I’m excited to be working on a project that’s stretching my skill set. I was asked to create a product video to promote the COPM’s new web-based app. Working in After Effects was completely new but the interface was familiar having spent so much time in Adobe’s Creative Suite of products over the years.
I started out by creating a simple test project to get comfortable with motion design. I wanted a simple logo bumper to use at the end of the video so I dove in with some ‘write-on’ effects.
My first attempt provided an understanding of After Effect’s “trim paths” feature. This led to some simple masking and getting comfortable with velocity curves. It was okay, but it needed to be tightened up.
For my second go, I changed the trim paths setting to simultaneously instead of individually. To me, this made all the difference. A few tweaks to get the timing just right and I was very happy with the end result.
These short test animations represent many (many!) hours of work but as I get more comfortable with After Effects, I hope my efficiency improves!