After Effects 26 Drops + The Motion Designer DNA Test | Motion Mondays

After Effects 26.0 brings native 3D to motion designers, some major 2026 predictions that may completely change your career outlook, and some wild new workflows that blend AI with traditional animation tools!

By School of Motion 2 min read

This week, After Effects 26.0 dropped with some game-changing updates including native 3D tools, new material support, and other features motion designers have been asking for. We're also diving into three articles that connect in a surprising way—Michelle Higa Fox on the generalist mindset, Buck's 2026 predictions, and Vucko's fascinating Motion DNA Test where they asked: can you recognize a brand purely from its motion? The results might surprise you.

Plus, Frame studio just posted a stunning luxury brand ad that has everyone talking, Adobe's Project Neo is evolving in an interesting direction, and some free tools for After Effects and Blender that you won’t want to miss.

We’re also looking at an artist integrating AI with traditional tools in ways you might not expect, highlighting some incredible work, and cheering on our Student of the Week who absolutely crushed the Cinema 4D Basecamp final project.

⚡️ New Course: UX Animation Essentials

We are excited to release UX Animation Essentials, where you’ll learn to transform static interfaces into engaging experiences using industry-standard UX motion tools. You'll work through a realistic music app project from kickoff call to developer handoff, learning not just how to animate interfaces, but why certain motion choices solve specific user problems. You’ll also get introduced to the strategic toolkit - Figma for rapid prototyping, After Effects for polished assets, ProtoPie for gesture-based interactions, and Rive for runtime animation - while also learning when to reach for each tool, how to speak the language of product teams, and how to spec your work so engineers can build it.