After Effects is the industry-standard software for creating motion graphics, visual effects, and animation.
From eye-catching title sequences and dynamic logo reveals to complex character animation and immersive visual effects, After Effects empowers artists and designers to bring their creative visions to life.
Learning After Effects can open doors to a wide range of creative industries, allowing you to create professional-quality content for film, television, advertising, and online platforms.
Whether you’re aspiring to become a motion graphics artist, a visual effects specialist, or simply want to add a dynamic edge to your video projects, mastering After Effects is a valuable skill.
With a plethora of After Effects courses available on Udemy, finding the right one can feel like navigating a complex visual effect itself.
You’re looking for a course that not only covers the fundamentals but also delves into advanced techniques, providing you with the practical skills and knowledge needed to create stunning visuals.
You need a course that fits your learning style, offers engaging content, and is taught by an experienced instructor who can guide you through the intricacies of this powerful software.
After careful consideration and review, we’ve found that The Complete Adobe After Effects Bootcamp: Basic to Advanced stands out as the best overall After Effects course on Udemy.
This comprehensive bootcamp takes you from beginner to advanced, covering everything from essential techniques like keyframing and masking to more complex concepts like 3D animation and expressions.
The course features hands-on projects and challenges, ensuring you gain practical experience and build a strong foundation in After Effects.
While The Complete Adobe After Effects Bootcamp: Basic to Advanced is our top pick, Udemy offers a variety of other excellent After Effects courses catering to specific interests and skill levels.
Continue reading to explore our curated list of top recommendations and find the perfect After Effects course to ignite your creativity and elevate your motion graphics skills.
The Complete Adobe After Effects Bootcamp: Basic to Advanced
This After Effects Bootcamp guides you from beginner to advanced After Effects user, equipping you to produce impressive motion graphics and visual effects.
You’ll begin with fundamentals – the interface, keyboard shortcuts, and basic animations.
The course then introduces essential tools like shape and text layers, masks, and track mattes, building your skills through hands-on projects, such as creating a shopping box animation and bringing a robot to life with animation.
You’ll progress to more advanced concepts such as kinetic typography, using the Type Animator, and mastering parenting and forward kinetics to create complex, multi-layered animations.
The course delves into 3D space, teaching you how to build and animate 3D cameras and use lights and shadows for added realism.
You’ll explore powerful tools like the Puppet tool for organic image manipulation and expressions for automating complex animations with code.
Master essential workflows like compositing, where you’ll learn to use blending modes for seamless image integration and create special effects like ghosting or screen replacements.
The course covers industry-standard techniques such as motion tracking and color correction using the Lumetri Scope.
You’ll also learn to create dynamic visuals synced to audio with the Audio Spectrum and Radio Waves effects.
The course doesn’t neglect workflow efficiency, showing you how to create reusable Essential Graphics Templates for Premiere Pro.
Throughout this bootcamp, you’ll solidify your learning through practical projects and challenges, culminating in the ability to create professional-quality motion graphics and visual effects.
After Effects CC Masters: VFX, Motion Graphics, Animation+
This After Effects course will take you from knowing nothing about After Effects to creating professional animations and visual effects.
You will begin with the fundamentals: navigating the interface, importing media, and creating basic animations using keyframes.
As you progress, you’ll dive into more advanced keyframing techniques like ease in/out, motion blur, and mastering the Graph Editor, which will give you precise control over your animations.
You’ll explore various aspects of After Effects, including the creation and manipulation of shapes and solid layers, the implementation of layer styles like drop shadows and gradients, and the utilization of techniques like track mattes, pre-compositions, and blend modes for dynamic animation effects.
The course goes beyond the basics by delving into advanced techniques such as motion tracking, rotoscoping for hand-traced animations, and the Puppet Tool for realistic object animation.
You will learn to create practical effects like green screen keying for seamless compositing and explore the realm of 3D animation using After Effects’ powerful camera tool.
You will learn how to design and animate realistic character rigs from scratch, complete with lifelike movements.
You’ll also learn to use expressions, a powerful tool that allows you to create complex animations using code.
To top it off, you’ll discover how to seamlessly integrate After Effects with Premiere Pro for an efficient workflow.
After Effects - Motion Graphics & Data Visualization
This After Effects course is designed for you if you’re completely new to After Effects and want to learn how to create motion graphics and data visualizations.
You’ll begin with the fundamentals, like adding icons, applying easing and motion blur, and even incorporating overshoot for added flair.
The course guides you through offsetting objects for dynamic effects and explores the concept of anticipation for smoother animations.
You’ll draw inspiration from websites like informationisbeautiful.net, which showcases creative data visualization, pushing the boundaries of how to communicate complex information.
You will learn how to set up your projects, add audio and backgrounds, and leverage CC Libraries for a more efficient workflow.
The course teaches you how to animate icons, create circle bursts, and apply techniques like vignettes and motion blur to make your animations stand out.
You will also discover the power of the Puppet tool, learn how to group elements through precomping, and how to use the vector redraw feature.
The course dives into camera techniques, teaching you how to use single and two-node cameras, and how to create and animate a camera in After Effects.
You’ll find out how to speed up playback for smoother previewing and learn techniques for creating icon builds and adding color and video backgrounds to your projects.
Data visualization is a key focus.
You will learn to create dynamic and engaging animated bar graphs, line graphs, and even pie charts.
The course teaches you how to use Adobe Illustrator and Excel to import data into After Effects for even more complex and dynamic visualizations.
You will explore flow chart animations and learn how to use masking techniques to create captivating visuals.
