S.C. You ever want to do a shout out to someone
on Instagram or share a web link in your video? You know a call-out… pop-out? I don’t
know, this sort of thing:
Hey and welcome to Makin’ Social Media. In this episode, I’m going to show you how
to make a reusable, easy to adapt precomp which you can convert into a motion graphic
template for use in Adobe Premiere Pro or Premiere Rush.
You can then use it not only to share your social media tags but if you’re doing a
collaboration or just wanting to make a shout out, then you can have one of these animate
in. Of course, if it’s another YouTube channel, you can link directly to them, but unless
you have enough subscribers and watch time to be accepted into the YouTube Partner Program,
you cannot add clickable links to your videos.
If you’re just here for the finished project files, that’s totally cool, I’ve linked
them in the description below.
These pop-outs give you a cute, easy way to call out...um… share… look, if you know
what these things are actually called, lemme know in the comments.
Let’s just get started.
So, here I am in After Effects - I’ve got a 1080p comp. Keep the comp short, I’ve
set it to 10 seconds - which sounds really short, but this is ultimately static text.
And what we need to do is make a call out for one social media network, then I can duplicate
it and swap in others.
I’m going to start by selecting the Rounded Rectangle Tool in the Mask options, and draw
a rectangle.
Don’t worry about the sizes. We’ll set these numerically. Although if you want to
know more about changing corner radius of rounded rectangle masks, check out my Solvin’
video.
Hit Enter and rename the layer to Lozenge.
Then turn it off for the moment.
Now switch to the Circle tool and draw a circle.
Hold SHIFT while drawing to force it to be a perfect circle.
Rename this layer to Circle
And expand it on the timeline.
Highlight the Stroke property and hit delete to get rid of it.
And expand Ellipse Path and set the Sizes to 250.
The Fill’s colour should be the colour of the network you’re using. I’m going to
make this one an Instagram callout, so I’ll actually be using the rainbow logo.
If I was making a Facebook one, then this becomes the facebook blue - that sort of thing.
So, where to get the logo?
I found this website, seeklogo, which provides Adobe Illustrator Files. Which is really useful,
because I intend to reproduce each logo, meaning I don’t have to keep track of the original
image files. It also means I can separate out each element.
If you have Illustrator, then you can see each element in the layers panel.
I can then highlight these by holding SHIFT and going to Edit copy, then switching to
After Effects, making a solid and pasting the vector as a mask onto the solid.
Which makes life really simple.
But… I just said I didn’t want to keep track of image files - unfortunately to get
Instagram’s rainbow background, I had no choice but to import the Illustrator the file
as a composition.
So seeing as I have to, I at least get the icon and its background as separate layers.
Add the background layer, underneath Circle and scale and position it to fit behind the
circle.
And set its Track Matte to Alpha Matte.
Now, we need to go to Layer > New > Null Object.
Parent all the layers to it.
Then select each layer in turn, hit P to expose the position property and set the positions
to zero.
And then move the Null over.
Switch to the Text tool and type Instagram.
Set the font to your choice and make it about 80 points.
I set mine to Arial and Bold. And left-aligned.
And rename your text layer to Text. Which makes it easy to copy comps later.
When you’re done, expand Circle on the timeline until you can see the Ellipse Path’s size
again
Now, turn on the Lozenge layer and expand it until you can see the Rectangle Path’s
size.
Hold ALT and click on the stopwatch.
And in the Expressions area, type:
Y =
Then use the pickwhip to link to the circle’s size’s height.
Then add plus 10.
X =
And use the pickwhip to link to the Text layer.
Then add
Dot
sourceRectAtTime.width
Semi-colon
Square brackets X comma Y
Not quite, but we can change this.
And while we’re here,set Roundness to 250.
Technically this roundness needs to be 250 divided by two plus 5, but it can only ever
be a maximum of half the rectangle’s height, so we can set it at 250 and just forget about
it.
So, the width isn’t big enough.
So back in the size expression, add 2 times Y to the X equation.
So it’s length is about right, and remember, the width is determined by the size of the
text, so it will grow and shrink to match - with a bit of a margin.
But we need to position it correctly.
We want its anchor point to be the centre of the circle.
Expand the Rectangle Path’s Transform options and ALT click on the Anchor stopwatch.
And Type
Y = 0;
Radius = and use the pickwhip to link to the Rectangle Path’s Height value
Divide by 2
Semi-colon
X = minus 1 times
and use the pickwhip to link to the Rectangle Path’s width value.
