>>ALAN: Hey everyone! I've been getting some comments asking me how I made my animated intro
to my tutorials. So I thought, I'll make a video of my process that walks you through the different
programs and techniques that I used to make it. So this would be a great time to roll that intro.
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Before we get started, if you haven't checked out my channel, I make tutorials for Photoshop,
After Effects and Premiere. If you're new to those programs, or, you want to see some intermediate
and advanced techniques, check out those videos and don't forget to subscribe and like.
This project took me five to six hours from start to finish and it spans four programs: Illustrator,
Blender, After Effects and Premiere. And it's a five to six second intro.
So that really puts into perspective the amount of work that goes into animating one
second of fully custom content. And that should go into play when people ask you to
make a "quick 30 second animation" for them; there's nothing quick about this.
Now, I want to give a disclaimer up front: I'm going to be using two plugins throughout this
tutorial. And I'm telling you this because I hated it when I was getting started and I was watching
tutorials and they wouldn't tell me until halfway through the tutorial that they're using some $500
plugin. I was like, "I don't have a $500 plug-in!" So you've been warned - don't hate me when I start
using plugins. But I'm using these plugins because they allow me to do things in After Effects that
you otherwise cannot do, such as working with a 3D object file natively inside of After
Effects. So if you're still with me, and you're ready to move forward, then let's get started!
Step 1: Adobe Illustrator.
Now, I had my original Alan-clock logo as a .PNG, so I opened that up in Illustrator. I
went to 'Window' down to 'Image Trace' and that opens up the image trace panel
to which I click "Trace' and convert it into a vector. Now it's time to export my .SVG. 'File,'
'Export,' 'Export As.' I tried this - changed the pull down to .SVG - and it did literally
nothing. I tried it three more times just to make sure that I wasn't crazy - I was not.
So I go to 'File,' 'Save As,' change the pulldown to .SVG, click 'Save,' and on to...
Step 2: Blender.
Now, truth be told I don't do 3D, so I admired this pretty landing screen
recognizing that I'd never make anything as cool as this.
So I closed the landing screen and I admired this default cube long enough
until it was time to say goodbye, clicked 'Delete,' and it was time to import my .SVG.
'File,' 'Import .SVG.' I spent about three minutes wondering why they put it over here. Spent about
three more minutes trying to figure out where the move tool was so I could move it to rough center.
Once I figured that out, I had to then erase these other aspects of the .SVG. So I clicked on them
and hit 'Delete' to make these little gaps. I was feeling pretty good once I figured this
out but it was still flat. So I go over to this little unassuming icon over here, toggle down
'Geometry,' and go to 'Extrude.' I used these little arrows to extrude to my desired thickness.
Whoa, too thick - dial it back.
Now it was time to export my .OBJ. 'File,' 'Export,'
'Wavefront .OBJ.' 'Export .OBJ.' Now the hard part is over...
Step 3: After Effects.
Now, because After Effects doesn't actually natively work with .OBJ files, I'm going to
be using the Video Copilot Element 3D plugin. To get started with Element 3D, you have to create a
brand new solid. 'Layer,' 'New,' 'Solid.' I name my solid "Logo" and, because the color
doesn't matter, I like to make mine green. Apply the effect: 'Effect,' 'Video Copilot,'
'Element.' In your Effect Controls panel, click on 'Scene Setup.' This opens up Element 3D.
Time to import my .OBJ. Click on the 'Import' button, find my .OBJ, and in the next dialog box
choose 'Use Auto Normals.' Now, when I imported this, nothing showed up. It's because I had to
check the box that says 'Normalize Size' and then there it is. I played with different shaders and
ultimately decided on the matte black shader. Everything else was good, so I hit 'OK.' To make
my logo appear normal, I'm going to toggle down the 'Particle Look,' come down to the 'Particle
Rotation,' and rotate the x-value to turn my logo on its proper face. Now, to view this,
I have to make a brand new camera: 'Layer,' 'New,' 'Camera.' I use a two node camera for this,
so I click 'OK.' Toggle down my 'One View' pulldown to make this 'Two Views Horizontal.'
