How do I do this in AE???

[Joe Moya]

I don’t know of a single tutorial that would show a complete explanation for creating this type of project… however, there are many basic tutorials that describe how to do most effects that were used in your example… In fact, it is less of an “effect” and consists mostly of various and numerous techniques using camera movements, masks and layers (…probably linked to numerous nulls as well).

In fact, I would be more likely to use an editing software to create most of this video. Most of the various effects and techniques used could be more easily created with any professional level editing software.

The need or use of a compositing software such as After Effects is not necessary for most of what is created in your video example and could actually be more difficult to achieve… of course , whether or not this is true depends upon whether or not you have more experience with an editing software or a compositing software and the capabability your editing software.

[Scott Novasic]

Hi, Sue. I have done a few projects like this in AE and the good news is its not THAT difficult to do. You could try it in Final Cut, but Final cut lacks a main ingredient to pulling off the effect the way I feel is most flexible. I can only talk in generalities here because thats a long animation.

#1 After Effects Allows for extremely large ‘comp’ sizes. What I have done is create a very large ‘master file’ like 2500×2500 or larger depending on layout. If your outputting to a d1 comp (720×486) what you do is simply import the LARGE comp into the di comp and make it a 3d layer. I would create various ‘phrases’ in strategic areas of the
LARGE comp that animate on like in the sample. create a 720×486 solid
white or black shape and fade it to like 15%. Use this solid to guage
how large your final screen size is, so when you individually animate the text to come together (the easiest part in my opinion) you can
overlay the solid on top of your animated text to make sure you are within the proper size. Now lets say you divide the animation into
15 animated “moments’ with text. You would ‘lay out’ phrase by phrase your design on the large canvas. One next to the other and all timed to the audio. Where you place these phrases will dictate your
camera move/path and how fast you move your camera. I personally would “comp” the animated phrases BEFORE I brought them onto the large canvas allowing me easier editing of the indivdual phrases.
You COULD edit those phrases letter by letter in the LARGE comp, but it would be much slower and more diffucult to do a lot of detail work
on the large comp. Doing it this way gives you lots of flexibility
with the timings, locations and individual phrase animations you create. Your MAIN 720×486 comp simply navigates from phrase to phrase. As you do this you may see some areas appear ’emptier’ than
others as the camera moves from phras to phrase. You can easily
go BACK to your LARGE comp and add more animated elements to taste.
In final cut, you cant create that huge comp (import and pan on it)
like you can in AE. Doing it in AE like I lay out here also helps you avoid the need for ANY complicated masking. The camera move you
create can tilt and angle in whatever angles you chose. You will need to have some skill creating a nice LARGE background that is seamless in the LARGE comp. But your sample has an easy backround to
make huge. You will be pushing After Effects memory limits potentially, but there are ways to deal with that if it happens to you.

I hope this was a little clear 🙂 But I HAVE done it (more comlicated than your sample) before. Have fun!!

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Sue Rothberg]

Thanks for the thorough answer. I will give your suggestion a try. I really appreciate your help. scott…your demo reel rocks!

[Jon Agnew]

You could also check out these tutorials:

https://www.videocopilot.net/basic/ae_titles.html

That should go a long way toward showing you a very efficient technique for working with titles in 3d space and camera animation.

Good luck!