Project

Workbench

Year

2015-Present

Role

Education

Summary

We created Workbench to teach advanced motion designers new and innovative techniques that they can employ to make their lives easier.

Joe learned After Effects during a time where there weren't many tutorials available—searching for After Effects used to get you scientific articles. So he always wanted to give back to the community to help artists get a leg up on their journey. But when he was finally ready to make tutorials, the whole landscape had changed and many people had begun to fill the void. Instead, he decided to fill a different hole in the market—tutorials for advanced users. So in 2015, during a slow period right after Thanksgiving, Joe set out to start Workbench. And eventually Sev joined him on the journey as well.

From 2016 to 2019 we made a tutorial every week, even as we got way more busy. Eventually we abandoned our schedule as we hit No. 200. We still work on them as we can, and every month we still give patrons project files with new things we've explored.

Workbench has not only helped our community—it has also helped us immensely. Sticking with such a rigorous schedule forced us to explore our software more fully, and use it in unexpected ways. It's also helped us to form friendships and partnerships in our community. Joe has spoken at a conference, and we began Element Supply Co. to sell our tools—along with those from our friends who are also industry leaders—to help other artists.

There has been no other passion project so far for us greater than Wokbench.

What a ride this has been. And it's far from over. Learn more at Workbench.

Work done at Yellow Dog Party