converting them into an alpha channel. After Effects can import Illustrator CMYK files. However, to maintain accurate color, convert your CMYK images to RGB images in Illustrator. You can import a multilayered Photoshop or Illustrator file in the following ways: As a new composition, with each layer in the Photoshop or Illustrator file becoming a separate layer in the composition that keeps its original dimensions. This option, Composition - Cropped, makes it easier to manipulate layers and speeds their rendering time. As a new composition, with each layer in the Photo-

To continuously rasterize an Illustrator file
When you import a vector file, After Effects automatically rasterizes it. However, if you want to scale a vector file above 100%, you need to continuously rasterize it to maintain image quality. You can continuously rasterize an Illustrator file (or any other vector file) at any time while designing your project. Continuously rasterizing causes After Effects to rasterize the file as needed based on the transformation for each frame. A continuously rasterized file generally produces higher quality results, but it may preview and render slower than a rasterized image. When you apply an effect to a continuously rasterized layer, the results may be different than when you apply the effect to a nonrasterized layer. This is because the default rendering order for the layer changes. The default rendering order for a nonrasterized layer is masks, effects, and then geometrics (transformations), whereas the default rendering order for a continuously rasterized layer is masks, geometrics (transformations), and then effects. You can change the default rendering order. For example, if an Illustrator file pictures a dog and if you want to animate the scale of the dog and apply the Bulge effect to the dogs nose, turn off continuous rasterization so that the bulge stays on the dogs nose as the picture scales larger and smaller. Make sure to check the results of the effect before continuing to

LESSON 4 10

work on your project. Whether or not you continuously rasterize, if you view and render a composition using Best Quality, After Effects anti-aliases (smooths) the art. For general information about rasterizing, see Illustrator Help.
Note: You cannot paint interactively on a continuously rasterized layer. However, you can apply a paint effect by copying and pasting or using the Favorites menu.
Draw closed paths for masksWhen you draw masks in Illustrator CS2 for pasting in After Effects, always draw closed paths. You cant use open Illustrator CS2 paths as masks. Control layer dimensionsIf you import an Illustrator document into After Effects and the Illustrator document dimensions arent what you expect, specify the layer dimensions in the Illustrator CS2 document. By default, an Illustrator CS2 document imports using the largest area covered by all objects, not the artboard size. To override the default behavior, specify a document size by drawing a rectangle in Illustrator CS2, and with the rectangle selected, choose Object > Crop Area > Make. This command sets the outer bounds of the document to the size of the rectangle. Areas outside the artboard are still clipped even if you extended the rectangle past the artboard.

LESSON 5 11

Lesson 5: Animating Layers
Lesson 5 introduces students to the Layer panel, which they use to remap time, and to the Graph Editor, where they edit Time Remap keyframes.
To select Graph Options in the Graph Editor
Click the Graph Options button at the bottom of the Graph Editor, and select from the following options: Auto-Select Graph Type Automatically selects the appropriate graph type for a property: speed graphs for spatial properties (such as position), and value graphs for other properties. Edit Value Graph Displays the value graph for all properties. Edit Speed Graph Displays the speed graph for all properties. Show Reference Graph Displays the unselected graph type in the background for viewing only. (The gray numbers to the right of the Graph Editor indicate the values for the reference graph.) Show Audio Waveforms Displays the audio waveform for any layer that has at least one property in the Graph Editor. Show Layer In/Out Points Displays In and Out points of all layers that have a property in the Graph Editor. Show Layer Markers Displays layer-time markers in the Graph Editor, if they exist. Show Graph Tool Tips Toggles the graph tool tips on and off. Show Expression Editor Shows or hides the expression editor field. Allow Keyframes Between Frames Allows placement of keyframes between frames for fine-tuning animation.

About the Graph Editor

To view and manipulate all aspects of effects and animations, including effect property values, keyframes, and interpolation, use the Graph Editor. The Graph Editor represents changes in effects and animations as a two-dimensional graph, with playback time represented horizontally (from left to right). In layer bar mode, on the other hand, the time graph represents only the horizontal time element, without showing a visual representation of changing values. There are two types of graphs available in the Graph Editor: value graphs, which show property values; and speed graphs, which show rates of change of property values.
Working with the Graph Editor
In the Graph Editor, each property is represented by its own graph. You can view and work on one property at a time, or you can view multiple properties simultaneously. When more than one property is visible in the Graph Editor, each propertys graph has the same color as the propertys value in the layer outline.
To select which properties are shown in the Graph Editor
Click the Show Properties button at the bottom of the Graph Editor, and select from the following options: Show Selected Properties Displays selected properties in the Graph Editor. Show Animated Properties Displays animated properties of selected layers in the Graph Editor. Show Graph Editor Set Displays properties that have the Graph Editor toggle selected.

