Understanding basic composition settings

When you create a new composition, it appears as a new item in the Project window. Before you set up a new composition, determine the specifications of the final output. These specifications influence the composition settings you choose for frame size, duration, frame rate, and pixel aspect ratio. Four factors determine composition settings:

• The type of output you are producing
• The specifications of the footage you will be working with
• The requirements of any systems that will process the output that After Effects renders
• The final delivery medium of the output

For best results, specify the composition settings at the beginning of your design process. After Effects bases certain calculations on the composition settings, so changing settings such as frame size and pixel aspect ratio late in the project can affect your final output. (However, you can override some composition settings when rendering. For example, you might change the composition-frame size to a smaller image size when rendering.)

For more information on basic composition settings, see "Planning your project" on page 18, and "Time basics" on page 20.

Related Subtopics:

Undoing composition settings
Setting frame size
Saving custom preset values
Setting pixel aspect ratio for compositions
Setting frame rate
Setting resolution
Adjusting the appearance of low-resolution compositions
Setting start timecode or start frame
Setting duration