How to Use After Effects for Complete Beginners
Rancakmedia.com – In this article, we will provide a complete tutorial on how to use After Effects to create stunning animations. For those of you who are curious, see the article below until it's finished.
Animation is an effective way to convey messages and explore creativity. Adobe After Effects is a very popular software among animators and video editors for creating stunning animations.
In this tutorial, we'll provide a complete guide on how to use After Effects to create stunning animations.
History of Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects is a video editing and animation software developed by Adobe Systems.
This software was first released in 1993 as a product of the company CoSA (Company of Science and Art). At that time, the software was used to add visual effects and animation to videos made for television and movies.
After being bought by Adobe Systems in 1994, After Effects became one of the most popular software in the film and television industry.
In 2005, Adobe released a version of After Effects that was compatible with the Windows operating system, thereby making the software more accessible to users not using a Mac operating system.
Since then, Adobe has released several new versions of After Effects, which add new features such as 3D editing, special effects creation, and integration with other software such as Adobe Premiere Pro.
Today, Adobe After Effects is very popular software among professionals in the film, television, and advertising industries, and is used by many animators and graphic designers to add sophisticated visual effects to their works.
Definition of Adobe After Effects
Before you know how to use Adobe After Effects, you need to know what Adobe After Effects namely professional software for processing motion graphics (digital motion graphics) for editing video content with visual effects.
This software is very broad and the best for use as a need for making videos, multimedia content, films, to the web.
The main ability of this software is that it can turn objects into an animation that doesn't get boring.
This software has more complete video editing facilities compared to other software. Apart from that, this software has complete features such as shape tools and keyframe tools.
After Effects also has an Expression feature like Adobe Flash's to make motion graphics look more dynamic with action scripts.
Adobe After Effects is included as Macromedia repair software, then it was acquired by Adobe by updating all of its application features.
This software is also widely used by professional video editors, web designers, film production, visual effects creators, and other multimedia programs.
As the name suggests, this program facilitates lots of visual effects, of which there are dozens of standard Effects that are ready to be processed to be applied to graphic video content on the Workspace.
In addition to the abundant Effects support, this application also facilitates importing vector files.
List of Latest Releases of Adobe After Effects
Below we have provided Adobe After Effects:
| Release Date | Version |
|---|---|
| January 1993 | 1.0 |
| May 1993 | 1.1 |
| January 1994 | 2.0 |
| May 1994 | 2.0.1 |
| October 1995 | 3.0 |
| April 1996 | 3.1 |
| May 1997 | 3.1 (Windows 95/NT) |
| January 1999 | 4.0 |
| September 1999 | 4.1 |
| April 2001 | 5.0 |
| January 7, 2002 | 5.5 |
| August 2003 | 6.0 |
| June 16, 2004 | 6.5 |
| January 2006 | 7.0 |
| July 2, 2007 | CS3 (8.0) |
| 22 February 2008 | CS3 (8.0.2) |
| Sept. 23, 2008 | CS4 (9.0) |
| December 10, 2008 | CS4 (9.0.1) |
| May 29, 2009 | CS4 (9.0.2) |
| 6 October 2010 | CS4 (9.0.3) |
| April 30, 2010 | CS5 (10.0) |
| Sept. 3, 2010 | CS5 (10.0.1) |
| April 8, 2011 | CS5 (10.0.2) |
| April 11, 2011 | CS5.5 (10.5) |
| June 30, 2011 | CS5.5 (10.5.1) |
| April 23, 2012 | CS6 (11.0) |
| May 25, 2012 | CS6 (11.0.1) |
| 12 October 2012 | CS6 (11.0.2) |
| July 17, 2013 | CC (12.0) |
| 31 October 2013 | CC (12.1) |
| December 13, 2013 | CC (12.2) |
| June 18, 2014 | CC 2014 (13.0) |
| Sept. 7, 2014 | CC 2014.1 (13.1) |
| December 16, 2014 | CC 2014.2 (13.2) |
| June 30, 2015 | CC 2015.0 (13.5.0.347) |
| November 30, 2015 | CC 2015.1 (13.6.0) |
| January 27, 2016 | CC 2015.2 (13.7.0) |
| June 21, 2016 | CC 2015.3 (13.8.0) |
| November 2, 2016 | CC 2017 (14.0) |
| January 18, 2017 | CC 2017.1 (14.1) |
| April 19, 2017 | CC 2017.2 (14.2) |
| June 13, 2017 | CC 2017.2 (14.2.1) |
| 18 October 2017 | CC (15.0) |
| January 22, 2018 | CC (15.0.1) |
| April 3, 2018 | CC (15.1) |
| April 24, 2018 | CC (15.1.1) |
| July 16, 2018 | CC (15.1.2) |
| 15 October 2018 | CC (16.0) |
| December 10, 2018 | CC (16.0.1) |
| April 2, 2019 | 16.1 |
| January 24, 2020 | 17.0 |
| May 19, 2020 | 17.1 |
| October 20, 2020 | 17.5 |
Featured Features of Adobe After Effects
Below are some excellent features of Adobe After Effects, as follows:
1. Visual Effects
By using this feature you can make visual changes to a number of things, such as removing objects from the video, adding 3D animation, making weather effects on the video screen, and adding special effects to make your video results more real.
