Recently I enrolled in classes at the School for Visual Arts in New York City. I asked leadership at Drury Design to grant me the opportunity to expand my skills and they gladly obliged - signing me up for two courses over the summer.
I signed up for After Effects Professional and Cinema 4D.
While I’ve been working with After Effects for years now, I couldn’t escape the imposter syndrome of knowing that I am completely self taught. Pretty much every discipline I practice in post production has been a result of my self-instruction. I was an English major in college and though I tinkered with video editing, I was never ‘classically trained’
Having a resource like YouTube is one of the best aspects of working creatively in the 21st Century. You can learn anything you want at any time for free!
And that’s exactly what I did.
For years I was running to YouTube and discovering how to do simple tasks. Sometimes I still revisit old videos to remind myself of a trick I learned a few years ago but was only able to use once or twice.
After Effects is one of those programs you can never fully explore. There’s always going to be one little effect or detail you’ve never heard of before and that’s what makes furthering education so impactful.
I probably could’ve started with the After Effects basics course, and I may still return to it, but I knew I was pretty advanced already so I wanted to jump right into the big stuff.
And to my surprise, there were so many little tricks I was completely unaware of.
No, that’s a lie. I was not surprised at all. I knew I was missing out on shortcuts and simple workarounds. I knew I was giving myself more work than needed simply because I didn’t know some obvious workflows or shortcuts.
But that wasn’t the largest take away from the class.
For me, the class was especially good at alleviating the ever-present imposter syndrome that many of us creatives suffer from.
I’ll give 100% of that credit over to my professor Adam Meyers. He couldn’t have been more approachable as a professor, or more encouraging as a teacher. Most of his class was watching him work through a new challenge or creative endeavor. We’d ask questions along the way and give him challenges he’d never had before. It can’t be overstated that simply watching him work on a shared screen was more impactful to me than any ‘shortcut’ he could’ve taught me.
He took every step of his process with the patience and curiosity of a true artist; and he reminded me that this is in fact still an art form. That there will be a sketch process, a research process, scrapped drafts and days of little progress that should be treated like milestones.
Adam has been animating for decades, and he knows what he’s talking about. Trust me, the guy is a professional; but when you ask him a question he’s never heard before and he says “I don’t know, let’s try it out!” It reminds you to take it easy on yourself and to commit to one step at a time in your own process.
The classes at SVA were very affordable. Three hours for each class, one night a week, for 10 weeks.
You certainly get your money’s worth.
And on top of that, Adam will package up all his lesson plans into videos for you to review later.
Of course I’ve watched back a few of them already and I will continue to reference them for years to come.
I highly recommend these courses and I applaud SVA for hosting their “Continuing Education” department for people like me who just want a little assistance or a refresher between jobs to enhance my skills and make my position that much more valuable at work.
And I also want to thank Drury Design for providing the reimbursement on these courses and encouraging me to further my education!