Part 6 – Photoshop to After Effects Workflow

[ADOBE® TV Presents] [♫music] [CLASSROOM] [Basic Compositing & Animation After Effects CS5] In the previous episode, we looked at tying everything together, taking each scene that we built as its own precomp and putting it into a master composition. In this episode we're going to be looking at the Photoshop to After Effects Workflow, bringing documents from Photoshop into After Effects. Let's get started. So go ahead and open up the AE_TitleSequence folder, then click on the Images folder. We're going to first review some of the materials we're working with before we jump into the lesson. Inside the Images folder you'll find 3 PNG files. These PNG files were used to build a multilayered Photoshop document. Let's take a look at that document right now. Double-click on the layered_wind_turbines.psd file, which will open it in Photoshop. As you can see, this document has 5 different layers. Each layer is separated over here on the right-hand side, in what's called the Layers panel. We're not going to get too far into it here in Photoshop, but I do want to show you that you can turn these layers on and off by clicking the little Eyeball icon next to each layer. So this document was built from several flattened documents, just by cutting out each area and then compositing them together. This is a great way to prepare your materials before going into After Effects. So go ahead and quit Photoshop now-- and you won't need to save this document. Now, move your cursor to the Lessons folder, and double-click on lesson06. This will open lesson06 in After Effects. Now it's time to import the Photoshop document that you just saw in Photoshop. To do this, go ahead and click Command+I or Control+I if you're on a PC. This will allow you to import a file from your hard drive. Then navigate to the AE_TitleSequence folder which, in my case, is found on the desktop. Then click on the Images folder and select the layered_wind_turbines.psd. Before you hit Open, I want to point out that there's a couple of ways to open up a Photoshop document in After Effects. First of all, you could take it in as a flattened layer. This is referred to as footage, where all of the layers are flattened down and all you get is 1 single layer in After Effects. Or you can import it as Composition - Retain Layer Sizes. We're doing this because we want it to look the same as it looked in Photoshop. Select Composition - Retain Layer Sizes, then click Open. The next dialogue box asks you if you want to import with editable layer styles or merge the layer styles-- or select Live Photoshop 3D. In both cases, it doesn't really matter because we don't have 3D elements in this Photoshop document, and there are no layer styles. So it doesn't really matter, at this point, what you choose. But if you do have layer styles in your Photoshop document, keeping them editable allows you to continue to edit those layer styles, and even animate them here in After Effects. Now that you're in After Effects, notice that you have a composition called layered_wind_turbines; also, a new folder called layered_wind_turbine Layers. If you open up this folder, you'll notice the 5 layers that corresponded to the 5 layers in Photoshop are found here. Go ahead and close that folder. Then double-click on the layered_wind_turbines Composition. Also--to keep things organized, I'd like you to move the layered_wind_turbines Composition into your Comps folder. Now that you're here inside of the Composition, notice that the same eyeball icons correspond to the different layers. This is a great way to allow us to animate these layers that were all composited within Photoshop. So the first step I'd like you to do is to add some rotation to the Blades layer. But we first want to make sure that the anchor point is in the very center of the Blades layer. To do this, switch to the Pan Behind tool found on your toolbar. Then select the Blades layer in your composition. You'll need to zoom in to make sure that you can get it nice and centered. But what we're looking for is a little point, somewhere in the center of this layer. This point is referred to as our Anchor Point. An Anchor Point corresponds to the center point of rotation and the center point of scaling. It really dictates the pivot point for a given layer. In this case, because we're going to be rotating these blades, we want this point to be dead center inside of the center of the blades. So select that point that you find, just above center, and move it down so that it's as close to center as you can get it. If you want to be really accurate, you can zoom as far in as possible, and align it so it's nice and centered. There you go--nicely done. You can then zoom back, by scrolling back on your scroll wheel--on your mouse--or select Shift+/ on your keyboard to scale to fit to the composition. The next step is to select the R key. The R key will reveal the Rotation attribute for the Blades layer on your composition. You'll want to select the Selection tool now and then begin to adjust the Rotation, just to ensure that it's rotating around a proper Anchor Point. So I'm looking to see that there's no wobble in this rotation. You might notice that