CAP102 Tut Anim (2)

nimating in After Effects is like building a paper cut-out of your character, its joints held together with pivots. And just like a real-world paper model, moving its torso will affect any limbs attached to it, so complex movements can be built up

quickly and easily. However, unlike a paper model, we can take it much further, not only changing the position and rotation of the pieces, but also adjusting the scale and visibility, allowing for some fi ne-tuned facial animation that still doesn’t require any additional frames to be drawn.

So, unlike traditional cel-animation, you can build up whole sequences from a single piece of artwork, but it’s an expandable system, so you can animate separate elements of a character in different ways. A character could be built in this paper doll method, but then you could take it further, adding traditionally hand-drawn hair or fi lmed footage for inside the mouth – there’s really no limit to the styles and technique you can use or combine.

Getting back to the basic principles of this tutorial, we take a layered Photoshop fi le and import it into After Effects. By following this tutorial, you’ll be able to take any layered fi le of your own and bring it to life in a similar way. The tutorial covers three main areas: fi rst, how to parent layers to each other and set the individual properties of them, ready for keyframing. From there we will touch on layer masking, and ways it can be used to animate elements such as blinking eyes and gnashing teeth, simply by obscuring and revealing layers. Finally, we complete the tutorial by placing the character in a simple pseudo-3D environment and chasing it around with a virtual camera.

Expertise provided by Rex Crowle, an illustrator and animation director specialising in creating work for broadcast and interaction. See more of his work at www.rexbox.co.uk.

The fi les you need to complete this tutorial, as well as the fi nal animation, can be found on CD102 in the DiscContent\Tutorials\Tutorial fi les\After Effects animation folder.

[illustration] Rex Crowle, www.rexbox.co.uk

You’ve designed a character but it’s looking a bit static? This tutorial will show you how to turn your creation into a stomping, biting, bundle of joy

ANIMATE A CHARACTER IN AFTER EFFECTS

68 Tutorial Animate a character in After Effects

CAP102.tut_anim 68CAP102.tut_anim 68 28/8/07 14:48:4128/8/07 14:48:41

69Tutorial Animate a character in After Effects


1First, fi re up your copy of After Effects. Choose File>Import>File from the menu and browse to the pinkstaa.psd fi le on CD102 in the Tutorial fi les\After Effects animation

folder. Before clicking Open, change the Import As drop-down menu from Footage to Composition – Cropped Layers. This will ensure the artwork is imported as separate layers.

2You now need to attach the layers to each other so they form a hierarchy of movement, so, if the body moves, the arms move with it. Click and hold on the

word None to the right of layer Arm_L, and choose Body from the drop-down list.

3Currently, this arm layer will pivot from the centre point of the layer, but we need it to pivot from the

shoulder. Double-click on the Arm_L layer to isolate that layer, and click and drag the small crosshair from the centre of the layer down to the shoulder.

Keep your character designs simple, making it distinctive and memorable with the least amount of detail, because too much detail will slow down the animation process and won’t work well if the character is scaled down. A great character should be totally recognisable from its silhouette.

Strong characters

4Close the Arm_L tab in the top left of the

Composition panel. Moving the pivot also moves the arm, so drag the arm back to its correct position. This process needs to be repeated on each layer, but it’s been done for you in the Pinkstaa_Parented.aep fi le on CD102.

5You can now skip ahead by opening the

Pinkstaa_Parented.aep fi le, where you’ll fi nd all the layers linked. Let’s start by making the character walk. Click the triangular arrow to the left of the name of layer 16, opening out its properties, and click once on the stopwatch icon next to Position and Scale properties.

6Having set the fi rst keyframe by clicking

the stopwatch icon, set all subsequent keyframes by changing a value or copy and pasting a previous keyframe onto the timeline. Move forward nine frames on the timelime (press Ctrl or Cmnd+Right Arrow) and change the positions Y value from 1361 to 1277.

Part 1: Connecting it all upImport your artwork into After Effects and keyframe the limbs of your character



1Locate layers 6 and 7, and click the eye icon in the far-left column of these layers (these will be the only layers not displaying an icon) to make them visible. The teeth

look very toothy at the moment, but we’ll sort that out by using masks.

2Choose the Pen tool and draw a rough ellipse mask on the teeth_top layer, as in the screenshot. Repeat the process on the lower set of teeth so they are both masked. The

teeth and their masks can now be keyframed independently. Open Pinkstaa_Mouth.aep from CD102 to see the result.

