Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.

Lesson 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
12

Basic Animation
Learn a typical After Effects workflow while building your first animation.

탋 In This Lesson
I
n this lesson, you will build a typical After Effects
project. You will see how to import sources while
14 creating folders in the Project panel keeping your project file organized. As you add
15 creating a new composition layers to a composition, you will learn how to
15 importing files and folders manipulate their transform properties, as well as
16 interpreting alpha channels how to keyframe them to create animations. Along
17 adding layers to the Comp panel the way, you’ll learn several important tricks and
18 changing the Background Color handy keyboard shortcuts, plus how to handle
18 scrubbing parameter values alpha channels as well as layered Photoshop
18 interactively transforming layers and Illustrator files. Although the design itself is
19 animating Position simple, you will learn principles you can use over
and over again in the future.
20 navigating between keyframes
20 editing a keyframe’s Bezier handles
21 dragging footage to the Timeline panel Composition Basics
22 animating Opacity, Scale, and Rotation In the Pre-Roll section, we discussed the basic hierarchy of an
24 aligning and distributing layers After Effects project: Sources are called footage items; when
26 editing spatial keyframes, motion paths you add a footage item to a composition (“comp” for short),
it is then known as a layer. Potential sources can include
27 auto orientation
captured video, Flash or 3D animations, photographs or
28 adding solids scans, images created in programs such as Photoshop or
29 adding effects Illustrator, music, or dialog …even film footage that has
29 copying and pasting effects been scanned into the computer.
30 importing layered Photoshop and Illustrator files Layers are individual objects that can be arranged in a
32 rendering comp’s space and animated around that space, similar to
symbols in a Flash project or models in a 3D animation

탋 Getting Started program. The order they are stacked in the comp’s timeline
determine the order in which they are drawn (unless they
Make sure you have copied the Lesson 01-Basic are in 3D space – we’ll get to that in Lesson 8). Layers can
Animation folder from this book’s disc onto your hard
start and end at different points in time.
drive, and make note of where it is; it contains the sources
you need to execute this lesson. Our versions of these All properties in After Effects start out static: You set them,
exercises are in the project file Lesson_01_Finished.aep. and this is the value they have for the entire composition.
Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
Lesson 1
13

However, it is very easy to enable keyframing for virtually any property (including After Effects compositions combine multiple
all of the transform properties), which means you can set what their value will be layers together. Butterfly and flower shape
courtesy Dover; flower photos courtesy
at different points in time. After Effects will then automatically interpolate or
Wildscaping.com.
“tween” between these values over time.
You have considerable control over how After Effects moves between keyframes.
In this lesson, we’ll demonstrate editing the motion path for position keyframes, 탋 factoid
and in the next lesson we’ll dive into further refining the speed at which After
File Format Support
Effects interpolates between values.
For a full list of file formats that may be
Layers do not need to fill up the entire screen. It is quite common for a layer imported in After Effects, open the program,
to be smaller than the composition, or to scale down a large layer to better frame press ! to open the Adobe Help Center,
it inside a comp. In addition to fading a layer in and out using its opacity, a type “file formats” into the Search For
footage item may also have an alpha channel that determines where the image box, and click on Search.
is transparent and where it is opaque.
But before you start arranging and animating, you need to know how to make Individual layer properties may be keyframed
a new project and comp, as well as how to import sources – so let’s get started! in the Timeline panel to create an animation.
 Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
Lesson 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
14

Starting a Project
In this first lesson, you’ll create a colorful animation with a butterfly flying
around some flowers. To see where you’ll end up, locate the movie 1-First
Animation_final.mov in this lesson’s folder, and play it a few times in
QuickTime Player. Bring After Effects forward when you’re done, and we’ll
guide you through building this animation from scratch.

1 When After Effects is launched, it creates a new, blank project for you. In
the upper right corner of the application window, locate the Workspace popup,
and select Standard. To make sure you are using the original arrangement of
this workspace, from the same popup select Reset “Standard” (it’s at the bottom).
A Reset Workspace dialog will appear; click Discard Changes.
1 Set the Workspace to Standard and
then reset it to make sure you are starting
with the same arrangement of frames and 2 The Project panel can quickly become a confusing mess of sources and
panels as we are. That way, our instructions comps. To avoid this, let’s create a couple of folders to help keep it organized.
will make a lot more sense. Click on the New Folder icon along the bottom of the Project panel. A folder
called Untitled 1 will be created. It defaults to its name being highlighted; to
rename it, type “Sources” and hit R (on a Windows keyboard, this is the
main E key – not the one on the extended keypad). You can rename it at
any time; just select the folder and hit R to highlight the name.

