Adobe After Effects is an incredibly versatile program used in almost every facet of the film & video industry. Whether you are an independent freelancer or a professional compositor for a large post production house, After Effects is definitely a staple of the editing world. One of my favorite things about AE is that whether you’re compositing, rotoscoping, animating, scripting, etc., there’s always something to learn. Here are some After Effects resources that don’t suck.
Andrew Kramer has pretty much become a household name in the After Effects community. His site videocopilot.net is full of super useful tutorials, plugins, and inspiration for beginners and advanced editors alike. His videos are full of detailed information and are fun to watch.
Scripts are a super useful tool that sometimes go under-utilized, especially when you are new to AE. They can be intimidating, almost like coding javascript as a new web designer. Fortunately, there are awesome resources like aescripts.com for just about anything you can imagine.
In the editing world time is money, literally. The more familiar you are with your tools the faster you can meet your deadlines and the less time you will be stuck figuring out how to set a keyframe.
Plugins are an essential part of AE that can make life easier and help create a specific look or effect. Toolfarm has a huge list of top industry plugins for whatever you need.
A great and affordable site for inspiration or templates.
There’s always something new to learn or a spin on an old technique. AE tuts is a another great resource for all experience levels.
I’m a big fan of industry professionals who post tutorials. With a lot more than just AE tutorials, Greyscale Gorilla is a super valuable asset especially for 3D integration.
That is a great list. I think studios should have their interns go through these tools/tutorials to help teach students how to step up their game.