Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
animation presets and video efects from After Efects presets. After Efects
presets include video- and animation-ready efects that you can easily apply
to your animation with a click of your mouse.
The Integrated Photoshop Resources
One of the most important integration features between Photoshop
and After Efects is the support for importing Photoshop layers into After
Efects. Although this integration is shared between other tools as well,
such as the ability to import Photoshop layers into Flash and Illustrator,
importing Photoshop layers to After Efects preserves a lot of the Photoshop
work by reading Photoshop layer styles, efects, adjustments, and so on.
Note: Although you can
export a Photoshop
animation as video and
import it into After
Efects, importing a PSD
layer gives you more
ability to apply efects
on each object
separately.
The way Adobe After Efects reads the imported Photoshop layers depends
on the import settings. However, in general, After Efects supports diferent
types of PSD layers as follows:
• Video layers: After Efects supports importing video layers from
Photoshop and preserves the styles applied to the layers, such as the
drop shadow, outer glow, bevel, emboss, and so on.
• 3D layers: When you import the 3D layer into After Efects, it imports the
3D object with the full ability to control the object through navigation
controls similar to the navigation arrows in Photoshop. The 3D layer
properties are imported as sublayers for the 3D layer in After Efects. In
addition to the main 3D layer, After Efects imports the Photoshop
default camera as a separate layer so that you can edit the camera
properties.
• Efects and Styles: When you import a layer with styles, After Efects reads
the style applied to the layer and adds it as a property layer in the
Timeline panel layers.
• Mask layers: The imported layers with masks are merged with the applied
mask. So you cannot edit a Photoshop mask once it is imported to After
Efects.
• Adjustment layers: The adjustment layers—such as brightness and
contrast, hue and saturation, and levels—can be imported to After
Efects as a separate control layer with the adjustment value applied to it.
This layer afects the layers below it, similar to Photoshop.
•
Layers folders: Although After Efects does not support layer folders to
group layers, it converts the grouped layers to a separate composition.
When you import a PSD ile that includes grouped layers, After Efects
adds the grouped layers in a separate composition that is placed inside
the composition of the PSD imported layer.
Beside the previously mentioned layer types, the rest of Photoshop
layers are imported as normal shapes that you cannot edit directly in
After Efects.
