FAQ: What is the difference between the Essential Graphics panel and the Effect Controls panel for graphics? Why should I use one or the other?

The Essential Graphics panel is designed to be the primary place to work with graphics, with all of the controls you need for most things. Everything you do in the Essential Graphics panel is reflected in the Effect Controls panel, and vice versa. There are two specific reasons you will need the Effect Controls panel for:

• First, the Effect Controls panel is the only place where you can turn on or off animation for a graphic parameter. So if you want a layer to move, find the layer in the Effect Controls panel, open up the Transform group, and click the stopwatch for Position, for example. Once a parameter has automation on, then any change made in the Essential Graphics panel or dragging the layer in the Program Monitor will write keyframes.

• Second, the Effect Controls panel is the only place you can insert other effects between layers. So if you want to blur the layer behind the text, put Gaussian Blur between the two layers in the Effect Controls panel. For simplicity, non-graphics effects do not show up in the layer list in the Essential Graphics panel.