Using the Snap button

When you drag a keyframe in the Graph editor with the Snap button toggled, the keyframe snaps to the following items: Keyframes (both vertically and horizontally) Current-time indicator In/Out points

LESSON 5 12

Markers Work area start/end Composition start/end When the keyframe snaps to one of these items, an orange line appears in the Graph Editor to indicate the object youre snapping to. Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) to temporarily toggle the Snap button.
Note: Shift-dragging the current-time indicator also snaps to the items in the list above.
Auto Zoom Height toggles Auto Zoom Height mode, which automatically scales the height of the graph so that it fits the height of the Graph Editor. The horizontal zoom must still be adjusted manually. Fit Selection adjusts the value (vertical) and time (horizontal) scale of the graph to fit the selected keyframes in the Graph Editor. Fit All adjusts the value (vertical) and time (horizontal) scale of the graph to fit all of the graphs in the Graph Editor.
To pan and zoom in the Graph Editor
To pan vertically or horizontally, drag with the Hand tool. To invoke the Hand tool momentarily, press and hold the spacebar. To pan vertically, spin the mouse scroll wheel. To pan horizontally, press the Shift key as you spin the mouse scroll wheel. To zoom in, click with the Zoom tool. To zoom out, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) with the Zoom tool. To zoom using the mouse scroll wheel, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) while scrolling to zoom horizontally; press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to zoom vertically. To zoom horizontally, Alt-drag (Windows) or Optiondrag (Mac OS) with the Zoom or Hand tool to the left to zoom out or to the right to zoom in. To zoom vertically, Alt-drag (Windows) or Optiondrag (Mac OS) with the Zoom or Hand tool up to zoom in or down to zoom out.
Note: You cannot pan or zoom vertically when Auto Zoom Height is selected.

Auto Zoom Height and Fit

The Auto Zoom Height, Fit Selection, and Fit All buttons help you adjust the Graph Editors view to focus on relevant portions of your animations.

LESSON 6 13

Lesson 6: Working with Masks
Lesson 6 introduces students to the concept of masks and teaches them to create masks in After Effects using the Pen tool. Students can also use Illustrator to help them create and use masks in After Effects. you want in Illustrator CS2 and copy and paste it into After Effects. To create an arc in Illustrator CS2 and use the arc as a motion path in After Effects:

and produce more consistent output. Make sure your monitor is displaying millions of colors or 24-bits-per-pixel or higher. Remove colorful background patterns on your monitor desktop and set your desktop to display neutral grays. Busy patterns or bright colors surrounding a document interfere with accurate color perception. Do one of the following to calibrate and profile your monitor: In Windows, use the Adobe Gamma utility, located in the Control Panel.
Note: Dont use Adobe Gamma to calibrate an LCD (flat panel) monitorit doesnt produce reliable results. Instead, use a hardware calibrator.
In Mac OS, use the Calibrate utility, located in the System Preferences/Displays/Color tab. For best results, use third-party software and measuring devices. In general, using a measuring device such as a colorimeter along with software can create more accurate profiles because an instrument can measure the colors displayed on a monitor far more accurately than the human eye can.
Note: Monitor performance changes and declines over time; recalibrate and profile your monitor every month or so. If you find it difficult or impossible to calibrate your monitor to a standard, it may be too old and faded.
To calibrate and profile your monitor
When you calibrate your monitor, youre adjusting it so that it conforms to a known specification. After your monitor is calibrated, the profiling utility lets you save a color profile. The profile describes the color behavior of the monitorwhat colors can be reproduced on the monitor and how the color values in an image must be converted so that colors are displayed accurately. Before you calibrate and profile your monitor, make sure that your work environment provides a consistent light level and color temperature. For example, the color characteristics of sunlight change throughout the day and alter the way colors appear on your screen, so keep shades closed or work in a windowless room. Make sure your monitor has been turned on for at least half an hour. This gives it sufficient time to warm up
Most profiling software automatically assigns the new profile as the default monitor profile. For instructions on how to manually assign the monitor profile, refer to the Help system for your operating system.

To import RLA or RPF data into a camera layer (Pro only)
After Effects imports camera data saved with RLA or RPF sequence files. That data is incorporated into a camera layer that After Effects creates in the Timeline panel. You can access the camera data of an imported RLA or RPF sequence and create a camera layer containing that data.
1. Place the imported sequence in the Timeline panel, and then select the sequence. 2. Choose Animation > Keyframe Assistant > RPF Camera Import.
Note: To create an RLA or RPF file with the camera data in 3D Studio Max, save your rendering in RPF format with Coverage, Z Depth, and Alpha Channels enabled.

