Learn about Summer 2025 Pre-College opportunities at UMass Amherst. Our residential and online pre-college programs are designed to give you a preview of the UMass student experience, including college-level academics and being part of a learning community of high school students from all across the U.S. and the world. Our programs feature faculty-led courses, state-of-the-art facilities, and the #1 campus dining in the U.S., as ranked by the Princeton Review. Find out more!
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Learn and master the secrets to Adobe After Effects, the industry standard for creating digital character animation, motion graphics, and Hollywood visual effects. This is a crash course for beginners and assumes no prior After Effects experience, but there will still be plenty of new material to learn for students who are already familiar with the basics. In this two week intensive seminar, you will learn how to…
- Use the puppet pin tool and plugins like Rubber Hose and DUIK to create walk cycles, dialogue lip sync, and animate 2D cartoon characters
- Animate text, abstract shapes, graphic icons, and photographs to create educational and commercial motion graphic designs
- Camera track, green screen, and composite visual effects into live action footage, using the same techniques used on feature film productions
- And much much more!
The first week of the course will be a thorough overview of the capabilities of the software. We will go from opening the program for the first time, to learning skills and techniques, to creating polished professional animations and visual effects. Classes will consist of demonstrations, hands-on demos, and short exercises to practice the skills we are learning.
The second week will be devoted to each student developing and completing an individual final project: either a short animation or visual effect movie. Through this project, students will gain experience with all parts of professional movie making workflows including pre-production, production, post-production, and project management.
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This course is offered at the UMass Amherst campus as a residential program. Local students may apply to attend as a commuter.
Cost and Session Information
Dates: June 29 – July 12, 2025
Two-Week Intensives: $3,907 residential / $2,262 commuter
*Program fees listed above include tuition and room & board; materials and software may be required.
*All programs require submission of $45 application fee.
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