I’ve been getting a few questions about how I created the Evolution promo so I thought I would provide a small breakdown since a tutorial is a little out of the question. I may do tutorial on certain aspects of the promo such as using multiple null objects to animate a single camera but most everything can be extrapolated from the Titling section of our free After Effects Basic Training.

A little hard work and bit of creativity is all you need and maybe some more of that Mountain Dew. Animating long fluid comps in 3D can take a fair amount of time and aggravation so be ready for that.
You want to start with a basic idea of what you are going to do including what you want to say. I mix the soundtrack and then bring it into After Effects.

The entire promo is made up of smaller comps. Each of these mini segments usually is all 3d and the camera moves around in that space. These comp are assembled on the main time line. I sometimes work on the main timeline and then precompose when I’m done the layers that make up a specific segment.

The above graphic is the first segment. Notice how you can see the main title and the second title in one large 3d world. First, you need to animate the camera and then time the elements so they show up or grow at the correct speed as the camera moves past them.

All of the Red titles are arranged in this 3D space. The way I work is by creating the first title, then come up with and idea of how I should transition to the next title. Either by pulling the camera backwards, or flying downwards or even spinning around. Once I decide, I’ll animate the camera and then where the camera ends up I then add another title to that area so when the camera shows up there is a title there..
For the category segment, I started with the flourishes title graphic and arranged a few elements in 3D. Then as the arrow travels out of the frame, I animate the camera to follow it.

The way I animate the camera is just like shown in the Free Titling section; I use a 3D null object that our camera is linked to. I rarely animate the camera directly.

The textures section is just a long Photoshop file that is moved up and down with motion blur. Nothing fancy here.

Everything else follows these same principal except the drop down from the design projects to the gallery title is 2 separate comp that are blended together with a similar camera movement.

The ending is a copy of the first comp and perhaps a little help from Twitch.

To make a tutorial on “creating this promo” is somewhat ridiculous because of how the design process works. I spent 3 days experimenting and reworking animation. Speed, color, timing and flow are other important aspects that just take experimentation and a keen eye.

The key is to imagine what you want to create and problem solve your way through it. There is no magic tutorial that is going to show you every possible scenario for creating complex motion graphics. Animating a camera in 3D space is difficult, it doesn’t always do what you want, keyframes are a pain and you may even want try poking one of your eyes out. But in the end you must understand the tools, work hard, get a little frustrated, and finally render it out.

Evolution will be out November 12th so be ready.