Как установить пресеты в adobe after effects
After Effects позволяет легко добавлять последние штрихи к любому видеопроекту. Однако, как бы ни были велики последствия, нет никаких сомнений в том, что определенные действия занимают много времени. Если вы работаете с большим количеством видеофайлов, экономия времени в вашем рабочем процессе очень важна.
Именно здесь и появляются эти бесплатные пресеты After Effect. Они помогут вам не только сэкономить время, но и деньги, а также ускорить процесс редактирования, чтобы вы могли взять на себя больше проектов или наслаждаться большим количеством свободного времени.
Как установить пресеты After Effects
Пресеты After Effects позволяют легко создавать собственную библиотеку различных анимаций и эффектов для ваших проектов редактирования видео. Вот краткое руководство по установке пресетов After Effects, загруженных из Интернета.
- Загрузите и распакуйте предустановку After Effects, которую вы хотите использовать
- Если вы находитесь на компьютере с Windows, перейдите в раздел Документы > Adobe >> After Effects >>> Пользовательские пресеты
- Скопируйте загруженную папку предустановок в указанную выше папку
- Если вы работаете на компьютере Mac, перейдите в раздел Приложения > Adobe After Effects >> Пресеты
- Скопируйте загруженную папку предустановок в указанную выше папку
- Чтобы использовать только что установленный пресет, запустите After Effects
- Перейдите в раздел Эффекты и пресеты, найдите только что установленные пресеты, выберите нужный пресет и дважды щелкните его, чтобы применить к вашей композиции.
After Effects Бесплатные Текстовые Эффекты Пресеты
Эффект пишущей машинки, предустановленный для After Effects
Этот набор предустановок для экономии времени и денег включает в себя 2 файла .ffx, которые позволят вам полностью настроить внешний вид и поведение вашего текста в вашем следующем проекте.
бесплатный пресеты after effects
Du Stroke Конический пресет для After Effects
Используйте этот предустановленный конический штрих, чтобы мастерски и фундаментально изменить то, как ваш текст может действовать для вашего следующего видео. Нет конца тому, как вы можете анимировать свой текст, когда используете этот полностью настраиваемый пресет.
Набор из 70 Пресетов Анимации Заголовка (с элементами Envato)
Сэкономьте время, энергию и деньги, используя этот ресурс для всех ваших проблем с текстом. Включает в себя шесть различных типов анимации, которая работает с любым шрифтом и полностью редактируется.
Текстовый эффект Stranger Things для After Effects
Используйте этот набор настроек, когда вы хотите добавить немного чутья к вашим следующим текстовым эффектам. Анимация ключевых кадров не требуется. Просто простой и настраиваемый исчезать и исчезать с помощью слоя в и из точек.
10 бесплатных пресетов текстовой анимации After Effects
Этот удивительный текстовый пресет позволяет вам анимировать с помощью ключевых кадров и без них, использовать зеркальные параметры ввода/вывода, обратные направления анимации текста и многое другое.
Инструментарий текстовых эффектов toolkit
Этот набор инструментов glitch text effect toolkit дает вам 30 различных готовых к работе анимаций заголовков, 32 различных карты глюков на выбор и 3D-перспективу, готовую для вашего творческого композитинга.
10 Более Простых Текстовых Пресетов After Effects
Используйте этот набор настроек, чтобы быстро анимировать текст для любого проекта. Вы найдете 10 уникальных текстовых пресетов, которые вы можете настроить по своему вкусу, чтобы придать вашему следующему видео яркий и профессиональный вид.
МНОГО ТЕКСТОВЫЕ ПРЕСЕТЫ After Effects
Этот набор предустановок предлагает десять чудесных анимированных текстовых опций, которые идеально подойдут для вашего следующего видеопроекта. Быстрый и простой в использовании, этот пакет сэкономит вам время и энергию, когда хруст будет включен.
After Effects Бесплатные Пресеты Анимации
Squash & Stretch Preset
Этот пресет включает в себя анимацию ручной работы профессионала с интеллектуальным методом настройки, который гарантирует, что все анимации и поведение всегда выглядят хорошо.
Пресет Bounce & Drop After Effects
Этот пресет bounce and drop идеально подходит для вашего следующего видеопроекта. С помощью простых и удобных в использовании контроллеров вы будете быстро анимировать все — от текста до фигур.
150 Анимаций брызг пресеты After Effects
Сэкономьте драгоценное время и деньги, используя этот ресурс анимации брызг. С 150 различными анимациями, которые легко настраиваются; этот ресурс-самый простой способ получить ваши эффекты на видео.
