Cellphone Commercial: Animating the Logo & Backgrounds

Topics Covered in This After Effects Tutorial:

Animating Logo Z Position for Continuous Zoom, Importing Looping PNG Sequences, Creating a Repeated Tiling Background, Stop-Motion Graphics Using Hold Keyframes, Stop-Motion Live-Action: Time Remapping with Hold Keyframes

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, we’ll apply the finishing touches to the Cellphone commercial’s first four scenes. After doing a simple 3D Position animation on the Cellphone logo, we’ll import some PNG sequences and use a nifty repeating tile effect so these animated patterns cover the entire background in their respective scenes. You’ll also learn how to create jerky stop motion animations—for both motion graphics and live footage.

Previewing What You’ll Make in This Exercise

1. Let’s watch the final movie again to view the scenes we’ll be completing in this exercise. Open Cellphone-Commercial.mov from the Cellphone > Final Movie folder.

2. Play the video and notice the following (you may need to slide the playhead slowly):

   • At 0:00, the Cellphone logo grows until the screen is fully covered by its white text.
   • Each of the three scenes from 0:01–0:06 have a different pulsing diamond pattern in the background.
   • At 0:05, exclamation marks appear, grow, and move around Janet.

3. You should still have yourname-Cellphone.aep open in After Effects. If you closed it, re-open it now. We recommend you finish the previous exercises (3A–4C) before starting this one. If you haven’t finished them, do the following:

   • Open Cellphone-Ready for Animating Backgrounds.aep (from the Cellphone > Finished AE Projects folder).
   • Save the file as yourname-Cellphone.aep in the Cellphone folder.

Expanding the Cellphone Logo by Animating Its Z Position

1. In the Timeline, switch to the Cellphone-MAIN tab if you aren’t already there.

2. Double–click the [1-LogoAnim] layer.

3. We want to be able to change its styling. CTRL–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on [Tmobile-logo.ai] and choose Create Shapes from Vector Layer. This will convert the Illustrator file into an After Effects shape layer.

4. At the top right of the Tools panel, click the Fill swatch, change it to white (#FFFFFF), and click OK.

5. We don’t want any stroke, so to the right of Fill, click the word Stroke.

6. In the Stroke Options window, click the None button and click OK.

7. Make sure the Toggle Mask and Shape Path Visibility button is off (gray) so we can see the preview easier.

8. To show the title safe grid, press the apostrophe (') key.

9. If you aren’t already at 0;00, go there now.

10. Select the Tmobile-logo Outlines layer and press Opt–P (Mac) or ALT–Shift–P (Windows) to add a Position keyframe.

11. Make the Tmobile-logo Outlines layer 3D by clicking its 3D Layer switch .

12. Move the playhead to 1;06.

13. To move it closer to the viewer in 3D space, let’s make the logo’s Z Position more negative. To the right of Position, Shift–drag the Z value (third value) to the left until the logo is larger than the screen.

14. Notice that as the logo moves closer to the screen, it is going off to the left a bit. To center it, adjust the X (first) value to 960 and the Y (second) value to 540.

15. Continue dragging the Z value to the left until the screen is completely filled with the white part of one of the letters (Z should be around –2650).

16. Preview from the beginning. You should see the logo growing and filling the screen. That’s it for the intro logo animation!

17. Close the 1-LogoAnim tab to return to the Cellphone-MAIN tab.

Importing a Sequence of PNG Images for the Background

1. In the Cellphone-MAIN comp, double–click [2-Janet-phone].

2. Let’s import a looping sequence made of a series of PNG files. To ensure they get organized with the other assets, go to the Project panel and select the Assets folder.

3. Press Cmd–I (Mac) or CTRL–I (Windows).

4. In the window that appears, navigate to Class Files > After Effects Level 2 Class > Cellphone > Assets > pattern2.

5. Take a quick look to see that we’ve been provided with 120 images, which we want to bring in as a single sequence.

6. It’s important that we select the files in the correct order. If you see a Name column at the top of the navigation window, click it to sort the files so they are in numerical order starting from the top.

7. Select the first file, pattern2,000.png.

8. Make sure that PNG Sequence is checked on. (Mac users may need to click the Options button.)

9. Click Open (Mac) or Import (Windows).

10. In the Project panel’s Assets folder, our new sequence (pattern2-,000-119].png) should be selected. It’s important that this sequence be set to the same frame rate as the rest of our comps. Look at the info section at the top. It should say 29.97 fps. If it doesn’t for some reason, follow the steps in the sidebar to fix it.

    Changing a Sequence’s Frame Rate

    1. In the Project panel, make sure pattern2-,000-119].png is still selected.
    2. At the bottom left of the panel, click the Interpret Footage button .
    3. In the window that opens, in the Frame Rate section, choose Assume this frame rate and type in 29.97.
    4. Click OK.

Using a PNG Sequence As a Repeating Tiling Background

1. Move the playhead to the beginning of the Timeline at 2;08.

2. Drag pattern2-,000-119].png from the Project panel and drop it in the Timeline below Janet Body.

3. It’s too big right now. With [pattern2-,000-119].png] selected, press S.

4. Set Scale to 37%.

5. Cellphone doesn’t want any potential customers to think they’re square. Press R and set the Rotation value to 0x+45° to make it a hip, exciting diamond.

6. We want to position it around the top-left corner. Press P and set it to 80,0.

7. We want the pattern to enhance the foreground, not distract from it. Let’s tone down its intensity by reducing the Opacity. Press T and set it to 50%.

   Our single tile looks snazzy, but all alone in its time out corner. To make this pattern cover the entire screen like a wall of scales, we can apply an effect that multiplies our graphic into a full screen pattern.

8. We can digitally paint on more “scales” by inviting our helpful, artistic reptilian buddy into this layer. (Don’t worry—he doesn’t bite like that croc from a previous exercise.) In the Effects & Presets panel search bar, type: repetile

9. In the results, double–click CC RepeTile.

10. In the Effect Controls panel, hold Shift and drag the number for Expand Right to the right and watch the pattern repeat (you’ll see it expand diagonally from the top left because we tilted the pattern).

11. Shift–drag the numbers for Expand Right, Expand Down, and Expand Up so that the pattern fills the screen and goes all the way to the edge. These values work well:

    Expand Right:	5500
    Expand Left:	0
    Expand Down:	2200
    Expand Up:	3500

12. Now that we’ve expanded our digital “snake skin” across the screen, we need to see which way of arranging the individual images in the PNG sequence looks the coolest. Click into the Tiling menu and try out a few of the options.

    We want to choose a setting that works well with the foreground. In the case of this shot, we think the pattern’s darks and lights look best when they are evenly distributed. When ready to move on, set Tiling back to the default Repeat.

13. Do a preview to see the hypnotizing patterns inside the magenta lines grow and recede. Such an impressive result in so little time!

    NOTE: Because we imported the images in our PNG sequence in the proper order (by number), the animation is nice and smooth.

14. We’re done with this scene, so go ahead and close the 2-Janet-phone tab to return to the Cellphone-MAIN tab.

Creating the Pattern for the Close up Scene

The same magenta and gray pattern will also look great behind the close-up scene of Janet’s phone, so we’ll add it there too. We’ll make it look slightly different to suit the foreground and keep the viewer’s interest.

1. In the Cellphone-MAIN comp, double–click the [3-Janet-CUphone] layer.

2. Set the playhead to the beginning.

3. From the Project panel, drag pattern2-,000-119].png and drop it in the Timeline below the hands layer.

4. With the pattern layer selected, set the following Transform properties:

   Scale:	57% (this is bigger than in the previous scene, as suits a close-up)
   Rotation:	0x+45°
   Opacity:	50%
   Position:	0,0 (so it starts exactly in the top-left corner, instead of almost there)

5. With pattern2-,000-119].png still selected, go to the Effects & Presets panel and double–click CC RepeTile. (If it’s not showing, do a search for it.)

6. In the Effect Controls panel, set the following:

   Expand Right:	3400
   Expand Left:	0
   Expand Down:	,000
   Expand Up:	4600
   Tiling:	Unfold (which distributes the tiles differently from the last scene)

7. Feel free to preview your work so far.

8. Close the 3-Janet-CUphone tab to return to the Cellphone-MAIN tab.

Creating the Pattern for the Janet Yay Scene

1. In the Cellphone-MAIN comp, double–click the [4-Janet-yay] layer.

2. Set the playhead to the beginning. The exclamation mark images have already been imported here.

3. If any of the layers have been soloed, un-solo them by clicking their Solo switch .

4. The magenta and gray pattern would distract from the magenta exclamation marks, so let’s import a more subdued pattern for use here. In the Project panel, select the Assets folder then press Cmd–I (Mac) or CTRL–I (Windows).

5. In the window that appears, navigate to Class Files > After Effects Level 2 Class > Cellphone > Assets > pattern1.

6. If the files are not listed in sequential order from the top, at the top of the navigation window, click the Name column to sort the files.

7. Select the first file, pattern1-gray,000.png.

8. Make sure that PNG Sequence is checked on. (Mac users may need to click the Options button.)

9. Click Open (Mac) or Import (Windows).

10. Check in the Project panel that the new sequence is set to 29.97 fps. If it isn’t, do the steps from the Changing a Sequence’s Frame Rate sidebar earlier in this exercise.

11. From the Project panel, drag pattern1-gray-,000-119].png and drop it in the Timeline below the exclamation layers and above the White Solid.

12. With the pattern layer selected, set the following Transform properties:

    Scale:	30%
    Rotation:	0x–45°
    Opacity:	31%

13. With pattern1-gray-,000-119].png still selected, go to the Effects & Presets panel and double–click CC RepeTile.

14. In the Effect Controls panel, set all Expand settings (Right, Left, Down, and Up) to 3130 and the Tiling to Repeat.

Animating the Exclamation Marks!

