After effects

[Paul]

Ok i bit the bullet and got at great cost the masters collection ( i got a good deal via a friend who works at the store)
Loving all the features there in ,so many to look and learn I was playing around in after effects last night, and i got stuck when it came to mixing two different videos as one, i found and played around with the effects settings but when i went to put some text in i had no idea where i was i got lost then confused and ended up just closing the program without saving anything.

 

[Hoogle]

Not sure if your just making a statement or asking how to put 2 videos into a composition with text overlaying it. create your composition if you want it for youtube then I recomend 1280 x 720. import your video and put it in your timeline making sure your frame indicator line is at the place you want the video to start. You will see a triangle next to the video click that which will bring up transform controls which enables you to position it scale it opacity etc also with these transformations you can set key frames so it will animate at certain points ie setting a keyframe at scale of 1% moving along 50 frames setting key frame and putting scale to 100% will cause the video to zoom to size. Import your 2nd video scale and transform it to size or right click it > transform > fit to comp etc if you want it full screen. Then select your text tool I assume your not into the animation of text yet but wherever your red indicator is on the time line that is where your text will be visible from. After effects is an amazing program it can be good for basic editing or used for more advanced editing but remember it is called after effects as in adding special effects which is ram intensive so if you are not really adding special effects then learn to do your actual video editing e mixing videos together with audio in Premiere as that has a live viewer and you dont have to wait for it to render as you apply changes you see it there and then. but best sites for learning after effects are VIDEO COPILOT | After Effects Tutorials, Plug-ins and Stock Footage for Post Production Professionals and Aetuts+ | Adobe After Effects tutorials from beginner to advanced. and a complimentary software upgrade as you have cash to splash would be Adobe Lightroom and also I think is £3000 but definately worth it is cinema 4d especially if you want to get into more than whatever you do now in photoshop as cinema 4d will let you import directly into photoshop and after effects they run very well with each other. and with master collection light room and cinema 4d I guarentee you will still be learning it all in 5 + years so it will keep you busy.

 

[Paul]

Yeah thanks H, i was asking the question because i was just having a quick spin around the rooms so to speak, it's massive in there lol. I just started messing around with a home video of the kids by the pool and realised there was all sorts of effects etc to import/overlay etc, but just couldn't for the life of me get them to work in any order really. Trying to run before i can walk again lol. Thanks for reply and links.

 

[Hoogle]

After effects is a huge program home videos etc I honestly would stick to premiere for rearranging videos into 1 and then once you have your basic video layout import it into after effects for finishing touches. Also an easy trick until you figure out how to use effects properly is the control+ shift + D which lets you split your video into different layers on the time line each timpe you press it soif you split your video 10 times it will still play seemlessly however it gets you to apply 10 different effects at different times without them not working together if you had not split the video track. You can pretty much do in after effects what you can do in photoshop yes I am meaning in general you can even smudge and liquify on video layers mask out parts etc and with the ability to import psds animate to key frames you will soon be adding charlie sheen caricatures over the top of videos that will move like the character in the video clip.

 

[Paul]

Ohhhhhh this sounds like fun.
Thanks again H i will be playing around in premier for now as you advised, just walking around looking and saying hi really to all my new friends lol.