Masks, Keyframes and Animation Aren't Scary in After Effects part 1

This was designed by Henry Deleon

I'm going to start focusing a little bit more on motion graphics practice and take you along with me so we can learn together!

I've always had this fear of masks in After Effects and I didn't know why. Just the thought of having to manipulate a bunch of those yellow outlines and knowing the difference between add, subtract, invert etc. got my hands all sweaty.


But I've realized it pretty much came down to me wanting a quick fix and not wanting to have to resort to too many key frames. I was scared to approach it because it would mean me spending too much time on projects.

Well, I've finally gotten over it, especially after watching so many awesome mograph animations with masking involved. I'm sitting down now and approaching it with a different view; one more of curiosity than a need to "git er done."

I have some very basic masking animation going on in this piece. There was actually more masking involved with a logo, but I'll save that for when everything is finalized.





The main things I had fun with was the bounciness of the shapes when they popped out. When you animate something popping out, you want to overshoot the size or length first and then bring it back down to the size you want it to end up. That gives it an organic, "springy" feel.

I didn't do that for the far left and right squares because it just didn't feel right. And when it comes to animation, your feelings can definitely come in handy!

I've also added little particles to bring a little more excitement in this simple animation.

Go ahead and check it out! I've provided the file for you here: http://www.mediafire.com/?40eot621smyvmb0
Feel free to play around and try your own things out!
It's CS5 and the white lines were done using Trapcode 3D stroke. Now that I think of it, I totally could have done that with masks too!

Leave me a comment or email me (sutefeni(at)gmail.com) if you want to show what you've done or have any questions!