Let’s get things spinning with the craziest carousel animations in After [music] Effects.
It doesn’t matter if you have photos or video. The way you present your media is what [music] turns simple content into something cinematic. Let’s get started. All right. These are all very easy to create, but definitely more advanced than my previous carousel tutorial, which, you know, I’ll drop below. But if you want to be the best, we’ll start with this carousel where all the images scale on when rotated in. So, always start by using the rectangle tool to draw out any shape that [music] you want. And make sure this is absolutely centered with no lunch money right there in the middle. Huh. And be sure to go to the roundness to make this a curvy boy. Now, what the heck do we need all this for? Well, this will allow you to drop in your pics or any videos right on top of it. Then you can go to the trackmat and set your assets to [music] that shape we just created, allowing you to easily control the sizing of whatever you place inside of this box. Very cool. But make sure you parent your media to the shape. So that’s all easy to move with [music] just with one layer. Most importantly, place in any text or graphics that you may have and then parent those to that shape mat as well. But okay, let’s make a carousel. With the pan behind tool, we can move the anchor point of the shape directly to the bottom right here. Then let’s create a null object and parent the shape mat to it. And again, move the anchor point of the null object below your composition to where you want the center of gravity to be, so to say. But now we have some null seion going on. So let’s add a key frame for rotation at around 20-ish [music] frames and then move to the beginning to rotate this over to the side. Then add a final key frame a few frames after that last one. And this is going to give us a single animation. But to loop this, let’s altclick the stopwatch and use the [music] loop out offset expression. And this little movement now becomes a constant incremental movement that will loop forever. I would also highly suggest making those [music] two key frames easy ease with F9 on your keyboard and then use the graph editor to smooth out the animation however you need. However, before we expand with additional imagery, when [music] our media is rotated to the side like this, let’s add key frames for scale and rotation of this mat layer right here to slightly tilt [music] and scale down. Then hold the sizing rotation at the top and then [music] key frame the scale and rotation again to do the same thing when this comes over to the other side, if you will. And then smooth out those key frames if you want to do that. And this is going to [music] add some variety to the overall animation. But now we’re ready to expand on this. So duplicate all of our elements here and also duplicate the null object just this one time. And then [music] delete the expression and the key frames. Then parent the duplicated mat to it and rotate the null object by the same amount [music] that the initial rotation had to move the graphics over. Then when you’re done, you can parent that mat back to the first null object and then offset those mat, you know, position and rotation key frames to perfectly time the overall animation. And you know that’s great. Absolutely perfect. So now you continue the process to create [music] more duplicates to build out your carousel. Now for a pro tip to swap in some new media, select your pick or video here in your timeline. Then alt drag your new image into the timeline and bam, just resize and position and call it a day with some fun at [music] the casino. Sorry, you know, this just reminds me of a roulette wheel. Um, I might have some problems. But now we have a pro carousel and the basics to create more advanced designs and easily produce professional visuals and save time with my free After Effects and Premiere Pro templates, drag and drop transitions, animation presets, and carousel and multi-creen motion graphics that you can customize with a few clicks. You can access thousands of templates directly in After Effects and Premiere where you can edit them to fit your vision in seconds, allowing you to build cinematic masterpieces in no time with a link below. Oh, and if you do pick up anything, you will be supporting my channel. [music] So, thank you very much. All right, let’s get more conceptual and design this endless carousel spin. So, with an image and a shape mat ready, let’s select the ellipse tool and choose the tool create mask option with the shape selected. Then, let’s draw out a path and turn off the mask. Then, copy the mask path and paste it to the position. Then feel free to stretch out the final key frame and add the regular loop out expression to follow the path forever. Now you can duplicate both of these elements. You know, I would maybe change the sizing of the shape and you can insert new imagery. It’s really just up [music] to you what you want to do. Now, finally, move those key frames over by a touch on that duplicate layer to create a timing offset. Finally, mass duplicate everything until you go full circle around the path like NASCAR. The only difference is that I could actually watch this for 500 laps, you know, because it looks great. Now, if you want to walk into the club with a little more style, perhaps you don’t want a full loop, but just an endless [music] echo base animation. All we need to do is create a custom path with the pen tool and then copy the mask and paste it to the position as before with, you know, no expressions this time. However, we can animate the [music] scale and rotation to start small and tilted and then smooth out our final two key frames to have a subtle stop as if we know we were coming to a red light. Now, with the setup ready, duplicate, replace, and offset each layer as many times as you want to finish out your carousel trail animation. You know, actually, I don’t know if this really qualifies as a carousel, but you know, we can fight about it in the comment section. All right, just joking. Moving up into the world. Well, maybe rotating the world. Let’s create a 3D carousel tunnel. All we have to do is make the layers 3D [music] and then rotate the Y rotation of the shape mat by 90° or a little more if you want a better perspective. Then move the anchor point to one side of your composition. And this will leave the anchor point directly in the middle. Now, duplicate and adjust the Z orientation of the duplicate by 90°. and then repeat this process to finish out a complete box. Now, I don’t think you need me to say swap out the images anymore, but now let’s create a 3D null object and parent the [music] mats to it and use the time expression on the Z rotation of this null to get it spinning. You know, it’s very simple, but what if you want to create a tunnel? Let’s do it, baby. Duplicate all the imagery and then move it into Z position space to create some depth. [music] And if you like, you can use another null object with a negative value on the time [music] expression to have this spin in the opposite direction is kind of cool, right? But do as many duplicates and position moves as you want to expand on your tunnel. We can also create a camera and add key frames for position and point of interest. With the dolly [music] cursor tool, we can easily move into the tunnel. And because we have an epic camera ready to go, you can enable the power of depth of field and increase the aperture and blur level to make things go out of focus and maybe adjust the focus distance for well better focus. But this is just another idea for the arsenal. [music] Though for the final weapon of mass destruction, we have my favorite, the inner carousel. All we have to do is make the layers 3D once again and push the Z anchor back by say500 points. then just duplicate and offset the Y rotation by like you know negative or positive 24 degrees. And then we begin the process of duplicating and we complete [music] the full circle once again by those incremental plus 24° moves. Hopefully you’ll notice how each of these examples are just getting easier and easier as our powers grow to the point where AI is the one that is cooked. Anyway, create a 3D null object and parent all the shape mats [music] to it and then use another time expression to have this spin around. But for my favorite tip, create another camera and use a wide focal length preset to make the carousel appear bigger through distortion. Very cool. But now you can create the most advanced [music] carousels in the world. Subscribe to be the best and always be