Overview

Mastering Position in 2D leads you on an essential journey through spatial and temporal keyframes, motion paths, and interpolation types.

One of the most important components of motion graphics is controlling how an object moves over time, so this chapter explores Position keyframes in depth. The techniques covered, however, are not limited to this one property. Rules and tips for creating keyframes are generic to all parameters throughout the program. Creating a motion path using Position keyframes is similar to creating an Anchor or Effect Point path, as well as manipulating Mask shapes. And understanding how velocity curves are manipulated for Position keyframes will get you most of the way to understanding velocity curves for all other parameters. You could call this a "keystone" chapter.

If you're new to After Effects, we suggest you complete the tutorial in Chapter 1 before you tackle this chapter, as that tutorial covers the basics of how keyframes interpolate and includes tips for avoiding many common mistakes. You might be surprised to see how much can be done with just one or two animated properties and just two keyframes per property. You'll notice this if you spend some time studying motion graphics on television: A title moves left to right (two Position keyframes). A title grows larger (two Scale keyframes). A title fades in (two Opacity keyframes).We bet you won't find many titles buzzing around the frame doing figure eights (you know who you are) .

To animate Position, all you need to do...