Animate Your Graphics with Ease

The software lets you combine moving imagery, text, still images and vector

graphics to create mind-blowing animations. It can use images from multiple

sources such as Photoshop, Illustrator and other such software to compose motion

graphics. The integration between After Effects and Photoshop helps the

professionals a lot as you can bring images with different layer styles from

Photoshop CS3 to After Effects CS3 without flattening them. Hundreds of common

animation presets and 60 other bundled effects from Cycore FX are also available

in After Effects CS3 Professional, so you need not waste time to create those

effects.

After Effects is analogous to video as Photoshop is for still images, and its

flexibility allows artists to alter videos in the way they see fit (similar to

what Photoshop does with images).

Using the Puppet tool you can stretch images to create an animated or motion

character. Let's check how this tool can be used through the following

screenshots that show you the sequence of creating smoke in motion (in yellow

color to increase visibility):

Open After Effects and go to >File >Import and select the image. From the 'Project window', drag the image to 'Timeline'. Image is visible now and a composition file created

Click on >Layer >New >Solid and on the window change the name to 'Particle' and click on 'Make Comp Size'. Selecting any dark color will bring that color layer on the image

Click on the 'Particle' and select >Effect >Simulation >CC Particle World. This will create a solid, invisible particle. Scroll the animation icon and you see 'Particle' appearing on the image

Click on >Layer >New >Solid and on the window change the name to 'Particle' and click on 'Make Comp Size'. Selecting any dark color will bring that color layer on the image

For changing the starting position of the 'Particle,' expand the 'Producer' and change the Position X to 0.50. Change the 'Longevity (sec) to 2.00 for covering the image with 'Particle'

For changing the look of the individual 'Particle', expand the Particle menu and change the Type to 'Faded Sphere.' According to the main image, change the Birth and Depth color

To make 'Particle' move continuously on top of the cab, select it and go to >Layer >Pre Compose. Then select >Layer >New >Solid and apply color. Scale it down to cover the 'Particle'

You have to apply some blurring effect to the Particle. For this, click Fast Blur from >Effect >Blur & Sharpen. Click Particle composition from the main window and select the Puppet tool

When you select the Puppet tool, you can see a mesh being created in a rectangular shape that covers the complete 'particle'. On that mesh, click on a few places to make Puppet points. On Particle composition menu make the solid invisible. Go to the main composition again and set puppet points in the shape of the cab. In Time Control window, click on the animation icon