Welcome

After Effects for Designers teaches design students, artists, and web, graphic, and interactive designers how to design, develop, and deploy motion design projects using Adobe After Effects. Author Chris Jackson balances fundamental aspects of time-based design with related techniques and explores the principles of animation; composition and layout; visual hierarchy; typography; cinematic storytelling; 3D modelling; compositing, and more. The book contains unique, step-by-step project exercises that offer timesaving practical tips and hands-on design techniques, teaching readers how to effectively use the tools at their disposal in order to conceptualize and visualize creative solutions to their own motion design work. Readers will build professional-world examples and, as a result, learn how to both design effectively using After Effects and practically apply these skills in client-based work.

This companion website includes complete project files for exercises detailed in their respective chapters, as well as additional video tutorials. Please note that the “Chapter Exercise Project Files” section is restricted to those who have purchased the book – in order to access it, you’ll need to create an account, including answering a question about the content of the book.

Chris Jackson is an author, designer, and professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He lectures and conducts workshops relating to interaction design and motion graphics, and his professional work has received over 25 distinguished national and international awards for online communication. He is the author of After Effects and Cinema 4D Lite (2014), Flash + After Effects (2010), Flash Cinematic Techniques (2010), and co-author of Digital Design in Action: Creative Solutions for Designers (2017), and Flash 3D: Animation, Interactivity, and Games (2006), all available from Focal Press/Routledge.