I have an interest in animated graphics and graphical enhancements to video files, so I used Lynda.com to take a basic “animated graphics in Adobe AfterEffects” course to create a title sequence for my final project.

The video tutorial explained how the interface works (a combination of premiere and photoshop), how layering and formatting works, and then how to animate the images one places in the composition space. Afterwards, it teaches the user how to animate with a specific template, although I skipped that part and went straight to animating my own graphic.

I made an attempt at getting a 360/3D script for Adobe AfterEffects but unfortunately Newhouse’s rules prevented me from installing it and using it for my final project. I do think, though, that my non-3D title sequence turned out nicely and added to the professionalism of my final project.

It was pretty straight forward and the instructor was easy to follow, however once I got the hang of the basics (which did not take very long) I wish I had spent more time with more advanced skills. I managed to figure out how to get what I wanted out of the program using the basic skills I had learned, but I realized when I was done that I wished there were other, more complicated animations available to me. I also wished I had access to more fonts (again, something I could not do on a Newhouse computer) when laying out my composition.

I’m glad I took the intro tutorial and I plan on taking a few more over the next few days to beef up my skills (and eventually my video reel). It would be cool if next year’s 360 video class had a lecture that involved placing animated graphics in a 360/3D video using AfterEffects for people looking to make a more complicated production.