(upbeat rhythmic music) - Hello and welcome to the 29th video in this Beginner's Guide
to Adobe After Effects. In this tutorial I'm going
to showcase 10 handy tips you will need to know as a
beginner in After Effects. So now we are at the end of
the essential practice section. Over the past few
episodes we have practiced some of the basic tools
and familiarized ourselves with some of the features
in After Effects. Now we are ready to embark
on a full project exercise, but before that I want to recap and cover some essential tips which will help you before we get into the nitty gritty of creating a project from
scratch in After Effects. Now the tips I'm going to
cover in the next few minutes are things that are going
to improve your workflow and help you use the program effectively and also bring you up to speed
with how the program works and what to look out for in future. So it will help you a lot to remember what we are about to cover. So in this video we are
going to be covering tips in the following areas. One, workflow tips. Two, zoom and maneuvering tips. Three, interface tips. Four, visual aid tips. Five, creative tips. Six, timeline panel tips. Seven, layer tips. Eight, editing tips. Nine, keyframe tips. And 10, exporting tips. Now the topics covered in this video are listed in the description
along with their times. So if at any point you
wish to skip ahead or back, be sure to check them
out in the description. Now I am also about to cover
a huge amount of shortcuts. Now these are going to
help improve your workflow and your efficiency. Now if you want to take a closer look and refer to the shortcuts
I'll be covering in more depth, you can check out the shortcut
page on the course PDF that comes free with this course. Download link is in the description. After this video you
will get a huge insight into some of the tips
that are going to help you use the program more productively. So let's get into it. So here I am in After Effects and I have a document open here which I'm going to use to demonstrate all the essential tips you will
need to know as a beginner. To follow along with this video you will need to open this document I have prepared especially
for this tutorial. With the project folder open, click into the S2
Essential Practice folder, into folder 29, 10 Handy Tips, and open the 10 Handy
Tips After Effects File. And you will have the same
document I have open here. Now if you don't have the project folder and you want to follow
along with this tutorial using this document I have
prepared especially for you, you can download this project
folder for a small fee. The download link with
instructions is in the description. The download folder comes with
lots of exercise documents we will be using on this course that have been carefully developed to aid your learning experience. The folder also comes
with document resources such as videos, graphics
and images you can use to build your first video
presentation from scratch later on in this course. To get the full learning experience I recommend you get the project folder. Download link with instructions
is in the description. So with the project folder open, click into the S2
Essential Practice folder, into folder 29, 10 Handy Tips, and open the 10 Handy
Tips After Effects file, and you will have the same
document I have open here. So I want to draw your attention
over to the project panel. Here we can see a folder
called After Effects Tips, and in this folder we can
see a number of compositions. Now along this video
I'm going to use these to demonstrate particular tips. So double-click on the
first composition here, Under the Sea, and let's
start with the first tip set. One, workflow tips. So the first workflow tip is shortcut for the selection tool. The shortcut key to activate
the selection tool is V. With the selection tool active
you can click on elements in your composition panel, to select them and move them around like so. Next tip, free transform. So with the selection tool active you can click and select an
object in the composition panel. With it selected you should
see a bounding box around it. Now this allows you to
transform the object quickly. For example, if you
carefully click and drag on one of the squares on the bounding box, you can easily change the scale and reverse the image like so. By holding Shift on the keyboard, you can change the scale to
the original ratio, like so. Next tip, undo. So whatever you do in After Effects, for example move objects,
scale the object, apply any effects or move layers around, if you wish to undo simply
press Command Z on Mac or Control Z on PC. Each time you press it it
will take you back a step. Next tip, the type tool. If at any point you want
to add type to your comp, simply press Command T on
Mac or Control T on PC. This will activate the type tool, which you can click and add type easily. To edit size, typeface and color simply change it in the character
panel over on the right. Next tip, the shape tool. Now at any point, if you want
to add a shape to your comp, simply press Q on the keyboard. This will activate the shape builder tool. Now if you keep pressing
Q on the keyboard, notice up in the tools menu the shape will toggle through
the five possible shapes you can choose. Simply keep pressing Q until
you see the shape you want then click and draw like so. By holding Shift you can
set the correct scale for the shape. Next tip. Managing the anchor point. Now every time you click on an object you will notice a crosshair. This is the anchor
point and it's important as this is the point that
effects take their bearing from, such as scaling, rotation
and animation across a path. If we want to change the
position of the anchor point on an object, with the object selected
select the anchor point tool up in the top menu, and this will allow us to click and move the point around. Now if I press V to
activate the selection tool and activate free transform, you can see how it scales
based on the anchor point. If I press R to rotate and tweak the rotation of the object you can see how it rotates
around the anchor point. Now if we want to put the anchor point back into the center of the object simply come up to layer,
down to transform, and click center anchor
point in the layer content. You will now see the
anchor point be placed right in the center of the object. Now if we scale and rotate again we will see it will be based on our new anchor point position. So the last tip, use folders
to organize your media files. So as you develop your
project in After Effects you will soon build up a
lot of media components over in your project panel. If you were building a big presentation you will soon find yourself
with lots of images, videos and compositions. One of the best ways to manage
all this in the project panel is with folders. Looking at this document here, I have carefully organized
all my components into their respective folders. Here I have an assets folders
containing all my images, videos and presets. In each folder I have additional folders organizing them further. Using folders keeps everything in order and makes it easy to find your content and refer to your links later on. And to add folders is really easy. Simply click on the folder icon at the bottom of the project panel and this will create a new folder which you can rename and
start dropping media into. Now you can create as
many folders as you like and drag and drop them
into each other easily. So the next tip set is
zoom and maneuvering. So back in the project panel, double-click on the
second comp, London Eye. So the first zoom tip is free zooming. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, by scrolling in and out
you will easily be able to zoom in and out of your
composition panel like so. Now if you don't have a
scroll wheel on your mouse you can use the keyboard shortcuts. Pressing the , and . buttons will zoom in and out
in increments like so. Next tip, easy pan. When you are zoomed in
close on a composition an easy way to pan across your canvas area is to press and hold space
bar and click and drag. When you press space bar
the mouse icon will change to a hand icon. With space bar held down,
you can easily click and drag to maneuver around your
canvas area like so. Next tip. Zoom to 100%. At any point, while you were zooming, if you wish to zoom in or
out to approximately 100%, simply press the shortcut key which is the / button on the keyboard. Next tip. Fit canvas area to your composition panel. At any point while you are zooming, if you wish to fit the canvas
area to the composition panel, simply press the shortcut
key Alt / on the keyboard. This will snap the canvas area to fit in the visible
composition panel area. So the next tip is interface tips. So back in the project panel double-click on the
fifth comp, Video Edit. So the first interface tip is working with custom workspaces. In After Effects there are
a variety of workspaces you can choose from which can
help you with your workflow. If you come up to Windows you will see an option called workspace. If you come into this you will
see a variety of workspaces you can choose from, such
as animation, effect, motion tracking and text, to name a few. If you click on any of these options you will notice the workspace change to focus more on a particular workflow. Up until this point on the course I have been using the all panels, so I'll just click back on that. So the next tip is reset workspaces. Now if for whatever reason you accidentally move panels
around in After Effects, which can happen occasionally
and accidentally. For example, I accidentally
close the composition panel and click and move a panel
from one place to another, now I cannot see my composition panel and my timeline panel is moved
to the side of the screen. So right now it's a bit of a mess and I can't continue with the work. So simply come up to
Window, into workspace, and scroll down and
click reset all panels. And this should reset all the panels back to the way they were previously. Next tip, toggle panels. Now the After Effects
interface can seem cramped at the best of times. Often there won't be enough
screen space to see everything. Now if you carefully
place your mouse cursor over the edge of your panels you will see the mouse cursor change to arrows pointing up and
down or left and right. This is After Effects suggesting
you can click and drag. If we click and drag we
can push the panels away or pull out our panels, to
reveal the contents inside. This may help to see more
layers in the timeline panel or see more details in the project panel, or see more options in the side panels. Now for those of you using more recent versions of After Effects, another mistake that can happen is sometimes you may double-click
on a panel by accident. If this happens it can
fill the screen like so. If this happens, just simply
