Begining a Project

Creating a new Project

To creating a new project. Go to the File menu and select File > New >New Project. You are then presented with the Composition Settings window. The Composition Settings window allows you to name your composition and adjust its properties. For our project set the frame size to 320 x 240, the frame rate to 30 fps and the duration to 0:00:30:00 (thirty seconds). Click the OK button to accept the settings. You have now created a new composition.

Importing Media into the Project

After Effects allows you to work with many types of digital media. This section will cover the basics of getting the most commonly used media into After Effects for compositing.

Adter Effects can import many audio formats, most still image formats, and movie files (.mov and .avi files).

To import files into After Effects, go to the File menu and select File > Import > Import File.

Moving Media to the Timeline

The easiest way to put media into sequence is to simply drag them from the Project window to the Timeline. You can then move the clips around in the Timeline to organize them as you wish.