Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Applying After Efects Presets
Now that you've seen how to import Photoshop 3D iles to After
Efects and the timeline in After Efect, we will move on to see how
to use After Efects to apply efects to the imported objects and the
presets in After Efects.
After Efects includes a large number of efects and presets. Though
you can add the efects manually from the Efects menu and set each
efect's values from the Efect panel, After Efects makes it much
easier by presenting a number of comprehensive collections of video
efects as presets that allow you to apply the efects with just a
double-click on the preset. I will talk only about presets and how to
use them to easily apply efects in After Efects—working with efects
is outside our focus, which is on the integration between the two
applications.
Figure 15.6
The Efects and Presets panel.
Presets are arranged in the Efects and Presets panel, which you can display
from the Windows menu. Each collection of presets is arranged based on its
usage and type. In the following example, we will apply an animation preset
to the 3D car model that we opened earlier:
1. Select the 3D model layer from the timeline.
2. Make sure that the Current Time Indicator is on the irst frame.
3. Go to the Efects and Presets menu on the right side. If it is not open, you
can open it from the Windows menu.
4. In the Efects and Presets panel, navigate to the folder Transitions-
Movement and select Card Wipe-3D pixelstorm. The preset will be
applied directly to the 3D model.
5. Preview the animation by pressing the spacebar or use the play
controllers in the Preview menu. You can open the Preview panel from
the Windows menu.
6. In the Efects Controls panel next to the Project panel, increase the
number of rows and columns of the model fragment to 40 instead of
the default, which is 20. This creates more of a fragment efect on
the layer.
7. You can also set the number of the defragment animation frames by
dragging the keyframes of the animation closer to or away from
each other.
As the Efects and Presets panel includes a wide range of efects, the best
way to learn about each efect is to apply it to the model and see its
properties and how to change it to get the efect you want.
So far, you've seen how to import a Photoshop 3D ile to After Efects and
apply the animation presets to the 3D model. In the next step, you will learn
how to render the 3D iles to a video animation, an image sequence, or as
Flash SWF content.
