After Effect Workshop 5

Keyframing 
Grouping 
Audio
'U' - reveals all animated properties
- moving at constant speed > unnatural movement
- Things don't realistically move in this way, they build momentum
accelerating & decelerating

> dots on motion path represent frames
(acceleration)  < easing in & out >
highlight first keyframe

shape of keyframe -

-positioning of frames is no longer the same along the motion path.

decelerate > ease in to last keyframe
applying ease out and ease in just select | easy ease |

Graph editor.
click the graph editor icon above the timeline
shows the speed of actions in the composition on a graph.
graph editor also allows you to make changes to keyframes

Can go straight to the graph editor to alter speed - No need to use keyframe assistant...
doesn't only apply to position

pendulum...
> double click ellipse tool with a layer selected to create a circular mask.
Rotation...
'Y' activates pan behind tool.
move the anchor point to a position where the top of a pendulum would be. 
edit value graph - edit speed graph

Simplifying complicated comps.
Animating multiple layers keeping them in position relative to each other.
[ establishing parent child relationships...
> allows you to link layers together.
select all layers - change parent to layer you want them to be linked to.
>all move relative
>all rotate around the same anchor point
>all scale as a group
Parent & child
> child layer can move independently but will always be bound to the parent layer
> child layer can still be animated but will always move relative to the position of the parent layer.

layer > transform > auto orient.
this makes the animated element automatically orient itself relative to the path it's on.

Set keyframes to rove across time by right clicking them
> sets position but doesn't effect the speed graph

Nesting compositions
placing compositions inside another
Layer > pre-compose > shift + command + C
Puts all the selected layers into a new composition > simplifies timeline
Changing settings in new composition will automatically update them for the composition it's nested within.

> working in this way means comps don't always have to be PAL D1/DV widescreen square pixel and can be put it at almost any size.

>collapse transformations.
means that it ignores the original composition boundary and all items/layers will stay fully visible.

Audio
Doesn't matter where audio sits in the layers stack...
RAM preview will play the audio (space bar doesn't)
position - volumes etc
when rendering with audio > tick audio output in output module settings.