User Interface Tour & Basic Animation Techniques

[00:00:00] hey everyone I'm Kyle hamri and I'm here

[00:00:00] to help you learn after effects from the

[00:00:00] very beginning over the next couple

[00:00:00] hours I'm going to show you the

[00:00:00] important tools Concepts and techniques

[00:00:00] you need to get started you can just

[00:00:00] watch and learn if you like but I've

[00:00:00] made my project files available so you

[00:00:00] can follow along with me and I've also

[00:00:00] created a PDF guide packed full of

[00:00:00] terminology tips keyboard shortcuts and

[00:00:00] more make sure you grab both of those

[00:00:00] from the download links now after

[00:00:00] effects is a big program with a lot of

[00:00:00] capabilities so I'm focusing on the

[00:00:00] techniques that would be most helpful

[00:00:00] for someone with a visual design

[00:00:00] background who's looking to add motion

[00:00:00] to their skill set ideally you have at

[00:00:00] least some experience with Adobe design

[00:00:00] apps like Photoshop and illustrator but

[00:00:00] everything I'll be showing you will be

[00:00:00] just as useful even if that's not you in

[00:00:00] this first video we'll go through a few

[00:00:00] different examples to help you learn

[00:00:00] about the fundamentals of After Effects

[00:00:00] creating key frames to animate layers

[00:00:00] and working with imported images and

[00:00:00] video files before we dive into those

[00:00:00] examples let's get you thinking about

[00:00:00] motion as another aspect of visual

[00:00:00] design

[00:00:00] much like other creative skill sets

[00:00:00] motion has plenty of Specialties you can

[00:00:00] dive into once you get a handle on the

[00:00:00] basics I bet there's a good chance you

[00:00:00] already have some creative skills of

[00:00:00] your own so I'll be demonstrating how

[00:00:00] After Effects can help you add motion to

[00:00:00] your existing skill set and allow you to

[00:00:00] build on your other creative interests

[00:00:00] motion allows you to add timing and

[00:00:00] movement to your designs both of which

[00:00:00] can add a whole new layer of meaning to

[00:00:00] the material you decide how long an

[00:00:00] element is on screen and that may help

[00:00:00] communicate to the viewer how important

[00:00:00] this this thing is or I can show you

[00:00:00] these two identical objects and then

[00:00:00] you'll see that the way an element moves

[00:00:00] can actually communicate just as much

[00:00:00] about that thing as the way it looks if

[00:00:00] you're already a visual designer you've

[00:00:00] actually got a head start because a good

[00:00:00] design animated simply is almost always

[00:00:00] going to be more powerful than a bad

[00:00:00] design with great animation adding

[00:00:00] motion to an existing design layout can

[00:00:00] also be pretty approachable and I'll be

[00:00:00] walking you through a few examples of

[00:00:00] exactly that as we go through these

[00:00:00] examples you'll see several tools you'll

[00:00:00] probably recognize from other Adobe

[00:00:00] design apps but you'll also be seeing

[00:00:00] more flexible approaches that may not be

[00:00:00] possible anywhere else once you get a

[00:00:00] handle on the actual tools learning to

[00:00:00] see the possibilities for the best way

[00:00:00] to animate a design does take some

[00:00:00] experience but I'll also be sprinkling

[00:00:00] in a few of those tips as we go now

[00:00:00] let's start out by taking a little tour

[00:00:00] of the after effects interface and then

[00:00:00] we'll hop into some projects when you

[00:00:00] first open after effects you'll be

[00:00:00] greeted by this home screen and it'll

[00:00:00] have a list of any recent projects that

[00:00:00] you've worked in any other projects you

[00:00:00] can come over to this open project and

[00:00:00] navigate to them through your file

[00:00:00] browser or if you're starting from

[00:00:00] scratch you can choose new project right

[00:00:00] here you'll also see some suggested

[00:00:00] tutorials up top which you can hide if

[00:00:00] you don't want to see those and then

[00:00:00] over here on the left you have this

[00:00:00] learn tab that will have a bunch of

[00:00:00] other tutorials from Adobe and when

[00:00:00] we're all done you can either use that

[00:00:00] to review or to learn other techniques

[00:00:00] that you and I don't have time for I'll

[00:00:00] just come back over here to home and I

[00:00:00] will choose to open this welcome to AE

[00:00:00] project

[00:00:00] an After Effects project is a single

[00:00:00] project file that can contain a lot of

[00:00:00] stuff you can import other elements into

[00:00:00] here or you can create things directly

[00:00:00] in After Effects either way that's all

[00:00:00] saved and managed as a single project

[00:00:00] file when you're creating some other

[00:00:00] unrelated animation you'd probably save

[00:00:00] that as its own separate After Effects

[00:00:00] project the first thing I want to draw

[00:00:00] your attention to is the workspace up

[00:00:00] here in the top right corner you'll see

[00:00:00] a bar with a few different options I'm

[00:00:00] using the default workspace and I

[00:00:00] recommend that you do too so it's easier

[00:00:00] for you to follow along with me you can

[00:00:00] use some of the other options as you

[00:00:00] learn more about after effects you can

[00:00:00] also come over to the window menu

[00:00:00] workspace and there are more options in

[00:00:00] here later on we will be customizing

[00:00:00] these just a little bit and if you

[00:00:00] decide you want to save one of those you

[00:00:00] can do that right here or you can always

[00:00:00] set the current workspace back to its

[00:00:00] default if you don't want to keep those

[00:00:00] changes here in After Effects we work in

[00:00:00] what are called compositions you can

[00:00:00] think of this as being similar to a

[00:00:00] document or an artboard where you can

[00:00:00] add multiple layers and elements in one

[00:00:00] place and then edit and animate them

[00:00:00] this after effects project actually has

[00:00:00] four compositions in it there're these

[00:00:00] little multimedia icons right here and

[00:00:00] right now I have the welcome to AE

[00:00:00] composition open down here in my

[00:00:00] timeline this timeline is kind of the

[00:00:00] heart of After Effects it's where you do

[00:00:00] most of the actual work you'll see I

[00:00:00] have quite a few layers in here and so

[00:00:00] this should look pretty similar to

[00:00:00] something like Photoshop but this

[00:00:00] timeline combines those layers with time

[00:00:00] here on the left is the very beginning

[00:00:00] of our timeline that's zero in time if I

[00:00:00] drag this all the way over to the right

[00:00:00] will be at the very last frame of our

[00:00:00] 10-second composition I'll go ahead and

[00:00:00] just bring that back to the beginning

[00:00:00] here now these layers work just like

[00:00:00] other design apps if I come up here and

[00:00:00] select this green ball for example you

[00:00:00] can look here in the timeline and see

[00:00:00] that in the layer stack that is below

[00:00:00] the blue ball and above the red ball so

[00:00:00] if I drag this over here you'll see that

[00:00:00] the blue ball shows as being on top of

[00:00:00] it or if I drag this over here you'll

[00:00:00] see that the red ball shows as being

[00:00:00] underneath it because that corresponds

[00:00:00] to the way it's stacked in the layers I

[00:00:00] can change that by dragging this below

