Skip to content
Motion

Motion Tricks

Motion Tricks Course

Motion Tricks is a medium to advanced After Effects course focused on techniques that will elevate the complexity of your animations. If you know your way around AE but want to take your work to the next level, this course is for you.

Course by Emanuele Colombo
Motion Tricks Course
Try before you buy

We have a free lesson waiting for you

Try free lecture
Free lecture

What is this course about?

Motion Tricks is an After Effects course focused on advanced techniques that will boost the quality of your animations. Over this course, you will learn how to transform your designs into solid drawings and bring that 3D look into your animations. You’ll also learn the importance of following arcs in your animations to achieve smooth and organic movements. 

You’ll have many opportunities to practice everything you learn in different scenarios. From single geometric elements to advanced character animation, you’ll have fun working on exercises with a growing level of complexity. 

This course requires a basic knowledge of After Effects, so it’s perfect for animators and motion designers that know their way around the software but need that extra push to give more flavor to their animations. 


Level: You already have some experience working with the software and understand its basic principles. You are familiar with the interface. Intermediate
Soft: Adobe After Effects
Language: English

Master the Style

You might think that most of the amazing animations you see on your feed are created using advanced techniques. But the truth is that any animation can be broken down into a few basic actions. In this course we will explore how some simple tricks, when added to each other, can drastically increase the quality of your animations.

Next Level

Emanuele is well known in the community for his particular style of classy movements, catchy character animation and unexpected transitions. Once we explore some cool animation tricks in the first part of this course, we will study how to apply them to different situations, increasing the complexity with every step.

Dive inside

What makes the difference between a good animation and a loop you just can’t take your eyes off? We will spend some time going through some sweet animations that conquered the Internet and we will try to identify some of the traits they share, applying those same principles to our animations.

Course curriculum

What will I learn in Motion Tricks?

9 lectures / 7h+

Gradients and Depth

In our first lesson, you’ll learn how to create gradients
and simulate a light system
within AE to give
more depth to your designs.

Theoretical: Solid drawing

In this second lesson, you’ll continue working on your visuals
and learn how to create solid shapes, such as spheres, cubes,
or cylinders, and build an authentic 3D look inside AE.

Exercise: Animate two geometric designs using gradients and solid drawing

In this chapter, you’ll put your knowledge to the test and use what you learned so far to create and animate a little character. You’ll familiarize yourself in animating 3D shapes while also working on the personality of the character.

Theoretical: Arcs and their role in animation

In this lesson, you’ll learn the importance of arcs within animation and how to guide your elements through them to reach organic movements and smoother actions.

Exercise: Animate two geometric designs using gradients, solid drawing and arcs

In chapter 5, you’ll combine using gradients and solid drawing with arcs to build a smooth 3D looking animation within AE. You’ll also add more complexity to the geometric designs by using transparency.

Exercise: How to apply gradients, solid drawing and arcs to character animation

In this lesson, you’ll apply everything you’ve learned so far into building and animating a simple character. This exercise will allow you to start building complexity in your animations by adding gradients and solid drawing to help improve your character. 

Exercise: Animate an advanced character

In these final chapters, you’ll bring all of your knowledge together to create and animate an advanced character. You’ll start by building the head and body of your character, before moving on to the arms and legs, in order to create a run cycle with a frontward perspective.

Promo Video AE file Overview

In this part of the course, we will examine how
the promo video was made.

Exclusive Colombo Extension

You can call it Colombo Tools – an exclusive set of tools that will transfer all techniques from the Emanuele Colombo workflow. You will achieve the same results In just one click.

About the author

Emanuele Colombo is an award-winning motion designer and director based in Milan. He was born in 1983 and grew up in a little town in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the Italian Alps, spending time building spaceships with Legos and dreaming of becoming a palaeontology. Things went differently than expected: in 2008 he graduated The University of Milan with a degree in Audio-Visual Communications.

In 2011 he started his career as a freelance motion designer, that brought him to work for world-renowned brands such as Google, MTV, NBC, Uefa, Espn, Microsoft, IBM and American Express, making him become one of the most influential motion designers of the international community.His personal project “Don’t be a bully, loser” has won the Solo Project/Visual Essay category at the Motion Awards 2017 by Motionographer.

In 2017 he founded Antimatter, an animation studio where he is currently working as a designer and creative director.

Results from the Previous Course!

Take a look at the student’s project after the completion of the previous Motion Secrets Course and

prepare yourself to participate in our next collaboration!


Level: You already have some experience working with the software and understand its basic principles. You are familiar with the interface. Intermediate
Soft: Adobe After Effects
Language: English

+ Bonus

Free Access to Brand New Extensions

Our game-changing extensions are available for free together with the course.
Lifetime Free Access to Motion Tools Pro and three months of free access to Motion Tweaks. We’ve included them to ensure you get the best experience without buying additional products!
Check Scripts
Check Scripts
Motion Tricks with Emmanuel Colombo Course

Improve the quality of your design

Use gradients and solid drawing to enhance your visuals

Create a 3D look within After Effects

Respect and follow arcs in your animation

Animate advanced characters

Build complexity within your animation

Motion Tricks

Motion Tricks is a medium to advanced After Effects course focused on techniques that will elevate the complexity of your animations. If you know your way around AE but want to take your work to the next level, this course is for you.

100% money back guarantee

If unhappy with the tool, you can request a refund within 14 days after the purchase and get every cent back. Tool purchased before the actual starting date refund can be requested up to 14 days after the first installation. Note: not applicable if purchased with a discount coupon

Community support 24/7

Do you have questions, ask them in our discord channel and get answers

Ask a question on Discord
    Your cart is empty

    Your cart is empty. Let's fix it!

      AccountAccount icon

      @