How To Make Transformer Logo Animation After Effects

Logo animations are increasingly mutual these days. Betwixt smartphones and the full general advancement of internet technology, logos are at present encountered much more often in digital spaces, and this opens the door to visual effects such equally blitheness that are not possible with physical products. Of course, the increasing popularity of logo animation means that more and more brands will need it to stay competitive. So learning how to breathing a logo can exist a valuable skill to take your logo to the next level.

These days information technology is possible for even beginners to create logo animations, and we're going to show you how. Pattern by OrangeCrush

At the same fourth dimension, blitheness software has besides become more ubiquitous, streamlined and intuitive in order to back up this growing user base. So regardless of how technical and daunting logo animation may sound, even beginners now have the power to create simple but effective animations.

To this cease, I am going to walk you through the basics of logo animation from starting time to finish. As an example, I'll be working with a logo I made for my personal blog: Story Mode. While we'll exist using Adobe After Effects in this tutorial, most animation software contains similar functionality and the fundamentals of how the software works will apply to any plan though the particular names and carte options may differ.

How to breathing a logo with Afterwards Effects in 7 steps
—

1. Set up the logo file
2. Import the logo into Later on Effects
3. Gear up the composition
4. Animate with keyframes
5. Animate with shape layers
6. Adjust your animation timing
7. Export your animated logo

Step 1: Set the logo file

Nosotros'll actually brainstorm our logo animation tutorial in Adobe Illustrator (or the equivalent logo blueprint software that yous own). This is to make sure that our logo file is set up for animation.

Though animation software itself is raster based, logo source files should exist in vector format. This allows them to be altered without sacrificing image quality (for example, scaling upwardly a raster logo results in pixelation), and this will be useful later on on when working with shape layers.

Brand sure your logo is separated into layers using the Layers Panel

The logo should also be layered rather than grouped into a unmarried object. This allows you lot to create more complex animations easily by animating carve up parts of the logo. You can create new layers using theAdd New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel, then copy and paste your logo pieces into them.

Finally, as animations are digital in nature, we are also working with RGB colors. If your Illustrator file is fix to CMYK, y'all can modify this by selecting your logo and navigating toEdit> Edit Colors> Convert to RGB.

Once you are set, consign your logo every bit a fully layered vector file. Considering Subsequently Furnishings file types are in the Adobe family unit of software, I am going to save the logo I fabricated every bit an AI (Adobe Illustrator) file, only in that location are a number of different vector file types to cull from if you are using a different software.

Pace two: Import the logo into After Effects

Open up After Furnishings. The interface may announced complicated at get-go glance, so let'south pause down the essentials:

Breakdown of the After Effects interface

1. Tool panel: This is where you tin can access basic graphics building tools such equally the pen tool, type tool, etc.
2. Projection console: This is where y'all manage and organize media files for your overall projection.
3. Composition window: This is the video preview window in which you can view the animation for the current composition (often referred to as a comp) that you are working on. Comps are essentially scenes that each have their own separate blitheness timelines. Nosotros'll hash out compositions in more depth in the adjacent department.
4. Timeline: This is where you will build your animation. It consists of both the literal timeline on the right (where you volition fix animation events to trigger on a fourth dimension-based graph) and the comp area on the left (where you will layer and edit the attributes of your media avails).
5. Command panel: This is where you tin can access various support functions such as media information, paragraph and alignment options, and the ready-made animation and visual effects libraries built into Later on Effects.

If you are unsure most any tool or button, hovering over it with your mouse volition provide you with a clarification.

To import your logo file, simply elevate and drop it into the Project panel or navigate toFile >Import >File. Under the dialogue box that follows, choose to import the media asFootage and Merged Layers.

Step three: Set composition

A composition (comp) is a container that allows you to layer, edit and apply animations to media files. A larger production, such as a movie, will contain multiple comps that are organized in the projection console. So you can think of comps as a unmarried scene within that moving picture, and each comp will take their own carve up timeline. In our case, a logo animation that is less than five seconds long needs very few comps.

To prepare a comp, drag and drop your media files into the left-hand side of the timeline panel

Let'due south start with a simple background. Right click in the comp console and choose New >Solid. Because my logo is white, I went with a black solid, but y'all may choose whatever color you want. In the post-obit window, name the solid ("BG" in my instance) and click theMake Comp Size button and selectOK. Now elevate your logo file from the project console into the timeline panel and you lot should see your logo previewed in the comp window. If not, brand sure you rearrange your layers by dragging the background solid underneath the logo file.

Right click the logo file in the comp console and cull Create > Convert to Layered Comp. This will plow your logo file into some other comp (yous will see the icon has inverse). Double clicking the logo file at present will open a new tab and take yous into this new comp containing all of the separate layers you had set upwardly in Illustrator. Yous can see at present how comps work: they are substantially like nested folders.

