Learn More About After Effects Classes in Virginia
After Effects is a highly versatile tool found in the Adobe Creative Cloud. It is primarily used in post-production editing and special effects, but it also offers many additional capabilities. It is invaluable to those in video and motion graphics careers and offers motion graphics software, a compositing tool, and effects applications. It can take a design and let the user animate it using keyframes and expression controls.
Training in After Effects provides professional-level animation techniques. As you create animations, titles, and 3D objects, you’ll find that you can manipulate content to have results that are high-quality enough to be used in movies, television, advertising, and across social media, including YouTube, polished presentations, and websites, to name just a few things.
Virginian Industries That Use After Effects
Education
Virginia has a large ecosystem of educational institutions, from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. After Effects professionals like Animators, Graphic Designers, and Motion Graphics Designers all work on promotional videos for the campus, informational videos for new student orientation, and graphics for online platforms like social media, learning modules, and websites.
Government
State and local government agencies in Virginia use motion graphics and video content for public information campaigns, training modules, internal communications, and digital assets. Moreover, the proximity to Washington, D.C. means those in Northern Virginia have an advantage working in the nation’s capital. The Fairfax County government in Arlington County currently has job listings for Graphic/Multimedia Designer and Animators.
Finance
The finance industry in Virginia is well-supported by the sheer number of finance companies across the state, particularly in places like Northern Virginia. Capital One has its headquarters in McLean, as well as the Navy Federal Credit Union in nearby Vienna. Both companies hire marketing experts and video editing pros with experience in After Effects. It’s especially useful for product launches, digital marketing, and internal training. After Effects can even be used for stakeholder and investor communications.
Healthcare
Virginia-based healthcare institutions, such as the McKesson Corporation in Richmond and the Sentara Health network in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach region, hire After Effects professionals to help with health-related communications. This can include patient education, internal training, marketing, and signage systems. It’s an essential tool for anyone interested in working in healthcare communications.
After Effects Careers and Salaries in Virginia
There are two main career paths that use After Effects on a daily basis: animation and video. Although many other careers will use After Effects occasionally, when looking at the career outlook for those with skills in After Effects, the most common routes — motion graphics design and video editing — will give you a good idea of how strong the need is for those in visual design fields in Virginia.
Motion Graphics Designer
Motion Graphics Designers create animated typography, special effects, glows/light rays, and expressions, among other elements. They typically earn an average salary between $50,000 and $80,000, with a state average of about $76,000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that employment in Virginia will increase by about 789,700 jobs in the next two years. The projected growth is due to increased demand for animation and visual effects in video games, movies, television, and smartphones. In other words, the future for graphic design professionals in Virginia is bright!
Video Editor
Video Editors create special effects, intro and outro sequences, and small animated graphics with After Effects. It is also used in lighting and color grading in videos. Video Editors in Virginia average a salary of $70,000; however, salaries differ depending on location and specialization. For instance, many who work in the marketing and broadcasting industries can earn more than others. Additionally, if you include motion graphics as a skill in addition to video editing, this can increase your job prospects and salary expectations.
Animator
Working as an Animator frequently means working alongside other creatives (the name used for advertising or marketing departments in most companies). They may create 2D or 3D animations -- or both! On average, Virginia-based Animators earn anywhere from $64,000 to $81,000. This depends heavily on the city in which you live, however. For instance, those in Fairfax are expected to earn closer to $63,000. Some regions in Virginia have a higher cost of living than others, so this is important to consider.
After Effects Classes from Noble Desktop
Many students benefit greatly by taking After Effects classes virtually through a school like Noble Desktop, the creator of this tool. The convenience of being able to take a class from anywhere you’d like—perhaps at home or at an office—combined with a live, remote instructor available to answer your questions, is the best of both worlds for those with busy schedules or who don’t want to fight traffic to get to a dedicated classroom. It is important to note that it is highly recommended that the student have working knowledge and practice in Adobe Photoshop before taking Noble Desktop’s After Effects courses.
To get started, the Adobe After Effects Bootcamp is a beginner-friendly class that takes you through the basics of After Effects, such as understanding the workspace and basic animation techniques, all the way through to advanced animation techniques, motion tracking, and particle effects. This course also helps you master text animations and create transitions between multiple layouts. This class uses real-world projects, integrating graphic elements with audio, video, and photo elements. You’ll also work on motion graphics workflows to take your project from inception to final delivery.
The Motion Graphics Certificate is a comprehensive class that incorporates the use of Adobe Premiere Pro with After Effects for you to gain an understanding of how these programs work together. You’ll move from concept to design, to fully-animated motion graphics. You will create a portfolio of your work that shows how deeply you understand motion graphics and how it integrates with Photoshop and Illustrator files, photos, and videos, as well as demonstrating your abilities in visual effects and video editing.
Corporate & Onsite After Effects Training in Virginia
Noble Desktop, the creator of this tool, offers you an opportunity to upskill your employees’ abilities by providing live, onsite corporate After Effects training at your location, tailored for your needs. Your team or even your entire workforce can learn After Effects at your site, or an expert After Effects instructor can arrange a live remote After Effects training session via a teleconferencing platform such as Zoom. If employees would rather take the class on their own schedule, vouchers can be purchased for them to take After Effects in an open enrollment class. There is a discount on multiple purchases of vouchers.
If you’d like to learn more, don’t hesitate to contact Noble Desktop.