© Creating Motion Graphics
If you’re relatively new to animating in After Effects, this tutorial is for
you. In it, we will set up a project, import several different types of
footage items,and build a composition using a number of layers.These
layers will have their Scale, Opacity, and Position properties animated,
and will be arranged in time to synchronize to a soundtrack.
Trail HeadIn addition to using a variety of animation moves, Getting Animated is
a good workout for importing various types of footage, including lay-
ered Illustrator files and other After Effects projects.We’ll animate stills
to make them blend in with moving footage, look at an already-timed-
1
Getting Animated
BONUSTUTORIAL
01A tutorial for those just starting out, teaching importing, managing layers,and animation of the basic transform properties.
Chapter 2:importing footage items
Chapter 4:keyframing, animating position
Chapter 5:animating scale & opacity
Chapter 7:Easy Ease
Chapter 8:managing layers
Chapter 9:trimming layers
Chapter 10:time-stretching
Chapter 19 (optional):applying effects
Chapter 30 (optional):spotting audio
Effects Used:Hue & Saturation (optional)
Conceptscovered in:
STYLESTEP-BY-STEP
DIFFICULTY LEVELEASY
Click on the image above to play the final movie.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
out audio track for hints on timing, and take advantage of
Hold keyframes to give us jumpy animation moves.
If you have a problem playing the above movie, open
the CD Tutorial Projects>BT01-GettingAnimated fold-
er on the CD, open the BT01-GettingAnimated.mov and
play it. Then launch After Effects – we’ll be building a
project from scratch.
Preparing the IngredientsWhen you launch After Effects, it will automatically create a
new project for you. If you’ve already been playing around
and want to start a new one from scratch,close the Project
window, and type Command+N to create a new one.
Step 1: Let’s start by importing most of our footage.
We’ve chosen an environmental theme for this tutorial, so
select File>Import>Footage Files,navigate to the SOURCES
folder either on your CD or that you may have copied to
your hard drive, open the Movies folder, and import
AB_EstabMixedCuts.mov (a shot from Artbeats of some
towering trees) and CM_PlanetE_loop.mov (a 3D ani-
mation of the letter “e” rotating, described in the sidebar
About That E).
Then navigate to the Stills folder and import
CI_LoggingTrucks_TAI011.jpg (a photo of logging
trucks, © Corbis Images) plus DV_TheBody_hand.tif (an
image of a hand pressed against a translucent surface
from Digital Vision’s The Body CD).
Step 2: We like to keep things organized in our Project
window,so let’s create a folder to keep our footage files in.
You can select the menu item File>New Folder,click on the
folder icon at the bottom left of the Project window, or
use the keyboard shortcut Command+Option+Shift+N.
A folder named Untitled 1 will be created and selected;
hit Return to enable the name for editing, type in
SOURCES, and hit Return again to accept the new name.
Drag your four footage items into it, and twirl it open to
reveal these items.
Step 3: We’ve done a little bit of work for you ahead of
time, in that we’ve selected a piece of music,and “spotted”
2
About That EThe rotating “e” used in this
tutorial was rendered in Play’s
ElectricImage 3D program
(www.electricimage.com).
The letter was created in Adobe
Illustrator using the font Futura
Book, converted to outlines, and
saved as an EPS file. It was then
opened inside ElectricImage
using Zaxwerks EPS Invigorator
(www.zaxwerks.com) – a great
tool that can take an EPS file and
apply any one of a variety of
bevels and sweeps to create
3D models.
It was then textured using the
aFraktal shader from Triple D
Tools (www.tripledtools.com),
using a preset created by Mark
Lewno.The letter was set to make
a full rotation over a time period
of 04:08, which corresponded
with the pace of our music.
It was rendered with an alpha
channel – so you could place
another layer behind it and
still see it through the letter.
A version of EPS Invigorator
now exists for After Effects, so you
can create models from Illustrator
art directly inside this program –
you even have the ability to use
layers inside a composition as
textures. Info on Invigorator in
included in the CD>Free Plug-ins>
_Other Packages_FYI folder.
interesting points in the music to time our ani-
mation to. This has been saved off in its own
project, inside the same folder as this tutorial.