If you wanted, you could convert each of these layers into their own comps by correct-clicking and selectingPre-etch. This would give that layer a divide blitheness timeline nested within the previous comp. And if y'all wanted to animate the entire logo at once, you would use the timeline associated with the master comp.

With that out of the manner, permit's get into how these timelines work for animation.

Step iv: Breathing with keyframes

The way that Later on Effects (and near blitheness software) works is through keyframes. Keyframes are essentially markers that you tin ready along the timeline to identify when starting states and catastrophe states for your animation should occur.

For example, permit's begin with a very elementary animation: a fade-in. At that place are different attributes attached to an object, and attributes changed over a set amount of time is essentially what an animation is. To see these attributes, click the expand icon adjacent to both the logo comp and the subsequent Transform property.

Create keyframes by clicking on the stopwatch icon next to the properties in the timeline panel

For a fading animation, you want to work with the attribute that measures the visibility of an object: Opacity. The opacity is gear up to 100% because the logo is completely visible past default.

Click the stopwatch icon next to Opacity, and you will encounter a diamond appear wherever your playhead marker (the drabble blue line crossing the timeline) has been set. This is a keyframe, basically a snapshot of the current value of the specified attribute. Move the keyframe by clicking and dragging it out to the 2 2d marking on the timeline. Drag the playhead dorsum to the 0 2d mark, then create another keyframe and ready the Opacity to 0%. Press the spacebar to preview the blitheness in the comp window.

Y'all volition see that you have created a gradual fade-in blitheness past irresolute the Opacity from 0% to 100% over the course of two seconds with just two keyframes. This is effectively how all animation is done in Subsequently Effects. You create a starting keyframe and an ending keyframe at dissimilar intervals along the timeline and After Effects automatically calculates the necessary frame transitions to get from point A to point B (traditionally chosen inbetweens in the animation biz).

A simple fade-in blitheness is created using two keyframes for the Opacity property

You lot can encounter that in that location are a number of attributes that you can work with under the Transform holding which we will explain briefly here. Experience free to experiment with keyframing and changing each of these to go a feel for their animation possibilities:

• Position: This attribute describes the position of the logo in X,Y space on the comp screen and allows you to breathing linear movement.
• Calibration: This attribute describes the size of the logo (as a percentage relative to the full size of the source file) and allows you to create growing or shrinking animations.
• Rotation: This aspect describes the orientation in degrees and allows you to create spinning animations.

Pro tip: When it comes to logo blitheness, it makes sense to work in reverse (equally nosotros did with the fade-in) since the blitheness is supposed to stop on the finished, complete logo. This means yous'll need to create keyframes before you alter anything so that yous will have snapshots of the attribute values in their default land. You can then move those keyframes out to your intended cease point on the timeline (however long y'all desire the animation to terminal) and make new keyframes for changes at the start of the timeline.

Step 5: Animate your logo with shape layers

Now let's get into some more interesting animation techniques through shape layers. Shape layers are objects that comprise pathing information such every bit ballast points and connecting lines (similar to those in vector programs), and manipulating these opens the door to a whole host of animation possibilities beyond the Transform holding.

Shape layers have a star next to them, and y'all can catechumen a vector graphic into a shape layer by right clicking and choosing Create > Create Shapes from Vector Layer

Get-go, we're going to convert the logo into a shape layer. In the layered comp console (the layers created from footstep iii), select all of your layers, right click and chooseCreate >Create Shapes from Vector Layer. You will run across each layer is duplicated with a star adjacent to it—this is a shape layer. Nested underneath the shape layer, yous will discover the Content property in addition to the Transform holding. To the right of the Content property, you lot will likewise come across theAdd button which will allow you to select even more attributes to animate.

Shape layers contain the Add button (to the right of the Contents property) and this allows you lot to add together all sorts of animatable properties such as Trim Paths

For my logo, I went with a pretty common and useful animation using the Trim Paths belongings. To do this, I added Trim Paths with theAdd button to the shape layers for each letter, set the Stop attribute keyframe to 0% at the start of the timeline and 100% well-nigh 1 second after. As you can run into, this makes the outline of the letters appear fatigued by an invisible hand in real fourth dimension.

Using the Trim Paths property allows you to animate lines to draw themselves in real time

In addition, I wanted to incorporate some accent animation to the background. Since I am working in black and white, I chose a looping tunnel issue reminiscent of the Twilight Zone. To do this, I used the polygon tool in the toolbar to draw a shape in the center of my comp, creating a new shape layer.

So I added a Repeater property, centered the position and increased the number of copies. This duplicates the shape to create a seemingly infinite tunnel. Adjusting the scale increases the space in betwixt each re-create, and changing the rotation orients the copies in dissimilar directions for visual interest.

Finally, to animate this, I made an Offset keyframe of 0 at the start of the timeline and gear up it to a negative value after in the timeline.

Using a polygon shape layer and the Repeater property, I was able to create an animatable background

You are probably getting the idea that there are a lot of options for shape layers. This is true: there are full courses online dedicated to the subject and you lot should dedicate time to experimenting, practicing and learning.

