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Creating Sleek UI Animations in Adobe After Effects CC 2019


Today we're going to be creating


this right here alright so as you can


see it's pretty cool-looking and um


we're going to be stepping into Adobe


After Effects we're gonna be working


solely there we're going to create this


user interface from scratch and then


apply these animations to it so there


could be different use cases for this


for instance you could be creating a


promotional video for a web service that


has a user interface or you could be


creating portfolio there's a lot of


different reasons why you would do this


and its really fun so I'm going to


assume you have little to no experience


in After Effects and I'm not going to be


speeding through the video everything's


gonna be real-time and you're gonna see


every single step and I think you at the


end if you follow along and then I


definitely watch till the end of the


video you're gonna have a new skill and


you're gonna want to keep doing this


because it's really fun alright so I'm


gonna switch over to that desktop oh but


real quick before we begin make sure you


check out my site course cetera comm


where you're gonna find a bunch of


courses on modern design and development


a lot are free and others you can access


for the cost of buying me like a six


pack each month that's it now also it


probably wouldn't hurt to subscribe here


on and be sure to make sure the


notifications are turned on alright


let's get back to it and I have Adobe


After Effects CC with which just


released recently and along with a bunch


of others in terms of CC updating to


we want to click on new composition


and so what happens here is there's a


few things I'm just going to call this


UI we want to make sure that the width


is and the height is and then


also framerate frames per second


that's what we want because if you have


it at like a film framerate like at


or so then it's not as smooth looking


and you want that smoothness


alright so there and then for


duration


we'll just it's not gonna be seconds


long so we're just gonna give ourselves


a little room to work with there and


just make it seconds here okay


background-color doesn't really matter


at this point we're gonna hit okay all


right so the first thing I want to


mention now if you have never touched


After Effects let me just give an


extremely simple rundown because I'm not


going to go over the entire interface it


would take too long


basically over here is where your assets


are stored like your graphics and all


that if you wanted to import them down


here is the timeline and right here is


where you know your actual composition


is so we're gonna be working chips


basically in those three areas over here


are settings on there's like your your


type settings paragraph settings


alignment settings that's the only area


that we're gonna be working in in terms


of this this tool or area over here and


then we have the tool bar up top and


we'll be working with that a little bit


as well okay so the first thing I want


to get right here this simply means


we're working on a transparent


background so let's create a new layer


or a solid rather and we're going to


make it


sorry everything's showing up off the


other screen I was working on the other


monitor we're gonna make it a very light


gray so it's like right here it's F F


F and hit OK okay so I'm gonna need


to click right here I'm just going to


put fit up to a hundred percent and that


will fit it on my screen and so now we


want to not by the way this point is


where you have two decisions


you can either I create the user


interface in a different application


like sketch or Photoshop or illustrator


or Adobe experience design and then you


can export each asset individually as


you know a higher resolution PNG file


for instance and then you can import it


here into After Effects and then just


repeat the layout or your other option


which is what we're going to do we're


going to create the the user interface


from scratch here in Adobe After Effects


and if you can do that and you can get


away with doing that and that's what you


want to do so coming back here I didn't


through your first thing we're going to


do is create the actual user interface


containing element order they get the


container and so to do that we're going


to click right here I'm going to left


click and hold and choose rounded


tool alright so by the way you want to


make sure this is not selected on this


background in fact let's lock it so we


cannot select that back around here and


so now notice the fill we're working at


a hundred percent white fill hit OK with


no stroke so when you click on that


stroke make sure it's on none all right


so I'm gonna left click and drag an area


right around this size right there now


to align it we can click on a line


choose this middle and this middle over


here for vertical and horizontal


alignment alright so that's what yours


should look like at this point ok so now


let's begin to actually create the user


interface elements and there's gonna be


a portion that says users right here


with two icons so let's focus on that


right now and temporarily I'm going to


lock this as well so I'm gonna take the


type tool I'm gonna left click and we're


just going to put with caps lock users


