Beginning of second year. We started getting into After Effects and the first project was a pinball machine animation. I genuinely enjoyed this one.

The interesting challenge was trying to mimic the physics of a real pinball machine in a flat animation tool. Timing, weight, bounce: none of it is automatic, you have to build it through keyframes and easing curves and then test it and rebuild it. Getting it to feel convincing took more iteration than expected but that iteration was actually fun. You keep playing the sequence back and asking yourself whether it feels right.

The other thing I got into was using null objects and parenting to animate a robot arm. Null objects in After Effects let you create a hierarchical chain. The arm moves as connected segments rather than independent parts, which is how a real arm works. Getting that to move the way I wanted took some figuring out but once it clicked it was satisfying in a way that pure graphic design work sometimes isn't.

What I learned

Motion design rewards patience in a way other design disciplines don't always. You can't judge the result until the whole sequence plays, which means a lot of testing and adjusting. This was also the first time I thought seriously about the physics side of animation (weight, gravity, timing) rather than just position and scale. That changes how you approach it.