How To Animate Drawings In After Effects

How-do-you-do! A long time since my last tutorial. I have been very decorated lately with much work and projects. Anyhow, I wanted to write this tutorial a time ago, then hither information technology is. I really enjoyed learning Adobe After Effects, and it took more than time to go used to apply it, peculiarly when I came from Adobe Animate, but at the end it'due south nothing more that to go use to a new tool, and final result is a lot better.

1. Preparing your drawing for blitheness

The first step for this is preparing your cartoon/graphic symbol/logo etc... for animation. In this example I will employ this illustration so you can meet the structure yous need it, if you are using another drawing program instead of Adobe Photoshop, you take to export it to PSD, so After Effects tin read all the layers. Also, if parts are in private folders, is amend to salve equally a new PSD version with all layers rasterized, there are many ways to import to Later on Effects, only I volition prove here the easier one for me.

Also, If you don´t want to utilise a PSD file, you tin can as well export each part separately in PNG and accommodate them manually, merely its a picayune more tedious.

2. Importing our character to After Effects

Now y'all can shut your character in PSD and open Later Furnishings, and when its open, just create a new project. Then we get to File Import and select our PSD File. For this Tutorial we are gonna select Composition → Preserve layers size, also select Editable Layers.

When the file is imported correctly, you will meet that Subsequently Furnishings created ane binder with all layers and a new composition. If you double click on it you will see our composition open (don't pay attention at the fact that my software is in Spanish, tools are the same).

3. Preparing Layers for Animation

Now is time to link our body parts. At the right of the Spiral icon, we just select the body part where each layer volition be attached to. Then when y'all move or rotate, elements volition motion with information technology. If you accept rigged a character in the past, this volition see you very familiar, in this graphic symbol we are gonna employ the hip as main layer. You can also link layers with the screw icon, just dragging the screw to the fastened body function, its your choice.

You can test if all links work well selecting the master layer (in this example the hip) and trying to move or rotate it. If it works well, all grapheme will exist moving with it, if this is ok, you can continue to fix pivot points and add puppets points.

4. Puppet points VS Pivot Point movements

Ok, now we are gonna fix our layers 1 by one so they will be fix for blitheness. This is the last pace for rigging our character. For selecting each one of the layers we just have to double click on the layer name we desire to modify.

For default nosotros accept a blackness background for our file, and in some cases (as the one in this tutorial) our characters contains a lot of black and we demand another colour for background. That'due south very easy to change, you simply demand to enter in Composition → Limerick settings, and at the lesser yous only select background color to i is ameliorate for you lot.

Now we have to select the pan tool so when we moved our pivot points our character don't motion from their original position. In this example, the wing come from the back so the point it stick the fly to the body is the perfect point for our pin. This fly will not have boob points because we simply need to rotate them, so we just prepare the pin bespeak in this layer.

We just need to adjust pivot points to layers we just demand to rotate or move. In other hand, the puppet points will deform our drawing and in some cases they help to give more life and flexibility to our graphic symbol. For instance, in my case I will just add puppet points to the pilus, oral cavity and antennae's. Sometimes we get exited with this new tool, but yous will see you will not need this for every movement. Anyway, yous can add more boob points later if y'all desire to give more motion in the time to come.

For adding puppets points you just need to select the puppet option tool and commencement calculation puppet points, yes, but like that. Yous tin also exam them in the layer preview, then you lot can see if the motion in correctly for this body office. Test and add together every bit many boob points as you lot demand, only not too many, because animating can became a mess in our timeline. When this is done, we are gear up to start animating.

v. Animating our character

If nosotros want to make a loop animation, we simply need to brand ane fourth dimension loop. Subsequently I will tell y'all how to maintain the looping as long equally you lot desire. Just for now, we are simply gonna make our butterfly flapping her wings. And then we are gonna set up our time for this move. Now we get back to timeline settings and determine the elapsing for this loop, in my case I want one second duration.

