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3rd Edition

Volume 2: Advanced Techniques

Trish & Chris Meyer

San Francisco, CA
D E D I C AT E D
to the memory of Vera McGrath,
who always said I could do anything I put my mind to – Trish
and to the memory of Leroy Meyer,
who taught me to be curious about how all things worked – Chris

Published by CMP Books

An imprint of CMP Media LLC
CMP Books, 600 Harrison St., San Francisco, California 94107 USA
Tel: 415-947-6615; Fax: 415-947-6015
www.cmpbooks.com
Email: [email protected]

Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2005 by Trish and Chris Meyer. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. In all instances
where CMP is aware of a trademark claim, the product name appears in initial capital letters, in all capital letters, or
in accordance with the vendor’s capitalization preference. Readers should contact the appropriate companies for
more complete information on trademarks and trademark registrations. All trademarks and registered trademarks
in this book are the property of their respective holders.

The programs in this book are presented for instructional value. The programs have been carefully tested, but are
not guaranteed for any particular purpose. The publisher does not offer any warranties and does not guarantee the
accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information herein and is not responsible for any errors or omissions.
The publisher assumes no liability for damages resulting from the use of the information in this book or for any
infringement of the intellectual property rights of third parties that would result from the use of this information.

For individual orders, and for information on special discounts for quantity orders, please contact:
CMP Books Distribution Center, 6600 Silacci Way, Gilroy, CA 95020
Tel: 1-800-500-6875 or 408-848-3854; Fax: 408-848-5784
Email: [email protected]; Web: www.cmpbooks.com

Distributed to the book trade in the U.S. by: Publishers Group West, 1700 Fourth Street, Berkeley, California 94710
Distributed in Canada by: Jaguar Book Group, 100 Armstrong Avenue, Georgetown, Ontario M6K 3E7 Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Meyer, Trish
Creating motion graphics with after effects / Trish & Chris Meyer.
– 3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-57820-249-3 (softcover with dvd : alk. paper)
1. Cinematography–Special effects–Data processing. 2. Computer animation. 3. Computer graphics. 4. Adobe After Effects.
I. Meyer, Chris II. Title.
TR858.M49 2004
778.5'2345'028553–dc22 2004017343

ISBN: 1-57820-269-8 (volume 2)

Printed in the United States of America

05 06 07 08 09 5 4 3 2 1 EXPERT SERIES
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Integrating After Effects into a variety of workflows.

How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

How this book is organized, typographical conventions, and what the icons mean.

DVD Roadmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The enclosed DVD is an essential companion for getting the most out of this book,
including projects for most of the chapters, free plug-ins, and other goodies.

PART Type, Draw, Paint

1 1 All About Alphas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alphas 101, background color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Antialiased edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2
2
4
Alphas in After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Alphas in Photoshop; Straight versus Premultiplied Alphas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Remove Color Matting; Alpha Add mode; Channel Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Rendering separate alphas; luminescent premultiplied alpha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2 Working with Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Creating transparency in Photoshop; saving layered files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Importing Photoshop files, including as compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Pixel Aspect Ratios (sidebar on Photoshop PAR tags) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Layer Sets, Styles, and Effects; Color Management (sidebar) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Buttons for Encore DVD (sidebar on exporting files for Encore DVD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2B Dots, Pixels, and Inches (Bonus Chapter PDF on DVD)

Scanning artwork at the correct sizes to use in After Effects.

3 Working with Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Insider Illustrator, creating text, kerning, saving files, creating outlines . . . . . . . . . . 38
Defining the Document Size (setting the crop area, resampling) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Importing from Illustrator; Merging Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Importing from Illustrator as Composition; Blending Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Continuous Rasterization and render order issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
More Illustrator Tricks; Release to Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

iii
 4 Paint and Clone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Getting started, editing and managing strokes; Paint on Transparent . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Transforming Brush strokes; Channels; Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Eraser tool; erase Paint Only and Erase Last Stroke options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Animating strokes; using Write On Mode, replacing strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Rotoscoping; Brush Tips and tablets; interpolating strokes; Effects and Paint . . . . . 62
Clone Stamp tool; Clone Presets; Clone Source Overlay; Source Time Shift . . . . . . . 66
Using Motion Tracking and Expressions to automate cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Random Paint Splatters: painting in a straight line, copy/pasting strokes . . . . . . . . . 73

4B Vector Paint (Bonus Chapter PDF on DVD)

This legacy paint and rotoscoping plug-in still has its fans. Since it offers some
features not supported by Paint, we demonstrate ways to use it in production.

