In reality if you're not wanting to do complicated effects and 3D stuff, you should probably switch to a standard non linear video editing program, like Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas or Final Cut Pro.
After effects is a lot more fun and powerful to use, and is what I use, but if you just want to do basic things, a NLE is probably best.
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Thanks for the advice, however I've seen the amazing things people have created through after effects which is why I used it (and probably stick with it). I don't know how to unlock the full potential of the effects. Is there any YouTube channel and/or personal tips you could give me so I can make use of all the after effects features?
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After effects is a huge program, and with 3rd party plugins can become even bigger. In reality, as you learn more about after effects, your knowledge and applications of effects increasing exponentially. Quite simply, I can not really help you much at all, but I will give you a couple of tips which should make your AE easier. 1: Pre-comp everything. What this means is you can make every individual clip it's own composition, and then place all of these compositions on a main timeline. 1.5: Adjustment layers. Put them above your clips in all the precomps, and on them put the effects (like colour correction, if you don't have magic bullet looks, then you can use 'curves'). Remember that after effects is based around key frames, so you can change selected values of effects as the timeline moves. 2: Learn the keyboard shortcuts. Learning that ctrl D duplicates, ctrl shft D splits, left/right brace snaps, b and n to adjust work area, alt left/right brace to cut, j and k to navigate key frames etc may seem insignificant, but help a lot (obviously there are hundreds of shortcuts). 3: Investigate plugins. Twixtor, twitch, element, trapcode, magic bullet, RSMB are just a few excellent 3rd party plugins that help a lot. Well I hope some of this made sense. It isn't easy trying to explain such a monuments program in text like this lol.
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Haha. Thanks, I'll look into some of the 3rd party programs that you suggested. I never even knew they existed lol.