SETTING UP THE PROJECT

• First, create a folder on your desktop or drive and name it "GRAP307_Project1_Lastname".
• Now open After Effects and select a CREATE PROJECT.
• Save this project into your folder with the name "Project1_Lastname".
• Now create a new composition, setting the size (preset) at HD/HDTV 720 29.97. This will give you a canvas size of 1280 X 720.
• Make the background white.
• Now follow the steps in the video for creating a vignette and starting to add type layers or see the instructions below.

CREATING A VIGNETTE

• Go to LAYER/NEW/SOLID. This will put a black rectangle over the entire stage.
• Go to the shape tool and change to the Ellipse tool (click small arrow and choose).
• Now double click the ellipse tool icon and the rectangle will turn into an oval.
• Now, in the shape layer on the timeline, open the dropdown for MASK and click the INVERTED box for MASK 1.
• Click open the MASK 1
• Now open the TRANSFORM options for the mask layer and:
• Crank up the feathering.
• Crank down the opacity so that the vignette is only faintly seen.

IMPORTING SOUND

• Import sound and any pre-made images.
• Drag sound to composition bin (lower left).
• Go to audio layer (open to see wav form – type LL)
• To scrub, hold down COMMAND and drag playhead.
• To preview, click the PLAY button in the preview panel (right side of screen, above the panels).
• Type out words for your first line on the stage (reset text tool by hitting the arrow tool, then going back to the text tool). Do this with each word so that each word is its OWN LAYER.

ADDING WORDS

• Type out words for your first line on the stage (reset text tool by hitting the arrow tool, then going back to the text tool). Do this with each word so that each word is its OWN LAYER.
• Now arrange and style the words as you would like them to appear in their completed state.
• Line up text (words) with the audio by scrubbing and cropping the layers (just drag the layers into position).
• Precompose all the layers from the first sentence so that it becomes a single layer on the timeline.
• To precompose, select all the layers for the sentence and go to LAYER/PRECOMPOSE (from the menu bar at the top).
• Give the precomp a name like “LINE 1”.
• Say OKAY.

WORKING WITHIN THE PRECOMPOSITION

• Now all the layers will be condensed to one layer—a new composition, actually. To work on the individual layers within it, just click the layer name.
• Now, open the first precomposition by clicking on its name in the timeline.
• Time to design: choose font, point sizes, layout, adjust timing or add preset animation.
• Apply motion blur by clicking on the icon at the top of timeline that looks like three overlapping circles.
• You can now also animated all the words at once by applying motion and transform keyframes to the precomp layer itself.

Work through all the lines in this manner.