3 Click in a blank area of the Project panel to deselect your Sources folder; the
shortcut to Deselect All is @. Now create a second folder, using the keyboard
shortcut: COSn on Mac (LASn on Windows). Rename it
“Comps” and press R.
(If the Sources folder was selected when you created the Comps folder,
Comps will be nested inside of Sources. Place it on the same level by dragging
the Comps folder outside of the Sources folder.)

Saving a Project
4 Save your project by typing Cs (Ls). A file browser window will open;
save your project file in this lesson’s folder (Lesson 01-Basic Animation), and
give it a name that makes sense, such as “Basic Animation v1”.
2 To create a new folder, click on the It is a good idea to give projects version numbers so you can keep track of revi-
folder icon along the bottom of the sions; it also allows you to take advantage of the nifty File > Increment and Save
Project panel. To rename it, type your
function. Instead of just saving your project, Increment and Save will save your
new name while “Untitled 1” is
project under a new version number, leaving a trail of previous versions in case
highlighted, then press R.
you ever need to go back. The shortcut is COSs (LASs).
After Effects also has an Auto Save function; it’s under Preferences > Auto-Save.
Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
Lesson 1
15

Creating a New Composition

5 Select the Comps folder you created in step 3. That way,
the new comp you are about to create will automatically be
sorted into it. Then either select the menu item Composition
> New Composition, or use the keyboard shortcut Cn
(Ln).
A Composition Settings dialog will open in which you
can determine the size, duration, and frame rate of your new
comp. At the top will be a popup menu for Preset, which
includes a number of common comp sizes and frame rates.
You can also enter your own settings. For this starting compo-
sition, uncheck the Lock Aspect Ratio box, then type in a
Width of 480 and Height of 360. Click on the popup menu
next to Pixel Aspect Ratio and select Square Pixels (we’ll
discuss pixels that are not square in the Tech Corner at the
end of Lesson 3).
The last parameter in this dialog is Duration. Highlight the value currently 5 These are the settings we will use for our
there, and enter “4.00” for four seconds. Then make sure the remaining settings first composition. Remember to uncheck the
Lock Aspect Ratio box before typing in your
are at their defaults: Frame Rate of 29.97, Resolution of Full, and Start Timecode
new dimensions. You can always open the
of 0;00;00;00. Don’t worry too much if you miss something; you can always
Composition Settings later by selecting your
open the Composition Settings again later using Ck (Lk). comp and typing Ck (Lk).
A good habit to get into with After Effects is naming your compositions as you
create them. Enter “1–First Animation” in the Composition Name dialog, then
click OK. Your new comp will open into the Comp and Timeline panels.

6 Your comp will also appear in the Project panel, inside your Comps folder
(if it’s not in there, drag it in). If you cannot read the entire name in the Project
panel, just place your cursor along the right edge of the Name column and drag
it wider. Finally, save your project.

Importing Footage
There are two main ways to import footage into After Effects: using the normal
Import dialog, and using Adobe Bridge. We’ll use the Import dialog here, and
dive into Bridge in the next lesson. (You can also drag and drop from the Finder
or Explorer, but that’s awkward as the After Effects application window tends to
take up the entire screen.) 6 At this point, you should have a project
with two folders and one composition.
7 It’s time to import some sources into your project. First, select the Sources Notice the cursor to the right of the Name
folder you created in step 2. Then use the menu item File > Import > File. column in the Project panel; we just
finished dragging this column wider to
Navigate to the Lesson 01-Basic Animation folder you copied from this book’s
view our comp’s entire name.
disc, and open the folder 01_Sources. Select the item Butterfly.tif and click Open.
 Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
Lesson 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
16

8 The Import dialog will be replaced with an Interpret

쑽 Managing the Comp View Footage dialog. This file has an alpha channel: a grayscale
channel that sets the transparency of the RGB color chan-
You learned in the Pre-Roll how to resize the user interface’s nels. There are two main types of alpha channels: Straight,
frames. You can resize the frame that holds the Comp panel which means the color has been “painted beyond” the
to decide how much screen real estate you can devote to it. edges of the alpha channel, and Premultiplied, which
There are several ways to control how this space is used to means the color is mixed (“matted”) with the background
display the comp’s image area:
color around the edges.
• In the lower left corner of the Comp panel is a Magnification If you knew what type of alpha your file has, you could
popup. A popular setting for this is Fit up to 100%, which
select it here. Since you don’t, click Guess. In this file’s
uses as much of the Comp panel’s frame as it can up to full
case, After Effects will choose the Straight option, which is
size; that’s the setting we used when creating most of these
correct. Click OK, and it will appear in your Sources folder.
lessons and comps. A downside of the Fit option is that your
image can look a bit crunchy if the result is an odd size, such
as 78%. Therefore, some users prefer picking a set size such
as 100% or 50% that gets close to using the space available,
then resizing the frame again as needed.

