After Effects for Beginners Complete Intro to After Effects

One of the most essential things is to familarize Yourself with the interface of the program. Let me guide you through the windows and features you need to know about, sometimes by drawing similarities to Photoshop. After Effects looks difficult at first glance but there is much sense and visibility in it's interface once you get a bit familiar with it.

Let me show you how you can perform important tweaks to make your work more effective and faster. After Effects allows us to change up plenty of things inside of it's prefrences.

Most of the times you won't work only within After Effects, you will want to import different types of assets into your project. Let me show you the Project window itself and what you can do in it.

There is of course to cross-work and connect with other of Adobes software files. The most used files here are of course Photoshop and Illustrator files. Both of these programs allow us to dynamically enhance our workflow. In this lesson I want to show you how to import those files as footage, compositions, editable content depending on what we need.

Illustrator files have a different approach when importing to After Effects

Sometimes assets may of course go missing. If they still exist it's of course easy to re-link them back into our After Effects project. Always keep your files close you never know when you do want to get back to an After Effects project you were working in the past.

You will always work on a project inside of a Composition. Compositions are the artboards and canvases in Motion Graphic design. There are different format and options you may chose depending on the output you want to achieve. In the composition settings you set the number of frames, lenght, size and several other parameters essential to Your video production.

In this lesson I will teach you how to prepare a quick title with help of keyframes, track matting, an effect and few other After Effects tricks. You will be most likely not yet prepared to perfom such animations but I want to show you a real life, full scale project and workflow in After Effects and teach you all neccesary elements later which will make it easier for you.

Most of the work regarding how long a layer stays visible or what animations are going on with keyframes is prepared on the timeline. The timeline is one of the most important parts in video animation & editing and should be explained with detail.

Everything we are going to do in After Effects will include working around the timeline, so we should get a good overwiev of it.

Each layer in After Effects has it's own options, possibilities, and tools. Those options are called properties and with them you can achieve neraly anything with your layers. You can add elements, resize, add strokes, all depending on what you are editing. Properties are an integral part of the After Effects workflow

An essential function inside of after effects is the possibility to group objects, nest compositions and precompose several layers into one (new) compositoin. This frees up our working area, separates files from each other and allows us to combine elements and apply effects to them in bulk.

With this essential tutorial I want to teach you what does the Region of Interest in After Effects do and what can we use it for. With help of that I will show you how to adjust the size of your current composition to perfectly fit the objects you have in them. Often you do want to set keyframes on composition in order to be able to place things inside those comps so they do not get changed.

Keyframes and interpolation are terms which you will be familiar in your daily workflow in After Effects. Learn how to use keyframes and what actually are keyframes in this lecture

In this lecture we will go for an example project so you can try and complete one of Your first animations.

Parenting is an option which allows you to work on multiple footage assets or layers at one time. You can decide which layer is the "parent" of another layer and any change made to this layer will also affect the child

Every animation needs to be previewed before you advance to the next section. There are times when you need to review your entire concept every time you change a few frames. The Preview panel gives you the opportunity to watch your work before it goes to the final render. Make use of this great After Effects tool to know exactly how the end result will look like.

Rendering allows us to output the final video and watch the movie we have created on our pc. There are several options and possibilities to render movies and in this lecture I would like to show you the key things you should get away before starting to Render in After Effects.

This tutorial will explain how to copy certain types of keyframes between layers in After Effects.

In this exercise I want to teach you how to prepare a qucik and simple Logo intro in AE ! :)

Text layers are essential to any composition or animation we will be doing. Text layers can contain fonts but they also can be changed to shape layers which is very convenient if you want to open the project on a computer which don't have this particular font installed.

Each composition probably will need a background to work on, and in most cases we can use a solid for that purpose. In this lecture I will guide you through the creation of solid layers for our backgrounds to have something to work on.

Creating and editing shape layers is very important to the After Effects workflow. In After Effects CC 2015 and in the older versions you are able to edit, delete, and add properties to shape layers.

You can add, remove, rearrange properties within a Shape Layer. You must remember that properties are separate options for a layer and they can be freely changed and removed within After Effects. Make use of this knowledge to adjust Your layers and comps.

In this video I will show you how to adjust the amount of points added while adding shapes in After Effects

Masks just like in Photoshop allow use to hide or reveal certain things between each other. Let me show you essential mask usage in Adobe After Effects.

Blending modes are important to understand because often you want to composit several layers over each other with different kinds of effects between them. Blending modes allow us to achieve some of tose mixing and blending with one click so it's good to know about it.

The Track Matte allows us similar to masking reveal alpha (if something has an alpha channel) or luma (if something is solid coloured) channels. Let us explore the different kinds of Track Matte options for optimal usage.

Quick fun project to make with Shape layers in After Effects and the techniques you've already learned

There is a lot to say about animations as it's the most important thing that is going on with it in After Effects. You achieve animation by keyframing, using properties, effects and everything that you will learn through out in this course.

Uderstanding how to adjust your motion and edit keyframes is very important. The basic movement is very dull and simple, we certainly want to achieve more interesting motions and movements - and that is why we ease our keyframes.

Applying the motion blur is one of After Effects native tools and it's perfect for beginners because it can be used with one click right away.

Once we learn about the graph editor working, editing and easing our animations will become pure fun!

The Null Object in After Effects is an invisible tool which is used as a control layer. You can link certain properties and then use the Null Object instead of the actual Layer / effect in order to stay more organized and have a seamless workflow.

