Explanimated by Megan Friesth

Learn how to create seamlessly looping animations...

...for websites, social media, or as part of longer, narrated animations.

Animations that loop can be mesmerizing!

There’s just something satisfying about watching and making looping animations. But, if you’ve ever thought about trying to make an entire animated scene loop seamlessly, then you know that it can be overwhelming to figure out how to time everything just right.

While this class will have step-by-step instruction in After Effects, it's much more than that. I'll explain the thought process behind the techniques used, to help you think like a motion designer and enable you to apply these ideas to your future work.

In the first part of this class, we’ll talk about the conceptual side of making looping animations and discuss best practices.

You'll learn:

The difference between looping animations and gifs
When and where to use different file formats
How to plan out your loop
How to decide how long your loop should be
Best practices for looping animations
How to make sure your loop is seamless (and what exactly that means)
Best practices when working with gifs

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Then we’ll dive into After Effects to animate a looping underwater scene.

You can download a partially animated After Effects file so that we can focus on making these animations loop.

You'll learn how to:

Use different loop expressions (no previous experience with expressions is necessary!)
Add overlapping action/follow through to looping animations
Loop a composition
Offset looping elements within a scene
Make sure that every element within a scene loops perfectly
Render a video file
Render a .gif file
Plus a lot of time saving tips!

If you’re ready to create a seamlessly looping animated scene, let’s get started.

Get unlimited, lifetime access to this class. Watch anytime, at your own pace.

$49

Buy the Class

What's included

100% Self-Paced

Pre-recorded videos allow you to play, pause, and practice at your own pace.

24 Lessons (2h 11m)

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Welcome
Class Project

Learn About Loops

What is a Loop?
How to Use Loops
Planning Your Loop
Seamlessness
Working with GIFs

Animate a Looping Scene

Tour of the Project File
Loop Expressions
Apply Loop Expressions: Seaweed
Overlapping Action
Loop the Wave Warp Effect
Animate More Seaweed
Apply Loop Expression: Angelfish
Apply Loop Expression: Other Fish
Advanced Loop Expressions
Loop Compositions: Seaweed
Loop Compositions: Fish
Loop Compositions: Sporadic Fish
Add Final Details
Animate School of Fish

Wrap Up

Render a Video
Render a GIF
What's Next

Also included:

Underwater Scene Project File

Use this file as a starting point to practice looping techniques.

Who this class is for

This class is for intermediate motion designers. Before taking this class, you should know how to:

Do After Effects basics like create compositions, set keyframes, render an animation, etc.
Work with different files in Adobe After Effects (e.g. Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop files, audio, video)
Connect (parent) layers
Apply an effect to a layer
Animate the path of a shape
Add easing to keyframes and use the graph editor to adjust the spacing of an animation

Need to learn more about these concepts? Check out some of my other classes:

Beginner

Create then Animate:

Beginner Workflow in Illustrator & After Effects

Beginner

Easy Animated Icons

in Adobe After Effects

Beginner

Animated Lettering

in Adobe After Effects

What you'll need

Successfully completing this class requires a computer or laptop with:

Adobe

After Effects

Ready?

Buy the Class

Meet the Teacher

I'm Megan Friesth

...and I’m an explanimator. I have over a decade of professional experience writing, illustrating, and animating educational animations.

I've taught motion design to 40,000+ students on online and at the University of Colorado.
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I know where beginners get stuck, because I was stuck there too. I’m a self-taught motion designer, striving to help you learn motion design more efficiently than I did.