After Affects 2026
Fundamentals Training Course
This hands-on course is suitable for beginners and will teach you how to use After Effects for video editing, motion editing, adding special effects and compositing.
This class is aimed at graphic and video professionals who need an essential understanding of motion graphics, title animation, plus powerful effects compositing. Experienced users will also benefit from many hands-on projects and tricks learned in the class.
What's Included
- Certificate of Course Completion
- Training Manual
- FREE Class Repeat (valid for 6 months)
3 Days
$1050.00
Live face-to-face training
No minimum class size - all classes guaranteed to run!
No prior experience of Premiere Pro is needed. Training available on Mac and PC.
View our full range of Adobe After Effects training courses, or see below for the detailed outline for After Effects Fundamentals.
Detailed Course Outline
Learn the fundamentals of navigating After Effects and understanding how motion graphics and compositing projects are built.
- Lecture: After Effects foundations and project structure
- Lecture: Artificial intelligence used in After Effects
- Creating and managing new projects and workspaces
- Understanding compositions, frame size, frame rate
- Organizing the Project panel and media assets
- Understanding layer types and layer behavior
Learn how animation is created through keyframes and property control.
- Generated layers versus dynamic layers
- The anatomy of keyframes and interpolation
- Keyframing properties inside and outside compositions
- Essential keyframing shortcuts
- Animating transform properties and beyond
Use relationships between layers to streamline animation.
- Understanding parenting and linking layers
- Efficient animation using parented systems
- Applying parenting and keyframing to real-world projects
- Alternative relationship workflows
- Timeline organization and control techniques
Learn typography fundamentals and text animation workflows.
- Typography fundamentals in AE and Adobe Fonts
- Designing readable titles versus expressive text
- Classic text animation techniques
- Advanced control of text animators
- Creative typography workflows
Plan and assemble layered animations using professional workflows.
- Planning animations in structured phases
- Asset management and Libraries
- Offsetting layers for timing and rhythm
- Animating with commonly used effects
- Building complete 2D animation sequences
Learn efficient and reliable export workflows.
- The primary export methods in After Effects
- Understanding popular video and audio formats
- Fast export workflows for previews and finals
- Sound and video considerations for delivery
Optimize After Effects for speed and stability.
- Preferences versus project settings
- Performance tuning and preview optimization
- Memory management and cache strategies
- Auto-save behavior and best practices
Use adjustment layers for non-destructive workflows.
- Understanding adjustment layers
- Choosing effects that work best on adjustments
- Real-world adjustment layer workflows
- Stacking and controlling multiple adjustments
Create professional motion using refined keyframe control.
- Spatial versus temporal animation concepts
- Keyframe types and interpolation methods
- Linear, Bezier, Auto Bezier, Continuous, and Hold keyframes
- Non-linear motion for polished animation
- Applying motion principles to real projects
Build complex text and graphic animations.
- Using the modern Properties panel versus legacy panels
- Creating and animating text on paths
- Linking text properties across layers
- Animating text with motion blur and depth
Control visibility using masks and mattes.
- Understanding masks, mattes, and alpha channels
- Alpha mattes versus luma mattes
- Practical workflows using alpha mattes
- Practical workflows using luma mattes
- Advanced luma matte creation techniques
Edit more efficiently inside After Effects.
- Cutting and trimming like an editor
- Layer reordering and batch animation
- Precomposing, sequencing, and nesting
- Mask and effects troubleshooting
- Preparing exports for web and social delivery
Create reusable export and workflow presets.
- Understanding compression and delivery formats
- The structure of compressed files
- Creating and managing presets
- Transferring presets between systems
Use Adobe Media Encoder for professional output.
- When to use Media Encoder versus internal exports
- Understanding the Media Encoder interface
- Queue-based exporting workflows
- Quick export setups and advanced settings
Create professional motion graphics using expressions and automation.
- Classic motion graphics animation styles
- Reveal, bounce, and pop animation techniques
- Introduction to expressions
- Using expressions to enhance motion and control
Use audio to drive animation without manual keyframing.
- Understanding audio inside After Effects
- Mapping animation to sound using amplitude data
- Advanced audio-driven animation techniques
- Controlling multiple properties with audio
Use shape layers as animation building blocks.
- Understanding shape layer structure
- Animating shape layer properties
- Advanced shape controls and modifiers
- Converting text and vector artwork to shapes
Create dimensional scenes using shapes and cameras.
- Text versus shape workflows in 3D
- Using After Effects 3D tools effectively
- Extrusion, lighting, and shadows
- Animating cameras
- Building simple multi-camera scenes
Our outlines are a guide to the content covered in a typical class. We may change or alter the course topics to meet the objectives of a particular class.
