Get a Little Techincal with the Null Object

     Bonjour mes Amies! Recently in my animation class, I made a worm inch across the screen. It was fairly easy with the help of a Null Object to drag the worm across the screen. A Null Object is an invisible layer that can be used to make something move and not have to create a whole bunch of frames in order what is being animated to move. This technique is very useful in the process of animating as it shortens it and makes the whole thing easier and this little trick definitely saves time.

How to find and create the Null

      The Null Object can be used by anyone looking to save time in an animation. It is for people who need a fast and efficient way to move an object around on the screen without having to make too many new keyframes or changes to the current animation.

This is the worm being moved around to create the positional frames
and getting it to move. 

    The first step in using the null object would be to create it. When clicking right on the mouse, or however the options menu appears, find the 'New' option and slide the cursor to the right to show what options here are to create.  Moving the cursor down the list find 'Null Object'. After the Null Object is placed in the timeline make the worm be parented to the null by using the lasso or Pick Whip tool. This will allow the null to move the object without having to change the animated sequence too much since it is on a sperate layer. Next stay at the Null Layer and use the keyframes to set different worms, so there needs t be one keyframe with the worm laying flat and another keyframe with the worm arched. You can arch the worm by using the puppet pin tool and dragging the points around to however you like it. After the keyframes are set on the worm's portions, you can then go back up to the Null Object and use the positional keyframes to get the worm moving around. Simply press the diamond when the worm is one side and move the worm across, another diamond should appear et voila!

These are the keyframes for positioning the
 Null Object from one side of the screen to the other

      I hope this helped in understanding how to use the Null OBject and how to save time and energy in an amazing animation!
Until next time,
SophietheFirst.

Here is a personal example of me using the null object to get my worm to move from one side of the screen to the other.





This is a great tutorial video to get started on working with the Null Object in Aftereffects.