Orientation: Prepare for Liftoff

Let's face it—After Effects is an intimidating piece of software. Understanding the user interface and creating your own custom workspace is the first step to working comfortably and confidently in After Effects.

Creating and working with compositions and layers is the foundation to every motion design project. Once you have these fundamental skills under your belt, you'll be ready to blast off!

Week 1: Propelling Pixels

Discover how to make shapes move and open the door to endless creative possibilities in After Effects.

In this first week, you'll be making your After Effects debut by designing and animating your very first motion graphics loop. We'll explore a variety of techniques from building graphics with shape and text layers, to animating with keyframes and easing motion with the power of the graph editor. In a bonus lesson we'll even add stylized textures to your project to take it all to the next level.

Week 2: Intergalactic Illustrations

Working with illustrations in After Effects is an essential skill to learn, and it enables you to breath life into static visuals.

This week, we'll explore a range of techniques for animating artwork created in Adobe Illustrator. We'll build on the artwork to create an entire scene with text animator presets, scene transitions, and looping keyframes. In a bonus lesson you'll acquire the superpower of looping keyframes with expressions, simplifying the process exponentially.

Week 3: Another Dimension

Parallax is one of the most effective techniques for creating depth in After Effects.

In this week I'll teach you how to navigate 3D space, control camera movements, add realistic motion blur, and set up gorgeous parallax effects, elevating your animations to a whole new level of depth and realism.

Week 4: Into The Holodeck

It's time to dive into the world of futuristic visuals.

Here you'll take a different approach to animation to create techy stylized animations. From flickering effects to custom grids and soft glows, you'll create an immersive viewing experience. In a bonus lesson we'll add shallow depth of field and other film effects for a truly cinematic look.

Week 5: Cosmic Typography

Text is one of my favorite things to animate in After Effects, and text animators are the secret to doing it efficiently.

This week you'll learn how to harness their unique properties to craft dynamic and procedural text animations with precision. Once the text is animated, we'll add depth by creating custom, natural shadows in a bonus lesson.

Week 6: Refueling Station

Even astronauts need to dock their spacecraft for some R&R.

Use this week to refuel your creative engines by catching up on projects, making revisions, and absorbing bonus content that will level-up your workflow and enhance your command of After Effects.

Week 7: Astral Projection

3D Camera Tracking is a magical technique that allows you to seamlessly insert graphics into videos. This technique unlocks a whole new dimension of creativity for your projects.

You'll not only learn the process, but also how to troubleshoot challenging tracks and create rock-solid composites. Plus, a bonus lesson on the Cinema 4D Renderer expands your 3D capabilities, enabling you to create true 3D geometry directly in After Effects.

Week 8: Pathfinders

Every motion designer will have to animate a line at some point in their career, but this project is made up entirely of line animations.

In this week you'll learn how to design a balanced scene, use simple, repeated animations to create dynamic and complex motion, and master the Trim Paths shaper layer operator. In a bonus lesson we'll take a look at advanced techniques for building dynamic shape layers.

Week 9: Stay On Target

AE's tracking tools enable you to attach elements to moving objects within video clips, immersing your graphics into the footage. We'll learn about different types of trackers, stabilization, compositing, and color correction.

And in a bonus lesson we'll take tracking even further and learn how to do a screen replacement.

Week 10: Celestial Illusions

Every motion designer should know how to work with green screen footage. In this lesson, we'll use AE's color-keying tools to remove a green screen and turn the subject into a fun video.

In a bonus lesson, we'll learn how to composite isolated subjects into another shot.

Week 11: Final Project
Part 1

You're approaching the destination, and have been equipped with all the tools you need to carry out your final mission: Nano Jam. A multi-shot animated sequence.

With storyboards, key art, and music, you'll be tasked with bringing it all to life through animation. This is a big project, so you'll have two weeks to get through it all.

Week 12: Final Project
Part 2

Prepare for landing! This week we'll complete the Nano Jam sequence and complete our cosmic journey through After Effects.