After Effects, Animation Day 1

Screencast

Objectives

  • Understand what After Effects is and isn’t
  • Learn how to create a composition and change its settings
  • Become familiar with the software’s workspace
  • Learn the basics of keyframe animation and a layer-based workflow within the software

Link to files: https://files.learnsoftware.org/after-effects-animation/

Outline

Hook: Show a demo reel that illustrates what After Effects can be used for.

Introduction:

  • Names, positions, goals for the class etc.
  • Find out their experience/comfort level with After Effects
  • Explain that this courses focuses on the basics (e.g. we won’t be going in depth on specific effects)

What is After Effects:

  • Explain the main function(s)/purpose of After Effects (including what it isn’t: not for video editing, not for graphic design, not for frame-by-frame hand drawn animation).
  • “After Effects is like animating in PowerPoint, except significantly more powerful and complicated.”

Getting Started:

  • Create a new project and composition
    • Explain what compositions are (e.g. like creating a new timeline in Premiere or a new artboard in Illustrator).
    • Width and Height = 1920 x 1080
    • Change to 24 frames a second for this project
    • Change duration to 5 seconds for this project
    • Give the composition a name before clicking “OK”
    • Show how to change composition settings afterwards (composition > composition settings)
    • Show how to save a project
    • Explain the difference between a project file and a playable video file (we will cover exporting and rendering on day 4)

Becoming Familiar with the Workspace:

  • Take some time to explain how the workspace is structured and functions 
    • Project Panel/Effects
    • Composition panel
      • Zoom options
      • Toggle transparency display
    • Effects/Align/Paragraph side panel
    • Timeline/Layers panel
    • Effects panel (appears in the same area as project panel when a layer is selected)
  • Introduce the basic navigation tools
    • Zoom: Scroll Wheel OR comma & period
    • Zoom (Timeline): Alt + Scroll Wheel
    • Pan (Viewport & Timeline): Hold space + click and drag
    • Move forward or backward one frame: Command + arrow keys
    • Play Animation: Spacebar
  • Understanding the timeline and layers:
    • Show how the newly added images have become layers within the composition and are represented on the timeline (same length as composition by default but can be shortened or lengthened)
    • Hide and reveal the top layer to show the layer underneath
    • Play around with the layer order

Import Files from Day 1

  • File -> Import, OR COMMAND + I, OR simply drag files from explorer into the project tab
  • Drag at least two of the images into the composition (timeline area)

Basic Transformations

  1. Introduce the basic transformations we can make to our layers using the following shortcuts (present each student with a keyboard shortcut handout: Group Box folder > training > teaching materials > shortcut bookmarks)
    • Position: P (can also just click and drag in the viewer)
      • You may need to explain the X-Y coordinate system After Effects uses for determining position (X = horizontal, Y = vertical)
    • Scale: S (can also just click and drag on of the little squares that surround the selected layer in the viewer)
    • Rotation: R
    • Opacity (transparency): T
    • Anchor Point: A

Keyframes

  • Definition/what they do
  • What they look like and how to use them in After Effects
    • Use stopwatch icon to enable a specific property within a layer for animation (automatically creating the first keyframe) – (can be done in the layer area and in the effect controls tab)
      • Point out how once the stopwatch is enabled, any changes made to the property will automatically create a keyframe
    • Playhead position on timeline determines where the keyframe will be created
    • Move, edit, and delete existing keyframes
    • Reveal all keyframes/animated properties on a selected layer (“U”)

Example Activity:

  • Animate one of the basic transformations of a layer using keyframes (e.g. make one of the images move from one side of the composition to the other or change opacity)

If there’s extra time:

  • Introduce effects (e.g. Gaussian Blur, Tint, Brightness & Contrast, Glow)
    • Show how you can stack/layer effects
    • Show how you can animate effect properties just like transformations via layers or effect controls tab
    • Activity option: Could give students some time to explore the different effects

Conclusion

  • Recap: Today we learned
    • What After Effects is
    • What compositions are and how to create them
    • How layers work
    • How to position, scale, and rotate a layer
    • What keyframes are and how to use them