10 Ways Your After Effects Animation Looks Amateur — Part I

Your final, final After Effects video is finished!

You click ‘Play’. Hmm, it’s OK, but something about it is not quite right.

You can’t put your finger on it; it just looks a bit…….amateur.

Help is at hand; here are my 10 ways to improve your motion graphics animation -

1. Pacing too slow/fast

Getting sign-off on a script before starting animation is essential. If you don’t, sections will continually be added or removed, messing up your work and wasting time.

Always get sign-off on a script before starting work!

Then, get the audio edited first, including music and a voiceover (record a temporary one for pacing, if needed). Use static text placeholders to ensure the text is on-screen long enough to read.

Get the pacing right first before you go into the nitty-gritty animation.

2. Linear Keyframes

Objects can move from A to B in infinite ways. For example, they accelerate, decelerate or move on tangents. However, very few things travel linearly at a constant speed. That’s why when layers move in a linear way in After Effects, it looks unnatural.

I’m not saying linear keyframes should never be used, but often, easing on the animation separates an OK motion film from a great animation.

If I had one piece of advice for budding AE users — learn the graph editor!

3. Too many effects

There are over 150 native effects in After Effects. So applying a whole stack of them on a layer can be tempting. It might be a unique look, but most of the time, it’s unnecessary.

There are around ten effects that I would regularly use (Fill, Keylight, Camera Blur, to name a few). But, most of them, I hardly ever use.

They’re a lot of fun to play with, but they should never take preference over fundamental animation techniques.

4. Text Partially Behind Objects

I wasn’t sure about this one. It’s an overused technique, in my opinion — you may like it.

Text made to look like part of the 3D shot, whether static or animated, by masking out foreground objects and placing them on top of the text.

Don’t get me wrong, when done well, it can look great. I’m certainly guilty of using this technique a lot!

But when poorly done, or there’s no need for it, it makes the shot look amateurish. Just my opinion!

5. Light Sweep

If you’re going to use it, make it subtle.

Ask yourself — ‘would this flat, black logo benefit from a big, shiny line moving over it?’

Most of the time, the answer is no — resist the ‘Light Sweep’.

6. Lens Flare

Same as above, use it sparingly.

Maybe your motion graphics piece is set in space, and you think it could do with the JJ Abrams treatment? OK, well, it might be worth investing in Video Copilot’s Optical Flares.

The native AE ‘Lens Flare’ effect is pretty nasty when not used in moderation.

7. Weird Floating Objects

Ah, these layers should be static. But they’re floating around the screen. Why?!

It’s the interpolation. If you’re not used to fixing this, it can lead to you throwing your computer out the window. Or, even worse, leaving the errors in the final video and hoping nobody notices.

Select the keyframes, right-click, and set the spatial interpolation to linear. Done.

8. Sound

Following on from the first point, getting the sound right is essential. Poor sound editing can be much worse than poor animation.

Check that any music cuts or loops are not jarring. Check the levels. If in doubt, lower the music so that you can definitely hear the voiceover.

I do all my audio in Premiere (or Audition), then export to AE. Never do your audio editing in After Effects; it is painful.

9. Text

Part of being a good motion designer is knowing the basics of design. That includes text.

If the kerning (space between the letters) is all over the place, or the lines of text overlap, it’ll make the video look messy.

Also, limit the amount of different fonts and font weights. Most motion graphics animations don’t need any more than 3 or 4.

10. Not checking final files

It’s version 34 of the video. There was only one small change from v33 — no need to check the final export. Wrong.

Don’t be like these guys -

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Arguably the easiest way to look like an amateur; always check the final export before sending or posting.

And there they are, my tips for improving your motion graphics animation. But, of course, there’s probably a lot more. But I’ll save them for another time.

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Andrew Jennings is a video specialist and founder of Modulo www.modulo.video, providing businesses with highly personalised marketing videos to improve audience engagement.

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