What I did Next

Next thing I watched is jeff foster video , now this video is one hour long but fortunetly , I only watched about 10 minutes of it and I will tell you why.  I only wanted to learn to do one thing from this video  and it is how to animate an orange. Of course I will get back to the video but not right now. As usual, take notes, watch carefully and try to understand the steps. The video I will upload down below.  You have to select 2 images from google for this tutorial , a table and  half an orange. You might have trouble selecting these images but I will make it easy on you. You have to put on google wood table. Select a table that is close to the on his using in the video. Write  : wood table . png. and download it from the website when you choose the picture. Why . png? because it transparent , no white in the backgroung. Select an image that has grey squares behind it, it means that the background is transparent. Do the same for half orange, also. png image with no background. Once you choose them save them directly in a asset file of project 2 . Project2 file > assets > save images. Don't forget the a-e compistion file as well.  Remember, auto save files will show up and they are importnt , leave them.  Save the project like I told you in my first post. Import these images to the after effect and start working ! Good Luck . just finish the part where you make the prange drop frothe table. 

If you have any questions feel free to ask !

What I have done so far

I have been working on After Effects for a few days now and I will guide through each step I took in order to learn the software. First I started with this Video , After Effects for beginners  and I recommend would start with this video here is the link to it :   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tR3fpv4Aco  This will get you started on the basics , I strongly recommend that you get a notebook and get started on taking notes. Watch the entire 20 minutes and take notes as much as you can. Your notes can be pictures, sentences, whatever suits you, but it is important that you will understand once you refer back to them. For me, I just filled the pages with notes and on the back of my notebook, I wrote all the key controls and abeviations I needed to learn so I don't forget them.  In this vieo you wil learn about scale, position , oppacity, masking, vignettes, solids, texts what a layer and compostion is and believe me these are very important to get started. I suggest that if you find difficult terms to search them on their own and really understand what they mean. Here is a picture of the tutorial so you are sure that it is the one I used. 

When you finish , save the link of the video in a file called tutorials , and you can name the sub file tutorial one and then save the link in microsoft and save microsoft file in the tutorial 1 folder. 

There is also something very important and it is to organise your saved after effects files.  For example, in this tutorial you will use a downloaded picture and a footage ( video) of some kind and you learn to work with them. These pictures you used must be saved. It is easy , name a file Project1 and inside it create 2 other file, one called assets and the second one call it " a-e composition ". In the assets file save all the pictures and videos you used in your tutorial for after effect, for example , in the first tuturial you will save the video and the image you imported in the after effect soyou don't lose them. Of course  when you save your work on after effects, save the file in th a-e composition, and name the after effect file you saved  something you will not forget and something you learned in this tutorial. For example, name the after effect file : masking , solids, text, basics , whatever.. 

Introducing Myself

Dear readers, 

My name is Carole , I'm 24 years old from Lebanon Middle East. I have recently started working on a software called After Effects CC 2015 so I can learn animation. My brother is really good in this field. His major is Computer Graphic Animation ( CGA).  He finished his major and with the help of his friends , he now has a stable job at a company and is working on a movie too. As for me , I have a BA in educational psychology. I couldn't find a job in my field but the thing is, my brother decided to help me learn everything about animation. Now I decided to share with you my experience in learning after effects on your own. Please if you are reading this I really would like to hear from you and know what you actually think. If you are ready to keep up with me let me know , believe me I have a great mentor. Plus , I will be posting every step of the learning process so install after effects cc 2015 and let's begin! If you feel you don't know anything about the filed don't worry ! I will guide you