EDUCBA

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Free Tutorials
  • Free Courses
  • Certification Courses
  • 280+ Courses All in One Bundle
  • Login
Home Design Design Tutorials After Effects Tutorial Cut Clips in After Effects
Secondary Sidebar
After Effects Tutorial
  • Effects
    • Crop in After Effects
    • Color Grading in After Effects
    • Text Effects in After Effects
    • After Effects Templates
    • After Effects Bounce Expression
    • Time Remapping After Effects
    • After Effects Gradient
    • After Effect Font
    • After Effects Duplicate Composition
    • After Effects Expressions List
    • After Effects Green Screen
    • After Effects Loop Composition
    • Drop Shadow in After Effects
    • Background in After Effects
    • Blur in After Effects
    • After Effects Freeze Frame
    • After Effects Move Anchor Point
    • After effects?Quicktime
    • Text in After Effects
    • Motion Blur in After Effects
    • Mask in After Effects
    • Color Correction in After Effects
    • Blending Modes in After Effects
    • Track Matte in After Effects
    • Transparent Background in After Effects
    • Slow Motion in After Effects
    • Animation in After Effects
    • Text Animation in After Effects
    • Logo Animation in After Effects
    • 2D After Effects Animation
    • 3D Effects in After Effects
    • 3D Text in After Effects
    • After Effects 3D Objects
    • Shape Layers in After Effects
    • Export in After Effects
    • Morphing in After Effects
    • Twitch in After Effects
    • Snowfall in After Effects
    • Rain in After Effects
    • Masking Layers in After Effects
    • Group Layers in After Effects
    • Glitch Effect in After Effects
    • Ripple Effect in After Effects
    • Composition in After Effects
    • After Effects Transitions
    • Typography in After Effects
    • Slider Control After Effects
    • Motion Graphics in After Effects
    • Wiggle in After Effects
    • After Effects Portable
    • Wiggle Expression in After Effects
    • Keylight in After Effects
    • Rotoscoping in After Effects
    • After Effects Render
    • After Effects Expressions
    • After Effects Presets
    • Duik After Effects
    • After Effects Split Clip
    • Trapcode in After Effects
    • Plexus After Effects
    • Logo Reveal After Effects
    • Mocha in After Effects
    • Twixtor in After Effects
    • Lens Flare in After Effects
    • After Effects Particles
    • After Effects Timeline
    • After Effects Tracking
    • Camera Tracking in After Effects
    • After Effects Repeater
    • After Effects Cartoon
    • After Effects Loop Expression
    • After Effects?Optical Flares
    • Glow in After Effects
    • After Effects GIF
    • After Effects Motion Tracking
    • After Effect Kinetic Typography
    • Cut Clips in After Effects
    • Lower third after effect
    • Masking Layers in Adobe After Effects
  • Basic
    • What is After Effects
    • After Effects Versions
    • After Effects Software
    • After Effects Shortcuts
    • Adobe After Effects Plugins
    • How to Use After Effects
  • After Effects Tools
    • After Effects Tools
    • After Effect Hologram
    • Pen Tool in After Effects
    • Puppet Tool in After Effects
    • KeyFrames in After Effects
    • Adding Keyframes in After Effects

Related Courses

After Effects Training Course

Adobe Premiere Pro Training Course

Design Training Course

Cut Clips in After Effects

Cut Clips in After Effects

Introduction to Cut Clips in After Effects

Adobe After Effects is an animation and video editing software and, in this article, we are going to learn how to cut clips. For this purpose, we will first see how to work with the timeline area then we will look at multiple ways to cut the clips along with some handy shortcuts to make an easy workflow.

Steps for Cut Clips in After Effects

Here are the following steps as mentioned below.

Step #1

Let us first familiarize ourselves with the interface before starting to get a better understanding. At the top is the menu bar like File, Edit, etc. and each has its own submenu. Next, just below it, we have tool panel and their properties. On the left side, there is a project panel that consists of the project files and an effects control panel which shows the effects applied on a particular layer. Then there is the composition panel which shows the preview of the animation or video. At the top right, we have various layout presets which will arrange according to the type of work. We can even create our own custom layout. At the right, there are various sections used to edit the video. At the bottom, there is layers and a timeline panel which is used to add media and add animation keyframes.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 1

Start Your Free Design Course

3D animation, modelling, simulation, game development & others

Step #2

Let us start by first importing a video file. You can double click in the Project panel or press Ctrl + I or go to File -> Import -> File…

Cut Clips in After Effects output 2

Step #3

Now to create a comp from the video right-click and select New Comp from selection or drag the video into the layers panel.

