Adobe After Effects CC Mastery Course (VFX + Motion Design)

Welcome to this module - Adobe After Effects CC Basics

In this lecture, students will get a complete walkthrough of Adobe After Effects’ interface. Learn how to navigate the workspace, understand its panels, and explore the functionalities of key menus. This lecture ensures that even complete beginners feel confident and ready to use the software effectively.

Adobe After Effects allows users to personalize their workspace for maximum efficiency. This lecture teaches students how to rearrange panels, save custom layouts, and optimize the interface to suit their workflow preferences. Mastering customization is crucial for professional-level efficiency.

Students will dive into the backbone of Adobe After Effects: compositions, the timeline, and the viewport. Learn how to create and organize compositions, navigate and manipulate the timeline, and adjust the viewport to bring ideas to life. By mastering these core elements, students will be prepared to build and manage complex projects.

Adobe After Effects is packed with tools that power creativity. This lecture highlights the essential tools, such as the selection, pen, and shape tools, as well as the text and transformation controls. Students will understand when and how to use these tools to start crafting animations and effects.

Adobe After Effects can be resource-intensive, but with the right tips and tricks, students can improve its performance. In this lecture, learn how to manage cache, adjust preview settings, and optimize the software to avoid lag and delays, ensuring a smoother workflow on any project.

Welcoem to this exciting module - Layers in Adobe After Effects

In this lecture, students will explore the concept of layers in Adobe After Effects. Learn about the different layer types, such as text, shape, solid, adjustment, and null layers, and understand how each plays a unique role in motion graphics and VFX projects.

Dive into the core properties of layers, including position, scale, rotation, and opacity. This lecture provides a hands-on approach to manipulating these properties, explaining how they interact with the anchor point for precise transformations.

Adobe After Effects has many small but powerful layer features that can make a big difference in workflows. In this lecture, students will discover features like motion blur, shy layers, collapse transformations, and more, learning how to use them to refine their projects.

Animation breathes life into layers. This lecture introduces students to the basics of keyframing in Adobe After Effects, explaining how to set keyframes and manipulate timing to create smooth, dynamic animations.

Learn how to use layer styles to enhance the appearance of layers with effects like drop shadows, glows, and strokes. This lecture demonstrates how to apply and customize layer styles for professional-looking results.

Masks are an essential tool for controlling layer visibility and creating stunning effects. In this lecture, students will learn how to draw, animate, and refine masks to shape or reveal parts of a layer.

Unlock the potential of text by converting it into editable vector shapes. This lecture walks students through the process of converting text into shape layers, enabling them to create unique, scalable animations and designs.

Put theory into practice! In this exercise, students will combine layers, animations, and masks to create their first complete animation in Adobe After Effects. This hands-on lecture builds confidence and reinforces the concepts learned so far.

Welcome to this module - Exporting out of Adobe After Effects

This lecture covers the essentials of exporting in Adobe After Effects. Students will learn how to use the Render Queue, select the right codecs, and adjust export settings for the best results. Whether it’s a high-quality video or a lightweight file, this lecture ensures students are equipped to render professional outputs.

Transparent backgrounds are essential for overlay graphics, animations, and logo reveals. In this lecture, students will learn how to export videos with transparency using formats like QuickTime with Alpha channels. This knowledge is crucial for integrating Adobe After Effects projects into other software seamlessly.

GIFs are a popular format for web and social media. This lecture demonstrates how to create and export high-quality GIFs from Adobe After Effects using Adobe Media Encoder. Students will also learn how to optimize their GIFs for smaller file sizes without compromising on quality.

Welcome to this module - Adobe Libraries

In this lecture, students will be introduced to Adobe Libraries and their integration with Adobe After Effects. Learn how to create, organize, and manage libraries containing assets like colors, graphics, and templates. Students will also discover how to access shared libraries for collaboration and maintain a unified asset library across multiple projects.

This lecture dives deeper into integrating Adobe Color with Adobe Libraries. Students will learn how to create custom color palettes using Adobe Color and save them to libraries for immediate access in After Effects. This ensures cohesive color schemes and efficient workflows when working on motion graphics and VFX projects.

Welcome to this exciting module - Useful Adobe After Effects Skills.

Track mattes are a powerful way to control layer visibility and create complex effects. In this lecture, students will learn how to set up and use track mattes, including alpha and luma mattes, to create dynamic animations in Adobe After Effects.

This lecture introduces frame blending techniques to create smoother transitions between frames and inverse selection for precise layer adjustments. Students will learn when and how to use these features to enhance visual fluidity and refine their compositions in Adobe After Effects.