8 To get the best results out of sources with alpha channels, you
want to select the correct alpha channel type. You can do this while
importing a file, or any time later. After Effects has a Guess function
to help.
• You can hold down C (L) and press the = key to
zoom in larger, or the - key to zoom out smaller. 9 Now it’s time to import some more sources. Make sure
• If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, hover its cursor the Sources folder (or a file inside of it) is still selected,
over the Comp panel, and use the wheel to zoom in and out. and use the shortcut Ci (Li) to open the Import
• For more targeted zooming, select the Zoom tool (short- dialog. Select Flower Symbol.tif, then S+click to also
cut = z), and click to zoom in and center around where you select Nectar Plants.ai, and click Open. The Interpret
click, or O+click (A+click) to zoom out. Don’t forget to Footage dialog will re-appear for the former; use Guess as
press v when done to return to the Selection tool! you did before (After Effects will correctly guess Straight),
• Even better, press and hold down the z key to temporarily and click OK.
switch to the Zoom tool; add O (A) to Zoom out. When
you release the z key, the Selection tool will still be active.
10 Finally, double-click on an empty area of the Project
panel – this will also open the Import dialog! Select the
• To pan around your composition, hold down the space bar
folder named Flower Photos, and click the Import Folder
to temporarily bring up the Hand tool, then click and drag in
button. This will import all the contents of the folder for
the Comp panel to reposition it. (Tapping the spacebar pre-
you with a single click; it will also create a folder with the
views the timeline.)
same name in the Project panel. Drag the Flower Photos
folder inside your Sources folder, and save your project.
Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
Lesson 1
17

Building a Comp
Now that you have your sources, you can add them to your comp, arrange
them, and have some fun animating them. First, make sure the Timeline and
Composition panels have the name of your comp (1-First Animation) in a tab
along their tops. If not, double-click this comp in the Project panel to open it.

Transform Fun
11 Select the footage item Nectar Plants.ai in your Sources folder in the
Project panel, and drag it over to the image area of the Composition panel.
While keeping the mouse button down, drag it near the center of the comp:
You will notice After Effects tries to snap it into the center for you. With the
mouse button still down, drag near the four corners of the comp: After Effects
will try to snap the outline of the source against these corners.
Place it in the center, and release the mouse. It will be drawn in the comp’s After importing your sources, your
image area, and appear as a layer in the Timeline panel as well. Project panel should look like this.

11 When you first

drag a footage source
into the Comp panel, it
will helpfully try to snap
to the center or corner
of the comp’s image
area. (From then on,
the layer will behave
normally, with no
snapping behavior.)
The layer will appear
in the Comp and
Timeline panels.

By the way, we have

dragged the Timeline’s
A/V Features column
(circled in red) from its
default position over
to the right, to be near
the timeline. You can do
the same by dragging
the column header to
the right until it drops
into place.
 Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
Lesson 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
18

12 The Comp’s background color defaults to black, and the purple text is not
easily readable. Let’s change that:
Select the menu item Composition > Background Color. A color swatch and
eyedropper will appear. Click on the color swatch; the standard Adobe Color
Picker will appear. Select a golden orange to complement the purple title. Click
OK, and OK again in the Background Color dialog to accept your changes.
Check to make sure the text is easily readable against your new background
color; if not, change it!

