Typography is one of the qualities upon which we base most of our design work, and the type animation engine in After Effects offers a gamut of ways to express typographic flair. One of my favorites is the ability to control the 3D motion and position of text characters. When combined with simple camera moves, depth of field, and some real-world studio tricks we use every day, the results can be—literally—powerful. Let’s get started.

1 CREATE PROJECT; ADD BACKGROUND, TYPE
Create a New Composition, named “Power of Words,” at HDTV 1280×720 resolution with a 6-second duration, and then double-click the Project panel to import an image to use as a background. For this example, I purchased a vector illustration of blurry lights (#4292586 from www.istockphoto.com). Drag the image into the Timeline at 0 seconds and use any effects to adjust color or contrast, as well as an Effect>Blur & Sharpen>Fast Blur to soften focus. Go to Layer>New>Text, and enter the main text. We’ve styled ours using Helvetica Neue (85 Heavy and 35 Thin), 30-px size, Optical kerning, Tracking 10, black, and centered.

2 ADD AND EDIT 3D CAMERA
Now, go to Layer>New>Camera, choose 15mm from the Preset drop-down menu in the dialog, and click OK (if you get a 2D warning dialog, just ignore it for now). Press P on your keyboard to reveal the camera’s Position properties, and adjust the Z position value to –600 for the time being. Now go to Layer>Transform>Auto-Orient, choose Off, and click OK.

3 ADJUST 3D POSITIONS
Click the 3D Layer switch next to both the text and background image layers in the Timeline, then select the background image layer, hit P, and set the Z position to 3000 in the far distance. Now, press Shift-S to show the Scale property also, and scale the background image until it touches the edges of the full composition.

4 DUPLICATE AND ADJUST TEXT
Twirl up the background image layer’s properties, select the text layer, and press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it. Click the Solo box on the left of the Timeline for that layer and in the Character panel, change its color to white. (Note: Go to Composition>Background Color and change the color to black so you can see your white text.) Now, change the Font family to be the same throughout—in this case Helvetica Neue 45 Light, the Size to 24 px, and the Tracking to 100.

5 EDIT TEXT; RENAME LAYER
Now, double-click the T icon next to the layer’s name, then type in a series of words or sentences of your choice. The longer the line, the better the finished 3D strings of text will be, so feel free to type and copy-and-paste to extend the lines. You’ll notice that the layer’s name becomes rather awkward to work with, so when finished, click on the name of the layer, press Return (PC: Enter), and rename it to “Long line of type” or something short to that effect.

6 ADD FIRST TEXT ANIMATOR
Now for the animators! Twirl down the Long line of type layer, twirl down Text, then click the arrow to the right of the word “Animate” and choose Anchor Point to add your first Animator. Click on the name of the Animator, press Return (PC: Enter), and rename it “Animator 1 – Anchor Point” for easy recognition. Go back to Animate and choose Enable Per-Character 3D from the menu, then adjust the Anchor Point Animator’s Y value to sit in the vertical middle of the type—in our example, around –9. This enables rotators we add later to spin from the center of the letters, not their baseline.

7 ADD SECOND TEXT ANIMATOR
Twirl up and deselect Animator 1, then go back to the Animate menu and choose Position, which adds a second animator. Rename it “Animator 2 – Position Wiggle,” then next to the new name, click Add and choose Selector>Wiggly. This is where the fun and creativity really begin!

8 ADJUST POSITION AND WIGGLE VALUES
In the Position value within the animator, adjust the XYZ values to 400, 600, 400, respectively. As you can see, this blows the characters far apart easily. And if you scrub the Timeline, it looks crazy too—but this is easy to control. Twirl down Wiggly Selector 1, set the Wiggles/Second to 0.05 (it will show 0.1 when you press Return [PC: Enter]), and most importantly, set the Correlation to 96%. This causes the letters to remain more in line with each other, forming a gently rippling line of type.

9 ADD THIRD TEXT ANIMATOR
Deselect all, go back to the Animate menu, select Rotation, and next to the new animator, click Add and choose Selector>Wiggly. Rename this animator “Animator 3 – Rotation Wiggle,” then adjust the X, Y, and Z Rotation selectors to 1x, 2x, 1x, respectively. Now twirl down Wiggly Selector 1 and adjust the Wiggles/Second to 0.35 and the Correlation to 0%, and scrub the Timeline. This correlation value allows the random rotation to apply to the characters individually, which looks very cool.