the bounding box-- those points around the layer--might look a little weird. But as long as those blades rotate on the right axis, you've got the right Anchor Point. So let's undo that previous action: Command+Z or Control+Z, if you're on a PC. Then place a keyframe on Rotation at the beginning and end of your composition. You can hit the End key to jump to the end of your composition to speed things up. Now that I've got 2 keyframes on this composition, I'd like to add some rotation to this layer. I'm doing so, by using the Revolutions Value. I'm not using degrees. That would take awhile for it to rotate around that many times. But I do want to show you that if I rotate the Degree Value to 359 degrees, it stays as a Degree Value. But as soon as I get to 360 degrees, notice that it resets the first value to 1, which means that there is 1 revolution. So instead of using the Degree Value, just go ahead and adjust the Rotations Value. I'd like you to add 6 rotations to this layer; then deselect, by clicking in the gray area beneath the layers. Let's watch it. I think it looks pretty good. However, I think it could be a little faster. So let's jump to the last keyframe, by stopping the Playback and hitting the K key; and adjust this so that it has more revolutions. How about something like 10? I think that looks a little bit better. Let's go with that, for now. Now, what we need to do is make multiple copies of this wind turbine. This includes the Mast, as well as the Blades. So before we begin that, I'd like to build a relationship between the Mast and the Blades. Specifically, I'd like you to parent the Blades to the Mast. Go ahead and click the Pick Whip tool on the Blades layer and parent it to the Mast. Then anything you do to the Mast, such as position, scaling-- even rotation--will correspond to the Blades layer as well. Notice when I click and move this Mast layer around, it carries the Blades with it. So what I'd like you to do is duplicate these 2 layers and make 3 copies. Select both the Mast, as well as the Blades. Then hit Command+D or Control+D, if you're on a PC. Now I have 2 copies of both the Blades and the Mast. Select Command+D one more time to give you a third copy. Now I'd like you to reorder these layers so that they're grouped together: Blade 1 with Mast 1, Blade 2 with Mast 2. To do this, select both Blades 3 and Mast 3, and move them above Blades 2. Then select Blades 2 and Mast 2, by holding the Command key to select these things out of order. Move that above Blades. All right, there you have it--you have 3 pairs of both Blades and Masts. So now we need to rescale these other 2 copies and reposition them, so we create a composition where we have 3 different wind turbines on this composition. You can do this by selecting Mast 3 and Mast 2. Then, clicking the S key to reveal Scale, hold Shift and hit the P key, to reveal Position. Now we're looking at both Position and Scale, together. With Mast 3, I'd like you to reposition this layer-- first by deselecting it, then reselecting it, then position it to the right--almost on the far right-hand side. You can also scale this layer down, by clicking and dragging to the left, on the Scale attribute for the Mast 3 layer. I'm going to go with something like 50 percent scale. Then reposition again, so that it's tucked behind that grass. Got to make sure it looks real. The second Mast layer will also adjust, by rescaling it-- let's try a slightly smaller scale, but maybe not as small as 50. In this case, let's try 60. Then reposition Mast 2 so that it's in between Mast 1 and Mast 3. I think this looks good, but let me show you one other way to scale a layer. You can do this by selecting the bounding box handle in the top right-hand corner, then clicking and dragging up, to the left, to the right, or even down. But notice that it's scaling unproportional. This might throw off the proportions of both your Mast and your Blades layer. So in order to constrain the proportions, hold your Shift key, while doing this scaling action. In some ways, this might be ideal for this situation because it allows you to see it onscreen as you're doing the scaling action. Also notice that while I do this, I'm only scaling the Mast layer,and the blades will follow. Again, this is because the Blades are parented to the Mast. Okay--great. I think the position, the layout, and the scale looks about right. Now what I'd like you to do is duplicate the Sky layer, and we're going to make a slice on one of those layers so that you can slide text between the two layers, having it pop out from behind the Mast. Let me show you how to do this. Go ahead and scroll down to the Sky layer, select it, then hit Command+D, or Control+D, and duplicate this. Now you have 2 copies of the Sky. With Sky Layer 2, we're going to add a mask. I'd like you to add a mask, using one of the 2 Mask tools. Before, we've used the Rectangle tool. This time, let's try the Pen tool. Go ahead and Click on the pen tool--also, a key Command of G on your keyboard. What I'd like you to do is place your first pen point, by clicking somewhere around the center of that Mast. Then move your cursor down and place another pen point towards the bottom of the Mast. The third