Animating Morphing Icons (Icon Transitions) in After Effects

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create morphing icons that change from one to the other with a smooth animated transition. You can use an animation like this to showcase your icon set in an impressive, show-stopping way, or as a fun instructional video for users. In this tutorial, we use Christmas icons that we’ve downloaded for free from Freepik.

1. Animate the snowman

Each of the elements of the snowman is animated separately. The tools used are Trim Paths, as well as animating the scale, position, and rotation. To see the exact process, watch the YouTube video.

The base of the hat is parented to the top so they can move together. Here, Ina animated the hat’s position keyframes.

2. Morphing

The morphing or transition starts from the hat of the snowman because of its rectangular shape, which is the same as the shape of the next icon – the present. To make the hat jump and rotate, Ina used position and rotation keyframes. Then she changes the path, using the icon of the present as a reference for the proportions. Use the video Tutorial for a detailed guide.

3. Animating the gift

First, we create a mask over the snowman that is big enough to cover the entire icon. The present is animated with position and scale keyframes. And for the ribbon of the present, Ina changed the keyframe paths to create a bounce effect.

The full tutorial is in the YouTube video above. For more awesome guides, subscribe to our blog and YouTube channel Kashu Academy.

And did you know we also have a wide collection of guides on how to create an explainer video? Check out our Video Marketing channel for more!

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