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xBlindeye
Participant
November 25, 2019
Answered

Best way to recreate this animation?

  • November 25, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 520 views

Im fairly new to after effects and im just looking for some sort of help/tut that can help me recreate an animation as shown above, realistically im trying to recreate this exact thing but with different colors & transparent background but its gotten quite frustrating and surely remaking it at this point will be much simpler as it doesnt seem like much to do, thank you!

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Correct answer Rick Gerard

If you want to create an animated gif then it is important that your AE comp does not have any duplicate frames. What do I mean by that. The sample has the entire arrow graphic move into position, then sit there for a little while, then spin and change color, then sit for a while. In your AE comp you only need one frame of the graphic sitting still. You export a movie with a transparent background using the Render Cue and the Lossless with Alpha preset, then you import that rendered file into Photoshop, use the Motion workspace, then set the timing of the frames in Photoshop. This keeps your file size small and gives you the best option for creating a high quality 256 color gif with decent edges. 

 

That exact design is pretty easy to create and animate using a single shape layer, an ellipse with a stroke only, trim paths to only show part of the circle, and a 3 sided polystar with 3 sides. The sizes can all be mathematically setup, then the first curved arrow can be placed in a group. You can tie the color of the stroke to the color of the fill with a simple epression created using the pickwhip, then add a few keyframes and end up with a single group that moves up, spins, and changes color. using the transform properties available for each shape. Then all that is necessary is to duplicate the group twice and offset the rotation values. Here's what that looks like. I'm showing you everything except the expression that I added to the rotation property of Group 2 and Group 3. The expression was simply value + 60 and value + 120.

 

I hope this helps. The screenshot should get you there because I am showing you everyting that I did to the first group.

2 replies

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
November 26, 2019

If you want to create an animated gif then it is important that your AE comp does not have any duplicate frames. What do I mean by that. The sample has the entire arrow graphic move into position, then sit there for a little while, then spin and change color, then sit for a while. In your AE comp you only need one frame of the graphic sitting still. You export a movie with a transparent background using the Render Cue and the Lossless with Alpha preset, then you import that rendered file into Photoshop, use the Motion workspace, then set the timing of the frames in Photoshop. This keeps your file size small and gives you the best option for creating a high quality 256 color gif with decent edges. 

 

That exact design is pretty easy to create and animate using a single shape layer, an ellipse with a stroke only, trim paths to only show part of the circle, and a 3 sided polystar with 3 sides. The sizes can all be mathematically setup, then the first curved arrow can be placed in a group. You can tie the color of the stroke to the color of the fill with a simple epression created using the pickwhip, then add a few keyframes and end up with a single group that moves up, spins, and changes color. using the transform properties available for each shape. Then all that is necessary is to duplicate the group twice and offset the rotation values. Here's what that looks like. I'm showing you everything except the expression that I added to the rotation property of Group 2 and Group 3. The expression was simply value + 60 and value + 120.

 

I hope this helps. The screenshot should get you there because I am showing you everyting that I did to the first group.

    X
    xBlindeyeAuthor
    Participant
    November 26, 2019

    thank you so much! will give it a go later today!

    Martin_Ritter
    Martin_Ritter
    Legend
    November 25, 2019

    Nothing fancy here, but a good exercise.

     

     

    I would put every arrow an a layer, but keep the layer dimension of the final artwork of the 3 arrows. This way, the center of each layer is the correct pivot point. Make sure, the anchor point is at the layers center and that all anchors of the three layers ligning up perfectly (I hate whoppling spinning animations and I see them way to often!).

    Next order the layers, so they can move beneath each other like in the animation demo (gray arrow is top, dark blue is buttom). Next parent the arrows from buttom to top to each other.

    And finally just animate the rotation values.

    So make it look cool, add easing to the keyframes. You can use "mask fill" and "drop shadow" for the white-out at the end and the starting of the animation is just transparency with a little bit buttom to top motion. 

     

    Have fun!

     

    *Martin

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