Here are 5 must-know tips and tricks to increase your speed and efficiency in Adobe After Effects.
At first glance Adobe After Effects seems similiar to FCP, Premiere Pro, or Media Composer. In reality, it is more like Photoshop in motion. Bearing that in mind, here are 5 After Effects tips to help you avoid common ‘gotchas’ and make you a better user.
Nov 03, 2015 Expression controllers are where expressions and effects collide. Here’s how to use them in After Effects. There are a lot of reasons why you may want to use an expression controller in After Effects. They can save you time by manipulating values across multiple layers and effects with a. Get it right first time: In order for a green screen to be used to it’s maximum potential it should be lit evenly with no wrinkles or dark spots on it. Also your subject should be about 15 feet away from the background to avoid shadows or green spill.
Nudge an AE layer with arrows
A common way to navigate in video editing applications is to use the LEFT and RIGHT ARROWS to move up or down the timeline a frame at a time. In After Effects however using a LEFT or RIGHT ARROW button will actually nudge an entire layer.
Instead in After Effects, the PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN buttons will move navigate a frame left or right. Holding down SHIFT while tapping SHIFT UP or DOWN will move you 10 frames. As an alternative you can hold COMMAND (Mac) or CONTROL (PC) and tap the LEFT or RIGHT arrows, to move a frame left or right in the timeline.
A bit of advice: pick one of the above and stick to it! There are generally 3-4 ways to do everything in After Effects. If you commit to one way it it will cut down on mistakes, be easier to memorize and make you more efficient.
Go to Time – Timecode And +/- frames
If you type in numbers, After Effects will move you to the appropriate timecode. 2 is 2 frames and 200 or 2. (two with a period) is 2 seconds.
If you add a + it will move you that many frames in your AE timeline. The gotcha here is that if you type -10 it moves you 10 frames before the start of the composition. You need to type +-10 to move 10 frames earlier.
Navigating with J & K
In video editing apps the J, K and L keys are used to shuttle left (J), stop (K), and shuttle right (L). In After Effects, tap J to move to the previous keyframe, & K to the next keyframe. This is important when creating keyframes, because if you are not on a frame (and you think you are), you create a keyframe where the playhead is. So use J & K instead of moving the playhead manually to avoid accidental keyframes in AE.
You can’t modify AE keyboard shortcuts
Unlike like Premiere Pro, FCP, & Media Composer, you can’t modify the After EffectsShortcuts. To do this, you need to download the free script KeyEd Up. This will allow you to create your own custom shortcuts in After Effects. You need to register with Adobe, but it’s free.
Composition & Layer Markers
If an After Effect layer is selected and you press * (asterisk), you put a marker on the layer. Double click on the marker in AE to open the dialog box to add comments and change duration, or Option/Alt click to create a marker and open the dialog box.
If a layer isn’t selected and you press * this creates a composition marker.
You can also create numbered composition markers. Press Shift + the number to create a numbered composition marker. You can then type the number to move to the marker.
Learn more about working with markers in After Effects on the Adobe site.
Were these AE tips helpful? Got an After Effects tip to share?
Let us know in the comments.
Let us know in the comments.
Use composition markers and layer markers to store commentsand other metadata and mark important times in a composition orlayer. Composition markers appear in the time ruler for the composition,whereas layer markers each appear on the duration bar of a specificlayer. Both kinds of markers can hold the same information.
Markers can refer to a single point in time or to a duration.
Composition markers in After Effects correspond to sequence markersin Adobe Premiere Pro. Layer markers in After Effects correspondto clip markers in Adobe Premiere Pro.
When you render a composition that contains markers, the markerscan be converted to web links, chapter links (chapter points), orcue points, depending on the output format and values that you setin the marker dialog box. Markers can also be exported as XMP metadata.(See XMPmetadata.)
The default comment for a composition marker is a number, whereasthe default comment for a layer marker is nothing.
A marker that contains link or cue point data has a small dotin its icon.
A. composition marker with duration of 1 second B. compositionmarker with cue-point data C. layermarker with duration of 2 seconds D. layermarker with cue-point data
Note:
Markers make it easier to align layers or thecurrent-time indicator with specific points in time: When you draga keyframe, the current-time indicator, or a layer duration barin the Timeline panel, hold down Shift to snap these items to markers.
You can add markers during a preview or audio-only preview, which allows you to place markers at significant points in the audio track of a layer.
Dragging a marker in point changes the marker's time and dragging a marker out point changes the marker's duration. You cannot simultaneously change the marker time and duration.
- To view or edit a data for a marker, double-click the marker, or right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the marker and choose Settings.
- To move a marker to a different time, drag the marker or double-click it and enter a time in the dialog box.
- To set the duration of a composition or layer marker, drag the marker's out point in the Timeline panel. Marker icons split by half to clearly indicate the marker in point and out point.
- To set a marker's duration by dragging, hold the Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows) key, then click the marker icon and drag to the right.
- To change the duration of a marker, click and drag the marker out point icon; you do not need to hold Option/Alt.
- To automatically create layer markers for a layer based on the temporal metadata in the layer’s source file, select the Create Layer Markers From Footage XMP Metadata preference in the Media & Disk Cache preferences category. This preference is on by default.