12 Pick a golden orange for this comp’s 13 In the Timeline panel, click on the arrow to the left of Nectar Plants.ai:
background color. This will reveal the word Transform. Click on the arrow to the left of Transform;
this will reveal all of the Transform properties for this layer. In the future, we will
refer to clicking these arrows as “twirl down” (and “twirl up” when closing a section).
Notice the numeric values next to each property: Place your cursor over one,
then click and drag while watching the Comp panel to see the effect of editing
these properties. This technique is referred to as scrubbing a value, and is a skill
you’ll use over and over in After Effects.
You can also type an exact value by clicking a value, which makes that field
active. Press T to advance to the next value, and press R when done.
13 To “scrub” a value in the Timeline, place
Some properties – such as Scale and Position – have separate X (horizontal, or
the cursor over the value until a two-headed
arrow appears, click, and drag. Scale has its left-right) and Y (vertical, or up-down) dimensions to their values. By default,
X and Y dimensions locked together, so Scale’s X and Y dimensions are locked together to prevent distorting the layer;
scrubbing one value also changes the other. you can unlock them by clicking on the chain link icon next to their value.

14 After you’ve experimented with scrubbing, click on the word Reset next to
Transform to return these values to their defaults. Next you’re going to play with
directly manipulating the layer in the Comp panel to edit its Transform properties.
While doing so, keep an eye on the values in the Timeline panel to get a better
feel for what’s going on.
• To edit Position, directly click on and drag a layer in the Comp panel. To con-
strain movement to one dimension, start to drag the layer, then hold down the
S key and drag some more.
• To edit Scale, click and drag one of the eight square dots (“handles”) around
the outline of the layer in the Comp panel. To avoid distorting the layer and keep
14 Highlight a layer, then use the Selection its original aspect ratio, start to drag the layer, then hold down the S key and
tool (shortcut v) to interactively scale a drag some more.
layer by dragging its corners in the Comp
panel. The values in the Timeline will
• To edit Rotation, press w to select the Rotate tool (also known as Wotate),
update while you drag. It is easy to distort click on the layer, and drag around in circles. When you’re done, press v to
the “aspect ratio” of a layer while doing so return to the Selection tool ( V).
(as we are here); add S while dragging As before, click on the word Reset next to Transform to return these values to
to constrain a layer’s proportions.
their defaults.
Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
Lesson 1
19

Animating Position
Now you know how to transform a layer manually; next comes making After 쑽 Transform Shortcuts
Effects transform a layer for you over time. This involves a process known as The following shortcut keys reveal
keyframing. specific Transform properties for the
selected layer(s):
15 There are keyboard shortcuts to reveal select Transform properties. Click
a Anchor Point
on the arrow to the left of Nectar Plants.ai to twirl up all the properties, then
p Position
with the layer selected, type p to reveal just Position.
s Scale
You’re going to make this layer move onto the screen and settle into place.
r Rotation
Decide where you want the layer to start (you can even drag it totally onto the
pasteboard). Then make sure the current time marker is at the start of the time- t OpaciTy

line (the numeric time display in the Timeline panel should read 0;00;00;00). To add a property to those already
If it isn’t, grab the blue head of the current time marker and drag it there, or being displayed, hold down S
press H to quickly make it jump to the start. when you press these shortcuts.

To the left of the word Position is a small stopwatch icon. Click on it, and
it will now be outlined and highlighted. You have now enabled Position for
keyframing and animation. [The shortcut to toggle on and off the Position stop-
watch for a selected layer(s) is OSp (ASp).] Enabling keyframing
also places a keyframe
(indicated by a yellow 15 In the Timeline panel, click on the
stopwatch icon next to the word Position to
diamond to the right in
enable keyframing for it; this also creates the
the timeline portion of
first keyframe (the yellow diamond).
the display) at the
current time, using
Position’s current value.

16 Press N to make
the current time marker jump to the end of your timeline. Pick up and drag the
Nectar Plants.ai layer where you want it to end up. A new keyframe will auto-
matically be created for you with this value, at the current time.
You may have noticed that a line appeared in the Comp panel, tracing the
path from where your layer started to where it is ending up. This is known as
the motion path. It is made up of a series of dots. Each dot indicates where that
layer will be at each frame in your timeline. The motion path is visible only
when the layer is selected.
Drag the current time marker back and forth along the top of the timeline,
and notice how your layer moves along its motion path. To see what it would
look like playing back in real time, press 0 on the numeric keypad to initiate
16 Move to a different time, and drag
a RAM Preview. After Effects will work its way through the frames once at its the layer to a new position; a motion path
own speed, then make its best attempt to play back the animation in real time. will appear in the Comp panel illustrating
Press any key to stop the preview. its travels.
 Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
Lesson 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
20

Editing Your Moves

17 Drag the current time marker to somewhere around the middle of the time-
탋 factoid line (about 02:00). Now pick up and drag Nectar Plants.ai to a new location.
After Effects will automatically create a new keyframe between the existing two
Space = Speed
keyframes, and alter the motion path to travel between all three of your key-
The spacing between dots along the motion
frames. Confirm this by dragging the current time marker back and forth, or
path gives a quick visual indication of how
fast it is moving. The farther apart the dots, do a RAM Preview by pressing 0 on the numeric keypad.
the farther that layer will travel between To change the position of a keyframe in the Comp panel, simply select one
frames, and therefore the faster it is going. of the square keyframe icons (it will change from being hollow to being solid),
and drag it to a new position. You don’t have to move to that point in time to
reposition a keyframe in space.