About z scale

Usually, scaling a layers z axis has no effect on the layer because the layer itself has no depth. To add depth, you can change the position of the layers anchor point or establish a parenting relationship with other layers. Once you add depth, scaling the layers z scale value appears to change the layers position.
How After Effects works with 3D image files
After Effects can import 3D image files saved in Softimage PIC, RLA, RPF, and Electric Image EI format. These 3D image files contain red, green, blue, and alpha (RGBA) channels, as well as auxiliary channels with optional information, such as z depth, object IDs, texture coordinates, and more. With RLA and RPF files, all of the auxiliary channels are included in a single file. Softimage PIC files have a corresponding ZPIC file that contains the z-depth channel information. Although you cant import a ZPIC file, you can access the additional channel information as long as the ZPIC file is stored in the same

LESSON 10 20

Lesson 10: Using 3D Effects
Lesson 10 is the second of a two-part project on using 3D animation in After Effects. It covers 3D effects and using lights and cameras. ing effects. (The depth of field is the distance range within which the image is in focus. Images outside the distance range are blurred.) Focus DistanceSpecifies the distance from the cameras position to the plane that is in perfect focus. Lock To ZoomMakes the Focus Distance value match the Zoom value.

Note: If you change the settings of the Zoom or Focus Distance options in the Timeline panel, the Focus Distance value becomes unlocked from the Zoom value. If you need to change the values and want the values to remain locked, then use the Camera Settings dialog box instead of the Timeline panel. Alternatively, you can add an expression to the Focus Distance property in the Timeline panel: Select the Focus Distance property, and choose Animation > Add Expression; then drag the expression pick whip to the Zoom property.

Camera settings

You can set up cameras in After Effects to simulate the capabilities of real-world cameras. Use camera settings to configure the camera view to match the settings you use to record video footage or to look at the footage from a new perspective. You can change camera settings at any time by selecting the camera layer and choosing Layer > Camera Settings. NameSpecifies the name of the camera. By default, After Effects assigns the name Camera 1 to the first camera you create in a composition, and all subsequent cameras are numbered in ascending order. If you delete a camera, and are still using the After Effects default naming convention, After Effects names the next camera you create with the lowest available number. You should choose distinctive names for multiple cameras to make it easier to distinguish them. PresetSpecifies the type of camera settings you want to use. Cameras come with several presets. The presets are named according to focal lengths. Each preset is meant to represent the behavior of a 35mm camera with a lens of a certain focal length. Therefore, the preset also sets the Angle Of View, Zoom, Focus Distance, Focal Length, and Aperture values. The default preset is 50mm. You can also create a custom camera by specifying new values for any of the settings. ZoomSpecifies the distance from the position of the camera to the image plane. Angle Of ViewSpecifies the width of the scene captured in the image. The Focal Length, Film Size, and Zoom values determine the angle of view. A wider angle of view creates the same effect as a wide-angle lens. Enable Depth Of FieldApplies custom variables to the Focus Distance, Aperture, F-Stop, and Blur Level settings. Using these variables, you can manipulate the depth of field to create more realistic camera-focus-

LESSON 11 22

Lesson 11: Advanced Editing Techniques
Lesson 11 looks at some of the advanced editing techniques available in the Professional version of After Effects 7.0. However, it only touches on one new and important feature: support for HDR color. Here is some additional information about HDR, as well as a tutorial, to supplement the lesson. much more like natural light, even through several color corrections.
Adjust the exposure of an HDR image
1. Open the After Effects project HDR_1.aep. Select the PSD file. Its thumbnail, labeled Floating Point, appears at the top of the Project panel. The bottom of the Project panel indicates that the file is in 32 bpc mode. 2. From the Workspace menu, choose Standard to ensure that the Info panel is clearly visible. Select Auto Color Display from the Info panel menu. 3. Move the pointer around the image in the Composition panel, noting the R, G, and B values in the Info panel. Most of the images pixel values are in the normal Decimal range of 0.0 to 1.0. (In 8-bit terms, this range is 0 to 255.) Now move the pointer over the brightest areas of the image, and note that the values are greater than 1.0. These areas contain whiter-than-white values. 4. Select the HDR.psd layer in the Timeline panel, and choose Effect > Color Correction > Levels. Move the pointer over the brightest areas again, and note that the values are 1.00. In the Effect Controls panel, deselect Clip To Output White. Note that the values are again greater than 1.0. Set Output White to 0.5. The result is similar to stopping down a cameras lens aperture, reducing the amount of light entering the camera. 5. Select Clip To Output White, and notice that the bright values turn gray. If the brightest possible white is limited to 1.0 (with clipping on), setting Output White to 0.5 turns it medium gray. But if the brightest possible white is limited to 2.0 (with clipping off), setting Output White to 0.5 turns it back to full white, or 1.0 (with clipping on). Darker values in the visible range also change proportionally. 6. Apply a second Levels effect just as you did in step 3. This time, set Output White to 2.0. Look familiar? Essentially, you restored the levels to their original values with the second occurrence of the effect. Toggle the effects off for this layer by clicking the Effect switch in the Timeline panel. Note that no loss of image quality occurs, even though you made two drastic Levels adjustments. The image quality is retained because the HDR pipeline provides space to store and retrieve the value changes.
Working with natural light in HDR

HD can be slow!

