- Getting in Gear: An After Effects 5 Tutorial
- Part Two: Grouping Layers Using Parenting
- Part Three: Exporting a Movie as an SWF File
Part Two: Grouping Layers Using Parenting
13. Group the layers using the Parenting feature. Under the Parent panel of the Timeline window, drag the Parent Pickwhip of each layer to the profile.ai layer. Alternatively, you can choose the profile.ai layer in the Parent pull-down menu of each layer. Leave the profile.ai layer's Parent menu set to None. The spatial Transform properties (anchor point, position, scale, and rotation) of the "child" layers are linked to the profile.ai layer, the "parent" layer. See pages 489-491 for more about Parenting.
Figure 13 Group the layers using the Parenting feature.
14. Set the parent layer's anchor point, which acts as the center of scale and position changes. Select the profile.ai layer. In the Tools, select the Pan Behind tool. In the Gearhead comp window, drag the profile.ai layer's anchor point property to align with the center of the large gear.
Figure 14 Set the parent layer's anchor point using the Pan Behind tool to drag it into place in the Gearhead comp window.
15. Scale all the layers by scaling the parent layer. With the profile.ai layer selected, press S to reveal the Scale property and Shift-P to reveal the Position property. Set the current time to 7 seconds into the project, and click the Stopwatch icon next to the Scale and Position properties. This sets the first Scale and Position keyframes at the current settings. Set the current time to 9 seconds and the Scale property to 400%, then drag the position so that the rabbit is centered in the Composition window. Because all the layers are vector-based, scaling them beyond 100% does not adversely affect their resolution.
Figure 15 Scale all the layers by scaling the parent layer.
16. Add keyframes. Set the current time to 12 seconds, and check the boxes in the Keyframe Navigator to create interpolated keyframes for the profile layer's Position and Scale. Because they are the last keyframes, they have the same values as the previous keyframes.
Figure 16 Check the boxes in the Keyframe Navigator to create interpolated keyframes for the profile layer.
17. Finish keyframing. Set the current time to 14 seconds. Select the first keyframes for position and scale, and press Command-C (Mac) or Control-C (Windows). Then press Command-V (Mac) or Control-V (Windows) to paste the copied keyframes to the current time.
Figure 17 Use the Paste command to paste copied keyframes to the current time.
18. Trim the composition. With the current time set to 14 seconds, press N to set the end of the Work Area. Choose Composition > Trim Comp to Work Area. The composition duration and the layers it contains are set to 14 seconds. The composition's image at this frame--including the frame of the rabbit's seven-frame running cycle--match the image at the beginning of the composition. This way, the composition can be looped seamlessly.
Figure 18 Trim the composition so that it loops seamlessly.