The document provides details about various techniques used in the motion graphics software After Effects. It discusses using layers to separate elements, keyframing to add movement over time, and using tools like the puppet tool and 3D camera to manipulate layers and add parallax effects. It also covers compositing elements from Photoshop into After Effects as layers, and techniques like scaling layers to create a sense of depth and adding blurs to certain layers for realism. Overall the document shares the workflow and technical steps taken to create motion graphics and 3D composites using After Effects.

1. Motion Graphics and
Compositing:
Production Log
Francesca Hall
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2. 2
Production Log:
Parallax and 3D
Camera

3. Workspace – After Effects
This is the tools bar, this can be used to add effects
as well as manipulation the footage/material with
After Effects, on of the tools in which I used as part
of this project was the Puppet Pin tool, which is
highlighted red. It can also locate other tools such as
the camera.
This section is where all the files have been
imported into the library, they now become
layers within the timeline which I can
manipulate by moving them up or down but I
can also lock a certain layer or even change
them to that they can be manipulated to have
3D effect. (highlighted red)

4. Workspace – After Effects
The Effect window panel can be opened from
the menu at the top of the screen however it
should appear if you have added layers to
your compositing file. You can pick from a
selection of different effects and presets that
you wish to add to the selected layer. You can
then further edit the effect as it will appear as
separate layer where you project files should
be (Project panel).
The project panel is the area in which all the files that you have imported will be
located as well as keeping all the compositions as well. When importing your files it is a
good idea to keep them in the original location that you first used when importing
them to After Effects as the Adobe Software created a link between the two. This is a
good concept for the current project that I am doing as it means if I were to edit the
Photoshop file the program will create a new preview and therefore update the file in
after effects mean I don’t have to upload the file and make all the changes again.
When you have completed editing your layers and overall project to
export the said project you will go File > Export > Render. This will
allow for you to be to transfer the file to another software such as
Premier Pro or to even just to be able to watch the file via QuickTime.

5. Sequence Setup – After Effects
Once I opened After Effects the I then clicked New Composition from there another box appeared in which I could
changed the settings. For this following project I named it BBC Nature and then I set the settings to HDTV 1080 25 as
I wanted the highest quality and I set the other settings at 1920 for the width and 1080 for the height as well as
setting the frame rate at 25 frames for second and this is due to the fact that for most television that is the standard
frame rate.
I then also set it so that the duration of each animal that I made within After Effects was 5 seconds.
Once I had clicked ok I then looked made sure that the file was present in my project folder at the side of my
workspace, the file type should be Composition and the frame rate should say 25 seconds.

6. Sequence Setup – After Effects
Once I have opened and created a new composition after effects file. I will then need to import the files in which I
am going to use.
To do this I go to file which is at the to menu bar and click file from there I click import and then because I only want
to select one Photoshop file in this case I just select file.
Side note that wherever you select your imported file from make sure that it will stay there because if you move the
file than it will distort all your work/progress made with After Effects. That is why for this particular project I made a
folder called Nature BBC and kept it on my desktop and in that folder I have saved all my Photoshop files, as well as
my After Effects ones as well.
I selected the Photoshop file and than made sure to import the file as footage and than clicked open.
I then knew that it had worked when I looked at my project window and I saw the folder of layers from the
Photoshop file, I could then open the folder and see all three files present. While After Effects is useful in the way
that if you edit the Photoshop file it will make those changes for you without the hassle of having to import the files
again if you were to move, rename, or delete you’re the files, After Effects will lose the link, and it will be unable to
display the content. Due to the original link it has between to two files.

7. Sequence Setup - Photoshop
To open and start the project. I firstly opened photoshop, when you first open photoshop it open's the
software as a blank document. For this project I need to have a image within photoshop to work with.
To insert the image I went to the top left of the Mac and then clicked File > Open.
Simplify the next step from there was to find the folder with all the file that I wished to import, once I
had found the image/file, I clicked on the image and made sure that the settings were correct, for this
project that was making sure that the file was in the format of a JPEG, than I clicked Open.
In addition for this project I need the image to be the background so I made sure that on the layers
option that I clicked on the padlock this meant that the layer wasn't locked and I can than edit the layer.
This automatically changed the layer to "Layer 0" rather than background.