PART Animation Assistants

2 5 Additional Assistants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Exponential Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Wiggler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
76
Keyframe Assistants from Third Parties (3D Assistants, Useful Assistants) . . . . . . . . . 81
Smart Mask Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

6 Express Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Creating expressions, including using the pick whip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Mixing and matching parameters, ranges, and dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Controlling Expressions; Expression Language Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Building more complex expressions, including wiggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Expression examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Scripting Overview (sidebar on controlling After Effects with scripts) . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

6B Deeper Modes of Expression (Bonus Chapter PDF on DVD)

Diving deeper into the expression language.
Other useful math expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Interpolation methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Deeper into arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Space conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Comp, Footage, and Layer attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Managing time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Making decisions, including if/then/else statements . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Expressions for looping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The wiggle expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Random numbers, including noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Color space conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Text and expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

iv
PART More on Effects

3 7 Professional Edition Effects Roundup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Adjust and Channel effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Distort effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
118
119
Noise & Grain effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Render and Stylize effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
A Few of our Favorite Things (sidebar on third party effects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Sweet 16 (16 bit per channel mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

8 Color Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Levels and Curves to improve contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Colorization adjustments and tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Adjusting color by channels, brightness, and with keying; “Instant Sex” . . . . . . . . . . 139
Third Party Magic (Digital Film Tools and Magic Bullet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Synthetic Aperture’s Color Finesse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

9 Compound Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

How compound effects work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Compound Blur and Texturize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Displacement mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

10 The Blue Riders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Keying approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
An overview of the different keying plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Keylight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Inner/Outer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Color correction and edge improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

10B Color Difference Keyer (Bonus Chapter PDF on DVD)

How to use the most powerful of the Adobe keyers.

PART Working with Audio

4 11 Audio Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Reading audio waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How to spot audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
172
175
Controlling audio levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Previewing Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

12 Audio Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Trimming layers; avoiding clipping distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
The workhorse Stereo Mixer effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Time-based effects, including Delay, Reverb, and Flange & Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Pitch-based effects, including equalization and creating tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

v
PART Time and Tracking

5 13 Time Remapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Overview, including creating freeze frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Manipulating the speed of clips to change the action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
188
192
Adding handle to a clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Manipulating keyframed animation, sequenced layers, and frame sequences . . . . 196

14 Time Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Posterize Time versus Preserve Frame Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Step-time tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Echo, Time Difference, and Time Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Third party time-based effects, including the bundled Cycore FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

15 On Stable Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Overview of the motion tracker/stabilizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Tracking, and applying a track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Masking and Motion Stabilization (sidebar on keeping masks stationary) . . . . . . . . 219
Stabilization practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

16 Motion Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Tracking Position, including working with the Attach Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Tracking Rotation and Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Corner Pin tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Tracking practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

PART NLE, 3D, and Web Integration

17 Integration 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
6 An overview of managing the workflow between After Effects and other
common production tools.

18 Integration with Nonlinear Editing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Adobe Premiere Pro, including AAF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Media 100 i, HD, and 844/X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Avid systems (using Automatic Duck Pro Import AE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

19 Integration with 3D Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

3D Channel Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Importing camera moves from different 3D packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Creating mattes for 3D objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Multilayer compositing and compositing tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

vi
 20 Integration with Web Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Importing JPEGs, GIFs, and PNGs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Flash SWF import issues, including frame rates and alpha channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Exporting SWF animations from After Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
SWFing Textacy (sidebar on exporting text animations as SWF files) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
SWF Export Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

PART Format Issues and Rendering

21 Video Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
7 Fields, Interlacing, and Frame Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Frame sizes and nonsquare pixels; anamorphic widescreen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
296
298
Safe areas and colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Previewing your work on a real video monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

22 Playing the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Fields and interlacing explained, including deinterlacing sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Rendering with fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Field order problems, and how to fix them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Managing interlace flicker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

23 3:2 Pulldown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Pulldown explained, including Advanced Pulldown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Removing pulldown from footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Advantages of removing pulldown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Rendering with pulldown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

24 Luminance and IRE Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

The difference between computer and video luminance ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Converting between different luminance ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
IRE and Setup issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Superblack (sidebar on keying based on special luminance levels) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Making sure your colors are broadcast-safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

25 Working with D1/DV NTSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Pixel aspect ratio issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Dealing with square pixel sources, and working square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Field order and frame rate issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Drop Frame versus Non-Drop timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

26 Working with D1/DV PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Pixel aspect ratio issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Dealing with square pixel sources, and working square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Field order issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

vii
 27 Working with Widescreen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Working in high definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Anamorphic widescreen standard definition video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Repurposing 4:3 content into a widescreen format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Making widescreen sources fit into 4:3 video frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Designing for both widescreen and 4:3, plus faking widescreen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

28 Working at Film Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Film frame sizes and framing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Scanning in and recording out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Telling Time (sidebar on feet+frames plus keycode numbers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
The online/offline workflow (applies to hi-def video as well) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Working with the Cineon file format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

29 Prerendering and Proxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Prerendering to save time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Creating and applying proxies; placeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Working with proxies, including rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

30 Advanced Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Consolidating, removing unused footage, and reducing projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Collect files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Network rendering, including using the Watch Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
GridIron X-Factor and Rush Render Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

31 What’s Your Preference? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

General preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Previews and Display preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Import and Output preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Grids, Guides, and Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Memory, Cache, and Video Previews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
User Interface Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

31B The Secret Preferences (Bonus Chapter PDF on DVD)

Editing the After Effects text-based preference file.

