Quick Tip – Dual Monitor Workspace Layout

Quick Tip – Dual Monitor Workspace Layout

on Jul 10th 2012 with 16 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Requirements: Just After Effects and 2 screens.
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Run Time: 10:12 min
Download Source Files

In this Quick Tip video we are going to take a look at a dual monitor workspace for After Effects. You are going to see that using dual monitors can save you ton of time while working, providing all the needed space you need and saving time moving panels around and scrolling to reach the properties you’re looking for.

Quick Tip

Download Tutorial .mp4

File size: 37.1 MB

Stefan Surmabojov is Stefoto on Videohive
 
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I'm a 21 years old motion graphics designer from Bulgaria. I have 2 years of professional experience behind my back. Most of my time I spend working for a small TV company. In my spare time I work as a freelancer and create video tutorials related to After Effects for our site.  

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  • SkullJuJu

    Nice handling there. Pretty much its just flexible towards personal prefrences, but good guidelines to those looking for, or thinking about dual monitor effciencies. Btw, its *Monitor.

  • Raymond

    My last comment I gave was actually a tutorial made by Mr. Stefan Surmabojov.

    I gave praise to his ability to make a tutorial but this time I wont be so kind. It is not Mr. Stefan Surmabojov, fault, and i respect the guy for his ability to make great scene layouts and camera rigging and also has a great ability to teach.
    However, if this site is seriously trying to compete with other AE tut sites and even compete with its other divisions such as PSDtuts+ which I believe its quality is far beyond that of AEtuts+. This division needs a lot more work. I find AEtuts+ to be more immature and not taken as seriously.

    Mr. Stefan Surmabojov’s, tut is not really a tutorial. It is more a video diary of Mr. Stefan Surmabojov’s discovery of getting a second monitor. People who have a second monitor will discover right away the benefits that Mr. Stefan Surmabojov points out as soon as they plug the 2nd one in.

    I have a duel monitor myself and their are many benefits to having two monitors and really the benefit more work space. Not much was pointed out in the tutorial as a big secret.

    The biggest benefit for me having two monitors was not mentioned and here are my personal benefits;
    1. I can have After Effects on one monitor and Illustrator, Cinema 4d, or any other program on the other.
    2. One of the greatest benefit I like if I want both monitors used as AE only is to have the composition window on one monitor and have that use the full screen of one monitor and tools on the other and it gives me more of a painters canvas and the other monitor my painters pallet.
    3. watch netflicks at the same time while working on a project or watch a tutorial on one and follow example on the other or look at an amazing commercial ad with effects and try to replicate them on the other monitor.

    This tutorial could have been written and didn’t need a video to state the obvious advantages.

    First research on dual monitor settup could have been better, in my opinion.

    I am very opinionated btw fyi ;)

    I canceled my premium subscription just a week ago or so because of the messed up illogical way this AETuts+ division is run. This is the formula that disgusts me;
    Great tutorials = Free,
    want crappy tutorials = upgrade to premium and pay for them

    this is what should be done
    Tutorials = Free
    Get the assets to them = pay
    or just use the tutorials as a way to get people to your site and hope they explore your money sites videohive/audiojungle/appstore/etc

    • http://www.creativedojo.net VinhSon Nguyen

      Hey Raymond,

      As a fellow author here on AETuts+, I appreciate your feedback and view on things around here. I may somewhat agree with your reasoning, some of the Premium content are a little embarassing, much worse than the free tutorials. We’ll take everything into consideration. :)

      • bubs

        no more good free tuts :(

    • Reasonable Man

      Listen to this man. Unly truth comes out of that mouth

    • http://www.valstorm.com Valstorm

      I wonder how user traffic has been affected in this portal due to the absence of decent content in the last few months. In response to the premium debate – I feel that people are willing to pay for comprehensive software training (lynda.com does a great service with this type of business example), but I fear people will rarely choose to pay for effects tutorials or workflow tips.

      Come on Envato this is getting embarassing.

    • John

      Raymond, I completely agree with you, I have never worked with dual monitors before and am looking to upgrade to them. Your info on them for way more important and “useful” compared to Stefan’s video!

