Design Publication: Skillshare Classes

Since I am creating an animation, I wanted to learn more about After Effects and what it can do, so that I can fully produce my storyboard. Although I have done a few animations prior to this, they have mainly been just to show how a website works rather than using illustration. I really want to learn how to use shapes to their full potential the programme so I can be more confident and creative with it.

Enrolled Classses
I started a 14 day free trial which gives me enough time to watch them and create the publication. I took a mixture of animation and illustration classes. The Jake Bartlett animation classes have been a great help and I have really improved on my skills throughout this project.

The Ultimate Guide to Shape Layers in After Effects
This has been the most valuable class that I have taken, it is incredible!! The teacher is so thorough, and goes through every aspect of shape layers and why each thing does what it does. I would not have been able to do my animation without this. It's been such a great help. It has also been great for learning shortcuts.

Animating with Ease

This class has been most helpful in the sense of making my transitions smoother. I have learnt how to use the graph editor and easy ease effects and understand how they work which has made my animation look a lot slicker.

How to Create the Paper Cut Out Effect in After Effects
This was the first tutorial I watched as I thought I wanted to do a paper cut effect at first. Below are the notes that I took from it

Notes:

Getting Started

Will it be hand drawn or professional looking?

Doesn’t matter about the colours as they will change once textures are applied

Need to think in terms of layers, as we will separate them in After Effects with shadows

So foreground, middle and background. Every level of depth needs to be in its own layer which should also be named

Art board needs to be larger than design - no overlapping 

Import artwork, import kind: composition, as it will bring it in as layers rather than flat document
a
Duplicate comp, and rename to artwork texture. Next import images, go to construction paper pack and import half res textures. Pre comp them all so that 

Applying Textures
Using track mattes to add the textures. Using alpha matte clouds applies the texture to the layer directly above it.

Adjust the Colours
Type in hue on effects and presets and drag it on to construction image I want to change, and alter the settings until desired colour

Precomposing Layers
As there are two layers for each thing, we need to make them a pre comp to reduce the amount and make them easier to manage