MARSHALL
& SAEED
If After Effects 5 can do it, you can do it too . . .
After Effects 5 is a major upgrade that brings many new features to Adobe’s powerful motion graphics
software. This essential reference and tutorial tells you everything you need to know to create virtually
any special effect you can imagine for film, video, multimedia, and the Web, with extensive coverage of
new enhancements. Whether you’re a motion graphics novice or a feature film professional, this is the only
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Inside, you’ll find complete coverage of After Effects 5
• Get up to speed fast with a Quick Start guide to animating and special effects
• Learn about new features for 3D compositing, parenting, expressions, and more
• Unleash powerful new special effects tools
• Learn how to enhance your designs with typography
• Sharpen and expand your animation skills
• Import and work with media from virtually any source
• Integrate After Effects into your digital video production workflow
• Prepare your work for rendering in any format or medium
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After Effects 5
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J. J. Marshall and Zed Saeed
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After Effects
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Bible
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page i
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page ii
After Effects
®
5
Bible
J. J. Marshall and Zed Saeed
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LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS
IN PREPARING THIS BOOK. THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH
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After Effects
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5 Bible
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www.hungryminds.com
Copyright © 2002 Hungry Minds, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book, including interior design, cover design, and
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United States and other countries and may not be used without written permission. After Effects is a trademark or
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is a trademark of Hungry Minds, Inc.
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page iv
About the Authors
J. J. Marshall is a born and bred resident of New York City and makes his living
there as a broadcast designer and a digital video consultant. Most recently, he
assisted in developing a nationwide broadband news-on-demand network called
The FeedRoom. Prior to that, he helped introduce Oxygen Media to the joys of Final
Cut Pro and After Effects while editing a weekly two-hour show. In addition, his past
efforts have included freelance projects for the New York New Media Association
(NYNMA), Liz Claiborne, NetShoot, and the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior
at Columbia University, as well as independent documentary productions that have

aired on PBS. Teaching credits include courses in digital video at open-I Media and
the School of Visual Arts (SVA). While writing this book, he served as a beta tester
on the latest version of After Effects. A self-proclaimed refugee from the world of
theater, J. J. has long been creating data-driven art in one form or another.
Zed Saeed lives and works in New York City as a freelance digital-media consultant
specializing in editing, compositing, and workflow issues. Zed served as a senior post-
production consultant for Apple Computer and Oxygen Media on Final Cut Pro and
digital-video workflow design and has worked with Media 100 and Adobe Systems on
video-related products. He has also worked as an editor, producer, compositing artist,
and broadcast designer at Showtime Channels, Sundance Channel, and ESPN
Classics. Zed has written articles on digital media technologies for magazines and has
served on the faculty of NYU Graduate School, Parsons School of Design, and New
School University. Zed has written, produced, and edited videos that have received
awards and recognition by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the
American Film Institute. Zed is also the author of Final Cut Pro 2 Bible.
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page v
Credits
Acquisitions Editor
Tom Heine
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Alan Hamill
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013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page vi
No lake so still but that it has its wave;
No circle so perfect but that it has its blur.
I would change things for you if I could;
As I can’t, you must take them as they are.
-Han Fei Tzu, noted Chinese Realist
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page vii
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page viii
Foreword
It was once said of science that the more we know, the less we know; or to quote
Shakespeare, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt
of in your philosophy.”

