Blink Animation for an Emoji(Starting Out)

[Surti99]

Objective: Create a blink animation for an avatar that repeats using Adobe After Effects.

Tools Used: Adobe After Effects

• Puppet Position Tool: To animate the eyelids for blinking.
• Keyframes: To control the timing and positions for the blink (eyes open, close, and open again).

Set up the blink animation:

• Used the Puppet Position Tool to place pins on the eyelids and animated the blink.
• Keyframes were added for eyes open, close, and open again within a .5-second interval
• Manually copied and pasted the keyframes at 5-second intervals for consistent blinking throughout the timeline.

[Surti99]

NEW METHOD USED 1. Import into Adobe After Effects

• Import the PNG file into After Effects and add it to your timeline.

2. Isolating the Mouth for Animation

• Duplicate the PNG layer (Ctrl+D) and rename the new layer to something like "Christopher Columbus Mouth."
• Use the Pen tool to draw a mask around the mouth.
• Press F to adjust the mask feather (around 5px).
• Copy the mask and paste it on the main layer, then invert the mask to remove the mouth from the original layer.

Synchronizing Audio with Mouth Movement

• Import the audio where the dialogue occurs
• Press L to view the audio levels and right-click to select Keyframe Assistant > Convert Audio to Keyframes.
• Delete the left and right channels, keeping the Both Channels option for mouth movement.
• Rename this keyframe layer to "Mouth Movement."

4. Animating the Mouth

• View the Value Graph (not Speed Graph) to see the amplitude of the audio.
• Isolate the Y-position of the mouth layer by right-clicking and choosing Separate Dimensions
• Use the Pick Whip tool to connect the Y-position to the audio's amplitude slider.
• Fix the initial offset by adding + value at the end of the expression to return the mouth to its original position.

5. Fine-Tuning Mouth Animation

• Adjust the value graph to amplify the movement by dragging the graph up to increase the range