After Effects Introduction

Animating Position

Click to See Steps

  1. Create a shape in the comp panel and select its layer.
  2. To the left of a layer, click the triangle to display its properties.
  3. Click the stopwatch next to Position under Transform.  This creates a keyframe at the current time.
  4. Move the playhead to another time in the future.
  5. In the layers panel, click and drag the units next to Position to change the position or drag the shape around in the Composition panel to move it. This automatically creates a new keyframe at the current time.
  6. Click and drag the keyframes to adjust timing of Position changes.
  7. Once you animate the position, you should see a motion path created on the composition. You should see a couple of larger points with handles on the path that you can click and adjust the curve like you would a pen tool.

Animating Rotation

Click to See Steps

  1. Click a shape in the comp panel to select its layer.
  2. To the left of a layer, click the triangle to display its properties.
  3. Click the stopwatch next to Rotation under Transform.  This creates a keyframe at the current time.
  4. Move the playhead to another time in the future.
  5. In the layers panel, click the 0x+0.0º blue link next to Rotation and change it to a lower or higher degree.  This automatically creates a new keyframe at the current time.
  6. Click and drag the keyframes to adjust timing of Rotation speed.
  7. In addition to rotating the shape a certain number of degrees. You can also define how many times the shape rotates by changing the first 0 in the previously mentioned equation.

Animating Opacity

Click to See Steps

  1. Click a shape in the comp panel to select its layer.
  2. To the left of a layer, click the triangle to display its properties.
  3. Click the stopwatch next to Opacity under Transform.  This creates a keyframe at the current time.
  4. Move the playhead to another time in the future.
  5. In the layers panel, click the blue 100% link next to opacity and change it to a lower percent.  This automatically creates a new keyframe at the current time.
  6. Click and drag the keyframes to adjust timing of opacity transitions.

Animating Scale

Click to See Steps

  1. Click a shape in the comp panel to select its layer.
  2. To the left of a layer, click the triangle to display its properties.
  3. Click the stopwatch next to Scale under Transform.  This creates a keyframe at the current time.
  4. Move the playhead to another time in the future.
  5. In the layers panel, click the blue 100% link next to Scale and change it to a lower or higher percent.  This automatically creates a new keyframe at the current time.
  6. Click and drag the keyframes to adjust timing of Scale transitions.
  7. In addition to scaling from the center of the square, you can also scale from any point by moving the Anchor Point. To move the Anchor Point, select the Pan Behind Tool from the top menu tool bar. Then you will see crosshairs on the center of your square appear and with this tool you can select the crosshairs and move them to any side or corner that you want to scale from.

Easing

Click to See Steps

  1. Help with Easing: GreyScaleGorilla: Intro to Keyframing. Video
  2. From an existing animation, Right-Click on a keyframe.
  3. Click Keyframe Assistant from the menu, then Easy Ease, Ease In, or Ease Out. Play around with the different ones and see what they do. Learn by experimenting.
  4. This changes from a linear transition to a curved transition. The motion will appear more natural.
  5. Another option for easing is by using the plug-in, Ease & Wizz. Go to Window and at the bottom of that menu click on Ease and Wizz.jsx.
  6. Select the keyframes in which you want to apply ease.
  7. In the Ease & Wizz panel adjust Easing, Type, the Keyframes, and hit Apply. Expo is the strongest, while Sine is the most gradual.

Adjusting the Anchor Point

Click to See Steps

  1. To auto center the Anchor Point, you can right-click on the object and click on Transform > Center Anchor Point in Layer Content.
  2. To move the Anchor Point manually, select the Pan Behind Tool from the top menu tool bar, which is the 6th tool from the left. Then you will see crosshairs on the center of your square appear and with this tool you can select the crosshairs and move them to any location on the object that you want to anchor from.

Export Your Movie

Click to See Steps

  1. Go to Composition > Add to Render Queue
  2. Click on the default Comp title next to Output To and rename file and choose where you want to save it.
  3. When you are ready, click on Render in the top right of the panel.
  4. Optional: You can also choose to Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue and then Media Encoder will launch and you can choose to drag and drop the Vimeo or YouTube Preset onto your video which will appear in the the Media Encoder Queue. This will apply a H.264 Codec compression to your video to make it smaller. Click the green arrow when ready to render.

General Tutorials that can help you with AE: