Like I said at the beginning of the week, every project is different so this tip will look very different for each project, and each person. Try to use more then just words if you can. This will stretch your creativity and may even require you to seek some outside help in creating elements, but will be worth it in the end. Look for words that have implied attributes or characteristics. These sort of words let you have fun and add little elements to help convey their meaning.

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There is this idea that if you’re a true artist, you have to create everything from scratch… I think this is an over compensation for not wanting to be one of those guys who has Video Copilot projects filling up their demo reels… Truth is, it’s totally fine to use stock footage, tutorial concepts, and animation presets…. just make sure those things are swimming in a pool of your own original content and you’ll be fine.

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Personally, this is probably the most difficult tip for me to follow. I always start the project and begin formulating a style and theme, then as creativity takes over and I continue to experiment with what else I could include or “Oh, what would that look like…”, I find myself going down a creative rabbit trail. Next thing you know the project is done, but it looks like four different artists played “Tag, You’re up now!” with my comp. By this I mean that my last five seconds look nothing like my first five seconds.

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One of the biggest elements that will bump your animation from amateur to amazing is the movement. This is the ultimate yet simplest test of your abilities in the field of animation… how well you animate. We always know when we see a polished, professional piece. The goal is for your animations to feel natural and not be overly noticeable or distracting. I often refer to our Premium Tutorial about the “12 Basic Principles of Animation” as it has been quiet influential in my growth as an artist. I actually went out and bought the book this originated from just so I’d have my own copy.

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In the book “Creating Motion Graphics” by Chris and Trish Meyer, Chapter 14 talks about the camera and they say it’s generally a good idea to animate your subject or animate your camera, but if possible, not both. This just helps you keep your sanity as the composition progresses and the movement gets more complex. The more values you have keyframed, the harder it’s gonna be to go back and altering things later.

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At the end of the day, there are many aspects of animation (and all video production for that matter) that really can’t be entirely taught… good composition is one of those areas that CAN be learned, but requires God-given talent and a lot of practice to perfect.

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When you go to fit multiple words in place like a big puzzle, there is the immediate temptation to reach for that “S” key to adjust how big the word is compared to it’s neighbors. After Effects is smart and even if you scale up 700%, it’s still going to maintain smooth edges since it’s generated text and therefore still in it’s vector state… however, I still would encourage you to practice altering the size of the font rather then scale… By comparison your end result will be essentially identical, but depending on your plans for the text later, it’ll save you a headache if you start to animate with your scale at starting at 100% rather than 700%.

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