After Effects in a Day

Section 1

Intro to After Effects

• The Project, Composition, & Timeline panels
• Importing a Layered File with all its Layers Intact
• Using Title Safety to ensure TV viewers can see the text

Working with Keyframes

• Animating in the Class Names
• Previewing in real time
• Adding Easing
• Sliding Over the Entire Class List
• Animating the Icons
• Animating the “In a Day” Title
• Adding Motion Blur
• Trimming Off Extra Time

Outputting to GIF

• Exporting from After Effects
• Making the Animated GIF in Photoshop
• Reducing the Number of Frames

Section 2

Noble Logo Animation: Anchor Points & Animating with Overshoot

• Converting an Illustrator file from CMYK to RGB
• Animating the black square to overshoot its final size
• Changing where the rectangles scale from by moving layer anchor points
• Setting layer in points using the In column
• Keeping vector layers sharp as they scale up

Noble Logo: Masking Layers & Parenting

• Pre-composing layers
• Hiding the letters before they animate using masks
• Moving the entire logo away from the rising letters using parenting

Noble Logo: Rotation, Fade-Outs, & Rendering

• Adding anticipation keyframes before a major animation
• Animating the Rotation property
• Adding a fade to white using a solid color layer
• How to find missing project files

Optional Bonus: Preparing an Illustrator File for Animation

• Resizing artboards & vector graphics
• Setting up layers to individually animate elements in After Effects

Bonus: HBO Intro Sequence

Importing Flattened Files & Adding Easing

• Importing a layered PSD as a merged file
• Isolating HBO logo, Feature & Presentation text using masks
• Creating fade-ins & fade-outs
• Adding automatic easing to slow down portions of the animation

Working with Numerous Layers

• Familiarizing ourselves with the Photoshop layout: layers extending outside canvas bounds, guides
• Scaling up each tile using a single null object and Parenting
• Randomizing the order in which the photos animate in
• Orchestrating the exit animation so the tiles fall down in diagonal groups

Vector Layouts

• Animating vector shapes using the Trim Paths feature
• Continuous rasterization
• More null objects: animating the three pay television content descriptors

Putting It All Together & Adding Audio

• Sequencing multiple compositions
• Animating like an editor: overlapping shots & using blending modes
• Adding audio to a composition