Download Demo file: Lesson 6: Parenting and Nesting

Nesting Multiple Comps and Precomposing

One way to organize your layers in After Effects is to nest comps within comps, also known as Precomps. This will group your layers together and allow you to make changes to all of them at once.

Create a new comp by right clicking in the project panel and selecting New Composition or clicking the new composition bottom at the bottom of the panel.  Change the name and set the resolution to 1920×1080.  You can then animate in this composition. Make a new composition in the same manner and name it master comp.  Other comps can be dragged into this master and arranged like any other layer.

Existing assets can be grouped into a precomp.  Select the layers, right click, select Pre-compose.

To edit the layers, edit the new precomp by double clicking on it.  This method has the added benefit of rendering the composition once instead of re-rendering the layers with each preview.

Parenting w/ Null Objects

Null objects are empty layers used to organize and transform many objects at once. In the top menu bar, select Layer > New > Null Object. If you do not see the Parent column, in the layers panel in the Timeline, right click and turn on the Parent column. Select any layer and set their parent to Null 1. Move Null 1 and the child layers that you parented will move along with it. This allows us to animate a Null layer once instead of every child layer individually.

For this project, you are using fonts that are on the computers in both Design labs. Use Suitcase Fusion to enable/activate these fonts. Specific fonts may not be available outside of the lab.

Character Tool Palette

Show the align panel by switching the workspace to text or selecting Window > Character from the top menu bar. Drag the panels to more convenient locations.

The character palette includes familiar settings for text size, leading, tracking, and kerning.

Align Tool Palette

The align panel is useful for aligning typography when working in many layers.  Show the align panel by switching the workspace to All Panels or selecting Window > Align from the top menu bar.

Animators

Text has its own set of available effects and transformations.  Expand a text layer, then select Animate on the right side. A fly-out menu gives multiple options for animated effects, such as anchor point, position, scale, rotation, opacity, and tracking. For example, select Position. Then it creates an Animator 1 with a Range Selector and Position property. Go ahead and adjust the Position of the Y axis. Then under the Range Selector scrub the Start parameter and you will see the text animate by character. You can then look under the Advanced option and change Characters to Characters without Spaces, Words, or Lines. You can also change the direction shape, smoothness, and randomization of the animation.

Make an animation using rotation and watch how the text responds. The first is number of times to turn, the second is how many additional degrees to turn. Under More Options, Anchor Point Grouping can be adjusted.  By character rotates each character.  The value can be changed to word, line, or all.

Steps are done very similarly for each parameter.

3D text
You can make your text animate around the z-axis as well. In the timeline, click on the 3D cube icon next to the layer to enable 3D. Then open up the Rotation parameter and turn the text around the Y and X axis to see it move in 3D space.

You can also enable 3D per character using Animators like above. Click on Animate next to the layer and then choose Enable Per-Character 3D. Then once you go choose another Animator like Rotation, you will see the Z-axis included.

Text on a Path
With the text layer selected, go up to pen tool and draw a path onto the layer. This will create a Mask Path on the layer. Toggle open Path Options under your text layer. Then choose the newly created Mask as the Path. The text should then conform to the path. You then have a number of other options like reversing the path, perpendicular to the path, and adjusting the margins.

Text Shape Animation

Creating Outlines
Make a new line of text using the text tool.  It may work best to create each letter one at a time.  Right click, then select Create Shapes From Text. Expand the layer in the layer panel.  Under contents, find the path.  This is the outline of your letter.  Letters with counters will have multiple paths.

Working with Points
Click the stopwatch next to path to begin animating. Note that the path as a whole is animated rather than the individual points. If you move the object, the position will animate along with the individual points.

Points can be moved with the typical click and drag method. Add points with the pen tool by clicking anywhere on the path. To add a bezier point with curve handles, click and drag with the pen tool. To convert an existing point to a bezier point, select the pen tool, hold down option, then click and drag.