It's Friday and I have more AE tips for you.
Thanks so much for all the support so far with the first 2 editions! I hope you are learning things and getting better at After Effects. Because, ya know, that's pretty cool.
If you have any feedback, hit reply to this email - I love to hear from you!
~Chris
AE Pro Tips of the Week
1. Procreate + After Effects = big yes
Fraser Davidson's glorious twitter thread breaks a workflow from hand-drawn animation elements in Procreate to compositing in After Effects.
The real value in this thread isn't the specific effects or technique of using Procreate. This is a reminder that After Effects works best when you layer simple techniques to produce a complex result.
Throw in some hand-drawn or organic assets and you have a unique look that appears more bespoke and complicated than it really is.
Go check it out and think about how you can apply this strategy to your own unique applications.
Here's another thread about the same technique to get your juices flowing
FUN FACT 🕺🏻
Fraser was one of the first people I discovered in the motion design industry years ago when I started to realize After Effects could be used for more than explosions, muzzle flashes, and blood spurts.
His team puts out a massive amount of high quality work and have shared several helpful courses on Skillshare including a class for this Procreate + After Effects process.
PS: i am not sponsored and get no affiliate moneys. I just share what i think is helpful.
PPS: fraser or skillshare if you see this, hit me up i'm always down for some moneys
2. Snapping in the timeline: Shift + Drag
Speed up your workflow in the timeline panel with snapping.
Hold down Shift while you drag, and your layers will snap automatically. The playhead will snap to in & out points, composition markers etc. It's very intuitive and saves a lot of time compared to manual zooming in and bumping things frame by frame.
Shift + Drag = Snapping in Timeline
3. Animation takes a lot of work
The final tip of the day: animating is a time-consuming process and sometimes the best advice is to just put in the work.
I know this isn't the sexiest thing to hear, but it's true and once you accept this, your animation will start to improve.
But speed doesn't equal the best results.
We all are tempted to look for hacks, tricks, and plug-ins to make things easier.
But sometimes you need to sit down for several hours, remove all distractions, and lay down some keyframes. Tweak some curves. Add custom smear frames. Manually keyframe masks to fill in gaps.
Want some proof?
In this example, Patrick Butler painstakingly layered out every feather of a bird in Photoshop, before applying animation in After Effects to bring this still photo to life.
If you look at that tweet, he also shows how he included some rigging and expressions to control all the layers with one Null. A perfect mix of labor and efficiency.
Could he have animated it simpler using fewer layers and some turbulent displace? Sure.
But, the work is what brings it to life. Big kudos Patrick.
Another Example
In this timelapse, Alex Deaton shows how he spent who-knows-how-many hours manually keyframing the physics of 57 ballz.
by Alex Deaton
Could he have simulated the physics? Definitely.
But in Alex's words "I've had trouble with Newton in the past, tried briefly to simulate in c4d (failure), decided to just go for it."
I've been in the same spot, and at the end of the day, remember... Pain is temporary. Deadlines and results are forever.
In conclusion...
I'm not saying that you need to have slightly masochistic tendencies to get into animation...
but I'm not saying that it won't help.
More helpful resources
My all-time favorite AE script???
If I had to choose only one script it would be this one. It allows you to copy and paste ease values between keyframes. Bless this script.
Easy Copy - the most beautiful of AE Scripts (not even an affiliate link because idk how to do that)
👆it's pay what you want so you can get it for FREE, but if you find it useful, throw some bucks at it to support the amazing creator Mike Overbeck!
A GOLD-mine of project files by Ordinary Folk
I know you've probably seen this, but I have to share it anyway. Ordinary Folk, run by everyone's favorite Jorge R Canedo A (@jrcanest) has been giving away a building library of free project files.
Go check it out and learn from the absolute best in the industry
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The end.
If you're reading this far, you are the best and I have a question for you.
How much context is helpful with theses tips? More explanation? Less detail? Just right?
Hit reply and let me know. You rock!
Chris
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