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If you are looking to create a simple clock animation then you are definitely at the right place. In this tutorial, you will learn to create simple clock animation in Adobe After Effects without using any plugins or expressions. After watching this tutorial, you will also learn to import the vector file to Adobe After Effects. This is a very short and easy tutorial specially designed for beginners. You can watch my Youtube video and here is a step-by-step guide.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: First of all you need to design Clock in Adobe Illustrator or you can free download the vector file from freepik.com. Clock Vector by macrovector.
Step 2: Just download the Clock vector file and open it in Adobe Illustrator. We need to edit the vector file to make everything on its separate layer. After making the changes go to the File Menu, then click Save.
Step 3: Open Adobe After Effects. Go to the File Menu and Import the Clock Vector file.
Step 4: Change the Import Kind type to Composition and Set the footage dimensions to Layer Size. It will automatically create a New Composition.
Step 5: Double click on the composition and you will see all of our Illustrator layers.
Here are the layers:
- Center Point
- Seconds
- Minutes
Hours - Clock Main
Step 6: Click the Center Point and Clock Main layer then lock them. We are going to animate only three layers which are Seconds, Minutes, and Hours.
Step 7: Go to the Layers Menu > New > Select the Null Object. Rename it to Control or whatever name you like. Right-click on the control layer, go to the Effects then Expression controls, and select the Angle Control. Select the Control Layer and Press the E key on the keyboard to open Effects. Select the Seconds, minutes, and Hours layers then Press the R key on the Keyboard to open the Rotation properties.
Step 8: Hold the Alt Key on the Keyboard and Click the little stopwatch icon to add an expression. Drag the pick whip to the control angle effect. Again Hold the Alt Key on the Keyboard then click the stopwatch icon to add an expression on Minutes rotation. Also, drag the Pick whip to the Control angle. After the expression just type divided by 60. Let’s connect the minute layer to the control angle effect. Now type /(60*12).
Step 9: Select the Seconds, Minutes, and Rotation layers then drag the anchor point to the Center point. Otherwise, our clock arms will not rotate perfectly.
Step 10: Make sure, you are at the first frame then add a Keyframe on Angle. Go to the last frame and change the angle rotation to 1 round.
If you want to change the clock color then follow Step 11.
Step 11: Go to Layers Menu > New > Adjustment Layer. Drag the adjustment layer just above the Clock Main layer. Go to the Effects & Presets, and search the effect Hue/Saturation. Drag and drop to the Adjustment layer. Now, change the Master Saturation value to change the Clock colors.
We are done! Our Clock Animation is ready.
If you don’t know how to separate the layers in illustrator. Let’s follow these steps.
First of all, open the clock file in Adobe Illustrator. Go to the Layers Section then Select the Group layer.
Go to the Options then Select the Release to Layers (Sequence).
The layers will be separated. Then select all layers and drag them to the bottom side.
Here you can download the project file with a modified vector file.
Password: rizatgraphics-c
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