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Using Pre-Compositions to Group Layers

Lesson 24 from: Adobe After Effects Fundamentals

Philip Ebiner

Using Pre-Compositions to Group Layers

Lesson 24 from: Adobe After Effects Fundamentals

Philip Ebiner

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Lesson Info

24. Using Pre-Compositions to Group Layers

Lessons

Class Trailer

Chapter 1: Introduction

1

Class Updates & My Favorite CC 2020 Updates

06:22

Chapter 2: After Effects Basics

2

Understand the After Effects Workspace

05:39
3

Starting a New Composition

08:15
4

CC 2018 Update - Starting a New Composition from Footage

01:55
5

Adding Media to Your Project and the Timeline

05:08
6

Using the Basic After Effects Tools

10:20
7

Create a Perfect Circle, Alignment, and Shape Colors

03:04
8

Working in the Timeline

10:59
9

Layer Properties

08:57
10

Quiz: After Effects Basics

Chapter 3: Animating with Keyframes

11

Animating in After Effects

07:35
12

Position, Scale, and Rotation Animations

05:17
13

Tips to Make Your Animations Look More Nautral

04:21
14

Using the Graph Editor

05:32
15

Challenge - Bouncing Ball

01:01
16

Solution - Bouncing Ball

13:00
17

Quiz: Animating with Keyframes

Chapter 4: Shapes and Solid Layers

18

Working with Solid Layers and the Ken Burns Effects

07:07
19

Working with Shape Layers, Strokes, and Paths

06:24
20

Adding Layer Styles like Drop Shadow, Bevel, and Gradients

03:44
21

Shape Effects - Trim Path Animations, Wiggle, and Zig Zag

05:54
22

Quiz: Shapes and Solid Layers

Chapter 5: Important After Effects Skills

23

Track Matte Animations - Make Layers Appear and Disappear

08:37
24

Using Pre-Compositions to Group Layers

05:34
25

Easily Reverse Complicated Animations

02:14
26

Playing with Time

05:54
27

Blend Modes

06:05
28

Stabilize Shaky Footage

04:04
29

CC 2018 Update - Previewing and Favoriting Fonts

00:46
30

CC 2019 Update - Responsive Design Time

03:36
31

CC 2019 Content Aware Fill

03:55
32

CC 2019 Create Motion Graphic Templates

08:37
33

Quiz: Important After Effects Skills

Chapter 6: Motion Graphics Projects

34

Intro to Motion Graphics Projects

00:53
35

Clean Lower Third

09:22
36

Logo Reveal Animation Bumper

13:25
37

Colorful Transition

16:59
38

Text with Mask Path Animation

10:05
39

Text Bubble Animation

13:39
40

Weather App 1

16:41
41

Weather App 2

08:21
42

Weather App 3

06:59
43

Quiz: Motion Graphics Projects

Chapter 7: Flat Animation Challenge

44

Flat Animation Challenge

02:47
45

Phil Designs his Flat Animation Scene

01:23
46

Animating Fireworks with the Repeater Effect

15:02

Chapter 8: Flat Animation Challenge

47

Removing Green Screen Background

06:46
48

Adding a Background that Matches the Foreground

07:55
49

Adding Motion to a Still Image with the Puppet Tool

06:26
50

Adding Movement with the Ripple Effect

06:07
51

Quiz: Flat Animation Challenge

Chapter 9: Green Screen (Chromakeying)

52

Intro to 3D

10:04
53

Swinging 3D Text Animation

12:11
54

Build Out Your 3D Composition

05:47
55

Animating Our 3D Scene

07:38
56

Create Stars in After Effects

05:11
57

Quiz: Green Screen (Chromakeying)

