The first thing we will do when moving on to drawing is to change the workspace to Paint.

The Paint, Brushes and Layer panels appeared. The Paint panel is designed to set drawing parameters. We will select the size and hardness of the brush in the Brushes panel. Since we can't draw directly in the Composition panel, we'll use the Layer panel for this. It's best to draw at 100% scale. To do this, use the Maximize Frame/Restore Frame Size item in the side menu of the panel, or hover the cursor over the panel and press the key<~>on keyboard.
Create a solid layer white. This will be our canvas on which we will practice. Let's select the Brush Tool. Let's draw, for example, a small circle.

This effect means that we have applied painting to this layer. The drawn element is displayed in the layer properties as a sublayer Brush 1. Let's add petals and a stem to our circle so that we get a flower.

Let's take a look at the layer properties.

As you can see, for each drawing element we have a separate sublayer. If we select one of the layers and draw something, a new element will replace the selected one. This can be convenient if you are trying to draw something specific. You can give a name to each element so as not to confuse them. Select the element, press the Enter key, enter a new name, and press Enter again.

The first property of the painting effect we see is Paint of Transparent. It is common to all elements. If you put it in the “On” position, the background layer will disappear and only the background in the form of chess squares will remain (if you do not see them, click on the Toggle Transparency Grid switch, it is in both the Composition panel and the Layer panel).

Now let's expand one of the elements. Here we see two groups of properties: Transform (transformation properties), Stoke Options (drawing properties), as well as the animated Path property (shape). Let's expand the Stoke Options group. If you want to adjust the drawing parameters for an already drawn element, this should be done here; in the Paint panel, you set parameters only for subsequent drawing elements.

Animate the Start property. Move the edit line to the 2 second position and click on the stopwatch icon. The first key has been created. By pressing the Home key, create a second key. But change its value to 100%. Preview it in the Composition Preview panel. The element is gradually drawn, but in reverse side. To make it draw the way you drew it, animate the End property yourself (don't forget to unanimate the Start property).
In the Stoke Options group we can change the brush color (Color), diameter (Diameter), hardness (Hardness), roundness (Roundness), spacing (spacing), opacity (Opacity) and flow (Flow). As you may have noticed, all of these properties can be animated. Now, changing the color for each element, let's color our flower.

Another drawing tool is the eraser. By selecting this element, the Erase item becomes available in the Paint panel, which specifies the item to be erased.

You can use the eraser not only to erase drawn elements, but also to remove the background.
Finally, I would like to describe a method that allows you to draw a perfectly straight line. For this we need a ruler. Execute the menu command View->Show Rulers. Two scales have appeared in the Layer panel: vertical and horizontal.
Now we move the cursor over one of the rulers. The cursor should change to a double-headed arrow. Clamp left button mouse and move the cursor to the place where we want to place the line.

You may know that we have several projects in different niches, one of which is the VideoSmile.ru project. It is dedicated to the topic of video (editing, special effects, 3D, etc.) and has been developed by our team since 2011.

I know that among my audience there are people who are interested in this area, so I asked the guys from VideoSmile to prepare for my subscribers a series of lessons on the most popular video processing program - Adobe After Effects. This is a kind of “Photoshop” in the world of video.

We decided that these should be practical lessons, after studying which a person will be able to make some useful animated elements for his videos. This series of lessons has been successfully created, and today I am happy to present it to you.

Introduction to After Effects

In the first video, you will get acquainted with the capabilities of After Effects and find out where you can download it.

Creation of 4 spectacular screensavers. Part 1

In this lesson you will get acquainted with the program interface, set up the workspace, and study the main panels of the program. Also here you will create your project and the first composition within this project.

Creation of 4 spectacular screensavers. Part 2

Here you'll continue to create several variations of the opening splash screen and learn a few more important After Effects tools along the way.

Transitions and interruptions

In this video, you will learn how to make high-quality transitions from the start screen to the video itself, and also implement several interruptions that will be very useful to you during editing. In addition, you will learn how to use standard transitions that are native to After Effects.

Lower Thirds and dies

Most likely, you have noticed that in various videos involving people, animated blocks appear that display the person’s first and last name, as well as the name of his company and type of activity. These dies are easy to create in After Effects, and in this tutorial you'll learn how to make them yourself.