Time remapping unlocks creative possibilities by allowing students to manipulate the speed of their footage. In this lecture, students will explore how to create slow-motion, fast-forward, and freeze-frame effects, adding dramatic impact to their After Effect projects.

Expand your control over time with techniques like time reversal, time stretching, and frame freezing. This lecture teaches students how to reverse footage, stretch time to fit specific durations, and create impactful freeze-frame effects for storytelling.

Pre-compositions (pre-comps) help organize complex projects and streamline animations. In this lecture, students will learn how to create and use pre-comps effectively, nesting multiple layers into manageable units without losing flexibility or control.

Content-Aware Fill is a game-changing tool for removing unwanted objects from video footage. This lecture covers how to use this feature to clean up scenes and maintain seamless visual quality, saving time on post-production.

Shaky footage can ruin the professionalism of a project. In this lecture, students will learn how to stabilize video using the Warp Stabilizer in Adobe After Effects, ensuring smooth and polished results for their projects.

Put your time manipulation skills to the test! This hands-on exercise guides students through creating a project that incorporates time remapping, allowing them to practice and experiment with speed changes and dramatic timing effects.

Welcome to this module - Working Faster and Smarter in Adobe After Effects.

Shortcuts can transform the way you navigate Adobe After Effects. In this lecture, students will learn essential keyboard shortcuts for common tasks like creating compositions, trimming layers, and navigating the timeline. By mastering these shortcuts, students will significantly improve their speed and productivity.

Adobe After Effects allows users to personalize their workflow with custom keyboard shortcuts. This lecture teaches students how to customize shortcuts for their most-used tools and commands, tailoring the software to their unique needs and preferences for maximum efficiency.

This lecture provides actionable tips for streamlining workflows in Adobe After Effects. Students will learn best practices for organizing projects, using templates, optimizing performance, and leveraging features like the Disk Cache and Proxy Files. These tips will help students achieve professional results faster.

Welcome to the module - Principles of Animation.

In this lecture, students will explore the 12 fundamental principles of animation, including timing, spacing, squash and stretch, anticipation, and follow-through. Students will gain an understanding of how these principles bring life and personality to animations in Adobe After Effects. This foundational knowledge is essential for producing polished, professional work.

This lecture puts the principles of animation into action. Students will learn how to implement these principles directly in Adobe After Effects, applying timing, easing, and spacing to their animations. Through practical exercises, students will see how the principles improve their work, transforming basic motion into captivating, realistic animations.

Welcome to this exciting module - Keyframes and the Graph Editor in Adobe After Effects.

The Graph Editor is a powerful tool in Adobe After Effects that gives students control over the velocity and easing of their keyframes. In this lecture, students will explore how to read and edit motion graphs to create smooth, fluid animations. The session covers both the Speed Graph and Value Graph, teaching students how to refine their animations with precision and make them feel more natural.

In this lecture, students will learn how to create and manipulate keyframes in Adobe After Effects. Keyframes are the core tool for animation, and this session covers how to set, adjust, and delete keyframes. Students will also learn about different types of keyframes (e.g., linear, ease in, ease out) and how they affect the timing and feel of their animations.

In this hands-on classwork, students will apply keyframe techniques and the Graph Editor to create a bouncing ball animation. This exercise emphasizes the principles of timing, spacing, and easing, allowing students to practice their new skills in Adobe After Effects and see the effect of keyframes and graph editing on realistic motion.

For the homework assignment, students will create a more complex animation, applying keyframe skills learned in this module. The task will encourage students to experiment with different easing techniques and the Graph Editor to refine their animation and achieve smooth, natural motion.

Welcome to this module - Shape Modifiers in in After Effects

The Merge Path modifier is an essential tool for combining and modifying different shape paths in Adobe After Effects. In this lecture, students will learn how to use the Merge Path feature to combine multiple paths, adjust their order, and apply transformations to create complex shapes and animations with ease.

Offset Path allows students to create variations of shapes by offsetting the position of a path from its original position. In this lecture, students will explore how to use the Offset Path modifier to generate new shapes, create outlines, and design intricate visual effects that add depth and movement to their animations.

Plucker and Bloat are shape modifiers that allow students to distort and expand paths. In this lecture, students will learn how to use these modifiers to creatively manipulate shapes, adding interesting variations that can enhance motion graphics and VFX in their After Effects projects.

The Repeater modifier enables students to create multiple instances of a shape, duplicating it along a path or grid. This lecture will teach students how to use the Repeater to create patterns, duplicating shapes dynamically to enhance motion graphics, logo animations, and other visual elements in Adobe After Effects.

