Hey guys Mario here and here is a guide to kinetic typography and After Effects as a whole.
What is Kinetic Typography?
Kinetic Type is the technical name for "moving text"—is an animation technique mixing motion and text to express ideas using video animation. This text is presented over time in a manner intended to convey or evoke a particular idea or emotion. I.e if the forward is fast you can soomit off the screen or the word is smoke you can fade it out like smoke or if you are trying to emphasize a point the word will be bugger.
Examples of Good kinetic type.
Pulp fiction (Kinetic type over video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FlcS9_LXho&feature=related
Helvetica (Kinetic type without sound)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwIy0enG6uU&feature=related
Shopvac (Good animation many transition techniques progression sound syncing and
everything)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4sOfO8Ei1g
So lets jump in and create a little Kinetic type!
Getting to know the workflow
There are 5 steps to the general workflow of aftereffects.
-importing and organizing the footage or source materials.
-creating compositions and arranging layers
-animating elements
-adding effects
-previewing your work
-and rendering and outputting the final composition
The process
Sketch Sketch Sketch!!
I like to storyboard all of my scenes and think about how they are gonna animate in
Show scenes for pre-prepared documents once that is done i get ready to jump into aftereffects.
get your source materials together
Lyrics
Sound files (Wav) If you don't have wav available you can convert them using these
converters.
So why wav as opposed to other audio formats such as mp3?
It simple wav files are a lossless and uncompressed file format for sound, they are the choice for things going on TV,radio, DVD,to any other media requiring top sound. Whereas mp3 is compressed for fast loading it was designed for web. A similar comparison can be made for
TIFF and jpeg.
(Open After effects)
-Interface of after effects.
-Deciding Screen size and resolution
-Importing documents sound
Elements form Ai and Ps (If you have to I will be showing you the way I did it)
Once we have our sound in and out comp made lets pick a typeface and get all of our words in. What I usually do is work scene by scene by first laying down the audio and then syncing the type up to the audio and once I have it appearing in the correct time then its time for setting up the layout. Once that is done then I start the animation!
Syncing audio
Syncing audio I first lay down the text randomly on separate layer or import the proper ai file with my layout. Scrub the timeline by holding (Command) and moving the playhead across it.
You may have to zoom in on the timeline for accurate readings but once you hear the beginning
of the word that you want to start with, stop and adjust the layer in the timeline to begin at that point. Continue doing so until the first scene (or all if necessary) is done. ram preview your work to make sure everything is timed. Once timed (If you work directly in aftereffects) You may now adjust the position and scale of your layout as you see fit.
Note: You may also open the attributes of the sound file and view the waveform to see where the audio spikes to give you an indicator of where the words should appear. But remember just because the word is dead on the point where it should appear doesn't mean its correct. Sometimes you have to adjust the placing or the words in the timeline a little early or late to compensate for low audio or jut for visuals when the words are played with the audio. And sometime you will have to guess because not everyone can pronounce words clearly.
The animation once times out and in the proper layout you may now begin to animate! This part involves key framing various aspects of your type such as position, scale, rotation, etc. Key framing is a very important ans simple concept to grasp. If you want to move an object from left to right for
example you go to the position properties in the layer pull down menu. press the stopwatch next to position to begin recording. A key frame will be placed on your timeline marking this. Move forward in time with your play head. drag your object wherever you want and when you stop a keyframe will be put indicating that be that point in time your object will travel to that place which you have indicated. The same can be done with any parameter in after effects. Anything with a stopwatch next to it can be key framed.
Note: You can move key frames on the timeline further apart to slow the effect or move them closer together to speed it up. You can also right click a keyframe and go to keyframe assistant to ad an ease to the in and out of the keyframe. An ease means that it will slowly ease into the point at wich it stops like a car slowing down to break instead of stopping abruptly. keyframes can also be copied and pasted.
The Camera
The camera is an object that can be added to your composition by going to
Layer>New>Camera. You will be asked ot pick a camera. (If you know about film then use
the one that you would use in filming a regular shoot) you can just use the stock 24mm. The camera will be on its own layer and have the same key framable properties as anything else in aftereffects. be warned that the camera will only affect 3d objects do make sure your text is 3d (meaning able to move in 3d space) by clicking the 3d box indicated by the cube to the left of the name of your layer in your composition. You can also adjust the focus length, aperature and depth of field in your camera.
Pro tip: A camera can be attached (parented) to an invisible object called a null object. by doing so its like attaching a camera to a dolly in that once you move the null object the camera a will move with it! its an easy way to move the camera around while keeping focus and point of interest parameters the same.
Important!:
Working with 2 views. in the bottom corner of your preview window cou can switch to 1 or 2 views. make sure when working in 3d to use at least 2 views. once from a top view and another from the front. this way you can monitor the X Y and Z fields.
There is an excellent guide on using the camera and also a free download for an amazing plugin called Sure target found at http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/sure_target_2/
Secret Sauce
In this section I will explain a few tips that will give your Kinetic type a bit of spice.
Motion blur: to the left of the 3d box there is what seems to be a multi-ball icon that is the icon for motion blur. Also there is the same icon again in the top right corner of your layers window. click both once you are done editing and animating to activate motion blur on anything that moves this will make your kinetic type look better instantly in most cases.
Text effects: the advantage in working directly in aftereffects is that you text is still text and not a vector image. so you can go to Effects & Presets>Text and there are a lot of text transition that aftereffects has that are readily available to use and can be altered to match your design.
Regular effects: specialized blurs, glows, particles, distortions, color corrections, noise, etc. All can be dragged and dropped into a layer and altered to make your text pop!
Rendering
Once you are done with everything its time to render ot output your work into a viewable state.
go to composition>Add to render que to place your work into a que. You now have 3 things to check before rendering
Render Settings: Make sure its at best settings
Output Module: ake sure that format is quicktime and click format options and select H.264 this is a compressed file like jpeg or mp3 that is meant for view on the internet. This will cut down on your render time and file size. MAKE SURE TO CLICK THE
AUDIO OUTPUT BUTTON After
effects will not render out your sound if you don't do this.
Outpur To: the place where this movie will be saved.
Pro tip: Cutting down render times and making after effects run faster.
http://blog.templatemonster.com/2010/08/06/after-effects-8-ways-increase-productivity-renderspeed/
This is a great link to the most common settings and ways to save time in after effects.
Important links:
Kinetic type tutorials
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/freshdv/story/kinetic_typography/
http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/motion-graphics/design-rhythmic-motion-typography-in-aftereffects/
More in-depth about what we discussed today.
http://www.videocopilot.net/
Aftereffects effects tutorials and free plugin downloads.
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/
if you have particular at home great tutorials for the software.
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