Using After Effects

Basics.
Importing Movie clips.

To import file I click on file>import>file and choose the file I want and if you have more than one file I want to click import>multiple files.

Now I have the clip I have the I want I put them into folders by clicking the the create new folder button underneath the project box. To make anything on After effects first I need to Make a composition I do this by selecting Composition>New Composition. And then I selected a preset that allows me to change the size and resolution of my Composition I chose HDTV 720p which was a good size.

Now I have my Composition I can drag my movie into the black box which will automatically put my clip in the composition box at the bottom where I can edit  the timeline to what I wish. I can preview my clip by clicking the play button on the right side and then I will start to see a green bar which mean its buffering/rendering my clip. For further editing I can add effects and text and extra images.



Effects on images.

The effect I'm going to show is a colour correction>Hue and Saturation once I chose this with my image in the Composition.

 Once I selected the effect I clicked on the colourise button to give me the option below. Now I can toggle the timer button which allows me to set a point on the timeline and then it will record anything changed from behind that point so now I will change the colourise hue to green.

Now here I've made several points with the timer and changed the hue each time so when I play it, it'll gradually change in colour.







This a video of me just messing around with the effects.

Creating 3D Text animation.

 To do a text animation first I needed to know the basics of key frames and null. I started of selecting my background and adding key frames for opacity and scale.

 Here I'm adding key frames on the first and 15 second mark and changing the second mark to the opacity of one hundred and then giving some space between before adding the same set of key frames again but the opposite way round. I'm also adding the same amount of key frames in the same position on scale and I'm increasing the scale then doing the opposite again after leaving a gap.

Now I'm adding text and giving it the exact same key frames as the background making the text look like it is appearing the same as the background.

 Here I have started to create my own personal 3D text animation. First I selected my arrow and flourish movie clip and positioned them where I wanted them to be. Then I added a Null which is a parent that allows everything selected to it to follow it like a group.

Now with everything I want selected to the Null I began to rotate on key frames to allow it to rotate a full 360 back to its original place. With that done I began to  work on how to make the text enter the stage.

What I decided to do is move the Null above the stage on one key frame and then on one the  frames near the end of the timeline I made a key frame and dragged down the Null positioning everything where it originally was. the one problem I had was moving the two arrows because I did not assign them to the Null so I had to individually move them to the correct position which became frustrating I hope to learn how an easier way for this.

This is my final outcome.

Untitled from Dan Bailey on Vimeo.

Lens Flare Text.

 First off I made a new composition and then right clicked beside the composition and clicked new>solid.

 Next I go to effects and choose a lens flare and changed the lens flare type to 105mm prime.

 Next I add a text and also add a mask to go over the text to cover it. This will allow me to move the mask so it'll look like the light is shining and revealing the text.

 Here I've added subtract to the mask so it'll fade a bit more so it looks more like the light is revealing the text.

 Now I've began to add key frames and on each key frame I've moved the lens flare and added more brightness and as it I move it round more I start adding more brightness and then as I move it back to the beginning I start to lower the brightness again.

Here I've added a stencil luma to make it look more realistic and like the text is being shown only when the light hits it and I am then able to add images so the image is in the text.






My two final outcomes. The second video is of me just trying out over filters and effects. I tried to use a lightning effect instead of the lens flare.

3D picture montage.

This is how I did a moving 3D picture montage on after effects it mostly includes cameras and a lot of adjusting. I used many different layers and two compositions one holding picture layers and the other for the camera. I made all the picture layers 3d so I could have them behind each other for the 3d effect.