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Photo Montage in After Effects

Adobe After effects is one of the most powerful video editing programs available today. It has a host of features which allows the user to create almost any postwork video effect he chooses. After Effects can be used to create a video photo montage. This sort of montage might be used during the opening credits of a television show to show the main characters, or it might be used in a dramatic way to show the changes in a single person over time. But there are several important aspects to creating such a montage in After Effects.

    Scanning Images

  1. Before creating an After Effects montage, you need to gather and organize the images you want to use. If these images are in print format, scan them in using a scanner set to a high resolution (600 or so). This will help to reduce the moire noise pattern effect that you sometimes get with scanned in images (especially printed magazine images). The images are saved to a folder for later use.

    2. Transferring Images

  2. If the images are in digital format, the CD, Flash drive or UBS cord of the camcorder is connected to the computer, and the files are transferred to a folder on the computer.

    3. Importing Files

  3. To create a montage in After Effects, you need to get the images into the scene. This is done by opening the program and clicking on “File.” From the listed options, select “Import Multiple Files.” In the dialog box that pops up, browse to the “Montage” folder and select one of the files you want to import. It will be placed in the collections bin in the upper left for use, but the dialog will remain open, and you can continue selecting files.

    4. Importing PSD Files

  4. If one of the files is a Photoshop document with multiple layers, another dialog box will open asking if you want to import with the layers merged or choose a layer. When you have finished importing all the images you need, you close the dialog by hitting “Done.”

    5. Using the Images

  5. The images in the bin are dragged one by one to the “Composition” viewer. With each one that is brought in, select its layer in the “Timeline” panel and click to open the layer ad to access the “Scale” function. Reduce the size of the image to what you want it to be for the montage. Repeat this process for each of the images you place in the montage.
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