Week 4 Outside of Class

Earlier this week outside of class, I completed putting my quote into Illustrator. This was my final product:

This weekend, I completed my symbolic scoring sketches. Im pretty sure that a lot of it will get changed once I see it on the computer screen in motion but here are my sketches:

I also transferred these sketches into Illustrator:

I also watched the After Effects videos on Lynda.com. Here are the notes that I took:

Understanding Precomposing:

• Precomposing is when you take a series of layers and group them together into another composition
• Select all of the layers you want, go to Layer, and choose Pre Compose. OR command + shift + c
• can now operate all the layers as one
• command + d to duplicate that layer

Navigating Through Compositions Quickly

• You can group pre-comps into more pre-comps
• Shift + arrow keys to jump from composition to composition
• the big composition is called the parent composition and the pre-comp inside that composition is called the child composition

Creating and Editing Text

• Point type is when you just click with the type tool and start typing - it creates one long line of type - or you can use the text box
• the character and paragraph panels are what is used to edit text

Animating Text Manually

• Use the text drop down instead of the transform
• Use the Animate button in the text drop down
• When clicking a property in the animate drop down creates a Range Selector and a section for the property you selected - both of these are grouped into a file called Animator 1
• only the text that is in the range selector will be applied with the property
• you can add more properties into the same Animator 1 file by using the Add button

Using Work Areas

• you can create a work area by dragging the yellow bar to where you want your work space to start and end
• if you double click the work area bar it resets itself
• you can press the letter "b" for the beginning of the work area and "n" for end
• Shift +home will take you to the beginning of the work area and Shift + end will take you to the end
• You can render just the work area

Creating Markers

• markers are a way to create notes for yourself or your team
• there are markers for the layers and markers for the whole composition
• select the layer, go up to "Layer", and click "add marker"
• OR click the "*" key - then click the * key again to end
• click on the shield on the right hand side of the screen and drag it to the left to create a comp marker
• double click markers to name them

Replacing Layers

• select your current layer, hold down the option key, and drag the layer that you want to replace it with down to where the first layer is

Mastering Timeline Navigation

• can zoom in and out of the timeline with the + and - keys
• to press "d" it will center you on the timeline
• option + scroll wheel will zoom you in and out of the timeline and Shift + scroll wheel will scroll you back and forward in time

Creating and Using Masks

• select the layer you want, select the rectangle tool, click and drag on the screen until you have what you want
• there are different mask modes
• if you open up the masks drop down menu, then click the "Add" drop down menu, and change it to subtract

Exploring Mask Options

• if you press the letter "m" you can reveal basic properties about the mask
• you can animate the mask path by clicking the stopwatch on "mask path"
• if you click "m" twice you will reveal mask properties and all mask options
• mask path, mask feather, mask opacity, and mask expansion

Masking Objects With Other Objects

• make sure you can see the modes column
• select the layer you want, in the "track matte area" and choose "alpha mattes *layer name*" - outline
• OR click the layer you want, in the "track matte area" choose "luma matte *layer name*" - brightness