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/luboyanev Lyubo

    Thanks for the tip!
    I just got an external monitor for my laptop last week and I was looking dual moitors setups for AE and PP but didn’t really find good tips for how to order it.

    So thank you AE tuts and mersi Stefane :)
    Keep up the good work !

  • Manny

    Hi, thank you for the tut… question where exactly would this .xml file copied to on a mac?

    thanks again for the tut!

    • Stefan
      Author

      Not sure about mac, but try to search for the modifiedworkspaces folder in your system drive, if you don’t find it do a google search, you should easily find where the folder is.

  • Ben Griggs

    2 Monitors are great, but 2 (non-identical) plus a big TV is much better.

    One of the main reasons I keep multiple screens attached has nothing to do with AE navigation, but multiple side by side screen comparisons. AE navigation alone is much easier with regular use of the tilde~ key than switching monitors and refocusing the eye.

    Meaning, I generally work on the one, but preview on at least 3. This really helps to grasp the differences in displays and ensures your work looks they way it should on every screen. Besides that, you can stretch out the TV resolution to trim along the sides with a better visual understanding than title/action safe. Many graphics cards make this easy with settings that can switch with hot keys.

    The helpfulness of this would have been much better portrayed by recording and displaying both screens side by side, with pan/zoom where appropriate in the tut. What was shown is theory without true example.

    PS -Raymond
    As far as premium tuts, authors don’t generally say “I want this to be a premium tut” the editor says and decides that. Also note, this is called a “Quick Tip” for beginners, not a tut, and you didn’t pay for it..

    • Raymond

      PS -Ben
      I have a paid premium membership still active for a few months because it was pre-paid for a year. So, you wrong about the “you didn’t pay for it.” part.

      And btw why stop with two monitors and a tv set connected?
      I personally think a person like you who just wants to brag about his toys should have 7 monitors and two t.v. sets (one 60″ and the other 60″ but with 3d), an iphone, an ipad, an android phone, a google tablet and a baby monitor all hooked up at once to your system so you can see what all your projects might possibly be viewed on. Oh wait can’t forget a bicycle horn attached to your keyboard so you can toot when you celebrate a project completion.

  • http://perfectfx.wordpress.com/ PerfectFX

    Comments are more interesting, than the Quick Tip :D Nice!

    I, personally, have a big monitor. Can’t imagine my work on 2 monitors for 1 AE application. Can’t imagine a work in 2 AE applications on 2 different monitors. What’s the reason? oO I’m not that multitasker to.. :/

    But, anyways, this quick tip will definitely help those, who’ve never heard of such a workflow using 2 monitors. It will, basically, give the idea of it.. I think that’s all this tip is all about :)

    Can’t say anything about the Premium stuff. Not using it and, probably, won’t. Not sure if there’s something new at all.. anything can be achieved by yourself just taking your time with experimenting :) And yet I’m watching these free AEtuts tutorials simply to refresh some of my memories. And I’m starting more and more to believe that everything’s already taught and seen. Now it’s all about new ideas.. To be more exact, I’ve realized that it’s all about new and fresh ideas. And you’ll never find’em in tutorials, which are seen by thousands of people..

  • http://www.adamblumert.pl Adam

    Haha guys chill out!

    I have 2 monitors. One big only for AE or other softwares. Another one(smaller) is for some documents, pdf\s, word, tutorials, refference etc.
    I tried to work in AE on 2 monitors but it makes me a bit angry due to resolution difference and colours. So I will probably stick to just one monitor per app.

    Ben is right. Comparing images/videos on different monitors/broadcast especially is very important if you have to deal with commercial projects. If you really have to pay attention to colours, you can’t just check them on YOUR monitor only. Thats not enough but I wont go further with this topic – I guess most of you know what do I mean.

  • Ken

    Thanks for a great tutorial. I used to work with AE in dual monitor, then for some reason went back to single monitor. But, after watching your tutorial I was reminded why the dual monitor config is so much more efficient.

    Thanks!

    Ken

  • gbsr

    i’m sorry, i don’t speak mouse-gesture.