If you are already working in After Effects, you can create a new PSD document that matches your composition and project settings by choosing File > New > Adobe Photoshop File.Īnimate and After Effects each include many capabilities that allow you to perform complex compositing of video and graphics. It is often better for you to do something once to the source image in Photoshop than to have After Effects perform the same operation many times per second as it renders each frame for previews or final output.īy creating your new PSD document from the Photoshop New File dialog box with a Film & Video preset, you can start with a document that is set up correctly for a specific video output type. Examples of such preparation include correcting color, scaling, and cropping. It is often a good idea to prepare a still image in Photoshop before importing it into After Effects. When you import a PSD file into After Effects, you can choose whether to import it as a flattened image or as a composition with its layers separate and intact. When importing or exporting a PSD file, After Effects can preserve individual layers, masks, layer styles, and most other attributes. After Effects uses a similar interface, though the breadth and flexibility of its animation features are far greater.Īfter Effects can import and export still images in many formats, but you will usually want to use the native Photoshop PSD format when transferring individual frames or still image sequences between After Effects and Photoshop. The animation and video features in Photoshop include simple keyframe-based animation. If you are applying several paint strokes by hand to get rid of dust, consider using the Photoshop paint tools. If the purpose of applying a paint stroke is to permanently modify a still image, use the Photoshop paint tools. If you want to have complete control of each paint stroke after you’ve applied it, or if you want to animate the paint strokes themselves, use the After Effects paint tools. Paint strokes in After Effects are elements of an effect, each of which can be turned on or off or modified at any time. Paint strokes in Photoshop directly affect the pixels of the layer. In contrast, Photoshop has excellent tools for painting and drawing.ĭeciding which application to use for painting depends on the task.
In this manner, you can remove the microphone from every frame of a shot, without having to paint the microphone out by hand on each frame. For example, you can use the motion tracking features of After Effects to track the motion of a microphone boom, and then automatically apply that same motion to a stroke made with the Clone Stamp tool.
This means that After Effects excels at tasks that can be automated from one frame to another. The strengths of After Effects are in its animation and automation features.