After Effects - Blending - I"ll Have Some More Layers, Thank You

One of the cool things about After Effects is the endless possibilities with tweeks, effects, layers and perspective and all these possibilities can be overwhelming too.

Fortunately, some that are quite simple pay in spades. There are tools to help you ‘trip the fantastic’, brainstorm to see countless possibilities of an effect you are working with, one is named, you guessed it, ‘brainstorm’ and as you apply this to an effect your are experimenting with, After Effects produces many variations on the tunable parameters available. You can simply walk through the results presented, see if you favor some, check which tuning blend produced it. Like many ‘assistants’ this will help you get the results you seek; it will also serve as a learning tool for for.

Even simpler is the += button which ‘walks’ you through the layer blend settings.

Layers … I mean, if you want to play Hollywood – you simply have to cultivate layers. Your animation is improving, you’re having fun with your effects, you’re using tools to create sequences a bit more sophisticated but without layers ‘its’ just one thing. And if you want your new animated friend to sit down with President Obama, or have her cosmic skateboard place her in the sky with stars and other Nasa objects, you have to develop layers.

Just like Hollywood, if you are pleased with the anonymity of your animated friend, you will still need the emotion and drama available from layer blends and the special effects that add to the backdrop, shadow, a bit of blur, special light where You want it.

I never thought integrating movies I created with Photoshop characters, or images I created within After Effects could be so seamless and much of the credit goes to the many layer options.

Which layer do you use ? I dunno – but if you play with the ‘shift’ += you scroll through all the blending options and immediately see their effect. For me this is a great tool to help design and it’s also a great tool to learn about these layer blend meanings. As you scroll through and see something you like or see how it’s treats you layer – it helps better understand types.

How do you best animate your logo ? Our symbols leverage every aspect to make their statement with only color and shape. Is it bold ? does it explode ? It is quiet and appearing gradually like a feather aimlessly finding it’s way to earth ?

Your logo animation speaks for your service and the message you want to make. Glowing speed will accompany a service that wants to emphasize just that, ‘We’re on the job right away’, while a quieter statement carries the message of a service that conveys careful analysis handling your assignment.

Consider these not so subtle statements as you design your logo and your business animation text. Place the your backdrop design footage on top in your layer stack, then choose ‘overlay’ from the blending mode options letting your text and/or logo shine through. Flirt with the blending options as your consider how they highlight your primary image, your branded image.

Using layers, and the blending modes that allow them to share is the best way to create a backdrop for text and logo animation. Using layers is a great start to have them ‘share the stage’ and a nice introduction to creating your own.