Adobe After Effects is universal computer program, with which you can edit any video, conduct compositing, as well as create visual effects and animation. Often it is used at the post-production stage in cinema and television. It also works as a very simple non-linear editor, sound editor and multimedia transcoder.
Working with After Effects: What Can You Do?
WITH help from Adobe After Effects you can create, combine and style 2D layers in 3D space. Adobe After Effects performs various functions depending on the needs of the users. For example, an indie VFX artist can only use After Effects for 3D rendering. Video editor can use After Effects more for header design, and the animator can use it to create 2D cartoon characters. The reason so many people don't have a clear stance on what exactly After Effects does is that it does a lot of things and does them well.
Despite being highly functional, After Effects is actually very simple in its structure. After Effects, like all video editing applications in the world, uses a layer system. The best way think about it - imagine a stack of paper. The paper below will not be displayed due to the paper above it. This is, of course, if you are working in a 2D composition.
If you set your layers to 3D, you can position them in front of other 3D layers if they are closer to your camera in 3D. As the layer moves past the background layer towards the camera, it becomes visible. When it goes into the background, it becomes obscure.
What do people use After Effects for?
Effect Library
What really sets After Effects apart from all other video applications is extensive library of effects. There are literally hundreds of built-in effects that can be combined to create an unlimited number of possible combinations. It may sound too good to be true, but in After Effects - if you can dream it, you can do it.
1. Simulation Effects- 18 simulation effects are built into Adobe After Effects. These modeling effects can be used to create anything from rain to hair. All of these effects are fully customizable. When you combine them with other effects, you can greatly expand their functionality.
2. Stylized Effects, found in After Effects, are useful for creating your video layers that would otherwise be impossible. These drag-and-drop effects can be easily manipulated to create stunning appearance and style. Notable effects in this category include the CC Glass effect and the pasteurization effect.
3. All other effect categories- in addition to those mentioned above, there are dozens of other categories that all do something different. For example, there is a whole category of effects dedicated to different types blur. There is also a color correction category with effects that can generate any look you want to convey. There is also a Perspective category that includes a 3D camera tracker effect that makes it easy to track video footage.
Templates for Adobe After Effects
After Effects templates are a big reason why most video editors use After Effects. You could spend a lot of your time developing your skills as a motion designer. Instead, motion developers around the world have customized After Effects filters so that users can simply drag and drop their frames to get amazing results.
Online After Effects templates like RocketStock are easy to use projects so even the most inexperienced After Effects users can create amazing things for their video projects.
Title design
With such unique design features, After Effects is a great program for creating the perfect titles for your video projects. The label tool built into After Effects works just like it does in most word processors. However, the thing that really makes the app possible for title design is the animation part, which allows users to automatically animate characters, words, or lines depending on exactly what you need.
Layout
Composer software are programs that can be used to combine multiple assets to create a finished scene. For example, a single VFX frame may require a piece of green screen, a background, some explosion elements, dust, and smoke to be shoved into one scene. This would be incredibly difficult to do inside a regular video editor, but luckily you have After Effects!
Scripts
A very useful and handy thing that simplifies the automation of a process that usually takes more time to complete. For example, there are some scripts such as AE Sweets that create form animations with a simple click on a single button. If you were an advanced user of Adobe After Effects, you probably wouldn't have any problems with
In this article I will talk about blend modes in After Effects. Purely dry information that I hope will be useful to you. All overlays in AE are divided into eight categories, these are normal, subtractive, additive, complex, difference, HSL, matte and utility categories.
Surely you have already noticed that these categories are also visually separated by lines in the drop-down menu:
The terms I will use throughout this article to describe overlay effects are:
- The Source Color (source color), the color of the layer on which the overlay is applied.
- The Underlying color, the color of the layer that lies under the source layer on which the overlay is applied.
- The Result Color (resulting color), the color that appears after the overlay operation, the color of the two composited layers.
- 50% grey colour , is a color that consists of 50% red, green and blue flowers. Hex is #808080, RGB is Decimal 128,128,128. A kind of "middle" between white and black.
normal category
Normal- the resulting color will be the color of the source. This type of overlay ignores the underlying color. The blend mode that comes by default.