18 You will notice some handles have appeared in the Comp panel, sticking
out of your keyframes. These are known as Bezier handles (named after the type
of curve they create), and allow you to tweak the curve of the motion path.
Go ahead and experiment with dragging these around, previewing the effects
of your edits. You can create complex paths with few keyframes just by manipu-
lating these handles.

19 It is easy to change the timing of keyframes: In the Timeline panel, drag the
diamond keyframes to the right or left to make them occur earlier or later in
time. RAM Preview to see the new timing.
18 In the Comp panel, you can drag the
handles sticking out of a keyframe to easily
20 You can also easily edit the value of a keyframe after you’ve created it. In the
manipulate the motion path into and away A/V Features column of the Timeline panel are a pair of gray arrows surrounding
from that keyframe. a small diamond. These are known as the keyframe navigation arrows. Clicking on
them will jump to the next keyframe in line for that property, confirmed by the
diamond changing from hollow to yellow. Once you’re “parked” on a keyframe,
to edit that keyframe either scrub the layer’s Position values, or drag the layer
around in the Comp panel.
If you don’t jump to the exact
time of a previously existing
keyframe, you will instead create
a new keyframe. If you create one
by accident, you can delete it by
selecting it in the timeline and
20 Under the A/V Features column are a pressing Delete. Or, use the keyframe navigation arrows to jump to it, then click
pair of keyframe navigation arrows, which on the yellow diamond between the arrows to remove it.
make it easy to jump to the previous or next
Save your project. Indeed, now would be a good time to use the File >
keyframe for a given property. If the diamond
between them is yellow, the current time Increment and Save option, so your work to date will be saved under a new
marker is parked on top of a keyframe. version number.
Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
Lesson 1
21

Adding a Second Layer

Now that you know how to animate Position, you pretty much have all the skills
you need to animate virtually any other property in After Effects. But first, let’s
learn a few more tricks for adding footage to a comp:
탋 tip
21 In your Sources folder in the Project panel, select the footage item Flower Quick Location
Symbol.tif: To make a layer start where the current time
• Drag Flower Symbol.tif down to the left side of the Timeline panel, near the marker is, select it and press [ (left square
bracket). To have it start at the beginning of
name of your other layer (Nectar Plants.ai). Hover your cursor above your exist-
the comp, select it and press OH
ing layer, and you will see a thick black horizontal line, which indicates you’re
(AH).
about to place it above this layer. Drag it downward until this line disappears
and release the mouse. The new layer is placed below the existing layer. Note that
no matter where the current time marker was parked, the new layer starts at the
beginning of the comp (00:00).
• Press Cz (Lz) to Undo
this addition, and try another
method. This time, drag Flower
Symbol.tif to the right side of the
Timeline panel until your cursor is
hovering over the timeline area.
You should see a second blue time
marker head appear. This indicates
where it would start in time if you
were to release your mouse now,
and provides an interactive way to
decide your initial starting time.
You can also move it up and down in the layer stack. Pick some location in the 21 When you drag a new source from the
middle of the timeline, and release the mouse. The new layer will be added at Project panel to the Timeline panel, you can
decide when and where to drop it in the layer
the time you’ve picked. Note that with both methods, the layer is added to the
stack. Notice the ghosted outline and second
center of the comp.
current time marker before we let go of the
mouse (top), and how it corresponds to the
22 Drag the current time marker back and forth, and notice how the flower layer’s placement after we let go (above).
symbol does not appear in the Comp viewer until after the time marker crosses
the start of the layer in the timeline. You can click and drag the center of the
layer bar for Flower Symbol.tif to make it start sooner or later in time. Finally,
with Flower Symbol.tif selected, press OH (AH) to make it start at 탋 tip
the beginning of the comp. Multiple Undos
While you’re having fun, practice dragging each layer above and below the You have 32 levels of Undo in After Effects.
other in the timeline stack, noticing the impact this has on how they are drawn If that’s not enough, you can set it as high
in the comp’s image area. For now, place Flower Symbol.tif on top of Nectar as 99 in Preferences > General.
Plants.ai.
 Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
Lesson 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
22

