The visual brand experiences that Design Army creates for clients ranging from fashion brands to museums regularly win major awards. When we asked the team to take over the Adobe Stock Instagram, we expected something special, and we got it: Five mesmerizing animations that spell out S-T-O-C-K, all made out of Adobe Stock assets. What we didn’t expect? An easy-to-follow tutorial and a downloadable Illustrator file to get you started.

Click to see the letters S-T-O-C-K animate.

 

Click to watch the full tutorial.

Before you begin the letter C tutorial, download Design Army’s Illustrator file or make your own layered vector file. Then select a video from Adobe Stock. (Design Army used this one for the letter C.)

STEP ONE: IMPORT THE ASSETS

  1. Open Adobe After Effects CC.
  2. Go to Composition > New Composition.
  3. Go to Preset > Chose HDTV 1080 29.97.
  4. Enter the width, height, and duration you prefer. Design Army used 1080px by 1080px with a 10-second duration.
  5. Go to File > Import and choose the provided Illustrator file or one of your own.
  6. Make sure Import As: reads as Import As: Composition - Retain Layer Sizes. This ensures your layers remain separate.
  7. Drag your Adobe Stock video into your composition work space.
  8. Place the video under the layer shape you want to mask.
  9. Choose the shape layer, right-click, and choose Blending Modes > Stencil Alpha.
  10. Group/Pre-Compose (Command G) the video layer and the shape layer.

STEP TWO: ANIMATE

  1. Click on the layer/shape you want to animate.
  2. Choose the Activate Pan Behind tool and move the center of your shape to align with the center of the composition.
  3. Click on the dropdown of the shape/layer you want to animate.
  4. Choose the Keyframe rotation tool and drag the Keyframe on the timeline to where you want the rotation to complete.
  5. Drag the rotation degree to rotate the shape.
  6. Select the two Keyframes and right-click Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease.
  7. Use the Graph Editor Tool to adjust the curve to control smoother movement.
  8. Play around! You can use these techniques to animate all of the shapes until you’re happy with your animation.

STEP THREE: EXPORT THE ANIMATION

  1. Go to Composition > Add to Render Queue.
  2. Click on Best Setting and match the export settings in the screenshot below.
  3. Go to Lossless and match the export settings in the screenshot below.
  4. Name your file and choose Render.

Of course, there’s no need to limit this technique—or Adobe Stock—to Instagram posts. “Adobe Stock is more than just photography,” says Design Army cofounder Pum Lefebure. “It’s also videos, animations, and vectors that save designers time. There are beautiful elements that can be turned into custom graphic languages.”

To see more of Design Army’s work, visit their website.

May 25, 2018