5 After Effects Tools You Don't Use...But You Should!
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There are so many different tools for After Effects that it can often feel overwhelming. How can you get the most out of the software without breaking the bank? For those in the know, some of the best tools already exist within the program itself.
In this tutorial, School of Motion TA Sara Wade walks you through some underused and under-appreciated tools that are native to After Effects. Learn to fix text, smooth paths, and streamline layers in no time at all!
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Auto-Generated Transcript Below 👇
Sara Wade (00:00): After effects has a wide range of built-in tools that can quickly become overwhelming. Let's narrow your focus with these five tips that can help save time. Hey everybody, Sara Wade here to talk about five built-in after effects tools that you really should be using, but you probably aren't by the end of this video, your workflow should feel more streamlined. So let's check these out
Sara Wade (00:35): First. We're going to take a look at something called this layer dot name. Even if you're not an expressions guru, this one's going to be super useful. Maybe even more useful than our good old friend, the wiggle expression. First, I'm going to twirl open this text layer, named school of motion. I'm going to twirl. Open the text and alt click the stopwatch to add an expression. Then I'm going to just type in this layer.name, lowercase, this capital L and layer. This is called camel case, and it's really important that you get the capitalization, right? You see how after effects is trying to fill it in for me, I'm going to type in a semi-colon there. Now, whatever I named this layer is going to show up as the text there right now, it says school of motion. But if I select the layer and hit enter, I can rename this layer to say, school of motion loves you. So this is going to be super useful, especially if you end up with projects with a ton of text and a client that likes to change things on you at the last minute, this is going to make what would have been a two to three step process. Just one step.
Sara Wade (01:45): The next tool I want to show you is actually two tools when used in combination that are really, really powerful. The first one is the motion sketch panel, and I can get to that by going to window and right down here to motion sketch, which opens up this panel. Let's go ahead and make a circle that we can animate hit control alt home to center the anchor point there. And now that start capture is active. I'm going to leave it at the default settings capture speed at 100 smoothing at one. Now in the motion sketch panel, I'm going to hit start capture. And then I'm just going to left click and drag this shape layer to create a path. So now I've got this really cool motion path. And all I had to do was draw it with my mouse. So you may notice this path has a ton of points.
Sara Wade (02:32): It's not quite as smooth as I wanted. So I'm going to use the smoother to smooth that out. I can get to the smoother tool by again, going to the window menu, going down here to smoother. You can see it pops up over here. Now I've still got this layer with the past selected. So what I'm going to do is leave spatial path as the selection. And I'm going to type in as an example, 25 and hit apply. Now look at that beautiful, smooth animation. I can go in there now and grab those Bezier handles. If I want to drag it out and edit the path, we made that path rather quickly, but we can adjust the path with these Bezier handles and even move the key frames around. Then you can play with the timing by holding Alton. Left-click, all the capabilities are still there making this a really powerful tool.
For the full transcript visit: som.bz/2SVSQiA
Пікірлер: 146
I clearly haven't been making enough use of the compositing options. Thank you!
The pen tool is definitely the best tool. :) Bezier/10
@caesium_
4 жыл бұрын
Hi Ben!!!
@caesium_
4 жыл бұрын
Loveee your content!
@animomotiongraphics7289
4 жыл бұрын
Agreed! Also worth noting for people who don't know that you can use mask paths for positioning too - so you could for example auto trace a layer, then use those mask/s to drive the animation of your layer.
after all these years using After Effects I always learn a new feature, that's why I love After Effects!!
Definitely changed my life with these. The only thing I was aware of was the pen tool path feature the others were gold and new ground for me. Thank you!
I’m also impressed by the compositing mask like most everyone else. Thanks for sharing these tips.
I just screamed, “WHAT?!” rather loudly at my screen at 6:45. I created a whole macro that did a bunch of ridiculous stuff including expressions to work around this, and it was that easy?! You just right-click?! 🤦🏼♀️ 😐 I’ll just be over here pondering what other stupid life choices I’ve made.
Oh my god! The compositing mask is a huge time saver! Really great tips, thank you.
Mind = Blown!!! As a long term Ae user I always saw these options and just assumed they6 were useless... Wow... Great tips!!!
I love you guys. Your tips are always something that is not obvious.
