and easily learn how to use Adobe After Effects CC Release 2017 when

starting for the first time!

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After Effects is one of the most complete and professional video editing

software mainly used in post-production. This is different from Premiere

Pro CC, it is used to add effects, particles and transitions in order to

enhance the overall video appearance.

When you open After Effects, a dialog box opens, this is used to create a

new or to open existing projects. Under Recent, you can find all your most

recent After Effects projects ready to use. Below this, you would use New

Project... to start with a new project, or use Open Project... to browse

for an existing one.

You also have the possibility to work with Team Projects, which are special

projects that can be shared inside groups and teams. We won't see these in

this very basic tutorial.

In order to see and learn all the basic features you need inside After

Effects, let's create a new project.

The overall project interface is composed of several panels, and they

change slightly depending on the workspace chosen at the very top. For

simplicity, we will see just the default one, called Essentials.

Each of these panels you see can be closed and eventually reopened by going

to the Window tab, and choosing them from the list.

The first thing to do with a new project is to import all the media files

you need, which can be either images, videos or sound files. You can do so

by simply dragging and dropping them on the project from your computer.

Hold the CTRL button down and select multiple files if you want to import

more of them at once.

All these files imported, called Footage, are listed with their name,

format and size under the Project panel on the left. Just remember that all

these files are imported as simple links. This means that, if the original

file is either deleted or moved elsewhere, it won't be available in this

project anymore, and it will be shown in italic. In case you simply moved

it elsewhere, just right-click on the file, and go to Replace Footage,

and then to File... to relink it to the new location.

Once your files are inside the Project panel, just drag and drop them on

the timeline panel at the very bottom. These will be contained inside rows,

called Layers, represented as colored rectangles with a fixed duration.

When the first clip is imported, you will also create a new Composition,

that collects all the Layer rows you see. This will also be listed inside

the Project panel, with a frame icon on the left. So you can see that this

panel shows you the overall content of your project, composed by a single

or multiple compositions, and each composition is indeed a collection of

Layers listed and placed on the timeline, containing images, videos, audio

files, or even other compositions, that you can import inside the timeline

and seen as Footage.

To create new Compositions, click on the frame icon at the bottom of the

Project panel. Each Composition has its own settings, that you can check

and edit by right-clicking on its name and going to Composition Settings.

Here you can set the Composition name, its video resolution, and also its

frame rate. Also, under Duration, you can extend the overall duration of

the Composition, this is important in case there is an insufficient

duration to contain all your media.

Let's see how to preview your project inside After Effects!

On the central part of the interface, you have the main Video Preview, used

to check how your project is going. In particular, if you double-click

on any Footage inside the Project panel, this will be opened in the Video

Preview. You can also double-click on a Layer inside your timeline to

preview it. In order to check the overall content inside the Composition

that is open on your timeline, just double-click on it from the Project

panel.

Also, use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Hold the Space bar key and

click and drag to pan and check the details. You can play and stop quickly

by using the Space bar key. The first preview may not be excellent: After

Effects needs to render the preview first, until the thin green line

you see covers the whole timeline duration. At this point, the preview

will be fluid.

Pay attention to the Video Preview timeline. This always refers to the

element you have chosen, that you can check on the tab above. For example,

if you have a Layer or a Footage open, the timeline will follow

the duration.

But, if you open a Composition, you will directly preview all its content

that is shown in the main timeline below. In this case, the Video Preview

shows exactly what is under the blue playhead. You can also click and drag

it to check an exact frame.

Now, let's see how to edit your Composition through the main timeline.

You can zoom in and out by holding down ALT and using your mouse wheel on

it.

To move each clip in time, just click and drag it to where you like.

Consider that you may need to wait for the composition to be rendered again

to get a good preview.

You can also stretch or shorten a clip by clicking and dragging from its

furthest most edges. There is no problem for image clips but, for video and

audio clips that have a fixed duration, you may not be able to stretch

those over it. Also, if you shorten them, After Effects shows the cut

content under a darken color.

You can also use the Video Preview to correct the appearance of the visible

clips. If you have a Composition open, you can select each of its clips

from the timeline to edit their position by clicking and dragging. You can

also scale and size by using the nodes you see. You can rotate each clip

selected by enabling the Rotation Tool on the left, and clicking and

dragging on the Video Preview.

Let's see how to fully edit each of your Layer rows inside your timeline.

All the tools and settings of those are collected on the left.

First of all, each Layer gets the name from its Footage imported by default,

but you can rename it by right-clicking on it and going to Rename.

Also, the Layer order sets the order of visibility of the Video Preview.

In short, a Layer that is placed on top is shown above all the other layers

that stay below. To change a Layer position, just click and drag it up or

down from its name.

You can cut, copy, and paste a Layer by selecting it, and going to the

Edit tab above. In case you make any mistake, you can undo your latest

action by using CTRL+Z with your keyboard.

On the far left of each layer you have four important buttons to control

the content inside the Composition. Inside visible layers, such as videos

and images, you can use the eye icon to hide or show their content.

Inside videos and sound files, you can use the speaker icon to mute or

unmute these.

For all Layers, you can use the Solo icon to playback just the specific

layer, or use the Lock icon to block any possible change or modification on

the layer content.

Each Layer has a small grey arrow. If you click on it, you will check the

full list of properties and features for each Layer. For example, image

layers show the Transform section, used to adjust the Layer content

position, size, inclination and transparency through Opacity. To change

these settings, you can either click on a value to type it directly, or

simply click and drag it to fine tune the settings. Use Reset to return to

the original values.

To check the effect of your modifications, make sure to have the Video

Preview open on the Composition, with the blue playhead placed over the

Layer you wish to preview.

Layers with an audio content have the Audio section, that shows the volume

level under Audio Levels and the sound waveform under Waveform. Videos that

have audio inside show both Transform and Audio sections.

Inside this list are included all the effects applied to each Layer. You

can apply amazing effects by going to the Effects & Presets panel on the

right, and browsing for your favorite effect. Then, just and drag and drop

the effect on the layer. This will be added inside the list, with all

its settings. You can also enable and disable each effect by clicking on

the fx icon on the far left, in order to see how the Layer changes with the

effect applied.

Let's see how to add a simple title. To do so, just enable the Horizontal

Type Tool on top, and click and drag on the Video Preview to create a text

box, that is used to contain your text. After that, type in, and modify

all the text properties by using the Character panel on the right. To place

text correctly, just click and drag it directly on the Video Preview.

Remember that text is no more but an independent layer inside your

Composition.

Let's see how to save and render your project! To save your overall

project, including all the settings and effects applied on each single

Layer and Composition, go to File and then to Save As twice.

If you want to obtain the final video to upload it online or simply play

it back, you have to render it first.

The Render Queue panel is used to render your selected Compositions

individually, from top to bottom. You can open it by using the Window tab.

At this point, open the Composition to render, go to the Composition tab,

and then to Add to Render Queue. This will show up on the Render

Queue panel.

Under Render Settings, click on Best Settings to adjust the Quality,

Resolution and Frame Rate on the right. Keep in mind that the Size is

determined by the Composition Settings seen before.

Under Output Module, click on Lossless to select the video format to use,

the color code and the main Audio settings. Click on Output To, to set the

destination folder, which is where the final video will be saved, and the

name for your video.

Once the destination folder is set, the new status will be ''Queued'', and

then you can start rendering by going to Render on the far right.

The part of the Composition that will be rendered is just the part that is

within the Work Area on the timeline, which is the second thicker bar from

the top. You can stretch and move it as you like by clicking and dragging

on it.

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