All courses / Motion graphics in After Effects
Stop setting keyframes on things that follow a rule
Expressions are code, which sounds worse than it is, because you almost never write it. You point, you click, and After Effects writes it for you.
What they change is what you are making. A lower third that sizes its own background to the text. A chart that draws itself from one number. A template where one slider drives ten layers. That is the difference between making an animation and making a tool — and a tool is what you, or your colleagues, can actually use.
- Length2 days
- FormatOn site or online
- LanguageNorwegian or English
- CategoryMotion graphics in After Effects
After the course you can
Adobe After Effects Expressions
- Read an expression and understand what it does
- Replace keyframes with code where that helps — and leave them alone where it does not
- Build Motion Graphics Templates that are safe to hand to someone else
- Find the problem when an expression stops working
- Leave with a project full of expressions you can reuse forever
What we cover
The program
Day one — the language, with exercises
- Variables, dimensions and arrays, explained without the computer science
- Linear and ease, and replacing keyframes with them
- Expression controls: sliders, checkboxes and dropdown menus
- Constraining choices — limiting which colors and fonts a template will accept
- Working with text strings: splitting, changing and reformatting text
- Pulling data from a spreadsheet into Motion Graphics
- Comments and notes, so the expression still makes sense in three months
- Using AI to write correct code and to fix broken code
- Finding and fixing errors
What expressions cannot do
- The properties that simply are not reachable
- Where an expression is slower than a keyframe
- When the honest answer is to animate it by hand
Principles for building with expressions
- Structuring a motion graphics project so the rig stays maintainable
- One control layer instead of settings scattered across thirty layers
- Naming so the next person can follow it
Day two — workshop
- You build your own motion graphics project, with help
- Either streamlining an existing project or building a new one from your brand
- Turning it into a Motion Graphics Template
- Exporting, sharing and updating templates
The honest bit
Some things should stay keyframed. An expression that saves you four minutes and costs the next person an hour of reverse-engineering is a net loss, and you learn to tell those cases apart. This is also why the course includes the use of comments in the code, which nobody thinks they need until they open their own project a year later.
Who it is for
Motion designers, graphic designers and editors who build templates and motion graphics in After Effects and want to stop doing the same job twice.
Prerequisites
Knowledge equivalent to the After Effects beginners' course, or real practical experience. No programming background needed.
Bring
On day two you build your own project. Bring one you already have and want to streamline, or the logos, fonts and colors for a new one.
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
Do I need to be able to program?
No. You build most of the expressions by pick-whipping and adapting examples. The course assumes no background at all.
Can AI just write them for me now?
Largely, yes — and that is covered on the course. But an expression you cannot read is an expression you cannot fix, and it will break, usually on a deadline. The point of learning to read them has, if anything, gone up.
Will we end up with something we can use?
That is what day two is for. You leave with your own project, working, plus a reference sheet of the expressions used most often and a list of resources that are actually current.
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.
1 dayAnimation principles for motion graphics
Everything moves from A to B.
Want this for your team?
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