How to Create a Bar Graph in Adobe After Effects

Learn a quick technique for making bar graphs in After Effects using shape layers - no third party plugins required.

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this is evan Abrams four premium.com and
today we're going to make bar graphs and
after effects using shape layers does
make use of any 3d nonsense so it's
pretty easy to do we use the grid system
to keep it all in line
let's open up after effects and get into
it first thing to do in After Effects is
create a new composition to the frame
size and duration you require so we're
going to go with HDTV 1080p for friends
a second preset and reason duration of
30-seconds probably won't use all of it
now I'm just make a quick background
using a new solid and just go ahead and
make it a nice light like a light blue
color here
ok that's good enough although it says
pale lime-green solid I guess nobody's
perfect
so we make this attache players and all
using the path tool but first we're
gonna bring up the grid can do that this
way or you can go view show grid and
then we're going to go snap to grid
because we want the grid to help us draw
better lines because it's hard otherwise
anyway so we're going to do is going to
take the pen tool and take the stroke
off here we don't need one of those and
make sure that we have a fill a solid
fill you can use whatever kind of feel
you want and we're going to go with a
brightness of 50 and we are going to
start by drawing some of the bars now
essentially to do that we're really just
drawing a rectangle so we're going to
draw at one point down here and then
next one here and then vertically up
from that and then over and then down
now I want to just go in and make sure
that you have these lined up on some
major grid lines so that kind of makes
sense and using those major gridlines we
are going to be 12345678
in 10 squares high and quite frankly the
width and height than all of this of
your bars is not really that important
but for my purposes let's say we are 10
of these major bars high just to
illustrate what we're doing here so
we've got that good
now we're going to rename this to be bar
one go to the contents of bar one
usually called shape one which has a
path a stroke
Phil and transform on it so take shape
one and we can rename shape one to be
faced and we can duplicate that will
rename this to be top we can duplicate
that we can rename this to be side so
now we're going to transform the shape
of these putting face at the front and
top on top of that and then side so we
go to the part mark side click on the
path the path again you're able to drag
out and edit this path that is defining
now the side so I'm just going to move
it over here and grab these points and
just going to move it to be right here
so just like that and then you can
change its fill in here or up here and
I'm just going to make it a little bit
darker so are lighter or yeah definitely
darker so going to do that so now we've
created sort of fake 3d look to this
thing and then with the top same thing
to take the path and we're going to
alter that path to put this up here and
move this to be here and we are going to
change its Phil to be lighter
there we go so we've created what is
essentially the end state of a complete
bar that's a hundred percent of whatever
the graph goes to let's say we're here
at 106 and we take all of these things
and we go into their paths and then we
just set keyframes in the paths because
those are what we are interested
and animating now when you select the
layer you can hit you to bring up just
the things you've altered about it now
we're gonna go back you know however
many frames like and we're going to set
the initial state which is going to be
basically a 0% for this thing i'm going
to go in here and we just double-click
on these things and we want to do is to
be able to call up their points and then
just drag them down drag it down to the
bottom so it rests right there and then
they animate from the one state to the
end state and we're all good so let's
just easy easy that and then drag these
handles over and there we go
so we've got this thing animating from
zero all the way up to a hundred percent
now if you want to have the bar graph
show values that are somewhere in
between there you're gonna need to
compute those values and what you'll
need to do is get keyframes associated
with them
here's the easiest way I've found to do
that instead of easy using these silly
was flat now we know that halfway
between this keyframe and this keyframe
is going to be fifty percent so if
that's the value your apps then this is
50% you'll set some keyframes here and
that'll be good so let's have the bar
and made up to full and then settle back
down at its desired end state for
keyframes so it goes up and then it
comes down here now if we want to create
more bars and just duplicate this to
make bar to then call up its stuff and
then we want to find what value its ass
you know maybe it's around here i have
no idea what your particular values are
going for data or otherwise and so then
it's going to settle at higher and we
need the bars to be next to each other
so you can just take the layer and move
it over by position you know by tapping
nudge and that will create you know a