The Road Home

Bonus DVD Tutorials Overview
A number of tutorial projects are also included on this book’s DVD. See summary on page 404.

Afterword: CoSA Lives (Bonus Chapter PDF on DVD)

David Simons – one of the original creators of After Effects – takes us back in time
to learn how this program we love came into being.

viii
 INTRODUCTION

Learning to Play with Others

A fter Effects can be applied to a dizzying variety of tasks. However,

not all jobs begin and end inside After Effects – indeed, very few
do. This book focuses on integrating with the rest of the world.
Imagery may be scanned, captured with digital still image cameras,
created in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, rendered from a 3D program,
or originally created as an animation for the web. Of course, a large
amount of content will be recorded on videotape or film, in a variety
of formats, pixel aspect ratios, frame sizes, even frame rates. Much of
this footage may be used roughly as is (after a bit of color correction
or enhancement, of course). However, some of it will be shot against
green or blue screens, and you will need to extract the action from
this background and composite it into a new scene. Some footage has
objects you need to track so other objects can follow their motion; By Trish and Chris Meyer
some will contain an unacceptable amount of motion or shake that
you need to stabilize or remove. And not all content is visual – audio
is a major portion of the motion graphics experience, as well.
Then there’s output! Few of your animations will be played back
only on your computer screen. Most of them will go back out to video,
As a companion book to the
film, or the web, again with a large number of technical issues and
Creating Motion Graphics series, we
workflow practices that must be observed.
have also created After Effects in
Of course, there are always ways to work smarter. After Effects
Production, which puts many of the
features a number of Keyframe Assistants plus the Expression language
features of After Effects to work in
to help perform complex animation tasks for you. There are ways to
a series of intermediate-to-
manipulate the fabric of time itself, plus a whole host of additional
advanced tutorials. It also includes
plug-in effects that come with the Professional edition – and other
a set of six broadcast case studies
useful ones to download or purchase. Preferences can be customized,
from award-winning studios
compositions can be prerendered to save time, and renders can be
including ATTIK, Belief, Curious
split across multiple computers to meet tight deadlines.
Pictures, The Diecks Group, and
All of this and more is what Creating Motion Graphics, Volume 2:
Fido, and well as our own studio,
Advanced Techniques is about. After you have read Volume 1: The
CyberMotion. Look in the Goodies
Essentials and mastered the core of After Effects, we want to help you
folder on the DVD for more infor-
take your skills further, and enable you to tackle a wider variety of
mation. As a set, we hope these
tasks – while expressing your individual creativity along the way.
books empower and inspire you
Trish and Chris Meyer to realize your own creativity with
CyberMotion this wonderful program.
April 2005

ix
 GETTING STARTED

How to Use This Book

This book explores the more specialized portions You will find that a good portion of this book is
of Adobe After Effects 6.5 – from audio to painting technical in nature. Like you, we’re more interested
to keying to motion tracking and stabilization in being artists than engineers, but understanding
to advanced animation techniques including the underlying technical details of some challenges
Expressions. We will assume you already know – such as dealing with film or high-definition video
your way around After Effects – or at least have – makes problems go away faster, so you can get
access to a good reference, such as Creating back to being an artist.
Motion Graphics, Volume 1: The Essentials.
This book also discusses how to use other What’s in a Name?
programs with After Effects, including the still image There are many elements in an After Effects project.
applications Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, most We’ve tried to establish a set of typographical
of the leading 3D animation packages and nonlinear conventions to make it easier to understand what
editing systems, and the web animation tool we are talking about and when:
Macromedia Flash MX. We also explore many of
Words in bold refer to the specific names of
the additional features available in the Professional folders, files, or layers you are using.
edition version of After Effects. You don’t need to
have all of these programs to use this book, but
[Words in bold and in brackets] are the names
you will no doubt encounter one or more of them of compositions, as opposed to layers in a
during your creative life – and we want to prepare composition.
you to deal with them. This book will also serve
“Words in bold and in quotes” are text you
as a technical reference on video and film issues. should enter.
We suggest reading Chapter 1 on alpha channels
Words and symbols in this alternate bold font
to ensure a grounding in this core concept that represent pieces of the Expression language.
touches on everything you do in After Effects.
After that, you can skip around and read chapters
When there is a chain of submenus or subfolders
that pertain to a particular job. you have to navigate, we separate links in the chain
In addition to the printed pages of this book, with a > symbol: for example, Effect>Adjust>Levels.
Bonus Chapters on subjects including scanning, We use keyboard shortcuts extensively
Expressions, Vector Paint, Preferences, and the throughout this book. The Macintosh shortcut is
creation of After Effects are included on the accom- presented first (followed by the Windows keystrokes
panying DVD. Additionally, there is a selection of in parentheses). Context-click means hold down
Bonus Tutorials on the DVD that explore specific the Control key while clicking on the Macintosh,
techniques or plug-ins, such as using expressions and right-mouse click on Windows.
or enhancing 3D renders. These tutorials consist of After Effects makes a distinction between similar
a PDF file with instructions, a corresponding After keys on the normal keyboard and the numeric
Effects project, and a movie of the finished piece. keypad. If we do not explicitly say to use the
(A summary of these tutorials starts on page 404.) keypad, we’re talking about the numbers and

