[0:00] Now these After Effects techniques that I love 
fall into two categories; quick and quicker.
[0:05] So let's not mess about if it fits the style this 
can add a lot of extra movement and depth to  
[0:09] your animation these are made by creating four 
similar brush Strokes with the textured brush  
[0:14] in Photoshop then looping them in After Effects 
so they change every four frames or so and then  
[0:19] applying them where the Shadows or highlights 
might appear in your design and using a map or  
[0:24] a mask to confine them to just that layer now 
you'll have to do this a few times depending on  
[0:28] your design but good things come to those who in 
the olden times printers used to mess up sometimes  
[0:35] not like the reliable bastions of Technology 
they are today if I want a retro printed feel  
[0:40] I like to misalign the line art of an animation 
first we need to separate them so we'll take  
[0:45] our finished animation add the extract effect 
and drag the histogram over from the left to  
[0:50] remove the dark colored line art and just leave 
the colors remaining then duplicate that layer  
[0:55] with controller command D and then on that layer 
adjust the histogram in the opposite direction to  
[0:59] believe just the line art then we can select 
any of these layers and move its position about  
[1:04] and misalign it as much or as little as we want 
and some looping texture over the top for good  
[1:10] measure too here's an animation I made with 
some fancy gradients but I like the ball to  
[1:15] really feel shiny and reflect the colors on the 
other layers so we can do that by duplicating  
[1:20] the layer we want to reflect dragging that over 
closer to our object a little bit and adding the  
[1:25] set matte effect to it then we're going to take 
the mat from our Circle layer and add a gaussian  
[1:31] blur and we'll pump that up a fair bit now you can 
put the gaussian blur above the set mat and that  
[1:37] creates an interesting more stylized effect but 
if you want it to look more realistic we'll drag  
[1:42] that below our set matte effect and to remove 
the blur that is going on outside of the circle  
[1:46] we can just duplicate that set matte effect again 
with controller command D and drag that below the  
[1:51] gaussian blur to restrict it just to that Circle 
again and now if we increase the blurriness and  
[1:57] maybe just move the shape back a bit we can 
see it isn't as visible on the very edges of  
[2:02] our Circle which creates a nice realistic effect 
and looks like it's wrapping around a 3D sphere  
[2:09] now you'll probably be fading things on and 
off a lot by keyframing its opacity so let's  
[2:14] spice it up by animating its color at the same 
time so to do that we will add a fill effect  
[2:20] and where that layer is transparent let's keyframe 
its color then move it along to where it is fully  
[2:26] visible and change that fills color to white 
so now it changes color as it fades on and  
[2:32] it's a little more interesting that same spice 
pairs very well with gradients too and I'll do  
[2:39] this by adjusting our gradient fill so instead 
of going from black to white or any other two  
[2:44] colors we'll add a new color in the middle which 
would normally be a 50 Gray but we can make it a  
[2:49] bit more interesting just by adding a slightly 
warmer gray into the mix and you can do this as  
[2:54] subtle as you want and I think it works better 
the more colors there are so we can even add a  
[2:59] darker cooler color to the darker gray and keep 
the lighter gray a bit warmer it won't work for  
[3:04] every project but if you want to add a tiny 
bit more life and color to your artwork that  
[3:08] is barely perceptible this is a great way to 
do it okay we're halfway through I hope you're  
[3:12] finding these techniques helpful if you're up for 
it living a like really does help these videos and  
[3:18] me out a lot and if you're new to motion design in 
After Effects for the last year I've been creating  
[3:23] the ultimate beginner's guide to motion design 
called motion Foundation which is coming out next  
[3:29] month that is all I can share at the moment but uh 
please stay tuned for updates about that shortly  
[3:35] you want to transition from a circle to a square 
or rectangle don't mess about editing the path and  
[3:40] getting yourself all tied up in bezier handles 
just create a new shape with the rectangle tool  
[3:45] open its rectangle properties its path and then 
animate its roundness and you can go from Circle  
[3:52] to square seamlessly shake your animation around 
a bit not too much like a camera Shake but like  
[3:59] the subtle shake that I've been using on all of 
those titles now I love this because it reminds  
[4:03] me of Legacy Media like a film spool not perfectly 
aligned or a tape head in the VHS I'm not 100 sure  
[4:10] why but all the stuff shakes around a little bit 
so on a new adjustment layer on top of everything  
[4:15] we can add the transform effect and alter option 
click the stopwatch next to position to enter in  
[4:20] the wiggle expression and we're going to add in 
a frequency of 12 and an amplitude of one so that  
[4:26] 12 times a second it will randomly move one pixel 
in any direction and we get a tiny subtle Shake  
[4:33] we can see more if we zoom in this will shake 
your layer away from the edges though so let's  
[4:38] increase the scale just by one percent to cancel 
that out I also love the blooming highlights of  
[4:45] film and old media that you can replicate by 
stacking some glows in After Effects but they  
[4:50] can very easily overpower the image and be kind 
of finicky to a shelves using the threshold and  
[4:56] the radius properties and you can't always get a 
good result reliably very quickly so what I like  
[5:01] to do is add a glow effect to an adjustment layer 
on top of everything we can keep the default glow  
[5:06] I'll duplicate it increase the radius a little 
bit more then duplicate it and increase the radius  
[5:13] again and I'm not worried about how ludicrously 
bright the image is I'm just looking at how nice  
[5:18] and realistic the fall off is how the glow kind of 
dissipates then I like to add a curves effect over  
[5:24] the top of all of those glows and then drag the 
brightness down so the glow is starting to look  
[5:29] a little more like what I want now if we toggle 
that adjustment layer on and off we do see that  
[5:34] it is losing a lot of the contrast of the image 
so if we do want to keep that we can change the  
[5:38] blending mode of that adjustment layer to 
screen so this is just adding glow on top  
[5:43] and now we can just adjust this curves effect 
to decide how bright our glow is and what the  
[5:48] threshold is which areas of our image how bright 
it needs to be to glow and I just find this a  
[5:53] little more intuitive to to adjust then trying to 
balance a handful of different properties across  
[5:57] three different glow layers to tweak around now 
putting eyes on anything instantly turns it into  
[6:03] a character is this a cheap trick absolutely 
is it overused impossible I use it because it  
[6:10] creates a connection between the audience and 
the character I'd mainly do it to get a bit of  
[6:14] strangeness or humor to the scene a pencil is 
a little bit interesting but when it becomes a  
[6:19] living thing and they're visibly loving it it kind 
of makes you think what kind of perverse sentience  
[6:24] is happening within this universe and that's the 
kind of question I think we should all be asking
[6:31] not everything has to be an optical Sugar Rush 
with flashing colors and shapes zipping around  
[6:39] hijacking your dopamine to keep you glued to 
your screen for that sweet sweet engagement  
[6:43] as our ability to focus shrivels up and 
turns into dust in the gutter now I've  
[6:49] animated plenty of work like that and when 
I do it's usually compensating for a lack  
[6:53] of substance now I'm finding Stillness more 
and more refreshing and having that contrast  
[6:59] will make your intense motion more impactful 
now I love this three minute sequence from  
[7:05] Ghost in the Shell it doesn't move the plot 
forward it's just establishing shots of the  
[7:10] city setting the tone most of the shots have 
very subtle animation and some are just stills
[7:20] of course fantastic design Sound 
and Music help enormously with this
[7:30] and obviously in motion design we're working to a  
[7:33] brief where we often have to capture 
attention quickly but it is helpful  
[7:37] to remember that more animation isn't 
your only tool to make better animation
[7:50] tomorrow