Learning how to use After Effects is daunting. The user interface is not very intuitive. The shortcuts are different to other Adobe programs. And it’s hard to know what’s possible.
It’s not the sort of program you can just sit down at and figure out. If you hit a roadblock, you could be stuck for hours. YouTube university helps a lot, but it would take a long time to get a full grasp of AE this way. That’s why I chose to put my head down for a few weeks and really dive deep into it by completing an online course from udemy.com.
It was slow going, and sometimes repetitive but I kept plugging along aiming to spend at least 6 hours a day learning. I did have some prior experience with the program, but I was enjoying the process of filling in the gaps of my knowledge.
After about 3 weeks, it was safe to say I felt comfortable with After Effects. I had learnt Kinetic Typography, Basic Animation, Masking/Rotoscoping, Motion Tracking and loads more.
I’m proud to say that I’ve already started getting work using these skills. Mostly logo animation work for graphic designers, webpages and social media. I’ve put together a showreel of what I can do, which you can view below.