When you animate spatial properties—including Position, Anchor Point, and effect control point properties—the motion is shown as a motion path. A motion path appears as a sequence of dots, where each dot marks the position of the layer at each frame. A box in the path marks the position of a keyframe.
Motion paths are simply an alternative visual, spatial way of viewing and working with spatial properties and their keyframes, in addition to the ways that you work with properties in the Timeline panel. You can modify a motion path by changing an existing keyframe or adding a keyframe. You can modify the shape of a motion path by changing the spatial interpolation methods for its keyframes. (See About spatial and temporal keyframe interpolation.)
The density of dots between the boxes in a motion path indicates the relative speed of the layer or effect control point. Dots close together indicate a lower speed; dots farther apart indicate a greater speed.
Right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) a keyframe to open its context menu.
Using the Pen tool or Selection tool to edit keyframes for a spatial property in the Composition or Layer panel is like modifying a Bezier path for a mask or for a shape on a shape layer. (See About paths.)
A motion path is less complex and generally easier to modify when you use fewer keyframes to describe the path. You can use the Smoother to remove extraneous keyframes from a motion path.
Position motion paths appear in the Composition panel. Anchor Point and effect control point motion paths appear in the Layer panel.
If you cannot see the keyframe that you want to modify in the Composition panel or Layer panel, move the current-time indicator to the keyframe.
In the Composition panel or Layer panel, use the Selection tool for dragging a keyframe or its handles.
The current-time indicator doesn't need to be on a keyframe before you drag it.
You can move multiple keyframes at one time by selecting them in the Timeline panel before you drag them in the Composition panel or Layer panel. To move the entire motion path, select all keyframes by clicking the property name in the Timeline panel before dragging a keyframe in the Composition panel.
A new keyframe appears at the frame you clicked, on the motion path and in the Timeline panel. To move the keyframe, use the Selection tool.
Though the results are different, the techniques for manipulating motion-path curves with the Pen tool work in much the same way as the techniques used to create and modify other Bezier paths, such as mask and shape paths.
You can draw a path for the motion of a selected layer using Motion Sketch, which records the position of the layer and the speed at which you draw. As you draw, a Position keyframe is generated at each frame.
Motion Sketch does not affect keyframes that you have set for other properties. For example, if you set Rotation keyframes for an image of a ball, you can use Motion Sketch to generate Position keyframes, so that the ball appears to roll along the path you created.
John Dickinson provides a demonstration of Motion Sketch in a video tutorial on his Motionworks website.
Show Wireframe
Displays a wireframe view of the layer as you sketch the motion path.
Show Background
Displays the static contents of the frame at which you started sketching in the Composition panel while you sketch. This option is useful if you want to sketch motion relative to other images in your composition.
Smoothing
Eliminates unnecessary keyframes from the motion path. This setting has the same result as using the Tolerance setting with the Smoother. Higher values produce smoother curves, but too high a value may not preserve the shape of the curve that you draw.
You can smooth a motion path after it has been created by using the smooth expression or the Smoother.
Capture Speed At
The ratio of the speed of the recorded motion to the speed of playback. If Capture Speed At is 100%, the motion is played back at the speed at which it was recorded. If Capture Speed At is greater than 100%, the motion plays back slower than it was recorded.
Click Start Capture and then drag in the Composition panel to create the motion path. Stop capturing by releasing the mouse button.
After Effects automatically ends capturing when the capture time reaches the end of the work area (which, by default, is the composition duration).
You can create a motion path from any of several types of paths:
A Mask Path property
A shape Path property on a shape layer
A Path property for a paint stroke
A path copied from Illustrator or Photoshop
You can paste any of these paths into the Position or Anchor Point property for a layer, or into the position property of an effect control point. The pasted keyframes are set to rove in time, except for the first and last ones, to create a constant velocity along the path.
By default, the duration of the pasted motion path is 2 seconds. You can adjust the duration by dragging the first or last keyframe in the Timeline panel.
Select a Path property in the Timeline panel, and choose Edit > Copy.
Select a path in Illustrator or Photoshop, and choose Edit > Copy.
Andrew Devis shows how to use paths from Illustrator as motion paths in After Effects in this video on the Creative COW website.
