ART175_tut_ae by andy darcy

82 Technique

After Effects and Illustrator CS4

B ring type to life

Create quick and easy animated lettering. Chris Johnson-Standley, aka Rogue Robot, shows you how it’s done Illustrator paths can be a powerful tool when combined with the animation abilities of After Effects. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to import paths from Illustrator directly into an After Effects composition and use a variety of techniques to create a quick and simple but effective animation based on the creation of a piece of type. We’ll build the type from scratch, creating pencil guidelines and outlines, then fill in the letter shapes with a rough scribble before the final type appears and lifts from the page. The techniques used in this tutorial can be applied to a range of projects. Indeed, any path that you can create in Illustrator can be animated in this way, opening up a variety of possibilities, from logo reveals to complex illustration draw-ons.

Rogue Robot Rogue Robot is the alter-ego of Chris Johnson-Standley, a video and motion graphics pro based near Manchester. His clients include FIFA, PlayStation, Braun and the Harlem Globetrotters. Rogue Robot is currently working on Ludmilla Forgotten – a short film about early Soviet spaceflight. See more at www. roguerobot.co.uk

On the disc The files you need to complete this tutorial can be found in DiscContents\ Resources\Type

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Time needed 1-2 hours Skills Importing Illustrator Paths to After Effects Using After Effects’ Stroke plug-in Parenting Layers Working with 3D layers

Open Illustrator and create a new Video and Film document. Call it ‘Type’ and, under Size, select ‘HDTV 1080’ – we’ll be working in HDV for this whole project. If your computer isn’t powerful enough, you can always use PAL D1/DV Widescreen. Drop down the Advanced tab and, under Transparency Grid, select ‘Off’. This will make it easier to see what you’re doing. Click OK.

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Type in the text you want to animate. I suggest using a simple, geometric, sans-serif font because it’ll make creating the guidelines easier. I’ve chosen Century Gothic. Fill the artboard with the type – set it to about 700 points – and, in the Character palette, set the kerning to ‘Optical’. Finally, select Type>Create Outlines to change the text from type to outlines that can be copied and pasted into After Effects. Save the file.

In the Layers palette, create a new layer and double-click it to bring up the Layer Options dialog box. Rename the layer ‘Lines’. Click OK. Drag in guides to mark the Cap Height, X-Height, Baseline and Descent Line on the type. Using the Line Segment tool, draw 0.5 point red lines along each guide. The order and direction in which you draw these lines will define the order and direction of their animation in After Effects.

Open After Effects and create a new composition by going to Composition>New Composition. Call it ‘Type Write On’, select the ‘HDV 1080 25’ preset and leave the duration at 30 seconds. If you’re presented with a square frame instead of 16:9, choose View Options and then tick the ‘Pixel Aspect Correction’ box. Create a new Solid (Layer>New>Solid). Make it black and click the ‘Make Comp Size’ button. Click OK. Now duplicate this layer twice (Edit>Duplicate).

Using the Line Segment tool, draw guidelines around the individual letters, including crosshairs for the centres of circles. Make them all slightly different lengths to produce a hand-created feel. You should try to get the lines to fit as best you can, but it doesn’t have to be totally accurate. It may help to keep switching the bottom type layer on and off to enable you to see what you’re doing more clearly.

Collapse Transformations

The Collapse Transformations function in After Effects makes using 3D layers much easier. For complex projects, individual 3D elements can be constructed in separate compositions and then brought together in the final 3D composition. By clicking the Collapse Transformations and 3D boxes, each layer will retain its 3D properties.

In Illustrator’s Layers palette, switch off the ‘Lines’ layer. Highlight the bottom layer. Select the text and copy it (Edit>Copy). In After Effects, paste the text paths onto the top two layers in the composition (Edit>Paste). Your text is outlined in yellow mask paths. Select the top layer and rename it ‘Text Black’ (Layer>Solid Settings). Repeat for the middle layer, renaming it ‘Text Scribble’.

