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Tag: Creative

  • Creative Training in Brighton

    Creative Training in Brighton

    Angie Taylor runs her own private art school, called Creative Cabin. Here she teaches art, design, sculpture, 3D and animation to artists and designers. Angie also runs classes for children in art & design subjects.

    Angie Taylor’s advanced After Effects Training courses are like no other. This is not just simply software training.

    You will receive professional training by an industry professional with over fifteen years experience in the TV and Film industry.  Learn how to create visually stunning animation, motion graphics and visual effects using professional post production techniques.

    Angie has trained designers at most of the top TV and film companies in the UK, including; BBC, Sky, Channel 5, ITV, MTV. Angie also works regularly for Adobe as an industry expert in their digital video products, speaking at seminars, conferences and trade shows.

    Other complimentary products can be included too including; Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, Cinema 4D, Final Cut Pro and Motion. Learn the software plus additional nifty little tips and tricks that will project your work a mile above the rest. You’ll get training in the product features and, if required, design and animation training from an experienced After Effects professional. Learn from Angie’s own successes (and also learn how to avoid mistakes!)

    Angie teaches four levels of After Effects course: Fundamental, Intermediate, Advanced and Power User. Each course is designed to give you the skills to get the most from After Effects enabling you to produce professional motion graphics and visual effects for film, video, the web and mobile devices.

    To receive a detailed course outline and pricing please use the Contact page form to express your interest.

    • Angie can provide individual one-to-one training on site, at your place of work.
    • On-site training for groups between 2 and 5 people can also be provided at your own place of work.
    • Having trouble getting a job done? Angie also offers a one-to-one consultancy service to help you with real world projects.
    • If you prefer an off-site classroom situation, Angie works with reputable training companies in the UK and can offer training at premises in most major UK cities at a discounted rate. Please contact Angie directly for more details.
    After Effects Learn by Video is included in the course

    Training includes all source files and fourteen hours of video training written by Angie Taylor and Todd Kopriva (Adobe’s technical support lead for professional video software). You can use these files to extend your knowledge and retrace your steps again after the course.

    Please contact Angie Directly using her contact page to find out more.

    “Of all the After Effects books I looked at whilst trying to learn it,
    I found Angie’s was the most user friendly and creative.”

    Chris Cunningham, Director of music videos, commercials and video art.

  • Software Training Courses with Lynda.com

    You can now access most of my software training courses with Lynda.com. This link will take you to my author page where you can find out more about the courses I have on offer. Here’s a free taster of the kind of things I teach in my tutorials.

    Using the Stroke effect

    View this entire Kinetic Typography Techniques with After Effects course and more in the lynda.com library.

    I recorded these courses with video2brain and they are now part of the Lynda.com library. If you prefer to buy individual courses then you still can for a limited time in my tutorials store.

    Of course a Lynda.com subscription gives you access to the entire library of training by me and other authors including Trish and Chris Meyer, Rob Garrott, Deke McKlelland and more.

    Free seven-day trial

    lynda.com online training tutorials

    I’m giving away a free 7-day trial subscription. If you have a quiet week, sign up here and pack as much training in as you can to get real value from this offer. Once you’ve benefitted from a week’s training I’m sure you’ll see the benefit of a full-time, no-holes-barred subscription!

    If you subscribe now you’ll soon get access to my latest course which is coming soon. “Up and Running with Cinema 4D Lite” is a complete 2-day course in Cinema 4D Lite, aimed at After Effects users who have little knowledge of 3D applications. It will help you make the most of this free software that was bundled as part of After Effects CC.

  • Inspirational motion graphic designs

    Inspirational motion graphic designs

    Here are some Inspirational motion graphic designs I include in my seminars on “Typography and Dynamic Text animation”. These are inspirational examples of opening title sequences that I have been inspired by throughout the years.

    Big thanks especially to the “Art of the Title” website for providing such lovely, high-quality clips for us all to enjoy. They also have some great articles on the inspiration and processes used to create some of these stunning pieces of work. Enjoy!