[00:00:00] the red ball and so now because it's

[00:00:00] below red in the layer stack it's below

[00:00:00] red in terms of visibility I'll just

[00:00:00] undo you'll see that each of these balls

[00:00:00] is a PNG file which you can see here in

[00:00:00] the layer name and if you look up here

[00:00:00] in the top left in our project panel

[00:00:00] you'll see that those same elements

[00:00:00] exist up here your project panel is

[00:00:00] where you create compositions and import

[00:00:00] assets that you're going to use in your

[00:00:00] project in this case I've imported a

[00:00:00] couple of pngs for the balls and the

[00:00:00] background and when I click on each of

[00:00:00] these you'll see it shows me some

[00:00:00] information about those things in terms

[00:00:00] of how big it is how many colors it has

[00:00:00] and if I click on a composition you'll

[00:00:00] see it has some additional information

[00:00:00] like the duration and the frame rate you

[00:00:00] can import pretty much any multimedia

[00:00:00] file into After Effects images video

[00:00:00] files layered Photoshop and illustrator

[00:00:00] documents audio files and even a few

[00:00:00] kinds of 3D objects anything you import

[00:00:00] is going to live here in your project

[00:00:00] panel and you can create folders like I

[00:00:00] did here to keep everything organized of

[00:00:00] course you're going to want to look at

[00:00:00] the things that you're creating so that

[00:00:00] you can see what's going on and that's

[00:00:00] what this composition viewer is for like

[00:00:00] the viewers in the other design apps you

[00:00:00] do have things like rulers and you can

[00:00:00] create guides and grids so that you can

[00:00:00] be precise about things if you are so

[00:00:00] inclined I'll just turn that back off

[00:00:00] for now using the scroll wheel on your

[00:00:00] mouse you're able to zoom in and out of

[00:00:00] a composition I do want to point out

[00:00:00] that as I get closer this starts getting

[00:00:00] a little pixelated right it's because

[00:00:00] this is a pixel-based program but if you

[00:00:00] look down here you'll see I'm zoomed in

[00:00:00] to 800% and so I should expect that it's

[00:00:00] going to look a little chunky here if I

[00:00:00] go back to 100% then all looks good

[00:00:00] again you can also hold control or

[00:00:00] command and use the plus or minus keys

[00:00:00] on the top of your keyboard to zoom in

[00:00:00] and out like that here's one other thing

[00:00:00] I want to call out you can see I've

[00:00:00] scaled this middle circle way up and

[00:00:00] these edges look pretty bad right well

[00:00:00] remember this is a pixel-based program

[00:00:00] and this is just a PNG image so this is

[00:00:00] expected when scaling an image or video

[00:00:00] layer you generally don't want to go

[00:00:00] above 100% or you'll start noticing this

[00:00:00] blockiness called aliasing if you're

[00:00:00] working with native elements like text

[00:00:00] layers or a vector file imported from

[00:00:00] illustrator those can potentially be

[00:00:00] scaled infinitely without any quality

[00:00:00] loss there are a couple different ways

[00:00:00] to manipulate things here in After

[00:00:00] Effects and one of them is that you can

[00:00:00] just click on them and move them around

[00:00:00] here in the viewer and as I do what's

[00:00:00] happening is that this layer's position

[00:00:00] is changing if you look over here in the

[00:00:00] top right you'll see position and then

[00:00:00] there are two numbers attached to it and

[00:00:00] you'll see them changing as I drag this

[00:00:00] layer around while you can totally just

[00:00:00] drag things around and do it by I once

[00:00:00] you start animating it's helpful to have

[00:00:00] an understanding of what these numbers

[00:00:00] actually mean layer positions here in

[00:00:00] After Effects work just like in

[00:00:00] Photoshop there's a coordinate system

[00:00:00] made up of two numbers and that

[00:00:00] determines where a thing is in the space

[00:00:00] of this composition now this particular

[00:00:00] composition is

[00:00:00] 1,920 pixels wide by 1,80 pixels tall

[00:00:00] that's a standard HD video format we say

[00:00:00] the X first so if I were describing this

[00:00:00] frame I would say it's 1920 x 1080 and

[00:00:00] if I come back and click on that in the

[00:00:00] project panel you'll see that right here

[00:00:00] 1920 by 1080 this coordinate system uses

[00:00:00] those numbers to tell both you and after

[00:00:00] effects exactly where a layer is and

[00:00:00] that's important since once you start

[00:00:00] animating that may be constantly

[00:00:00] changing 0 0 is your top left corner so

[00:00:00] that's 0 on X and0 on y the bottom right

[00:00:00] corner is going to be all of the X X and

[00:00:00] all of the Y so for this composition

[00:00:00] that's 1920 1080 down here the top right

[00:00:00] corner will be all of the X and Zer on y

[00:00:00] so that's 1920 0 the bottom left corner

[00:00:00] is going to be0 on X and all of the Y so

[00:00:00] in this case that's 0 1080 and that

[00:00:00] means that the middle of any composition

[00:00:00] is exactly half of whatever the frame

[00:00:00] size is so half of 1920 is 960 and half

[00:00:00] of 1080 is 540 so that would be the

[00:00:00] center point in this particular

[00:00:00] composition the biggest thing to

[00:00:00] remember is that a larger x value means

[00:00:00] further to the right and a higher y

[00:00:00] value means down anytime you select a

[00:00:00] layer either in the viewer or down here

[00:00:00] in the timeline over here on the right

[00:00:00] you'll see the properties panel appear

[00:00:00] with properties that you can change

[00:00:00] about that layer every layer that you

[00:00:00] can see is going to have all of these

[00:00:00] transform properties right here and we

[00:00:00] can go ahead and make those changes you

[00:00:00] can see the scale has actually already

[00:00:00] been changed so I can just scale this up

[00:00:00] right here by clicking and dragging on

[00:00:00] that number or you can also drag these

[00:00:00] around inside the viewer to change

[00:00:00] things like scale or position just by

[00:00:00] dragging your layers around I'll just

[00:00:00] undo that these same properties all

[00:00:00] exist down in the timeline if I come

[00:00:00] down here and twirl this layer open

[00:00:00] right here transform you'll see the same

[00:00:00] Anchor Point position scale rotation

[00:00:00] opacity it's all the exact same things

[00:00:00] in both places this is just a little

[00:00:00] easier to see without having to open

[00:00:00] things up let's take just a minute and

[00:00:00] explore these properties I already

[00:00:00] talked about position and what that

[00:00:00] means so if this is 0 and this is 1920

[00:00:00] 1080 that means this layer is currently

[00:00:00] located at 960 which means it's exactly

[00:00:00] in the middle on X and then at 675 on y

[00:00:00] so it's a little bit below the middle

[00:00:00] and as I move this around you'll see

[00:00:00] that position value

[00:00:00] change when I animate that that'll

[00:00:00] become even more important the scale

[00:00:00] value is of course how big any layer is

[00:00:00] and you'll see it has a little chain

[00:00:00] right here if I unclick that now I can

[00:00:00] scale this in either X or Y and they

[00:00:00] don't need to stay connected our

[00:00:00] rotation value actually has two numbers

[00:00:00] in it right here the number on the right

[00:00:00] is our degrees I'll just click and drag