10 ADD FINAL ANIMATOR
Deselect all, go back to the Animate menu, choose Character Offset, and then add a Wiggly Selector into that new animator. Rename this animator “Animator 4 – Character Offset,” then go to the newly added Character Offset value and set it to 10, and the Character Alignment to Center. Now adjust its Wiggles/Second to 2 and its Correlation to 0%, then view the results. Looking pretty cool!

11 ADD RANDOM LAYER ORIENTATION
Now to adjust the entire layer’s rotation in anticipation of the next step, twirl up the entire text layer, then hit R to reveal its Rotation property. Hold down Option (PC: Alt), click on the Stopwatch for X Rotation to add an expression field, and type in wiggle(0,180), then hit Enter to confirm. This will randomly rotate the layer up to 180° on the x-axis, but with no motion. Now repeat this process to add expressions to both the y- and z-axes, using wiggle(0,360) and wiggle(0,180), respectively.

12 DUPLICATE, DUPLICATE, DUPLICATE
Everything we’ve created so far is referencing Wiggle values, which are created randomly in After Effects on a layer-by-layer basis, so if we duplicate this layer, we’ll get wildly different results. Twirl up the text layer, select it, then press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it. Not only do you see a new spread of text characters in completely different positions, but the layer name has added “2” to the end, which is why we renamed it. Now, duplicate as many times as you like to suit your design.

13 ADJUST AND ANIMATE CAMERA
Turn off the Solo icon for all of the type layers, then select the Camera 1 layer and change its Z Position value to –900. At 00:00 seconds, click the Position Stopwatch to add a keyframe, then scrub to 04:00 seconds and change the Z position value to –300. Select that second keyframe and go to Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In (PC: Shift-F9), or adjust the velocity to suit your own design.

14 ADD DEPTH OF FIELD; MOTION BLUR
Finally, press AA to reveal the Camera Options, then turn Depth of Field to On. Change the Focus Distance to 300 and the Aperture to 80 pixels—this gives us perfect focus on the final wording line at 04:00. Feel free to turn on the Motion Blur switch for all of the text layers, then render your final movie.

A really powerful, and even slightly disturbing, motion piece created easily and quickly thanks to some careful planning, animators, wigglers, and expressions, and of course some good “Energi.” Enjoy!

ALL IMAGES BY STEVE HOLMES UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

If you’d like to download a finished movie for this tutorial, just click here. All files are for personal use only.

1 CREATE ILLUSTRATOR TEXT
Create a new Adobe Illustrator document (File>New), name it “Game Night,” select Video and Film in the New Document Profile drop-down menu, and set the size to 720×540 pixels. Under the Advanced option, choose the Dark preset for the Transparency Grid—this will ensure our white text will be visible as we work on it. Click OK. Select the Type tool (T), click on the page, and add your type, choosing the font and size to suit your design. Here, we’ve used a font from www.veer.com called Newspeak-Heavy, which will look great when extruded. Set the Fill color to white and the Stroke to none.

2 CONVERT TO SHAPES; RELEASE TO LAYERS
Select the type with the Selection tool (V), then go to Type>Create Outlines. Now we need to divide the type so that each letter is on a separate layer, so go to Object>Ungroup, then from the Layers panel flyout menu, choose Release to Layers (Sequence). Shift-click all the resulting sub-layers to select them and drag them up above Layer 1 in the Layers panel. Drag Layer 1 to the Trash icon to delete it, as we don’t need it. Now we’re ready to apply the 3D effect to each one of the shapes and tweak it as necessary.

3 ADD 3D EFFECTS
Select the first letter shape, choose Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel, and then simply press OK to exit the dialog—we’ll return shortly to adjust it. Shift-click all the other letters on the artboard to select them and choose Effect>Apply Extrude & Bevel. This applies the effect to each letter individually. At this stage you might want to choose View>Hide Transparency Grid to make the 3D shapes easier to see. Now that every layer has its own 3D effect, we’re free to adjust the Extrude & Bevel properties on each letter to make the design much cooler.

4 EDIT 3D STYLES
Select a letter, and in the Appearance panel (Window>Appearance) click 3D Extrude & Bevel. Adjust the rotation and camera perspective values to angle the letter slightly and give the extrusion some perspective. Adjust the Extrude Depth value and add some extra lights if desired—this is a creative process—you’re in control of the final look. When done, click OK, then repeat this process for each letter. Rearrange the layers and use the Selection tool to move individual letters so the word “Game” appears to be sitting on top of the word “Night.” When finished, be sure to Save the document.

