Keyframing a Motion Path in Adobe After Effects CS4
- Keyframing Scale and Rotation Transformations
- Adding Motion Blur
- Previewing Your Work
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
You're ready to animate a car so that it drives onscreen at the beginning of the composition, scales larger during the middle of the composition—as if it's approaching the camera—and then pops a wheelie and drives offscreen. You'll start by keyframing the car's position to get it onscreen.
- Press the Home key to make sure the current-time indicator is at the beginning of the time ruler.
- Click the Video switch for the Leaves layer in the Timeline panel to hide the layer so that you can clearly see the Artist layer below it (see Figure 1).
- Select the Artist layer in the Timeline panel and expand all of its Transform properties.
- Position the Artist layer offscreen to the left (behind the leaves) by changing its Position values to –162.0, 207.0 (see Figure 2).
- Go to 2:20 and change the Position values for the Artist layer to 54.5, 207.0.
- After Effects adds a keyframe.
- Go to 6:00 and click the Add/Remove Keyframe button (in the Switches column) for the Artist layer to add a Position keyframe for the Artist layer at the same values (54.5, 207.0). See Figure 3.
)
)
)
When you animate the Position property, After Effects displays the movement as a motion path. You can create a motion path for the position of the layer or for the anchor point of a layer. A position motion path appears in the Composition panel; an anchor-point motion path appears in the Layer panel. The motion path appears as a sequence of dots in which each dot marks the position of the layer at each frame.
A box in the path marks the position of a keyframe. The density of dots between the boxes in a motion path indicates the layer's relative speed. Dots close together indicate a slower speed; dots farther apart indicate a faster speed.
Keyframing Scale and Rotation Transformations
The car is zooming onscreen; now, you'll make it appear as if the car is getting closer to the camera by scaling it larger. Then you'll make it pop a wheelie by keyframing the Rotation property.
- Go to 7:15 and set the Scale values for the Artist layer to 80.0, 80.0%. Then click the stopwatch to set a Scale keyframe (see Figure 4).
- Go to 10:10 and set the Position values for the Artist layer to 28.0, 303.0.
- After Effects adds a keyframe.
- Still at 10:10, change the Scale values to 120.0, 120.0%. After Effects adds a keyframe.
- Still at 10:10, click the stopwatch icon for the Rotation property to set a Rotation keyframe at the default value, 0.0˚.
- Go to 10:13 and change the Rotation value to 0 x –14.0˚.
- After Effects adds a keyframe, and now the car pops a wheelie (see Figure 5).
Now you'll animate the car driving offscreen.
- Go to 10:24 and set the Position values for the Artist layer to 369.0, 258.0.
After Effects adds a keyframe (see Figure 6).
)
)
)