couple of bars if you want to offset
these in time and just move
with them a little bit here some of the
one layer over the way that's good
and now that you have the values you can
go ahead and start you know messing with
their keyframes have to do something
interesting
so let's do that let's take these
keyframes it's easy them and then we'll
go in here and we'll do just one of
these really easy just increasing the
influence of the back handle and that
should be appropriate
one thing i will advise is that since
these are going to growing out of the
floor some kind cut off the first
keyframe of them or just cut off that
first keyframe of motion just so they
start coming in moving and that can be
pretty helpful so far so good so we've
got a couple of things out here let's
just move those to be more in the center
and we need an axes of some kind for us
to perhaps display this on we're going
to use the exact same method we did to
come up with these so if you remember we
take our pen tool and then we just draw
that initial rectangle that was gonna
draw here in here and then draw all the
way over to here around here then up and
then close maybe know they're exactly
then you want to go in here and just
make sure all of your points are stuck
on the grid because that will make it
quite a bit easier for you to work with
just because the grid won't be in your
way as much
ya gotta make the great work for you not
the other way around
so we've got this we go in here to that
shape layer you know duplicate it
no start calling things like face and
top and side same rules apply though
we're just gonna go in here to the side
to find its path take that path take
some points of that path and one of the
important things to remember is to not
click and drag over duplicates of things
because you'll just end up moving all of
the points associated with either layer
so we want that the line up there six
click and drag over these points they're
not really over top of anything and then
we just need to make sure that this is
somewhere good that line up with the
angles
hello there there may be there
mmm that looks accurate okay good
and then you know you want two things
like making sure that the colors match
you know in the scene so that seems to
make sense and go to the top here good
names move the points of this around and
it can be difficult to get ahold of
those points so don't be frustrated if
it is not a second nature to you and it
is is a legitimately frustrating
endeavor sometimes to get a handle on
those things so there we go that looks
good and then i'll just make sure that
it has same color now in keeping with
the lighting that should be around to be
that color good and then we make sure
that this is below these okay so far so
good and we need it to animate on as
well in some capacity so now this column
help its paths path good and go back to
its original state who should be all of
these points mashed in over here
narrator that's pretty good it comes out
that comes up
perfect i'm going to easy ease those and
then going to duplicate this layer
and all of its key frames and all that
and what we like to do i think is like
this initial state and then we just need
to create a new end state because we
would really like to have this thing
also be the vertical axis so I'm just
going to delete these last key frames
here and I'm just going to solo this
layer in fact so we're going here select
this and select now hopefully all of the
points or we go
select the points of the top here just
the top points and then we're going to
drag that up really know how far up we
have to drag it really helps and have
left some of the other layers on so they
know exactly how I things need to go
okay this high perfect good drag this
keyframe back and so what we have now is
a couple of axes and to this this needs
to be fixed up which can be done by
simply taking this layer and then moving
it up a little so no one no one will
ever notice do just like this group
perfect so now you've got a bar graph
animating on you can put on values
titles whatever you like but this is how
to come up with a very nice-looking bar
graph for use in your motion graphics
and data presentations
just keep in mind that eventually things
might start to get too big or too out of
the way and you can do things like
create a new no object and then take all
of these things parent listen to that no
object and then you can just scale this
down and put it wherever I know this is
a an interesting alternative to 3d using
his flat animation but it looks pretty
nice and it gives you a lot of options
so this has been Evan Abrams four
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sound effects which I'm sure bar graphs
do need sometimes hopefully this is
helpful for your After Effects and more
graphics projects and teaches you a
little bit about how to maybe visualize
some data in After Effects hopefully you
enjoyed it and if you like learning
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then follow me on the twitter @pcc
Abrams and of course stop by the premium
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tricks tutorials from myself and other
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you so much for watching and I will see
you around the internet