These days, the use of kinetic typography and infographics are used in videos to illustrate facts, statistics, and more when live action footage or stock footage isn’t readily available. Most of these types of animations are found in explainer videos, which have become the new normal for business and web videos. However, pulling off these animations take some good preparation and knowledge of After Effects. There are even scripts available from AEScripts.com that help in the animation process known as TypeMonkey and LayerMonkey. However, you won’t always have access to scripts or third party plugins, so it’s good to know what tutorials are available. I have come across a few tutorials that would help AE users get a hang of creating infographics and/or kinetic typography for their projects.
Creating an Animated Bar Graph
In this tutorial, motion graphics designer Evan Abrams shows you how to create a 2D bar graph animation using shape layers. One of the many requirements for creating an infographic is the use of vector shapes so that your layers can be manipulated beyond its intended size during an animation. The techniques that Evan uses to create the animation are very useful if you have an explainer video with data based on a bar graph.
After Effects Kinetic Typography
For this tutorial, motion graphics guru Mikey Borup shows you how to create kinetic typography in a quick and dirty fashion. I can attest to the first time I tried creating this type of animation and how intimidating it was. This tutorial is easy to follow and will have you creating typography videos in no time.
Slick Object Transitions
If you have got a grip on how to create infographics and kinetic typography, you can take your skills to the next level by watching this advanced tutorial. The folks of Mt. Mograph show you how to transition between objects such as a tablet, photo, computer, and a camera. These types of animations are used a lot in commercial explainer videos to add a bit more flare as transformations often do. Using Illustrator to create vector shapes and After Effects to control the animations, you will be able to pull this off in very little time.
Push Button Animation
Another great tutorial from Evan Abrams is this fun push button animation. Your client may call for an animation where buttons need to be pushed, and following this tutorial will get you there. Once again, Evan uses shape layers to give the appearance of 3D depth. Using a few keyframes across a short period of time will create a cool push button animation. These are just a few of the tutorials that stood out to me in terms of infographics and kinetic typography. Obviously, you can use other programs besides After Effects to create these types of animations, such as Motion. You can also purchase pre-made templates if you are on a tight deadline. Once you get a firm grasp of these animation techniques, you will bring more creativity to your projects.