Dissolve- the resulting color for each pixel will be either the color of the source or the color of the underlying layer, depending on the opacity of the source. That is, if the opacity of the source is 100%, then the resulting color will be the source, if the opacity of the source is 0%, then the resulting color will be the underlying layer.
Dancing Dissolve- the same as the usual dissolve, the only difference is that this overlay recalculates the resulting color variant every frame. Dissolve and dancing dissolve overlays do not work on 3D layers.
subtractive category
Darkens- the resulting color of the source will be the lower (dark) values of the color channels.
Multiply- in each color channel of the source, multiplication by the value of the color channels of the underlying layer and division by maximum value color depth in the project 8-bpc, 16-bpc, 32-bpc, depending on the set depth in the project. The source color will always be brighter than the result color with this overlay, even if the source is black, the result will be black. This blending mode simulates drawing with a large number of markers on paper, i.e. each new color will be darker than the original.
color burn- the resulting color will be a darkened source that reflects the underlying layer by increasing the contrast. Clean White color source, does not change the color of the underlying layer.
Classic Color Burn is the old color burn mode from ae 5.0 and below, renamed to classic color burn. Only used in older projects where color burn overlay compatibility is needed.
Linear Burn- the resulting color will be a darkened source that reflects the underlying layer by increasing the contrast in the linear color space. Pure white source color, does not change the color of the underlying layer.
darker color- the same principle as Darken, but taking into account the fact that darken color does not operate on the color values of each channel and you get a harder mask, without translucencies.
Additive category
Add- the resulting color is the sum of the color channels of the source and the underlying layer. The resulting color will always be brighter than the original.
lighten- the resulting color of the source will be the upper (light) values of the color channels.
Screen- multiplies the mathematical complements of the color channel values, which then take on the values of the resulting complements. Sounds terrible, I know. Screen mode simulates the light of a projector or the display of several photos through the projector on one screen.
color dodge- the resulting color will be a clarified source (not to be confused with a consecrated one), which reflects the underlying layer by reducing the contrast. The pure black color of the source, does not change the color of the underlying layer.
Classic Color Dodge- the same story as with classic color burn. Used only with older projects where overlay compatibility is needed.
Linear Dodge- the resulting color will be a clarified source that reflects the underlying layer by reducing the contrast in the linear color space. The pure black color of the source, does not change the color of the underlying layer.
Lighter Color- the same principle as in Lighten, but taking into account the fact that Lighter color does not operate on the color values of each channel and you get a harder mask, without translucencies.
complex category
overlay- multiplies or projects the value of the color channel of the source, depending on the presence or absence in the source of a color that is lighter than gray 50% color. The resulting color retains the shadows and highlights in the source.
soft light- darkens or brightens the values of the color channel of the underlying layer, depending on the color of the source. Simulates light from a diffuse light source through the source to the bottom layer. If the source color is darker than 50% gray, then the resulting color will be darker than the underlying layer.
hard light- multiplies or projects the value of the color channel of the source, depending on the source color in the original. Simulates the appearance of harsh light on the layer. This mode is useful for making shadows appear on a layer. If the values of the color channel in the source are lighter than 50% gray, then the underlying color is lightened using the screen overlay method, if it is darker, then it is shaded using the multiply method.
Linear Light- brightens or darkens the resulting color, or increases brightness depending on the color of the underlying layer. If the colors of the bottom layer are lighter than 50% gray, then the layer will be lightened by increasing the brightness. If it is darker, then it is shaded, by decreasing the brightness.
Vivid Light- similar to linear light, only working with contrast, not with color brightness. The mode lightens or darkens the resulting color by increasing or decreasing the contrast, depending on the underlying layer. If the colors of the bottom layer are lighter than 50% gray, then the layer will be lightened by lowering the contrast. If darker, then shaded, increasing contrast.
pin light- this mode replaces colors depending on the underlying color. If the bottom layer is lighter than 50% grey, then the dark pixels of the bottom layer will be replaced and the light pixels will be left unchanged. If the bottom layer is darker than 50% gray, then vice versa, the light ones will be replaced, the dark ones will remain.
hard mix- enhances the contrast of the bottom layer, the visible area of the mask of the original layer. The mask area is generated from the contrast areas of the source, the size depends on the contrast center.
