After Effects Questions - Noob

bupaje · Post by **bupaje** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 8:36 pm

Hi. Just starting After Effects and need some help. I have created two projects. One is a 10 second animation with sound, the other a 10 second title animation. What is the best way to to 'flatten' all those layers of each and combine then in a third 20 second project? The final project needs to be saved as a swf. Do I need to save all the resources from both in one folder? What format should I save each half in? How do I get this darn thing to play back without pausing?

We'll be covering this next week in class but I'm a bit ahead and figured I could knock it out this weekend if I can get some help.

BA · Post by BA » Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:12 pm

in after effects you can 'import project', which basically brings all the comps and resources from one project into another.

also in case you didn't know, you can nest comps inside each other.

so, just import whatever projects you need into the master project, then drop your comps into a master comp.

once you really get into aftereffects, chances are you'll have comps within comps within comps.... all accessible from one timeline (boy do I wish MOHO had this)

bupaje · Post by **bupaje** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:42 pm

Thanks. I haven't gotten a good grasp of what comps are .... are they basically a particular resource with any effects and transforms applied? Are they independent of the base resource -meaning not instances of a resource? For example if I have sun.jpg and apply effects this then is a comp? And if I change the original sun.jpg no effect to this comp? Thanks!

BA · Post by BA » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:49 pm

Think of your comp, or composition, as your timeline. The comp can contain as many resources as you want, they will be layers on the timeline. Within the comp you can apply effects to layers, or move them around on the timeline, etc.

The comp is a set length and size (up to you of course and there are templates to choose from), and it's what you're rendering when you make a movie.

Sometimes with more complex projects, it helps to group certain pieces of your shot into separate comps, and then combine the comps together in another comp. Kind of like using group layers in MOHO.

You can have multiple comps open at once, and they'll appear as tabs on the top of your timeline so you can switch between them.

Anytime you change the source file, it will be updated within any comps it's in. The comps don't actually contain any media, they just link to the source files.

I hope that made sense...

bupaje · Post by **bupaje** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 11:21 pm

Thanks. Working on it now. Will post again if I get stuck.

bupaje · Post by **bupaje** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:18 pm

Well, here is what I have so far

SpaceTitle2(4.59mb)

It is supposed to be 20 seconds. I know the text shows too briefly and I may want to have a fade to the brain/marvin scene. Going to check out some old serial b&w where the had dialogue printed at internetarchive.org. This project doesn't call for anything else but since I have a bit of time today may poke and prod some more.

Suggestions are welcome.