how long did it take you to learn the basic of AE?

[DuoEnigma]

how long did it take you to learn the basic of Adobe AE 5.0?

[turboneko]

Less than one week to learn how to fiddle around with the timeline, to understand the render order processing and a basic of the filtering.

But you'll need a book or the manual otherwise the curve is much steeper

[E-Ko]

how long did it take you to learn the basic of Adobe AE 5.0?

After Effects is sorta like a customizable card game - just when you think you know what you're doing, you discover new ways to mix and match the tools and techniques offered. With the additional consideration that different folks use After Effects for different reasons, it is difficult to define how long it takes to learn the basics of AE. It's more of an ongoing process.

The manual is a good place to start. I'd also recommend a book entitled "Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, Volume 1: The Essentials" by Trish Meyer, Chris Meyer (ISBN: 1578201144).

[Ashyukun]

I concur, though I can do all the basic stuff I need fairly well now (after about a month of working with it), there is still plenty of stuff I don't completely understand. Another good book, at least for learning by doing, is the "Classroom in a Book" series. I picked up one of the ones for an older version dirt cheap, and though there are some UI changes I've got to remember about it's been very helpful for demonstrating how to do lots of what I want to do.

[ErMaC]

I would highly recommend the "After Effects 5 Bible" as it is an excellent book.

[OmniStrata]

[Hops on ebay to order bible...]