[00:00:00] that number and you can see the layer is

[00:00:00] rotating and then the number on the left

[00:00:00] is actually full rotations because again

[00:00:00] remember this is animation so just

[00:00:00] degrees is isn't going to get you

[00:00:00] everything you need if I were to take

[00:00:00] this number click and drag it really far

[00:00:00] to the left just before I hit minus 360

[00:00:00] it's going to click over to instead

[00:00:00] minus one full rotation and then netive

[00:00:00] deg this way I'd be able to animate this

[00:00:00] property to have multiple full rotations

[00:00:00] again I'll undo set that back to zero

[00:00:00] now this top property which I skipped

[00:00:00] over is the Anchor Point and that's

[00:00:00] actually the point around which the

[00:00:00] position scale and rotation happen

[00:00:00] your Anchor Point is the little center

[00:00:00] point of your layer let me just quickly

[00:00:00] change the color of this layer so you

[00:00:00] can see that better there's actually a

[00:00:00] special tool that you can use to change

[00:00:00] the Anchor Point we'll do this again

[00:00:00] later so I could set the Anchor Point

[00:00:00] way out here and now if I scale this

[00:00:00] layer it's going to scale to and from

[00:00:00] that point or it's going to rotate

[00:00:00] around that point as we get further into

[00:00:00] our lessons we're going to be changing

[00:00:00] this on occasion so that we're scaling

[00:00:00] or rotating around a specific point

[00:00:00] instead of just the default layer Center

[00:00:00] last up every layer has an opacity value

[00:00:00] which is how transparent or opaque the

[00:00:00] layer is 100% means it's totally

[00:00:00] opaque zero means it's totally

[00:00:00] transparent and of course we can animate

[00:00:00] this to fade layers on and off just

[00:00:00] below the properties panel you'll see we

[00:00:00] have an effects and presets and if I

[00:00:00] click that it will open up and now we

[00:00:00] have this huge list of effects and

[00:00:00] animation presets that we could apply to

[00:00:00] our layers this particular layer has an

[00:00:00] effect applied to it so it has a little

[00:00:00] effects thing here in the timeline if I

[00:00:00] twirl that open you'll see that I've

[00:00:00] added a drop shadow already to this

[00:00:00] layer and if I want to adjust that I can

[00:00:00] do that also here in the timeline or

[00:00:00] there's one more panel hiding behind the

[00:00:00] project panel called effect controls and

[00:00:00] that will show you all the controls for

[00:00:00] any effects on the layer you currently

[00:00:00] have selected so I could come back up

[00:00:00] here and I could change this Shadow to a

[00:00:00] bright pink color and I can turn that

[00:00:00] distance way up and now you'll see that

[00:00:00] reflected over in the viewer there are

[00:00:00] also several other panels here in After

[00:00:00] Effects that I didn't point out yet you

[00:00:00] can find all of the available ones under

[00:00:00] the window menu in your top toolbar we

[00:00:00] will be getting into a few of these as

[00:00:00] we work through our examples and then

[00:00:00] there are several more that we won't be

[00:00:00] using today but you're free to explore

[00:00:00] them on your own now it's time to take a

[00:00:00] minute to learn about the little tiny

[00:00:00] thing that controls pretty much

[00:00:00] everything we're about to do a key frame

[00:00:00] a key frame holds on to a specific value

[00:00:00] at a specific time and that's what

[00:00:00] enables animation I'll select my ball

[00:00:00] layer here and you'll see that it comes

[00:00:00] up in the properties

[00:00:00] panel as I drag it around in the viewer

[00:00:00] that position value updates but right

[00:00:00] now I'm not animating anything I'm just

[00:00:00] changing the position let's put it over

[00:00:00] here on the left side and I'll come up

[00:00:00] to the properties panel and click on

[00:00:00] this round thing right next to position

[00:00:00] this is a stopwatch and when I click it

[00:00:00] it enables animation for this property

[00:00:00] you'll see it changes up here and down

[00:00:00] in my timeline it creates this little

[00:00:00] Diamond that is a key frame so at frame

[00:00:00] zero this key frame is holding the

[00:00:00] position value of 357

[00:00:00] 714 I'll grab this blue thing right here

[00:00:00] this is called my current time indicator

[00:00:00] or CTI I'll drag that up to about 2

[00:00:00] seconds and then I'll move this ball to

[00:00:00] somewhere else on screen you'll see it

[00:00:00] kind of gets this trail behind it

[00:00:00] showing where it was and where it went

[00:00:00] to and then if you look down in the

[00:00:00] timeline you'll see I have a second key

[00:00:00] frame so this one at 2 seconds and one

[00:00:00] frame is holding this new position value

[00:00:00] if I drag back to the beginning of my

[00:00:00] timeline and press the space bar to

[00:00:00] preview you'll see I've created some

[00:00:00] animation After Effects is moving

[00:00:00] between this value and this value in the

[00:00:00] amount of time that I gave it now

[00:00:00] remember these are holding on to a

[00:00:00] specific value at a specific time so if

[00:00:00] I want to change this animation I could

[00:00:00] change one of those values so now this

[00:00:00] is my animation right or I could change

[00:00:00] the time at which one of these values

[00:00:00] occurs I could take the second key frame

[00:00:00] and move it to frame 20 for example now

[00:00:00] if I preview it will be the same

[00:00:00] movement but much

[00:00:00] faster or if I drag this way down here

[00:00:00] to about 9 seconds you'll see that same

[00:00:00] movement but very

[00:00:00] slow this is the basis of almost

[00:00:00] everything we're about to do from here

[00:00:00] we'll be making key frames on different

[00:00:00] properties across different layers and

[00:00:00] being intentional about when they happen

[00:00:00] I promise we're about to dive into that

[00:00:00] first example but first I want to make

[00:00:00] sure you know how to use the project

[00:00:00] files you downloaded any files that are

[00:00:00] imported into an After Effects project

[00:00:00] are actually just links to that file on

[00:00:00] your hard drive this is similar to a

[00:00:00] linked or placed file in the other Adobe

[00:00:00] design apps that means if you rename

[00:00:00] delete or move something after effects

[00:00:00] won't know where where it went when

[00:00:00] you're working on your own After Effects

[00:00:00] projects it's best to create a folder

[00:00:00] for each project and then keep any

[00:00:00] multimedia files for that project

[00:00:00] organized inside that same folder I like

[00:00:00] creating subfolders for images video

[00:00:00] audio anything else I'm using so that I

[00:00:00] always know exactly where to find my

[00:00:00] stuff when it comes to the downloaded

[00:00:00] project files you can bring this entire

[00:00:00] folder to wherever you'd like on your

[00:00:00] own machine the most important thing is

[00:00:00] that you do not separate the project

[00:00:00] file from this footage folder

[00:00:00] that has all the media for each project

[00:00:00] and if you start moving things around

[00:00:00] you're not going to have the right

[00:00:00] pieces to be able to follow along all

[00:00:00] right it's time for us to get into that

[00:00:00] timeline and make something move from

[00:00:00] your home screen let's come up to open

[00:00:00] project and then navigate to the place

[00:00:00] on your hard drive where you downloaded

