(lighthearted music)
- Hello and welcome to the 32nd video
in this Beginner's guide to Adobe After Effects.
In this tutorial, I'm going to demonstrate
how you can prepare for a new project and set up
a new document in After Effects.
In the last video, I demonstrated the plan
and design process I go through when I start
a video presentation.
Now, once I have spent time planning and designing
my video presentation, I will then start
to bring it all to life in After Effects.
In this video, we are going to start by reviewing the things
we will need to keep in mind before and after
we begin a After Effect project.
So, in this video, we will be covering the following topics,
making a project folder and setting up a new
After Effects document.
After this video, we will be ready to proceed
and start building our video presentation.
So before we jump into After Effects,
I want to quickly talk about preparation.
In my experience, I have created lots of small projects
in After Effects and it's always helped me to be organized.
When working with a project in After Effects,
it's as important to be organized out of After Effects
as it is in After Effects.
A typical After Effects project will include a wide variety
of media so it helps to be organized with the media
before you bring it into After Effects.
To solve this, I always start with a project folder.
This is where I organize and keep all my media elements
before I place them into After Effects.
This way, I know exactly where everything is,
so it's not scattered about on my computer.
So let's get into it.
So here is my project folder.
And as you start to use After Effects,
I recommend you have something similar.
This is a blank template and every time I start
a new After Effects project, I will duplicate
this to have a fresh copy for a new project.
So let's take a look at this.
So with the PROJECT FOLDER open,
click into the S3 - CREATE A PROJECT folder,
and to folder 32 - Preparation,
and open the BLANK PROJECT folder and you will see
my BLANK PROJECT template folder.
So this folder contains four main folders,
1 - PLAN & DESIGN, 2 - WORK, 3 - ASSETS and 4 - EXPORTS.
So all my PLAN & DESIGN files
will go into the first folder.
This will be all the documents we may create
before we start in After Effects as featured
in the previous episode.
Now, as we work in After Effects, we will save our documents
into the WORK folder as there are often various versions.
All media we use for the project will go
into the ASSETS folder, and later when we export,
we will place the exported video into the EXPORTS folder.
So in the PLAN & DESIGN folder, I have a number of folders.
We have a folder for the PLANNING,
this could be where I keep a brief and my planning sheets.
I have a folder where I keep my storyboard sketches,
and a folder where I will keep my design files
such as my Photoshop documents.
In the ASSETS folder, I have a number of folders
separating the media types.
Here, we have AUDIO, IMAGES, TYPEFACES and VIDEO.
And into these, I will place the specific types of media.
In the image folder, again, I have a number of folders
though this time, separating out the specific media types.
Here, I have AI for Illustrator vector documents,
a JPEG folder for flat images, a PNG folder
for images with alpha channels and a PS folder
for Photoshop compositions and graphics.
So before starting a project, if I have any media
to start, I will place them all
into these appropriate folders.
So this is a blank template
I will always start a new project with.
What I'm going to do now is copy and paste
my template folder onto the desktop.
So I have a brand new folder ready for my project
and I know where it is.
And I'll rename this folder to LONDON TOP 5.
Now, you can either copy my folder structure,
make your own or simply copy and paste my template folder.
Whatever you do, make sure you know
where your project folder is for later.
Okay, so once we have the project folder ready,
it's time to set up a document in After Effects.
So I'll open up After Effects and begin by coming up
to File, New and click New Project.
Upon click, we will be presented with a blank interface
ready to start.
Now, the first thing I always do when I start
a fresh new project is set up my folder structure
over in the Project panel.
So, the idea here is to try and match the folder structure
in the project folder.
Again, so we know where everything is.
So I'll begin by clicking the new folder button
at the bottom of the Project panel
and I'll name this to ASSETS.
With the folder selected, I'll click back
on the new folder button at the bottom of the Project panel
and I'll name this folder, IMAGES.
With the folder selected, I'll click back
on the new folder button at the bottom of the Project panel
and I'll name this folder, JPEG.
This time, I'll click back on the IMAGES folder
and add a new folder and I'll name this folder, PNG.
I'll click back on the IMAGES folder and add a new folder
and I'll name this folder, VECTORS.
Again, I'll click back on the IMAGES folder
and add a new folder and I'll name this folder, PS COMPS.
So next, I'll click back on the ASSETS folder
and add a new folder and I'll name this folder, VIDEO.
Again, I'll click back on the ASSETS folder
and add a new folder and I'll name this folder, AUDIO.
So to finish off, I'll click off the ASSETS folder
and add a new folder and I'll name this folder, COMPS.
With the folder selected, I'll add a new folder
and I'll name this folder, PRE-COMPS.
So when naming this folder, I'll make sure I place
a hyphen at the start as this ensures the folder
will always stay at the top as I add more content
into this folder.
So I'll select the COMPS and the PRE-COMPS folder,
click on the colored square and change the color to Red.
On this occasion, I'll click and drag the color box
column header and carefully drag
before the folder names like so.
Next, I'll select all the ASSETS folders
and set this to a yellow color.
So now, we have a nice, neat folder structure
ready to manage media content.
This is going to make everything super organized
and make our workflow in After Effects much easier.
So, one last thing I'm going to do here is come up
to File and scroll down to Project Settings.
Now, upon click, a menu box will open.
So here, I'll come and click the second tab
from the left, Time Display Style.
Now, for this, I'm going to make sure that for Timecode,
Footage Start Time is set to zero.
So I'll click on the dropdown and make sure Timecode
is set to zero.
With this set, I'll click OK.
So now, come up to File and click Save.
Navigate to your project folder, click into the WORK folder
and in here, save the new document.
Name it, LONDON TOP 5 and click Save.
So now, we have a new project ready to start
the video presentation.
In the next video, we are going to start
with the first section of the video presentation.
We are going to look at how to create the first section
and animating type and graphic element.
So see you in the next video.
(lighthearted music)