1. We want the exclamation marks to grow and rotate into the composition over the first few frames. It’s easiest to animate backwards, so go to 0;04.

2. Select all the mark layers, starting with mark01 and ending with mark12.

3. Press Opt–S and Opt–R (Mac) or ALT–Shift–S and ALT–Shift–R (Windows) to add Scale and Rotation keyframes for all 12 mark layers.

4. Go back to the first frame at 0;00.

5. With all the mark layers still selected, set Rotation to 0x–11°

6. Set the Scale to 0%.

7. Scrub through to see the exclamation marks appear and grow!

Stop Motion Exclamation Rotation!

Once the exclamations have all scaled up, we want them to continue rotating in random directions. We don’t want them to do so smoothly, as we think that would detract from the childlike amazement in this scene. To give these motion graphics a jerky stop motion animation, let’s use hold keyframes instead of linear ones.

1. In the Timeline, drag a selection box around all the mark layer keyframes at 0;04.

2. Go to Animation > Toggle Hold Keyframe so the exclamations will maintain their current rotation values until the playhead reaches the keyframe we’ll create soon.

3. We don’t want all the exclamation marks to appear all at once. Let’s stagger the marks so they enter the composition anywhere between 0;00 and 0;07. Do so to your liking using one (or both!) of these two methods:

   • Drag a selection box around a layer’s four keyframes. Then drag the selected keyframes to a different point in time.
   • Make sure the layer’s In column is showing. In that column, click on the value, type the new timecode you want the layer to start at, and click OK.

4. When you’re finished staggering keyframes, preview to check that things look good.

5. We want to rotate each of the marks randomly. Set the playhead to 0;11.

6. Press W to select the Rotation tool .

7. Select the mark01 layer.

8. Rotate it on the Composition panel, tilting a little bit to the left or right.

9. Continue doing this for each of the mark layers that don’t already have a Rotation keyframe at 0;11.

10. Scrub through and notice that the marks seem to “pop” into their rotation, which we think enhances Janet’s giddiness in this scene.

11. At 0;17, 0;27, and 1;05, use the Rotation tool to rotate all the marks as you see fit.

    When ready to move on, each layer should have hold keyframes at 0;11,0;17,0;27 and 1;05.

Stop Motion Live Footage: Time Remapping with Hold Keyframes

Stop motion animation for motion graphics is pretty intuitive, but what about live footage such as the Janet layer in this scene? We can also make this kind of footage stop motion! We do so by warping the fabric of time, freezing our favorite moments using time remapping and hold keyframes.

1. Double–click the [Janet-yay.mov] layer to open it in the Layer panel.

   We want Janet’s stop motion to be similar to the graphics’ animation, so we only want a few keyframes. That means we need to choose poses that look striking.

2. Normally you choose your favorite moments that condense the video as a whole down to its basic story arc, but we’ve done this for you to speed things up. Scrub through and notice the frames at 0;08, 0;22, 0;38, 0;58, and 1;10 look nice.

   NOTE: This video was shot in slow mo (59.94 fps).

3. Close the Layer panel and make sure [Janet-yay.mov] is still selected.

4. Go to Layer > Time > Enable Time Remapping.

5. In our Composition timeline, we want the freeze frames to happen at 0;00,0;09,0;17,0;27, and 1;05. Set the playhead to 0;00.

6. To add a Time Remap keyframe, we type the frame number from the original video that we want to be displayed at this point in time. 0;08 was the first frame in the original MOV file we liked, so click into the 0;00;00;04 value, type 8 and press Return/Enter.

7. We want to add our next keyframe at 0;09, around the time most of the exclamation marks have finished animating. Go there now.

8. To the right of Time Remap, set it to 0;22 (the next frame we selected).

9. Move the playhead to 0;17.

10. Set Time Remap to 0;38. If it’s already at this number, just click the diamond-shaped dip .

11. Move the playhead to 0;27.

12. Set Time Remap to 0;58. If it’s already at this number, add a keyframe using the diamond-shaped dip .

13. Move the playhead to 1;05.

14. Set Time Remap to 1;10.

    We’ve sped up the footage a bit, but it wouldn’t look much different if you were to preview it now. To freeze these frames in time, let’s make them hold keyframes.

15. Click the word Time Remap to select all the keyframes on this property.

16. Go to Animation > Toggle Hold Keyframe.

17. Preview the scene from the beginning to see how Janet’s stop motion style movements match the exclamation marks’ animation. Sweet—now you know how to make real footage move like a cartoon!

18. We’re done with the 4-Janet-yay tab. Close it to return to the Cellphone-MAIN tab.

19. To keep track of our progress, let’s color code the scenes that we’ve finished working on. Select the bottom four layers, from [4-Janet-yay] to [1-LogoAnim].

20. Change the label color for the selected layers to Green (for done).

21. Collapse the layers in the Timeline and close the tabs other than Cellphone-MAIN.

22. Save the project and leave it open. We’ll continue working on it in the next exercise.