Expressions are a very advanced topic in After Effects but for the sake of this course we might without any trouble use simple tools like the pick whip to create our first, simple expressions.

Audio is essential to most of todays videos on YouTube, TV or anywhere else. After Effects is limited in that regard but I want to show you what can we do while working with audio files and how to reveal their waveform which comes often in handy.

In this lecture we are going to use the techniques we learned in this section, like null object usage to create a simple animation.

Like the name already states, Effects are essential in Adobe After Effects no matter which version you use. This motion graphic software is pre-made to use Effects and create VFX so in this lecture I want to show you what actually are effects and how you can save presets out of them.

Have you ever wondered how to be able to use effects in After Effects and not get lost? Let me show you the essential and most used effects like Drop Shadow, Fill, Ramp or Control so you will have it easier to discover other effects aswell.

Adjustment Layers allow us to apply global effects to our layers and compositions without beeing noticed. Make use of them to adjust for example the levels or color corrections on our layers.

You have the ability to mask out certain portions of an effects in After Effects. Let me show you how to do this by applying an example mask to our compositoin and then compositing it with our effect we have added.

Learn the effect that many youtubers use to present their music videos. Audio spectrum allows us to create moving live graphic which react to sound.

Creating transparent videos is one of the key functionalities and usages of After Effects. It allows us to render a video, and then use the video in other software above each other to create interesting effects.

Very often we come across a clip or animation that is perfect , but it should take 1 or 2 seconds less to play. With time remapping we can remap and adjust the timing of any animation, layer or composition there is.

Every amateur recording (especially phone recordings) get shaky, but they might be actually good and usable footage. Let me show you how you can stabilize that motion and use the video you recorded from Your hand in a real-example.

If you are a video professional and work with green screens and want to achieve transparent footage you might want to take a look into this effect. Let me show you how to get rid of a color in a footage file and use it as a transparent one.

These things are getting a bit more advanced, motion tracking is one of the greatest tools After Effects from the Adobe suite and cloud has to offer. Motion tracking allows us to track any kind of motion in our video to for example attach information or floating boxes around it.

You will face the problem that two After Effects projects can't be opened at the same time. Luckily there is the possibility to package up certain elements of a project and then just import it straight into another After Effects project.

I want to showcase basic camera usage in After Effects. I will tell you all the details that need to be put in place in order to add a camera, like enabling 3d, using a null layer, and selecting a lens. Additionally we go over a few options like Depth of Field and how to manipulate it. This is meant to be a very basic explanation of cameras, keep in mind that this topic would need several hours to be explained thoroughly.

In this video I would like to teach you the process of creating modern looking lower thirds you can use in Your projects. Lower thirds are graphically appealing ways of introducing a person, speaker, object, or title in video production. They are used in TV news, on youtube videos and every other place imagineable. Creating them will teach you an entire workflow in After Effects.

Typography and Kinetic Typography animations are a topic for themselves. With this video however I would like to teach you how you can make simple animations with type to get used with the workflow and learn something new. This will be a complete project you can use for your own videos & animations. Learn After Effects the right way by following along the work

In this After Effects basic lesson we will create a simple logo reveal introducing a text or our logo with a nice quick motion. Use Shape Layers, Text, Effects and combine them to output stunning graphical effects

Let's make a title animation / title opener / logo intro / video introduction animation with after effects. I will guide you through the creation process of a simple minimal title opener in after effects with usage of shape layers, keyframes, track matting and using alpha matte to reveal appearing text!

With this lesson I would like you to "jump into the water" with After Effects. I will introduce you to one of your first animations to create which will help you understand the workflow and general movement through After Effects.

This is a little bonus design experience I would like to share with you. From time to time we have to prepare a design in After Effects that would seem counter-intuitive to make as a graphic designer. Designing in AE is not the same as drawing in Pohotoshop where all the tools are straightforward. I want to show you a technique of making patterns with the repeater in motion graphic software.

In this lecture I would like to show you a simple approach on a minimal title opener / lower third animation. We will animate a shape layer to showcase a line going form the top of the screen towards its bottom and revealing text along the way. A few cool After Effects tricks will be included and a few track mattes sprinkled along in this design. Let's do this project together and ease some keyframes in it!

With this crispy lecture I wish to inform and teach you about the wonderful  Puppet Pin Tool in Adobe After Effects. With help of this splendid tool  we are able to animate any PNG image we like 

Let me explain the CC Cylinder effect and its usage for simple rounded motion elements.

This tutorial will teach you how to make animated trails, strokes, and following paths behind an object. There are many ways and techniques of adding trails, for example with the echo effect and parenting but in this tutorial we will focus on creating stroke paths and using Trim Paths to reveal and hide them behind the moving shape. Just like in the example at the beginning.

In this after effects motion graphics tutorial I will go about selecting a font and creating the outlines for our stroke animation.

In this after effects motion graphics tutorial I will go about preparing and pre-composing the neccesary layers.

In this after effects motion graphics tutorial I will go about applying effects to our composition.

In this after effects motion graphics tutorial I will go about selecting the right colors and filling our letters with them.

In this after effects motion graphics tutorial I will go about another letter from scratch, so you can watch the entire workflow and memorize important things.

In this after effects motion graphics tutorial I will go about additional workflow tips to make it quicker for you.

In this after effects motion graphics tutorial I will go about how to finalize the animation!