VFX After Effects Induction 1

Today was our first induction for After Effects with Mike Flower. We didn't learn how to do many things to create active special effects, instead we were walked through how to create compositions, how to make solid shapes and how to use the stop-watch symbols beside each option in order to make simple animations.

I found todays lesson to be quite interesting and enjoyed learning how to manipulate the solids to move, change shape, change opacity and create a path for them to move along.
The reason why I've been looking forward to learning about this is because I know that the opening character cinematics of Guild Wars 2 are created through combining original digital concept art with the various principles we have begun to learn with After Effects today with Mr.Flower.
It is these same cinematics used in Guild Wars 2 that I would like to recreate with my own concept art using my own story for the upcoming self directed brief.

I've put an example of what it is I'd like to do for my self directed brief below, showing a Guild Wars 2 cinematic. Although I'm currently focused on this project I'm glad that I can now identify the sorts of stop-watch animations they have used in each scene of the cinematic. I have also shown Mr. Flower the cinematic and explain to him what it is that I'd like to do in the future which he was very enthusiastic about. I'm looking forward to learning more about After Effects for future reference.