User manual ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL

[. . . ] ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL USER GUIDE ® ® © 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Copyright Adobe® After Effects® CS3 User Guide for Windows® and Mac OS If this guide is distributed with software that includes an end user agreement, this guide, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. Except as permitted by any such license, no part of this guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with software that includes an end user license agreement. [. . . ] Use the Start Opacity value to set the opacity of the original shape, and the End Opacity value to set the opacity for the last copy. If you place the Repeater after a path, above the fill and stroke property groups for a shape, then the set of virtual copies is filled or stroked as a compound path. If you leave the Repeater below the fill and stroke, then each copy is filled and stroked individually. The difference is most apparent with gradient fills and strokes. 334 Chapter 14: Motion tracking With motion tracking, you can stabilize shaky footage, analyze the motion of objects in a scene, and match the motion of composited graphics with those objects. Motion tracking overview About motion tracking With motion tracking, you can track the movement of an object and then apply the tracking data for that movement to another object--such as another layer or an effect control point--to create compositions in which images and effects follow the motion. You can also stabilize motion, in which case the tracking data is used to animate the tracked layer to compensate for movement of an object in that layer. You can link properties to tracking data using expressions, which opens up a wide variety of uses. After Effects tracks motion by matching image data from a selected area in a frame to image data in each succeeding frame. Here are some examples: · Combining elements filmed separately, such as adding video to the side of a moving city bus or a star to the end of a sweeping wand. · Animating a still image to match the motion of action footage, such as making a cartoon bumblebee sit on a swaying flower. · Animating effects to follow a moving element, such as making a moving ball glow. · Linking the tracked object's position to other properties, such as making stereo audio pan from left to right as a car races across the screen. · Stabilizing footage to hold a moving object stationary in the frame to examine how a moving object changes over time, which can be useful in scientific imaging work. · Stabilizing footage to remove the jostling of a handheld camera. Depending on the encoder you use, it is possible to decrease the size of your final output file by stabilizing motion footage. Random motion, such as from the jostling of a handheld camera, can make it difficult for many compression algorithms to compress your video. You set up, initiate, and apply motion tracking with the Tracker Controls panel. As with all properties, you can modify, animate, manage, and link tracking properties in the Timeline panel. You specify areas to track by setting track points in the Layer panel. Each track point contains a feature region, a search region, and an attach point. A set of track points is a tracker. AFTER EFFECTS CS3 335 User Guide A B C Layer panel with track point A. Attach point Feature region The feature region defines the element in the layer to be tracked. The feature region should surround a distinct visual element, preferably one object in the real world. After Effects must be able to clearly identify the tracked feature throughout the duration of the track, despite changes in light, background, and angle. Search region The search region defines the area that After Effects will search to locate the tracked feature. The tracked feature needs to be distinct only within the search region, not within the entire frame. Confining the search to a small search region saves search time and makes the search process easier, but runs the risk of the tracked feature leaving the search region entirely between frames. Attach point The attach point designates the place of attachment for the target --the layer or effect control point to synchronize with the moving feature in the tracked layer. Note: When you begin tracking, After Effects sets the quality of the motion source layer to Best and the resolution to Full in the Composition and Layer panels, which makes the tracked feature easier to find and enables subpixel