Transcripts
1. Intro: Step into the world of
motion graphics and start crafting animations
that go and engage. Hi. Anger Mortea, co
founder of Operari, an animation studio where I
work as a creative director. Over the past ten years, we have produced beautiful
animated explainer videos for hundreds of
companies worldwide, such as Intel, Deloit, Bjer, Persa, and many More. In this course, I will
teach you how to create Amazing motion graphics quickly and easily with after effects, my favorite animation software. We will start by
organizing designs in Illustrator to work
efficiently in after effects. Then we'll dive into
the after effects interface and explore its
most important tools. Once that's done, the most
exciting part begins, bringing our
illustrations to life. You will learn how to create track mats, animate
textures, texts, and characters at
expressions, effects, and everything you need to start creating fun and
professional animations. You'll be able to download all the vector files we'll
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 creative artists who
want to learn how to make amazing motion graphics easily and in the
shortest time possible. Unlock your potential, join now.
2. Project: Hi there. For the final project, you will create an
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 AOB
after effects and AOB Illustrator installed on your PC and above all,
a desire to learn. 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 it.
3. Preparing the Files: Hello. In this lesson, we will prepare our
designs to animate them efficiently
in after effects. I used Adobe Illustrator
to create the design. Please download the Illustrator
file from projects and resources to apply everything learned during the
course in real time. The design is 1920
by 1080 pixels, the resolution commonly
known as full HD in video. The organization is
fundamental in animation. This will make our
work and after effects more efficient and
help us work faster. Based on this approach,
let's see how to organize the layers
in Adobe Illustrator. The idea is to separate all the elements we're going
to animate into layers. If we open the Layers panel, we can see how we have
separated our design. First, we have the cat. In another file, we've
separated our cat into layers. Here, we're using it only as a reference to visualize
the final result. Next, we have a
scribbled texture. To create these textures, you can use the brush tool
to make an abstract shape. As we scroll down, we
come across the ball, the arm, and the hand. Next, I've arranged
all the text layers. And once again, we see
two more textures. It's important to place these
textures entirely within the canvas to avoid them being
cut off in after effects. Just position them
inside for now, we'll set them in the right
place later in after effects. Finally, we have the after effects logo and all the
background rectangles. On the other hand, we have a separate file for
the little cat. We've put it on a
different file to avoid too many
layers in one place, making it easier to work with. If you look closely,
we've separated the tail, mouth, and right
ear into layers. We've also separated the feet, head, body, and ground. When we start animating, you'll better understand why we need to organize the
layers this way.
4. 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 we go to composition,
New Composition. Open a new 1920 by ten AD
composition at 24 frames, give it 6 seconds and name it. As a second step, we will import our Adobe Illustrator
design to import a file, go to File, Import, file, and then select
the desired file. When we import a layered file
in the Import IS option, we must select composition
retain layer sizes. As you can see, a
composition and a folder with layers
have been created. We're 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 view port. 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. This panel allows us to work faster and more intuitively by accessing 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
Window properties. But don't worry,
you don't need to have this panel to
follow the course. It is just a plugin
that allows you to save a little time
but nothing more. 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 at the top, we can find the essential tools.
5. Essential Tools: Hello. In this lesson, we'll look at the
most important tools we'll use during the course. Let's double click to enter the motion design 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 we'll zoom
in and holding down the old key while
clicking we'll 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
or anchor point 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
the touch of a key. Press V for the selection tool. Hold space for the hand tool, Z for the Zoom tool, W 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.
6. Track Mattes: Uh huh. In this lesson, we will learn a technique
that we will use frequently in after
effects, Track mats. Track mats work similarly to layer masks but with
completely separate layers, allowing us to create more
interesting animations. I'll show you how it works so you can understand
it quickly. I want the text to only be
visible inside the rectangle. To do this, click
Toggle Switches until you see the
track Match option. Now select Track Mat for the motion layer and choose the light blue
rectangle layer. You can also drag
from the spiral icon and drag it to the light
blue rectangle layers. Notice that when we
apply the track mat, the layer we used for the
track mat becomes invisible. Just reactivate it and Voila. If we move the text,
it disappears. If you click here, you can
create an inverted track mat, where the text is only visible when it's outside the rectangle. But we don't want that, so
we'll leave it as it is. Now, let's do the same
with texture one. We want it to take the
shape of the ball, so we drag from the spiral to the ball layer and
reactivate the ball layer. We'll repeat this process
with the other two textures. But first, let's position
them where we want them. Following the same
process we've Jain, select texture two and choose the yellow square layer
in the drop down menu. Again, the square layer becomes invisible, so
we'll reactivate it. We'll do the same with
texture three and apply a track matte with
the orange rectangle. Then reactivate the
orange rectangle. Pretty easy, right? To finish, let's do the same with the arm. We want the arm to be visible only when it is inside
this white rectangle. So we'll go to the arm layer, apply a trach mate with
the white rectangle layer, and reactivate the
white rectangle layer. Now it's your turn.
