Learn in this article what After Effects is and what it’s used for and start your path in the world of animation. With this, you can start an empirical business as an entertainer or start a professional career by studying in an online or face-to-face academy. Either way, by learning how to use this software well, you have your way as a designer or editor of original animated videos.
You don’t need a lot of design experience, but you do need a lot of creativity to develop a project from scratch in After Effects. Of course it’s a plus if you handle at least the main programs of the Adobe package. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Adobe After Effects?
It is the video and image animation program that belongs to the Adobe package. In this you can create audiovisual graphic pieces in 2D, 3D and 4D. It is widely used to make edits from the simplest to the most elaborate. Even many pieces of television and cinema have been post-produced with this useful tool.
It is usually used on a par with other software of the firm such as Photoshop and Illustrator, not only because of its compatibility but also because it expands the possibility of incorporating elements into the audiovisual. As well as improving the visual and audio effects that we can commonly access using only After Effects.
This software can be learned to use empirically. Nowadays there are renowned creators who learned After Effects only through tutorials and practicing at home. So if you’re worried about the difficulty of the program, you should know that you have a lot of possibilities. We will delve into this later.
What can you do in After Effects?
Although we’ve clarified what After Effects is, we need to be very clear on what it isn’t. This is not a video editing program in itself, on the contrary, its main function is simply to add special effects to a material that has already been fully edited.
In this way, After Effects can help you with multiple functions such as:
- Create animated characters
- Insert animated characters into an image or video
- Improve or alter the colorization of images
- Retouch images to your heart’s content
- Create 2D, 3D, and 4D animations
- Add cinematic-level audio effects
- Making videos from a sequence of images (stop motion)
- Rotate, enlarge, disappear elements within an image
- Add credits, headbands, and animations to a video
The list could go on and on, we would never end, as every day After Effects includes new tools and new ways of working in the program are discovered. So once you discover their full potential, the sky is the limit to create the most attractive audiovisual works.
How to make a video with Adobe After Effects?
We’d need a whole tutorial to tell you step-by-step how to make a video with Adobe After Effects. Because to make the simplest of animations, you need a little expertise. However, we are going to try to summarize the process and make it as simple and understandable as possible.
To create a project from scratch, you need to do the following:
- Launch After Effects on your PC.
- Create a new artboard using CTRL+N
- The next thing is to save this new composition and this way you can create a file that you can update as you do (in case of any problem, so you don’t lose the progress).
- Start importing the files you’ll be working with in this project (File + Import + Select File + OK).
- If you want, you can create your composition from layers and edit them one by one in the editing option.
- Start dragging elements from the projects tab to the timeline, or to the composition tab, or to the layers tab.
- Transform your layers or elements to 2D and 3D if required.
- Add the animations, effects, and changes you want from the Media option.
- You can see all the effects and presets available in the program in the Effects tab.
- Finish the project and make sure to save it in the format you want it before leaving.
After Effects minimum requirements
To download After Effects or the entire Adobe package you need a good team that supports its requirements. Therefore, if your PC is not completely up to date, it is advisable that you consult the minimum requirements that the firm demands to install on your computer. Here we inform you of the requirements for both Windows and MacOS.
Windows
- Processor: Minimum Intel multicore support for 64-bit.
- Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)
- RAM: 16 GB minimum, 32 GB is optimal.
- GPU: 2 GB de VRAM.
- Drivers: NVIDIA 451.77 or later.
- Hard drive: 5 GB or more available at the time of installation.
- Screen resolution: 1280 x 1080 or higher
- Active internet service
MacOS
- Processor: Intel 64-bit multicore.
- Operating system: MacOS 10.13 or later.
- RAM: 16 GB minimum, 32 GB is ideal.
- GPU: 2 GB de VRAM.
- Drivers: Update to NVIDIA 451.77 or later.
- Hard disk space: 6 GB of available space at the time of installation is recommended.
- Screen resolution: 1440 x 900 or more.
Download After Effects
When it comes to downloading After Effects the options are limited, if you are going to buy the license it is advisable to do it from the official Adobe website. In this you can access a 7-day free trial, after this time you can cancel the subscription and it will not be charged from the payment method you have entered.
You also have the option of contracting the membership only for the time in which you are going to use it to create your project since the website gives you the option to pay a monthly amount and you can renew it for as long as you want. In case you can’t afford it, you still have the option to download After Effects portable 32-bit for free, at this link.