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Go back into Illustrator, copy the paths from the ‘Lines’ layer and paste these into the bottom layer of the After Effects composition. Rename this layer ‘Lines’. Switch on the transparency grid by clicking the small checkerboard icon at the bottom of the composition window. Use the arrow keys to nudge them into place so they line up correctly. Save and close your Illustrator file.

In After Effects, switch off the top two layers so that only the ‘Lines’ layer is visible. Go to Effects>Generate>Stroke and in the Effects Control Panel tick the ‘All Masks’ box. Set the stroke colour to a lead pencil grey, the brush size to 1.5 and the brush hardness to 0. In Paint Style, select ‘On Transparent’. The paths should now be outlined in grey – like pencil guides. To create a more realistic pencil effect, add some fractal noise (Effect>Noise & Grain>Fractal Noise) and, under Transform, set Scale to 1%.

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Technique Bring type to life

10 09

Now we need to animate the stroke to make the lines draw on. Go to the start of the timeline. In the Stroke Effects Panel, set the End percentage to 0 per cent. Click the stopwatch to the left to create a keyframe. Move 8 seconds along the timeline. Set the End percentage to 100 per cent. This will automatically create a new keyframe. RAM Preview the animation to see the lines drawing on.

Select the ‘Text Scribble’ layer, make it visible and then go to Effects>Generate>Scribble. In the Scribble Effects Panel, choose ‘All Masks Using Modes’ and set the Wiggle Type to ‘Static’. Go to the start of the timeline and set the End percentage of the Scribble to 0 per cent. Click the stopwatch to create a keyframe. Move along the timeline to 8 seconds and set the End percentage to 100 per cent.

Now we’ll animate the type coming on. Select the top layer, ‘Text Black’, and make it visible. Choose Effect>Transition>Linear Wipe. Set the Angle to -60 per cent and the Feather to 50 to give a nice soft edge. Go to the start of the timeline and set Transition Completion to 100 per cent. Click the stopwatch. Move along the timeline to 8 seconds and set Transition Completion to 0 per cent.

We’ll also add a 3D move to this layer. Click the 3D checkbox on all three layers. On the ‘Text Black’ layer, open the Transform menu and set a keyframe for the Position at 6 seconds in (click the Position stopwatch icon). Move along to 9 seconds and move the text in Z-space to -250, bringing the ‘Type Black’ layer towards the camera. Highlight both keyframes and press F9 to make them Easy Ease keyframes. Drop down the Material Options menu and switch Cast Shadows to ‘ON’.

To compose the final animation, first offset the layers to create the write-on animation. Leave the ‘Lines’ layer at 0. Set the ‘Text Scribble’ layer at 3 seconds in and the ‘Text Black’ layer at 5 seconds. Create a new composition called ‘Composed’ – HDV 1080 25 and 30 seconds long. Choose File>Import and locate the ‘Paper 1920x1080’ file on your CD. Drag the Paper file into the timeline and then drag the ‘Type Write On’ composition above it. Scale it down to 30 per cent. Make both layers 3D and check the ‘Collapse Transformations’ box on the ‘Type Write-On’ layer to retain its 3D properties.

Add a light (Layer>New>Light) and choose a Point Light. Tick the Cast Shadows box and set the Shadow Darkness to 20 per cent. Click OK. Now select the ‘Light’ and ‘Type Write On’ layers and parent them to the Paper layer using the Pick Whip tool (it’s the little swirl icon – click and hold this, and then drag the pick whip to the layer you want to parent).

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Drop down the Transform menu in the ‘Paper’ layer and set initial keyframes for Position, X Rotation, Y Rotation and Z Rotation. Move along the Timeline to 11 seconds and set new keyframes: Position 720.0, 540.0, -1880; X Rotation -34; Y Rotation -18; and Z Rotation -20. These are the settings that work best for me, but try your own for a different movement. Select the end keyframes, then press F9 to create an Easy Ease keyframe and bring the movement to a stop, nice and smoothly. Now RAM Preview the animation and, if everything is okay, go to Composition>Make Movie and render the animation out in your required format.

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