A rather strange statement indeed when applied to the subject matter of this book,
a software application called Adobe After Effects. However, in the six years that I’ve
been using and teaching the application, this often describes the way I feel. Because
every day I’m learning some new technique, some unique design concept, a differ-
ent method of expressing a creative impulse, of communicating a point via ani-
mated graphics. . . .
One can never know it all.
At my seminars, I amuse the audience when someone raises a hand and asks, “Can
After Effects do . . . ?” and before they continue, I preempt the questioner by saying,
“Yes. It can!” And that isn’t far from the truth, because almost any visual concept
you can imagine can be implemented in After Effects.
Go watch a major movie. After Effects was probably used in the production. Check
out TV commercials—more After Effects. From something as subtle as changing the
color of an actor’s hair to elaborately conceived spaceship battles in far-off galaxies;
from creating animated graphics for display on a Web page to polishing up the latest
entry to Sundance. Power, flexibility, precision, grace. After Effects exhibits all these
characteristics, and more.
But what about the human element and the interface between imagination and
implementation? How do you get to that stage? How do you become expert (or
expert enough)? Some learn by example, others by rote. Efficient learning, though,
comes through comprehension and practice, then adaptation and improvement. If
you see something, you’ll remember some of it, but if you see and do, your mind
and body develop a synergy of understanding.
Which brings us to the ideal teaching process—this book. Instruction and example
are all rolled up into the After Effects 5 Bible, which combines meticulous text with
practical examples provided on the DVD-ROM. I consider this to be one of the best
After Effects books I’ve seen. Why so, especially? Well, for me, it is J. J. and Zed’s
specific approach. Just the right amount of instructional gravitas balanced with a
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After Effects 5 Bible
gentle sense of humor. Indeed, akin to a fine gourmet meal, let this reference edu-
cate and satisfy, until you, too, develop the means to express through art, with the
After Effects 5 Bible providing your guidance.
Alan Hamill
Dana Point, CA
March 2002
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page x
Preface
W
hile it’s easy to learn, After Effects takes time and passion to master. If an
artist has a real vision, passion for seeing that vision realized, and a mastery
of this fantastic tool, the final results will be gratifying indeed. We’ve written the
After Effects 5 Bible with practical applications in mind. Our primary focus has been
to provide you with a set of concrete steps for all the production scenarios you might
encounter. When we were getting started in this field, we were confounded when
experts would say something such as, “I did that with a displacement map.” While
everyone nodded in what appeared to our eyes as a somewhat unbelievable collec-
tive understanding, we’d be thinking, “Well, how exactly did you do that with a dis-
placement map?” Basically, we tried to write a book that we wished we had years ago.
For most of us who use it regularly, After Effects is something of a religion. It’s a joy
to use, and the people who make a living from it seem happy to while away entire
portions of their lives manipulating the controls of its well-designed interface.
Certain software applications develop an extremely devoted following, and After
Effects is a prime example of this phenomenon. More importantly, After Effects
devotees form a community that’s mostly comprised of visual artists. It’s so well
engineered that its audience can look past the vexing nature of computers and
immediately start throwing clay on the wheel. Strength as a channel for creativity is
its distinguishing trademark.
After Effects has revolutionized the broadcast industry. The mid-nineties showed

the public a dazzling array of visual artistry in ad campaigns and television network
promotions, the quality and the quantity of which were unprecedented. All corners
of the market have been dramatically affected. On one hand, Academy award win-
ner John Gaeta, special effects supervisor for the immensely popular movie, The
Matrix, makes mention of his use of the application in a documentary about the
technical aspects of his work on that film. On the other hand, wedding videos
have started appearing with suddenly high production values. After Effects con-
tributed to the rise of the so-called “digital video revolution,” and there are
numerous professionals whose careers stem completely from the widespread use
of this indispensable tool.
So What Is After Effects, Anyway?
After Effects 5.5 is Adobe’s latest overhaul of this enormously successful motion
graphics software. In years past, it has become a widely used tool in post-produc-
tion, regardless of a facility’s size or budget. Its use is prevalent at all levels of the
film, broadcast, and Web industries, yet After Effects is noteworthy in that it is truly
software. The application doesn’t rely on any proprietary hardware; instead, it
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page xi
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After Effects 5 Bible
requires only the inherent resources of a personal computer. With the advent of
After Effects, the balance of power has shifted. High-end studios with large quanti-
ties of bulky and expensive analog equipment now share the market with talented
artists whose “studio” consists of a single machine. Vital and important work is as
likely to originate from the realm of the desktop as it is from any other production
environment, and this is due in large part to the accessible power of this highly
user-friendly application.
Version 5.5 is a major upgrade, and the Adobe After Effects development team is to
be commended for their amazing work. Truly phenomenal software, this build of
After Effects boasts a variety of new features as well as vast enhancements of its
user interface. There are numerous new filters for concretizing any effect that your

