This After Effects tutorial will show you how to plan for, concept, and create a thirty-second animated video. We will concept in Illustrator, import our Illustrator layers into After Effects, and create and render (export) your animated video in After Effects.

The final animated video

Here’s the final video that is the subject of this tutorial. It’s an explainer video that educates the community on how their Habitat ReStore donations help pay for homes Habitat builds for families in the community. Research had shown our local Habitat for Humanity that the community didn’t make the ReStore > Habitat connection.

This video will be used on many social media platforms to help the community make the connection. We hope it will also increase donations to the ReStore.

Message

Write down your marketing message. 3–5 words max.

What are you trying to communicate to your audience with your animated video?

Audience

Write down a few characteristics that describe your audience. Age range, hobbies, job, family, beliefs, values, location, living situations, smartphone users, etc.

Storyboard your story

Write three headlines that tell your story and communicate your message. Make each headline 3–5 words long. These three headlines will be the foundation of your video.

My three headlines
1. Your ReStore Donations
2. Help Build Homes
3. For People in Your Community

Next, sketch how you would tell your story (communicate your message) with type, colors, art/photos, and layout.

Gather your assets

Wherever possible, you can use your own illustrations, photos, videos, and sound clips.

Illustrations
Create one illustration to represent each headline.

Free Photos
Find one photo to represent each headline. If you want the fourth photo for an introduction that’s fine.

Make sure each photo is copyright free and large enough for your needs. Get your photos from unsplash.com, pexels.com, pixabay.com.

Free Video Clips
Get your free video clips from pexels.com or pixabay.com

Free Music Clips
Find a sound file to go with your video. Get them from bensound.com

Brand Standards
You’ll also need a vector logo, brand colors, and typefaces.

Keep the original files/photos for ALL your assets. You’ll need them when you animate your video.

Storyboard in Photoshop or Illustrator

Open Photoshop or Illustrator and create a document 1080×1080 pixels, RGB, 72ppi.

Create a slide for each scene in your storyboard sketch. These should be buffed-out, developed, and look just like your final will.