Why learn Adobe After Effects?

If you are interested in learning an artistic, technical skill that will open the door to new high-paying jobs and offer you a chance to work on your own creative projects, you should seriously consider learning how to use After Effects for post-production motion graphics animation. These skills will help you find work in a number of diverse industries, and the training will make you competitive in the field, both as a creative and as a potential employee. While professionals are likely to need additional training in other subjects, they are certain to benefit from learning After Effects as part of a larger digital animation and design curriculum.

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Use After Effects skills to find a job in a creative industry

The most obvious reason that someone would want to learn After Effects is to qualify for a creative job in the motion graphics, animation, and special effects field. The median salary for these positions in the U.S. is around $98,000 per year, with regional variance in line with other professions (the higher the cost of living in your area, the more you can expect to earn on average). While the bulk of these professionals are employed in Los Angeles, you can find jobs in almost any major city or metro area if you know where to look.

The biggest employers of post-production video animators are, unsurprisingly, media corporations that employ thousands of animators and special effects artists to bring their digital imagination to life. This kind of work ranges from creating animated title cards for studios and production houses to designing intricate, fully digital creations that appear completely lifelike on screen. If you have watched a fantasy or science-fiction film or television series made in the last two decades, it is almost certainly the case that a massive team of digital effects artists was responsible for helping bring the writers’ and directors’ visions to life. Post-production artists also work on the behind-the-scenes aspects of the finished product, making seamless alterations to everything from composite crowd shots to digital screen replacements on displays, HUDs, and phone screens.

Animation is also a pillar of the advertising industry in subtle and straightforward ways. Obviously, digitally animated ads are common, especially on television and on digital platforms (like banner ads), but it is also an important part of creating and adding digital assets to traditional advertising streams. Think about the fine print on a pharmaceutical ad or a superimposed brand logo appearing during a commercial. Both of those are the results of digital After Effects animation work. If you are angling to work in advertising, particularly on the creative side, learning how to work on digitally animated assets can go a long way toward helping you stand out from the crowd.

Finally, animation is an important aspect of most forms of rhetorical visual communication. This is why it is an important part of the fields of storytelling and advertising. This also means that it will be an important part of fields related to governance, advocacy, and activism. While not the primary vector for communicating with a mass audience, learning how to add animated assets to your campaign materials is a great way to increase their efficacy and help as you attempt to reach a larger audience for your institution or campaign.

Top skills gained from learning After Effects

One of the best ways to gain strong skills in After Effects is to practice through hands-on projects, which are often the core of any training program. Here are some of the top skills you’ll learn by taking an After Effects certificate program:

• Navigate the After Effects interface, including animating text and graphics.
• Create transitions and visual effects through guided exercises.
• Work with important elements like lower thirds and logos to customize footage.
• Gain confidence working with masks and motion tracking.
• Composite and layer effects for professional post-production work.
• Students will also gain valuable feedback from instructors and peers on their creations.

The above is just a small snapshot of the numerous skills one will learn during an After Effects training program. Students can also enhance their skills by taking the initiative to practice in their free time, utilize free or low-cost resources like YouTube and LinkedIn Learning, or freelance if they are ready to use their skills professionally.

Use After Effects to make your own art

Learning After Effects is also useful for anyone looking to learn how to improve their own artistic skills since animation is a storied and historic medium with a lot to offer prospective artists and creators. With just a few quick lessons, you can start to feel comfortable with the basics of the application, and you’ll be able to begin creating and integrating 3D, animated motion graphics assets into your work. This can range from adding title cards to amateur film projects to fully animated digital projects that make use of After Effects alongside other digital art programs. Artists will want to learn more skills with digital animation in order to better integrate it into their work, and learning After Effects can be one element of this training.

Build your brand with After Effects

Learning After Effects and the associated visual design skills can also help you develop a brand identity for your own products or digital presence. Whether you are marketing your own brand of bespoke nail polish or starting a TikTok channel and looking to make it big, adding some professional-looking digital assets to your online content can help set you apart from the crowd in this already crowded marketplace. Adding After Effects to your creative and professional toolkit will help you make more compelling advertisements and content for your personal brand, which will, in turn, generate interest in whatever main content or product output you are attempting to highlight. Learning After Effects won’t make or break your branding strategy, but it will certainly add another versatile and useful tool to your repertoire.