After Effects Workshop|PPP3

After Effects Workshop notes.

Since the change in the college network this year, first thing that needs to be done is to set a disk cache to scratch, which allows After Effects runs smoothly and stops it from sending massive files across the network (which slows it down).
Another thing worth remembering is a good housekeeping when comes to creating assets in Photoshop - make sure the painting is much more larger than the HD setting (4-5 times bigger), which allows plenty of movement for the digital camera (panning, zooming), also NAME your layers correctly while working in Photoshop.


First part of workshop was just a refresher of the After Effects basics, like 3D layers, camera movements, use of depth of field and motion blur. I've played with all those tool last year and, surprisingly, remembered everything (but it's always good to get another reminder).



Puppet tool and using pins was the second part of the workshop.
Puppet starch tool - makes mesh around the pin inflexible, not as bendy as with just using pins, keeps object straight.
Overlap tool - similar to starch tool, allows to mark the areas of the asset to overlap (go in front of each other or behind). Change of extend and in front values impacts the area effected by tool. Overlap tool is key frame-able in terms of position (so one thing can go in front of the other and then go behind).

Another useful tip I've learned today was that by holding down command (alt for pc) button and pin that you want to control, the little stop watch symbol will appear and record movement of the pin, which saves time when key framing (no need to do it manually). Good for little object within the composition, gives a really funky, cartoon-y look.