[00:00:00] the project files you'll see one folder

[00:00:00] named make it move folder and inside

[00:00:00] that will be an After Effects file

[00:00:00] called make it move let's choose that

[00:00:00] and open once you've opened the file

[00:00:00] you'll see one composition and then a

[00:00:00] folder full of Photoshop layers let's

[00:00:00] double click that composition to open it

[00:00:00] up and now you know what you're in for

[00:00:00] After Effects lessons and a lot of

[00:00:00] pretty bad puns sorry the first thing

[00:00:00] I'd like to do is clean up the timeline

[00:00:00] a little bit since these are all

[00:00:00] Photoshop layers they all import as the

[00:00:00] same color and so it's a little hard to

[00:00:00] look at so I'll come over to this make

[00:00:00] layer right here and if you click on

[00:00:00] this color chip you can choose a

[00:00:00] different color for this layer I'll

[00:00:00] choose yellow let's go ahead and choose

[00:00:00] it and then control or command click on

[00:00:00] move so that you select both of them

[00:00:00] we'll do the same thing and set those to

[00:00:00] Yellow as well this is helpful for

[00:00:00] keeping track of stuff but you can also

[00:00:00] click on one of these now and select the

[00:00:00] entire label group at once so that's

[00:00:00] handy our next layer is this icon and

[00:00:00] that looks like aha the cow let's go

[00:00:00] ahead and change that name by pressing

[00:00:00] enter and you'll see now we can edit the

[00:00:00] layer name so I'll type in cow

[00:00:00] and press enter to confirm that I'll

[00:00:00] click on that color chip and let's make

[00:00:00] that

[00:00:00] green I think the texture and the

[00:00:00] background can stay the color they

[00:00:00] already are but I'm a little afraid I

[00:00:00] might grab those accidentally while

[00:00:00] we're working on the other layers so if

[00:00:00] we look under this lock column right

[00:00:00] here we can click that for both layer

[00:00:00] five and layer six and that way we won't

[00:00:00] accidentally move them while we're doing

[00:00:00] something else my plan for this

[00:00:00] animation is to take each of these four

[00:00:00] main objects start them off screen and

[00:00:00] have them move into place then they'll

[00:00:00] sit there for a second or two and then

[00:00:00] animate back off so in that case we

[00:00:00] probably don't want to make our key

[00:00:00] frames at frame zero right now it would

[00:00:00] make more sense to make key frames when

[00:00:00] we want them to land on screen which in

[00:00:00] this case is about 1 second I'll drag my

[00:00:00] CTI up here to 1 second which you can

[00:00:00] also see right there and it shows up in

[00:00:00] the bottom of your viewer as well right

[00:00:00] here I'm going to select the make layer

[00:00:00] and then you can come up to the

[00:00:00] properties panel where you can also

[00:00:00] twirl this open and work in the timeline

[00:00:00] this is the same thing both places we'll

[00:00:00] click that stopwatch to enable animation

[00:00:00] for position and you'll see it creates a

[00:00:00] key frame right there if we move back to

[00:00:00] zero now we can grab the layer here in

[00:00:00] the viewer drag it right off the left

[00:00:00] side of the screen I'd like to make sure

[00:00:00] that this is exactly a totally

[00:00:00] horizontal move so if I hold shift it

[00:00:00] will snap and only move horizontally

[00:00:00] once I release that you'll see it has

[00:00:00] created a key frame here at frame zero

[00:00:00] with that value and if I press space bar

[00:00:00] to preview there we go it moves into

[00:00:00] place let's drag our CTI back here to 1

[00:00:00] second if you hold shift it will snap to

[00:00:00] that existing key frame and then let's

[00:00:00] do the same thing for it and move we can

[00:00:00] actually select both of them at once

[00:00:00] again using the control or command key

[00:00:00] and if you come up to the properties

[00:00:00] panel you can click the stopwatch click

[00:00:00] it once and it will make key frames on

[00:00:00] both

[00:00:00] layers let's come back to zero here

[00:00:00] click off somewhere to deselect and then

[00:00:00] choose it and we'll just drag this right

[00:00:00] off the top again holding shift to make

[00:00:00] sure it stays as a straight line let's

[00:00:00] select move and this time let's drag the

[00:00:00] value down here in the timeline or you

[00:00:00] can do it up in the properties panel if

[00:00:00] you like I'm going to click and hold and

[00:00:00] then drag right on the Y value and that

[00:00:00] moves it downwards and I'll keep going

[00:00:00] until I see the bounding box of that

[00:00:00] layer go right off the bottom of my

[00:00:00] composition let's hit space bar to do

[00:00:00] another preview and there we go we've

[00:00:00] got some nice animation

[00:00:00] happening I'd like to get that cow

[00:00:00] moving as well so let's select that and

[00:00:00] let's enable key frames for both scale

[00:00:00] and

[00:00:00] rotation now if we move back to frame

[00:00:00] zero here let's set rotation to I don't

[00:00:00] know about minus 100 you don't have to

[00:00:00] be precise here and then for scale let's

[00:00:00] click on either value and just type zero

[00:00:00] and then hit enter let's preview again

[00:00:00] hey there we go not too

[00:00:00] bad you might notice when we're

[00:00:00] previewing we have a little bit of

[00:00:00] animation and then a whole bunch of time

[00:00:00] when nothing's happening and that's

[00:00:00] because right now there's no other key

[00:00:00] frames so there's no other animation

[00:00:00] there when it gets all the way to the

[00:00:00] end it plays that beginning part again

[00:00:00] and then a whole lot of nothing I don't

[00:00:00] know about you but this feels like a lot

[00:00:00] of time we're wasting so let's fix that

[00:00:00] this gray bar up here at the top is

[00:00:00] called your work area and that controls

[00:00:00] what you preview and eventually what you

[00:00:00] export you can grab the Blue Ends right

[00:00:00] here and actually just drag those to be

[00:00:00] shorter let's say maybe 4 seconds here

[00:00:00] we can press the home key to jump back

[00:00:00] to the very beginning of our animation

[00:00:00] and now when we preview it will play

[00:00:00] through that 4 seconds which yes still

[00:00:00] has some dead spots and then Loops back

[00:00:00] to the beginning and it will keep

[00:00:00] playing that until we press space bar

[00:00:00] again to stop

[00:00:00] it I think that feels pretty good but

[00:00:00] I'd like to offset the timing a little

[00:00:00] bit right now everything happens at the

[00:00:00] same time and that doesn't really line

[00:00:00] up with the way that we would read these

[00:00:00] words right make it move but they're all

[00:00:00] coming in at once so it's a little

[00:00:00] confusing to know where to look let's

[00:00:00] stop that preview and hit home to come

[00:00:00] back to the beginning let's go ahead and

[00:00:00] select all of these layers by pressing

[00:00:00] control or command a and then if you

[00:00:00] twirl any of them closed they'll all

[00:00:00] close up just to make this a little

[00:00:00] easier to look at I'm going to press U

[00:00:00] so that only the properties we've key

[00:00:00] framed are now revealed and just click

[00:00:00] off any of those you can use the page up

[00:00:00] and page down keys to move one frame at

[00:00:00] a time so I'm going to press page down 1

[00:00:00] 2 3 4 five times so that I come up to

