Tilcheff - AfterEffects Tutorial 1 - Cut Out Style Animation

A short tutorial on linking objects and creating CUT-OUT STYLE ANIMATIONS in AfterEffects Requirements: Sufficient knowledge of PhotoShop and AfterEffects, understanding the principles of animation and different animation techniques. Timing. 1. Preparing your cut-out character file in Photoshop. Create a PSD file that contains ALL the body parts and all the different expressions you will need for your animation. Name the layers neatly and with sensible names. Arrange them in the right order from bottom to top. Delete the background layer if you have such - you don't need it.

2. Import the file in AfterEffects Start AfterEffects. Go FILE>IMPORT>FILE… Point to the PSD and be sure to import it AS A COMPOSITION In the project window double-click the composition icon and the new composition is opened. Its resolution is the resolution of the PSD file and the layers are arranged and named the way they were saved in PhotoShop. You can now (or later) change the dimensions of the stage, if you like. 3. Create a hierarchy and adjust the pivot points Common sense and experience should lead you to the decision which of the object should be the PARENT to which all the others are linked. In our sample file it will be the body. All the others will be "children" of the body, but some of them will be also "children" of other children - I will call them grandchildren then. :) The principle of parent/ child interactions is that all the transformations (scaling, rotation, position) you apply to the parent affect the children, grand children, etc, but you can transform them independently from the parents and this rule works in only one direction - from the older to the younger generations. Using the chain tool, link the layers in a hierarchy, according to the rule above. Like that:

Now we have to adjust the pivot points, so that the rotations be predictable. Generally pivots have to be positioned in the joints or in the center of balance. To move the pivot points, use the proper tool: Slide the center points to their proper positions like that:

4. Time to animate Select ALL the layers, go to the last frame of the timeline and press ctrl+] Rotate, reposition, scale, using AfterEffects' tools or the numerical values for the layers and you will see how everything behaves quite predictably. Here is the timeline for a simple walking animation cycle:

And this is the animation:
Below is one more which I did while working at Konami

More in the next tutorial… back to tilcheff.110mb.com \| tutorial 2 - masking techniques