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3 Pro Tips for After Effects Beginners

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If you're an After Effects beginner, this video will show you 3 powerful tips that will upgrade your work instantly.

Designers from just about every discipline are realizing the huge career benefits one can get from adding motion to their arsenal. After Effects is the big-dawg as far as Motion Design software goes, and it can have a steep learning curve. When you're starting out, it's very helpful to have a few "go-to" tricks up your sleeve to make your work stand out.

In this tutorial, After Effects Kickstart instructor Nol Honig will show you 3 powerful tips that are meant to help beginners produce work that feels like they've been at this for years. You learn a bit about the curves editor, some adjustment layer voodoo, and an animation trick that will fool everyone!

If you have loins, you may want to gird them.

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Pro Tips for AE Beginners Project Files & Assets
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​​What are you going to learn in this tutorial?

After Effects is a deep program, and it will take you a while to really get the hang of it. Fortunately, though, there are some cool tricks that you can start using right away to help your work stand out while you're still learning the ropes.

LEARN TO USE EASES IN YOUR ANIMATION

After Effects makes it easy to use keyframes for simple animations, but your movement will look stiff and robotic if you don't learn the art of easing.

GET ACQUAINTED WITH THE SPEED GRAPH

Don't be afraid... it's just a graph! The speed graph is one of the tools you'll be using frequently to finesse your movements.

After-Effects-Beginner-Easing.jpg
Easy there, chief!

DISCOVER THE POWER OF ADJUSTMENT LAYERS

Adjustment layers let you apply "instant" looks to your work once you've figured them out.

CREATE YOUR FIRST EFFECT STACK

Every motion designer has their favorite effects combo they use to get certain looks. Nol is about to show you one of his favorites.

After-Effects-Beginner-Adjustment-Layers.jpg

Learn the Sleight-of-Hand Animation Trick

Once you learn this trick, complex transitions that you could never figure out will seem comically easy.

After-Effects-Beginner-Animation-Trick.jpg

Don't learn After Effects alone!

If you're ready to take the plunge into the world of After Effects, why not learn with a group of artists from all over the world and an industry pro at the ready to offer guidance and critique? Check out the #1 After Effects training course on the planet, After Effects Kickstart.

Our team is standing by to answer any questions you have about this course or any other class in our curriculum. Please let us know if we can help you in any way!

Not sure where to start?

If you’re a beginner, here are some great courses to help you get started:

After Effects Kickstart

Dive into the fundamentals of motion design with our most popular (and recently updated) After Effects course.

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Photoshop + Illustrator Unleashed

Master the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator and gain invaluable insights in this introductory level course.

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Design Kickstart

An introduction to the design principles behind all great work.

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More Advanced?

If you’re a more advanced student looking to up your game, here are some great options:

Animation Bootcamp

Learn the art and principles of creating beautiful movements in Adobe After Effects.

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Design Bootcamp

Learn to design for motion in this intermediate-level, project-based course.

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Cinema 4D Basecamp

Learn Cinema 4D from the ground up in this exciting introductory C4D course.

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Now is the time to learn the skills you need to advance in your motion design career: