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We are going to turn that back on just for now and then come across here to the next column. Now, this is the label column. You may have noticed that in the timeline, every one of these layers is containing a certain color. So, if we just deselect everything, you can see that the composition in the background has a great reference.

The Photoshop and Illustrator files here actually have sort of the reddy-pink color and the audio has a green color assigned to it. Let us go down here through the label color which you can easily change by just clicking on one of those and picking any one of the preset colors.

So, if I want to change this to lavender. I can do that, just click below here to deselect and you can see that color change. Now, the items that appear here inside this list are also customizable inside your preferences. So, leaving that where it was let us just go back to the same preferences dialog box that you were seeing a little while ago.

Go to preferences and go down and choose label colors, and After Effects will give us the ability to not only change the color of each these labels but also change the name of them as they appear in the timeline.

On top of that, you may wonder why After Effects is automatically assigning certain colors to certain elements here inside the project window and then in the timeline, that is taking control of by the next preference, label defaults down here.

You can see that compositions are set to "no default color", that is why the sharp is gray. But video, audio, still photos, solos, cameras, and lights all have preset colors. If you want to change them permanently, this is the place to do it. But do remember that anytime you can also change them on the fly here in the timeline by simply choosing a different label.

Now, click cancel there because we have not made any changes and then come back down to the timeline. Right next to all to the label item, you also see the layer number. Now, this is very important and it is slightly confusing for people who are coming over from Photoshop or Illustrator in some respects.

What you are actually seeing here the stacking order of the layers is very much normal. The top most layer is the one that is obscuring everything else. Now, the audio does not count in this example because it is sitting on top of video. The two do not actually interact visually.

But Golden Gate is the top most layer that contains pixels and therefore it is hiding everything that is underneath it. Yet the layer numbers always layer from one downwards. So, even if we were to take this layer and duplicate it two or three times. One would still be at the top here and the duplicates would actually number downwards.

That is actually there for a reason especially for working with expressions which will see in the pro series because layers are actually reference by the layer number as well as their layer names. So, there is a couple of important reasons for it working that way.

But as long as you have the same concept of Photoshop or Illustrator in your head that the top most layer is the top most visible layer, everything will still work in the same way. Without in mind then if we do not want the Golden Gate image to be exactly at the front, just like you would in the other programs, simply click it on here on the timeline and drag it down and you will see a dividing line showing where you are actually going to drop it.

We are going to place it between the current layers, six and seven which will now move it behind the titles and the silhouettes but put it on top of the back draft composite. So now, we have rearranged the order, get our base on screen.

What we could also do which is not necessary but sometimes just a bit easier to do deal with. Let us go ahead and take the audio file and drag this down to the very bottom of the timeline. It does not matter where it sits. Sometimes it is better to have out of the way.

Now again, if you might be dealing with a composition that has too many layers, it is not practical to drag these things up or down, especially, if you are goin

We are going to turn that back on just for now and then come across here to the next column. Now, this is the label column. You may have noticed that in the timeline, every one of these layers is containing a certain color. So, if we just deselect everything,... click to read more