Create then Animate Beginner’s Workflow in Illustrator & After Effects

Explore a complete workflow from illustration to animation in Adobe Illustrator and After Effects.

If you’ve been wanting to get into animation, but haven’t known where to start, this class is for you.

Have you been hesitant to get into animation because you didn’t think you were good enough at drawing, or felt that the software was too intimidating?

What if I told you that you don’t even really have to draw to illustrate? And that adding motion to your illustration is achievable, even if you’ve never opened After Effects before.

Using this winter cabin scene as an example, I’ll show you my complete workflow starting from inspiration and planning through illustrating and animating. Here’s what’s covered:

You’ll learn how to:

find inspiration yet still create a unique piece of work
organize your ideas into a moodboard
get ideas out of your head by sketching
use your sketch as a starting point for illustration
utilize basic shapes to create an outlined illustration
use the pen tool to create organic shapes
color your illustration and add details
prepare your illustration for animation
import your illustration into After Effects
animate an object’s position and adjust its motion path
create masks
animate colors changing
animate scale and opacity
use the wave warp effect to animate smoke
animate snow (and make it loop!)
render (export) your animation as a .mov, .mp4, or gif file