Understanding Workspaces and Preferences

Close the start screen, switch to the Standard workspace, and reset it if needed to restore the default layout.

Learn how to navigate and customize Adobe After Effects' user interface by understanding workspaces and optimizing panel layouts. This article provides practical tips on avoiding the start screen, selecting the right workspace, and resetting layouts to streamline your workflow.

Key Insights

  • The Adobe After Effects start screen can be disabled in preferences and often causes delays or freezes when opening the program, making it more efficient to bypass it altogether.
  • Adobe After Effects features multiple built-in workspaces such as "Default" and "Standard"; the "Standard" workspace, although no longer the official default, offers a simplified panel setup ideal for beginners.
  • Noble Desktop recommends frequently resetting the "Standard" workspace to its original layout to ensure consistency across exercises, especially after panels have been moved or closed during use.

Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.

When you first start the program,  you'll probably get a start screen like this,  which I close. I want that. Okay.

Eventually we'll look at the preferences and you can tell it, don't show that start screen. The start screen effectively just kind of gives you a list of like your previous files, make a new project,  or suddenly it already has, open,  and a couple other things. But there's nothing in the start screen you need to do.

Okay. And it literally blocks your access to the actual program. And weirdly enough, there's a weird little delay between the program opening and the start screen opening.

And if you had to do something during that delay,  it freezes. So I don't like the start screen basically. That's what I'm saying.

So this is what I should be in. It's going to tell me, these are coach marks. They are hints about how to use the program.

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So for example, it's telling me,  hey, there's a review workspace. I'm gonna say, okay. Okay.

Now, so this is the default. It's called workspace. Adobe's name for where all the panels are positioned is called a workspace.

In the upper right-hand corner of After Effects,  you should see some names. Default, review, learn, small screen, blah, blah, blah. And then a little arrows there.

It's a list of others. These are the built-in workspaces they have. This is the default one.

This is the standard one. Why do they have one called standard and one called default? Because standard for 20 years was the default. Then they made default.

I have no defense. Okay. The instructions in the book tell you to go to the standard workspace.

Okay. Because again, for 20 years, it was the default. And it has a few fewer panels than default does.

So it's a little easier to get around, I'd argue. Okay. So it's nice.

Now, the other way to do it,  if you don't wanna use the menu up here,  is window, workspace, standard,  or any of the lists, by the way. Reset standard to save layout. I'm gonna press.

That will return the workspace to its original out-of-the-box configuration. Because you can move stuff. You can close stuff.

And technically, it would still be called standard. So for example, wow. None, none, none, none, none, none.

Wow, that's hilarious. These are all different timelines. I can close them, for example.

Look, there's a little X right here, okay? If I close the last one, what happens? That happens. The entire panel went away and everything was kind of filled into space. Okay.

Window, workspace. I'm still in standard. But if I reset it, it'll go back to its original.

By the way, I don't need six of these. I need one of these little nones down here, okay? And if you only have one, that's good too. So the panel's gonna be dragged around.

Oh, look, here's something called info. I wonder what that does. Oh, I drag it over there.

Now it's here in the middle and it's gigantic. Okay. I could either drag it back or I could window, workspace, reset.

So there's always a little thing in here. Every time you switch to a new section of the book,  it tells you go to standard, reset standard,  just because I don't know if you've moved things around. Okay? That's why it says that.

Jerron Smith

Jerron has more than 25 years of experience working with graphics and video and expert-level certifications in Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Illustrator along with an extensive knowledge of other animation programs like Cinema 4D, Adobe Animate, and 3DS Max. He has authored multiple books and video training series on computer graphics software such as: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash (back when it was a thing). He has taught at the college level for over 20 years at schools such as NYCCT (New York City College of Technology), NYIT (The New York Institute of Technology), and FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology).

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