CreativeCOW "Basics of After Effects" Tutorial


Basics of Nesting in After Effects
Ben Unguren Ben Unguren,
Provo, Utah, USA
©2003 by Ben Unguren and CreativeCow.net. All rights are reserved.

Article Focus:
In this tutorial, Ben Unguren gives AE newbies a simple introduction to the concept of nesting. He assumes you have an understanding of what keyframes, layers and compositions are. This is in the Basics of After Effects Series.

 
 
 
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  This tutorial is intended to be a simple introduction to the concept of nesting. I am assuming you have an understanding of what keyframes, layers, and compositions are.


here is a sample of what we are going to make (428 KB)

   
WHAT IS NESTING?

"When creating an elaborate composition, you may find it easier to organize the layers that make up the composition by using a technique called nesting--putting one or more compositions into another composition. You can create many levels of nesting."

-After Effects Online Help, "Nesting a Composition"
UNDERSTANDING THE PROJECT
               For our project, while we are "zooming in" on Europe, we will fade in country borders, highlight France, and have the word "FRANCE" appear. The "zooming" trick is achieved by animating the scale attribute.
               The difficulty of this move is matching the motion of all the elements while the scaling takes place. Timing the scale and position of the various layers while they are all moving would be extremely frustrating work. However, thanks to nesting, we can do this animation in a jiffy and without much headache at all.
DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES
 
click here to download the files for this project (192KB)
 
DO THE BASIC NESTING
  • Open the    file that you just downloaded and unstuffed.

  • Examine all the layers in the BIG EUROPE COMP composition.

  • Make a new Composition (Composition New Composition...)

  • Name your new comp France, choose the Medium, 320x240 preset, change the Frame Rate to 15 Frames per second, and set your duration to about 10 seconds:



  • From the Project Window, drag the BIG EUROPE COMP composition into the France composition Time Layout Window (this is known as nesting):


    you are nesting the BIG EUROPE COMP composition in the France composition

  • In the France composition, animate the BIG EUROPE COMP layer's position, rotation, and scale (scale it from around 60% to 100%) to "move the camera in" on France. Make the move last about three seconds:

(196 KB)
The BIG EUROPE COMP is nested in the France comp. Instead of animating each layer in the BIG EUROPE COMP composition, we only need to animate the nested BIG EUROPE COMP layer.
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copyright © 2003, ben unguren