In the left hand, I'm going to choose 'Top.' And now I have my camera; I can move my camera around
and start to view my 3D logo now inside of my Composition panel. To control my camera better,
I make a brand new null object: 'Layer,' 'New,' 'Null Object.' I name this "Camera Controller,"
and then I parent the camera to my null object. I check the box to make my null object a 3D layer.
To learn more about controlling cameras with null objects,
check out my "Understanding Null Objects" tutorial.
Now it's a matter of adding keyframes to my Camera Controller and the logo itself in the
Element 3D plugin. Once I do this, it looks like the logo is now bouncing off the screen.
Let's add some depth. Toggle down 'Camera 1,' toggle down 'Camera Options,' and turn
on the Depth of Field. Now you can change the aperture
and the focal distance to allow the camera to blur in and out as the logo is flying in.
To create smooth movement, I go ahead and adjust some of the timings in the Graph Editor. Time to
add some lights: 'Layer,' 'New,' 'Light.' I like to use Point Lights because they're the
easiest to wrap my mind around. I'm going to make this blue with an intensity of 12,000 and
I hit 'OK.' This now creates a light that I can click and drag around to interact with my 3D logo.
After various experiments on lighting position, I decided on a total of three Point lights
with keyframes applied to their Position, their Color, and their Intensity. And this
allowed for an active lighting system that interacts with my logo over time.
Now it's time to create a 3D stroke. To start, I make a new Shape layer:
'Layer,' 'New,' 'Shape Layer.' And then I add a very simple blue stroke to this layer. Now,
I want to make this a 3D stroke, so I'm going to use the Red Giant plug-in,
'3D Stroke:' 'Effect,' 'RG Trapcode,' '3D Stroke.' From here, I can adjust all sorts
of parameters. I can choose the basic preset of circle, but the biggest thing here is to turn on
'Taper.' And Taper allows it now to, kind of, give this thickness to the stroke itself. Using
the 'Transform' pulldown, I can now rotate this on its x-axis. Create a brand new track matte layer:
'Layer,' 'New,' 'Solid.' Apply a track matte. Draw a mask on this to make it seem like the stroke is
circling around the logo. To take this stroke a step further, I apply another plug-in from
Red Giant: 'Effect,' Red Giant Trapcode,' and I apply 'Shine.' Using the Shine plugin allows me
now to create this emanating light from that stroke itself, giving it some more texture.
Now this was looking great but it was lacking something. As it hit the screen with such force,
it just felt a little too rigid to me. So in Element 3D, under the 'Deform' pulldown, you can
enable 'Deform.' And this allows me now to bend and deform my logo with keyframable properties.
And so now, when it hits the screen, I deform it and then have it flip over the other direction to
kind of create this wobble. And this added some nice squishiness to the logo where previously
it just felt way too hard. To wrap up, I added some pre-made elements to create some texture
as the logo came in and out. Now it's time to add some text. Using a single text layer duplicated
three times, I masked out each word then added a track matte layer that allowed each masked part
to come in individually. I then duplicated all of those text and track matte layers,
I changed the color of the original text layers underneath, and then staggered the keyframes to
tie in with the rest of my color scheme. Once I was done inside of After Effects,
I exported this using Adobe Media Encoder. But now that this is done, on to...
Step 4: Adobe Premiere.
Inside Premiere, I imported my rendered After Effects file, made a new Sequence out of it,
and then imported a bunch of sound effects that I had from my sound effects library. I also imported
a music track courtesy of Artlist. Taking up as many audio tracks as I could, I added my wooshes,
my swooshes, my swishes, and some textural atmospheres and soon it was sounding pretty
good. I mixed all the sound effects in the Audio Track Mixer and then I was ready to export. I
used a pre-existing preset that I had made using the H.264 format, changed the bitrate up to 22,
and hit 'Queue.' This queued up in Adobe Media Encoder. Click the green 'play' button,
let it export, and once it was done, I had a finished animated intro for my videos.
Thanks for joining me on this whirlwind tour. If you enjoyed this video,
please subscribe to my channel, like this video,
and I hope to see you in another tutorial soon. Again, I'm Alan from itsalantime. Happy creating.
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