Adobe 12040118 Tutorial - Page 124

Richard Harrington and Ian Robinson provide a free sample chapter from their "Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques" book on the Peachpit Press website. This chapter shows how to prepare Illustrator and Photoshop files. See this video tutorial by Andrew Devis on the Creative Cow website about importing and using Photoshop PSD files in After Effects. Color modes Layered Photoshop (PSD) files need to be saved in RGB or Grayscale color mode for After Effects to import them as a composition and to separate the layers. CMYK, LAB, Duotone, Monotone, and Tritone color modes are not supported for layered files; After Effects will import a file that uses one of these color modes as a single, flattened image. (Regarding the other color modes available in Photoshop such as Bitmap and Indexed: Photoshop does not support layers in these color modes.) To determine or change the color mode of a document in Photoshop, choose Image > Mode. (The color mode is also displayed in the title bar of the document window.) Masks and alpha channels Adobe Photoshop supports a transparent area and one optional layer mask (alpha channel) for each layer in a file. You can use these layer masks to specify how different areas within a layer are hidden or revealed. If you import one layer, After Effects combines the layer mask (if present) with the transparent area and imports the layer mask as a straight alpha channel. If you import a layered Photoshop file as a merged file, After Effects merges the transparent areas and layer masks of all the layers into one alpha channel that is premultiplied with white. When you import a Photoshop file as a composition, vector masks are converted to After Effects masks. You can then modify and animate these masks within After Effects. Photoshop clipping groups, layer groups, and Smart Objects If the layered Photoshop file contains clipping groups, After Effects imports each clipping group as a precomposition nested within the main composition. After Effects automatically applies the Preserve Underlying Transparency option to each layer in the clipping-group composition, maintaining transparency settings. These nested precompositions have the same dimensions as the main composition. Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum that crops the precompositions to the size of their contents, while retaining their correct position in the main composition. Photoshop layer groups are imported as individual compositions. It is often valuable to group layers into Smart Objects in Photoshop so that you can import meaningful collections of Photoshop layers as individual layers in After Effects. For example, if you used 20 layers to create your foreground object and 30 layers to create your background object in Photoshop, you probably don't need to import all of those individual layers into After Effects if all that you want to do is animate your foreground object flying in front of your background object; consider grouping them into a single foreground Smart Object and a single background Smart Object before importing the PSD file into After Effects. Photoshop layer styles and blending modes After Effects also supports blending modes and layer styles applied to the file. When you import a Photoshop file with layer styles, you can choose the Editable Layer Styles option or the Merge Layer Styles Into Footage option: Editable Layer Styles Matches appearance in Photoshop and preserves supported layer style properties as editable. Note: A layer with a layer style interferes with intersection of 3D layers and the casting of shadows. Merge Layer Styles Into Footage Layer styles are merged into the layer for faster rendering, but the appearance may not match the appearance of the image in Photoshop. This option doesn't interfere with intersection of 3D layers or casting of shadows. Photoshop video layers Photoshop files can contain video and animation layers. After Effects can import these files like any other Photoshop files, either as a footage item with all layers merged together or as a composition with each Photoshop layer separate and editable in After Effects. (Working with Photoshop video layers requires QuickTime 7.1 or later.) Note: After Effects can't import a Photoshop video layer that uses an image sequence as its source. In After Effects CS6, video layer support in Photoshop .psd documents has been removed. The layers will still have a duration, but won't play. Animating layers with available properties in the Photoshop animation timeline (like Position and Opacity) are supported. 3D object layers in PSD files Adobe Photoshop Extended can import and manipulate 3D models (3D objects) in several popular formats. Photoshop can also create 3D objects in basic, primitive shapes. After Effects CS5.5, and earlier, can import these 3D object layers in PSD files and render them using the active camera in a composition. (See 3D object layers from Photoshop.) For a video tutorial about using 3D object layers from Photoshop in After Effects, go to the Adobe website. 3D object layers in PSD files is no longer supported in After Effects CS6. Scaling and resizing Though it's not very well suited for movies, the content-aware scaling feature in Photoshop is very useful for extending and scaling still images.