double-click the panel again and it should snap back. Next tip. Editing columns in panels. Another thing you should keep in mind is that we can control
the columns that appear in such panels as the project
panel and the timeline panel. For example, over in the project panel, and let's just drag this out, at the top here we can see a
range of columns for the panel. If we right-click in the little area we can select which column we want to see and with our columns visible
we can place our mouse cursor just next to them and expand
or collapse the width, like so. And we can even click
and drag to reorder them. In this instance, I like
to have the color labels before the file names. Now down in the timeline
panel we can also control which columns are visible. As you use After Effects
you will want to access the blending mode, the track mat and the parent link columns. Now these do tend to take
up a lot of space here so if you want to toggle the
visibility of these columns you can right-click and select hide this. If you want to bring them back you can again right-click,
come down to columns and click the specific
column to bring them back. Now you can also use
the keyboard shortcut F4 to toggle the view of the
switches in the timeline panel. Next tip. Open the effects controls. Now as you apply effects to
your layers on your timeline you can control the settings
in the effects controls panel. A quick way to access
the effects controls, if you cannot see it,
is to use the shortcut. So first select a layer
with an effect applied. In this case I'll select
the third layer down. By pressing F3 on the keyboard you will be able to bring up
the effects controls panel on the left to see the effects
applied to your layers, where you can make further modifications. So the next tip set is visual aids. So back in the project panel, and I can access this by
clicking on the project tab at the top of the panel on the left, next double-click on the
fourth comp, Tower Bridge. So the first interface tip
is rulers, guides and grids. Now as you work in the composition panel you will be composing
all the visual elements that make up your video sequence. Now there are a number of
visual aids you can use. By pressing Command R on
Mac or Control R on PC, we can activate rulers. This will allow us to
click and drag guides out from the rulers on the far left and the top of the composition panel and into the composition. These can be helpful for aligning
to the center of the frame or to specific parts of a composition. To toggle the guides on and off simply press Command : on
Mac or Control : on PC. Remember to press Command
R on Mac or Control R on PC to toggle away the rulers. Now if at any point we
want to activate the grid, we can press Command ' on
Mac or Control ' on PC, and if we want to change
the properties of the grid we can come up to After
Effects on Mac or edit on PC, then down to preferences,
come down to grid and guides and toggle the values at the top. Now at the bottom of the composition panel you will have a grid and guide button. If you select this you
will be able to activate the title safe, grid
and proportional grid. Next tip. View bounding box and layer controls. Now as you click on your
elements in your video sequence you should see what is called
a bounding box around it. This indicates you have the layer selected and gives you the ability to
quickly transform the layer. Now if for whatever reason you
cannot see the bounding box you can activate it quickly by pressing the keyboard shortcut. By pressing Command Shift H on Mac or Control Shift H on PC, you can toggle the
bounding box on and off. You can also come up to view and make sure show layer controls is checked. Next tip, flip horizontally. So if there's an element
in your video sequence you wish to flip horizontally, like a video or a graphic element, and let's click on this cloud here. With the element selected
simply come up to layer then down to transform and
click flip horizontally. Next tip, RAM preview. As you compose your video
sequences and create animations, you will want to preview your project. This can be done by simply
hitting space bar on the keyboard to start the preview, and
space bar to stop the preview. Next tip. Render quality. Previewing a video sequence relies heavily on your system RAM. If you have a simple comp like this then you can easily
preview at full resolution. However if you are previewing
a super high resolution video or perhaps a complex effect, then you can simply change
the resolution factor on the dropdown at the bottom
of the composition panel. Here you can toggle between
full, half or quarter. Setting the resolution to half or quarter will appear pixelated in
your composition panel but will have a smoother preview. As well as setting the
resolution factor in the dropdown you can also use the shortcut keys. For full resolution you
can press Command J on Mac or Control J on PC. For half resolution you can
press Command Shift J on Mac or Control Shift J on PC. For quarter resolution you can press Command Shift Alt J on Mac or Control Shift Alt J on PC. Next tip. Region of interest. So the last tip was about
smoothing out a preview. Now another method you could use to improve the smoothness of a preview is to use region of interest. Now if you have a really
complex transition or effect, perhaps a particle effect or a 3D effect, then you can use region of interest. This can be located at the
bottom of the composition panel, next to the resolution factor. If you select this then