Great set of tips, very clearly presented.
Awesome tips, Sara! Thanks a million!!!
This was fantastic. Thank you.
Great tips, as always!
Motion tracker + smoothing?! 🤯🤯 thanks Sara!
Really good tips! Thank you!
These were some great secret tricks I never knew about! Fantastic video!
great tips many thanks!
Never thought about the mask on effect, just saved me from a ton of layers ty so much
@art_means_artificial
3 жыл бұрын
she has got such an ugly VOICE! disgusting ... sounds like femena!
WOW! This is the most useful "top 5 tools"-kind video tutorial I have ever seen! Thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing ♥️
excellent tutorial again. very easy to follow. clearly spoken too.
mind blown on the compositing option one
Great tips, thanks for sharing
THESE WERE REALLY AMAZING TIPS THANK U S OO MUCH FOR THIS !!!
excellent info. thanks
this was so useful!! thank you
these were great, thanks!
WOW!! Those were actually pretty awesome!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Thank you soooo much, there are really some good tricks to fasten workflows ;)
thank you! Useful video!
A very helpful video, thank youi!
Great Tips!!!
Thank you! 🤟
great video guys thanks! Just one question: why didn’t you draw the path with the pen tool directly onto the ellipse layer, instead of shape layer > copy and paste path data?
Very useful tips!
thank you Great tips .
Super useful!
Great stuff!
Such awesome tips!! Thank you! ^_^
Wow why did I not know about the Compositing Options for effects? Thank you!
I wish I found this video a couple weeks ago just for the Convert to Paragraph tip... I feel like a lot of After Effects is doing something a really clunky way for hours and then discovering a way to do that same thing in minutes or even seconds. Great tips!
@schoolofmotion
2 жыл бұрын
So true! A lot of what separates beginners from pros is just familiarization with the software, knowing hotkeys, and practice. We're happy you picked up a few new tricks, and we can't wait to see what you do with them.
Ah, four years in AE and I will only found out now about three of these features! Thank you a lot!
This is gold! Thanks
@schoolofmotion
2 жыл бұрын
Our thoughts exactly!
Super helpful, thanks! I‘ve been using compositing mask for quite a time now, I think I discovered that by accident 😁
LOVE IT
Thanks great and helpful🙏🙏🙏👍
You also can create box text dragging the mouse while you create
Very helpful. Super useful.
very helpful - thank you!
@schoolofmotion
Жыл бұрын
Glad it was helpful!
Amazing tips 👍🏻
You're a keeper!
3 out of 5 I didn't know. Thanks a lot
Loved it...
Awesome!!
Thanks
Amaaaaaaaaazing thank youuuuuuuu
This video is awesome
thanks
Powerful 🤩
The compositing mask blew my mind, omg. This will make _everything_ easier
@waqaransari3666
4 жыл бұрын
Ikr? I've been duplicating comps/layers for this up until now!
@vinderesual
4 жыл бұрын
Im putting inside my brain right on. Superrr
@Researcher_Ryan
4 жыл бұрын
I always had a feeling this was a feature but never knew how to do it until now. I always kept thinking "There's gotta be a way to mask the effect directly and not have to make it on an adjustment layer."
@kaesekrustechannel
4 жыл бұрын
isn't that basic stuff (no offense)
@NauhFX
4 жыл бұрын
That's why you have to look for the what's new videos and blog posts adobe makes every time they release a new version, they even put the what's new section in the home screen of every new release so you don't miss out on those magical new features.
hooooooooly!!! thank you so much
amazing wonderful , biggest like, u teach very nice , fully played.
Superb♦❣♦
Great video
Super helpful for beginner like me.
It's super magic!
Bravo!
Brilliant
This is supper !
Hello school of motion with 5 AE tool and when I have After effects cs6 not cc Who will the 5 tools benefit me and others plz?
i was looking for mask effects all time... TNX
Been using AE since 2005. Found new things here!!
Please never stop making tip videos. I mostly use AE for VFX, not motion, but thisLayer(.)name is game changing for that tedious, well paid work we all know and love.
Great tips. When you paste the path onto the position at 5:12 where does After Effects get the keyframe spacing/timing from? The path was created at one point without keyframes yet After Effects has spaced the path nodes as keyframes over time. What determines this time spacing?
