Curious about how long it takes to learn After Effects? Let's take a look at the process of learning this essential animation tool. One question we get all the time at School of Motion is 'How Long Does it Take to Learn After Effects?' While I definitely understand the sentiment behind the question, the School of Motion team firmly believes that becoming great at motion design isn't about mastering any piece of software. That's part of it, sure, but ultimately a great motion designer is a storyteller and problem solver. You just so happen to use After Effects to solve the problems. That detail may seem small, but it makes a world of a difference and unfortunately many artists learn this lesson the hard way after years of wasted time and energy. So in the following article I am going to try to honestly answer how long it takes to learn After Effects and shed some light into the process of becoming a Motion Designer. I hope you find this to be helpful and fun. How Long Does it Take to Learn After Effects? If you sat down and devoted most of your working hours to learning After Effects you could confidently learn After Effects in about 8 weeks. This will only happen if you can focus on important motion design concepts (workflows, design, organization, color, etc.) and not flashy stuff that you will never actually use. Keep in mind that learning After Effects is a life-long commitment. There will always be more and more to learn. While there are lots of options to learning After Effects (see below), our After Effects Kickstart course takes the guess-work out of learning After Effects. In the 8-week course you will actually be doing real-world projects and getting feedback from professional Motion Designers. Here's a quick course overview from Nol Honig, a motion design master and the instructor of After Effects Kickstart.