AE Fundamentals

Start animating in Adobe After Effects.

Welcome to AE Fundamentals – a free video series covering all the basics you need to know to get started with motion graphics.

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Hello!

I'm Megan Friesth

...and I’m an explanimator–I write, illustrate, and animate educational animations.

I’m a self-taught motion designer, striving to help you learn motion design more efficiently than I did.

It's me–Megan Friesth

This video series is broken down into the basic building blocks you need to learn After Effects.

I know that all of the new buttons, toggles, panels, and menus can be a lot to remember. So, each short, to-the-point, video in this series includes a visual guide of written instructions, screenshots, GIFs and more.

The goal of these videos and visual guides is to not only get you up and running in After Effects for the first time, but to serve as an easy reference when you need a quick reminder. If it's been awhile since you used After Effects, it's easy to forget how to do things you once knew how to do. This can stall your project and be unnecessarily frustrating.

Bookmark this page so you can reference it when you need it!

Lessons

Get started

Lesson 1: Get Started

Import files

Lesson 2: Import Files

Keyframes

Lesson 3: Keyframes

Working with text

Lesson 4: Text

Shape layers

Lesson 5: Shape Layers

Lesson 6: Anchor Points

Parenting

Lesson 7: Parenting

Working with Illustrator Files

Lesson 8: Work with Adobe Illustrator Files

Effects

Lesson 9: Effects

Masks

Lesson 10: Masks

Mattes in After Effects

Lesson 11: Mattes

Render videos

Lesson 12: Render a Video

Render GIFs

Lesson 13: Render a GIF

What's next?

Check out my class curriculum for learning motion design!

The best way to really master the skills you learned in these lessons is with hands-on projects.

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