From the course: After Effects for Photography

A brief intro to After Effects

From the course: After Effects for Photography

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A brief intro to After Effects

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- [Instructor] After Effects in much the same way as Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. In fact, the main panels in After Effects function the same way as panels in the other apps. The only real difference is what they're named. The timeline panel in After Effects works like the layers panel in the other apps. The composition panel is similar to the canvas in Photoshop. And the project panel shows you linked files, just like a linked smart object in Photoshop, or the file links panel in InDesign and Illustrator. And finally, a pre-comp, or pre-composed composition in After Effects works like a smart object in Photoshop, or a symbol in Illustrator, allowing you to have multiple instances of the same artwork throughout your layout. And the best part is, if you already know Photoshop, you already know half of what you need to know to use After Effects. In Photoshop, we can apply effects to layers, then specify the properties. After Effects uses the same workflow to apply effects to layers in the timeline panel. Now, when you first look at the After Effects interface, it can be a little intimidating. But for this course, we're only going to focus on a few panels. The timeline panel, which is where we'll find our layers. The composition panel, where we can view and apply effects to our photos. The project panel, which shows us all of the linked files, as well as compositions and artwork that we may have created. And the pre-comps can be opened or closed in the timeline panel, or opened from the project panel. Now, two panels that you won't see in the other design tools that I mentioned, are the effects and presets panel, and the effect controls. The effects and presets panel works like the filter menu in Photoshop, where you browse and apply effects to layers. The effect controls panel works like the layer styles dialog box in Photoshop, where you'll set the properties for the effects you've applied to a layer. And so now, instead of continuing to talk about After Effects, let's continue by opening After Effects up and get started by creating our own workspace.

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