Difference category
Difference- subtraction occurs in each color channel dark colors from light ones. Upper light colors will invert the colors of the bottom layer. Using this mode, you can create the so-called. In practice, this mask can be used if you have two identical footages, where the background is shot on one, and the background + object on the other. With this overlay, footage with an object can be "subtracted" from the background, without the use of keying or rotoscoping. As practice shows, it is extremely difficult to achieve a “clean” result, you still have to do a clean-up. It should also be taken into account that subtracting the same color channels gives us a zero result, and you get black.
Classic Difference- blending mode "difference" which was used in older versions of AE. Like any other "classic", it exists only for compatibility.
Exclusion- works the same as difference, except that the resulting color is less contrasty. Uses addition to subtraction, if the source is black, then the resulting color is the color of the bottom layer.
Subtract- the resulting color is the difference (subtraction) of the color channels of the source and the underlying layer. The resulting colors may be less than 0 in 32-bpc projects (super dark pixels).
Divide- in each color channel of the source is divided by the value of the color channels of the underlying layer. The resulting colors may be greater than 1 in 32-bpc projects (super bright pixels).
HSL category
Hue- the resulting color will be the brightness and saturation of the underlying color and the hue of the source.
Saturation- the resulting color will be the brightness and hue of the underlying color and the saturation of the source.
color- the resulting color will be the brightness of the underlying color and the hue + saturation of the source. This mode keeps the midtones in the bottom layer. This mode is convenient for coloring b/w images, compositions.
Luminosity- the resulting color will be the saturation of the underlying color and the brightness of the source. The mode is the reverse of the Color mode.
Matt category
Stencil Alpha- creates a stencil (in other words, an area of opacity) using the alpha channel of the original layer. Works on all lower layers.
Stencil Luma- creates a stencil (in other words, an area of opacity) using the brightness of the original layer. Works on all lower layers.
Silhouette Alpha- creates a silhouette using the alpha channel of the layer. The action is the reverse of the stencil alpha mode.
Silhouette Luma- creates a silhouette using the brightness of the source layer. The action is reverse to the stencil luma regimen. about track matte masks, in particular about Luma matte, here the scheme is the same, the brighter the pixel, the more opaque it is.
utility category
Alpha Add- , about the use of this overlay in a separate article. In short, this is an overlay that stacks translucencies that appear at the edges of a layer, for example, when cutting with a mask, or merging layers in 3d space.
Luminescent Premul- in layers (in footage, in particular) that have an alpha channel and areas with translucency, this mode prohibits cutting out color values that are greater than the alpha channel values. This mode is useful when using pre-rendered lighting effects such as flyers with a premultiplied alpha channel.
PS: yes, I understand, it is very difficult to understand the meaning of overlays until you try to “poke” them yourself and check the resulting colors with a pipette with a calculator.
By the way, here's another quick tip: you can switch between blend modes using the hot keys shift and + or -
It's time to plunge into the incredible atmosphere of plugins for After Effecta for 2016. There are many more than you can imagine, but in this article I decided to collect 10 of my favorites, which are among the most frequently used by me. Whether it's to make your workflow more efficient, to add features not found in After Effects, or just to make your work look cooler, After Effects has never been more powerful when combined with these plugins.
1.Plexus 3
Plexus from Rowbyte Software has become one of the few plugins whose name directly indicates the type of effect in operation (the fact is that Plexus is translated from English and Latin as interlacing, entanglement, hence it is easy to guess what effect this plugin carries in itself) . Surely everyone knows what is meant when the brief requires the Plexus effect. This is where Plexus comes in, capable of producing a lot more dots and lines, and Version 3 adds even more effects. I personally love the Plexus Object Panel, which is easy to work with, I would like to see something similar in other AE plugins.
2. PQ FUI Toys 2
Have you ever had such that the deadlines are already running out, but it would be necessary to hand over the work with a gorgeous UI? Well, PQ FUI Toys 2 will help to add and enhance any picture with small moving graphic elements that make up a significant part of UI design. It may hurt your inner designer to use ready-made add-ons, but each of these add-ons is easy to edit and a huge time saver.