you can click and drag on a particular area of your composition. When you preview this
you will only focus on a specific area, which
will again put less stress on your processor and RAM resource. To edit the region of interest, simply click and drag the bounding box and click the button to turn it off. Next tip, purge memory. Now while we're on the topic of smoothness and system efficiency,
there is something else you should be aware of. As you use After Effects
you will build up memory and disc cache. This uses up your system resources and over time can slow
your performance down. What you can do here, every so often, is come up to edit, down to purge and click purge all memory or purge all memory and disc cache. This can clear your memory and cache and speed things up for you. So the next tip set is creative tips. So the first tip is new comp. At any point, if you wish
to create a new composition in your project, simply
press Command N on Mac or Control N on PC. This will bring up the new comp dialog box which we can name and change the settings. I'll just name this new
comp and click okay for now. Remember, upon creating your new comp you will see it appear
in the project panel. Next tip, new solid layer. So as you work in After Effects sometimes you may want
to set a background color or you want to create a full
color layer to work with. We can do this by creating a solid layer and using the shortcut. If we press Command Y on
Mac or Control Y on PC, we can bring up the new solid settings. Here we can specify the
size of the solid layer and the color. In this instance I'll leave
it set to 1920 by 1080 and select a red color and click okay. Notice we will now have
a new red solid layer in the timeline panel. Next tip, add media easily to a comp. So as you begin to bring
media into your project, like images and video, you
will then want to bring them into your composition. An easy way is to use
the keyboard shortcut. For example, if we come
to the project panel and toggle down the assets folder to reveal the video folder, I'll toggle down the aquarium folder and here we will see some video. So to easily add a media file to your comp simply click it and use
the keyboard shortcut. If we press Command / on
Mac or Control / on PC, we can place the media file
straight into the comp. And this can be done with any media. So if we come into the images folder and toggle down the PNG folder, click on the fish orange file and again press Command /
on Mac or Control / on PC, and the media will be placed straight in. Next tip, fit to comp height. Now there may be times
you want to fit an object to the height of the composition. With an item selected, if we press Command Shift Alt G on Mac or Control Shift Alt G on PC, we can quickly fit an object
to the height of the comp. Next tip, fit to comp width. Now there may be times
you want to fit an object to the width of the composition. For example, if we come
into the assets folder, into the images folder
and into the JPEG folder, we can click an image and
press Command / on Mac or Control / on PC, to easily
place the image into the comp. Now sometimes an image may be a lot bigger than the canvas size. So to fit the image to the comp width, we can press Command Shift Alt H on Mac or Control Shift Alt H on PC, and that will fit the image
to the width of the comp. Next tip, fit to comp. Now there may be times
you want to fit an object to the width and height of a composition. For example, I'll click off
the picture to deselect it. I'll come up and click
on the shape of the tool, select a square, draw a small
square in the composition, click on the fill, set it to a gradient then click on the color
and set the gradient to a light pink into a green. And then take away any
stroke that might be applied. Now if I want to set this
shape to the size of the comp I can use the keyboard shortcut. If we press Command Alt F on
Mac or Control Alt F on PC, we can easily fit the shape to the comp. And now we have a quick
gradient background where we can grab the gradient
handles and change like so. Now if we were to come
down to the timeline panel over on the left and hit
a quick blending mode and choose overlay, we could
apply a funky color effect to the image there. So the next tip set is
timeline panel tips. So back in the project panel double-click on the sixth comp, fish swim. So the first tip is time
indicator navigation. Now in After Effects
everything revolves around the time indicator, both in the timeline and in the composition panel. This is what we use to
pinpoint a certain part of your video sequence, and display it in your composition panel and to set keyframes for effect. We can navigate the time indicator
along the timeline easily by either clicking and
dragging it along the timeline or simply clicking on the
timeline where we want it to go. Next tip, setting your work area. As you begin to develop
your video sequences, over time there may be instances where you will want to
preview just a small part of your sequence, or even simply export
part of your sequence. To quickly set the start of your workspace you can press B on the keyboard. So first click on the timeline where you want the work
area to start, and press B. You will notice the
beginning of the work area snapped to the time indicator. To quickly set the end of the workspace you can press N on the keyboard. So if we click on the timeline where you want the work