When you view one frame of motion-picture film or video containing a moving object, the image is often blurred, because a frame represents a sample of time (in film, a frame is 1/24 of a second long). In that time, a moving object occupies more than one position as it travels across the frame, so it doesn’t appear as a sharp, still object. The faster the object moves, the more it is blurred. The camera shutter angle and shutter phase also affect the appearance of the blur, determining how long the shutter stays open and when the shutter opens relative to the beginning of the frame.
In contrast, in a single frame of a computer-generated animation, you may not be able to tell which objects are moving because all moving objects may appear as sharp and clear as nonmoving objects. Without motion blur, layer animation produces a strobe-like effect of distinct steps instead of an appearance of continuous change. Adding motion blur to layers that you animate in After Effects makes motion appear smoother and more natural.
You enable motion blur for each layer individually, and you also determine whether the motion blur is rendered for previews and final output. Use the Enable Motion Blur composition switch at the top of the Timeline panel to enable or disable motion blur rendering for previews. Modify the render settings in the Render Queue panel to enable or disable motion blur rendering for final output. If the Switches Affect Nested Comps preference in the General preferences category is enabled, then nested compositions obey the setting for the compositions in which they’re contained. (See About precomposing and nesting.)
Motion blur slows rendering, so you may want to disable the composition switch while working, and only enable it to see the finished result.
To enable motion blur for a layer, do one of the following:
The number of samples that After Effects uses to calculate motion blur adapts for each layer, depending on the motion of that layer. This adaptivity provides high-quality motion blur without unnecessarily sampling the motion of a slow-moving layer as frequently as the motion of a fast-moving layer. High sampling rates decrease rendering performance.
When motion blur is enabled for a composition and the Timeline panel is zoomed in so that you can see individual frames, a light gray region around the current-time indicator indicates the shutter phase and shutter angle. The width of the column shows the shutter angle, and the offset of the column shows the shutter phase. This visual indication shows how individual frames are sampled to calculate motion blur within this composition.
You can use motion blur when you animate a layer—for example, moving a layer of text across the screen. You cannot add motion blur to motion that exists within a layer by means of the Motion Blur layer switch and Enable Motion Blur composition switch.
If you want to smooth live-action video to which you assigned a frame rate much lower or higher than the original, use frame blending, not motion blur.
To create a fake motion blur, see Apply motion blur.
Samples Per Frame
The minimum number of samples. This minimum is the number of samples used for frames for which After Effects is not able to determine an adaptive sampling rate based on layer motion. This sample rate is used for 3D layers and shape layers.
Adaptive Sample Limit
The maximum number of samples.
Shutter Angle
The shutter angle is measured in degrees, simulating the exposure allowed by a rotating shutter. The shutter angle uses the footage frame rate to determine the simulated exposure, which affects the amount of motion blur. For example, entering 90° (25% of 360°) for 24-fps footage creates an effective exposure of 1/96 of a second (25% of 1/24 of a second). Entering 1° applies almost no motion blur, and entering 720° applies a large amount of blur.
Shutter Phase
The shutter phase is also measured in degrees. It defines an offset that determines when the shutter opens relative to the beginning of a frame. Adjusting this value can help if an object with motion blur applied appears to lag behind the position of the object without motion blur applied.
A Shutter Phase value that is -1/2 of the Shutter Angle value is best for a layer that is composited on top of another using motion tracking data. (For example, Shutter Phase = -90, Shutter Angle = 180.) This setting combination causes a blur that is centered on the original object.
Motion blur creates a blur based on the movement of a mask in the composition. You can apply motion blur to individual masks. Within each composition, the Enable Motion Blur composition switch must be selected for any layer or any mask within a layer to exhibit motion blur.
Same As Layer
The mask has motion blur only if the Motion Blur switch is selected for the layer.
On
The mask will have motion blur regardless of the setting of the Motion Blur switch for the layer.
Off
The mask will not have motion blur.
When you shoot a fast-moving object, there is motion blurring when the object is rendered. Also, if you shoot moving objects with a high shutter speed, the objects appear to jump between frames leading to strobed motion.
The Pixel Motion Blur effect in After Effects CC tracks the movement of pixels between frames. The effect analyzes a clip to determine what parts are in motion, creates a set of motion vectors, and then uses that information to add motion blur within the frame.
If the object moves too fast, increase the value of Shutter Samples to create more in-between frames. Increase the value of Vector Detail to minimize the possibility of errors when pixel groups are analyzed between frames.
