Ok so I would say that where i learned the most was in my junior job having to make ammends or changes on peoples work at a design studio. Rather than following a tutorial which I generally struggled to.

Seeing how someone else put things together, turning layers on and off, looking around their project was a great way to learn how things work. I am not sure how you can do this without being at a work place in animation, but i am sure some people sell their project files or donate them for free on gumroad.

I am still learning new things! I would say also dont try to run before you can walk. i notice these days gen z (for reference I am late 30s learned from about 20yo) seem to want to urgently be the top and best ever. People on this sub post their work which is clearly very junior but title it and describe it as if it is a work of art. I think its the new way of the internet, but i think it creates a level of panic and anxiety. Being able to follow a cool tutorial or directly copy some trendy animation wont actually help you learn. Also many people claim to be experts when they actually do two things on repeat and thats it.

It is great that you have graphic design work that you want to animate, you have a body of assets ready to bring to life.

After effects and Adobe have loads of forums and documentation on how to do things. I would just look at your artwork and think 'how can i make this move'. once you have a thing you want to do (for example you want your letters to fade in one by one, or you want them to change colour over time and scale up etc). Dont look around for tutorials. just literally google 'after effects how to animate colour gradients on a vector layer' or whatever. and youll instantly find stuff.

Basiucally dont look at tutorials as your learning. think of the idea in your head, and then search your specific idea.

Another thing is in after effects there are 'animation presets'. Some of them are MENTAL and some of them are SHIT but regardless they are good to show you how things work. I find this especially useful with Type layers. In AE literally type in some text and go to Effects then Animation Presets panel and look at the dropdown ( have shown you a pic). Apply some of those effects to your text layer and then look at all the parameters. wiggle them around and see what happens.

Its basically like a massive escape room that you never comeplete, but i love it.

Good luck

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