[00:00:00] frame five then I'll take my it layer

[00:00:00] and just drag it over a little bit so

[00:00:00] that that is where it begins then let's

[00:00:00] come over 1 2 3 4 5 so that now we're at

[00:00:00] frame 10 and let's go ahead and make the

[00:00:00] cow be the next thing that happens so

[00:00:00] we'll drag that over and then we'll go

[00:00:00] five more frames 1 2 3 4 five so that

[00:00:00] we're at frame 15 and we'll bring move

[00:00:00] up and have that start there

[00:00:00] maybe this is just me but because the

[00:00:00] cow is starting first I kind of feel

[00:00:00] like I'd like it on top of this one so

[00:00:00] we'll just grab that layer drag it up

[00:00:00] here so that now it is layer three let's

[00:00:00] come back to the beginning and press

[00:00:00] space bar see how that

[00:00:00] feels I think that feels a lot better

[00:00:00] don't

[00:00:00] you let's stop our preview and now we'll

[00:00:00] animate these back off let's drag our

[00:00:00] CTI up to 3 seconds and we can go ahead

[00:00:00] and select all four of these

[00:00:00] layers and if you come back up to the

[00:00:00] properties panel you can click right

[00:00:00] here and now we'll get position key

[00:00:00] frames on all four of

[00:00:00] them let's come up to 4 seconds and then

[00:00:00] individually you can grab each layer and

[00:00:00] drag it off screen I'm going to take

[00:00:00] this one back off to the left but you

[00:00:00] can be creative here and do whatever you

[00:00:00] like I'll drag make off to the left I'll

[00:00:00] grab it and drag it back up off the top

[00:00:00] I'll grab move and drag it back off the

[00:00:00] bottom bottom and then I'll grab this

[00:00:00] cow and drag that off to the right hit

[00:00:00] home do another

[00:00:00] preview okay and now we've set up this

[00:00:00] nice looping

[00:00:00] animation I think that cow could maybe

[00:00:00] use a little rotation as it moves off

[00:00:00] just to spice things up so let's move to

[00:00:00] this key frame and we'll come over here

[00:00:00] and if you click right here it will

[00:00:00] create another key frame for rotation

[00:00:00] with the same value as the one that it

[00:00:00] already had

[00:00:00] come up here to where the other key

[00:00:00] frames are and let's just drag this up

[00:00:00] to maybe around 90 again you don't have

[00:00:00] to be perfect there press home to go

[00:00:00] back to the beginning and space bar to

[00:00:00] preview all right I think that's feeling

[00:00:00] pretty good there's just one more thing

[00:00:00] I'd like to do and it's Give a Little

[00:00:00] Bit Of Life to the background after

[00:00:00] everything lands it's a little static

[00:00:00] for that couple seconds there so let's

[00:00:00] just spice this up a little bit I'll

[00:00:00] stop my preview

[00:00:00] press home to go to the very first frame

[00:00:00] and then I'm going to unlock this

[00:00:00] texture

[00:00:00] layer in this case it's going to make a

[00:00:00] little more sense to work directly in

[00:00:00] the timeline but I don't need to twirl

[00:00:00] the whole thing open I can actually just

[00:00:00] press the P key to reveal only the

[00:00:00] position I'll click the stopwatch right

[00:00:00] here to make a key frame and then I'm

[00:00:00] going to jump up to 1 second by holding

[00:00:00] shift and page down you can jump 10

[00:00:00] frames at a time so I'll hold shift and

[00:00:00] press page down 1 2 3 times and that

[00:00:00] puts me up at exactly 1 second I'll come

[00:00:00] up to my viewer and zoom out a little

[00:00:00] bit with my mouse scroll wheel and I'll

[00:00:00] just drag this layer over here like this

[00:00:00] I just want something different but

[00:00:00] making sure that the bounding box stays

[00:00:00] within my viewable area then I'll jump

[00:00:00] up another 30 frames 1 two 3 and drag

[00:00:00] this maybe like this 1 two 3 and drag it

[00:00:00] way over here 1 2 3

[00:00:00] and again a new position now if you zoom

[00:00:00] back in and do a preview you'll see this

[00:00:00] is probably not what we wanted it's sort

[00:00:00] of awkwardly bouncing around but I did

[00:00:00] do this on purpose because I have a plan

[00:00:00] we can actually select all of the

[00:00:00] position key frames on this layer either

[00:00:00] by dragging around all of them or you

[00:00:00] can click the word position and it will

[00:00:00] select all of them as well then if you

[00:00:00] right click on any of them you'll get

[00:00:00] this popup menu right here there's an

[00:00:00] option to toggle hold key frame and that

[00:00:00] means it's going to hang on to this

[00:00:00] value until it gets a new one so instead

[00:00:00] of moving between them it's just going

[00:00:00] to hold this and then suddenly pop to

[00:00:00] this value so it'll get kind of a nice

[00:00:00] stop motion feel let's preview that and

[00:00:00] see what it looks

[00:00:00] like okay not bad I think it might need

[00:00:00] just a little bit more of that so let's

[00:00:00] stop our preview and come to frame 15

[00:00:00] I'll go go ahead and zoom back out and

[00:00:00] grabb that texture just randomize the

[00:00:00] position and now we can again jump 30

[00:00:00] frames so hold shift and page down one

[00:00:00] two three

[00:00:00] times and so again you can just kind of

[00:00:00] work your way through here

[00:00:00] quickly now let's Zoom back in go back

[00:00:00] to the first frame and do a

[00:00:00] preview there there we go that feels

[00:00:00] pretty

[00:00:00] good I think that very last one is

[00:00:00] looking a little too close to the

[00:00:00] original so I'll just scoot that over a

[00:00:00] bit creating an animation like this is

[00:00:00] all about adjusting previewing adjusting

[00:00:00] some more until everything feels

[00:00:00] right I'm pretty happy with this so I

[00:00:00] think it's time to export it so we can

[00:00:00] show it to our friends but first I do

[00:00:00] want to make sure we come up to file

[00:00:00] save and save our project so that we

[00:00:00] don't our work now we're ready to export

[00:00:00] this which we can do by coming up to

[00:00:00] composition add to render CU you could

[00:00:00] actually stack up a bunch of exports to

[00:00:00] do all at once but we're just doing the

[00:00:00] one for now by default it's going to

[00:00:00] export as an h264 which is a good format

[00:00:00] for posting online we just need to come

[00:00:00] over here to where it says not yet

[00:00:00] specified and choose a place to export

[00:00:00] this file if you click that it will open

[00:00:00] up your file browser and you just need

[00:00:00] to pick an appropriate spot on your hard

[00:00:00] drive click save and then come over here

[00:00:00] and click this render

[00:00:00] button this will go pretty quick and

[00:00:00] then you'll hear that chime that lets

[00:00:00] you know that it's done and now you can

[00:00:00] find that file on your hard drive and

[00:00:00] preview it to make sure it came out the

[00:00:00] way you wanted and there we go we've got

[00:00:00] our very first animation it's a perfect

[00:00:00] Loop for a not so great

[00:00:00] pun well how did it go with your first

[00:00:00] animation I hope you did great and that

[00:00:00] you're excited to learn more though I do

[00:00:00] have to warn you that if you are hoping

[00:00:00] for the puns to get better you will be

[00:00:00] utterly disappointed because I plan to

[00:00:00] milk these jokes for all they're worth

[00:00:00] okay time for the next example we're

[00:00:00] going to start fresh on this project so

[00:00:00] if you're on your home screen just come

