After Effects Advanced Course
Overview
Between 2022-2025, I taught the Advanced track of SoftUni Creative's After Effects program — twelve lectures, eight weeks, built for animators who already know their way around the software and want to go further: 3D compositing, character rigging, fluid motion, the kind of technique that turns a competent animation into a genuinely good one.
This project isn't really about After Effects, though. It's about how I approach any complex skill: break it into a system, let each part build on the one before it, and leave room for the person doing the work to make their own decisions inside that structure. It's the same instinct that runs through the client work at Cosmonavt, the studio I co-run with my sister.
Who It's For
The course is aimed at animators with existing After Effects experience, comfortable with Shape Layers, the Pen Tool, keyframes, and basic animation, who want to move into 3D work, character animation, and production-level compositing. It runs online, over 8 weeks, across 12 lectures.
The Advanced track has reached 470 students in 2025 with a 5.7/6 course rating on SoftUni's own listing. Over the years, I taught over 4,000+ students at SoftUni Creative combined.
The Curriculum
Every lecture was meant to build on top of the previous one, incorporating and practicing what was learned, and getting better at applying it through repetition, which was reinforced by each homework. Every lesson was 3 hours long, with a break every hour.
Every lesson was followed by homework. As lectures were twice a week, smaller tasks were given after the first lecture, and bigger ones after the second — which had more room for practice over the weekend. As this was the Advanced course, some topics overlap with the Fundamentals course, but this course no longer teaches basics and entry-level functionality — every lecture built on top of its Fundamentals counterpart with industry tips, tricks, and techniques to streamline, organize, and speed up animation work.
The lecture arc broke down into five stages:
- Foundations refresh & toolkit - animation principles, the AE interface, core plugins (Duik, Motion V2, RubberHose)
- Motion craft - vector animation, the Graph Editor, text animation, style development
- Character work - rigging, forward/reverse kinematics, walk cycles, face rigging, biped and quadruped animation
- Production-ready output - 3D camera work, compositing, color processing, fluid animation with particles
- Applied practice - two full animate-a-scene exercises, a sample project dissection, then the exam
Teaching Approach
I always try to explain concepts in the simplest terms, provide as many examples as possible, and reference real-world scenarios. Specifically for this course, whatever could be optimized and done faster — I showed the process behind it. After breaks, I would answer questions. Students were most surprised that I approached even repeated questions calmly, and if I thought a concept or functionality was difficult to explain, I didn't mind repeating it.
Most importantly, though, I didn't want students to just repeat my moves and decisions. I did my best to make room for their own creative decisions and their own approaches to visual and motion problems. I would outline the framework, but give them full freedom in style, pacing, even storyboard and story, as long as it showcased that they'd mastered After Effects and animation according to the curriculum and what was taught. I wanted to teach them how to think as animators rather than just repeat steps — something that would help them solve real-world problems if they ever decided to go down the animator's path.
Proof
The Advanced course holds a 5.7/6 rating across 470 students. A few notes from students who took the course:
- "I loved the course, it was very practical and easy to understand. I started applying what was taught in my work and the difference is noticeable." - Elitsa Marinova, 5.0 rating
- "I like that the course was focused entirely on motion design in practice, and I could apply the new skills in my own projects. The course structure and information were excellent." - Nikolay Ivanov, 5.0 rating
- "Thank you for this course! It was expertly crafted. The topics and the material were delivered professionally, to the point and with plenty of examples. The instructor is a true professional and an excellent instructor! Congratulations to the team for the excellent work!" - Rosen Dimitrov, 5.0 rating
Beyond the feedback, there are cases I know of firsthand where the training carried into real work. One student that comes to mind got her interview and became part of the animation team at FourPlus studio, where she's an animator and rigger now. I had applied there myself years before starting Cosmonavt or teaching at all, and wasn't accepted. But she got in, thanks to what I taught her. That's an amazing achievement!
Let's Talk
The same systems-first thinking runs through Cosmonavt. This course is how I think about teaching motion design during production, and the studio I run with my sister applies the same approach to brand identity and 3D/motion production for clients.
