Cheat Sheet

I am not one proficient in After Affects (yet), therefore I've done a little research looking through blogs, tutorials--anything that will help me learn the program as quickly and efficiently as possible. Obviously, there is a ton of great information on the internet to potentially put into action (including the contents of this blog). But if you're anything like me, the basics have to be grasped first before getting ahead of myself. As we've talked about in class, shortcuts are the key to efficient use of After Affects (and arguably any Adobe program). I understand the importance of being able to navigate AE swiftly and thus I thought I'd share with my fellow animation newbies this:

That's right, folks! The After Affects Keyboard Cheat Sheet. Isn't it beautiful? And what's posted above is only the beginning! The entire PDF includes shortcuts for projects, tools, workspaces, time navigation, layers, text, and so much more. Definitely something to print out and keep in the back of your notebook.

The entire PDF document can be found here.

A lesson on Keyboard Shortcuts

Today, I decided to write my blogpost on one of the most useful things in any software: the Keyboard Shortcuts. Abusing keyboard shortcuts can help you maximize efficiency, and help you work a whole lot faster.

The Easy Ones:

Alright, these are the ones that are pretty standard in most programs, so we'll run through them quickly...

Hotkey	Command
CTRL-N	New Composition
CTRL-S	Saves the project
CTRL-D	Duplicates a layer/composition/effect
CTRL-I	Imports a file
CTRL-K	Opens up the Composition Settings
CTRL-ALT-;	Opens up After Effects' Settings
CTRL-R	Enable Rulers
Shift-F10	Reset your workspace to default

Composition Hotkeys:

Here we have a bunch of hotkeys that add or do something to a composition...

Hotkey	Command
CTRL-Y	Creates a New Solid
CTRL-Shift-Y	Opens the Layer Settings
CTRL-M	Add the Composition to the Render Queue (to export)
U	Opens all the parameters that contain active keyframes
P	Opens the Position parameter
S	Opens the Scale parameter
T	Opens the Opacity(transparancy) parameter
R	Opens the Rotation parameter
SHIFT (R/T/P/S/etc.)	Keeps current parameters open, and also opens a new parameter
M	Shows a list of available masks on your layer
Space	Allows you to Click-And-Drag around your composition
Shift-?	Sets the composition to "Fit To Window" view
/	Sets the composition to "100%" view
CTRL-Alt-Shift-Y	Creates a Null Object

General Useful Ones:

These are all around really useful and should be used whenever you can...

Hotkey	Command
`	Hover over a window and click "`" to maximize that window, and hide the other views
V	The basic selection tool
Y	The Pan-Behind tool
Q	The Rectangle/Elipse/Polygon tool
G	The Pen tool
CTRL-T	The Text tool
Alt-W	The Roto-Brush tool
Numpad 0	The "RAM Preview" play button
F4	Shifts between Switches/Modes in the timeline

And there you have it! Now, I didn't want to go into EVERY hotkey that exists in After Effects, that would take forever. These are simply the hotkeys that I find myself using on a day-to-day basis, and think they are essential for people to know.

No pictures today, so enjoy this stock image!

Basics of Motion Design

I came accross this video on Vimeo and thought it was really interesting, it's basically a compilation of clips designed by students at the University of the Arts in Bremen where they were supposed to explain, in each clip, principles of motion design through animation. The most interesting for me is the simplicity of the animations and also the fact that I can identify many of these principles after I started taking M&A.

Some of the "basics of motion design" shown here are:
Timing
Print x Motion Design
Transitions
Suspense
Keyframes
Movement
Negative Space
and many more (check it out)


The Basics of Motion Design from Rogge & Pott on Vimeo.

Opening title sequences

Last class was great being able to see many different opening title sequences. I liked being able to hear from the creators themselves. It helps to know what the creators were thinking when creating these pieces. I was shocked how powerful this program really is. I did the simplest thing in After Effects. For instance just make a square and add some key frames to it. Then at the end of the class was told that is how simple some opening sequences really are with After Effects. It was really neat just making a shape with the shape or pen tool.