[00:00:00] up and click new project or if you still

[00:00:00] have make it move open make sure you

[00:00:00] saved and then come up to file new new

[00:00:00] project now we need to import our

[00:00:00] artwork so that we have something to

[00:00:00] work with we'll come to file import file

[00:00:00] or you can hit control or command I

[00:00:00] navigate to the designs folder of your

[00:00:00] student

[00:00:00] files and then choose this quality Cafe

[00:00:00] Photoshop file and press

[00:00:00] import when you import a layered

[00:00:00] Photoshop or illustrator file you'll get

[00:00:00] a dialogue box like this where you can

[00:00:00] make a few choices this drop down up top

[00:00:00] lets you choose footage which would be

[00:00:00] like importing this as a flat image

[00:00:00] which we don't want here so we're going

[00:00:00] to make sure this is set to composition

[00:00:00] retain layer sizes and hit okay over in

[00:00:00] your project panel you'll see that it

[00:00:00] created one composition that's from the

[00:00:00] Photoshop document and then a folder

[00:00:00] with all the layers we'll close that

[00:00:00] back up and double click our composition

[00:00:00] to open it in the viewer the first thing

[00:00:00] I want to do before we do any animation

[00:00:00] is adjust our composition settings when

[00:00:00] you create a composition based on a

[00:00:00] still image it uses the settings from

[00:00:00] the last composition your computer

[00:00:00] worked on so I want to make sure we all

[00:00:00] have the same settings before we start

[00:00:00] animating we'll come up to composition

[00:00:00] composition settings or you can hit

[00:00:00] control or command K this is a good

[00:00:00] place to rename your composition if

[00:00:00] you'd like but I'm happy with this name

[00:00:00] if we wanted to use a preset for the

[00:00:00] size of our composition there's quite a

[00:00:00] few here and we'll work with some of

[00:00:00] those later you can see that our width

[00:00:00] is 1080 and our height is 1080 so that's

[00:00:00] a square our frame rate I want to make

[00:00:00] sure we set this to 30 you could type

[00:00:00] that manually but it's one of the

[00:00:00] presets so we'll just choose 30 from

[00:00:00] this list and turns out that's actually

[00:00:00] one of the social media presets already

[00:00:00] anyway but the most important thing I

[00:00:00] want to change here is the duration this

[00:00:00] number right here is the duration of our

[00:00:00] composition in this case it's 30 seconds

[00:00:00] yours might be different here but I want

[00:00:00] to make sure ours are all the same so

[00:00:00] let's make this 8 seconds you can just

[00:00:00] type 8 0 0 you can also come in here to

[00:00:00] change the background color of your

[00:00:00] composition this is just to make things

[00:00:00] easier to look at but since we have an

[00:00:00] image that fills the frame that's not

[00:00:00] really relevant here so we won't worry

[00:00:00] about it I'll hit okay if it turns out

[00:00:00] that your composition was shorter than 8

[00:00:00] seconds you may see something like this

[00:00:00] where your layers are all clipped off at

[00:00:00] some earlier time if that's the case all

[00:00:00] you have to do is Select them all you

[00:00:00] can come up to edit select all or hit

[00:00:00] control or command a and then just grab

[00:00:00] the end of one of these layers and

[00:00:00] extend that out to the end of the

[00:00:00] timeline and click in this empty space

[00:00:00] to deselect those I'll press home to go

[00:00:00] to the first frame of my composition and

[00:00:00] let's do a little

[00:00:00] housekeeping this top layer is our text

[00:00:00] layer let's set that to Green we're

[00:00:00] going to come back and work with that

[00:00:00] later then we have koala te cafe or

[00:00:00] koala image this ellipse and the other

[00:00:00] shape we're not really going to mess

[00:00:00] with any of those so let's set them all

[00:00:00] to be dark green and actually go ahead

[00:00:00] and lock all of those then we have this

[00:00:00] steam which is just a temporary image

[00:00:00] you can move this around here okay we'll

[00:00:00] be replacing that in a minute and then

[00:00:00] we have our teacup image let's make that

[00:00:00] yellow because we're going to work with

[00:00:00] that quite a bit I'd like to add a

[00:00:00] little bit of Animation having this

[00:00:00] scale up slowly to give it some life but

[00:00:00] before we scale it I'd like to move the

[00:00:00] Anchor Point so that it scales from the

[00:00:00] point that I want not just what happens

[00:00:00] to be the center of the image if you

[00:00:00] look up in your viewer you'll see that

[00:00:00] the Anchor Point is right here which is

[00:00:00] exactly in the center but it's not

[00:00:00] really the center of this content so

[00:00:00] I'll come up to my toolbar and choose

[00:00:00] this tool right here which is called the

[00:00:00] Pan behind or Anchor Point tool or you

[00:00:00] can press y to quickly select this tool

[00:00:00] come back to your image and grab this

[00:00:00] Anchor Point and you can just move it to

[00:00:00] where you'd like I'm going to put it

[00:00:00] right in the center of the top of the

[00:00:00] cup here then I'll press V to go back to

[00:00:00] my normal selection tool with my cursor

[00:00:00] on the first frame again you can either

[00:00:00] do this down here in the timeline by

[00:00:00] twirling this open or you can work in

[00:00:00] the properties panel which is what I'm

[00:00:00] going to do I'll create a key frame for

[00:00:00] scale right here and then I'll press end

[00:00:00] to jump to the end of my timeline and

[00:00:00] let's set that scale to I don't know

[00:00:00] maybe

[00:00:00] 110 and let's do a quick preview to see

[00:00:00] how that

[00:00:00] feels okay not very exciting yet but

[00:00:00] it's got a little bit of life it's a

[00:00:00] start I'll go ahead and stop that

[00:00:00] preview and hit home to go back to the

[00:00:00] beginning I'd like to replace this still

[00:00:00] image of the steam so let's grab that

[00:00:00] file and even quicker way to import

[00:00:00] files is just to double click in the

[00:00:00] empty area of your project panel we are

[00:00:00] looking in the assets folder of your

[00:00:00] student files for this vertical steam

[00:00:00] mov and import that now this is a video

[00:00:00] file as you can see up here in the

[00:00:00] project panel it has a duration and a

[00:00:00] frame rate I want to take a quick break

[00:00:00] to point out that while you can import

[00:00:00] and work with video files here in After

[00:00:00] Effects and you'll often be trimming and

[00:00:00] moving them around on a timeline After

[00:00:00] Effects is not a good place to do video

[00:00:00] editing if edit is most of what your

[00:00:00] project is going to be you'll have a

[00:00:00] much faster and easier experience

[00:00:00] working in Premiere Pro instead then

[00:00:00] once your edit is ready you can send it

[00:00:00] to after effects for your graphics and

[00:00:00] special effects I'll grab this steam mov

[00:00:00] and just drag it directly into my

[00:00:00] viewer okay let's move it around we

[00:00:00] might need to scale this down a little

[00:00:00] bit which you can do right here if you

[00:00:00] hold shift you'll make sure that you

[00:00:00] scale

[00:00:00] proportionally maybe somewhere around

[00:00:00] here I'm at about 82% here but you can

[00:00:00] do whatever looks good for you and I'll

[00:00:00] place it somewhere around here near the

