(happy music) - Hello, and welcome to the 43rd video in this Beginner's Guide
to Adobe After Effects. In this tutorial, I'm going to demonstrate how to easily animate still
images in After Effects. In the previous episode, we made some serious progress
with the video presentation, where we easily created most sections by duplicating compositions and simply changing the contents inside. In this video, we're going to jump back into one of the sections to
include some animated images to add more dynamic to
the video presentation. So in this video, we're going to be covering
the following topics, importing images into compositions and animating still images. So let's get into it. So here I am where we left
off in the previous episode where we placed in
these four new sections. Now if you're watching for the first time and wish to follow along,
you can find this document in the project folder,
which you can download. Link is in the description. The download folder comes with
lots of exercise documents we will be using on this course, that have been carefully developed to aid your learning experience. The folder also comes
with document resources, such as videos, graphics, and images you can use to build your
first video presentation from scratch later on in this course. To get the full learning experience, I recommend you get the project folder. Download link with instructions
is in the description. So with the project folder open, click into folder S3, Create a Project, then click into folder
43, Animating Still Images and open the Animating Stills document. Now if you're continuing
on from the last episode, make sure you have your
document open ready. So without document open, let's proceed. So right now, I have the
main composition open, and we can see that we
have our six sections. Now if we look at section four here, we can see that it does not stretch to meet the start of section five. Now I'll double click on section four to open it in its own tab,
and this includes the video and type layout we created
in the previous video. So right now, this composition
is only eight seconds. And if I quickly click back
on the main sequence tab, we can see it only goes so far. So I'll double click to go
back into the Shoreditch comp, and I'm going to make this comp longer. So to do this, I'm going
to press Command + K on Mac or Control + K on PC to pull
up the Composition settings. Now if we look towards the bottom, we can see that the duration of this comp is currently around seven seconds, and just change the comp
to 17 seconds and click OK. Now if we zoom out on the Timeline panel, we can see we have extended
the length, perfect. So next, if I click on
to the main comp tab, now we can see the layer
bar reaches to section five. But right now only part
of the bar is highlighted. So I'll place my mouse cursor over the end of the highlighted section and click and drag right to fill the bar. So right now, this bar is
extending over section five. Now we don't need it to go this far, so I'll drag my time indicator towards the beginning of section five while holding Shift, so
it snaps to marker five. So now the time indicator is
placed at a particular point on the section four layer here. With the time indicator in place, I'll double click on
the section four comp. And when we open this up, the time indicator will be
placed in the exact position, corresponding to where we just
placed it on the main comp. Now if we look over to the far left at the top of the timeline indicator, we can see it says 15 seconds. So I'll click into this
region and copy the time code. Now I'll press Command + K
on Mac, or Control + K on PC to pull up the Composition settings. This time, I'm going to come to the bottom where it states duration. Click it to the number box and paste, and we'll see on new time code. I'll click OK. And that will shorten
the time of the comp. Now if we click back into the main comp, we can see the clip is now trimmed perfect to meet the start of section five. So I'll double click back
into the Shoreditch comp. And now we can see the remaining time we have left on the comp. So for this comp, we are going
to keep the video sequence at the start and lead into some images, which we are going to
animate to add some dynamics. So let's begin by bringing in some images. So first, I'll come
over to my Project panel and toggle up my folders to make sure everything is tucked away. And I'll double click on the blank space in the Project panel. Upon click, a browser window will appear. Here, I'll navigate to the Project folder, in the Project folder, I'll come into the Project Assets folder then into the Images folder,
then into the JPEG folder and into the Location folder
and click on Shoreditch. With the folder selected, I'll click Open. And the folder will be
imported into After Effects and inside the folder, will
be all the images, perfect. So what I'll quickly do here is drag my new folder
into the Assets folder. And in the Assets folder, I'll drag it into the Images folder and into the JPEG folder. So now it's neatly organized. So now I'll start to bring in some images. So I'll toggle down my Shoreditch folder. I'll click to select Shoreditch 1.jpg, and I'll press Command
+ Forward Slash on Mac, or Control + Forward Slash on PC to quickly place the image into the comp. Upon click, the image is now in the comp, and we can see it has become the top layer in the Timeline panel. Now if I zoom out of
the control panel here, with the image selected, we can see that this is a large image, much larger than the screen area here. Now, it's important to mention that whenever you bring in
an image into After Effects and place it into the composition, depending on its actual size, you will get different results. In this instance, we have
placed in a very large image. We will be tweaking the
scale and position shortly. But before that, let's
place in some more images. So now I'll come back
