The final project consists of an animation of a character holding a smartphone and rotating 360º, changing perspective.

To do that, we will create three different vectorial illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, and animate their shape layers in Adobe After Effects, to make one pose transition seamlessly into another. All you need to have are those two programs installed!

Here is the step-by-step:

Sketch the poses of the character;
Vectorize the drawings - I will give some tips on how to illustrate for animation;
Organize your files in layers inside Adobe Illustrator;
Bring the Illustrator files to After Effects and convert them into shape layers;
Set the timing of the animation;
Animate the shapes and edit the Speed Graph;
Add anticipation and follow through (accommodation) to the animations;
Add a background and some final effects;
Render the video.

What I am looking for in your final project:

Consistent character in all the different poses;
Seamless transitions, with drawings switching in the right timing;
Principles of animation applied (Anticipation and Follow Through)

Your class resources:

Video of my final project;
Working files of my project that you can open up in After Effects;
Working files of the projects I showed in the bonus lesson.*

*I encourage you to open up these files and play around, modifying some elements, so you can see the many approaches of this technique.

Don't forget to share your animation for feedback and download my project files!

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Follow me on Instagram (@guijooorge) and feel free to drop me a line if you need to talk about anything!

I am always happy to talk to you guys!

Miguel Couto

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