Read my previous post on working with after effects to understand this post on Adobe After Effects Timeline and layers

Adobe After Effects Timeline and Layers

Layers are something which you already know if you have used any adobe popular applications like photoshop or premiere pro. Layers are the elements that make up a composition. Layers in after effects are similar like layers in premiere pro but the only difference is In premiere pro you can have multiple clips in a layer and in adobe after effects you can have only one clip as a source in the layer.

You can create several kinds of layers :

1. Video & audio layers which are based on the footage items you import, such as images, movie files, and audio tracks.
2. Layers which you create within After Effects to perform special functions, such as camera layer, light layer, adjustment layers, and null objects.
3. Solid-color layers which are based on the color that you create within After Effects.
4. Synthetic layers that hold visual elements that you create within After Effects, such as shape layers and text layers.
5. Pre-composition layers, which use compositions as their source footage items, it is similar to nest sequence in adobe premiere pro.

As soon as you drag and drop the files on the timeline they all gets overlap with each other so you have to tell after effects which file to be displayed at when and to do this you can use mouse or by keyboard shortcuts.. using mouse deselect a file and drag the remaining files to the time from where it should display, do this to remaining files also. Now you’ll see overlapping from second image onwards and you’ll find all the files overlapped at the end. This is because the image is placed throughout the composition so we have to trim it using editing techniques by dragging the end handles or by using the keyboard shortcuts. To do it using keyboard shortcut press ctrl shift d for splitting the clip and delete the unwanted portion.