The additional throughout and processing power required for HD production often exceeds the capabilities of even the fastest computers. A computer that handles SD video simply cannot be expected to provide the same performance with HD, without a little help. The good news is that modern tools give you a number of techniques to get around these limitations.
Specifying rendering quality and compression
After Effects has several rendering modes. For final output, you should always use the highest quality mode, especially when your final product is to be compressed. High-quality mode can increase compression efficiency, resulting in fewer image artifacts.
Rendering in After Effects Choosing an HD monitor
HD video monitors can be quite expensive, especially models with an HD-SDI input. However, a true professional-grade HD video monitor is essential for any producer working with HD destined for broadcast. For some tasks, a computer monitor is a less expensive way to view the actual HD output, especially for projects that use progressive scanning. However, computer monitors use a different color temperature from true video monitors, so its beneficial to use a video monitor to ensure that you see the true representation of the video as it will be delivered. A number of vendors offer HD-SDI to Digital Video Interface (DVI) converters to drive computer monitors. High-quality 1920 x 1200 LCD monitors are now available for around US$2000, so this converter is cost effective. Because computer monitors are natively progressive, these converters are not a good solution for natively interlaced projects in Adobe Premiere Pro. (Conversion isnt an issue with After Effects because the preview is progressive.) Another advantage of using broadcast monitors is calibration. These monitors provide features that easily set them to the canonical 709 color space of HD. While this setting is possible with a computer monitor as well, correctly setting the calibration can be difficult or inaccurate. Even systems with a colorimeter for automatic color configuration dont always include 709 presets. 16-bit per channel (bpc) rendering was introduced in the After Effects Production Bundle and is now available in both After Effects Standard and After Effects Professional. The 16-bpc rendering process doubles the number of bits available for each channel, which greatly increases the precision of the video rendering. That extra precision is quite useful, especially in reducing the appearance of banding in an image with subtle gradients. This precision has a cost. 16-bpc rendering takes twice the time and requires twice as much RAM as 8-bpc rendering. 16-bit per channel rendering is adequate for most video, and After Effects also features 32-bit rendering for high dynamic range (HDR) footage. Floatingpoint numeric values allow the same number of bits to describe a much wider range of values than fixed-point values; 32-bits per channel allow for much greater precision than do 8- or 16-bits per channel. This flexibility enables you to work with images that have a very wide range of brightness levels, more like the range of levels found in the real world. Rendering in 16 or 32 bpc isnt necessary when encoding to an 8-bpc delivery format like Windows Media or MPEG-2. It does, however, provide a very welcome quality boost when going back out to 10-bpc formats like D5.

Whats New

ADOBE After Effects CS4
Create motion graphics and visual effects with the industry standard
Adobe After Effects is the industry standard for visual effects and motion graphics software. Imagery created in After Effects is everywhere, from motion picture screens to cell phone and PDA displays, from television to websites. After Effects CS4 is packed with new features that can boost your productivity and your creative options. And, youll find integration integration with the other components in Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium is now better than ever.
After Effects CS4 software is loaded with new features and other changes that will make every working session more productive. Quickly find, visualize, and navigate to the parts of a project you want to refine. Expand your 3D compositing options by importing 3D layers created in Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, and composite in 3D with more precision thanks to separate X-, Y-, and Z-position keyframes. Create the look of cel animation from live footage with the new Cartoon effect. Track even the most challenging shots with 2.5D planar motion tracking in Imagineer Systems Mocha for Adobe After Effects, which is now included. Export After Effects compositions as editable layered projects to open inside Adobe Flash CS4 Professional software. With After Effects CS4, its easier than ever to transform creative ideas into reality.
Adobe After Effects is also available as a component of:
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection
Among the many new features in After Effects CS4 are a Composition Navigator and MiniFlowchart (A) to better visualize the structure of complex projects, a new Unified Camera tool (B), and QuickSearch fields (C)all ways to help streamline important everyday tasks.
Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 1
Adobe After Effects CS4 empowers artists by providing: Creative power. Standing out in todays supersaturated media culture requires the visual richness that only Adobe After Effects CS4 can deliver. After Effects provides creative control over virtually every aspect of every element in a highly responsive 2D and 3D compositing and animation environment, allowing you to create whatever you envision. For your most sophisticated projects, After Effects CS4 is the go-to tool. Flexible tools. When youre up against a deadline and need to tackle challengessuch as boom and mic removal, eliminating unwanted camera motion, or giving footage shot under different lighting conditions a consistent appearanceAdobe After Effects CS4 can deliver high-quality results that make you look like a hero. Create compelling visual effects and solve a wide range of problems in post-production, from keying and motion tracking to color correction, rotoscoping, and more. The ability to deliver anywhere. With Adobe After Effects CS4, you can efficiently create output for the widest range of media formats and delivery platforms from a single project, from traditional film and video to video for the web and mobile devices.

