45 After Effects tutorials to sharpen your motion skills

Understand the Roto Brush settings 

Learn how the Refine Edge tool improves the underlying Roto Brush effect, in this tutorial by Chris Meyer.

Get better keying with Refine Edge

Learn how to use the Refine Edge tool after the Roto Brush tool to erase an edge refinement.

Export comps to the Render Queue or Media Encoder

There are two ways to export compositions from After Effects: the Render Queue and Adobe Media Encoder. Each method has its benefits, Maria Corte explains how to use both.

Apply motion blur for smoother playback

This tutorial by Chris Meyer explains how to apply the Pixel Motion Blur effect to avoid visual strobing when playing back some footage and 3D renders at normal speed.

Work with Photoshop and Illustrator files

In this tutorial by Gregory Baldwin and Ian Robinson, you'll learn how to import files from Photoshop or Illustrator, and even audio clips, into After Effects.

How to prepare Illustrator graphics for After Effects

When Adobe Illustrator files are passed across for animation that not ready for After Effects, it causes a lot of confusion and friction between the illustrator and animator. Follow this checklist from Jeff Hurd to ensure your designs are ready for animation.

Export After Effects animations to HTML5 

From a web perspective, After Effects is very well suited to tweaking and trying out motion before committing it to code. Ditch heavy GIFs and try animation tool Bodymovin.

See what’s possible with Cinema 4D Lite

Cinema 4D Lite is the 3D creation and animation software included with After Effects that makes it easy to integrate 3D elements directly inside your compositions. Here, Timo Kuilder and Thanassis Pozantzis Learn explain how to use it.

Add special effects to a video

Get to know the basics of motion graphics and video compositing techniques using After Effects CC in this series of tutorials. You’ll become familiar with the workspace and how to import footage and other assets, and learn to combine elements in the scene using layers and nondestructive blend modes. 

Enhance a video with shapes and effects

In this tutorial by Ian Robinson and Jing Wei, you'll find out how to use shapes and effects in your After Effects compositions and get tips on how these elements enhance a project.

Apply immersive effects

Charles Yeager explains how to stylise your 360/VR footage in Adobe After Effects CC by applying or generating seamless effects – formatted specifically for equirectangular footage – without incurring any unwanted artefacts.

Use masks to control effects

In this tutorial by Brian Maffitt you'll learn how to limit an effect to a specific area using a mask on the layer without additional adjustment layers or track matte layers, and then change properties on a per-mask basis and save masks and effects as animation presets.