area to end and press N, you will notice the end of the work area snapped to the time indicator. And now we have this work area set here represented by this bar on the top. Now if we place the time
indicator inside this area and press space bar, we can
preview just this section of our video sequence, and this will loop. Next tip. Timeline markers. Now as you create your video sequence you may want to organize
your sequence into sections so you can focus on one part at a time. Or you may simply want to reference one part of your sequence for later. A handy feature you can
use here are markers. So to the far right of the timeline panel we can see this icon. If we click and drag this out we can place a marker anywhere we want. Upon release we will have a marker. Now by default the marker is numbered one. Now if we move our time indicator further along the video
sequence, we can press shift two. This will add another marker and if we move along the timeline further and press shift three, we
can add another marker. Now you can do this up to nine. Now with the markers set we can simply jump to the various parts
of the video sequence by pressing the number on
the keyboard at any time. This is good if you have a
really long video sequence so you can navigate easily and quickly. Next tip. Snap to the time indicator. In After Effects
everything revolves around the time indicator. Now we need to have precise
control of the time indicator to navigate through the timeline and around our media elements. One tip is to snap the time indicator. As we click and drag the time
indicator across the timeline, if we press and hold Shift on the keyboard the timeline will snap
to important things. For example, if we move the time indicator across some frames, by holding
Shift the time indicator will snap to the keyframes, allowing us to precisely place
the time indicator on top. We can snap to the beginning of layers and snap to the end of layers. This helps us precisely
pinpoint the time indicator without having to manually
place it, which can be fiddly. Next tip. Moving along one frame at a time. Now if we press and hold
Command on Mac or Control on PC and press left or right on the arrow keys, we can move the time
indicator left or right one frame at a time. This is great for those times where we will want to
move across the timeline in super small increments. So the next tip set is layer tips. So back in the project panel double-click on the
third comp, layer tips. So the first tip is select multiple. So as you begin to add
multiple media elements to your video composition, there may be times when you
want to select a few layers to move them around in one go. To select multiple layers simply press and hold Command
on Mac or Control on PC and select the layers. With them all selected, you can click and drag them together. Now if for whatever reason you decide to deselect a particular
layer at any point, simply press and hold Command
on Mac or Control on PC, and click back on the
layer to deselect it. Next tip. Select layer above or below. Now if you have a
particular layer selected in the timeline panel, and you want to select the layer above, you can press and hold Command
on Mac or Control on PC, and press up or down on the keyboard. This will allow you to
scroll quickly up or down without having to use the mouse
cursor to select the layer. Next tip. Move a layer up or down. So as you build your video sequence and start to organize the layer structure, you may want to move your
layers either up or down. A really quick way to do this is to use the keyboard shortcut. With the layer selected,
simply press Command [ on Mac or Control [ on PC, to move a layer down. Or press Command ] on
Mac or Control ] on PC to move a layer up. Next tip, deselect a layer. Now as you work with your media elements in the composition panel,
there will be times where you want to deselect a layer. Now you can do this by
clicking off a layer or into the gray area
in the composition panel with the selection tool. However, another really
fast way to do this is to use the keyboard shortcut. To deselect a layer fast, simply press F2. Next tip. Duplicate layers. So as you build the media
elements in your video sequence there may be times where
you'll want to quickly duplicate a layer. For example, if I have
this fish image here and I want to get a few more in, now I can come into the assets
folder and drag them in. Or I could use a really simple shortcut. With a layer selected
in your timeline panel simply press Command D
on Mac or Control D on PC to duplicate the layer. Upon click a new layer
will appear directly above which you can click and move
around with the selection tool. I'll hit Command D on
Mac or Control D on PC, again to duplicate, and just like that I have
a few more fish images. This is a really easy way to
quickly duplicate elements in your video sequence. Next tip. Replacing layers. Now this is a really useful tip. Sometimes you will have a
media element in your timeline, for example these fish images here, and you may want to replace
them with other images. So if I come into my images
folder in the assets folder and come into the PNG folder, now what if I want to change
one to orange or one to green. Well I could drag it in but then I would have to
resize it and reposition it, and that would take some time. An easier way to do this is
to first select the layer you want to replace,
in this case the fish. With the layer selected