The visual effect provided by Adobe Aftr Effect is Smooth Handle Footage, with this you can track video movement and make the movement smooth and balanced using the VFX Stabilizer.
2. Complex Animations
After Effects allows users to create complex animations with various available layers and tools.
Users can set keyframes, create path animations, and adjust effects such as easing to provide smooth and realistic animations.
3. Masking and Keying
After Effects provides powerful masking and keying tools to enhance videos and add transparency effects.
Users can use masking to set the part of the video to be displayed, and keying to remove the background from the video.
4. Rotoscoping
Rotoscoping is used to cut object movements from videos, in this feature you can remove elements from videos and add them to live action footage.
In this rotoscoping you can also find compositing techniques to combine the moving elements of a video project.
5. Format Compatibility
Finally, compatible After Effects also provides various file formats such as AVI, MP4 and MOV, making it easier for users to work with various file types.
Users can export videos in various formats to suit their individual needs.
How to Use After Effects Easily
Below we will discuss how to use After Effects for simple animations, along with the explanation:
- Open Adobe After Effects: Click Start > All Programs > Adobe > Adobe After Effects.
- Create a new project: Click File > New > New Project. Fill in the project name and select a storage location.
- Import videos or images: Click File > Import > File. Select the video or image file you want to use and click Open. The video or image will appear in the Project panel.
- Create a new layer: Click Layer > New > Layer. Select the type of layer you want to create (such as Solid, Text, or Shape).
- Add an effect: Click Effect > then select the effect you want to add to the layer. You can also add effects by clicking and dragging them onto the layer.
- Layer animation: Click and hold the Stopwatch button on the appropriate panel on the layer you want to animate. Then, move the timeline to a different frame and adjust the position, scale, or orientation of the layers.
- Animation preview: Click the spacebar button to preview your animation. You can also adjust the size and position of the preview window by clicking the RAM Preview button.
- Export video: Click File > Export > Add to Render Queue. Select the video format you want to export and click Render.
Advantages of Using Adobe After Effects
There are several advantages that you will get in using the Adobe After Effects application, as follows:
1. Has a variety of effects
The first advantage that you will get from After Effects is that it has varied effects, especially for making motion graphics.
There are dozens of effects that have been set and are ready to be applied to the videos or graphics that you have created.
2. Can Convert Vector Files to Shape
Furthermore, you are also given the advantage of converting vector files into shapes, this is very rarely provided in other software.
Vector is a type of graphic that uses coordinate points as the smallest unit that makes up the drawing guideline.
To convert a vector file into a shape, what you can do is import the file to be included in the workshape.
3. There are Keyframe and Scripting Features
Another advantage that you will get is that this software has keyframe and scripting features.
The keyframe feature in Adobe After Effects is a feature that functions to lock animations.
While the scripting feature is a feature for dynamic animation movement based on events that occur when the animation is being played at runtime.
4. Support 64 Bit CPU
Adobe After Effects software has support for 64 Bit CPUs, so the performance of this application is very fast and responsive.
In addition, Adobe After Effects also supports RAM with a capacity that is somewhat larger than usual.
5. Realistic Details After Compression
The final advantage that you will feel is real graphic detail even though the image has been compressed.
In general, graphic results after compression will experience a decrease in quality. However, this does not apply if you use this software.
Conclusion
Adobe After Effects is a professional software for processing motion graphics (digital motion graphics) for editing video content with visual effects.
With this tutorial, we hope you can easily create amazing animations using Adobe After Effects. Remember to always practice and explore the available features.
Feel free to try new things and share your work with the community. With enough practice and creativity, you can become a professional animator using Adobe After Effects.
This is information about how to use After Effects for complete beginners, I hope the above article can be useful and helpful for all of you.