Mini-Assignment 1: AE Hello World

This is a mini walkthrough of how I created this animation

1. Layout text in Illustrator.

Before I started, I chose a font (I am using Selfie) and laid out my text in illustrator. Next I outlined the font and sectioned it off into pieces so that I could begin having it “draw.” The biggest reason to do this is for loops in text like the one below. By sectioning these off into separate shapes, I can make the text feel like it was drawn.

2. Put each section on its own layer and save the Illustrator file.

3. Import illustrator file into After Effects.

4. Open the composition created by the Illustrator file.

5. Mask each shape and animate the mask path

Now here is the hard part, you want to mask each shape and slowly reveal each letter. What I do to make this process go faster is draw the final mask with the letter fully revealed in Illustrator, then copy and paste it onto the letter layer to make the mask. After I do this, I work backward to hide the letter.

6. Once you have done this for each letter and your text is looking good, draw a map in Illustrator. Mine looks like this:

7. Make a new composition and tile this image horizontally a few times

8. Make another new composition and create two layers: 1. the composition with the tiled earth and 2. a shape layer with a circle that is the same height as the map.

9. Put the circle on top of the map on the far left and change its Blending Mode to Stencil Alpha. Next, set two position key frames for the map, one at the beginning in this position and one later on with the map translated to the left. How much you move the map will determine how fast the earth “spins”

10. Add this earth composition to your text composition

11. Finally, create a final composition with your favorite entrance effect for your text composition.