8. Key Framing
I used the key frames throughout this project from the puppet tool to also using the camera tool at add a 3D effect
towards it.
To make sure that the key frame was on I first clicked on the layer that I wanted and in this case it was the camera,
from there I clicked on the drop down bar on transform which than allowed for me to see all the different types of
camera movement that I could use under this layer. To switch the key frames on I clicked on the first stopwatch and
then dragged down on them all this then made all the layers highlighted in grey, this meant that the key frames were
switched on. I made sure that I did this when my timeline was at the start of the project, 0 seconds.
With the camera I could use the key frames at the start and then at the ned by moving the timeline to the end and
then creating movement with the camera and using the key frame to do this. This would create gradually movement
throughout the 5 second duration. However if I wanted to create a specific camera movement at 2 seconds for
example than I would drag the cursor/bar on the timeline to the time in which I wanted the movement to happen
and then stop and then click on the certain camera tool that I wished to use and then selected them (highlighted
blue section) this will then add yellow diamonds onto your timeline to highlight that you have chosen to add a key
frame there.
I could also use this same method but instead of using the camera as a layer and I the puppet tool. For this I clicked
on the layer in which I wanted to add movement and the puppet pins and then add them onto the picture, I made
sure that the cursor/bar on the timeline was set at 0 and this was the starting point of the movement, from there I
followed the same steps for the camera in terms of key frame expect this time only one key frame (yellow diamond)
there will only be one rather than six.

9. Layers
Layers are used within After Effects when creating composting files. It takes all the separate files from the folder and
places then onto your timeline.
By separating them out into separate layers makes it much easier to individual effect and work with them. The top
layer it the first layer, this means that it is at the top.
I found out during this project that if you name the layers in Photoshop that it also keeps the name within After
Effects, so for example I just created three layers in Photoshop and therefore they were just generically named Layer
0, Layer 1 and Layer 2. This did mean that when I imported the Photoshop file into After Effects that it I didn't’t know
which layer was which.
Once I did find out what layer was which I then moved then on the timeline so that the background layer was at the
the bottom and the foreground layer was the the top, underneath the camera.
Due to having layers it made it easier when using the scale tool as they just meant that I clicked the drop down
arrow (highlighted blue) and then I could individually change the scale of each image/layer.
This also worked when adding a effect such as a blur, as I would click on the individual layer and then dragged the
layer onto it. You can control a lot with your layers on the timeline. For example you can lock the layer so that you
can’t change anything that happens to it (highlighted red), you can also selected more than one layer at a time to be
see (see green).

10. Technique Photoshop Layers
For this project I need to use Photoshop so that when I imported the file into After
Effects the file was spilt into three, the background, middle and foreground. In
Photoshop I imported the original image and from there I used the quick selection
tool to select the animal, I then used refine edge before cutting the selected part
off the image onto a new layer.
I then went back onto my background layer and this time use the lasso tool to
select around the shape that I have just cut from. Once I had selected this I then
clicked fill and then content aware. Out of the five times that I did this it didn't
always work perfectly so therefore I would either have to break it up into smaller
sections rather than as a whole or if the detail was only minor than using the clone
stamp tool to smooth the edges.
Once I had done this I then had my two layers, the background and my actual
animal however because I wished to create a 3D effect I also needed another
layer so that I could have a foreground aspect. For the majority of the images that
I used I found images on Google such as a rock or a tree trunk. I imported the
image into Photoshop where I then edited it, such as dodging and burring of the
rock and also cutting the tree trunk from the original image. I then made it a layer
on my original Photoshop document. I then saved the Photoshop file as a .PSD and
then placed it within a folder. (Once you have used this file within After Effects
don't move the file from where you saved it otherwise it messes the file in After
Effects as it can't find the Information.)

