Kinetic Typography Animation - After Effects Motion Graphics Tutorial

hey greg gunn here you might recognize my voice from the future podcast which if you aren't already you should totally be listening to look for one of those little fly out links in the top right corner okay so a while back our friend leo made this wonderful typography video for us it's an animation of 10 graphic design rules to help improve your typography and with over a million views i'd say it's done pretty well but what's really impressive about it is the way leo showed how those rules work using motion design we asked how he made it and he was gracious enough to show us so with his permission and my narration here's how leo built the animated typography manual here we are in adobe after effects where all the magic happens leo's going to show us how he built the first animation from the video and here's what that looks like for reference we see the zero and the one form then the camera moves through the zero and as it moves we start to see a paragraph of text come into focus when the camera rests we see that right justified text change and move across the screen to become left justified looks easy enough but let's see how leo does it to start we're going to create a new composition and since this is the first typography rule we'll name it 0 1 and set its resolution to 1920 by 1080. okay now let's set the frame rate to 25 frames per second the duration to 5 seconds and the background color to black we'll hit ok and that will create the composition for us now let's make our type we'll start by using the text tool to create the zero we can scale it up by dragging one of the corners but just like in other adobe apps you can fine-tune your type by going to window characters and opening the character menu and by doing so we can see that leo is using helvetica new for this demo now he's going to show us how to reveal the zero as if it's drawing itself onto the screen we'll start by clicking the pen tool but make sure that we don't have any layer selected this will create a new shape layer we can then use the pen tool to kind of trace the contour of the zero it works the same way as it does in adobe illustrator now the goal here is to create a mask that we can then animate to reveal the zero but we need to make sure that it completely covers it and to do that we'll go back to the selection tool click on the curve and increase the stroke width there now it's covering the full thickness of the xero to animate that reveal we'll need to add a path animation so let's select shape layer 1 twirl down the layer properties and then click the add button to add a trim path's property to the layer allows us to animate the start and end positions of the stroke we just made if we change the start value you can see that the stroke is trimmed okay now let's click the stopwatch icon next to end to set a keyframe for that property we'll then drag that keyframe down the timeline to about one second let's make sure our playhead is at the beginning of the timeline and we'll change the value of end to be zero percent and this will automatically create another keyframe for us cool so now we can preview our animation we see the red stroke starts as nothing and then draws itself over the zero great now let's make sure our edges of the stroke are vertically straight we'll press command r or control r on pc to show the rulers and then drag a guide out to help us align things next we'll adjust our anchor point tangents to try and straighten things out a bit it's okay if the red stroke itself looks kinda weird so long as it completely covers the zero [Music] now that we've straightened the edges out let's smooth out the timing by adding some easing we'll select the two keyframes and then press f9 to add easy ease and we can see what that did by opening the graph editor and making sure the speed graph is selected now when we play the animation you can see that it starts slow then speeds up toward the middle and then slows down again at the end but let's finesse that and make it a bit more dramatic we'll select the two keyframes in the graph editor and then adjust the tangents to make the curve more steep which in turn will make the animation more exaggerated we can then shorten the time it takes for the animation to finish by dragging the second keyframe back in the timeline to around 10 frames okay now we want to do the same thing on the other side so let's make a copy of our layer by selecting it and pressing command d or control d on pc to duplicate it on that duplicate layer we'll right click go to transform and then select flip horizontal now we have a mirrored layer of our animation that we can line up to cover the other side but we want this side to start from the bottom so let's go back into transform and this time choose flip vertical we'll reposition it to make sure the zero is entirely covered there perfect we're going to use this animation as a mask to reveal the underlying zero and to do that we need to first pre-comp our two animation layers so let's select shape layer 1 and shape layer 2 right click and choose pre-compose and we'll name it something obvious like zero reveal animation then click ok to create the new comp cool now our animation is all in one layer and we can use it as a mask we'll first select our underlying text layer then we need to make sure that the track math column is visible in the timeline and if it's not we can click the toggle switches button at the bottom to show it okay under track matte we'll click the drop down menu on the zero layer and choose alpha matte that tells this layer to use the layer above it as a mask and when we play our animation back we now see that the zero is revealed by the mask which makes it look like it draws itself on the screen pretty cool track mattes are a great tool for animations like this where you want to have one layer reveal another okay now let's animate the other numeral so we'll duplicate the zero layer double click to edit and change it to a one and then let's move that to the right to reflect the design and before we start let's look at the animation again for reference we see the