Taking the After Effects Kickstart course from School of Motion was an enriching journey. Even though I already had some experience in After Effects, I had been meaning to take this course with the purpose of refining my skills and learning new ways to do things correctly in the program. Nonetheless, the course exceeded my expectations.
During the course of eight weeks, I encountered some things I had to unlearn, some other better practices to implemment and other concepts that were completely new to me, such as match cuts. My biggest takeaway from this course is how I approach animating scenes now, in a more logical and structured way.
To help students focus solely on animating in the program, School of Motion provided all the still artwork to be animated.
All the following work was animated as homework assignments for the After Effects Kickstart course from School of Motion, Inc. All work is speculative, and created for educational purposes.
Weeks 1-2
We started by navigating AE's interface and setting the first keyframes in the course. We were quickly introduced to AE comps, and we focused on action and timing, using only linear keyframes.
Weeks 3-4
We continued working with progressively more layers and objects, incorporating slightly more complex motion. Plus, we began adjusting the speed graph to enrich the animation.
Additionally, we worked on a lettering animation. This time, we used masks and other features to achive a ''write-on'' effect.
Week 5
To put essential parenting principles into practice, we were tasked with rigging four robot arms, using only anchor points and the parenting feature. We then animated a scene where the robots work in a keyframe factory. This was my favorite assignment in the course, and one of the heaviest to lift. I enjoyed giving each robot arm a personality through movement.
Week 6
We were introduced to match cuts. Harnessing the power of the speed graph, we were able to create smooth transitions. For this collage-like composition, we used hold keyframes and the posterize time effect to achieve a pseudo-analog feel throughout the piece. Working on these transitions was both fun and interesting, as we also had to align major movements with the music. Also, I've always had a personal liking for the collage style.
Week 7
Up to this point, we had only been working with the speed graph to adjust our animations. This changed in week seven, as we dove into the value graph to achieve continuous motion. This was definitely the most challenging piece. Nonetheless, creating smooth transitions with accelerations and decelerations to achieve continuous motion really helped us level up.