mad in pursuit: motion control tutorial
animating photographs in adobe after effects, page 2
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"Story" What do I want my animation to say? My voiceover might be saying that "This scene would invite censure from the Hays Office because it depicts an embrace where Nagel's head is lower than Garbo's." Establish the start
Scale. I'm going to open with an establishing shot of the couple. I adjusted the Scale to 38%, till the photo just fills the Comp Window (see screenshot at right). Click on the stopwatch icons to enable keyframe animation for both Scale and Anchor Point and to set the initial keyframes. Do not touch your Position settings during this exercise, tempting as that may be.
Set the motion end point Move the time marker to the end position on the timeline. Where should we end our motion? I've scaled up to 100% but my result is a little off. Here's where you adjust the anchor point.
Adjusting the anchor point is like sailing. (I was always a discombobulated sailor.) Think of the anchor point in the Layer Window as the tiller of your sailboat and the picture in your Comp Window as where the bow is heading. Grab the anchor point in the Layer Window and move it to frame the photo in the Comp Window where you want it.
Put your time marker back at 0 (Home) and press Numeric Keypad 0 to see
your animation. Add ease. For a more sophisticated movement, select both the Scale and Anchor Point keyframes, right-click and choose Keyframe Assistant... Easy Ease. This starts the action slowly, speeds up, then slows down as the camera "parks" in its end position. This "camera inertia" makes the motion feel more realistic -- as if you're really watching a movie.
11.8.05 (revised 4.28.08) |
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In
the Timeline Window (above), open the Scale Control (S) and Anchor
Point Control (Shift-A). Press Home to make sure you're at the beginning of the
timeline (or decide where you want the motion to begin).
