Animation in After Effects: Your beginner's tutorial

Step by step, you will learn how to animate in After Effects using this trailer as an example.

Welcome to the Animation in After Effects training. In this introductory video training, we'll discuss what we're going to do together and what it's all about.

The Disney rules are the basis of many animation studios and courses, which is why they should not be missing here. In this live video training session, we will focus on the first six.

The Disney Rules are the basis of many animation studios and courses, which is why they should not be missing here. In this part, we will look at the 6 missing rules and their importance in animation.

In this video training, we discuss the basic concept and the design decisions I made in the run-up to this practical project.

Here we build the basic setup for our project, which enables us to work easily and efficiently in our 2-color concept, and also create the conditions for the transitions.

The video training aims to develop a handmade, cartoon-like look that is characterized, among other things, by the text, which appears to be drawn over and over again. We are building our setup for this here.

In the intro sequence, the text should appear to be written on the screen. There are various techniques for this, which we will discuss, compare and apply in this video training.

Here we start with the bouncing ball, think about the physical rules of its behavior and set the basic poses.

Once the poses have been set, it's time for the basic adjustment of the curves. We will discuss working with curves in After Effects in general and everything that is important.

Timing is very important for an authentic bouncing ball. In this video training session, we will focus on this and try to fine-tune our ball.

One of the Disney rules is: Squash & Stretch. In this video training, we discuss the optimal workflow for this in After Effects and what is important when using the Bouncing Ball.

Making objects disappear borders on a magic trick. Making them burst is just one, but very popular option of many. Here I show you how I use the whole thing very simply, so that we are flexible and could also adapt it for other objects.

Here we animate our trailer a little further, create the transition to the next part and discuss the use of layers other than masks once again.

Sometimes you can break down an animation into several individual movements that together make up the finished movement. In this video training, we discuss how you can overlay such animations in AE and still maintain an overview.

To make our ball appear even more flexible, we let it tilt off the surface of the screen during the transition and bounce a little on the ground again. Another perfect animation exercise.

In animation, the last 10% of timing and spacing often make the decisive difference. That's why our tilting ball must not lack fine-tuning.

The Text Animator engine in After Effects is a very powerful tool that can be used to create many complex animations. Here, we will start to take a closer look at the basics, because I am almost certain that many of you have been using it for a long time, but still do not fully appreciate its potential.

This part is about the skillful use and combination of text tools with expressions. These little tricks simplify our work at every point so that we can concentrate exclusively on the creative part.

Here we insert the finished setup of the text animators into our previous trailer and combine it with the animation we have already created.

Once again, fine-tuning is the final touch that should not be missing. We also take care of the transition to the next part of the trailer again.

To integrate seemingly hand-drawn illustrations into the trailer, we turn to the doodle effect from After Effects, which achieves exactly the result we need without much effort.

Twinning is one of the no-gos in animation. In this video training, I explain exactly what is behind it and how you can easily avoid it.

The interplay of music and animation is an important component of good motion design. Here I show you my way of working with music in AE and also show you the possibility of making the words of a text appear exactly on the beat of the music.

Another important animation principle or animation tip that I would like to share with you here. In this video training, I'll show you how we can integrate it into our work as easily as possible.

We take a second look at the Text Animator engine, but this time in a completely different way. Because behind this system is actually a simple way to animate many objects procedurally. I'll show you how we use it here.

In this part, we will focus on the animation of our text animators, once again following the Disney Rules, of course!

For the last shot of the trailer, we create a new transition and move to the next part using scaling. In this part, we explain how this can be done quickly and attractively and what the difference is between approximation and scaling.

There are only a few small details missing from the final product, which we still have to work through in this last part. After that, there will be a short conclusion and we will have completed the first animation project together.

We have done it. Our trailer project is completely animated and in this video training we take a look at the result and draw a conclusion.

Complex animation projects often consist of many sub-compositions. In this quick tip, I explain how to animate them optimally to a master sound.

Sometimes the little quick tips are the most valuable. In this one, for example, we look at a very simple way of reversing the layer order within the composition. Small but powerful!

