Digital Tutors - Creating Robust After Effects Compositions in Photoshop

In this series of tutorials, we'll talk about the steps you'll be taking to create a robust After Effects composition in Photoshop. We'll start by building a simple composition in Photoshop using a photograph and a text layer that we'll add layer styles to.

Then we'll import our file into After Effects as a composition where we'll learn about the different properties and layer styles that we can adjust and animate. Next we'll build a complex composition from scratch using Photoshop. We'll go over the different methods of creating detailed layers while keeping in mind the final goal of having layers we can animate later on.

We'll finish by importing our Photoshop document as a composition inside After Effects and we'll add animations to the various layers in our composition to result in a really cool motion graphic.

1. Introduction and project overview

2. Using Photoshop to turn a photograph into a simple After Effects composition

3. Importing a Photoshop document as a composition into After Effects

4. Building a complex After Effects composition from scratch using Photoshop

5. Creating bolts for our door in Photoshop

6. Creating scratches and blemishes for our door in Photoshop

7. Building the background for our After Effects composition in Photoshop

8. Importing our complex Photoshop document into After Effects

9. Finishing up our scene