How Do I Change a Video From Landscape to Portrait in After Effects?

To change a video from landscape to portrait in After Effects, you'll primarily need to adjust the composition settings and potentially rescale or reposition your video layers. Here's how:

Steps to Convert Landscape to Portrait

1. Create a New Composition (or Edit Existing):

   • If you're starting from scratch, create a new composition (Composition > New Composition).
   • If you already have a composition, go to Composition > Composition Settings.

2. Adjust Composition Dimensions:

   • In the Composition Settings, swap the width and height values to create a portrait aspect ratio (e.g., 1080 width and 1920 height for a standard HD portrait video).

3. Scale and Reposition Your Video Layer(s):

   • Select the video layer(s) in your timeline.
   • Use the Scale property (S key) to resize the video to fit within the new portrait frame. You might need to increase the scale significantly.
   • Use the Position property (P key) to reposition the video within the frame to highlight the most important parts of the scene. This is especially crucial as parts of the original landscape video will now be cropped.

4. Consider Additional Adjustments:

   • Rotation: If desired, you can rotate the video 90 degrees (R key) before scaling and repositioning. This might give a different look, but be mindful of readability of any text.
   • Motion Graphics/Element 3D Adjustments: If you have any elements created in Element 3D or other motion graphics, you may need to adjust their positions, sizes, and animations to suit the new portrait format.
   • Effects and Masks: Check for any effects or masks applied to the original landscape video and adjust their parameters as needed to function correctly within the portrait composition.

In Summary: Transforming a landscape video into portrait format within After Effects involves changing the composition dimensions and then scaling and repositioning the video layer to fit within the new frame. Further adjustments may be needed depending on the complexity of the project.