Divide by 2
Plus
Radius
Semi-colon
Square brackets X comma Y
Cool. Bit convoluted, but it works.
Now for a slightly easier bit.
Which reminds me - hang on, I have a script here.
Hello Internet - if you like the content I am making...look directly at audience… smile…
then please subscribe and hit that bell… you guys are awesome and I love seeing you
at insert channel name here.
In the Lozenge rectangle’s Stroke settings, set a nice, dark grey.
#5f5f5f
And in the Fill settings, we want a slightly off-white colour.
#F4F4F4
Now let’s add some animation.
Go to 1 second on the timeline and expand Circle until we can set a keyframe for its
size.
Then go back to zero and set the size to zero.
Next, let’s edit the Lozenge’s size expression.
Replace X equals, with TextWidth equals.
Then on a new line, just after, type:
If ( time < 7) {
X = linear(time, 1.2, 2, Y, textWidth)
} else {
X = linear(time, 7, 7.5, textWidth, Y);
}
So what this expression is doing is saying that if the current time is less than 7 seconds,
animate the value of X from 1.2 seconds to 2 seconds.
Start at the Y value, and animate to the textWidth value.
And if the time is after 7 seconds, animate the X value from the textWidth amount to the
Y amount between 7 and 7.5 seconds.
So it’s animation, without any keyframes which the length of the text controls.
Sweet.
Now, duplicate Lozenge and place it above the text layer and set the text’s track
matte to Alpha Matte.
And now to add the instagram camera.
Add it to the comp, about 1 second in, scale it down and position it and parent it to the
circle.
Now this is where I started having a bit of fun. And made each logo appear in it’s own
way.
For Instagram, I added a new layer with a feathered circle to look like a flash, and
then I added a few more, each only on screen for a couple of frames. So it looks like there’s
a bunch of photos being taken and on the third flash, i have the logo appear.
For Twitter, I used a duplicate of the birdy and used masks to isolate the wing, set the
anchor point to the wing’s shoulder, made it 3D and had it flap. Then I parented it
to the bird and animated it into position, swapping it out at the landing point to a
static logo.
I ended up having a bit of fun here, coming up with all the different ways to animate
the logo. It’s so small and quick that you can get away with some really quick ideas.
Just make sure you finish the first comp fully, before duplicating it.
Make sure everyone is parented to someone. And currently the animation is left aligned,
but you might want the circle to be in the centre.
So, expand the Null Layer’s position property, ALT click and type:
Y = value[1];
That’s the value of the null’s Y position and means you can animate it as usual.
Then X = thisComp.width/2 plus
and use the pickwhip to link to the Lozenge’s Anchor point’s X value.
Square brackets X comma Y
So that’s half the comp’s width, plus whatever the lozenge’s anchor point is.
Keeping the circle in the centre.
I added a couple of Expression control checkboxes to the Null Layer
Which meant that I can choose if the animation is centred or left aligned. It meant I need
to make a couple of changes to the Position expression and add one to the Null’s anchor
point. You can see them here and they are listed in the description below.
Now to make it reusable. Just like in the last video, about YouTube Comments - go to
Window > Essential Graphics.
Find your comp in the drop down. Give it a name
Drag in the source text value from the Text layer. Name it tag, username, whatever.
Click on Edit Properties and check the boxes so that you can change the formatting.
So for another After Effects comp, simply drag your instagram comp in.
Expand it on the timeline until you’ve expanded Master Properties and right-click and choose
Edit.
Ta-da! And you can add the same comp multiple times and have different values each time.
And to save this for use in Premiere Pro…
Open Essential Graphics.
Click on Export Motion Graphics Template.
Once saved, when you’re in Premiere Pro (and I assume Premiere Rush too it’s pretty
similar.)
Go to Window > Essential Graphics
Search for your new template
And drag it straight onto the timeline.
In Effects Controls, you can edit the values as before.
And that’s it! These callouts are fun to make, once you’ve done the first one.
In the Description below, you’ll find links to a project file containing the completed
callouts I made and also to a project with a single, simple callout. I’d strongly recommend
downloading just this one as reference, as it’s more fun to make your own. And this
way you’re not stuck copying mine - you’ll probably be way better than me anyway. Come
back into the comments and shame me with your designs.
Thanks very much for watching. Social Nedia November has one more episode planned - where
I’ll be recreating the look of Text messages, but not just text and including emojis.