x
 How To Use This Book //
symbols in the normal portion of the keyboard. allow you to save your own versions of the projects
When we say the Enter key, we mean the one in the as you work (it will also serve as a backup if the
extended keypad; when we say the Return key, we DVD should accidentally break…you know who
mean the normal carriage return key (which also you are). If files become “unlinked” for some
happens to be labeled Enter on many keyboards). reason, they will appear in italics in the Project
window. Simply double-click the first missing item:
Iconography This will bring up a standard file navigation dialog
The content inside each chapter is usually where you can locate that item. Select the missing
presented in a linear fashion. However, you will file from its corresponding Sources subfolder and
find numerous asides throughout. In addition click OK. Provided the folder relationship between
to sidebars which focus on specific ideas or the project and the other sources has not changed,
techniques, you will also see: After Effects will now search for the other missing
items and link them in as well.
Tips: Useful tricks and shortcuts,
or info on optional third party Installation
products we recommend.
We assume you already have a copy of After Effects
Factoids: Tweaky bits of specific 6.5 or later installed – preferably the Professional
information that might help edition. To be safe, we have included a fully-
demystify some subjects. functional time-limited tryout version of After
Effects Professional on the DVD. You may also
Gotchas: Important rocks you download the most recent version from Adobe
might trip over, such as special (www.adobe.com).
cases in which a feature might If you don’t already have QuickTime installed,
not work. you can download it from Apple’s web site
(www.apple.com/quicktime). We assume you also
Connects: Mini-indexes at the end
have a copy of Adobe Reader on your computer.
of most chapters – these point out
An installer is included on your After Effects CD
additional chapters in this book and
and may also be downloaded from www.adobe.com.
Volume 1 that contain information
There are numerous free and trial version plug-
related to what you just learned.
ins on your DVD. Some of these have their own
Professional edition: After Effects installers, or must be decompressed either by
comes in two flavors: the Standard double-clicking them or using StuffIt Expander
and Professional editions. Subjects that rely on the (www.stuffit.com). Most of the Mac versions may
Professional edition’s features are identified with be dragged directly into your After Effects>Plug-ins
this icon. folder. On the Windows platform, if a plug-in ends
in .aex, you may drag it directly into After Effects>
Disc Access Plug-ins; if it ends in .exe, it is either an installer or
This book and its DVD go hand in hand: Virtually self-extracting archive. Copy the .exe file to your
every chapter has its own project file which encour- hard drive and double-click it to run it. If it is a self-
ages you to practice the concepts presented in these extracting archive, drag the resulting .aex file into
pages. Look for the Example Project box on the first your Plug-ins folder. A Read Me summary of all
page of each chapter to verify which project you are these with a guide to their installation is included
to load, and whether you also need to install any of in the Free Plug-ins folder on the DVD as a PDF.
the free third party plug-ins included on the DVD. Contact the individual vendors directly for any
We recommend you copy the DVD, or at least the tech support issues. If there is a problem with your
Chapter Example Projects and Sources folders, to DVD, contact [email protected] (with a clear
your hard drive. This will speed up file access and subject line) for a replacement.

xi
// How To Use This Book
System Requirements
Our system requirements are similar to those Adobe recommends for
After Effects. Most of the examples in this book and corresponding
content on the DVD are based on 320×240 pixel images, so they take
up less memory and screen real estate. The exceptions are Chapters
27 and 28, which contain large high definition video and film content
which will require more RAM. In general, we recommend at least 512
Meg for After Effects; installing a gigabyte or more in your computer is
considered normal in the production world.
We also recommend an extended keyboard, as many shortcuts take
advantage of the function keys and numeric keypad. You don’t need a
multibutton mouse to use After Effects, but as many keyboard
shortcuts use context-clicking, the modifier keys, and even the scroll
wheel, it’s not a bad idea. If you are a Mac user, Exposé takes over
some of the function keys; open it in System Preferences and reassign
any shortcuts that use them.