mind can envision. Additionally, 5.5 includes native 3D-compositing capabilities as
well as vector paint tools, both of which were possible only a short time ago with
the purchase of expensive additional software. Considering that the 3D tools
include lights, virtual cameras, and shadows, version 5.5 represents a huge leap
forward for a product that had already filled its niche in the market.
Every release of an Adobe graphics product allows for greater integration with their
other offerings, and After Effects is no exception. After Effects 5.5 impressively
imports work created in the latest builds of Premiere (6.0), Photoshop (6.0), and
Illustrator (10.0). Real-time dynamic previews of compositions allow for instant
visual gratification as your work evolves over the course of a project. Masks can
now be manipulated directly in the Comp window. Multiple layers can be simultane-
ously animated with the addition of a hierarchical parenting switch in the Timeline
window. The list goes on.
Further still, Adobe has continued its efforts in bringing the power of procedural
animations to your work by adding something new called expressions. Based on
JavaScript, expressions are scripts that you can use to dynamically control the
values of different properties so that you don’t have to lose time setting tons of
keyframes. Finally, your output options have been greatly enhanced. Compositions
can be rendered for the versatile Flash (SWF) file format just as easily as they can
be prepared with 16-bit color for HDTV or film.
How This Book Is Organized
If you’ve read all the way up to this point, we’re hoping that you want to look into
this whole thing a bit further. We’ve put this book together in an attempt to give
you a complete tour of how After Effects works, as well as to describe some of the
ways you’ll actually use it in production. We’ve also designed it so that it can be
read from front to back or, if you prefer, as a desktop reference. In either case,
there’s some logic to the order of the chapters, and we talk a little bit about that
development in the following description of the book’s parts.
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Preface
Part I: Welcome to After Effects 5
Part I acquaints you with the basics of the After Effects interface and gets you
started on creating your own animations. In essence, there’s an After Effects
“headspace,” or thought process, and the point of the first few chapters is to fully
introduce you to this way of thinking. Once you know the basics of importing
elements and animating them, you will find it much easier to approach the more
sophisticated aspects of compositing.
Part II: Keyframes and Rendering
Part II looks into the different kinds of keyframe interpolation you can incorporate
into your animations. Perhaps more importantly, this section of the book takes a
good look at the Render Queue, that all-important “oven” where you bake your
creations once you’ve thrown them together. Lastly, this part of the book will
introduce you to the wonders of applying effects. After all, the application is called
After Effects, and it hardly seems like fun to have to wait to see what the Big Fun is
all about.
Part III: Broadening Animation Skills: Masks,
Transparency, and Time
Part III looks closely at the various ways you can work with transparency in After
Effects. Usually, budding motion graphic artists are too busy plotting the ways in
which they might overthrow the industry before getting overly concerned with
details such as alpha channels. Nonetheless, an understanding of transparency is
absolutely critical to comprehending After Effects as a whole. Even better than that,
acquiring such an understanding is usually fun, at least when it’s compared to the
kind of tooth pulling some folks imagine the topic to be. Additionally, because After
Effects deals with a succession of images over time, it’s also important to know how
to control the way time unfolds in your projects. Do you want your clips to play
slowly or quickly, or perhaps both at different points in their playback?
Part IV: Using Effects: The Big Fun
Part IV looks at the myriad of effects that you can apply to your moving images.

Sometimes, this aspect of the application seems a bit overwhelming in light of the
fact that the Production Bundle of After Effects now boasts of having more than 90
plug-ins to enhance your work. Still, the effects make up the reason why a good
number of After Effects aficionados initially sought out the software. Perhaps your
humble aim is to change the distribution of color in a clip of film that wasn’t lit
exactly right. Maybe you happen to be interested in creating your own dramatic
weather full of blizzards or lots of lightning. Either way, the effects offer you the
means to make it happen.
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After Effects 5 Bible
Part V: Aiming Higher: Advanced Techniques
Part V goes into what some people think of as the “hard” stuff. At this point, we
cover topics such as Motion Math, expressions, 3D compositing, as well as tracking
and stabilizing your footage. We’ve also included a couple of chapters on the use of
text and typography, because so many folks who use After Effects initially come to
it from the need to make a title sequence.
Part VI: Rendering for All Media
Part VI considers After Effects in the context of the greater realm of video production.
What did you shoot on? What are you editing on? What’s your delivery format? How
do all the pieces fit together? This part of the book briefly touches on the role of After
Effects in a production workflow that might run the gamut from miniDV to HDTV.
Part VII: Appendixes
In the appendixes, we’ve given you a list of resources on the World Wide Web.
These include sites that offer After Effects goodies that range from tutorials to
stock footage to free plug-ins. Additionally, we’ve given you a list of keyboard short-
cuts for users of both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Lastly, we include an
appendix that tells you what’s on the DVD-ROM in the sleeve on the back cover.
How to Use This Book
It seems a little strange to have to explain how to use this book, but I guess some