If you lot have animated before, you will but know that animation came first from outside movements and so we make inside movements. In my case, nosotros are gonna breathing the wings and torso and then we will add all the details, such as caput, hair, and legs.

For wings and body we are just gonna use Rotation and Position movements. Keyboard Shortcuts are P for position, and R for rotation. So now we select our primary layer (hip layer) and just press P with the keyboard so we tin can change the position of our character.

In my example every bit information technology will be a loop we will need that the blitheness brainstorm and stop in same position, and then before animating we settle first position so select the keyframe and press Ctrl+C and get to the terminal frame position and paste your frame with Ctrl+V. Now nosotros brand the movements we want in the middle of them, in my case, I volition merely add one more than keyframe in the middle.

Now for wings, we just need to press R in keyboard so nosotros tin only rotate them. Also select rotation tool in the tool panel. I will do the movement in the same keyframe so our boucle works fine with wings movement, but you can animate your loop every bit you wish. You lot can continue with all elementary movements with this tools.

At present nosotros are gonna detail our animation. Y'all volition see that your timeline volition be a little messy in the next steps. But no worries, you tin apply the shy tool to make clean upwardly a little. When shy tool is activated all layers selected equally shy layers will be hidden in our timeline, so its just switch on an off for having control in our timeline.

Now we are gonna breathing the pilus, and then we need to animate all the puppet points we have. For this we will select the layer we want to modify and then we are gonna press U in keyboard, that volition open all puppet layers. I recommend animate layer one by 1, so it won't be besides messy.

Now is time to set up all details for our loop animation. And when we finished nosotros tin make information technology longer as we need need and also add some effects.

6. Making loops and adding more than details to our blitheness

Ok, now we are gonna make a new limerick so we can manage our animation better. And so just click on Composition → New Composition. This new limerick volition have same configuration every bit terminal one, only now I desire that the composition will be ready for YouTube, and so I will select the HDV 1080 25 Preset and give it a elapsing of 10 seconds, but if you want another settings feel free to test them.

Now I will add a groundwork to my animation. In this case I will use a solid background. So I right click in my timeline and select New Solid. That volition add a solid color to our background. I want to be a gradient background and then I add an effect for that. I will add it by selecting Effect Generate Ramp (Spanish will be Gradación de Degradado ), there nosotros select our colors and can play with the effect options.

Ok, now the loop role is a little complicated, but once you lot have done it for the first time, adjacent ones will be easier. For the animation became looping all the fourth dimension nosotros accept to go to Layer → Fourth dimension → Enable Time Remapping, that volition create two keyframes at the outset and at the end, now you only have to create a new keyframe before last one. Now on the final keyframe nosotros are gonna change the time to zip.

Now we delete our terminal keyframe. At present we are gonna select the Time remapping layer and open up in principal menu Animation → Add Expression. Y'all will see that can add expressions now. Click on the menu Expression language and open up and select Property → LoopOut(Type="Bike", numKeyframes = 0), and now it will be shown in the text box. Now is ready, yous just have to make your layer longer, in this case, as long as the composition.

Now its all settle here. Yous can now take a look to your loop and meet if you want to add more compositions, details or effects to it. You can always enter to the other compositions and modify them, and all this changes will be shown in your final composition. You lot cad add as many sub compositions yous want. In this example, we are just gonna add some effects and then export the blitheness.

7.Adding some furnishings

For adding extra effects nosotros are just gonna right click on our composition and then select New Settings Layer. And now equally like shooting fish in a barrel to examination and select the result that piece of work improve in our animation. In my example I'grand gonna select Racket and Grain → Add Grain, so animation has some texture on information technology.

8. Exporting your animation

Now that our blitheness is ready is time to consign for our Social media. That's an easy step, just click on File → Export → Add to return queue. In this example everything is correct, but you can modify the extension and binder options in the Go out Mode.

And that all for this tutorial, hoping this assistance you to start animating your illustrations. If you lot want to back up me for making more than tutorials and stuff, you lot tin became my Patreon.