For Instructors
If you are an instructor, we hope that you will adapt their computers, or you may place the files on a
this book to your specific needs and find it useful in server, but again only as long as each student owns
teaching After Effects. Much of this series is modeled their own copy of this book. Provided each student
on the advanced After Effects classes Trish teaches, owns the book, you are free to modify the tutorials
as well as sessions we’ve both delivered at numerous and adapt them to your specific teaching situation
conferences and trade shows. without infringing copyright.
Recognizing the budgets and time constraints of As an instructor, you no doubt appreciate how
most instructional situations, we’ve built 95% of the much time and effort it takes to prepare examples
example projects using 320×240 comps and similar and class materials that both teach and inspire. If a
low-resolution sources. This requires less memory school, company, or instructor distributes copies of
all around and results in faster demonstrations and the sources, plug-ins, projects, or PDFs to any person
previewing. However, the concepts are certainly who has not purchased the book, that constitutes
from the real world, and should adapt directly to copyright infringement. Also, reproducing pages
full-frame video projects. of this book, or any material included on the DVD
For copyright reasons, each student must own (including derivative works), is also a copyright
their own copy of this book. This also allows them no-no. Thank you for protecting our copyrights,
to review the material covered after class – without and those of the many vendors and studios who
wasting valuable class time writing reams of notes. contributed sources – your cooperation enables
Students can open the Chapter Example project us to write new books and obtain great source
from the DVD, make changes to it as they practice, materials for your students to learn with.
and save the edited project to their own folders on Qualified teaching professionals can acquire
a hard disk or removable media. At the next class, if evaluation copies of this book as well as our
they mount the DVD before opening their modified companion volume, After Effects in Production,
projects, the sources should relink properly. by submitting the request form provided on the
If your school has the available disk space, CMP Books web site (www.cmpbooks.com) – look
students may copy contents from the DVD to under Order Info>Classroom Resources.

xii
 How To Use This Book //

DVD ROADMAP

The enclosed DVD contains many useful resources for you to explore while you’re
reading this book. We suggest you copy its entire contents to your drive for
reference and faster access. Here’s what is in each folder:

 Bonus Chapters  Free Footage & Plug-ins

Extended information on scanning, Digital Film Tools, Jens Enqvist,
Expressions, Vector Paint, Keying, Fnord Software, and Walker Effects
and the text Preferences. Also have contributed useful free plug-ins
includes the story of how After Effects was created for you to add to your collection. Install them;
and has evolved over the years: CoSA Lives. they will be used throughout this book. You’ll
find documentation and further information in
 Bonus Tutorials their respective folders.
Contains six bonus tutorials in Additionally, Artbeats and 12 Inch Design
PDF form that explore a variety of have donated 1.5 gigabytes of royalty-free full-
techniques, including using paint size NTSC and PAL stock footage for you to use!
and expressions. All come with an After Effects
project plus QuickTime movie of the final result;  Goodies
some contain additional source material. A grab bag of additional content
and information, including useful
 Chapter Example Projects articles, white papers, and sample
Virtually every chapter has a chapters, Animation Presets, Photoshop Styles,
corresponding example project. This video and film safe area templates, plus infor-
way, you can practice concepts as mation on other books, video, and music from
they come up in each chapter. These projects all Trish and Chris Meyer as well as CMP Books.
point to the shared Sources folder on this DVD;
some contain folders of additional content.  Sources
Contains movies, music, mattes,
 Credits and Info objects, stills, and text elements
Information about the numerous used by the projects and tutorials in
stock footage houses and individual this book. Each file has a two-letter prefix that
artists who contributed content for identifies its creator; a key is provided in the
this book – we encourage you to contact them Credits and Info folder as well as on page 408.
directly and see what they have to offer. Also Make sure you read their respective End User
contains the End User License Agreements that License Agreements in the Credits and Info
you agree to when you’re using their content folder – many may also be used in your own
provided on the DVD. commercial projects.

DVD Technical Support

Each third party is responsible for providing technical support for the products
provided free on this DVD. If your DVD becomes damaged or won’t load, contact
CMP Books ([email protected]) to arrange a replacement.

