After Effects in a Day

Getting Started with Animation & Video Post-Production

After Effects is a powerful component of Adobe's suite of design software that allows you to create professional motion graphics with a simple but powerful user interface. This course will have you up and running quickly, as you learn to create animated GIFs, logos, transitions, and more. You'll get hands-on experience in a small class led by a leading motion graphics instructor. Get started in this one-day workshop, or dive right into our intensive After Effects Level 1.

This hands-on After Effects class is designed to teach you the essentials of the user interface, the timeline, video, layer animation, easing in and out, fade-ins, and more.

Prior experience with Photoshop is recommended, but not required.

This After Effects course is held at our design school, Noble Desktop, in SoHo.

Small classes
Computer provided
Book included
Free retake

What You'll Learn

Create animations with graphics such as logos and photos
Become familiar with the interface, timeline, and layers
Import and use layered files from Photoshop & Illustrator
Animate the individual components of a logo
Create fluid, natural motion with easing
Add transitions such as fade-ins & fade-outs
Export your project to create an animated GIF

Full Course Syllabus

Download PDF Outline

Section 1

Intro to After Effects

The Project, Composition, & Timeline panels
Importing a Layered File with all its Layers Intact
Using Title Safety to ensure TV viewers can see the text

Working with Keyframes

Animating in the Class Names
Previewing in real time
Adding Easing
Sliding Over the Entire Class List
Animating the Icons
Animating the “In a Day” Title
Adding Motion Blur
Trimming Off Extra Time

Outputting to GIF

Exporting from After Effects
Making the Animated GIF in Photoshop
Reducing the Number of Frames

Section 2

Noble Logo Animation: Anchor Points & Animating with Overshoot

Converting an Illustrator file from CMYK to RGB
Animating the black square to overshoot its final size
Changing where the rectangles scale from by moving layer anchor points
Setting layer in points using the In column
Keeping vector layers sharp as they scale up

Noble Logo: Masking Layers & Parenting

Pre-composing layers
Hiding the letters before they animate using masks
Moving the entire logo away from the rising letters using parenting

Noble Logo: Rotation, Fade-Outs, & Rendering

Adding anticipation keyframes before a major animation
Animating the Rotation property
Adding a fade to white using a solid color layer
How to find missing project files

Optional Bonus: Preparing an Illustrator File for Animation

Resizing artboards & vector graphics
Setting up layers to individually animate elements in After Effects

Bonus: HBO Intro Sequence

Importing Flattened Files & Adding Easing

Importing a layered PSD as a merged file
Isolating HBO logo, Feature & Presentation text using masks
Creating fade-ins & fade-outs
Adding automatic easing to slow down portions of the animation

Working with Numerous Layers

Familiarizing ourselves with the Photoshop layout: layers extending outside canvas bounds, guides
Scaling up each tile using a single null object and Parenting
Randomizing the order in which the photos animate in
Orchestrating the exit animation so the tiles fall down in diagonal groups

Vector Layouts

Animating vector shapes using the Trim Paths feature
Continuous rasterization
More null objects: animating the three pay television content descriptors

Putting It All Together & Adding Audio

Sequencing multiple compositions
Animating like an editor: overlapping shots & using blending modes
Adding audio to a composition