Get exam-ready for the Adobe After Effects certification with practice questions built around Adobe's official exam guide, a downloadable PDF, and a scenario-based Test Engine. Start free, upgrade when you're ready.
The Adobe After Effects certification — officially titled Adobe Certified Professional in Visual Effects & Motion Graphics Using Adobe After Effects — validates your ability to build compositions, animate with keyframes and expressions, composite footage, and export motion graphics projects for delivery. It combines After Effects mechanics with motion design theory: the twelve principles of animation, film form terminology, and accessibility standards for motion content.
It's delivered through Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, in the same Professional Certifications tier as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. Adobe's target candidate profile describes someone with roughly 150 hours of hands-on After Effects experience who can apply motion design principles to handle routine compositing and animation tasks independently.
Title: Adobe Certified Professional in Visual Effects & Motion Graphics Using Adobe After Effects
Format: A selected-response Questions section followed by a live-in-the-app Tasks section inside After Effects, both completed in one sitting
Number of questions: 30
Duration: 50 minutes
Passing score: 700 out of 1,000
Cost: US$150 for an online OnVUE exam in the US; in-person Certiport Authorized Testing Centers set their own pricing, which can vary by location and bundle
Prerequisite: None formally required; roughly 150 hours of hands-on experience and instruction is recommended
Delivery: Online via Certiport's OnVUE remote proctoring, or in-person at a Certiport Authorized Testing Center
Credential validity: 3 years from the date of issue
Badge: Official Certiport certificate plus a Credly digital badge, both verifiable and shareable to LinkedIn, portfolios, or a resume
Specialty credential path: Adobe's After Effects page notes that combining this certification with another Adobe Certified Professional credential can earn a Video Design specialty credential; check Adobe's current specialty credential page for the exact qualifying pairs at the time you test
Exam version: This guide reflects the 2025 version of the exam; 2018–2020 objectives are archived on Certiport
Adobe's official exam guide organizes the After Effects exam into 6 domains. As with the other Adobe Certified Professional exams, no percentage weighting is published per domain — this is the complete official topic list. Domains 4 and 5 (Creating and Modifying Visual Elements, and Animating Visual Elements) carry the most sub-objectives, so they deserve the heaviest hands-on practice.
1. Working in the Visual Effects and Motion Graphics Industry: interpreting client goals, delivery requirements, and accessibility standards for motion content (contrast, motion sensitivity, text legibility); pre-production techniques like storyboarding and animatics; project management concepts; copyright, licensing, and AI-generated content considerations; motion design terminology (frame rate, codecs, keyframing, compositing); the twelve principles of animation; film form and design principles.
2. Project Setup and Interface: modifying project settings for performance and playback; creating and modifying compositions to match delivery requirements (frame rate, resolution, duration); configuring application preferences; navigating and customizing the workspace and key panels (Project, Timeline, Composition, Effects & Presets); working with the timeline, markers, guides, and grids.
3. Organizing Compositions: importing media from Photoshop, Illustrator, and other sources, including image sequences; managing, relinking, and organizing assets; identifying layer types (footage, text, solid, shape, camera, adjustment, light, null object); managing layers in the Timeline panel, including switches, modes, and blending; nesting, parenting, and pre-composing layers; modifying anchor points.
4. Creating and Modifying Visual Elements: placing and creating visual elements with Shape and Pen tools; modifying layers with opacity, track mattes, and masks; creating and formatting text, including motion graphics templates (MOGRTs); adjusting layers in the timeline (trimming, splitting, in/out points); transforming visual elements; tracking and stabilizing footage; changing layer speed with time remapping and time stretching; working in 3D space; applying and adjusting effects and presets.
5. Animating Visual Elements: applying and modifying keyframes for transform properties; using keyframe interpolation (Easy Ease, Graph Editor, spatial/temporal interpolation); animating with effects and expressions (Wiggle, Pick Whip, loop expressions); animating mask paths and track mattes; creating and modifying text animations with Text Animators.
6. Publishing Digital Media: checking a composition for errors before publishing (audio levels, resolution, frame rate, title safe area); archiving a project with Collect Files; exporting frames and file sequences; exporting compositions with the Render Queue or Adobe Media Encoder, including codecs, alpha channels, and multiple delivery formats.