processing and positioning. After Effects uses one track point to track position, two track points to track scale and rotation, and four points to perform tracking using corner pinning. See also "Expressions" on page 543 Motion tracking workflow The implicit first step of any workflow is to determine the result that you want to achieve before you begin. [. . . ] See Adobe Flash flipping layers 159 FLM format guidelines for editing 602 floating windows 14 Flowchart panel 22 FLV. See Flash Video (FLV) Foam effect 488 focal length, camera setting 181 focal plane, specifying 368 focus distance, camera setting 180 INDEX 656 focusDistance (expression element) 570 Fog 3D effect 369 folders project hierarchy 33 Project panel 67 Folders panel 43 font installation 2 font size 277 changing in Metadata panel 55 footage editing source in original application 69 preparing before importing 57 footage (expression element) 556, 564 footage items about 57 Adobe Photoshop files 141 importing and interpreting 60 looping 72 managing 67 placeholders 70 proxies 70 replacing 57 Footage panel 69 formats See also individual formats for export 583 for import 58 formatting text characters 277 paragraphs 282 Fractal effect 425 Fractal Noise effect 458 frame aspect ratio 64 frame blending 226 Frame Hold, conversion in After Effects 76 Frame Mix 226 frame rate 63, 89 frameDuration (expression element) 564 frames freezing 209, 223 in interlaced video 78 framesToTime (expression element) 557 frameTarget (expression element) 576 Free Transform Points command 326 freeze frame 209, 223 fromComp (expression element) 569 fromCompToSurface (expression element) 570 fromCompVec (expression element) 569 fromWorld (expression element) 569 fromWorldVec (expression element) 570 f-stops, camera setting 180 Full mode, in Bridge 46 G gamma about 239 Gamma/Pedestal/Gain effect 396 garbage mattes 269 Gaussian Blur effect 377 gaussRandom (expression element) 560 Generate effects Advanced Lightning effect 418 Audio Spectrum effect 419 Audio Waveform effect 421 Beam effect 422 Cell Pattern effect 422 Checkerboard effect 423 Circle effect 424 Ellipse effect 424 Eyedropper Fill effect 424 Fill effect 425 4-Color Gradient effect 418 Fractal effect 425 Grid effect 427 Lens Flare effect 427 Lightning effect 428 Paint Bucket effect 429 Radio Waves effect 430 Ramp effect 433 Scribble effect 433 Stroke effect 435 Vegas effect 435 Write-on effect 437 Get Photos From Camera command, in Bridge 50 Get Properties For command 613 GIF, animated 32 global expression objects 556 Glow effect 516 GPU 587 Gradient Overlay layer style 172 Gradient Wipe effect 536 gradients creating with Ramp effect 433 editing 236 gradients (shape layers) 327 grain 449 Graph Editor 186 graphics tablets and paint tools 304 grayscale images colorizing 104 converting to black and white 520 creating 390 greenscreen. See keying Grid effect 427 grids 134 Group As Stack command, in Bridge 49 grouping shapes 314, 316 Grow Bounds effect 541 guide layers 162 guides 134 H H. 264 77 halos 62, 384 handheld cameras 341 hand-tinted images 390 hanging punctuation 283 hard disk cache 35 hard disk space 34 hasAudio (expression element) 566 hasParent (expression element) 565 hasVideo (expression element) 566 HD pixel aspect ratio 66 HDR (high dynamic range) images 235, 541 HDR Compander effect 541 HDR Highlight Compression effect 542 HDV 77 pixel aspect ratio 66 height (expression element) 563, 564, 565 Help about 2 Hide Layer Controls command 175 high-definition video 77 highlight clipping 386 INDEX 657 highlights, adjusting 400 High-Low Pass effect 372 histograms adjusting color with 386 History command 23 Hold interpolation 209 hold-out matte 270 horizontal scale of text 280 horizontal scan lines 78 horizontal text, converting to vertical 275 HSL/Color/Grayscale panel 104 hslToRgb (expression element) 562 Hue/Saturation effect 396 I ICC (International Color Consortium) 241 ID Matte effect 370 Illustrator. See Adobe Illustrator image noise, defined 107 images previewing, in Bridge 49, 51 importing 3D files 84, 85, 86, 174 See also individual formats about 57 Adobe Illustrator files 91 Adobe Photoshop files 90 Adobe Premiere 6. 0 and 6. 5 projects 73 Adobe Premiere Pro projects 73 After Effects projects 73 camera raw files 95 Cineon files 92 Digital Picture Exchange (DPX) files 92 formats 58 methods 60 still images and sequences 87 Vanishing Point exchange (. vpe) 85 In point 145 Increase Font Size command, in Bridge 55 Increase Rating command, in Bridge 47 indenting paragraphs 283 InDesign. [. . . ]