in the timeline panel, I'll come to the project panel, click the layer I want to replace it with, and press and hold Alt on the keyboard and click and drag it down onto
the layer name and release. Upon release, the layer will
be replaced with a new asset. So I'll select my other fish image. I'll come into the project panel, click on the layer I
want to replace it with, and press and hold Alt on the keyboard, and upon release the
layer will be replaced with a new asset. Easy. Now this could be done for any media. For example, this video here. We can see here it's nicely
cut into the video edit. If I wanted to replace it
with a different video, first I will select the layer then come into the assets
folder, into the video folder and drag a new video down while holding Alt onto the layer name. Upon release, the new
video will drop in like so, maintaining the edit. Easy. Next tip, scale, rotation,
opacity and position. So as you bring your media elements into your video sequence, there will be times where you will want to quickly edit the scale,
rotation or opacity of your elements. With a layer selected, if
you press S on the keyboard this will quickly reveal the
scale settings on your layer, which you can easily toggle. With a layer selected, if
you press T on the keyboard this will quickly reveal
the opacity settings. Now there will be times
where you'll want to animate the position of the element. With the layer selected, if
you press P on the keyboard this will quickly reveal the
position settings on the layer. Next tip, applying layer colors. So as you bring in your media elements into your video sequence, there will be times where you will want to manage your layers
so at a glance you know what kind of layers they are. On the timeline we have a neat feature where we can color the layers. Over next to the layer
names is a colored box. If you click this you will
have a choice of colors. Simply choose one of these
to assign a distinct color to your layer. Next tip, snap layers. So as we work with layers we are able to click and drag
them across the timeline. Now if we press and hold
shift while dragging a layer we can snap the beginning
or the end of a layer to the beginning or end of another layer. We can also use the time indicator to help us position a layer
in a particular place. If we place the time indicator where we want a layer to begin or end, then we can click and drag
a layer while holding shift and it will snap the beginning or end of the layer very easily. This is a little feature that helps us quickly and accurately
move our layers around and position on the timeline. Next tip. Quickly navigate to the
beginning or end frame. With a layer selected,
a quick way to navigate to the end or the beginning
is to press I or O. Pressing I will snap the time indicator to the start of the layer. Pressing O will snap the time indicator to the end of the layer. This can help a lot
when quickly navigating through your layers in
your video sequence. So the last tip is, show effects on layer. So to demonstrate this I need to come back to the project panel and double-click on the
fifth comp, video edit. So as you work on various projects there may be times where you
open up someone else's work or you want to keep track
of what you have done on your layers. A really quick tip to
reveal all the effects you have applied to your layers is to select the layer you wish to see. In this case I'll look at each layer so I'll select them all, then simply press E on the keyboard. Upon click, this will reveal any effects that have been applied. If no effects are applied
then you will see nothing, but if there is an effect applied you will see the effect
appear under the layer name and circle dots over to the right representing the keyframes. So the next tip set is editing tips. So back in the project panel double-click on the
seventh comp, Hyde Park, and the first tip is trimming clips. Now when you drop a
video onto your timeline its length will be
represented by a bar here in the timeline panel. As we scroll our time indicator over we can see the video play
in the composition panel. Now there may be occasions when you will want to
trim your video layer. A really swift way of doing this is to use the keyboard shortcut. So first place the time indicator where you want the video layer to start and with the layer selected press Alt [ and that will trim the layer's beginning. Next place the time indicator where you want the video clip to end and with the layer selected press Alt ], and that will trim the layer's end. Now remember you will still see the remainder of the beginning
and end of the layer content but it will not be visible. Once clipped, this will allow
you to move your video clip around in your video sequence. Next tip, split a clip. Another handy tip to
know when editing video is how to quickly split a clip. Simply place the time indicator where you would like to split a clip, and press Command Shift D on
Mac or Control Shift D on PC. This will split the clip
and create two layers which you can then flexibly
move around your timeline. So the last tip is create a pre-comp. So once you have edited
a video sequence together using multiple video clips, you may want to turn this
into one single layer in order to streamline your layers. A quick way to do this is to
use the keyboard shortcut. So with all the layers
you wish to place into a pre-comp selected, simply
press Command Shift C on Mac or Control Shift C on PC, and this will bring up
the pre-comp settings box. Here I can name this to new video comp and make sure to move