5 IMPORT TO AFTER EFFECTS; PRE-COMPOSE
In After Effects, go to File>Import>File and select the Illustrator document. Choose Composition in the Import As drop-down menu and click Open. Double-click the new Game Night comp to open it, press Command-K (PC: Ctrl-K), set the size to 720×540 px, the Duration to 5 seconds, and click OK. In the Timeline, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the layers that make up the word “Game” to select them, choose Layer>Pre-Compose, and name it accordingly. Repeat this process for the other word—now we have only two layers, which are much easier to control. Import a texture image to use as a floor. The one used here is free, found in the concrete section of www.textureking.com.

6 DESIGN 3D SCENE
Drag the texture image into the Timeline, rename it “Floor,” then double-click it to open it in a Footage viewer. Use the Rectangle tool (Q) to draw a mask around the entire layer. Grab the Selection tool (V) and drag the mask down about a fifth of the way from the top edge. Hit F for Mask Feather, unlink the Chain, and set the Vertical axis to 300 pixels. Close the Footage Viewer, then click the 3D Layer switch for all the layers. Select the Floor layer, press R, and change its Orientation to 270° on the x-axis. Drag it down to the bottom edge of the comp. Move the word layers to rest on the floor and each other.

7 APPLY BASIC ANIMATION
Select the GAME layer, go to frame 18 in the Timeline, and hit Option-P (PC: Alt-P) to set a Position keyframe. Return to the beginning of the Timeline (Home), and drag the layer upward on the y-axis until it’s offscreen. Shift-click both keyframes to select them and go to Animation>Keyframe Assistant and apply the Easy Ease velocity to them. Now, go to Animation>Keyframe Velocity, and set the Outgoing Velocity Influence to 100%. To enhance the effect, feel free to add Position keyframes to the NIGHT layer for a slight position shift at the moment of impact.

8 LIGHTS & SHADOWS
Go to Layer>New>Light, change Light Type to Point, set the Intensity to125%, turn Casts Shadows off, and click OK. Press P and adjust the Position attributes to 360, 75, and –200. Since the elements we’ve created are without true 3D extrusion, we need to add their shadows manually. Select the NIGHT layer, press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate it, and rename it “NIGHT Shadow.” Delete any position keyframes, and hit S to show the Scale property. Unlink the Chain icon, scale the Y value to 20%, then press R and set the X Orientation to 270°, and move it to just on top of the Floor layer.

9 MORE SHADOWS!
With the “NIGHT Shadow” layer still selected, go to Effect>Generate>Fill, and then choose Effect>Blur & Sharpen>Fast Blur. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), set the Color to black, and set the Blurriness value to 20. Now repeat Steps 8 and 9 to create a shadow for the GAME layer: duplicate it, rename it, remove any keyframes, scale its height, rotate it (you may have to experiment with the angle of rotation), move it up to appear on top of the NIGHT layer shapes, fill it with black, and blur it. Hit T for the Opacity value, and drop it to 80%.

10 ANIMATE SHADOW SCALE
Now we need to animate the GAME Shadow to follow the animation of the word falling. Select the GAME Shadow layer, go to frame 18 in the Timeline, and hit Option-S (PC: Alt-S) to set a Scale keyframe. Now move back around 10 frames, and set the X and Y scale to 0. This nicely enlarges the shadow as the word falls from the top of the screen. For more reality, you could also keyframe the layer Opacity, getting darker as the word gets closer.

11 ADD PARTICLES
Go to Layer>New>Solid, name the solid “Particles,” click the Color swatch, choose a white color, click OK, click Make Comp Size, and click OK again. Drag the layer to start at 18 frames in the Timeline, then go to Effect>Simulation>CC Particle World. In the ECP, set the Grid to Off, then change the Birth Rate to 300, and click the Stopwatch to apply a keyframe. Move one frame forward (Page Down) and set it to 0 so there are no new particles after this point. Adjust the Longevity to 6 seconds, which should be enough for our 5-second comp.

12 BASIC PARTICLE SETTINGS
Twirl down the Producer in the ECP, change the Position Y value until it sits between the word layers (around 0.05 should do the trick) then set the Radius X to 0.4—this will spread particles across the width of the whole NIGHT layer. Under Physics, change Animation to Viscouse, Velocity to 0.60, Gravity to 0.010, and Resistance to 3.0. Under Particle, change Particle Type to QuadPolygon, Birth Size to 0.020, Death Size to 0.050, and Size Variation to 100%. Sample from the floor’s bright color for the Birth Color and its dark color for the Death Color, and set the Transfer Mode to Screen.