7. Animating Textures: In this lesson, we'll
learn to animate textures easily and quickly
with Adobe after effects. We'll start with texture one, the one inside the bowl. Open the position and rotation
setting for texture one, then create a keyframe for each property by clicking
the stopwatch icon. Move forward by four frames and adjust the
position and rotation. You can see the
time counter here. The goal is to set
keyframes by changing the position and rotation
every four frames. After setting four keyframes, move forward to
four other frames, select the first keyframes, copy them with Control C, and paste them with Control B. Select all the keyframes. Right click and choose
toggle hold keyframe. Next, click on the
Stopwatch while holding down the old key
to add an expression. Type the expression
you see on the screen. Right, click on position, copy the expression,
select rotation, and paste it with Control fee. Press zero on the numeric
keypad to preview. Thanks to this expression, the animation loops infinitely. Now let's do the same
process for texture two. Place the playhead
at the start of the timeline and create a keyframe for
position and rotation. Adjust the position and
rotation every four frames. After setting four keyframes, move forward by
four more frames. Copy the first keyframes with Qt C and paste them with CotV. Select all the keyframes, right click toggle
hold keyframe. Click on the Stopwatch
while holding Alt to apply the
loop out expression. Right click, copy the
expression and paste it into the rotation setting with Control fee. Let's preview. Perfect. Now just one
more texture remains. We've reviewed the process, so let's go a bit faster to
keep things interesting. Again, create keyframes
every four frames. Then copy and paste
the initial keyframes. Right click and select
toggle hold keyframe. To save time, copy the
loopot expression from texture two and paste it
into rotation and position. Now, all our textures are animated. And
8. Tracking Text Animation: In this lesson, we'll start animating the
text for our project. Let's take a look at
the final animation. We'll begin by animating the design text in
the top right corner. Right now, our text is an
Adobe Illustrator layer, which doesn't have
all the features of a text layer
in after effects. To make the text editable, we can create it
directly in after effects or copy it
from Illustrator. We'll copy it from Illustrator. Open your Illustrator file, select the text with
a text tool and copy it using Control C
or Command C on Mac. Next, go back to After Effects. Select the text tool, click the composition panel, and paste the text using
Control V or Command V on Mac. Position the text
where you want it. For better organization, drag
the new text layer next to the Illustrator text layer and hide the Illustrator layer. Now, let's start animating. Open the layer
properties and click the play icon next
to the word animate. You'll see a list of text
properties you can animate. We'll animate the
tracking of the text. Move to the beginning
of the timeline. Create a keyframe
for tracking amount, and set the value to 25. Move forward by 1 second and
set the value back to zero. Select both keyframes and
press F nine to apply es Es, which smooths the acceleration and deceleration
of the animation. Preview your work using the zero key on the
numeric keypad, move to the four second mark and add another keyframe with the same value as
the last one by clicking the little
diamond icon. Move 1 second ahead, copy the first keyframe
using Control C, and paste it with Control V to make the
animation loop seamlessly. Preview the animation again, and now you have your
looping text animation.
