Background Animations

Setup

Directions for setting up your scenes and animations for After Effects:

Create a new composition that is the following dimensions: 854 x 480.

Use the defaults for the other settings.

For each scene you only need a minimum of two object in the background (should be on separate AI layers) to be animated and it can be simple (e.g. sun setting, rain, cars moving) as well as a 3D object (e.g. lemons tutorial). You may get additional points for going above and beyond.

Tip

When you edit a keyframe for animation, you can simple copy the keyframe and paste it if you want the repeated animation. For example you can animate one car passing and copy the keyframe and move it to a later time so that cars continue to drive past.

In AE, go to File > Import. After you select the Illustrator file choose composition (not footage) and click import. If you import the file and layers and it does not appear correct, try to resave the AI file and reimport.

DO NOT check mark the box "Illustrator/PDF/EPS Sequence" as shown below when you import AI files into AE

Instead, use the following

Rendering

When you are ready to export to video, go to Composition > Add to Render Queue

If you forgot, you may want to go back and rewatch the video on rendering.

In the render queue, click on the Render and Output settings

For the render settings, choose Best, Full, and the same dimensions. Click on custom on the middle right side of the box and choose how long the video clip will be in length.

In the output settings, choose Quicktime (.mov) and best quality.

Posting

If you have not already, create a Google Drive folder (make sure it is public) called ca1joe18 Story Project and inside this folder, create a folder called bg2 (or bg3, bg4, etc) and upload your AI file, video file, and AE file into it and name the files bg2b (b stands for backgrounds). Post the bg folder link to the spreadsheet. Upload your background to MF Picasa album. Also email your video link to WP.