Logo Animation Fundamentals in After Effects

1. 00. Introduction: Hi everyone. My name is Shira buggy and have a motion graphic designer. This is a mini-course of a login emission Kickstart. That's why it's called logo animation fundamentals. In this course, I will teach you every technique that you need to learn about logo animation. You will not just learn a logo animation. You will learn sketching, storyboarding, brainstorming, and more. This course is available for free to everyone. So what's your rating for? Let's dive into this course and see what you will learn. 2. 01. Sketching: Hi, my name is Joe buggy and i o machine designer. I hope you are doing great. So in this course, we will learn the basic concept of logo animation, how we can make a logo animation. So every logo animation has a four-step. First of all, sketching. The second one is style frame there a storyboard. Third is animation and forth is sound design or finalization. But after some time we skipped, sometimes we skip a sketching, sometime we escaped storyboarding. It depends on the logo. Get started. So first of all, we have to make the sketch, but remember, we are not the sketch artist, okay? So we are not doing some portrait kind of thing. We're just doing the grease. We will draw some lines and we have basically we want to get the idea on paper. So let's start to make our frame. I would recommend if you have a phone, if you have computer screen open that, make your logo bigger and then draw that on your paper. I'm using a very rough paper. It is not too costly. It's only about one or $2 a book. So yeah, you can use that too. And you can use any pencil, anything that you'd like to work with. Step is to analyze our logo. So I'm here, We can use, or we can think about a couple of techniques that I hope you have learned about the concept of animation or the rules of animation, principles of animation. So when I see this logo at the first time, I noticed that this dot on this eye. And it is really a good way to reveal your logo from one parent. So basically, we are using the staging technique and to attention All eyes in the same point and that point will reveal everything and the logo, it looks pretty nice. So when I see this dot, the idea came into my mind that we have to use this or I have to use this logo to reveal this concept. So let's starts to make first frame, but just for the reference, I'm adding this dot to this specific area to make sure I understand. This dot will be started. And after that, the next frame, Let's draw apart. Where should we want to move this ball? This is the part that came into my mind. So when you add a part or some kind of that thing, you don't have to worry about the animation, okay? Just put the idea that you have in your mind to understand how this ball will work or how this ball will work actually in real life, you can use a ball to demonstrate it and you will understand. So the bottom part will be the really fast because of gravity and the top part will be slow. So I'm adding these notes to make sure I understand where I should have done this slow and where I would have to make it slower. And after that, this is the final position we're ball hits and reveal the eye and the edge. So let me show you the original sketch of this animation. So as you can see, the concept is the same, like the ball start from here and it hits with the GI. I've mentioned this, everything on the paper to make sure I, I, I understand what I am exactly going to do in After Effects. So this is the animation part. This part will we do fast, super fast and this is low, and then this bottom one, again, fast and then the top one, it will be very slow. And at the final position, this is the final action. When it hits, you can say the edge is revealing, the IEP will be revealed. Also, I add some additional notes like we can use this E, like this E part. And we can, we can animate it from the middle, the middle part of it. G part, we have to do something creative or something amazing to it. So this was the idea that I'm going to come into my mind. And also I write down the knee. We have to add some stroke lines are supporting lines at to make this animation more interesting or make more professional. The reason why I've done this, I am putting all ideas into a paper. Now, we can choose which is the best one for our logo or our design. Let's move to the next part. 3. 02. Storyboard: Now we have to create style frames or storyboard. Maybe you have a question why you have to make a storyboard again? Because we already done this. Getting the answer is, if you want to get a professional or you want to become a professional logo animator, you must have to learn this. Because, for example, if your client gives you the logo for the logo animation and you created amazing logo animation and he didn't like it or she didn't like it. He didn't say, I don't want to do this. You get the wrong idea. So that means you have too much time to do that. Okay? So the best one thing is make storyboard and makes steel frame and then show to them. And if approved, then you have to make animation. It will save so much time. Also, you have a logical reason to explain why you are doing this thing. So let's start to create a storyboard. First, create a new document