Design Production for Screen//Silent Movie//After Effects Workshop.

* Unfortunately, I missed this workshop session, though was kindly given notes by classmate and friend, Claudia- her notes and images from the workshop posted below, which I will try my best to work from effectively for my experiments and final design outcomes *

- When you work in Indesign you are working spatially as you are just positioning on the page, with after effects you are arranging things in time as well so you are working temporally.

- 25 still images every second, makes animation like a flip-book

- File -> Collect files = gathers everything together that your file needs and creates copies of all of your work

- Import as footage when only a layer, and important as a composition when many layers

Working with photoshop files

- Working for screen: RGB and 73ppi, units per measurement are pixels not cm

- Setting up:

-  Or: Film and video presets -> size -> PAL D1/DV Widescreen Square Pixel

- When set up like this, guides are automatically added to photoshop document, these are important as they specify 'safe' zones within which to work. Keep anything significant within the action safe zone (the outer margin). 

- If you are going to add text to your video, you should make sure it is kept within the inside margin.

- In after effects, when you go to your composition, there is a button (next to zoom %) that allows you to turn on these zones.

- Photoshop document with one layer on a transparent background.

- To go from photoshop to after effects, you need to save your file as a .psd, as this will preserve the transparency

- In after effects -> file -> import -> file. Default option: import as footage. Second dialogue box is basically asking you the same choice. File now appears in project workspace.

- After effects works in the same way that indesign does with image files, there needs to be a link between the images. 

- If you drag the file into the timeline it will be automatically centred in the composition space.

- There are possibilities to create the text within after effects

- Shatter: layered photoshop file

- This time we are importing this file as a composition

- Appears in the project panel in a different way to the single footage file does:

 

- To open composition just double click on it, it opens up as a new tab.

- Each photoshop layer exists as a layer in after effects.

- Everything that needs to be animated independently needs to be put on its own layer.

- Can delete the background layer (press backspace) and change the background colour of the composition.

- Add key frames to all of your layers at once. Select all of the layers, drag current time indicator (red line) to 1second, type 'p' to show position for each layer, click on one of the stopwatches to add a keyframe for every layer at that moment in time, this is a starting point we have established for all the layers.

- Now working with individual layers, so select the layer, and then drag it to a different position on the composition screen (in the safe zone). 

- At the moment the finish points are all at the same time, but you can move the key frames around within the timeline so they finish at different points.

Shatter Video

- Again importing as a composition (importing scale.psd).

- When you select a layer, the edges of the layer are the size of the composition. The default position of the anchor point is the centre of the layer.

- Select all layers and press s key to show scale properties of all layers, can change one and all will change equally while selected together.

- This time imported with composition - retain layer sizes, now when you select each layer, the layer is only the size of the actual pixel content of the layer.

- Each character scales/rotates etc around its own individual anchor point.

Working with illustrator files

- Import roll.ai, single layer file.

- Everything we have looked at with photoshop layers applies to illustrator layers.

- Setting up an illustrator file:

- Sets up a guide automatically

- As illustrator works with vectors, its easy to change the scale without losing quality.

- When we enlarge the file on after effects we are getting pixelated edges even though it is a vector file, as after effects has to convert files to pixels. It is as if we are enlarging a piece of photoshop artwork.

- We can retain the vector quality by the use of a button on layer switches. 2nd button. Check the box for the layer and the quality of the artwork will be as it should be and not pixelated.

Layer switches

- 1st layer switch: shy switch hides any layer for which this switch is checked, useful for if you have many layers but are only interested in working with a few of them. Only works when you then click on the hide button.

- 2nd layer switch: applies to illustrator artwork. When we put our file in after effects from illustrator, it is turned into pixels so the quality gets lower as we make it larger.

- 3rd layer switch: diagonal line - Allows you to lower the quality of individual layers. Will help when you are previewing when you know some layers are good but need to see the full quality of others.

- 4th layer switch: fx - enable or disable any effects you have applied to a layer.

-5th layer switch: film - only applies when working with video, makes a piece of slowed down video look smoother.

- 6th layer switch: motion blur - applies if you are working with rotation or position. Then have to enable motion blur with the top switch. In composition settings, you have some advanced options, and here you can change the settings of the motion blur.

- 7th layer switch: adjustment layer (as in photoshop)

- 8th layer switch: makes the layer 3d