9. Dancing Text Animation: In this lesson, we'll continue animating that
to the animation text. As we did in the
previous lesson, copy the text from
Adobe Illustrator. Paste it into after effects and position it using
the selection tool. You can now hide the
Illustrator text layer. To create the bouncing
text animation, go into the text settings, select animate, and
choose position. Go back in and select
rotation as well. Now we've set the text to animate this position
and rotation. Next, click at then
selector and choose Wiggly. With the Wiggly Selector, we can create fun
random animations automatically without needing to set individual keyframes. In the Wiggle selector options, we can adjust the settings. We want to animate each
letter individually, so leave based on
set two characters. Adjust the position value
to 16 on the Y axis, so the text moves
vertically only. Set rotation to four, allowing the text to rotate randomly within a
four degree range. Keep in mind, the
higher the values the more exaggerated
the animation will be. Let's preview the
animation. Looks great. You can also adjust the animation speed using the
wiggles per second option. In this case, I leave it at two, but feel free to experiment with different
speeds to suit your style. To make the animation
more visually appealing, we'll duplicate the layer. But first, to ensure the duplicate matches the
original movement exactly, we need to precompose the layer. Right click the layer, select
precompose, and click Okay. Now, with a precomposed
layer selected, duplicate it using Control
D or Command D on Mac. Select the bottom layer
and apply the fill effect. Pick any color you like. I'll use this tool to
sample an orange color. Finally, select the top layer and move it slightly upward. Let's preview Voila. Your animated text is complete.
10. Track Matte Text Animation: In this lesson,
we'll continue with a third text animation
for our project. As we discussed in Lesson six, we learned how to
create track mats. Using the trach matte
we created earlier, we can animate this
text very easily. But first, let's create
another text layer. Disable the motion layer, then use the text
tool to type the word creative and place it
inside the blue rectangle. For this example, I'm using
the Poppins black font, white color, and the
size of 120 pixels. Let's organize everything a bit. Now, we want the text to only appear when it's
inside the blue rectangle. As we learned in Lesson six, we'll apply a track mat using the light blue
rectangle layer. Remember, if you find it easier, you can also apply the track mat from this drop down menu here. Now we can reactivate
the motion layer. Move it above the rectangle and place it outside
the visible area. Next, we need to
link the movement of the motion layer to the new
text layer we just created. To do this, click the Pick Whip spiral icon on the motion layer and drag
it to the new text layer. Alternatively, you can select the text layer from
this drop down menu. Now, if you move the text layer, the motion layer will
follow its movement. Perfect. Let's
create an animation. Move to the start of
the timeline and create a keyframe for the position
of the text layer. Go forward by 1 second and
adjust its vertical position. So it disappears
below the rectangle, leaving the word motion in the center of the
light blue rectangle. Select both keyframes and press F nine to smooth the
acceleration and deceleration. Let's preview. Looks great. The goal is to synchronize this animation with the
animation of the word design. To do that, select
the design layer and press to see where its
keyframes are located. Go to the location
of the keyframes, then copy the keyframes
we just created using Control C and paste them with Control V to ensure the
animation looks perfectly. We need a first keyframe
to match the last. To do this, select the
keyframes. You just pasted. Right click, go to Keyframe Assistant and choose
time reverse keyframes. Let's preview again. File.
11. Arm Animation: In this lesson, we will learn how to animate the hand
balance in the ball. To animate our arm, we first need to link
the layers that make up the arm just as we did
in the previous lesson. Right now, if we move the arm, it moves independently, but we want the hand and the ball
to follow its movement. To do this, we link the ball
to the hand and the hand to the arm we also need to link texture one to
the ball now moving the arm, the hand, and the ball
will follow its motion. Great. Let's start with
the simplest animation. We'll create an animation
that aligns in time with the animations we've already created for the text
in previous lessons. Go to the 1 second mark and create a keyframe for
the position property. Then go to the beginning
of the timeline and move the arm downward so we can see the design text when
it's fully expanded. Select the keyframes and press F nine to smooth out the
acceleration and deceleration. Next, move to the
four second mark and copy and paste the
keyframes you just created. Now we want the
first keyframe to become the last one to
create a perfect loop. To do this, select
the keyframes, right click and go to keyframe assistant time
reverse keyframes. Let's take a look.
And there you go. The first part is
done. Next, we want to create the effect
of the balancing to prevent the ball from
falling to the ground. For this, we'll use a
more advanced version of an expression you might already know, the wiggle expression. Open the rotation
property of the m, hold down Alt, and click
on the Stopwatch icon. Then paste the expression
you see on the screen. Don't worry. I've
provided a file with the expression so you
can copy it easily. You can adjust the frequency and amplitude values to your liking. With this expression, we can
create random animations with a very natural feel and the best part is that
we can loop them. All you need to do is define the duration
of your composition. In this case, the
composition lasts 6 seconds, so we set 6 seconds in the
second to loop parameter. To speed things up, right click, copy the expression, and
paste it onto the hand. Now, let's preview it. We've created an
amazing animation in record time thanks
to expressions.
