After Effects Session 2

Key Frames 
Layer Properties 

Key board shortcuts
P = reveals position property 
A = Anchor point property
R = Rotation
S = Scale 
T = Opacity 
O = It takes the time marker to the out point of the current layer
I = In point 
U = Reveals all animated properties of a layer
Hold down shift to add additional properties.  

Click a layer and hold command to select multiple layers. 

RAM preview: playback 
Hold Alt: Either first key frame or the last. Relative positions are remained but you can make all the layers quicker or slower depending on what you would like. 

Interpolation = When working with position. 

Tool Palette
8th Tool from the left = pen tool
Convert Vertex tool = to create straight lines

Photoshop: 

Open up Photoshop
Presets: Film and Video
Size: PAL D1/DV Widescreen Square Pixel (same as After Effects) 
Background Contents: filled with pixels - White/Black or transparent
Inside both guidelines: title safe zone. Keep all text within the 2 rectangles. 
Within the first rectangle: Action safe zone. No action happening outside. 

Saving:Photoshop/JPEG/ TIFF
Quality: The best 
To preserve transparency save as a photoshop file
and the layers check box is checked 

Back onto After Effects: 
File - Import - File - images 
Drag into composition menu 
When importing the transparent document look on the Import As menu. Import As - Footage. 

Finder - Users - Shared - assets  
always working in pixels 
height - 576
image - canvas size

can work with any size image 
make it the largest size that it will be. So when you make it smaller it has no loss of quality.

negative rotation = clockwise
positive rotation = anti clockwise 

Save all your images in a folder before beginning a project so that they are all together. 
File - Dependancies - collect files 
It will make copies of everything so that it makes it easy to bring everything together. Useful when moving to one computer to another.