User Guide

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Chapter 8: Applying Effects
he power of After Effects lies in its ability to employ and change effects over time.
After Effects includes a variety of effects that you can apply to any layer. An effect
can add a special visual or audio characteristic or provide an unusual feature. For
example, effects can alter the exposure or color of footage, manipulate sound, distort
images, add artistic or lighting effects, animate credits and titles, or create an unusual
transition.
All effects are stored in the Plug-ins folder inside the After Effects folder. You can use third-
party effects that are not provided by Adobe. You can add a single new effect or an entire
folder of new effects to the Plug-ins folder. Whenever you launch After Effects, it searches
this folder and its subfolders for all installed effects and adds them to the Effect menu.
Note: The Adobe After Effects Production Bundle provides additional effects and advanced
controls. For more information on the After Effects Production Bundle, visit the Adobe Web site.
Learning about specific effects
All effects included in After Effects are listed and described in online Help. You can print
any Help topic at any time.
For detailed information about an effect’s controls, and specific procedures on certain
effects, see the After Effects product section on Adobe’s Web site.
Working with effects
When you apply an effect to a layer, the Effect Controls window opens; the effect is listed
there. Each layer to which you apply effects appears on its own tab in the Effect Controls
window. The effect is also listed in the Effects section under the layer name in the Timeline
window. If you apply additional effects to the layer, they are listed under the first effect in
the Timeline window. Effects are rendered in order from top to bottom in this list. You
change the order in which effects are rendered by dragging the effect name to a new
position in the list.
The Effect Controls window contains a variety of controls that modify the properties of an
effect, including sliders, options, color swatches, effect points, and angles.
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UG.book Page 269 Wednesday, February 21, 2001 12:05 PM