At Last... After Effects!
This is going to be a longer post than what I normally do, but don't worry, there's a movie.
Finally, after a while, I've learned much more on After Effects. And now, I've finally decided to get started putting it on the blog... just as soon as my new college semester is starting. Excuse me for a moment... *Whack!*
Ahem. After Effects, kind of like Photoshop for videos, is really pretty amazing. Used on a huge amount of big-budget movies, I've done a lot with it, and I've recently learned that I've barely scratched the surface!
Here's a screenshot of the basic area (while working on a yet uncompleted/test project):
There's a whole lot of stuff in this program, but in order to do anything with it, it's good to know about three really important things:
1. The Preview panel. It's usually on the right side of the interface, but if it doesn't appear at all, you can bring it up by pressing Window-->Preview (if it's checked, it's visible). You can play through the video at the program's (generally slow) pace using the play button, but if you want to see it at the right speed and hear the audio (if there is any), you can select the rightmost button of the panel: RAM Preview. It usually takes a while to load.
2. "Effect." Literally done by pressing "Effect" (located on the white bar near the top of the screen, along with more familiar tools like "File" and "Edit"), this shows you virtually every effect that can be added (I got the basic lightsaber effect in the picture from Effect--> Generate --> Beam, and a lightning effect from my movie "Fight of Heroes" via Effect--> Obsolete --> Lightning).
3. The stopwatch. In a nutshell, if you need something to change or move over time, this needs to be checked. For example, you add a black box into your project. If you want the box to move around, you'll need to click the stopwatch icon near "position" (select the box and press "p," then click the icon near it) and then you can click and drag it at different times, making it move over time instead of staying in one place.
Again, there's much more to After Effects than this, but those are the more basic necessities of the program. But anyway, here's my project: Fight of Heroes.
So, other than the story (which I hear inspired the plots of both Starship Troopers and Power Rangers), I'd say it was a successful project. The aforementioned lightning effect was sometimes readjusted frame by frame, but it was nonetheless quite fun. Hope to post again soon!
Finally, after a while, I've learned much more on After Effects. And now, I've finally decided to get started putting it on the blog... just as soon as my new college semester is starting. Excuse me for a moment... *Whack!*
Ahem. After Effects, kind of like Photoshop for videos, is really pretty amazing. Used on a huge amount of big-budget movies, I've done a lot with it, and I've recently learned that I've barely scratched the surface!
Here's a screenshot of the basic area (while working on a yet uncompleted/test project):
There's a whole lot of stuff in this program, but in order to do anything with it, it's good to know about three really important things:
1. The Preview panel. It's usually on the right side of the interface, but if it doesn't appear at all, you can bring it up by pressing Window-->Preview (if it's checked, it's visible). You can play through the video at the program's (generally slow) pace using the play button, but if you want to see it at the right speed and hear the audio (if there is any), you can select the rightmost button of the panel: RAM Preview. It usually takes a while to load.
2. "Effect." Literally done by pressing "Effect" (located on the white bar near the top of the screen, along with more familiar tools like "File" and "Edit"), this shows you virtually every effect that can be added (I got the basic lightsaber effect in the picture from Effect--> Generate --> Beam, and a lightning effect from my movie "Fight of Heroes" via Effect--> Obsolete --> Lightning).
3. The stopwatch. In a nutshell, if you need something to change or move over time, this needs to be checked. For example, you add a black box into your project. If you want the box to move around, you'll need to click the stopwatch icon near "position" (select the box and press "p," then click the icon near it) and then you can click and drag it at different times, making it move over time instead of staying in one place.
Again, there's much more to After Effects than this, but those are the more basic necessities of the program. But anyway, here's my project: Fight of Heroes.
So, other than the story (which I hear inspired the plots of both Starship Troopers and Power Rangers), I'd say it was a successful project. The aforementioned lightning effect was sometimes readjusted frame by frame, but it was nonetheless quite fun. Hope to post again soon!
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