After Effects - Animation Guide

From Photoshop to After Effects

• Build a character or scene in Photoshop using layers for separate animatable layers. Be sure to name all layers e.g Head, Upper Arm Right, Lower Arm Right.

• Save your Photoshop composition as PSD file with layers box ticked

• In After Effects, goto the menu File-->Import-->Fie and choose your PSD file. Change Import As box to Composition - Retain Layer Sizes

• Your files is now loaded as a Composition in the Project Bin (far left) and can be opened by double-clicking the file icon.

Animating in After Effects

Keyframes are used to set values at chosen times on the timeline. After Effects computes then animates between the two values. The main things we will use will be Position, Rotation and Scale.

Timeline is where all your layers will be listed vertically and the time running horizontally. 

From: http://blogs.eciad.ca/mrose/resources/resources02/after-effect-notes/notes-on-keyframes/

The above image represents the typical timeline in After Effects.

A: Timecode - current time

B: Play-header - click and drag this to move through time

C: Add or remove keyframe by clicking on the diamond. Use the two arrows to jump between keyframes.

D: Activate Keyframes on the selected effect or tool. Only click this once, as clicking again will delete all keyframes create on this tool.

E: Keyframes - you can have as many as needed. 

Playback

After Effects needs to render before playing back at real time. Hitting the space bar will begin the render from the current play-header position. A green bar appearing over the rendered area and you can  then drag your play-header back to the beginning of the rendered area and press play to view.

Speed up Render Time

Under your main composition window click on this drop box to lower the playback quality. This will not alter the quality of the animation when exported out but will speed up render time for previewing.

Controlling Speed of Animation

Keyframes at 10 frame intervals

The speed of the animate is determined by the distance between any two keyframes. If you set a keyframe at the 1 second mark and the 2nd keyframe at the 5 second mark, the animation will happend over 4 seconds.

To alter the speed, increase or decrease the distance between keyframes by clicking and dragging them on the timeline.

Switching Layers On & Off (Good for blinking)

Using Hold Keyframes stops After Effects animating the change between the keyframes. For instance:

set Opacity to 100% at 1 second mark 

set Opacity to 0% at 2 second mark

Opacity will remain at 100% until the it hits the keyframe at 2 seconds and switch to 0%

i.e. you will not see it fade from 100 to 0

This is useful for blinking and flashing lights etc. 

Activate Hold Keyframes by right clicking on the required keyframes and select  Toggle Hold Keyframe. It will alter the Diamond shape of the keyframe to a square or arrow.

Creating a Loop

Loops are used in animation to save time, for instance with walk cycles. To create a loop, set your keyframes with the first and last keyframe being the same value. 

Next with the ALT key held down, press on the Stopwatch of the tool/effect you wanting to loop. This opens up Expressions, which allows for basic coding. In the text box that appears, type the following code and press return/enter key:

loopOut()