Animated text elements

In the final lesson of this mini-course, you will learn how to create animated text blocks with which you can add any important text information to your videos.

Since August 2016, I have been studying AE and started working in the field of motion design, in addition to illustrations.

I prepared a tutorial for the blog with simple animation of shapes and lines. This tutorial is intended for those who are already more or less well versed in After Effects, so if you find it difficult, I recommend watching basic tutorials online. For example this mini course: Introductory course to Illustrator + After Effects.

Just recently I finished and posted a project with animated callouts, and in my tutorial I will tell you how I actually did it simple example.

1. We create in Adobe Illustrator vector file with a drawing. We have a callout. All lines are without fill, just stroke. Do it as in the picture to make the animation clearer. Save the file to ai format.

2. Import into After Effects. There are several ways. Double click in the window Project and select the file in the drop-down window. Or through Explorer - select the file and drag it into the window with the mouse Project. You can also go to File menu > import > file, and select our file. Note! Must stand footage in field Import As and we don’t tick any boxes.

3. Create a new composition in After Effects. CTRL + N or through the menu Composition > New Composition. We set the settings - we write the name, we have 30 frames (frame rate) and 15 seconds (Duration) animation duration, we also set the dimensions of the composition itself 1920x1080. Click - OK.

4. Drag the imported vector file from the window with the mouse Project on time line- the lower section of the work area, where, in fact, we will animate our lines.

5. Select the layer with the file. Let's go to the menu Effect > Generate > Fill.

We choose white color.

6. The layer is selected. Next, click on the second icon Rasterize next to the layer name (if the icons are not visible, then at the bottom of the time line there is Toggle Switches/Modes- click and the layer view will change - icons will appear on the right).

Now our lines are clearly visible. You need to ask them Scale scale. You can expand the layer in the parameters Transform > Scale enter the value, I set 450 to 450. Or hotkey S- immediately displays only one scale from all object transformation parameters. There are hotkeys for all functions and it is very convenient. Yes, every layer or object can be transformed and these settings are available on every layer.

7. Then we will place our callout in the center. Just like in Illustrator: first arrow selection Selection Tool(V), then move the object.

8. Select our layer and go to the menu Layer > Create Shapes from Vector Layer.

And after this action we will already have 2 layers. We can delete our first original vector layer. Select the key DELETE. Don't forget to save the project - Ctrl+Shift+S. Tip - press the magic buttons periodically Ctrl+S.

9. Now we need to split one layer into several - after all, we have several lines. You can do it manually, but it's long and boring. It's better to download and install a free script ZI_ExplodeShapesLayers(improved a new version). Select the layer and go as in Illustrator File > Scripts. Press the button Explode!

All layers are broken separately and we can again delete our original layer, it is the bottom one. But you would have to copy manually (copying a layer - CTRL+D) layer as many times as there are sublayers - lines, then delete the extra sublayers from the new copied layer and rename it.

More details for those who didn’t find it or didn’t want to download the script:
We have 4 sublayers, which means we need 3 more copies, let's make them. Then we remove 2,3,4 groups from the first layer. And then by analogy. Then rename - select the layer - ENTER - enter a new name - ENTER or click in an empty space. You should end up with 4 layers with separate lines.

10. You can arrange the layers in animation order - first a circle, then lines, then a square. Or you can leave it like that, if you wish. Well, all preparations are completed. Now comes the fun part - vector animation. Let's start with a circle - with the callout marker.

By the way, tips! You can zoom in - remove objects in the composition window using the mouse wheel (the usual ctrl+- does not work here, and ctrl 0 too) or by selecting the scale in the window Composition - Magnification ratio popup(here are the numbers with percentages and the down arrow). And you can move around the window of the composition with a spacebar - the same hand (as in a chandelier). Also, when animating an object, pay attention to the central anchor point Anchor Point. It must be in the center of the object, otherwise the animation will occur from where the point lies, and in this case we need it from the center. How to fix - press the hotkey Y, and pull the point, put it in the right place. Well, let's go.

