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Tziporah Zions/2 min read

Animated Images Part 1

After Effects Essentials

Compositions

Time + space container — your scene at a specific resolution and length.

Layers

Stack them — text, footage, shapes, solids, lights, cameras.

Keyframes

Define values at specific times — AE interpolates between.

Effects

Hundreds built in — stylization, distortion, color, generation.

Master After Effects at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate teaches After Effects alongside Premiere Pro and Cinema 4D.

Learn the essentials of animating still images with this tutorial from Noble Desktop, covering techniques like cutting out and filling in missing parts of the image before importing into After Effects.

One of the most common techniques in the motion design industry, animating still images is a crucial skill for any aspiring designer. Learn the ins and outs of this technique with this tutorial from Noble Desktop!

Image sourced from Pixabay.com

Setting up the File

  1. Unlock Background layer by double-clicking on it.
  2. Duplicate Background layer.
  3. Use the Magic Wand tool to select the entire background except for the balloons.
  4. Inverse the selection.
  5. Cut and paste the balloons onto a different layer.
  6. Use the Lasso Tool to select each balloon.
  7. Cut and paste each balloon onto their own layers.
  8. Rename each balloon layer to keep them organized

Filling in the Gaps

  1. 1Hide all the balloon layers
  2. Select the duplicate Background layer
  3. Select the biggest cut-out balloon shape
  4. Go to Edit > Content-Aware Fill.
  5. Hit OK.
  6. Do the same for the other balloons.
  7. On any odd blurry spots, select the Spot Healing Brush.
  8. Paint over the odd spots with the Spot Healing Brush.
  9. Activate the Patch tool, underneath the Spot Healing Brush.
  10. Select the remaining odd areas.
  11. Slide the Patch tool around until the select area looks good.

Importing into After Effects

  1. Save the file.
  2. Open AE
  3. Import the PSD
  4. Double click the file to go inside of it

This project is continued in our Animated Images PT 2 tutorial.

Video Transcript17 sections

1Full Video Transcript

2Project Overview and Goals

Hey guys, this is Tora Zes for Noble Desktop, and in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to create animated images in Adobe After Effects. We're going to be first going into Photoshop and editing this image here. We're going to separate the hot air balloons from the sky and edit the sky so there's no weird cutout gaps where the balloons were.

After that, we're going to import the picture into After Effects, animate the balloons going up and down, and then we're going to put this logo animation into the image as well. We're going to place it kind of peeking right out from this balloon so we can read it but it's sort of hidden too. As you can see, this is what it looks like when we're all completed with this project.

The reason why this is very useful to learn is because it's used virtually everywhere. This technique, the principles of prepping a still image for animation, is essential. You'll see that skill also being used in a lot of projects, and then animating someone's photograph with their logo is also very common. Lastly, let's talk external assets. By the nature of this project, we're going to be using this hot air balloon image right here. There's also an After Effects file set up that I want to share below since we're going to be using a particular text and composition size.