Main Concepts:

These are the features and concepts we will be focusing on in this project:

• Using Comp Proxies

• Masking

• Importing Sequences

• Footage Frame Rates

• Looping in Time and Space

• Continuous Rasterization

• Timing to music

• Adjustment Layers

• The Offset effect

Requirements:

After Effects 4.1 or later standard version.

Getting Started:

Inside the Tutorials master folder on the accompanying CD, locate and copy the folder 07_Underground to your hard drive.

In the folder Final Movie inside this folder, double-click on and play the movie Underground.mov. This is the final piece you will create in the PDF portion of this tutorial. Inside the Project folder you ll find the finished After Effects project file. Depending on the version of After Effects you are using (4.1 versus 5.0 or later), open the project Underground_4.aep or Underground_5.aep this is your starting point; we suggest you save under a new name after each major section.

If you have After Effects 5.0 or later, we suggest you complete the Piccadilly Circus tutorial in the prior chapter first it creates the centerpiece that appears in this project. You can start this tutorial with your finished project and composition from the prior tutorial, if you wish. But don t worry; we have also included instructions for jumping straight into this tutorial, and for those who are using After Effects 4.1.

Overview

Using precomps to hold complex portions of a final animation is a good way...