AE vs Combustion workflow

[Chris Smith]

Hi Steve,

In general, welcome to AE. I know how you feel. When I learned DS, I was on the DS forum asking constantly how to do this and that like AE does. They kept saying, “DS is not AE you have to think differently”. I fought but eventually listened and learned they were right.

Opposite to your preferences, I am always confused in Combustion and I hate using the Autokey function and prefer AE’s stopwatch method. I know in Combustion you have this option as well, but it does seem to be harder to deal with than AE leading many to use autokey. I don’t care for autokey because I invariably leave keys on many parameters I don’t want keyed and and forget to turn it off. This leaves me spending more time cleaning up my mess than just clicking the stop watch on the things i want moving.

So unless I’m mistaken, I don’t believe AE has an autokey function. But I guess my point is, is to try the stopwatch method. Once you get around faster, the stopwatch will be second nature. It’s a half autokey anyways because once it’s enabled any changes will add keys.

There are many short cuts to get to certain common parameters and sections. Here are a few:

r = rotaion
p = position
s = scale
t = opacity (think of Transparency)
mm = masks
u = uber key (this twirls down only parameters that have keys on them. You will use this a LOT)

To twirl down multiples, hold down shift. So if you want to show scale, position and rotaion. hit S then hold shift then hit P then R.

You will get up to speed very quick.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com