Animated Loops with James Curran

Learn the fundamental theory behind creating great animated loops, then we'll get into the swing of things by creating your first looping animation with the basic shape of what will later become your character.

Expand your design into a fully rigged character, ready to throw into any kind of loop you can think of, by learning how to create simple character designs suitable for many different loop techniques. We'll also discuss best practices for creating loops that still look great after being put through the dreaded GIF compression.

Let's animate your new character! We'll get them warmed up on a trampoline in a bouncing loop, showing how to use overlapping animation to make short repeating actions feel continuous, while adding lots of detail by animating every single part of their body.

We'll exercise your character a bit more by taking them out for a run, then give them somewhere to run to by animating a scrolling looping background. Learn how to effectively create a parallax effect to give your scene depth and a sense of speed.

We'll look at your run cycle from a new perspective by learning how to animate isometric loops. Then, we'll give your character some friends by showing how to create a loop with multiple characters running in different intersecting directions at once.

It's time to keep looking closer at loops by learning how to create a continuous zoom. We'll work with the graph editor to show how to give your loop a constant zoom speed, then combine this zoom with camera rotation to create a hypnotic spin that sucks you in forever.

Your character deserves a break, so let them take a seat on a rocking chair, while you learn how to use a particle system to create a continuous looping smoke effect from a moving source - their pipe.

Let's get moving again, this time in 3D! Learn how to combine cameras, 3D layers, and 2D animation to seamlessly roll your character through a three-dimensional racing scene.

If rolling didn't get them dizzy, let's try a spin instead. We'll use 3D in a different way, with a real spinning 3D object as a guide, to make your 2D character appear to fluidly spin around and around, while floating on water which we'll learn to create with a simple wave effect.

What's next for your characters? Let's talk about it! We'll learn how to find inspiration for loop ideas from real-world situations, combining all of the techniques you've now learned into new and exciting animated loops of your own!

This course is created for people who already have some experience of working in After Effects. If you're a total After Effects beginner we recommend to complete our After Effects Fundamentals course first.

You can find After Effects here: https://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html. It will be enough to work with the trial version for some time, but we highly recommend buying a license.

Windows

• Intel® Core™2 Duo or AMD Phenom® II processor; 64-bit support required
• Microsoft® Windows® 7 with Service Pack 1, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. See the CS6 FAQ for more information about Windows 8 support.*
• 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
• 3 GB of available hard-disk space; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash storage devices

MacOS

• Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
• macOS v10.6.8 or higher
• 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
• 4 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices)

If no presale or discount activities are happening, you can get in touch with us to receive a -$50 coupon. We provide coupons for countries with not so good exchange rates and for students.

We consider a country with a not so good exchange rate if the currency rate is more than $1 to 10 units of local currency. For example, 10.5 Botswana Pula equals $1. If your county currency rate is lower 1:10 then we do not consider your county as a country with a not so good exchange rate.

We consider you a student if you have a valid student email address (@***.edu) and/or a valid student ID. Please either write to us from your student email or attach a picture of your student ID, so that we can verify your student status.

Please double check if there are no presale, sales or discount activities happening as we do not provide coupons during these periods.

If you're disappointed for whatever reason, you'll get every cent back within 14 days after the purchase. Whether you select to complete the purchase in a single or in several payments.

Note that it only applies to purchases without a discount. So if you would like to use a discount coupon or complete a purchase for the items during a sales period, you will be not eligible for the refund.

Yes, all the artwork that you create on the course belongs to you. You can share and tweet and dribbble whatever animation you create. We would be grateful if you mention our school while sharing, we have @motiondesignschool accounts almost on every network.

With enough practice, you will receive just enough knowledge to reach a new level and outperform your competitors. You will get a chance to get more clients since your character animations will become absolutely outstanding. Most of all, you will be able to charge far more than you are doing now.

It usually takes at least 8 hours of doing practice and watching lessons per week for 2 months for a student to get to the final stage. We do recommend to spend as much time as possible since you are gaining new skills here, it's never an easy journey.

This course has subtitles, which makes the content easier for understanding and lets you check the unknown words in the dictionary, if needed.