[00:00:00] top of the cup obviously it's a little

[00:00:00] difficult to see right now but we'll fix

[00:00:00] that in just a

[00:00:00] second I'm going to come down to my

[00:00:00] layers and delete this steam Foo because

[00:00:00] we don't need that anymore and then on

[00:00:00] this video steam layer that we imported

[00:00:00] we need to reveal another panel to

[00:00:00] composite this correctly down at the

[00:00:00] bottom of your timeline you should have

[00:00:00] this little button that says toggle

[00:00:00] switches and modes if you click that

[00:00:00] you'll get a whole new set of buttons

[00:00:00] right here that say mode and track mat

[00:00:00] the mode is your blending mode and if

[00:00:00] you click on this right here you'll get

[00:00:00] a huge popup of options we're going to

[00:00:00] set this to screen which is a blending

[00:00:00] mode that shows only the lighter pixels

[00:00:00] and makes black transparent there we go

[00:00:00] that looks a lot better although we

[00:00:00] obviously have an issue here at the edge

[00:00:00] of the image let's use that Mouse scroll

[00:00:00] wheel to zoom out just a little bit and

[00:00:00] we'll fix that I'll come up to my

[00:00:00] toolbar and grab this rectangle tool

[00:00:00] right here and we're going to draw a

[00:00:00] mask on this video

[00:00:00] layer you can start wherever you'd like

[00:00:00] but it's going to create a rectangle I'm

[00:00:00] going to start roughly here a little bit

[00:00:00] outside the

[00:00:00] frame and draw a rectangle like this

[00:00:00] upwards to make sure I get plenty of the

[00:00:00] steam that's going to trim this off so

[00:00:00] that it's not visible outside this

[00:00:00] rectangle I want to quickly point out a

[00:00:00] little gotcha that newer folks sometimes

[00:00:00] run into if you tried to do this and you

[00:00:00] accidentally made a big weird colored

[00:00:00] rectangle that's because you just

[00:00:00] created a shape layer shape layers and

[00:00:00] masks are actually created with the same

[00:00:00] tool depending on whether you have

[00:00:00] another layer selected or not if you

[00:00:00] have nothing selected it will draw a

[00:00:00] shape layer like this if you do have a

[00:00:00] layer selected like right here I have my

[00:00:00] vertical steam Mo selected when I start

[00:00:00] drawing with that tool it will create a

[00:00:00] mask on that layer now if we were to

[00:00:00] zoom back in this is going to create a

[00:00:00] pretty hard cut right here so I want to

[00:00:00] come down here and twirl this open to my

[00:00:00] mask settings and on this mask feather

[00:00:00] property let's turn that up to about 60

[00:00:00] something just so that'll create a nice

[00:00:00] feathered Edge Let's do a preview and

[00:00:00] see how this

[00:00:00] feels boy that's a steamy cup of tea huh

[00:00:00] looking pretty good though there's one

[00:00:00] thing that we need to adjust and it's

[00:00:00] not super noticeable here but remember

[00:00:00] we animated this cup so that it's moving

[00:00:00] but the steam is actually not moving at

[00:00:00] all so let's bring our CTI back to the

[00:00:00] very beginning and we're going to do

[00:00:00] what's called parenting so that we make

[00:00:00] sure this steam follows that image you

[00:00:00] should see this parent and Link column

[00:00:00] right here next to your modes and mats

[00:00:00] you have a drop- down menu right here or

[00:00:00] you can use this little curly CU thing

[00:00:00] called a pick Whip and tell a layer

[00:00:00] exactly which layer you want it to

[00:00:00] follow I'll click and drag here and drag

[00:00:00] this sound to our image layer and now

[00:00:00] wherever that image layer

[00:00:00] goes steam is going to

[00:00:00] follow if I were to do some other crazy

[00:00:00] stuff with our image layer you'd see yep

[00:00:00] there we go the steam comes along for

[00:00:00] the ride this is a pretty simple use of

[00:00:00] parenting but it's a really important

[00:00:00] concept to remember and we'll be using

[00:00:00] this feature quite a bit in a later

[00:00:00] example I think this stee is a little

[00:00:00] intense right now so let's see if we can

[00:00:00] find some ways to dial it back now we

[00:00:00] could twirl this open and adjust the

[00:00:00] clips opacity and that would probably

[00:00:00] look pretty good here but I think this

[00:00:00] might be a good time to try in

[00:00:00] effect I'll come over to the right side

[00:00:00] and click on effects and presets to open

[00:00:00] up that panel I'm going to type in

[00:00:00] levels and choose this levels effect if

[00:00:00] you have your layer selected you can

[00:00:00] actually just doubleclick this or you

[00:00:00] can click and drag it onto the layer in

[00:00:00] your timeline you won't see a change

[00:00:00] immediately because we haven't done

[00:00:00] anything yet but if you look over in the

[00:00:00] left your project panel has now changed

[00:00:00] to the effect controls we can open this

[00:00:00] up just a little bit more by clicking

[00:00:00] and dragging here and then you can use

[00:00:00] this slider to make the steam more

[00:00:00] intense or we actually want the opposite

[00:00:00] of that let's grab this middle slider

[00:00:00] and just slide it a little bit to the

[00:00:00] right until the steam feels a little

[00:00:00] more subtle let's do another

[00:00:00] preview okay that's probably better I

[00:00:00] might try one more thing just because

[00:00:00] this is a little fast if you rightclick

[00:00:00] on your Steam steam clip you'll get this

[00:00:00] other pop up here and one of the choices

[00:00:00] in here is time I'm going to choose Time

[00:00:00] Stretch and I'll try slowing the Steam

[00:00:00] down a little bit just to see how that

[00:00:00] feels this stretch factor is actually

[00:00:00] letting you decide what percentage of

[00:00:00] the original length you want this clip

[00:00:00] to be if I type 200 that means it's

[00:00:00] twice the original length or half the

[00:00:00] speed so I'll hit okay and let's see how

[00:00:00] this feels

[00:00:00] I think that feels pretty good and it

[00:00:00] doesn't feel like it's creating too many

[00:00:00] artifacts up here unless it was shot at

[00:00:00] a higher frame rate slowing the footage

[00:00:00] down means you're actually just

[00:00:00] duplicating frames in this example I

[00:00:00] think it works fine but this is

[00:00:00] something you need to be pretty careful

[00:00:00] about because it can make things look

[00:00:00] jumpy depending on the motion in the

[00:00:00] clip itself always trust your eyes in

[00:00:00] this case I think it works out fine and

[00:00:00] it has a little more relaxing feel which

[00:00:00] seems appropriate for this Tea

[00:00:00] Cafe let's stop our

[00:00:00] preview close up this layer we can close

[00:00:00] up our image as well and there's one

[00:00:00] more thing I want to do and that's

[00:00:00] animate our text except we don't

[00:00:00] actually have text here this is just a

[00:00:00] Photoshop layer but if you have a layer

[00:00:00] that was editable text in Photoshop it's

[00:00:00] actually very easy to make it editable

[00:00:00] here in After Effects we'll just

[00:00:00] rightclick on this steamy motion matcha

[00:00:00] layer then come up to create and choose

[00:00:00] convert to editable text you'll see the

[00:00:00] icon change down in the timeline and

[00:00:00] then if you look over at the properties

[00:00:00] panel you'll see that we have text

[00:00:00] options and if you double click on this

[00:00:00] you'll see that the text is now fully