now I'm gonna make it a little bit large


you're gonna hold shift and just drag


that up now sometimes when you let go


it's gonna warn you that the Clapp caps


lock is turned on you can just turn that


off to get rid of that black screen it


showed up and over here under character


I'm using a font Railway everybody gives


me grape about always using railway well


there's a reason it's it's a ecommerce websites development bhubaneswar


nice-looking font I already have it


installed and I'm assuming you guys


already also have it installed and that


way I don't have to keep on introducing


new fonts alright so users here that's


loops we don't want to scale that down


it's gonna give ourselves some padding


to work with we're also gonna make it


bold that looks pretty good right there


alright so next we're going to import a


couple of icon finder dot-com fonts are


not font icons rather so let me find


that real quickly here darn I don't have


it up already


um let's get a new window let me just


show you real quick of course every


every brow every window is showing up


off okay


icon finder icon here if I just type in


user


and I type in free and look no link back


we can get absolutely hundred percent


free to use icons here the ones I I'm


going to be using are like right here


like this plus right here so if you


click on it then you want to download


the SV or the PNG format right here and


I'm also downloading the the minus


version like to add a user or remove a


user or whatever like that so drag this


to your desktop somewhere and we're


gonna import those just by left clicking


on them from your desktop you can't see


this portion by the way and just drag


them right here and momentarily he'll


show up okay so I'm just gonna click on


one and just drag it over here alright


way too large obviously so I'm just


gonna scale it down holding shift right


there that seems like a pretty good size



alright that looks good now coming over


here selecting it down here I'm going to


hit T which is the shortcut to show the


opacity I don't know I don't know why


they make that oh but whatever it's T


now I'm not gonna create a key for I'm


just gonna set the default opacity to


around % so you just click there hit


and you're good to go so now it's a


little bit lighter there I didn't want


it to be to have a ton of contrast


essentially so let's get a position


right around there select it we're gonna


hit ctrl D and that will duplicate it


with that duplicated selection right


here we're going to select the other one


which ends in right here left click


hold it drag it while holding alt on top


and then that will copy it except it's


going to give us a different version


sort oh it's going to give us a new


asset in place of it well we're


maintaining all the adjustments that we


made with the opacity here so now you


can see those two right here one is plus


and one is an X all right so next let's


continue on by creating these little


areas where we have just three different


users here we'll go ahead and take just


the regular rectangular tool not the


rounded and I'm gonna left click right


on the edge here and make it around this


large


and for the fill we're gonna make a


light blue I'm gonna use een ein f f F


for the color code if you want to follow


along there and if you're not matched up


evenly you can always hold alt in your


scroll wheel pull that over same thing


over here we don't want it to extend


beyond either all right there we go okay


so now let's go ahead and put ooh it's


looking like that was oh that's right


every time you scale it and you drag


that it also affects the other side too


so just a warning that looks good to me


though let's go ahead and I'm gonna just


take this pick control D drag it over


here and drag this to the very top and


this is going to be a name like Gary


Simon this is going to be regular and


it's going to be a lighter blue color


around I'm gonna make it a little


bit smaller so it's at right now I'm


going to make it like now I'm not


going to use an avatar but this is in


place of an avatar so I'm gonna use the


ellipse tool I'm going to left-click


drag hold shift all in control so it'll


size it from the center of our selection


and we want it to be white and make it a


little bit larger


right here and also we'll give it a


stroke and where is that stroke color at


oh you have to click here we'll give it


a stroke I like that make it like three


pixels alright so in terms of design you


know you want to make sure your elements


are all aligned up correctly and not


looking terrible etc make this a little


bit bigger next we'll take this


duplicate it ctrl D move it over here


move this back up and I'm going to put


over here just like a location like a


city Warren let's go over here to


paragraph and we'll right align these


and this is going to be scaled down


quite a bit so we'll try and we'll


make it


just regular all right that looks good


so now that is it for the actual list


item design now we're going to replicate


it a couple times so now we'll take all


those and you want to make sure you


don't have anything else selected by the


way and it's just these right here


so with all for those selected we're


gonna hit ctrl D and then move them up


to the very top like that so they're


situated is gonna make our life a little


