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J
jessicas25948489
Participant
April 14, 2020
Answered

Aligning the end of a custom line of animation

  • April 14, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 628 views

Hi! I am creating a lyric video. I made a custom line of animation in a shape layer, then copied that animation to the text position value (the song lyrics for this frame). I want the lyrics to end dead center after their animation - is there a way to do that through alignment settings, or do I have to draw the animation by hand over and over until I get the text to land dead center? Does that make sense? I know how to align text basically but I want to know if I can align the end of the animation. 🙂

 

Thanks for your help!

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Rick Gerard

I never do my editing in After Effects unless the project is only about 10 seconds long. Every shot is a separate comp, 99% of the time I render the comps and import the digital intermediate into premiere Pro and do the final edit and sound mix there. I know that sounds like more work but it really isn't. It requires a little organization but I promise you that if you adopt that kind of a workflow you will be finished with your projects in less time, have much fewer problems with rendering, end up with a more polished product, and more quickly end up making a profit for your work,

 

A digital intermediate (DI) is a video file or image sequence rendered to a visually lossless frame-based format that is suitable for the post production workflow. Do not render your comps two and H.264–MP4 and expect to maintain any quality in your project. The MP4 format is suitable only for distribution to the public.

2 replies

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 15, 2020

The best hint I can give you for doing "lyric video" is to break the song up into 4 or 8 bar segments or the lyrics up into phrases and create a separate comp for each of those sections. Trying to edit an entire three or four-minute music video as a single comp very quickly becomes an unwieldy mess that is nearly impossible for anyone to control. When you get the phrases working the way you want, render them and put them in Premiere Pro to do the final edit. It sounds like more work but it is a lot better. I almost never go with the first cut of anything and I've been doing this for a half-century. Deciding that you need to change a camera move on the first 3 words in the second chorus of a 4-minute song if it is all in a single comp could mess up every single following frame of the video. If the first 10 words of the second chorus are in a separate comp then changing the animation in that short comp will only take a few minutes and cannot foul up anything else in the project.

 

The other suggestion that I would like to offer - Don't get into a rut. Back away from the work on the second four bars of the song and do something else for an hour, then come back and see how it flows. Pay attention to where your eyes go in the frame, Pay attention to the feeling you get when you watch the section. Sometimes a move or a cut needs to lead the beat, sometimes it needs to follow it. Cutting to music always looks better and brings out stronger emotions if the visuals are not locked precisely to the beat. 

 

Watch a bunch of really creative videos and see how they affect you. Just animating words to the beat gets really old very fast. 

    J
    jessicas25948489Author
    Participant
    April 15, 2020

    Wow, that is such a helpful response. I would have never thought to have done that (any of that, actually) and would have regretted it greatly the deeper in I got in the video. I want the project to be enjoyable and come out looking great, not turn into a frustrating let-down haha. I will take you at you word! What do you mean by finish in adobe premier, though? Would that just be for any final effects I'd want to add?

    R
    Community Expert
    Rick GerardCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    April 15, 2020

    I never do my editing in After Effects unless the project is only about 10 seconds long. Every shot is a separate comp, 99% of the time I render the comps and import the digital intermediate into premiere Pro and do the final edit and sound mix there. I know that sounds like more work but it really isn't. It requires a little organization but I promise you that if you adopt that kind of a workflow you will be finished with your projects in less time, have much fewer problems with rendering, end up with a more polished product, and more quickly end up making a profit for your work,

     

    A digital intermediate (DI) is a video file or image sequence rendered to a visually lossless frame-based format that is suitable for the post production workflow. Do not render your comps two and H.264–MP4 and expect to maintain any quality in your project. The MP4 format is suitable only for distribution to the public.

      R
      Community Expert
      Rick GerardCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 14, 2020

      Aligning layers automatically involves correctly placing the anchor point of the layer and numbers. Without seeing your project with the modified properties of both layers you are having problems with it's hard to point you in the right direction. If you copied the motion path of a shape layer and pasted it to the position property of a text layer and you want to line up the ending position try selecting the Anchor Point values in the Timeline and making your adjustments there. If the text layer starts in the correct position set a keyframe at the start first, then adjust the anchor point to line up the text layer.

       

      If that does not work we need detailed screenshots posted to the forum not uploaded...

        J
        jessicas25948489Author
        Participant
        April 14, 2020

        Thank you so much, Rick! That was such a helpful and timely reply, and I was able to achieve what I wanted. I'm a musician first and foremost, but I would like some good knowledge for the making of lyric videos in AE specifically. I noticed you mentioned courses on another post you did helping someone else. Is there a course or book you would recommend specifically if all I really want to do is make creative lyric videos?

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