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is AE pot of gold?

New Here ,
May 15, 2020 May 15, 2020

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Hey guys,

I'm learning AE and I think it is the most interesting software I've ever used.

I am not related to this field. I'm a noob.

so I want to ask you guys what type of video making I should focus on? which is in demand right now, need less time to make them and more part-time money I can make of it.

I know it's like asking where the pot of gold is but any thoughts would be much appreciated. I want to make most of my return on time invested in learning a skill. (80/20 Rule)

I like typography videos and also made some e-commerce video ads for $30/video (which is I think pretty decent)

I was thinking explainer videos are kind of trending nowadays. if you have a suggestion please please let me know.

my future kids will bless you and me too 🙂

 

PS: I'm not looking to get the rich quick. it is a hobby that I am interested to perceive. and working on real projects will teach me more than theory (not that I don't want to learn in a traditional way).

& I don't think earning more money is a bad thing. money is awesome. like.seriously. having more money feels great.

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Mentor ,
May 15, 2020 May 15, 2020

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If you are just starting with AE, you'll need some years of experience to meet the professional standards, which people are willing to pay for. There are A LOT of other people doing videos in any fields. You need to stand out in order to make a living from this work.

And 30$/video won't get you far. That's around half an hour in my terms. Of course, if I have a project large enough for 16 videos per day in a span of months - this will work out. But getting such a large project is the problem and requires reputation which you don't have as a beginner.

 

There is no "trend" to focus on. AE is a universial tool for post processing. You should get in touch with the possibilities and ask yourself, what you like most. Then you get deeper in the direction. I know much about 2D animation, but hardly know anything about all the rotoscope, tracking, matting, content aware filling stuff.

 

Explainer are very famous, but it's a hard business. Usual clients don't want to spend much money, but expect high quality. Most clients don't have a film-background and don't even understand the production steps.You really have to mark out what exactly you are doing for the project and what extra costs are. If you are in your forth feedback round of the final animation on a low entry payed project, you'll understand. Also, there are a lot of competitors, which are better or cheaper or both.

 

Doing this as a hobby will get you some smaller random projects, but nothing to feed you kids.

For larger projects and clients to life from, you have to work in this field full time and sometimes nights, weekends and vaccations.

Without any realtion to this field, you have years of learning ahead of you - usual people study in university or film school to work in this field later on.

 

*Martin

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Community Expert ,
May 18, 2020 May 18, 2020

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I recommend you find a good training course like the ones offered at School of Motion that will guide you through the technical knowledge needed for motion design, and the business knowledge needed to get a job as a fulltime employee or gigs as a freelancer.

And if you want to go freelance, check out The Freelance Manifesto.

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Community Expert ,
May 18, 2020 May 18, 2020

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LATEST

Let me tell you a story about the advance of technology and the fees paid to technicians. When I started in the motion picture and television business in 1970 the average wage for somebody in television put them in the upper-middle-class income bracket almost instantly if you could get a job in any of the top 20 markets in the US. With less than a 6-month work history, I qualified for a loan on a brand new 3 bedroom fully landscaped house, bought a brand new car, started planning a family and joined a suburban and not too exclusive country club, and started saving to purchase my own equipment. Three years later I purchased a 35MM Arriflex camera, filled a truck with lighting gear and started my own production company specializing in high-end commercials, aerial cinematography, title animations using a motion control animation camera I built, and started working regularly for some of the largest companies and advertising agencies in the US. Life was amazing and my day rates had climbed to the almost ridiculous.  The three major TV networks were paying over $!500 to the news photographer/editor for a copy of a local news story that they already had shot for the station they worked for and the stations did not take any of the money - you got it. Throw in a local reporter with a national tag and the extra cash was even better. Basically, if you had gear and you were not a complete screwup you could make a really good living working 4 or 5 days a month. At the height of the if you have the gear and can show up I was getting the equivalent of a month's wages for a section boss at Boeing building 747's for a day's work. 

 

Then, technology started to change the picture. Within a year of Pagemaker, Photoshop, and Betacam SP and portable video cameras showing up on the scene large corporations started bringing video and print production in house. One of my largest clients hired a bunch of college kids to staff their production department and the contracts started going away. The quality of the product went down, but they were saving money. By the time non-linear editors and After Effects came into the picture it was harder and harder for any technician to make much more than the kid down the street that was bagging groceries. 

 

Move forward to today. A 10-year-old with a smartphone can create better images technically than we could possibly create in the '80s with broadcast gear that cost more than a house, so the day rate for a crew started going down. I know several camera operators and VFX artists working in Hollywood that share studio apartments with two or three other folks and wait tables because that's all they can afford because technicians are not making much money anymore, because just about anybody can do it with just a little training. 

 

This is especially true in the visual effects and motion graphics business. Making an extra $30 for a typography video is only pretty good if you spent less than 2 hours on the whole project because you could make $30 at the local burger joint standing in the drive-through line with an iPad taking orders.  There is a high school kid in my neighborhood that does that for about 6 hours a day. The 80/20 rule does not really apply to making any kind of a living producing any kind of video. I'm not trying to discourage you, just pointing out the facts. The film making business is just about the toughest way I can think of to try and make a living and support a family. BUT and this is a BIG BUT, if you become an extremely efficient technician, capable of solving problems in a short amount of time, and you are very creative, and you can get a reputation for delivering a product (video) that really sells a product or idea, there is an extremely good living to be made, until you screw up a job and you have to prove all over again that you are a true artist that can influence the minds of the viewers. 

 

To become that kind of effective artist you have to either have an incredible built-in almost magical way of understanding how light, color, contrast, motion, composition, framing, sound, timing, pacing and about a hundred other things affect the way we perceive what we see and how that makes us feel, or you need to make it a big part of your life's work to study and learn those techniques. 

 

If you want to learn how to make some decent money doing typography animations just understanding the software (After Effects) is only about 10% of the work you need to do. You should get, read, and make notes in this book: The Illusion of Life by Ollie Johnson and Frank Thomas. You should study color theory, composition, watch old films, spend some time every week on sites like Art of the Title, Motiographer.com, and others, not to look for things that you can copy, but to look for inspiration and to learn how to see and understand how other great work makes you feel. Does this example from Motionographer.com inspire you, or is it just cool?

Screenshot_2020-05-18 11.09.39_BhRkkC.png

 

I hope that helps. I hope the dose of reality does not discourage you. Just having an app on your computer and knowing how it works isn't going to bring you a lot of $$$. If it did, most AE artists out there would be living on a lake, have a boat, and drive a new Tesla. 

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