Adobe After Effects for Beginners: Motion Design Essentials

**Enroll in this Guided Project before April 2026, for a free 1-month trial to the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite!** This guided project is for those new to Adobe After Effects looking to learn the basics of a new program and be introduced to Motion Design. From graphic designers hoping to expand their skillset to complete beginners looking for a place to start, this project will give you the confidence to navigate Adobe After Effects and prepare you for further motion design studies. In this 1-hour long project you will start with a walkthrough of the layout to learn how to make a composition, import files, add shapes and text, apply effects, and add keyframes to parameters. After you’ve been familiarized with the key panels we will jump into animation with a rundown of the timeline and helpful shortcut keys. You’ll animate shape and text parameters and learn how to apply key animation principles like Easy Ease, Anticipation, and Offset. Lastly you’ll be introduced to precomposing layers and applying track-mattes to create more layered compositions within Adobe After Effects and demonstrate how you can work with video footage. To guide these lessons you’ll be using Adobe After Effects to create and animate a title card for "Lotus Yoga" a hypothetical client who is launching an online yoga series.

• Project Overview
• This guided project is for those new to Adobe After Effects looking to learn the basics of a new program and be introduced to Motion Design. From graphic designers hoping to expand their skillset to complete beginners looking for a place to start, this project will give you the confidence to navigate Adobe After Effects and prepare you for further motion design studies. For this project it's recommended you have experience downloading and uploading footage assets, are comfortable with typography, and have a general understanding of alpha layers or transparency. However any competent computer user will be able to complete the project successfully. In this 1-hour long project you will start with a walkthrough of the layout to learn how to make a composition, import files, add shapes and text, apply effects, and add keyframes to parameters. After you’ve been familiarized with the key panels we will jump into animation with a rundown of the timeline and helpful shortcut keys. You’ll animate shape and text parameters and learn how to apply key animation principles like Easy Ease, Anticipation, and Offset. Lastly you’ll be introduced to precomposing layers and applying track-mattes to create more layered compositions within Adobe After Effects and demonstrate how you can work with video footage. To guide these lessons you’ll be using Adobe After Effects to create and animate a title card for "Lotus Yoga" a hypothetical client who is launching an online yoga series.