The Round Center modifier helps students achieve smooth, curved transformations in their shapes. This lecture covers how to use Round Center to round the corners or edges of shapes, offering more organic and softer designs that can be useful for logos, icons, and other vector-based elements.

Trim Path is a powerful tool used to animate vector strokes along a path. This lecture covers how to use the Trim Path modifier to create effects like revealing or erasing a path, which is especially useful for animating logos, drawing lines, and creating dynamic transitions in Adobe After Effects.

Twisting shapes is a great way to create dynamic, distorted animations. In this lecture, students will explore how to use the Twist modifier to add rotation effects to vector paths, creating eye-catching animations that can be used for logo reveals, transitions, and stylized visuals in Adobe After Effects.

The Wiggle Path modifier enables users to create random, wavy distortions along a path. This lecture teaches students how to apply and control the Wiggle Path modifier, adding lively, organic movements to their shapes and making animations feel more dynamic and playful.

Wiggle Transform adds random transformations to shapes in Adobe After Effects, making animations feel more chaotic and unpredictable. In this lecture, students will learn how to use this tool to animate transformations like position, scale, and rotation with a wiggly, organic movement.

The Zigzag modifier turns straight paths into zigzag patterns with varying levels of intensity. In this lecture, students will learn how to manipulate the Zigzag modifier to create sharp, angular shapes and transitions that add emphasis and excitement to their animations in Adobe After Effects.

Fill and Stroke are fundamental properties of shape layers in Adobe After Effects. This lecture teaches students how to apply and adjust fill and stroke settings to modify the appearance of shapes, including color, opacity, and stroke width, creating versatile visual designs for motion graphics and VFX.

In this lecture, students will learn how to create and manipulate basic shapes, such as rectangles, ellipses, polystars, and paths. Students will also explore how to combine these shapes and use them as building blocks for more complex designs, animations, and visual effects in Adobe After Effects.

This hands-on classwork allows students to apply the Trim Path modifier to create an animated icons. Students will practice revealing and hiding parts of the icons using Trim Path to enhance their understanding of animating vector paths in Adobe After Effects.

In this classwork, students will animate a smiple logo using various shape modifiers, and priciples of animation. This exercise will help students bring logos to life with dynamic movement and creative transitions.

This classwork challenges students to use various shape modifiers to create a "shock shooter" effect. By combining effects like Wiggle Path, Offset Path, and zigzag, students will design a fast-paced, energetic animation.

Students will apply shape modifiers like Trim Repeater to create a loading animation. This exercise will help students experiment with timing and shape manipulation to produce smooth, visually appealing animations in Adobe After Effects.

In this classwork, students will create a fan animation using modifiers like Twist, Wiggle Path, and Repeater. This project will help students explore how to animate complex shapes and motions to create fluid, dynamic animations.

For the homework assignment, students will create unique animations using the shape modifiers they've learned throughout this module. They will be encouraged to combine multiple techniques to produce a polished final project, demonstrating their mastery of shape manipulation in Adobe After Effects.

Welcome to this module -  Text Animation in Adobe After Effects

This lecture introduces the Transform Text Animators in Adobe After Effects, covering properties like position, scale, rotation, and opacity. Students will learn how to animate text layer transformations and apply motion principles to text for smooth and professional animations.

In this lecture, students will explore how to use the Fill, Stroke, and Stroke Width Text Animators to modify text appearance in Adobe After Effects. They will learn how to animate color changes, adjust stroke thickness, and combine these effects with other animators for unique text styles.

Students will learn to create dynamic text animations by adjusting tracking, line anchor points, and line spacing. This lecture focuses on animating text layout properties to produce smooth transitions and visually appealing designs, perfect for titles and captions in Adobe After Effects.

This lecture delves into creative text effects using Character Offset, Value, and Blur Text Animators. Students will explore how to animate text by scrambling characters, adjusting numeric values, and applying blur for stylish, impactful animations in Adobe After Effects.

Students will unlock the power of 3D Text Animator in Adobe After Effects. This lecture teaches how to add depth, rotation, and perspective to text animations, giving them a more realistic and eye-catching look suitable for professional motion graphics projects.

In this classwork session, students will practice using a combination of text animators to create a polished text animation sequence. They’ll focus on applying the techniques learned in previous lectures to create visually compelling titles or kinetic typography.

For homework, students will design a unique text animation using at least three different text animators covered in this module. The assignment encourages creativity and reinforces their ability to combine techniques to produce impactful, professional text animations in Adobe After Effects.