to the Project panel, I'll click to select Shoreditch 2.jpg and press Command + Forward Slash on Mac or Control + Forward Slash on PC to quickly place that image into my comp. Next, I'll select Shoreditch 3, I'll press Command + Forward Slash on Mac or Control + Forward Slash on PC to quickly place that image into my comp. I'll click to select Shoreditch 4, I'll press Command + Forward Slash on Mac or Control + Forward Slash on PC to quickly place that image into my comp. And lastly, I'll click
to select Shoreditch 5, and press Command + Forward Slash on Mac or Control + Forward Slash on PC to quickly place that image into my comp. And now we have five image layers at the top of the layer
stack in my Timeline. So I'll select the top image layer, then hold Shift and select
the bottom image layer. I'll click on the color box of the layer and change this to yellow. So next, I'm going to trim these layers. So I'll click on the timeline to place my time
indicator at five seconds. Now with all the image
layers currently selected, I'll press Alt + Open Square Bracket, and that will trim the start
of the image layers, like so. Next, I'll click to
place my time indicator at seven seconds. And with the image layers still selected, I'll press Alt + Close Bracket, and that will trim the
end of the image layers. So now, I'll click and drag image two while holding Shift to snap
the beginning of the layer to the end of the layer above. Then I'll click and drag image
three while holding Shift to snap the beginning of the layer to the end of the layer above. And I'll do this to each image so each image appears one
after the other, like so. And that will take us
to the end of the comp. Now if there is a little
gap at the end of the comp, I'll simply click and drag
the end of the last image bar across and over the end of
the comp, like so, perfect. So with the top image selected, I'll press Shift and
select the bottom image. With them all selected, I'm going to click on
the name of the layers and drag them down just on top
of the video layer, like so. Now, if we click to
place the time indicator above the first image, we can still see the type
layout on top of the image. Right now, we don't want this. So I'll click and drag my time
indicator while holding Shift towards a start of my first
image layer to snap it, like so. With my time indicator in place, I'll now select the top
layer and the bottom layer of my type layout composition. And I'll press Alt + Close Square Bracket. And this will trim all these layers, so now they do not overlap with the image. Next, there are a few layers
under the image layers that we will need to sort out,
but we will do this later. For now, we're going to look at how we can animate these images. So what I want to happen here
is that as the images appear, instead of them just
appearing as static images, I want to give them a bit of movement, to zoom in on some of the details to really draw attention
to the cool graffiti on the walls in these pictures. So I'll come and start
with the first image. And with the first image selected, I'll click and drag my time
indicator while holding Shift to snap to the start of the image bar. Next, I'll press S to activate the Scale
property on the layer and I'll come into the Scale property and click and drag left, like so, just to zoom that image out. Also, I'll press on the
left and right arrow buttons on the keyboard just
to adjust the position of the image in the frame. So with my image zoomed out, I'll come and click on
the stopwatch for Scale and add the first scale keyframe. Next, I'll drag my time
indicator while holding Shift to snap to the end of the image layer. And I'll come back to the Scale property and this time click and drag
right to scale up my image to zoom in on the graffiti. Upon scaling up, we will
now have a new keyframe for scale applied to the layer. So if I scrub my time indicator between these two new keyframes, we can see the effect that is having. When the image appears, it also zooms nicely into the graffiti. So that's a really simple
animation on an image. All we applied there was zoom. But let's look at adding position. So next I'll drag my time
indicator while holding Shift to snap to the start of my second image. With my time indicator in place, I should now see my second image. So I'll select the next image and press S to activate
the Scale property. Just like earlier, I'll
come and scale it down. And I'll click and drag
the image to the left to place the image in the frame nicely where I want it to start. Then, I'll press P to reveal
the Position settings. I'll come and click the stopwatch
to add a position keyframe and I'll drag my time
indicator while holding Shift to the end of the image layer. This time I'll click and
drag the image to the right while holding Shift to
move it in a straight line where I want the image to end. Upon doing this, it will add a new position
keyframe to the layer. So now as I scrub my time indicator between these two frames, we can see that this image
simply pans across the screen. By adding position keyframes, we can create this nice
effect for panning the image. So on the next image, let's look at how we can add both
scaling and position. So I'll drag my time
indicator while holding Shift to snap to the beginning
of my third image. With my time indicator in place, I should now see my third image. This time, I'm going to
keep my image zoomed out and simply click and drag to change the position in the keyframe. I'll press S to activate the
Scale property on the layer, and I'll come down and click the stopwatch to add a keyframe for scale. Then I'll press P to review
the Position settings, and I'll come and click the stopwatch to add a position keyframe. Now, I'll press U, and U again to reveal the two key frames
applied to my image layer. I'll drag my time indicator
while holding Shift to the end of the image layer,
and I'll come back to Scale and click and drag left to
zoom the image out, like so. And this will apply a new
keyframe for scale on my layer. Now I'll click and drag my
