After Effects

Basics of After effects Part 1



Interface-

1. Arrow tool- select anything.
2. Pen tool- used to create masks around objects.
3. Hand tool- used to grab and move objects.
4. Project tab- all project files are imported to here.
5. Composition area tab- where the project takes place, all the objects in the timeline apear in the composition area.
6. Timeline- drag objects from the project tab to here to show objects into the composition area.


Importing into After Effects-

 File - Import - File

Keying

Using the keying tools you can key out any color you do not need, for example the white background in this image is not needed, so i will use color key to select the color white and then any white will disapear from the image.
Depending on the type of keying tool you pick there will be either a lot of options or less options, the more options there is the better but also the more difficult to use.

If there is still some white edging left around the image, you can get rid of this by using matte choker.

Creating a mask

If you want to make the wheels move but leave the rest of the image untouched then using the mask tool will acomplish this. First duplicate the layer, then select the wheels using the pen tool, a mask will then be created.
A mask selects only what is inside them mask and everything elese (the rest of the car) goes invisible to the viewer.
To invert the mask (select everything but the wheels) click on the masks properties and tick the inverted box.

To loop in AE

 Using the Camera to create a 3D set

Adding lights-

you can add a spot light or parallel light which mimics sunlight. You can change the intensity of the light and feather the cone to create a softer look.

For objects to cast shadows you have to turn on cast shadows in the material options of the object you want to cast the shadow.

This concludes all we got taught in the lessons, it has been rather interesting and i feel i have learnt a great deal, i enjoyed 3D plane because it is 3 dimensional but much easier and less stressful and time consuming than using Maya, it also creates a paper cut out look which i quite like. I will be going on to learn maya in the future as i think all programs can be useful once you look in to them, even Toon Boom studio was useful in some aspects like puppet tool, with exception of the camera tool which i found to be disastrous in comparison to Toon Boom animate pro.