Aftereffects: Session 5

New techniques to be learnt today:

Additional Keyframes
Simplifying composition
Grouping
Adding sound

Pressing 'U' opens all animated properties of the composition.  At the moment, all squares move across the screen from left to right at a constant.  To apply acceleration and deceleration, the keyframes have to be eased in and out.

To do this, go to Animation > Keyframe Assistant, and select either ease in for acceleration, and out for deceleration.  If the object has to be eased in and out, the 'easy ease' option will apply both.  Below is a demonstration; the green square is eased out, blue eased in and the grey eased in and out.  The red stays at a constant speed for comparison purposes:

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THE GRAPH EDITOR

On the toolbar at the top of the layers menu, there is a 'Graph Editor'.  This demonstrates acceleration and deceleration in more depth, and allows custom changes to be made:

 (constant speed)

 (acceleration)

(constant speed) 

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SWINGING THE PENDULUM

Using the ease in and ease out technique, we had an exercise to emulate a swinging pendulum.  We brought the black layer into the composition, and doble clicked the eclipse tool to add a mask to the solid.  By pressing 'Y' it is possible to adjust the anchor point, ready for rotation.

By adding three keyframes, rotated -80, 80 then -80 again it will rotate the shape around the anchor point at a constant speed.  Going to the graph editor and selecting the speed graph will allow the customisation of the ease in and out technique.  Once tweaked, there is a shape that will accelerate to 0 degrees, and decelerate on 80 and -80.  Demonstration below:

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ESTABLISHING PARENT CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

When there is a parent child relationship, the child can move individually, but it is always bound to the parent layer.  All properties apart from the opacity layer.

When creating a path for the layer, 'Auto-Orient' allows the object to move with the curves.  The 'rove over time' option disregards that keyframe in the timing, making it easier to create flowing movement.

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Another way to group objects together is to make a whole composition, simplifying the timeline of the key project.  Layer > Pre-compose does this.

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.aiff or .wav are the best audio files to use within AfterEffects.  MP3s can be exported in Quicktime 7.

When exporting to .mov in AfterEffects, make sure the 'Audio Output' box is ticked.

Aftereffects: Session 4

We're going to be looking purely at text, and what we can do with it, created directly within Aftereffects.

The anchor point is originally placed at the bottom left of the text.  It can be altered under the transform menu or by simply pressing 'Y' on the keyboard to change the position with the mouse.

The source text changes the format & copy within the text over time.  When making a keyframe, the keyframe is square.  This means that this is a hold keyframe that doesn't change form smoothly over time, just over the changes of keyframe.

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When we animate the text, expanding range selector gives the start point, end point and more advanced options.
By adjusting the start and the end point, the animation slowly moves each letter from the original point to the finalised position.
The offset just moves the start and end points throughout the length of the type,  so it can create a wave effect when dealing with position for example.

But then there's some advanced options...

Unit: Can change from percentage to index, which sets the units to an absolute number of characters.  This is incredibly useful when selecting a specific point.
Based On: Can animate characters, characters without spacing, whole words or lines.
Mode: Adjustments to how the animation moves.
Amount: Think of it as opacity for animation: how much it shows.
Shape:  Choose a shape in which an animation will form to.
Ease High & Low:  Not looked at yet, but to do with keyframe interpolation, acceleration and deceleration.
Smoothness: 0% provides no movement from other characters.
Randomise Order:  Puts the sequence in an unpredictable pattern.

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On 'Animator 1' you can add other variables such as tracking or colour.  The options remain pretty much the same, here are examples of experimenting with this:

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A path can also be created for the text to follow, by using the pen tool when the layer is selected.  By adjusting the first and second margin, movement on the line can be created with the use of keyframes, demonstrated below:

Aftereffects: Session 3

TODAY
Keyframe Interpolation: The method in what a keyframe is set to be animated from one to the next.
Using Illustrator Paths

INTERPOLATION METHODS

AE applies Besier Curves as the default.

Altering position on the timeline to create another keyframe.  Added another point on the path, and dragged down to get the default Besier Curve around the frame.  The Convert Vertex tool takes away the curve to get a harsh corner.

Another way is to select a keyframe, and change the Spatial Interpolation to 'Besier' or 'Linear' in the Keyframe Interpolation option .  It is possible to select all keyframes at once to alter them together.

Animation > Keyframe Interpolation alt⌘K

On a motion path, each dot is one frame.  Therefore, fewer dots mean faster motion, more dots slower motion.  A holding keyframe keeps the keyframe held in a fixed position until the next keyframe, essentially stopping tweening.  The icon on the timeline changes from a diamond to a 5 sided shaped that looks like a house on its side.

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Imported blink.ai as a Footage file, meaning flat layer.  Dragged it into the composition window.

Utilised the 'Hold Keyframe' to give the illusion that the animation is blinking.  Did this by adjusting the Opacity Layer (T) from 0% to 100% through different keyframes.

Animation > Toggle Hold Keyframe

Roving means to move.  You can specify Rove to Time to allow it to move at a constant speed over the timeline.

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It is possible to create a shape in illustrator to be used as a motion path in AE.  Once the shape is made, simply copy, put a starting keyframe on the shape in AE, and paste to make a motion path.  Keyframes are automatically roving across time.

To flip the motion path, for it to move the other direction, select the keyframes and select he 'Time-Reverse Keyframes option in the Animation list.  My path originally played clockwise, and now plays anti-clockwise with this option.

Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Time-Reverse Keyframes

Layer > Transform > Auto Orient alt⌘K

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Masks


'Make Comp Size' automatically sets the solid shape to fill the entire frame.

Masks determines whether a layer is transparent or opaque.  They are essentially a vector shape.

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A comp size solid that is pasted onto makes four different masks.

'M' is the shortcut to select all the mask positions.  Double tapping opens all the parameters.

Masking text from illustrator allows for it to be edited in AE.

Toggle Switch/Modes at the bottom left of the interface opens another set of options in the layer menu.

Alpha Matte will use the illustrator file's shape for a filling template for the backdrop.  Luma brings out the brighter areas and inverted fills the background and leaves out the foreground image.

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Clouds

The same technique as the dots is used in this, but the backdrop is animated.  This fills the texts and does the animation within the text, again by using Alpha Matte.