Top new features

Searchable timelines and projects, plus easier composition navigation (Page 2) Photoshop 3D layers import (Page 3) Cartoon effect (Page 4) Independent keyframing of X, Y, and Z position, plus other 3D compositing enhancements (Page 5) Rich media composition export from After Effects to Adobe Flash Professional (Page 6) Enhanced Dynamic Link (Production Premium only) (Page 6) Imagineer Systems Mocha for Adobe After Effects for 2.5D planar motion tracking (Page 7) Integrated workflow for mobile-device authoring (Page 7) Project intelligence through XMP metadata (Page 8) Numerous interface and workflow improvements (Page 9)
Top new features of Adobe After Effects CS4
After Effects CS4 introduces numerous new features that enhance an artists productivity as well as open up fresh creative possibilities.
Searchable timelines and projects plus easier nested composition navigation
As projects become deeper and more complex, it can be challenging to find a specific layer or other assetespecially on deadline or when youre working in an unfamiliar project. After Effects CS4 eliminates this frustration by including live search functions directly inside the Timeline and Project panels. You can quickly find project elements, keyframeable properties, effects, and more. This ability to directly target properties saves considerable time scrolling through lists and twirling open layers to manually reveal their contents.
Timeline and Project panels can be searched by item names or individual attributes such as position, greatly easing navigation of complex projects.
You can search projects for specific footage items or footage properties, such as scanning by file type to find all the SWF files that have been imported, or flagging whether or not an updated logo is currently being used in a composition. You can also search timelines by layer names, properties, comments or expressions, effect names or parameters, and more. Search results appear as soon as you start typing, and can be limited to selected layers or may encompass your entire timeline or project.

Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 2
Many artists use nested compositions inside After Effects as a way to break complex projects into smaller, more manageable elements. This allows both the creation of elaborate animation chains and also the ability to make quick updates to a project where a change in one composition may be immediately rippled out through other comps.
The Composition navigator along the top of the Composition panel (upper left) gives you a quick overview of the project flow. Clicking the arrow to the right of a compositions name opens the Mini-Flowchart (upper right), which reveals how nested compositions are shared across a project. In the image on the right, weve opened the Options for the Mini-Flowchart; you can alter how it is sorted and which direction it flows.
To make these composition hierarchies easier to navigate, After Effects CS4 features a Composition navigator along the top of each Composition panel, which displays the names of the incoming (nested) compositions as well as the outgoing (parent) compositions for the currently active composition. These compositions can be opened to access the MiniFlowchart, which reveals the nesting organization of related compositions. This allows you to more easily visualize and navigate the structure of complex projects: You merely have to click on a compositions name in the Mini-Flowchart to instantly switch to it. These features make it easier for you to familiarize yourself with and to navigate throughprojects created by other After Effects artists, or to recall the structure of an older project which now needs updating.
Photoshop 3D layers import
A powerful new technology in Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended allows you to place 3D objects on layers, paint them using the industry-standard tools in Photoshop, and render them along with the rest of your imagery. With After Effects CS4, you can import and animate Photoshop 3D layers in your composition, where they can be viewed as 3D objects using cameras in After Effects. You can also apply effects to change the layers appearance over time, composite 3D layers with other objects (including animated text and shape layers, live-action video, and sound), and render the result as you would any other project element. This feature creates a flexible new 3D workflow in which artists, instead of rendering a 3D scene from within a dedicated 3D application and treating it as finished footage inside After Effects, can import and paint objects in Photoshop, import the PSD file with the 3D layer into After Effects, and further process and animate the objects without having to go back to a 3D application and re-render the result. Combined with the Vanishing Point feature introduced in Creative Suite 3, artists have a growing list of options for how they can create 3D worlds without the need to purchase and learn dedicated 3D software.

Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 3

Cartoon effect

The new Cartoon effect allows you to create new looks for your video or other animated imagery, instantly applying the appearance of cel animation or watercolor paintings to live action or to computer-generated 3D imagery. Its a creative tool that allows you to quickly stylize footage, using a deep set of controls to create your own fresh looks. This makes it equally useful for motion graphics and for interactive designers interested in crafting new visual styles as well as videographers and editors who want to create unique visuals without the painstaking process of hand-drawing every frame. You can even use the Cartoon effect to rescue low-resolution or poor-quality footage by smoothing and abstracting it. This effectfound in the Effects > Stylize categoryprovides three essential enhancements. First, it performs a smoothing operation to remove distracting image details. Second, it finds the edges between the remaining details in order to highlight them and provide a border to help separate the areas of color. Third, it fills in the colors and gradients between the edges. You have full control over each of these enhancements through a set of separate Fill and Edge parameters as well as Advanced parameters. The Cartoon effect is also graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerated, so you can quickly experiment with refinements or try out whole new looks.
The new Cartoon effect (left) can convert live-action footage (below left) into stylized imagery (below right).
Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 4
Independent keyframing of X, Y, and Z position plus other 3D compositing enhancements
In addition to the Photoshop 3D layers import feature mentioned earlier, After Effects CS4 contains two other major enhancements that make working in 3D more fluid. X-, Y-, and Z-position properties can be keyframed separately, greatly easing the crafting of complex animation moves, such as having a camera smoothly change elevations and then hold while maintaining a constant forward or sideways velocity, or creating bounce-style actions. These separate properties may be collapsed back into a unified set of keyframes that control all properties at once.

Separate X-, Y-, and Z-position graphs in After Effects CS4 offer animators new levels of motion control, such as creating this bounce-style animation movement.
A new Unified Camera tool takes advantage of a three-button mouse, allowing you to quickly switch between Track XY, Track Z, and Orbit movements. This allows you to work more intuitively while setting up camera positions. It also makes the experience of using cameras in After Effects more similar to that in 3D modeling applications.
Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 5
Rich media composition export from After Effects to Adobe Flash CS4 Professional

FLV import

With After Effects CS4, you can import FLV files to use alongside other video content.
Compelling motion design is essential in both the broadcast and online worlds. As the languages and experiences of interactive design and traditional motion graphics continue to converge, it is only natural that you will want to expand your personal toolset. While previously you could export text animations and other elements from After Effects to SWF format and render movies to FLV format, now you can also export After Effects compositions as layered projects that can be imported into Flash CS4 Professional. FLV, PNG, and JPG source footage files are passed directly to the Flash Professional project without transcoding. Animated transformations, such as scale and rotation, are preserved, and can be edited in Flash Professional. Other footage types and layers with effects are automatically converted to Flash compatible graphics.
After Effects compositions can be exported as layered Flash Professional projects.
Enhanced Dynamic Link in Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium
Step up to Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium and enjoy the full benefits of cross-component integration with Adobe Dynamic Link. Dynamic Link is the ability for select Adobe Production Premium components to render the results of another Production Premium component on the fly. Changes inside the project of one component are immediately reflected inside the other. This streamlines the entire creative process by eliminating intermediate rendering between applications, enabling you to work faster and stay in your creative flow. Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium features enhanced Dynamic Link functionality between After Effects CS4 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, between between After Effects and Adobe Soundbooth CS4, and between After Effects and Adobe Encore CS4 software. For example, you can now dynamically link Adobe Premiere Pro sequences to an After Effects composition or Encore project. This allows you to use Adobe Premiere Pro sequences inside After Effects or Encore without rendering an intermediate file. Updates are visible in After Effects or Encore the instant they are made. Dynamic Link also enables you to use an After Effects comp inside a project in Encore.

Save time on every project by dynamically linking content between components of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium. With Adobe Dynamic Link, you can see and hear updates instantlywithout renderingas you refine your projects media components.
Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 6
Imagineer Systems Mocha for Adobe After Effects for 2.5D planar motion tracking
After Effects CS4 includes Imagineer Systems Mocha for Adobe After Effects, a standalone application with advanced 2.5D planar motion tracking. Mocha for Adobe After Effects provides advanced motion tracking and makes it easier to tackle difficult motion-tracking challenges, such as tracking footage with objects moving out of the frame, lack of detail in the underlying footage, motion blur, and heavy grain or noise. Now you can avoid the guesswork and inaccuracies that result from hand-tracking challenging shots. Mocha also speeds up the process of generating solid four-point tracks, yielding position, scale, rotation, and shear information, resulting in perspective-matched tracks.
Mocha for Adobe After Effects provides advanced motion tracking capabilities, such as being able to track the outer frame of this window while excluding the shadows and reflections on the glass (as shown here).
Mocha for Adobe After Effects is resolution independent and can import Cineon, DPX, TGA, TIF, JPEG, PNG, SGI, and QuickTime files with up to 16 bits per color channel. It then exports 2D tracking data that can be loaded into After Effects. This valuable software is included with After Effects CS4 (along with powerful favorites Color Finesse from Synthetic Aperture and Keylight from The Foundry).
Integrated workflow for mobile-device authoring
Authoring content for mobile devices is a growing field of work for editors, producers, and motion graphics artists. But this new field presents new challenges: Screen dimensions and video frame rates vary greatly from one mobile device to another. Adobe Device Central CS4 softwareincluded with After Effects CS4contains an extensive library of device profiles that provide information about these mobile devices. Device Central can then use these profiles to automatically create a set of After Effects compositions tailored for your selected devices.
Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 7