    Anemic Cinema – Marcel Duchamp & Man Ray

    Saul Bass:

    Man with the Golden Arm

    Anatomy of a Murder

    It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

    Ocean’s Eleven

    The Facts of Life

    Pablo Ferro:

    Dr. Strangelove

    Midnight Cowboy

    The Thomas Crown Affair

    Kuntzel and Deygas – Catch me if you Can

    De Patie – Freleng – The Pink Panther

    Kurtz & Friends – The Pink Panther

    Arcady & Maurice Binder – Barbarella

    Maurice Binder – Dr. No

    Daniel Kleinman – Casino Royale

    Saul Bass – North by Northwest

    David Fincher – Panic Room

    Kyle Cooper – Seven

    Danny Yount:

    Six Feet Under

    Iron Man

    Sherlock Holmes

    Eric Anderson – Dexter

    Matt Mulder & Rama Allen – True Blood

    Jamie Caliri – Lemony Snickett

    Karin Fong & Steve Fuller – the Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emporer

    Jorge Calvo – Buried

    Moises Arancibia – Elektra Luxx      

  • Something’s happening in Europe!

    Something’s happening in Europe!

    Me with Gerhard & some of the team at video2brain

    I’m very excited, something’s happening in Europe that’s going to be fantastic for all of us – I think you’re going to love it! First of all, let me set the scene for why I’m telling you this.

    Once in a while, if you’re lucky, you end up working with a bunch of really special people – I’m so lucky it’s happened to me. I create video training workshops with the fantastic team at video2brain which is led by one of the nicest men I have I ever met, Gerhard Koren.

    Gerhard and I used to be demo artists for Adobe, traveling to trade shows and events, speaking about how we used Adobe software in our work. We clicked right away, Gerhard was so knowledgeable and talented, and as with most truly gifted people – humble and genuine with it. He always took time to help people to really understand the software and went out of his way to be friendly and kind.

    Gerhard set up video2brain in 2002 and it quickly became established as Europe’s premiere go to place for video training. They gained a reputation for quality and innovation that has never been matched.

    In 2009 they started creating English Language titles and were joined by Dan Brodnitz who came in to head up the amazing English language team. Dan has an extensive experience in the publishing industry having worked at Lynda.com, O’Reilly and IDG. As well as bringing his publishing expertise to the table, he also brings a passion for creativity, ideas and people. Like Gerhard, he’s what we call in the UK “a top bloke”. Friendly, full of ideas and he cares about quality and integrity.

    I’ve worked with video2brain since 2009 when I created my first After Effects Learn by Video product with Adobe’s Todd Kopriva. Since then I’ve created lots more titles and made many more friends at video2brain who I’d love to mention by name but are too numerous to list (you know who you are and how much I love working with you!) We have gradually built a fantastic team of English language trainers who you can find out more about here.

    2011 marks another great landmark for video2brain which will be announced this week. I wish I could tell you now but my lips are sealed. All I can say is please keep an eye on the countdown on our video2brain website. And if you want to get an idea about the kind of video training we offer, take a look at some of the 600 plus free tutorials we offer online as a taster of what’s to come.

  • Post Production Magic

    Post Production Magic

    Join Red Giant for an evening of inspiration

    I’ll be speaking at Red Giant’s FREE Post Production magic event in September. Here’s the blurb! Event Registration is available now on the Adobe website.

    When a group of amazing animators get hold of a projection system, you’re either going to get an evening of inspiration or a cheeky light bulb joke. Post Production Magic is your event for awe-inspiring work by After Effects gurus Angie Taylor, Simon Cam of SuperGlue, Ernesto Rogata of BSkyB and colourist and trainer Simon Walker.

     These artists show you how popular Red Giant tools like Magic Bullet Suite and Trapcode Particular and Trapcode Form open up big creativity on a small budget. Experience the best of design, animation, colour grading and visual effects created in After Effects and Premiere Pro, along with a networking and cocktail hour. Hosted by Red Giant and co-hosted by Adobe Systems, the event will be streamed live by Adobe and held at state-of-the-art Ravensbourne University in London (www.rave.ac.uk).

