Holographic stickers are stickers with a certain iridescent effect that are printed on materials. It’s fun and delightful to make these sticker animations. In this lesson, you will discover how to utilize After Effects to create a holographic sticker animation. Let’s start with a simple process of the look of the sticker.
Create the Look of the Sticker: Decide what shape you want your sticker to be. We recommend keeping things simple. First, start with a circle. Add a new Solid Layer, and then use the tool called “Ellipse Mask” to create a shape of a circle. Now, align the circle in the center of your composition.
Add some texture to the sticker. From the Holographic Loops Freebie Pack including the project file with a few video loops. Put the clip underneath the Solid Layer. Then use the Track Matte for the clip so that it becomes Alpha Matte. Now you can see the holographic texture.
Underneath the layer with the circle form, insert the holographic video loop. You can add text or a logo to the sticker’s center to complete the design. Ensure that the text or logo is positioned above the Solid Layer in the composition. Put some text in the middle of your sticker.
Create the Back of the Sticker: After choosing the Sticker Front composition in the Project Panel, select Edit > Duplicate.
Right-clicking the newly created duplicate composition gives you the option to choose Rename. Delete any existing text or logos from the Sticker Back composition. Then swap the holographic texture with a different one.
Replace the old texture beneath your Solid Layer with the new one. It is recommended that you use the clip “3 Silver Textured 2” that is in the project file. Next, choose Alpha Matte as the clip’s Track Matte. It should now be available to see the new holographic texture on the circle form.
Animate the Sticker: In the main composition, apply the CC Page Turn function to your Sticker Front pre-comp. In the Effect Settings, set the Fold Diameter to 30 and the Back Opacity to 100. Now put the Fold Location point in the upper-left corner of the design. Folded over, the sticker should now be apparent. Set a keyframe for the fold location at that point.
By extending the composition timeline by two seconds, you may move the Fold Location point to the bottom-right corner of the picture. Ideally, the sticker is now totally flat and spread out. Under Effect Controls, set the Render setting to FrontPage.
In your main composition, place the Sticker Back pre-comp over the Sticker Front pre-comp. After that, start the composition timeline with the Current Time Indicator. By selecting on the Sticker Front precomp, you can enter the Effect Controls and select the CC Page Turn effect. Once it is chosen, select Edit > Copy.
After choosing the Sticker Back precomp, go to Edit > Paste. This will essentially transfer the effect settings from the Sticker Front precomp to the Sticker Back precomp. In the Effect Settings for the Sticker Back precomp, set the Render setting to Back Page. Sticker Back precomp should then be chosen as the Back Page configuration.
Final Thoughts: It takes a lot of time to make a holographic sticker animation in After Effects. This blog only provides the bare minimum of it. If you want to learn more about holographic sticker animation, you can always go to YouTube and watch tutorial videos. On YouTube, there are thousands of videos on After Effects. For YouTube hand-holding training, use Career Ninja’s LearnTube. Learn Tube creates a course framework from the results of your YouTube search. If you search for a “how to create holographic sticker animation” on YouTube, LearnTube will show you a series of videos that look like an online course. As a beginner, you’ll go through the videos from beginning to end, as if you were taking a YouTube course customized particularly for you.