I also can't tell you which animation style will be right for your logo or what specific blitheness tools yous will demand to attain that mode. I can, however, give y'all advice on how to discover this for yourself. Look upward inspiration from other animated logos such as your competitors, brands you admire and/or on a site like Pinterest or Dribbble—just as you did when you created the logo in the beginning place.

You will find that in one case you first analyzing these with your newfound noesis of how to breathing a logo that many are based around uncomplicated manipulations of shapes and transforms (even those that accept clearly layered on advanced, stylized effects). Once you find a few that y'all like, you lot can work backwards in After Furnishings to try to reverse engineer these animations for practice.

Step 6: Adjust your animation timing

Let's take a moment to talk about timing, which describes the pacing of blitheness frames throughout an animation. Yous can see a visual representation of timing past navigating to theGraph Editor. To do so, click the Graph icon (labeledGraph Editor if you hover over it) near the elevation of the timeline panel, and this will alter the timeline into a linear graph.

If you click on one of your keyframe attributes, y'all will see a direct line from ane keyframe to the next. Correct now, because we've but been creating starting and catastrophe bespeak keyframes, we've left it up to Later Effects to calculate the timing. With no direction, After Furnishings paces each animation frame evenly, resulting in a perfectly straight line.

The Graph Editor shows the timing of keyframes equally plotted on linear graph

However, varying the timing in a purposeful way is what gives animation a sense of realism. For instance, in a billowy ball blitheness, the ball moves slower at the superlative of its bounce and faster when it is closer to the footing considering of momentum and gravity. In other words, information technology does not move at the aforementioned speed throughout the animation, and if it did, this would stand up out as robotic.

The bezier tools, located at the bottom of the Graph Editor, allow you lot to adjust the curvature of the graph line

The graph editor allows you to adjust the timing on your own blitheness using what are chosen bezier handles to transform the graph line into a bend. Towards the lesser right of the Graph Editor, you volition see a number of icons of square points attached to lines—these are bezier tools.

Click on 1 of your keyframes and hover over the bezier tools until you detect the one labeledConvert keyframes to Auto Bezier. When you click on this y'all will see a yellow handle appear in the graph. Dragging this handle around will cause the line to curve, and this will change the timing of your blitheness. Where the curve is more pronounced, the frames will play faster, and where the bend is smoother, the frames will play slower.

A sharper bend corresponds with faster timing and a smoother bend corresponds with slower timing

To really understand the nuances of how your own timing should be customized takes animation experience, and that'due south why adjusting bezier curves by hand is a more than advanced topic. For the purposes of this beginner tutorial, I recommend using the Easy Ease bezier tool (which applies an automatic curve to your selected keyframe) for all of your animation timing. You can applyEasy Ease to a keyframe outside of the Graph Editor by selecting a keyframe and right click.

Footstep vii: Consign your blithe logo

When you're gear up to export your finished animated logo, go to File >Export >Add to Adobe Media Encoder queue. After Effects will export every bit an mp4 file past default, which is fine for video. Since we want to create a shareable image file of our logo animation, we will be exporting as an animated GIF. In the Media Encoder window, click the pointer next to the highlighted blue line of text under the word Format and cullAnimated GIF. You lot tin can also set the destination binder of your finished file by clicking the blueish text nether the words Output File.

To export your file, navigate to File > Export > Add to Adobe Media Encoder queue and select Animated Gif from the dropdown list under the Format cavalcade

Double click the highlighted bluish text nether the Preset to bring upwards the Export Settings window. There are a few options yous want to pay attention to in social club to bring the file size downwardly: Quality (I put mine at 20), Frame Rate (I ready mine to 10, though a higher frame charge per unit (fps) is recommended for video) and the duration, which is the blue bar below the preview (I cropped mine to iv seconds). SelectOK to shut this window.

My finished logo animation

In one case yous're finished, select the greenish Play icon in the upper right corner of the Media Encoder and your file will return to your preferred destination folder. And at that place you have it: a finished logo animation!

Bring your make to life through a logo animation
—

Logo animation is more than just a popular tendency that brands are pressured to keep upward with. At that place is also an undeniable magic to animating a logo, and information technology is an excellent way of creating a moment of visual delight for everyone who interacts with your brand. And fortunately, blitheness software has evolved so that near anyone regardless of skill can infuse a little of that magic into their ain logo.

With that said, while this tutorial is designed to start you off with the basics of how to breathing a logo, it takes no small amount of trial and mistake, exercise and experimentation to get annihilation above a basic blitheness. If you desire a logo blitheness that is truly special, a professional person logo animator is well worth the investment.

Desire to get the perfect animated logo for your business?

Work with our talented designers to make it happen.

Source: https://99designs.com/blog/logo-branding/how-to-animate-a-logo/

Posted by: mentzerdriers.blogspot.com

Share this post