     Angie Taylor (www.localhost:8000)

    In her session Angie will share tips and tricks for creating cool and quirky motion graphics in Adobe After Effects and will show how she uses Red Giant Looks, Particular, and other Red Giant effects to give her animations a more distinctive style and pull her compositions together.

    Angie Taylor is an art director, motion graphic designer and author. She enjoyed a fourteen year career producing animation, visual effects and motion graphics for television, film, video and the web. During her career Angie worked with D-Fuse designing animation for cutting-edge Beck DVD ‘Guero’ and provided animation for the controversial Aphex Twin / Chris Cunningham collaboration ‘Rubber Johnny’. She also provided visual effects on the John Williams-directed “Hibernation”, winner of six awards at international film festivals, including ‘best short’ award at the 2005 Manhattan, Rhode Island, Edinburgh and Zagreb Film festivals. Examples of her work were regularly broadcast on the BBC and Channel 4 in the UK and across Europe.Angie also works in the software industry as a software specialist, regularly touring with companies including Adobe and Apple. Angie delivers software demonstrations and seminars on digital filmmaking and animation processes at international trade shows and conferences including NAB, IBC and Macworld. She also provides bespoke training and consultancy to a wide range companies including; BBC; Channel 4; Channel 5; Carlton; HTV; B Sky B; MTV.The author of three successful books. The “Creative After Effects” books (version 5 and 7), published by Focal Press, and a third book, “Design Essentials for the motion media artist” which is also published by Focal Press. Angie is also co-author of “After Effects CS5 Learn by Video”, published by Peachpitt in association with Adobe Press. Angie also produces high quality online training workshops with video2brain, Europe’s premier source for video training since 2002.

    Simon Cam, Superglue (www.wearesuperglue.com)

    Superglue’s projection mapping project for Toyota’s “Get Your Energy Back” campaign (http://www.vimeo.com/16466136) was a highly creative and technical challenge, utilising numerous different production techniques. The animation featured 2D, 3D, keyframed animation, dynamics, particle systems and more. Compositing, VFX and general pipeline management was performed in After Effects, whilst 3D work was created using Autodesk Maya and Maxon Cinema 4D. The team made extensive use of both Trapcode Form and Trapcode Particular in bringing to life the ‘hybrid energy’ that was the key part of the campaign’s message.

    Superglue is an award winning, London-based production company specialising in innovative digital projects. The team comprises a dynamic mix of production, post and digital brains working across live action, visual effects, 3D and motion graphics. Superglue operates across the modern media spectrum, creating moving image for everything from banners to broadcast.

    Ernesto Rogata, BSkyB

    Ernesto will talk about the daily challenge of integrating text and other graphic elements in exciting and innovative ways in sport pieces, stings and short title sequences – usually with little time to complete the job. He will share some simple techniques to create motion graphics using After Effects and Red Giant plug-ins.

    Ernesto Rogata is an award-winning senior video editor at BSkyB in London and has worked in post-production for 20 years. His professional role covers four areas: editing, grading, creating motion graphics and training.

    Simon Walker,  (www.simonwalkerfreelance.com)

    Simon will show the grading secrets of Plot Device, a new short film produced by Red Giant, and will demonstrate how Red Giant’s Magic Bullet Suite brought to life a varied series of genres… as well as a hoard of zombies!

    Simon is creative director of WiltshireVideo.com, makes online grading and editing tutorials at www.simonwalkerfreelance.com, and is an instructor for the International Colorist Academy, iColorist.com. He is an Adobe Certified Premiere Pro Instructor and trains industry professionals in editing, motion graphics, colour grading, audio sweetening, and (excitingly!) video compression. 

