Image Factory - Stage 3 - Building and Designing with Layers

Section 3 –There are various layer styles within after effects and this section is demonstrating their uses.

Meanings I have learnt from the tutorial:

A solid layer is a blank colour that can be used for various things such as masking, creating matte etc

Layers of footage are vital for composing different pieces of work in one composition.

A composition is just another ensemble of work that has been brought into a different project.

Text layers need to be above any background work, or the other layers will affect it.

An adjustment layer is a layer that affects everything below it.

A shape layer is similar to a solid that has a mask on it with various features such as a stoke.

Blending modes are a form of compositing different blending modes with overlay footage in different ways based on the layers below it. This method applies to Photoshop as well as after effects.

Masks – allow you to cut out areas of a layer . There are different modes in masks such as add subtract and d intersect.

You can also feather masks to create softer edges

The roto brush allows you to rotoscope an object within a clip of footage.

In the example we’ve cut out the woman in the stock footage I have been experimenting with.

Once I create a rotoscope, I can refine it using the built in functions of this built in feature. Examples being feathering, smoothing and choking to test out these features further. I then masked out the woman’s face and used key frames to track it on the moving sunflower as an example of testing out blending modes. Next I masked out a rock and applied the ‘dancing dissolve’ and finally placed it in the corner of the screen.