After Effects tutorial for beginners (free curriculum)

Learning After Effects from scratch on a Mac? This is the full beginner curriculum — 7 hands-on lessons (about 6 hours total), in the order that actually makes sense, from the interface to rendering and export.

Each lesson is a real, do-it-yourself walkthrough. For hands-free help, Skilly teaches this exact curriculum live — a voice tutor that watches your After Effects window and points your cursor at the right button. Free to start.

The After Effects curriculum

1. Interface and Navigation — Get oriented in After Effects and learn to move around the Composition panel and Timeline without losing your place.
2. Layers and the Layer Stack — Understand how layers work, how to create the most common layer types, and how to control their visibility and order.
3. Keyframing and Animation — Animate any layer property over time by setting keyframes, and control the feel of movement with easing.
4. Effects and Effect Controls — Apply effects to layers, adjust them in the Effect Controls panel, and understand how effects stack and process.
5. Masks and Shape Layers — Control what’s visible on a layer with masks, and create standalone vector graphics with shape layers.
6. Text Animation — Create animated text using After Effects’ per-character Text Animator system.
7. Rendering and Export — Send your composition to the Render Queue or Adobe Media Encoder to produce a final output file.

How to use this

Work top to bottom — each lesson builds on the last — or jump straight to what you’re stuck on. Every page lists what you’ll do, the exact menus and shortcuts, and the common mistakes to avoid.