There are endless permutations to the backgrounds you can make in After Effects. These are a few that I’ve used in past projects. Cell Pattern and Hue/Saturation Fractal Noise and Tint Checkerboard and Noise Gradient Ramp and Motion Tile Particle World
Colour keying is a technique that creates transparency from footage with subjects shot in front of a prepared green backdrop. Colour keying is a common compositing and special effects technique and is relatively easy to achieve with the right planning and footage capture. In After Effects there are a number of plugins we can use […]
Motion tracking allows us to analyse the movement in footage and assign position, rotation, and scale keyframes to other assets based on that data. With motion tracking, we can follow a moving object in a shot, stabilise camera movement, or work within camera movement. Motion tracking is often used to composite visuals into moving images, […]
You wouldn’t expect that After Effects would have drawing and painting tools, but there are actually a few very powerful options. Let’s have a look at a couple. Motion Sketch panel The Motion Sketch panel allows us to record a motion path that is drawn on the stage in realtime. In this video, we use […]
You can convert After Effects layers to 3D. If you activate the 3D checkbox in a layer, it can be manipulated in a 3D space. A 3D layer will have more position properties to use, notably, you can change a layer’s position in Z-space, rather than just X and Y. 3D layers can also interact […]
An infographic/explainer is a good way to communicate concepts and ideas that rely on facts or data. An infographic combines design, typography, and data-driven graphics. As well as static infographics, published in print or online, an infographic can also be delivered in a time-based or interactive format. Storytelling and narrative can be intertwined in time-based […]
Parenting is the process of linking layers together. Use parenting to assign one layer’s transformations to another.
With the Puppet tool, we can add points to a graphic and drag around these points to cause deformation. These points can be keyframed to create fluid animations. The Puppet tool is really good for animating illustrated characters or creating moving elements in still photography. The Puppet Pin tool is used to place and move […]
Poor sound can negatively impact on your motion design. It is often more important to get sound right than visuals. The smallest click or sound effect out of synch can derail the success of a shot. Although you do have significant control over sound files in After Effects, it is useful to have sound files […]
As graphic designers, you are acutely aware of the nuances of type and letters. With After Effects and motion design, you can bring time and movement to your typographic design. In this series, I take you through some of the basics of setting type in After Effects. I also look at the main ways to […]
