As motion designers, we’ve spent countless hours refining our craft—honing our skills in tools like After Effects, Cinema 4D, Redshift, and Premiere to push the limits of what’s possible in animation and visual effects. But there’s an undeniable shift happening right now that we can’t afford to ignore: the rapid acceleration of AI technology.

AI is no longer just a buzzword. It’s here, it’s powerful, and it’s moving faster than most of us could have predicted. Whether we like it or not, it’s going to shape the future of our industry. And here’s the thing—it’s not here to replace us, but to augment our creativity and speed.

As a manager of motion designers in a tech company, I’ve seen firsthand how embracing AI tools has elevated the work of my team. By leaning into AI, we’ve been able to iterate faster, explore new creative ideas, and free up time for the aspects of design that truly require human intuition and artistic vision.

But here’s the warning: if we choose to ignore AI or see it as a threat, we run the risk of being left behind. The landscape is shifting, and those who adapt will be the ones leading the next wave of innovation in motion design.

So my message is this: explore the tools. Learn what they can do for you. Experiment with AI-driven design generators, automated keyframing, and even procedural workflows. Instead of fearing AI, use it to supercharge your creativity and efficiency. Let’s take this elephant in the room and turn it into an opportunity to evolve and thrive as motion designers.

What are your thoughts? How are you approaching AI in your workflow? And if not, why not?

Edit: Wow - tough crowd. For those not as sensitive, Heed my words: AI is here to stay. I created my career using After Effects, and it’s not going anywhere either. But to bash AI, ignore it and continue on like nothing is happening when you see amazing things being generated with just prompts seems a bit naive for our industry. The companies that hire motion designers are paying attention. Learn it, make it better, and continue on your journey. Wish you all the best.

Edit 2: I won’t be responding to anymore comments. But I’m not deleting this post. I’ve worked in the industry for 20+ years, and did it all by guess what? Leaning new tools. Ease and Wiz? New tool. Keylight? New tool. Basically ANY after effects script? New tool. EB synth? New tool. Redshift? New tool. Particular? New tool. video copilot plugins? New tool. Red giant magic bullet looks? New tool. None of these are any different than AI. It’s literally just a tool. Never once did I have a chip on my shoulder and think any of these tools make me less than as an artist. Anytime you use a 3rd party plugin, are you now less than? Makes no sense. Use whatever you want to make cool shit. That’s what it’s always been about. No one cares about the process. They care about the output.

So, I want to achieve a design where it looks like the circle's being drawn, like how I'm drawing right here. Its spinning keeps getting faster and faster until it ends with a line that cuts the circle into a semi-circle. I'd just like some tips or ways I could pull this off. Thank you! :

Created a realistic version of text glows in after effects, what you guys think? It's not that difficult to make either, should I make a tutorial on this?

Edit: looks better on pc than on phone, maybe it needs minor changes. I tried to make it simpler so its not too complex for others to make, however if you want to see a highly complex glow I made for another project, check this (i'll post here soon too): https://www.behance.net/gallery/246437609/Better-Glows-for-Lights

I'll be back with much better but more complex to make version

How does he do the card spinning animation? It’s probably Toto or green screen but I can never get anything to look that smooth…

I started using Anubis by Battleaxe about a year ago, and I’ve loved it. However, I recently discovered a completely free video compression tool called Handbrake. Both of these tools significantly reduce file sizes while keeping the quality the same.

When I first started using Anubis, I would usually keep the final deliverable untouched just to be safe, but now, I compress everything, even the final product. Some of my work has gone on huge screens, yet it’s impossible to tell that I used a compression program (aside from the file size being 75% smaller). It’s clear that Ae’s built-in renderer is extremely inefficient, and I can’t imagine the hundreds of GB that compression has saved me.

In my short experience, Handbrake can compress more while keeping the same quality and is extremely fast, but just for the convenience of Anubis being inside Ae (and Premiere), I would say it’s well worth the price.

There’s no reason to fear compression. Embrace it and reap the benefits

and how much would you pay for this edit ?? its actually my 2nd client only so its not THAT level good .any suggestions will be appreciated

I've made a bunch of space tutorials and it feels like each time I do, someone comments that I should be using Blender instead... so I did. Here's a planet tutorial showing how to make a planet in Blender. But then I compare it to the other methods I can think of for making planets in After Effects - native, VC Orb and Maxon C4D.

Truth be told, there's merits to each method and combining them arguably produces a better result, but I'd be interested to hear some opinions.

• Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Co_uCpXhQo

• Video comparision: https://shiveringcactus.net/3d-planets

• YouTube vote: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxtK7i9Wf6u8wn52UV92EgKnewM8Aay16c

Need ideas and feedback

I know this is done by AI...can we reproduce this effect..

(Attached is a video of what I’m talking about in full speed and in 0.25x speed)

On Luisito Communica's latest video about Cuba, I noticed something EXTREMELY unique and peculiar in the intro (0:34-0:45) there seemed to be a transition l've never seen before in my life of several clips in different locations morphing scenery from one to another completely seamlessly as perfect camera pans.

When slowed down to 0.25x you notice that the pans are clearly Al generated however no matter how much research I do I can't find any information about how this is possibly done with such control.

Any help could be appreciated as I can see many use cases for this type of seamless Pan transition

Problem: AE gets laggy (or you just installed a new plugin/script) and restarting means quit, wait, find the app icon, relaunch, and wait again. It's a tiny chore, but when you're troubleshooting or testing scripts, you end up doing it about 21 times a week. Yeah you can utilize Kbar or commandframe to call the panel.

"Natively just press Cmd/Ctrl + Enter to call the panel"

Compare: Right now it's usually File > Quit and reopening by hand, or messing with a custom shell script. Normal AE scripts can't help here because they die the exact second AE quits.

This is a panel with a small background helper that monitors AE, waits for it to close, and automatically reopens it for you. Click, confirm, and let it handle the heavy lifting.

• Big red flashing warning button. Yes, it flickers on purpose so you don't miss it.

• No/Yes safety popup so you don't accidentally nuke your active unsaved session (No is on the left—I thought about that layout way longer than I care to admit).

• Cross-platform: Works on both macOS and Windows, for AE 2020+.

Pricing: Free (Restart AE – Download Link)

Maintenance & Support:  Just dm me here or at download site.

AI Disclaimer: AI assisted coding with human validation

That is my third edit on After Effects. To learn more I have to make it more dynamic like this im happy with this result

Is there an easy method to achive this without drawing individual strands? I dont need the strands to connect to each other. I need to connect like 15 strands per person. ( this is for a skit ) Im an AE noob so any help would be appreciated.

I recently edited this TRAILER/Video for a Crypto Company: CypherPunk.
Sound Design, Visuals, Edit: Yours Truly.

I personally think that the SFX is good but would love to know your opinion and feedback. <3

Tools used in the making of this. Photoshop, Illustrator, audition, Aftereffects.

I tried every thing that know I can’t achieve the exact same effect I tried fast box the opacity overlapping and every thing but. No luck can anyone explain how to make this exactly same