image to position in the frame. Upon doing this, it will add a new position
keyframe to the layer. So now as I scrub my time indicator between these two keyframes, we can see that the image
zooms out and pans across. So now it's just a simple case
of using the same technique but changing up the animation styles. So next, I'll drag my time
indicator while holding Shift to snap to the beginning
of my fourth image. With my time indicator in place, I should now see my fourth image. For this image, I want to zoom in. So I'll press S to activate the
scale property on the layer. I'll come down and click the stopwatch to add a keyframe for scale. I'll click and drag on the
scale property to just zoom out, and I'll click and drag
the image to the right to reposition the image in the frame. Then, I'll press P to
reveal the Position settings and I'll come and click the stopwatch to add a position keyframe. Then I'll press U, and U again to reveal the two keyframes
applied to my image. Now I'll drag my time indicator while holding Shift to the
end of the image layer. I'll come back to scale
and click and drag right to zoom in on the image. This will apply a new keyframe
for scale on my layer, and I'll click and drag my
image to position in the frame. Upon doing this, it will add a new position
keyframe to the layer. So now, as I scrub my time indicator between these two key frames, we can see that this image
zooms in and pans across. So all that's left is my last image. So I'll drag my time
indicator while holding Shift to snap to the beginning
of the fifth layer. With my time indicator in place, I should now see my fifth image. Now for this image, I
just want to zoom out. So I'll press S to activate the
Scale property on the layer. I'll come down and click the stopwatch to add a keyframe for scale. I'll click and drag the image
to reposition in the frame. Then I'll press P to reveal
the Position settings. Next, I'll come and click the stopwatch to add a position keyframe,
and I'll press U, and U again to reveal the two keyframes
applied to my image. Now I'll drag the time indicator while holding Shift to the
end of the image layer. With the time indicator placed at the end, I'll come back to Scale
and click and drag left to zoom out of the image. This will apply a new keyframe
for scale on my layer. And I'll click and drag my
image to position in the frame. Upon doing this, it will add a new position
keyframe to the layer. So now, as I scrub my time indicator between these two keyframes, we can see that the image
zooms out and pans across. I'll place my time indicator at the start of the first layer. I'll press B on the keyboard to set the start of the workspace area, and I'll make sure the
end of the workspace area is set to the end of the comp. I'll place my time indicator at the start of the workspace area, and I'll press Spacebar
to activate preview. And now we can see the animated
sequence for the images. And that is how you can
animate still images in After Effects. So adding a little Scale
and Position effect can add more dynamics
to your presentation. And I'll press Spacebar to stop. Now before we end this tutorial and move into the next episode, there are just a few things we need to do to finish up this comp. So I'll select the top image and while holding Shift,
I'll select the bottom image. Right now, we can see the keyframes, so I'll press U, and U
again to hide the keyframes. So I'll zoom out on my Timeline panel, and now I can see there
are some video layers that can no longer be seen. And this is because they are
under the image layers above. So I'll come and click these
last videos at the bottom and I'll simply press
Backspace to delete them. So now we have three video
layers and our image layers here. So now I'll select the top image layer and press and hold Shift and
select the bottom image layer. With them all selected, I'll
click on the name of the layers and drag them down below the video layers. Right now, we need the
video layers to be on top. Now I'll come and click
the first video layer, with Shift held down, I'll
select my third video layer. With them selected, I'll press U to show the keyframes for each. So on these layers, we have
transition effects at the end, which we created earlier. So I'll drag my time
indicator while holding Shift to snap to the start of
the first image layer. I'll press F2 to deselect
the three video layers and then I'll click and drag
my third video layer across. So the first keyframe for the transition meets with the time indicator. Now if I scrub my time indicator across these two keyframes, we can now see that the third video nicely transitions into the image below. So next, I'll come to
the second video layer and drag the bar to the right, across and over the top
of the video layer below. This is going to reveal
more of the video layer. Now, I'm going to click and drag over the
keyframes under this layer and simply click and
drag them to the right, I'll make sure that the first keyframe starts at the start of
the video layer below. So now if I scrub my time
indicator over these key frames, we can see the second video transitions into the video below. So all we have done here is extend the second and third video clip further along the timeline. Okay, so that's sort out
the video and images. All that's left to do is clear
up the type and image layout. Now if I scrub my time indicator over the end of the type layers above, they abruptly disappear. So to these layers, I want to
add a nice fade out effect. So, I'll select the top layer
and press and hold Shift and select the bottom
layer, the gradient layer. I'll click and drag my time indicator while holding Shift to snap
to the end of these layers. And I'll press T to activate
the Opacity settings. Now, we will see that some of these layers will already have opacity
keyframes applied. So now I am carefully going to come and click the diamond on the layers that already have opacity
keyframes applied. And for the layers that do
