How to Make Objects Float in Adobe After Effects

Make an object appear to float in Adobe After Effects by animating a mask of the object over the imported video footage from which you made the mask. Masks are shapes you create with the Pen tool, and you use them to hide or reveal any portion of video footage or a still image. The type of animation you'll make in this project is called a "keyframe" animation. Keyframes are animation frames marking the start and end of an animated sequence. Once you define these frames, After Effects creates the remaining frames of the sequence.

Instructions

1. Click the "File" menu and then click the "Import" sub-menu. Navigate to a video file that has an object you want to make appear to float and double-click on the file. After Effects will display a thumbnail of the video in the Project pane at screen left. Drag this thumbnail onto the Composition window to make the footage editable.

2. Click the toolbar icon shaped like a nib pen to run the "Pen" tool, which lets you create masks of portions of video footage.

3. Click a point on the outline of the object that you want to float and then drag to another point on the outline. Continue dragging to and clicking on points around the outline until you have traced the image completely. After Effects will block out all portions of the video except the portion you traced.

4. Repeat the procedure in Step 1 to drag the thumbnail of the imported video to the Composition panel. This action creates another layer of the video, one that hides the masked object you traced.

5. Click the top item in the "Timeline" panel and drag it below the bottommost item. This swaps the positions of the layers so that your traced object now appears atop the imported video footage.

6. Click the "Transform" item in the row labeled "Shape" in the Timeline panel to expose the button for creating keyframes, which you can use to animate the traced object.

7. Click the stopwatch icon to the left of the "Position" row to create a keyframe. Drag the vertical bar in the "Timeline" window to frame 50 or so to move the current time pointer of the animation forward in time.

8. Click inside the object you traced and then drag it to any new location in the Composition panel. After Effects will record this movement as new animation frames. Click the Preview panel's "Play" button to view the animation of your floating object.

References

• "Adobe After Effects CS5 Classroom in a Book"; Adobe Creative Team; 2010