Here are some of the best tutorials to help teach you the basic workings of After Effects. We have thrown in a couple of slightly harder skills, but more than accomplishable – these will really up your editing game.

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Easy motion tracking

Easy motion tracking in After Effects is essential. In the tutorial above, it cover’s how you can get to grips with motion tracking. Michael covers the basic ways to work with the motion tracking tools, it’s a key skill in editing and one of the top fundamentals. Here he shows you how to stay relevant as these core skills will help you, constantly learn and pick up new techniques. This skill adds a lot of value to yourself as an editor but also to the projects you work on.

8-bit pixel art

8 bit Mario - Gameboy

This tip is for all you old school gaming fans out there! This is a great in-depth tutorial by the team at Premium beat. They cover multiple aspects to this (CC block load, grid, tint, posterise, posterise time, video footage and installing the After Effects 8-but game preset).

Check it out here: Learn to Create Your Own 8-Bit Art in Adobe After Effects

Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is an essential skill in After Effects. Rotoscoping is a technique to trace over video footage frame by frame to produce realistic action.

In this tutorial, it covers the basic techniques of working with masking on Adobe After Effects and the Roto Brush tools for rotoscoping tips and tricks.

READ MORE: How to get that cinematic feel in Adobe Premiere Pro

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Float Yourself by Peter McKinnon

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Peter Mckinnon – Float Yourself

This is a great technique. It’s a little more advanced, but if you are fascinated by the sleek, floating imagery that you see so often on your favourite brands on Instagram – this one is for you. It’s not as hard as it may first seem – and Peter’s tutorial will help you perfect your craft. You’ll have some mind-bending, awesome shots in no time!

READ MORE: Lumetri scopes functionality: A beginners guide

The “Glitch” Effect

After Effects - Glitch Effect
Glitch Effect – Adobe After Effects

The next tutorial is the glitch effect. Perfect for you horror and sci-fi filmmakers out there. The glitch effect is used most commonly in these genres, usually to show a warped sense of reality or to build suspense. In this tutorial you will learn about wave warping, blending modes, using expressions and channel separation. All these different aspects will help you perfect the glitch effect for your movie.

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After Effects: text bounce effect

Text Effexcts in After Effects

Here you can learn about the basic fundamentals of text animation. These animations combined with your smooth footage will combine to create some insane looking intros to your videos.

It’s a simple but effective tutorial that shows how you can mix up and play around with the text editing in your timeline.


If this has been helpful let us know! Or, if you want to see some other tutorials for Premiere Pro or After Effects, Tweet at us: iFilmthings