After Effects: Social media post 2

Good evening, design friends!

I'm super excited to share that I’m finally getting the hang of After Effects! For our latest project, we were tasked with creating a social media post using an effect we learned in class last week. I wanted to redeem myself, so I decided to start with a flickering fire effect and build off that.

I created an AC repair ad for Facebook, setting my composition to 1080 by 1080 pixels and 30 frames per second. Next, I took the flame I made in Photoshop and created multiple copies, adjusting each one to give it a more natural appearance. I then grouped them together to ensure they would cover the bottom of my scene.

In After Effects, I made sure the flames fit my composition and added a turbulent displacement effect. Then, I added text and animated it so that it appeared to rise from the flames.

For the snowman, I created an image in Illustrator with a transparent background and brought it into After Effects. I made a new pre-composition, added a wiggle expression to make it look like the snowman was rocking back and forth, and incorporated that into my solid layer. I then added CC particles, adjusting the X, Y, and Z axes, as well as the longevity, to create the appearance of snow falling from above and landing on the snowman. I applied a Gaussian blur to the particles and added my text, which I styled in blue with a white stroke to give it a chilly vibe. I also added a glow effect to the text to make it stand out.

I wish I could have improved the transitions, but it was getting late, and I had been working on this for hours. I admit I was so tired that I missed an opportunity to enhance the advertisement further. Despite that, I think it's quite creative and cute, and I learned a lot while having fun exploring these new effects! I'd love to hear your thoughts!