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you're wasting so much time learning
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After Effects the wrong way in this
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video I'm going to show you exactly why
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you're wasting so much time learning it
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the wrong way how you can put an end to
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it and how to actually learn After
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Effects the right way so that you can
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fully understand what you're doing but
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first let's look at what the problem
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actually is and just why after effects
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can be so difficult to learn now around
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10 years ago when I first ever opened
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After Effects I remember feeling
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completely lost I found a classic video
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co-pilot tutorial settled in and then
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closed the program about 30 seconds
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later the very first time I wanted to
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learn After Effects I set myself up for
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failure I saw a cool end result and
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thought yeah I want to make that that
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would be fun having no idea what
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anything actually did and if you're like
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me this should sound pretty familiar
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it's easy to follow a video and make
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something without any real understanding
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of what you just did and I know this
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because I dealt with this for such a
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long time so just how do we fix all of
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this and learn and understand After
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Effects well enough to produce our own
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projects but if you'd rather skip this
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video and learn After Effects more in
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depth you can go ahead and check out my
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motion Essentials course where I'll help
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you master After Effects starting from
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the very Basics and you'll have direct
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access to me through the private
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Community to really speed up your
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learning you can find the link to that
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in the description below however I
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appreciate you might not want to do this
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and that's completely fine so let me
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show you exactly how I'd learn it and
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we're going to start with the very
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Basics open after effects and just work
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your way through the user interface
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maybe start by looking at some of the
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Adobe documentation Google any questions
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you might have and generally just click
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around and see what happens getting
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comfortable with the software is one of
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the most important parts and we need to
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take things slow even things like just
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learning how to create a composition and
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learning about different file types are
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pretty essential to how you move forward
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in your journey now once you feel
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comfortable with just the general user
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interface and you're learning how to
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move around it's important you learn
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about layer properties and key frames
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your basic properties are your position
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scale rotation and opacity and these
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will make up about 99% of all your
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animation projects now to actually be
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able to animate these things we need to
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use something called key frames key
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frames tell After Effects exactly what
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you want your layer to do at which
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moment in time to make an animation
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you'll want to access your layer
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Properties by clicking this drop down
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here and then you can open up the
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transform and here you'll see the
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different properties that I mentioned
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earlier now you can then make key frames
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by pressing this stopwatch button here
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and this will create your first key
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frame now all we need to do is move
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forward in the timeline and maybe drag
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our layer over to the right and because
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I did this on the position After Effects
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will automatically create a new key
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frame for me in that next position and
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really takes care of everything in
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between now this is very basic but it's
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how After Effects and animations in
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general work and of course you can play
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with all these properties and key frame
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each one you just need to hit the
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stopwatch move forward in time and
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change the value so once you're getting
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to grips with things it's time to learn
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about shap layers and text layers
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because they work differently to other
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imported layers in After Effects now
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being able to animate text is an
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essential skill that every motion
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designer needs and there's so many
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different ways that you can do it now
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with text layers you could use transform
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properties but you'll also have access
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to something called range selectors
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range selectors can make editing
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animated text much easier and it's what
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I use the majority of the time but it
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will take some extra learning so set
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aside some time to do just that there's
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also Al built in presets for text
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effects too and you can simply find
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these in your effects and presets tab
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over on the right here and drag and drop
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these to your layers for some really
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quick text animation now when it comes
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to shapes there's definitely more than
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meets the eye than creating simple
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rectangles or circles like you might
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think with shap layers we actually have
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options to access new properties and
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something known as shape modifiers now
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if you open your shape player by
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pressing this drop down here you'll see
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this add button and that's where we can
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add shape modifiers you'll also notice
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with my layer selected I can go to the
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top here and click the add button here
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it's the exact same there's no
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difference between the two now adding
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shape modifiers to your layers are a
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really easy way to create some intricate
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looking effects very quickly and I
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recommend you learn what each one does
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most of these will also be key frameable
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so you can animate them too and the
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basics wouldn't be complete without
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taking time to learn what good workflow
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and organization is so learn good habits
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early even simple things like naming
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your layers and having a good folder
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structure can go a really long way now
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you might be watching this and thinking
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look I already know this what do I learn
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next and how do I fully learn what I'm
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doing well that's where we talk about
