We start by looking at all the basic design principles needed to create beautiful and eye catching designs. It’s all well and good knowing how to animate, but if you don’t understand the basics of layout, colour, hierarchy etc, then your videos can quickly become confusing to viewers, which is the opposite of what we are looking to achieve.

We’ll be introducing you to the programme and the basics of using After Effects. We’ll get you up and running and teach everything you will need to know, from setting up your project and the many different settings including, sizing and frame-rate, to many of the different tools we’ll be using across the course.

On this day we’ll be running through the Research & Development used by many studios in the industry and the ones I come across the majority of the time. We’ll be taking you through how to research, create mood boards, script an idea or video, storyboarding and creating animatics. Whether you’ll be working in a studio, by yourself or creating animations for fun - this process is an important part of creating a structured and interesting end product.

This is what I consider to be one of the most important aspects of motion design; key framing and easing. You’ll learn the different types of key frames and how to create natural movement that takes a GOOD animation and turns it into a GREAT animation! If you can nail these techniques you’re well on your way to standing out from the average junior animator.

Day 5 is all about shape layers; Adjustment Layers, Text Layers and Solid Layers. You’ll learn all the differences and how to utilise each for the outcome you’re looking for. These are the bread and butter of After Effects and you’ll be using these the majority of the time.

Masks are typically used to hide or reveal a specific area of a layer in your composition but can be used for a number of different reasons. Mattes can be used to create a similar results but are more likely used when creating transitions and wipes. We’ll take a look at the uses of both, and how and when to use them.

Here we’ll dive into green screening and tracking. This day isn’t just for those of you who are looking to create cool visual effects, but if you ever work with live footage, then the skills you’ll learn here will be really beneficial. I use these techniques almost daily for a number of reasons.

We’ll also run you through how to grade your footage and get it looking professional using a number of different techniques.

This is a big part of After Effects and after consuming all the content, you’ll know how to set up layers in 3D, creating a scene with lighting and shadows whilst utilising the built in camera to create some really cool animations and movements.

Day 09 is about importing and using 3D renders and data from external programs like Cinema 4D. We’ll run through the different layers you’re most likely to receive and how to use them to create really cool looking videos.

Knowing just a few expressions can save you hours of time and make your life so much easier - whilst using minimal keyframes to create natural looking animations.

We’ll also go through After Effects templates, where you can design and package up a project for someone to use in the simplest way possible.

The one thing you’ll find hard to avoid as a motion designer is animating logos! We’ll run through how to set up the logos in either photoshop or illustrator for the best results, importing them into After Effects and the process you’ll go through to animate that logo!

Character animation is a skill by itself with many designers working solely in this niche. But knowing the basics of character animation will come in very handy when creating explainer videos or other animations where basic characters are used. Many of the techniques used here will also be very useful and are transferable when animating other objects and assets.

On the penultimate day you’ll be creating your first full animation or video. If you don’t already have an idea, we’ll go through the entire process from the idea concept, storyboarding right through to the final video and adding some sound effects and audio track. If you have trouble thinking of an idea, we’ll include a mock brief, similar to what you may receive from a client, for you to work from. Either way, you’ll be left with a great piece of work that can go straight onto your website or showreel.

On the final day we’ll be going through how to actually find work. From creating a showreel, to setting yourself up on numerous design platforms, we’ll show you how to go about using your new skillset to find work and earn some money!