Combining Animate and After Effects

Adobe built Animate and After Effects so they could easily be combined. As we’ve seen over the course of the semester the two software have a lot of similarities but also distinct strengths/weaknesses. In this tutorial, we’ll take a simple Animate sequence and use After Effects to apply… effects!

This example starts with a pretty simple Animate file (which you can download here) and includes just a few effects. However the principles in this tutorial can be applies to much more complex Animate scenes and other After Effects tools. You can watch the finished example below and download the finished .aep file here.

https://vimeo.com/294420285

Combining Animate and After Effectsfrom Prof Pinkason Vimeo.

Preparing the Animate file for After Effects

When preparing your Animate scene to be imported into After Effects, you should expand the stage to give yourself a little more elbow room. In the provided start example file, the stage is set to 1920 x 1080. This means that if I shift the position of layers within After Effects, I risk cropping elements. For example, if I want to shift my character to the left of the composition, the character will be cropped once it reaches the edge of the original Animate stage’s size.

Let’s adjust the file to avoid this:

• Go to File > Save As… and name the new version (i.e: “week12_combining_resized.fla”)
• Increase the stage size to 3000 x 1688px (make sure the “Scale Content” option is off)
• Increase the width of the ground line so that it spans the whole width of the newly sized stage.
• Select the last Keyframe of the “walk” layer and move it further down the Timeline (i.e: frame 290)
• Move the last frame of the “ground” layer so that it ends at the same time as the “walk” layer.
• On Keyframe 290, move the character so that it is just to the right of the Stage.

Next, we’ll export each element that we know we’ll want to control separately in After Effects into a separate SWF movie file. In this case, we’ll create 4 movies – one for each layer:

• Guide layers will not be exported in the SWF file.
  • We’ll “unguide” the layer(s) we want to export in our first SWF file if it is a guide (not in this example): right-click on the layer name and de-select Guide
  • We’ll turn any layer which we do not want to include in the SWF into a guide (simply hiding the layer will not work): right-click on the layer name and select Guide

• Go to File > Export > Export Movie…
  • Name your file
  • Set the file format to SWF (PNG sequences can also work here, but since PNG is a raster format, it won’t be as scalable as SWF which is vector-based)

• Repeat for each layer

Importing SWFs to After Effects

Now that we’ve divided and exported our Animate project, let’s import the individual SWFs in After Effects:

• Launch After Effects
• Go to File > New > New Project
• Go to File > Save As > Save As… name your file and save it into the desired location
• Go to File > Import > File…and select all the SWF files you just created
• Once you see all the SWF files in your Project panel, drag them onto the New Folder icon to keep them organized. Name the new folder “swfs”

Creating a new composition

We want to create a new/single composition with all the SWFs. To do so:

• Select all the SWFs inside the swfs folder
• Drag and drop them onto the New Composition icon

• In the New Composition from Selectionwindow, make sure Single Compositionis selected. You can keep the default option for the other settings.

• Each SWF file will appear as a layer in the Timeline. Re-order them if needed (in this example, the order should be: drop – straight – walk – ground)

• You’ll also notice that a new Composition has been added to your Project panel. You can rename it by right-clicking its name and selecting Rename (i.e: “animateSequence”) and drag it outside of the swfs folder.

When you press the Spacebaryou should see your entire animation play on the screen.

Creating guides

The Composition is currently much wider than we’ll ultimately need it to be (3000px vs. 1920px wide) to allow us to move our elements without cropping them. We will eventually decrease the Composition size to 1920px x 1080px, so let’s create some guides to keep these final dimensions in mind:

• Reveal the Horizontal and Vertical Rulers by hitting Command + R
• Click on the top Ruler and drag a Guide down to 1080 on the Y axis (you can see the value of the mouse in the Info panel
• Click on the left Ruler and drag a Guide right to 1920 on the X axis

Distorting the ball

Now that we have all our assets ready, we’ll start applying some effects. We want the transformation from ball to creature to be more dramatic. We’ll start by having the ball “wiggle” when it lands on the ground (to suggest the creature is about to emerge from it):