Animography Controller контроллера анимографии
С помощью этого предустановленного контроллера вы сможете быстро и легко анимировать свой текст, все в одном слое. Просто перетащите своих персонажей и создайте свои эффекты в функции create controller.
CounterPro Preset – Подсчет и анимация чисел
Используйте этот пресет для анимации любого числа любым способом по вашему выбору. Легко применяйте, изменяйте и настраивайте свои префиксные и суффиксные знаки, создавайте собственные таймеры или обратные отсчеты, и все это без необходимости анимации ключевых кадров.
With animation presets, you can save and reuse specific configurations of layer properties and animations, including keyframes, effects, and expressions. For example, if you created an explosion using several effects with complex property settings, keyframes, and expressions, you can save all those settings as a single animation preset. You can then apply that animation preset to any other layer.
Many animation presets don’t contain animation; rather, they contain combinations of effects, transform properties, and so on. A behavior animation preset uses expressions instead of keyframes to animate layer properties.
Animation presets can be saved and transferred from one computer to another. The filename extension for an animation preset is .ffx .
After Effects includes hundreds of animation presets that you can apply to your layers and modify to suit your needs, including many text animation presets. (See Text animation presets.)
You can browse and apply animation presets in After Effects using the Effects & Presets panel or Adobe Bridge. To open the Presets folder in Adobe Bridge, choose Browse Presets from the Effects & Presets panel menu or from the Animation menu.
A great way to see how advanced users use After Effects is to apply an animation preset, and press U or UU to reveal only the animated or modified layer properties. Viewing the animated and modified properties shows you what changes the designer of the animation preset made to create the animation preset.
Downloading, installing, and moving animation presets
- The animation presets that are installed with After Effects are in the Presets folder located in the Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC\Support Files (Windows) or Applications/Adobe After Effects CC (Mac OS) folder.
- Animation presets that you create are saved by default in the Presets folder located in
My Documents\Adobe\After Effects CC (Windows) or Documents/Adobe/After Effects CC (Mac OS).
You can add a single new animation preset or an entire folder of new animation presets to either of the Presets folders.
When After Effects starts, it searches both of the Presets folders and their subfolders for installed animation presets and adds them to the Effects & Presets panel. After Effects ignores the contents of folders with names that begin and end in parentheses; for example, the contents of the folder (archived_animation_presets) are not loaded.
Animation presets appear in the Effects & Presets panel only if they are located in one of the Presets folders or a subfolder of one of the Presets folders. If you move a preset to a new folder, place a shortcut (Windows) or an alias (Mac OS) of that folder in the Presets folder.
Animation presets are loaded and initialized only when the Effects & Presets panel is shown. If the Effects & Presets panel is closed or hidden behind another panel, the animation presets are not initialized.
Save an animation preset
Select any combination of properties (for example, Position and Scale) and property groups (for example, Paint and Transform). If you are selecting only effects, you can select them in the Effect Controls panel.
Choose Save Animation Preset from the Animation menu or from the Effects & Presets panel menu.
Specify a name and location for the file, and then click Save.
For the animation preset to appear in the Effects & Presets panel, it must be saved in the Presets folder.
If the animation preset does not appear in the Effects & Presets panel, choose Refresh List from the Effects & Presets panel menu.
Online resources for animation presets
If you apply an animation preset from the Animation Presets > Shapes > Backgrounds category, you can see a custom Animated Shape Control effect in the Effect Controls panel. This custom effect is a specialized expression control effect that was created specifically for these animation presets. You can copy and paste this effect to other layers, or you can save it as an animation preset itself so that you can apply it elsewhere.
You can also download animation presets from many After Effects community websites, such as the AE Enhancers forum.
For a list of animation presets included with After Effects, see Animation preset list.
Andrew Kramer provides many animation presets on his Video Copilot website.
After Effects includes various effects, which you apply to layers to add or modify characteristics of still images, video, and audio. For example, an effect can alter the exposure or color of an image, add new visual elements, manipulate sound, distort images, remove grain, enhance lighting, or create a transition.
Effects are sometimes mistakenly referred to as filters. The primary difference between a filter and an effect is that a filter permanently modifies an image or other characteristic of a layer, whereas an effect and its properties can be changed or removed at any time. In other words, filters operate destructively, and effects operate non-destructively. After Effects uses effects exclusively, so changes are non-destructive. A direct result of the ability to change the properties of effects is that the properties can be changed over time, or animated.
Path operations on shape layers, such as Zig Zag and Pucker & Bloat—which you apply through the shape layer’s Add menu—are called effects in Adobe Illustrator, but they function differently from other effects in After Effects.
