Create Vibrant Collage Animations in Adobe After Effects with Motion Graphics

1. Intro: Video Class animation offers limitless creative opportunities to evoke emotions. Simplify concepts, and cultivate your audience. Hi, I'm gear Mortega, co founder of Operati animation studio where I work as the creative director. Over the past ten years, we have produced beautiful animated explainer videos for hundreds of companies worldwide, such as Intel, Deloit Beyer, Poors, and many more. In this course, I will teach you how to create standing Class animations quickly and easily with after effects. My favorite animation software. You'll start by learning different techniques for carrying out images in a Rob photoshop. After that, we'll see how to organize our designs in a b illustrator to work efficiently in Afterfx. Then we'll live into the Aftereffects interface and explore its most important tools. One starts on the most exciting part begins, bringing our designs to life. You will learn how to create te frames at expressions, effects, and everything you need to start creating fun and professional collage animations. You'll be able to download the vtor files we use during the course, so you can follow the instructions in real time, making it much easier to apply what you're learning. This course is ideal for illustrators and graphic designers who want to learn how to make amazing coloss animations easily and in the shortest time possible. Unlock your potential. Join now. 2. Project: Hi there, for the final project, you will create a Class animation from scratch, applying everything you have learned throughout the course. This is an easy to follow course. To complete this course, you will only need to have AOV After ef, AOB Photosop, and AV Illustrator install on your PC. At the end of each lesson, I will provide some guidelines. I recommend following them to achieve the results from this course. I look forward to seeing your progress. Don't hesitate to upload your work to the course project gallery. If you have any questions, I'm here to help. I hope you enjoy. 3. Cutting Out Images: Hand-Made Look: If you take a look at the course project, you'll see that it includes both real images and vector designs. The reason is simple. I wanted to create a fun and modern design by mixing different types of content. In this lesson, we will learn how to crop images easily and quickly. First, we need to download the image we want to crop. You can download it from websites like Free Pick, Pixabay or Pexels for free. You can also create an image with artificial intelligence if you prefer. After downloading the image, we open it using Adobe Photoshop. There are several ways to crop the image. This method is ideal for those who want an imperfect handmade look. We start by unlocking the layer by clicking on the lock symbol. With the layer selected, we choose the polygonal lasso tool. Then by clicking around the image, we start cropping it. We are not aiming for a precise crop since we create an animated collage. The goal is to create a visual effect as though it had been hand cut with scissors. Double click to close the selection. If we want to remove parts of the selection, we go to selection options and choose subtract from selection. Then we select the part we want to remove. Once the selection is finished, we use the keyboard shortcut or command J on Mac to create a new layer with the cropped part. If we deactivate the layer below, we can see our selection. It's that easy. 4. Cutting Out Images: Faster & More Accurately : All right. Now let's move on to method number two. This method is much faster and more precise, but remember, we don't always need to be precise when making a collage. It's important to know the first method. First, delete the top layer and reactivate the original image. We can apply the crop in two different ways. In the latest versions of Photoshop, when you select the layer, a menu appears, allowing you to automatically select the subject. You can achieve a precise crop in just a few seconds. Okay, I'm going to deselect the image. The other option is to use the object selection tool. With this tool, you can draw a rectangle around the object, achieving the same level of precision as before. It works well even with images that have complex backgrounds. Once you apply the selection, you'll see the select and mask. Option at the top right. From here, you can access many options to refine your selection. I'm getting a notification about a new photoshop version. I'll update it later so it doesn't bother us. From here, you can adjust the opacity of the selection against the background, which is very useful when working with complex backgrounds. You can also change the view mode. I usually use the overlay option, but feel free to try others. On the left, there are various tools to add or remove elements or pixels from the selection. For example, you can zoom in on the design and use the polygonal lasso tool to add parts to the selection. You can also remove parts just like we did in the previous lesson. Let's zoom out a bit to see how it looks. On the right, you can adjust different settings to improve the final result. However, in this case, it's not necessary, since we don't need a perfect crop for creating an animated collage. So we leave it as it is and click. Okay, as in the previous lesson, we use the keyboard shortcut Control J or Command J on MAC, to create a new layer with our selection. If we deactivate the layer below, we can see the crop image without a background. Now, let's create a new document the same size as the animation will make later. Create a document of 1920 by 1080 pixels with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch. Name the document and click Create. I forgot. Very important. In background content, you have to select transparent. Next, go back to the previous document and drag the cropped image into the new document using the selection tool. With the keyboard shortcut Control T. You can resize the image by dragging from the corners. But there's a faster way. From the top menu, you can scale down the image. For example, I will resize it to 30% and position it as desired. Now it's your turn. I encourage you to download any image, whether it's a person, an animal, a building, or anything else you like, and try cropping it using either of the two methods we've covered in the course. 5. Vector Files: Hello, in this lesson. We will prepare our vector designs to animate them efficiently in after effects. I used Adobe Illustrator to create the design. You can download the illustrator file from projects and resources. The organization is fundamental in animation. This will make our work in after effects more efficient and help us work faster. If we open the Layers panel, we can see how we have separated our design. The idea is to separate all the elements we're going to animate into layers. Even though the circles will be placed in the corners in our final animation, we introduce them within the canvas to prevent them from being cut off when animating. We will position them correctly in after effects later. It's also important that the doodles are created with a basic stroke to work on the animation will create later. When we start animating, you'll better understand why we need to separate all the elements by layers. 