Adobe Illustrator CC – Advanced Training vs The Beginner's Guide to Adobe After Effects

Covers the full advanced Illustrator toolset — pen tool mastery, complex paths, advanced typography, colour theory, logo design, packaging, pattern design, and complex illustration workflows. The curriculum is dense without being padded; reviewers describe it as genuinely comprehensive for the intermediate-to-advanced level. The main gap is limited coverage of screen-first digital workflows (UI, web) relative to the depth given to print and vector.

Daniel Walter Scott is an Adobe Certified Instructor and Adobe Certified Expert with over 16 years of design experience. His teaching is praised across thousands of reviews as crystal clear, professionally paced, and attentive to the edge cases where learners get stuck. The Adobe certification is not cosmetic — it translates into accurate, current, and authoritative instruction on the tool.

Priced at $19.99 on frequent Udemy sale (the effective purchase price for nearly all students) for a comprehensive advanced course with real-world projects and lifetime access. At sale price this is the strongest value-per-hour advanced design course available on any major platform. Full list price ($100+) is never what anyone pays, which matters for how you should think about the Udemy pricing model.

Multiple real-world projects throughout — logo design, packaging mock-ups, pattern systems, complex vector illustration — rather than isolated exercises. Reviewers describe finishing the course with a small body of work they can use in a portfolio. Some exercises feel more like skill-drills than finished pieces, but the balance across the curriculum is strong.

The skills covered — pen tool precision, colour systems, typography workflows, file structure for print — are what working graphic designers and illustrators use daily. Reviewers in professional design roles describe the course as directly applicable to client work. The print and vector orientation limits applicability for UI/UX designers whose primary output is screen-first.

34 lessons across approximately 5 hours cover the After Effects workspace, composition, keyframing, masks, shape layers, text animation, and effects in a logical build. Reviewers consistently describe the progression as genuinely systematic — each lesson builds directly on the previous one rather than jumping between topics. The main gap is that the course ends where intermediate motion design begins; no expressions, no rigging.

Jake Bartlett has been teaching After Effects since 2013 and has 30+ courses on Skillshare. The dominant praise is that he explains *why* you are doing each step, not just the button sequence to press. Students consistently describe his instruction as gap-filling — knowledge they had been missing about AE falls into place quickly. Pacing is brisk but never rushed.

Covered under a standard Skillshare membership ($168/year or first month free trial). For the breadth and quality of 34 lessons of motion design instruction, the value-per-lesson under a membership is excellent. The caveat is that After Effects itself requires a separate Creative Cloud subscription ($55+/month), which is the real cost of learning the tool.

The single final project — a 'Taco Tuesday' arcade-style animation — is fun and motivating as a through-line. Reviewers enjoy completing it and find it a coherent showcase of the skills covered. It is, however, a playful exercise rather than a professional portfolio showpiece; its game-show aesthetic does not translate directly into a reel.

After Effects is the industry standard tool for motion graphics, broadcast, and digital content production. The foundational skills covered — layer animation, timing, masks, effects — transfer directly to real client work. Reviewers in motion design and video production describe the course skills as the exact foundation they use professionally. The gap is that the course does not reach expressions or templates, which are daily tools in professional AE workflows.