You browse and apply effects using the Effects & Presets panel. You modify effect properties using the Effect Controls panel or Timeline panel or by moving effect control points in the Layer panel or Composition panel.
You can apply multiple instances of the same effect to a layer, rename each instance, and set the properties for each instance separately.
If you open a project that uses an effect for which After Effects has not loaded the plug-in, a warning dialog box appears, and instances of the effect have Missing: at the beginning of its name in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel. To show all instances of missing effects in the Timeline panel for the active composition, press FF.
Effect plug-ins
All effects are implemented as plug-ins, including the effects that are included with After Effects. Plug-ins are small software modules—with filename extensions such as .aex, .pbk, and .pbg—that add functionality to an application. Not all plug-ins are effect plug-ins; for example, some plug-ins provide features for importing and working with certain file formats. The Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in, for example, provides After Effects with its ability to work with camera raw files. (See Plug-ins.)
Because effects are implemented as plug-ins, you can install and use additional effects that parties other than Adobe provide, including effects that you create yourself. You can add a single new effect or an entire folder of new effects to the Plug-ins folder, which is located by default in one of these folders:
(Windows) Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC\Support Files
(Mac OS) Applications/Adobe After Effects CC
When After Effects starts, it searches the Plug-ins folder and its subfolders for all installed effects and adds them to the Effect menu and to the Effects & Presets panel. After Effects ignores the contents of folders with names that begin and end in parentheses; for example, the contents of the folder (archived_effects) are not loaded.
After Effects comes with several third-party plug-ins, including Foundry Keylight, Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse, Imagineer mocha shape, fnord ProEXR, and CycoreFX HD plug-ins. These plug-ins are installed by default with the full version of Adobe After Effects software. (See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects.).
The installers for some plug-ins install their documentation in the same directory as the plug-ins themselves.
The EXtractoR and IDentifier plug-ins from fnord software are included with After Effects to provide access to multiple layers and channels of OpenEXR files. See ProEXR plug-ins, IDentifier, and EXtractoR.
Animating effects
You animate effect properties in the same way that you animate any other properties—by adding keyframes or expressions to them. Usually, even effects that rely on animation for their normal use require that you set some keyframes or expressions. For example, animate the Transition Completion property of a Transition effect or the Evolution setting of the Turbulent Noise effect to turn a static effect into a dynamic effect.
Color depth
Effect opacity
The property group of each effect includes a Compositing Options property group. There is a new Effect Opacity property which provides similar functionality to every effect as the Blend With Original controls. With the Effect Opacity property, you can change the global opacity and it affects the entire effect. There is no need to add a mask separately.
The Blend With Original controls group lets you precisely apply any effect to a particular area of an image by masking the desired area.
For more information, see the Blend With Original effect section.
Render order
The order in which After Effects renders masks, effects, layer styles, and transform properties—called the render order—may affect the final result of an applied effect. By default, effects appear in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel in the order in which they were applied. Effects are rendered in order from top to bottom in this list. To change the order in which effects are rendered, drag the effect name to a new position in the list. (See Render order and collapsing transformations.)
Adjustment layers
An effect applied to an adjustment layer affects all layers below it in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel. (See Create an adjustment layer.)
Expression Controls effects
Expression Controls effects do not modify existing layer properties; rather, these effects add layer properties that expressions can refer to. (See Expression Controls effects.)
Preventing edge clipping with the Grow Bounds effect
Because an effect is applied to a layer, the results of some effects are constrained to within the bounds of the layer, which can make the effect appear to end abruptly. You can apply the Grow Bounds effect to a layer to temporarily extend the layer for calculating the results of other effects. This process is not necessary for newer effects, which tend to be 32-bpc effects.
Managing effects and effect properties with scripts
Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum with which you can search compositions for effects and turn them on or off.
Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum that makes synchronizing changes to Effect properties on multiple layers easier.
Effects applied with tools
Some effects—including the Puppet effect, the Paint effect, and the Roto Brush effect—are applied to a layer with a tool, rather than being applied directly in the same manner as other effects. (See Animating with Puppet tools, Paint tools and paint strokes, and Transparency, opacity, and compositing.)
CycoreFX HD is included in the installation of After Effects CC and CS6. There is 16-bpc support in all effects, and 32-bpc (float) support in 35 effects. CycoreFX HD plug-ins have support for motion blur, lights, more controls, and options.
Documentation—including tutorials and example projects—for the Cycore FX (CC) plug-ins is available on the Cycore website.