13 ADVANCED PARTICLE SETTING
In the ECP, click the word “Options” near the name of the effect, then click Opacity Map in the resulting dialog. Choose Constant from the Presets drop-down menu. Click OK twice, then duplicate the Particles layer for a shadow version. Select the duplicate, return to the effect’s Options again, click Rendering, and set Render Animation to Projected on Floor. Click OK twice, then position this layer between the Floor and NIGHT Shadow layers in the Timeline. In the ECP, change the Particle Birth Color to be the same as the Death Color. Click the Toggle Switches/Modes button, change the layer blend mode to Multiply in the Timeline, then add a Fast Blur effect with a Blurriness of 2. Perfect!

14 FINAL EMBELLISHMENTS
Go to Layer>New>Camera, choose the 15mm Preset and turn on Enable Depth of Field. Set the F-Stop to 2.0, the Blur Level to 300%, and click OK. On frame 16, twirl down the Camera layer and then twirl down Transform. Move the Camera slightly back on the z-axis, and set a keyframe for both Position and Point of Interest. At frame 18, move the camera on the z-axis towards the type, and then on the last frame in the Timeline, move it a few more pixels. Select all the new keyframes and apply an Easy Ease. Enable Motion Blur for All Layers, and render. True 3D? You tell me…. Enjoy!

ALL IMAGES BY STEVE HOLMES UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

Lots of programs and plug-ins create cool photo montages easily and quickly—handy for such things as photo DVDs and slideshows. But what if you don’t have those programs or plug-ins, or you want something a little more creative (yet still as easy to replicate and reuse) using a software program you already own? A few tricks and techniques in After Effects will have you up and running in no time at all.

If you’d like to download a finished movie for this tutorial, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal use only.

1 IMPORT SLIDESHOW ASSETS
In After Effects, double-click in the Project panel to bring up the Import File dialog, then locate and import the images you wish to use. For our project, I’m importing three folders of photos of yours truly training in the Italian Alps before a big race in Spain and one paper-texture image I downloaded from iStockphoto to use as a background. Note: Though not imperative, ensuring your snapshot images are all the same pixel size will make this project a breeze to complete at the end.

2 CREATE COMP & ADD ELEMENTS
Select your chosen background texture image (ours is called “Paper 1280.psd”) and drag it onto the Create a New Composition icon at the bottom of the Project panel. This creates and opens a new Composition at the size of your image—ours is 1280 pixels square with a Duration of 10:00 (Composition>Composition Settings). Now, choose any one of your snapshot images and drag it into the Timeline above the texture image. Press S on the keyboard to reveal its Scale property, and adjust it down to 20% (or close to the visual).

3 ADD PHOTO EDGE
Probably 99.99% of digital images don’t come with a white edge, so we need to add one—but not in Photoshop on every image! Here’s a neat trick: With the snapshot layer selected, double-click on the Rectangle tool in the Toolbar to add a mask automatically around the layer. Now, go to Effect>Generate>Stroke. In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), adjust the Brush Size to 50 px, Brush Hardness to 100%, and Spacing to 0%. Nifty, huh? Nice thing is, we can reuse this on the other images later!

4 ADD DROP SHADOW
As we’re doing this quickly and efficiently, we’re not using 3D layers and lights to create shadows, so we need a quick effect to raise the photo(s) off the texture. Go to Effect>Perspective>Drop Shadow. Note: Radial Shadow is much more realistic and controllable for single images, but for a montage like this, we can keep it “cheap and cheerful.” In the ECP, set the Distance to 0 px and Softness to 120 px (or adjust to suit your images, as different sizes will yield different results).

5 KEYFRAME POSITION & ROTATION
At 00:20f on the Timeline, press P and Shift-R to reveal the snapshot’s Position and Rotation values, and click their Stopwatches to add keyframes. Now press V (Selection tool) and move the image to the bottom of the Comp, then hit W (Rotate tool) and adjust its angle a touch. At 00:00f, rotate the image in the opposite direction as much as you wish, then press V and drag it to its off-screen starting position (as shown). While you’re here, click the layer’s Motion Blur switch also (circled).

6 EASE IN KEYFRAMES & ADJUST VELOCITY
Drag a marquee across the keyframes at 00:20f to select them, then choose Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In. If you scrub the Timeline now, the spin and movement do slow down, but not “heavily” enough. Click the Graph Editor icon in the Timeline, then click just the Position value to show its motion velocity curve. Select that second keyframe to show its handle, then Shift-drag the handle to the left to force the velocity to decelerate very quickly from the start and slowly ease into the second keyframe. Repeat the exact same process for the second Rotation keyframe also.