    Here’s a link to Event Registration on the Adobe website

    Ravensbourne

    6 Penrose Way
    Peninsula Square
    Greenwich
    London
    SE10 0EW
    Weds 7th September 2011
    6.30pm for drinks and networking
    Presentations from 7.00pm to 8.15pm
    Networking til 9pm

  • Post-Digital Aesthetics make a welcome return

    I’ve been speaking at events for a long time, in fact I can’t believe how long, after fifteen years now I’m classed as an industry veteran! (I’m not sure whether to be happy or sad about that one!). It’s been great to be in this position as I’ve seen the industry develop both technically and in terms of design. I’m happy to say that I’m beginning to notice a change. We are now entering a new age where technique is gradually becoming less prevalent – aesthetics and messaging are being rediscovered as the most important aspect of our work as designers. My friend, Birgitta Hosea (now a Doctor of animation!) has coined a new term to mark this era, “the post-digital aesthetic age”.

    During most of my career as a motion graphic designer I’ve witnessed so many projects that are led by technique or by the latest “how cool is that” type-of-effect.  “How did they do that?” is all fine and dandy for your average man in the street, or for those concerned with visual effects or the more technical aspects of production. But for artists, designers, philosophers thinkers and appreciators of fine art it and design, I’m afraid it just doesn’t cut it every time. We like substance as well as style. Why did they do that is just as important as how, please don’t let us forget the saying “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!”

    I’m going to be teaching on the Graphic Design and Illustration courses at Brighton University this year and am so excited to be going back into an academic environment. Of course I’ll be teaching digital software techniques, I’m there to provide guidance to the students from the perspective of a motion graphic designer. But I’m also looking forward to emphasising to them the importance of the core design skills they’ll need to set themselves apart as artists and communicators. I’d love to hear the views of others on this subject. How do you ensure that the technical aspects of your work as a designer/ illustrator/ artist don’t dictate the content or quality of your work? Answers on a well thought out and constructed postcard please! 🙂

  • 20% off new Todd Kopriva After Effects workshop

    20% off new Todd Kopriva After Effects workshop

    This week I’m giving a 20% discount to anyone who wants to buy the fantastic new workshop on Motion Tracking & Stabilisation by Todd Kopriva which is now available to buy from my video training store. Just enter MOTION into the Coupon Code box when buying from my shop. It’s valid till July 15th 2011.

    If you want to check out some free samples before buying there are some links to free sample movies here, including; An Overview of the mocha-AE Interface and Workflow, Overview of Warp Stabilizer Effect and more details about the Warp Stabilizer controls and workflow

    This workshop covers all the tools and techniques used for motion tracking and image stabilization in After Effects, including the point tracker, the Warp Stabilizer Effects, and mocha-AE. The contents of this course include:

    Introduction
    This chapter introduces you to motion tracking and shows you frame-by-frame how manual motion tracking works.

    Motion Tracking with the Point Tracker
    Once you determine what kind of motion you want to track, you’ll need to decide what you will apply the tracking data to. This chapter explains your options and shows you how to remove tracking markers when you’re done.

    Motion Tracking with mocha-AE
    This chapter walks you through using mocha-AE, a standalone application that can export tracking data for use in After Effects.

    Stabilizing Motion
    Ever been frustrated working with shaky footage? This chapter shows you how to add stability to your projects by using the new Warp Stabilizer effect.

    The lessons are wrapped in a feature-rich interface that lets you jump to any topic and bookmark individual sections for later review. Full-Screen mode provides a hi-def, immersive experience, and Watch-and-Work mode shrinks the video into a small window so you can play the videos alongside your application. This course also includes project files so you can follow along and try out new techniques as you learn them.

  • 12 rules of animation

    Digital Arts has featured – 12 Rules of Animation – an excerpt from my “Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist” as their feature article this month. The article is now FREELY AVAILABLE on the Digital Arts website.

    Animation as we know it has been around since Horner invented the zoetrope in 1834. Since then animators have developed rules of animation that help us to draw viewers into the world we have created. From Disney classics to the latest stereoscopic 3D productions, we’ve plundered them all to find the 12 key techniques you need to master to be a top-flight animator.

    Some of these rules are based on real-life physics, and others on observations and reactions. They provide a set of invaluable ‘tricks’ for animators that have been proven to work in almost every situation.