Bob Donlon provides the following tutorial about the CC Particle Systems II effect on the Adobe website:
Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on his website that demonstrates the CC Particle System II and CC Mr. Mercury effects.
Several effects rely on a control layer (or layer map) as input. These compound effects use the pixel values of the control layer to determine how to affect the pixels of the layer that the effect is applied to (the destination layer). Sometimes, the effect uses the brightness values of the pixels in the control layer; in some cases, the effect uses the individual channel values of the pixels in the control layer.
For example, the Displacement Map effect uses the brightness values of a control layer to determine how far to shift pixels of the underlying layer, and in which direction. The Shatter effect can use two control layers—one to customize the shapes of the shattered pieces and one to control when specific parts of the destination layer explode.
The compound effect ignores effects, masks, and transformations of a control layer. To use the results of effects, masks, and transformations on a layer, precompose the layer and use the precomposition layer as the control layer.
It is common to use a control layer that is not itself visible—that is, its Video switch is off.
Most compound effects include a Stretch Map To Fit option (or a similarly named option), which temporarily stretches or shrinks a control layer to the dimensions of the destination layer. This provides a pixel in the control layer corresponding to each pixel in the destination layer. If you deselect this option, the calculations for the compound effect are performed as if the control layer is centered on the destination layer at its original size.
You can create control layers by drawing or painting in an image-editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop.
Tips for creating control layers:
For many compound effects, neutral gray pixels in the control layer correspond to null operations. Therefore, a neutral gray solid layer is a good starting point for creating a control layer.
Apply the Turbulent Noise effect to a layer and precompose it to create a good control layer for turbulent or atmospheric results.
You can create a control layer by precomposing a white solid layer, a black solid layer, and a mask on the top layer that determines which areas are white and black. Increasing the feather of a mask softens the transition between black and white values.
The contrast between adjacent pixel values determines how smoothly the values change across the surface of the control layer. To create smooth changes, paint using a soft or anti-aliased brush, or apply gradients. To create abrupt changes, avoid intermediate shades, using a few widely spaced shades, such as 50% gray, black, and white.
Some effects can use the camera and lights within the same composition. These effects include Card Dance, Card Wipe, and Shatter. Some of these effects always use the composition camera, whereas others include light and camera options in the Effect Controls panel.
The Live Photoshop 3D effect behaves as an effect with a Comp Camera attribute. This effect only appears on a layer when the layer is a 3D object layer from a PSD file. See 3D object layers from Photoshop.
When you apply an effect with a Comp Camera attribute to a 2D layer, the effect can track the camera and light positions within the composition and render a 3D image on the 2D layer that it is applied to. The results of the effect appear to be three-dimensional; however, the layer with the Comp Camera attribute applied remains a 2D layer and therefore has the following characteristics:
3D layers above and below it in the Timeline panel cannot intersect with each other or cast shadows on each other.
It cannot intersect with 3D layers or cast or accept shadows.
The image is rendered on the layer, not the composition, so make sure that you apply these effects to layers that are the same size as the composition and are exactly centered in the composition.
When you apply an effect to a layer, the Effect Controls panel opens, listing the effect you applied and controls to change the property values for the effect. You can also work with effects and change most effect property values in the Timeline panel. However, the Effect Controls panel has more convenient controls for many kinds of properties, such as sliders, effect control point buttons, and histograms.
The Effect Controls panel is a viewer, which means that you can have Effect Controls panels for multiple layers open at once and can use the viewer menu in the tab of the panel to select layers.
- To open or close the Effect Controls panel for the selected layer, press F3.
- To select an effect, click it. To select the next or previous effect in the stacking order, press the Down arrow key or the Up arrow key, respectively.
- To expand or collapse selected effects, press the Right Arrow key or Left Arrow key, respectively.
- To expand or collapse a property group, click the triangle to the left of the effect name or property group name.
- To expand or collapse a property group and all its children, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the triangle.
- To expand or collapse all property groups for selected effects, press Ctrl+` (accent grave) (Windows) or Command+` (accent grave) (Mac OS).
- To reset all the properties of an effect to their default values, click Reset at the top of the entry for the effect in the Effect Controls panel.
- To duplicate selected effects, choose Edit > Duplicate, or press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Command+D (Mac OS).
- To move an effect to a different place in the rendering order, drag the effect up or down in the effect stack.
- To set the properties of an effect to the properties used in an animation preset, choose from the Animation Presets menu at the top of the entry for the effect in the Effect Controls panel.
- To show the Animation Presets menu in the Effect Controls panel, select Show Animation Presets in the panel menu.