one is formed from a rectangle sliding in from right to left and its serif flies out from behind it okay so let's see how leo does this we'll start by right clicking on the one layer and choosing create shapes from text this makes a new shape layer with a path that matches your text now we don't need the original text layer so let's delete that we've got our one as a shape layer now but to match the animation reference we need to break it into two parts and to do that let's duplicate the layer and we'll name the top serif part head and the bottom part stem done let's start with the stem and to stay focused we'll solo that layer by clicking the circle icon next to the eye symbol in the layers panel to edit this shape we're going to switch to the pen tool options and then look for the delete vertex tool we can then remove a couple of points to simplify the shape we'll then twirl down the layer properties a few steps until we see a property named path make sure the playhead is at the beginning of the timeline and then let's click the stopwatch next to path to set a new keyframe and for now we'll move that key to frame 15. with our playhead still at the start we'll select the two points on the right side of the shape and drag them to the right and off screen this will automatically create a new keyframe where our playhead is and for now we're going to move this new keyframe in the middle around frame 9. next we're going to make a third keyframe by selecting the points on the left side of the shape and moving them off screen too okay so now we have three keyframes to work with and if we preview the animation we see that the shape sort of stretches into position but it needs some timey refinement and it should also be a rectangle so let's get rid of that little angle at the top with our playhead at the first keyframe we'll select the top left point but when we move it the shape curves because it's a bezier point so let's go back to the pen tool and this time choose the convert vertex tool we'll then click the point to remove the bezier and straighten it out and with a little nudging we've now got a rectangle now let's do the same for the second keyframe to make sure it remains a rectangle while it's in transition looks good now let's work on the timing we'll first select all three keyframes and press f9 again to add easy ease we'll then open the graph editor and start to move things around a bit so let's do the same thing we did for the zero by selecting all the keyframes and dragging their tangents to make steeper curves and now when we play it back we can see that the animation is much snappier but there's a dip in movement during the middle so let's smooth that out we'll select the two middle points and drag them up in the speed graph there we go much smoother okay now let's animate the serif we'll make sure that the layer is visible by clicking the solo button and now we can see the entire numeral and just like the stem we need to modify this shape so that it's only the serif we're working with so let's move our playhead to the middle keyframe so we can see the rectangle [Music] we'll select the bottom two points and then move them up to a line with the serif next we'll press p to twirl down the position property of our selected layer and let's set a position keyframe by hitting the stopwatch now let's move that keyframe down to around frame 15 where the stem animation ends okay let's move our playhead up to around frame 8 select our serif and move it to the right hiding it within the rectangle this creates the illusion of the serif appearing from behind it and since we only need to show the serif toward the end of the rectangle animation we can trim the first part of that layer and have it start at that first keyframe to smooth out the timing let's select these keys hit f9 and add easy ease to them and then lastly we'll open the graph editor and this time we'll only drag the right point so that the animation starts quickly but then finishes slowly easing out and into its resting position nice and smooth now let's move on to the next part of the sequence in the original animation we see that after the zero and the one appear the camera moves through them to find a paragraph of text it starts right justified but then changes to be left justified so let's see how leo achieved that unique effect now there are two ways we could approach this we could type everything out in illustrator turn the text into shapes import them into after effects and then animate each word one by one but that sounds like a lot of work so let's take the quicker route we'll start by grabbing the type tool and setting our type right here in after effects and quick shout out to redcapmotion.com which is leo's animation company okay now we'll duplicate that layer and use it to set our second line of text now before we animate we need to make sure our justification is correct in this case we'll want to start with the text justified right so we'll go to window paragraph and with our text layer selected choose justify right now we can align our layers on the right side and we're ready to animate for the sake of time let's start with one line we'll twirl down the text layer properties and under text look for that animate button again the one with a little arrow next to it from that menu we'll choose position this creates a new range selector property that will let us animate the text within this layer next we'll drag out some guides to help us position and align things we know we want the text to start justified on the right and then move to be justified on the left to make that happen we'll look at our layer properties again and under animator 1 range selector 1 we'll set a keyframe for position we'll then move our playhead down in the timeline to around frame 15. next we'll select our text layer again and move it to the left so that it aligns with our guide and this will be the end position great so we've got it moving right to left now let's make it move word by word back in our layer properties we'll look for range selector 1 twirl down its properties and animate the end value we'll make sure the playhead is in the second position