Chris and Trish Meyer have provided a video tutorial for Pixel Motion Blur effect in the ProVideo Coalition website.
Todd Kopriva has blogged about this effect in the After Effects official blog.
For more information about other time effects in After Effects, see Time effects.
Mark Christiansen explains some of the concepts surrounding motion blur, shutter speed, and shutter angle on the ProVideo Coalition website.
Andrew Kramer provides a video tutorial on his Video Copilot website in which he demonstrates the advantages of using 32-bpc color with motion blur. (See Color depth and high dynamic range color.)
Smooth motion paths, value curves, and velocity curves to eliminate bumpiness or excess keyframes using the Smoother, which adds keyframes or removes unnecessary keyframes.
You can also use the smooth expression method for this purpose, without removing keyframes. (See Property attributes and methods (expression reference).)
Although you can smooth a curve for any property, the Smoother is most useful when applied to curves automatically generated by Motion Sketch, where you may have excess keyframes. Applying the Smoother to keyframes that have been set manually may result in unexpected changes to the curve.
To avoid the need to use the Smoother on a path generated by Motion Sketch, set the Smoothing option in the Motion Sketch panel before sketching the motion path.
When you apply the Smoother to properties that change spatially (such as Position), you can smooth only the spatial curve (the curve defined by the motion). When you apply the Smoother to properties that change only in time (such as Opacity), you can smooth only the value and velocity curves (the curve defined by the value or the velocity).
In addition to adding keyframes or eliminating unnecessary keyframes, the Smoother also applies Bezier interpolation at each keyframe when smoothing the temporal curve. (See Keyframe interpolation methods.)
Set a value for Tolerance. The units of Tolerance match the units of the property you are smoothing. New keyframe values vary no more than the specified value from the original curve. Higher values produce smoother curves, but too high a value may not preserve the original shape of the curve.
You can add randomness to any property as it varies over time by using the Wiggler.
You can also use the wiggle expression method for this purpose. Usually, it is easier to use the expression than to use the Wiggler. (See Property attributes and methods (expression reference).)
Depending on the property and the options you specify, the Wiggler adds a certain number of deviations to a property by adding keyframes and randomizing interpolations coming into or out of existing keyframes. You need at least two keyframes to use the Wiggler.
Using the Wiggler, you can more closely simulate natural movement within specified limits. For example, add randomness to an animated butterfly to produce fluttering. Simulate the flicker of an old projector by adding it to brightness or opacity.
Smooth Noise
Produces deviations that occur more gradually, without sudden changes.
Jagged Noise
Produces sudden changes.
X, Y, or Z
Adds deviations to only one dimension of the selected property. Choose the dimension from the menu.
All Independently
Independently adds a different set of deviations to each dimension.
All The Same
Adds the same set of deviations to all dimensions.
Set Magnitude to specify the maximum size of the deviations. After Effects sets the specified magnitude to the units of the selected property, so a value for one property may produce different results in another property.
The Convert Audio To Keyframes keyframe assistant analyzes audio amplitude within the work area and creates keyframes for audio amplitude.
This keyframe assistant creates an Audio Amplitude layer representing all audio sources in the composition, with three Expression Controls effects with Slider properties that contain the keyframes: Left Channel, Right Channel, and Both Channels.
To use the keyframes created by this keyframe assistant, link the changes in audio amplitude to other layer properties. For example, use an expression to link the audio keyframes to the Scale property of a layer to make the layer grow and shrink as the amplitude increases and decreases.
Aharon Rabinowitz provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that shows how to link the audio amplitude keyframes to other properties—in this case the properties of the Wave Warp effect, to synchronize animation with sound.
Nathan Gambles provides an expression on the Video Copilot website that ducks (reduces the volume of) audio on one layer when the volume of audio on another layer increases. This technique is useful, for example, for automatically decreasing the volume of a soundtrack when dialog occurs. This expression for the Stereo Mixer effect depends on the Convert Audio To Keyframes keyframe assistant having been applied to the other audio layer.
Lloyd Alvarez provides a script on his After Effects Scripts website that adds markers, splits a layer, or adds a text layer with incrementing numbers based on audio intensity.
Andrew Devis provides a pair of video tutorials on the Creative COW website that show in detail how to use the linear expression method along with the Convert Audio To Keyframes command.
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