- To modify the range of an effect property, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the underlined property value for the control and choose Edit Value from the context menu.
Browse and apply effects and animation presets with the Effects & Presets panel. An icon identifies each item in the panel by type. Numbers within the icons for effects indicate whether the effect works on a maximum of 8 bits, 16 bits, or 32 bits per channel.
You can scroll through the list of effects and animation presets, or you can search for effects and animation presets by typing any part of the name in the search box at the top of the panel.
The options that you choose in the Effects & Presets panel menu determine which items are shown:
Show Effects For All Color Depths
Shows effects that work with any color depth, not only the effects that work with the depth of the current project.
With animation presets, you can save and reuse specific configurations of layer properties and animations, including keyframes, effects, and expressions. For example, if you created an explosion using several effects with complex property settings, keyframes, and expressions, you can save all those settings as a single animation preset. You can then apply that animation preset to any other layer.
Many animation presets don’t contain animation; rather, they contain combinations of effects, transform properties, and so on. A behavior animation preset uses expressions instead of keyframes to animate layer properties.
Animation presets can be saved and transferred from one computer to another. The filename extension for an animation preset is .ffx .
After Effects includes hundreds of animation presets that you can apply to your layers and modify to suit your needs, including many text animation presets. (See Text animation presets.)
You can browse and apply animation presets in After Effects using the Effects & Presets panel or Adobe Bridge. To open the Presets folder in Adobe Bridge, choose Browse Presets from the Effects & Presets panel menu or from the Animation menu.
A great way to see how advanced users use After Effects is to apply an animation preset, and press U or UU to reveal only the animated or modified layer properties. Viewing the animated and modified properties shows you what changes the designer of the animation preset made to create the animation preset.
Downloading, installing, and moving animation presets
- The animation presets that are installed with After Effects are in the Presets folder located in the Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC\Support Files (Windows) or Applications/Adobe After Effects CC (Mac OS) folder.
- Animation presets that you create are saved by default in the Presets folder located in
My Documents\Adobe\After Effects CC (Windows) or Documents/Adobe/After Effects CC (Mac OS).
You can add a single new animation preset or an entire folder of new animation presets to either of the Presets folders.
When After Effects starts, it searches both of the Presets folders and their subfolders for installed animation presets and adds them to the Effects & Presets panel. After Effects ignores the contents of folders with names that begin and end in parentheses; for example, the contents of the folder (archived_animation_presets) are not loaded.
Animation presets appear in the Effects & Presets panel only if they are located in one of the Presets folders or a subfolder of one of the Presets folders. If you move a preset to a new folder, place a shortcut (Windows) or an alias (Mac OS) of that folder in the Presets folder.
Animation presets are loaded and initialized only when the Effects & Presets panel is shown. If the Effects & Presets panel is closed or hidden behind another panel, the animation presets are not initialized.
Save an animation preset
Select any combination of properties (for example, Position and Scale) and property groups (for example, Paint and Transform). If you are selecting only effects, you can select them in the Effect Controls panel.
Choose Save Animation Preset from the Animation menu or from the Effects & Presets panel menu.
Specify a name and location for the file, and then click Save.
For the animation preset to appear in the Effects & Presets panel, it must be saved in the Presets folder.
If the animation preset does not appear in the Effects & Presets panel, choose Refresh List from the Effects & Presets panel menu.
Online resources for animation presets
If you apply an animation preset from the Animation Presets > Shapes > Backgrounds category, you can see a custom Animated Shape Control effect in the Effect Controls panel. This custom effect is a specialized expression control effect that was created specifically for these animation presets. You can copy and paste this effect to other layers, or you can save it as an animation preset itself so that you can apply it elsewhere.
You can also download animation presets from many After Effects community websites, such as the AE Enhancers forum.
For a list of animation presets included with After Effects, see Animation preset list.
Andrew Kramer provides many animation presets on his Video Copilot website.
After Effects includes various effects, which you apply to layers to add or modify characteristics of still images, video, and audio. For example, an effect can alter the exposure or color of an image, add new visual elements, manipulate sound, distort images, remove grain, enhance lighting, or create a transition.
Effects are sometimes mistakenly referred to as filters. The primary difference between a filter and an effect is that a filter permanently modifies an image or other characteristic of a layer, whereas an effect and its properties can be changed or removed at any time. In other words, filters operate destructively, and effects operate non-destructively. After Effects uses effects exclusively, so changes are non-destructive. A direct result of the ability to change the properties of effects is that the properties can be changed over time, or animated.
