Software used for video tutorials

The animations in the videos are pretty sweet looking.

Of course Treehouse has 3 full tilme motion graphics pros on staff, so how they do it at their film studio is probably pretty different they how you'd do it on your computer.

oh, so you're saying they must be using macs then, eh?

All of the animations I've seen on the videos could be made with After Effects. They're well designed and animated but quite simple technically (hey, less is better).

I think I saw one very simple 3d animation in an early video of the PHP track. I think, can't remember it well. They might have used a 3d software for that or some makeshift solution on AE (AE has support for manipulating 2d imagery in 3d space, it's limited but you can do a lot if all you need is basic, very low-poly, 3d shapes). Other than that all you need is AE, definitely not a million dollar studio.

If you're familiar with illustrator and photoshop take some time and study a video-editing software (my favorite was Final Cut before the awful redesign, you can go with Premiere and will be fine) to grasp some editing concepts and be familiarized with a timeline, keyframes. Then AE will come easily. It has a very low learning-curve, but you can take it very far as you get skilled.

That's for the animation. For the live footage you will need more equipment and professionals. And a studio if you plan on shooting on a chroma background. AE will do fine for the post-production of this footage.

Conceptually, I'd recommend that you look into: For AE-> Design/Illustration/Animation For Video-> Screenplays/Producing/Directing/Acting/Editing

Go for it! (:

For the live footage you will need more equipment and professionals. And a studio if you plan on shooting on a chroma background. AE will do fine for the post-production of this footage.

Good to know.

James, I'd just like to clarify that AE will do just fine for the animations. Because that was his original question.

For the production of the live footage, more equipment and professionals will be needed to produce such high value videos. From the scripts to the post-production. And that could easily run up to a million dollar.

I love the Treehouse content, the videos are absolutely great in content and production value. I just wanted to make this clear not to be seen like I'm diminishing the Treehouse productions in any way. Especially because I'm of the opposite opinion, I find them incredibly well made!

(:

The animations are 'technically' simple, mostly scale/position/rotation/alpha/masks transforms, but still take time to animate well. Fine tuning makes a huge difference.

Besides, I don't think the 'motion' team only animates. More than that, they most likely participate in relevant design jobs regarding the content and information to be expressed, story to tell. Anything from participating during screenwriting; designing the animations (what to animate, how, drawing illustrations) with the writers/teachers; and finally animating. I wouldn't be surprised if they collaborated in those as it makes sense, it's a very specific content. And from the quality and relevance of the animations I'm pretty sure they're more than 'keyframe monkeys' lol.

One other thing is 'client considerations' and adjustments, those take time... (:

Can any of the treehouse staff comment on what the software they use is to create the animated snippets? I'm curious as well. Thanks!