Creating a composition
When you first create a new project, you must create a composition before you can start working with your footage items. When you create a composition without changing settings in the Composition Settings dialog box, the new composition uses the same settings as the previous composition. For information on changing composition settings, see Understanding basic composition settings. Once you have created a composition, you can change its settings at any time. Remember, however, that changing frame size or pixel aspect ratio can affect your final movie, so set these as early in the project as possible. Use the Flowchart View to get a "big picture" perspective of complex projects; see Visualizing organization with Flowchart View. Note: When you set up a new composition, the settings you use become the default settings that will appear the next time you create a composition.
To create a composition: - Choose Composition > New Composition.
- Type a Composition Name.
- Choose a Preset from the menu or specify basic settings as follows. For detailed descriptions of basic settings, see Understanding basic composition settings.
- Specify the frame's Width and Height. As a general rule, frame size and aspect ratio should match your source footage and intended output media.
- Select Lock Aspect Ratio if you want to type a width or height not included in the menu and if you want After Effects to ensure that the composition dimensions conform to the aspect ratio for the current values.
- Choose a Pixel Aspect Ratio from the pop-up menu. This is set automatically if you choose a digital format (D1, D4, D16, or DV) for Preset. See Setting pixel aspect ratio for compositions.
- Specify a Frame Rate in frames per second. See Setting frame rate.
- Choose a Resolution from the pop-up menu. Setting resolution.
- Specify the Start Timecode or Start Frame to determine the time value that will be displayed for the first frame of the composition. This value does not affect rendering. See Setting start timecode or start frame.
- Type a Duration for your composition. Setting duration.
- Click the Advanced tab, specify advanced settings as follows, and then click OK. For detailed descriptions of advanced settings, see Understanding advanced composition settings.
- Use the Anchor control if you want to anchor the layers to a corner or edge of the composition as it is resized. Setting the anchor.
- If desired, specify Shutter Angle and Shutter Phase settings for motion blur. See Adjusting the shutter angle for motion blur.
- If desired, select the Preserve Resolution When Nested option so that the nested composition retains its resolution setting. Select the Preserve Frame Rate When Nested option to lock a composition to a specific frame rate. Setting nesting options.
- For Rendering Plug-In, you may want to specify a third-party plug-in for rendering 3D compositions. Setting the rendering plug-in.
To change a composition's settings: - Choose Composition > Composition Settings.
- Adjust basic settings as explained in Understanding basic composition settings.
- Click the Advanced tab and adjust advanced settings as explained in Understanding advanced composition settings and click OK.
Note: You cannot undo changes that were made before changing the composition settings.
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