When did you fall in love... with After Effects?
May 31st, 2010

Do you remember you're first date with After Effects?

In the year 2000 after reaching the limits of Final Cut Pro's compositing and special effects toolset, I decided to see other people. That's when After Effects came into the picture with her floating windows and layered timeline, we began spending many hours together. Some of the first stuff we did involved motion graphics, light rays, radio waves and many bad font choices.

The graphic above was part of a corporate video I did in February of 2003 for a tech company that loved high-tech catch phrases. I may try and dig up some even older work if I can find it. But, maybe it is better left forgotten :)

I imagine some of you started out as graphic designers and wanted to bring visuals to life or perhaps you were a video editor that wanted more control of graphics and FX... Do you remember when you first got into After Effects?

Andrew Kramer
POSTED:
15 years ago
694 Comments
Patrik Drevestedt
11 years ago
I have never been a graphics guy, but when i in 2009 somehow got in to how to create lightsabers for motion graphics, that was when i first got in touch with AE. I had never seen a program of that kind, but i pretty much immediately understood how it worked. And then i was hooked.
Now i have just started my own company in the Motion Graphics industry, and it feels very good.
Robert
11 years ago
Back in 2012 I was hit by a car and have been off work first time I saw CS3 in an advertisement I knew it was something I would have to have. it took a few years but was going to have it however by the time I could afford it CS5 was out and again out of my price range so I found CS3 and have that. I had never used or even tried to work with an fx program but determined to learn how. I was 52 years old when I saw it for the first time I am now 56 I use it almost every day. I have your tutorials and the web to help me along I am having lots of fun with it. a 3D program to go along with it would help but fixed income prevents that so I will just continue to use what I have thanks to your tutorials I have lots to keep me busy Thank you for those. the down side is now that the question of (how did they do that) when watching a movie has been answered I say wow nice effect but maybe they should have used this effect or more of and my wife yells at me I just want to watch it I don't care how they did it lol. thanks for the fun Robert
11 years ago
I started very recently. The company I work for had just gotten me a license of the Adobe Creative Cloud (when it FIRST came out) and I had After Effects. I was using Premiere Pro more often, however. I wanted to make better title sequences as well as better on screen text. So I found out that there was a workflow between After Effects and Premiere Pro...then I found Video Copilot and am so glad that I did as this website is what made me really fall in love with After Effects.
Jason
11 years ago
For me it was photoshop that made me try AE. Love at first comp. @ BONES lol, you must not be very proficient with AE. Google an effect, look etc you wanna see and add "no plug ins" to the search term . You can do anything in AE, plug ins just make it faster. ;D
Jamwal
11 years ago
Andrew you are the man - Tiger ..

I have leant a lot from you....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvGHZI_rZ7A
11 years ago
I've never liked After Effects. The workflow can be so convoluted that it makes working with it far too painful. I'll give you some examples - Layer Styles killing 3D layer functionality, the ridiculously convoluted way you animate paths in a Shape Layer (Trim Paths), the way you animate text. The lack of control you have over animating shapes can also be infuriating, as are the hoops you have to jump through to do simple things like change a point on a shape from straight to Bezier. They are mostly little things but they add up to simply awful workflow.
Sadly, it is the only option for me since Autodesk killed off Combustion but if you've ever spent time getting to know the "discreet" workflow, you'll understand what I mean. Realistically, the things that makes AE are the plugins. Take those away and all that would remain are the clunky bits.
Caleb
11 years ago
I remember trying to find a softer to composite in when I realized you could go beyond WMM and Paint (I was very young and old school haha) I found out about After Effects via youtube but thought it was far to complicated for me so instead I used Sony Vegas Pro. When I finally gave After Effects a go, I loved it. To this day I am learning more about it thanks to you Andrew Kramer!
IhloffCreative
11 years ago
I remember in 1997 or 98, an art director at the NBC affiliate turned me on to After Effects. I used tape for years and just to get a dissolve took an A/B roll and if I wanted graphics we were talking a crew of 2 or more and an entire TV control room just to get a name key on an interview. SOOOO you can imagine how excited I was to have unlimited layers and direct import of graphics with alpha transparency from Photoshop! There were many a late night after that in utter amazement discovering the unlimited power and potential of this amazing software.
Conrad
12 years ago
Btw, this was 2001 when all this happened
Conrad
12 years ago
Well I'd say AE kind of got me my first job. At the interview, I'd shown the employer my very basic 3d showreel and he said "we use after effects too". I told him give me a few days and I'll be working in it. As soon as I got home I downloaded a user manual, installed AE v3 and got the basics. When I went back for a second meeting, I informed him that I had mastered AE,... he said when can you start? I replied "immediately" .. and that's how my love with AE started.
Chris
12 years ago
Up until my love affair with After Effects I used, dare I say it, Discreet Combustion to do compositing work. I was working in this studio and one of my colleagues, who I really didn't like, (he was one of these irritating sods who I would have dearly loved to smash in the face with a baseball bat) mentioned After Effects, I just said ok, I will one day, and he kept on about it until I threatened to knock him out if he didn't shut up and stay out of my face. Anyway a year after I left, I downloaded a demo, and I hate to admit it, he was right, one of the more useful things he ever did. after about a year I stumbled upon VideoCopilot.net and wow, talk about a turbo boost! All I can really say is a big thanks to Andrew for his time and effort. You don't get much better than this guy.
Chet
12 years ago
I had used After Effects before, and even taken a small course on it, but I was confused by it and really not interested. Then some friends showed me this website. I've been hooked ever since. That was 2007 I think.
David
12 years ago
Haha, I first started ae when I downloaded a copy of riotgear, I saw the inkdrops and I was sold.. after that started to follow some tutorials and was sold even more.. (I bought riotgear after that haha)
Timber_Wolf_2
12 years ago
My junior year of college, I took a video class. In it, we "learned" the extremely basic elements of AE, using the "Classroom in a Book" (for CS3). I'll be honest, I hated AE at first. She was unnecessarily complicated and seemed to be no different than anyone else.

But then my friend, Harry, showed me tutorial 93, 3D Light Casting. My eyes bugged when I learned that it was complicated because it was powerful and that it could do so much! (I've since learned that it's not complicated once we spent enough time together.)

Having learned nothing useful from the class, I set out to learn it on my own. And Andrew led me there. I have "followed" a total of zero tutorials. But I watch them to glean concepts. And when I need a hand with a specific effect or plugin, I still go back to AK's awesome tutorials.

Thanks, Andrew Kramer. Though I learned a great deal of foundational knowledge and concepts in college, I credit you with teaching me what was necessary to raise my work from the hobbyist/consumer level to the professional world. But I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go. And I'm sure you'll be there all the way.
Adedire Oluwaseun
12 years ago
Curiousity led me into after fx. i wanted to know how film producers were able to achieve the special effects in their movies. i got to know about videocopilot.net and you guys got me up and running. Thanks to the entire videocopilot team.
12 years ago
I started using AE in 1993-94, was version 1, before that I used to work with Adobe Premiere for postproduction, and the migration was spectacular, what a difference between one to the other!!!! anyway I think before being called After Effects, the previous version was Illuminaire, and the icon was a bold head of a man... and as an end, I have to say, I learn everyday new things and ways to work with AE, and you, Andrew, are resposible of the never ending joy of using this soft, thanks to your tutorials and plugins like optical flares and the awesome Element. Thanks man.
13 years ago
I was thrown into AE in 2003. I had spent 6 months editing a documentary (The Conscientious Objector) on Avid. Now the producer wanted a simple spinning (layered) newspaper effect. Easy in Avid. But no, he wanted as a separate element and only in AE. I told him I had never touched AE and only vaguely heard of it. He just smiled and told me to figure it out. This producer knows my affinity for doing things different than I have before is low, so he likes to nudge me when I get too comfortable.

Took me 2 hours to do something I could do now in 5 minutes, but I was hooked. Bought 6.5 pro version and played. Started using it heavily about 5 years ago, but since I am editor/shooter/vfx'r (in that order) I get limited time with AE. I catch myself watching low budget science fiction from the 60's, 70's and 80's wanting to redo all the vfx in AE cuz I know it will look better!
hwbags
9 years ago
I loved the movie "The Conscientous Objector"; I wish it had a bigger audience. I have used AE almost exclusively. I remember the day I quit Final Cut Pro forever and since I do mostly short docs I use After Effects and have so far not resorted to even partial use of Premiere. I think there are others that have followed the same evolution.
Lyubo
13 years ago
Well...
Hello and welcome in my very excited story

Two years ago I encountered a video (for making silhouettes) in youTube. I never understand why I've played it, cause I am a programmer and I've never done any motion graphics or movie making or so... I was stunned from the presenter and I've digged out 30 minnutes to understand who is this guy and why he is so funny and how so he kept my interest in area I am not interested?! Eventually I've found this site here and I've started to watch tutorial after tutorial, effects after effects (heh, funny).
When I came here for the first time the latest tutorial was "Advanced Time Freeze".
The real truth is - I am still programmer and still don't make any motion graphics or movies or so..., I even do not have AE installed, but... I've watched every tutorial and video available on this site for two main reasons: I really enjoy the way Andrew present them and second: If I need to do motion graphics or movies or so... I'll do it as an experianced movi maker (see I dont even know what is your job description). I think I even know every major Hotkey of AE only watching Andrew's tutorials.

So Andrew, what I said above is the truth, you have to be proud, cause I am sure there is other people like me that likes AE only cause of you and your amazing tuts and people that dont really uses it (at least I hope so - otherwise I think something is wrong with me)

There is one thing I am sadly regret - that I am not C++ developer, even I have good experiance with webGL
But if you need PHP developer (very senior one) for any reason, I would like to join your team!!!

P.S Sorry for my English - apparently this is not my mother language (hm... is tongue the right word here..? never mind)
Tamas
13 years ago
I guess it was somewhere around 2002 or 2003, I started with AE 5.5 or 6.0, after seeing a scene breakdown made by a schoolmate. I was amazed. Then the "lightsaber thing" came around the corner and I was hooked forever
Harry Smith
13 years ago
I started using After Effects in "The Before Time" in "The Long Long Ago" in an age we called "The Late Twentietth Century". Yep, it was 1994. I was living in New England then and After Effects was owned by COsA, a small software company in Rhode Island, and only ran on a Mac (I used a Mac Quadra PPC back then). I used it to make animations to be included on a "CD-ROM" (This was a thin disc made out of plastic that was encoded with bits and could hold hundreds of megabytes of information). Now I use AE CS 5.5 on an old BOXX 8404 to make titles and motion graphics that run on everything from phones to HDTVs. Man, I'm old!
13 years ago
2007...i was in the early stages of pursuinng video production/editing as a career and one afternoon wile browsing the internet for tutorials, i stumbled across a tutorial entitled, "earth zoom" on a website called video copilot. that tutorial blew me away! since then, i've watched every VC tut a number of time along with countless others. fast forward 5 years, i'm now the senior multimedia designer for a major IT company here in FL. thanks Andrew for your willingness to share your skills.
13 years ago
i learn a lot from you!
i am doing job since last year in a TV channel as motion Graphic designer and when they see my action work they suggest me to try in movies except HR and BOSS hi hi hi hi

but hey here i like that you address After Effect as "HER"

After Effect is out Lovely girlfriend...
13 years ago
2009,that is the first time.
13 years ago
well..i had istalled and unistalled AE 6 times before start using to make something usefull..but i but i really felt in love..when i discover the daemon tutorial...! AKRAMER rock!
haks
13 years ago
hello friend i have problem when i export in gif my video text corner get blast,, it simage saine isn 133 x 70 pixel. its tv mono, can tell me solution?
Alex Stifler
13 years ago
Actually , i fell in love with it yesterday when i learned how to make the "Earth Zoom" Effect
Great Job Andrew , u r da man ! .. thnx (:
13 years ago
I was doing lower thirds for a school news broadcast on a chyron machine donated to my school. I found after effects 5.1 in the computer lab. Wasted a whole summer of 02 with football practice and AE. Long story short they hired me as a student to do the district's end of year banquet video. Made the school a bit of money and i was hooked at how something from a computer could impress people. Never looked back and can't watch tv without dissecting it now.
Charles Yeager
13 years ago
I hear ya on the "dissecting TV", it is like an after thought, like breathing. One half of my brain watches for enjoyment, the other half tries to reverse engineer everything. Always fun to see things that I can't figure out, (at which point I rewind the DVR and watch it again, and again... haha)
Axl
13 years ago
It came in the Master Collection and one day I fired it up just to see what it was and it looked so complex compared to some other video editors that I searched for tutorials on how to use it ...and that's where I got into AE and discovered Video Copilot.
Valors
13 years ago
Same here , but I was still 12(2010) then I found Video Copilot.
AELover
13 years ago
I Fell in love with after effects when my Girlfriend dumped me for another guy. I found after effects on my school computer and haven't looked back since. Two weeks after my relationship with AE began, our advice giver (VideoCopilot) Showed up.

Thanks Andrew. You've taught me alot.
Majdwlen
13 years ago
Actually ...i fall in love with after effect after i knew video copilot

1,000 thanks to Andrew Kramer
I hope to reach to half of what you achieve

Thanks from my heart
13 years ago
Andy I only come on here so i can scroll down the comments panel and imagine myself descending into the marianna trench,

I came to after effects, as I fell into compositing after trying desperately to edit some really bad animation about penguins gave up on that who wants to see dancing penguins never sell!!!!!!!!!!!

watched you from the beginning, before you was a dad and sam becoming a internet replacement for john Mclane, and tino, nobody puts Tino in the corner.

Thanks to you I am ever closer to my dream job, however the day you turn to Nuke, would be similar to Anakin downfall.
Magnus
13 years ago
I started using After Effects in 1995, green screened a chain saw cutting a logo gushing blood... client did not go for it, can you believe it? lol
13 years ago
Actually iam a 3ds max lover but i loved after effects because of you mr.kramer
Thanks for great tutorials
13 years ago
when i worked with some lightning effect.. its great..
13 years ago
My first experience with After Effects was only last year, when I used the Video Copilot tutorial for hitting a kid with a car (http://ctechinteractive.com/texting-while-driving/).
I have since made Energy Balls, Head Explosions, and beautiful motion graphics. Shiny stuff
Heya i'm for the first time here. I came across this board and I find It truly helpful & it helped me out a lot. I am hoping to present something back and aid others such as you aided me.
Kumaraguru
13 years ago
I am using AE for last one year.I Started with no Knowledge about AE.But by the tutorials of Videocopilot.net only i Learnt Something about AE.Thank you Mr.Andrew Kramer.and my wishes..................
Omar Khaled
13 years ago
I started after effect because i wanted to make two copies of my brother in the same video but when i started after effect i couldn't stop it
Hugh
13 years ago
I fell in love with adobe after effects after watching many videos on videocopilot. It just got to me last week and now it's my favorite website in the world. Thank you.
14 years ago
I weirdly got into After Effects a couple years ago because I go to NYU and there's nobody there who really specializes in visual effects. it seemed natural (and still does) to try and tap that market. By now, AE is more of a passion than a hobby.
Jhonnel
14 years ago
It's because of youtube. I was browsing a some of Riot's and I accidentally Saw you Riot Gear... And I was amazed.. and It brought me here to VideoCopilot.Net!! Thanks to you Andrew
14 years ago
what about "When did you fall in love with Nuke?"
14 years ago
Lol, i can remember is using my ipod video camera, taking retarded videos of myself, and scrolling through the tutorials on video copilot.net, and i kept saying to myself " Crap, if i had that program, this would be awesome, then i discovered that we had after effects cs5 for a long time already, then i started to fail at making videos, but now i am AE SUPAHERO! YAY i make crap blow up, WERHOOEY!!
14 years ago
I completed my bachelor in audio engineering Nov 2010 and offered my services to community broadcasters, I have for many years had a passion for movie editing and in early 2011 offered my editing skills to the same community broadcasters I was offered 2 TV Shows to edit, which I did. My audio skills were called upon so I engineered the shows soundtracks as well. The biggest concern at this time to me was the lack of professional titles, IMOVIE and Moviemaker just dont cut it. I searched the internet for programs that do titles and stumbled upon Adobe CS4 After effects, I now am addicted to the program and hungry for knowledge and tutorials, I have watched every tut made by Andrew Kramer and tried out every graphic title he has produced, only the Ancient text tut remains for me to conquer. As Pro Tools is the king for audio engineers, After effects is the king for motion graphic artists.
Therefor if producing a song is considered an artform ; producing motion graphics must stand as an artform as well.
My romance with After effects and Video Co pilot has bought me great pleasure and satisfaction I look forward to many years of indulgence and gratification through the creation of motion graphics. Many thanks must go to AK and this site.
14 years ago
watching some adverts made me Fall into 3ds max and then i looked for the perfect tool to for final composite which is, AFTER EFFETS (that was in 2009) and i have also done some movies with 3ds max and After , with a lot of help from your tutorials.. THANK YOU KRAMER
WISTON
14 years ago
well i was a special effects movie freak ..1 day was just googling around saw the making of AVATAR ...AWESOME bunch off pple run around in green backround n thats it !....so i started photoshop !..still din knew about ae ..then 1 nce again i start googling lik a mad man ....n here i m VIDEO CO PILOT .... i download a tut ...n thats it m hooked !
Jonathan
14 years ago
I got into this after seeing the chroma keying and then the time freeze effect.
Bag of tips & tricks
14 years ago
Yea I can remember. I started my AE carrier with the sexy "The Bullet" tutorial DVD. From then i love it.

I am a 3D Animator & Compositor. I was used 3ds Max & AE. But for the reason of popularity case in film & animation sector, I've to transfer myself from Max to Maya and After Effects to Nuke. But I still love AE & use it as my second comp app.

Great application, user friendly UI, awesome plugin architecture & last not least, very useful software.
Nathalie
14 years ago
My first date was june2010 my bro bought me the creative suite master collection cs3, he got bored of me messing with movie maker xD
Riffy86
14 years ago
2.5 years ago, I too had found the limits of the FCP suite. I wanted to take it to the next level. Found Video Copilot and it all started from there. (True Story) But that was just the gateway... From there I got into 3D design and all this combined to further my creative ideas while filming. Since I really got into AE, I've been working as a sub contractor for productions. Thanx!!
Rebel28
14 years ago
Just over a month ago, I had wanted AE for a while longer than that, but didn't have the OS for it.

Now, I do.

The reason I wanted to get it, and now love it. Is because it's so powerful and flexible.

Before all I had was cutting and editing, and basic picture transparency.

Now, full on particle systems, real-time effects, 3D spacing, and a flip load more.
k!D-k@m!ll!0n
14 years ago
I just recently was turned on to AE, and thanks to VCP I made my first special effects video with my buddy for a church talent show last week. It was shot with a web cam in my living room and is rough but it was a lot of fun! I'll never turn back.
14 years ago
the lightsababer thing for me in the year the lightning tutorial came out
14 years ago
I remember it it began when i saw the TV show Charmed. when i was very very child... i was so susprised of what that people "could do" and i started to believe that they cast real people with habilities lol ... because i couldnt find a mistake in the fx, even in the slow motion on the tapes of VHS that i used to recorded xD then some years after i got the Particle illusion and i was the begining of a passion whichs goes on
14 years ago
videocopilot is my inspiration for working in aftereffects...i used to find after effects very complicating so i used to work in premiere but thanks to Andrew Cramer and his team who helped me a lot with the fun and cool tutorials which made my work better and helped me in understanding AE...well im from india...and im a bengali...so i would like to thank this site n the people in my own words"KHUB BHALO KAJ KORCHO TOMRA...CHALIYE JAO"
iñaki
14 years ago
I got it like 2 or 3 years cs4, not understanding anything while I opened the back by an effect lightsaber and now I'm in love and still improving
thanks
me meti hace como 2 o 3 años al cs4, no entendi nada al tiempo lo abri devuelta por un efecto de sable de luz y ahora estoy enamorado y sigo mejorando
gracias
14 years ago
2.5 years ago with the Video copilot Bullet tutorial and Cinema 4D integration after what I saw between the two I knew my life would be more creative from then on.
evanGbizzle
14 years ago
i got into after effects because i used to love making home movies at a young age, and i wanted to do a meteor crash video. so i googled meteor crash and VC came up! so i bought after effects and its been my favorite VFX program since
Ravihara Weerathunge
14 years ago
It was when i was 16. I was doing a school project and I knew i wanted after effects do finish it. So i did finish all my 3d work and, then for the post production,i installed after effects. in 10 minuets, i was working with it very well. what an amazing software..
David Whitworth
14 years ago
I don't remember what I was looking for but then some day a friend of mine pointed me to videocopilot.net where I started with the Basic Training series and was hooked from the beginning. I literally absorbed all the tutorials AK hat done so far (I think the 50th Tutorial - the Halloween special had just come out) and then started eyperimenting with AE myself. In the first test-projects I made, I created a black lightsaber using VC's lightsaber plugin V2, a star wars laser barrier, a manual day to night conversion and so on. Afterwards I supported the above mentioned friend create a monster face for his first short film »Suddenly« and right now I'm working on the screenplay for my first own movie. So basically it's all more or less to Andrew Kramer, Sam Loya and the rest of the VC crew.
Herman Darr
14 years ago
the day i stumbled across Andrew Kramer on Creative Cow...then soon after on Video Copilot...I was hooked on AE
14 years ago
when i was in the college i wanna to make vfx clips. some how i got VC tutorial '''' finally i started loving AE:::
UMMMAAA
ILES
14 years ago
I've been told that AF is like "Photoshop for video"
I was interested and decided to try. And now I've been "trying" this for almost 3 years.
14 years ago
I remember our first encounter like it was yesterday. Tired of the nagging limitations imposed upon me by the old familiar Flash, I yearned for something new. Fresh. Exciting. My eyes began to wander, and then there she was, with her fancy cameras, adjustment layers, and oh! so wondrous nulls! Who was this enigmatic siren? Two years later, her mysteries continue to unfold before my eyes. All with Videocopilot as my chaperone.
agnar13
14 years ago
i first felt in love with photoshop in 1998, but that is not the question,then a friend gave me a copy of after effect as an editing software...and i never finished my editing...It was in 2003.
then i meet my dear premiere 6, and i finished to edit my movie.
6month later after a quick romance with lightwave, i was introduced to our dear after effect , it was on a hot night in Monaco after the Imagina party
a few weeks later i found Videocopilot... and i started to learn and love us jokes
less than 6 month after i found a job editing videogames trailers (for Cedemo.com ), and authoring dvd...for 5 years until the end... but that is an other story .

Thx After Effect thx VideoCopilot
Steven
14 years ago
READ THIS
(emotional story about how one love ends and theother started)

i gues i´m the granddad here...
stared "video editing" in 1995 (yes i know, it´s NOT this millennium..) i used MainAction, uLead, Magix, and any other "editng program" i could get my hand on. Then i came across Premiere (about 1996 or so..) i made the perfect gift for my girlfriend, i did a video with showed her day, she had on the day she had her birthday, in first person! (like, you get a video from today, out of your own eyes) i spoke with all her friends, asked them if we all could stage her day she will have in advance. traveled every place she would be on that day. ask her parents to help me out, stage here breakfast, did a phone call with her grandma, with her brother (life's not in the same town), went to her classes in university, to the gym... (you get the point...) i shot a truck full of footage, edited it in PREMIERE 5.0 (yes sir, NO Premiere PRO, just PREMIERE... and everyone knows how this version suuuuukkkeeddd!) the whole video i did not made a appearance in the film, avoiding mirrors and reflections. i manage to deliver the video with a taxi-driver, gave the driver 20bugs and the order to only handle the video to her! gave him also the order to tell her she MUST WATCH THE VIDEO NOW - WITH ALL THE GUESTs ON HER PARTY! i was needy, and shy also very nervuse!!! but after the first 2 minutes she was totally crying, totally blown away, seeing all her friends and family wishing her a happy-b-day!

total in tears..

after the last take (her dad, asking NOT to dink all the beer, so he would get some) i showed me in the video, editing the whole stuff... i spoke in to the camera (with is ment to be her) and told her: " the present i give you is NOT the video! my gift is the awareness of this emotional moment TOGETHER with all friends and family! Happy Birthday!"

you could imagine that everybody was in tears!!!!??
they were!!
after the video, they clapped there hands like 3minutes??? felt like 2 hours --> was great!

the relationship broke up, we are still "friends"??? yeah??? screw that!
but i was asked to do more video stuff.. i was mad @ premiere, not adobe´s foult - i made "animation" in permiere, not knowing there is a tool for this stuff!

so.. like in my life, i "moved on", premiere is now "my friend" the editor, and AE is the NEW EVERLASTING LOVE! she will not leave me, i could turn her on, easy!
AND if i have enough.. i turn her OFF! muahahahah

ps:
i spend month listening to Brian Maffit, Deke O´Rylie and Jackob Rosenberg, they told me more then the basics! (total training, video2brain???)
and now i watch CuboHQ, Motionworks, GSG and VPC???. still learning, still on the hunt to give my love the perfect KEYFRAME!!!

greetings
steven
Lionside
14 years ago
Movie trailers. I remember once being awe-struck with some promo that I watched. When someone told me it was made with Adobe After Effects, that's when my story began.
renato
14 years ago
I had to make some cool looking stuff in FLASH for an ambitious boss and well... Did lots of research on how to do it best and learned about AE. That was 3 years ago, I have been sick for almost all of them, but now I'm OK again and for the first time in my life I know what career I want to pursue.

So again, thank you for your work, for sharing your knowledge and with that giving people who don't have much other possibilities a chance to learn.
14 years ago
It's been only five years, but it's been awesome. I was once a rock star wanabe and moved from Protools to Avid to Final cut until finally meeting my true love AE! I can honestly say that with the many resources out there yours and Ahron Rabinowitz' tutorials have made a huge impact on my career. Just don't tell my wife!
Rob
14 years ago
I came across your site a couple weeks ago, and immediately upgraded to CS5, but I paid the extra to get AE. Best decision I made since getting FCP. Your efforts through all your work on this site have been truly inspiring and amazing to say the least.

I've developed tutorials on CMS systems, and basic audio/video so I know how much time it takes to put these tuts together. And you're not a boring guy to listen to either. Your witty banter makes it more like I'm being taught by a friend and not some stuck up "couldn't make it in Hollywood" instructor that's disgruntled with life.

You truly have a gift my friend and I'm surprised that you've devoted so much time to this when you could be out there making you and your family a small fortune working on feature films.

Great job to you and your team. I wish there were more people out there like you.
Jonas
14 years ago
Well, since yesterday
Jonas
14 years ago
and your Beginner Tutorials really helped ma alo BIG THANKS!
សុភាក់
14 years ago
I fall in 1 year ago.
مهدی کرباسی
14 years ago
I fall in 3 weeks ago, and exactly i was a graphic designer for many years and wanted to bring visuals to life.
keios
14 years ago
I first met AE when my professor told me to make a trailer using texts


then i met her.. AE i held her hands using my mouse and keyboard stared at her effects with my monitor

she was still 7 back then

she first charmed me with effects>generate>lightning and effects>generate>lens flare

when we made love we changed positions


and also rotations and scale

our theme song was epic music

she got jealous when i tried combustion

but i still came back to her better than ever

Her expressions made me wiggle

then Andrew came and made our bonds stronger

We had some troubles we made some adjustments..adjustment layers

Shes always teasing me with rotoscope.

