slowly migrating from Flash and onto motion design.
Out of context: Reply #13
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- mikotondria30
Learn all of it; AE is awesome and once you nail your workflow and get some keyboard shortcuts learned you can zoom along and get great results really quickly, with more control over more awesomeness than you thought you ever had in Flash. Then you might start to realise that you missed the programmatic exploratory nature of, say, stringing together some tween commands and randomess, and wish there was a third way. There sort of is, and sort of isn't. There are some awesome 3d webGL libraries out there that you can explore the z-axis with without going near the Flash authoring tool, which you will have realised after working with any other program, is dreadful.. And there is an enormous world of fun to be had with scripting and visually-coding coffee and expresso nodes in cinema4d. If you're anything other than a hardcore long-hand animator (someone who would rather make a Tom and Jerry than any mograph), then C4d (or equivalent), and After Effects are excellent tools to learn in parallel. Be mindful that occaisionally you'll see things like http://ro.me and not have a fricking clue how they're done. Which, after coming from the Flash world, and never having this happen, is very discocerting. I'm so glad no clients ever saw ro.me and wanted something similar, because I would have promised to be able to do it, then had a series of small strokes, and had to return the deposit.
After Effects is ubiquitous and an excellent entry into the ballooning mograph world. Learn it's features, awesome animating easing curves and the million brilliant plugins you'll abuse. It's a natural extension to want to create the more complex 3d (or not) content yourself, rather than just manipulating it, so it lends itself to curiosity to either film or 3d model and animate.