Path operations on shape layers, such as Zig Zag and Pucker & Bloat—which you apply through the shape layer’s Add menu—are called effects in Adobe Illustrator, but they function differently from other effects in After Effects.
You browse and apply effects using the Effects & Presets panel. You modify effect properties using the Effect Controls panel or Timeline panel or by moving effect control points in the Layer panel or Composition panel.
You can apply multiple instances of the same effect to a layer, rename each instance, and set the properties for each instance separately.
If you open a project that uses an effect for which After Effects has not loaded the plug-in, a warning dialog box appears, and instances of the effect have Missing: at the beginning of its name in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel. To show all instances of missing effects in the Timeline panel for the active composition, press FF.
Effect plug-ins
All effects are implemented as plug-ins, including the effects that are included with After Effects. Plug-ins are small software modules—with filename extensions such as .aex, .pbk, and .pbg—that add functionality to an application. Not all plug-ins are effect plug-ins; for example, some plug-ins provide features for importing and working with certain file formats. The Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in, for example, provides After Effects with its ability to work with camera raw files. (See Plug-ins.)
Because effects are implemented as plug-ins, you can install and use additional effects that parties other than Adobe provide, including effects that you create yourself. You can add a single new effect or an entire folder of new effects to the Plug-ins folder, which is located by default in one of these folders:
(Windows) Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC\Support Files
(Mac OS) Applications/Adobe After Effects CC
When After Effects starts, it searches the Plug-ins folder and its subfolders for all installed effects and adds them to the Effect menu and to the Effects & Presets panel. After Effects ignores the contents of folders with names that begin and end in parentheses; for example, the contents of the folder (archived_effects) are not loaded.
After Effects comes with several third-party plug-ins, including Foundry Keylight, Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse, Imagineer mocha shape, fnord ProEXR, and CycoreFX HD plug-ins. These plug-ins are installed by default with the full version of Adobe After Effects software. (See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects.).
The installers for some plug-ins install their documentation in the same directory as the plug-ins themselves.
The EXtractoR and IDentifier plug-ins from fnord software are included with After Effects to provide access to multiple layers and channels of OpenEXR files. See ProEXR plug-ins, IDentifier, and EXtractoR.
Animating effects
You animate effect properties in the same way that you animate any other properties—by adding keyframes or expressions to them. Usually, even effects that rely on animation for their normal use require that you set some keyframes or expressions. For example, animate the Transition Completion property of a Transition effect or the Evolution setting of the Turbulent Noise effect to turn a static effect into a dynamic effect.
Color depth
Effect opacity
The property group of each effect includes a Compositing Options property group. There is a new Effect Opacity property which provides similar functionality to every effect as the Blend With Original controls. With the Effect Opacity property, you can change the global opacity and it affects the entire effect. There is no need to add a mask separately.
The Blend With Original controls group lets you precisely apply any effect to a particular area of an image by masking the desired area.
For more information, see the Blend With Original effect section.
Render order
The order in which After Effects renders masks, effects, layer styles, and transform properties—called the render order—may affect the final result of an applied effect. By default, effects appear in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel in the order in which they were applied. Effects are rendered in order from top to bottom in this list. To change the order in which effects are rendered, drag the effect name to a new position in the list. (See Render order and collapsing transformations.)
Adjustment layers
An effect applied to an adjustment layer affects all layers below it in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel. (See Create an adjustment layer.)
Expression Controls effects
Expression Controls effects do not modify existing layer properties; rather, these effects add layer properties that expressions can refer to. (See Expression Controls effects.)
Preventing edge clipping with the Grow Bounds effect
Because an effect is applied to a layer, the results of some effects are constrained to within the bounds of the layer, which can make the effect appear to end abruptly. You can apply the Grow Bounds effect to a layer to temporarily extend the layer for calculating the results of other effects. This process is not necessary for newer effects, which tend to be 32-bpc effects.
Managing effects and effect properties with scripts
Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum with which you can search compositions for effects and turn them on or off.
Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum that makes synchronizing changes to Effect properties on multiple layers easier.
Effects applied with tools
Some effects—including the Puppet effect, the Paint effect, and the Roto Brush effect—are applied to a layer with a tool, rather than being applied directly in the same manner as other effects. (See Animating with Puppet tools, Paint tools and paint strokes, and Transparency, opacity, and compositing.)
CycoreFX HD is included in the installation of After Effects CC and CS6. There is 16-bpc support in all effects, and 32-bpc (float) support in 35 effects. CycoreFX HD plug-ins have support for motion blur, lights, more controls, and options.
Documentation—including tutorials and example projects—for the Cycore FX (CC) plug-ins is available on the Cycore website.