She became more pretty with Trapcode

I fell inlove with her shine

when she renders her love she takes her time
Age
14 years ago
Great comment, couldn't stop laughing
David Whitworth
14 years ago
Seriously - you're a freakin' poet!
Goodshiver
14 years ago
i remember get into it for the camehameha effect and now out of nowhere i work profesionally with it!!
Lance
14 years ago
Started editing on DPS velocity in 2000 with a buddy of mine.
I remember the moment when I realized that key frames didn't mean you actually had to manually edit each frame... Oh the hours we had wasted. Wow.

Then on to Adobe Premiere 5.5. Otherwise known as Adobe "Save your work every five minutes or you might lose everything" Premeire 5.5

My buddy had since moved on to the wonderful world of After Effects. His stuff looked a lot better than mine. Then I too made the move.
14 years ago
at the first year of my collage life...then loved it..
Chris
14 years ago
I was editing training videos on a Casablanca for years, and last year I switched over to editing on a PC using Adobe CS4. I started playing around with AE to see how I could jazz up my titling and graphics and I fell in love pretty quick. When I discovered VideoCopilot I was blown away with what this program and some good training could do. I've been using AE on a daily basis now, usually in a more humble way than what we see Andrew do, but it really made my work look more professional, and I just recently got hired to do my first complete motion graphic promo for a local county government agency.
Between Andrews awesome tutorials (and great products which I have bought), Chad Perkins over at Lynda.Com and the insane Ryan Connolly at Film Riot I've really enjoyed my affair with AE.
Moody
14 years ago
Well... before AE I was using Sony Vegas, since im user of windows ^^ ... so one day I saw a rly nice effect called Twitch and I tried to recreate it on SV cuz I didnt know on wich softwear it was made... but the result of those attempts was rly sad ^^ then I found out about this great site and after whatchig that tutorial I rly enjoyed the way that Andrew Kramer is explaining the projects ... so I felt in love with AE ,)
14 years ago
I came out from my mother and i screamed "oh my God, too much bright there, correction !!! correction!!!!"
Jayjoe Shoo (TZ)
14 years ago
I remember that i wanted to know how get explossions look real
that when i started searching for how to . . .on Youtube when i got the dvd from my friend with the web in it plus the action essntials thats when i started to real get into it ...coming videocopilot.net like everyday . . .and thank you Krammer for the free basic training page Cause without it i would give up on the interface it was killing me . . .but now i try to do everything i find from different tutorials ...i just hope we will meet some day some how . . .here in Tanzania there is a say"Milima haikutani lakini Binadamu hukutana!" which means "Mountains will never meet but Human some how they will".
Hey thanx gyz for reading this I feel like a confersion chamber am in about EA...Hhaha
Bless you,please "each one teach one" - NAS(Hiphop Artist)
Hansen
14 years ago
You're the matchmaker! My first dating with AE is when I wanna make a christmas greeting for christmas celebration in my church, last December. I want it to be a motion graphic, not only picture.

And I found Copilot. Thanks a lot for your tutorials.

My first work was based on your '3D Lines'. I remember, after that, I make your "Shatterize", "3D Room", "Smoke Screen", and your "3D Vines" helped me to understand 3Ds max.

And now, my friends say,"Why don't you change your major to Visual Communication Design?" Haha... I'm a university student, at Food Technology major.

They're very impressed with my works. It's because of Copilot.

Now, I'm doing my special project. It is for my anniversary on February 10th. My 1st anniversary with my GF. I wanna give something special for her. And I'm making a short video (documentation videos) about our first year.

Copilot is very helpfull to me to find inspiration.

Once again, Thanks a lot for Copilot! Always success, and keep better!

Greetings from Indonesia...
Andrew B
14 years ago
I got into AE when I watched a video called "How to pick up a car" by braproductions (on YouTube). I'd been watching his Sony Vegas tutorials, and at first I thought this was one too.
But then I found it wasn't. I was a much cooler program called "After Effects"!
ram
14 years ago
I started looking into it last year (2010) and it's only recently (Jan 2011) that I found Copilot. I'm amazed at how great the tutorials are and how creative the Copilot team are. Looking forward to seeing more.
Frank
14 years ago
I'd been making short films for about ten years, many with practical effects and editing to make surreal things happen. I then shot a video with some friends that needed some after effects-this was in the summer of 2008. The main part was solved using the Assisted Suicide tutorial in a way, although you wouldn't immediately tell. Most of it's masking, puppet tool and some particle dust in the background. What really counts, though, is a good idea. It won us a viewers' choice award For me, it literally took off from there (yes, that's me in the shot):
http://www.vimeo.com/16243513
Justine Ramos
14 years ago
Well I've been wanting to learn AE but couldn't find time for it. Then I had a weather forecast project 5 days ago. I wanted to create the news intro effect so I googled how to make one and it led me to this AMAZING website. I'm still a noob but with Andrew's tutorials it makes it much easier to learn.
Ibrahim
14 years ago
Last month and the best resource is this site of yours...
I've already gotten 3 simultaneous (amateur) jobs on this thing even though i am still in the infancy of learning this vast and complicated labyrinth called After Effects...

greetins from Pakistan!!
al board
14 years ago
I can't remember the exact date, but I think I fell in love with AfterFX about 3 years ago. I was looking to enhance video stuff in a way that was requiring animated masks and read about it in the help documents. So I thought I'd give it a try. Never in my life would I have imagined the things you can do with AfterFX. So, thanks a lot to AK and all the people supporting him. I'll keep learning AND enjoying the the amazing tutorials on this website!
Daniel Swan
14 years ago
I remembered falling in love with After Effects when i needed to create a video presentation for my Physical Education Subject a year ago...

I never really thought that I'd get hooked to it that much...

Now, I'm beginning to create much videos incorporated with 3ds Max...
Mogen
14 years ago
lol, i fell in love with AE when i learned how to make cool video intros. Now im doing 3d incorperated in AE (lol bad grammer). Making some cool video effects, intros and a whole lot more! I found VC from Freddie Wong, YouTube. He talked about Action essentials, and now i looked around the site, andrew kramer being the best teacher for AE. Thats my story.
14 years ago
two weeks ago and I am addicted. I just started with this video work. Be that I am a member of the Pudding factory it seemed as if it would be inevitable. I am so very glad I found out about you guys and this site!!! Now I just need a solid audio tutorial and I will feel so much better about my entry into video!!
Alex
14 years ago
I fell in love with after effects after stumbling on to this website lol... changed my life! Im a mixed martial artist, fought on TV a few times, and havent lost yet, so that was the career path, (still an option but not the most stable of jobs). then i found this, fell in love, learne fast, now im in a postgraduate degree program at Seneca college.

Only issue is Seneca is forcing me to be unfaithful. I start on january 10th, and i have to use Nuke... ive started on my own.. oh how i miss after effects. Nuke is so unfriendly, its cold and leaves me lonely at nights... I miss AE... will it ever forgive me?
Adika Dashrieq
14 years ago
My first date with AE when i see action movies like Rambo that come out with cool blood effects. But i'm still newbie at AE. So at videocopilot, i found a good teacher for me...
Thanx Andrew..
14 years ago
I found a demo on the DIGIT Magazine...!!! N I wanted to try it out n grew from there!!!
Benjicool345
15 years ago
I remember it was about 9 months ago when I had my first date with After Effects CS5... I really was into this Photoshop, Illustrator and many other Adobe products, but I never really thought that there could be an Adobe product for ovie making and special effects. I started searching on youtube for more kamehameha videos and lightsaber, flying and other things as soon as I saw the first one. I knew I could really do it, so I gave it a try. And today, with the help of YOU Andrew Kramer and After Effects CS5 and Photoshop, I have made for than 42 videos about special effects and I'm very proud of my work. It's all thanks to you AK!

Thank you for the teachings of my life!
Rich
15 years ago
I don't think I'm quite in love with it yet. I'm too much of a noob to say there is love around the corner. I enjoy doing films more and AE helps me do some minor effects but for the most part I try not to use it besides playing around. I am working on a music video for Regina Specktor's "Two Birds" that I am only using PS and AE CS5 - so far having fun with it and learning new tricks(mostly the puppet tool)

So maybe after this project is done I will be in love
Ronald Lanham Jr
15 years ago
Like Andrew said I was a graphic design student and I wanted to branch out into motion graphics. Now I make a living using it. How cool is that? BTW I couldn't make it without Video Copilot.
Ecuador
15 years ago
It was right after i saw matrix in 1999
DudingDude
15 years ago
I fell in love with AE when i saw a video on youtube, a calculator hack that plays Call of Duty, well, we're still dating
15 years ago
I went from FL studio/cubase to
corel draw, to MS Frontpage to
Dreamweaver and Flash, and then
to...videocopilot.

cldn't help the feeling i just got addicted.
AE. My thing.
NASIBAH AL HUSAIN
15 years ago
i was working on toon boom so one day i watched an animation video on youtube and read in the description "edited with AE" so i started looking for it
and from that day i FELL in love with AE
thank you anderwww
was in 2006 when I had after effects on my computer, I did not know the potential that had the software until you follow the steps of a small tutorial and saw that I could do something really amazing!
Oru Tosan Nick
15 years ago
Got into it becos everybody in the office was running away from it saying it is a complicated program to learn but had seen some stuff on tv that was done with it and i wanted to do them that was how it started.
15 years ago
I started with Combustion, but i couldn't go further because of the lack of tutorials. Than i ran into your Demon Face tutorial, watched it. I noticed the parenting and pre-compositing which i figured out i could not be able to do them in Combustion and realized how powerful AE is. And there were lots of tutorials about it... Mostly yours... Than i switched into AE.
ike
15 years ago
Most use a canon D7 for shooting music videos, i know it has good picture quality. but it is a lil expensive. guys pls advice whats the best camera to shoot a music video..must especially when you are a new person in this business.
Anthony.I
15 years ago
Discovered AE by asking myself question on how so many effects i watch in film were created and how i could do the same, and someone told me about video co pilot..since then..my lofe has not been the same..Have not uploaded most of my videos, but this was one of my first works, saw it was not so good, so i made a newer and more convicning version later on..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaDK3_98FRg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q607MUgTiTo&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f5gbL8uekY
Ronald
15 years ago
I just got my copy of After Effects 2 months ago and am still on my honeymoon. However, its more of a ménage à trois with Andrew in the editing room! Oh My!
15 years ago
When i discovered Andrew kramer Pretty much
ana
15 years ago
i fell in love after listning to andrew's voice and the incredble intrestin way in which he teaches you..
April
15 years ago
When I was in college way back in 1999. Our college is the first school who introduced multimedia course in my home country. Most student spent their time to become great graphic designers and 3D animators. i told myself i want to be different specially that i'm a woman, i can proove to my batch that i can do after effects stuff. since then i fall in love in AE.
jonathan
15 years ago
it's 3 months ago
waleed
15 years ago
My first project was the demon face of sam. and ( Hey whats up this is AK from video copilot).

thanks AK for all your help.

salam,
waleed
15 years ago
My first project was the demon face of sam. and ( Hey whats up this AK from video copilot).

thanks AK for all your help.

salam,
Jad
15 years ago
I guess my first time with AE was for greenscreening purpose, I wanted to record a guitar clip with a background behind me ^^
15 years ago
Like an alarming amount of people my love affair with After Effects blossomed through Star Wars. I saw a crappy clip of someone with a lightsabre and thought I must be able to do that, especially having used photoshop for a while (This was pre-layers photoshop BTW!)

So in 1999 I began making a Star Wars film called Dark Skies and have loved After Effects ever since. Sadly, I don't use AE as often as I'd like (since it doesn't really impact on my daily work) but it is without doubt my all-time favourite programme.

Hence I'm here, learning from a guru...
Eric
15 years ago
My friend bought the adobe collection last spring and showed me some of his stuff. He also showed me the website he used for learning how to make cool effects (Video Copilot). I thought that it would be fun to watch how people made visual effects in the movies, even if I couldn't do it myself and watched them for about a month before I gave in and bought adobe production premium (a great student price too!). The jokes make it interesting to listen too, and it's not some annoying voice tutorial you'd find on youtube.
alexander aditya
15 years ago
I started with AE3.0 back in 1996.. mostly we did video music,but Alas! the editing machine(by that time) only have 2 layer of videos (that's why they called it a-b roll). In the other hand, AE claim they could have "unlimited" (up to 99) layer, so I start take AE into my daily life which is it takes Forever to render a 3 minutes multilayered video with minimal effect on 233Mhz Mac PPC... But but my love will last forever in AE
Tcarle
15 years ago
I always wanted to get into the film industry, one day I got asked if I would like to go to a 3D animation week short course, I accepted because I want to know what that area of the film industry did. So while I was there I got to use Maya which we made short films with. On the last day we were told to use a program called After Effects to do final tweekings and effects on our movies. The tutors didn't teach us to use the program of course because it was a 3D course so they told us to go to Video Co Pilot and was instantly hooked into after effects. I went from there and got AE for myself.
Ulysses3D
15 years ago
I used to love Flash 5, as an animation tool, and a friend of mine said "Hey Checkout this dude, he is funny, just your'e sense of humor, and also he uses a cool program called Aftereffects" (Videocopilot.net) So I did and was hooked since......and you have a great sense of humor..which helps the learning process...
Jason Sommers
15 years ago
AE 3.0 Editing Local Commercials in Houston
Mariela
15 years ago
Yes, it was february, love was in the air, the year 1997. I was young, so was AE, version 3.1. We created a lower third for a documentary. I loved AE ever since, but the moment I lost my mind to it was when version 5 came out with the camera and 2.5 dimensions and watched the movie "The kid stays in the picture".
Eshita
15 years ago
i first got into AE after watching your tuts !
15 years ago
Old blog i know, but I wanted to share how I got started with videocopilot.net.. It was around last year when I was looking at the youtube page indy mogul, I think I saw it on their light saber effect tutorials.. from there i've watched probably around 90% of your tutorials.. This is my latest work, it's just a draft of the whole 4 minute video but it shows basically what the video is for (a student exhibit)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qD2tkDDJY0

and btw, those works at the back are not mine, they're just placeholders lol
vfxpraveen
15 years ago
hi Mr.vfx
thanking you for all tutorials.
15 years ago
I've just met AE and we can both confess that it's love at first sight.
Being educated as a photographer I've always tried to put the narrative qualities of film into photo. And in developing my artistic carrier, I've recently ventured into video.

In the last video I've made (which you can find here : http://vimeo.com/12400535 ) , I had about 300 dust particle's floating through light. When I proudly told a friend that I animated each single particle by hand using key-framing in photoshop, he turned kind of blue trying to stop himself from laughing...

And so my love-life expanded and I am proud to say I am hosting a true ménage à trois consisting of my Cintiq 12wx, Photoshop and After Effects. Photoshop, being my first tends to get jealous sometimes. And so once in a while I still pop op the Photoshop animation window.. but that won't last.
15 years ago
As a video editor, I always wanted to do something that gave me an edge over my competitors. Eventually, video editing was just not enough. I got After Effects 6.5 in 2005 and found an Andrew Kramer tutorial on Creative Cow. Thank you Andrew for the inspiration.
zead
15 years ago
i fell in love with it in 2009 after watching a youtube video of DBZ kamehameha blast effect made using after effect.
Singilulum
15 years ago
I felt in love in AE 4 years ago, inspired with Dragon Ball cartoon, and i wanted to make Kamehameha video... i found some tuts on youtube and i did it, i think i've that video somewhere lol... then i wanted to be better in AE and video compositing, and started practicing everyday for the past 4 years... well almost every day Now i'm planing to open a video production studio with my two buddies and make some magic!
15 years ago
I may be the old lady in this group. I still have my box from COSA V1.0 Who here remembers COSA? Yes, that was the little company that created After Effects. My first teacher for this software was a young woman named Trish Meyer (who knew) and the classes were taught at AFI in Los Angeles back in 1993. Back then you did a lot of nesting comps and it was completely normal to get a little screen that said approximate time for render 38 hours.
Daunte Richmond
15 years ago
it was 2008 when I met and saw Steve Holmes in Vegas at the NABSHOW doing some camera moves with CS3. The company I work for had bought AE in 2001 with an editing system, i had no Idea what After Effects did. Now, with the help of andrew kramer, which i learned from Steve Holmes, I used it in every project that I do. Thank A.K.!
V.
15 years ago
'twas 1997 and I had to integrate movies with graphics for an *interactive CD-Rom* to be published with Max (Magazine).
Green screen and all that.
We didn't like each other much at the beginning, AFX and me, but we've been together ever since. And I keep learning things thanks to you.
Thermi
15 years ago
i started playing around with ae in...i think last year. i watched basic training and started doing simple effects(lightning, cc p. world...) now i know much after effects, but i cant be creative cuz i have very bad computer.
photoshop...2 years ago, i think. it was nice program, now is even better. i know it better than after effects. i didnt watch any tutorials.
now i dont know whats best for me-photo edit, video edit or 3d?
thanks andrew, now i know after effects. legend!
following you on twitter and will on rss if i get it right haha
my after effects knowledge will be bigger when i get new pc. i see many great tutorials, but i quit when i remember that they will be hard to make on my pc and render will be long. few cool effects that i can handle are sure target,...hmmm.what else
very nice site, andrew, give us more tutorials, news, free projects, plugins...
this site is perfect, youtube is lame for after effects.
so, only video copilot.
Gregory
15 years ago
I remember temping at an Ad agency while I was in Film School. I was working on Quark layouts and envious as Hell as she danced at the hands of another man. So, I asked After Effects out. I have to be honest, I think she found my shy fumbling pretty tiresome; my awkward keystrokes barely able to deliver what either of us wanted. But, she kept it to herself. Eventually I started getting noticed when our rendezvous turned corporate presentations into something they hadn't seen from the poor office has been: powerpoint. I could barely stomach the memory of all those hours I'd spent trying to get her to even just play a quicktime, but it was over. I knew what I had with AFX was love, and I've never looked back. I don't expect her to be faithful. After all, there are men such as yourself Andrew who will always bring her to new horizons, but when I'm shooting a project I know she'll be there, if I need her, to color the world fantastic.
CapnKrunchy
15 years ago
Well, I was seeing these awesome intros that people made on YouTube. So I was like "Hey, I wish I could do that..." Your tutorials have made it that much easier for me to get into film making and editing.
Jordy de Lat
15 years ago
I started 3 years ago with video editing. I used Adobe Premiere at that moment. After some time i wanted to create some visual effects. Like blowing someone head off That's 2 years ago. I also started to use Cinema 4D at that time. So the first thing i made with AE was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaGa-gxF4-I
Well i can say that i've learned much more since then. I'm on a media school now. But the most stupid thing of all is, that they do not learn us how to work with After Effects. Cause the teachers them self don't know how to use it.... But with al the turtorials i can do it on my own and now I'm able to create this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsyn756U-K8
So even if you don't learn it at school. There are many ways to learn AE and other programms!

Thank you, Andrew for this website! It really helps me getting better in what i do!
Remon
15 years ago
I admit it; I am new; I started this summer, but hay I'm 17
and I have long time to design.
oh and by the way, I am a proud graduate of Video Copilot's
Basic Training Academy.
MadMike
15 years ago
As a graphic designer/video editor/film enthusiast/web developer/3d artist (in the spare time I am also nitting , I've been foolin' around with quite a lot of programs. So After Effects was just a matter of time.
We met this year and after your introduction we began to date stadily after only four hours. Couldn't belive how well we understand each other.

We are all very gratefull to you for creating this site.
15 years ago
1995 AE 3.0 , I never expected it to become the standard program then. Mama mia time passed so fast .... ;P
Great to see how it improved and great to see that many things and concepts didn´t change at all ....after !! 15 YEARS !! Long live Aftereffects !!
15 years ago
Well, I always wanted to learn how to use After Effects and this past semester my school added a class with a great teacher. I haven't quit the program since. I even made some of my own titles for a video production for class before I took the class and had so much fun!
Blaze-Sama
15 years ago
That was long time ago, when I saw for first time what is called "MAD Movie" It's like a Japanse Anime Music Video that resembles more a Professional Introduction, the song and effects are carefully synchronized and all that.

Since I've been in this area of design since i have memory, I was impressed and wanted to learn how to produce such amazing animations to bring life to my designs, Then i tried a lot of tools including Sony Vegas but they where restricting my creativity, that until i tried Adobe After Effects, at the beginning i was scared of the interface. but then i manage to get along with it, and Video Copilot helped a lot with that too.

I owe a lot to this excellent web site and Master Andrew for his marvelous tutorials.
15 years ago
I've been eyeing on her few years ago until last year, mid of 2009, when i accidentally surfed on videocopilot.net
15 years ago
After years of print graphic art, I met After-Effects back to school in 2003, where I was actually there to learn programming languages. And I get really fast that I was going to fail. Fortunately, I had the chance to meet Autodesk Maya and After-Effects, since, we live a perfect love...
Victor
15 years ago
Well, my first stumble upon it was when I was a 6 year old computer genious in the year 2000, but my dad told me that it is way too hard unless you went to school for it. But then I found it again at CS4 a year and a half ago and that is when I started.
Afif Ridhwan Roslan
15 years ago
'Twas a school project that bonded us together. My group decided to make a video sketch of "The Phantom of the Opera", me being the editor. I got and played with After Effects since.
15 years ago
I guess it was somewhere in the mid-ninties. I looked at it, mentally mumbled "It's moving Photoshop -COOL!" and have been addicted ever since.

Prior to that I had done some work with Compositor in Wavefront (for the children in the crowd, that was Maya's great-grandfather).

Aharon Rabinowitz (now with Red Giant) and I did a couple of short videos together at Runtime DNA with After Efects back in the day. When I hooked back up with him last year over at Creative Cow, he pointed me over here. I'm happy to say I still refer people to this site, and despite having run the app since it was a wee baby, I am still picking up things from Andrew and company. -R
vienzzion
15 years ago
well, how i find out about after effect is when i was fiddling around with adobe creative suit.The question arouse "what the the hell is after effect for?" , then did a search and boom...found ur site.. the journey begins...
sam
15 years ago
Wow, so long!
It was in 1996... I was used to work with Quantel system & quantel artists for an european curtural tv channel (Arte).
Then I came to Paris where this system was too expensive for me, so a friend of mine tell me "hey do you know this stuff? Maybe you can do something with it!
It was already the Adobe version.
6 months after, it was my major software!
15 years ago
Started off doing brutal animations with Director in 2000, then moved into Flash. All the while, I was still shooting and editing video footage and eventually worked out how to use After Effects around 2003 or so. Took me some time to get used to it doing book and text based tutorials as I was still on dial-up internet at the time, but got there in the end!
15 years ago
In media design school I was introduced to AE for the first time. Since we had nobody to teach us how it worked (long story short: the school sucked) some of my classmates discovered VideoCopilot. So yeah, Adrew was practically our teacher. Before I knew I was spending every free minute watching Kramer's tutorials. AE was totally new for me, I couldn't believe my eyes when I witnessed Andrew's sky replacements, motion tracking and my favorite: particle systems! AE is still my most favorite piece of software!
Rabbit Studios
15 years ago
I begin with CS 4 and love it,havs cs 4 eng and 5 ger now i work with a Tesla + 480GTX an quad2core q9400 OC@ 3,2Ghz and 8 GB DDR-2 Ram great stuff not the best but its extreme better as before
abdalla hassan
15 years ago
my first date with after effects before 5 months
Brian
15 years ago
I worked in graphic design and dabbled in editing for a long time but felt I was missing something that would always wow me on TV commercials etc. I just didn't know the proper generic name for it to use as a google search... "motion graphics"

I was playing around with FCP and some small stuff in Motion, It seemed rather limited compared to some of the magic I'd seen, while I kept looking for tutorials for Motion. I almost never found what I was looking for... hardly ANY Motion tutorials, and it was annoying to have to filter out all the results for After Effects (LOL)

When I finally stumbled upon motionographer.com I thought, "yeah, that's what I'M talkin' about" and promptly started trolling the links, where I happened to discover the infamous Andrew Kramer at VIDEOCOPILOT.NET, and CreativeCow.net and realized I had my search terms and filtering all wrong!

GO KRAMINATOR!!!
theocrasy
15 years ago
Since 2 weeks ago I began to make my first WOW machinima.My friend get me AK's tutorial when i began to love it ????
Encon92
15 years ago
My first date was a blind date set up with a friend of mine who had experience with her. he should me all the creation he had done and i was curious so i tried it out and he introduced me to this site to get a good footing with after effects. It was slow at first but eventually we had an ignition on our flame. We really hit it big when i took video journalism. I made many effects in the class such as turning some one invisible with glass wipe which made a unique effect i found to making grid like matrix to represent some one hacking into a computer. After effects and me have been together for about 2 years now and hitting it strong and now im seeing if i can inroduce another companion, 3D max to this relationship to bring this relationship to the next level.
15 years ago
Hi Andrew . my name is juan, and i come from argentina. When i finish the college in 2005 i was amateur user of after effects, my dream was study in ''vancouver film school'' to become a important part of a vfx movie, but it was imposible to me, i was without money and i decide start studing architect, this 2 years i was trying to learn by my self everything i can. When i meet with your tutorials, i have to say, your knowleadge behind the tutorials, inspire me more and put me in the compositor way, your detail in the shots starts to give me a better eye when i watch a shot, so i leave architect and start learning by my self, tutorials and testing, now im fusion/nuke compositor working in one of the best vfx companys in latin america, i complete +20 vfx commercials and +4 movies, i expect send some applications to big companys to complete my dream to be part of one. So, i have to say: Thanks andrew and hope my story likes you.
check out my works: www.jisvfx.com

thanks!
Juan.
jack
15 years ago
i like editing videos, first i started with the simple movie maker than got off and made some cuts with power director and adobe premiere elements. i searched for some nice intro effects and so someone told me to look on this site and i tell u andrew ur tutorials are awesome
izzarshah
15 years ago
well, the first i fell in love with AE was when i was being given a task to create a presentation for my batches final year graduation. I was looking for ideas on youtube when i saw a cool presentation which leads to Andrew Kramer's VC Pilot site. From here i've learned almost everything and applied them to my presentation. From that day on, After Effects has been a must have software for me.