12. Character Animation. Part 1: Let's start by
importing the CAT file. To import a file,
double click on the project panel and
select the desired file. When importing a layered file, make sure to choose composition retain
layer sizes in the import as option. All right. Now let's double click to
enter the CAT composition. First, as we saw in
earlier lessons, we link the movements of the
ear and mouth to the head. Then we'll set the anchor
points for the ear, the body, and the head. Anchor points are the reference
points around which we want a layer to rotate or scale. Right now, if we rotate the ear, it rotates from the
center of the layer. If we use the anchor
point tool and place it at the point where the
ear connects to the head, the rotation will look
much more natural. The same applies to
scaling a layer, for example, the head. By default, it scales from
the center of the layer. However, if we move the anchor point of
the head to its base, the movement becomes
more natural because the head is
resting on the ground. Finally, we'll place
the anchor point for the body at its base
for the same reason. All right, we're ready
to start animating. We don't need to parent any additional layers since the body won't change position. Let's start with the mouth, open its scale property, and create a keyframe at the
beginning of the timeline. Move forward 1.5 seconds and
reduce its scale to 20%. Select the keyframes and press F nine to smooth
out the animation. Al plus click on the Stopwatch icon and type
the following expression. Loop out ping pong. This creates an infinite loop that alternates between the two keyframes.
Let's take a look. Great. Next, we'll
animate the head. Open the scale
property for the head. Click on this symbol
here to disable constrained
proportions so we can modify only the vertical axis. Create a keyframe at the
beginning of the timeline, move forward 1 second
and 12 frames, then reduce the
vertical scale to 90%. You can check the time
counter here for accuracy. Again, select the key frames and press F nine for
smooth transitions. To save time, right click, copy the loop out and paste it onto the head scale property.
Let's see how it looks. Perfect. Now, to
save even more time, we'll reuse the head
animation for the body. We go to the beginning
of the timeline, select the body
layer, once again, deactivate the constrained
proportions option, so we can animate only
the Y axis and paste the animation using control
V or command via Mac. Adjust the second
keyframe by moving to its position and reducing
the vertical scale to 80%. Let's see how it turned out. Perfect. In the next lesson, we'll continue animating
our little cat.
13. Character Animation. Part 2: Let's continue animating
the cat's ear. Move forward to 2
seconds and 12 frames in the timeline and start rotating the ear from side to
side every five frames. We'll create four key frames. Next, move forward about
1 second and copy and paste the initial
keyframe so that the animation ends the
same way it started. Once again, apply EZ Es with
F nine to the keyframes. Let's take a look
at how it looks. Perfect. To finish,
let's animate the tail. Select the tail layer and
apply the wave warp effect. Set the direction downward, matching the direction we want the tail
animation to follow. In the pinning option,
select top edge. Now, let's adjust the
wave width value. I'm going to increase it
quite a bit to around 200. I'll leave the wave
height as it is, but feel free to experiment with different values.
Let's take a look. Okay, it looks a bit strange. To fix this, we'll apply the grow bounds effect and
place it above wave warp. Grow bounds solves
many visual issues that the wave warp
effect can cause. Let's preview it
again. Much better. If you still
encounter any issues, you can increase the pixel's
value until it's fixed. I will lower the wave
speed slightly to create a more organic animation.
Let's take another look. Much better now. To finish, return to the main composition. Deactivate the cat
layer we were using as a reference and drag the
cat composition into place. Position it where you want. Now let's preview Valla
Our wonderful animation is ready to be exported
and shared with the world.
14. 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 Encoda 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
will be ready. Once the process has finished, you can open your
video and start sharing it on your
social networks.
15. Final Thoughts: I want to congratulate you
for completing this course. Throughout these lessons, you have learned a lot of things. Prepare your designs
in Adobe Illustrator, how the after effects
interface works. The most important tools, how track mats works, animate characters,
textures and text. Apply expressions and effects, and some tips to speed
up your work process. And all this in just over
30 minutes of the course. Now is the perfect time to apply everything
you have learned during the course by creating
an animation from scratch. You can use the course files or animate your designs.
It's up to you. Go ahead and upload your
projects to the course Project Gallery and tag me
in your Instagram post. I'll be happy to review
them and give you feedback. I value your opinion very much. If you like the course,
please leave me a review. I'll be very grateful.
Happy learning.
Guillermo Ortega, Creative Director
