How to Animate a Photo in After Effects

If you want to know how to animate a photo in After Effects, we’re here to help you brush up on some basic animation techniques. Perfect for beginners, our guide will teach you how to animate an image step-by-step, and also answer some common After Effects questions along the way. Let’s dive in!

After Effects makes animation incredibly accessible—even for beginners. But first, what exactly is After Effects? After Effects is a motion graphics and compositing application prevalent among content creators for creating videos and visual effects. After Effects is a blend of a video editing app, Photoshop, and a 3D program, combining elements of all three into one application. Adobe is constantly innovating the program with new updates, so After Effects’ capabilities are continually expanding.

What makes After Effects so significant for animation is the depth you can go into. You can animate nearly every animation property you can think of, comprising everything from scale and rotation to more complex properties like time displacement, 3D cameras, and special effects. This versatility is what makes After Effects so powerful. It allows you to create simple animations quickly and effectively, but if you need pin-point control or want to tweak or perfect an animation After Effects enables you to do that, too.

In After Effects, keyframes drive animation. These keyframes allow you to set a property value at a specific point on your timeline, to which you can add another keyframe later. This results in After Effects automatically animating the change between the two points. Think of it like animating between Point A and Point B on a map – effectively the same way keyframes work. Keyframes are the building blocks for all animations. If you want more in-depth knowledge about animating in After Effects, check out our free How to Animate in After Effects Course!

Now, let’s look at how easy it can be to add animation to a photo in After Effects. For this photo animation, we will create the “Ken Burns Effect,” which involves slowly zooming in or panning across a still image. This simple yet effective animation technique is used frequently in modern media, so it’s beneficial to know! Let’s go through the process step by step.

First, import your photo into After Effects by dragging and dropping it into the project panel or using the File > Import menu.

Click the “New Composition” icon in the middle of the Composition window. Select a preset for your composition or input in your custom composition size. (I recommend using the HD 1920×1080 preset at 24 fps.)

Next, drag and drop your photo from the Project panel into your new composition. You can drop it in the composition window or on the composition timeline.

To animate the photo, you’ll need to add keyframes to its Transform properties. Select the image layer and toggle open the layer’s Transform properties by clicking the arrow next to the layer name.

Choose the Transform property you want to animate, such as position or scale. Then, move the playhead to the time you want the animation to start and add a keyframe by clicking the stopwatch icon next to the property. Let’s animate the scale.

Move the playhead to a later time and change the value of the Scale property to create a new keyframe automatically. Repeat this process with other Transform properties to create a series of keyframes defining the animation.

Use easing to adjust the speed and acceleration of the movement between keyframes and create a smooth and natural animation. You can do this by selecting the keyframes and choosing an easing preset from the graph editor or manually adjusting the handles on the graph. An easy way to add Easing for beginners is to select your keyframe by clicking on it and pressing F9, automatically creating an Easy Ease keyframe. You can recognize that it is an Easy Ease keyframe from its hourglass shape.

You can add effects to the photo layer to enhance your animation, such as blurs or color adjustments. Select the image layer and choose the effect from the Effects & Presets panel. Effects also have properties you can keyframe, just like we did for the Transform properties.

Once you’re happy with your photo animation, you can export it by choosing File > Export > Add to Render Queue. Select your desired output settings and click Render to export your animation.

Do you still need help? Let’s review some commonly asked questions for animating a photo in After Effects.

The best way to animate a photo in After Effects depends on the specific effect you want to achieve. However, some standard techniques include using keyframes to animate properties such as position, scale, and rotation, using masks to reveal or hide parts of the photo, and using effects to add visual interest. There is no right or wrong way to animate an image in After Effects. You can achieve many different techniques using a variety of methods and effects. Even for the same final result!

Yes, you can animate a video clip in After Effects using the same techniques as a photo. However, video clips will be more dynamic, as they already have movement from the video itself. They may also have additional properties you can animate, such as audio levels. There are pros and cons to both types of media. Videos can be more render intensive since the video is playing and constantly changing, along with any secondary animation you add. Pictures are still, but they may be larger in size and resolution than video clips.

To move an object in front of or behind others in After Effects, you can adjust the layer order in the timeline panel. Layers listed higher up in the panel will appear in front of layers listed lower down. Move a layer from the bottom to the top if you want it to appear in front of all the other layers.

To adjust the timing of your animation, you can move the keyframes on the timeline or change the timing graph in the graph editor. Select a keyframe and drag it forward and backward on the timeline to move it. You can also use Easing to adjust the speed and acceleration of the movement between keyframes by selecting a keyframe and using the keyboard shortcut F9.

Yes, you can add sound to your animated photo in After Effects. Simply import the sound file into your project and drag it onto the timeline. You can adjust the timing and volume of the sound using keyframes if needed. Conversely, you can export your animation, import it into Premiere Pro, and do all your sound design there. This will likely be easier to manage and give you more precise control. To learn more, check out After Effects vs. Premiere Pro: Which Video Editing Software is Right for Your Project?

Here are some general After Effects tips to help you start with photo animation.

Before you start animating, take some time to plan out what you want to achieve. Think about the overall look and feel you want to convey and sketch rough ideas or storyboards. You can even quickly create a “rough cut” of your animation in After Effects just to see how it looks before spending too much time on it. This can save you time in the long run and help you identify problems that might arise later in the edit.

Some photos lend themselves better to animation than others. Look for images with clear focal points or exciting elements that you can highlight or move around. You’ll most likely want to avoid pictures with too much noise, as this can be distracting during an animation. (Unless the noise is an intentional, stylistic choice.)

After Effects offers a range of tools that you can use to animate your photos, such as keyframes, masks, and effects. Experiment with different tools and see what works best for your project. After Effects is compatible with numerous third-party plugins that can further expand its capabilities. You can also use pre-built After Effects templates that add more production value to your project and save time!

They say timing is everything, which is also true in animation. Experiment with different speeds and timings for your animation, and use Easing to create natural and fluid movement. Timing and animation easing is the secret sauce for a fantastic animation.

To create more complex animations, use layers to separate different photo elements. This will give you more control over each part of the animation. You can even layer video elements by animating a transparent alpha channel over your photos—such as smoke, sparks, and light rays—to make your images look more dynamic. Experiment with different blending modes on your layers for more vibrant looks.

Hopefully, these After Effects tips will give you a good jumping-off point for your following photo animation. Check out these Top 15 Animation & Motion Graphics Tutorials on Tuts+ for more animation tips. And don’t forget, you can find thousands of jaw-dropping After Effects templates on Envato Elements.