Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Day 18 - After Effects - Transitions

What I did:
Today, In after effects, I learned how to make transitions. Not how to ADD transitions but how to MAKE them because it turns out.... you can't add any transitions because there aren't any to my knowledge. I searched many videos in hopes to come across some that would have default transitions that you could add but it turns out you can't and you have to make them. So, that's what I did and it's actually a time-consuming task that could take seconds if they were default but since they aren't, they can take a few minutes to add. Today, I made a transition that takes a third of the top of the video and moves it to the left, the middle is moved to the right, and the bottom is also moved to the left. It's a simple transition that Sony Vegas most likely has in the defaults but After Effects doesn't.


This transition looks like this:


1: First. I set up two clips for the transition. The second clip started during the first clip but nearing the end  of the first clip so I could do the transition into the clip. 
2. Next, I needed to select the rectangle tool at the top to create the 3 shapes but they also needed to be in mask form so it doesn't cover up the rectangle with a solid colour but rather is transparent.
3. Then I created the rectangles. I tried to make them even but I think the middle was the biggest.
4. Finally, you have you have to create keyframes and make the rectangles move. You can double click the top of a rectangle and then hold shift and move the rectangle to your designated time.

What I learned:
Today, I learned some new things in After Effects. The main thing I learned was that After Effects doesn't have transitions and that you have to make them. I searched so many videos and all they showed was that you had to make the transitions instead of applying them. I also learned about masks. I originally was creating rectangles with a solid colour and even when I turned off the colour, I didn't get the same rectangle colour which was yellow. I didn't know what a mask did but now I do. A mask is basically a transparent thing that can be used with rectangles or other shapes. It helps with transitions in that it moves the thing over when you use keyframes and designate the section. 

What I plan to learn tomorrow:
Tomorrow, I plan to learn about keyframes on Sony Vegas. Since, After Effects is lacking in many editing software essentials so I will use Sony Vegas for the majority of the video editing things I need to do. Also, I have been using it for years and am very familiar with it but I still don't know how to do a lot of the stuff. I've only really used it for simple editing and haven't gotten into too much of it. So, tomorrow I will learn about animating and key frames.

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