Adobe After Effects Questions (Weeks 1-6)
Week 1
1. What is After Effects?
Adobe After Effects is a digital motion-graphics, compositing and visual-effects software for film and video post-production. A/V pros use it to animate, alter, and composite media in 2D and 3D space. (Wikipedia)
2. What is Final Cut Pro?
Final Cut Pro is now an Apple, non-linear editing software. A/V pros use it to log, capture and store video for editing, processing, and output to a variety of formats. (Wikipedia)
3. What is Motion Graphics?
Motion graphics may use video, audio and animation to simulate motion or change over time, usually in digital multimedia, but also in manual or analog, projects.
4. Who is Saul Bass?
Bass emerged as the pioneer of the modern title sequence for creating the title for Otto Preminger’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” (1955). He was the first designer to recognize the full potential of a movie’s opening and closing credits. He thought a title sequence could set the film’s mood and theme.
5. Who is Kyle Cooper?
Kyle Cooper became an acclaimed title-sequence designer for his seminal 1995 title of the Se7en film. He co-founded the innovative creative agencies, Imaginary Forces, in 1996 and Prologue, in 2003. (Wikipedia)
Week 2
1. What are the three things to remember about the process for workflow in After Effects?
- Import assets into the project.
- Adjust and manipulate assets.
- Render or output the final project as a movie.
2. Identify the panels and windows located in the After Effects interface.
A – Application window
B – Tools panel
C – Project panel
D – Composition panel
E – Timeline panel
F – Time graph
G – Grouped panels (Info and Audio)
H – Time Controls panel
I – Effects & Presets panel
3. Remember the footage you import into your project is not embedded inside the file, because of this fact, what is important to remember about your file structure?
Sources are linked to files, which must be kept organized. Avoid moving or renaming the files. Yet, if your footage no longer links, right click to re-find and re-link the missing files.
4. What are the 5 transform properties in After Effects?
- Anchor Point (A)
- Position (P)
- Scale (S)
- Rotation (R)
- Opacity (T)
5. What is keyframing?
Keyframing is the most important animation principle. It is mostly automated in AE.
6. What is the three-step process for animation in After Effects?
- Click on a property’s stopwatch icon to enable keyframing and animation to change its value over time.
- Move the current-time indicator in the timeline.
- Change the same property to automatically create a new keyframe.
Week 3
1. What is a storyboard?
Storyboards are graphic organizers of illustrations or images in sequence for pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic, interactive media sequence, or website interactivity.
2. What are the benefits of a storyboard?
It facilitates “sensitivity analysis”, in film and other industries, to experiment with storyline changes to evoke stronger reaction or interest. For example, flashbacks often result from sorting storyboards out of chronological order to build suspense and interest. This visual planning enables the stakeholders to brainstorm together by arranging their storyboards on a wall to foster more ideas and consensus.
3. What does this timecode represent? 01:30:15:05
It indicates one hour, 30 minutes, 15 seconds, and 5 frames.
Week 4
1. Name two project goals and objectives.
- Who is the client?
- What does the client want this project to accomplish?
2. Name two questions important to answer regarding the target audience.
- Who is the Audience?
- What are their needs and expectations?
- What should the message accomplish for this audience?
3. Name 3 out of the 4 properties outlined in the notes regarding motion design principles
- Shape;
- Color;
- Texture/Surface;
- Size.
4. What do the stacking order of your layers control?
Stacking order does not control playing order. Rather, layers’ start and stop points control the order in which each footage is played. Thus, stacking order applies if more than one asset is scheduled for display at the same time.
5. What are blending modes?
They are ways of stacking layers, and combining their data, to make them look cool.
6. What are adjustment layers?
Any effect applied to an adjustment layer affects all the layers underneath it.
Week 5
1. What is the title safe area? What is the size of the margin?
- Keep text inside the title safe area to avoid distortion. It has a 10% margin on all sides.
2. What is the action safe area? What is the size of the margin?
- Keep imagery you want the viewers to see inside the action safe area. It has a 5% margin on all sides.
3. What are three valid formats for audio in After Effects?
- wav;
- aiff;
- mp3
Week 6
1. Name seven criteria for assessing and critiquing motion graphics.
- Structures and Composition;
- Image and Image Type;
- Symbols and Symbol types;
- Time;
- Sound;
- Intent;
- Meaning.
2. Name six of the 9 motion graphic genres we discussed in class. Give examples for 3 of them.
A genre is a category to classify motion graphics or film, usually by form, technique, or content.
- Fluid: Flows smoothly from shot to shot. Psyop is the king of Fluid genre.
- Organic: Feels real, but still artistic. Visual effects are examples.
- Vector: Created in vector programs, e.g. Illustrator, Flash, to facilitate scaling without any loss of detail. Brand New School does this genre well.
- Hand-drawn: Employs paint drips, rough paper, or a jittery stop motion. Eyeball’s rebrand of Comedy Central is a good example.
- Collage: This “Kitchen Sink” is often a frenetic, rapid animation style. Stardust does this well.
- Film: Uses pacing common to film titles and trailers with heavy typography focus. Picture Mill produces good examples.
- Kinetic typography: Known as “moving text” to convey an idea or evoke emotion. Examples include title sequences and credits, web animation and entertainment media.
- Information design/Data Visualization: Displays facts and figures. Jess3 creative agency is an example.
- End tag: This mainstay of motion graphics is the 5-second display of the company logo at the end of a 25-second commercial.
