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Animation Classes Washington, D.C.

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Unleash your creativity and bring your imagination to life with animation classes in Washington, D.C.. Learn the art of storytelling through motion and gain the skills to create stunning visual effects, characters, and scenes that captivate your audience.

2 classes in-person in Washington, D.C. have spots left, and 18 classes live online are available.

Motion Graphics Certificate

Noble Desktop - Virtually Online

Become a skilled Motion Graphics Designer and master the art of animating motion graphics, creating visual effects, and editing videos using industry-standard software like Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Cinema 4D Lite. Develop a strong portfolio showcasing your creative techniques and gain the skills needed to meet the growing demand for video professionals.

(372) All levels 18 and older
$3,495

16 sessions

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After Effects Bootcamp

Noble Desktop - Virtually Online

Discover the secrets of creating captivating motion graphics and animations in this comprehensive course. Gain hands-on experience with real-world projects and learn from a leading instructor, as you delve into techniques like motion tracking and animating 3D layers. Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop recommended.

(372) All levels 18 and older
$975

3 sessions

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After Effects in a Day

Noble Desktop - Virtually Online

Learn how to create stunning animations, add music and sounds, and import files from Illustrator and Photoshop in this hands-on workshop at Noble Desktop. Perfect for beginners looking to master After Effects in just one day.

(372) All levels 18 and older
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Video Editing & Animation Certificate (High School)

NextGen Bootcamp @ Live Virtual

Unlock your creativity and bring your video projects to life with the Video Editing & Animation Certificate at NextGen Bootcamp. Master industry-standard software, Adobe Premiere Pro, for professional video editing, and then explore the exciting world of animation with After Effects. Start your journey towards a future in film and media today.

(61) All levels 13 - 18 years old
$2,495

8 sessions

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Video Editing & Animation Certificate (High School)

NextGen Bootcamp - Virtually Online

Learn industry-standard video editing and animation skills in this comprehensive certificate program. Master Adobe Premiere Pro to create professional video projects, then take your skills further with advanced techniques in After Effects. Launch your career in film or multimedia with this hands-on course.

(61) All levels 13 - 18 years old
$2,495

8 sessions

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Animation with After Effects (High School)

NextGen Bootcamp @ Live Virtual

Learn to create eye-catching animations and dazzling visual effects with Adobe After Effects in this hands-on summer program at NextGen Bootcamp. Dive into basic animation concepts and processes, and then explore advanced techniques such as title and text animation, 3D layer animation, and motion tracking. Suitable for beginners with no previous experience in animation or design.

(61) All levels 13 - 18 years old
$1,299

4 sessions

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Animation with After Effects (High School)

NextGen Bootcamp - Virtually Online

Unlock your creativity and bring your imagination to life with Animation with After Effects. Discover the exciting world of animation and motion graphics in this hands-on summer program in NYC. Join us at NextGen Bootcamp and learn how to navigate the After Effects workspace, master basic animation techniques, and create stunning visual effects.

(61) All levels 13 - 18 years old
$1,499

4 sessions

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Video Editing Certificate

Noble Desktop - Virtually Online

Master the art of video editing, audio editing, and motion graphics at a leading institution. Learn the creative techniques and workflow required to transform concepts into fully edited videos. Elevate your skills and stand out to potential clients or employers with a compelling video editing demo reel.

(372) All levels 18 and older
$2,995

13 sessions

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Adobe After Effects Private Training

Noble Desktop - Virtually Online

Unlock the power of motion graphics with this comprehensive training. Master Adobe After Effects' interface, timeline, and layer animation techniques to craft stunning GIFs, animate logos, and seamlessly integrate artwork from Illustrator and Photoshop.

(372) All levels 13 and older

After Effects Advanced

Noble Desktop - Virtually Online

Take your After Effects skills to the next level with this advanced course at Noble Desktop. Master text and shape animations, learn video compositing techniques, and discover how to speed up your workflow with expressions. Enhance your motion graphics and compositing skills with hands-on projects in this immersive course.

(372) Advanced 18 and older
$975

3 sessions

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Cinema 4D in After Effects Bootcamp

Noble Desktop - Virtually Online

Unlock the power of 3D graphics in your After Effects projects with this immersive hands-on course. Learn to create and animate stunning 3D models, apply textures, and seamlessly integrate with After Effects using Cinema 4D Lite. Expand your skill set and take your motion projects to new heights.

(372) All levels 18 and older
$975

6 sessions

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Adobe After Effects Level I (Online)

Manhattan Edit Workshop @ Virtual Class room

Learn the essentials of Adobe After Effects for motion graphics and visual effects with this introductory online course. Discover traditional After Effects workflow, basic animation techniques, keying, and 3D effects. Gain the skills needed to create compelling motion graphics and visual effects.