explanation is needed (typically, when people ask us how to use a book, our
response is to politely tell them to read it). As we mentioned earlier, you can read
this book sequentially just as easily as you can jump from place to place while
using it as a reference. In each chapter, we did our best to debunk topics that might
appear complicated, and we also tried to give you a matching step-by-step exercise
to accompany each explanation.
Conventions Used in This Book
We tried to keep the explanations from being overly technical in nature, but
because we’re talking about software, sometimes there’s no way to avoid
digibabble. Hopefully, the only parts of the book that will seem as though they’ve
been written in computerese are the keyboard shortcuts in the step exercises. Just
so you know, whenever we refer to a keyboard shortcut, we first provide the Mac
instructions, which are followed by a forward slash and the corresponding
Windows instructions. For example, the keyboard shortcut for Undo is
Command+Z/Ctrl+Z.
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Preface
The DVD-ROM
Yep, it’s a DVD-ROM, not a CD-ROM. All that means is that there is a lot more room
for us to put stuff. In other words, it holds more data than a CD-ROM, but it’s not a
DVD that you can pop into the DVD player on your home entertainment system.
Most computers sold in the past couple of years ship with DVD-enabled drives, so
you shouldn’t have any problems getting the data into your system.
Throughout the chapters of the book, we consistently refer to the After Effects
projects that we put on the DVD-ROM for you to refer to as you work your way
through the step exercises. If you want to get the most out of the lessons in the
chapters, you’ll definitely want to copy the project files and their related media
onto your own computer. Of course, if you want to work with your own material,
you’re welcome to do that instead.

In addition to the projects and their media, we’ve also put a bunch of other goodies
on the disc, and we’ve given you a detailed listing of these in Appendix D.
Icons and Sidebars
In a number of places, we found it useful to point out some important information
by highlighting it with these nifty little icons.
Anywhere you see a Caution icon, just know that you might do some damage to
your project or your peace of mind.
We used the Note icon to separate what we hope are useful bits of information
related to the topic under discussion.
A Tip usually denotes a technique that saves a lot of time or is otherwise immi-
nently useful in production.
We placed Cross-Reference icons in spots where we mention a subject that is
covered in greater detail in another chapter. We even go so far as to tell you the
chapter number in the reference!
Lastly, we’ve included a number of sidebars devoted to the topic of what’s new in
After Effects 5.5. They are sprinkled throughout the book wherever the update to
the application is relevant to the topic.
Cross-
Reference
Tip
Note
Caution
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After Effects 5 Bible
Contacting the Authors
Feel free to drop us a line at We’d be happy to hear any
insights and observations you might have. While we read every message we
receive, just remember these two caveats: First, depending on the nature of our
schedule in addition to the volume of e-mail we receive, we may not be able to get