Bob Donlon provides the following tutorial about the CC Particle Systems II effect on the Adobe website:
Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on his website that demonstrates the CC Particle System II and CC Mr. Mercury effects.
Several effects rely on a control layer (or layer map) as input. These compound effects use the pixel values of the control layer to determine how to affect the pixels of the layer that the effect is applied to (the destination layer). Sometimes, the effect uses the brightness values of the pixels in the control layer; in some cases, the effect uses the individual channel values of the pixels in the control layer.
For example, the Displacement Map effect uses the brightness values of a control layer to determine how far to shift pixels of the underlying layer, and in which direction. The Shatter effect can use two control layers—one to customize the shapes of the shattered pieces and one to control when specific parts of the destination layer explode.
The compound effect ignores effects, masks, and transformations of a control layer. To use the results of effects, masks, and transformations on a layer, precompose the layer and use the precomposition layer as the control layer.
It is common to use a control layer that is not itself visible—that is, its Video switch is off.
Most compound effects include a Stretch Map To Fit option (or a similarly named option), which temporarily stretches or shrinks a control layer to the dimensions of the destination layer. This provides a pixel in the control layer corresponding to each pixel in the destination layer. If you deselect this option, the calculations for the compound effect are performed as if the control layer is centered on the destination layer at its original size.
You can create control layers by drawing or painting in an image-editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop.
Tips for creating control layers:
For many compound effects, neutral gray pixels in the control layer correspond to null operations. Therefore, a neutral gray solid layer is a good starting point for creating a control layer.
Apply the Turbulent Noise effect to a layer and precompose it to create a good control layer for turbulent or atmospheric results.
You can create a control layer by precomposing a white solid layer, a black solid layer, and a mask on the top layer that determines which areas are white and black. Increasing the feather of a mask softens the transition between black and white values.
The contrast between adjacent pixel values determines how smoothly the values change across the surface of the control layer. To create smooth changes, paint using a soft or anti-aliased brush, or apply gradients. To create abrupt changes, avoid intermediate shades, using a few widely spaced shades, such as 50% gray, black, and white.
Some effects can use the camera and lights within the same composition. These effects include Card Dance, Card Wipe, and Shatter. Some of these effects always use the composition camera, whereas others include light and camera options in the Effect Controls panel.
The Live Photoshop 3D effect behaves as an effect with a Comp Camera attribute. This effect only appears on a layer when the layer is a 3D object layer from a PSD file. See 3D object layers from Photoshop.
When you apply an effect with a Comp Camera attribute to a 2D layer, the effect can track the camera and light positions within the composition and render a 3D image on the 2D layer that it is applied to. The results of the effect appear to be three-dimensional; however, the layer with the Comp Camera attribute applied remains a 2D layer and therefore has the following characteristics:
3D layers above and below it in the Timeline panel cannot intersect with each other or cast shadows on each other.
It cannot intersect with 3D layers or cast or accept shadows.
The image is rendered on the layer, not the composition, so make sure that you apply these effects to layers that are the same size as the composition and are exactly centered in the composition.
When you apply an effect to a layer, the Effect Controls panel opens, listing the effect you applied and controls to change the property values for the effect. You can also work with effects and change most effect property values in the Timeline panel. However, the Effect Controls panel has more convenient controls for many kinds of properties, such as sliders, effect control point buttons, and histograms.
The Effect Controls panel is a viewer, which means that you can have Effect Controls panels for multiple layers open at once and can use the viewer menu in the tab of the panel to select layers.
- To open or close the Effect Controls panel for the selected layer, press F3.
- To select an effect, click it. To select the next or previous effect in the stacking order, press the Down arrow key or the Up arrow key, respectively.
- To expand or collapse selected effects, press the Right Arrow key or Left Arrow key, respectively.
- To expand or collapse a property group, click the triangle to the left of the effect name or property group name.
- To expand or collapse a property group and all its children, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the triangle.
- To expand or collapse all property groups for selected effects, press Ctrl+` (accent grave) (Windows) or Command+` (accent grave) (Mac OS).
- To reset all the properties of an effect to their default values, click Reset at the top of the entry for the effect in the Effect Controls panel.
- To duplicate selected effects, choose Edit > Duplicate, or press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Command+D (Mac OS).
- To move an effect to a different place in the rendering order, drag the effect up or down in the effect stack.
- To set the properties of an effect to the properties used in an animation preset, choose from the Animation Presets menu at the top of the entry for the effect in the Effect Controls panel.
- To show the Animation Presets menu in the Effect Controls panel, select Show Animation Presets in the panel menu.
