Are you looking to add some flair to your designs and make them stand out from the crowd? Object animation in After Effects is a powerful tool that can help you bring your designs to life and create engaging motion graphics.

Here's a step-by-step guide to animating objects in After Effects:

1. Import Your Design: Start by importing your design or object into After Effects. You can do this by going to File > Import > File, and selecting your design from your computer.

2. Create a New Composition: Once your design is imported, create a new composition by clicking on Composition > New Composition. This will provide you with a blank canvas to work on your animation.

3. Add Keyframes: With your design in the composition, you can start animating by adding keyframes. Keyframes are markers that define the start and end points of an animation. You can add keyframes to properties such as position, scale, rotation, and opacity to create dynamic movements and transitions.

4. Use Easy Ease: To make your animations look more natural and fluid, use the Easy Ease feature. This will create smooth transitions between keyframes, giving your animations a professional and polished look.

5. Apply Effects and Presets: After Effects comes with a wide variety of built-in effects and presets that you can apply to your animations to create eye-catching visuals. Experiment with different effects such as motion blur, color correction, and particle systems to add depth and dimension to your animations.

6. Utilize Parenting and Expressions: Parenting allows you to link the movement of multiple objects together, making it easier to create complex animations. Expressions are a powerful feature in After Effects that enable you to automate animation and create more sophisticated motion graphics.

7. Preview and Refine: Once you have set up your animation, preview it to see how it looks in motion. Make any necessary adjustments to timing, easing, or effects to fine-tune your animation until you are satisfied with the result.

8. Export Your Animation: Finally, when you are happy with your animation, you can export it by going to File > Export > Add to Render Queue. Choose your export settings and render out your animation to use in your videos or motion graphics projects.

By following these steps, you can create dynamic and engaging animations for your designs using object animation in After Effects. With practice and experimentation, you can take your motion graphics to the next level and captivate your audience with captivating visuals.