After Effects Workshop 1

The workspace has different panels. Clicking on the panels highlights then and makes them active. 

The 'projects panel is a library of assets. Everything you want in your animation needs to be imported to this panel.

The assets will appear here as layers.

Every project must contain at least one composition. 

To start a new project you need to create a new composition. 

NTSC & PAL are different video standards. PAL is the UK standard and NTSC is used in USA and some other countries. 

The second section from the bottom are all high definition standards.

Motion graphics for DVD's are often made in After Effects and therefore would need to be using the right video settings. 

You need to ask yourself if you are using video in your project. Digital video doesn't use square pixels. 

If you are working with a still image, for example created in photoshop they would be made out of square pixels.

The standard frames per second is 25. 

Before you 'ok' your composition you need to specify how long the project will be (seconds, minutes etc.)

When you 'ok' the composition the timeline will change to specify the length of time and the projects panel will have a new composition layer. 

You can alter the composition settings by going into Composition>Composition Settings.