Animating Opacity, Scale, and Rotation

When animating your first layer, you picked its starting location, then its end
탋 key concept location. It’s also fine to work in reverse: Arrange your layer where you want it to
end up, then keyframe where it came from.
Anchor Point
Notice how the flower symbol scaled and 23 Press N to jump to the last frame in your comp (03:29). In the Comp
rotated around its center? That’s because panel, drag Flower Symbol.tif to a nice place in relation to your title layer.
we centered it when we made it. You won’t Don’t worry about covering up some of the letters; we’re about to fix that…
be so lucky with other sources; they may
appear to wobble when they rotate. The 24 With Flower Symbol.tif selected, press t to reveal its Opacity. Scrub this
cure for this is setting the Anchor Point, value, and notice how the purple title starts to become visible through the white
which you’ll learn in Lesson 2. flower graphic. Pick a nice intermediate value, like 50%.
Click on the stopwatch icon to the left of
the word Opacity. This will set a keyframe
for this value at this point in time.

25 With the flower layer still selected,

hold down the S key and press s.
24 At the end of the comp, set Flower This will add Scale to the Opacity value you
Symbol’s Opacity value to 50% and then are already displaying. You can scrub the Scale value to pick a new ending size
turn on the stopwatch for Opacity. for this layer, or leave it at 100%.
Click on Scale’s stopwatch to enable keyframing for this property as well.

26 Now type Sr to also reveal Rotation.

With Rotation at 0 degrees, click on Rotation’s stopwatch to enable keyfram-
ing for it, too.

27 Press H to jump to the start of the comp. Scrub the second Rotation
value (degrees) to pick a starting pose for the flower; notice that if you scrub
the degrees past 359, the first value (revolutions) will change to a 1. Because
your second keyframe has a value of 0, a negative value for the first keyframe
will cause the flower to rotate clockwise to 0, while a positive value will cause
it to rotate counterclockwise to 0. The larger the value, the more it will rotate
over time. Set a value to taste, and a new keyframe will automatically be added
for you.

탋 tip Go ahead and preview your animation; if you aren’t happy with the rotation,
return to the first keyframe (use the navigation arrows, or press H) and try a
Slow Scrubbing different value.
To scrub a value by smaller increments
for precise control, hold down the 28 At 00:00, play with the Scale and Opacity values to create starting keyframes
C (L) key while scrubbing. for them also. This is the type of animation where it may be interesting to have
To jump by larger increments, both start out with a value of 0. To do this, click on their current value to select
hold down S while scrubbing. it, enter 0, and hit R.
Excerpt from After Effects Apprentice. Copyright © 2007 Trish and Chris Meyer.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means.
Focal Press, ISBN 978-0-240-80938-0
Lesson 1
23

Preview your results, and tweak to taste. This is the point where you might 28 After animating Scale, Rotation, and
want to start trying out some different ideas for the timing of your animation. Opacity for Flower Symbol.tif (top), it
zooms, spins, and fades up into position
For example, try moving the second and last Position keyframes for Nectar
(above).
Plants.ai earlier in time, so the title finishes its move before the flower does.
Another idea is to set the first Scale and Opacity keyframes for Flower
Symbol.tif to something larger than 0 (such as 25), and drag them to start later
than the first Rotation keyframe: This will cause a small, transparent version of
the flower to spin in place before it zooms up. Oh – and save your project! 탋 try it
Smooth Moves
By default, After Effects creates linear
쑽 Nudging Position, Rotation, and Scale keyframes in the timeline. These result in
sudden starts and stops. Keyframe
Sometimes it’s easier to use the keyboard to nudge the transform values for a layer. interpolation and velocity are covered in the
Here are the magic keys: next lesson. But until then, to add a more
Position: cursor keys ˆ Δ ˚ μ elegant touch, select a keyframe and hit (
Rotation: numeric keypad’s + and - to apply the Easy Ease keyframe assistant
Scale: O (L) plus numeric keypad’s + and - to give it smooth starts and stops.
If you hold down the S key while doing any of these, the transform values will jump (Mac users will have to change Exposé in
in increments of 10 rather than 1. System Preferences to free up the shortcuts
( – ™.)