bit easier a little bit and then just


hold shift and move them down and then


do that one more time so control D move


them up move it down okay right there


looks pretty good alright so now I'm


going to unlock this containing element


and just scale it down just a tad bit


and then move it up


okay good all right great making


progress so far so good so now at this


point now that we have the interface


actually designed this is the end state


that's all we need to design now we need


to start grouping it up appropriately so


that we can animate it easily and this


is key because you don't want to sit


here animating every single layer you


want to group these things up


intelligently and so watch what happens


it basically now we have if you're


familiar with the a photoshop or


illustrator you can create groups a


pre-comp is basically like a group so


once we have that we're going to double


click it and this is where we're going


to spend our time actually animating


inside of this UI pre-comp I probably


should have named it something different


to rename it we can enter and we'll just


put in UI animation that way it's named


something differently so now let's go


ahead and we're going to take all of our


layers with exception to this container


so just all peer and we're going to move


them off to the side like this so now we


just have our container here and what we


want to do is to start out with the


animation we're gonna scale it from to


% so coming down we're gonna hit s


for scale and we're gonna move off just


maybe right around a just under


seconds basically I'm gonna hit a


keyframe right here at a hundred percent


then at the beginning we're gonna change


it to zero all right so now if we come


here to our main composition and we hit


the zero on our number pad we'll see


what that looks like now we can change a


couple things we can change how the


keyframes in terms of the velocity we


have easy easy easy in and easy ease out


so I'm going to put ease in you see it


changes the icons just


briefly down there now mind you when I


you're watching this on my screen I'm


recording at frames per second so it


may not appear as smooth as it should


I'm gonna drag this in to make that a


little bit faster so next after that


we're going to take these three layers


right here and we're going to show them


and we're going to animate them slightly


different so right here we'll say we'll


put a keyframe for opacity and position


so to do that we hit T for opacity why


all three are selected and then hold


shift in P for position so now we have


access to those two properties through


all three layers so we're gonna put a


keyframe for each one of those we're


gonna move back here near the beginning


and we're going to drag it down while


holding shift right around there and


then also changing the opacity to zero


now I'm gonna take all those right click


keyframe and easy ease in now if we go


back and hit zero on a number pad there


we go


very cool alright so continue on on


after that we have all these layers


we're not going to sit there and animate


each one of those we're gonna make


ourselves our lives rather a little bit


easier so we're gonna take these four


which there's four layers that comprise


those you know those the list over here


and we're going to pre compose those a


layer pre compose which is control shift


C for a future reference let's call this


user one and oh by the way I'm going to


backup ctrl Z to undo that we're gonna


take all these and just move them to the


very beginning because if you don't then


there's going to be a space in your pre


comp so let's do that again real quickly


take these for control shift and see


user do it again up here


control shift ste user


and control sis I can't even talk user


alright awesome so now we have all these


three and we're gonna take this one put


it right around here alright this is


where it shows up so if you want to view


a little bit more the time frame you can


now or the timeline here all in your


scroll wheel and you'll be able to see a


little bit finer details all right so


this will also do basically what the


users and this top portion is doing in


terms of animation so we're going to


once again come out here we'll make this


a little bit longer animation we're


gonna hit T shift P and then we'll put a


keyframe there for both of those and


then also we'll put let's see here


one right here and there we go we'll go


ahead and drag it down holding shift


right around there and then also make


the opacity zero select all of the


keyframes


Easy's in alright so we're just going to


copy that drag this one over here paste


it right there so control V I just


pasted so if you hit you you'll see all


the available keyframes animations and


we'll do the same thing with this one so


we'll bring it over here paste it and


there we go so now we hit zero awesome


very smooth let me show you one of the


thing that's really cool about free


composing your layers so right here in


our main user interface composition we


can turn on this little icon right here


and that means it's going to be a d


layer so if we draw this down and go to


transform we can see we have X rotation


Y rotation Z rotation and orientation if


I change this middle one here


look at that we can create a sort of d


perspective and so now if I hit zero now


