IN MY 6-YR LOVE/HATE AFFAIR WITH AFTER EFFECTS and 8-yr love/hate affair with video editing, i think one of the things i’ve heard come up the most is this fear of, or anxiety about, after effects.
people are intimidated by the look of the application, the mechanisms, the graphs, the holy-shit-why-are-there-so-many-options, the what-the-fuck-you-can-code-things-???, and so on and so forth. and u know what? sure, as an application, it’s definitely unique, and the math behind everything can be intimidating.
but in a practical sense? nonono. nooo nono. this thing is baby food. especially if you’re already familiar with photoshop! in fact, i’d argue that it’s easier to learn than photoshop, but i’m biased, because i learned ae first.
so here are three major comparisons between the programs so that u can see that adobe’s beloved behated is really quite similar to photoshop, and that the learning curve is! very not steep! and once you get over the whole after-effects-makes-no-sense frustration, it’s exciting to properly learn things and move onto animation, vfx, and more.
NB: this is not an introductory tutorial to after effects! just pointing out stuff that should make it less intimidating for photoshop users :)
#1. THE INTERFACE
this is photoshop, which, with variations in your workspace, you should be very familiar with. hello!
and this is the default after effects interface. i’ve changed my workspace so much that it doesn’t look like this lol but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll go off this one.
right off the bat, you may be uneasy, and that is fair! where’s the toolbar, where’s the timeline? but there are similarities already!
on photoshop, your tool bar is on the left; on after effects, it’s still on the left, just along the top instead of the side
the timeline is at the bottom
your workspace is in the middle
some of the things you use to edit with are along the right, moreso in ae than in photoshop
now let’s add some footage—one major practical diff is that with photoshop you work on one project, but with ae you have a workspace in which you can make multiple projects. we call ‘em “compositions,” and you can think of them as photoshop files, if that helps.
i went ahead and created a composition, and i imported some footage from race of champions 2022. i also created an adjustment layer, which is probably what photoshop users have the most trepidation with, but we’ll get to that later.
this should look slightly more familiar! you’ve got layers stacking up on the bottom—a white solid layer below the roc 2022 footage is invisible because the video is on top of it, just like how layers work on photoshop. your timestamp is on the left, just like in photoshop, and the timeline is marked in increments, and your playhead works the same as in photoshop. even the way your timeline layers work is the same in that you can slide them left and right to go forward and backward in time.
as far as your interface goes, i hope this shows that it’s really not that different! obvs there are additional things to learn, but knowing photoshop means you're halfway there.
#2. ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
photoshop uses adjustment layers to make changes to the layers beneath, like if you wanted to make a photo brighter or darker, you’d use an adjustment layer. it has a separate feature for effects, which you can apply to individual layers. in a way, it separates adjustment layers from layer effects.
after effects gets rid of the distinction. the adjustment layers feature exists, as illustrated in the screencaps above, but they don’t quite work the same. i think the most apt comparison is that every layer in after effects is a smart object. you can add "adjustments" to the layers themselves, and they stack up the same as smart layers do in photoshop, and they only affect the layer they’re placed on. we don’t really call them adjustments, bc in a practical sense, they’re the same as effects. it’s a levels effect, not a levels adjustment layer.
see: the selected layer is the footage itself. the adjustment layer is empty. and to repeat, the way the effects stack in your effect controls is the same as the way adjustment layers stack in photoshop.
if you wanted to make adjustments to your whole composition (or below a certain layer), that’s when adjustment layers come in handy. below, i used an effect called twitch, and the adjustment layer makes the transition between the two clips look smooth. i could have added twitch to each layer and added a couple other effects to compensate, but the adjustment layer made life easier.
#3. KEYFRAMES
keyframes are like, the fundamental base that makes the house of after effects. it’s like the dirt beneath the house. idk how houses are built. but it’s important and holds everything up that you will ever do on ae, because ae gives users the power over literally everything. luckily, the principle is the same as on photoshop:
and once you’ve got the hang of basic keyframes, then you can play around with fun stuff like the graph editor, keyframe interpolation, etc.
so those are the three big things!
i know a lot of gifmakers stick to photoshop and only use ae for animated text, and that’s valid, like any work on this program makes my ae propagandist heart go doki doki in respect. but there’s also a whole world of vfx at your fingertips!! photoshop is still very powerful, don’t get me wrong, but because after effects is a program designed for time-based media, it offers more (and imo, easier) ways to execute your creative endeavours. (nudges gently. ur gifs.)
so i hope this guide eases some anxieties and demonstrates that ae is nothing to be afraid of! if u have any questions, my ask box is open <3
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