(95) Beginner 16 and older
$1,295

3 sessions

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After Effects Bootcamp

Training Connection @ Online

Learn to create special effects and motion graphics in this After Effects course at Training Connection. Perfect for graphic and video professionals looking to enhance their editing and compositing skills, this hands-on bootcamp covers everything from basic animation to advanced concepts like 3D and particle simulations. No prior experience is required.

(158) All levels 14 and older
$1,995

5 sessions

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After Effects Fundamentals

Training Connection @ Online

Master Adobe After Effects in this hands-on course at Training Connection. Suitable for graphic and video professionals looking to enhance their editing and compositing abilities, this course offers both beginners and experienced users the opportunity to learn and practice various projects and tricks. No prior experience with After Effects is required.

(158) Beginner 14 and older
$1,495

3 sessions

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Adobe After Effects Level II (Online)

Manhattan Edit Workshop @ Virtual Class room

Take your motion graphics skills to the next level with a two-day intermediate class at Manhattan Edit Workshop. Learn industry-standard practices for creating stunning visuals in Adobe After Effects. Enhance your movies with text, graphics, and effects and gain a high level of efficiency in your work.

(95) Intermediate 16 and older
$1,095

2 sessions

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After Effects Advanced

Training Connection @ Online

Take your After Effects skills to the next level with this advanced course. Learn motion tracking, advanced masking, 3D effects, and more in this comprehensive training program designed for experienced users. Elevate your video production with Training Connection.

(158) Advanced 14 and older
$995

2 sessions

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Adobe After Effects I (Online)

Key Code Education @ Virtual Classroom

Unlock the full potential of Adobe After Effects with Key Code Education's immersive course. Learn to create stunning motion graphics, master advanced animation techniques, and discover the power of video blending and keying effects. Perfect for editors, VFX editors, and graphic artists seeking to elevate their skills.

(8) Beginner 18 and older
$1,175

4 sessions

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After Effects Bootcamp

NYC Career Centers - Virtually Online

Master the art of creating professional videos, animations, and special effects with After Effects. Elevate your skills in motion graphics and animation, from basic techniques to advanced motion tracking and particle effects. Take your video editing to the next level at NYC Career Centers.

(680) All levels 18 and older
$975

3 sessions

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Adobe After Effects II (Online)

Key Code Education @ Virtual Classroom

Enhance your motion editing and compositing in Adobe After Effects with Key Code Education's advanced online course. Learn complex document creation, work with a variety of palettes and tools, and discover best practices for creating professional-grade motion graphics and video effects. Perfect for editors, VFX editors, and graphic artists looking to take their skills to the next level.

(8) All levels 18 and older
$1,175

4 sessions

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After Effects in a Day

NYC Career Centers - Virtually Online

Learn how to create professional motion graphics and animations using Adobe After Effects in this intensive workshop. Join a leading motion graphics instructor and get hands-on experience in a small class setting. Master the essentials of the user interface, layer animation, and more.

(680) All levels 18 and older
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Reviews for Animation Classes in Washington, D.C.

Animation Classes in Washington, D.C. are rated 4.6 stars based on 1,374 verified reviews from actual CourseHorse.com purchasers.

  • Adobe After Effects Level II (Online)

    Reviewed by David S. on 5/27/2021
    Chad was wonderful! Very clear instruction, great attitude, and a lot of fun!
  • Adobe After Effects Level I (Online)

    Reviewed by Kedrick W. on 10/16/2020
    Amazing class taught by Mr.Mark Chandler. The 3 jam-packed days were just a steller foundation on what's possible with creating in After Effects and Premiere. The class was a mixture of informational lessons and real-world perspectives. I feel more confident tackling more AE projects now.
  • After Effects in a Day

    Anonymous review on 11/7/2019
    Amazing instructor!
  • After Effects in a Day

    Reviewed by Mary B. on 10/17/2019
    Great teacher! Learned a lot in one day.
  • After Effects in a Day

    Anonymous review on 8/3/2019
    Very good for learning with no experience or for filling in the gaps from self teaching AfterEffects. Wish there were a little more complex concepts taught other than just moving shapes around on 2D space but you can only teach so much in a day. Got a little too quick towards the end when exporting projects and learning different compressions so it felt arbitrary to even explain. But overall good class and great teacher, perfect pace for learning from scratch and if you need to learn specifically how to make gifs and logos
  • After Effects Bootcamp

    Reviewed by Dov A. on 5/2/2019
    Kalika was a fantastic instructor bringing patience and humor to every lesson. Thanks to her, I have a strong grasp on the topics covered, am confident in my skills and capability to delve further into the app. Kalika is the rare teacher who goes the extra mile for her students because she's happy to. One suggestion note is that there are a few lessons that start off with importing or setting up in more than one way for the sake of learning how different modes function. I think the class would benefit from taking time in between the demonstrations to practice that part before continuing into the bulk of the lesson - I found that I forgot what the take-away was from that initial portion of the lesson by the time the demonstration was over, and conducting that portion on my own created an interruption between the demonstration and going through the section on my own.
  • After Effects in a Day

