Animated Micro-Stories by Sociedad Fantasma

Learn to craft and animate short, character-driven stories from scratch. This course walks you through the entire pipeline—from storyboarding and character design to rigging and final compositing in After Effects. You’ll build a complete micro-story, focusing on narrative structure and visual appeal, not just technical tricks.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Develop a compelling micro-story from a simple idea.
• Design memorable characters with distinct personalities.
• Create a professional storyboard to plan your animation.
• Rig and animate characters using After Effects tools.
• Composite scenes with camera moves and animated details.

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic knowledge of Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop.
• Tools: Pencil and paper for sketching, a computer with the required software.
• Hardware: A computer capable of running After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop.

📝 Description

This isn’t just a button-pushing tutorial. Sociedad Fantasma focuses on the why behind the animation. You’ll start with a blank page and a story idea, then learn how to break it down into a solid storyboard. From there, you’ll design characters that fit your narrative, not just generic shapes.

The course dives into practical rigging techniques in After Effects, showing you how to set up characters for efficient animation. You’ll then apply classic animation principles to bring those characters to life—walking, reacting, and interacting. The final modules cover scene composition, adding animated details like dust or light leaks, and setting up a virtual camera to give your micro-story a polished, cinematic feel. It’s a complete workflow for turning a simple concept into a finished, shareable animation.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Animators looking to strengthen their storytelling skills.
• Designers and illustrators who want to move into motion graphics.
• Anyone with basic After Effects knowledge who wants to create character-driven narratives.

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Sociedad Fantasma is a Mexico City-based animation and illustration studio founded by Carlos Rupit, Gabriel Pichardo, and Lizeth Rodríguez. They specialize in crafting memorable 2D animated content for major global brands, including Google, Gatorade, Pepsi, Nike, and Jose Cuervo. Their collaborative approach focuses on strong narratives and high-quality visual execution.

🏁 Final Result

• A complete, animated micro-story (roughly 15-30 seconds) featuring original characters and a clear narrative arc, ready for portfolio or social media.