After Effects CC: The Ultimate Motion Graphics Masterclass
You want to become an After Effects pro?
This course takes you from the basics to advanced motion graphics techniques.
You’ll start by learning the After Effects interface, setting up your workspace, and understanding keyframes and easing.
The course dives into creating looping animations and exporting your work as GIFs and MP4s – essential skills for motion graphics.
Get ready to master motion paths, using the speed graph to fine-tune animation flow.
You’ll discover how to create bounce and overshoot effects, adding personality to your animations.
You’ll also learn to create and animate shape layers for intricate designs and explore shape modifiers like Merge Path, Offset Path, Round Corners, Pucker & Bloat, and Wiggle Transform, adding unique flair to your animations.
This course teaches you how to style your work like a pro.
You’ll master techniques like track mattes, blending modes, and layer styles to create eye-catching visuals.
The course explores advanced effects, allowing you to generate cartoon styles using Turbulent Displace, add realistic fur effects, and even create unique scribble styles.
You’ll learn to make seamless looping animations with the LoopOut tool, mastering linear and path-based loops.
You’ll dive into advanced concepts such as Path Animation Morphing, Fake 3D, and character rigging using Forward Kinematics.
The course doesn’t shy away from complex techniques – you’ll even learn how to create a complete character animation from scratch, walking you through rigging a character using the Bezier Pen Tool and applying the concept of Homomorphism.
Through this course, you’ll acquire the skills and confidence to produce professional-quality motion graphics for various applications.
Adobe After Effects CC - Motion Graphics Design & VFX
This After Effects course guides you from the basics to the mastery of motion graphics and visual effects.
You’ll start with the fundamentals of projects, compositions, and timelines, learning how to navigate After Effects with confidence.
As you progress, you’ll discover how to bring text to life with type animation, mastering techniques like easing and blurring to create smooth, captivating motion.
You’ll even dive into custom easing using the graph editor for complete control over your animation timing.
You will then explore the world of color correction, exposure, and adjustment layers.
Learn to enhance the visual quality of your videos, fix shaky footage using the warp stabilizer, and even create cinematic effects like vignettes.
You’ll learn green screen techniques, allowing you to seamlessly composite footage, and masking, which helps you isolate and manipulate specific elements in your videos.
This course teaches you how to create dynamic infographics using tools like line charts and pie charts, bringing data visualization to life.
You’ll also explore character animation using the versatile Puppet tool, adding life and personality to your creations.
Discover advanced techniques like camera tracking, where you can track the movement of objects in your videos to seamlessly integrate effects or text.
The course covers time remapping, a powerful technique for manipulating time and creating visually stunning sequences.
Finally, you’ll learn how to export your finished projects, optimizing file sizes and ensuring compatibility across different platforms.
After Effects Motion Graphics Beast
This course takes you on a journey from the fundamentals to advanced techniques, making it suitable even if you’re new to After Effects.
You’ll begin by downloading and installing After Effects, then jump into the heart of the software: the interface, timeline, and compositions.
You’ll get hands-on experience right away with practice projects that introduce you to shape layers, masks, and effects.
Next, you’ll explore the magic of animation.
You’ll master the principles of animation, different types of keyframes, and the power of graph editors.
You’ll learn how to use shape modifiers like Merge Path, Offset Path, and Wiggle Transform to create complex and dynamic animations.
These tools will give you the power to control the shape, size, and movement of your graphics over time.
The course then dives into the exciting world of text animation, teaching you how to create captivating titles with techniques like morphing and lettering.
You’ll apply everything you’ve learned to real-world projects, giving you the confidence to tackle your own motion graphics challenges.
Plus, you’ll receive bonus lessons on creating liquid gradient title animations, designing modern data visualizations, and mastering advanced motion tracking.
Kinetic Typography in After Effects: Motion Graphics Course
This course on Kinetic Typography in After Effects guides you through creating eye-catching animated text.
You start with the fundamentals, discovering how to make text appear with cuts, zooms, movements, spins, and wipes.
You then learn to enhance your animations with backgrounds, textures, and camera-like motion, making your text come alive.
You will progress to more advanced techniques, like crafting revolving 3D text and incorporating video backgrounds for added depth.
The course teaches you how to fine-tune your export settings in After Effects, ensuring your videos are primed for online sharing.
Imagine learning how to make text fly in from the side, spin around, and then zoom in for a dramatic effect - this course provides the tools to achieve just that.
You learn to add a professional touch to your projects with techniques like blurring and darkening video backgrounds.
You discover the power of 3D text in After Effects and explore different ways to make your text pop.
This course equips you with the knowledge and skills to produce captivating text animations, ready to be showcased on social media or in your next video project.
After Effects CC: Motion Graphics & Animation Principles
This After Effects CC course teaches you the fundamentals of motion graphics and animation, taking you from beginner to a more advanced skillset.
You start with the basics, learning how to set up After Effects for motion graphics.
You’ll then dive into your first project, where you’ll animate a scene using techniques like overshoots and bounces.
This project teaches you how to import graphics, animate scenes, and add easing to your animations.
As you progress, you’ll tackle more complex animation principles, like squash and stretch, anticipation, follow through, and overlapping action.
You’ll discover how to apply these principles through hands-on projects such as creating waves with water layers, designing a game scene animation, and constructing a firing cannon animation.
The course doesn’t just focus on technical skills—it also emphasizes the importance of storytelling and creating engaging visual experiences.
You’ll learn how to use sound effects effectively, control the speed and duration of your animations, and add realistic touches like distortion and motion blur.
You will also learn how to organize graphics in Illustrator for import into After Effects and how to use the Render Queue.