Mastering Text Animation with Expression Controllers in After Effects by School of Motion
Repeaters for text animations (sim to previous notes)
Source Text properties > Open Expression Box > Add .repeat(X)
x=number of times you want the typed expression to repeat
If you set character number high, tracking to negative values, and add a slider effect to the repeater expression, you can create a line that you can adjust the length to by altering the slider
Save animation preset will create an item that contains all edited properties without having to recreate each time you need it.
Reduce tracking to fill in gaps
Honestly, this video is just worth a rewatch if you’re trying to do something weird in AE and can’t figure out how to do it.
Remember offset! Great for animating
Math.abs() will force set any property values to positive
clamp() will limit potential values of a property within a desired range
Show layer controls will turn on/off the manipulation properties in the preview window
Remember, interest comes from complexity, you can use effect layering to create complexity with simple tools and effects
Ideally, you can still easily edit your original path or shape without damaging the rest of your composition too much (some is unavoidable, try to preserve what you can)
Adobe Illustrator Tips for Motion Designers by School of Motion
All Illustrator effects are vector effects (non destructive) vs Photoshop effects, that are raster effects
Use blend tool with stepping on to create equal divisions of a space (like creating a series of equally sized rectangles)
Snapping to pixel grid can mean that shapes you create in illustrator don’t actually close, which can cause some messiness later
Turn off align to pixel grid, can be toggled and will not revert changes
Shear tool can help warp text to create fun angles
Distort and Transform effect allows you to create copies and shift those vertically and horizontally to create 3d text effects
Change fill and stroke colors to add additional visual interest with this
If you change stroke/fill of object (as opposed to the text) you get some additional functionality, like being able to reorder how stroke/fill is applied to the item
Also, add multiple strokes!
Turn off Scale Strokes and Effects to preserve stroke width while transforming
Scale corners to preserve curve of corners
Object > Transform > Reset Bounding Box to reset box to perfect 90*
Object > Clipping Mask > Make to create a clipping mask
Effects > Path > Offset Path can help create “double” stroke effect
When you have multiple shapes with the same styling (fill, stroke, effects, etc.), then remove all styling, group, and reapply styling (to keep things neater and easier to manage)
You can offset fill from stroke to create cool, glitchy effect
Lots of grain effect options in illustrator
Also, halftones!
Ctrl+K is shortcut to AE composition settings
Time reverse keyframes to switch order to keyframes
Puppet Pins tool will allow you to set points to control for animating a “solid” graphic
Guide layers can set unrendered reference points in an animation
After Effects Looping Background Tutorial – 3D Grid by Ben Marriot
Asterisk will create markers in AE
Use to space layered animations evenly apart
Shift and drag will snap it to marker position
Alt + ] will trim end of layer to wherever you currently are
Ctrl + ] will move all selected layers to top
Use B to set beginning of animation, N to set end
You can select everything with the same label color if you need to make adjustments to multiple layers