with about five to seven when our boards and hit Okay. Then copy your logo to here. And make sure you have a backup art board right over here. Now, add your sketching to this file. Now duplicate your logo to new artboard and MicroSD, about 2224%. That is fine. Then make a circle here and create a line. Or they're the part that we have. So this is our first frame. Now we have to make the second one. The matter will be the same. Just tried to add much details that you want, like the ecommerce of yourself, maybe you will get something else in your mind. You have to write down here, okay, So basically, these are the steps that we have to follow along d, logo animation. Yeah. This is that will help you to refine your skills. For example, you will better understand what is the exactly step you need to take. So let me show you what are the final style frames or storyboard. As you can see, every step is much clear. Now you know the exact where and what you should have to done to make this animation step-by-step. 4. 03. Setup Your Logo: Before we start to move on the alphabet, we must have to set up this logo for animation. So what should we have to do? We just have to set up every single letter on every single layer, not just bought. It is pretty simple to do. You don't have to worry about that. Just copy this logo, your new document, which is 1990, about entity that is the size of our animation or the resolution of our logo animation. How would that make the size that you need? An out of that stack, this logo and go to this and select Release to Layers Sequence. Now we have all letters in every single layer, but wait, but all layers in layer one. So you just have to select all these layers and drag. You can see outside of layer one. And after that, you must have to rename all these things separately to make sure you don't want to get confused. That's pretty much it. Save it. Move to the outfit. 5. 04. Import Logo in After Effects: Now, right-click here, click Import and file. Select your logo. Now you must have to select this layer to composition and then select this size to layer size, not document size. Now we have all our layers right here. We have to convert this blue shape layers so we can animate it, everything separately. Then select all these layers and go to the create and select, Create Shapes from Vector Layer. Then you're going to add this thing. You will see either in G5, don't worry, we will fix there to open the G outline and open the group and then move this path three to the top and then open this merge paths, one, select mood to subtract. And this will solve your error. Now, if you want to add your style framed in our perfect and follow one by one, that is fine. I would recommend a one separately to make sure you are focusing on one frame at a time. 6. 05. Animate the dot: So the first step is we have to move this before we started. As you can see, the eye and the dot is an outer join. So open this Groupon and now you can see the paths that pass through and emerge, but we don't have to use the most is this much, but delete that one, and then select this part one, part two, and fill and drag these to the content section. Just remove this group one, then select path one and print press Control G to make it group, then select pass through and make a separate group. So we have to separate these two groups. For doing that, I am using a third party is cubed. We've reached name is motion tool. And I recommend you to get this one because it will solve a lot of problems and make sure every time when you've done something and you have to be explained everything like the dot, the I separate t. So we've already started to animate this dot. We have to make a backup of this dot because this is the original position of this dot omega duplicate. You can also see the shortcuts which I am pressing in the bottom corner. Now make the color red. Let's go to the two seconds and place the little dot where you want to start your animation. Make a keyframe on position right here. Now, we have to move this ball. And to the exact part that we want. Don't worry about the timing and the key-frames. I'm adding every keyframe or every position after ten frames. You can do it even less, even more. And after that, we will set up the speed and we will start with the distance of each frame. Our body is done. Now we have to adjust the timing dispute and the duration. So as we mentioned, the bottom part, these two parts will be, or the bottom part would be really high. So select these keyframes and right-click here and make them rove across, gave them also. We have done this for the fastest key-frames, like the bottom. And now select all these keyframes. Press F9 to make them easy, ease. It looks something like that. Then we have to go to graph it and I'm using the Speed Graph, naught value graph. So here you can see the ball is a stop in the middle arrow keys, so we don't want to stop it. Exactly. Okay. We want to slow, not make it too. You can say quiet or you just still. For doing that. Select the middle keyframe. Okay, click on this button, convert, select, give names to auto bezier. So basically what this does, it combines the two handles at the same point. And now you can adjust it, do the same with the other one. Now, we will