Using Presets

Trapcode Form installs its own Animation Presets. A 'preset' contains parameter values, keyframes and expression for Form that creates a specific effect. You can look at a preset as a premade particle animation. All presets that ship with the product are collected in the Preset Gallery.

The presets were designed for use with frame sizes around 640x480 up to PAL D1 and with frame rates around 20-40 fps. We've also included HD versions of all the new Form 2 presets that were designed for 1920x1080. If your settings differ a lot from these, you may need to make adjustments in parameters like Particle Size, Velocity and Motion Blur's Shutter Angle.

Before you apply a preset

Presets are always applied with reference to the current frame. A Form preset should always be applied at the first frame of the layer.

Before selecting a preset, it is important to make sure that the Time Marker is at the beginning of the work area, like this:

Selecting a preset

To select a preset, use the Animation Presets popup menu above the Effect controls. When a preset is selected, its effect will automatically appear in the Composition Window. Its control settings will show in the Effects menu and in the Timeline. To see the presets that ship with Form 2, go to our Preset Gallery.

Clearing the preset

There are two ways to clear the preset. Both methods will do a full reset of all Particular parameters. One method is to click the Reset button in the Effects palette.

The other method is to choose the preset 't2_0-Fullreset', which is the first preset shown in the Animation Presets list. This preset will set the Particular controls to true defaults as if the plug-in had just been applied to a layer.

Saving your own presets

You can also save your own presets by selecting 'Save Selection as Animation Preset...' at the bottom of the menu. This is a standard After Effects function.

The presets that ship with Form are named with a prefix 'tf2_' for the new Trapcode Form 2, and 'tf_' for presets carried over from Trapcode Form 1. In order to avoid confusion, we suggest NOT using that prefix for your own presets.

At left, saving an animation preset. At right, two new custom presets.