- To synchronize layer markers on a precomposition layer to corresponding composition markers for the source composition, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a layer marker and choose Update Markers From Source. This command also removes any markers that you have added to the layer.
Note:
If the layer uses a file (rather than a composition) as its source, this command restores the layer markers to those representing the temporal XMP metadata for the source file.
If you add one composition to another, the original compositionbecomes nested as a layer in the containing composition. All ofthe composition markers from the nested composition become layermarkers in the timeline of the containing composition. These markersare not linked to the original composition markers. Changes thatyou make to the composition markers in the original composition donot affect layer markers in the nested composition. For example,if you remove one of the original composition markers, the correspondinglayer marker for the nested composition remains in place.
Scripts and expressions can read and use data stored in markers.Because XMP metadata for source footage items can be converted tolayer markers, expressions and scripts can work with XMP metadata.
Composition markers appear as small trianglesin the time ruler in the Timeline panel. You can have any numberof composition markers in a composition.
If you remove anumbered composition marker, the other markers remain numbered asthey were. If you change the comment from the default number, thatnumber may be reused by a composition marker created later.
Therecan be at most one composition marker beginning at each time. Ifyou add or move a composition marker to start at the same pointin time as another composition marker, the added or moved markerreplaces the other marker.
Note:
For alternativekeyboard shortcuts, see Markers(keyboard shortcuts).
- To add a blank composition marker at the current time, make sure that no layer is selected, and choose Layer > Add Marker or press * (multiply) on the numeric keypad.
Note:
Pressing * during a preview or audio-only preview adds a marker at the current time without interrupting the preview.
- To add a composition marker at the current time and open the marker dialog box, make sure that no layer is selected, and press Alt+* (Windows) or Option+* (Mac OS) on the numeric keypad.
- To add a composition marker from the bin, drag the marker from the Comp Marker Bin button.
- To add a numbered composition marker at the current time, press Shift + a number key (0–9) on the main keyboard.
Note:
If the number you press is already used by another composition marker, After Effects does not create a new marker. Instead, it moves the existing marker with that number to the new position.
- To remove a composition marker, drag the marker to the Comp Marker Bin button or Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the marker.
- To lock all composition markers on a composition, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a marker on the composition, and choose Lock Markers.
Layer markers appear as small triangles onthe duration bar of a layer. You can have any number of layer markerson a layer.
Layer markers are retained when you render andexport a movie to a QuickTime container.
Note:
Foralternative keyboard shortcuts, see Markers(keyboard shortcuts).
- To add a layer marker to selected layers at the current time, choose Layer > Add Marker or press * (multiply) on the numeric keypad.
Note:
Pressing * during a preview or audio-only preview adds a marker at the current time without interrupting the preview.
- To add a layer marker at the current time and open the marker dialog box, press Alt+* (Windows) or Option+* (Mac OS) on the numeric keypad.
- To remove a layer marker, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the marker.
- To remove all layer markers from selected layers, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a marker, and choose Delete All Markers.
- To lock all layer markers on a layer, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a marker on the layer, and choose Lock Markers.
- To replace all layer markers with markers containing temporal metadata from the source file for the layer, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a layer marker and choose Update Markers From Source.
Note:
In After Effects CS6 or later, adding a layer marker no longer deselects other objects (masks, and effects, for example).
You can assign color labels to Composition and Layer markers. By default, markers have no color. To change the color label of a marker, follow these steps:
- Change the New Label property. To define color labels, select Preferences > Labels.
Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum for splitting layersat layer markers.
Lloyd Alvarez provides scripts on the After Effects Scripts websitethat do the following:
- Magnum, the Edit Detector automatically detects edits in a footage layer and places a layer marker at each edit (or splits the layer into a separate layer for each edit).
- Zorro, the Layer Tagger allows you to tag layers and then select, shy, and solo layers according to their tags. The tags are appended to comments in the Comments column in the Timeline panel and can also be added as layer markers.
- Layer Marker Batch Editor edits marker attributes on all selected layers, including Flash cue point attributes.
Jeff Almasol provides scripts on his redefinery website thatdo the following:
- rd_CopyMarkers copies layer markers from one layer to any number of other layers.
- rd_KeyMarkers creates new layer markers (either on the selected layer or on a new null layer) with comments that provide information about keyframes at the same times.
- rd_MapTextFileToMarkers sets keyframes for the Source Text property of a text layer and sets the values to text from a text file. The keyframes are placed at times specified by layer markers on the text layer.
- rd_MarkerNavigator creates a panel that makes navigating to markers and viewing their comments and other values very convenient.
- rd_RemoveMarkers automatically removes markers from selected layers based on specified criteria (e.g., all markers in work area).
- rd_Scooter creates a panel with controls for moving various combinations of items in time, including layer In point, layer Out point, layer source frames, keyframes, and markers.
- rd_CountMarkers shows the number of markers on the selected layer.
To view video tutorials on working with markers, cuepoints, and XMP metadata go to the Adobe website:
- Converting metadata and markers to cue points: video tutorial demonstrating using Soundbooth, Flash Professional, and After Effects to create and use cue points.
- Using markers and cue points: video overview of markers in Premiere Pro and After Effects.
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