Listed below, you will find notes to get you acquainted with animating with keyframes in After Effects. There are different approaches you could take, depending on your preference and skill level with animation principles and implementation of software.
- To begin, a link to > Notes on Keyframes
Straight-Forward Direct Digital Animation
For those who prefer to animate directly without encumbrances of software, menus and complex production steps, click below for notes on the “Hold Keyframe & Manual Frame-by-Frame Method.” With this approach, you will start by setting initial keyframes for particular features. You then turn off the interpolation, and proceed animating frame-by-frame, just as you would do with animating cutouts or objects under-the-camera, but in a digital context.
Keyframe Assistant
For those who are working with keyframes in After Effects for the first time, you could make use of the Keyframe Assistant.
To begin, on the Timeline, context-click on the Columns Ribbon and choose “Keys,” to prominently place the Keyframe Navigator in your workspace and provide easy access.
To use moving a layer as an example, you should set Position keyframes first, both “spacial” (in the Composition Monitor) and “temporal” (on the Timeline). By default, the keyframes are Linear. You will need to change them to Bezier, adding “eases,” acceleration/deceleration from out and into particular keyframes.
Use the Keyframe Navigator in the Timeline to select a particular keyframe and then context click:
- Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease (or F9 on the keyboard)
- Or go to the Main Menu > Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease
Doing so, you will have converted the default Linear keyframes to Bezier with eases. Right away, this will change the nature of the animation in a positive way. You can then proceed with modifying the eases as a next step, and to adjust the positioning/timing of the keyframes along the Timeline.
To Adjust the Control of the Bezier Keyframes, to Make Eases Either Steep or Gradual
With this step, you will make adjustments to the Bezier curves to affect the “outgoing” and “incoming” velocity of keyframes. You “ease out” of of one keyframe, and then “ease in” to the next keyframe.
Use the Keyframe Navigator in the Timeline to select a particular keyframe and then context click:
- Keyframe Velocity
- Or go to the Main Menu > Animation > Keyframe Velocity
From here, you should change the Influence of the Outgoing and Incoming velocity
- By default, setting Easy Ease, the Influence is 33.33%
- Increasing the Influence towards 100% will make the acceleration/deceleration “steeper.”
- Decreasing the Influence towards 0% will make the acceleration/deceleration “gentler” or more gradual.
For Precise Control of the Nature of Keyframes, Using the Graph Editor
- Click here for > Notes on the Graph Editor
Further notes are in progress. In the meantime, I am willing to go over the process with you, one-on-one.