- After Effects User Guide
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- Text
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- Work with Motion Graphics templates in After Effects
- Use expressions to create drop-down lists in Motion Graphics templates
- Work with Essential Properties to create Motion Graphics templates
- Replace images and videos in Motion Graphics templates and Essential Properties
- Animate faster and easier using the Properties panel
- Drawing, Painting, and Paths
- Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector graphics
- Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser
- Taper shape strokes
- Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers
- Use Offset Paths shape effect to alter shapes
- Creating shapes
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- Remove objects from your videos with the Content-Aware Fill panel
- Roto Brush and Refine Matte
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- Effects and animation presets overview
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- Expressions and Automation
- Expressions
- Expression basics
- Understanding the expression language
- Using expression controls
- Syntax differences between the JavaScript and Legacy ExtendScript expression engines
- Editing expressions
- Expression errors
- Using the Expressions editor
- Use expressions to edit and access text properties
- Expression language reference
- Expression examples
- Automation
- Expressions
- Immersive video, VR, and 3D
- Construct VR environments in After Effects
- Apply immersive video effects
- Compositing tools for VR/360 videos
- Advanced 3D Renderer
- Import and add 3D models to your composition
- Import 3D models from Creative Cloud Libraries
- Image-Based Lighting
- Extract and animate lights and cameras from 3D models
- Tracking 3D camera movement
- Cast and accept shadows
- Embedded 3D model animations
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- Modify materials properties of a 3D layer
- Work in 3D Design Space
- 3D Transform Gizmos
- Do more with 3D animation
- Preview changes to 3D designs real time with the Mercury 3D engine
- Add responsive design to your graphics
- Views and Previews
- Rendering and Exporting
- Basics of rendering and exporting
- H.264 Encoding in After Effects
- Export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project
- Converting movies
- Multi-frame rendering
- Automated rendering and network rendering
- Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences
- Using the GoPro CineForm codec in After Effects
- Working with other applications
- Collaboration: Frame.io, and Team Projects
- Memory, storage, performance
- Knowledge Base
Video preview using Mercury Transmit-based system
What is Mercury Transmit?
Mercury Transmit is a software interface that Adobe applications use to send video frames to external video device. Video device manufacturers such as AJA, BlackMagic Design, Bluefish444, and Matrox provide plug-ins that route the video frames from Mercury Transmit to their hardware.
Video preview using Mercury Transmit sends the contents of the Composition, Layer, or Footage panel viewer to an external monitor. The external monitor can be one of the following:
- A video monitor connected through third-party video hardware such as AJA, Blackmagic, or Matrox I/O devices
- A DV device connected over FireWire
- A computer monitor connected to your video display card via such as HDMI, DVI, VGA, or DisplayPort
The setting of the Resolution menu in the Composition panel determines the resolution for the external video preview.
Mercury Transmit does not send overlays such as user interface controls, guides, warning banners and other items drawn by OpenGL to the external monitor. This also means that Fast Draft and Wireframe preview modes do not send image data to the external monitor.
Video preview preferences
You can set the following video preview preferences by choosing Preferences > Video Preview:
- Enable Mercury Transmit: Toggle video preview with Mercury Transmit. Use the '/' on the numeric keypad to toggle this option. On a Mac computer without a numeric keypad, use Control+Shift+/ on the main keyboard.
- Video Device: Check the box next to any option that appears here to enable video output to the specified device.
- Adobe DV: Select this option for DV devices connected via FireWire.
- Adobe Monitor x: View the list of the attached computer monitors that can receive video preview data through the graphics card.
- Third-party video hardware: View the list of third-party hardware that you have connected, for example, AJA Kona 3G, Blackmagic Playback, and Matrox Player. Click Setup to view the options available for each hardware.
- Adobe DV: Select this option for DV devices connected via FireWire.
- Disable video output when in the Background: Select this option to prevent sending video frames to the external monitor when After Effects is not the foreground application.
- Video preview during render queue output: Select this option to send video frames to the external monitor when After Effects is rendering frames in the render queue.
If you are previewing an image that does not exactly match the preview monitor's pixel dimensions, the third-party I/O device scales the image. The manner of scaling differs between devices and is in some cases controllable through the Setup options for the device. The setting of the Resolution menu in the Composition panel determines the resolution for the external video preview.
If you experience slow RAM preview frame rates when Mercury Transmit is enabled, try one or more of the following:
- Reduce the resolution in the Composition or Preview panel
- Reduce the RAM preview frame rate in the Preview panel
- Reduce the project color depth to 16-bpc or 8-bpc
- Disable color management (set the project’s working space to None).