pen point, you can put over to the right-hand side, probably on the outside of the composition. Then you're fourth pen point, and finally, to close the Mast, click on the original pen point that was your first point in the masked drawing. This has now created a mask which is a custom shape, different from the rectangle tool. Change back to the selection tool. Now let's just look at this layer, individually, to confirm that the mask is the right shape and size. To do this, move your cursor to the layer, Sky 2, and select the Solo button. The Solo button is found to the right of the Eyeball button. Click it, and this will Solo the individual layer, essentially turning off all other layers and revealing only the selected soloed layers. I think this is going to work great to provide a coverup for the text. Now let's go copy one of the text layers from the previous compositions so we can build our title. Let's select the bike_wheel composition. Then select the text layer within that composition. Hit Command+C to copy it or Control+C to copy it, if you're on a PC. Select the layered_wind_turbines composition. Then hit Command+V or Control+V, if you're on a PC, to paste the layer into the current composition. Now that we have this layer pasted in, let's remove all previous keyframes for the given text layer. You can do this by selecting the U key on the keyboard. This will reveal all the current keyframes for that layer. Select the 2 keyframes and hit Delete on your keyboard to remove the keyframes. Now let's position this layer so that it looks about right for the final title position. I'm thinking a little bit up, and maybe a little bit--hmm-- this is all about using your eyes, and I'm noticing that these clouds are kind of causing some problems. We may have to animate those later, to move them out of the way. We're not going to worry about them right now. Now we need to modify the text to read "Power Foundation"--the name of our movie. This time, to modify the text all I need to do is double-click on it, within the composition window. Then highlight the section of the text that I'd like to modify. In this case, the top line. Let's write "Power". Then double-click the middle line and write "Foundation". You can move to the next line, and delete any of the remaining characters. I think it looks good, but I think it needs to be a little bit bigger. So deselect the layer, then reselect the layer and hit the S key to reveal the Scale attribute. So what this means is I can scale this layer up, using the scale attribute, and not lose any resolution. This isn't the case for all layers. Text is one of those layers, which is a vector. So let's try about 105 or 110 percent. I think 110 looks about right. Then let's extend the duration of this layer to the full duration of the composition. This can be done by moving your cursor to the right-hand edge of the layer. This is the handle for the layer, allowing you to extend the duration of the layer to last as long as all the other layers. You can hold the Shift key now and it will snap to the end of the composition, making this layer the same length as all the other layers in the composition. Now I'd like you to jump to the beginning of the composition and add a Position keyframe to the Power Foundation layer. You can do this by selecting Option P or Alt+P, if you're on a PC. This will add a new Position keyframe. Then let's advance forward, about 20 frames. Shift, Page Down, Page Down--that will put me 20 frames forward in time. Then select Option P or Alt+P, if you're on a PC--one more time-- to add another Position keyframe. I'm doing this first. This is a common way to animate. To place your keyframes in time first, to get a sense of the timing, then go back and modify the keyframes. Now I'd like to jump back to the previous keyframe, by selecting the J key on your keyboard, You can then move the Power Foundation layer to the right, using your Selection tool. I hold Shift so that it constrains to the proportion; hold the Shift key to move the Power Foundation, only on the x-axis. Now let's adjust the layer order for this layer so that it's underneath Sky 2, but on top of Sky 1. To do this, select the Power Foundation Layer on your Timeline, then move the text region below Sky 2, but above Sky 1. Let's go ahead and watch it. This is a great way to create a little composite, where you reveal the Power Foundation from underneath the Mast. But what's really happening is you have 2 copies of the Sky layer which are the exact same, but using layer order, you can create this illusion--it's a great technique. So that initial animation looks great, but I think I want to add a little bit of drift to it after it lands in its position. To do this, add another Position keyframe, probably at about 6 seconds. So advance your current time indicator forward, till you arrive at 6 seconds. This time, I'd like to show you a different way to do this. You can click on the timecode in the top left-hand corner of the Timeline. Then type 6-0-0 to enter in 6 seconds in your timecode area. Click Enter or Return to confirm the action. This will put you at 6 seconds in your Timeline. This is another quick way to jump between specific points in time so