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the fundamentals and the fundamentals
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are an essential part of every motion
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designer talk it when it comes to the
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fundamentals I want you to focus on
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these specific things because these will
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take you the furthest first is easing
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easing is the complete bread and butter
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of any really nice looking motion piece
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and it's something that I personally put
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a huge focus on throughout any of my
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work and tutorials now for basic easing
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we can simply select the key frames that
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we've made and press F9 this will add an
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automatic easy ease to our key frames
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and you'll notice our key frame changes
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to these kind of egg timers however to
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get really smooth motion you want to
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learn both the speed graph and the value
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graph and I want you to learn them both
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to the point where you know them inside
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out now you can actually access the
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graph editor by selecting your key
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frames and going and pressing this
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button here you can then switch between
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your graphs by pressing this button down
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here and you'll see I can change between
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my value graph and my speed graph now
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manipulating these curves what you see
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on screen by selecting them and
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manipulating the bezier handles is
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really the real secret to good motion on
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top of your easing you're going to want
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to learn the 12 animation principles
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these are 12 techniques that you can
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apply to certain areas of your projects
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to really sell the work that you're
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doing and these techniques can be used
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to make your animation feel more
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lifelike and create lots of visual
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interest than a simple a Tob movement
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and it's a core skill that every
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animator really needs and there's
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something super important that allows
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you to hide certain parts of your layers
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and also changes how your layers
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interact between each other and then on
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as masks and mats very briefly masks
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give you the ability to hide certain
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parts of your layers and you can think
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of matks as more of a stencil for your
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layer masks are drawn by using the shape
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tools and drawing over your layer with
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it selected and mats are set in the
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timeline panel down here now there is a
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big difference between the two but it's
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important that you learn both as they
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can often be used together now the last
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part of the fundamentals is what will
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give your projects that depth and extra
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visual interest you're going to want to
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learn about 3D layers now in After
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Effects that's this button here and by
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pressing this it opens up another
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dimension to work with known as The Zed
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AIS it allows you to move things
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backwards and forwards in your scene
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rather than just left to right or up and
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down now once you have your Basics and
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your fundamentals it's really time for
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you to flourish just like a cake this is
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the icing on top where you'll really
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begin to develop your skills and your
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own personal style it's time to learn
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how to stylize your work with things
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like layer Styles and effects you can
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right click your layer to access layer
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Styles and this part is how you make
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your work look that little bit better
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now effects and in particular when you
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begin to layer them up can really create
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some complex looking designs without too
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much work and it's really an knowing
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about what's on offer I think you'll be
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surprised at just how far you can
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actually take after effects with the
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inbuilt effects to create some really
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stunning work now if you want to take
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things a little bit further it's time to
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learn how to automate your key frames
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now you can do this this with something
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called Expressions I can access
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Expressions by holding alt or option and
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clicking the stopwatch icon on a layer's
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property this opens up the expression
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editor which allows you to type in
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pieces of code to do exactly what you
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want and this can automate things like
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Loops within your animation very easily
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however on the flip side Expressions can
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get very complex very quickly and really
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push the boundaries of what you can do
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in After Effects now I know this has
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been a lot to take in but finally you
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are are ready for your self exploration
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you've learned the basics you've learned
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the fundamentals and you've learned how
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to apply effects and layer Styles so
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it's really time to take on your own
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personal projects now this will be a
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huge challenge at first but it is where
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you'll really really begin to come into
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your own element and really develop your
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skills as a motion designer this is
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where you'll learn exactly what you
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enjoy doing and maybe the tasks that you
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don't enjoy so much or something that
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needs a little bit more priority in your
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workflow just so you can perfect your
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craft and really love the work that you
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do now I'd recommend that you start with
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really small projects don't try and take
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on this big short film that's 1 hour
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long and you want 5 million characters
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and all these effects going on please
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just start something simple maybe try to
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recreate something that you saw someone
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else do now obviously not taking credit
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for that but learning and understanding
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how they to that point is a very very
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good way to develop your skills or maybe
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even come up with a simple style frame
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that you want to try and animate
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yourself the possibilities really are
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truly endless when it comes to animating
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your ideas and putting things in motion
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but when you're ready I'd strongly
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recommend that you focus on this part
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the most because this will teach you
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more than any tutorial ever can now I
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mentioned earlier just how powerful shap
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players can be so you'll probably want
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to check out this video next where I'll
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show you the true power of share players
