I have made quite a few animated graphics that are available for purchase on my Etsy shop and most of them are made with Keynote, not After Effects or any other fancy motion graphics program.
So, how do I do that without ending up with some cheesy looking slide animations?
Well, it’s not complicated.
I stick to a few basic animation types that are simple and often used in fancier motion graphics programs so it gives the illusion that it could have been created in that more expensive program.
What are those simple Keynote animations?
In case you aren’t familiar with animation options in Keynote they are divided into 3 categories: Build In (how objects ENTER the screen), Build Out (how objects LEAVE the screen), and Action (how objects move while they are ALREADY ON the screen)
Within those 3 categories, the animation effects are divided into 3 sections: Appear & Move; Flip, Spin & Scale; and Special Effects.
I almost NEVER use the animation effects in the “Special Effects” because they look cheesy and are dead giveaways that you created your effects in a program made for beginners or amateurs.
(We don’t want that)
The intention behind this post is to help you create video content that looks like it has been created in more advanced and expensive video editing programs, like Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects or Final Cut Pro, when really you are just using free tools like Keynote and iMovie.
Keynote “Build In” Animations
For objects like photos and shapes, I like to use:
- Pop
- Move In
- Appear (usually when the object is behind something else)
For text, I like to use:
- Keyboard
- Pop
For lines, I like to use:
- Line Draw
Keynote “Build Out” Animations
For objects, I like to use:
- Move Out
- Fade and Move
- Pop
- Disappear
For text, I like to use:
- Pop
- Move Out
For lines I like to use:
- Line Draw
Keynote “Action” Animations
If I am adding an Action to an object that is already on screen then I tend to use one of the following animation options:
- Rotate
- Jiggle
- Move
Out of all of the animations that I have mentioned, the Actions are the ones that I use least often, mostly because a lot of the animations that I do are title animations.
In summary the animations that I use the most are:
- Move In/Out
- Pop
- Keyboard (for text)
- Line Draw (for straight or curved lines)
Yes, there are other animations that I sometimes use (like the Cube effect and the Wipe effect) but that all depends on the type of animated graphic that I’m creating.
To see other video animations that I have created, please visit my Etsy shop.