11. Technique: Scale/blur
Due to the fact that I was using a 3D camera
effect to this parallax it meant that I need to
have different depths of field to give it more of
a realistic effect. To do this I selected the
background layer and then I scaled it back so
that it would appear blurry and more
distinguishable parts will look smaller. I then
selected the tree which is the layer in the
foreground for this I scaled it higher than the
bird so that there was a clear depth of field.
Once I had sorted out the scale, leaving the bird
as it was. I then moved onto blur. I only wanted
to blur the tree in the foreground so that it gave
a more realistic approach and feel to the
parallax. For this I selected the layer and then I
add an effect, from effects and presets, out of
all the blurs I picked a box blur as I felt this was
the best effect for the imagery I was trying to
create. I then dragged the effect onto the tree
layer. For there I then changed the blur radius,
which was original set to 0.0 to 8.0 as I felt that
gave the best effect. Due to the fact that the
zoom in on the bird wasn’t that much I decided
to keep the blur on the tree consistent
throughout the duration.

12. Technique: Puppet
The next technique that I did was done by using the puppet tool which
added movement to a specific layer which in this case was always the
animal. To create the movement I first selected the layer in which I
wished to use the puppet tool on. In this instance it was always the
second layer as that was the animal, due to the fact that it was the
middle layer. Once I had selected the layer I made sure that the bar on
the timeline was set at 0. I then added the pins onto the bird. These
were the starting points of where I would like to add or see movement
made. I mainly focused on the tail and the wings and left the body and
the head, as they would move alongside every so slightly with the
original pin points. Once they were selected I then moved my bar on the
time line to 1 second and then clicked on each pin and moved it slightly.
You could add movement differently I found, you could either add
another pin or you could selected and existing pin and move that. The
second option is the one that I found through trail and error as well as
practice was the most effect and overall easier method to use. I
continued this for the next 5 seconds before I then finished the whole
sequence, I then rendered all the layers and played it back and it
showed the movement. If it was unhappy with a certain point or I felt
the movement was to fast and unrealistic I could then go back to my
timeline and to my key frames and change them alongside the pin
points. This took several goes as if you add to many pin points it can
cause a big warp and change the animal completely.

13. Technique: Camera
I used the camera in After Effects to give it a 3D feel. I did this by going layer > New > Camera and then clicked Ok. The
camera was then added onto my timeline at the top and from there I made sure that all the key frames were switched
on, making sure that my cursor/bar was set at 0 seconds.
I could use the camera in two different ways I could access the camera from in the time line and change it that way or I
could go up to the tool bar menu and click on the camera icon from there a drop down menu appeared and I could then
select the type of camera movement/style that I wished to use. I could use the orbit tool to see the different depths of
field and the scale of the layers. I could also use the track camera Z to zoom in and out on the animal and the other track
camera XY to track left and right of the layers. To show movement once I had set my cursor/bar at o seconds on the time
line I then positioned the camera to where I wish the camera to start and then for me I wanted a gradual movement so I
moved the cursor/bar to the end of the sequence/ 5 seconds and then used the different camera movements to zoom in
on the animal while still keeping some of the foreground visible within the image, experimented with rule of thirds a
position and the tracked either left or right so that less foreground was visible. I at first tried to use different camera
movements at different time using the key frame but I found because the project was only 5 seconds that it was too fast
and I felt that it jumped rather than tracked. I found that with some animals such as the panda and the seal that just
using the key frame at the start and at the end of the whole sequence worked well, however with the parrot I found that
have separate key frames at add more camera movement worked better to give the overall parallax more depth.

14. Evaluation/Reflection
I think looking back now I would have taken more time when within photoshop as I have found errors
when I have come to add movement to the animal layers, such as I haven't blended in small parts of the
background with the clone stamp tool so therefore when the birds feather move you can see them also
where I have used the erase tool to separate the birds feathers could have been a lot cleaner as you can
still see small bits of the background and I can see that I have erased a half a tail feather. With the bear it
is only small problem that I have found noticeable with its front paw that I haven't cleanly cut it in
photoshop so when it moves so does part of the rocks.
If I had more time I think that I would also with the BBC title card I would add some form of movement
so that the BBC logo would transition in last or the actual title "Natural World" would swipe onto the
page separately.
Overall I think the movement worked out will with all the animals however I think you can eaisely tell
which aninal I used this technique on first, seal and the progression of improvement later between the
animals, which is a good thing because it shows improvement in the technique skill however for me
personal it does make the seal standout out more as the movement for me doesn't seem realistic.

15. Production Log:
Colour, Glow
and Matte Painting
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16. Technique: Glow
To add a glow to the video I first needed to create another layer. Once I had done this I then on the
second layer used the mask tool to highlight the object in which I wanted to add the glow effect to which
in this case was a key. Once I had selected the key with the mask I then joined it up together to complete
the selection. These than gave me two layers the original layer and than the second layer which was just
the key alone.
I then went into the effects and presets and selected the glow effect from here I changed the settings to
which allowed the key to glow. Due to the fact that it was a stationary object it meant that there was no
movement involved so therefore it was once of the easiest affects to add.
The only issue that I had using this technique is that when you then put the video clip into adobe Premier
as part of the sequence if you didn’t change the colour than if you were to do so in Premier after you have
add this effect then it changes the overall look and therefore desired effect of the glow.

17. Technique: Matte Painting
This technique was done within After Effects. This is essentially a sky replacement. To create this technique I first had to
have two separate layers, the first layer being the video footage and the second layer being the image which in this case
was a dark sky. I then first hid the video layer and just displayed the image, from there I scaled the image up so that it fit
the entire screen. Once I knew that the image was at the right size/scale I then made the video image seen again. I then
clicked on this layer, which I named front of college and then added a mask tool, from here I selected the area in which I
wanted to replace, which was in this case they sky. So I made my selection using the mask tool so that all the sky was
selected. Once I had completed the mask selection by joining up the last piece it than simulated the process from me
however it did it the wrong way around, by having all of the college replaced with the dark sky background and the sky
stayed the same so I went into my mask as part of the first video layer and clicked inverted (highlighted blue) this then
swapped everything around so that it looked like the screen shot below, with the sky replaced and the building still the
same. This was my sky replacement done however that was very basic and due to the fact that the sky replacement was
an image and the main layer an actual video this meant that it looked very abstract and out of place so therefore using
the puppet tool on the dark cloud layer I added subtle movement so that the sky would move alongside the video just to
give it much more realism and have a darker effect with the clouds moving. Once I then rendered and saved this it meant
that the sky alongside the movement was all one layer that could be easily transferred into Premiere.

18. Technique: Smoke
This was done within After Effects. I created three solid layers so that the smoke had more depth of field. I used the
effects and presets Particle Playground to help create a more realistic smoke effect. I selected the first layer and changed
the colour straight away from red to white, as that is the colour I wanted my smoke to be. From there I also changed
elements such as the barrel radius and particle radius, this meant how far spread apart from particles were from each
other, I then also changed the gravity but more importantly the direction as when I were to layer the three layers
together it would then create movement. I then did the same process using particle playground however each time I
changed the position, barrel radius, particle radius and gravity so that it was all different. In saying that however it was a
drastic change it was very subtle. Once this was done I then had all three layers layered together on my timeline and I
changed the scale and size of them due to the gravity changes I made in particle playground this add the exact
movement so that it looked like actual smoke within the video clip. I then copied the three layers and pasted them back
into my timeline so that I had another section of smoke to add within the video.

19. Technique: Colour RGB
This could be done with After Effects and or within Adobe Premier Pro. It all depends on if the selected clip that is used
has an another effect on it or not. For example if the clip doesn't contain glow than I can just adjust the colour within
Premier and than copy and paste the attributes of the colour over onto other files/clips. This worked if they were filmed
in similar locations, however if we changed locations or we went outside for example for a couple of shots this meant
that I could still copy and past the Colour attributes that were attached to the file to get a similar basic similarly. I would
than however have to go and adjust them further so that they didn't look to bright or to light.
Once I had selected the layer with the After Effects timeline I then clicked on effects and presets and from there I found
the section of colour correction and then I clicked RGB Curves.
I played about with different colours such as White, and red mainly to make the footage much darker to fit with the tone
and style that I was trying to convey.

20. Evaluation/Reflection
I would think about the coloring more, as I feel that some of the colouring is a bit to dark and
therefore isn't consistent throughout the video, this is to do with the RGB colour technique.
Furthermore I would also try and make the mask of the sky a lot more neater when using the
mask tool and I would refine the edges more so that when I get the matte painting of the sky to
move that It wouldn’t look as from, this is more in the detail rather than the whole thing. I would
also try and make the movement of both the sky and the meteor look less abstract.
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