Explore five common mistakes experienced when working with Adobe After Effects and how to troubleshoot them. From disappearing layers and wiggling keyframes to lack of keyframes, shapes and masks mixup, and editing mask and shape anchor tool, this tutorial provides a step-by-step guidance on resolving these issues.
Key Insights
- If an object seems to disappear during a project, it's essential to check the layer stack and look for the Visibility icon, which can be activated to reveal any hidden objects.
- Occasionally, After Effects may add a "wiggle" to some animations due to a software bug. This can be fixed by selecting all keyframes in the animation, right-clicking on any selected keyframe, and navigating to Keyframe Interpolation - Temporal Interpolation - Linear.
- If an animation fails to play, it might be due to a lack of keyframes. An initial keyframe needs to be set as After Effects will only automatically set keyframes if there’s an initial keyframe.
- When the Shape tool draws a Shape instead of a Mask, it's necessary to check the toolbar. Activating "Tool Creates Mask" will create a mask instead, while "Tool Creates Shape" will draw an opaque shape.
- Clicking on an Anchor Point within a Mask or Shape might move the shape rather than edit it. To manipulate the Anchor Points, click on the layer name.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
This is the text tutorial that accompanies our Common Mistakes PT 1 video tutorial on Youtube.
Disappearing Layers
1. During a project, if an object seems to disappear, check the layer stack. 2. Look for the Visibility icon, aka the icon with an eye on it. 3. If the icon is turned off, click on the icon to activate it. 4. This will turn on the Visibility for any hidden objects.
Wiggling Keyframes
1. Occasionally After Effects will add a “wiggle” to some animations due to a bug in the software. In this case, select all keyframes in the animation. 2. Right-click on any selected keyframe. 3. Navigate to Keyframe Interpolation—Temporal Interpolation—Linear. This should fix the wiggling animation.
Lack of Keyframes
1. If an animation fails to play upon hitting Spacebar, check the timeline. 2. If there are no keyframes on the layer it is likely due a missing first keyframe. 3. To fix this, remember to set an initial keyframe. After Effects will only automatically set keyframes if there’s an initial keyframe.
Shapes and Masks Mixup
1. If the Shape tool draws a Shape rather than a Mask, check the toolbar. 2. There should be a pair of icons on the left side of the toolbar, a star and a checkerboard field. The star is “Tool Creates Shape, ” and the checkerboard is “Tool Creates Mask”. 3. Activating “Tool Creates Shape” will draw out an opaque shape. 4. Activating “Tool Creates Mask” will create a mask instead.
Editing Mask and Shape Anchor Tool
1. If clicking on an Anchor Point within a Mask or Shape moves the shape rather than edits, click the layer name. This should allow the Anchor Points to be manipulated.
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Video Transcription
00:00:00:05—00:00:17:00 Unknown Hey guys, this is super designs for nimble desktop. And in this tutorial I'm going to show you common mistakes in After Effects and how to fix them. So like, we're just going to be listing out many common issues designers face in After Effects and quick fixes for them. We have timestamps listed below in the description, so you can like jump around to see what we cover.
00:00:17:15—00:00:35:27 Unknown The project I'm using here is one I made for our social media accounts. You can find us on Instagram and TikTok on desktop. Yeah, this guy is going to be our little guinea pig or Chihuahua for today, as it were. This is part one of a two part series, so we'll link below the second part whenever that one comes out.
00:00:36:23—00:00:55:08 Unknown So number one, you've got disappearing layers. You're playing your animation, you see it moving, but you're like, Where? Where is my stuff? So here down here is your stack and make sure that your visibility comes. A little IBO here is turned on and if some boxes are empty, you want to hit them to turn on whatever effect you've got.
00:00:55:08—00:01:11:15 Unknown Go. There we go. Now we zip in again. So sometimes After Effects, we'll do this weird thing where it'll, like, wiggle your keyframes, even though you didn't put down a keyframe in between. And if that ever happens, because it's a bug, you can't really replicate it over here. But you want to select your keyframes. Right? Click on any keyframe.