    Anonymous review on 5/17/2018
    The class was challenging, but it was a great introduction to what's possible in After Effects!
  • After Effects in a Day

    Reviewed by Vanessa S. on 3/19/2018
    Great teacher who's passionate about what she teaches. She's also really helpful and insightful with answering questions.
  • After Effects in a Day

    Reviewed by Neela A. on 9/29/2017
    love it!
  • After Effects Bootcamp

    Reviewed by Eric Vasquez on 7/11/2016
    I had been trying to learn After Effects on my own for a while, but it wasn't until I decided to take the course through Noble Desktop that things really started to make sense for me. Now I feel that I have a solid foundation and am more excited than before about learning After Effects. As much as I enjoyed this class, I only wish that there was a second part to this course or something that would take you into some of the more intermediate/advanced techniques with track mattes, rotoscoping, null objects etc.

Discover the Best Animation Classes in Washington, D.C.

“I know this defies the law of gravity,” Bugs Bunny says as he and a high diving board remain suspended in mid-air at the end of the Looney Tunes cartoon High-Diving Hare, “but, you see, I never studied law.”

The law of gravity failed to apply very frequently in the wacky Looney Tunes universe during Warner Brothers Animation’s 1940s heyday. Therein lies the wonder of animation: it enables characters to perform feats that are unhindered by not only the law of gravity but those of physics and nature in general. (The Road Runner’s nemesis, Wile E. Coyote, regularly defies the laws of medicine, for example.) This ability to make the impossible visible is one of the reasons why the world of moving—and seemingly living and breathing—drawings has been so compelling since the invention of the spinning phénakisticope In 1833. Rabbits aren’t bipeds, and they don’t talk, let alone with Brooklyn accents, yet there is something that makes us believe that this nonsense is possible because Bugs Bunny does it right before our very eyes. In one sense, we know he’s “only” a cartoon; in another, he’s one of the most real movie stars Hollywood ever produced. (He even has his own star on Hollywood Boulevard.)

Warner Brothers’ animation was an edgy, manic, and irreverent answer to what was happening deeper in the San Fernando Valley, in Burbank, at the Walt Disney Studio. Indeed, the name Looney Tunes was a riposte to Disney’s series of Silly Symphonies animated shorts. Warner’s animation may not always have been great art in the Disney sense, but the patently insane Daffy Duck is as much an American icon as his fellow Anas platyrhyncos, Donald. The technology behind both ducks is the same: drawings viewed at the rate of 12 per second go by too quickly for the human eye to track individually, and appear to be animate, whence the term animation.

Both Daffy and Donald Duck are still in production today, and although they don’t look a day older than they did in the 1940s (more magic of animation), they are created by an entirely different process than the pencils, paper, pens, ink, paint, cels and 35mm motion picture film that brought them to life in their salad days. The 1990s saw the advent of computer animation, which has grown into the world of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) that is now used, not just for anthropomorphic ducks and rabbits, but also for most of the special effects in “live-action” films today. Whereas whole sets had to be built and then flooded with actual water for 20th Century Fox’s 1939 epic, The Rains Came, precipitation and even flash flooding can today be added to an image with a few clicks of a mouse.

Software such as Autodesk Maya, Pixologic ZBrush, and Houdini are currently in favor at Disney Studios, and are complex programs that can create astonishing things. There are, however, simpler-to-use programs that can create motion graphics, most notably Adobe’s After Effects. While you can’t reverse engineer Frozen (and probably not even High-Diving Hare) with the Adobe Creative Cloud and a MacBook Pro in the space of an afternoon, you can create impressive animation without needing a four-year degree in the field. Such is the need for animation across all platforms today that you can make a good, solid career at an independent studio creating motion graphics for commercial purposes.

Best Animation Classes & Schools in

One of the very few tech schools running in-person animation classes in the District of Columbia is Ledet Training. They offer courses in Adobe’s Animate and After Effects that cover both vector animation and motion graphics. Animate 101 is a two-day introduction to that program, and teaches students to create animations, manage the timeline and even add sound to their creations. That class can be followed by Animate 201, which covers, across the span of two additional days, such advanced topics as inverse kinematics, springiness, and creating interactive movies. The two classes may be combined into a four-day bootcamp. For those interested in After Effects, Ledet has classes that fit the same pattern, with the slight change that After Effects 101 runs for three days, not two. Thus, there is also an After Effects 201, and the two classes may be combined into a five-day bootcamp. Ledet’s Washington classrooms are located on I Street N.W., a block from Lafayette Park. If you don’t live in the White House, the nearest Metro stop is either Farragut West or Farragut North. (If you do live in the White House, the instructions are: go out the front door, cross Lafayette Park, grab a tea at Teaism, proceed along 17th Street for a block, then hang a left on I street and Bob’s your uncle.)