3.Motion V2
Motion V2 is by far my favorite plugin when it comes to workflow. It's amazing how much you can fit into this small palette. I use Motion V2 to solve the issue of twinning (the process of automatically rendering a frame between elements), distributing all my projects into folders in one click, adding moving lines between any two layers, and distributing layers by parent null.
4. Duik
After Effects has a good basic system for preparing a character for animation (rigging), but Duik has taken this process to the next level.
5. Nodes 2
Nodes 2 has saved me a lot of trouble on several projects this year. Nodes 2 is capable of creating a huge amount of graphics, from advanced 3D UIs to more abstract "goodness" that can somehow be modeled and adjusted in 3D space. The only omission is the lack of support for Windows, that is, it is available only to Mac users.
6. Denoiser II
A very useful plugin for the 3D designer to help clean up renders. I use Octane GPU most of the time and have found the Denoiser II to be useful as it is able to solve many rendering problems right away much faster than rendering models in CG, and with GPU support the Denoiser II does the job faster.
7. RED Giant Universe
I must admit that I became addicted to 60 effects of the RED Giant Universe. Why, because it offers effects from transitions (which also work in Premiere), to video effects and Motion Graphics, and the list is far from exhausted. Since all effects are GPU based, I use them much more often than their native equivalents. So it turns out much faster.
8.Trapcode World
When Trapcode Mir first launched, it was difficult to define its purpose, but its time has come with the release of version 2.0. Mir is good for creating geometry that can be further deformed, which can then be rendered to create beautiful abstract shapes and landscapes. Personally, I've discovered creating all sorts of undulations and bumps that bring life and depth to a composition.
9. Frischluft Lenscare
One of the most commonly seen plugins is definitely Frischluft's 'Lenscare'. Lenscare is 2 Depth of Field plugins (the effect of creating depth and sharpness). The plugin can use the data from the 3D render to create realistic effect depths in computer graphics without having to render over existing graphics. hallmark The plug-in is also that it allows you to animate the focus point and the degree of blur. FL Out of Focus is a faster version without depth effect that allows you to create a Lens Blurs effect based on the Frischluft engine.
A must-have for anyone thinking about editing serious video projects.
10. Trapcode Particular
Even if it seems like Trapcode Particular has been around since the inception of After Effects, like Plexus 3 it is becoming more user-friendly, and its release from the Effects Panel proves it. The new Particular Effects Builder palette is a great way to build basic elements FX needed to create a composition. Every component (from sprites to physics) can be modified to desired type without interfering with the animation, which can be an invaluable help in the development of new projects.
In AE, there are a lot of effects. It is possible to install additional plugins. The most used ones are in bold:
Advanced 3D - as the name suggests, your video will be placed on a specific plane that you can manipulate in a virtual 3D space. The effect is similar to the standard Adobe effect After Effects, but has additional options for finer manipulation of the effect.Alpha Map is an effect designed to manipulate alpha channels. You can invert the alpha channel, adjust it with a level algorithm (something like an equalizer for the brightness component), manipulate the transparency of the alpha channel. All these functions will give you the ability to easily and correctly organize a glow or shadow based on the edited alpha channel.
Ball Action - the effect "pulls" the video onto a series of balls.
Bend It - the video bends like a steel band or like a flag in the wind (depending on the effect settings).
Bender is a more advanced version of the FE Bend It effect.
Blobbylize is an extrusion type effect based on an arbitrarily complex alpha channel. And the object created on the basis of extrusion turns out to be like glass.
Bubbles is an effect that creates bubbles that move in front of the layer to which the effect is applied.
Burn Film - effect that imitates film burn-in. Burn-in, such as what happens when film gets stuck in a movie projector. The film burns and melts starting from the center.
Color Offset - an effect that allows you to shift the spectrum of the image. Something called "rotate RGB channels".
Composite - an effect that allows you to combine two images in one layer.
Cylinder - effect "stretches" the video on the cylinder, and then in the virtual 3D space you can manipulate this cylinder. Just be careful with the alpha channel and the borders of the "stretched" layer - everything is handled not quite intuitively.
Drizzle - an effect that gives concentric waves on the image, similar to the waves from an object that has fallen into the water. Reflections and highlights like "solar spots" are supported.
