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One of the major new features in After Effects CS3 is the introduction of the Puppet Tools. These provide a new way to warp layers, including shape and text layers created inside After Effects. Applications include creating character animation or just imparting fun movement to otherwise inanimate objects.

We've been reinforcing the idea throughout this book that managing transparencies is the cornerstone of creating motion graphic composite images. But not all images come with their own transparencies - or ones we necessarily want to use. Sometimes, we'd prefer to borrow another image to create those transparencies. This second image is called a matte .

When images are captured on film or video, objects that are moving appear blurred, while static objects appear sharp. This is due to the fact that the camera is capturing samples of time, and the camera shutter is kept open for some of that time. The faster the object moves, the more distance it will cover while the shutter is open, and the less distinct the image. This motion blur makes for smoother motion and is a quality often lacking in computer-generated animation.

By now, you should know how to build a comp and how to animate layers, so let's step up to working with multiple layers efficiently. This chapter covers shortcuts and tips for managing and replacing layers, creating markers and snapshots, and editing images in their original application.

Reality is fine, but it's not always what you want. Sometimes you need a captured movie to play back more quickly, more slowly, or backward, or to stop altogether. After Effects has options to Time Stretch a clip, which gives it a new constant speed, or Time Remap it, which allows the speed to change over time. Both often result in staggered motion compared with the original clip, so at the end of this chapter we will discuss Frame Blending which can help smooth out the result.

You may have heard the expression “painting with light”; it's an appropriate description of what After Effects lets you do. You can illuminate layers, add colored casts to them, overlight them to add intensity or blow them out, vignette them, have them cast shadows… even cause layers to project their own images onto other layers. All of this comes with a price, of course: Lights are one of the deepest subjects in After Effects. We'll start with some basic concepts, progress through adjusting illumination and shadows, and end with advanced techniques such as creating virtual gels and gobos.

The previous chapter was devoted to Track Mattes: having one layer create transparency for one other layer. Stencils, however, create transparency for all layers underneath. You can use a layer's luminance or alpha channel as a stencil, and invert it as well. This chapter also covers the Preserve Transparency switch, and an obscure but useful mode called Alpha Add.

Not all footage items look best full screen. And not all come with their own alpha channels to block out the parts you don't want to see. Therefore, we often use masks to “cut out” the alpha channels we require. You can create masks in a variety of ways: You can draw a path using the mask tools in either the Layer or Comp panel, specify the dimensions numerically, or paste a path created in Illustrator or Photoshop.

I n the first two lessons, we focused on animating the properties of layers. However, your sources may have built-in animation of their own – namely, the frame-to-frame movement inside a video clip. Therefore, we're going to spend a good portion of this lesson showing how to move a clip in time, edit its in and out points, and work with its frame rate and ability to loop. From there, we'll move onto combining clips using Blending Modes – the “secret sauce” that creates rich, deeply layered looks. We'll end by showing alternate ways to work with effects, including using Adjustment Layers and taking advantage of Animation Presets.

F rom opening titles to closing credits, bullet points to lower thirds, and conveying information to creating abstract backgrounds, one of the most common elements in motion graphics is the use of text. Fortunately, After Effects has a very powerful text engine – but it's hardly the most intuitive tool in the world. In this lesson, we'll show you how to professionally typeset text, then animate it in interesting ways.

I n this lesson, you will become acquainted with two admittedly mind-bending areas of After Effects. First we will cover expressions, which can help you save time while animating. After you master those, we will show you how to make time literally stand still – as well as speed up, slow down, and go by more smoothly.

I n this lesson, you will work through a number of easy exercises to help build your animation skills. Along the way, you will become familiar with working in the After Effects Graph Editor, applying Keyframe Assistants, and taking maximum advantage of a layer's Anchor Point. We'll also show you advanced tricks such as using Motion Sketch to hand-draw your animation path, using Roving Keyframes to maintain smooth speed changes over complex paths, the best approach for “motion control” style movements, and the crucial component needed to create “slam down” animations.

A fter Effects CS3 Professional (also known as Version 8) introduces several new features aimed specifically at animators and motion graphics artists. You'll play with three of them here: Brainstorm, the Puppet tool, and Shape layers.

After Effects offers a set of paint tools for painting directly on layers. You can use vector-based paint tools accessed from a pair of dedicated panels to retouch footage and create animated graphical elements, plus use cloning to remove unwanted elements and replicate areas of a layer. The brush strokes are non-destructive. Individual brush, clone and eraser strokes can be edited and animated in the Timeline.

I n this lesson, we will be focusing on different ways to create transparency. One of the keys to creating an interesting composite of multiple images is to make portions of those images transparent, so that you can see other images behind or through them. This is one of the main techniques that set motion graphic design and visual effects compositing apart from video editing.

3 D Space is one of the most rewarding areas to explore in After Effects. A simple switch allows each layer to move in the Z dimension – closer to and farther away from the viewer – in addition to left and right. Layers may also be rotated in 3D, which gives the ability to view them from new angles. You can selectively add cameras and lights to a composition, allowing you to cast shadows and move around your imaginary 3D world.