Learning After Effects: Overcoming Roadblocks and Seeking Experts

So far, the journey into learning After Effects has been a frustrating and laborious experience. Learning a new technological skill has taken much time and effort and has confirmed my initial frustrations with the software. When I am able to accomplish simple tasks such as moving an object up and down on the timeline, I feel a rush of excitement and those little successes have kept my motivation to journey on.

Initially when I downloaded After Effects onto the 2019 MacBook Pro that I had been using, I was confident that such a computer could handle the weight of running multiple Adobe programs (Illustrator, Photoshop & Lightroom) that I use on a daily basis. However, as more time went on, I ran into some challenges with the computer overheating due to the processing of such large files. I tried troubleshooting the issue with your standard turning off and on, offloading large files, and closing all other applications to focus onto one program. However, after a few weeks of worrying about the loud noises the laptop was making to cool itself down, I decided to upgrade the laptop to Apple’s MacBook Pro’s that have replaced the Intel chip with Apple’s very own M1 chip.This change coincided well with updating After Effects as the new computer was able to install the newest version of the program without any hiccups or extra stored memory. The only part that I needed to consider was that for each new version, sometimes the user interface and functions are shifted around and new features are added. So far I haven’t noticed any significant changes that I have had to re-learn, but a few cosmetic changes here and there. Also, with any changes, Adobe includes a tutorial and a notification of the changes within the program.

This past month I have started to see a light at the end of the tunnel by connecting with helpful experts! While I was waiting for the new computer upgrade, I was able to do some more searching online and watching experts use and teach the software. Each year, Adobe hosts an in person and virtual creativity conference called Adobe MAX, where they hire entertainers, experts and successful creatives to introduce new updates as well as teach live sessions on how they utilize the Creative Suite. This past October, my company encouraged us to attend these sessions virtually to expand our knowledge and pick up new tools and techniques that may benefit our work. In previous years I have been introduced to exciting ways to adapt applications I am already familiar with -such as photoshop- to other applications. This is how I discovered Adobe Aero the AR software! This year, the MAX conference coincided with my current exploration of Adobe After Effects and so I was excited to search for After Effects specific sessions to view.

Some of the courses that I found interesting turned out to be in Japanese with no English subtitles, but I was still able to watch the designer create a motion graphic-despite all of the functions also being in Japanese. The english session that I was able to participate in was After Effects 101 with Luisa Winters. It was an experience similar to using youtube because I was on a separate web browser, but what I enjoyed the most was the practice files that were a downloadable attachment with the video. Instead of a guided tutorial, I was able to import and edit an external file and upload it into the program. This experience felt like a scaffolded learning experience as with the guided tutorial the tutorial was very interactive and only allowed me to do specific actions. By having the tutorial “guardrails” down, I was able to ascend to the second level of learning the basic functions by completing simple tasks with all of the functions available for me to accidentally use. I found this to be way better than just jumping straight from the guided tutorial to creating my own designs from scratch.