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I'm trying to make an intro in After Effects (I'm a beginner) and I was wondering if anyone could assist me in reproducing the following logo animation:

enter image description here

In order to dive into this topic and understand the basics, can anyone point me in the right direction? How this effect is called and how to implement it roughly?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2 Answers 2

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In the example given, typical motion graphics techniques are used. There are several ways to achieve this animation in After Effects. Probably the easiest way is drawing a mask shape per letter on top of the 'logo layer' and keyframe the Mask Shape property. In most cases this is fast to implement and good enough, but in order to achieve a uniform motion I'd recommend to split up the logo into separate letters and use a trim path on a shape layer.


Instructions

  1. Bring your Shape/Text from Illustrator into After Effects or simply use an After Effects Text Layer (If you don't want to switch between the applications)

    enter image description here

  2. Make sure that no layer is selected in your composition and hit G to enable the pen tool
  3. Draw your animation path from the beginning to the end of the shape

    enter image description here

  4. Set the contour width of the new created shape layer to a value which covers the shape below
  5. Set the fill color to None by holding Alt and clicking into the color field
  6. If you roll out the shape layer by clicking on the arrow > button left to the layer's name, there should be a appear another > Add Button in Track Mattes column. Click it to add a Trim Paths property
  7. If Trim Paths is assigned to the shape layer go to your last frame, roll out Trim Paths property and click the stop watch of the end value, this should create a keyframe with a value of 100%

  8. Go to your first frame and set the end value to 0% to get something like this:

    enter image description here

  9. To use the path animation as matte, set the track matte of the text layer below to Alpha

    enter image description here


Note: Consider that the type in the given example is very suitable for this kind of animation.

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    Whoa! Thanks very much for the detailed tutorial! It means a lot. Few questions. Can this be done with any font and what is this animation called in the animation realms?
    – Robbie3059
    Sep 28, 2015 at 21:02
  • @Robbie3059 Of course, but sans serif types more suitable. You can test it by your own, but serifs on both sides of the letter will make it less fluid and harder to animate. It's simply animated type so it's a part of motion graphics: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_graphics. Does that answers the question?
    – p2or
    Sep 29, 2015 at 5:39
  • Yes it does. Can't thank you enough, very grateful for your help.
    – Robbie3059
    Sep 30, 2015 at 15:57
  • @Robbie3059 Glad I could help :)
    – p2or
    Sep 30, 2015 at 16:06
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@Poor is right for the "Ares" text on the left. To the right of that, you've got a single line created with the path tool & drawn on using trim path. The "archive" text has had its position and tracking adjusted using keyframes, and has been masked out to the left of the vertical line.

To take a guess at the fonts used, try using a site like WhatTheFont.

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