After Effects Weekly

24h 54mIntermediate2023-03-30

Authors

Eran Stern

Teacher and Motion Designer, 20+ years of post-production experience

Course details

During the last few years, After Effects has grown from a simple software program into an ever-evolving motion graphics ecosystem. New features are being added each quarter and it's getting hard to keep up. This weekly series demonstrates tips, tricks, and techniques to help you to stay on top of the changes and reveals undocumented effects and shortcuts that will blow you away. Learn how to reset tools, control animations, create effects, control layers, fix issues, and integrate with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Cinema 4D. Tune in every Friday for a new tip.

Skills covered

Tips, Tricks, & TechniquesMotion GraphicsAfter EffectsRenderingMotion Graphics and VFXVisualization and Real-TimeAdobeAECProduct and ManufacturingAnimation and Illustration

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome

Fall 2018

02 - Random shapes animation
03 - Fix Photoshop layers
04 - Bouncy animation
05 - Cut out stop-motion animation
06 - Dangerous curves
07 - Reveal layers and melt colors
08 - Track matte with Colorama
09 - Match color and motion blur
10 - Useful utility effects
11 - Morph type weights
12 - Animated decorative shapes

Winter 2019

13 - Create jumpy characters
14 - Shatter and explode
15 - Changing the default Cinema 4D file
16 - Parenting Cinema 4D files
17 - Extracting Cinema 4D passes
18 - Extracting Cinema 4D layers
19 - Environment options
20 - Easy seamless textures
21 - Creating fan cards animation
22 - Folding elements
23 - Choosing the best color to key
24 - Render Water
25 - Liquid Text
26 - Stabilizing color
27 - Displacement recipe

Spring 2019

28 - Alternative options, part 1
29 - Alternative options, part 2
30 - Reset tools
31 - Poster time and thumbnails
32 - Hidden things
33 - Timeline extras
34 - Uprez video
35 - Good parenting
36 - Light control
37 - Object orientation

Summer 2019

38 - Render to GIF
39 - Silky smooth roller titles
40 - Upgrade legacy blurs
41 - Animating with transitions
42 - Compositing smoke and water
43 - Fade audio
44 - Audio breakdown
45 - Vignette options
46 - Easy, fast pie chart
47 - Scrub colors
48 - Accelerated effects
49 - Faking rack focus
50 - Export a Premiere Pro project

Fall 2019

51 - Open multiple After Effects instances
52 - Easter eggs
53 - Content-Aware Fill
54 - Removing the wobbling effect
55 - Ghost smearing effect
56 - Applying tracking to an effect point
57 - Reverse stabilization
58 - Puppet tool tricks
59 - Animating an emoji
60 - Using masks to control effects
61 - Refine edge matte
62 - Creating a watermark template

Winter 2020

63 - Creating a social animation template
64 - Baking Cinema 4D keyframes
65 - Saving Photoshop layers
66 - Importing Illustrator artwork through XD
67 - Reposition the anchor point
68 - White balance workflow
69 - Chromatic aberration effect
70 - Maintain hair details
71 - Compositing with multichannel EXR
72 - Isometric camera
73 - Camera control
74 - Infinite zoom
75 - The Dependencies menu

Spring 2020

76 - Water effects, part 1
77 - Water effects, part 2
78 - Water effects, part 3
79 - Effect controls
80 - Drop-down menu control
81 - Auto-trace video
82 - Fast bokeh
83 - Reset the camera tracker
84 - Contact shadows
85 - Light transmission
86 - 3D channel effects
87 - Depth using duplicates
88 - Per-character 3D text

Summer 2020

89 - Keyframes 101
90 - Control paths
91 - Animating paint strokes
92 - Stretch lights
93 - Revealing using offset paths
94 - Concentric shape repeaters
95 - Tapered shape strokes
96 - Unmult
97 - Creating a precise matte with Auto-trace
98 - Auto resize comp
99 - Planar tracking
100 - Attaching graffiti to a building
101 - Compositing sky and birds

Fall 2020

102 - Paint bucket matte
103 - Exporting alpha channel
104 - Firey, swirly text
105 - Dynamic text templates
106 - Paragraph text settings
107 - Clone Stamp tool
108 - The importance of mockups
109 - Match curvature surface distortion
110 - Merge camera
111 - Viewport render
112 - Quick multi-plane

Winter 2021

113 - Advanced camera options
114 - Particles controller

Spring 2021

115 - Eyedropper tips
116 - Changing stroke caps and weight
117 - Controlling word spacing
118 - Mask modes
119 - Rotobrush 2.0
120 - 3D design workspace
121 - 3D shortcuts
122 - 3D models from dimension
123 - Colorful torus
124 - Essential properties
125 - Logo repeater
126 - Previewing After Effects project
127 - Better displacement

Summer 2021

128 - Improved composition toolbar
129 - Media replacement in MOGRTs
130 - Rule of thirds grid
131 - Flat look extrusion
132 - Simple environment layer
133 - Easy inertia
134 - Match composition duration
135 - Un-precomps
136 - Crop precomps
137 - InDesign and After Effects workflow
138 - Sine line
139 - More accurate content-aware fill
140 - Convert text to sand

Fall 2021

141 - Controlling text styling with expressions
142 - Using variable fonts
143 - Working with SVG fonts
144 - Libraries integration
145 - Using behaviours
146 - Cylinder lines logo
147 - Fixing color over time
148 - Rendering to .mp4
149 - Removing noise
150 - Wipe with border
151 - Particle text dots
152 - LED screen effect
153 - Motion trails

Winter 2022

154 - Search tips
155 - Color accuracy
156 - Speculative preview
157 - Composition profiler
158 - Multi-frame rendering
159 - Render faster
160 - Out of frame cutout
161 - White balance with Divide
162 - Move between comps
163 - Correctly transform shapes
164 - True layer duplicator
165 - Fractal noise perspective offset
166 - Storm particles transition

Spring 2022

167 - Quick wireframe
168 - Magic switcher
169 - Reference text
170 - Faster previews
171 - Inner glow
172 - Effects motion path
173 - Channel operations
174 - Light leaks
175 - Dust specks
176 - Animated scribble text
177 - Multicam edit
178 - Halftone effect
179 - Reduce project and archive

Fall 2022

180 - The advanced comp settings
181 - 3D binning
182 - Time slicing
183 - Quick chromatic aberration
184 - Easy parallax
185 - Anchor point mover
186 - Stagger layers
187 - Fake depth and light
188 - Smooth text animation
189 - Animated variable stroke
190 - Export gradient maps from Photoshop
191 - Shapes madness
192 - Autofill

Winter 2023

193 - Extended viewport
194 - Selectable track matte
195 - Keyframe color labels
196 - Native H.264 encoding
197 - New comp presets
198 - New animation presets
199 - Social template
200 - Easy text change
201 - Bind gradient to text
202 - 2D to 3D projection mapping
203 - Negative light
204 - Render bounding boxes
205 - Preferences recommendations