Chapter 10: 3D Animations and the Camera Tool

58

Using the Rotoscope Tool

06:55
59

Cleaning Up Your Edges

07:21
60

Finishing Our Rotobrush Animation

07:33
61

Quiz: 3D Animations and the Camera Tool

Chapter 11: Rotoscoping

62

Easy Screen Replacement with Masks

09:56
63

Replacing a Screen Version 2

13:49
64

Screen Replacement with Mocha

07:13
65

CC 2019 Update - Native Mocha AE Plugin

05:08
66

Quiz: Rotoscoping

Chapter 12: Screen Replacements

67

Using the Puppet Pin Tool

04:33
68

Animating Your Puppet Pins

03:04
69

Animated Blinking Eyes

08:21
70

Adding Perspective with Animated Clouds

07:10
71

CC 2018 Update - Advanced Puppet Pin Tool

02:08
72

Quiz: Screen Replacements

Chapter 13: Puppet Tool Animations

73

Applying Text Animation Presets

05:59
74

Create a Page Turn Effect with CC Page Turn

10:05
75

Radial and Linear Wipes

03:20
76

Color Correction in After Effects

03:33
77

CC 2019 Update - Selective Color Adjustments

03:25
78

Quiz: Puppet Tool Animations

Chapter 14: Motion Tracking

79

Motion Tracking Basics

09:51
80

Tracking Text and Visual Effects to Video Clip

06:21
81

Tracking Rotation and Scale

11:33
82

Adding Details to Our Text

04:04
83

Quiz: Motion Tracking

Chapter 15: Character Animations

84

Intro to Character Animations

01:31
85

Design Your Character

14:32
86

Rigging Your Character

02:50
87

Animating Our Character

09:55
88

Adding the Animated Background

09:12
89

Adding Details to Character Movement

06:46
90

Adding the Paper Cut Out Look

05:29
91

Quiz: Character Animations

Chapter 16: Exporting from After Effects

92

Exporting an H264 File from After Effects

07:03
93

Exporting from After Effects with a Transparent Background

04:03
94

Exporting from After Effects through Adobe Media Encoder

04:40
95

CC 2018 Update - Exporting an Animated GIF from Adobe Media Encoder

02:14
96

Create an Animated GIF from After Effects CC 2017

07:03

Chapter 17: After Effects Workflow & Tips

97

Audio Tips for After Effects

02:19
98

Working with Premiere Pro

05:54
99

Quiz: After Effects Workflow & Tips

Chapter 18: Expressions

100

Expressions Basics

07:24
101

Animate a Flickering Light with Expressions

17:35
102

Quiz: Expressions

Chapter 19: Conclusion

103

Conclusion

00:44

Final Quiz

104

Final Quiz

Lesson Info

Using Pre-Compositions to Group Layers

in this lesson, we're going to learn about pre compositions which is basically a way to group multiple layers together. To see this in action. Go to your documents and go find the drone shot that's available in the downloadable project files. So that's under the video folder, Bring that into after effects and then let's drag that into a new composition. So now we have this composition that is just this drone shot. Then let me just trim it to this Area right around nine seconds when the drone is flying over the ocean or the hill and we're seeing the reveal of the ocean behind. So about eight seconds or so. And I'll go up to composition trim comp to work area. So now we have this 9 2nd clip. Ok, so that's ready. And the reason why I did that is because what if I create a title like this that has multiple layers, shape layers, a track matte layer, a text layer. And I want to be able to put all these layers onto another clip. Well, I could actually go in. I can select all of these layers b...

y clicking one of them and then shift clicking the top one or by control or command clicking the individual layers and copying them. Command C going to my new composition and pasting command V So now I have all these texts. But look what happens when I copied and paste them. The order is all off. So I need to move the track matte above Hello, the line above everything. And now it works. But if I want to move these things around, if I want to make everything smaller, say I want this text to just be a little smaller or maybe I want to add a drop shadow to everything instead of going in and right clicking, going to layer styles and drop shadow for each layer. There's an easier way to do this. Going to delete all of those. So I'll go back to my track matte and what I can do is pre compose this, select the layers you want to put in one group, right click and choose pre compose. Now it's going to pop up with a window that asks you to name your pre composition. I'll call this Hello title and then just click OK. What happened in this composition that we're working on the track matte is those three layers became one and you'll notice that the hello title became its separate composition in the project panel. I can open it up by double clicking it there or just double clicking this prick um player here in the timeline. So here we have those three layers that we pre comped, it doesn't include the background. Now, if I go to my drone shot, I can take this pre comp the Hello title, drag it into my project and see here we have the Hello text up here now. Hey, I can say oh well I want it all to be a little bit lower and smaller so I can move it down here where the hill is. So you can see it better. I can bring up the scale of this entire pre composition, scale it down and say, okay, maybe that's good, but let's try it up here. Oh, I actually like it up there but now I want to drop shadow. So here I can right click go to layer style, add a drop shadow and now we can see that there's the drop shadow applied to everything the line and the text. So I'll go in, I'll adjust the drop shadow. This is just sort of a more stylistic thing for me with drop shadows. I typically like to increase the spread and the size and decrease the opacity. So it's a little more subtle. I don't like those big hard drop shadows. So something like that is typically what I like. That might be a little too harsh, but you can change it according to whatever you prefer. So that's basically what a pre comp is. Well run into this issue or this strategy of using pre comps and future real world projects. So just keep that in mind. One other thing to note is that the keyboard shortcut for pre composing is command shift C or on a pc. Control shift C. And you can actually pre computer pre comps. So here I can take this drone shot and the Hello title and now I can command shift c. Pre comp it I'll call this drone with title. Okay so this is getting pretty meta but I have this drone with meta title and now I can change this pre comp so I can make it smaller. I can duplicate it. Command D can move it around, duplicated again, move it around. So now I have these three shots, three little screens because it's all in one pre comp. So I'm going to undo this. So we get back to this point here where we have the Hello title on the drone shot and in the next lesson, what I'm going to show you is how to easily and quickly reverse this animation without having to go back in and key frame all of the different individual layers.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Practice Files

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