adjust the speed graph and we will get what you are exactly looking for. And don't worry if you find anything, any kind of error that we can, we can refine this animation too. Now, this looks good to me. Go to the first frame where any debated the ball is starting to animate. And here we have to scale it down to make sure it reveals from 0. Now select these keyframes. Press F9 to easy, ease. Go to graph editor and make the curve something like that. Now we have to make it more realistic. So for example, if something is moving too fast, the motion blur, the blur deleting that you see, it must be blurred. So there's two things that we can use. We can use motion blur. And the second thing is we can use a trail thing which shows the speed and the velocity of that ball. I would recommend to make a trail. To make a trail we have to apply an effect called Echo set copies with n equal time minus 0.001 and select a cooperator to composite it in back. Sorry for my English, my English is not so good. But I will try to explain every aspect that you need for logo animation. The ball animation is done. And if you need to adjust something, you can do that right here. So when you use a cofactor, you will find an eater. When you go to the last frame where our ball or anything really stop, you can see a very big cells at the end. How you can fix that. Go to the very end frame where the ball is going to stop. Mega keyframe on this echo got a number of echoes and go up about two or three or five frames after that and make it 0. This will solve the square pixel issue for everything is done. But there is one thing that I want to mention. Sometime you like this solid drill at the end of this thing. And sometimes you, how you can fix that, go to this decay setting and changes to 0.94. And this will add a really easing or opacity thing at the end of your trial. And that's it for this ball animation. 7. 06. Animate all letters: After that, we have to start work on letters. So I have done all these letters off, and I'm just working on this. So select Pen tool and click on this button to make a mask. Basically we are not adding a mask, we're adding apart. So let's start and add apart. After reading a byte, we have to apply Effect named stroke. And don't worry about this box, I'm using FX Console, which is a free plugin of regret. You can download it from video copilot dotnet. So when I press control space, this box will open and I can apply any effect to it directly. I don't have to go to the Effects and Presets panel. So please use that and it will save you so much time. Reading this stroke effect, set the spacing to 0 and painted style to reveal original image. Brush hardness must be a 100%. And now you can adjust your brush size. Now we have to add mask on the other part of this G to make sure it reveals that too. But here at the beginners will make this mistake. If I add, if I start my pods from here and after that, the mask and remove this stroke sequentially. This part start in the middle and it looks really, really bad. How we can solve this issue. It is pretty simple. Press M for mask and make a duplicate of this mask, which are which we already have done. And lock the first mask. And then select Pen tool and make a keyframe in the middle of this line. Now, drag this keyframe to the bottom and adjust accordingly. Also, you can change the mask color if you want. If not, that's okay. But I would recommend do that because you don't want to get confused. African this. You want to add this same thing with the other side of this G. So just duplicate it. Again. Select this middle keyframe and move to the other side. Then adjust the path of this mosque. Or you can say adjust this mask. Now, make a keyframe when ball hits to the G. And make this value 100% when ball is leaving this G. And if you find any thing, any era, some of your g is not revealing. You have to adjust your pass accordingly again. After doing that, you can see these DG is not synchronizing with the ball. So we have to done this manually. Press U to see all these keyframes. And now you can put this, setup this manually. Let's move to the letter E. So I am thinking about when, when the ball will leave the d, the E must have the review itself. We enjoyed that the first letter and the second letter, we can reveal this E or from a scale. We don't have to draw it again because it doesn't make sense. Ball is not touching eax and we don't want to do that. So we can just reveal ie from a scale property. And don't forget about easing. You must have done that too. And after that, if you remember, we mentioned that E bar in the center that we can animate by using the path property of this E. So go and find the path property. Or you can open this group file, open this path, and make a keyframe here, Go couple of terms before, like ten to 15 are enough I guess. And then press Control T to, to make sure we we are we have this bounding box I'll give you. You don't have to need to adjust all these path keyframes or path points manually. Now, when you, when you have this box, press Control Alt Shift and then drag this to the inside. Again, apply easing onto that. Also, I'm using a e's copy script which is totally free. That basically do, we can copy the keyframes to another keyframe. Will