1
 PART 1
CHAPTER

1 All About Alphas

Understanding
alpha channels is A lpha channels are central to working in After Effects.
Every layer and every composition either has or is given
an alpha, and manipulating these alphas is how After Effects
fundamental to combines layers. Many features and techniques – such as
understanding how masking, using track mattes, stencils, and keying – create alpha
After Effects works. channels so you can blend images together in interesting ways.
This chapter will explore how After Effects manages alpha channels
internally, how to properly import sources with alpha, and the choices
you have for rendering with an alpha channel. We’ll spend some time
demystifying Straight and Premultiplied alpha, showing you how to
identify and handle footage with premultiplied alpha so you can avoid
ugly fringes and halos around the edges of objects. We’ll also cover a
more unusual alpha channel type, Luminescent Premultiply. Some of
the features and techniques that manipulate alpha channels (such as
masking) have entire chapters devoted to them elsewhere in this series,
so in these cases we’ll refer you to the relevant chapters in the Connect
box at the end of this chapter.

Alphas 101
An image’s alpha channel is a fourth channel of information that decides
the transparency of every pixel built by the normal RGB color channels.
In an 8-bit per channel (bpc) file, it has 8-bit resolution for 256 possible
shades of gray, which when combined with the 24-bit RGB color channels
results in a 32-bit image. (16 bpc provides a far wider range of values; for
Example Project the sake of simplicity, we’ll stick with describing 8 bpc images in this
Explore the 01-Example chapter – all of the principles remain the same.) You can think of the
Project.aep file as you read this alpha channel as a grayscale image that acts as a stencil mask for the
chapter; references to [Ex.##] corresponding color image: A value of 0 – black in the alpha – means the
refer to specific compositions corresponding pixel is totally transparent; 255 – white in the alpha – means
within the project file. totally opaque. Values between these numbers mean the corresponding
Be sure to install the free pixels are partially transparent.
plug-ins from the Free Plug-ins Open the project file 01-Example Project.aep from the Chapter
folder on the DVD. (This Example Projects>01-Alpha Channels folder on the DVD, and open
project uses the Walker Effects comp [Ex.01-Alpha 101]. The goldfish object is the only layer. Click on
Premultiply plug-in.) the Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha (white) channel icons along the bottom
of the Comp window. Notice that the Alpha channel is white where the

2
 All About Alphas // 1
fish should be opaque, and black where background
pixels should drop out. This allows for the fish to be
composited against any color or other image (with-
out this alpha, the fish would exist on a white back-
ground, as it appears in Photoshop).

Background Color and Alpha

It is important to distinguish between the comp’s
Background Color, which shows through whenever a
comp’s alpha channel is transparent, and filling a
comp with a colored solid, which also fills the alpha As viewed in Photoshop, the
channel. To see this in action, turn off any Comp combination of RGB channels
window channel icons, and change the background creates the color for each pixel,
color of the comp (Composition>Background Color) while the corresponding alpha
from black to blue so that the fish appears against a channel determines the pixel’s
opacity. Fish object from Getty
colored background. If you click the Alpha icon
Images/Design Essentials.
again, nothing will have changed. The background
color is a display color only and doesn’t affect the
comp’s alpha channel.
Now create a new solid (Layer>New>Solid). Click the Make Comp Size
button, and color it anything but blue (we made ours black). When you
click OK, the solid layer will be on top of the fish, so in the Timeline win-
dow, drag the solid below the fish layer. Now click on the Alpha icon
again: The alpha channel is now fully white, as the solid exists in RGB
colorspace, and its alpha is all opaque.
With the Alpha icon still on, move the solid layer off-center in the
comp, and you’ll see the shape of the fish appear along with the solid’s
alpha. In other words, the alpha channel for the fish and the solid are
merged together to create a single grayscale image that serves as the
Comp’s alpha channel. You’ll see later how you can render a movie with
this alpha channel embedded in it, or even render the Comp’s alpha To see a comp’s alpha channel in After
channel as a separate movie. Effects, click on the white icon at the
On a related note, when you nest one comp into another comp, the bottom of the Composition window.
alpha channel of the nested comp is honored. Any background color in
Comp 1 is ignored, and treated as transparency in Comp 2. If you need
the background color to be visible, create a solid layer using that color.

When the solid layer is moved, you

can see that the alpha channel for the
fish and the solid layer are combined.
(The color of the comp’s background
is irrelevant where the alpha channel
is concerned, but a colored solid layer
adds its alpha to the comp’s alpha.)

3
1 // All About Alphas
Big picture time: If you’re trying to create an animation that will be
rendered with an alpha channel for further compositing in a video editing
suite, you need to be sure that there is something interesting in the
comp’s alpha channel! If the alpha channel is fully white throughout the
animation, there is nothing to be gained from rendering with an alpha
– except a larger file.

Shades of Gray
In the case of our fish image, the shape of the fish in the alpha channel
is solid white, making the fish fully opaque. In reality, the various fins of
the fish would be semitransparent. If white in the alpha channel is
opaque, and black is transparent, it stands to reason that shades of gray
will be more or less transparent.

