Moving to Combustion 2 from After Effects, Part 3

When last we visited switching to Combustion 2 from After Effects, I had just finished explaining how to bring all of your native Photoshop files into Combustion with almost as much flexibility as After Effects itself gives you. That's all fine and good and what-not, but you may be wondering just what the mass of charcoal and nonstandard (to Mac and Windows users, anyway) interface elements that make up the Combustion interface can even do now that you've managed to get footage into it. However, once you get past the obvious difference in appearances between the two programs, you'll find that learning the Combustion interface is more an extension of a language you already know rather than learning something new from scratch.

Of course, with programs as complex and far-reaching as Combustion and After Effects, I could conceivably spend years delving into every minute difference between the two, so in the following few installments of our ongoing series I'm going to concentrate on a more general overview of where things are in the Combustion interface.

The big picture

For those used to the lush green climes of After Effects (fig. 1, left), Combustion might as well be the surface of the Moon (fig. 1, right). Everything's dark gray, the buttons and other widgets don't look at all "normal" (regardless of whether you're in the Mac or Windows camp), and fughettabout the open/save/import dialog (fig. 2). But you'll get over the shock very quickly. What may initially look like a mess is actually one of the more streamlined and user-friendly interfaces ever designed in the history of mankind. OK, so that last sentence might be a bit overstated, but I have to keep you interested, right? Let's go around the horn here and examine C2's major interface elements and how to approach them from an After Effects perspective.

Figure 1: The usual suspects: After Effects (left) and Combustion (right) make up our lineup.

Figure 2: Combustion's Open dialog. I'm not even going to cover it today; it's just here to shock you.

In General...

If you're new to Combustion, it might help to compare the interface, however strange-looking at first, to a suite of products you may already be familiar with: Macromedia's MX line (the Windows versions, anyway). The comparison might be a bit of a stretch, but there are some similarities between C2 and MX:

1. By default, both C2 and MX (in this case, Freehand MX) present a single window with various docked palettes (fig. 3).
2. Both programs arrange the palettes via tabs (fig. 4), although Combustion is admittedly less flexible than MX in this regard.
3. Both programs also let you tear off palettes and arrange them as you like (fig. 5). MX exhibits this behavior by default, while Combustion makes you explicitly turn on this feature in the Monitors preference panel (fig. 6). Incidentally, this same panel is also where you tell Combustion where to put the various palettes in a multiple monitor setup.

Figure 3: It might help to compare Combustion's interface (left) to one of Macromedia's MX products (right).

Figure 4: Combustion's (left) vs. Freehand MX's (right) tabs.

Figure 5: Combustion (left) and Freehand MX (right) let you tear off tabs into their own windows.

Figure 6: You've got to tell Combustion you want to tear off the palettes in the Monitor Preference box by pressing the "On" button.

At least in my case, being used to both the standard Adobe interface and the Macromedia MX interface (and working concurrently in the two environments) helped ease my transition tremendously to Combustion, so it may serve you well initially to draw upon whatever MX knowledge you have to help develop your understanding of how Combustion works. And with that, as Kermit once said, "Moving right along, Fozzie." Let's get into some specific After Effects interface features and how they translate to Combustion.

Comp windows

Composition windows are collectively known as the Viewport in Combustion, and the best way to get you acclimated in the Viewport, as well as the other interface elements I'm going to dive into, is to show you where things are generally in Combustion and if any major differences come to mind for you to watch out for.

Where is it?

The Comp window/Viewport in either program has many subtle levels, not unlike Peter Venkman's laundry system. Let's examine a few of them.

Multiple views. Like most recent Adobe products, After Effects has a workspace preset menu, accessible either from the Window menu or by right-clicking in the Comp window (fig. 7, left), which you can use to activate multiple views of one or more comps. Combustion also provides this feature in the form of a button located in the navigation controls menu right below the Viewport (fig. 7, right). You're limited to the four presets Discreet gives you, however.

Figure 7

Flowchart. Both programs offer a flowchart view, which Combustion calls the Schematic. Whereas in AE you would click the flowchart button located at the top right of the Comp window (fig. 8, left), the easiest way to switch the active viewport the Schematic view in C2 is either by activating the Schematic button located next to the multiple view button (fig. 8, right) or by pressing the F12 key. Combustion's Schematic view is a tad more flexible than After Effects' flowchart view, but they are remarkably similar.

