2D Motion Graphics in After Effects [CGMA, Mehreen Bazm, Group-Buy]

Learn to navigate the essential keyframing tools and techniques in After Effects to create stunning 2D motion graphics for personal projects, advertising, and commercial use. This course equips artists from any discipline with the skills to enhance their demo reels, elevate pitch presentations, and enrich their portfolios. Each week, students will tackle strategic projects that simulate real industry deadlines, pacing, and design trends. From conceptualization to animation completion, students will master the basic principles of combining design with motion to produce unique and effective animations.

Week 1: After Effects Interface – Part I

• Student introductions: backgrounds and expectations
• Overview of the AE interface: creating compositions, project settings, timelines, and keyframes
• Working with video settings and codecs, exporting projects, and industry-standard animations

Week 2: After Effects Interface – Part II

• Learning essential features: AE shortcuts, layer management, importing from Photoshop, and project organization
• Understanding pre-compositions, media caches, morphing shapes, and masking techniques

Week 3: Style Frames & Mood Boards

• Creating style frames and mood boards using After Effects and Photoshop
• Techniques for lighting, blurring, color correction, and trendy layout design

Week 4: After Effects Interface – Part III

• Working with overlays, alphas, green screens, and mattes
• Introduction to expressions and basic effects from the effects panel (key light, wiggle, blurs)

Week 5: Lights, Cameras, and Kinetic Type

• Exploring camera tools in After Effects: z-space and depth of field
• Understanding lighting effects, parallaxing, and kinetic typography

Week 6: Infographics & Video Editing

• Creating informative infographics that blend text and visuals
• Basic editing techniques in Adobe Premiere
• Developing portfolio reels

Week 7: Show Packages, Opening/Closing Animations, and Lower Thirds

• Crafting opening animations to introduce products or services effectively
• Designing closing animations and lower thirds, as well as show packages
• Introduction to frame tracking, tools, and pipelines in After Effects
• Beginning the final project

Week 8: Portfolios & the Motion Graphics Market

• Overview of the motion graphics market: freelancing rates and job opportunities
• Preparing for the job market: how to stand out and work ethics
• Final project completion

By the end of this course, students will have developed a short demo reel to showcase their skills and creativity in their portfolios.

You can find more details by following this link.