After Effect Slider Control

After Effect Slider Control

As we know our today topic is Slider Control of After Effects Software so we will understand this feature of After Effects software in very simple manner with snap shot of each steps of learning so that we can easily understand it. But before starting our discussion on Slider Control feature of After Effects Software, i think we should know each and every point about After Effects software because after going through major content of After Effects, handling of this software throughout our article became easy task for us. So let me tell you the major points of our article, so that you can get brief knowledge about this article.

These are major points which we will discuss in this article:

• What is After Effects?
• System requirement of After Effects software
• File Format supported by After Effects
• Slider Control in After Effects

So these are four major points of our discussion in this article. Let us now discuss them one by one.

What is After Effects software?

After Effects is mainly used for video editing work by video editing professional but it has wide range of working area some of them are we can make Motion graphics in it, we can animate object or any logos in this software, we can manipulate any video footage as well in this software. You can use this software as additional software with some other graphics designing software as per your requirement.

System Requirement of After Effects Software:

After Effects software was developed by Adobe Inc. in January 1993 as video editing software and today it is a part of Creative Cloud desktop application of Adobe systems. This software is compatible with Windows 10, Mac OS and their later versions. If you want this software on your laptop or on personal computer or on tablet you need these system requirements which are as follows:

For Windows

• Processor required: Multi-core Intel Processor (64 bit)
• Operating system required: Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit) and its later versions
• RAM required: 16 GB minimum required (32 GB recommended)
• Hard disk Space required: 5 GB required (Additional free space required during installation of  software)
• Monitor resolution required: 1280 X 1080 or greater

For Mac OS

• Processor required: Multi-core Intel Processor (64 bit)
• Operating system required: mac OS 10.13 and its later versions
• RAM required: 16 GB minimum required (32 GB recommended)
• Hard disk Space required: 6 GB required (Additional free space required during installation of  software)
• Monitor resolution required: 1440 X 900 or greater

Internet connection required for both for different purposes such as for activation key, for updating the software and many others.

Now after getting knowledge about systems requirement of After Effects software another question come into your mind. ‘What is that? Let me tell you it is ‘which type of files supports in this software. So let us have a look on supported file of this software.

Which type of file format supported by After Effects?

We have number of file format that are supported by After Effects but i will tell you some important file format here in this article for your knowledge. These file format are as follows:

Audio File Formats

MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) formats such as MPEG, MPG, MPE, MPA,M2V, MP2, M2A, M4A, M2T, M2P, MPV, VOB, MOD, AC3, MP4, M4A, M4A.

AIF/AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format): it can be import and export both.

WAV (Waveform) it can also be import and export both.

Image File Formats:

• Al, PS, EPS (adobe illustrator): these can import only in this software.
• PDF (Portable Document Format): It can import only.
• PSD (adobe Photoshop): it can both import and export in this software.
• BMP, DIB, RLE (Bitmap): It can import only in this software.
• JPEG/JPG (Joint Photographic Expert Group): It can both import and export in this software.
• PNG (Portable Network Graphics): It can import and export both in this software.
• TIFF/TIF (Tagged Image File Format): It can both import and export in this software.

These are some file format that supported in this software on Audio file format and Image file format basis.

Now let us move to our main topic of this article that is Slider Control in After Effect.

How to use After Effect Slider Control?

Slider Control is the Combination of some parameters through which you can animate different properties of any object in controlled manner. We will discuss slider control in this article in few simple steps by using an example for our learning. We will also learn about handling of the parameters of slider control feature of After Effect so that we can get best result by this feature.


You can click on this video for After Effects Split clip

But before learning about Slider control i think you should get introduce with the User interface of this software. By User Interface i mean sections of working screen of this software so that you can easily understand the area of this software which will be involve in our learning. So let us have a look on those sections.

At the top of the user screen you will find two ribbons you can call first one as Menu bar and second one as Tool bar next move to below these two ribbons. There the screen is divided into three sections in which the left one is Project Panel with Effects Control panel, middle one is Composition window, and right one is Parameter tab section. Moving to next area of this software which is bottom end there are two other sections that are Layer section at left and at right there is Timeline frame panel. You can make your own working screen as per your requirement by changing the place of these sections.

Now let us have a Composition for our learning. For you composition you can use any of three option. First is, go to Composition Menu at the top of the User screen of this software. Once you click on this menu a list of option will be open in pop up list. Click on ‘New Composition’ option of pop up list.

Or you can go to Project panel at the left side of Composition window and make right click anywhere in the area of Project Panel and click on ‘New Composition’ option of opened list.

Or you can go with ‘Create a new Composition’ button of this Project Panel which is at the lower end of this Panel.

Once you choose any one of above option a dialog box for new composition setting will be open for making settings of your Composition according to your required. After making settings of the composition according to you press Ok button of this setting box.

Now go to tool bar which is at the above Project Panel. Take Text tool from here by click on it.

Now type a text in composition window area and adjust its parameters according to your from the Character tab of this text which is at the right side of composition window in Parameter area of this software.

Now align it at center of composition window by using align tab of parameters area of this software.

If you want video tutorial of this article then you can go with

Now let us apply wiggle expression on position property of this text layer. For applying wiggle expression make click on small stop watch icon of position property by holding Alt button of keyboard and Once you click on it an code of expression of wiggle will come in front of this property in Timeline area like this.

Go this link for After Effects Twixtor or for adding slow motion in video footage 

I will type ‘wiggle (5,5)’ as expression of wiggle in place coded expression of wiggle. Here first value in bracket indicates Frequency of movement of text due to wiggle expression and second value in bracket is Amplitude of movement of text due to wiggle expression. You can choose these values according to you.

Now let us take two Null objects for using Slider Control feature on this text layer. For Null object make right click in anywhere in layer section area of this software. Go to New option of drop down list and click on Null object option in new list.

Repeat these steps for one more Null object.

Now let us rename both of the null object as Amplitude and Frequency because we will use slider control on the amplitude and frequency of wiggle expression.

Now select any one of null object layer and go to Effect Menu of this software and go to Expression Controls option of Effect menu list and then click on Slider control option of Expression Controls.

Or go to parameter section of this software at the right side of composition window and click on Effects & Presets tab of the list. Now search ‘slider control’ in the search box of Effects & Presets option.

Now pick this option from Effects & Presets tab and drop it on Amplitude layer.

Now copy this slider control effect from Amplitude layer by pressing Ctrl + C button of keyboard and paste it on the Frequency layer by pressing Ctrl + V button of keyboard.

Now i will change the name of my text layer so that there i will no confusion occurs. I will name it as Text Layer. You can take any name according to you.

Now i will link the Frequency of the wiggle expression of position property with the slider control of Frequency layer. For linking it just click on Link icon of expression of position property and drag it up to Slider option of Slider Control of Frequency layer.

Now expression of frequency of wiggle will change automatically like this.

Now frequency of this text layer will change with the changing the value of slider option of slider control not according to wiggle expression.

Now let us link Amplitude of wiggle with the slider control of Amplitude layer. You can open slider control option in layer section also. Just click on small arrow icon of Amplitude layer and then click on small arrow icon of Effects and again click on small arrow icon of Slider Control option. Now drag ‘Link’ option of wiggle expression to the Slider option of Slider control.

An expression of amplitude of wiggle will generate same as frequency of wiggle. Now you can handle the amplitude vale of text layer from the slide value of slider control of amplitude.

Now let us animate this text by using Slider control. Make the value of slider of frequency layer as 10.

Now when you play the play head of timeline the position of text will not change because the value of slide of amplitude it 0.

So now animate the value of slide of amplitude of text layer according to you. I will take it as 0 from starting key of timeline line and then increase its value 30 at 2 sec.

Now i will add another key by taking value of slide as 50.

Now place the key frame head a the starting of Timeline and play the animation by pressing space bar from keyboard or you can play by the Preview tab which is at the right side of working window in parameters area of this software.

So these are some simple steps which you can follow for learning Slider control of After Effect software.

              Now you can understand Slider Control by reading this article and analyze its importance in the video editing work. You can increase your graphics skill by having command of these types of features of this software.