I thought there’d been a radioactive meltdown. After only using Premiere Pro (a basic video editing software), the sheer number of tiny symbols on the After Effects interface made me want to gouge my eyes out. The first time I ever opened After Effects, in March 2021, I was overwhelmed.
After Effects is a complex visual effect and motion design video editing software. When a flat logo slides onto the screen at the end of a commercial, it was made using a motion design tool like After Effects.
I wanted to learn After Effects to create a cartoon. . .let me explain.
I wanted to be able to tell a wider swatch of video stories than I could by only using a camera. I had sketches of characters, a plot outline, and a few basic scripts. I wanted to find a tool that would let me create animations by moving the position, scale and rotation of still drawings that I had created in another tool (like Adobe Fresco or Procreate). Moving the position, scale and rotation of still images is the core function of motion design.
This is where After Effects comes in. Without any knowledge about how to use the tool or what it was used for, I started following along with tutorials and absorbing all I could about how professional motion designers use After Effects. 5 months after I first opened After Effects, in July 2021, I finished the first episode of my cartoon.
Although the first steps I took to learn After Effects were overwhelming, within a month, I was able to use the basic functions of After Effects well enough to start incorporating storytelling and pacing into my motion design pieces. Less than a year later, I feel confident in my ability to design elegant motion design pieces that use motion to more clearly communicate the message of the overall piece.
The first step I took was to watch a collection of tutorials about how to complete the basic functions of After Effects. At this point in the process, it’s important to put in 10-20 hours using After Effects no matter how frustrating those hours may be. As you continue to use more of the functions After Effects offers, you’ll familiarize yourself with some of the buttons and symbols. When you open After Effects, you’ll have an idea of a few series of actions you could take rather than just staring at a lot of little buttons. After 10-20 hours of familiarizing myself with the basic functions of After Effects by using tutorials I found on After Effects, I signed up for the School of Motion course After Effects Kickstart.
After Effects Kickstart is a two-month introduction to After Effects course offered by School of Motion. You learn the most commonly used tools, the best practices for using them, and master the After Effects interface. As I completed the course, I was able to ground the specific details about operating a particular After Effects tool in broader knowledge about how professional motion design works.
For example, the graph editor is an After Effects tool that lets you manipulate the rate at which an object speeds up when it’s moving across the screen, among other things. The graph editor is an intimidating tool. When you click on the graph editor, instead of looking at the layers of footage that you’re used to, you’re suddenly looking at, well, a graph. Depending on which keyframes you’ve selected, you may be looking at 10 different overlapping lines. Worst of all, it’s not immediately obvious how these lines apply to your footage, how to manipulate them, or why you want to. Rather than just telling you to select the ends of the lines and drag them right and left to change the shape of the line, After Effects Kickstart did a great job of also explaining why you’d want to move the line.
The After Effects interface. Right now, we’re looking at the graph editor, which allows you to manipulate the speed at which an asset moves over time.
If you feel frustrated when you first start learning After Effects, you’re on the right path. After Effects is a deep and powerful tool that has a lot of capabilities. By focusing on familiarizing yourself with a few basic functions to start with and starting to build your foundation, you’ll have made more progress than you initially realize toward creating awesome After Effects pieces. Additionally, the more of an understanding you can gain about why you’d want to use a particular tool, the more you’ll be able to understand how what you’re learning in a particular tutorial can apply to future projects.
You can read more about how I ended up creating my cartoon here.