After Effects pros live and die by their Photoshop files. A clean PSD makes animation faster; a messy one turns into bloated comps, slow previews, and painful revisions. This session shows you how to design and prep Photoshop documents specifically for motion—then keep them flexible in After Effects using Adobe Dynamic Link so changes stay editable and turnaround stays fast. You’ll learn production-ready strategies for organizing layers and Smart Objects, managing raw photos efficiently through Camera Raw, and building type and layer styles that translate well to animation. We’ll also tackle the fixes that save you in comp—lens and perspective correction, believable depth and focus for backdrops and keying, reusable color via LUTs, and fast cleanup/plate extension with content-aware tools. What you’ll learn: Dynamic Link basics: What it is, when it helps, and when you’re better off rendering.
PSD prep for animation: Layer naming, grouping, Smart Objects, alignment, and color-coding for clean imports.
Raw workflows that scale: DNG conversion, Camera Raw development, sidecars, and embedding raw files in Smart Objects.
Type that behaves in motion: Point vs. paragraph text, advanced alignment, composer choices, anti-aliasing, and spelling tools.
Layer styles with purpose: Build depth, texture, and reusable looks—plus saving style libraries for consistency.
Lens + perspective fixes: Upright/keystone, distortion, wide-angle issues, and chromatic aberration cleanup before you comp.
LUTs for consistent color: Create and export LUTs in Photoshop, then apply them cleanly in After Effects.
Realistic focus + depth: Lens Blur/Blur Gallery, depth mattes, and animating depth blur in AE.
Content-aware cleanup: Fast plate repair, background extensions, and reshaping when you need a quick save.