    In the article I delve into the world of animation to pick out the 12 rules of animation that every animator and motion graphics artist must know. Drawn from the forms 150 year history, you’ll learn a wealth of dos and don’ts that will help you produce more engaging projects, whether you’re working in 2D, 3D, graphics, stop-motion or a mixture of them all.

    You can pick up both printed copies and digital downloads from the Digital Arts website where you can also find some of my tutorials, tips and tricks.

    I’ll also be talking about some of these golden rules of animation in my “Dynamic Text Animation for Motion Graphicswith After Effects” presentation at the Production Fiesta in London on May 6th.

    In this session, I will share an in-depth look at the options for working with text in Adobe After Effects. I’ll show examples of successful motion graphic designs and will discuss the components of design that make them work. In this session you’ll earn about the rules of typography and how to apply the rules of typography to your designs to make them easier to read and more dynamic. I’ll also take an in-depth look at the typographic controls available in After Effects and will also show you how you can use hand-drawn text to bring a unique aspect to your designs.

    I’ll also be presenting four other sessions at this event which you can find out about here. If you want to register for a full day of valuable creative sessions by me and all the other speakers you can do so here on the Eventbrite page. I hope to see some of you there, please make sure to say hello if you can make it along.

     

  • Free video training & discounted classes

    Free video training & discounted classes


    I’m giving away lots of goodies this week. In this blog I’m offering you some free sample movies from my ‘2D Character Animation in After Effects’ workshop from video2brain. I’m also pleased to announce some fantastic discounts on my training courses in London in March.

    A one-off funding offer means that there’s currently a massive 80% off my Photoshop and After Effects courses at the Bridge Training. You can find out about these offers here. Just to give you an idea of the sort of savings on offer, my After Effects training 2 day training courses (Fundamentals, Intermediate and Advanced) have been discounted from the usual price of ÂŁ504 to the incredible price of ÂŁ108 for anyone based in the London Westminster area. Please contact The Bridge Training here to book a place.

    I’m so excited to be able to introduce a set of video training products specifically aimed at character animation in Adobe After Effects CS5. I’ve included a link to a free sample from this workshop here, just click on this link to watch it in HD. There are also some other free videos available here.

    As a freelance illustrator and motion graphics designer, I use After Effects every day to create artwork and animations of various styles. As a result, I’ve developed some powerful techniques for creating quick but compelling 2D animation, and in this workshop I share them with you. You’ll learn how to import layered files and paths from Illustrator into After Effects and how to animate flat vector artwork in both 2D and 3D space.

    Topics covered include:

    • Setting up After Effects for creating 2D character animation
    • Using input devices to capture motion and apply it to your characters
    • Creating animation and lip-syncing with audio files, using expressions and scripting to make the process easier
    • Applying grouping techniques and using parenting to create hierarchical animations
    • Following the best working practices for outputting your animations for the web, TV, and mobile devices

    All this is presented in a series of short, focused, and solution-oriented videos that steer clear of technical jargon. Whether you’re a motion graphic designer, animator, storyboard artist, video editor, or illustrator, if you want to create 2D animation from flat, vector-based artwork, this is the workshop for you.

    The lessons are wrapped in a feature-rich interface that lets you jump to any topic and bookmark individual sections for later review. Full-Screen mode provides a hi-def, immersive experience, and Watch-and-Work mode shrinks the video into a small window so you can play the videos alongside your application. This course also includes project files so you can follow along and try out new techniques as you learn them.

  • Premiere Pro – real-time for After Effects?

    Premiere Pro – real-time for After Effects?

    Quite a question – Is Premiere Pro a real-time engine for After Effects? Well this week I hope to answer it at Broadcast Video Expo 2011 I’ll be on the Adobe booth demonstrating and sharing my favorite tips and tricks about Adobe After Effects CS5.

    I’ll also be sharing excerpts from my books and DVDs, giving away a free copy each day of my “Design Essentials for the Motion Media Artist” book and my “After Effects CS5 Learn by Video” DVD (Created with the amazing Todd Kopriva of Adobe).