is it loads a little slow initially but


this is real time right here very cool


all right awesome so let's continue on


let's simulate what it looks like to


click on one of these so we'll say the


middle one all right so after a certain


point about a second or so or maybe


about a two seconds


we'll turn it blue so let's go ahead and


double click that and so now we're in


this user pre-comp right here so right


around here I'm gonna take this layer


hit ctrl D and hit alt and the left


bracket and then I'll basically take


that current time of that frame and put


it right to where you're at in the time


line and we're gonna change the color to


blue all right next we're gonna do the


same thing with the two type layers so


right here right here and right here


right control D and then alt and then


left bracket and these are gonna be


white very easy awesome


what I also want to do instead of just


abruptly making it blue we can reply its


light


fade-in animation so we'll hit T opacity


will be zero initially and then %


okay so now let's go ahead and try that


out awesome


so let's drag it in just a little bit


these three there we go


oops yeah you do want to save this for


sure okay so now we go back hit zero


there we go perfect now what if we


wanted to move it up and then hide the


other ones


alright well let's go back to UI


animation and right here we'll start


moving this up so we're gonna put a


position keyframe right there and then


move it up maybe just right around here


sometimes you can get a eyeball these


things in just experiment and then we'll


move the position up by holding shift


right there alright great so then the


other ones right here and here let's go


ahead and hit U for both of those and at


the same time this is moving up we'll


move these down and fade them out


so we'll put keyframes let's see right


here and here and then we'll make these


fade out faster maybe we'll move them


down and change the opacity to zero


let's go ahead and take all four of


those and keyframe assistant easy ease


in alright save it hit zero awesome


all right so one final thing when you


get to this point we'll go to our user -


we'll go ahead and copy this so


duplicate it ctrl D and just after it


changes to blue we'll drop down a


secondary panel all right so let's hit


you on here and clear out any keyframes


we'll delete those we're going to also


position this underneath and I'm gonna


use my down key for the arrow just to


move it down also make sure the opacity


is at % and we're gonna change the


color to a darker blue right around


there it's one C four eight five nine


now let's move this down make it a


little bit taller let's see what it


looks like in the UI animation panel in


relation to the height of the parent


panel make it a little bit taller


alright that's good and then go back


here we're going to grow this so right




around here we'll put in a let's see


we'll do a size so we hit or a scale


rather hit s and we'll also do P so


shift P for position make two key frames


there and then down here will scale it


vertically and then we'll also move it


up behind so it'll just drop right down


all right so let's put some keyframe


velocity there we're also going to add


some type here so left-click and drag


out to create a type area and we'll


left-aligned it in paragraph and for now


I'm just gonna put some lorem ipsum text


here so I'm going to lip simcom I'm


gonna copy all of this close that out


and paste it in we'll make some


adjustments to the type and character


panel right there seems to be pretty


good and the line height seems to be


decent there let's also change to color


we'll get this background color and make


it lighter right around there that's c


BB d and this one we're gonna alt left


bracket will just fade it in so at t


opacity initially would be zero so put a


keyframe there and then %


save it alright guys we're getting real


close let's try this out it's loading


slow needs to preload first awesome


alright so let's take the end of this


timeline just drag it right around here


at zero awesome okay so now let's also


rotate this thing this is gonna be like


the final step by the way thank you for


watching so far so now let's go ahead


and we will start to rotate it right


here I think so we'll put in a keyframe


for orientation and then once it gets to


the very end right here in the middle


it's kind of hard to see we're gonna


make it face this way alright I'm just


gonna let it preloads loading extra slow


because it still needs to get this into


memory here and render it alright so


here it is awesome that is sleek and


this went very well I'm glad I didn't


make any major screw-ups so obviously


you can do a lot more with this we kind


of just ran through it and so now the


sky's the limit because you learned a


ton just in this tutorial so make sure


you check out my site course tetra comm


you have a lot of different stuff this


is a full stack developer channel so


today we're focusing on you know more


the design animation side of things and


you know who knows maybe tomorrow I


don't even know what I'm doing tomorrow


it'll be it more on the coder side if


you haven't subscribed here and make


sure that the notifications are turned


on so you get notified every time I


upload a new video all right I'll talk


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