User Guide

14
An Overview of Adobe After Effects
Keyframes
Animate layers by setting keyframes for the layer’s properties at different points in time.
Keyframes mark the point in time where you’ve set layer property values. For example,
if you want a layer to expand as the clip plays, you would set two or more keyframes
containing different scale property values.
Motion Sketch and Smoother
Draw animation paths as easily as sketching with a pencil on paper using the Motion
Sketch tool. Simply select the tool and draw the animation path on-screen. Adjust your
drawing speed to vary the velocity of the path. After Effects automatically creates the
keyframes for you. Then use the Smoother tool to smooth the shape of the path and fine-
tune it until the animation moves exactly as you want.
Leading-edge video and audio effects
After Effects delivers powerful, precise tools for creating a limitless range of visual and
audio effects. You can stylize, enhance, and manipulate layers using a wide array of effects
plug-ins; categories include Blur & Sharpen, Channel manipulation, Distortion, Keying,
Perspective, Render, Stylize, Transition, and Audio. Apply an unlimited number of visual
effects to every layer, and animate every control. Save your most frequently used effects
(including keyframes) as Favorites, which you can apply instantly and share with col-
leagues. Expand your effects toolkit even further with numerous third-party plug-ins.
Use the Path Text effect to move text along a Bezier
path and animate text attributes such as tracking.
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