Adobe 12040118 Tutorial - Page 348

After Effects comes with several third-party plug-ins, including Foundry Keylight, Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse, Digieffects FreeForm, Imagineer mocha shape, fnord ProEXR, and Cycore FX (CC) (CS5.5, and earlier), CycoreFX HD (CC)(CS6) plug-ins. These plug-ins are installed by default with the full version of Adobe After Effects software. Some of these plug-ins are not included with the trial version of Adobe After Effects. (See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects.). Note: Digieffects FreeForm is not included with After Effects CS6. After Effects CS6 includes Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse 3. The installers for some plug-ins install their documentation in the same directory as the plug-ins themselves. The EXtractoR and IDentifier plug-ins from fnord software are included with After Effects to provide access to multiple layers and channels of OpenEXR files. See ProEXR plug-ins, IDentifier and EXtractoR. Animating effects You animate effect properties in the same way that you animate any other properties-by adding keyframes or expressions to them. In most cases, even effects that rely on animation for their normal use require that you set some keyframes or expressions. For example, animate the Transition Completion property of a Transition effect or the Evolution setting of the Turbulent Noise effect to turn a static effect into a dynamic effect. Color depth Many effects support processing of image color and alpha channel data at a depth of 16 or 32 bits per channel (bpc). Using an 8-bpc effect in a 16-bpc or 32-bpc project can result in a loss of color detail. If an effect supports only 8 bpc, and your project is set to 16 bpc or 32 bpc, the Effect Controls panel displays a warning icon next to the effect name. You can set the Effects & Presets panel to list only the effects that support the color depth of the current project. (See Color depth and high dynamic range color.) Render order The order in which After Effects renders masks, effects, layer styles, and transform properties-called the render order-may affect the final result of an applied effect. By default, effects appear in the Timeline panel and Effect Controls panel in the order in which they were applied. Effects are rendered in order from top to bottom in this list. To change the order in which effects are rendered, drag the effect name to a new position in the list. (See Render order and collapsing transformations.) Adjustment layers To apply an effect to only a specific portion of a layer, use an adjustment layer. An effect applied to an adjustment layer affects all layers below it in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel. (See Create an adjustment layer.) Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he shows how to use an adjustment layer to apply an effect to only a short duration and to only specific portions of a movie. Expression Controls effects Expression Controls effects do not modify existing layer properties; rather, these effects add layer properties that expressions can refer to. (See Expression Controls effects.) Preventing edge clipping with the Grow Bounds effect Because an effect is applied to a layer, the results of some effects are constrained to within the bounds of the layer, which can make the effect appear to end abruptly. You can apply the Grow Bounds effect to a layer to temporarily extend the layer for the purpose of calculating the results of other effects. This process is not necessary for newer effects, which tend to be 32-bpc effects. Managing effects and effect properties with scripts Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum with which you can search compositions for effects and turn them on or off. Paul Tuersley provides a script on the AE Enhancers forum that makes synchronizing changes to effect properties on multiple layers easier. Effects applied with tools Some effects-including the Puppet effect, the Paint effect, and the Roto Brush effect-are applied to a layer with a tool, rather than being applied directly in the same manner as other effects. (See Animating with Puppet tools, Paint tools and paint strokes, and Transparency, opacity, and compositing.) Resources for Cycore FX (CC) effects To the top Note: The Cycore FX (CC) effect plug-ins are not included with the trial version of After Effects. See Third-party plug-ins included with After Effects. CycoreFX HD (1.7.1) is included in the installation of After Effects CS6. There is 16-bpc support in all effects, and 32-bpc (float) support in 35 effects. Included are 12 additional plug-ins. CycoreFX HD plug-ins have support for motion blur, lights, more controls, and options. This video by Todd Kopriva and video2brain introduces the new Cycore effects and improved color bit depth. You will learn how to apply a couple of these effects and see what it means to use different bit depths.