    Those of you who have used After Effects will know that it isn’t really designed as a video editing application. there’s no real-time engine so it can be really tiresome editing footage there and waiting for previews. However, did you know that the Adobe CS5 Production Premium comes with a special, little known, real time engine for After Effects, it’s called Premiere Pro and I’m rapidly falling in love with it all over again!

    I’ll explain a little about why I describe Premiere Pro as a real-time engine for AE in a minute, but first a little bit of history (imagine wavy transition and spacey music, signifying time passing!) The first NLE I used was Adobe Premiere 4.0 on Mac, back in the mid-nineteen-ninety’s (Oh dear – showing my age there!). It was amazing to be able to edit video on a Mac and it opened video editing up to a whole host of new people after being a pretty exclusive domain, primarily owned by Avid at the time. Sadly Premiere never kept up with the pack and it’s reputation was almost destroyed with the disappointing release of version 5. Final Cut Pro also raised it’s rather sexy head at that time and it almost put a nail in dear old Premiere’s coffin.

    But I’m glad to say that Adobe have persevered and have battled to bring Premiere Pro back to being a serious contender in the bloody battle of the NLEs .They still have a way to go, to convince folks that it really can give FCP a run for it’s money. Many people are still cast under the Apple Marketing spell and many of the people who ‘dis’ Premiere Pro have never actually tried it so keep that in mind and make your own decision about whether it’s a worthy contestant. I’ve used it in real-world projects and have found it to be reliable, fast and creatively flexible. And I also use Final Cut Pro in my work as a freelancer so I know both applications well and am speaking from a real-world user point of view. Incidentally, did I also mention that the BBC are using it throughout the organization? ‘Nuff said?

    OK, back to the present! Why do I call Premiere Pro a ‘real-time engine for AE’? Well, as I said, working in AE can be a PIA (don’t you just love those TLA’s?). Often when working on music videos or opening title sequences, I’d want to edit a few clips quickly in time with music, add a few text animations, experiment a bit with the edit and timing. After Effects doesn’t facilitate this easily, you have to wait for things to render before you see them. But this is a perfect situation to use the Dynamic Link features in CS5 – you’ll get the best of both worlds by using Prem Pro and AE in conjunction with each other.

    Premiere Pro is excellent for real-time editing. You can even set up keyframe animation, time-remapping  and effect animations in real time, creating a rough cut of your finished piece. Adobe Dynamic Link then allows you to send this to AE, maintaining a live (dynamic) link between the apps, and whats more, it works!!!! The sequence opens in AE with no rendering required, ready for you to tweak and fine tune FX and keyframes. I’ll be demo’ing techniques using Dynamic Link (on a real world project) next week at Broadcast Video Expo. For those of you who can’t make it, here’s a few quick tips on the basic workflow & how it works!

    Create your project in Premiere Pro – capture or import all your source files into this project and save it.
    You can use the thumbnail view in the Project panel to create a rough storyboard for the piece before you bring footage down into the timeline, making sure that shot order and duration is roughly correct – this will save time later. Once you’ve done that, place your audio in the Timeline and then add the footage in the order it is sorted by using Premiere Pro’s amazing “Automate to Sequence’ button. So that’s the rough cut done.

    Still in PremPro, make any edit adjustments required. Keyframe any basic transformations, add effects if necessary. Once you are happy with the rough edit, and ready to jump to AE, make a selection of clips that you want to finesse in the Timeline, Right-click and choose ‘Replace with After Effects Composition’ to open the selected clips in a translated After Effects timeline. Here you can do whatever you need to do in AE.

    The beauty of this technique is that the link between the apps remains live so any changes made in AE automatically update in PremPro and visa versa, no need for rendering either way till the project is finally finished. I used this technique on the last project I worked on and reckon it saved me about 40% of the time it would have taken me only using AE.

    If you’re in the UK please pop along to Broadcast Video Expo later this month where I’ll be demo’ing this exact technique on the Adobe booth. Please say hello if you do. 🙂

  • Uprezzing Comps

    Uprezzing Comps

    A question appeared on the Video Copilot website today about uprezzing old projects which can be a bit of a nightmare in AE. You can often find that layers positions get messed up and effects change appearance when you scale your comp.