frame 15 and then we'll set a keyframe of 100 percent now let's move our playhead back to the start and change the value event to zero percent so it starts at zero and then changes to 100 over the course of 15 frames we can see that the text moves right to left but now it's moving one letter at a time which is fun but we want to move whole words so under the range selector 1 properties we'll twirl down the advanced settings and change the based on value from characters to words now we've got each word moving from right to left and to smooth things out a little we'll select the keyframes on position and end hit f9 again and give them that easy ease treatment much better and the best part is that we can reuse this animation for our second line of text so let's duplicate this layer and type out our new text cool we'll move that line down beneath the first and there we go but the two lines don't line up at the end so we'll need to adjust the second position keyframe on our new text layer so let's make sure the playhead is on that keyframe and then change the position value until it lines up on the left there we go and that's essentially how that text animation works leo's now going to show us how to take the two animations we've built and move a camera from one to the other but to do that we'll need to make a new composition we'll go to composition new composition and let's call this one main comp it's where our entire animation will live we'll also need to make sure that it's long enough to accommodate our camera move so let's go with 15 seconds next we'll need to bring in our two other compositions the zero one animation and the paragraph animation so let's drag those two comps in from the project tab cool now let's make a camera in the menu we'll go to layer camera to create a new camera for our scene let's make sure the type is set to one node camera and the preset is 35 millimeters then we just hit ok and we have ourselves a camera in order for our layers to be seen by the camera they need to be 3d so let's look for the 3d icon in our layer switches it kind of looks like a small cube and if it's not there we can always click the toggle switches button to show it we'll then click the empty square beneath that cube for each layer to enable 3d now when we switch to two views and move our camera we see that the text layer moves in 3d space as if our camera is tracking toward it now we may need to switch back and forth between views so that we can see where things are in 3d space if we solo our zero one layer and move the camera close to it we see that it looks pixelated and low quality which is not what we want so let's fix that to do that we'll need to check the collapse transformation switch on that layer it's the small icon that resembles the sun but when we click on it the 3d effect is lost if we turn it off again the 3d effect comes back so we need to figure out something else the thing is when you enable collapse transformations on a composition like r01 it tells the camera to look at each layer inside of that composition and treat them as if they were on this current timeline but when we open that composition we see that those layers do not have 3d enabled which means that's an easy fix turn on 3d for each of those layers inside of our zero one composition now when we go back to our main comp with the camera we see that the layers are back in 3d space and they also remain sharp when we get close to them problem solved and we'll do the same thing for our paragraph composition turn collapse transformations on both the comp itself and all of the layers inside of it while also enabling 3d on each of those layers it's important to note that collapse transformations works best on vector and text layers it's designed to keep the resolution intact but it doesn't work on raster layers like photos or videos alright now both of our animations are in 3d space and they'll keep their vector quality in our main comp let's move the paragraph animation back in z space away from our camera and we'll reposition it so that it appears directly behind the zero great now let's animate our camera we'll twirl down the layer properties for our camera and set a keyframe for the position making sure that it's after the zero one animation has completed next we'll move our playhead down a few frames and then move our camera in z space through the zero until we see the paragraph of text we want the paragraph of text to look like it's moving through fog and kind of fading into view so we'll slip the layer down in the timeline and animate its opacity so with the paragraph layer selected we'll hit t to show the opacity property it will set two keyframes the first will be zero percent and the second will be one hundred percent right when the camera stops there now it looks like it's fading in with the camera move but let's smooth things out so we'll select our keyframes and press f9 again to add a little bit of easing we can also adjust the camera's speed in the graph editor to make it a bit more dynamic lastly let's add some depth of field with our camera layer selected we'll go to layer camera settings and turn on enable depth of field and let's try an aperture of 15 to start i think it looks pretty great when the camera gets close to the zero it blurs out creating this really nice cinematic effect and there we have it our finished animation a big thank you to leo for taking the time to share his animation process with us i think he did a fantastic job with the video look for a link in the description where you can watch the full typography manual animation it's really good and you'll learn a lot from it thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one

Channel: The Futur Academy

Views: 40,325

Keywords: futur academy, the futur, chris do, how to, design tutorial, graphic design, how to design, tutorial, after effects, animation tutorial for beginners, kinetic typography after effects, animated typography, 3d text after effects, typogrpahy, typography manual, how to move type, make type move, AE type tutorial, red cat motion, animate type

Id: H1NYrn_qZII

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 10 2021