Select File>Import>Project, locate the Project
named BT01_musicspotted.aep, and click on
OK.A folder will be created in your project with
the same name. Twirl it open as well; it will
include a comp called BT01 music spotted,
and an audio file named CM_Downshift.mov
(created by co-author Chris Meyer, including
among other elements percussion from the
Spectrasonics Liquid Grooves CD and guitars
from Q-Up Arts’ Heavy Guitar Library).
Drag the audio file CM_Downshift.mov into
your SOURCES folder,and drag the comp BT01
music spotted outside of its own folder.
Rename the comp by selecting it, hitting
Return, and typing in your own name, such as
BT01*starter. Then delete the BT01_music-
spotted.aep folder – we won’t need it anymore.
Step 4: Double-click your renamed comp to open it. It will contain
our audio file, with a series of layer markers and comments already
added noting where beats land and sections of the music change. If
you cannot see the audio waveform at this point, select the audio layer
and type LL quickly.Note how certain peaks in it line up with our mark-
ers.You can preview the audio by pressing the period on the keypad;
watch as the current time line moves through these markers and
peaks, and get a feel for the music.This technique of spotting audio is
described in detail in Chapter 30.
Once you’re satisfied you have an idea about how our soundtrack is
structured, twirl up the Waveform display – it slows down screen
redraws considerably. Zoom in a little on the Time Layout window to
make it easier to place these keyframes more precisely; + and – along
the top row of your keyboard is the shortcut to do this.
3
Your Project window half waythrough Step 3: The four footageitems you manually imported, anda folder holding the compositionyou imported with our music in it.
We’ve pre-spotted importanthit points in the soundtrack foryou, and placed layer markersto give us reference points onwhere we might want to placeour keyframes later.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
Popping ScaleStep 5: With the current time marker at the start of the comp (time
00:00),drag the footage item CM_PlanetE_loop.mov from the Project
window into the Time Layout window.This will center it in your comp
automatically. You can scrub around the Time Layout window by
Option+dragging the blue current time marker; the Comp window will
update to show how the “e” rotates over time. This will provide the
background for our intro.
Step 6: To emphasize the three percussion hits at the start of our
music,we’re going to make this rotating logo jump out at us in time with
these hits.Return the current time marker to the beginning of the comp.
With the CM_PlanetE_loop.mov clip selected, type S to reveal its
Scale parameter. Click on the stopwatch icon to the left of the word
Scale in the Time Layout window; this enables animation and sets the
first keyframe at the current time and value. Also set the layer to Best
Quality (Command+U), since we’re going to be altering its Scale, and
want it to antialias cleanly.
Since we want our letter to jump, we will use Hold keyframes. Make
sure this first Scale keyframe is selected (it will be highlighted), and
then select Layer>Toggle Hold Keyframe (Command+Option+H is the
shortcut). Then click on the Scale parameter in the Time Layout win-
dow; a dialog box will open.Type in 30 and click OK.
Press Shift, and move the current time marker so that it snaps to the
next layer marker on our soundtrack layer – it should be at 00:12 in time.
This lines up with our next drum hit.Enter 70% for the Scale.Then move
to the next layer marker at 00:24, and enter 100%.
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In Step 6, we keyframe theScale of our rotating letterwith Hold keyframes,causing it to jump forwardin time with the music.
Snap Draggin’Remember you can hold down the Shift key whiledragging to make the timemarker (and almost everythingelse moveable in the TimeLayout window) snap to itemssuch as markers, keyframes,and layer in and out points.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
Forward the current time marker to the next layer marker, labeled 2,
at 02:04. Then hit N on the keyboard to set the end of the work area,
and perform a RAM preview of your animation so far by hitting 0 on
the numeric keypad.
Flying Up TextStep 7: For our text, we’ve chosen a quote from Confucius:
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” We have already type-
set this as two phrases in Illustrator, with each word or line of text on
its own layer. For the first half of the saying, we’ve decided to make it
zoom forward over our rotating letter, fading out as it gets close. And
to make it more interesting, we’re going to make each word in this first
phrase zoom up individually.
To do this, we need to get each Illustrator layer in as
a separate After Effects layer. You could go the normal
File>Import>Footage File route three times, selecting
one layer each time, but there’s a slicker way:
File>Import>Illustrator as Comp. Select everything-
has.ai and click OK; a composition plus a folder both
named the same as the file will be added to your
Project window.Delete the comp (we won’t be needing
it), drag the folder into your SOURCES folder, and twirl
it open. It contains three footage items: one for each
layer of the Illustrator file (and line of text).