not have to Open Graph Editor every time it will consist of a design. Also, it will save too much time. So add the n, I'm adding a little rotation of the E because E, It looks like a circular shape or circle. So that's why I'm adding a little bit rotation to the E. And I think that looks good. And after that we have done the same thing with the n and the t. Yeah. I'm revealing this d from our bottom because the movement of the ball is matching here. That's why. Now you can see an era with the TI, because specific line part, if we increase or too much size of this brush, it looks, it looks really bad. And how we can do with that one, don't worry, we won't have to add another mask. So the head is a trick for you. Make a duplicate of this tea, this original one, and delete these. Make sure you have a backup of this D. After they're done on the back-up D. And select this one and remove the stroke effect it. We don't need that. Now. We have to make this line exactly where it is. Everything is done. Now we can animate this line where the ball is going to hit their place. We can reveal this line. Let's reveal this eye and edge at the final impact of this dot. So when you have different IZ, the ball animation, we have to go to like five seconds where nothing is moving, nothing is moving at ball is really bad. And this edge and a letter to this dot. And when it hits to the ground, and the highest bid, just do these two layers from here. Now you can see this. The ball is not going straight down. Let's adjust the path of this ball. We're really close to finish this animation. The next step is, as we mentioned in the starting one, the g has a tail kind of thing, okay? And I really want to animate that one. Just solo this G and this dot thing and make a duplicate of the D letter. Now, add a mask around this. You can see a ponytail. Then select the original shape of this G, make a duplicate of it, and change the color to the red. To make sure we understand what is the difference between the original file, the backup file, and this ponytail. Now select the original G character and the D shape you can say and delete these points. And at just these two points, again, to make sure it looks exactly rounded and play with it. Maybe you have to adjust our mask a little bit. I removed the stroke effect on it because we don't need that. And I've remade like where the ball is going to leave this G. Now we have to add this. Or you can say a bouncing or the bending thing a little bit to make it more interesting. So add a CC, bend it effect on it. Set the start and the end point here. Now, make a keyframe. Here. You can add a value that you really like. If you want to add a higher value, it looks really bouncy. If you want a really subtle you can use are like 25, maybe 30. It depends on your logo, your thing. So click here, middle keyframe and I'm D value is I'm using the minus 36. Go-to couple of frames forward and make it 0. Select this last keyframe and make sure it is linear. The first one is not linear, that easy is the second one is linear. And click on this elastic button. If the second keyframe is not linear, this, if this elastic effect will not work. Also, this is a pay-to-script. If you want to use that for free, you can also download a bouncer script for adding our fruit or a less elastic and bounce-back effect. Also, you can adjust the bounciness of this thing from the controllers when you add the expression, it will also add a controller on the same layer. So you can see I have changed this elastic controller value to 25 and the rest of this fine. Let's see how it looks like. Our animation is done. 8. 07. Supporting Lines: Now we have to add this bonding lines, which is really important. If everything is fine. If you just add, you can say As we want to spice up things a little bit, you just have to add supporting lines that emphasize the movement of your animation. Do not make too much and do not make doulas, even if it hasn't been noticeable but not too much. So grab this pen tool and make a path around this G. So all these rogue lines must have a less than a second because it's really too quick. So dreamy doubt and editing binds to it. And now you have to play with your values. But if you want to copy my values, you can do that too. So when you have the exact time where you want to put your lines or everything is set up, make sure you rename your spawning lines. Like if I'm adding a word line or supporting line for G, I will add DS1 like d sub burning line one is for my reference. So you can add that for yourself too. Get rid of it. And now the parties, them. So we just have to remove the spot and add an ear bud. The animation will remain the same. It looks good. Now we have to add the others like E N, D edge. It will take time, but it will improve your animation a lot. Yeah. So after this step over animation is done, congratulations, you have learned this amazing an emission. See you in the next video. 9. 08. Thank you so much: Congratulations, you have done so far and I hope you have learned a lot of new techniques in this course. If you really want to learn more about animations and one, to know all the secrets that you can learn about Logan emissions giant, this complete course, actually a buggy.com. See you there. Bye.