👋 Welcome to the latest edition of my monthly motion design newsletter, where I bring you fresh tutorials, a sneak peak of what’s coming soon, a handy tip, and a random recommendation!

🥳 New

Learn how to combine basic shapes to create more complex illustrations in Adobe Illustrator (no drawing skills required), in my new class: Illustrate with Shapes: Design Vector Graphics in Adobe Illustrator.

Watch the trailer:

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In this beginner-friendly class, I’ll demonstrate how I illustrated 6 icons by building with shapes. You can either recreate my icons, or apply the techniques you learn to create your own set of icons.

This class is the perfect way to practice the tools and techniques you learn in my Adobe Illustrator Essentials series.

This series of 8 videos will be released on YouTube over the next couple months (the first 3 videos are up now). Or, you can watch the whole series now on Skillshare now.

🤫 Sneak Peak

Once you illustrate a set of icons in my Illustrate with Shapes class, you can learn how to animate them in After Effects in my class, Easy Animated Icons. Since this class was the first class I ever recorded, I’m going to give it a refresh by re-recording it.

⚡ Quick Tip

Here’s an easy way to retime layers in After Effects:

Hold option (Mac) or alt (Windows) and drag the end of a layer. Dragging to the left will shrink the layer and therefore speed it up. Dragging to the right will stretch the layer and therefore slow it down.

This works for most types of layers: layers with keyframes, compositions, video clips, etc.

👉 Random Recommendation

Everyday, after working on the computer all day, I do 10–30 minutes of yoga. 🧘‍♀️ I first went to a yoga class in college and thought yoga wasn’t for me - too slow and boring. I’m so glad that my dad pestered me into giving yoga another try; I’ve found it so beneficial for just generally feeling good (and not too slow or boring).

I think the key is to find a yoga style and teacher you like. For me, that’s been Boho Beautiful. I have no affiliation with them, but they have a YouTube channel and membership (which I’ve been apart of from the start!).

Megan Friesth

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