7 DUPLICATE LAYER & ADJUST ANIMATION
With Steps 3–6, we’ve prepared a single layer which can be reused many times, and whose core image can easily be replaced later on. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to duplicate the layer and, ensuring you’re at 00:20f (to avoid adding intermediate keyframes by mistake), move and rotate this layer to a different end position and angle. Then, go to 00:00f (the Home key does this) and move and rotate (keep using those tool shortcuts!) this layer to a different start position and angle.

8 RINSE & REPEAT
Now, repeat Step 7 (duplicate and adjust) as many times as you wish, making sure to only adjust the Position and Rotation values when you’re at 00:00f and 00:20f. Feel free to have the images come in from any position around all four corners of your comp, spinning as many times as you desire—this is your photo montage! Try to position the “rows” of images so they build upward from the bottom of the texture background to the top, perhaps leaving a gap for titles (or DVD menu buttons) later on.

9 SEQUENCE LAYER TIMING
Now to make the layers animate in an offset sequence: Press F2 to deselect all layers, then select your bottommost layer first. Now, hold down Shift and select the topmost layer (this is important as it sets the sequence order). Now go to Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Sequence Layers, turn Overlap to On, Transition to Off, and set the Duration to 10 frames less than your Timeline length (in our example, the Timeline is 10:00f, so we’ll key in 09:20f). Now click OK, and preview your animation. Very cool!

10 LAYER REPLACEMENT
Now for the easy part—replacing all the images! Scrub along the Timeline to 08:00, or to where you can see all of your images, and select one of the layers. In the Project panel, select the image you wish to replace it with, and simply press Command-Option-/ (PC: Ctrl-Alt-/) to replace the animated layer’s contents, but retain the border, shadow, keyframes, and velocity control. “Rinse-and-repeat” this step for all your images, and when you’re done, be sure to Save your work.

11 NEST COMPOSITION
All the hard work’s now done, so let’s wrap this up quickly and easily. Close this composition, then press Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N) to create a new composition. Choose your desired size and format from the Preset menu (in our case, HDTV 720), Name the comp “Final Comp,” and click OK. Now, drag your master animation comp from the Project panel into the Timeline of the new comp, then Shift-drag it upward so its bottom edge aligns with the bottom edge of the new composition.

12 ANIMATE POSITION
At 00:00f, press P to reveal the nested layer’s Position value, and click the Stopwatch to add a keyframe. Now scrub along to 08:00f, and Shift-drag the nested layer down (or adjust the Y Position value in the Timeline) until its top edge aligns with the top of the composition. Be sure to choose Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In again on that second keyframe, then hit 0 (zero) on your keypad to create a RAM Preview and see your beautiful composition in motion.

13 FINAL EMBELLISHMENTS
Go to Layer>New>Adjustment Layer, then Effect>Color Correction>CC Toner, and set the Midtones swatch to a mid gray. Now choose Effect>Color Correction>Photo Filter, and choose Warming Filter (81) from the Filter option. Press T to show the layer’s Opacity property, go to 04:00f and add an Opacity Keyframe. Go to 07:00f and change the Opacity to 0% to bring the original colors in at the end.

14 ADD FINAL TEXT
Add your final titles and this reusable, very cool photo-montage project is complete. Enjoy!

ALL IMAGES BY STEVE HOLMES, EXCEPT AS NOTED

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

There is a final version of this Eclipse project available for download here.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

There is a final version of this Eclipse project available for download here.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

If you want to follow long with this tutorial, click here to download the files used in this tutorial.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

Combining vector art and shapes inside After Effects can yield some great and unexpected results. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to set up the popular “popping” animation effect with very little effort. Then we’ll add the new CS4 Wiggle Transform operator combined with the Repeater to explore some fun and random animations.

If you’d like to download a finished movie for this tutorial, just click here. All files are for personal use only.

1 PREPARE LAYERED ARTWORK
I always prepare my graphics in Illustrator, because of its vector qualities. This workflow allows me to keep all the layers (as with Photoshop) and yields a much clearer and crisper result even when scaled up within After Effects. One important note: Make sure to set the layer structure correctly and always name your layers in a logical manner. Working in an organized way will make the animation process faster, making life much easier if you need to go back and change things later on.