Step 8: Line up the current time marker with the
soundtrack’s layer marker labeled “2” at 02:04. Select
these three Illustrator layers and drag them into your
Time Layout window, and set all three to Best quality
(Command + U). Since Illustrator art automatically cre-
ates an alpha channel, you’ll be able to see the rotat-
ing character behind them in the Comp window.
Back in the Time Layout window, notice that these
three layers sorted alphabetically; this is not the order
they are being used in the comp. To keep things
straight, deselect them (Command+Shift+A or F2), and in the Time
Layout window drag the one that starts with everything to the top,
then drag the one that starts with has underneath it.
Step 9: We’re going to start each word successively on the next three
drum beats, and want the last one to finish by the time the body of
5
Step 7: Our Project window afterimporting the first portion of ourIllustrator text as a composition,and doing a little housekeeping.Since each Illustrator layer came inas a separate footage item, we cananimate each word individually.
QuotableThe Confucius quote came fromthe Nature Conservancy book“The Quotable Nature Lover”(edited by John A. Murray,ISBN 1-55821-942-0).
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
the music starts at the soundtrack’s layer marker 3 (04:08).We also want
each word to be on for the same amount of time. How long is that?
Time for a little math (oh, don’t cringe):
Line up the time marker to the third of the drum hits; the time dis-
play should read 02:28. Since our Timecode Base (File>Preferences>
Time) is set to 30 frames per second, that works out to (2 x 30) + 28 =
88 frames. Our target end is at 04:08, or (4 x 30) + 8 = 128 frames. The
difference is 128 – 88 = 40 frames, or 1 second and 10 frames (01:10) at
30 frames per second. Now we know how long the third word should
play for.And since we want all three words to animate identically (with
just their start points offset in time), we can use this timing as a guide
for all three.Therefore, we’re going to edit all three layers identically, to
save us a bit of work and further math.
Step 10: Go to 03:14 in the Time Layout window – this is 02:04, where
our three text layers start,plus 01:10, the duration we calculated above.
Select all three of our text layers,and type S, then Shift+T,to reveal their
Scale and Opacity parameters. Turn on animation for these two para-
meters for all three layers. While you’re here, since we want the layers
to fade out at their end points, set the Opacity for all three at this point
to 0%. Then type Option+] to trim all their end points to this frame,
thereby setting their durations.
Step 11: We like to time a lot of our animations to musical durations,
to lock them in better with the soundtrack. From scaling our rotating
character earlier, we learned that the initial drum hits are 12 frames
apart – so let’s use this as a first guess for our fade out durations. Back
up 12 frames in time – Shift+Page Up, then hit the Page Up key two
more times to back up 10 then 2 frames – and enter Opacity values of
100% for our three text layers.A shortcut to do this is to select all three
layers, click on the Opacity value for one, type in 100, and click on OK
6
Step 10: Once we’ve calculate howlong each text animation will be,we can enter their animation as agroup. Here, we have our secondkeyframes entered; now we needto go back and time and set theirstarting Opacity and Scale.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
or hit Return – the Opacity for all selected layers will be set to this value.
Step 12: Now go back to the start of this musical phrase (time 02:04),
and enter a nice beginning Scale value for all three text layers. We
thought 40% worked well; you can try that or enter your own value.
Step 13: Finally,spread these three words out in time.The everything
layer can stay where it’s at (02:04).Line up the current time marker with
the next layer marker in our soundtrack (02:16), select the has layer,
and hit the [ key – it will now jump to start at this new current time.Set
the current time to the next soundtrack layer marker (02:28), select the
beauty layer, and hit [ again.
With the time marker at 04:08,hit N to reset the end of the work area
to this point; now preview the result – you should have a nice, stag-
gered zoom and fade for each word.
When done, twirl up the parameters for each of these layers; we’re
going to need the space in the Time layout window later.