Figure 8

Zoom/resolution controls. Where After Effects has its zoom and resolution controls built into the bottom of the Comp window itself (fig. 9, left), Combustion provides these functions in different areas of the interface. The zoom controls reside in the built-in palette where we met our friends the multiple view and toggle Schematic buttons earlier (fig. 9, center), while the resolution menu resides below the Viewport on the right-hand part of the screen (fig. 9, right). Combustion again gets a slight nod in terms of flexibility with the addition of the Home and Pan buttons to further control precise viewing, but we're still in pretty similar territory between the two programs.

Figure 9

Safe Zones. The difference here is between clicking a button in AE (fig. 10, left), as opposed to selecting from the Window menu in C2 (fig. 10, right). Other than that, no biggee. You get identical little action- and title-safe lines in either case.

Figure 10

Main differences

You've probably noticed that the Comp window/Viewport won't throw you for too much of a loop if you're making the switch from AE to C2, but there are a few key points of differentiation that you might either love or loathe depending on your perspective.

Persistent information. Personally, I like how Combustion gives you a quick overview of whatever it is you're looking at in the Viewport (fig. 11), going beyond what you can simply glance at in After Effects.

Figure 11: The Viewport window always gives you a text-based overview of what you're looking at.

Tabs. One big thing I miss from After Effects is the tabbed Comp window. I love being able to see what Comps I have open and active by glancing at the tabs (fig. 12), which Combustion just has no answer to (that I've found yet, anyway).

Figure 12: I miss the Comp window tabs that After Effects so thoughtfully provided.

Filmstrip. One big thing I miss when I go back to After Effects is the Filmstrip, which is Combustion's combination timeline and preview window that sits in your Viewport (fig. 13). I'm almost to the point where I can't work without it.

Figure 13: Combustion's Filmstrip view rocks.

Toolbar

Both programs sport a toolbar where you have access to specific controls based on what you're doing. In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that. I mean, it's a toolbar. Not too excitin'.

Where is it?

While AE's toolbar is right there in the open (fig. 14, left), you might have to hunt a little to find Combustion's. It's docked with the Workspace panel (fig. 14, right), and is probably hidden behind it even as we speak.

Figure 14

Main differences

I really don't have anything to report here. I use the Combustion toolbar about as much as I used the After Effects one, which is to say rarely if ever. My workflow has evolved to where I find myself doing most of the things the toolbar does through some other control, so your mileage may vary here.

Project Window

After Effects' Project Window is called the Workspace in Combustion. In either program, it's where you manage your footage, comps, and other assets, but in Combustion's case, it is simultaneously more and less than what After Effects offers. Ooh! Intrigue! All will be revealed in the "main differences" portion of this section!

Where is it?

The C2 Workspace is located on the bottom left of the interface, docked with the toolbar (fig. 15). If you happened to click on the toolbar tab earlier, you'll have to click on the workspace tab to activate it.

Figure 15

Main differences

In After Effects, you've probably noticed that you spend a lot of time in the Timeline, even if you're not doing any animating. as the Timeline is one of the main ways to organize your comp's layers, tweak properties, and so on. The Project window is pretty much strictly for asset management. In Combustion, the Workspace more or less combines the two. In the top half of the Workspace is a series of hierarchies describing the various compositions and other junk that your project contains. The bottom half is the footage library, the purpose of which I hope is fairly self evident. And while the Workspace combines aspects of the After Effects Timeline and Project windows, the actual "meat" of how you change properties and manage footage lies in the various Operator Control tabs, which we'll get to next time.

The other difference to mention here is that Combustion's Workspace panel doesn't support dragging and dropping files directly to it from the Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, which gives AE the edge there. I think that this is the ninth or tenth time I've mentioned this deficiency during the run of this series. Discreet, are you listening?

Break time

Whew! That was quite a whirlwind trip, wasn't it? And we're only about a third of the way through the interface, for Pete's sake! Next time we're going to continue on with much more of our tour, including the magical world of the Operator Controls panel, where the stakes can really change! Until next time, kids.

Filed under: Tutorial on May 23rd, 2003

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