After Effects On the Spot[c] Time-Saving Tips and Shortcuts from the Pros

Did you know you can create a Photoshop layered menu file without ever opening Photoshop? After Effects is a strong design tool as well as an animation application. You can create your elements in AE, and export an animated splash track and a layered Photoshop file.

1. Create a new 720x480 comp in AE.

2. Create new solid layers and apply effects.

3. To use circular buttons , choose Effect>Render>Circle.

4. To use square buttons, make your solids 100x100 and scale down to the appropriate size .

5. Name your layers, and make sure your normal button states are the bottommost layers in the timeline, with selected above them and activated states above all other states.

6. Type your text. If your text will be over a button state, make sure the text is above all the states in the timeline.

7. Animate your elements and export the animation.

8. Go to the last frame of your animation, and choose Composition>Save Frame as>Photoshop Layers.

9. In your DVD authoring application, set up the track as the first play item and make it jump to the layered menu when finished.