How to create seamless looping animation

Question

Hello! Relatively new to after effects, so I'm struggling with something I think should be somewhat easy to achieve. I have this 10 second clip I've created, with relatively similar frames at the start and end. But with some of my wiggle and loop expressions, I can't figure out how to make this a seamless loop so there is no jump between start and end. I've looked up various tutorials but none really deal with this kind of animation. Any guidance would be much apppreciated, thank you!

Kyle Hamrick · Accepted Answer

Follow-up: If you're using wiggle on those tall plants, I'd probably just try to approach that differently. It's possible to "loop" a wiggle expression in kind of a hacky way, but the code is a bit complicated, and you're technically fading between two different wiggle states to pull it off.

Kyle Hamrick · Answer

It looks to me like you just need to sync things up.

- Since your wiggled elements (spiky plants) are lower-frame-rate, I wouldn't stress about those - the jumpiness hides any loop issues, to my eye.

- The floating ball and waving plants - you just need to dial those in so they match the loop length. Yes, using expressions can make that trickier! A trick I've found to help find those perfect loop points is to drop your comp into another comp, and get that end/start lined up like this. Since you're just worrying about the loop, it saves you a lot of wasted preview time.

- Getting things to all line up at the same loop, without looking like they're all moving at the same speed ... well, that's a different question. 😉 If you have the ability (in terms of allowable file size), you can make the loop longer, giving yourself more leeway, or let some elements loop 2x in the time others only loop once.

One important thing you likely already know - your last keyframe should actually be one frame PAST the end of your loop, to avoid a pause.

- The moon's current movement will never loop cleanly, unless you make this MUCH longer.

- The TV seems like the only lingering thing. How did you build that static? If it involves Fractal Noise, make sure you look in the effect settings - under "Evolution Options," there's actually a checkbox that lets you cycle the evolution to make perfect loops.

Good luck! Let me know if I'm overlooking or missing something, or if you have further questions!

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