7Move forward four frames and click once

on the icon representing the fi rst keyframe and press Ctrl/Cmnd+C to copy it, and Ctrl/Cmnd+V to paste it down. Move forward another nine frames and set the Y value to 1401. Move forward four frames and paste the fi rst keyframe down again.

8Now you can set keyframes for the

rotation of the leg in the same way as above. Experiment with values, making sure the fi rst and last frames have the same values so it will loop. Load up Pinkstaa_Walk.aep to see an example of the arms and legs keyframed in this way.

9In order to watch the playback of the

animation, locate the right end of the bar indicating the work area of the timeline and drag it back to the left, so that it lines up with the last frame. Now simply press the space-bar and you’ll see the animation looping.

Part 2: Faces and masksUse layer masks to animate the facial features of the character

Preparing your character artwork well in Photoshop is crucial. Keep separate elements on separate layers. But, where possible, merge layers together that won’t need independent movement from each other, to keep the number of layers more manageable.

Artwork preparation



Faces and masks continued...

4Click the stopwatch icon next to the Mask Expansion property to start keyframing. Change the property from 0.0 to 43.0, which will appear to restore the eye to its

non-masked state. Move forward four frames and change the property back to 0.0 to set another keyframe.

5Move forward two frames, and then copy and paste the last keyframe onto this frame, so that the eye stays closed for two frames. Now move forward two frames

and copy and paste the very fi rst keyframe down again, so that the eye closes once more.

6Now repeat the previous three steps on the other eye, so that they both open and close simultaneously, making the character blink. You can add extra fl air by

introducing keyframe values for Scale, Rotation and Position of the eyes, so that they squash and stretch with each opening.

3We’re now going to make the eyes blink using a similar technique. Select layer 5 and use the Pen tool to draw a curved lozenge shape inside the eye to mask it. In the

timeline panel, locate and open the Masks property for this layer.



1Open Pinkstaa_Complete.aep from CD102. From the main pull-down menus select Composition>New Composition. Choose a preset for your composition – we’ve

chosen a PAL square-pixels size, and made it ten seconds long. Drag Pinkstaa Comp 1 from the Project panel into the new composition.

2Open the properties of Pinkstaa Comp 1 in the timeline, and locate the small cube icon in the column to the right of the layer name and click the blank icon underneath this

cube icon to make it a 3D layer. This gives it a new Z-depth position parameter to tweak.

Part 3: Creature, camera, action!Put your newly animated character in front of the lens, and into a scene

Tweaking all the keyframes of an animation can be very time-consuming if you wish to alter the speed of the action. A quick way of achieving the same effect is with Time Remapping. Just select a layer or composition, choose Layer>Enable Time Remapping. Open Pinkstaa_Camera.aep to see it in action, putting more spring in your character’s step!

Save time

3The next step is to set a keyframe on the fi rst frame of the Position property using the stopwatch icon, and set its X, Y and Z values to 0.0, 400.0 and 2500.0

respectively. Move to the fi nal frame and set the values to 1500.0, 400.0, 900.0. Then press Home on the keyboard.

4Choose File>Import>File and browse to the fi le called

Pinkstaa_Background. Click OK and then drag it from the Project panel into the main composition. Make it a 3D layer by turning on the cube icon on its timeline, and set the position to 384.0, 288.0, 3000.0 and the scale to 500%.

5Choose Layer>New> Camera and the 35mm

preset, and click OK. Open its timeline properties and keyframe the Point of Interest and Position. Pressing C on the keyboard tabs through the camera’s pan, zoom and tilt tools, so try these yourself or open Pinkstaa_Camera.aep to see the fi nished piece.



Expert profi le: Rex CrowleSpecialising in ‘illustrative and animated things’, Rex Crowle is also partial to characters with facial hair…

BACKGROUND:Rex Crowle trained in graphic design, but specialises in illustration and animation. “I’ve worked mainly for clients in interactive and broadcast media, as well as producing personal short fi lms for festivals such as onedotzero,” says Crowle.

YEARS PRACTISING AS A CREATIVE:Seven.

CLIENTS:Disney, MTV, Sony and The BBC.

MISSION STATEMENT:“Draw a smile on the face of the world. Then colour it in, give it an eyepatch, some pointy teeth and a beard.”

WEBSITE: www.rexbox.co.uk

Above: Legends is a short

fi lm created for onedotzero.

Top right: Play Nice

Skeletor was created for the

MOTU exhibition in Magic

Pony, Toronto.

Right: Masked Ballsup, a

still taken from an animated

sting for E4.



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CAP102 Tut Anim (2)