Locking an image to a plane with a solid layer – Working with the 3D Camera Tracker

You created the advertising copy in After Effects, but the crabs’ expressions are in quotation bubbles, which are easier to include as images. You’ll attach the PSD files to solid layers in After Effects to lock them to specific planes. After Effects creates a Track Solid 1 layer, and a colorful solid square appears in […]

Getting started – Advanced Editing Techniques

Lesson overview In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following: This lesson will take about two hours to complete. If you haven’t already done so, download the project files for this lesson from peachpit.com/AfterEffectsCIB2024, following the instructions in the Getting Started section under “Accessing the lesson files and Web Edition.” PROJECT: SPECIAL EFFECTS […]

Applying Content-Aware Fill – Advanced Editing Techniques

You’re ready to replace the masked area with content-aware fill. The Alpha Expansion setting increases the size of the area to fill. Content-Aware Fill often performs better when the selected area includes pixels outside the object you’re removing. The Fill Method determines how the feature samples pixels and accommodates motion in the video. Range determines […]

Understanding Particle Systems II properties – Advanced Editing Techniques

Particle systems have a unique vocabulary. Some of the key settings are explained here for your reference. They’re listed in the order in which they appear (top to bottom) in the Effect Controls panel. Birth Rate Controls the number of particles generated per second. The value itself is arbitrary and does not equal the actual […]

Preparing movies for mobile devices – Rendering and Outputting

You can create movies in After Effects for playback on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones. To render your movie, add the composition to the Adobe Media Encoder encoding queue, and choose an appropriate device-specific encoding preset. For the best results, consider the limitations of mobile devices as you shoot footage and work with […]