6. Adobe After Effects: Before we start animating the projects, let's get in touch with the after effects interface. The first step is to create a new composition. So go to composition, new composition. Open a new 1920 by 1080, composition at 24 frames, give it 10 seconds, and name it. As a second step, we will import our A illustrated design to import a file, go to file, import, file. When we import a layered file in the import as option, we must select composition retain layer sizes. As you can see, a composition and a folder with layers have been created. We are going to work on the composition. First, drag the imported composition into the main composition. Let's take a quick look at the after effects interface. The panel, where you see the design is the viewport. This panel shows the results of our designs and animations. At the bottom, we can see the timeline panel. This panel is where we will spend more time creating our animations. From here, we can easily modify the transformation properties of the layer. With the new after effects updates, when selecting a layer, a new panel called Properties automatically appears. I'm going to enlarge it a bit so you can see it better. This panel allows us access the different configurations of the layer from a single panel. If you have the latest updates installed, and you can't see this panel, you can open it from windows properties. But don't worry. You don't need to have this panel to follow the course. If we look to the left, we can see the project panel, where all the compositions we create and all the files we import will appear. And at the top, we can find the essential tools. 7. Essential Tools: In this lesson, we'll look at the most important tools we'll use during the course. Let's double click to enter the collage Animation composition, and I'll show you how the different tools work. The selection tool allows us to select and move elements and resize them. If we hold down the shift key while adjusting the size, it will maintain the proportions intact. The hand tool allows us to navigate within the composition panel. With the Zoom tool, we can zoom in or out of the image. Clicking will zoom in and holding down the outt key while clicking will zoom out. The rotation tool allows us to rotate the selected objects around their anchor point. We can change the anchor points location using the pan behind tool. Notice that the rotation will behave differently depending on where the anchor point is located. Now let's see how to access the main tools with a touch of a key. Press V for the selection tool, hold space for the hand tool, z for the Zoom tool, for the rotation tool, and y for the pan behind tool. Before we continue, let's save our project. Go to file, save, and simply save your project in the desired location. 8. Adding Motion to Graphics: L et's begin with the most exciting part. Bringing our illustration to life, we are going to import the photoshop file and drag it above the other designs. In this case, it's a design with a single layer so we can import it as footage. In the pop up window, click and drag it above the rest of the layers. I've decided to use a different image than the one we previously selected. Although it's similar, I prefer the pose of the arms in this one because they are separated from the body. To work more comfortably, I'm going to drag the circles just below the dancing girl and the triangle. If you want to select multiple consecutive layers, select the first one, hold down the shift key, and then select the last one. If you want to select multiple layers that are not consecutive, hold down the control key. Click on the solo option for these four layers so that the rest of the layers disappear for now. Now, as we've seen, we select the happy girl, the triangle, and the two circles. Press the key to open the position property, move to around the second one on the timeline. You can see the time counter here and click on the stopwatch symbol to create a key frame. Key frames are markers in time that allow you to tell after effects where you want to change the value for a layer. Position the girl and the triangle in the center of the screen and place the circles in the corners. Then go back to the beginning of the timeline and move all the layers. Move the girl down off the screen, the triangle up, off the screen, and the circles out to the corners. By moving these elements, a keyframe is automatically created at the start of the timeline. If you preview with the ero key on the numpad, you've created your first animation, you just have to tell after effects where the animation starts, where it ends, and at what moment. But the movement is too abrupt right now. To fix this, select all the keyframes, right click, and choose keyframe assistant. Easy Ease. If you preview it again, it looks much smoother now. Next, move to the second three and create another keyframe for the girl and the triangle. To create a new keyframe without modifying the layer values, click here. Move forward 1 second, select both layers, and move them to the right. Now we can turn off the solo option to see the other layers. At the second four, which aligns with the last key frames we created, select the cloud and the sun. Press P to open the position property and click the stopwatch to create a keyframe. Move back 1 second and move them off the screen. Please do the same with the signs. But this time, we need an extra step. Notice that each sign have two layers. The sign with the deck and the yellow background layer. We want the yellow background layer to follow the movement of the sign. So from the parent and link option, link the collage background layer to the collage layer and the animation background layer to the animation layer. Now, if we move the signs, the background layers will follow. Select the two signs and open the position property. At the second four, aligning with the other animations, create a key frame. Move back 1 second, move the collage sign off the screen, and place the animation sign behind the triangle. Select the key frames and apply easy ease with F nine to smooth the movement. Let's take a look at how it's coming along. Perfect. I don't want the animation sign to be visible from the start. To fix this, drag the left edge of its layers to the point where the animation starts, which is at the second three. And we preview again. In the next lesson, we will continue