With many objects, it always works well if not everything happens at the same time. In this quick tip, I explain how animations can be staggered very easily and also for a large number of objects.

The Puppet Tool is a fantastic tool for animation in After Effects. However, working with it is not always a pleasure. Here I explain a nice way to take your work with this tool to a new level.

Animation is often about reproducing physical conditions. In this video training course, I show you what pendulum movements are all about in this context and how to create them convincingly.

Mostly with character animations, but also often with MotionGraphics, the aim is to create an animation from several pre-built assets that are faded in and out one after the other. In this video training, I show you the optimal workflow for this type of animation.

Sometimes you have to loop a created animation, i.e. play it again and again in succession. How this works without first rendering out the animation is explained here.

In some situations, you don't create your composition directly in the right format or you have an animation where you only want to render out the most necessary/used area. Here I explain how to crop the composition afterwards or how to find out which area of the composition is needed by the animation.

If you move an object along a certain movement path, it often makes sense to align the object with it. How to avoid the annoying additional animation of the rotation is explained here.

Auxiliary lines are a useful tool, especially for layout purposes or indications of station logos etc.. However, many people do not know that they also exist in AE. Where they are hidden and how to work with them is explained here.

Shape layers offer a nice way to procedurally duplicate certain objects in After Effects, but at this point we lack the option to offset the animation of the objects in time. But there is also a workaround for this, which I would like to show you here.

After Effects projects often go from hand to hand, for example from the rigger to the animator or from the template creator to the user. Under certain circumstances, however, they should not have to deal with all parts of the project, which is why I would like to show you here how to make a project "idiot-proof" :-)

In day-to-day work, small workflow optimizations can save hours of work over time. These optimizations definitely include scripts available for AE. In this tip, I will show you my absolute favorites and how to use them.

With the Puppet Tool there are always problems if you want to additionally influence an already animated object using the pins. I will show you here how you can work around this and go beyond the limits of this tool.

Not only once have I been asked to simulate a screencast, for example to present a website that is not yet finished. The challenge here is always to re-animate the mouse movement. I explain here how this can be done most efficiently.

Versioning our After Effects files is a very important way of working. I'll show you here how important this is and how easy it is to do in AE.

Some things are needed more often or even repeatedly. In this quick tip, I will show you how to reuse, adapt and update existing parts from previous projects.

With belly bands, openers and the like, you always need the same composition with slightly different content. Here I show you how this can be optimized and automated using expressions.

If you do things more than once, it's worth thinking about a preset. I'll show you how to create these and also save non-effect-related things here.

Small optimizations to the way you work can set you apart as an animator and make you the fastest. This starts with the navigation within the timeline. Shortcuts make everything faster.

Sometimes you have a huge After Effects project in front of you, but you only need one composition and its contents to continue working. How to optimize the project at such a point and retain all assets that are used in this or one of its sub-compositions is presented here.

Time is money. This also applies to rendering, which normally completely paralyzes After Effects. However, you can also render in the background and thus save a lot of time.

You often find yourself in a situation where you want to compare two or more frames within AE. Here I will show you what is hidden behind the snapshot function and what many people don't even know.

With fill methods, you can create many effects and combine objects beautifully. But this huge dropdown is no fun on yours. Isn't there an easier way?

You don't always just want to copy. When copying expressions or effects, for example, you sometimes have special requirements. In this video training, I'll show you what After Effects has to offer here.

To impress colleagues or even for the one or other rendering error, there are of course Easter Eggs in After Effects, but also hidden presets! You can find out what they are all about here.

The worst errors are those that cannot be explained. These include errors where one or two frames suddenly spin in the middle of the animation. The reasons for this and what you can do about it are shown here.

Masks are always needed. How to differentiate between masks and shapes and how to edit masks optimally afterwards is explained here.

I would have been grateful for this tip many times to clean up small imperfections in certain situations. What I mean by that is presented here.

Whether for international presentations, English expressions or English-language templates: every now and then you want to switch your After Effects to English. The simple trick to do this is shown here.