All courses / Motion graphics in After Effects
Your animation is technically correct and somehow lifeless
Everything moves from A to B. The timing is right, the client approved the storyboard, and it still looks stiff — flat, mechanical, a bit cheap.
One day on why. The animation principles Disney worked out in the 1930s apply directly to a lower third in 2026, and once you know them you cannot unsee them. This is the course that changes how everything you make afterwards moves.
- Length1 day
- FormatOn site or online
- LanguageNorwegian or English
- CategoryMotion graphics in After Effects
After the course you can
Animation principles for motion graphics
- Say precisely why an animation feels stiff, instead of just that it does
- Use the Graph Editor deliberately rather than hopefully
- Control where the viewer looks, and for how long
- Set a motion strategy so everything the team makes moves the same way
- Get more out of fewer keyframes
What we cover
The program
The principles that matter for motion graphics
- Which of the classic principles transfer directly, and which do not
- Ease, anticipation, follow-through and overlap on a title and a chart
- Weight: making a graphic feel like it has mass
- Secondary motion, and how little of it you need
Timing and the Graph Editor
- The keyframe types, and what each one actually does
- Interpolation and velocity, read in the graph rather than guessed
- Understanding and using the Graph Editor without fear
- Speed graphs versus value graphs — the distinction that unlocks it
Directing attention
- Eye trace: where the viewer is looking at every moment
- Match cut transitions, and why they feel effortless
- Holding a frame long enough to be read, and no longer
Making it repeatable
- Building your own motion strategy — the house rules for how things move
- Animation sliders and reusable controls
- Useful expressions for timing and offset
- Smart keyboard shortcuts, and free plugins that genuinely help
The honest bit
This is the least technical After Effects course on the list and the one that changes the most work. It is also the hardest to sell internally, because the outcome is not a feature anybody asked for — it is that everything the team publishes stops looking slightly amateur.
Who it is for
Video people and motion graphics producers — editors, content producers, motion designers, graphic designers, journalists, communication advisers and freelancers who work in After Effects.
Prerequisites
Working knowledge of After Effects. You should be comfortable with keyframes; you do not need to be good at them yet.
Bring
Bring an animation of yours that never felt right. Pulling one apart in front of the group is the fastest way to learn to see this.
Open courses
Prefer a fixed date for one person?
Also runs as an open course at Qross Kurssenter — classroom in Oslo and live online on the same dates.
Questions
About this course
Is one day enough?
For learning it, yes. Applying it to your own work is an ongoing process, which is why the day ends with a motion strategy you take with you rather than a set of finished animations.
Do we need this if we mostly use templates?
Especially then. Someone has to judge whether a template moves well before it goes into the house package, and this is the course that makes that judgment possible.
Is it relevant outside After Effects?
The principles are, entirely. The exercises are in After Effects because that is where most of you will apply them.
Related courses
Related courses
2 daysAdobe After Effects — beginners
After Effects has a reputation for a steep learning curve, and it deserves it.
2 daysAdobe After Effects — advanced
You know After Effects.
2 daysAdobe After Effects Expressions
Expressions are code, which sounds worse than it is, because you almost never write it.
Want this for your team?
Tell me what goes wrong today and you get a written plan and a price back. Two sentences is enough.