Generate effects create animated graphic elements from scratch. And they can generate a wide range of effects from repetitive graphic shapes, all the way through flowing organic patterns. In this tutorial, we will create a series of repeating lines using the Checkerboard generate effect. You can follow along with the practice files included with this tutorial or with a project file of your own. First thing, let's create a layer solid. I'll click in the Timeline to make the composition active, and then go up to the Layer menu and choose New, Solid... In the Comp settings, go ahead and click on the Make Comp Size button to make the solid the same size as the comp. Now since we want to create lines instead of a grid, let's go ahead and change the Width of this solid to a setting of 20. We can leave the Height alone and then click OK. It doesn't matter what color your layer solid is, because that's going to be overridden by the effect. So, with the layer (White Solid 1) selected in the Timeline, let's go up under the Effect menu and go down to Generate. In here let's generate a Checkerboard. Let's adjust our Checkerboard settings starting at the top. I want the Anchor point to start off the left edge of the canvas. So, I'll change the X here to a value of -1 and then I'll press Tab to move to the Y setting. Here we can go ahead and have it start right at the top of the composition. So, I'll type 0. Now we can move down to the Width setting. Press the Tab key and change the Width from 16 to 25, and then press Enter to set the size. Now if we look at the layer (White Solid 1), you can see it doesn't look like a grid at all. Let's reposition this layer in the Timeline by clicking on the (White Solid 1) layer and positioning it between Layers 2 and 3. Once you let go, notice now the shape is behind the lion. In order to make this look like lines, I'm going to press S on my keyboard to open the Scale for the currently selected Layer 2. Go over to the Chain and click on it once to unlock the Proportions. I'm going to hover over the X parameter and hold down Shift and then click and drag to the right to quickly increase the size of these lines. And you want to make sure the lines go all the way off the edges of the canvas. Now these are really bright white, so I'll select Layer 2 and press T to open the Opacity, and we'll just click and drag to bring the Opacity down to a setting around 21. Now to animate these lines, I'd like them to flow from the top to the bottom. And to do that, we'll keyframe the Anchor. Since our Current Time Indicator is already at frame 0;00;00;00 go ahead and just keyframe the Anchor setting in the Effect Controls panel. Move the Current Time Indicator to the end of the Timeline by pressing the End key on your keyboard. You can also just click and drag in the Timeline. Make sure you're on frame 0;00;09;29. To animate the Anchor point, let's move it down on the Y axis. Enter a value of 200 in the Y parameter. I chose that number because it's divisible by 25. Now that we have multiple keyframes, go ahead and press the Spacebar on your keyboard to preview the animation. And sure enough we have lines moving vertically in the scene. Now pay close attention to the animation as the Current Time Indicator moves down the Timeline. I think you'll notice once it gets to the end there's a very slight hiccup that occurs. So, I'm going to press the Spacebar to stop playback, because I want you to select Layer 2 and press the U key to reveal these two keyframes. Let's press the J key and the K key on your keyboards to navigate back and forth between the two keyframes in the Timeline. You'll notice there's no visual difference from one to the other. And that's because these keyframes were perfectly divided by 25. And 25 happens to be the Width of our line. So even though the lines are moving down in the composition, since it's an even number and they're repetitive, it just looks like the exact same frame. We can fix this by sliding the last keyframe one frame down in the Timeline. After you move the keyframe, go ahead and press the Spacebar to view our handiwork. Now, whenever you're animating repeating shapes, it's always wise to pay attention to the mathematics of the animation. In this instance, by animating the Anchor with a number that's divisible by the width of the line, made it extraordinarily easy for us to create this nice, smooth background animation.

 

When I look at this lion, I think he looks like he's meditating and thinking happy thoughts. But honestly, the background is a little plain. So, to complete this build, let's add a flowing abstract background to help reinforce his positive energy. Let's start down in the Timeline, by looking at how the project is built. Layer 1 contains the Lion, and the background layer is separate. Let's go ahead and select the Green Background layer and then go up under the Layer menu and choose New, Solid... Make sure to click Make Comp Size and then I use the Eyedropper to sample the green background, but it really doesn't matter what color you choose. Go ahead and click OK. And since we had the Green Background layer selected, the solid was placed right above our selection, exactly where we want it. Now, to generate some graphics. With Layer 2 selected, you can go up under the Effects menu, go down to Generate, and choose Cell Pattern. Go to the top of the Effect panel and click on the drop-down to the right next to Cell Pattern. These options will give you different styles of graphics you can create. Feel free to browse through a couple of the different patterns but once you're finished, choose Bubbles and enable Invert. Then go down to the Size option. I'll click and drag to scrub the size up. I'd like it to be a little larger. Let's set it to a size right around 250.0. Now, if we go down to the Offset setting and scrub on the X parameter, notice we could animate how this element moves, side to side or up and down, but honestly, I want this to undulate. So, I'll just press Control + Z on Windows, or Command + Z on the Mac to undo, and for the Evolution, I'll just click and drag and as I'm dragging to the right, notice, the background is undulating. Which is exactly what I want. Now, this first number here is a full rotation of Evolution. So, let's make sure both of those are set at 0.0, and click the Stopwatch to set our first keyframe for the Evolution. Press End on your keyboard to move the Current Time Indicator to the end of the Timeline. And then set the first Evolution setting to 2. And press Enter when you're finished. Go ahead and press the Spacebar to preview the animation. If you look in the Info panel, you'll notice it's not playing back in real-time, but that's fine I'm getting a good idea as to what this looks like. Once all the frames are cached, it should get pretty close to real-time playback again. Now, I like how this looks. But notice when the Current Time Indicator gets to the end of the Timeline, there is a major jump in our background. I'll press the Spacebar to stop playback and open up my Evolution Options. In order to eliminate the jump, just enable Cycle Evolution. Now, when you press the Spacebar to load up a preview, wait until the Current Time Indicator gets to the end, and notice when it goes back to the beginning, it's nice and seamless. Now, let's stop playback here for a second because I want to blend this into the background. The fastest way to start blending this, is to change the Blend mode. So, go down to the bottom area of the Timeline and Toggle Switches / Modes until you get into the Modes, and let's click on the Mode drop-down for Layer 2, where it says Normal. I'm going to choose Add, which means black pixels will become transparent and lighter pixels will vibrantly blend with the layers below. Now, this is still a little bright for me, so I'll click on Layer 2 and press T to open the Opacity settings. And I'll just set this down to a setting of around 40%. Now, if we press the Spacebar to playback, you can see we've integrated nice, flowing, high energy graphics into the background. And it's a bonus because they're seamless and loopable.