• ref: http://www.adobe.com/sea/products/aftereffects/features.html
  • cc2017: c4d 3D text, real-time footage play without cache, faster GPU accelerated fx
  • cc2015: c4d R17 live link, non-stop preview, face tracking, fx with in-layer mask
  • cc2014: hi-dpi screen support, cineware 2.0 w. c4d r16, keying
  • cc 12: mask tracker, GPU optimize, media browser, c4d integration, warp stablizer
  • cs6: 3d camera track, extruded text and shape in ray trace, ai shape layer, rolling shutter fix, better mocha
  • cs5: warp stabilizer, mocha v2
  • cs4: timeline search, mocha
  • cs3: puppet tool, per-character 3d text animation

• How to change AE shortcut: in Preference Panel > General Tab > bottom “Reveal Preference in Explorer” button:
  • in the pop folder window, you will see “Adobe After Effects xxx.0 Shortcuts.txt”
  • edit text file to change shortcut
  • example

    	"ExecuteScript" = "(Ctrl+Shift+Alt+X)"

panel operation

viewport operation

Layer operation

timeline operation

wip: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/keyboard-shortcuts-reference.html

Method 1: use AE built-in track tool

1. select the footage requiring stablize
2. open track panel, choose stablize, check transform, rotation, scale (if all needed)
3. poition the track points, and click the “play button” sign to track forward
4. after finished, click the bottom “Stablize” button
5. final use after getting a so-called “point-lock-down” version footage
   • if you want to re-animate the camera movement,
     1. parent the footage to a null object, and animate the null accordingly
   • if you want to smooth the camera movement,
     1. copy footage's anchor point keyframe to position, and select position attribute
     2. open “Smoother” panel, apply a certain degree of smoothing to it

Method 2: use Mocha

ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq59Ua8THws

1. planar tracking in Mocha, export as tranformation information, copy
2. in AE, select the footage, paste the motion
3. then, finished stablize, do the same as method 1 for re-animation

General workflow: PS + Mocha → AfterEffect General Patch: AE → PS → AE

ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLnvwUqABG4

• select the composition in project panel, then click File > Script > Scale Composition.jsx to open scale tool to help you auto set each layer and the comp itself.
• Note, if there is keyframe on scale property for some layers, you may need to fix them manually, like nested composition.

Screen Effect

• cc ball method:
  • ref: http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2014/09/pixel-screen-experiment/

Shatter Effect

• shatter method:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd_gbUNjjn8
• cc pixel polly method:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67H_7IC08-8

• ref:
  • http://aenhancers.com/
  • http://www.adobe.com/devnet/aftereffects.html
  • http://download.macromedia.com/pub/developer/aftereffects/scripting/After-Effects-CS6-Scripting-Guide.pdf

• UI Script in AE is actually better supported than Photoshop, since Photoshop, you can only script modal dialog (block action until close), but AE you can script dockable panel (in term of just javascript)
  • in Photoshop, the best you can do is create Action button in Action Panel to launch your script file

• Script file like jsx, jsxbin can be run from File > Script > Run Script File in any file folder location
• Script file in After Effect application folder > Script will be shown in File > Script menu
• Script file with UI will only be dockable panel (if written as so) when place in After Effect application folder > Script > ScriptUI folder; otherwise, it will not be dockable but just a dialog floating around

• If you can't put script file in Script folder or ScriptUI folder due to admin rights in C drive (like in a some office computer), then you can copy the whole AfterEffect application folder to D drive. and launch the AfterFX.exe from there, and put script there. It will runs fine, since the support files and library still there in some folder at C drive. (as the main AE components are distributed in Common User Folder and Application Folder); like how those portable versions of the application are made in same concepts

• 2D_null layer's position set to 3D_null

  thisComp.layer("3D_null").toComp([0,0,0]); 

• CPU performance compare: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-After-Effects-CC-2015-3-CPU-Comparison-847/

• To create a 3d emitter,
  1. create a light layer (which is 3D point), which named as “Emitter” (which required as particular's searching naming convention)
  2. in Particular layer's effect option, choose Emitter type as “Lights”

• use x,z slider to drive isometric movement

  slideX = effect("x")("Slider");
  slideZ = effect("z")("Slider");
  a=30/180*3.141592;
  [slideX*Math.cos(a)-slideZ*Math.cos(a),-slideX*Math.sin(a)-slideZ*Math.sin(a)]

• HAP encoder for ame: https://github.com/disguise-one/hap-encoder-adobe-cc/blob/master/doc/user_guide/README.md
  • extra : hap for unity: https://github.com/keijiro/KlakHap
• hap player: vlc