Here's the video from my presentation. I know it's a total pliagarism but i was still in a learning stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kff8x3TdzYU
Satyapriya
15 years ago
I came upon AAE while i was trying to make AMVs..FX n All are pretty require to spice up the videos..So got addicted to it henceforth..Whatever..Mr.Kramer Rocks..The One N Only Of His Kind..Hats Off.
Mariona
15 years ago
My first contact with AE was in my job six years ago.
I've got to animate a a newspaper article. For me the keyframes were little bugs, moving around! But now AE is one of my best friends, je je.
hamed
15 years ago
remember!.3 years ago . i start After Effect with your video.
Uli
15 years ago
2 maybe 3 years ago my sister's friend told me about it.
And I was just "Oh my god! This is so cool!!!"
He showed me the Basics and after some tutorials I could work very well with it.
Vladimir
15 years ago
2 years @ this site ^_^
15 years ago
i think 2 years back...learnt full AE from andrew
GenZi
15 years ago
It was year 2004 when a started like web designer, graphic designer, a used adobe products and about year 2008 a getting started with Affter Effect and a lov'd this software
AB
15 years ago
It was after I purchased an AVCHD cam . I casually went in search of a couple of basic tutorials and the discovered Creative Cow website. This was about three years ago. Whilst on the Creative Cow website, I saw Andrew Kramer's tutorials (along with one or two others) and I followed Andrew here. (yeah that's a bit scary isn't it?)

My background is photography and Photoshop.
Terrence
15 years ago
It all started when I was browsing on Youtube. I'm eleven and a half years old and I like Legos. So I go to Youtube and watch some brickfilms, and on this guy's channel he has this video titled "After Effects Lightsaber test with Legos". I click on it and witness the epicness of the visual graphic lights. So I decided to check out this "After Effects". I browsed, and was pissed when I found out the price. Then one prefix in the software title changed everything: Adobe. I already had the Adobe CS4 Master Collection! I immediatly went through my CS4 library and searched for AfterFX. I was so happy when I found the program, but was disappointed when I first looked at it. It was like a network of screens and buttons and it was all so confusing. I was a kid. I had no idea what to do. I rejected her.

A year later, I stumbled upon the Annoying Orange. I wanted to use the effect for a school project, and learned that the program used for it was none other than my ex girlfriend AfterFX. At first I was exited that I already had the program, but then remembered why I dumped her. Eventually, I found the tutorial I needed and suceeded in the effect. That's when we reunited. I went beyond faces on fruits. I compiled all kinds of visual effects, and after that experience, I learned what a hell of a woman after effects was. We got married.
15 years ago
It was June of 2009. I started out as a graduate of Youtube University. Then I found Video Copilot. I started learning from here and have fell in love with it ever since. I decided to go to school for digital video editing and am working on my Associates. In the meantime I am building my own business where I am currently working with local bands in my area doing music videos. I'd really like to learn how they did the visual effects for Korn's music video coming undone. That was awesome. I wish I had a green screen that big! I hope to go to Full Sail for my bachelors degree but 70,000 dollars is alot of money....Someday my friends...someday.
Amir
15 years ago
it was almost 6 years ago when i just started to work with Adobe Video softwares, i started with premiere and after that AE 6.0. But anrew you know what? these days i hear alot about preference of "Nuke" over "AE" and this makes me sad after working these much with this software that i really love and i spend my time with!
15 years ago
I met this sultry little fox in the Fall of 2002. Making controllable puppets photos was my main objective. I suppose our love has slowly grown from there. Although she doesn't like that I still see FCP on the side.
LHcheM
15 years ago
OH, I'm just a student, and I was the only one who can make FX in the school in Hong Kong....
Because I wasn't good at video editing, people in the campus tv team don't repect me much, that time I want to start on effects, but no body accept, until I learned from Video Copilot and worked out some of the "Impressive Stuffs" XPP
That's when I started to have the fantasy of making more effects =]
15 years ago
Freshman year at Parsons... some kid gave me a bunch of programs:
kid: "Do u want After Effects?"
me: "What's After Effects"
kid: "It's like Photoshop with a timeline"
I instantly knew exactly what he meant. Years of playing around with layers in photoshop were about to pay off.

This was the first piece i made with AE: 6/13/1999
http://www.chrisroth.net/animation/beer.mov
Peter Parker
15 years ago
I was amazed when i saw a tutorial about the lightsaber effect and the Kamehameha from Dragonball Z..
It was the first time i knew, that there was a program called After Effect that could do movie effects and graphics.
Jorn
15 years ago
When i found out your lightsaber tutorial i was like: NO WAY. Now me and after effects are basicly married!
15 years ago
I had no idea that to make titles and motion graphics, you had to use something like AE!
I though Avid or Final cut could do it all.
but i got given my dads computer when i was like, ten or something and got it working and now I use it everyday!

I Love U AE!
15 years ago
I'd always been in love with Photoshop, and I had After Effects but I had no idea how to use it so it kinda just sat on my desktop...

I started getting into it more when I saw the epic tutorials on this site, and a lot of the stuff I knew inside out from photoshop transferred nicely to AE
Roko121
15 years ago
Well I did last year, my first tut was disintegration. Didn't know what to do with a perfect piece of software which I couldn't understand and then, out of nowhere a website emerged after I googled tutorials for ae... Video Copilot. The rest is obvious, thank you Andrew and VC because without you I'd have AE and wouldn't know what to do with it...
Alexandra
15 years ago
I fell in love 4 weeks ago ( i just found out what after effect in for) Thanks alot i am in grade 9 and i am am getting AWSOME MARKS Because of u Thanks Andrew Kramer
I like ur tutorials soo easy to follow, i use them for presentations and stuff like that I AE Thanks Again
Frozt80
15 years ago
Dude... so so so many people here. Well I did "fall for it" when I started to see the tuts here, it's just the way this dude does the things, has that vibe you know. Keep it up man... because of you I have a stady income and a kick-ass job
Cheers
merv
15 years ago
i used to use ae as a support tool for my henry and flame jobs and now, its ae all the way with andrew's amaizing and entertaining tutorials...thanks andrew and video copilot...cheers...
Vaibhav
15 years ago
December 2009, winter break from 8th grade. Stay up till 2 AM on creative cow, back on at 10. Best two weeks I ever spent
Ben
15 years ago
Jurassic Park and N64. These got me into the CG world at an early age. When I was 11, I was using milkshape, then 3dsmax, then maya, zbrush, etc etc, and into compositing. I went to college for both about 3 years ago and am happily working in LA at a very nice FX house. Andrew Kramer, thanks for your part in keeping me excited about FX after all these years.
pp
15 years ago
thanks！because you！you are my teacher！thans！thank you！
Freakizoid
15 years ago
Wow it must've been around 1999 or 2000 when I was enrolled in the Animation program at Northeastern University. I was in a foundation level class doing stop motion, and then some intro animation using Newtek's Aura (is that still around?)

After taking my first video class and learning to edit on a Media 100 (lol) I wondered how they did all those cool "laser beams" and wandered into the video lab where a guy was using After Effects. I saw my first laser beam get created and the rest is history....

(For the record I still have not created a laser beam, perhaps for my finale)
15 years ago
It was the day I found this site! Three years ago.
Yatin Sharma
15 years ago
to make my text and montage more attractive i turned to after effects. I am a student pursuing my diploma in video production. Faculty in my college never actually persuade us to work hard with titles and montage and I personally don't like simple text with vertical or horizontal movements. My teachers very much appreciated the AE work to give my projects look n feel. ALL THANKS TO AFTER EFFECTS AND YOU MR.KRAMER.
Bboy Mole
15 years ago
In 2009, at summer) great times
Lasse
15 years ago
3 years ago, when I had to make some nominee videos for an awardshow.. never really messed much round with advanced gfx before, and definitely not touched AE. Well I guess I learned a lot the hard way, but this site has really been a great assistant and given me new and good ideas. Thank you for doing all this great work Andrew, and actually bothering to share your ideas.
Also gotta say I love your sense of humor, makes even the more tricky stuff come down easier
Yokoshima
15 years ago
Fell in love back in 1999 but then had a long break in our relationship due to Flash. As video work came back to the forefront with better integration into Flash, my love affair with AE returned. So much to the point where I could finally quit being a Flash developer and went back to being a FT motion artist. My time in Flash was well spent though since it brought in coding abilities that I was able to lavish on AE with some reworking.
15 years ago
I felt in love when I reached the limits of vegas compositing and decided tto make possible see what Im thinking, using 3D tools too,
Banks of the Styx
15 years ago
Damned I'm so old DDD

I used it since 1995 (i used photoshop since 1992) with AE3, That's funny cause with AE3, we can do some better people's reels who's make it make with AE CS5 DD
15 years ago
it was on September 2006 when any nobody don't want to talk to me and become isolated..then i saw after effects when i try it some people laft at me because even keyframing is hard for me to understand..i devote all my time searching and practicing different tutorial and finally be able to find your site. Since then everything is history
daniel silva
15 years ago
i got in to it because i wanted to make a ZOMBIE short film with muzzle flashes and blood...now, its my profession.
Teddy Duncan
15 years ago
I Have bought all of Video Copilot Products Today ^_^
Sebastian
15 years ago
I was watching making of's on dvd back in 2003. All those VFX Supervisors talked about some wired shit called "compositing".
I watched more and more making of's and i begun trying to replicate that shit with microsoft paint and movie maker (no comments please). But it didn't worked. Somebody said anything about AFX (of course it was on a making of). I asked my buddy to give me his "security copy" of it. BAAAAAAMMMM! I had AFTER EFFECTS. I was the king. Not really cuz I didn't knew how to use it. the solution was: google.com - after effects tutorial. My first visual effects was the lightsaber (how sad. but man i loved it. and I was sooo #%&!in proud).
15 years ago
My fist time was after see motocicle tutorial by Andrew
on CreativeCOW. January 2005.
15 years ago
Andrew, when I saw your tutorials, the first for me was the 3D Light Casting one, I got hooked! I saved up for awhile in order to buy ae for myself! It is amazing, and your tutorials help me everyday! Thanks soooo much!
MILTON
15 years ago
I was bicouse DRAGON BALL Z, im a big fan, wen a soO the DRAGON BALL EVOLUTION i realy get mad, so a google it for some software to show how to make a good efects i found after efect,i try to make crater efect, i google it en i found VIDEOCOPILOT THE GOLDMINE WEBSITE... you are the beast Andrew pease
15 years ago
my first time was year ago, when i was fresh video editor in local TV station, my supervisior came to me and said we need an after effect guy well now i'm lead motion graphics designer then found videocopilot and here it goes
15 years ago
I work with after effects a year ago but I got the first impression only when I saw your car hit tutorial. I can not stop watching more and more tutorials.
Thank you very very much, Mr Andrew.
I am from Vietnam and I always want to have your signature on my note book.
15 years ago
Aaah I fell in love with after effects when i saw your work! I've been more of a 3Dsmax Guy, Anything with modeling, Zbrush modeling and animating but without post production. its all rubish.. and your work was so impressive, i decided to get AE well i had it, for like 3 years but havent opened it til now.. hehe AE ROX!!
15 years ago
oh andrew,andrew hello!!!

i begun dating with after effects since 7 years ago i believed,and really im so desperate to learn after effects especially when i saw a lot of effects in a hollywood movies.i started to search how to add effects in a video and i found your site and begun to buy the software. and since that im only studying by myself thru video tutorias in youtube and of course to your site as well but still i dont have the gots to learn on how to play with it...
but of course i already have some idea and i think i need to go to a school teaching after effects here in the philippines but its too high and expensive and im not quite sure if i really learn on how to be like you,,,,

well andrew i really glad that now i know how editors doin the movies and i think im already satisfied..and still im hoping that you wont stop doin tutorials for everyone as free....


more power to your site and staff and may God bless you and your family...

yur avid fun.
christeves
15 years ago
A better question is when did you fall in love with Kramer
haha
15 years ago
1993. But I didn't touch the program until 2007.
15 years ago
I first fell in love with after effects, when i was watching music videos and commercials and wondering how they do those stuff.. so i went out and find her, she was the beautiful graphics princess behind all these creations.. from that day, i never stop learning more about her.. she means the world to me..
15 years ago
I can remembered like it was yesterday. We just started about no more than a month ago. I'm pretty excited about it. It's amazing(after I ran into sites like VideoCopilot, AETuts, RedGiantSoftware, etc...) and I hope it stays like that....we still alot of growing to do.
ignacio
15 years ago
i just was looking for a program like photoshop but for videos..... so i find out googling and i find this awesome program of adobe
pmarsico
15 years ago
2001, newbie to video editing. Learned Avid Symphony and soon after became an AE goobernaut, then came 3dsmax and I can't put the apps down to even get lunch half the time.
Discovered Video Copilot only a year or so ago and have to say Andrew is a genius!!!
Oshin Baroyan
15 years ago
Since I used version 1. Pre Adobe days. 1993 i believe. It was called COSA After Effects (Company of Science and Art) It was the first real compositing program for the Mac. The interface hasn't changed that much but it does a lot more.

A brief history of AE
http://www.cosa.com/after_fx/
YuKinKeishMeiAz
15 years ago
Is After Effects classify Digital Entertainment or Graphic Design? Because I really want to go into College to learn After Effect and I don't know which Program it would be in just cause it seems to be in both. Probably Graphic Design huh.
Leeany
15 years ago
Well... I always watched TV and wonder how they do that... in the commercials or music videos. Even in the news, those motion graphics with the intro and everything and then my husband introduce me AE... wow... that was magical!! "Finally!! All my questions are answered.", I said. But I didn't know how to start AE, and in that moment, went to Google and puff!! Your tutorials were the first thing I saw. And after that I fell more in love with AE. Our love is still strong!
15 years ago
Well the first time i ever heard of AE was all the way back when Andrew was still on the creativecow.net and i stumbled across one of his videos, the rest is history.
15 years ago
Wow, where do I begin. I believe it all started in 2006, we had finished our first film and wanted to introduce some special effects into our next one. I already knew about AE, but had never gotten into it except to do a lightsaber scene several years ago. So I pulled up your site and went through your intro training and tutorials, at the time I think you had like 15, Assisted Suicide popped my cherry and I fell in love!
Vasile
15 years ago
Thank you Andrew. Everything you do is much appreciated.
Vasile
15 years ago
About 3 years ago I watched a video some friends of mine made using Action Essentials 1 to create some explosions and freezing a person in the frame while another one walked around them. I loved it. I wanted to know how they did all that. I have been learning lots of stuff from your amazing site ever since. I use it in my job now.
Dejdara
15 years ago
never I think much better is Nuke, but i use AF to some quick productions (it's much faster), and 2D animations.
15 years ago
Yes i remember....
Twaz last year wen a close friend of mine sent me a link and told me to check your site out. After view all the basic training. I started viewing all the tut's one by one.

Recent work
http://www.nickcreations.com/teaser/index.html

Thanx Andrew. U r an inspiration
Mohamed
15 years ago
really first time with after effects when i visit video copilot may be 2 years ago
and made me fall in love with after effects
thanks a lot Andrew
Mohamed
Ian Leo
15 years ago
I started when I wanted to create a morph effect. I learned from there. Now i'm a professional. I managed to create a morphing video effect like me bending down and morphing into a cat
Eric
15 years ago
About 4 months ago I took a motion graphics class... I realized pretty quickly that I hated everything everyone was making. And then I realized that my work was actually looking pretty good relative to my classmates. I am just somewhat obsessed with details.

My midterm 4 weeks into the course:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCt8OKY49cw

And then I had this two week long epiphany of 'oh my god, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life'. The next week I changed my major to video effects and motion graphics. I was kind of wandering through life questioning whether or not I would ever find something I enjoyed. AE saved my life!

One of the moments that helped me realized AE was the place for me was during an Andrew Kramer tutorial. He said something like 'yeah and this looks acceptable but... thats not good enough'. And I was like ugh finally some people who have an eye for detail who don't half ass things.

Thanks Andrew~
15 years ago
well, first of all i thank Videocopilot, because while checking out videocopilot's tutorial ,since 2008. i got to know more about after effects, and i felt in love with it, now adays she is awesome with CS5 look, she is sexy with her new other features. i spent much time working with her, i love you after effects...
Michael
15 years ago
I think you should give Final Cut Studio another look if you haven't lately. Much better now than it was then.
Brandon Smith
15 years ago
It all started 6 years ago taking moving making classes at my local college, creating videos with Vegas, which proved to be enlightening and bothersome when my ideas couldn't be brought life. At that point my instructors turned me on to After Effects so I started playing with it, creating small graphics, little things. Eventually it became a thrill to see what else I could make with it. A few years ago I was turned on to this website by another instructor I had, and that is actually when it took off big time. After Effects may have been my original trigger down the patch of motion graphics, but it was Video Copilot that sparked my interest into a profession. Now I get payed to do the things I love, which is making motion graphics.

Pat yourselves on the back, you've inspired yet another to pursue a path of awesome visual effects design.
15 years ago
I had been using Photoshop since version 4, before the Creative Suite revolution. I remember looking around the net for some tutorials on how to do the Light Saber effect and there you where to the rescue. I got the 30 day demo from Adobe and fell in love with After Effects. About 90% of what I know about AE is due to you.

Is it just me or are you more involved with Fringe than just the title sequence? I swear I see your signature on a lot of the effects in the series. The light flares in episode 22 have to be you.

Keep up the good work and thank you for everything you have taught me and inspired me to do.
Alex
15 years ago
2004. i was a cameradude at the time for a small production company. i always wanted to know what the pros used for compositing (i thought adverts and such were all done in 3d aps) and i happened to find after effects by accident on an editing site. i had used photoshop for years but never knew Adobe did video, so i bought AE 6.5. Those were the days. i remeber seeing some of your early work Andrew, but i didnt become a regular visitor to the site until last year.
Anthony
15 years ago
A few years ago a friend recommended that I try playing around with AE, and I eventually found video tutorials on Creative Cow. Some of Mr Kramer's early tuts were featured on there, and I have been a big fan of VC ever since.

I used Andrew's 2.5D tips to create titles for one of my videos:
http://www.vimeo.com/2231787

Cheers Andrew!
christof
15 years ago
I found AE in the Master collection After the years i spend with PS i wanted to animate something cool into a E-sportsclandesign i found 1 animation programm but i was to borther to try it aggain after i failed once...- But then Videocopilot was there at 5 o´clock in the morning i and my mate were tired and powerless we spend the hole night with CS:S i Looked at the design and said dude i want to make that NOW!!! And after hours of searching there it was andrews tutorial about something realy cool in 3d and i said this is it i love this page i love this program yeah dmmt i love the whole #%&!ing stuff here (= <3 since 2009
jonathan
15 years ago
i fell in love with After effects 2007 in animation school ,we had to do a short film for a prerequisite class, soon as i saw what it was capable of ,that was it! ! !
15 years ago
The first time I fell for AE was when I decided I wanted more out of my videos. More life!!! Having using MM & SV, AE have made the beginning of my video editing business a lot more fun with many explorations of effects and expressions. The first projects I did, that I though were kind of cool but now I feel they are nothing compared to what I am about to do at the end of this month-the multiple videos with reflection and an ipod-like commercial for my website. Andrew, whatever you do, don???t stop making these great tutorials. You have no idea how effective they are to those who cannot afford courses and the time for workshops!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! ??? Ms.Ryot
15 years ago
The first time I fell for AE was when I decided I wanted more out of my video. More life!!! Having using MM & SV, AE has made the beginning of my video editing business a lot more fun with many explorations of effects and expressions. The first projects I did, that I though were kind of cool but now I feel they a nothing compared to what I am about to do at the end of this month-the multiple videos with reflection and an ipod-like commercial for my website. Andrew, whatever you do, don't stop making these great tutorials. You have no idea how effective they are to those who cannot afford courses and the time for workshops!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! - Ms.Ryot
Brian Mills
15 years ago
I am old...LOL I remember Cosa Effects...I thinks thats what it was called...I saw a music video that used blurs and animated lines...i think it was by Underworld ??? Cowgirl...I fell in love with that look...and have been learning ever since......btw this was back in 93...LOL
Norrie
15 years ago
About a month ago.

I hobby machinima and was restricted by the medium and Final Cut.
I knew nothing of AE, and arrived here via google.
Watched the Basic Training (Downloaded the TBH) and knew it was right.

I'm still on basics, using your tutorials for simple projects. Rest assured I'll be purchasing as I advance.

Not to sound suck-ass, but this place is astonishingly good. Reminds me why the interwebs is such a great thing.

Thank you, and your team.
Getenet
15 years ago
You started it for me. I owe it all to you.
Peter Kent
15 years ago
Ohh what a day that was. The details a sketchy, given the passing of time and all, but i do remember my good friend Steve introducing me to Premiere Pro 1.5. Being a musician and a sound guy, i thought video production would be a nice little side angle to try. After a week of getting married to this video editing application(PP1.5), I thought I was getting quite smart and familiar with premiere pro. Life was good !
My partner in crime at the time(no he really is a nice guy) threw me a disc that contained AE 6.5. My first initial response was " what the hell is this" my second one was " OK I'll have a look at it". I remember looking at the workspace and thinking 'alright, what do i do, where do i go from here'. I had absolutely no idea how to run this baby.After doing a bit of searching on the net, i found Creative Cow and was blown away by some of the tutorials I saw on there. "JACKPOT.This is just the application I was looking for". So then I left my wife of 1 whole week to devote my learning to her sister product.. After Effects.
I bought books and learnt all I could from the Masters of AE through tutorials on the net.Not to stray to far, I had a brain haemmorage when I was 28, and now I am almost 44, so the maths and expression learning that I am doing is phenominal. I just love it. Thanks to people like Andrew and all the guys and gals at video copilot, as well as other creative cow leaders, they have taught me so much about something i knew so little about 5 years ago.
So my adulterous affair continues with AE and although I won't get a divorce from PP and the other fine Adobe products, I know I definately have my favourite. Thanks for a great site with great tutorials and great products, and for taking my imagination to places it has never been.regards
Peter Kent
God bless to All
James paul Bernardo
15 years ago
it was 3 years ago when i started editing movies using the common movie editing applications but i said to myself that i want to do it in another way and bring it into a different level!. because of the limitations that an ordinary movie editing software can do, i decided to learn visual fx using AE. thanks to this site, i owe it all to andrew. tnx man!
15 years ago
Andrew i began adobe after effects as a work when i discover your website, there were only 4 tuts and i had ae version 6...XD nobody here knew you, i was one of first...
Zachary
15 years ago
It all started in the busy streets of Sydney, Australia. I noticed a good looking girl and asked for her name. I wasn't surprised when her answer was After Effects. It grew from there, walks in the park, days on the beech.
Story of my life
jobert
15 years ago
I've been using after effects since version 4, I used to love watching MTV and I love re-creating their station ID's so I could improve on my craft this was way back during the late 90's, I've other products as well fusion, nuke, combustion and toxic. And now I'm a flame artists but I always go back to AE specially to do motion graphic stuffs and for personal projects that I do at home like AVP's. I be using another software now for most of my jobs but I always go back to AE. It's like what they say "Fist love never dies" ;p
Joe Garber
15 years ago
When I first heard of After Effects about ten years ago, it seemed to exist on a level that way beyond anything my filmmaking arsenal could hope to afford. A few years later, around 2003, I finally scraped up enough cash to buy my first copy. It was a daunting and intense first few dates, but soon my love affair blossomed and eight years later I can't imagine my studio without it. It's amazing what we can do with the power of AE, things that could only be imagined in our youth...here's to you After Effects...and Copilot.
15 years ago
it was the first day of my fall 2009 school semester of college. i walked into class and didnt know a thing about it and our first day all we did was play around on it. in a matter of 30 minutes i had created an animated 3D tile just from messing around. had so much fun i was hooked.
15 years ago
After I found Video Co-Pilot entirely by accident and saw what could be done with After Effects, I bought it the next day and have yet to look back. Thanks to Andrew, Sam and everyone at VCP. You have made me whole.
15 years ago
I remember one day searching on YouTube on how to make DragonBallZ effects with live action footage. SO on most or all of the videos' Info was posted that It was edited using After Effects. So then I downloaded CS3 and then after one look...thought to myself...OMW..How am I gonna do this???

So about a week later I came across VideoCopilot.net with LOADS of tuts and plug-ins...afterwards I got hooked. Especially after viewing all of VC's products. I.E. Riot Gear, Evolution and Twitch...

So it's been about 7 months that I have been working on After Effects CS3 and I must say..It is GLORY!

But also I work for a Church Organization, and I got hired before knowing a THING on After Effects. I made it my personal QUEST to learn and enhance my skills as a multimedia designer.

I first tried out Sony Vegas Pro 9 but I got tired of all the limitations especially when one wants to create AWESOME 3D compositions.

And about 3 months after discovering VideoCopilot, SureTarget V2 was released and opened the door to a whole new level to my video announcements for the Church I work for...

Here is a URL to my latest work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pob6WoZXSs

I was able to make this video after watching the 87. 3D City tutorial.
And also the 101. SureTarget 2 Tutorial.

Thank YOU After Effects and most importantly...Thank you Andrew Kramer for your hard work, dedication and compassion for the newbies on After Effects.

We love your work and hope that you will continue in what you are doing

BE BLESSED!
Nate Sinyangwe
15 years ago
I fell for After Effects end of 2009. I'd been using Sony Vegas for my editing and cool text tricks. Then I came to discover from Videocopilot.net the amazing possibilities AE offers. You deserve an award for your lessons Andrew.
15 years ago
because of your valuable online tutorial videos, I have fallen in love of AE, C4D, PPro,
Bundy
15 years ago
2 years ego... i meet AE. Fallow this site and i really work for it.. day and night i work on AE.
Now im working a tv channell. earn money, living life, drive own car... just two years... thanks AE, thanks VideoCoPilot...
Arun
15 years ago
I paid a bunch of money to learn many softwares like combustion fusion maya dynamics and realflow... While i was learning them i wasnt quite gud at those softwares... I bunked many classes and i even thought of skipping out from visual effects. That was the time when i saw an After Effects tutorial called Digits man done by Eran Stern. That tutorial inspired me a lot and from that moment i started learning After Effects and still learning a lot from your site....

Thanks to videocopilot.net
15 years ago
I am only 13 and i got after effects when i was 11. i first used windows movie maker and i got tired of that so i looked up " what do pros use with edditing" and after effects came up and i saved up my money for about 5 months ( i do the pamphets and get paid like 80 or 60 bucks a week i hav to do over 500 pamplets) and now im here and i made many cool movies.. check out my youtube channel: www.youtube.com/randomworld09
15 years ago
I remember it was junior year of high school, 2002. I too was one of those kids who wanted to create my own light saber videos. after that I learn the true power of AE for rotoscoping and many many other things. I have been using AE now for a little over 8 years now.

-Adam
Yohanes
15 years ago
I think, I start to try AE after I watch "Iron Man 2"
Hahaha
Marcos Silva
15 years ago
I'ma video editor, 3 years ago I started working for a company that intended visual impact, then the video copilot knew from then on I Frisur AE.
anthony
15 years ago
I was getting into AE cos I considered it essential if i wanted to start working on a career in music video post-production. But i trully fell in love with after effects the day i did the "Set extension" tutorial on video copilot. I was like, WOOOOAH!!!! THis is sooo awesome!! I feel in love then
Ali
15 years ago
I started editing videos back in 2007 but while searching tuts for Premier Pro i found a thing called After Effects and started searching on it and as i get deeper and deeper in my search my love with AE get stronger and stronger and now if i have love for any software in the world its After Effects and am proud of it!
disaster
15 years ago
I first used AE last year at 4.13.2009. I have watched some kamekameha on youtube and energy balls so i decited to try it. from then i use AE every day.
Joseph Cartwright
15 years ago
It all started this year when my video yearbook editor introduced me to the world of motion graphics in after effects. Since then I have not parted with it. This program blow my mind away.
Warren
15 years ago
it was 2 days ago (May 3, 2010) that i started using AE, the same time i learned this website, Andrew's tutorial inspired me more to use this application, thanks to you Mr. Andrew Kramer.
Shannon Wimberly
15 years ago
sorry.... one too many "m's" in your name on my previous post.... my bad. please correct.
Shannon Wimberly
15 years ago
Light saber effect for me.... and then, of course.... when Andrew Krammer came into my life. I just haven't been the same since....
SubsonicFire
15 years ago
Lol, ya, I remember, when I my friends making machinima (machine cinimatic) EX: Halo 3 Videos, On youtube and he started to create stuff like that would be impossible for a regular editing program to do. And he told me what he used and I ask him if he can teach me and he just referred me to this site and it went from there.
15 years ago
It was last fall and I swear by AE! It has truly been a huge asset for our company. I am trying to learn more and more. I just wish I had more time to play with it.
Liron
15 years ago
I was after a course of Autodesk Maya when I enrolled into Adobe AfterEffects course
when I found out the forces of it I fell in love!

and then I "found" Videocopilot and that still helps spicing the romance! (LOL)

Thanks Andrew and all the guys on Videocopilot for the great work!
QuickSilver98
15 years ago
I started out with AE 5.5 trying to do the lightsaber effects. My interest grew from there
15 years ago
the first time I used After Effects was 30 days ago when I started my free trial... Now I have my hard copy coming in the mail and I am like a giddy school boy ready to take it on. I've learned more in the last month than I have in the last three years that I've been seriously doing video and graphic design.
YuKinKeishMeiAz
15 years ago
I was wondering if i should sell my Asus Computer to try get a MacBook, or should i could keep my computer and try find Graphic & Video Cards (w/e i need) to help out with my Visual Effect goal for Digital Entertainment. If people say keep my Asus please tell me recommended cards to make it happen?
Yasin
15 years ago
Two fool girls was kidding with me when i decided to learn AE. They did not know anything about AE but acted like they know. After 1 year i learn AE to do something and began to 3d modeling in 3ds max. May revenge was my knowledge and as Andrew Kramer the Hero of AE said"Knowledge feeds creativity.
15 years ago
Because I have this raging desire to create awesome trailers!! After Effects is the perfect software for the job!
Chaosblare
15 years ago
3 years ago when i was 10 or 11
I love it >w<
gaurav
15 years ago
sir i wants to say you 1 thing that you are great i m your faen sir this video copilote side is ausam ? i am always works on your tutorials & i fell good in after effect thanks sir by?
Anand Sreenivasan
15 years ago
I do remember. About a year ago, I was into 3dsmax and wanted to learn compositing and vfx. I Chose to learn after effects on my own from the internet. My inspiration? You Andrew Kramer. My Guru. I spent about 3 to 4 months in my home just browsing and practising AE at my home. Now i am finishing my course in maya and AE just rocks my life. I am doing a project including matchmoving, green screen and CG characters with RF, and I am compositing for it in AE. Wish me luck my master.

My love and regards to you Andrew Kramer, and Sam Loya, and your families.
AE rocks the FX world.
Binal Bruno
15 years ago
I started using after effects just 2 year ago. But it was just about video editing then. But when I needed an explosion scene for my friends short film I was introduced to real after effects. Since then I fall in love with AE. and now I am mad in that love
I'm 16 years old. Some time ago I started to play FPS games, then also, I started to learn english. One year ago, I started to make tutorials in portuguese for my country (Brazil) and for who speak portuguese (the language that I speak in my tutorials), I started teaching about Sony Vegas, how to do some cool "basic" effects, but then I started to think that those effects that I was making with Sony Vegas were really too basic. Then, I looked in YouTube for the TV Shows effects that was the effects that I really wanted to make, I found some cool videos and I started to find what program these TV guys used to make that awesome TV and Movie effects. Then I finally found that the program that they used was After Effects, then of course I was very very curious to know how to make that effects, I started to look in the internet for tutorials, then finally I found that great website: Videocopilot.net. I started to run over the website and I saw the awesome effects that Andrew Kramer made and with his great knowledge I've learned a lot of things. I'm very thankfull for you Andrew and now I'm also a tutorial maker. And also like I'm thaking you, the people that watch me, are also thaking me.
Thank you Andrew Kramer and Video Copilot!! You made me learn a lot and made my life better, I love motion graphics design and vfx because of you and I take you how an example to me. Thanks again!
Timinator
15 years ago
When I went to an Adobe seminar at UCLA and someone described it as "Photoshop on acid". That got me intrigued! haha

That was for version 3.1 and the demo reel was VHS. Ahhh... the bad old days!
Paulo Emilio
15 years ago
Cosa 2.0 was my first love! and two " 3 1/2 diskettes " key pack and fx pack
Tim
15 years ago
I was hooked a dozen years ago with AE 3.1, I believe it was. Can't get over this urge to composite. Can't believe how the software has come over the years.
Martin
15 years ago
I picked up a copy of AE CS3 through my school (really good price for most of the adobe package) in Jun 2007, then I found Video Copilot a little later on. AE is probably my most used program on my computer. I've done a couple promotional documentaries for bands and stuff. Recently did a marriage proposal video for a friend of mine.
15 years ago
Whoops, hit enter too quick. It happened back about 2 years ago, and since then I've been really into graphic arts and design. I can't even watch a movie anymore for the movie itself, I watch for the effects.
15 years ago
I got hooked on AE when I wanted to make a hadouken for a video I was making for a friend.
15 years ago
Studied Graphic Design for two and a half years at a university and took a motion graphics class. It is a very small school and the first time they had offered motion so it was just me and my roomate and the professor in the class, I basically was let to roam free and realized that the books were nice but the program was capable of so much more. Thats where Andrew came in, now I am getting paid to make vids for the school cause my teach couldnt keep up! Thanks VC
15 years ago
mmm i remember when i start with after effects , i was watching a lot of comertials and promos from kids channels like disney and nick and others , and then i start to seee a lot of comertials like the discoverychannels does , so i beggin to see in internet and wondering in what program i can make it , becouse there was concerts visuals effects , so they recomended to me the after effects , and i download a free one and then nother , now with cs4 thanks to you i have been growing with visuals , so i exactly cnat remember the day but , how i start and i hope to still working on that, thanks andrew ,
sushy
15 years ago
one year ago with CS2, & with video copilot
15 years ago
I remember it was an early version and it was called CoSa After Effects for the mac, I had visited a friend at his studio and he was telling me about this marble of a software... i was in awe. I called to see if they were going to transfer it to the PC and they said NEVER! with an attitude. I was disappointed but soon they got bought out by Adobe and well like they say the rest is history. My first version was 4.0 and i've been using it since and loving it, now if they would only transfer it to the iPad what would be the best foreplay ever.
Spencer
15 years ago
I can't remember when, I was 15 or 16 and AE 6.5 had just come out. Whew.
Dory Yasmine
15 years ago
I Put in my CV that i work on After Effects, but actually i was lying and "luckily" i got accepted in a job i applied on so i totally freaked out especially that the job required only 2D Animation (Creating 2D Spots: 15sec/ 30sec) so i got that acceptance call while i was at my previous work so i started googling there for tutorials, until i found "you". My first experience with AE was exceptional because i had you as my help and i felt that now litteraly my imagination is the limit. My first spot was for Botswana Tourism Board for a festival in Milano on LED screens. I watch it now and i totally hate it(actually i cant watch it bcz i deleted/erased/removed it from my archive and it took me like 2 days to finish it but judging it as my first spot, the result was good and it got accepted from the first draft but i cant forget how much i got worried while working on it and kept tellin myself "this is not ur job, im just an editor" but now After Effects is my world, and btw my car, my new room, my tv, my ps3, my games ... all because of AE, in other words All because of you. Thank you Andrew Kramer and Please dont ask for any Commission
15 years ago
I've been in touch with After effect the first time in the 2005. I was with some friends doing an horror-splatter film called "The Dark Loop". I was so amazed about AE, that i've tried to learn more and more, and i'm still learning! Truly indeed, the most beautiful thing i love of After Effect that you'll never ever learn everything 'cause is not only the tecnique that brings you closer to AE, but is curiosity and creativity! So it's an everending loop! Probably the only thing that makes me to stop from learning is the death!
15 years ago
I love big robots and I love movies, it was 1999 and a fellow student told me I could make a big robot movie using after effects ... that was it! Sold!
Nathan
15 years ago
The iron-man tutorial! I've known of the site, but the iron-man tutorial is what made me sit down and really appreciate what after effects could do! Before that I wasn't in love with after effects, I was just in the awkward "I like you but don't know you" stage... Thanks big Drew! Keep the super power related tutorials coming!
15 years ago
hi Andrew, i m a music producer and i do music videos to(directing and editing) i live in Cameroon .i must say after effect is in deed leading the world of motion graphics and video effects.
i fell in love with after effect just 1 year back and up till now i still haven t mastered it yet. i got an Adobe cs3 master collection. but to get the tutorials is not easy since i don t have a credit card, i only depend on my uncle who is in Norway when he comes home he buys them for me.
15 years ago
7 years ago when I was in high school living at home. I LOVED photoshop and AE was basically photoshop for video. Been doing it ever sense and have a sweet job where I can do it daily.
headofhouse
15 years ago
Like many before, I also wanted to be a Jedi... like my father. Once I what you could do with presets like Particular I never looked back.
Frank Hand
15 years ago
This is an easy question to answer.

"I first fell in love with ... After Effects" the day I found VideoCopilot.net.

And I see from the many other similar comments that I'm not the only one who feels this way!

Thanks, Andrew. Even my kids join in now and sing along any time they hear the refrain "Hey! What's up? Andrew Kramer here and welcome to another exciting tutorial from VideoCopilot dot NET."!
Pablo
15 years ago
a couple years back... needed it for work.. so taught myself, with help from AK.

mostly animation based than anything else.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyREo5pLS_w
charlie gold (Nigeria)
15 years ago
Picked up an interest April last year when I saw this site, and I've learnt a whole lot from video copilot...thanx Andrew. From there my interest grew into 3d programming (Cinema 4d to be precise) now it's just unbelievable hw far I've come and hw many projects I've handled in just about a year. Thanx Andrew
anxs220
15 years ago
Well, in 2008 i saw action movie essentials tutorial suicide. I thought "wow cool program, nice tutorial and this guy rock!"
Aaron
15 years ago
It was a dark and stormy night......just kidding...I was visiting SCAD and watched one of the foreign professors during his workshop of After Effects....back when it was 6.5....&*sigh, sparks flew
Z.B
15 years ago
Well, it all started with I was in love with the earlier version of Photoshop, later on I heard photoshop had a cousine named AE, I started dating and talking more and more with AE, later ( year 2007) AE like me and it turned out that it did also helping me out in my works, but the most inportant thing is that it helped me to learn and understand spf. In 2008, i decided to mary AE. and today we are a happy couple and it is all thanks to a freind of AE's, Andrew Kraner
Danties Xurs
15 years ago
I've always been in love though some times people advise you on how to make your love better and for my case it was Andrew, Maltaannon not forgeting my best actor Sam for my affection towards AE. Now my love is glowing like the Optical Flyers.
15 years ago
I got involved with AE earlier this year because of this site. After one week, I was doing things that I thought I would someday need to hire someone else to do. I am now hooked. I love it. Before AE I did everything in Blender and Sony Vegas. I still love both Vegas and Blender, but adding AE brings into sight a whole new world of eye candy.

Thank you, Andrew! Your dedication and hard work is something to be admired. I owe you more than I have.
Stuart
15 years ago
I fell in love with after effects in my first year of university. I'm gutted that I didn't discover VC until the end of my third though, some of the tuts would have evaporated a number of issues I encoutered over te years.
Bashkii
15 years ago
Nobody really knew HOW to use AE before Andrew Kramer came into the scene.
Trish and Krs Meyer are great for beginners but ANDREW taught us ALL!!
Thanks Dr.Kramer !!!!
peraltasaga
15 years ago
I used since AE1, let me see....since 1994/5, when I started to work with one of the firsts Avid Composer Mac´s based in my country(AE was included in that workstation). I remember nobody knows how operate that program (there were no tutorials in that time, lol). Only a 10 pages manual,teaching only the filters.
Alex
15 years ago
Not too long ago a friend told me to think about After Effects as "Photoshop on wheels" (I had been scared by all the knobs before). The very next day I fell in love...
Israel
15 years ago
I learned of AE in high school. I loved visual effects and knew this was what I needed to get. So, I bought my own copy of 6.5 pro in college and a friend of mine introduced me to VC in early 2008 right around Evolution.

I have learned so much from Andrew Kramer! I've utilized many of his tips and tricks and lessons in my own projects and for work, and VC's products are extremely useful!

I'm so grateful for this site! Andrew, I bet you didn't know it was going to catch on like it did! Thank you so much for your help over the years! God bless you!
jigs
15 years ago
It was after a decade-long relationship with Flash (monogamous unless you count our best pal, Photoshop). Flash and I tried to make it work, but...somehow the thrill was gone.
Then a couple years ago, the light dawned - for some time I'd been trying to make Flash do what AE was born to do!
I have since forsaken my first love for the mysterious and addictive wonders of AE. We don't just have dates - we spend every waking hour together - even sleep together - or rather, I sleep, AE renders...

Best buddy Photoshop is still very much in evidence, and Flash and I do still see each other - but now we're "just friends."
Dan
15 years ago
I was bored one day and figured it'd be cool to learn how to make the "demon face" effect that was so popoluar on Youtube at the time. I searched in google and "POP!" up comes video copilot. That is the day I fell in love with After Effects, and Andrew Kramer's unimaginable talent.
Teemu
15 years ago
Yes i do, it happened almost exactly one year ago.
I was at my teen congregations media team project/school/work training, and because i had done some editing staff with Windows movie raper so I decided to go work in digital effect section. (this was also first time when i used Mac)
And our first lesson was.....
Go to videocopilot.net and watch basic training section. you have one week to do this and then do something whit the skills you have learned.
I dont even remember what i did but after that there was no going back.

I'm actually studying to become to come metal artisan (if my plans work out I think you will hear about me about one year from now.) so this is only logical step to me because now I can use my hands in syber space and in real world.

PS: I'm really sorry about my bad english. I'm really working on it.

But thanks Andrew for making my skill selection larger.
will
15 years ago
Andrew- you got me into AE! Thanks so much for this site- you have helped me along with hundreds of others make money doing what we love to do...
CoolChannelFilms
15 years ago
My friend shot a sci-fi and asked me to do post-production... with Photoshop. I thought, for my sanity, I'd look for a better software for post and never looked back.
15 years ago
I was in my Digital art class at school and I was so bored of photoshop and illustrator just because thats what everyone else was doing I wanted to do something different. That's when I discovered after effects & I saw what could be created with this powerhouse of a program. I remember saying to myself " I can never learn this, its too complicated." I just started doing little things and also by watching your tutorials andrew I learned a lot. I know there's still a lot more for me to learn. As a senior in high school I plan on going to school to improve my skills in after effects. I finally found something I love to do.
Janne
15 years ago
After I had learned the basics with FXhome Visionlab, I wanted to do more advanced stuff. That's when After Effects came in.
BattyNos1922
15 years ago
Actually I have a love/hate relationship with AE. I love AE for all the wonderful things it can let me do. I hate it because I don't know how to do them. Thankfully there are wonderful sites like this one on the net to help out people like me learn this wonderful program. I guess I really don't hate AE, I hate myself for procrastinating and not knuckling down and learning the program. So thanks to you, Andrew Kramer, and your wonderful team of technical magicians. Keep up the excellent work!
JackieNP
15 years ago
in 2005 I want to know how to create light-saber. And I found a tutorial in Videocopilot.net. Then I can't get away from After Effects.
Thanks Andrew Kramer!
15 years ago
I was in my second year at Calarts and a friend introduced me to Cosa After Effects 1.0. I taught myself to composite and soon developed an animation workflow with photoshop which I was hired to teach students in the experimental animation department.

Got to say I've learned more on videocopilot.net than I've taught myself. I consider Andrew one of my "teachers" now. Andrew and Stu M.
Ekemini
15 years ago
'bout 2 yrs ago after bein' bored of using Micromedia Flash for TV commercials n longin' to give life to my graphic designs - 'cos i design as if am animating.
Special thanks 2 Andrew, U inspired me! I'll work wit' u one day - take note.
15 years ago
My interest in applying Visual Effects to my homemade films... After a tormented relationship with AE for a few months I started seeing the "real her" and continued to love her 'till this day... We've been through the valleys and the mountains... But I have learned to trust her in some of her strange ways.
Rapture VFX
15 years ago
after my last program cheated on me, i friend introduced me to AE7 and i have never looked back. :p
The desire to one day improve the quality of Aussie tv & cinema with my talents has driven me to study this field after a few other failed career paths in IT, but i htink ive found my passion.
15 years ago
Bring back your ollllld lightsaber tutorial or better yet your energy ball tutorial! You activated a glowing blue ball of energy and then let it dissipate. Best amateur AE video ever!
Paul
15 years ago
I'm 14 years old, and made plenty of films with After effects using special effects like explosions, muzzle flashes and more. It started with a simple film in Grade 7 where I wanted to make an intro, and Sony Vegas wasn't really an option since that's more for simple editing. I used after effects and well I fell in-love what you can do in it. It's simply just amazing, it's like having a hollywood editing tool and the palm of your mouse. I now use After Effects for fun films to post on youtube and facebook and other stuff. In Conclusion, I fell in love with it about 4 months ago. Thanks After Effects and Thanks VideoCopilot for the awesome tutorials!

-Paul
Klas
15 years ago
I fell in love with AE in dec 2008. I wanted to do a "title-turn-to-sand" effect for a filmproject. My editing software could of course not do that, but when I found AE it was love at first click. I also love the community and the way everybody shares their knowledge.

//Klas
Neel Arampatta
15 years ago
Started in Grade 10, when I had to do a video advertisement for www.downloadabletunes.com (fictional). With a lot of handy tutorials by Andrew Kramer, I created quite a good project. Now in Grade 11 I've been asked to editing and effects for lots of things. A hobby has now turned into a semi-occupation in the space of 1 year
15 years ago
2008 October, there she was, standing there, interface so complex at first sight. But she grew to be the face I wanted to see every morning. Her complexity diversity and capability have been outstanding ever since. For better or for worse, until my computer do us part. JOEL
peter
15 years ago
Good to know that MR. VFX Andre Kramer wasn´t born with after effects . but i like it. sweet
15 years ago
i was curious to know how to do these effects, and i got some video editing software and finally, i fall in love with after effects....
.
.
thanx to Andrew and,
lakmal pattepola and eranda (those who gave me the site information)

love VC
15 years ago
I started in 2006, it was really nice days... and still of course
15 years ago
Well, the first time i saw a Counter Srike Source movie called " Incorporated 2" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYKV-ta9mI)
I got inspired by all the effects and cool transitions he did.I started with Sony Vegas and god, my first released movie was frigging horrible.I did all kinds of random effects...Then i found videocopilot and I was in love with After Effect.
I have a motion graphic video I made for adobe youth voices here.Use some of your stuffs, Andrew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utm2q8WRgdw
Also check out my channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TaMzProductions
15 years ago
1995 Old school AE I made my first motion graphic in COSA. This was the company that owned After Effects before Adobe. I must say...it's been a sweet ride. Our 15th anniversary! Thanks Andrew for the progressive path.
15 years ago
I started using it to composite Hand drawn 2D animations at uni, then add graphics, then got into trapcode particular and things got out of hand.
mike
15 years ago
i love your corporate video Andrew. Tutorial?
Coda AP
15 years ago
My love affair with AE began on rocky ground. We dated for years but I never felt any love back, no matter how much time I spent or attention I gave, it seemed a one way relationship until I found Video Copilot. Now our relationship is better than its ever been and I am truly in love. Thank you, Dr. Kramer. Thank you.
r4y
15 years ago
Trabajaba en un canal local haciedo diseños para su revista y aparte editabamos entrevistas en adobre premier, luego con video copilot descubrimos las ventajas del after, aunque ya sabiamos que existia , empezamos a utilizarlo en el 2008 mas o menos
Lucio Aquino
15 years ago
Comence con after effects en agosto del año pasado (08/2009).

Ya sabia manejar el Premiere Pro 2, pero el After Effects se veia muy complicado, asique decidi buscar TUTORIALES hasta que di con VIDEOCOPILOT!!!

Soy de Argentina, y la verdad que no hay ningun buen lugar para aprender a usar estos programas.

Tu pagina me salvo la vida, y ahora, "i fall in love with after effects"


ETERNAMENTE AGRADECIDO, LUCIO (ARGENTINA, MAR DEL PLATA)
15 years ago
I edited simple movies in Final Cut and wanted to go a little further with some graphics and titles. Then I took a course at an online course called VLC and kinda had an overview of the software but I wanted to learn something with some design sense- and courses are usually demonstrations of the software but with almost no preoccupation with cool, elegant design and I felt like I didn't really know WHAT to do besides a few masks wipes in text layers. It was only when I found VIDEOCOPILOT that I really began using the software with style- Andrew's borrowed style to be honest...
A couple of years have passed and now I'm a Final Cut teacher and this is the second semester I'm teaching an After Effects course too! Thanx to Andrew. Actually I've just started my own tutorials site videohood.net (in brazilian Portuguese, as most everything online is in English) to share what I've learned (Final Cut, DVD studio Pro and AE). And my AE course has a simple goal: to teach brazilian kids how to get around the basics in AE so they can follow Videocopilot's more advanced and fast paced tutorials!
15 years ago
Q: Do you remember you???re first date with After Effects?

A: You are first date, eh? Yes, yes I am.

Jokes aside, my brothers got me into effects when I was 7 via stop-motion effects used to create magic tricks. I always liked creating virtual worlds. Instead of just focusing on VFX, I spent years on programming and designing video games, websites and working in 3d animation. I never got into After Effects until 3 years ago when I found Video Copilot.
Jose
15 years ago
I´ve always wanted to do fx, ever since I saw The Star War Movies (ther classic ones). Then about seven months ago I discovered VideoCopilot and I completely fell in love with After Effects, and ever since, I have learned a lot

Thank you, Andrew.
Scotty
15 years ago
I was a whizz with microsoft PowerPoint back in the days, my curiosity was sparked when I heard about After Effects, a few years, and free tutorials later, i'm now a motion graphic designer for Eyeworks New Zealand .
Jhon
15 years ago
I fell in love with AE two years ago... when I filmed a short and wanted to create something fantastic... Then I began to search information about how to use AE, and I started "«VideoCopilotting»"
JeanP
15 years ago
I discovered AE 3 years ago when I was doing a tv commercial, after I can't animate quickly shapes in Final cut and Premiere
15 years ago
amazing we need more tutorials
who know about flotilla attack ... i think you all don't know any thing cuz your media don't showen this to you..
every one must do any think for humanity
Evan Guzman
15 years ago
Adobe should give Andrew Kramer money for how many people he has gotten into AE.
15 years ago
I found true love around five years ago. We've been going out ever since. She never argues with me, shes always available, and she never, ever fails to make me smile.
Oh and real girls are nice too.
15 years ago
Ciao andrew...
sei veramente in gamba!
ho comprato optical flares ed è bellissimo!!!
aspetto il tutorial del vulcano e quello tipo "carousel"
scusa se nn scrivo in inglese...
al prossimo tutorial
antonio
VFXguy
15 years ago
I downloaded the trial just so I could do the light saber effect. It just got to me after that :')
Kes Akalaonu
15 years ago
I got into AE last August. I originally learned because I thought I couldn't get a job without knowledge of it. As I learned to use it based on your tutorials and other AE gurus across the the world it became my go to program to use. Nowadays, I won't do a video project without using AE even if I could do it in FCP or Premiere. Your site as well as every moderator on Creative Cow has been a great source for inspiration, knowledge and technique. Thank you
15 years ago
last year after two years studying graphic design, web-design, coding, networks, photography and video editing, I got bored and motion graphics looked more fun... thanks to your Basic training,I learned quickly and I instantly fell in love with the software. I'm now aiming to become a motion graphics artist! So thanks Andrew!
Grant
15 years ago
i wanted it cuz my friend showed it to me and i thought it was cool!
WayshART
15 years ago
Damn...Kramer!You've got a lot of fans

I got into after effects because i wanted to edit and EDIT AND EDIIT!
And one day i found this site and got started...!
Now i thank you Andrew from the bottom of my heart, you helped me A LOT!
God bless you Andrew Kramer!
suvil
15 years ago
yo! i remember it perfectly. roaming around the internet as a lazy man.. and a deep passion for animation and movie-making thriving in me at that time, exactly in the January of 2009, i discovered after effects and that too in the midst of my school exams ( ). Just to get more control over the visual effects in the short movies i was planning to produce.
Darren
15 years ago
I remember my first date with her, we did a couple credits for my yoyo video that you can watch at youtube.com/checkdout
though im not as good as you I study daily and hope to get as good as you. If not, better .
skNNa
15 years ago
Last year sometime. I'd never leave her.

Whens the next tutorial coming out?
ArmyGuy
15 years ago
I had never heard of After Effects until last year. Our higher command was making a video that they were going to play in Florida for a yearly conference. I was in charge of the team to make the video, and I wanted a way to layer pictures and create a 3D effect with a camera. I also wanted to do more with text than having it sit there, I wanted it to feel lik it was a part of the action. Alas, someone informed me of After Effects. I have bought all the products, and love Optical Flares, and have never NOT visited this site while at work. You guys are awesome. Thanks for making a video and photographer love graphics!
Shadowfire87
15 years ago
Starting in 2004, and to this day, I have been doing photo slideshows, for my friends and family, using both Microsoft's Photo Story 3 and Photoshop to do some amazing transitions. Back in the latter part of 2008, I created a 40 minute Christmas slideshow for a friend's son that was deployed in Iraq. Doing that slideshow really pushed me to the edge, of what I can do, with just those two programs but I knew that I had hit a wall with the tools I had. You see, to me, I just need every new slideshow I create to be better than the last one. So I started incorporating 3D animation (currently with Daz Studio 3 Advance. I will be using Lightwave and Cinema 4D later) and then bought After Effects to increase my toolbox arsenal and I have not looked back since. Although I am pretty good with Photoshop, I am still a newbie to AE but give me time. Now that I have upgraded to the CS5 Production suite, I will master every program it came with and then look out!
Lucas Kuhn
15 years ago
Actually, I was looking for knowledge, and I found Photoshop as a help for me. Suddenly I reached the webdesigner area, with Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks, just the basics.
Then, I realize that the Adobe suit was perfect and I would test every kind of software that they could provide. I checked Premiere, and later, looking for "how to do karaoke in videos" I stopped at after effects, and choose your website as my library of knowledge. Thank you, is because of you that today I can do anything I want with After Effects, and some of other stuff!
15 years ago
I saw a video, I think it was Ryan Wieber cloning himself or another guy, i don't remeber. The thing is I just wanted to do that. So i did it first in Movie Marker, later Sony Vegas I ended with Afte Effects.
15 years ago
my first date with AE was in 2009. Then I need absolute tutorials and then I found the Godfather of AE - Andrew Kramer!!! Thanx so much youre so amazing!!! My biggest wish is to be AE-Genie and maby Andrew, I can be a actor in one of your tutorials??

Peace
David

*Sorry for my very, very bad english, I'm from Germany
15 years ago
I felt in love with AE on this site
I wanted to learn more about sfx and a friend gave me a link to videocopilot :p
Martynas Prusevicius
15 years ago
In fact I'm just getting into adobe after effects, for the reason that after using Photoshop for a couple of years, I would like to overcome the limit of a still image and start working with video.
Kelly Griffin
15 years ago
I was working on a 48 hour film (writing) with a team who had recently purchased your first Action Essentials. I watched the guy doing the sfx composite in AE for about an hour. I was totally captivated. That was 4 years ago...now I am the motion graphics guy at work and I totally give videocopilot.net all of the credit.
ekho
15 years ago
i like my first encounter with after effect with a website of video edition and after know a tutorial of making Matrix effect Bullet, i inlove of after effect thats year 2005.
Mi primer encuentro con after effet fue con una pgina de videoedicion y despues un videotutorial de el efecto de la "bala de matrix", desde entonces mefascino el after effect , fue el segundo porgrama que aprendi a manejar ,
mas o menos en el añño 2005

Atte ekho Arequipa Peru
The Great Zimm
15 years ago
Oh. I fell for it back in 95' My animation professor showed us mattes. I've been hooked since.
15 years ago
Well, 3 years ago, I though effects could only be made by huge VFX companies, by multiple people. When I saw a dragonball video
in youtube, I thought "WTF? How did you do that." And 2 little words in the description significantly changed my life: After Effects. After getting the program, I started making simple fx, and then grew on to more advanced fx. I have been using after effects since I was 12, and now I am almost 15. So now I know, even a 10 year old can create FX, thanks to After Effects. Keep up the good work Adobe & VideocoPilot! Thank you!
boneyard
15 years ago
after effects first took advantage of me about 3 years ago. i tried to say no, but it wouldn't take no for an answer. now i've developed a serious case of stockholm syndrome.
Kory
15 years ago
CoSA LIVES!!!!!
If you are as old as me you will know what this means.
I was first introduced to After Effects in the mid 90's while doing some animation and character design for a set of international commercials for Baskin Robbins.
Before that I did my animation in d-paint!
Wilmar Luna
15 years ago
College was when After Effects started for me. It was time to make my TV4 project which was a short film, and I wanted to make an awesome intro to my movie. Several weeks later my intro has yet to be topped by the current and past students of the program.
Sky H
15 years ago
AE5 Classroom In a Book. I got up and danced after the 2nd tutorial.
15 years ago
I remembere my "first day" with AE. I was" scared" about it. Many, TOO many settings to learn... Another layout , another rules... that's only past! But.. thanks to you, Andrew, because for my opinion.... your way to explain After Effects, all the things about AE.. is perfect! Your knowledge is very impressive. Repeat: thank to you!
Omega Pro
15 years ago
When I was moderately into the video world, I heard and read about people talking and boasting about After Effects. They said it was all cool and easy to use and made your video look like film easily. But I thought that it was just another one of those compositing programs like Vegas and Final Cut. But then my frined from my church showed me what it actually was, and what the final products that were made in it looked like. That's when I fell in love. And shortly after, I found Kramers tutorials, and that helped so much. I literally went through almost every beginners tuts and onto the advanced ones. It's the first time I say this, but it's true: Thanks Kramer!
15 years ago
I just knew that Dane Boe from Youtube uses After Effects, then I started learning it and now i'm trying to put faces on food!

http://youtube.com/daneboe
15 years ago
The same thing with light sabers
Even i'm gonna be a cinema director now (hope for that) i'm pretty sure that ill do big part od compositing and VFX for myself, because i love that
Thanks to Adobe and thanks to videocopilot!
15 years ago
When Motion 3 came out I sent an email to my friends heralding the death of AE. Then after spending quite a bit of money and not getting anywhere result-wise, I stumbled onto VCP. I got a copy of AE and suddenly my boss was happy, I was happy and I haven't used Motion since. Long Live AE!
head
15 years ago
1st time I touched to AE when I was in my academy. But that time I didn't like it much. My teacher is rather lazy and didn't take good care of us lol. Then I use it to do something for my project just " put the layers together"... still dont love much. Even I didn't know when I go to a point and cut it there will be one more frame still there so if I use "I" and "O" I would let one frame there and... blah blah, rather stupid. Then I took a job with after effect ... and I found that AE's really cool. Andrew Kramer and his team inspire me . Tutorials r so great. Thank you and your Videocopilot.
iareAce
15 years ago
Got into it cuz got involved in a indie film as a fight scene choreographer and the need for special effects came about and i stumbled upon Video Copilot. Still not that great at it cuz i just started messing around with the program a month ago but i slowly found out that i love doing this stuff
Fredrik J.R.
15 years ago
I remember I wanted to recreate some effects I saw in a promo movie for a badminton tournament, many years ago. I successfully created the effect, just to find myself reaching for new and even better visual accomplishments.
Ard3Xp
15 years ago
It started few months ago since I accidently watch the Evolution tutorial.Guess what, I was shocked by the amazing flourish looking design and decided to learn AE CS4. Although I lack of creativity, I've made several brief video for our student union's events and they all say great about it.It's really helpful when having fun in these turtorial.All I wanna say is thanks VideoCopilot especially Andrew, all this things make my university life colorful.I believe it will change my life forever.
15 years ago
For me it was 2001, my senior year in college. It was the best way to make my work stand out from the pack. Now almost 10 years later, it serves the same purpose.

Thanks for the memories.
Mark
15 years ago
Probably when I found this website and learned how to finally use it.
Rob F
15 years ago
My girlfriend at the time was showing me this program called Flash and I thought that I could do that. I left my dead end job and enrolled on a multimedia course. I had always been into special effects and animatronics but thought that was pie in the sky, but when I was introduced to AE 6 I was sold. Spent a long time on creative cow, pretty much before the days of video tutorials (there was a couple but they took an age to download on my dial up internet).
8 years on I am program leader of a degree course in multimedia and video, I do effects stuff all day, get to help people realise their dreams, and as far as Flash is concerned, I don't have a clue! (worst interface ever, right?). I also always give AK a credit in anything I make.
nipper
15 years ago
i just remember ...
when i want to find the way to do some vfx
Diego
15 years ago
I started using it in 2007. I had no I idea what it was and slowly starting fading up clearer and clearer until I fell in live with it. Now I can't imagine me without AF.
Brian
15 years ago
I may have actually fallen in love with you first...then After Effects! haha...I think it was when You did the Graffiti Writing or the Advanced Car hit which led to this video...(@ the End) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78XWdz1khO0
15 years ago
It was in 1997 (version 3 ?)no 3d no expression no adjust layer ...I learned it with photoshop and illustrator, after that, I was a DS and smoke artist. But I was frustrated because thoses solutions weren't designed for création. In 2000 I quit my job and dared the adventure with After Effects to make motion design.

I don't regret it

Thx, andrew for your huge contribution

peace
15 years ago
I started when I found the limitations of Premiere Pro 1.5, my motion graphics works were getting way too complicated for my old system, and funny and unespected things started to happen into my renders, too many layers and effects applied I suppose so I found your website and started with some tutorials....can't remember which one, not sure, but I think there were like less than 20 on the website...
gopal
15 years ago
i love after effect 2008
i wont after effect computer configuration pls sages
whats your computer configuration i wont parches new fast system pls sages Andrew Kramer
15 years ago
its a college thing for me
Jeremy
15 years ago
i needed to do a Sure Target-type of effect for a church camp video. i had no idea how to do it in Final Cut Pro so the graphics designer at my church showed me this website and i was immediately hooked! the first tutorial i saw was Disintegration and i had no idea what was going on in the tutorial because i had never even seen AE. but then i started watching ALL of the tutorials one after another and i eventually caught on. hopefully i'll go on a date with CS5 pretty soon!
Dave Summers
15 years ago
My first encounter with AE came after I saw my kid watching a YouTube video called The Annoying Orange. I thought it was a pretty cool effect, so I started researching tools that could reproduce it. That's when I hooked up with AE. Then I saw some other videos on YouTube that took it a few steps further...things I didn't realize it was capable of doing. That's when I discovered video co-pilot. Your tutorials are just awesome! I'm seriously considering doing this professionally now. The way you lay out your tutorials gives me the confidence I need.

Thanks for the time you put into these. It's very much appreciated.
reni
15 years ago
Editing was my childhood hobby. First i used was Movie maker.. At the age of 19 i joined an institution to learn " Audio video editing and post production ". From there i came to know AE. They teach me only basics. But i became mad with AE after finding video copilot and kramer's tutorials. And my Age is 22 now and am with Videocopilot and AE for 3yrs now.
Martin Enoksen
15 years ago
^ Forgot to mention, I was 14 years old in 2006!
http://hadselvgs.com/martin
Martin Enoksen
15 years ago
http://hadselvgs.com/martin
My online portfolio
My first date was when I was about 14 years old, and I had a clip where I helled water from a cup into another, and I removed the one I poured from, and feathered the mask :p Good times!
Moss
15 years ago
It was 1998. I took on a project to crank out 4 short music video like clips within a month and had never touched the program before. My time was so limited that for an entire month I slept in my office chair in front of my PC so that the finished render chime would wake me up in order to check my work, make changes and rerender. Amazingly I pulled it off and the results are still on my reel to this day, however I was so fried that I didn't touch the program again for 10yrs.
wagid
15 years ago
I remember the day i heard the name AFTER EFFECTS,I was facing an interview after completing my diploma in Vfx and they asked the rude question ! do you know after effects ? And that???s the moment i knew that after effects exists then i got the After effects 6.5 and didn???t know much When I???m banging my head on the computer god showed me a link called The VEDIO COPILOT and life became easy with after effects fell in love ever since
15 years ago
that's a great post, congratulations AK
Todd VanSlyck
15 years ago
I started in AE when a co-worker was using it. I believe it was v. 4.0. With a few hours of training from my co-worker I made a very revolutionary and ground-breaking movie consisting of pictures flying across the screen AND text too!
Peter Somers (TC-Productions)
15 years ago
started on AE version 4 back in 1999 ... and it's been fun ever since!
15 years ago
When I found this website. I teach After Effects to High School students....just purchased 5 new computers with Windows 7 64 Bit, 8 Gigs of RAM, and an I7 Core Processor, just specifically so I could make After Effects really, really fun for them.
Marko
15 years ago
when I first saw some effects on youtube
15 years ago
my first date with after effects, I actually dumped her after the first 5 mins, she seemed to confusing, to full of drama, and to complex for me to understand her. she however did not give up on me, we went on a second date, she showed me her simsple side and told me not to get nervous that she was not as confusing as I once thoughts.

she showed me how you andrew were dating her twin, and the great relationship you had with her. I then gave our relationship a fighting chance and its been love ever sense.
15 years ago
Second year of classes at the Art Institute of Dallas I took the one required after effects class. Everyone else dropped AE and went back to just editing once out of the class while I began to lean more to motion graphics and special effects via AE. Soon everyone was coming to me for credits and other AE related elements. I spent 3 months after graduation hardcore training myself on tutorials and experimentation. i now do freelance graphics and effects for various companies and am the primary motion graphics designer for my full time job. Thanks AE and more importantly thank you Video Copilot.
Ulisses Alves
15 years ago
I was up for lightsaber effect too! haha

but i gave up at the middle of the pass. Bu then, this year i have really started my "bad romance" (grrr) with mighty after effects.

And, ofcourse, having videocopilot.net as my lover. Damn it sound gay.
15 years ago
2000 at school on the After Effects 4.5 ...
No 3D, no particular ... & no Videocopilot !!!!!!!
I didn't knew at time in what i was "entering" ....
15 years ago
2003... I remember seeing boring PowerPoint slides for the announcements at church and thought, "there's got to be something I can do to help!" I wanted to bring those freeze-dried graphics to life somehow ??? but only with software I could use on my old [very] consumer-friendly PC.

I had always heard about AE, but it never hit home until I started playing with some of those boring PP slides and I saw what even just adding two keyframes to a still could do. I was hooked... so hooked!
15 years ago
I have been doing computer animation for quite a while. It wasn't until I was exposed to Avid Media Pro, that I started learning how to showcase my work even better. I basically fell into After Effects about a year ago and never looked back. Video Copilot and guys like Andrew Kramer have been invaluable in my learning. Thanks to ALL of them. I am now the Multimedia Designer for my company.
era
15 years ago
I worked as a video editor in one studiju.i I saw a friendHow does the after effect and I liked it and then I got after effects and then I found out videocopilot where I learned a lot.
Maystro
15 years ago
I Remeber that, i dig into aftereffects coz i was in trouble that drives me to learn it , its about 6 yrs ago
it was a game intro [Prince Of Revenge]
15 years ago
Back in the old age, I used to watch all sorts of Sci-fi movie with my dad (as a kid); Back to the future, TMNT, Star Wars, The Thing, Alien, and so on. I was amazed by all the light effects, the explosion, the space ship, and wanted to do them my self. A decade later, I started college in cinema and one of are class was dedicated to AE. 3 weeks later I surpassed the teacher's knowledge and started trouble-shooting my class mate and teaching some tricks.

I've been working with it for the pass 4 years and I've starting a menage a 3 with cinema 4D.

I've also been fallowing you since my college years, you've been a huge help to me! And I will continue to fallow you for as long as you keep it running.

Thanks a lot for all that you did!
Keep up the good work.

Here's a clip we did in AE-PS-C4D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrYXYaY_UHs

And a cartoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq32I2IL720
nick b
15 years ago
i was in college and started using ae to do colour grading, scaling layers and slow motion. premiere at the time just didnt cut it. and abobe all making little stings and things like that. i think it was version 5 at the time.
15 years ago
i just fall in love a few week ago...
All i now about AF is the tutorial of Andrew!
many thanks for your tutorials...
i just train for a movie i'm planing with small sfx.
my first trainning....
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdijp2_born-to-reborn-sfx-training_shortfilms
Ruwin
15 years ago
I just took a job as a graphic designer at a local news station. They were using FCP and Premiere for just about anything, and i thought we could use some great stuff. Being eager to learn new software all the time, i googled for vfx and compositing, and found AE. You can imagine my first encounter. It was a third degree one... i could do mostly nothing in AE, but after several nights with coffe, coke and smokes, i managed to give the news station a new face, all with after effects. This was more than 3 years ago. Now i'm an advertising and promo producer, and vfx freelancer, all thanks to after effects. If there is one thing AE taught me, is that there is no limit if you have enough imagination. VC.net was at first my teacher, now it's my favorite episode series. I always get some ice-cream and coffee, go online and watch on my TV the new tutorials, just like movies. Best thing, even my girlfriend is watching with me!
jibin p mathew
15 years ago
You showed me ma lover nd there ownward i started
Shaan
15 years ago
My first date was in winters of 2008 and eventually i double dated after effects and 3ds Max
Simon
15 years ago
The past 2 years After Effects has taken over my life. I studied it at a basic level at Uni and then found the god of After Effects a.k.a Mr AK and since then I have become obsessed. Now with a finished degree and hoping to land a good job in the field I cant kelp thinking I have a lot of thanks to give to Video Copilot so thanks a lot Mr Krammer it is truly appreciated.

In case anyone is wondering here are some Uni assignment pieces

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEdUo1nppmE

hope you like, its pretty clear to see VCP has influenced my work
sync
15 years ago
hey actually after effects landed me my first job, though i hadn???t worked on after effects before. I was fresher out of the animation school as an animator, majorly working on 3ds max and maya. though i knew about video copilot still i didnt think of working in after efects, i was totally into 3d. But at my work place 3d was not enough i had to prepare a montage in after effects. which i did and got good feed back from client as well. That???s how i bumped into after effects and eventually fallen in love with it..After working on after effects for quite some time, i can actually say that after effects has taught me little sense of aesthetics, like using good fonts , staging your compositions properly etc.. still long way to go..
And of course Andrew, you were always there whenever i got stuck at some thing, learning from your tutorials but not copying them. I always try to create something on my own, whenever i get stuck i refer to your tutorials..
Thanks a Ton..
Marten
15 years ago
Since I studied for audiovisual designer back in 2004. I cheated on her a little with motion 1 and 2 but I decided AE had more attraction then any other
Brendan
15 years ago
In about 2006 I heard about a program to make lightsabers and I searched it up. Video Copilot brought me in and for about a year I just watched the videos even though I didn't have the program and when I finally got a good computer at the start of 2010 and could get AE, I was stuck into it!
15 years ago
Back in 2001 when I bought a Mac G4. I also bought some software including FCP and AE 4.0. That's all it took for me. I am self-taught on AE as it was hard to find any tuts or good books back then.

Phil L.
Russel
15 years ago
ah, i still remember when i started using after effects, then it grew into more after 3ds max was introduced, but my heart stopped as i got mudbox. i started using after effects and all because i wanted to make dreams at least appear to happen, on the screen. i remember the first ever effect i did was shooting a fireball out of my hand. i cant wait till i finish high school, then i can maybe continue with my dreams of being a VFX artist.
15 years ago
Its about 2 Years ago since I first heard of After Effects. In the beginning I looked at creative cow tutorials, because Aaron Rabinowitz was a funny guy and he was able to convey things well. But since Aaron left creative cow, I use the page no longer. I'm grateful to learned the basics from Aaron but I want to do all this crazy shit, which I saw at movies or at the TV. And then came Andrew!!! Thank you so much for giving us a look over your shoulder! Ok today - 2 Years later - I'm still not good in After effects but I'm getting better!

ps. thx google translator
Matt
15 years ago
I started to use After Effects about in 2006 with AE 7. At the time I used it to make only animated text ("animated" in a certain sense of the word) so I wasn't so able to use it. Then I uncovered this site in 2007-2008 and then I learned (iven today) so much that I wasn't able to image my results of today. Thank to you guys!

(Sorry for my bad english!) ;P
A. Tiwari
15 years ago
Hi to all,
For me its like God is asking "when you started breathing?"

but that is true. One year back when i got good enough skills in 3DS Max i was looking for a program which can decorate my 3D renders, i googled AE Tutorials and got this "church"(I mean it, this site is a church for me)

I learned even basics from this site. I was totally newbie. Today i have an advertising company, i hired 5 other artists. I am living a life which is more beautiful than my best ever dream. Of course there are several other skills of mine which helped me to achieve this but yet i work at least 8 hours a day on AE.
I had read somewhere that "One moment can change your life for ever." For me, that moment was when i saw this site first time.
I know you will never come to know about this lil story of mine but i would feel worth if i can ever pay back 1% of what i got from this site.
Thanks you Sir,

A. Tiwari
mr. c
15 years ago
beqa
really funny He he he he har har har
15 years ago
First started when I went to Lifeway Collage and studied 3D animation, we got the all new CS1 to learn compositing. However, I must admit I was drawn to Combustion and have been using that until Adobe released CS4 and I haven't looked back.
15 years ago
the website design made me fall in love... kiddin' hehe,, I remembered the first time I got into After Effects was when I was making a video using Movie Maker and then I wanted something better, like adding elements then found out about After Effects ^_^.. went to Google for tutorials then I saw Video Copilot

bow. hehe
Joel Connolly
15 years ago
2nd of June 2009.
Your website + Star Trek.
Daniel
15 years ago
I remember at was the first summer after my freshman year at high school. I wanted to learn something new that summer, somethinger cooler then Premier Pro. That's when a friend of mine showed med Video Copilot. It was love at first sight. Me and after effects spendt many days in that very room and didn't come out. it was the best summer in a while....
15 years ago
One day in the summer of 2005, I told myself that I had to make a Portfolio video. I have owned several Adobe Products for almost a decade then and (in considering my small success in the modeling and entertainment industry) I figured it was about time...BUT, never once could I find the courage to open After Effects. SO, I cracked her open and loaded some files in and then, Voilà!..my head exploded. After a 3 day, non-stop battle to the death against AE...it won. Barely surviving, I crawled out of my room with this video on DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_N1LZQD4U&feature=player_embedded
Bradley Bell
15 years ago
July 1. Motion graphics FX
Derek
15 years ago
2003 for this short,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1yULcD5XQc
but I did get better,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLeuC1lu6XM
Geyck
15 years ago
I was introduced to AE at a 2 year arts school. The first time I used it was actually for a 3d animation class. Just for simple back ground replacement. Didn't really know what I was doing but was simple enough to do what I wanted. My first youtube video!
Romuchos
15 years ago
My first date with AE was in 1999 ... but there was no tutorials or other learning materials at that time. So it took a lot of time to do my fist finished work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI_afr9LRjI

I didn`t even know about "parent" and "Pre-compose" ...
sync
15 years ago
Hey actually after effects landed me my first job, though i hadn't worked on after effects before. I was fresher out of the animation school as an animator, majorly working on 3ds max and maya. though i knew about video copilot still i didnt think of working in after efects, i was totally into 3d. But at my work place 3d was not enough i had to prepare a montage in after effects. which i did and got good feed back from client as well. That's how i bumped into after effects and eventually fallen in love with it..After working on after effects for quite some time, i can actually say that after effects has taught me little sense of aesthetics, like using good fonts , staging your compositions properly etc.. still long way to go..
And of course Andrew, you were always there whenever i got stuck at some thing, learning from your tutorials but not copying them. I always try to create something on my own, whenever i get stuck i refer to your tutorials..
Thanks a Ton..
The_real smithy
15 years ago
hey andrew how about digging up tutorials from yourfirst website, the tutorial of the atom bomb explosion over a city, that was cool.

i reckon it would be great inspiration for people learning after effects and seeing your early work and showing that everyone one started from the bottom at some stage.

bring it on
Tenkoi
15 years ago
It was after I found Video copilot and follow your earth zoom tutorial then I hooked up with after effect ever since
Wiseguy0
15 years ago
I can't believe after effects is seeing all these other people! But, I can't stay mad at her.
15 years ago
A friend of mine directed me towards your site after telling him I was into making movies. I saw the amazing possibles of After Effects and that Motion Graphics is a career. Later that month I changed my major and started at ex'pressions college for digital arts for motion graphics. So basically, you were the one who got me into this career. I graduate in a few months! Thanks Andrew!
DawnTreader
15 years ago
I started with After Effects to do titles for some short music videos that i was doing for a Worship Service called Shekinah. At the time i was more into Premier because i was editing video. now i am more into AE for its abilty to put all sorts of things together.

It wasnt until i found Creative Cow and Andrews Tutorials that i really got into compositing. Thanks Andrew for being such a great guide.
15 years ago
I first got introduced to After Effects during the summer of 2006 when i saw some lightsaber effects on YouTube. Since I wanted to try it out myself i downloaded the free demo of CS3 and made some crappy lightsaber videos that are still on YouTube. Soon enough I learned that there was a lot more to After Effects than meets the eye, and got referred to this nifty website called VideoCopilot.net, which a few people around here may have heard of before. I decided to invest in After Effects CS3 and before I knew it, I was hooked on Visual Effects and Compositing. Now, four years later, I am still taking my Visual Effects capabilities to the next level and taking film classes at school. I plan to take this passion of mine to Film School and then make it my profession. After effects and Video Copilot together have helped make me who I am today, and I am very proud. I always refer people to Video Copilot now, when I get questions about getting started in Visual Effects and Compositing on my YouTube channel, SheffeyStudios, or KosherFilmsShorts. Thank you Andrew Kramer for inspiring me.
(P.S. Sorry about the lengthy comment, haha.)
-Eric Sheffey
philip
15 years ago
2008 I wanted to create fireballs and superhero powers and stuff
15 years ago
I started out using Vegas and was watching a tut to pull off a Superhero effect with it. The guy giving the tut said it'd be better to do it in after effects. I'd never heard of After Effects, googled it, and ended up on this site. And that was all she wrote.
Jumanous
15 years ago
I played with it back when premiere was on version 5 in 1997 (not cs5), and I never really got into it. I tried it again with CS4 after watching video copilot and I finally saw a use for it. Now with cs5 I love it.
Eric
15 years ago
I got interested in video editing I believe in 2006, and after a bunch of bad dates with different software and web sites I found your BASIC TRAINING VIDEOS. I thought they were the coolest things in the world. Then shortly after I actually got off youtube and went to your sites and saw all the other tutorials, I was so excited. Then thats when AE and I hit it off. Been meaning to thank you for a long time now, for setting us up, and now videos and movie making are taking over my life and I freaking love it! ha Thx

Eric AKA Lips
15 years ago
i started using after effects in 1978
15 years ago
"I imagine some of you started out as graphic designers and wanted to bring visuals to life" is exactly my scenario, plus wanting to ge eventually get into motion picture visual effects.

I was first introduced to After Effects 4.1 back in 2001 and purchased Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects by Trish & Chris Meyer, as recomended by my Lightwave 3d/Premiere 5.0 Professor suggested, but I dropped the ball altogether and shifted my focus on print design and joining the Army.

I could have 9 years of a serious relationship with AE, if I had only cracked the book open and began exploring it sooner. I did not actually begin serious persits in seeking knowledge and training until 2007-08.
Alexander
15 years ago
Ever since I was 4 i've had a great interest in production. My dad, a producer, always brought me on set to watch shows being made, and then into the edit bay. When i was 8 i found 400 dollars on the ground, and after no one claimed it I used it to by a 8mm camera to shoot movies on. The obessesion grew and in 2006, using a sony cybershot camera's video feature, i started making music videos and things for youtube that gained popularity. However in 2008, when i was 14, i realized that this is something i really care about and something i want to do when im older. I started making more serious things, and after doing that, i realized the need to bring my visions to life. Shortly after finding video copilot, and saving money for a year, in summer 2009 i bought after effects along with action movie essentials. From this website i have learned much, and how to use after effects to teach myself how to do my own things. I'm 16 now and am currently do motion graphics and special fx for my school, and do freelance work on editing and video projects in orlando.
Jacky Liang
15 years ago
I started using after effects in 2008, mainly for compositing purposes with 3ds max. But later I realized there is so much to the software then just compositing clips and adding effects. I've been able to produce awesome motion graphics with it and ur help Thank you so much andrew! best teacher ever.

btw I'm 14 right now
myuran
15 years ago
i'm a starwars fan so i want to make a fan film , then i started to learn ligthsaber , blaster gun firing effect and muzzle flash . then i started to learn more and more .but still i didn't learn blaster gun effect
Max Kearfott
15 years ago
Senior year in high school I found after effects after visiting video copilot. I needed a video editing program to edit my video game movies on youtube. I'm going to college in LA next year to pursue video arts

-thanks video copilot!
chriz
15 years ago
yes i remember it was a year ago for a final project of a corporate image of ourselves, haha.. it suck but everybody was so surprised here it is ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKP-D1dUsHQ
15 years ago
I started out with Evolution in After Effects CS4 with some 2D stuff. Then unlocked the potential of AE with CC Particle World in some 3D space and some "3D-like Text" with cool effects. Then after watching tones of these tutorials, I started to do some of my own projects. I started to figure out not to do the exact same as Andrew but use expressions, and different effects that he showed my own project.
Anyway, BIG THANKS to Andrew Kramer from Video Copilot for all the help, you are the man!
merosathi
15 years ago
Well it starts like this. In year 2005 when I was having some dates with Photoshop, someone introduced me to After Effects. I saw just a glance of her. I couldn???t forger her face. I kept searching for her. And after searching for 2 long years, finally in year 2007, I found her and we were face to face. Since then our love just kept growing.
subrom
15 years ago
The year was 1995 and PCs (by which I mean Macs) were just starting to be able to edit video for under six figures. After learning Premiere 4.2 and playing with it's layering capabilities, I needed more. I found AFX 3.1 on one of the computers at my uni and gave it a go. My first project was a disaster but I got a pass mark. This was the time BEFORE ram previews (and before layers and undos in photoshop 2.5) and to see your animation, you had to render out a movie, make changes and render again. It was all there back then but the workflows have just kept on keeping on with change.
ftragg
15 years ago
Mine is easy to remember because it was last year, in my freshman year of high school. At the beginning of the year, I took the video class and the teacher was a moron, so I strayed from Premiere Pro (which he barely knew anyway) and decided to check out that little "AE" icon that was on all the computers after the school installed CS3 on all the computers. I watched some tutorials on adobe tv and eventually discovered Aharon Rabinowitz's weather replacement tutorial, and from his mention of Video Copilot, arrived here. I remember knowing, after I watched my first VC tutorial--Soul Removal--that I had found a gold mine of After Effects knowledge.
Even though I've been using AE for only a year and a half or so, I used to make these games with powerpoint, using a lot of animations and hyperlinks. When I started learning After Effects, I realized that it was basically the same thing as what I used to do with powerpoint, just with much more capability.
So that's my story.
Travis
15 years ago
I need something to edit videos in, and it's the thing that showed up the most on google. And you can do sooo much with it.
Facugf
15 years ago
I think we most here started from lightsabers lol
15 years ago
I started with 2 years on and off relationship with AE but after some couple's therapy from videoCopilot 2 months ago, AE is all I think about. I'm mostly a Maya user, but thanks to Andrew my tool set and heart feel complete. Gracias!
Chirag
15 years ago
I fell in love with it 2 weeks ago, because of you . You've actually inspired me to learn something new and maybe even make a career out of something i actually like, Thanks Dude .
Nailuj
15 years ago
my first FX was a Kame Hame Ha very funny lol!
Rishi
15 years ago
i learn from AE6.5, still i learn AE from CS5( ha ha ha)
nick ito
15 years ago
i was a making dvd menus and got sick of using templates from livetype.
Damian
15 years ago
Wow! Surprised to see so many newbies here. I guess I began my AE fling the same time I began my MAC career. Along with Pagemaker, Illustrator, Photoshop, Director, Media100 and Infini-D. Those apps were my toolkit for the first few years. My first job out of University (In 1995) was with a corporate sales trainer. So that involved lots of workbook creation and sales training videos. AE to me was the bees-knees. Photoshop on wheels we used to call it. Back then I only used to move things from A to B and I was king. I did this for about 10 years and managed to impress most. I ignored the whole 3D layer thing because I really didn't need it. A to B was doin it for me. But I discovered Creative Cow and then VC. And I suppose online tutorials in general. WOW. Is there a better way to learn? I think not. And yes I believe Andrew to be the best teacher out there. 3D layers and expressions are something that you can't really grasp by reading out of a book. You need to see it in action, being bult to really understand it. I check your site daily and generally put off even the most urgent of deadlines to watch your 20 minutes of inspiration.

I hope VC will continue as it does today.
Austin
15 years ago
wen i first herd of after effects i was trying to make a muzzle shot for a gun using photo shop then i found after effects and life has never been better....
15 years ago
Well I was sitting on the couch watching my favorite show smallville. When the episode ended I thought to myself it would be cool to see those effects applied to me or even someone else but what would be even cooler was the fact that I could do it myself. So I looked on google and searched industry standard for visual effects and AE was the first to come up. I did a little more research on the program and decided to get it. now I am in love with it it has so many different uses it great.
15 years ago
I would have to stay it was all a gradual process... Ive always loved movie titles like... especially ones with motion graphics... and i love special fx and compositing. I taught myself photoshop young... Went to Full Sail University for Film... I just wanted to learn everything about film... so i got into editing and effects along with directing... then that led to teaching myself Motion... then I realized everything I wanted to do... there was more tutorials and third party support of AE then motion. I was shown AE in school a bit...So I got into AE. Since then Ive been following VCP since REALISTIC GUN BLOWBACK. http://jconn24.wordpress.com if you want to check out somethings.
Andrew Falk
15 years ago
AE 5 or 5.5....late 2001..maybe early 2002....for awhile is was seeing Combustion also....did a little Shake on the side as well...but AE finally seduced me enough to make it official....LOL
Ethan
15 years ago
Same scenario for me Andrew, I just used sony vegas instead of final cut pro. Started after effects 6 months ago and now i'm in love . I'm thinking about proposing some time this summer <3
Dan
15 years ago
i was looking onto making my videos more interesting, searched up professional video compositing and i found AE. My life changed from that day on...
15 years ago
I had seen about a billion videos with After Effects on Youtube and it seemed well past the limits of what I had been using (Pinnacle). Back then, my computer couldn't handle After FX. I got a new computer that could (even though it sucked) and my dad had the Adobe CS4 Master Collection with an extra license, so he let me use it. Now I have my own copy and run it on an Alienware M15X.
Evan Langley
15 years ago
I remember getting my very first copy of after effects, it was 6.5. I knew a video editor who was upgrading to CS and he game me his old one

I had previously been working with a program called Ulead, which is a joke practically, it crashes every other effects and basically does lens flares and lightning.

I worked in After Effects 6.5 and Photoshop Elements for about a year before I finally decided to invest in CS3, as I was really starting to outgrow 6.5 and it's huge limitations. Once I got CS3 I was content with that for years, it was really a great program. I finally just now upgraded to CS5 I guess it's probably been 4 years or so of AE for me, and I'm really starting to turn now toward Node based compositors, I'm almost a little sad to say. AE seems like an old friend, and I can't help feeling guilty when I spend more time with Toxik. After Effects is still better looking, anyway
gladysk
15 years ago
Actually, I am in a 3some with Premiere Pro and AE.

I was steadily going out with PP and using what ever effects I found on the net. Sometimes using the plug-ins as is, other times combining them to create my effects but...

We had no real longterm project and kept our relation simple with a lot of fooling around.

About 6 months ago, I bought myself a new computer and the possibility of creating something really amazing presented itself to us (Première Pro and Me) lol

There was only one little problem.

I decided to teach myself some basic visual effects but couldn't find a website with Premiere Pro tutorials so...

I stumbled on Video Copilot! Even thought I knew AE (working with Flash) and the its predispositions for VFX, it is only when I started watching the Tuts here that I decided to make my move and bring AE into the relationship.

We are all happy and working on our first baby. I'll make sur to post the trailer in the blog as soon as it's ready.
Tom
15 years ago
i wanted to get more from my films and it all started out when i found this website! one of my first projects used AE and Video Copilot to help the final look.

my first project a short film.
http://www.vimeo.com/11666543
deejayem
15 years ago
I've been a video editor for nearly ten years, focusing only on Final Cut Pro. For so long I had assumed that using After Effects was a specialty skill, which required talents that I'd never possess. However, around a year ago, it was your website tutorials that put After Effects into perspective. I've now dedicated many, many hours to this new tool. My love affair has begun and my videos never looked so good!
Pedro
15 years ago
That's right Andrew! I started my studies of video editing last year in the cinema school of my city, Madrid, Spain. I use Final Cut and sometimes Avid, but I started with AE about 3 months ago and I really love it!! I think I'm pretty young in all of this but I improved a lot due to your tutorials!! I almost did all the exersices in this short period!!! That's why I don't have any girlfriend... hahah just kidding I gotta gorgeus one.
Anyway, Thanx lot Andrew
Erickzo
15 years ago
LightSaber... i guess, that's the first thing everyone want to do with after... that, and the matrix code...

Yup. having met AFX has been one of the best things in my life...
Aaron
15 years ago
2008, was trying to make an intro for myself.
Sebastian
15 years ago
Hello Andrew,

I was always interested in Movies and how they are made. Especially the Special and Visual Effects were really exciting! And yes, the first Tutorial i saw was for a Lightsaber in After Effects. I downloaded a Trial of After Effects 6.5 and I watched them, hours of hours the whole night and... I didnt get anything. My first Steps with Adobe After Effects were hard and i quit it. But i was so fascinated of this Program and its possibilities.

2 or 3 Years later i found "videocopilot.net" via Youtube and i remembered my first steps with After Effects. At first i looked for a new Programversion and then i watched your Basic Training. It was so easy to follow you with your nice and funny way to explain how things work. Till now I watched all of your Tutorials and working with After Effects is routine for me!

Thank You Andrew!
Thank you videocopilot!


Greetings from Germany
Sebastian.
Nikolaos Tsimpetonidis
15 years ago
At the beggining, in 2005-2006 i tried to composite pictures by only using Adobe Premiere pro 2 and later Premiere Pro CS2 with not much luck unfortunately it was only up until i did my first music videos with blue screen,in 2006, that made me change my mind. Actually it wasn't a blue screen exactly. I used my room's wall, which is painted in cyan, an then tweeked the parameters in premiere's pro blue screen key. The resault was not bad but it could get much better and even the compositing of other shots.
So i eventually turned to After effects 7 from the CS2 suite, and studied some tutorials from a book i bought. Because i didn't even had a clue what after effetcs was until then (I'm a musicologist/composer/sound designer actually, but video stuff is my hobby and now my second expertie due to my Master degree). Later on i worked for graphics on telemarketing series, and then i found your webside, and it was the tutorial number 68 : 'Energy', and generally this webside that made me to make a turn to VFX and generaly compositing, and most important,understand these fields of study. Thanks a lot Andrew you're the man! Cheers from Greece!!
Javier
15 years ago
i started as a flash animator in 2007, then i practiced whitin some years until an after effects CD got into my house, i left flash and i decided to instead of animatin silly movies, make real movies with after effects
Kevan
15 years ago
I wanted to edit a video and my sister had AE on her computer. I was frustrated because i didn't know how to use it. then one day I found this site and realized what AE is really for.
Valerie
15 years ago
It started last month actually! I'm still a newbie! My boyfriend recommended me to follow the basic training and tutorials. I got hooked on it ever since and now I can make some pretty nice explosions and spot how other people in commercials and movies did their effects!
Milton Fox
15 years ago
This is my first comment ever. I started with Canopus Raptor Edit & Premiere 5.0. It wasn't until AE CS3 came along and caught my attention, that I started to really improve. A lotta money was spent & very little progress was made until I stumbled upon this site. I'm not as young as most of you, but I still have a passion for AE. Thanks to the young man Andrew Kramer, the fire still burns.
Mike Yull
15 years ago
Played around with other not so great software for VFX then I watched your head explode tutorial out of curiosity and theres hardly been a day since I havent been messing around in my favourite program. Cant wait to get CS5
Rats
15 years ago
Looking at this vid I decided I wanted to be a moationgrapher, Thats when I first known After Effects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ6bu0_txoU
15 years ago
I fell in love with AE like 1-2 years ago, thanks to kinetic type with some poems and song I saw on youtube, I actually was SCARED of AE, the first video I did was just a lame slide show with little Text Effectors, I haven't done a lot due to lack of power in my machine, but here is the may latest attempt at something in AE:

http://www.vimeo.com/10225091


in which I understood 3d, cameras, scripts and other things.
Andre
15 years ago
when I stumbled on your site
André
15 years ago
Great question !

Wow... My first date out with after effects was 7 years ago I was a little brat back then. Working with my mates making star wars movies, etc. I got my hands on a trial edition of AE and things sprung from there. Simple white layer with glow on it. Remember we were so amazed by what we created.

I don't use AE as much as I'd like now a days. I've moved on to nuke and fusion, using those as compositing. AE I primarily use for motion graphics. But boy, do I have great memories. AE was my ticket to the world of CG. It gave me the introduction to what I now love which is 3D animation. I am so grateful that I found this software. It has truly turned my life into a very geeky but so much fun one.

Though I wish Optical flares were compatible with other software like Nuke or Combustion, or Fusion. Perhaps thats on your to-do list Kramer? ;D

Anyways Good night ya'll, daddy needs some sleep,
15 years ago
I forst met AFX when I started post-production for an amateur movie inspired by a lot of japanese mangas... So the main effects included power balls, fire balls and stuff, explosions, smoke and other flashy things.

I learned it by myself and was helped by Wondertouch's Particle Illusion 3 at that time. It was... In 2004.

Now I use it mostly at my cinema school to do some corrections on shot like removing objects that don't have to be in the shot etc... And also I continue amateur movies.
15 years ago
During my first job as 1.AD on an indie-based, feature length project, the DoP kept mouthing off how he could do this and that with AE - he could virtually hand the camera to a small monkey and do the rest with AE. Pish-pash, was my first thought. Being used to Premiere, having used it since before v.1.0. and never having touched AE, I mostly became mad with his cocky statements, cuz he was sloppy as hell on-set and delivered random quality in takes and inbetweens. "Its all corrected in post", he would mutter with an insane yet fragile look on his face. I had to know wth this guy was going on about. I soon realised what the funk was about, and now I´m a professional freelance VFX-designer.

Only found VC.net a couple of years ago, but this place has really gotten me hooked. I keep coming back, coffee in one hand, stylus in the other and way too many smokes. You guys are gr8. So much good work towards mankind will not pass by unnoticed.
15 years ago
It was 1994, and CosaFX had just come off Beta. Coupled with a DQ Animac to capture the frames and put them to tape, it was a groundbreaking program for transitions and the like. And it just got better and better.
illd
15 years ago
AE is a render slut - But I love her so much...
Diego G
15 years ago
The first time I fell in love with AE was 3 years ago, when I saw a video on YouTube which was using Action Essentials 1, at the beggining I didn't know it was a product of yours, but when I noticed it, I found your website, and I got married with AE, 'till today!
Thanks Andrew, for all the knowledge you've taught us through all these years!
KaO
15 years ago
My videos are still small and ridiculous, I might add. But now they are also friggin awesome!
KaO
15 years ago
I remember it well. I did small and ridiculous videos wich I posted on the internet for fun, until I came across this guy named Ryan Wieber, and when I saw what he was able to do my mind was blown away. I wanted that power. So I found out he used After Effects, and got it. But when I opened up the program it was like latin. And I don't know latin. "Money well spent!" I thought to myself. And then came Video Copilot, and saved the day (for the first time of many to come) with the awesome basics-tutorials. Video Copilot saved me a lot of money and made a small dream come true, wich developed and became something even greater. And I thank you from the bottom of my soul for that.
15 years ago
Summer 2004, terrible hot, and havent actually nothing to do... weed and keyframing what I wasnt able to animate in flash. Felt in love.
Love stoned!
Jesse
15 years ago
It started with compositing in Final Cut for me as well...being the immature kid I was then, I wanted to add muzzle flashes to airsoft guns and make a kick ass action film...I began to see the advantages of AE when I started watching the tuts here. So it opened a whole new world for me. I only just recently got a copy of AE, and I stayed up all night...adding muzzle flashes to airsoft guns. I am now a college graduate, and still learning after effects on my own.
Charlie Scene!
15 years ago
Well... about 2-3 months ago I started to work with After FX
15 years ago
I wanted to do light saber effect so i was looking for a tutorial, and guess what, I found You then
And that would be it, but when i watched other your tutorials, i was getting more and more into it. Firts big project was presentation for my school that made me very famous ^^
So, I should thank You
If it wasn't for You i would probably be dead from boredome right now
15 years ago
What a small head space you live in blind pixel.....
15 years ago
Well, just i have like 6 months using AF and all that i know is thank to VideoCopilot and AK but, here is my first work with my lil cousin LOLz
15 years ago
I WOULD LIKE A REPLY FROM ANDREW KRAMER
I remember that i want todo a light saber effect and jumper effect and some others and i search in youtube an i saw many people using the same program, (after effects) so i start searching some info about after effects then i download a trial ,i like it to much so i bought the program but i dont know how to use it . Then i search for some tutorials but i dont find anywere with good quality in google i type "After effect tutorials) Woooooooooooooow i find VideCopilot.net i was amaze with So many tutorials . I first start with Camera shake with wiggler i start at the age of 13 now im 15 1/2 i have seen every tutorial and blogs
WOW ANDREW YOU START AT 16 ALMOST THE SAME
madmanali93
15 years ago
i wanted to make a lightsaber movie. i watched many tutorials on youtube from aftereffcts so i got it and soon enough landed on videocopilot
duoblade
15 years ago
The first time I used it was in my 2D animation class at Ivy Tech. The first assignment I did on my own, that wasn't out of the book, was animating an old snes version of Link from Zelda and Mario. Link was chasing him across a classic Super Mario Bros background. They jumped into a pipe and when they came out another pipe Mario's arms were gone lol. Then Link chopped his head off. My teacher was very impressed lol.
15 years ago
My first date with After Effects was in 2005! and I knew video copilot a year later, so was a busy year because I start to work with a book in my hand... so thank you very much Andrew for your free video tutorials.
Greeting from Argentina.
R.A. Elliott
15 years ago
I started back in 04, freshman year of high school I found After Effects on the computer I was working on, and started playing around. Back then Star Wars had become really popular again, and with the release of Ryan Vs Dorkman (the popular lightsaber duel on Youtube) I was really amazed that you could easily make them in After Effects. So I got a camera, shot a million tests, and that's when I also learned "rotoscoping". From then on, I just got more and more involved in doing fx, shooting everywhere I went and bringing it into After Effects to see what I could do. Several mowed lawns and grocery bagged, I finally bought After Effects 7 so I could have more time to play around with it. Last year, I got to shoot a duel with Ryan, so that kind of brought it all full-circle, didn't it? :p
Joakim
15 years ago
hehe, when i and my clan wanted to make a frag i made this one... Then i falled in love with after effetcs <3
sry for my bad english..
amrull_melodic@yahoo.com
15 years ago
waiting for tutorial Cinema 4D.
and AE FX
thanks Andrew.
Asbir
15 years ago
3 years ago, at 2 in the moning,I heard a knock at my door. I opened, and there she was, beautiful as a bright star. She told me, I am all yours, I says, you'll do anything I want? ? she says anything you want baby. I let her in, and the rest is history. She keeps astonishing me every year, she never ages, she gets better and better. So I decided, I will never let her go, I will never cheat on her. I am in love, and that is a beautiful feeling. I hope you guys understand.
Jack Watts
15 years ago
I wanted to make better title sequences as i was very constrained by the limitations of Vegas at the time.
15 years ago
I remember that i was one of the first people to come to videocopilot and i think you have recoreds of user loging and dates to show that. you had like 10 tutorials and the f-16 logo and 2 years of beging to work with you, your site was the resone i fell in love with after effects so i went and i bought from ebay a copy of AE 7.0 and i remember getting mad at you for using photoshop but now i learned after effects .photoshop,3dmax,cinema 4d, blender,boujou and all that is becuase of you sir for that videocopilot was my first love and i will always be greatfull for what you been giving us through all these years,thank you.
Ramon Villalba
15 years ago
As you said, I was a video editor that wanted more control of graphics and FX, I have been dating with AE since June 2008, as many people here too, the visual effects got my attention and then I met AE, It happened also because i was editing a small project with animated logos (2d) and I did something simple with AE as first, but suddenly, I started to see the real world inside of it, after that, lot of samples around the web, people doing crazy and cool stuff, but this site have been the one who made me see the real capabilities of AE, thanks to you A.K and to your wide talent and creativity.

AE is an amazing software, it has been a beautiful relationship.
Vizion
15 years ago
I remember I wanted After Effects after seeing all the possibilities from youtube videos.
Darkrai
15 years ago
For me, it started about 5 years ago I randomly googled special effects tutorials and saw videocopilot.net as the first thing. I then logged this website in my memory only to be forgotten as I did not have the software. Two years later I saw RVD2 as I was getting interested into movie making and I saw how they said they used Adobe After Effects, I instantly wanted that software but how in the world will I learn it? That's when I remembered that site from years back, videocopilot.net! I then went on, watched a bunch of tutorials and became familiar with the software before actually getting it! So I pretty much came in there already knowing what I wanted and how to do it!
15 years ago
It's been a while, we are getting old... hahaha
Arvin Jr.
15 years ago
Like many other people I started cause I wanted to make the lightsaber effect. Then I found Videocopilot and found out I could do so much stuff.
Xander
15 years ago
Back in the days I was using Animated Gif creator to create corporate animations. So with the first release of After effects I realised that creating animated gifs could be done much faster.
15 years ago
yah! this relation will hold for everlasting. My First big Comp, was the Building Explosion from VideoCopilots Action Essentials 2. VideoCopilot told me many many things about this beautiful Programm. And now, my knowledg are huge!

I've fell in Love with VideoCopilot and After Effects!
Anthony
15 years ago
A little over a year ago i was making an action film and decided it would be much cooler if I had some ones head exploder. typed it in and found your assisted suicide tutorial.. Since then Been in love with After effects!!!!
15 years ago
I fell in love with after effects in October 2007. I saw a video on youtube of some awesome work someone did in after effects and I just had to try it. It was all up hill from there
Andrew
15 years ago
I remember all to well, I a somewhat younger man, she a flirty young thing who showed off so much potential, If you knew to treat her right. Our first outings together were stumbling and inept, mostly my fault I admit but despite a bumpy start I knew I was in love. Her father didn't approve of course and we were forced apart after only thirty days together, a travesty. Eventually I swayed even him with an hefty dowry and now not a day goes by without my beloved and I creating magic together

(It's a good thing the Geneva convention doesn't apply to metaphors)
sunil Thapa (nepal)
15 years ago
when i start work in saudi arab ..........i got adobe after effect 6 cd ..............since then ....................
Lee
15 years ago
After using Premiere to try and do some lightning with a photoshopped squiggle I tried After Effects 6.5 and never looked back. A few years later I made this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-czAssxO8E and have been learning new things since. I also feel my After Effects days are coming to an end for VFX - lets hope CS5 can revive that for a little longer before I have to move to something beefier.
15 years ago
Wow I am a graphic designer that had never done a video before. We were a month away from going to a conference to setup a display for our company and everyone thought it would be a cool idea to create a video. So being an adobe fan I spent the next 30 learning everything I could about after effects and this was my first video ever... http://www.fundamentalnetwork.com/post/638660693 Looking forward to trying some more stuff in the future.
Austin
15 years ago
I had started doing Flash animation and HTML in 2nd grade. You can look at my original 2nd grade webpage here http://www.usfamily.net/web/mark.esau/gameboys/
I proceeded to do this until 5th grade when I made a movie with some school friends with mostly Blue Screen. I edited that in Premiere. I came to Video Copilot the next year out of curiosity. Andrew had just released his 5th tutorial. And I say, "Hey Dad, could I get After Effects?" he then replies, "I already own a copy".
I've been using that little old 6.5 disk for 4 years until finally upgrading to CS4 this year. You can see most of my filmmaking work at www.youtube.com/users/iamcartmanxd
It's not that great, but Andrew has really helped me along through all these years of digital editing.
Thanks alot Andrew.
15 years ago
I think it was 2002. I was using Speed Razor to edit and it had a lot of sweet compositing capabilities, but it was too unstable ???so I bought a used Canopus DVStorm card with Premiere. For an unknown reason, the guy sent me a copy of After Effects 5. I tried it out and was swept off my feet! Since then, our Adobe family has grown to include the entire production suite. Here is my most recent After Effects creation: http://www.vimeo.com/11732698
vaguener
15 years ago
ooh yeah, before edit in AE my special effects was made in Corel R.A.V.E.

bad program but very easy to use... the bad thing is the 3 seconds videos always become 1gb or more

I have some stop motions on youtube made in corel rave (argh)

wanna laugh? look for "stop mortal"
racketen
15 years ago
I had used Windows movie maker for about one year and started getting tierd of it when i got Adobe Master collection CS4 of my dads friend on my 12:th birthday and i`ve used AE sense then.
vaguener
15 years ago
I always loved sfx, but no one of the people I know could help me with ideas of programs... one day in google search for some useful tool i meet AE 6.5 (before my animations was made in MSpaint and windows movie maker).

My first after effects movie was my brother kikcing and destroyng a 3d car made in 3dsmax.. the video really sucks and I remember the bad words I screamed untill understand the mask path and keyframes. (every time I tried to change messed the rest of animation)

long time until I realize "there is motion trackers", "auto stabilize stuff", "null object is not useless object" and learn in VideoCopilot about boujou.

I keep pratcing and next year i'll finally get my 5d to make my own videos, YAY

sorry my bad english and thanks for tutorials.
Suky
15 years ago
I remember that there were around 90 tutorials started to watch some of them.....
Porhoken
15 years ago
Summer 2004. I just learned about what tools (that are avaliable for desktop computers) where used to achieve SFX in movies. I then, well, just downloaded a - let's say 9000 days testversion - of that program to start out making a supercool special effects dripping movie. I just opened up the program, AE 6.5 that was, just to find myself totally lost in how to start anything in it. That was it. Closed and deleted. Dissapointed of myself. A year later, I attended university and finally, a very nice teacher showed us the magics of "composition -> new composition". Bang. That was it. No stop from this point on. Power to the people. I wonder to this day, why I never tried to figure that simple click on my own.
ShoeToad
15 years ago
When I was 16, AE CS2 :p I'm 19 now, and the love's still growing!

We <3 AE
15 years ago
I was editing in Premiere and did a lot of Photoshop work and felt it was the next step. I've also been excited by special effects and motion graphics and I feel After Effects lets those things be more accessible to you.
15 years ago
i remember my date with after effects 2006 its still working haha
i worked hard to be at a level where i m now
i just posted a old video i made when i just started in after effects http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_CFGpMuY0
i will do a remake on this soon
15 years ago
I started off using Sony VEGAS, after winning it in a remix contest. Then I stumbled upon your site, saw what After Effects could do, and immediately bought it. I have no regrets, and AE and I are a happy couple. If she ever wants a divorce, I will be devastated....and end up on the ledge with Sam....
harry
15 years ago
the last summer that was in 2009
i started learn after effects all the day with none stop
ulises
15 years ago
One teacher in the school told that i could edit video with adobe premiere or with After Effects. (she had no idea). I started with premiere and one day AFX was magicaly on the table of my home. I installed him. He look at me, I look at Him, nothing happend and I close it.
Several months later I reinstalled and still loving it..

Now I´m leaving the composition work to Nuke (for work) but all of mi Motion graphics still come from him...

Bye
chris
15 years ago
In 2006 I made my first ad with after effects,, AND I USED EVERY EFFECT I COULD FIT!!!!! Though I was clumsy in my youth, I have now brought more finesse to our relationship
Matthew Park
15 years ago
Ohhhhh. Long story. So my friend started doing speed paintings with like paint and stuff, so I joined in. After that, then it grew to animations and stuff. But then I was like, I need a "corporate" intro, and I want it to be good. So I went cruising on youtube for some idea's and found After Effects, so I got it and played around and started getting good, that's when I fell in love with after effects. Best movie editing program, EVAR.
15 years ago
Last Friday I got the Adobe CS5 Production Premium Package. I wanted to make the effects for my movies better.I had already watched your stuff for awhile just so I could know at least some of how to use After Effects before I bought it. I'm 13 years old.
oras
15 years ago
hay
for me somone show me Electric effect and shok me with the visual effect

so i asked him later what the name of the software

DAd daaaaa
he gave me after effect ^_^
then i saw tut on youtube "was my 1st ae tut i have seen ever "

about some one making dragon ball blast hehehehe

i just remain 5 days happy how good that guy was

spending time make Tuts

then more reserch

and i find u hehhehehehe and u shok me every weak


THX A K
15 years ago
wow ..
that's very good!
so..
look .. that's made by me !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0NCKpz6Cko
Rahul
15 years ago
Do you actually read all of these lengthy replies???
Just say 'I do' and I'll pour my heart in-front of ya!
Hector
15 years ago
Thank you Magic. I'll try the adjustment layer recipe...
Brennan
15 years ago
Yeah well I taught my good friend Sylvester Stallone how to use AE way back in the early 2000s. Such a great guy.. LOL kidding I just recently bought the Adobe Production Premium package so I am excited
15 years ago
I'm sure remember when I was doing things like template monster intros i loved it so so much and I didn't know how this things and lights and particulars done and I'm catch after effects I said ( aha this is what they did ) thanks Andrew for this you reminds us with great memories
Magic
15 years ago
Hector ) no not a lie, start with an ajustment layer...
Hector
15 years ago
I was told I would be able to cook chocolate chips cookies with it... The cookies thing,I'm guessing was a lie... But, I haven't given up trying...
15 years ago
On my first date with After Effects, I chickened out. It was 1995 and a friend of mine brought me a disk with a pirated copy of the program (3.0, I think). I installed it, opened, created a new comp, new solid and applied some random effect. I then proceeded to untwirl the properties of all the crap I created. There were many. Too many!

I closed the program and uninstalled it.

Next time I met After Effects was in 2001. We were both much more mature and approached each other with guidance of a professional (Brian Maffit and his fantastic Total Training DVD set). One of the first complete pieces I created then was a 2002 "Quick Shave" ( http://qubahq.com/2002/06/quick-shave/ ) - a piece I still hold dear to my heart as "that first one".

I've been with AE ever since watching her... errr... it grow and mature over the years, participating in betas and always pushing it to the very limit.
hempo22
15 years ago
bout 3 years ago when I needed to stabilize a tracking shot. Then I found videocopilot and the wiggle tutorial with the baseball player and realized I could spice up the action sequences a bit with wiggle on impacts like a fist in the face then I just continued from there thanks for everthing AK
MAXON
15 years ago
I DID THE SAME THING: AFTER REACHING THE LIMIT WITH SONY VEGAS, I WAS GETTING FRUSTRATED WHY MY TITLES WEREN'T LOOKING GOOD....SO THEN I LOOKED IS YOUTUBE FOR ADVANZED TITLES IN SONY VEGAS....THEN I SAW ONE OF YOUR INTROS, AND THE TITLE HAS AFTER EFFECTS... SO I DECIDED TO DO MY RESEARCH UNTIL I FOUND THIS WONDERFUL WEBSITE...I STARTED WITH THE BASIC TRAINING THEN I DID FROM TUTORIAL ONE UP....
I WAS GETTING MORE, AND MORE EXCITING EVERY DAY.....
I HAVE BOUGHT ALL YOUR PRODUCTS EXCEPT OPTICAL FLARES...
NOW I KNOW MY WAY AROUND AFTER EFFECTS REALLY GOOD, AND WHEN I WATCH YOUR NEW TUTORIALS SOMETIMES I JUST LISTEN TO THEM WHILE DOING IT IN AE...
I STARTED AT THE BEGGINING OF LAST YEARS SUMMER....
.................................................................................................................................THANKS ANDRE KRAMER.......................
..........ALL I KNOW I LEARNED IT FROM YOU...............
.........................................................
.........................................................
15 years ago
Nice post idea
My first try was @ design/cg school, in 2006.
My first love was @ work, I had to create a little animation, discovered VC, and... just felt in love of AE and AK

Fun old animation
15 years ago
i got into AE to do some cool stuff like the cloning and kamehameha stuff back in high school, just to show to my school buddies...... Now I am a 3D animator with compositing skills.
theguttz
15 years ago
Yeah, I want to make light saber and i start from there..
mb2000inc
15 years ago
I first got into after effects when I first saw Ryan Vs. Dorkman on "theforce.net" now here: http://www.ryanvsdorkman.com/

I never wanted to be able to do these kind of effects so bad... then I started googling ways to create lightsabers digitally, and then... BAM! I found Andrew Kramer on Creative Cow. After that, I came here to learn more... after learning, I got hooked.

I am truly After Effect's Bitch.
blind pixel
15 years ago
u all gay!lol....................
15 years ago
The Time I visit VideoCopilot And I saw the tutoS i fall in Love with it .....
Kevin
15 years ago
Wanted to be better at compositing my CGI and I had my issues getting in to node-based compositing so After Effects was just right. But can't remember when I started to use it.
bedji
15 years ago
yes i remember the first time that i discovered after effects than one month later ?i discovered VCP.oh my god.it's very very excitin. it was may 2005
RyT
15 years ago
I used to be a web designer and I was working with flash. I was needed an intro and i discover premiere. But it wasn't enough. Then i was needed an butterfly but i tried a key with photoshop frame by frame. Than I sad to myself; there was got a be easy and better way. After a little digging I found After Effects and Video Copilot. Actually you teach me After FX Andrew. And i own you a big thank. Now I'm a full CG artist and I use Cinema 4D, After Fx, Edius and Finalcut Pro.
Lynx
15 years ago
It started last year when i finally got bored of Sony Vegas and wanted to try something cooler.Never had time to go very in depth with it but summer is coming so i will have some private time with my AE CS4
15 years ago
I got in to after effects because of the original action essentials. I loved making movies and was making a war movie and discovered action essentials. That kick started me into after effects. Now I'm at college and have already landed a few jobs.

Thanks Andrew Kramer!
15 years ago
I was working for a small flight sim development group called BMS "Bench mark sims" We started out refining a flight sim called Falcon4 made by Micro prose that became, years ago, vapor ware. We needed some videos to better the ones that were available at the time, so I ventured in AE to find the answer. During the process I discovered that my talents far out did Falcon4 so I started to delve into AE and find other areas and with the help of Video Copilot I found new depths which lead me away from simple needs and discover an entire new World.

Thank you VCP..

Sunny.
Sujith Sivan
15 years ago
I???ve always wondered how ppl doing double role in films.. and I was searching on net desperately then accidently I found videocopilot tutorials and I could make a video like this with your help. Thank you so much Andrew...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jmLXekOXDo
15 years ago
I had Movie Maker and Vegas, and for the things I wanted to do, those programs just didn't do it for me. So I worked up the cash and bought AE CS4 in January. I needed an extremely high end editing software, but I didn't realize how powerful After Effects was. Now I have 3Ds Studio Max, and I'm getting into my own style now. All thanks to VC!!
Ashraf
15 years ago
WHEN I CAME TO THIS WEBSITE! YEAH! xD
Eric
15 years ago
2005 working in The dead end job @ the Alpha something CopyCenter, now in carppy TV station, creating commercial interruptions.
Pavel Peterka
15 years ago
First time i met lady AE was through making a movies from my favorite videogame (CSS) I started with Vegas , which by the way is able to do pretty much anything as the lady AE does, but inside AE is everything better organized, and as you have mentioned layer timeline won. So that Vegas is for rough edit and sounding only to me. But even at that times was most-known this site and you definetely have helped me out me and others with shy-steps in this software. Thank you for everything that you are doing and keep it up.
Gforce
15 years ago
Well I was always a photoshop guy and I'd always watch
Russell Brown tutorials. Then in one of his tutorials he imported some photoshop files into AE and created what he called an "animatic". It was so cool. PSP images were being animated_ graphics in motion. So I got AE 7 and I
learn the basics from books like Creating Motion Graphics
by Chris and Trish Meyer. I wanted to know more and
I later found Video Copilot. Since then its been no turning back.
Matt
15 years ago
I got After Effects in January of 2010 after recieving Action Essentials 2 for Christmas. I love your website Andrew, and it's my homepage!
15 years ago
It was in 2007.
I begun to make sad videos with windows movie maker and wanted to do it better. So i bought "Magix Video Deluxe", then "Sony Vegas", then the Adobe CS3 Master Collection.
15 years ago
I started in 1996 along with Premiere 4.2. I wanted to motion track car headlights. And Premiere didn't give me any satisfaction. So I started to mess with AE3.1 and later 4.0 on a Windows NT system. Even some title effects for a Media100XL NLE. I remember it well when putting my files on a ZIP100 disk lol....
emilio lpu
15 years ago
already knew the more I decided to enter after effects of head when I met video copilot, and my desire to be a video editor has only increased. thanks Andrew. about my first job I deleted inadvertently haha
Aleksander
15 years ago
Well, in the beginning i dated Windows Movie Maker. I found out how she was able to put sound effects and music on the footage i shot with my camera phone. Then i saw some people on youtube made muzzle flashes. And when i found out windows movie maker couldn't make me that, i lost everything for her. Then i started dating Sony Vegas, and through tutorials, i began dating After Effects, and love her even more every day.
15 years ago
No Joke,

I had always had a fettish for title sequencing and graphics that I had seen on tv all the time. It always kept me wondering... "how in the world do they do that" There was just something about an awesome title, weather it be in movies, tv, even print ads. that sparked my interest. Then in the summer of 2007 some one told me about this site. It immediately caught my interest, because it catered to my passion. Over time, of course at the beginning my stuff was horrible and embarrassing but now I feel like I have grasped the 3D graphic realm ever so slightly and now am able to take on such programs as Cinema 4D. In all honestly,
Thank You Andrew Cramer.
Ted Mihu
15 years ago
I have and always will love video editing but I was actually really into powerpoint. I pushed powerpoint to the max with absolutely everything you could possibly do in it, and then I found this guy who had done some work with after effects and created some pretty cool motion graphics using the evolution toolset from this website. I asked him how he did that because in the video it said this was done in powerpoint, he directed me to this website, and from then on it's been an evolving relationship, my girl has given me many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to do different things, and many more hours of headache trying to figure out the right render settings for different projects. But a'lass we worked on our marriage and are now able to do really cool things together. It's been over two years now and I still love After Effects like the day I first met her <3
15 years ago
Well,

It was 2002, I had to put on some graphics on my first musical videoclip ( director, editor and writer), we had no budget to hire a professional motion graphics artist, so i start to use it myself ... it was After Effects 5.5 on a mac workstation, somoene told me that it was too hard to use, but i love it immediatly...

...damn are almost 8 years ago...

Federico
Martin
15 years ago
I started using AE and VC back in February of this year. I had owned the software for a couple of years (Ever since I had gotten CS4 MC) and didn't know what it could do. Now I am constantly watching your tutorials over and over and following along to get the actions written into my moemory.

I am forever your loyal fan Andrew (and the rest of the crew at VC)!! Keep up the awesome work that you are doing.
Hoshoyo
15 years ago
In approximately 2007, I was making a movie for school using after effects,
but didn't know how to use it. Then I found Video Copilot with the new Earth
zoom tutorial, I fell in love and build this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vkanjWR_y7s
After learning everything I know about After Effects in Video Copilot, of course.
Thanks Andrew and see you next time.
(sorry for the english)
Aegis Kleais
15 years ago
Right now, there's a 5 piece of Adobe software I'm trying to master:

Photoshop and Illustrator (thanks to Deke McClelland at lynda.com for training)

Premiere and After Effects (the latter I owe a lot of what I know thanks to Mr. Kramer)

And ColdFusion. AE really is Photoshop on roids, and I'm eager to learn more and more with it.
EJ
15 years ago
I fell in love with After Effects when I discovered Video Copilot. No really, this isn't pandering.

I've been a video editor by trade for the past 8 years or so. I did minimal compositing and relied almost exclusively on stills and third-party stock content for any graphical look. I always thought After Effects would be too hard to learn, take up too much of my time, and just be too frustrating. Then I discovered Video Copilot.

Andrew Kramer's tutorials put After Effects into language I understand. They made a complex program seem simple and impressive motion graphics seem no more scary than baking a cake. I tried my hand at following along, I used the concepts to design some of my own graphics, and now after almost 3 years I now have "Motion Graphics Designer" on my resume. And it's all thanks to Video Copilot.

Thanks again, Andrew! You have a loyal customer for life!
Arjun Yonjan(nepal)
15 years ago
I used After Effects for the first time in 2007 with no training. I just messed up. I knew the possibilities of After Effects at that time. I was so worried that i will not be able to use After Effects. In 2008, once the ADSL internet service was introduced in cheap price of 256kbps , I did the lynda.com's After effects essentials with chad perkins,the basics was not so fun. The research continued.. finally got the video copilot from the wikipedia.org then my potential became infinite. Now the video copilot is my daily routine.... Thankyou Andrew for being there..
Tim
15 years ago
I took an AE course in college and have been true to AE for the past six years.

Thanks for all the incredible work. I would not be the AE artist I am today, if it weren't for all of the great info on Video Copilot.

Cheers!
just another day...
15 years ago
well,first i edited with sony vegas,and then i wanted
to do more advanced effects,intros and all these things.

so i found this great site,and i saw some tutorials and started to use AE
Nico
15 years ago
I started "using" AE back when I was 13, in 2003. And did some awful stuff back then, truly awful. But I'm still proud of those, not ashamed. I wouldn't expect to like what I do now in seven years. It'd be bad.
It was, If I recall correctly version 4.1 and shortly after 5.0. But my computer put my creativity to a halt 'cos it was well, only too slow and old. But then a newer one came back in 07 and I not only could get the then brand new After Effects CS3 but also I could watch VideoCopilot's tutorials without andrews voice getting way ahead of the laggy video I could watch on a Pentium III.
I wanted to thank you Andrew for all you've thaught me and all I still learn from you.
No one, and I say NO TEACHER I had in university has ever been able to explain something as clearly as you do.
Let alone the passion you put into things. I know how long an amount of time you've put in this place.
THANK YOU AGAIN Andrew!
Nicolás Benítez from Argentina
Calvinogood
15 years ago
I was introduced to AE by you, Andrew.
Next Level Designs
15 years ago
i got into after effects about 7 or 8 months ago, just simply cause i was tired of looking at the same boring things on tv. had friends who were too. like everyone else here, popped open cs4, looked at it, got angry cuz i couldnt understand wat was going on, created my first effect in 5 mins, it was a beam, lol but i couldnt get it to move so ... i gave up. found VCP and well now i am just trying to get one effect done.

thanks to you guys that make these things possible, u guys deserve a grammy, or an emmy, or one of those shiney statue thingy
15 years ago
I started my design company 2 years ago with a friend. He was an expert in FLASH design for Web pages, I was just the business man, didn't know how to design in any software, then a client told us about AFTER EFFECTS and the future of it, so I started to search tuts in the web and got into VIDEOCOPILOT. I got into VIDEOCOPILOT so bad that didn't sleep or eat! Just wanted to learn more and more! I think I watched all the VIDEOCOPILOT tuts in 2 days! Few weeks later I was designing better than anyone in my town! (Here in Tampico Mexico the technology is not as advanced as in other countries or cities) Now a days I have build my self a prestige of video designer and have created my own ways of AFTER EFFECTS tecniques and stuff. I'm so gratefull to VIDEOCOPILOT for giving me all these oportunities! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
mr. c
15 years ago
"True Space" is Free!! And the version is 7.6. Everybody go grab one. The site is www.caligari.com.
That 3D program is powerful like 3Ds Max.
Mitchoveli_
15 years ago
I bought AE so that I could key out my green screen better for videos at my church. Shortly after I found Video Copilot and Andrew Kramer taught me everything I know. I have bought everything except action movie e 2 and optical flares but will get them soon. If it was not for what I have learned on this site I would probably be an electrician or a tobacco farmer with the rest of my family. Thanks a lot Video Copilot!
15 years ago
My friend Andrew Kramer introduced us. It was love at first sight.
Blake
15 years ago
I used to be with Final Cut Pro, shoulda known she was cheating on me. We tried making action films, but I realized it wasn't working out so well. So I dumped her and finally my dad met After Effects. Since then we've been making awesome action shorts, and crazy clips. I was finally able to put stock footage BEHIND people, like explosions, or blood.
pedro soto
15 years ago
just this january...as my new year`s resolution.-...and really love this extention of my imagination ....just 5 months...and now trying with c4d, realflow, 3dmax....all the programs that i can find out there....i love motion graphics..and the people pay me for do the stuff i will love to do for free....better ..imposible
McKay
15 years ago
I remember when I needed effects for a movie I was making, and a good friend of mine recommended after effects, then I found Series One, did the basic training, and that's how it all started.
Bizzy
15 years ago
Well I heard about after effects on youtube and then googled it, your website came up among others but as everyone else knows, you and your team are the best. That has been like 2yrs now. Keep them coming.
mr. c
15 years ago
I remember now! The program I played after 3D Studio R4 was "True Space". Is the program still exist??
Conor
15 years ago
Once I bought my DVX100 about 3 years ago I wanted to see what I could do with integrating visual effects into some live-action footage. I immediately arrived at After Effects (a natural progression since I was schooled in Premiere Pro in college) and tried 2 things: converting 50i footage into 25p slow-mo, and also (like many others here) some lightsaber dueling.
Kassym
15 years ago
Hey I do remember that) When I first opened it I was like "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS THING?!!!!" but then i understood everything) Man you won't believe me but I'm 14 year old and i'm from Kazakhstan. I really like making video effects and i thank Andrew Kramer and his crew for this site and all the tutorials)
Iyad
15 years ago
When I first tried out AE, I didn't understand stuff. Left it in the dust. When I found your AE Basic Training, that exact moment I fell in love with it.

Another Malaysian here.
corabict
15 years ago
i began to use after effect this year 3 or 4 months before but ot became my life when i am sad i thiink in it when i am studying i cant stop thinking in it i adore film editing but i didnt use final cut ever i used sony vegas
but when i saw ur works mr andrew i decided i will work hard to try to catch u ( it seems impossible now ) but how knows
Allen Zayden
15 years ago
I remember my Ex... oh man she was so cruel. Her name was Windows Movie Maker and Pinnacle Studios back in 2007. That date lasted only one year. Ended in a dispute between me cheating on them for After Effects CS3 in 2008. I left them and took on my wife, After Effects. The plug-ins, the editing, the visual effects, how I love her! We were married two days ago when I got her a beautiful ring we call CS4! We will have a baby soon, CS5 I hope! Mhmmm I love her!

Thank you VideoCopilot Crew for changing my life in the VFX industry. Now I am starting as a freelance VFX artist and am the VFX supervisor for a small Russian film company I co-founded in Minneapolis (which we still don't have a name after 2 years lol)
15 years ago
I started doing stop motion with a camera that used floppy disks when I was maybe 6 or 7. I progressed into better things, and better things needed cool effects. I googled how to make cool effects, or something like that, and I found this program called After Effects. That's how I got into it .
Fraze
15 years ago
I first wanted to do the light saber effect, and I did it! But I found videocopilot and I got addicted, seriously!
QUATRO
15 years ago
Just like fellow Dustin, I myself wanted a lightsaber effect too... I tried many different crappy saber tutorials, but none of them produced anything as good-looking as what I've seen in you tutorials, Andrew.
And now - here I am, trying to learn Adobe AE.
I really like the control over the FX it gives
This is my latest work, which includes quite difficult keying from my own gameplay footage and compositing the element with real life footage... Introducing - PORTAL
http://www.youtube.com/user/QUATR00#p/u/0/QHBgZDvZOMk
CHEERS! =]
15 years ago
Recently going to school for graphic design, though I want to learn more as an animator. I got a taste of After Effects when I did my first kinetic typography project. Since then, it has been my favorite software to use when it comes to art in general. Hopefully I can learn more, advance to where I can be a pro like Andrew!
chaquator
15 years ago
I remember getting it because I wanted to make the Evolution ball. It turned out like mario after eating one of those stars.
Marco
15 years ago
I started with After Effects in the year 2005. I did a lot of 3D-Modelling and animations. So i needed a tool to use this stuf in movies.
The choise was easy. As a big Adobe-fan
I used the internetsite, cause i know that Adobe got much more then only Photoshop. I downloaded a testversion of After Effect. A few weeks later i decided to buy a licens.
But i learned not very fast. Later, i found a cool site on the web, called videocopilot and i started to learn very fast.
Alex Wedlake
15 years ago
It was about 4 years ago (I am now 17). I always wanted to do a lightsaber effect and thats how I got into after effects on a schools computer. I later saved up and bought it for myself.
K0Ma
15 years ago
I remember searching for warp face tutorial, and a found it on videocopilot it was new tutorial and i wanted to do that effect so bad that i started using AE..so yea..thanks Andrew You made a new standard for motion graphics.
Antonio
15 years ago
I fall in love with After Effects when i wanted do great movies like my father.Then i looked at Video Copilot and thats was big love.
Jeb
14 years ago
+1
Kevin
15 years ago
Video Copilot Change my Editing Skills to the new level my friends like my vid and also my family Video Copilot you change me also after effects
Paul_M
15 years ago
I began making movies when I was 10 years old, I had a JVC miniDV Camcorder with a horrible microphone. After filming three episodes of "CSI Graz" (the city I live in) and lots of other stuff I edited in iMovie (similar to MovieMaker) I wanted to create better movies and so I got into Final Cut Express 4 when I was 13. I used to make these lightsaber-effects, but as many of you may know, you can´t create stunning VFX only using FCE 4.
Now, about 17 months later I´ve been working with AE for say about 7
9 months, and I´m getting better and better.
The funny thing is that I knew After Effects by heart bout 3 months before I got it, as I watched every tutorial on videocopilot .
How I found videocopilot? Well, in that time I didn´t even know about AE, i just watched "The Bullet" vids on youtube and often noticed a credid to videocopilot. Firstly I thought it was some kind of application you can 3D bullets with

Anyway, Mr. Kramer,
Greetings from Austria and thank you for all the great things you made possible for me!
Ville
15 years ago
My first touch with AE was about 8 years ago. I was 16 and I wanted to blur lisence-plates from motorcyckles... wheelies and stuff... That was it.
3 years ago I started my studies with Audio-Visual. First 3D was my passion cause you can tweak the work forever and make it better and better and better.
We didn´t have good 3D teachers and there was only few courses... it ended as soon as it started and 2 years ago they tought how to use AE.
AE got me and I´m hooked. First year was about studying the basics, with google I found Videocopilots BASIC TRAINING.
Within one year I have bought books about AE, visited Videocopilot regulary and trained my self.

The THING I love on AE is that you can´t ever be good enough. If you say that you are a PRO you are just lasy or without ideas. The Train is moving and I hope that I will never catch it... It keeps thing iteresting.
15 years ago
Some years ago, I wanted to make a Star Wars-like Intro. So I came to AfterFX. I didn't touched it much, though.

Then some years later, I got into compositing with FXhome-Software. Then I learned much about AfterFX on THIS SITE, and now I'm pretty good with it (like, 100% in last exam). I like Node-Based Compositing too nowadays, but AfterFX still rocks.

Regards,
Lucas
15 years ago
Well I remember My first date with After Effects in 2004 and it wasn´t so cool Untill Andrew Kramer "Really" Introduce us in 2007 with the Sky Replacement and the Light Streaks and I fell in Love like a tennage girl with a Rock Star,

Thanks AK!!!!

P.D. I'd Like to clear that I'm not in love with you AK!!
KeninChina
15 years ago
I fell in love with AE after having seen your Ancient Titles tutorial. I've seen AE tutorials before but the effect of your tutorial blew my mind. I didnt know this kind of quality was possible from this program.

Thank you Andrew Kramer! ( I also thought you're the same person as Sam )
mr. c
15 years ago
I started with AE 4 about 13 or 15 years ago. My 1st CG program was 3D Studio R4 for DOS then a 3D program for Windows that the name I don't remember and then Photo Shop 4 and then Corel Draw 6 and then AE 4 and then ofcourse 3Ds Max that I already familier with and I tested several other CG program that I got. At the time I learned CG there are not many learning resource on my country (Myanmar). But some pirated CDs are came in and more and more with not fully featured (no books, no help files, no manuals etc..). I learned like blind man trying to paint. Later, I got some very outdated video magzines and I saw some creativeCOW's tutorials on those magzines. As I mentioned above, many pirated CDs are came in and then Learning CDs DVDs are too. Mr. Rabinowitz mentioned about U in one of his Training DVD and I visited Ur web site and I found the Treasure. I thought that I am expert in AE untill I found U. Because of U Mr. Kramer I knows AE's techniques and methods and the really cool expressions. Thank U Mr. Kramer, Thank U. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I know U about 2 years ago and if U have time write more advanced tutorials with more advanced expressions. I have a secrete passion that I wanted to do everything with expressions I know motion script web site but Ur teaching style are very simple and very understandable.

One day I will buy all of Ur Product in copy right when I get a chance. I promise.
Nicemax
15 years ago
My first date with after effects was in 2008. And Video Copilot helped me a lot.
Thanks for this Andrew.
vikash
15 years ago
last year one day i was searching in net for some fire effect to burn down a photograph and i saw video copilot's Disintegration tutorial. And the whole tutorials of video copilot. Then i decided i'll spend rest of my life with after effects.

thanks to andrew and videocopilot team.
iCandy
15 years ago
It was about a year ago. I was using Blender for 3D animations. Though the compositing tool is very powerful I found it not good for animations. I was already using Photoshop so I decided trying After Effects. At first it seemed really complicated to me but then a friend of mine told me about Video Copilot
15 years ago
i start to use AE in 2007: i really like the sci-fi movie, and also the videoediting (in analogic), so i search on the web for some tutorial ... and... i found videocopilot !
Isi123
15 years ago
I can't exactly remember what got me into it, but around 2005 i stumbled across a video on Youtube which referenced VC, checked out the site and that's what got me really into it. I knew i had some sort of support through the way of learning it and stuck to it.
Ravens666
15 years ago
It's not so far ... I began this winter when I needed to do a short video ads for campaign for our Department of visual arts of our university, as a part of the final task.
So I met After Effects... since then I powering AE every day and trying new options and possibilities.. I can't imagine started day without it...It becomes a drug to me...
I don't really know if it's good or bad...but I love it
15 years ago
I started doing lightsabers in AFX in around 2005. after doing a whole lot in photoshop using filmstrips, AFX was a blessing.
bakar
15 years ago
I remember my first day with AE is one of my freinds who speaked me of AE he told me that Ae can makes the energy ball like in DBZ i when to youtube i saw somme tutorials consernig the ball energies.i started loving AE 2 years ago please sorry for english i'm not a english man this my first join with AE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7eLeCJ1cOM
Manguy
15 years ago
Somewhere in 2007 when I wanted to do some movie VFX.
15 years ago
Ha, a friend told me he could get me an extra job at a TV station if I learned a little bit of AfterEffects. "It's just like Photoshop," he told me, "but moving."
Yeah, and a little bit more than that. First I hated it, but after a week I fell so deeply in love I decided to change careers altogheter. No more burger grilling for me!
wale
15 years ago
i started use AE at the last chinese spring festival,then i finished my first work with it,i got the first money in my life
15 years ago
I started off with Flash and then when I wanted to incorporate video into my projects are started up AE, about 2 years ago.
Ken
15 years ago
I got into it with one of the first video tutorials on this website back in 05 it was 'basic sky replacement' and adding shake to footage with the baseball video clip, i was looking for a program to composite my 3D footage with live action, and stumbled on this website Keep it up buddy!
Elliot
15 years ago
hahah, i too got into after effects because i wanted to make lightsabers, back in grade 8. Truth be told, i didnt actually use the plugin from VC, becaucos i actually think it's of a lesser quality than that which comes from simple rotoscoping (as seen in RVD2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-is63goeBgc. That said, videocopilot is awesome, for the fact that in grade 8, i started learning after effects. From that, i'm now in grade 12, studying Film and televinsion, and absolutely destroying my IT/multimedia class (if i do say so myself )

......

wow, that was a long rant XD
hassaan
15 years ago
yeah i remember when my friend give me videocopilot web address in the middle of 2008.At that time i use combustion for compositing work.Your tutorials are great for understanding after effect
Gui
15 years ago
My first time was last year (I mean... for AE... What else?)!
I decided to create a short film for an "amateur" short film Contest. I've watched before that some non-professionnal team making awesome FX, and I decided to do like them. So for my film, I needed muzzle flashes, explosions, and color correction. So here comes AE and, of course, VC !
Since that, my life has changed
Willem
15 years ago
The day i started on your tutorials, exactly two years ago today. I went through all of them in two weeks, and have not failed one assignment since.
Christian
15 years ago
Somewhere in the late 90s. Got a real big job do making special effects for a TV movie. i dident know nothing about compositing special effects and after efters saved my day.
15 years ago
I remember becoming interested in Visual Effects, and Media Creation, I stumbled across this website, looked at many tutorials, the first tutorial I looked at was the car hit one. And bam, instantly I got After Effects.
tcvx
15 years ago
i've always been into movies since forever ... but never really paid much attention to HOW they were made. a few months ago i decided to snoop around the net and came across a guy that gave out two websites as the best way to learn about video effects - one was creative cow and the other one was this. ive only just fell in love with after effects but it's because of this site that i found something i'm really passionate about. while my current job has nothing to do with video effects atleast i now know what it is i love doing ... and this is a great site to build up my knowledge and i'm sure ill continue to use it constantly. thanks andrew
Lukas
15 years ago
I got into AE since 1 year. I want to make my movies better with professional special effects, color correction, etc.

I'm 14 and so I have to spare a half year to buy me the CS4 Student Edition.

And so my "wife" and I are happy together since a half year

It's like a addiction!
2D
15 years ago
I tested sony vegas before and it wasn´t so nice because they missed a lot of effects which after effects included. So i diceded to get after effects and now i grow very fast up with andrew´s tutorials.Thanks dude you help me a lot !
Andrew Katrych
15 years ago
Hello At first I met After Effetsts on this site. I really liked the lessons because it is not the usual lessons. Not many people who make the lessons more sets aside time for jokes. Actually, these lessons have helped me understand the program. Even in spite of the fact that I was not looking basic lessons. And in the future want to do shooting movies. Special thanks to: Andrew Kramer, Patrick Otten, Matt Kramer, Mark Jacobs, Sérgio Gil, Marc Biorklund, Sam Loya, Bobby Hommel, Tino Hertz, Duane Loose. Everybody knows people who know a pile case. Thank you very much.
KB
15 years ago
lol...i remember when i first fell in love with after effects...im a graphics designer and i rely heavily on photoshop... One fateful day, i stumbled upon a Video copilot tutorial---Ancient titles, and at that time i didnt even know what after effects was....i instantly fell in love with the program, and the tutor of course...love you andy Kramer
15 years ago
I remember I had was looking up magical illusions on YouTube when I saw a Dragon Ball Z energy blast made with After Effects. I searched it up and fell mad for it. Then I found VideoCopilot and was blown away.

Still... I???m not entirely mad that AE has had relationships with so many other people, but it???ll always be my ???first" VFX program :]
Goldfinch
15 years ago
Many of you guys have a long term relationship with AE. I saw it after about a year from now. It was CS3 version and after Sony Vegas it was... unbelivable!
Cj
15 years ago
After I found out about Video Copilot two years ago, I got to spend lots of time here on Video Copilot and on After Effects.
Davlet Linares
15 years ago
I made my first music video with effects you taught me)
Ben Wotton
15 years ago
I heard about this magic program called After Effects 7, I googled after effects tutorials and this was the first link, i've never looked back.
15 years ago
About 5 or 6 years ago when i was 10/11. I wanted to make more serious films so it seemed like the best route to take at that time. I use Shake atm but i am constantly going back to after effects...
Jason
15 years ago
Ahhhhh In 2007ish I saw videos on youtube and i said to myself that I wish i could do that so I started on Particillision then a year later I heard about After effects and then I went to the store and bought the hottiest ring I could find. and I proposed to her and she said... YES! and from then on weve been working to- gether I'v had chances to work with a man that works with MWR and I mad a logo come to ife for a singing compitition and, I think that Video Copilot is the best website because of its original and just basicly amazing tutorials its not even funny.ha ha ha ha ha. Just Thanks Andrew Kramer for sharing ur Knowledge...."FOR FREE Yehhaa thats the best part!" Comon this is the best free tutorials ive seen I'v my life!

Here is a reel i put to gether 1 years ago ive not Put any other reels together yet but i will soon, this one is a bit tacky but...here is the link, and a commercial.
reel o9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clzly7TUaGE

commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cme6EhyuSg
Eddie
15 years ago
Well Andrew i made some crazy movies from zombie to war movies and only had basic knowledge in premiere pro and blended my effects from photo shop. That was back in maby 1998. I heard about after effects but thought it was way out of my knowledge. I actually thought my effects were ok.Until i found u from my late night hunting in 2007 i think. I never looked back i have also bought a couple of your plugs and bullet tut dvd. Im into 3ds max and now i am making some awsom stuff and finished my first terminator model and have managed to make a little flick called terminator world i soon will put on utube, all thanks to video copilot .net thanks to all the crew to make this posible thanks a lot andrew for all your help cheers from oz
15 years ago
The Good 'ol lightsaber drove me to After Effects in around 2005 or 2006
WuzzysBrand
15 years ago
I saw some kids throwing energy balls on YouTube and I was like "how was this done?"...then I read the comments and foud out it was Adobe After Effects. I googled "after effects tutorials" and found Video Copilot. That was about two years ago when "Colorful Universe" was the newest tutorial
Joffee
15 years ago
when i saw video copilot,i faLl in love with AE
Sang Hee
15 years ago
After I needed to learn it for getting a new job. I had two days to learn it before I started - never knew anything about how to handle it. In two days spent with this page I was able to make all kinds of animations in AE that the company needed for its products.
Aldo Smit
15 years ago
After using Discreet Logic's Flame for years, it was a natural decision...
comex
15 years ago
I first felt in love with after effects in 2009.
Back then i saw these videos on youtube and then i said to myslef i need to know that too , so i found videocopilot and since then i became better at ae and now from your help andrew i create my own motion graphics intros and much more thanks again andrew ur amazing.
Andrew kramer and adobe changed my life.
George T
15 years ago
I used After Effects for the first time in 2005, but I didn't know what it was. I was 14 years old only, and I found it on a CD-ROM that was included in a PC magazine (I think it WAS "PC Magazine").

I had no idea what it was and how I can use it, and I unintalled it soon from my PC.

I installed CS3 again in 2007, when I started learning montage and some basic effects.

During 2009 and until today, I always learn new things and experiment in AE.

Today, I am in University and study Audiovisual Arts, and thanks to you, Andrew, I may focus on VFX and animation during my studies. Recently I set the Old Fortress of Corfu on fire (digitally of course)

I've learned so many things from your tutorials and I have become so familiar with After Effects. I think I'm not the only one who is grateful for what you have teached.
Cam
15 years ago
I remember I watched the Indy Mogul tutorial on how to build a lightsaber, and it directed me here. I followed the lightsaber tutorial and thought it was ace, but I remember not understanding why there was a switch for motion blur... I kinda forgot about After Effects for a while, until someone showed me this collection called action essentials II by Video Copilot... I followed all 3 tutorials on the disc within a day, and I swiftly moved on to the main site... The rest, as they say is history.... Even now I've got a pretty hefty particle scene rendering out... I hope one day when I'm old enough to make a living (I'm 15) I spend my days using After Effects. Thank you Andrew and thank you Adobe for making my life brilliant Sorry for this long post, but hopefully it makes sense... "/

Thanks,
.:Cam:.
kyktommy
15 years ago
I remember my first got into After effects was 3 month ago, because i came to here and surprise to here's FX, then fall in love ... everyday visit here to get the news , haha
james
15 years ago
I started to use AE in 2006, I just came across some videos on youtube and messed around at first. I got bored of it quite easily as it seemed complicated at the time. About 3 months after I got bored I revisited the program and I was determined to learn it. Then I found VC and AE tut's etc... which have helped me see what AE can do. Following this I brought a camcorder and a camera (not the best but I don't have the money) To sum it up I am now obsessed with AE. My next step is to by some VC products as I can think of some many ways to use them, but before that I have to save up. People like VC etc... inspire me to keep going with AE!
Zen
15 years ago
I started loving After Effect 3 months ago when I saw the motion titles , it impressed me a lot and then I decided to find programs that could help me to satisfy.

And Ae was my choice, but now I don't make only the titles.
dulla
15 years ago
first I fell in love with photoshop, then back in 2007 I saw a set extension tutorial by Jeff Foster, part of lynda.com photoshop AE integration, that was it then at creative cow found out about AK, videocopilot sky replacement, bam married to AE.
Lirik
15 years ago
ehehehh good theme

I Started With A Kamehameha In Youtube.For Some Days I Learned How To Make A Kamehameha In AE(a elipsoide layer and add a effect called Trapcode Shine).After This I Found The Richest Website For AE Tutorials``VIDEO COPILOT`` and i started playing with After Effect,and now i am a Little Motion Designer
Ehsan
15 years ago
It's been a rough two month since then. I can not sleep at nights unless I watch some tutorials and learn new things
JamJam
15 years ago
Two years into design college (that only did print) I saw lobo's show reel. My definition of cool expanded exponentially. Cracks in my design universe exploded into glowing beacons of joy and purpose. Having 56k internet and prehistoric imac i undertook my mission to find out how to make cool moving stuff. print design college instantly became print/animation extravaganza . First animations were with powerpoint haha, then animated gifs in fireworks, then shape tweening with adobe flash then... i found my bff. Miss adobe aftereffects 5.5. Due to crappy internet connection i actually had to read how to use it. So many many hours spent in AE help to be rewarded with the likes of 3d camera, paint stroke effects and dof. Tears are welling up thinking about it. I <3 AE
15 years ago
my first video editor was " windows movie maker " ..... then i started play with photoshop ... then go to web design .... i back to video editing through ulead video studio to make flv files to use it as banners in web design .... i started to like after effect when i see it's plugins and footages and full controll on the video editing and processing Finally i Fall In Love since i saw ur tutorials and ur plugin ..... my love to after effects was born here in VideoCopilot.Net ...... and the most statment i miss it in the world this time [ hey wt's up Andrew Kramer here for videocopilot.net ... welcome to this a very amazing toutorial ] LooooooooooL .... i hope i listen it soon ..... have a nice day sir
Justin Ramos
14 years ago
Me too! LOL.
15 years ago
After editing for about 3 years using Sony Vegas, I had a job which required growing plants, and was directed by search engine to Video Copilot for Evolution, and have been using after effects more often since then.
15 years ago
AE: A love story

I remember it well, and it wasn't love at first site. When i was 19 I wanted to make a film, it would have been my fourth, and this time i wanted to add some special effects. We had a script, we had the cast but i was none the wiser about how to pull off my VFX.
Thats when a friend introduced me to AE. I went out and got a book which came with a free trial. Unfortunately the book was awful and difficult to understand and after months of trying to get our relationship work, I broke up with After effects.
I couldn't stop thinking about the software. I wanted special effects and the film I was making had collapsed because we couldn't make it work. Almost 2 years went by, not being able to truly realize my vision. So i decided to try again. I got a trial of AE7 and set to work trying to rekindle what should have been the perfect union. But again it wasn't working. I didn't know where to go or what to do.
Just as I was about to break it off again Andrew Kramer came into my life and showed me how to solve the problems i was having. Showed me the beauty of features I never knew existed, demystified particle systems and adjustment layers and before long me and AE were inseparable. I bought the Adobe suite and the rest, as they say, is history.
Brandon
14 years ago
That is Epic!!!!!
Jack H
13 years ago
LOL... Love at first "site"! Like web site... right?
15 years ago
Back when After Effects was an Aldus product and just turning into an Adobe product. Hmmm that was around version 3.0 changing to 3.1 was when I first picked up the manual and proceeded to read it cover to cover. The only time I have done this other than with Motion Builder.
I got into it for two reasons one I wanted to use in interactive multimedia (read Macromedia Director) the other ??? I was being asked to teach it. Which I did.
Back in those days it was a strictly 2D scripting free environment. It was a time of "all hail Brian Maffet" followed by Chris and Trish Meyer.
No internet training it was by disk.
I still wear my AE 4 T-shirt from time to time.
Kevin
15 years ago
I remember wen i got into after effects becouse i like watching TV and i wonder how they do does cool comersial shampoo and etc. they i search on google i try to search top ten editing software and i came across pinnacle studio it's a cool software i can creat clones my self and there are tons of FX and then wonder again so there is a wedding of my cousin very rich family wen my family and i go to the church i saw 5 or more HD video camera plus a crane remote control man it so awesome i feel like i was on hollywood the i see a man the owner of the video production wedding his editing a video of the preparing of the wedding wen the couple a dressing up then i see is adobe premiere so i search again on google adobe premiere the i download it then i start building some layer that i don't know what the H*ll i'm doing then wen't to my mind i need some tutorials then i see this vid. videocopilot i saw fist the evolution plugin vid. i blow my mind and see the site have some toturials but it's only after effects then i download after effects try some tutorials of videocopilot then i start making my own FX i spent ton's of hours on after effects creating my own FX then now i can do tons of stuffs on after effecrs tnx to this site videocopilot especially Adrew Kramer for the awesome tutorials without this site i don't have any idea how they edite those hollywood films
Magic
15 years ago
Wow me I started in 1994, but never learned it the right way,was waiting for a teacher like AK
have been loveing AE since.
15 years ago
I wanted to do 3D graphics. And DID do 3D graphics. But I discovered that After Effects allows me to push out about 7/8ths the quality in about 1/27th of the time!
15 years ago
I used Adobe program a lot and I am now still a university student. I started to use AE in the first year of my university life (about 2008). It is quite fantastic. The only problem is that I am Chinese so that to use AE, which has no Chinese version scares most of my friends.
Marcello
15 years ago
Mine was about two years ago, asked one of my buddies to tutor me in in AE seeing as he is in the Broadcast industry he said no and laughed....BUT.... he gave me your sight Andrew and I never turned back since then now I consider myself a "Junior Pro" in AE there's still some tips and tricks I've learnt online but most I know already. Since AE I've moved on to C4d... AE wasn't to happy about me leaving her so I started integrating AE and C4d now everybody wins!!!! but keep the tuts coming Andrew there's always space for new knowledge!!!!!!!

From S.A
Lord Baktor
15 years ago
I was desperately trying to learn 3D Studio Max by my own and finally enlisted in a course that also included Photoshop, Flash and After Effects. It was around the year 2004. I remember that Adobe hadn't purchased Macromedia yet. At first I was only interested in 3d, but I have to admit, I have used After Effects professionally much more often than 3D Studio Max...
15 years ago
You already mentioned it Mr.Kramer i started as a graphic designer (Still am by the way and loving it) that wanted to bring my graphics to life. This was back in 2004 and today my passion lies in 3D modelling, animation and of course AFTER EFFECTS
Daniel
15 years ago
Light saber effect 5 years ago. Grew from there.
Waleed
15 years ago
In 17 april 2004, I was walking in the streets, sad and lonly at the night, and suddenly, i saw it, i saw the AE logo in the sky, just like the batman signal( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tiGCeWaYuM )
so i went home and i decided to wear the AE suit and play the game.
15 years ago
When i wanted to make my own visual effects about 3 years ago. I got bored with the FXHome software, it was too simple and i wanted something more advanced so I tought my self how to use AE. Cheers videocopilot!
Luca
15 years ago
Let's say it was 2007, I fell in love with a girl...she was learning AE, on her MAC, I'm a chemist, who loves phography and good with every software, so i decide to learn AE and teach her. We used your website, was a funny time, we were living close each others in Italy, now she's in L.A. with someone else and I'm in Germany!!! Thanks Andrew, I've learned so much from you, now I love AE and all digital effects!
Jack
15 years ago
Only one year ago, I searched google to find out how to do a realistic person-getting-hit-by-car effect. It took me to your tutorial, up until that point I'd been working on Final Cut. I didn't know about Videocopilot or After Effects, but you started cracking out all these awesome tools on Sam and the car. So I got it, and it was awesome. I'm in a film course now and am using it heaps to composite stuff, Videocopilot has taught me everything I know up to this point.
Charl
15 years ago
Well, i started with your website and AE6.5 standard edition... My first question, when i saw the interface was, "when will i understand the function of these menus?" but today, the biggest thanks is to you ANDREW. i now av quite a number of films to my credit.
Thanks a bunch...
Arnas
15 years ago
i fell in love with after effects after your basic training tutorials if it wasn't for them,I wouldn't be checking this website everyday for blog updates.
Shrek 2
15 years ago
Hi Andrew, I'm sorry to tell you, but After FX is a boy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgCSXZbf4SU
Poxxxx
15 years ago
I started using After Effects in 2005.
I worked in a MediaDesign Company, and I had to do a lot of Motion Design and Web Videos - and so i had to learn AE

sry for my bad english
Mishig
15 years ago
Your site made me love to AE
coyote37
15 years ago
that was 9 month ago for do this:
15s intro+ mini story of a soul came back in a choppa...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00_43TUFWcU

I was very proud of this. i'm still.
Brent
15 years ago
I began to date After Effects in my college years. I loved After Effects so much that I began to spend a lot of time with it outside of class. I was naive at the time. But I lost my motion graphics virginity to After Effects and am proud of it. lol

It was love at first site and after taking a class that taught me the basics. I reached out for more education online. I found Creative Cow which lead me to this AMAZING site. Because I taught myself so much and have so much passion for this sort of work, I am working as a videographer, editor and motion graphic artist <3 Love this program.
15 years ago
I wrote a short film and didn't want to restrict myself to my current set of skills. I wrote in a bunch of visual effects and used After Effects as my weapon of choice to attack the effects in post. I too must admit a lot of my early and current AE skills originated from this site. Who can pass up Andrew's free AE school?!

My first project;
http://www.vimeo.com/1470963
Bjarke
15 years ago
I got in to it this year, I saw a cool video on youtube and read that they used after effects, and then I found videocopilot. And leaned it thanks to you Andrew Kramer.

Then I received a school project with the opportunity to make a commercial video. Saw a lot of tutorials 10-20 hours(over a week???), bought some of your fantastic and awesome products, spend a month, and made this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY7rj7sY05w
only using pictures, (stop-motion) for the footage of the girl and the backgrounds. You will see that all the fx and techniques is learn here.
Hope you enjoy.
15 years ago
Well I saw some dragonball Z VFX videos on YouTube back in 2007, so I thought I had to try it. By 2008, I got After Effects, by now, I have moved beyond Dragonball Z effects to all kinds of visual effects, and I've also developed a love for movie making.
kadeer
15 years ago
i first dated AE about a year ago...when i got bored of editing videos and wanted to make something more.....lively? im 16 btw and u are my best teacher.

keep it up Mr. Andrew!!!

Love from Malaysia..

P/S: i love the Fringe title!!!
15 years ago
I got into AE about 5 minutes after I've found VideoCopilot. I guess it was about 2 years ago with the "Soul Removal" beeing the newest tutorial. I used Cinema4D before, but I dodn't know what to do with it. Thanks Andrew, your tutorials are brilliant!
Matt
15 years ago
I dreamed of being taught by andrew kramer since I was 7, in march of 2010 DMA/LA, my dream... came true
sam
14 years ago
every body wants to get taught by andrew, He is after effects god.
jhonnyjhones
13 years ago
The story says that Andrew Kramer is a plugin created by after effect
george
15 years ago
The evolution made me fall in love w/ AE
Bluebear
14 years ago
Yep, that got me started... now I'm hooked.
Manikandan
15 years ago
i remember it it was 4 years ago i was willing to do the titanic effect
Rich
15 years ago
It was an early spring day. I was sitting with my laptop and watching videos on youtube with my mate. Then I came across a time freeze tutorial for AE. It never occurred to be before that I could do this kind of thing convincingly at home - everything I'd seen before then looked cheap and nasty.

I was hooked. I spent loads of cash and time since then trying many different things. I eventually changed my career! Thank you After Effects... thank you.
muckyman
15 years ago
I got into AE after watching a video with Steve Holmes and Brian Maffit and wanted to do the stuff they could do.
15 years ago
Second year of college i did make a movie with your help
Bryan Hernandez
14 years ago
Hey Prullb can i see it.
patostar
13 years ago
loool me too the same,second year of college
Storm
15 years ago
When i got my new computer with an ATI 5970 2GB (x2) with cross fire.
Goes Perfect with NEW After Effects Cs5 !!!!!!!!!
kenahn
15 years ago
Like Dustin I too wanted to do lightsaber, lightning, and fire effects
then it grew into title sequences, varying effects, then into 3d programs!
And This was my first (and pretty much one of my only) sites to learn AE!
15 years ago
I remember i got into it because i wanted to the light saber effect, then it grew from there...
Johniz
14 years ago
Well, me too ^^
14 years ago
Yes! Lightsabers ftw
14 years ago
Haha, same. But at first I found the interface confusing, then I almost gave up on it, but I'm glad I didn't!
El Tom
14 years ago
Me too!
14 years ago
Me also! now I don't do a video without using after effects.
Luis
14 years ago
me too!!!!!!! hahahaha i use to use lsmaker until i finally discovered after effects years ago
Benjamin Sannholm
14 years ago
Me too actually.
14 years ago
Yes, same here! At first I didn't even know how to render movies, since it didn't say "Publish Movie" like Windows Movie Maker. However, I quickly started learning the basics through some tutorials at creative cow, and just poking around, discovering things.

It was definitely love at first sight!
Sethi Xzon
14 years ago
...and that's the whole reason I got into After Effects as well.
14 years ago
I remember, I got into AE because I needed to find a way to get better titles for a DVD I was Authoring. I remember I learned all my basic steps from this website, Thank you Andrew Kramer.
anonymous
14 years ago
Me too !
Nathalie
14 years ago
wow , the first effects i learned was lightsabers
GAMOTION
14 years ago
hahahahaha I can?t belive it! all people started in VFX with the ligth sabers??? Me too...
13 years ago
Although I'm just 16 and I'm using After Effects...
I fell in love with After Effects the day I saw a few awesome intros made in AE CS4. I started using AE for a week and now I'm used to the interface. Still learning it though
Arcester
13 years ago
I fell in love with after effects when my officemate showed me this awesome motion graphics tutorial by Andrew Kramer (Energetic Titles) way back 2010. I've watched and do the same animation for more than 20 times hahaha... Then I told myself I just can't be like this I need to grow., Then after that I practiced all of the tutorials made by Andrew Kramer... Take note: I am not a multi-media arts graduate actually I did'nt get to finish my studies but I manage to get in this level... I am working now for an international company as a motion graphics artist... Because of this man (Andrew Kramer) I have something to take home to my wife and daughter... Andrew Kramer, though I have'nt met you in person I'd really like to thank you for everything, you're my mentor, master and idol... What you are doing here is definitely not just for profit but also to pass your passion to every individual that is willing to learn... Two thumbs up for Andrew Kramer...

here's a link for one of my sample work.. http://vimeo.com/18292555
Eric
13 years ago
Me too I got into it with the lightsaber effect and learned because it was fun making videos
David
13 years ago
HAHA Same goes for me. Actually is was that video i made with LS that sparked my want to do film at all. I think every person does a LS video somewhere in their career, just for the heck of it. I know Brandon from the YouTube channel 'Freddiew' just recently did his after years of VFX. lol
Stephen Kennedy
13 years ago
Hahaha! The first short video I ever did with lightsaber battles, I did with Photoshop! Back in 1997. I exported every frame as a png, and then imported them individually in PS and DREW the sabers. ...that was a crazy labor of love. Years later I thought...man..there HAS to be a better way to do post production. ...and after upgrading to Adobe CS3 Production Premium, I was introduced to AE. AE was definitely intimidating, but has been such a rewarding experience. It's completely changed the way I do and think about producing/directing/editing videos.
anony moos
13 years ago
Same here !
Dead Set Alex
11 years ago
Hell yes, the same works for me!!
So I grew up on yer tutorials, videocopilot.