2 IMPORT FOOTAGE; CREATE BACKGROUND
Import your artwork into After Effects by choosing File>Import>File. Be sure to set Import Footage to Composition and set the Footage Dimensions to Layer Size. The spec for this project (Composition>Composition Settings) is a square-pixel comp of 720×534 pixels (from the Preset drop-down menu, choose NTSC D1 Square Pixel—these are the new CS4 corrected PAR dimensions for NTSC and should come up automatically if you set it in Illustrator), 29.97 fps, and 5 seconds in length. Double-click the imported comp (ours is “Flower Power”) to open it, ensure nothing is selected, and then double-click the Rectangle tool (Q) to create your first shape background.

3 DESIGN BACKGROUND
Select Shape Layer 1 and in the Toolbar, set the Stroke to 0 px, click the word Fill, choose a Radial Gradient, then click OK. Next we’ll define two suitable colors that will blend well with the design. Click on the Gradient Fill icon in the Toolbar and click on each color stop to set the colors to fit your design (we used dark purple and warm orange). Press OK to confirm, then return to the Selection tool (V), and drag the tiny right circle on the screen until you’ve reached the edge of the comp, which will define a nice even gradient from the middle to the edge of the screen.

4 REORDER LAYERS; CLICK SOLO
With the shape layer selected in the Timeline, press Return (PC: Enter), rename it “Background,” and then use the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command- (PC: Ctrl-) to send it beneath all the layers.
Next, we want to set an interesting popping animation that reveals all the layers sequentially. We only need to set it for one layer and then use the same settings for the other layers, with minor adjustments as needed. Let’s start by selecting any one of the artwork layers and press S to show the Scale properties. At this point, I’d also suggest clicking the Solo switch to visually isolate this layer.

5 CREATE MAIN “POP” ANIMATION
Go to 10 frames along the Timeline and click the Stopwatch next to Scale to set a keyframe with the current value of 100%. Return to the first frame (0) and change the Scale to 0%. Next, we want to change the velocity and the ease so the animation will grow a bit beyond full size before ending at 100%, and we can use the Graph Editor very nicely for this. Click the Graph Editor icon in the Timeline, select the last keyframe, click the Easy Ease In icon to convert the keyframe, then adjust the curve handle upward to extend the scale above 100%, before it drops back in.

6 DUPLICATE ANIMATION
Click the Graph Editor icon to return to the regular Timeline view, then Shift-select both keyframes for the Scale property. Copy them to memory (Command-C PC: Ctrl-C). Now, select the rest of the layers in the comp (excluding the Background and the layer you’re copying from), and Paste (Command-V PC: Ctrl-V) to apply the same animation to all of them. “Un-Solo” the layer you worked on originally, then press 0 on the keypad for a RAM preview, and confirm that all layers now have the same “pop” scale animation.

7 TRIM AND DISTRIBUTE LAYERS
Our basic animation is now in place, but the timing is the same on all layers. Let’s fix that with a few short steps. First, select the bottommost artwork layer (not the shape background), then hold down Shift and select the topmost artwork layer. This is very important, as it will set the order of the layer sequencing. Now go to 10 frames on the Timeline, press Option- (PC: Alt-) to trim all the layers to 10 frames, then Control-click (PC: Right-click) on any selected layer and choose Keyframe Assistant>Sequence Layers.

8 SET OVERLAP
In the Sequence Layers dialog, check the Overlap box on, set the Duration to 5 frames, and Transition to Off, then click OK—this now offsets the layers by 5 frames in time sequentially. Now, while the layers are still selected, go to the end of the Timeline and press Option- (PC:Alt-) to extend their visibility till the end. Create a RAM Preview to see the new results—nice!
That was easy, wasn’t it? But we’re not done yet—you’ll want to work on each element individually and set the correct Anchor point, so the growing effect will take place from the correct part of the layer.

9 ADJUST ANCHOR POINTS
The easiest way to do this is to use the Pan Behind tool (Y). Deselect all the layers (F2), select your first layer, and then drag the center Anchor Point to the desired point from which the animation needs to occur. In this step, we selected and adjusted the Leaves layer’s anchor point, so the animation now occurs from its bottom-left corner. Repeat this process for each of your artwork layers, and you’ll really notice the difference!

10 EMBELLISHMENT SUGGESTIONS
To enhance the motion, I’ve added a Rotation spin on top of the scale to the Lines layer, and for my Rainbow layer, I’ve used the Radial Wipe effect to reveal it. You might want to add some changes to the timing to add more variations to your design.
Next, we’ll spice up our scene by adding a few elements from inside After Effects, starting with a simple shape layer in order to take advantage of the brand-new Wiggle Transform operation in CS4.