All in One Design Bundle(280+ Courses, 100+ projects)
AutoCADHoudiniAdobe Premiere ProPhotoshop
SolidworksVFX Visual EffectsCorelDrawUnreal Engine
Price
View Courses
280+ Online Courses | 100+ projects | 2000+ Hours | Verifiable Certificates | Lifetime Access
4.6 (64,828 ratings)

Cut Clips in After Effects output 3

Step #4

There are multiple ways to cut the video lets start by bringing the current-time indicator on the 2-second mark and first we want to start our video at 2 seconds to we will take our mouse pointer to the start of the video clip which is indicated by the notch on the top of the layer. If the mouse pointer changes to double-headed horizontal arrows then it means that we can clip the video. So, click and drag till the current-time indicator.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 4

Step #5

To make this easy rather than eyeballing the position of the current time indicator you can hold shift while dragging which will snap the clip start to the current-time indicator.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 5

Step #6

In a similar manner, we can clip the video from the end by dragging the handle up until 11 seconds. Notice that now the notch does not appear in the start and the end of the layer indicates that the layer has been clipped.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 6

Step #7

Let’s undo those steps a couple of times till you get the original video. For this, you can press Ctrl + Z or if you have taken so many steps then you can go to History which mass undo many steps.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 7

Step #8

Again, we will do the same thing but this time we will use shortcuts which will make the workflow lot faster. To start the clip from the 2 seconds mark we press Alt + [ which will snap clip start to the current-time indicator.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 8

Step #9

To end the clip at the 11 seconds mark we press Alt + ] which will snap the clip end to the current time indicator.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 9

Step #10

This was about clipping the ends now what if we want to remove the parts from the middle of the clip, let say we want to remove the part between 5 and 6 seconds, for this there a 2 methods let us start with the first for which bring the current-time indicator to the 5 seconds mark.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 10

Step #11

Now duplicate the current layer by pressing Ctrl + D or go to Edit -> Duplicate

Cut Clips in After Effects output 11

Step #12

Since we now know the shortcuts we can use it to our advantage so press Alt + ] on the bottom layer to cut the right part of the clip and make sure that the current time indicator is on 5 seconds mark. Then select the top layer. One handy tip to move layers is by pressing Ctrl + ] to bring layer up and Ctrl + [ to bring layer down.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 12

Step #13

Then press Alt + [ to remove the portion from the left side of the clip and make sure that the current time indicator is on 6 seconds mark.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 13

Step #14

Bring the top layer so that it meets the bottom layer and when you play you can notice an abrupt transition which we can change by adding a transition from the adjustment layer.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 14

Step #15

Right-click on the layers panel to add an adjustment layer.

Cut Clips in After Effects output 15

Step #16

Drag a Block Dissolve transition on the adjustment layer.

output 16

Step #17

Bring the time indicator between 4 and 5 seconds and add a keyframe to the Block dissolve for transition completion and also set the opacity keyframe and set it to 0 by pressing T.

output 17

Step #18

Press U to see the properties with keyframes. At 5 seconds set the transition complete to 100 and opacity to 100.

output 18

Step #19

Bring the current-time indicator between 5 and 6 seconds and set the transition completion and opacity to 0.

output 19

Step #20

Drag select all keyframes and press F9 which will add some easing.

output 20

Step #21

Another method to cut the clips is to split layer, suppose we do not want the clip of the bottom layer from 4 to 5 seconds then we can bring the current-time indicator at the 4 seconds mark then we can go to Edit -> Split Layer or press Ctrl + Shift + D.

output 21

Step #22

We get a new layer from 4 to 5 seconds which we can delete.

output 22

Step #23

Then drag the bottom layer to line up with the top video layer and this will also preserve the transitions.

output 23

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned not only how to cut the clips in After Effects in multiple ways be also learned how to do transitions by using adjustment layers to hide some weird cuts. Along with that, we have also learned a few shortcuts to make a better workflow.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Cut Clips in After Effects. Here we discuss how to cut the clips in After Effects in multiple ways through the following steps. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

  1. After Effects Timeline
  2. Trapcode in After Effects
  3. After Effects Render
  4. Keylight in After Effects
Popular Course in this category
After Effects Training (3 Courses, 3+ Projects)
  3 Online Courses |  3 Hands-on Projects |  25+ Hours |  Verifiable Certificate of Completion
4.5
Price

View Course

Related Courses

Adobe Premiere Pro Tutorial (4 Courses, 7+ Projects)4.9
All in One Design Bundle (280+ Courses, 100+ projects)4.8
0 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Primary Sidebar
Footer
About Us
  • Blog
  • Who is EDUCBA?
  • Sign Up
  • Live Classes
  • Corporate Training
  • Certificate from Top Institutions
  • Contact Us
  • Verifiable Certificate
  • Reviews
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  •  
Apps
  • iPhone & iPad
  • Android
Resources
  • Free Courses
  • Photoshop Tutorial
  • 3ds Max Tutorial
  • All Tutorials
Certification Courses
  • All Courses
  • Design Course - All in One Bundle
  • Photoshop Course
  • Maya Course
  • Unreal Engine Course
  • Unity Course
  • DaVinci Resolve Course
  • Pro Tools Course

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2022 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA
Free Design Course

Banner Creation, Object Selection, Sky Replacement, Advance Filters & others

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA
Free Design Course

3D animation, modelling, simulation, game development & others

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Let’s Get Started

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to our Privacy Policy

Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more