- To modify the range of an effect property, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the underlined property value for the control and choose Edit Value from the context menu.
Browse and apply effects and animation presets with the Effects & Presets panel. An icon identifies each item in the panel by type. Numbers within the icons for effects indicate whether the effect works on a maximum of 8 bits, 16 bits, or 32 bits per channel.
You can scroll through the list of effects and animation presets, or you can search for effects and animation presets by typing any part of the name in the search box at the top of the panel.
The options that you choose in the Effects & Presets panel menu determine which items are shown:
Show Effects For All Color Depths
Shows effects that work with any color depth, not only the effects that work with the depth of the current project.
After Effects presets can be extremely useful, whether they be to speed up a process or make a certain effect easier to achieve. Let’s look into how to install presets, for those of you who have yet to utilize them.
Before delving into how to use an After Effects preset, it’s obviously rather important to understand what an After Effects preset actually is. It’s understandable to confuse a preset with a plugin, but the two are quite different.
An After Effects preset is a predefined combination of effects saved within AE, while plugins are separate software that work with After Effects to produce effects the program is unable to do as is.
One can be created by any user within After Effects, while the other must be coded like any piece of software. For more information on similar After Effects jargon, check out our article on the difference between presets, plugins, scripts, expressions, and templates.
1. Installing a Preset
Installing presets can be done one of two ways. Both are fairly simple, but which method you choose to use is up to you, depending on the situation.
Method One: Adobe Bridge
Open After Effects and select the layer you want to apply a preset to. Then navigate to the ‘Animation’ tab, then select ‘Browse Presets’ if you’d like to locate it within Adobe Bridge.
To use your default browser, choose ‘Apply Preset’ instead.
From there, just select your desired preset, and it will be applied to the layer you selected earlier.
Method Two: File Browser
Rather than working within After Effects, this method is done within your operating system’s file browser. Your After Effects installation contains a preset folder in which all preset files are contained. Simply copy your desired preset into this folder, and you can later apply it from the effects panel within After Effects. Depending on your operating system and version of After Effects, your installation directory may vary. Here are the various possible locations of the preset folder, coupled with their respective versions and operating systems.
Mac OS X
~/Documents/Adobe/After Effects CS6/User Presets/
~/Documents/Adobe/After Effects CC 2014/User Presets/
~/Documents/Adobe/After Effects CC 2015/User Presets/
Windows
My Documents\Adobe\After Effects CS6\User Presets\
My Documents\Adobe\After Effects CC 2014\User Presets\
My Documents\Adobe\After Effects CC 2015\User Presets\
If you haven’t used a preset before, your installation may not yet have a dedicated preset folder. If this is the case, you can simply create one manually as you would any folder.
2. Creating a Preset
Creating After Effects presets might sound intimidating, but it’s much easier than you may think! Select all of the effects on a layer that you want to save as a preset, then navigate to the ‘Animation’ tab of After Effects and select ‘Save Preset’ — that’s all there is to it! Even if you aren’t creating a preset to be shared with others, it can be handy to save one for yourself for future use.
Presets are by no means essential to your work within After Effects, but they can certainly speed up your workflow and allow you to try out other people’s techniques.
What After Effects tasks would you like us to cover next? Let us know in the comments below.
Keep your most frequently used effects and keyframes at your fingertips! Learn how to save After Effects presets in this quick tutorial.
If you frequently create the same effects over and over, you should try creating an animation preset. Presets are essentially a preset list of effects and keyframes that can be quickly recalled and used over and over again in future projects. Unlike saved project files, animation presets can be found in your effects browser on the right side of your After Effects interface.
Step 1: Create Your Effect
Animation presets go far beyond simply saving effects. You can also save expressions, shape properties, transformation properties, and keyframes. Keep that in mind when you are saving animation presets.
Step 2: Save Preset
Select all of the effects that you want to be translated into the animation preset by holding down the shift key and selecting the effects or properties that you want transferred over. Keep in mind that this also works for shape layers — but if you do decide to create a shape layer preset, you’ll need to create another shape layer when you drag and drop your effects preset in the future.
Once selected, simply navigate to Animation>Save Animation Preset. You will be prompted to select a place to save your new preset. Note: You must save your preset in the presets folder in your After Effects application folder.
Step 3: Recall Preset
In the effects browser, simply recall your preset in the location in which you saved your effects preset. For most effects, you can simply drag and drop your effects to your layer.
Want to learn more about presets in After Effects? Check out a few of the following resources:
Know of any awesome effects presets? Share in the comments below.
Читайте также: