Adam Shaening-Pokrasso presents a seven-part video tutorial series that introduces After Effects for beginners. This series is a single multi-part hands-on tutorial with downloadable exercise files, so it’s especially good for people who learn by doing.

I’ve added this tutorial series to the resources that I recommend in my overview post for beginners: “Getting started with After Effects (CS4 and CS5)“.

One of the things that makes this series stand out from other tutorials is that it spends a lot of time on fundamentals of animation and motion graphics, not just on the specific features of After Effects, and not just on the creation of a specific result or look. These fundamentals can be used every day, for every project. This is real teaching.

Here’s a quick summary of the highlights of what each episode shows:

Episode 1, Animation and compositing basics
> overview of terminology, workflow, and user interface
> basic animation of layer properties
> RAM preview

Episode 2, Animation technique and keyframe interpolation
> overview of keyframes and animation
> keyframe interpolation

Episode 3, Masking and duplicating layers
basic compositing
> introduction to masks
> duplicating layers

Episode 4, Parenting
> null object layers
> parenting

Episode 5, Precompositions and master compositions
> composition settings
> precompositions
> introduction to effects
> changing and animating masks
> layer stacking order
> In and Out points

Episode 6, Photoshop to After Effects workflow
> working with Photoshop and After Effects
> preparing and importing Photoshop documents
> anchor points

Episide 7, Final touches and rendering
> markers
> navigating nested compositions
> moving and tweaking keyframes
> adjustment layers
> basic color correction and adjustment
> rendering and exporting