In After Effects Guru: Plugins You Should Know course, Nick Harauz goes a different route to most After Effects courses and takes you through not only the plugins that are available in After Effects but also a comprehensive look at the most popular third-party plugins out there.
This is a really useful course to find out how certain third-party plugins can boost your productivity and creativity inside of After Effects and help you find the ones that are most useful to you as a motion designer. The sample video above discusses Element 3D and how it can improve your 3D workflow in After Effects.
You can get a free 10 day trial of Lynda.com here so that you can watch this course and thousands of others.
The course covers all the major After Effects plugins and explores them according to their use in After Effects:
Major Plugin Packages – Boris BCC 10, Red Giant Effects Suite, Red Giant Universe, Red Giant Trapcode Suite, GenArts Sapphire
Working with particle simulations – Trapcode Particular, Trapcode Form, Plexus 2, Nodes 2
Options for 3D in After Effects – Element 3D, FreeForm Pro, Shapeshifter AE, Zaxwerks Invigorator PRO
Simplifying complex keyframe animations & working with expressions – Motion 2, Newton 2
Enhancing beauty – Digital Anarchy Beauty Box, BCC 10 Beauty Box, Sapphire S_Beauty
Using lens flares – Optical Flares, Knoll Light Factory, BCC Lens Flares