00:01:11:15—00:01:35:10 Unknown Go over to Key from interpolation and make sure that temporal interpolation is super linear and then just hit. Okay. And that should resolve the problem. All right. Common mistake number three. So let's see, you've got this graphic over here and you're like, Oh, I want to animate this. And you know that if you're animating, as soon as you move your keyframes, as soon as you move your object After Effects is going to sit down a keyframe for you automatically.
00:01:35:18—00:01:53:01 Unknown So let's say I'm like, okay, great, over here, you know, on the 13 frames and I want this word over here to be Im going to just move it up to the top right? Then I'm like, okay, great. 2 seconds in. I'm going to move it down all the way over here. It's going to be great. It's going to slide all the way down.
00:01:53:09—00:02:21:06 Unknown I'm going to hit my preview and it stays in place and you're like, What gives? I just animated it. Now what you're going to want to do is head down to wherever you have this layer and layer stack and open up whatever property that you want to be animating and you're like, We're all mickey frames. Here's a thing you probably forgot to set that first keyframe because After Effects is only going to start animating this stuff for you, like putting down those keyframes automatically if you've already set a key for it.
00:02:21:06—00:02:38:11 Unknown Now I've got a key from down here. I hit the stopwatch, I move my play head over here down to 2 seconds, going to move it somewhere else. Now you can already see that we're getting busy, handle, you know, motion pass. Now we play it and it moves. All right, come on, Stack number three. So let's see.
00:02:38:11—00:02:52:15 Unknown We've got a new shape layer here, right there, going up to layer, new shape, layer. And I'm like, Great. I want to create a mask with this new shape layer. I'm going to make this really cool, special mask out, and I'm going to isolate this little trolls head and what I'm going to be doing are you hit pen?
00:02:52:15—00:03:09:00 Unknown And then I'm like, Great, I'm going to start drawing a box around the trolls head. Okay. I do that and I'm like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't want solid shape. I want a mask. So to fix that, go over to here in your toolbar, you probably have a position up here. I just float in mine now.
00:03:09:15—00:03:32:12 Unknown I just float down here and you want to make sure that this button is to create masks. Now check it out. I draw them. See? Now it's a mask. And I've actually mask that initial shape that I made. Vice versa. If you find that you're creating a mask and you want a shape, make sure you have this button to create shape.
00:03:33:09—00:03:47:06 Unknown All right. The next one happens to me all the time. So let's say you have an already applied mask. There's actually one around here, all the shapes. And you're like, okay, I want to in the shape of this thing, you know, you're going to click on it and you're like, Where my anchor points, How come I can't change it or anything?
00:03:47:15—00:04:04:28 Unknown First off, you want to make sure that you're able to access the animals. And it's a little hard to see because they are pink. We'll make use of it for you. You can see it over there. So make sure you're grabbing these guys to manipulate it. But if those aren't appearing, make sure that on your composition, I'm going to hit em for my masks.
00:04:06:19—00:04:26:03 Unknown Now, once you've done that, you can see all these options that are here for your mask, and you'll see that when I'm manipulating these busy handles here of my mask, I'm actually just clicking over here on the title of my layer, just the name. And it's selecting Mask one. I'm not selecting any of these other options. I don't have anything else selected.
00:04:26:11—00:04:45:23 Unknown I usually am just like, Here, I'll show you from the top. I'm just clicking on the count three. That's the name my layer. And then I can change the busy handles. But if you got if you got anything else selected on the layer, like if you're selecting my position or time or anything else or a feather or opacity, then it's probably going to mess up and you're going to move like the entire layer around.
00:04:46:00—00:05:03:00 Unknown So yeah, that's part one of this two part series on Common Mistakes and After Effects and how to fix them. If you are working on any projects, let us know in the comments if you have any suggestions for future tutorials. We would love to hear them. And yeah, this has been super designs from old desktop.
Video Transcription:
Full Video Transcript
Hey guys, this is Super Designs for Noble Desktop, and in this tutorial I'm going to show you common mistakes in After Effects and how to fix them. We're just going to be listing out a bunch of common issues designers face in After Effects and quick fixes for them. We have timestamps listed below in the description so you can jump around to see what we cover.
