After Effects Animation Tutorial

Animation used to be hand drawn cell by cell, but the progression of technology and an innovation known as "key frames" has expanded the animation world to the home market. Using a basic home computer, users can now animate and create effects with Adobe's sophisticated After Effects program. The program has advanced features, and can create intricate animations for cinema, web or home viewing. Once learning the basics of the program, users can develop experience with bigger projects and more detailed animations.

Set Up

Open Adobe After Effects and a new blank project will automatically begin. Right-click in the "Project Window" and click on "New Composition." Choose your video settings. Default settings are "NSTC DV," or "HDTV." Use the "Web Video" option for streaming animations on websites like YouTube. Right-click in the "Project Window" and click on "Import" to import the files for your project. Audio, video, pictures and animated GIFs are compatible with the program. Organize the media by creating a new folder.

Timeline

Click and drag an object to the timeline window to make it active within the project. The object will automatically appear in the composition. Click and drag the object around to place it within the composition. Drag it off of the composition if you want it to start off of the screen. Adjust the scale, rotation and anchor points by clicking on the arrow to left of the file name in the "Timeline Window." Set the start point for each object, and click the small lock icon to keep them there until the animation begins.

Key Frames

Start the animation process by enabling the key frames for each object. For example, if you have a picture of a dog scaled at 50 percent, this is how you would animate it to grow to 100 percent. Drag the timeline navigator to the starting point. Click on the stopwatch icon next to the "Scale" option underneath the dog file name. This enables key frames. Drag the timeline navigator to the end of the clip and adjust the scale to "100 percent." A small yellow diamond will appear on the timeline to indicate a new key frame. Press "Enter" to render a preview. The animation will show the dog slowly growing to 100 percent. Add in other key frames for different factors like rotation and position.

3D Animation

Turn the animation into a 3D animation by applying and adjusting a simple effect. Decide which objects you want to "pop" out in 3D. Go to "Effects," "Perspective" and "3D Glasses." In the "Effect Control" window, click the drop menu to select the "Red--Blue" 3D effect. Choose the object for the "Left View" and "Right View" options. Change the "Convergence" setting to see how far out the image will go. If the meter is moved too far, the image will look distorted.

Animation Presets

Skip all the custom animation and save time by applying animation presets. These presets include a large collection of different animation that can be applied and tweaked to any object in a project. The animations are broken down into different categories that can be seen by going to "Animation" and "Browse Presets." If it does not load, click "Window" and choose "Effects and Presets." Drag and drop a preset like "Wiggle," "Fade Out" and "Scribble."

References

• Creative Cow