11. Circle animation. Let's animate Scale.
You can enable solo on the layer, then only the circle (circle or dot icon) will be visible. Then we put down the keys - this will be our animation. Move the time indicator (this line with a blue tip - Current Time Indicator) for 0 seconds 15 frames and put the key - click on the stopwatch next to Scale, leave the value (I have 450).

Move it to the beginning of the composition to zero - and change the value to zero (immediately enter the size value and a new key is automatically entered). Next we advance by 3 seconds - 450, by 3 seconds 15 frames - 300, after another 5 frames - it will be 3 seconds 20 frames - 450, and repeat again at 6 seconds, 6.15 and 6.20 - set the same values ​​- 450/300/450. Then do the same at 9 and 12 seconds at approximately the same distance. Now we do the fade at the end of the composition - 14 seconds 15 frames - 450, at 15 seconds at the very end - 0. Then click F9– smooth the keys.

You can add a key in another way - click on the diamond next to the stopwatch and then change the value). You can move around the time scale using the keys PAGE UP And PAGE ON. Move the indicator more carefully! Do not move the layer itself! Just in case CTRL + Z to help you.

Well, now our circle has come to life - it appears at the beginning, blinks smoothly during the process and fades smoothly at the end of the composition. To view, press zero 0 and to end viewing, also zero 0.

12. Main line animation.
Select the next layer with the main line. Click twice U and the entire contents of the layer are revealed. Used when you need to open those sublayers that have been changed. Very comfortably. Close - again U. In the process of work you will understand everything yourself. Next, select the sublayer Group 3 – Add – Trim Path.

Expanding the parameters Trim Path and set the value y END. I set it to 75%. This indicator is responsible for the percentage of the line that will be displayed in the animation: 100% - completely, 0% - accordingly, the line will not be displayed. Optimally - from about 50 to 95%. The indicator is at the beginning of the composition. Next we animate. Clamp ALT and click on the stopwatch parameter Offset(right below End) and enter the expression in the line that appears - time*n(where n is a number indicating the number of revolutions or speed of the animation).

Play the song (zero) and see what happens. You can change the value END and compare the animation; the expression does not need to be changed. Thus, achieve the most interesting and optimal result. Now let's add the lines also appearing and fading. This can also be done using transparency. Opacity. Select the layer - press the key T and at 1 second, set the value to 100, at zero at the beginning of the composition - 0. Then we move to 14 seconds - 100 and at the end of the composition set 0. F9- smooth it out. By the way, to select all the keys at once, you can carefully select them with the mouse and click F9 or the easiest way is to select the parameter itself Opacity and all the keys will be highlighted at once.

13. Second line animation.
Now we will learn how to work with the settings of the line itself. Let's make a dotted line from a regular straight line and animate it. Twice U along the layer with the line, we find Stroke and reveal its meaning by clicking on the arrow. Finding the parameter Dashes and click on the plus sign + twice. The values ​​will appear Dash(amount of points), Gap(distance between points), Offset(animate the points). Let's enter, suppose, the values ​​5 and 5. Now again ALT+ click on the stopwatch next to the parameter Offset and enter time*n(I have a value of 35).

Now let's select Contents – Add – Trim Path and at 1 second End key 100, at zero 0, at 14 seconds 100 and at the end 0. And select the keys and smooth F9.

14. Animation of a square. Rotation.
Select the layer with the square, hotkey R (rotation). We highlight rotation And ALT+ click on the stopwatch. In the expression input line we write time*n(I have a value of 250). You can also use keys manually - at the beginning there is a key with zero initial values ​​and at the end there is a key (enter the number of revolutions 0x and degrees +0.0) let's say 8 revolutions and 360 degrees. Expressions greatly simplify and automate your work. Well, by analogy, we add transparency at the beginning of the appearance (at 1 second 100 and at zero 0) and at the end attenuation (at 14 seconds 100 and at the end 0) and F9. Or we make the appearance and decay through Trim Path.

All! The animation is ready! Our callout has come to life! Now let's save. Let's make a render.
Press hot keys CTRL + M(or go to the menu).

Click opposite Output Module straight to the arrow and select the format from me MOV+PNG+ALPHA(or MOV+PNG). And press Render, we wait while the rendering is in progress. Then we look at the result. The video will be saved in the same folder as your project.

Oksana Shilova especially for the blog

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