    Some of the issues that you’ll come across are hard to avoid but you can make the process a little easier by using some of the scripts that come free with After Effects CS5.

    Incidentally, making projects bigger is a massive headache so always good (if you have the opportunity of course) to create your projects at the biggest size you think may be required. If there’s ANY chance of HD requirements then use HD, even if the immediate requirement is only for SD.

    Having said all that, there are always times when you need to up-rez. Updating old projects for showreels; adapating other old projects for new jobs etc. So, if you simply HAVE to do it, there’s a couple of scipts that will work. In the Demo Palette (can be opened by going to File > Scripts > Demo Palette) there are two gems, one is called ‘Scale Comp’ and can be used to scale your entire composition, keeping all layers in the correct position. The other is called ‘Scale Selected Layers’ which will work on a selection within a comp, again, maintaining their position relative to each other.

    You need to make sure your preferences are setup correctly to use scripts in order to use these. to do so, go to Preferences >General > Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network.

    You will still need to go through the somewhat painful process of editing effects but this will save you a lot of work with layers etc.

    To find out more about After Effects and download some FREE movies, check out my After Effects CS5 Learn by Video page where you can watch excerpts and learn more tips.

  • Animating a line drawn on a map – Indiana Jones Style

    Animating a line drawn on a map – Indiana Jones Style

    My recommended workspace setup for this kind of 'Rostrum-style' work. You need to have the Layer panel and Comp panel visible.

    I contribute to the Creative Cow Basic After Effects forum (amongst others) where this question was posted recently;

    “Hi I am newish to after effects and I have created a old map effect that pans from the UK to africa now I want to add a red line that reveals like in the Indiana Jones graphic.”

    There’s definitely a trick to getting this right but once you know the trick, it’s easy, so, here are the rough steps for getting it right.

    BTW, a movie demonstrating this technique is available in my After Effects CS5 Learn by Video DVD if you are interested in that here’s a link to it.

    1. Place the map in a new comp, it’s best if the Map is bigger than the comp if you want to pan around it. In the Timeline, set a keyframe for the Anchor Point property as it’s this property you will animate to pan around the map. NB: Don’t animate the Position property as you’ll just run into problems.

    2. Alt-double-click the layer to open up the Layer panel, this is where you’ll do the animation. It’s great as you’ll be able to see an overview of the whole image without having to faff around in the Comp panel. Make sure that the Target menu is set to Anchor Point Path.

    3. In the timeline, move to where you want the next change in direction of the path to happen, and in the Layer panel, click and drag the anchor point to the landmark that you want to be central in the comp panel at that time. You’ll notice that, in the Comp panel, the point that the anchor point is on (in the Layer panel) is always central in the Comp panel, which is what you want exactly!

    4. Keep repeating this till you have completed the journey you want the ‘camera’ to follow and so have completed the positional aspect of the animation.

    5. If you want to smooth out the timing of the animation so that it maintains an even speed throughout, select all the keyframes except the first and last one, right-click on them and choose Rove Across Time. Once you’ve done that you can pull or push the first or last keyframes to speed up, or slow down the whole animation.

    6. Now apply the Write On effect to the layer. Choose a color and style by adjusting the settings.

    7. To make the Write on effect follow the path you can either use and expression to link the Brush Position property to the Anchor Point property of the layer (my preferred option) or, if you’re not keen on using expressions you can simply select all the keyframes from the Anchor Point property, copy them, then paste them into the Brush Position property.

    8. In the Write On effect, make sure that the Paint Style property is set to On Original Image.

    The nice thing about this technique is that it’s now easy to make it into a 3D map pan. All you need to do is add a camera and some lights, adjust the camera angle and animate the zoom property and that’s it! The camera and lights will automatically follow the anchor point so no further animation will be necessary unless you want to animate the angle, zoom, or depth of field.

    To find out more details of this technique and others, check out my After Effects CS5 Learn by Video DVD that I created alongside the wonderful Todd Kopriva from Adobe.