17 Getting Started with After Effects

#17 Getting Started with After Effects

You can start After Effects projects many ways, and you'll learn many of them in this book. The most straightforward way is to insert a file into After Effects, and create a new composition manually (what Premiere calls a sequence and After Effects calls a composition). Here's how.

Working in After Effects

Working in After Effects is a lot like Premiere; generally, you apply effects or presets by dragging them from the Effects and Presets panel onto clips on the timeline and customizing the controls. The procedure for rendering is definitely different, as described in #84.

1.	In After Effects, choose File > Import.
2.	Select the file(s). After Effects loads them into a Project panel that looks comfortingly like Premiere Pro's (Figure 17a). In the figure, I'm loading a song called "Power to Rock." Figure 17a. After Effects' Project panel looks just like Premiere Pro's. Here's the imported file.
3.	Drag the video file into the timeline. This creates a composition that's the same duration as the video file. You should see the file on the timeline (Figure 17b) and a new composition in the Project panel. Figure 17b. Drag the video file into the timeline to create a composition of equal length. Here's After Effects in all its glory. Creating an After Effects Project from Within Premiere Pro If you create your After Effects project from Premiere Pro, After Effects will automatically use the correct composition settings, a nice error-prevention feature. See #20 to learn how.
4.	Next, choose Composition > Composition Settings to open the Composition Settings window (Figure 17c). The Duration is 4:06:24, matching the inserted song perfectly. Figure 17c. After Effects' Composition Settings window.
5.	Click the Preset drop-down menu, and you'll see a number of presets.
6.	Select a new preset, or choose the default, NTSC DV Widescreen, which is appropriate for this file.
7.	If you're satisfied with the settings, click OK to close the dialog box. Now you're ready to start editing in After Effects.