- First you start by creating a new project
- File=>New or click the
"New Project" window in the start window (I recommend going into Preferences - After Effects=>Preferences=>General uncheck show Start Screen at startup because it takes a half hour to load)
- At this point you don't even have a blank canvas. Get into the habit of saving the project into it's own folder because you will need all your asset files in one place
- File=>Save as
- Normally you would then create a new composition, but for now we will import footage first
- Double-click the Project panel or File=>Import
- To trim footage, double-click the video file (or audio) which opens in the footage panel (Same area as the Composition panel
- To create trims, click and drag (Scrub) the blue time indicator and click the { key to create the footage start and the } key to create the end point (this does not fully cut the clip)
- To see the actual results click and drag the footage in the Project Panel to the create New Comp button at the bottom of the panel.
- To see the actual results click and drag the footage in the Project Panel to the create New Comp button at the bottom of the panel.
- In the Project Panel you can select the footage and press the Cmd/Ctrl D keys to duplicate the footage without the trim
- The Composition panel and the Footage Panel are in the same location and each can be accessed from the top
- File=>New or click the
"New Project" window in the start window (I recommend going into Preferences - After Effects=>Preferences=>General uncheck show Start Screen at startup because it takes a half hour to load)