Adobe After Effects - Tutorial with all basics
In this tutorial, we will show you how to get started in Adobe After Effects so that you can create your first film in the end.
After Effects Tutorial: Creating a movie composition
At the very beginning you need a basis on which you can later build everything: a composition. This includes all videos that you want to add to the film, including all settings and effects.
- After Effects shows you a welcome window when it starts. Click on "New composition" there.
- Now give the composition any name you want.
- Under "Default:" select a resolution that your film should have later. You can also set the resolution manually by changing the pixel sizes for "Width:" and "Height". In this example we use 1280 x 720 pixels for an HD resolution.
- Now set the frame rate, which determines how many frames are displayed per second. A value of 25 is recommended here.
- Finally, under "Duration:" enter the time that you want your film to last. You can still adjust this value later. Confirm with OK".
After Effects Tutorial: Adding and Customizing Images, Videos, and Music
After Effects gives you the ability to add a variety of media formats to your film.
- On the left side of the program window you will find the "Project" column. So far, you should only have the composition you just created.
- To add more footage, either click on your video in Windows Explorer and drag and drop it into this column. Or you can go to "File", then "Import" and finally "File ..." and select your recording in the window that appears.
- Your media are now available in the project, but not yet in the composition. To do this, drag and drop your video from the "Project" column into your composition at the bottom of the window.
- Your video now appears in the middle, where a black square was just visible. However, it may not fill the entire size or overlap at the edges. To do this, click on one of the gray corners of the film and drag it so that the video fills the area as precisely as possible.
- If the video is very distorted, you may have chosen an incorrect composition resolution at the beginning. Click on "Composition" and then on "Composition Settings ...". Here you can now adjust the resolution and also change the duration of the composition.
- To go back and forth in the video, drag the red, vertical line to the left or right. To zoom in on the timeline, click on the large solid mountain below, as shown in the picture. You can enlarge to individual pictures.
- When you are in the video at the desired time, press the [CTRL] + [Shift] + [D] key combination at the same time to cut the video at the current point. You then have two levels, one ending at exactly this point and the other beginning at this point.
- You can either delete a layer or let the video start again at a later point in time by clicking on the upper layer and moving it to the right.
RAM preview and sound playback
Surely you don't want to constantly render your project to see what you've done so far. To preview in advance, do the following.
- If you simply want to play the video without sound from the current picture, press the space bar. If you press it again, the video stops.
- To play only the sound, press the [, ] button.
- If you want to play the picture and sound, press the [0] on the number pad. After Effects will then pre-render the entire video to memory. So that you can look at a part beforehand, just press the spacebar to start the RAM preview.
- You can also display all preview options in an extra window. To do this, click on the "Window" tab and check "Preview". There you can, among other things, start the RAM preview and make other settings, as you can also see in the picture opposite.
- In general, sections of film that have already been pre-rendered for preview have a thin green bar above the timeline. These then run at real speed without waiting.
- To do this, select your composition and then click on "Composition" and then on "Add to render list". Alternatively, press the key combination [CTRL] + [M].
- Instead of the timeline, the render list appears with your composition in line.
- Now you should change the output format. To do this, it is best to click on the yellow "lossless". In the new window that appears, select the format H.264. You can of course also choose a different format. This differs specifically according to the purpose. You also have to remember to tick "Audio output". Now click on OK".
- Now change the storage location and name by clicking on the yellow text after "Save as:".
- Now you can click on "Render" on the right. You can then interrupt the process to continue or pause it later, so that the film is saved up to the current point. Tip: Activate the switch lock or caps lock so that no preview image is displayed. This speeds up the rendering process a little. When the video is rendered, a small sound will sound.
In this practical tip we use Adobe After Effects CS6. If you get along with the basics, we recommend you more practical tips on After Effects, for example how to create slow motion or add effects. Since video editing is very memory-hungry, you may also be interested in how to optimize your RAM memory.