Now that we’ve finished our first group of text, it’s time to tell you
about a little trick we exploited.You may have noticed that as the text
scaled towards you, the top and bottom lines also traveled up and
down the screen, respectively – and you didn’t even have to set any
Position keyframes.This is a side effect of scaling: If an object does not
7
Step 13: Each line of text now hasits own animation, offset to startwith each drum beat alreadymarked for the soundtrack alongthe bottom.
start out in the center of the layer, the more you increase its scale, the
further from the center it will seem to travel.Worked great for us here,
but this can be a source of real frustration if you’re trying to carefully
balance Scale and Position.Fortunately,you can control where the “cen-
ter” is around which you scale – it’s called the Anchor Point (discussed
in Chapter 6).We’ll be working with this more in Bonus Tutorial 02. But
in the meantime, we have our own tutorial to finish here…
Fast Movies & Slow TextNow that we’ve finished our tricky text animation, the rest of this
project is relatively simple.
Step 14: Make sure the current time marker is aligned with our
soundtrack’s layer marker named “3 bass”– that’s where the body of
the music kicks in. Then go up to your sources subfolder and drag
the footage item AB_EstabMixedCuts.mov into the Time Layout
window.Move the work area (the bar with the handle in the middle
above the timeline in the Time Layout window) so that it overlaps
the second set of text and part of this clip, and preview to see how
it works.
Step 15: The cut looks good, but the footage moves a bit slow for
the driving pace of the music underneath.This clip is relatively long
– 10 seconds compared to 16 seconds for our entire composition –
so let’s see if we can get away with speeding it up.
Make sure AB_EstabMixedCuts.mov is selected in the Time
Layout window, and then select Layer>Time Stretch.Enter a Stretch
Factor of 50% (stretches smaller than 100% speed up playback), and
make sure the Hold In Place option Layer In-point is selected, so we
won’t lose our timing for the beginning of this clip. Click on OK (or hit
Return), and preview again to see if you like the change; it looks like an
improvement to us.
Step 16: Let’s not forget the second phrase of
text! This time, we’re going to bring it on and
zoom it up as one unit, so we don’t need to bring
it in as separate layers. So in this case, type
Command+I (or go File>Import>Footage File),
select noteveryone.ai, and hit Return (or click on
Import).You’ll be presented with another dialog box to choose a layer;
leave at its default, Merged. Now all three lines of text will be merged
into one footage item.
8
When importing a layered Illustratorfile, you have the choice of import-ing just one layer, or all layersmerged into one footage item.
To speed up the playback of a clip,you need to enter a “stretch” valuesmaller than 100%.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
Step 17: Place the current time marker back to 04:08 – the start of
this section of music (and our AB_EstabMixedCuts.mov footage)
– and drag noteveryone.ai into the Time Layout window.Set it to Best
quality, and type S followed by Shift+T to reveal its Scale and Opacity
parameters. Enable keyframe animation for both of these. Enter the
same Scale value as you used for the individual words (i.e., 40%).
Step 18: We’re going to keep this group of text on screen longer (par-
tially because there’s more words to read – 5 versus 3, plus the attri-
bution to Socrates), so a more languid animation pace is probably
called for. As part of this, we’re going to fade the text on.
9
Set the Opacity for this layer to
0% at it start. Then notice that
we’ve placed another layer mark-
er on our soundtrack, just past the
3 bass marker – this is for the next
major beat in the music. (Have
you made a mental note by now
to make sure you read Chapter 30
so you can do this music spotting
yourself? Good.) Locate the cur-
rent time marker on top of it, and
set this new text layer’s Opacity to
100% – this will be our fade up
timing. You can adjust your work
area and preview it if you like.
That’s the start of our text ani-
mation; how and where are we
going to end it? First, we need to
decide how long these layers are
going to be on screen.
Step 18: We have our first main footage item in place, and havestarted animating our text over it. Footage courtesy Artbeats/Establishments Mixed Cuts.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
Pacing & PanningCounting the layer markers attached to our soundtrack, we see we
have four sections between the start of our AB_EstabMixedCuts.mov
footage above (at marker 3), and marker 7 where the driving portion
of the music ends. So let’s divide those four sections up evenly
between our two main clips.
Step 19: Line up the current time marker with soundtrack layer mark-
er 5 (08:16), drag the footage item CI_LoggingTrucks_TAI1011.jpg
to the Time Layout window, and set it to Best quality. We picked this
image as a juxtaposition to the nice pan around the trees before it. If
you like, adjust your work area bar to cover the transition between
these two cuts, and preview.