that you land exactly at 6 seconds. This can also be done by clicking on the timecode at the bottom of the composition window to also reveal the Go to Time Window. Now I'd like you to add a third Position keyframe, moving the layer a little bit to the left. You should know this by now, but I'm going to just show you 1 more time. You don't have to add the keyframe first. You can simply move the layer, and it will automatically add a new keyframe. But once again, hold that Shift key so that it stays on the x-axis only. I'm positioning this layer to the left-hand side, but not going all the way to the edge. This causes problems, visually. I think it looks best when it's close to the edge, but not right on top of it. This is sort of a compositional decision. Let's watch it. Go ahead and stop the Playback. Then let's adjust the keyframe interpolation for these keyframes so that the last keyframe is an Ease In keyframe. To do this, select the third keyframe, then go to the Animation menu, and go to Keyframe Assistant and select Easy Ease In. This will change the keyframe interpolation so that there's easiness on the entrance of the third keyframe. Now what I'd like you to do is to animate each one of these layers into the composition, from a blank screen. I'm imagining the graphs rising up from underneath the composition, having the sky fade in, and having each wind turbine pop up from from underneath the grass. First things first. Why don't we close some of the layers that we currently have open. You can do this by selecting all the layers: either Command+A on a Mac, or Control+A on a PC. This will select all the layers. Then press the U key on your keyboard to reveal or collapse all current keyframes. Now that all the keyframes are hidden, you can deselect by clicking below the layers. Then select the Grass layer. You'll want to reveal the Position attribute so press the P key on your keyboard to reveal Position. You can jump to the beginning of your Timeline by pressing the Home key on your keyboard. Then let's add a Position keyframe. Now advance forward 15 frames; Shift+Page Down, then 5 more clicks of the Page Down key. You can then add another keyframe by clicking the Diamond key, to the left of the stopwatch. Jump back to the first keyframe, then let's adjust the position for this layer to begin from offscreen. I'm going to do this by selecting it on the Composition window and sliding it down. I'm holding the Shift key, once again, to keep it on the y-axis. Now I'd like the Sky layer to fade in so I'm going to select Sky Layer 1, or the very bottom layer in your composition. Then hit the T key on your keyboard to reveal the opacity attribute. You can change the opacity value to zero, by clicking in the numerical area, clicking zero, then hitting Enter. Then add an Opacity keyframe and advance forward in your Timeline, by pressing Shift+Page Down twice to advance forward 20 frames. You'll need to then change the value to 100 percent opacity so that it animates from zero to 100 percent opacity. Let's take a little look at it You can scrub your time indicator across that Timeline to see what it looks like. I think it looks good, but we're going to have to deal with that other copy of the Sky layer and find a way to deal with the text as well. So what I'd like you to do is park on the second keyframe. Then select Sky 2, as well as the Power Foundation layer. You can grab the center of the Region block, and click it and drag right, while holding Shift, so that it snaps to your current time indicator. What this is doing is moving the layer down the Timeline, so it doesn't even begin until 20 frames. Let's take a look at it. Now I'd like you to animate the clouds to fade on, as well as move from right to left. Select the Clouds layer, then press the P key, hold Shift, and hit the T key to reveal both position and opacity. Go ahead and add a keyframe to both of those values, at about 1 second. The Opacity Value is going to animate more quickly than the Position Value. Let's say it animates in 20 frames. Shift+Page Down, then one more click--and this will put us at 1 second, and 20 frames-- placing another Opacity keyframe at the current time. Now jump back to the first keyframe and adjust the Opacity value to zero percent. Then deselect and click the End key to go to the very end of the composition, and slide the position for the Cloud layer to the left. Be sure to hold the Shift key, to keep it on the x-axis only. I'm adjusting the layer, so that the center of the layer lines up with the left-hand side of the composition. So now what I'd like you to do is to animate the Mast to rise up from underneath the grass, but we're going to have to delay the timing for these Masts so that they begin after the grass has done its animation. To do this, jump back to the last keyframe on the grass layer, by clicking the J key on your keyboard. Then select Blades 3, all the way through to Mast 1, by holding the Shift key while clicking on the Mast layer. This will select all of the layers, together. You'll then want to slide these layers down the Timeline so they begin at 15 frames. Just click and drag on the block on the Timeline; then hold Shift so that it snaps to the current