[00:00:00] editable let's undo that I want to add a

[00:00:00] quick text animation preset to make this

[00:00:00] just a little more Dynamic first I'll

[00:00:00] hit home to make sure I'm at the

[00:00:00] beginning of my

[00:00:00] timeline and then in my effects and

[00:00:00] presets panel I'll clear that last

[00:00:00] search and type in typewriter I'll just

[00:00:00] choose that preset here and drop it onto

[00:00:00] my text layer which you can also do

[00:00:00] directly in the viewer your text layer

[00:00:00] will disappear and that's because this

[00:00:00] actually created some animation on it if

[00:00:00] you click and drag your CTI forward

[00:00:00] you'll see that the letters are

[00:00:00] revealing though so let's press U to

[00:00:00] reveal the animation key frames and then

[00:00:00] we'll be able to see what's

[00:00:00] happening okay so we have a

[00:00:00] 0% and then here is a

[00:00:00] 100% we'll dig more into text animation

[00:00:00] later but now you can see where the

[00:00:00] animation is beginning and ending and

[00:00:00] you can easily adjust the timing by

[00:00:00] moving either of these key frames we'll

[00:00:00] press home press space bar to do a quick

[00:00:00] preview okay this feels pretty

[00:00:00] good we'll let it play through and loop

[00:00:00] watch it one more

[00:00:00] time all right I'm pretty happy with

[00:00:00] this I think we're ready to

[00:00:00] export we'll just stop that preview come

[00:00:00] up to composition add to render queue

[00:00:00] and just like before you just need to

[00:00:00] choose an output location change the

[00:00:00] name if you'd like and then click save

[00:00:00] and press

[00:00:00] render make sure you save that project

[00:00:00] if you're feeling ambitious you can go

[00:00:00] back and animate some of the other text

[00:00:00] and Graphics elements that we didn't

[00:00:00] address yet I wanted to focus on that

[00:00:00] steam element because as you saw adding

[00:00:00] video layers with effects like steam

[00:00:00] smoke particles or animated textures can

[00:00:00] be a great way to bring still layouts to

[00:00:00] life with very little effort and stuff

[00:00:00] like this is usually pretty easy to find

[00:00:00] on sites like Adobe stock

[00:00:00] if you haven't worked much with video

[00:00:00] before and more importantly if you're

[00:00:00] still fairly new to working with time

[00:00:00] there are a few important technical

[00:00:00] Concepts that I need to give you before

[00:00:00] we go much further first you can create

[00:00:00] After Effects compositions at pretty

[00:00:00] much any size you'd like but there are a

[00:00:00] few standard sizes you'll want to use

[00:00:00] for most video projects you already saw

[00:00:00] 1920 x 1080 that's a standard HD or

[00:00:00] highdefinition video frame size and for

[00:00:00] most of you that's probably what you're

[00:00:00] typically watching on TV or online as

[00:00:00] you can see this format is a rectangle

[00:00:00] wider than it is tall this is often

[00:00:00] referred to as 16x9 which is the aspect

[00:00:00] ratio of this particular rectangle 16

[00:00:00] units wide by 9 units tall the vertical

[00:00:00] format you commonly see on social media

[00:00:00] is basically just this rotated 90° that

[00:00:00] would be 1080 by 1920 and some people

[00:00:00] just refer to this as 9x6 you might also

[00:00:00] be familiar with 4K which can also be

[00:00:00] called UHD or ultra high definition

[00:00:00] your phone can probably record in 4k but

[00:00:00] right now it's still a little less

[00:00:00] common as a viewing format because of

[00:00:00] the amount of data required 4K is also a

[00:00:00] 16x9 aspect ratio but it's

[00:00:00] 3,840 pixels wide by

[00:00:00] 2,160 pixels tall numbers wise that's

[00:00:00] just 1920 x 1080 * 2 but in terms of

[00:00:00] actual area that means four of those

[00:00:00] standard HD frames would actually fit

[00:00:00] inside here so working at the size means

[00:00:00] four times the pixels for after effects

[00:00:00] to process and if you're streaming this

[00:00:00] online it might be four times the data

[00:00:00] to watch it whichever format you choose

[00:00:00] you can find these and other common

[00:00:00] video sizes in that presets menu I

[00:00:00] showed you before you can change the

[00:00:00] settings of an existing composition but

[00:00:00] especially when you're creating a new

[00:00:00] composition this preset menu is super

[00:00:00] handy you may have noticed that there

[00:00:00] are multiple versions of several of

[00:00:00] these and that's because they have

[00:00:00] different numbers on the right side

[00:00:00] that's indicating the different frame

[00:00:00] rates of these presets a video is

[00:00:00] basically just a bunch of images all

[00:00:00] packed into a single container in video

[00:00:00] those images are called frames and the

[00:00:00] amount of frames we see every second is

[00:00:00] known as the frame rate we adjusted this

[00:00:00] in the last lesson so let's make sure

[00:00:00] you know what that means if you're in

[00:00:00] North America 30 frames per second is

[00:00:00] what you're used to seeing on television

[00:00:00] as you may have noticed on the presets a

[00:00:00] minute ago you'll often see this listed

[00:00:00] as

[00:00:00] 29.97 this is due to some fairly Arcane

[00:00:00] technical reasons that date back several

[00:00:00] decades just know that they're basically

[00:00:00] the same thing in practice many other

[00:00:00] countries have 25 frames per second as

[00:00:00] their television standard most films are

[00:00:00] shot and projected at 24 frames per

[00:00:00] second so many creators will

[00:00:00] intentionally choose this frame rate to

[00:00:00] give a more cinematic feel while modern

[00:00:00] TVs can account for this better than

[00:00:00] they used to if you've ever watched a

[00:00:00] foreign TV show or a movie and the

[00:00:00] motion of certain shots seemed odd it's

[00:00:00] probably because it was shot and meant

[00:00:00] to be shown at a different frame rate

[00:00:00] than the one you're viewing it in sports

[00:00:00] video games and other action focused

[00:00:00] content often take advant of 60 frames

[00:00:00] per second to capture the smoother

[00:00:00] motion if you record video at a higher

[00:00:00] frame rate than you play it back that's

[00:00:00] how you get slow motion you might

[00:00:00] occasionally see lower frame rates in

[00:00:00] animation or in web content which might

[00:00:00] be chosen for either technical or

[00:00:00] creative reasons this video you're

[00:00:00] watching was exported at 24 frames per

[00:00:00] second so I can't demonstrate anything

[00:00:00] higher than that but here you can see

[00:00:00] the exact same movement at 24 and a

[00:00:00] variety of lower frame rates notice how

[00:00:00] that frame rate affects the way you

[00:00:00] perceive the movement and how smooth or

[00:00:00] choppy it ends up feeling two frames per

[00:00:00] second doesn't even show us anything

[00:00:00] except the two extremes but our brain is

[00:00:00] still able to fill in the gaps and

[00:00:00] interpret the movement implied by seeing

[00:00:00] those two frames in a sequence with that

[00:00:00] I think this is a good time to go ahead

[00:00:00] and bring this first video to a close

[00:00:00] I'm so glad that you've decided to learn

[00:00:00] After Effects and that I get to be the

[00:00:00] one to teach it to you in our next video

[00:00:00] we'll be continuing to work on these

[00:00:00] Basics and learning more about how to

[00:00:00] plan for motion when creating your

[00:00:00] designs