everything into the new comp and set the duration to
span the layer contents and click okay. And now we have placed all the
layers into one simple layer. Now remember, upon pre-composing we will create a new comp
which will be present in the project panel. So the next tip set is keyframe tips. So back in the project panel next double-click on the
sixth comp, fish swim. Here I have an animation
sequence of a bunch of fish swimming from the left
hand side of the screen to the right. So the first tip is reveal in keyframes. By selecting a layer and
pressing U on the keyboard, this will reveal any keyframes
applied to any effect. This can also be done to
quickly reveal keyframes on multiple layers. Simply select all your layers and by pressing U this will
reveal all the keyframes on all the layers. Next tip. Expand the keyframe sequence. So if I select a particular layer here we can see that this animation sequence contains a number of keyframes, and spans a certain amount of time. Now if we want the animation to happen faster or slower over time, we can easily expand or
contract the keyframe sequence. To do this, simply select
all the keyframes involved and with them all highlighted in blue, by holding Alt on the keyboard you can click and drag the first
or last keyframe in or out. This will expand or contract
the keyframe sequence which will in turn speed up
the sequence or slow it down. Next tip. Move along keyframes one at a time. So with the keyframes visible on a layer, if we press K on the
keyboard we can move forward one keyframe at a time. If we press J on the keyboard we can move back one keyframe at a time. This is really useful when
analyzing an animation sequence. However, keep in mind that
when using this feature, if you have multiple layers
with their keyframes displayed it will travel across each
keyframe on each layer. Next tip. Move position on an animation. Now this is a tricky one. If you create an animation
with certain position keyframes and try and move the
animation to another place, you will notice instead
of moving the animation it simply adds another position keyframe. So I'll press Command Z
on Mac or Control Z on PC to undo that. Now to move an animation that consists of lots of position keyframes to
another position in the scene, first select all the
keyframes for the layer and then make sure to place
the time indicator over one of the keyframes. Now it doesn't matter which, but just make sure it's on
top of one of the keyframes. With the keyframe indicator on
top of one of the keyframes, simply click and drag the object and you will notice the
position animation path will move with it. So the last tip is remove easing. When creating animations in After Effects you will no doubt use
easing on your keyframes to add smoothness to your animations. Now there may be times where
you want to set your keyframes back to default, or
change the easing applied. By holding Command on
Mac or Control on PC, you can click on keyframes with easing. As you click it it will remove the easing and set it back to the default
keyframe, the diamond shape, ready to apply a different kind of easing. So the final tip set is exporting tips and the first exporting tip
is export a still image. So at any point in your
project, if you wish to save out a still image of your sequence to share, simply come up to composition, scroll down to save frame
as and click on file. Upon click you will notice
the timeline panel change to the render queue. Down on the bottom left you
can click on the output module and select which frame you like. Here you can set this to JPEG and click where to save the file to. And then hit render on the top right and you will save out as still. (machine chiming) And the last and final tip is add a composition to
the Adobe Media Encoder. So once you've completed your composition and you are ready to render your video you can either come up to composition and select add to media encoder, or you can use the keyboard shortcut. By pressing Command Alt M on
Mac or Control Alt M on PC, you will launch Adobe Media Encoder where you can define your
settings and export your video. So that's a few handy tips
in Adobe After Effects it will help to keep
in mind as a beginner. Now one last and final tip here. Keyboard shortcut map. Now I have just listed a
lot of keyboard shortcuts over this video, but
there are so much more. As you begin to use After
Effects more and more, if you would like to learn more
about the keyboard shortcuts you can come up to edit, then scroll down to keyboard shortcuts and upon click you will launch
the keyboard shortcut map. This is a visual display
of all the shortcuts in After Effects. Now if you come to the top and toggle down on the command list,
you will see a list of all the key categories. By clicking on these
and spending some time, you will be able to see and
learn many more shortcuts. So over the past 28 videos I have covered everything you need to know as a beginner in After Effects. Now it's time to take
all that we have learned and create a project from scratch. After this last section
you should be able to undertake projects alone and
create more work comfortably in After Effects. So before we start on
the journey into building a video presentation,
I just want to go over exactly what we will be creating
over the next 18 episodes, so you have a good idea
of what is in store ahead. So see you in the next video. (upbeat rhythmic music)
