Best After Effects Tutorials for Beginners in 2021

Learning a new skill was never easier than now. Whether you want to learn just the basics or get to the advanced level, there are plenty of resources that could help you with your goals. It gets especially easy when it revolves around design since the professionals in this field can provide visual guidance to make the studying process easy and fun.

Let’s review the coolest online tutorials for everyone, who is interested in motion graphics and would like to learn more about Adobe After Effects. We will be following tutorials of different difficulty levels, therefore keep an eye on this indicator!

1. Learn Adobe After Effects CC for Beginners by Jordy Vandeput
   Difficulty level: Beginner
   Platform: Skillshare
   Price: 83,88€/yearly membership for all Skillshare courses
   
   This course is a perfect entry point for the beginners to AE. It is split in 13 small videos that are easy to follow and very entertaining to watch. Jordy Vandeput, who is a professional YouTuber, does a great job explaining even more complicated concepts that might be unique to After Effects even for the users proficient in other Adobe products. While passing this class won’t exactly make you a professional in motion design, it will give a nice overview of basic features, and teach you how to make nice visual effects for your videos.

2. After Effects CC 2020: Complete Course from Novice to Expert by Louay Zambarakji
Difficulty level: Beginner to Intermediate
Platform: Udemy
Price: €139.99

This class is nothing but an all-round tutorial on Adobe After Effects. The instructor, Louay Zambarakji, is covering all of the topics from general interface and workspace orientation to Rotoscoping, Chromakeying, Camera Tracking and many others. Though it might come a bit pricey compared to many other courses in this list, it is definitely worth investing if you are willing to learn working in AE in-depth.

3. Psychedelic Animation with Photoshop and After Effects by Klarens Malluta
Difficulty level: Beginner to Intermediate
Platform: Domestika
Price: 39,99

If you want to go after a specific style in motion graphics, this course by Klarens Malluta might be just for you. It features the trendy tutorial for getting vaporwave and synthwave looks in your animations. It is important to note that you will also need some Photoshop skills to fulfill the tasks of this class. However, even if you are very new to the software, you will feel comfortable since Klarens does a great job in explaining everything in detail.

4. Animation for Typographic Compositions by Holke 79
Difficulty level: Beginner
Platform: Domestika
Price: 39,99

Another popular theme in motion design is typography animation. If this is something you are going after, you may look in the tutorials by Holke 79. This set of videos is going through the easy ways to animate text that would make your videos stand out. Keep in mind that you would also need Cinema 4D Lite to do the final project of this class. And good news for Spanish speakers, you can follow this class in Castellano if you wish to.

5. Kinetic Typography Animation in After Effects by Klarens Malluta
Difficulty level: Beginner to Intermediate
Platform: Skillshare
Price: 83,88€/yearly membership for all Skillshare courses

Just one more course by Klarens Malluta, this time it is also dedicated to typography, however, in slightly less ordinary style. If you are going after that kinetic typography look, this tutorial might be just for you. In 1.5 hours, Klarens will teach you how to stretch, distort and apply echo effect to your copy. Keep in mind that it might be better to start this course once you are feeling comfortable with the After Effects interface.

6. The Stop Motion Look in After Effects by Jake Bartlett
Difficulty level: Intermediate
Platform: Skillshare
Price: 83,88€/yearly membership for all Skillshare courses

Another very popular look is stop motion animation. In this course, you can learn how to apply depth and textures to your graphics to get the photo-like effect for your animations. This would allow you to make cartoons, fun posts for social media and much more! Jack Bartlett will also make sure that you establish a consistent working routine and teach you the shortcuts for the efficient workflow.

7. Animated Collage with Adobe After Effects by Joseba Elorza
Difficulty level: Intermediate
Platform: Domestika
Price: 39,90

MiraRuido (Joseba Elorza) has a very special style, he is combining vivid backgrounds with old videos and photos creating an outstanding retro look. In this course, he would take you through all the details of his works, including the search and the preparation of the materials and postproduction. One thing to be aware of is that the course is in Spanish with English subtitles, so that may take you more time to complete. Anyways, check this course out if you are a fan of black-and-white photography, and could spend hours in archives.

8. Get to know After Effects
Difficulty level: Beginner to Intermediate
Platform: Adobe
Price: Free

If you are looking for a general overview of Adobe AE features, the tutorials created by the Adobe team might come in handy. They compiled the series of resourceful videos for beginners to introduce them to After Effects. It won’t cover specific styles or broad range of visual effects, but it will definitely be a good starting point for learning the basics of this software. Moreover, it is free for everyone, and therefore it could be an accessible way to learn if motion design and VFX is what you like.