The original fish was fully opaque (left). Open comp [Ex.02], where a modified version of the same fish image
By painting some gray into the alpha is composited over a water movie. Scrub the timeline and notice that the
channel (center), the fins become semi- highlights from the water in the background play through the fish’s fins.
transparent when they’re composited Double-click layer 2 to open the Layer window (this is the original source
against a background (right). Water to the layer, and the Layer window also has RGB+Alpha channel icons).
courtesy Artbeats/Water Textures.
Click on the Alpha icon; the fins were modified in Photoshop by adding
some gray paint to the white areas in the alpha channel, rendering the fins
partially transparent in After Effects. (To compare this against the original
image, turn off layer 2 and turn on layer 1 instead, and see how the water
doesn’t show through the fins in the original fish image. We think you’ll
agree that the composite is more believable when the layers appear to
interact.) Select Window>Close All when you’re done, to reduce clutter.

Life on the Edge

Without infinite resolution, a diagonal Having gray values in the alpha channel serves another important pur-
edge to an alpha channel mask pose: to help smooth out diagonal edges. Video and multimedia do not
resembles a staircase (left). This is have enough resolution to render edges at an angle without visible stair-
aliasing. Mixing in intermediate gray
casing being the result, as the edge tries to decide which pixel to land on.
values to form an edge, based on a
This goes for alpha channel edges as well as any color information in a
percentage of how much of a pixel
a theoretically perfect line would frame. This is called aliasing. Short of resorting to near-infinite resolution,
intersect (right), smoothes the edge. these edges can be made to appear smoother by antialiasing them. In
This is known as antialiasing and is the case of alpha channels, this means mixing in intermediate shades of
another reason grayscale values in gray. Virtually all good alpha channels for objects that do not cover the
alpha channels are important. entire frame have antialiased edges.

4
 All About Alphas // 1

After Effects and Alphas

After Effects uses alpha channels to composite layers together. In fact, if
footage doesn’t have an alpha channel, After Effects will assign it one, as
it needs to know how opaque to make each pixel. In the Project window,
select the movie DV_Pulse.mov from the Sources>Movies folder. Along
the top of the Project window, it will report that the movie is Millions of
Colors (which means it is 24-bit, with no alpha channel). Option+double-
click on Mac (Alt+double-click on Windows) the movie to open it in the
After Effects Footage window. Click the Alpha icon and you’ll see that
the alpha channel is a simple white rectangle; it was assigned by After
Effects so that it would know how to composite the movie in a compo-
sition. (Why use white and not black? Think about it…) Close the Footage
window when you’re done. This movie on disk has no alpha channel
So every piece of footage that is added to a comp exists as an embedded in it. The After Effects
RGB+Alpha layer, even if the source didn’t start out with an alpha. Once Footage window shows the alpha
it’s placed in a comp, there are many ways to modify this alpha channel channel as fully white, so it will be fully
further. Explore the following example compositions: opaque when it’s added to a comp.

[Ex.03a-Opacity]: Okay, so this is an easy one… Select layer 1; if its

Opacity parameter isn’t visible in the Timeline window, press T to reveal it.
Scrub the Opacity value and watch the layer get more or less transparent.
Now turn on the Alpha icon and scrub Opacity again. When you change
Opacity, you’re changing the brightness of the layer’s alpha, not the values
of the RGB channels.
[Ex.03b-Alpha Mix]: In this example, we have a
solid that is 100% blue, sitting on top of anoth-
er solid that is 100% red. The Opacity for both
solids is currently 50%. Click on the Alpha icon
and notice that where they overlap, the alpha
channel is brighter.
Make sure the Info palette is visible – if not,
press Command+2 (Control+2) to open it. The
Info palette defaults to displaying values in RGB
8 bpc (0–255); change this to Percent (0–100) by
clicking once on the palette or by selecting it from
its Options menu. Now run your cursor around
the solids in the Comp window while you’re looking at the Info palette. The Info palette has been set to
The alpha channel for each solid is 50%, which makes sense. But where display values in Percent (0–100).
the two solids overlap reads Alpha 75%, not 100% as you might expect. Here, two squares, both at 50%
Alpha channel values don’t add – they multiply (so 50% × 50% = 25% trans- Opacity, report an alpha value of
parent, which is 75% opaque). The only way to have 100% opacity is for 75% in the area where they overlap.
one layer to be 100% opaque (or to have so many overlapping semitrans-
parent layers that no one will notice the tiny amount of transparency
remaining). Return the Info palette to Auto Color Display when done.
[Ex.03c-Masking]: In this comp, an oval mask is applied to a movie, mak-
ing the pixels outside the mask edge transparent. When you apply a mask,