• Hide all the layers except for “drop”
• Set the Time Indicator to the point where the ball has been on the ground for a few frames (i.e: 0;00;01;15)
• In the Effects search panel, find the “Mesh Warp” effect (inside the “Distort” folder)
• Make sure the “drop” layer is selected. Drag & drop the “Mesh Wrap” effect on the Composition.
• You should see a grid appear on the Composition. If you don’t, select the name of the Effect in the Timeline and press Cmd + Shift + H

• In the Effects control panel, click on the “Distortion Mesh” stop watch – this will determined the starting point of our distortion (0;00;01;15)
•  Increase the number of rows and columns (i.e: 31 and 31). These rows and columns represent the number of control points for the distortion.

• Go forward 1 frame (Cmd + right arrow)
• Click and drag on part of the grid that’s on top/around the ball to distort it

• Go forward 1 frame and repeat. Repeat, increasing the level of distortion until the layer ends (0;00;03;12). Avoid distorting the bottom of the ball too much so that it stays connected to the ground.

Creating an explosion effect

Next, we want to give the sense that the ball exploded – using both particles and smoke.

Let’s start with the particles:

• Create a new Solid Layer (Cmd + Y)
  • Name it “explosion”
  • Set its color to Black
  • Click on the “Make Comp Size” button so that the width and height match that of the other layers

• In the Effects search panel, find the “CC Particle World” effect
• Make sure the “explosion” layer is selected. Drag & drop the “CC Particle World” effect on the Composition.
• Place your Time Indicator to a point where you can see the ball (i.e: 0;00;01;05)
• Move the Producer (the point at the center of the particles) to the center of the ball

• Shift the beginning of the “explosion” layer to the end of the “drop” layer (0;00;03;13)

• Let’s now change some of the Settings of the CC Particle World in the Effects control panel:
  • Under the “Particle”:
    • Set the “Particle Type” to “Try Polygon”
    • Set the “Birth Size” to 0.1
    • Set the “Death Size” to 0.15
    • Set the “Size Variation” to 75%
    • Set the “Max Opacity” to 100%
    • Set the “Birth Color” to #9EDBBA (same color as ball)
    • Set the “Death Color” to #7FB095 (slightly darker shade of green)
  • Under the “Physics”:
    • Set the “Animation” to “Explosive”
    • Set the “Velocity” to 0.3 (to have the particles move outward upon being created)
    • Set the “Gravity” to 0
  • At the very top:
    • Set the “Birth Rate” to 2.0
    • Set the “Longevity” to 0.5

Now we’ll add some smoke:

• Create a new Solid Layer (Cmd + Y)
  • Name it “smoke”
  • Set its color to a light grey (i.e: #BDBDBD)
  • Click on the “Make Comp Size” button so that the width and height match that of the other layers
• In the Effects search panel, find the “Fractal Noise” effect
• Make sure the “smoke” layer is selected. Drag & drop the “Fractal Noise” effect on the Composition.
• Shift the beginning of the “smoke” layer so that it matches the start of the “explosion” layer (0;00;03;13)
• Place your Time Indicator to the beginning of the layer (0;00;03;13)
• In the Effects control panel, click on the “Evolution” stopwatch
• Go to the last frame of the layer and change the value of the “Evolution” setting (i.e: 1x + 90degrees). If you preview your animation, you will notice that the fractal noise pattern shifts overtime, creating a smoke like effect.

The smoke should be constrained to the area around the ball. Let’s mask the rest of the layer:

• Temporarily drag the smoke layer under the “straight” layer
• Reveal the “straight” layer and move the Time Indicator to an area where the character in its straight facing position is is visible (i.e: 0;00;03;15)
• Make sure the “smoke” layer is selected
• Select the Ellipse tool and draw a circle around the character
• Toggle  the layer’s “Masks” and “Mask 1” tabs and increase the value of  “Mask Feather” (i.e: 100 pixels)

We want the smoke to quickly expand at the start of the explosion:

• Set your Time Indicator at the start of the “smoke” layer (0;00;03;13)
• Click on the “Mask Expansion” stopwatch and change its value to -150pixels
• Set your Time Indicator a few frames forward (i.e: 0;00;03;15) and change the Mask Expansion value back to 0

