👋 Welcome to the latest edition of my monthly motion design newsletter, where I bring you fresh tutorials, a sneak peak of what’s coming soon, a handy tip, and a random recommendation!

🥳 New

The first two videos are published in a new mini-series I’m making about creating callouts and motion graphics templates for After Effects and Premiere.

Callouts are useful for labeling elements in a video, whether that’s an explainer animation, educational video SAAS or product demo video. And motion graphic templates (mogrts) save time – you can quickly reuse animations.

​How to use Motion Graphics Templates in Ae & Pr​

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​Animate a Callout in After Effects​

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🎉 Freebie

Download 5 free animated callout templates to use in After Effects and Premiere!

🤫 Sneak Peak

My Detail Callout Creator for After Effects is launching this month! This tool allows you to create a callout where you can show a close up view of a visual, in just a click. The callout is completely customizable and animatable so you can make it look how you want.

Thank you to all the beta testers for your feedback!

Also, there are two more videos coming in the new mini-series: how to create your own motion graphic templates, and how to attach a callout to an object in a video.

⚡ Quick Tip

In After Effects, you can copy (command/Ctrl V) and paste keyframes in the reverse order with the keyboard shortcut: command/Ctrl shift V

Perfect for animating out layer/s in the reverse way they animated in!

👉 Random Recommendation

It’s kinda ridiculous, but 5 years ago, I bought a 4x4 foot canvas to make a DIY art piece to put above my mantle. What’s ridiculous is that I put off making it for 5 years because other projects seemed more important. In reality, it only took a few weekends to finish (mostly to wait for things to dry) and it was a great create creative outlet and break from all the work I do on the computer.

If you’re curious, here’s how I made it:

• I downloaded a PDF topographic map of the mountains near my house from USGS.
• I brought this vector map into Illustrator, deleted all but every 5th line to simplify, and smoothed out the lines with the Smooth tool (Edit > Path > Smooth).
• I borrowed a mini projector to trace the design on the canvas with pencil.
• Then I used kid’s clay (Magic Model) to roll out the typographic lines. When the clay dried, I glued it on with a hot glue gun.
• I used caulk to hide blobs of glue and blend the clay into the canvas more seamlessly.
• Finally I painted the whole thing with white acrylic paint!

So I guess the recommendation here is to do the project you’ve been putting off because it’s “just for fun”. 🤩

Megan Friesth

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