back to every one of you. Secondly, if you’re looking for any type of tech support
for either your hardware or software, you should directly contact the vendor in
question.
So, get to it. We sincerely hope that learning After Effects will be as much fun for
you as it was for us.
013655-9 FM.F 4/3/02 12:24 PM Page xvi
Acknowledgments
J. J. Marshall — Above all, I want to thank my wife, Christine. If not for her continual
and unswerving support, this book wouldn’t even be a remote possibility. For her
love, and the grace with which it is always and unconditionally given, I am profoundly
grateful.
Even though he’s my coauthor, I feel it necessary to express my gratitude to Zed.
Years ago, he took me to my first After Effects User Group meeting, and the rest, as
they say, is history. More than that, I’m lucky to consider him a great friend. It’s my
hope that we continue our “vision quest” in one form or another.
Much love and many thanks to the “folks” — my mother and father continue to serve
as the core members of a small, but devoted, fan club. Everyone should be so lucky.
If it weren’t for the support of friends like these, difficult deadlines would have been
impenetrable walls. Thanks to Eric Morrissey, Dan Sherman, Aaron Fein, Louie Berk,
Mukesh Vasvani, and TJ Shea.
Zed Saeed — It has been my privilege to be involved with the development of After
Effects for many years. I have had the support and ear of many good people from
Adobe Systems: Steve Kilisky, Erica Schisler, David Trescot, Christie Evans, Dan
Wilk, Richard Pelzar, Bruce Bowman, Kim Platt, Marcus Chang, Phil Nelson, and
many others have over the years put up with my nagging and harassment and
responded with nothing but kindness. It seems like a foregone conclusion now, but I
have long held that After Effects would take over the world, as it so rightfully has.
Special thanks to Showtime Channels and Sundance Channel for all the time they
granted me to be their After Effects artist, designer, and usurper of resources for
all-night beta testing. Thanks also to visionary art directors like Tony Castellano

and Crystal Hall-Aurnhammer, who spoiled me for anything else for the rest of my
living days.
As always my gratitude goes to my mentor Dirk Van Dall, Vice President of Digital
Video at Showtime Channels. Dirk, an artist at heart and hands-down the most
knowledgeable person on digital media issues, got me started on this path and gave
me the access and direction to get where I am today. As we like to say, “It’s Dirk’s
world. We all just live in it.”
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After Effects 5 Bible
The authors join together in expressing their gratitude to the following people.
We’d like to express our appreciation to the people at Hungry Minds for all their
help preparing this book. Thanks to Tom Heine, our acquisitions editor, for
providing steady support and looking out for us from the time the book was no
more than a concept.
Also, many thanks are due to Melba Hopper, our project editor, whose tireless
efforts have resulted in making this book a reality. Early in the process, she told us
that she didn’t like to work after 8 p.m., in the interest of preserving her sanity. We
could hardly disagree, but the number of late night e-mails we received from her
were a testament to her dedication. We also want to express our gratitude to the
copy editor, Jerelind Charles, for her careful editor’s eye.
We owe a great deal of credit to Adobe Systems, Inc. — first, for creating and releas-
ing After Effects, thereby providing us with the opportunity to even write this book;
second, and far more importantly, for continuing to develop After Effects as beauti-
fully as they do. Extra special thanks go to Steve Kilisky and Erica Schisler for their
kindness in finding the time to go out of their way to support us in the midst of
their extremely hectic schedules.
We particularly want to express our appreciation for the work of Alan Hamill, our
technical editor. It’s a privilege to write about After Effects when you know that a
member of Adobe’s superb digital video team is watching out for you.

A number of companies kindly provided us with some gorgeous stock footage. We
deeply appreciate the contributions made by John Davis from bestshot.com; Sam
Bartlett from Digital Juice, Inc.; Steve Gianfermo from Videometry; Charlie Patton
from EyeWire by Getty Images; Dave Hill from Creatas; Barry Dagestino, Michael
Pixley, and Domenic Rom from Sekani; and Julie Hill from ArtBeats. If you need
production-quality elements, look these guys up.
Thanks to Victoria Hamilton from The Foundry in the U.K. They make fantastic
plug-ins, and Vikki is a highly valued ally.
As we began putting this book together, many colleagues graciously answered the
call to contribute some of their work to the cause. For this, we deeply thank Adam
Helfet Hilliker of HelfetHillikerGormley Designs (say that 10 times!), Steve Fein of Big
Ripple Multimedia, Axel Baumann, and Mark Magnus. All of them are great artists.
As some of you may know, there are a number of very talented folks who prepare
top-notch training materials for After Effects. Brian Maffitt and Trish and Chris
Meyer have set the bar in this particular field. We owe them our thanks for their
inspiration and our respect for their contributions.
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Acknowledgments
Last, but certainly not least, everything changed one morning during the second
week of writing this book. The atrocity of September 11 hit so close that it literally
shook the windows of our homes. We were spared, but thousands were not. Writing
about After Effects suddenly seemed frivolous when compared to the harrowing
reality that too many of our neighbors had to face. Our hearts go out to those who
were lost and to those who lost them on that day. Despite its wounded soul, New
York City is still a great place to live, and we do so with pride.
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Contents at a Glance
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Quick Start: Making a Movie with After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part I: Welcome to After Effects 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter 1: Working in After Effects: Finding Your Way Around the Interface . . . 27
Chapter 2: Importing Media: Bringing Things In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Chapter 3: Moving Your Artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter 4: Setting Your Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Part II: Keyframes and Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chapter 5: Sharpening Positional Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Chapter 6: Improving Keyframe Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Chapter 7: Working the Render Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Chapter 8: Building Complex Compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Part III: Broadening Animation Skills:
Masks, Transparency and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Chapter 9: Making Use of Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Chapter 10: Creating Mattes: Creative Hole-Punching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Chapter 11: Mixing It Up with Transfer Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Chapter 12: Manipulating Time: Relativity in After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Part IV: Using Effects: The Big Fun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Chapter 13: Photoshop in Motion: Color Correction and Selective Blurring . . . 389
Chapter 14: Changing Channels and Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Chapter 15: Simulating Natural Physics: Perspective, Light, and Sound . . . . . 457
Chapter 16: Designing with Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Chapter 17: Warping and Morphing Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Chapter 18: Particle Playground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Chapter 19: Keying and Knockouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Chapter 20: Vector Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
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Part V: Aiming Higher: Advanced Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
Chapter 21: Working with Text Within After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

