Intro to Adobe After Effects Animation, Part 2

Welcome back to educator.com. This next lesson is on animation, part two.0000

Let us prepare the artwork.0006

Basically the more you prepare your artwork in Photoshop, for instance, or Illustrator or any other program.0008

that is going to import into After Effects the better.0015

So, let us just quickly check our elements here.0019

In this case let us open up our bullet holes.0023

We are going to have the Six gun Sally shoot her gun at this wall in the comp here.0033

So, in this Photoshop document all it really is it is just 3 bullet holes.0035

And I believe it is the same bullet hole repeated 3 times. You, know, 3 layers, not a big deal.0040

If you do want to make a tweaks and stuff you can do that now.0047

let us say I want it to maybe darken in certain areas before I bring it in.0050

you, know, use the burn tool here. I do not know, it is just depends on what you are doing.0056

So, this is basically what it looks like. So, let us close this.0061

We do not need to save that. Let us jump into After Effects.0065

So, let me show you the quick preview here.0070

So, here is what we are going to be doing.0074

let us get some sound going. Actually, you know what?0078

I will drag in the sound from the comp I have just made and we will drop it in here. Here we go.0082

OK, we are going to recreate this scene right here.0091

So, I have already made you a comp that has the audio in and I kind of have to save some time here.0096

I have already marked the point of impact for each bullet.0103

So, we have somewhere to go. Kind of work backwards here.0106

So, we are just going to bring in the elements. Let us lock this audio layer.0109

OK, so over here in our project menu we have our project folder here.0114

We have elements and in here let us bring in the start.0121

Let us work from back to front. That might help.0125

So, to bring in this wood wall and, again, you could drag these over and they usually snap too.0128

I like to hit Command-forward slash. It just pops it right in there.0135

Remember, you can also drag it right into your timeline. Wherever it makes you feel good.0141

Remember, do not stop being fun. We do not have to be perfect in this one either.0146

OK, so you have got a wall. What is next?0149

We would have our bullet hits. So, let us just select all this.0155

Hold down shift, Command-forward and it pop right in there.0161

That got a little big. Why do not we go back to this one here to kind of reference that.0166

OK, here are bullets come in. OK, so they are smaller.0171

What we could do is we can actually shrink these down a little bit at the same time.0174

So, if you hold your S key for scale we are going to pull this over to the left a bit.0181

That it is about right. Again, they do not have to be perfect.0188

So, now we are just positioning our stage basically.0191

So, let us take bullet hole number 3. Move it over here.0194

Click on 2. Move it over here and 1 a little left here.0200

OK. There we go. So, our stage is set.0206

We are going to time all this according to the audio.0209

So, as you can see we brought layers in. usually by default they go to the top here.0213

So, let us move our audio back up to the top. Let us unlock it.0219

And we can move it manually or we could actually hit Command-bracket.0225

Alright and let us lock that. Let us close these layers for now.0232

So, before we bring in the smoke effect we are going to kind of position this where you want this to go.0238

And we will play it back over and over till we get the timing just right.0245

So, for now let us just move our layers around.0249

So, here is the third bullet here. We can work from top to bottom or bottom to top.0252

That almost does not matter in this case.0260

So, let us just do a quick little RAM preview.0262

Not bad. Why do not we have it so the first hit is on the left side here.0271

So, that would be this one right here. That would layer bullet hole number 2.0280

So, if you want to organize in that way that is fine.0288

So, let us just drag this down. Bullet hole number 2 will come on the screen first.0291

And, right about there. Move this back a bit here.0300

we can have bullet hole number 1 in the middle. Let us switch up the order a bit.0305

And 3 on the right. So, let us play this.0312

1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3.0317

The first bullet here we are hearing is in a previous scene.0319

So, I do not want to confuse you with that.0322

Ok, so it looks pretty good. Now, let us make this come to life.0328

So, let me show you this little preview here. Here is our Six gun Sally.0332

There you go. So the smoke is actually.0343

You can buy premade effects. They are basically QuickTime movies.0348

And you can buy premade fire, bullet holes, explosions, muzzle flashes, you name it.0352

There are all kinds of companies out there. I will even show you the QuickTime movie by itself.0358

It would be tugged into our elements video and in this case there is wall hit 1 and wall hit 2.0368

So, we are basically going to composite that on to the scene.0380

There is wall hit 1. Here is wall hit 2.0382

Usually, in a package, when you make the purchase they have got several variation of the same thing.0387

So, you might have 10 different wall hits.0392

OK, so here in our project folder. We have in our video folder wall hit 1 one and wall hit 2.0397

So, for now, let us just pop them in and you can see that they are black.0409

What we have to sort of key that out or like in Photoshop we can use multiplied screen or overlay.0417

We have 2 layers. We are going to duplicate one of these so that we do not have to bring in the third wall hit.0425

OK, so let us move this over to the side. When you are working I like to move over to the right.0434

I will get to you when I need you basically. It is kind of a thing here.0439

So, OK. So, now if you remember in our modes menu here we are going to all of our wall hits.0443

We are going to select. Let me line one up here.0452

Where are going to take one. See the first one and you can see where it hits there.0455

Now, if I go to the mode menu. I am going to go to overlay.0461

Actually, you know, let us go to screen.0469

So, screen basically removes the black and you are just left with the effect.0471

So, here is where we can kind of work backwards.0477

We are going to want to place this here. We are going to page up and down.0479

That kind of make sure it is placed right. You might even go a little higher.0484

In this case, we can hit our arrow keys.0487

If you want to get real precise on things I like to use the arrow keys.0490

So, let us go here. Let us just kind of bring our render queue up a bit.0494

And just get in tight and just play this back for a second.0500

Not bad. Back it up a bit.0505

Great! OK. So, if you have got one.0512

Now, let us bring in the second wall hit and here is our markers.0516

You can see that they went up to the top again.0521

So, if you want them we can drop these below the audio.0523

You can grab 2 layers at a time and you can hit Command-bracket up or down.0526

That moves the layers below the audio layer. Cause we are using the audio layers for our markers here.0530

OK, so we are going to go up here.0535

If you hold down shift it almost always snaps to any edge.0540

Meaning the edge of a layer it could snap to markers. It is very convenient.0546

OK, so let us line this up. We have got to make sure that we turn this to screen. On this layer.0552

And here is our effect. If you do not see the effect, let me page up a bit. There it is.0561

Now, let us line this up here. Is not this fun?0568

I love bullet. Bam, bam, bam.0573

OK, we have got 2. So, we need one more.0577

Let us just duplicate wall hit number 1 and use that for a third bullet hit.0580

So, to do that, you can go up and hit duplicate. Usually I just hit Command-D and it duplicates that layer.0584

I am going to move it up here. And move over to the side.0595

It is already been, basically copied and copied the screen mode that is set in.0602

So, it is over here. Let us move this over to the right a bit.0609

Let us see if it times out. Now, we are going to hit our RAM preview.0619

There you go. So, that is just the basic compositing there.0627

We are just taking simple layers and premade effects and drop them right into the composition.0636

Alright, thank you for watching educator.com. I look forward to our next lesson.0648