Transform Tools Basics in After Effects

Looking to get started with Adobe After Effects? Then you'll want to watch this tutoral from Noble Desktop, where we cover the most essential basic tools in AE!

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Setup

1. Locate the object's name in the layer stack underneath the main Composition window.
2. Click the small arrow next to the object's name to toggle open the Transform properties.
3. Again, click the small arrow next to the word Transform to open up the Position, Anchor Point, and Rotation properties. When using the following tools, note the changes in the numbers next to each property.

Select Tool

1. Locate and click on the arrow in the top left corner of the toolbar. This icon is the Select tool.
2. Alternatively, hit V on the keyboard to activate the Select tool.
3. Click and drag on the object in the Composition window.
4. Note the change in the numbers next to the Position property. The pair of numbers denote the x and y coordinates.

Rotation Tool

1. Click on the circular arrow in the toolbar. This icon is the Rotation tool. The shortcut key is W.
2. Click and drag side to side on the object to Rotate it.
3. Note the change in numbers next to the Rotation property. The first number is how many revolutions the object has gone through, and the second denotes the angle.

Pan Behind Tool

1. Click the rectangle icon next to the Rotation tool in the toolbar. This icon is the Pan Behind tool, which controls anchor points. The shortcut key is Y.
2. Click on the anchor point within the object, which appears circular with lines coming out of it.
3. Drag the anchor point around the object.
4. Rotate the object. Note how the shape now pivots around the modified Anchor Point tool.

Video Transcription

Hey there. One, we're going to be using the basic transform tools in Adobe after effects. So that means that you select rotate and pan behind tool. That just means those clicking and using each of these tools up here seeing what they do. And I also mentioned the keyboard shortcuts for each. These are important to learn because these three tools are some of the most foundational skills.

You'll need an after effect. You're basically using these guys for everything. And as for external assets, really no external assets here. You can just do this with a project at home. Anything you have, we're going to be doing a tutorial on shapes and coming up and I have one of the works on text, so stay tuned to see both those up on this channel.

So say were given an object like the circle here and we want to move it around. So I'm going to select it. I'm going to click on it and I'm going to go down here to my layer, toggle it, open, toggle up and transform, and you'll see a bunch of options here. But don't be intimidated. We're focusing on three position anchor point and rotation.

In fact, I'm going to do something to knead in the substance easier for you guys to focus on what I'm going to show you. So now that you know how to find those options, I've just need ended up using a couple of shortcuts. So I want you to focus on the numbers next to each of these options. Again, anchor point position rotation.

And as we use the transform tools, these properties, these numbers are going to reflect those changes. So the select tool, which I already have activated here basically is what it sounds like. It selects things. You'll find out up here on the toolbar, this arrow, this arrow over here and hotkey is V, so I can grab by clicking and holding and I can drag it around my screen.

It's lagging a bit. Sorry about that, but take a look down here at position as I'm doing this so you can see that the position of my object is changing as I drag it around the screen. By the way, for those familiar with the grid system, the origin point of the grid of after effects is over here. That's zero zero.

So as I move it up close over here, you can see the numbers are starting to head towards zero. And the anchor point over here, the symbol and the middle, that's what determines the position and rotation and all these other properties of the object to the project window itself. So I'll show you what I mean. I'm going to squish this down a bit.

This is this part is not necessary. Those parts aren't necessary. But I'm doing it because I want you to see when I rotate it how it changes. So Rotation tool, I can click over here. The hotkey for that is W which makes no sense. Maybe you can think of it as a wheel and as I click and drag from side to side.

Sorry about that. I can rotate my object now. It does have a bit of a shearing effect, you know, that can be adjusted, but that's how you rotate an object. And like before, take a look down here, you can see those numbers are changing. The first number over here is how many rotations has it gone through? So while it may not look like it changed at all, in fact, if I were to animate this, it would rotate six times.

Now the second number is what angle is that? You see, just like that. Now, the pan behind tool. So like before I mentioned that this thing is the anchor point tool. So again, that determines the relation of this object to the composition window itself, which might be roughly an accurate way to describe it. But I'm just using that for purposes of this demonstration.

So over here this is the pan behind tool. I can click and drag on the anchor point. By the way, the hockey for this is why and once I've done that, let's say I want to rotate it, check it out, it rotates from that point. If I want to move it, move from that point. By the way, you can see I'm also manually changing the numbers down here.

You can type them in or you can click and drag on either of these values and that will change it. So yeah, that's the three basic transform tools. And as you work in After Effects, you're going to find yourself using these tools all the time. In fact, you use them so often you're going to end up not even thinking about it.

So yeah, don't be daunted, just focus on these three to start with. Now this has been Tziporah Zions from Noble Desktop.