After Effects 1: Exploring Geometry

The first After Effects workshop of year two was all about learning of the different features After Effects has to offer. Looking into different effects and functions you can add to shapes. We did this by creating eight one second long compositions, each containing a different effect, then editing them together in a final composition with a two second end screen added.

One of the things we looked at was how to add a “wiggle” to a shape, we were shown multiple different ways to add this effect. The first way was to start by adding a position command in which the shape didn’t change positions between the start and the end. Then you selected the wiggle function and chose the magnitude and frequency you wanted it to wiggle at. The second method was done by using After Effects coding, the wiggle was created with the following code: wiggle(x,y) where x is the frequency per second and y is the magnitude of the wiggle. The final way was adding a wiggle effect to a shape layer created in After Effects. This was done by adding a wiggle path to the shape and then altering the magnitude and number of wiggles per second.

We also looked at the Venetian blind effect, found under the Effects header in the menu bar. This is a good transition effect from one solid colour/background to another. You can alter the colour, speed, width and angle of this effect.

We also looked at how to move a shape, beyond the simple position function. This way you can make the shape morph/change from the start to the end of the function, when positioning the end point for the shape you move each individual point on the shape, rather than the shape as a whole.

Below is my completed animation from the first workshop.


Geometry_Creations from Eve Whelan on Vimeo.