Course description

You edit videos, run social channels or design graphics, and you'd like your logos, titles and captions to move. This course teaches Adobe After Effects from the start, in plain words, so you can make clean, professional motion graphics: animated logos, titles, lower thirds, kinetic type and simple charts.

You begin with the panels and a first ten-second animation, then set up compositions for social, web and video, animate with keyframes and easing, draw and animate shape layers, animate text, reveal things with masks and track mattes, build simple rigs with parenting and nulls, and add effects and three simple expressions. Then you put it all to work on real jobs, share a lower third with an editor as a Motion Graphics template, and render and export every version you need.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons. Each lesson has a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Ysolt, the digital content officer at a made-up arts centre in Plymouth, as she learns After Effects and makes a brand sting, lower thirds, a promo and an animated chart. In the final lessons you plan and build a 20-second brand intro and a matching lower third for a made-up bike repair shop in Bristol, with a worked model answer. Every section has a practice pack, including a shortcuts card, a composition settings card, a keyframe and easing worksheet, a shape layer exercise sheet, a text animation recipe card, a masks and mattes card, a parenting and nulls exercise, a simple expressions card, storyboard and timing sheets, a render and export settings card, a project organisation checklist, made-up SVG logo shapes, text scripts and a glossary.

What you'll learn

• Getting started with After Effects: what After Effects is for, versions and Adobe's help, projects, the main panels, workspaces and your first ten-second animation.
• Compositions and footage: frame size, frame rate and length, settings for social, web and video, importing footage, sound and layered Photoshop, Illustrator and SVG files, and a tidy Project panel.
• Layers, keyframes and easing: the Timeline, the five transform properties, keyframes and the stopwatch, Easy Ease and interpolation, and the Graph Editor.
• Shape layers: the shape tools, fills, strokes and gradients, the Pen tool, Repeaters and other path operations, and Trim Paths for lines that draw themselves.
• Text and type animation: text layers and the Character and Paragraph panels, animating whole layers and Source Text, text animators and selectors, and presets.
• Masks, mattes and blending modes: masks and animated reveals, track mattes for text and shape reveals, blending modes for glows and textures, and layer styles.
• Parenting, precomposing, effects and expressions: parenting, null objects as controllers, precomposing, effects and motion blur, and three simple expressions.
• Real motion graphics jobs: storyboards, style frames and timing sheets, a logo sting, lower thirds and title cards, kinetic typography and an animated chart.
• 3D, templates and Premiere Pro: 3D layers, cameras and lights, Motion Graphics templates for Premiere, Dynamic Link, and rendering with the Render Queue and Media Encoder.
• Export, good habits and your final project: export settings for each shape of video, Increment and Save and Collect Files, smoother previews, and a brand intro and lower third for a made-up bike repair shop, with a model answer.

Who it's for

Video editors, marketers and designers who are new to After Effects, and anyone who wants to add movement to logos, titles and graphics. No animation experience is needed. You'll need a computer with After Effects; Premiere Pro, Photoshop and Illustrator are useful but optional.

About the software version

Panel, tool and command names, keyboard shortcuts and defaults were checked against Adobe's official After Effects help on 4 November 2026, when the newest release it listed was version 26.5. After Effects is updated often, so the lessons show how to find a control that has moved or been renamed. Ysolt, the Saltlight Arts Centre, Sprocketwell Bike Repairs and every other person and organisation in the course are made up.

What will I learn?

• Find your way round After Effects, its panels and workspaces, and set up projects and compositions for social, web and video
• Import footage, images, sound and layered Photoshop, Illustrator and SVG files, and keep the Project panel organised
• Animate with keyframes, Easy Ease and the Graph Editor so movement starts and stops naturally
• Draw and animate shape layers with the Pen tool, Repeaters and Trim Paths
• Set and animate text with text animators, selectors and animation presets
• Control what shows with masks, track mattes, blending modes and layer styles
• Build simple rigs with parenting and null objects, precompose, and add effects, motion blur and three simple expressions
• Plan with a storyboard, style frames and a timing sheet, then build a logo sting, a lower third, kinetic type and an animated chart
• Use 3D layers, a camera and lights, make a Motion Graphics template for Premiere and use Dynamic Link
• Render with the Render Queue or Media Encoder, export landscape and upright versions, and keep projects tidy with Increment and Save and Collect Files

Frequently asked questions