Step 20: Still images, such as CI_LoggingTrucks, can be a bit of a let-
down after seeing moving footage. Fortunately, it’s larger in size than
our composition, which means we have the option of moving our vir-
tual camera around on it to give it some life.This technique is discussed
in much greater detail in Bonus Tutorial 02, but let’s do a quick and
dirty version of it now.
We want to give the impression of the trucks coming down the road,
so we’re going to animate this photo’s Position. First, position the layer
so that the trucks are roughly centered in the Comp window, and
reduce its Scale until you can see all three trucks comfortably.With this
layer selected, hold down the Option key and use the + and – keys on
the numeric keypad to adjust the Scale in increments of 1%; add the
Shift key to go increments of 10%.You can twirl down Scale (type S) if
10
Steps 20 & 21: To give some actionto our still photo, we animated itsposition to have the trucks traveldown the frame. You can see thePosition path drawn here in theComp window. Logging trucksphoto © Corbis Images.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
you like; if you do, you can also Option+drag to the right of the word
Scale in the Time Layout window and take advantage of the popup
slider. A Scale of about 70% seems pretty good to us.
Option+drag the photo around the Comp window to get a good
initial framing, with maybe just two of the trucks visible, offset to the
top left of the frame. Hit P to twirl down Position, and enable keyframe
animation at this time (08:16).
Step 21: Line up the current time marker with the soundtrack’s layer
marker 7 (12:24 in the timeline), adjust its Position to frame it to taste,
pulling the trucks down and to the right so they seem to be travelling
down their road. Be careful not to drag the photo so far that you start
to uncover part of the comp’s background.You might need to increase
your Scale slightly from your first guess to cover for a larger movement.
Also trim the end of this layer by typing Option+] while the current
time marker is at this second keyframe.
Set the work area to cover your move,so you can preview it.To set your
work area precisely, hit N while at this second keyframe to set the work
area’s end point,then go back to your first logging keyframe and hit B to
set its beginning.Set the layer to Best quality,and preview the animation.
Go ahead and tweak your keyframes until you’re happy with them.
Step 22: Now that we have our two main shots locked down, let’s go
back and look at the transition between them. Set the current time
marker to somewhere during the AB_EstabMixedCuts.mov shot, hit
B to reset the start of the work area, and preview.
It’s a matter of taste at this point,but we personally find the transition
between the two a little abrupt,especially since each one lasts over not
one, but two measures of the music – you could begin to wonder why
there isn’t a hard cut on every downbeat.So let’s soften that transition.
Go to soundtrack marker 5 (08:16).With CI_LoggingTrucks still select-
ed, type Shift+T to twirl down its Opacity parameter, and enable key-
framing for Opacity.Set its value to 0%,since we’ll be fading this layer up.
You’ll notice we already placed another layer marker on our sound-
track one beat after marker 5; let’s use that for our fade duration. Line
up the current time marker with this layer marker (at 09:02), and enter
an Opacity value of 100% for the CI_LoggingTrucks layer.Preview,and
tweak the timing of the second keyframe if you please – just make sure
you don’t place it past the end of the AB_EstabMixedCuts.mov layer;
otherwise, there will be nothing to crossfade from.
11
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
Step 23: Time to tie up loose ends. Locate the current time marker to
equal your second Opacity keyframe for the CI_LoggingTrucks layer.
We want to maximize the zoom up for the text, so enter a Scale value
of 100% for the noteveryone.ai layer at this point in time (just as it
disappears). Then select both the noteveryone.ai and AB_Estab-
MixedCuts.mov layers, and type Option+] to trim their out points.
Keeping layers trimmed like this prevents them from accidentally
appearing on screen later when we don’t want them,and also can save
rendering time.
A Snappy EndingStep 24: Time for our grand finale. To be symbolic, we’ve decided to
use a hand in a “halt!” pose immediately after the scene with the log-
ging trucks, timed with when the music suddenly ends.
Locate to the soundtrack’s layer marker 7 (12:24), and drag the
footage item DV_TheBody_hand.tif into the Time Layout window.
Set the work area to extend to the end of the comp, and preview.
Step 25: Same problem as with the logging trucks before: A still
image can be boring, especially when they follow moving ones – so
let’s animate it. The music ends with three punctuating drum hits;
let’s have the hand strike three different poses on those hits, echo-
ing the jumping animation of the rotating character at the start of
our project.
