Video Explainer (01_AAEFR_24)

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Welcome to you.
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In this explainer, I’ll introduce the Adobe After Effects interface and create a new composition.
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In this series, we’ll create this short animated sequence, which will be added at the end of a movie trailer.
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This is a great project if you’re just starting out with After Effects as it introduces the basics including creating a composition, importing assets, creating and animating text, working with key frames, and applying some of the built in effects.
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When you open After Effects, you’re invited to take a look at Adobe’s resources including their training videos.
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Click on new project at the top left.
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At the moment this new project doesn’t have a name.
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I’ll go to File, Save As.
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I’ll title my project ‘Trailer Text Animation’.
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After Effects is very powerful and a lot of its functionality is hidden from view by default.
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Click on the window menu and you can see this long list of all the panels you could add to the interface.
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As a beginner, you’re only going to need a few of them.
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I’ll select ‘workspace, small screen’.
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This gives an arrangement of panels ideal for starting out using a standard 14 or 16 inch laptop screen.
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You can resize each panel as needed.
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For example, to make the preview panel larger so you can actually see what you’re doing.
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An after effects project is made up of compositions in just the same way a video project could include many separate video sequences.
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I’m given the choice to create a new composition or a new composition from footage.
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I’ll select to create a new composition from scratch so we can view the options.
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I’ll title this composition ‘title text version 1’.
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This is where I can set the output resolution and frame rates for my title animation.
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There are lots of presets available including the default HD 1920 by 10 80 at 30 frames per second.
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This setting will be ideal for this project as my trailer is going to be viewed on YouTube and other video sites.
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I’ll set the duration of the composition to be 10 seconds as this will be long enough for the movie title models to zoom in, the subtitle to animate in at the end, and the whole title card to stay on screen for a few seconds.
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Any of these settings can be changed later if needed.
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You don’t need to worry about the other options here for now.
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Click on OK.
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The new composition has been created.
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This is the video clip I’m going to display behind my title text animation.
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I used ltxstudio to generate video clips for my trailer for a movie about a dystopian AI-led future.
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If you don’t have your own video clips to work with, it’s quick and easy to use AI video generation tools like ltxstudio or runway to create some.
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I only need to bring video clip 5 at the end of my trailer into After Effects as this is the one I’m going to animate my text over.
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So I’ll drag and drop it into the project panel at the top left.
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I could import all my trailer video clips such as I’m only going to add effects and text over clip 5.
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I don’t need to import the other clips.
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Think of this project panel at the top left as the asset library for your current project.
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Running along the lower section of the window is the timeline panel.
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This is very similar to a timeline in a video editor.
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I’ll drag and drop the video clip onto the start of the timeline like this.
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The clip displays in the preview panel.
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I can scrub along the clip by dragging the playhead left and right as I hold down my left mouse button just like in a video editor.
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I can also play the current sequence by pressing my spacebar.
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If the playback stutters, you can change the resolution of the preview here.
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This should only be an issue when you start to add lots of complex effects to a clip.
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The basic properties of the currently selected clip are shown in the properties panel towards the top right of the window.
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I’d like this video clip to fill my 1080p composition.
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This is a low res video clip exported from ltxstudio.
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I’ll increase the scale by holding down my left mouse button over one of the scale fields.
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You can also manually enter values in any field.
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I can also do this directly in the preview window.
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Make sure the selection tool is selected on the toolbar and drag one of the handles like toolbar and drag one of the handles like this.
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Obviously, you’ll normally work with video clips with a resolution that’s at least equal to your composition, assuming you want them to fill the entire screen.
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Notice after effects isn’t constraining the proportions of the clip as I drag.
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Hold down the shift key on your keyboard as you drag to constrain these proportions.
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I do not stretch or squash the shape.
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This applies to most assets including images and shapes.
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Practice navigating the panels and making simple adjustments to a video clip.
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In the next explainer I’m going to add the movie title text.