Choose Devices

Device Profile Device Profile

Design + Animate

Preview + Compare

Render

Device Composition Device Composition

Device Profile

Device Master Composition
Device Preview Composition
Device compositions are shown side by side in preview composition.

Device Composition

Profiles are combined into a master composition.
The master composition is put into each individual device composition and sized as needed.
Enhanced workflow using Device Central and After Effects.

You create your design in a master composition. This master comp is then used to feed a set of device-specific compositions, each reflecting the screen size and other parameters of your chosen devices. You can use the powerful After Effects Render Queue to render and export a set of finished movies for a large number of mobile devices in one batch render job. A special preview composition is also created that consists of a grid of your device-specific compositions, so that you can preview your master composition in the context of several devices simultaneously.
Project intelligence through XMP metadata
Speech Search turns spoken dialog into searchable metadata
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and Soundbooth CS4 both offer the new Speech Search feature, which uses speech recognition technology that can convert spoken dialogue to text. By exporting this text as metadata in your media, you can make video clips searchable during postproduction. When you import this media to your After Effects project, each word appears as a marker on the Timeline, making it easy to design motion graphics synchronized to the spoken dialog. In addition, you can intelligently automate your workflows using this metadata and the scripting capabilities in After Effects. For example, a custom script could look for certain words and create text layers that start at the point where those words are spoken.
Workflow specialists and producers are sure to love the new support for XMP metadata in After Effects CS4 and other Adobe video and audio software. Among other capabilities, you can easily identify the job number or work ticket associated with any asset, make better informed decisions about the assets you use, and streamline the rights-auditing process by efficiently viewing copyright information.
XMP metadata can be tracked for both individual files and an overall project. In this case, a movie file rendered by After Effects CS4 retain all of the markers present in its source composition, which appear as layer markers once this file is imported back into After Effects.
Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 8
Not only is asset metadata retained while in After Effects, but you can add new projectand layer-level metadata during the render stage to streamline project tracking and automate asset auditing. For example, you can add a list of assets used in a composition, or the durations of stock footage clips, used to aid in determining payment for rightsmanaged assets. Markers in the source composition will be saved in the rendered file, and will appear as layer markers when you re-import the file. You can also use scripting to access and manipulate metadata. This makes it possible to add intelligence to your After Effects CS4 workflows.
Numerous interface and workflow improvements

Dozens of enhancements in every area make After Effects more productive and fun to use. Here are but a few of the additional enhancements contained in After Effects CS4:
Whats new in Adobe Bridge CS4
Adobe Bridge CS4included with After Effects CS4is a visual file browser that helps you search, view, and sort through many assets to quickly find the ones you want. New features and enhancements include: Faster performance from startup to browsing, including an option to display previews embedded in raw images Easier access to task-based workspaces A new List view with rich data and familiar sorting controls Built-in preview and creation of HTML and Flash web galleries, and PDF contact sheets One-click full-screen previews Collections for organizing related assets in freeform or search-based virtual groupseven when assets are spread across multiple folders Fast, detailed search results thanks to tight integration with Spotlight in Mac OS X and Desktop Search in Windows Vista New review modes, such as Carousel View for quickly cycling through assets Smart analysis and auto-stacking of High Dynamic Range (HDR) and panoramic images for handoff to Photoshop New support for previewing 3D images Camera Raw improvements, including non-destructive application of dodge, burn, sharpen, and other adjustments
Auto-resolution to optimize interaction speed by rendering only the pixels you need for your current zoom level Easier settings management to optimize memory and multi-core processing ProEXR support for working with layered high dynamic range (HDR) image files Native P2 plus Sony XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD support Longer names for layers, comps, folders, and other items New Turbulent Noise and Bilateral Blur effects Option for converting text to mask outlines or a shape layer Duration specification for markers Center-cut safe areas for ensuring widescreen projects look good on 4:3 displays Composition panel control to simulate output, for improved color management 32-bit-per-channel color for shape layers, Depth Of Field Blur effect, and Reduce Interlace Flicker effect Interpret Footage button in the Project panel Wiggle position, scale, rotation, and opacity for shape layers Import Adobe Premiere Pro time remapping data
Creative Pro Online Services
Connect to the power of the online community through your creative desktop. New online services accessed from within After Effects CS4 let you search for help from the online community, more easily create and manage content for the web, and more. With new online services in Creative Suite 4, you can take your ideas to the next level. Adobe Community Help. Get the power of an online search engine within After Effects, but with more targeted results, thanks to Adobe Community Help. Searchable content includes the in-depth, product-specific Help that Adobe has always delivered, plus additional Adobe and third-party content chosen by experts at Adobe as well as from respected experts and web sites in the design and production communities. With Adobe Community Help, you can find the focused answers you need, fast. Just choose Help > After Effects Help. (Internet connection required for extended content.) Adobe Bridge Home. Visit Adobe Bridge Homean online channel available in Adobe Bridge CS4and keep up to date with whats new from Adobe and the design, web development, and video and audio production communities at large. Watch the latest video tutorials for your Creative Suite 4 software, listen to a podcast interview with a leading designer, or learn about the next training event in your community. Discover tips and resources that can help you work smarter and faster, making the most of After Effects CS4 and other Adobe Creative Suite 4 software. (Internet connection required.)

Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 9

Mac OS

Multicore Intel processor Mac OS X v10.4.1110.5.4 2GB of RAM 2.9GB of available hard-disk space for installation, plus 2GB of space for optional content; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on flashbased storage devices) 1,280x900 display with OpenGL 2.0compatible graphics card DVD-ROM drive QuickTime 7.4.5 software required to use QuickTime features Broadband Internet connection required for online services
Part of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 family
After Effects CS4 is also available as a component of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium as well as Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection. Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium is designed for creative professionals who need to craft world-class video, audio, and interactive media: on-air, online, on device, and invariably on deadline. Together, After Effects and the other components of Production Premium CS4 offer a tightly integrated, cross-platform toolset for pre- and post-production including video and audio editing, still and motion graphics, visual effects, and interactive media, as well as DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and mobile authoring. For more information on Production Premium CS4, see Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium Whats New. Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection is your premier solution for professional creative work, with Adobe After Effects CS4 acting as the central motion hub for compositing and animation. Master Collection combines the best of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Web Premium, and Production Premium editions, providing advanced productivity features so you can create content for virtually all media with one value-packed offering. Adobe After Effects CS4 will be available in North America for an estimated street price of US$999, directly from Adobe or through Adobe Authorized Resellers. To order directly from Adobe, visit the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com or call 1-800-833-6687. Licensed owners of After Effects CS3, After Effects 7.x Professional or Standard, or After Effects 6.x Professional or Standard can upgrade to Adobe After Effects CS4 for US$299. Licensed owners of the above-listed previous releases of After Effects are also eligible for special upgrade pricing to Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium. A complete description of upgrade eligibility and pricing is available in a separate Pricing Overview document. For volume licensing information, contact an Adobe Authorized Licensing Center or go to www.adobe.com. Estimated street prices do not include taxes, shipping, handling, or other related expenses. Information on pricing and support policies outside of North America and for Education customers will be available separately. Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and informationanytime, anywhere, and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Windows

1.5GHz or faster processor* Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista) 2GB of RAM 1.3GB of available hard-disk space for installation, plus 2GB of space for optional content; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices) 1,280x900 display with OpenGL 2.0-compatible graphics card DVD-ROM drive QuickTime 7.4.5 software required to use QuickTime features Broadband Internet connection required for online services * An SSE2-enabled processor is required for AMD systems. For updates to system requirements and more detailed information about video hardware compatibility, visit www.adobe.com/products/ aftereffects/systemreqs.

Availability and pricing

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Expected ship date

Fourth quarter 2008

For more information

For more details about Adobe After Effects, visit www.adobe.com/aftereffects.
Adobe Systems Incorporated 345 Park Avenue San Jose, CA 95110-2704 USA www.adobe.com
Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Creative Suite, Encore, Flash, Photoshop, PostScript, and Soundbooth are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Mac, Mac OS, and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. QuickTime is a trademark used under license. Intel and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft, Windows XP, and Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This product may allow you to access certain features that are hosted online (online services), provided you have a high-speed Internet connection. The online services, and some features thereof, may not be available in all countries, languages and/or currencies and may be discontinued in whole or in part without notice. Use of the online services is governed by separate terms of use and by the Adobe privacy policy, and access to these services may require user registration. Some online services, including services initially offered at no charge, may be subject to additional fees. For additional details and to review the terms of use and privacy policy, please visit www.adobe.com. 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. 07/24/08 Adobe After Effects CS4 Whats New 10