bringing our project to life. 9. Animating the Doodles: Let's continue animating the scribble. To create the animation, we need to convert the Doodle one layer into a shape layer. To do this, right click on the layer, create, create shapes from vector layer. Next, go into the shape layer options. Click add and apply trim paths. Create a keyframe for end and start, setting their values to zero. Move forward about 1.5 seconds and increase the value to 100%. Then move the keyframes applied in start to achieve the desired effect. Select all the key frames, right click, and apply easy Es to smooth the movement. If you preview, you'll see our animated doodle. We want the animation to play two times so duplicate the layer with Control D, and move it in the timeline. Then select both layers and duplicate them with Control D or command D on Mac. Drag them above the other shape layers and move them to the bottom right corner. Also offset their timing to avoid overlapping with the animations of the other two doodles. To finish, we are going to deactivate the doodle two layer that we had as a reference. Let's preview again. Great. 10. Character Animation: In this lesson, we will learn a simple way to animate the image of a dancing girl. To animate our character quickly and easily, we'll use the puppet pin tool. With the layer selected, click on the puppet pin tool and place pins at different strategic points. Try not to create too many pins to keep the animation more natural. In this case, we've placed a pin on the pelvis, at the joints of the arms, and at the top of the head. When you create these puppet pins, a keyframe is automatically generated. If you select the layer and press the key, you can see these keyframes. I'll enlarge this window a bit and now select and delete the keyframes. Great. Now our character is ready to be animated. From the deform option, we can select the puppet pins we've created. When you select the pin, it turns yellow. We want to animate all the points except these two. To animate them quickly, we'll apply a simple expression. Hold down the old key and click on the stopwatch. Then type the code you see on the screen. With this code, we tell after effects to create random movements. In this case, we've set it to move with a frequency of two and an amplitude of 15 pixels. Let's preview it. You can adjust these values as you like. Once applied, copy the expression with a right click. Then paste it with Control V or command V on Mac into all the puppet pins where you want to create an animation. It's that easy. Remember, at this point, we don't want to create an animation, so continue with the next puppet pin. Simply select and paste the expression. Now, if we preview oi for the puppet pins on the wrists, we can increase the amplitude of the movements to make them a bit more exaggerated. Let's increase the amplitude to 30, for example. And do the same with the other wrist. Let's take another look. In the next lesson, we'll continue improving our animation. 11. Wiggle Animation: In this lesson, we are going to continue improving the look of our animation. Open the position of the triangle and enter the same expression as in the previous lesson. Remember, to create an expression, click on the Stopwatch while holding down the old key and type the expression. Now, to speed things up, right click to copy the expression. Select the rest of the layers, except for the background layer and paste the expression with Control V. Remember, to select multiple layers at the same time, hold down the Shift key. Let's see how it looks. Now, we just need to animate the rotation. Go to the triangle layer and create an expression for its rotation. But this time, reduce the amplitude to two, so the movement isn't too exaggerated. Again, right click to copy the expression. Select the rest of the layers, except the background layer and paste the expression with control V. If we preview, there we have it. The project is looking great. We just need to add the final touches to achieve the stop motion effect we're aiming for. 12. Stop Motion Effect: In this lesson, we will add the final touches to our animation. Let's start by adding some noise to our animation to give it a more vintage look. First, let's create an adjustment layer. Go to layer, new adjustment layer and make sure to place it above the other layers. Adjustment layers are used when you want to apply effects to multiple layers without adding the effect to each clip individually. With the adjustment layer selected, go to effects noise and grain and select noise. We can apply an amount of noise around 7%. D. Next, to achieve the stop motion effect. With the layer selected, go to effects, T, posterize time. Set the frame rate to six. This means the animation will move six times per second instead of the initial 24. Let's preview to see how it looks. Great. By reducing the frame rate, we give it a more fun, stop, motion like appearance. To finish, let's adjust the colors of our dancer. With the layer selected, go to effects, color correction, and select the hue saturation effect. You can change the master hue value to your liking and reduce the saturation value to give it a more vintage look. And if we preview Voila. Our wonderful animation is now ready to export and share with everyone. 13. Render: Now that we have our projects ready, we can export them. For this, we go to composition and select add to Adobe Media Encoda. Media encode helps us export projects more efficiently. First, we choose the codec. In this case, we will use h264. It exports the video in MP four, the most used format for the web. Regarding the output resolution, we can choose the match source, High or medium bit rate option to avoid mistakes and export it in the same size we have worked on the project. Finally, we choose the location where we will export the video and give the file a name. To finish, click on the play button here. And with this, everything would be ready. Once the process has finished, you can open your video and start sharing it on your social networks. 14. Final Thoughts: I want to congratulate you for completing this course. Throughout these lessons, you have learned a lot of things. Cut out images in a obi photoshop. Prepare your designs in a Roby illustrator. He the after effects, interface works, the most important tools, create animations, apply expressions and effects, and some tips to speed up your work process. And all this in just over 3 minutes of the course. Now is the perfect time to apply everything you have learned during the course by creating a Class animation from scratch. You can use the course files or animate your designs. Go ahead and upload your projects to the course project gallery and tag me in your Instagram post. I value your opinion very much. If you like the course, please leave me a review. I'll be very grateful. Happy learning.