We also want the smoke to fade out after a few frames:

• Set the Time Indicator to when you’d like the smoke to start fading out (i.e: 0;00;03;20)
• Click on the “Mask Opacity” stopwatch and make sure the value is set to 100%
• Set your Time Indicator to where you’d like the smoke to have completely faded away (i.e: 0;00;04;10) and change the “Mask Opacity” value to 0%

Finally, we’ll re-order our layers and shorten the “explosion” layer:

• Move the “smoke” layer above the “straight” layer and under the “explosion” layer
• Shorten the Timeline of the “explosion” layer so that it ends before the “smoke” layer:
  • Set your Time Indicator to where you’d like the layer to end (i.e: 0;00;04;00)
  • Go to Edit > Split Layer (or Shift + Cmd + D)
  • Delete the version of the layer that starts after the Time Indicator

If we reveal all our layers and preview our animation it should play smoothly with the added effects.

Multiplying the character

Now that we have one nice character sequence, let’s multiply it: we’ll have a whole bunch of characters dropping, exploding and walking once the first one is off the screen.

First, we’ll need to gather all our layers (except the “ground” layer) into a single Pre-Comp:

• Select all the layers except for “ground”, right-click and select Pre-Compose…
  • Name the new Pre-Comp (i.e: “characterSequence”)
  • “Move all attributes into the new composition” should be checked. Everything else should be unchecked.

• You will notice that a new Composition has now been added to the Project Panel and that all the layers we Pre-Composed are now in a single layer in the Timeline (the individual layers can still be accessed edited by opening the newly created “characterSequence” composition)

Let’s now add a second character:

• Drag and drop the “characterSequence” Composition from the Project Panel to the Timeline. Rename it by clicking on its name and pressing Enter (i.e: “character2”)
• Shift the beginning of the “character2” layer to a few frames after the first character has moved passed then 1920px guide (which will eventually mean off the frame) (i.e: 0;00;08;15)

At this point, we should increase the length of the Composition so that we have more time to add characters to the scene:

• Go to Composition > Composition Setting (or Cmd + K)
  • Change the “Duration” to 0:00:30:00

We’ll also need to loop the “ground” layer so that it can be extended to the end of the Composition:

• Toggle the “swfs” folder in the Project Panel, right-click on the “ground.swf” file and select Interpret Footage > Main…
  • At the bottom of the window, changed the “Loop” value from 1 to 10
• You should now be able to click and drag the end of the “ground” layer’s Timeline to the end of the Composition

Let’s add a third character just a few frames after the second one:

• Drag and drop the “characterSequence” Composition from the Project Panel to the Timeline. Rename it (i.e: “character3”)
• Shift the beginning of the “character3” layer to a few frames after “character2” layer starts  (i.e: 0;00;10;00)
• Make sure the “character 3” layer is active. Use your left/right arrows to move the entire “character3” layer to the left or right of the first one.

Repeat to add as many characters as you’d like.

Changing the color of each character

In order to make the extra characters more interesting, we’ll give each one a new color:

• Set your Time Indicator to a point at wish you can see the second character in its entirety (i.e: 0;00;13;00)
• In the Effects search panel, find the “ChangeColor” effect
• Make sure the “character2” layer is active and drag and drop the “Change Color” effect on the Composition
• In the Effects Controls panel:
  • Click on the eyedropper tool to the right of the “Color To Change” option and sample the body color of the character
  • Click and drag-left or drag-right on the value of the “Hue Transform” option until you are happy with the character’s new color
  • To avoid any of the original color peeking through at the edges, increase the “Matching Tolerance” value to 100% (this will also change the color of the nose which works well in our case)

• Lock the layer to avoid adding future effects to it
• Repeat for each character

Cropping the Composition to HD format

Now that all our elements are in place, we’ll crop our composition to HD format:

• Go to Composition > Composition Settings… (or Cmd + K)
  • Change the Width to 1920px and the Height to 1080px
  • You could also shorten the Composition if 30 seconds ended up being more than you needed
  • Toggle the Advancedmenu
    • Click on the top left arrow so that the crop happens from that corner rather than the center of the Composition