11 SHAPE BUILDING
Deselect all, choose the Ellipse tool (nested under the Rectangle tool Q), and create a small circle in the center of the screen. Move this layer to begin at 1 second along the Timeline. Solo this element, and let’s modify it. Twirl down the Ellipse 1 property in the Timeline and shut the Eye for the Gradient Fill. Twirl down Stroke 1. Use the Eyedropper next to Color and sample one of the colors (bright green in our example), and set the Stroke Width to 5 px. Name this layer “Bubbles” and let’s have some fun with it….

12 WIGGLE TRANSFORM
Select the Bubbles layer and in the Timeline choose Add>Repeater. Twirl open Repeater 1 and change the Copies to 20. Then twirl open Transform: Repeater 1; set the Position to 50, 0; and set the Scale to 80%. Now for the fun part—from the same Add menu, choose the new Wiggle Transform operator. Before we adjust it, drag Wiggle Transform 1 to below Repeater 1 so it will wiggle all the repeater’s copies individually! Now twirl it open, set the Wiggles/Second to 0.5 and the Correlation to 20%. Twirl down Transform, and change the values until you’re satisfied.

13 WIGGLE ADJUSTMENTS
In my comp, I’ve set the numbers pretty high so the circles are flying all over the place, giving the illusion of fast, popping bubbles. Pay attention to the fact that you must change the default values if you want the Wiggle Transform to work well. Feel free to change the position of the Bubbles layer until it looks the best overall, and change its layer order as desired to integrate the bubbles better into the design. Finally, set a global Scale animation to reveal the whole layer (copy-and-paste the Scale keyframes as we did in Step 6).

14 FINAL TOUCH
Let’s add a small airplane to circle the art. Select the Text tool, choose the Wingdings font in the Character panel, move to 1 second along the Timeline, click in the comp, and press Shift-Q (PC: Shift-J) for the airplane symbol. Select the Text layer and create a circle mask around the art with the Ellipse tool. In the text layer, twirl open Text and then Path Options and set the Path to Mask 1 to align the airplane to the circle path. Set Reverse Path to On and set keyframes for the First Margin value at the start and end of this layer, adjusting them until you’re happy with the position and speed of the animation. Enjoy!

1 CREATE COMP; IMPORT/CREATE FOOTAGE
Start out in a blank After Effects CS3 project, and press Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N) to create a New Composition. In the Composition Settings dialog, choose HDV/HDTV 720 29.97 from the Preset menu, enter 6 seconds for Duration, and click OK. Then create, or double-click in the Project panel to import, an item you wish to move the camera around in 3D space. (For this flyby title animation, I’m importing a clip named SBE173H from Artbeats.com—an HD clip of a 3D-animated soccer ball.) A circular element like this will add even more 3D depth to the scene. When imported, drag the clip into the Timeline.

2 MASK CLIP
In the Timeline, double-click the ball clip to open it in a Layer window, then go to the Toolbar and choose the Ellipse tool (nested under the Rectangle tool [Q]). Position the cursor in the center of the ball, start dragging, and then hold down Shift and Command (PC: Ctrl) to proportionately constrain and center the circle. Double-click a point on the mask to position and scale it to fit the edge of the ball, then close the Layer window and select the main Selection tool (V). If you click the Toggle Transparency Grid icon in the Comp window, you can see that the ball is now separated from the background.

3 ADJUST SPEED; SCALE BALL; ADD SOLID
We want to make the ball spin faster, so click the {} icon at the very bottom left to expand the Stretch pane in the Timeline, then click on the ball’s Stretch value and change it to 25%. Close the time Stretch pain by clicking the {} icon again. With the ball still selected, press the S key to reveal its Scale property, and shrink it to the appropriate size (60% in this example). Now, go to Layer>New>Solid, make the Width and Height 1500×1500 pixels, click the color swatch, choose a bright color for visibility, and click OK. Click OK again, and then click-and-drag the solid below the ball in the Timeline.

4 3D LAYERS; MOVE SOLID
In the Switches column, click the boxes below the 3D Layer icon next to both the ball and the solid—nothing will change, but now we can add perspective. In the Comp window, ensure that your 3D View Popup is set to Active Camera. Select the solid in the Timeline and press P, Shift-R, then Shift-S to reveal the Position, Scale, Orientation, and Rotation properties. Change its X Rotation value to 90° and its Y Position value (the second field on the Position line) to 900 to place the solid below the ball, acting as a floor. Finally, change the Scale to around 2,000%.