@TimoKanal
4 жыл бұрын
Exactly what I was wondering too.
@markwoloschuk
4 жыл бұрын
@@TimoKanal AFX places keyframes in time such that the speed of the animation is constant, just like what you would get if you selected a group of keyframes, right clicked, and selected rove across time. Note that the keys in between the start and end are smaller in size and move automatically as you move the start and/or end. This indicates that those keyframes are “roving” and will automatically adjust to keep the speed constant. Looking at the speed of the animation in the graph editor can make this easier to visualize. To move keyframes between the start and end you have to select the keys, right click and unselect rove across time.
great video
1000 Like to this. Love it.
You don't have to use "Convert to Paragraph Text". Instead, just click the text icon and drag a box on the composition & start typing
@deejaymanners
2 жыл бұрын
this was the fix for the situation where you already have text and instead of creating a box and copy pasting the thext there, right click and convert to paragraph is faster.
@thefuzzman2379
2 жыл бұрын
@@deejaymanners This is true. I work with a lot of text in Ae and its so frustrating to have to copy and paste the text to a bounding box and have to reformat it. Now I dont have to!
For the Convert to paragraph text, is the box around the paragraph text the same as the sourceRectAtTime box? Instead of it fitting neatly around a word, now it fits around a paragraph?
@yousawnothing644
4 жыл бұрын
I believe this is true. I know when I use sourceRectAtTime on paragraph text it acts strange.
NICE
Hey, to create a Paragraph text, all you need to do is, with the text tool selected, click and drag to create a box.
super magic
great
If you want to make a quick Paragraph text, just : > Select the Text Tool, Left Click and drag out a BOX in the Comp window. You will automatically be in Paragraph mode 🙂
Magic.
I like that.
I like that
Dude, Convert to Paragraph Text!!!! YES, I needed that one so bad Haha
@grittygirlgraphics8633
4 жыл бұрын
Also too, you can click on the Text tool and then just drag a box with your mouse...
@lucaslourenco8234
4 жыл бұрын
So do I!
5:59 this was a good one
This channel is basically all about expressions
I have never heard of a "home" key on the Mac? Where do I find it?
@JanneWolterbeek
4 жыл бұрын
ok, found it, it's actually 2 keys fn + left arrow. osxdaily.com/2015/06/17/home-end-button-mac-keyboard-functions/
Thank god i don't need to rename my layer multiple times again if i create a text!
Can't you quickly change the copy in the text layer by double clicking the text layer name? What am I missing?
@animomotiongraphics7289
4 жыл бұрын
You can, but it doesn't rename the layer for one thing, but also say you had 20 layers of text, you can just quickly go down the layers renaming them. Every click saved is useful!
Number 5 changes everything hahaha. OMG.
No. That paragraph box feature isn't hidden. You can simpply click and drag when Text is selected.
its very nice and cool they share this here.... because their courses are way beyond my $reach$
@schoolofmotion
4 жыл бұрын
We offer a ton of free resources for everyone to use if you are not able to enroll in one of our session based courses at this time. Check our blog and sign up for our newsletter to get additional resources!
So I have a question. Probably me just over looking some functions of a text layer but why use the expression thisLayer.name; when you can just double click the layer and change it that way? I guess having the layer named the right thing helps but is there any other purpose? If you're not using paragraph text double clicking and typing what you want allows you to go to the next line while using the thisLayer.name; and renaming the layer does not allow for that.
@paulvansommeren
4 жыл бұрын
Yeah, I thought that "tip" was a bit ridiculous. Also doesn't allow you to rename in the comp window...
@AdrienVanca
4 жыл бұрын
It can be useful when your text is under a bunch of other layers and not easily clickable. But I agree it doesn't help a lot...
Neat tutorial lots of respect lady.. Still my rant to Adobe (as usual) what use is hidden paragraph option or an entire library of the effects panel with no individual thumbnail preview like in oh i don't know perhaps powerpoint! It's 2020 get over it seriously dude Adobe WTF...#?! when am i going to get a tool less stiflly technically curved instead more artistically bend ?!
Yeah compositing mask just made my face explode
Like 😎👍🏻➕
The title got me, lets see...