time indicator. Now what I'd like you to do is to reveal the Position attribute for the 3 Mast layers. So first deselect, then select Mast 3; hold Command or Control, if you're on a PC, to select Mast 2 and Mast 1, together. Press the P key to reveal the Position attribute, then click the Stopwatch to add a keyframe on the Position attribute for all 3 layers. Now what I'd like you to do is to advance forward 20 frames. Then add another Position keyframe to all 3 layers. Jump back to the previous keyframe, and let's modify the position for all 3 layers, together, by clicking on 1 of the layers on the composition window and sliding it down. Once again, you'll want to hold that Shift key so that it keeps it on the y-axis only. Now what you have happening is these layers rise up from underneath the grass, and they're all spinning together. But I'd like to stagger the motion so that each wind turbine rises one after another, starting with Mast 1. This as simple as selecting the Set, Blades 2 and Mast 2, and sliding it down to begin after the first animation. We'll do the same thing with Mast 3 and Blades 3, sliding it down to begin after Mast 2 and Blades 2 end. This way, you first see the sky, then each Mast rise up independently, and also, this will change the way that they move, over time. They're slightly different in rotation now. Let's go ahead and take a look at it. I think it looks pretty cool; however, I'd like to add Ease In to the end keyframe for all 3 position attributes on the Mast layers. So go ahead and select the last keyframe for all 3 Position attributes on the Mast layers by holding the shift key; then move your cursor to the animation menu, go to Keyframe Assistant, and select Easy Ease In. This will change all 3 end keyframes, for the Mast layers to Ease In at the end of the motion. Let's see what that looks like. The next step is to change the timing for the Power Foundation layer so that it doesn't begin until after Mast 1 has risen up. This is as simple as parking on the last keyframe for Mast 1, then moving the text layer to begin at that point in time. Let's take a look at it now. Now let's take this composition that we just built--our final scene-- and add it to our master composition. So go ahead and click on the Power Foundation tab on your Timeline area, then open up your Comps folder, within your Project panel; and grab the layered_wind_turbines composition, drag it and drop it on top of the bike_wheel composition. So we don't want it to last for the full duration of the composition. What we'd like to have happen is to have it begin after the bike_wheel scene is complete. So go ahead and turn the layered_wind_turbines layer off. Then scrub through the last scene to find a moment where it's a good timing to have this new layer begin. I think about 19 seconds and 15 frames would look good. So simply then, grab the layered_wind_turbines composition-- or layer, in this case, and slide it down the Timeline and hold Shift so that it snaps to the beginning of the current time indicator. You can then turn the layer back on and give it a little preview. So what I'd like you to do is to preview the last scene of this composition. We don't want to preview the whole thing. To do this, you want to trim your work area bar, which is this bar at the top of your Timeline. If you grab the handle to the left of the work area and slide it to the right, what you're doing is you're trimming the preview section and also trimming the section of the Timeline, which may be rendered. We can talk about this a little bit later, when we get into rendering. So we've trimmed the beginning of our work area bar, but I'd like to also trim the end of the work area bar. But we don't see that little yellow tab for the right-hand side. Where is it? Well, what you'll notice is a bar just above the work area bar, which shows you the region of the Timeline that you're viewing in the Timeline area. If you click this bar and then slide to the right, notice that we're now viewing the beginning portion or the end portion of our Timeline. Another way to zoom in or out of your Timeline is to use the little slider at the bottom of your Timeline panel. This will allow you to zoom in or zoom out. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts, of Plus key or Minus key, on your keyboard to zoom in or out of your Timeline. So we don't need to trim the right side of our work area bar because I think I'd like to watch the full duration, all the way to the end. Now, when you hit the zero key on your numeric keypad or when you press the RAM Preview button in the Preview panel, you'll only be previewing the work area bar. [♫rock music begins and ends] So that concludes this episode. In the next episode--the final episode-- we'll be rapping everything up, including our project, with some adjustment layers, adjusting timing to match music, and to render out your final video. [♫music] [Adam Shaening-Pokrasso] [Presenter/Course Design] [Bob Donlon] [Executive Director/Instruction Supervisor] [Kush Amerasinghe] [Director/Graphics/Assets/Course Design] [Karl Miller] [Producer] [Erik Espera] [Editor/Post-Production Supervisor/DP] [Elen Gales] [Editor] [ADOBE® TV Productions] [tv.adobe.com]