5 ADD GRID & ADJUST
Animating in 3D space is much easier when you have reference objects or lines to work with—but a ball and a flat color solid don’t look much different from any angle! So go to Effect>Generate>Grid, and a square grid appears on the solid. Set the Blending Mode (in the Effect Controls panel) to Normal to see the original color of the solid, then change the grid settings to suit your needs. You can always switch Active Camera to Custom View 1 in the Comp window and then use the Orbit Camera tool (C) to view the scene from a different angle—showing the ball as a flat 2D object.

6 ADD CAMERA; AUTO-ORIENT BALL
Switch back to Active Camera view, then go to Layer>New>Camera. Choose 35mm from the Preset menu, ensure the Enable Depth of Field checkbox is turned off, and click OK. As you saw in Step 5, looking at the ball from a different angle reveals a problem—the 3D layers are flat. But here’s a super little trick: Select the ball layer in the Timeline, go to Layer>Transform>Auto-Orient, choose Orient Towards Camera, and then click OK. Now the ball will auto-rotate to stay face-on to the camera!

7 ANIMATE THE CAMERA
Let’s test this by animating our camera now. At 0 seconds in the Timeline, select the Camera 1 layer, hit P to open the Position property, and set the X, Y, and Z values to 2700, 500, and –1000, respectively. Click the Time-Vary Stopwatch icon to add a Position keyframe, then scrub along the Timeline to 5 seconds and change the values to –800, –600, and –300. Now scrub back and forth along the Timeline (or hit 0 on the keypad to RAM Preview), and you’ll see the camera and grid show movement, and the ball always looks totally 3D. Very cool but…

8 ADD NULL; ANIMATE
…the ball is always dead-center of the screen, and this looks fake. So let’s do a small trick to fix that. At 0 seconds, go to Layer>New>Null Object, and then click the 3D box for the new Null 1 layer in the Timeline. Press P to bring up the Position property, change its X, Y, and Z position values to –600, 360, and 0, respectively, and then click the Stopwatch icon to add a keyframe at 0 seconds. Scrub along to 5 seconds and change the Null’s X, Y, and Z position to 500, 400, and 400. This is basically animating the Null to move in close proximity to the ball’s position, but with a different speed and end result.

9 EXPRESSION CAMERA POI
So now we can tell the camera to look at the Null—and not the center of the ball—during its position animation, and this will offset the motion beautifully. Select the Camera layer and hit A to reveal its Point of Interest property (POI). This, by default, is always pointed at the center of the 3D scene, but it helps greatly if this is told to follow an object instead. Hold down Option (PC: Alt) and click on the POI Stopwatch icon, click-and-hold the Expression Pickwhip (swirl) icon, and drag it to the Null 1 layer’s Position value.

10 ADJUST ANIMATION
Now when you RAM Preview, you can see a much more cinema-like feel to the camera movement—the ball goes off-camera slightly to one side, and the final resting position is more controllable, which allows for insertion of text, titles, and other elements. Go back to the Camera Position keyframes (select the Camera layer and press P), scrub to 5 seconds, select the second keyframe, and adjust its values to –800, –1000, and –800. Now Shift-click the final Position keyframe for the Null 1 layer so that it’s selected as well. Go under the Animation menu and choose Keyframe Assistant>Easy Ease In to ease the motion in slowly.

11 ADD SOLID SHADOW; MASK
To give the ball some “lift” from the solid ground, let’s add a shadow. Using a light wouldn’t work very well, as the ball casting the shadow would be—remember—rotating to follow the camera, so the shadow would adjust its shape in a strange way. Instead, at 0 seconds go to Layer>New>Solid, set the size to 750×750, change the color swatch to black, and click OK. As we did in Step 2, use the Ellipse tool to create a circular mask from the center to about half way to the four sides of the black solid.

12 ADJUST SETTINGS; ADD MOTION BLUR
Turn the masked solid layer into a 3D layer. Hit R to reveal its Rotation values, and set its X Rotation to 90°. Hit P to reveal its Position values, then set its Y Position to 898 until the solid is just above the floor. Hit F to reveal the mask’s Feather property and adjust to your desired softness. Finally, hit T to reveal its Opacity value, and lighten it slightly to show the floor through the shadow. Cool, eh? Now, in the Switches panel, turn on Motion Blur for the ball, shadow, and floor solid, and then click on the Enables Motion Blur icon in the Timeline. A RAM Preview sure looks great now!

13 EMBELISH & COMPLETE
Now you’re free to change out the floor for other elements and graphics, adjust the position keyframes and timing, and get more daring with the moves and find keyframe combinations that really suit the project you’re working on. The main thing is, you now have full control of your camera and can accurately animate smooth cinematographic moves without the guesswork. Enjoy!