Motion Design for Beginners | Illustrator & After Effects Animation Tutorial

Learn how to animate in Illustrator and After Effects in this motion design course for beginners.

Are you a graphic designer looking to add a little motion to your characters? Or maybe you're an animator who wants to learn how to create your own designs in Illustrator.

Either way, this course has something for you. Join professional graphic designer and animator Jess Riley as she takes you through her round trip from creating a custom graphic design in Adobe Illustrator to animating it with some cute movement in After Effects—and we're doing this without any plugins!

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:11 Getting started: design inspiration
00:02:02 Creating your character in Illustrator
00:03:01 Drawing eyes: creating layers for animation
00:08:18 Drawing facial features
00:13:08 Drawing hands: quick tips and shortcuts!
00:17:23 Creating highlights and shadows
00:24:09 Creating the rest of the sticker: type on a path tool
00:32:33 Giving the sticker some texture!
00:33:22 Getting our layers ready for After Effects
00:38:55 Moving over from Illustrator to After Effects
00:39:30 Importing your Illustrator file into After Effects
00:40:25 Fixing any small issue on your layers
00:40:51 Parenting layers
00:43:01 Animating the eyes
00:50:30 Animating the sticker background and text layers
00:51:33 Animating the thumbs up!
00:59:10 Creating the sticker peel animation
01:03:30 Using posterize time to create old school animated motion

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[VisionbyNoble]

From someone that isn't good at drawing.... she made me feel that I can create whatever I want from what I imagine. This has much value. I'll be closely related to her videos, and social media.

[pauline-frwh]

Thank you for not using background music. I was able to focus on the advices which were very helpful!

[dtechnik]

This is one of the best graphics/animation tutorials I've seen in a while. Great and direct explanations, happy tone and no self-centered advertisements. This is awesome!

[theworst]

As a complete beginner at adobe, I'm glad such accessible tutorials like these exist. It rlly helps to follow a professionals workflow as a guide.

But it would have rlly helped to have keyboard shortcuts used on screen. I tend to get hardstuck very frequently on certain parts.

Like the using the transform tool on the eye, couldn't figure out how ot what shortcuts used to drag out on top and bottom points at the same time. And just resorted to using the anchor tool manually on all points.

[BenSussmanpro]

I’m new to AE & animation and your process appears quite intricate. How you go thru the process and explain all of it in only an hour is just incredible! It’s gonna take me hours to learn each cog in the wheel, but you explained everything in such good detail - thanks!!

[sophiehowie]

I have used Adobe Illustrator for the past 4 years, so I am not a beginner in this program, however I am new to After Effects. This video is apparently for 'Beginners' but I can tell you it is most certainly not for beginners. Jess is clearly familiar with both programs, and because of this, assumes that you are too. If you are a beginner in either program you will find it very overwhelming when many many things are assumed by Jess. Such as what colours to use, the dimensions of the page, the units of measurement used, shortcuts and what each button does. You are never given any dimensions for the image you are creating and are just supposed to eyeball it. This video took much longer than 1 hour to complete as I had to replay sections numerous times to catch Jess' quick, sudden movements. Jess also seemed to be figuring out steps as she went, which resulted in more work than necessary for both herself and the viewer. Along with jump-cuts which cut out important information, such as keeping the grey background separate from the sticker (which causes problems later on when you spin the image or create a 'sticker' animation). I did finish the video and end up with the desired result, but the journey was certainly not enjoyable or easy. Almost took me back to the frustration I felt during the last year of my Bachelor's Degree. Sometimes you are better just to teach yourself.

[ParadoxIsPlaying]

Genuinely speaking, I am a professional graphic designer and a video editor I was looking for a vid to get me started with motion graphics ....This was hands down the best one I have seen

[Amelianz]

Omg! I really loved this tutorial, it is so clear and Jess is explaning step by step that there is no way to get lost! Thank you so much, for such valuable content, I learned a lot! ❤

[longbttms]

This was a super helpful tutorial!! I started using AE a couple years ago to make transition videos and fan edits, but this video introduced a whole new world of both AE and Ai to me. Thank you so much, and I can't wait to start making my own motion designs :))

[antoinebeauchamp]

One of the best tutorials I've ever watched! Amazing job :)

[werqaferaw]

sat down for 3 hours but beaten all my fears of after effects. worth it!

[noahgels]

I'm at 8 Minutes and I feel like I already learned more than in 13 years of school. Very nice video, already a happy user of your stock platform!

[atnafuabebe]

I cant wait to join you guys! Please inform us the time and we will convert it to our time zone so that we can rearrange our program

[SimonGreenwoodUK]

"What else does an orange have on its face? Probably a nose" - fantastic tutorial with great style and pacing, thanks :)

[nadeesharathnayake]

we want more tutorials like these envato😍

[denisehodges]

I’ve used Ai for over 30 yrs and I’ve learned several things from your workflow process

[JetSetPizza]

fellow australian this is
the tools are so cohesive and powerful now, makes me excited to apply animation to things im working on ! thanks
im working on using illustration in design as a graphic designer- but i notice 3d and animation trends are hitting and its something i always liked back in school but it was not nearly as accessible for me

[kat]

41:12
"which is not where arms rotate from 😂"
Thank you! Now I will never forget to set my anchor points for animation :)

[angelosang.]

Loved this tutorial! Also loved that there's no music so I could put the one I wanted :D

[Evie_Ruby]

If you import a file from illustrator, make sure to import it as a composition instead of footage because it will appear as one flat object which is not helpful.