

This means that in After Effects, each individual media object (video clip, audio clip, still image, etc.) occupies its own track. However, one difference between After Effects and NLEs is that After Effects is layer-oriented, and NLEs are generally track-oriented.

For example, with a picture of a space ship and a picture of a star background, After Effects Templates could be used to place the ship in front of the background and animate it to move across the stars.Įach picture or movie is layered on a timeline, in a similar way to a Non-Linear Editing System (NLE). After Effects is often described as the "Photoshop of video", because its flexibility allows compositors to alter video in any way they see fit, as Photoshop does for images.Īlthough After Effects can create images of its own, it is generally used to composite material from other sources to make moving graphics (also known as motion graphics). Properties such as position and opacity can be controlled independently for each layer, and each layer can have effects applied. After Effects uses a system of layers organized on a timeline to create composites from still images and motion footage, such as video files.
