Want to learn more about compositing and digital motion graphics? We have 6 best Adobe After Effects tutorials. We know how hard it can be for beginners to work with this special software. Video and film post-production will be easier and your friends will love your new skills.
What is Adobe After Effects
Before we start on the most helpful tutorials we have for you, let’s see what Adobe After Effects is all about. Have you ever wondered how those movies and commercials look so great? The software we’re discussing here is the culprit. Directors love to use it because it creates amazing visual effects. Those websites you visit daily use the same program. It creates smooth transition effects and it improves many visual elements.
If you want to create your own special effects for school or as a hobby, you’ve already looked for a tutorial. There are many free basic ones for a beginner to play with. They use video explanations that are easy to follow. YouTube, for one, is full of such examples. Should you want to download the software on your laptop, you can use a torrent. In case you don’t want to do that, we have some tutorials for you. They’re aimed at complete beginners, intermediate users, and professionals.
Video CoPilot
This website is one of the most popular ones for people who want to learn about Adobe After Effects. Video CoPilot offers the kind of lessons that first-time users will enjoy a lot. They explain everything there is to know about a certain effect and they discuss animation principles.
Your teachers will be Pascal Verstegen from Noa Studios and Andrew Kramer. Both of them are professionals and you’ll have great fun watching their videos. After you’re done with their tutorials, you’ll have a basic understanding of many things. Animation, 3D, and masks are only some of them.
Adobe After Effects Tutorials
If you want to learn straight from the creators of Adobe After Effects, visit their website. Then download the After Effects CC if you haven’t already. The site has 4 categories for you to discover:
- Get started.
- Learn essentials.
- Key techniques.
- New features.
Each of the above comes with several chapters. You’ll get introduced to Adobe Effects first. Next, they’ll walk you through everything you can do with the software. Beginners are welcome to browse tutorials that are short and sweet. When you feel ready to test your new skills, the site has a hands-on project for you.
Lynda
The database on Lynda.com contains many Adobe After Effects tutorials. You can try it for free for 10 days. If you like their videos, you can opt for different membership types. Two of them are basic at $24.99 and $19.99 per month. The third and fourth options are premium and they’re $34.99 and $29.99 per month.
Once you’ve selected a membership, you can access more than 4,300 online courses. The Adobe Effects versions they work with are CC 2014, CC 2015, CC, and CS6. The tutorials are for beginners, intermediate, and advanced users. They teach you about:
- Photography.
- Video2brain.
- Video.
- Web.
- 3D + Animation.
Digital Tutors
This is another site that asks for paid membership. It’s worth it, though. Their online catalog of Adobe After Effects tutorials is one of the most generous we found. You have 2 options to make the most out of their classes: a basic membership and a plus membership.
The first package is $29 per month while the other one is $49 per month. To see just how much it pays to become a member, you should know that they work with famous names. DreamWorks and Ubisoft are only two of them.
Tuts+
If you’re looking for free tutorials, this is the place to be. They offer many intro templates, lessons on multi-pass rendering, and the list goes on. Advanced users are invited to take part in a couple of competitions. If they do, they can win up to $5,000 in prizes.
The website offers Adobe After Effects course in many languages. There’s German, Spanish, and Polish, just to name a few.
Creative COW
The team behind Creative COW has a long history. They first started in 2001 and they’ve expanded over the years. There are 24 pages of tutorials, so make sure you have time to browse them. More are added daily.
The video and test lessons that are already available aren’t difficult to follow. The language is clear and you’ll find out a lot of valuable tips and tricks.
These were our top 6 online resources for everything Adobe After Effects. There are, yet, a lot more tutorials to try out. Below is a list of the most interesting ones.
Video Lessons from Layers Magazine
Our list of free Adobe Effects resources continues with the tutorials offered by Layers Magazine. The most recent post dates back to 2015. Even if they haven’t added materials in a long time, what they do have is valuable.
The lessons are shown in video format. If you enjoy one or all, you can download them on your computer.
Beginner’s Guide to Adobe After Effects
Beginners who want to move from Photoshop to Adobe After Effects should read the post above. For starters, you’ll learn about layers, projects, and compositions. Later on, you’ll continue with expression and more.
As soon as you’re done with that, you’ll move to shape layers and animated typography. Rototools, 3D, and plugins will come up next. The quick guide has a major advantage: it makes learning fun and easy.
How to Create a Sci-Fi Movie Title Sequence
Sci-Fi movies and TV shows have become popular again after a long time. The tutorial on Tuts+ shows you how a Sci-Fi title sequence works and how you can create one. By the end of the day, you’ll know your way around text animation and title cards.
Video CoPilot borrowed their Twitch plugin for this lesson. If you aren’t a fan of this tool, you can use manual keyframing instead. The results will be the same.
Star in Your Own Harry Potter Movie
Fans of the Harry Potter franchise will especially enjoy this tutorial. The Adobe After Effects is the perfect tool to create a movie title reminiscent of an HP movie.
Create Beautiful Lighting
Visual effects, or VFX in short, have been used in movies for a while now. Some of them are visible from a mile away, others can’t be noticed with the naked eye. The success of VFX is given by how invisible your work is.
The tutorial above shows you how this can be done with little effort. Watch the video and you’ll become a pro in no time at all.
Today we had a look at some of the best Adobe After Effects tutorials and resources. Whether you just bought an Adobe CS3, CS4, or CS5, you’ll soon know your way around it. Beginners aren’t the only ones who will develop valuable skills. We have online resources for intermediate and advanced users, too. Put your new or polished skills to the test!
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