After Effects: Editing an effect without changing the parent layer

September 7, 2011 3:01 PM

Adobe After Effects question: I have a video clip I've imported into AE that I've applied an advanced lightning effect to - the thing is I want to cut the effect out before the clip ends. The clip is 5 seconds and I want to cut the lightning out at 3 seconds.

The effect has been applied to the video clip since there's an option to composite it on the original video. However, I can't edit the lightning effect's opacity because there's no opacity toggle for it.

Is there a way to toggle opacity or visibility on an effect applied to a layer or is there a way to create a separate transparent layer that I can put the lightning effect on? If I use a solid as a layer then it covers up the video clip.

I'm using AE CS 5.5.

posted by clockworkjoe to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

I think the "adjustment layer" is made for this sort of thing.

Failing that, maybe use a black solid with "add" or "lighten" as a blending mode.
posted by RobotHero at 3:29 PM on September 7, 2011

If you can't find a way to do this, a workaround would just be to duplicate the layer, remove the effect, and cut or fade between the two.
posted by yellowbinder at 3:42 PM on September 7, 2011

Best answer: Simply create an Adjustment layer, put the effect on that, and keyframe the opacity of that layer - and learn about "hold" keyframes. If you were to go the black solid layer with effect route, the blending mode you'd want to use would be Screen.
posted by dbiedny at 4:50 PM on September 7, 2011