5
1 // All About Alphas
the original RGB image is not
changed, only the layer’s alpha
channel. (To see the layer and its
alpha before the mask is applied,
double-click the movie to open it
in the Layer window and set the
View popup to None.)
In Best Quality (the default), the
edge of the mask is smoothly anti-
aliased. In Draft Quality, the edge
is stairstepped. Click on the Alpha
swatch icon to view the alpha
Masks create transparency on a layer by channel, then toggle the Quality switch between Best and Draft to
rendering pixels outside the mask shape compare results. Zoom in if you need to get a closer look.
with an alpha channel value of 0 (black). Mask Feather should be twirled down in the Timeline window (if not,
Image courtesy Digital Vision/Pulse. select layer 1 and press F). Scrub the Feather amount to around 80; this
adds a large falloff to the edge of the mask. The appearance of this feath-
ered edge renders differently depending on whether the layer is in Best
or Draft Quality (toggle the Quality switch again if you’re curious).
To see how the feathered edge composites on top of another layer,
turn off the Alpha icon and add a background movie from the Project
window’s Sources>Movies folder, such as AB_DigitalMoods.mov. Scrub
the feather amount for the masked layer – the more transparent the
feathered edge, the more of the background layer shows through.

[Ex.03d-Track Matte]: In this example, the alpha channel of the fish image
is “borrowed” by the water texture movie so that the water shows only
where the fish’s alpha channel is opaque. Click the Alpha icon to see the
The water movie plays inside the Comp’s alpha channel. Change the Track Matte popup for layer 2 to
fish’s alpha channel by using it as Alpha Inverted – the fish shape cuts out a hole in the movie layer instead.
an Alpha Matte.
[Ex.03e-Keying]: There are various effects available to key footage, but
in all cases the idea is to make a certain color transparent. This could be
black or white in the case of a Luma Key, or blue or green when you’re
using keying effects like Keylight,
Linear Key or the Color Differ-
ence Key (see Chapter 10). For
instance, in this comp, the Luma
Key creates an alpha channel for
the AB_FloralTwist movie in
layer 1 – it does this by making
black transparent. Turn off layer
The Luma Key effect 2, and click the Alpha icon to see
creates transparency for layer 1’s new alpha. Select layer 1
dark areas in this movie. and press F3 to open the Effect
Footage courtesy Controls window and check out
Artbeats/Floral Twist. the settings.

6
 All About Alphas // 1
[Ex.03f-Unmultiply]: Free on this book’s
DVD is a handy plug-in from Walker Effects
called Premultiply. When its Mode popup
is set to Unmultiply Black, it will drop out a
black background. However, it will also
take dark values throughout the layer and
make them semitransparent, so results are
different from a Luma Key. Open [Ex.03f] The Premultiply effect
and compare the alpha channel created from Walker Effects
(and how it composites against the back- (free on the DVD) can
ground layer) with the alpha channel cre- render black values in
ated with the Luma Key effect in [Ex.03e]. a layer as transparent.

[Ex.03g-Blending Modes]: There is yet another method for dropping out

black backgrounds when compositing, and that is to use a blending
mode for the top layer. Modes such as Add, Screen, Linear Dodge, and
Color Dodge are lightening modes that work by adding pixel values from
the top layer to the layers below. Black has a value of 0,0,0 RGB, so it is
essentially ignored when using these modes. However, blending modes
do not create transparency! Turn off layer 2 in this comp and check out
layer 1’s alpha channel – it’s completely white, or fully opaque.
To summarize, the Luma Key effect is better at creating an alpha for
hard-edged solid objects, but it tends to leave black edges that are diffi- Blending modes offer different formulas
cult to clean up correctly. The Walker Effects Premultiply effect is more for combining images together based
suited to creating an alpha channel from a black background for footage on their RGB values – they do not
such as fire and explosions, or when you need to create an alpha channel affect the transparency of the alpha
for a lens flare effect that will be composited in another application. channel. Background courtesy
Artbeats/Digital Moods.
Blending modes are great for compositing inside After Effects, but they
don’t create alpha channels – with one exception:

[Ex.03h-Stencils]: Stencils and Silhouettes are listed

under Modes, but they are capable of creating trans- In [Ex.03h],
parency. In this example, the fish’s alpha channel acts the alpha
channel of the
as a stencil for all layers below. Also, the Comp is set
fish image is
to display transparency as a checkerboard pattern
used as a stencil
(see sidebar, Checkmate). to cut out all
[Ex.03i-Preserve Transparency]: The “T” switch in the layers below.
Modes panel forces the layer to which it’s applied to
render only inside the Comp’s alpha channel (because
After Effects renders from the bottom up, this means
the sum of the alpha channels from all layers below –
layers above the “T” switch are not included).
Select Window>Close All before moving on.

In [Ex.03i], the movie layer has its Preserve Transparency

switch set, so it appears only inside the comp’s alpha channel.
Footage courtesy Artbeats/Digital Microcosm.

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