Across all six domains, these are the concepts that show up repeatedly on the exam:
The twelve principles of animation: easing, anticipation, follow-through, timing, exaggeration
Layer types and management: footage, shape, adjustment, null objects, and nesting/parenting
Masks, track mattes, and mask path animation
Keyframe interpolation: Easy Ease, the Graph Editor, spatial vs. temporal interpolation
Expressions: Wiggle, Pick Whip, and loop expressions for repeated motion
Motion graphics templates (MOGRTs) and the Essential Graphics panel
Tracking and stabilizing footage with the Tracker panel and Warp Stabilizer
Working in 3D space: axes, 2.5D techniques, and the 3D Transform Gizmo
Render Queue vs. Adobe Media Encoder, codecs, and alpha channel export
Accessibility standards for motion content and copyright/licensing considerations
Day 1 — Industry Fundamentals: client communication, delivery requirements, accessibility standards, pre-production techniques, copyright/licensing/AI content ethics, and motion design terminology including the twelve principles of animation. Covers Domain 1.
Day 2 — Project Setup & Interface: project and composition settings, application preferences, workspace navigation, timeline controls, markers, guides, and grids. Covers Domain 2.
Day 3 — Organizing Compositions: importing media, managing assets, layer types, Timeline panel management, nesting/parenting, and anchor points. Covers Domain 3.
Day 4 — Creating Visual Elements: Shape and Pen tools, masks and track mattes, text creation and MOGRTs, and preparing footage for compositing (trimming, transforming). Covers objectives 4.1–4.3.
Day 5 — Manipulating Footage: tracking and stabilizing, changing layer speed, working in 3D space, and applying effects and presets. Covers objectives 4.4–4.5.
Day 6 — Animation: keyframing, interpolation and the Graph Editor, animating with effects and expressions, mask path animation, and text animation. Covers Domain 5.
Day 7 — Publishing & Full Mock Exam: preparing a composition for publishing, archiving, and exporting frames/compositions, then a full timed 30-question mock with live-in-app-style tasks in the Test Engine. Covers Domain 6.
This credential fits motion designers, VFX artists, video editors expanding into compositing, and students building a motion graphics reel. If your work also involves footage editing and sequencing, our Premiere Pro exam page is the natural pairing — Adobe notes that combining After Effects with another certification can earn the Video Design specialty credential.
TroyTec builds After Effects certification prep around the exact six domains in Adobe's current 2025 exam guide, down to the specific sub-objectives Adobe publishes — not a generic "learn After Effects" course.
Free preview: sample PDF questions, a limited Test Engine, and unlimited access to TroyTec's AI chat tutor to work through concepts before you commit
Scenario-based Test Engine: questions styled after both the selected-response Questions section and the practical judgment the live-in-app Tasks section requires
PDF question bank: organized by the same six domains Adobe publishes, so you can see exactly what's covered before you study
Content verified against Adobe's current published After Effects exam guide
US$150 for an online OnVUE exam in the United States. In-person Certiport Authorized Testing Centers set their own pricing, which can vary by location, currency, and whether it's bundled with retakes or study materials.
The exam has 30 questions across a 50-minute session, split into a selected-response Questions section and a live-in-the-app Tasks section. You need a passing score of 700 out of 1,000.
3 years from the date it's issued. Certifications aren't tied to a specific After Effects version, though the exam guide itself is periodically updated — this one reflects the 2025 version.
There's no formal prerequisite, but Adobe's target candidate profile assumes around 150 hours of hands-on experience — enough to handle routine compositing, animation, and export tasks independently.
Yes — some older training materials reference an "ACE: After Effects CC" exam with a 70-minute limit and a 64% passing score. That was a legacy Adobe Certified Expert program administered differently from the current Certiport-delivered Adobe Certified Professional exam covered on this page.
No. Leaked or brain-dumped exam questions violate Adobe and Certiport's certification policies and can get a credential revoked. They're also frequently outdated once Adobe refreshes the exam version, as it did for 2025. TroyTec doesn't sell dumps — our question bank is written to match Adobe's current published exam guide, not copied from a live exam.
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Everything you need to know about the Adobe After Effects Certification certification
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