Flo Motion is an effect that gives distortion like a "black hole" or vortex "a. Users should be familiar with the Kai Power Goo program that works exactly on this principle.
Force Motion Blur is a Motion Blur generation effect created based on information from several neighboring frames. Processing this effect with an animation that consists of moving a layer will give a smoother movement, imitation of a video taken by a camera.
Glass - the effect looks like the layer falls on a rather chaotic glass surface. You will be able to control the physical parameters of this glass surface.
Glass Wipe is an effect that is, as it were, a development of the previous effect. This is a kind of curly "curtain". The images change as they would change if the top layer melted and disappeared when applied to the glass.
Glue Gun - an effect with which the video is squeezed out of a tube of toothpaste. Reflection and highlights are being worked out. With this "toothpaste" you can even write.
Grid Wipe - a curly "wipe" that replaces images by increasing cells, the parameters of the movement-increase of which you can control.
Griddler - an effect that breaks the image into squares that you can manipulate. If desired, you can use this effect to simulate FE Grid Wipe.
Hair - the effect, as a result of which the video lies on a very realistic moving fur, grass or hair. Depending on your effect settings.
Image Wipe - curly "curtain", an analogue of the standard Gradient Wipe.
Jaws - curly "curtain", the top layer is divided into two parts, separated by a zigzag (very similar to Jaws jaws) line. Eventually the two parts of the layer move apart and reveal the bottom image.
Kaleida - the effect of "kaleidoscope".
lens - the effect of simulating lens distortions.
light burst - an effect that generates exclusively bright light, giving distortion of the type of lens.
Light Rays is an effect that generates a "surround light" source.
Light Sweep - an effect that generates light like an elongated "sunbeam".
Light Wipe is a very original curly "wipe" that generates light rays coming from the edge of the developing image.
Mr.Mercury - the effect already mentioned above, which imitates the reflection of a video from a system of mercury balls. Generally speaking, having the skill of working with these effects, you can quite realistically simulate any liquid media - molten plastic, a waterfall, the same mercury.
Mr.Smmothie is an effect that generates completely psychedelic images based on a given one. This is done by simply "rotating the RGB channels".
Page Turn - a popular curly "blind" that implements the flipping of the top layer.
Particle Systems - a particle system that allows you to implement effects ranging from a simple explosion to clouds of smoke.
Particle Systems II is a more complicated version of the previous effect, which also allows you to manipulate the transparency of particles.
Particle Systems LE is a simplified version of FE Particle Systems II.
Particle World - a variant of the particle system, in which particles do not just move along a two-dimensional plane, but "you can twist this plane." It's really a 3D environment for each of the particles.
Pixel Polly is a popular "breaking glass" effect.
Power Pin - an effect in which you set the corners of a virtual plane in 3D space, "stretch" the video on this surface.
Radial Scale Wipe - curly "wipe", with which the bottom layer of the video is shown by scaling in a circle, increasing / decreasing from / to an arbitrary point on the layer.
Rain - rain simulation effect. You can control the slope of the drops, the speed of their fall, their size and much more.
RepeTile - an effect in which the image is repeated a specified number of times horizontally, vertically.
Ripple Pulse - an effect that generates weak waves passing through the image. Wave amplitude, frequency and center point are easily controlled.
Scale Wipe - the original curly "curtain", the top layer, is stretched, scaled and eventually disappears in the manner of Flo Motion.
Scatterize - an effect that makes the image "scatter", partly imitating an explosion.
Simple Wire Removal - an effect that imitates complex view distortion, characterized as a "kink in the image" along a given segment. Strictly speaking, this effect makes it possible to disguise long cuts and is good for just that.
Slant is an effect that generates slanted image distortions that mimic some kind of imitation of plane manipulation in 3D virtual space.
Slant Matte - an effect similar to the previous one, but working with "transparency information" (matte). With some skill in working with this effect, you can quite accurately simulate flat shadows.
Smear - the effect of "stretching" the video along a certain vector. Repeatedly applying this effect as "elementary", you can realize original and arbitrarily complex image distortions.
Snow - snow imitation effect. You can control the intensity of the snowfall, the size of the snowflakes, their speed and many more parameters for the fall of the snowflakes.
