How to Create a New Composition With Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a complicated animation and compositing program that can not easily be learned in a few steps. The best way to learn the program is to start simply, learn the basics and build from there. One of the first things you will do to begin working with the program is create a composition and choose the settings for your composition.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Open the Adobe After Effects program. If you have worked with other Adobe graphics programs you will notice similarities in the way the workspace looks. Typically there is a timeline across the bottom, a project window on the upper left and a Monitor in the middle. You will also see various controls, like Time Controls and Tools.

2. Go to the File menu at the top of your workspace, then New, and New Project. Save you new project before going further.

3. Next, go to the Composition menu at the top of your workspace, and then New Composition. A pop-up window will open in which you can choose your settings.

4. First give your composition a name at the top of the window. Next, under basic settings you can choose a Preset for your output type. If you are new to video and compositing, you will likely want to go with Preset settings. When working with video, the most common is NTSC DV.

5. Next, under Resolution, choose Full. Under that you can choose to set Start Timecode, and the duration for the entire composition, or you can leave them blank and change later. This is the best option if you are not sure how long your composition will be. Click OK and save.