With the layer DV_TheBody_hand.tif selected, type P followed by
Shift+S to reveal its Position and Scale parameters. Enable keyframing
for both. Select both keyframes, and then select Layer>Toggle Hold
Keyframe (Command+Option+H). This will make the action jump
between keyframes, rather than smoothly interpolate.
12
Step 23: We’ve edited our twomain footage items, with a crossdissolve at their transition.We’ve also trimmed any layers notto run past when we need them.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
For this first keyframe, reduce the Scale to make the hand nearly as
small as you can while still covering the Comp window, and shift its
Position to some point you like.Then move to the second ending drum
hit at 13:07 (you may need to zoom in the Time Layout window to see
this more clearly), and scale it up a little from there, stopping short of
100%. To make it appear as if the other hand has come up (the left
hand, instead of the right), mirror it horizontally: click on the number
next to Scale, disable the Preserve Frame Aspect Ratio option, and put
a minus sign in from the Width parameter. This will swap the left and
right sides. Click on OK, and then adjust the Position to taste.
Now move to the third ending drum punctuation at 13:18 in the
timeline. Click on the Scale parameter again, re-enable the Preserve
Aspect Ratio option, type in 100%, and click on OK. Position again to
taste.Set the layer to Best quality, and preview your results, going back
and tweaking the positions and scales if you like.
Step 26: To finish off our composition, we just need a simple fadeout.
We’ve decided to time it to start with the very last “pop” in the sound-
track. So locate to this layer marker (14:12), make sure the layer
DV_TheBody_hand.tif is still selected, and type Shift+T to add
Opacity to the twirl-down list. Enable keyframing; that will place a
keyframe at 100% Opacity here. Then go to the end of the comp (hit
13
To mirror a layer hori-zontally, give it anegative Width, whilekeeping its Heightpositive.
Three different “poses” for ourhand, using Hold keyframes forScale and Position.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
the End key), and set the Opacity to 0%. Reset your work area to cover
the entire composition, preview, and pat yourself on the back for a job
well done!
RefinementsAlthough this was fairly complex for an entry-level animation, there
are always ways to refine your work further. If you already have some
experience using After Effects, or want to revisit this tutorial after your
skills have improved, here’s a few suggestions for tweaks to explore.
Several are already incorporated into our BT01-GettingFinal.aep pro-
ject, if you want to see what we ended up with.
� To help lift the text off their respective background images, add
Effect>Perspective>Drop Shadow (Chapter 23); for a “projected against
a backplate”look, instead use Cult Effects One>CE Radial Shadow (free
on the After Effects 4.1 CD).
� You can enable Motion Blur (Chapter 11) for all the type and ani-
mating still layers, to further smooth their motion.
� If you have the Production Bundle, you can make the type zoom
evenly, rather than appear to slow down as it gets closer. Select the
Scale keyframes, and apply Layer>Keyframe Assistant>Exponential
Scale (Chapter 7). If you don’t have the Production Bundle, just select-
ing the first Scale keyframe for noteveryone.ai and applying Layer>
Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease Out will help.
14
The Time Layout window for the finished composition.
Getting Animated // BT01
© Creating Motion Graphics
� The pan in the footage AB_EstabMixedCuts.mov actually picks up
speed from a stationary position.Some might find this distracting.You
can try re-trimming this footage item to align its end with the last
keyframe it would be visible,and then trimming the front of it.You may
need to change the stretch factor to something like 67%, or reduce
the crossfade time of the CI_LoggingTrucks layer on top, if you want
to edit all of this speed change out of the front of the clip.
� A better motion control camera move on the CI_LoggingTrucks
footage would include a zoom and a pan. To do that, you will need to
animate Scale and Anchor Point, in place of animating Position. This
technique is discussed in Chapter 6, and demonstrated in Bonus
Tutorial 02.
� The still image DV_TheBody_hand.tif is a little more turquoise in
color than the footage before it, resulting in a slight mismatch in tones.
Add Effect>Adjust>Hue/Saturation to it, and tweak the Hue parameter
to make it more green; reducing its saturation helps too.
� Perhaps you felt just our symbolic “stop!”hand was too vague – come
up with some text of your own,and animate it over the end to finish off
the thought. We used the font Adobe Bernhard Modern. After all, the
point of this book is not to teach you to paint by numbers; it’s to teach
you how to paint, so you can create your own motion graphics.
15
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