Sphere - an effect similar to the FE Cylinder effect. Except that the image is stretched not on a cylinder, but on a sphere, on a ball.
Split - an effect in which the image is moved apart along the specified segment. The way theater curtains open.
Spotlight - an effect in which the image is "snatched" out of the darkness by a spotlight beam. Moreover, the spotlight is completely controllable.
Star Burst - an effect that generates a flight in space among the stars.
Thereshold is an effect that implements the popular "threshold" algorithm most commonly used to generate missing "transparency information" (Matte).
Thereshold RGB - The Thereshold FE effect works on the luminance component of the image and results in a black and white (2x color) image. The FE Thereshold RGB effect works individually with RGB channels and results in color image. In some cases, when generating Matte, this effect gives better results.
Tiler- simplest effect, which generates a multiple repetition on the plane of the given image.
Time Blend - An effect focused on working with a time-varying image. When applied in each frame, translucent, fading copies of previous frames are obtained.
Time Blend FX - an effect similar to the previous one, but it is built so that you can apply two copies of it. One of them will place the contents of the frame in a virtual buffer, and the other will place a translucent copy of the contents of the virtual buffer in the frame.
Toner - An effect that tones images to specified colors based on brightness. IN Adobe Photoshop it's called Duotone. With this effect, you can imitate the popular sepia tone.
Twister - figured "curtain". Strictly speaking, this is not a curtain, but simply an effect that twists the image plane. But on this twisting, you can create the original "curtain".
Wide Time is an effect that simulates a selectively acting Motion Blur that only affects moving objects. It should be noted that the effect localizes moving objects very accurately.
Radial Blur - an effect that "blurs" the image along the radius of a circle inscribed in the image. Several very original and spectacular algorithms are being implemented.
Split 2 is an effect that is a development of the FE Split effect. In this version, each half of the "parting curtain" is controlled separately.
Vector Blur - an effect that implements "blurring" according to a number of complex and quite interesting algorithms
Adobe After Effects contains just a huge number of effects for working with video - and this is undoubtedly its most strong point. Many people choose this program only because of its wide possibilities - after all, the program allows you to use not only the standard effects developed by Adobe, but also many amazing beautiful effects from third party developers.
Of course, the presence of such a number of effects also implies the presence of skills in working with them, because each effect has from one to several dozen parameters with settings, and each such parameter can also be animated. It will take a very long time to describe how they all work, so in this article we will only get acquainted with the main ways to apply effects and work with them.
1. SELECTING THE EFFECT. All effects in Adobe After Effects divided into groups, this greatly facilitates their search. You can find the desired effect in the Effect menu or using the search bar in the Effects & Presets panel by writing the first letters or the entire name of the effect in it.
2. ADDING EFFECT. To add an effect to a layer, you need to select the layer and double-click on the desired effect in the Effects & Presets panel or select an effect in the Effect menu. The effect can also be dragged with the mouse from the effects panel to the desired layer in the layers panel or in the viewer panel to the desired element or layer. The same effect can be added to multiple layers by first selecting them in the layers panel.
3. EFFECT ON AND OFF. After adding an effect to a layer, the effect's options appear in the Effect Controls panel (next to the Project panel). You can turn off the effect in this panel by deselecting the fx checkbox in the square box next to the effect name. By the way, if several effects are added to the layer, then they are located one below the other in this list and are applied in the same order.
4. ACCESS TO THE EFFECT PARAMETERS. Next to each effect in the Effect Controls panel there is an arrow for collapsing and expanding the effect parameters, and in the properties of each layer in the effects tab there are all the same parameters.
5. SETTING THE PARAMETERS. The effect parameters are adjusted manually by entering numbers from the keyboard, or by right-clicking on the parameter value and moving the mouse in any direction.
6. REMOVE EFFECT. To delete an effect, select its name in the Effect Controls panel and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Thus, work is carried out with effects in Adobe After Effects. And these are just the basic functions of the program.
Currently, there are already many lessons on applying certain effects in Adobe After Effects. Watch them, study them, and don't be afraid to try to do it your own way, because there are a lot of possibilities for applying effects and their combinations. It is quite possible that you will get something of your own - unique, and you will record your video lesson about it.
I wish you success!
See you in the next articles.
