Use it if you’re only interested in how changes look in your final.Ĭtrl+Alt+Shift+N ( Cmd+Option+Shift+N) creates two Composition viewers side-by-side, and locks one of them, for any artist with ample screen real estate who wants the best of both worlds. The Always Preview this View toggle lets you instead work entirely in a precomp, but preview the result automatically in the master comp (if this is toggled in that comp) without having to switch to it. Typically, you would lock the master comp and double-click a nested comp to open its Timeline as you make adjustments in that Timeline, you see their effect on the overall comp. The Lock icon at the upper left of the Composition viewer lets you keep that Composition viewer forward while you open another Timeline. Miniflow makes it even more possible to close all the Timelines when you’re done with a set of changes ( Ctrl+Alt+W/ Command+Option+W) and reopen only the ones you need, starting with the master comp. On a big project, pick a system and stick with it. Miniflow makes Comp naming more important than ever. Click on any arrows or items in between the ends and that level is brought forward. It shows only the nearest neighbor comps ( Figure 4.3) but click on the flow arrows at either end and you navigate up or down one level in the hierarchy. Try it and see if you breathe a little sigh of relief.Įither direction, Miniflow is the best workflow addition to After Effects CS4. The reason for this is probably that if you open subcomps from a master comp, the tabs open to the right however, a convincing argument can and has been made to choose Flow Left to Right in the panel menu of the Mini Flowchart. You can access it via a button in the Timeline, but you may have already discovered that simply tapping the Shift key with the Timeline forward enables it.īy default, the comp order is shown flowing right to left. That’s now less the case, thanks to CS4’s Mini-Flowchart, or Miniflow. In the past, precomping also made it harder simply to find where everything was it is standard for an After Effects artist working on a complex comp to be left with the “where did I do that” feeling at one time or another. There are many times where there is no way around sending a set of layers into their own Timeline, yet most artists will do anything to avoid this step because it locks those layers and controls out of the main Timeline. The Timeline is great for timing, but the bane of the Timeline is precomping.
The basic elements of a Master comp, source comps, and a render comp seem useful on a shot of just about any complexity, but the template can include a lot more than that: custom expressions, camera rigs, Color Management settings, and recurring effects setups.
These tips are especially useful if you’re someone who knows compositing well but find After Effects disorienting at times.
#Adobe after effects cs4 how to#
How to keep a complex, multiple-composition pipeline organized.How and why to create a project template.It’s easy to lose track of stuff when projects get complicated. You may find the After Effects experience closer to what you might call “real-time.” Efficient rendering, however, depends on well-organized compositions and the ability to plan for bottlenecks and other complications. Understand how to use multiple compositions.This chapter helps you artistically and technically, as if the two can be separated. At other times, you’re more like a programmer, isolating and debugging elements of a project, even creating controlled tests to figure out how things are working. Sometimes you take the attitude of a master chef-you know what can be prepped and considered “done” before the guests are in the restaurant and it’s time to assemble the piece de resistance. Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.
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