The project I'm using here is one I made for our social media accounts. You can find us on Instagram and TikTok under Noble Desktop. This guy is going to be our little guinea pig, or Chihuahua, for today as it were. This is part one of a two-part series, so we'll link below the second part whenever that one comes out.
Disappearing Layers
Number one: you've got disappearing layers. You're playing your animation, you see it moving, but you're like, where is my stuff? Head down here to the layer stack and make sure that your visibility icon, the little eyeball here, is turned on. If some boxes are empty, you want to hit them to turn on whatever effect you've got going. There we go, now he's yipping again.
Keyframe Interpolation Issues
Sometimes After Effects will do this weird thing where it'll wiggle your keyframes even though you didn't put down a keyframe in between. If that ever happens, because it's a bug I can't really replicate it over here, you want to select your keyframes, right-click on any selected keyframe, go over to Keyframe Interpolation, and make sure that Temporal Interpolation is set to Linear. Then just hit OK and that should resolve the problem.
Forgetting the First Keyframe
Common mistake number three. Let's say you've got this graphic over here and you're like, I want to animate this. You know that if you're animating, as soon as you move your object, After Effects is going to set down a keyframe for you automatically. So let's say I'm like, okay great, over here about 13 frames in, I want this word to be moved up to the top right. Then I'm like, okay great, two seconds in I'm going to move it down all the way over here. It's going to be great, it's going to slide all the way down. I hit my preview and it stays in place, and you're like, what gives? I just animated it.
What you're going to want to do is head down to wherever you have this layer in the layer stack and open up whatever property that you want to be animating, and you're like, where are my keyframes? Here's the thing: you probably forgot to set that first keyframe, because After Effects is only going to start animating this stuff for you, putting down those keyframes automatically, if you've already set a keyframe. Now I've got a keyframe down here, I hit that stopwatch, I move my playhead over here down to two seconds, I'm going to move it somewhere else. Now you can already see that we're getting a Bezier handle motion path. So now we play it and it moves.
Masks vs. Shape Layers
Let's say we've got a new shape layer here by going up to Layer, New, Shape Layer, and I'm like, great, I want to create a mask with this new shape layer. I'm going to make this really cool special mask, I don't know, I'm going to isolate this little Chihuahua's head. I hit Pen and then I'm like, great, I'm going to start drawing a box around the Chihuahua's head. I do that and I'm like, whoa whoa whoa, I don't want a solid shape, I want a mask.
In order to fix that, go over to here in your toolbar. You probably have it positioned up here, I just floated mine down here. You want to make sure that this button is hit to create masks. Now check it out, I draw, bam, see, now it's a mask and I've actually masked that initial shape that I made. Vice versa, if you find that you're creating a mask and you want a shape, make sure you hit this button to create shape.
Accessing Mask Anchor Points
The next one happens to me all the time. Let's say you have an already applied mask. There's actually one around here around all the yips, and you're like, okay, I want to change the shape of this thing. You go to click on it and you're like, where are my anchor points? How come I can't change it or anything?
First off, you want to make sure that you're able to access the Bezier handles. I know it's a little hard to see because they are pink, let me zoom in for you. You can see it over there, so make sure you're grabbing these guys in order to manipulate it. But if those aren't appearing, make sure that on your composition you hit M for masks. Once you've done that, you can see all these options down here for your mask.
You'll see that when I'm manipulating these Bezier handles here of my mask, I'm actually just clicking over here on the title of my layer, just the name, and it's selecting Mask 1. I'm not selecting any of these other options, I don't have anything else selected. I'll show you from the top: I'm just clicking on "The Yips comp3," that's the name of my layer, and then I can change the Bezier handles. But if you've got anything else selected on the layer, like if you're selecting position or time or feather or opacity, then it's probably going to mess up and you're going to move the entire layer around.
That's part one of this two-part series on common mistakes in After Effects and how to fix them. If you are working on any projects, let us know in the comments. If you have any suggestions for future tutorials, we would love to hear them. This has been Super Designs from Noble Desktop.