not have opacity keyframes, I'll click the stopwatch. Do this correctly and we will now see an opacity keyframe on each layer. So I'll drag my timeline indicator a little over to the left, like so. Then I'll come in and click
on the diamond on any layer, and then we will see another
keyframe applied to each layer. So I'll drag my time indicator
to the last key frames while holding Shift to snap and I'll come and drag
transparency to zero. Now as I scrub my time
indicator over these keyframes, we will now see that the type layers fade away just before the
image sequence appears. So I'll just quickly
press Command + A on Mac or Control + A on PC to
select all the layers, and I'll press U to hide all
the keyframes for each layer. So I'll come up to the work area and double click to expand
that across the full comp. I'll place my time indicator
at the start of the comp, and I'll press Spacebar
to activate preview. And that completes the
section of the presentation. At the start, we have our video intro, which then fades away to reveal the animated
image sequence, perfect. So I'll press Spacebar to stop and I'll click back to the main comp tab up in the top Timeline panel. So now we are starting to get somewhere. Now we have sections one, two,
three four and five complete. Now looking at section six
here, we have this complete but we are having the same issue we had right at the start of this video. Currently, section six is too small, and it really needs to lead
up to marker seven here. So before we end this video,
let's address this quickly. So I'll double click into
section six here at the top, and we will open the
sequence up in its own tab. Now using the same
technique we used earlier, I'll press Command + K on
Mac, or Control + K on PC to pull up the Composition settings. So the duration at the bottom is currently set to seven seconds. I'll come in here and
change this to 17 seconds. I'll click OK and scroll out, like so. And now we can see we have
extended the time in this comp. So now, I'll click back
into the main comp tab. And we can see that this comp bar now exceeds further than marker seven. So I'll click the end
of the highlighted area on the layer bar, and drag
it right across to fill. Then I'll click and
drag the time indicator while holding Shift over
to snap to marker seven. With the time indicator over marker seven, I'll double click back into section six. And looking over to the
left of the timeline panel, we can see that the time indicator is now placed at 11 seconds. So I'll come and click into the time code and copy the time value. I'll press Command + K on
Mac or Control + K on PC to pull up the Composition settings. And in duration, I'll click
into it, select all the type and then paste in the
new value, and click OK. So I'll click back into the main comp, and now we can see it's
the perfect length. So back into section six, I now need to tweak some of these layers to adjust to our new comp length. So I'll start with the
top layers for the type. So I'll select the top
layer while holding Shift and select the bottom layer
including the gradient overlay. With them all selected,
I'll drag my time indicator to the very end of the comp and I'll press Alt + Close Bracket. This will then extend each layer right to the end of the comp, perfect. Next, I'll select the first video layer and while holding Shift, I'll
select the fourth video layer. With four of them selected, I'll press U to reveal
the keyframes applied. So what I'll do now is just click and drag on one of the video layer bars at the end and drag it out a little, and each video layer will extend, like so. So I'll click off to deselect. Next, I'll click and drag over the first set of keyframes
for the first video layer, and I'll drag them right
while holding Shift so the last keyframe snaps to
the end of the video layer. What I will do now, is make my
way down on each video layer, click and drag over the keyframes and drag them right while holding Shift, So the last keyframe snaps
to the end of the video. And I'll do this for each video layer. So now, with the keyframes at
the end of each video layer, I'll click and drag
the second video layer. So the start of the highlighted bar meets with the first keyframe above. Then, I'll drag the
layer below across again. So the start of the highlighted bar meets the first keyframe above. And I'll make my way down,
dragging the video layers across until I have something
that looks like this. So what we have done here
is simply extend each video so they spread out further over time. So I'll come up to the work area and double click to expand
it across the full comp. I'll press Command + A on
Mac or Control + A on PC to select all the layers, and I'll press U, and U again
to hide all the keyframes. I'll place my time indicator
at the start of the comp, and I'll press Spacebar
to activate preview. And that is looking just fine. The videos are now
extended a little further across the timeline, and the type comp remains
until the end, perfect. So I'll click back on the main comp tab up on the top of the timeline panel. And now we have everything done. Every section fits perfectly
on the timeline as planned. Now at this point, if
you've been following along, I recommend you save your document, so we can continue in the next episode. So all that's left to do is the final section, section seven. But before that, there is
something we need to look at. Now working with video, you will always want to make
sure it looks the best it can. Sometimes when we bring
video into After Effects, it can look a little flat. Now After Effects is really
good at color grading and adding color enhancements
to our video footage. In the next episode, we are
going to be looking back at some of the video we have placed in the video presentation so far, and use some of the
helpful effects and preset in After Effects to enhance the color. So, I'm going to be demonstrating how easily this can be
done in After Effects. So see you in the next video. (soft music)
