I saw a Stephen Zimmit tutorial on YouTube. 3D shapes, lighting, After Effects. Never heard of motion design before that. Watched it and immediately wanted to do the same thing.
Bought a subscription, downloaded After Effects, learned the basics in 3–4 days. Then jumped in.
Started by copying the shapes from the tutorial. Learned how extrusion and lighting worked, got two shapes done, then stopped following it. Started making my own shapes instead.
Failed a lot. Wrong shapes, bad lighting, things that just looked off. Kept tweaking, kept breaking stuff, kept trying different setups.
A week later it was done. New shapes, good lighting, first ever After Effects project.
That whole week I was on my PC longer than I'd ever been. Didn't feel like work.