Chapter 22: Working with Text Outside After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Chapter 23: Putting Math in Motion: Using Motion Math Scripts . . . . . . . . . 657
Chapter 24: Adding the Third Dimension to Your Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
Chapter 25: Adding Expressions to Your Arsenal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Chapter 26: Improving Your Visuals with Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Chapter 27: Wiggling, Tracking, and Stabilizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Part VI: Rendering for All Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777
Chapter 28: Juggling Format Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779
Chapter 29: Prepping for Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
Part VII: Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825
Appendix A: After Effects Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
Appendix B: Keyboard Shortcuts for the Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829
Appendix C: Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843
Appendix D: What’s on the DVD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863
Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898
End-User License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 901
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Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Quick Start: Making a Movie with After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Building an After Effects Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Saving a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Importing media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Creating and developing a composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Adding an effect to a layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Animating a layer’s Transform properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Adding a soundtrack to your comp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Rendering Your Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Part I: Welcome to After Effects 5 25
Chapter 1: Working in After Effects: Finding Your Way
Around the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Establishing Home Base: The Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Looking ahead: What are you making? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Pushing more buttons in the After Effects Project window . . . . . . 35
Sifting and sorting through the footage in the Project window . . . . 38
Saving your project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Knowing Your Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Knowing Your Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Decoding the Info palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Jumping in time with the Time Control palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Peeking at the Audio palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Working Within a Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Moving layers in the Comp window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Working with layers in the Timeline window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Saving Your Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Chapter 2: Importing Media: Bringing Things In . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Figuring Out the Import Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Understanding image size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The logic of project files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
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After Effects 5 Bible
Working with Still Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Prepping still images to import into After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Importing a sequence of still images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Leading the Adobe Family Reunion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Importing layered Adobe Photoshop files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Importing layered Adobe Illustrator files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Importing Adobe Premiere projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Interpreting Source Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Preparing motion footage for import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Setting interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Life After Importing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Chapter 3: Moving Your Artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Deconstructing the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Introducing the Switching Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Seeing and hearing — The A/V panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Global composition switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Flipping switches in the Switches panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Finding the hidden panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Knowing the time graph in depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Undergoing a Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Changing position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Changing scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Changing degrees of rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Adjusting the anchor point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Fading opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Introduction to Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Working with Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Modifying a motion path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Economies of scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Employing spins, fades, and a moving anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Introduction to nesting compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Chapter 4: Setting Your Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Setting Overall Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Setting General Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Setting Previews preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Setting Display preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Setting Import preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Setting Output preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Setting Grids & Guides preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Setting Label Colors and Label Defaults preferences . . . . . . . . . 159
Setting Cache preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Setting Video Preview preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Setting Project Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Setting Composition Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Setting Basic Composition settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Setting Advanced Composition settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
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