With the Rectangle tool, draw squares and rectangles to create an interesting layout.

Tip: Use a grid to guide your drawing. Choose Preferences from the Properties panel (Window > Properties) and select Guides & Grid. Zipeng created a 1080x1080 document with gridlines every 120px and 9 subdivisions for a 9x9 grid.

Use shape tools to draw objects in each section. Then use the Fill and Stroke tool to color your designs.

Tip: Make sure each design element is on a different layer (Window > Layers) and name the layers to organize everything before importing it into After Effects.

Import your final Illustrator file into After Effects. Choose File > Import > File, or use the practice file available at the top of the page. Select Composition - Retain Layer Sizes from the Import As dropdown.

Double-click the pattern file in the Project panel to add the layers to the timeline. Select all the layers, right-click and choose Create > Create Shapes from Vector Layer, and then delete the original Illustrator (Ai) layers.

Expand the White Star Outlines layer, and then expand Transform to show the settings. With the playhead at the beginning of the timeline, click the Rotation stopwatch to add the initial keyframe. Move the playhead to the 1-second mark and change the Rotation value to 180° to set a new keyframe. Move the playhead to 2 seconds and change the Rotation to 0°. Set another Rotation keyframe at 3 seconds to 180°.

Shift-click to select all of the keyframes, and then right-click and select Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease to create a smooth animation.

Experiment with different Transform properties on other art layers and press the spacebar to preview the motion.