How To Animate Crumpled Paper Textures in After Effects

https://youtu.be/pMhn7pHITNY

Adobe After Effects CC 2025: How To Animate Crumpled Paper Textures

**Description:
**This tutorial will show you how to create an authentic crumpled paper texture animation in Adobe After Effects CC 2025 for a stop-motion or hand-drawn look.

**Keyboard Shortcuts:
**
Add From Project Panel to Comp: Cmd/Ctrl + / (forward slash)
Trim Layers: Opt/Alt + ] (square bracket)
Set End Work Area: N
Composition Settings: Cmd/Ctrl + K

Expression Used:

loopOut();

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Terrapin Textures Video Assets:
https://mikemurphy.gumroad.com/l/orangepastel

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro: About The Tutorial
00:13 Paper Overview
00:32 Scan Crumpled Papers
00:58 Import Paper Textures
01:12 Create New Composition
01:36 Add Textures To Comp
01:50 Rotate & Scale Textures
02:28 Trim Layers
03:02 Sequence Layers (Offset)
03:32 Set End Work Area (N)
03:50 PreCompose Layers
04:14 Enable Time Remapping
04:37 Fix: Blank Frame
04:57 loopOut Expression
05:21 Control Speed of Animation
05:34 Composition Settings
06:05 Add To Render Queue
06:15 Render Settings

**Software Used:
**Adobe After Effects CC 2025 (Click To Try or Buy)

How To Crumple Paper & Scan:

1. Take 3-10 pieces of paper you want to animate as background
2. Crumple each piece of paper by hand and then unfold to prepare to digitize
3. Use a Scanner set to 300 DPI + Black & White or, take a photo and send to computer

How To Import Crumpled Paper Texture:

1. Open After Effects
2. Create New Composition (Cmd/Ctrl + N)
3. Composition Settings: 1920x1080, 24fps, 5 seconds
4. Double-click on empty space in Project Panel to open Finder/Explorer
5. Select Paper texture files scanned to computer
6. Click ‘Open’
7. Drag All Paper Textures on Composition (or use Cmd/Ctrl + /)

How To Animate Crumpled Paper Texture:

1. Select All Layers
2. Rotate & Scale to fit Composition if necessary
3. Tap Cmd/Ctrl + Right Arrow 4 times to move CTI 4 frames
4. Press Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + Right Square Bracket to Trim Layers
5. Go to bottom layer and select
6. Press Shift Key and select top layer
7. Right-click and select ‘Keyframe Assistant’
8. Select ’Sequence Layers’
9. Press OK
10. Drag CTI to the last layer
11. Press N to Set Work Area
12. Tap Spacebar to Preview

How To Loop:

1. Select all Layers
2. Right-click and select ‘PreCompose’ (Move All Layers)
3. Right-click on PreComp and select ‘Time’
4. Select ‘Enable Time Remapping’
5. Go to last keyframe and tap Cmd/Ctrl + left arrow to move back 1 frame
6. Clic the diamond to add a keyframe
7. Select Last keyframe and delete it
8. Press Option/Alt and click on the stopwatch next to Time Remapping
9. Enter loopOut() to endlessly loop animation
10. Press Cmd + K to open Comp Settings
11. Enter 60, to increase duration of Comp to 1 minute
12. Drag out PreComp to fill out Timeline

Render Animation:

1. Go to File…Export…Add To Render Queue
2. Go to ‘Render Settings’
3. Click on ‘Best Settings’
4. Go to ‘Time Sampling’ section
5. Change ‘Format’ to H.264 40 Mbps (or preferred Preset)
6. Click on ‘Output To:’ and add title and set destination to Render
7. Click on ‘Render’
8. Preview Animation