Washingtonians whose address isn’t 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., particularly those who are really Marylanders or Virginians, might prefer not to have to confront downtown D.C. on business days. They might want to consider instead an online class that can be taken from anywhere, from the District of Columbia to Washington state to Washington Island in French Polynesia. Live online courses offer something of the best of both worlds, as you get the unbeatable convenience of being able to study anywhere you want, but you also get to have live interaction with the instructor, ask questions, and even have the instructor take a look at whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into on your screen.

Future Media Concepts is an example of a tech school that brings its New York-based classes to the internet. The school offers an Introduction to Adobe After Effects CC (the CC simply stands for Creative Cloud, the portmanteau term for all of Adobe’s software), an Adobe After Effects CC (Intermediate), and an Adobe After Effects CC (Advanced) class. Running for three, two, and two days respectively, the curriculum takes students from where their knowledge of Photoshop left them off through to advanced functions and effects such as the 3D Camera Tracker, Particle Playground, Warp Stabilizing, and the difference between foam and bubbles.

Another New York-based school with ample experience in teaching over the Internet is Noble Desktop, which offers a program that combines After Effects with Adobe’s video editing software, PremierePro. Put them both together, and you get a 17-day Motion Graphics Certificate program. In addition to the software training, you will also be able to build your portfolio (demo reel) and take advantage of 1-to-1 sessions with established mentors in the field to help you find your way in the animation world.

A much briefer way to approach After Effects can be found hosted by NYC Career Centers: After Effects in a Day. The class instructs students in the making of Animated GIFs, logos, and transitions, and, by the end of seven hours, will have them conversant with the software and able to use it to create simple motion graphics, incorporating such features as easing in and out, fade-ins and layer animation.

Another extensive online motion graphics certificate program is the Video Design Certificate from Digital Workshop Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. The certificate program combines instruction in both Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, including Adobe After Effects for Beginners (Level 1) and Adobe After Effects Advanced (Level 2), which may also be taken à la carte. The After Effects classes meet in the mornings, Mountain Time, which means they start at 11:00 a.m. in Washington. That should give you time for a proper breakfast before reporting to your computer to start your school day.

Industries That Use Animation

Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the United States Constitution refers to a “district” that would become the capital of the United States. It says nothing, however, about the production of animated motion pictures, and, indeed, the District of Columbia was never an important player in the country’s film industry, which is probably a good thing.

That said, there are animation studios operating in and around the District. Although they’re unlikely to offer much chance of employment to the likes of Bugs Bunny, they do offer work to those interested in creating animation for commercial and, naturally, political purposes. Today’s world has created a need for all manner of catchy visuals to promote products, causes (both public and private), and candidates, to which end several animation studios have set up shop in our nation’s capital. These studios often work with advertising agencies and political campaign staff to come up with images that can be used across a variety of platforms, from broadcast to social media. There are far less exciting places to be a commercial animator than

Animation Jobs & Salaries in

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) groups animators and special effects artists under a common rubric, reflecting the enormous role CGI plays in the special effects that used to have to be created manually. More specific job titles are to be found on O*net Online, a job-seeker-oriented database maintained by the U.S. government. It breaks the BLS category down into such job titles as 2D animators, 3D animators, graphic artists, digital artists, and animators.

The BLS’ 2022 figures for the greater Washington area (officially known as Washington/Arlington/Alexandria, although it includes parts of West Virginia and Maryland as well) show that 310 individuals were employed as animators and special effects artists. While that’s perhaps more than one might have guessed right off the bat, the location quotient for the area reflects the fact that the area isn’t exactly the omphalos of computer animation: the figure is a meager 0.42. That means that you’re less than half as likely as the national average to find a job as an animator in the Washington area. If you do find an animator job, you will be rewarded with an annual mean wage of nearly $96,000, which ranks tenth for all metropolitan areas, although it is still less than the median wage for animators in the country, which is approximately $99,000. It is, on the other hand, significantly higher than the mean wage in of $78,500

You’ll have to weigh that against the very high cost of living in the District of Columbia: it’s 52% higher than the national average, mainly because the cost of housing is 152% higher than the national average. Food comes in at a relatively modest 9% higher than the national average. On the other hand, a hot dog at Nationals Park is going to set you back some: it’s one of the most expensive in Major League Baseball at $7.49, and specialty dogs, including a characteristically Washingtonian version with onion, mustard and chili, cost even more.

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