Chapter List

Overview

After animating layers comes treating their images with special effects.

One of the richest areas for exploration in After Effects is its "effects" side. The variety of effects supplied with After Effects ranges from the extremely utilitarian to the extremely wild, each with anywhere from one to 127 parameters that you can adjust. Fortunately, virtually all effects share the same basic methods of adjusting and animating those parameters.

In this section of the book, we will start by giving an overview of how to apply and edit effects, as well as save and load favorite effect settings. The next few chapters reveal some additional techniques for using effects. If you're a beginner, feel free to dive into this introductory effects chapter once you're comfortable with basic animation techniques.

Applying an Effect

There are two approaches to applying an effect to a layer: using the Effect menu, or using the recently introduced Effects palette. To use the traditional Effect menu, select the layer or layers you wish to effect in either the Comp or Timeline window, and click on the Effect menu heading. You will be presented with a list of categories representing general classes of effects (and if you've installed any third-party effects, such as the ones included free on the enclosed CD, manufacturer names). Mouse down to the category you want, and...