In this lesson you will learn how to take a logo design that has been prepared for animation with layers, and animate it using Adobe After Effects.
We are going to pick up from where we left off in the last lesson 'How to Prepare Logo Artwork to Animate in After Effects' and continue with animating the rest of the burger logo design.
So right now we have our logo successfully imported with separate layers, along with a cool text animation. The next thing we want to do is plan out how we want to animate the rest of the logo. Let's start with the next section of the logo, which is the speed lines.
How to Animate the Speed Lines
I want these lines to kind of fly out, and maybe even do kind of an animated wiggle, so let's look at how to do that.
First, what I want do is right-click on the Lines layer and go to Create > Create Shapes From Vector Layer. This will create a new layer.
Take the original 'Lines' layer and move it down to the bottom of the layer stack. Lock it, put the switch on and hide it so that it doesn't get in the way as you are working.
Go back to the new vector layer and open it up. Under Contents you want to click on the Add button and add Wiggle Paths.
This should add 'Wiggle Paths' to the bottom of the stack within your vector layer. If it didn't just click and drag it to the bottom.
Open up the Wiggle Paths options and enter the following:
- Size: 3
- Detail: 2
- Points: Smooth
- Wiggle/Second: 15
- Correlation: 50%
Next, I want to animate these lines coming from kind of the center and then moving outwards. Click the 'solo' button so that we can focus on the lines here.
Create a new shape layerusing the Pen Tool to click and drag with no other layer selected to create a shape that covers the center area between all of the lines. Make sure that the edge of the shape doesn't touch the lines.
From there you want to open up the new shape layer options by going Contents > Shape > Path. Create a keyframe for Path at the beginning of the timeline.
Move forward in the timeline to about eight frames (you can change this later) and double click on the path here. Scale it up by holding Control and Shift on the keyboard to constrain the proportions and then move everything in a uniform way around the center anchor point. Make sure to cover all the lines.
Easy ease the two keyframes by right clicking on the and selecting Easy Ease.
Go into the graph editor and modify the curve so that it looks like the image below.
Rename the shape layer 'Lines Matte' and make sure that it is placed above the lines outline layer. Select the Lines Outline layer and set it to Alpha Matte. Now if you play preview the animation, the lines should move from the center and animate outwards.
You can then edit the Lines Matte layer afterwards, to give it a tighter shape. That way, it'll look like things are drawing on a little bit more uniformly.
Now you can un-solo your Lines Outlines layer.
How to Adjust the Timing of the Lines Animation
Now we want to line up the lines animation for right when the burger text hits the floor. Locate the frame where the text is about to hit the floor in the timeline. Then move both the Lines Matte and Lines Outlines layer close to the location.
Turn motion blur on for all your animated layers.
How to Animate the Burger
Now to animate the burger. The plan here is to animate the burger starting from a closed position and then explode up just before the text gets there.
To do this first let's change the color of the text so that we can keep track of it separately from the other layers a little easier.
And then move the text and lines layers down the timeline so that we can focus on animating the other layers at the beginning of the animation.
Select both burger layers and the create a Position Keyframe near the beginning of the timeline.
Now go nearer the beginning of the timeline and move top burger bun down, and move bottom burger bun up.
Hit F9 on the keyboard to go into the graph editor. And then adjust the curve of the buns so that they look like the image below.
Now you can adjust the timing of the text and lines layer to fit in with the burger buns animation.
So that it looks like the buns are sliding out of the way as the text drops down.
Finishing Touches
Create a new null object by going to Layer > New > Null Object.
I prefer to have the anchor points in the center of my null layer. To do this press Control - Alt - Home on the keyboard followed by Control - Home.
Drag the null object above the top burger bun and then hold Control on the keyboard to snap.
Rename the null object 'Top Bun Cont' and place it above the Top Bun layer.
Parent the Top Bun layer to the Ton Bun Cont layer.
That way, after this initial move, I can really easily create some secondary motion by just animating this null. So I'm going to use the keyboard shortcut Alt - Shift - P and Alt - Shift - R to drop in a position and a rotation keyframe.
Go to the end of the timeline, move the bun up a little bit, and maybe rotate it a little bit to the side.
Create another null object and repeat the steps, this time for the bottom bun layer.
Now just press the play preview button to check out what it looks like!
Congratulations
Congratulations! And that's how you can animate your logo in Adobe After Effects. Now that you've learned the basics, check out some of the other tutorials we have on Adobe After Effects below.
I hope you've found this tutorial useful and I'll see you next time on Envato Tuts+!
