Using predefined workspaces

Customizing workspaces

Rendering and exporting your composition

Optimizing performance in After Effects

About OpenGL previews

OpenGL provides previews that require less rendering time than other playback modes. It provides fast screen previewing of a composition without degrading resolution, which makes it a desirable preview option for many situations.

When OpenGL does not support a feature, it simply creates a preview without using that feature. For example, if your layers contain shadows and your OpenGL hardware does not support shadows, the preview will not contain shadows. You can view information about your OpenGL card, if you have one, as well as enable or disable OpenGL, by choosing Edit > Preferences > Previews (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Previews (Mac OS). See After Effects Help for more information about using OpenGL.

How you configure After Effects and your computer determines how quickly After Effects renders projects. Complex compositions can require a large amount of memory to render, and the rendered movies can take a large amount of disk space to store. Refer to “Improve Performance” in After Effects Help for tips that can help you configure your system, After Effects preferences, and your projects for better performance.

When you’re finished with your masterpiece—as you are now—you can render and export it at the quality settings you choose, and create movies in the formats that you specify. You will learn more about exporting compositions in subsequent lessons, especially in Lesson 14, “Rendering and Outputting.”

In the course of this project, you may have resized or repositioned some panels, or opened new ones. As you modify a workspace, After Effects saves those modifications, so the next time you open the project, the most recent version of a workspace is used. However, you can choose to restore the original workspace at any time by choosing Window > Workspace > Reset “Standard.” Alternatively, if you find yourself frequently using panels that aren’t part of the Standard workspace, or if you like to resize or group panels for different types of projects, you can save time by customizing the workspace to suit your needs. You can save any workspace configuration, or use any of the preset workspaces that come with After Effects. These predefined workspaces are suitable for different types of workflows, such as animation or effects work.

Take a minute to explore the predefined workspaces in After Effects.

1 If you closed the Lesson01_Finished.aep project, open it—or any other project— to explore the workspaces.

2 Choose Window > Workspace > Animation. After Effects opens the following panels at the right side of the application window: Info and Audio (grouped), Preview, Smoother, Wiggler, Motion Sketch, and Effects & Presets.

You can also change workspaces using the Workspace menu at the top of the window.

3 Choose Paint from the Workspace menu at the top of the application window, next to the Search Help box. The Paint and Brushes panels open. The Composition panel is replaced by the Layer panel, for easy access to the tools and controls you need to paint in your compositions.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-20