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After Effects New York
Run by Aharon Rabinowitz, Jim Geduldick and Dennis Radeke, This is probably one of the more popular AE user groups out there and usually have some big name speakers, an awesome turnout, and some killer giveaways!
Location: New York City, New York
Next Meeting: June 24th
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Digital Media Artists Los Angeles
DMALA is a huge user group specializing in all kinds of stuff including 3D, compositing apps, as well as After Effects. They usually hold meetings on the third Tuesday of the month, so mark it on your calendars!
Location: Los Angeles, California
Next Meeting: June 15th
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Chicago Motion Artists Group
Now, this group is still in its infancy, and doesn’t really have its own site yet, so I linked it over to Mike Petrik’s page on The Motion Exchange. He seems to be the one in charge. If you want to participate, join the group, and help get some stuff going!
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Next Meeting: TBA
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Dallas After Effects User Group
With meetings held on every fourth Thursday of the month, this seems like the place to be if you are an AE user. They have been around for a while, so make sure you check them out!
Location: Dallas, Texas
Next Meeting: June 24th
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AE/EC – After Effects Ecuador
Now, I hate that I can’t tell you any more than this is an AE Group based in Ecuador. The site is in Spanish… so check it out and hit it up when there are some new events! Sorry for the language barrier guys…
Location: Ecuador, South America
Next Meeting: TBA
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After Effects Abuser Group
This is a group of pros that love visual effects, that focus mainly on AE, Photoshop and Premiere. More VFX than anything, check it out.. they have a meeting coming up on the 22nd!
Location: Anaheim, California
Next Meeting: June 22nd
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AETO After Effects Toronto
The only Canada group we have on here, they have a ton of sponsors and have had four meetings so far with some great speakers! Make sure to sign up for their mailing list to find out when the next meeting is!
Location: Toronto, Canada
Next Meeting: TBA
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Creative Crew Singapore
Based around Photoshop and After Effects, this group just had a meeting in March, but doesn’t have anything new planned yet. Make sure to stay tuned though for when something else is scheduled!
Location: Singapore
Next Meeting: TBA
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NYC Motion Graphics
This is a cool group of mograph artists that get together every once in a while, have some drinks and talk shop. Mainly made as a social event it is a cool event to hang out at in NY.
Location: New York City, New York
Next Meeting: June 8th
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CAVEMODE
CAVEMODE stands for Charlotte Animation Visual Effects Motion Design. I don’t think I could have thought a better name. These guys are the only group I have found in NC, and they deal with everything, not just After Effects.
Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Next Meeting: TBA July Sometime
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MNAEUG Minnesota After Effects
Good ol’ Minnesota dontcha know? Haha… they have a cool out of the norm type of meetup going on… a rush competition, and the best animations win prizes… very cool stuff.
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Next Meeting: June 8th
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AEPDX After Effects Portland
This is getting to be a popular group in Portland… they have some great sponsors, and some really good speakers. I think we can expect big things from AEPDX.
Location: Portland, Oregon
Next Meeting: June 9th
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Orange County Digital Arts
This is another all around user group… from AE all the way to InDesign… you might not be getting just motion graphics or visual effects, but you will get a lot of information on digital arts as a whole.
Location: Anaheim, California
Next Meeting: June 9th
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Orange County Multimedia Association
Yet another multi-faceted group, you get a little bit of everything here. Make sure you check the site to make sure you are going to the event for what you want to learn though.
Location: Varies but in Orange County, California
Next Meeting: TBA
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Houston After Effects and 3D
If you are looking to mix a little 3D into your AE life, and live close to Houston, well its a match made in heaven. Learn how to use both platform to create some amazing work!
Location: Houston, Texas
Next Meeting: TBA
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Motion North
Ahh… a UK Group! I am sorry, being on the west coast of the US in Seattle, its hard for me to know of much across the pond. This group though is all about connecting motion designers, animators, filmmakers and vfx artists in the region together!
Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
Next Meeting: TBA
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Online Media Gurus
More based in learning about producing video for the web, there is probably some great information at these meetings about marketing, web apps, and you can always share info and knowledge on creating that content! Great networking event!
Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia
Next Meeting: TBA
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MGPHX Motion Graphics Phoenix
A buddy of mine, Justin Katz that I met at NAB started up MGPHX. It is another still in its infancy, but if you are in Phoenix, make sure you start following the group and help build it up!
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Next Meeting: TBA
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AESeattle After Effects Seattle
Now, AESeattle is a project I have been kind of working on for the past couple years with Chad Perkins from Lynda.com. We had our first meeting right after NAB with the AE crew, and we had probably 60 people! We are shooting for a July meetup (making it quarterly right now) and possibly doing some video conferencing with other user groups across the country in between those events!
Location: Seattle, Washington
Next Meeting: July sometime
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Tri-State After Effects User Group
If you are around New Jersey, here is a great group to network with AE artists, share some knowledge and get to know your fellow creatives in the area.
Location: East Rutherford, New Jersey
Next Meeting: TBA
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San Diego Motion Graphic Artists
Don’t let the logo fool you, this group is all about integrating any application to create some killer motion graphics, come to the next meeting and share your knowledge!
Location: San Diego, California
Next Meeting: TBA
This is probably going to be an incomplete list, and I will say right up front that this can just be the beginning! There are groups everywhere discussing our favorite programs, places where we can geek out on animations, software, and technique, but a lot of us don’t know about them even if they are right in our backyard. Today I am going to identify some of the user groups and meetups that I know about personally, as well as leave the comments open for you to add your own links to the groups I might not have mentioned!
If you know of another group in your city, or a city close to you, ANYWHERE in the world, post it in the comments below… and if you enjoyed this post, please give it a vote on Digg or a stumble to say thanks!
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We need one in florida.
I second that! However, I did come across what seems to be some in the Miami area worth checking into…
Any group from Mexico?
hmm
I see there are no such meetings in europe ?!?
AETO… four meetings? I think this month is somewhere around the fourteenth meeting — that’s one a month for over a year. Close, though…
ahh i saw on the site they had videos of of the last meetings, and I just heard about them about four months ago… my bad. But at least I got them on the list right? haha
Totally! Thanks Topher! And thanks for the up, Trin! It’s my bad, actually – I am terrible at updating our website. This month we’re going to be having our CS5 launch party on June 23rd, and we’re giving away (among other things) Adobe Production Premium CS5. Woot!
Thanks again!!!
Russ Fairley
AETO.ca
russfairley.com
Yer, dito no europe.
I can add SF Cutters and irregulars SF Mograph, Digital Cinema Society Northern California Chapter, and MacFilmmakers.
Yeah a smart move on my part would have been emailing you… haha… next time!
san francisco motion graphic users group!!!!
http://sfmograph.org/SFMOGRAPH/SFMOGRAPH_HOME.html
Wish I lived in a large city to take advantage of these.
There’s AEP Project in Japan!
http://ae-users.com
http://aeportal.blogspot.com/2010/05/aep-night-in-tokyo-may-27.html
This post is dope!
Big ups for shouting out AETO!! The group is awesome and I try to make every meeting I can. They’ve had ton’s of fantastic presenters including but not limited to Alan Shisko, Nick Cambpell, Harry Frank, Aharon Rabinowitz and many more with even more to come.
Trin’s right though the groups done monthly meet up for over a year now thanks to the hard work of Chris and Russ.
Very cool to find out about other groups from different cities.
Thanks Topher.
Thanks for the AETO add to the list Topher! Our next meeting we’ll be connecting with Richard Harrington. Most likely by Adobe Connect June 23. We’ll need to get the rest of the meetings up there. We’re also on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/249k9t7
ahhh nothing in Australia?
Where abouts are you in Australia? I’d be keen on starting one…
why only VS-groups?
I would like the hear from other countries too!
Anyone ?
What do you mean by VS?
Nice to see, would be good to see more UK or Europe groups mind.
anything in Denver? we’ve got several big studios here, I’d like to get linked into them.
great post, Topher, your hard work is very appreciated!
Nice to have in India …. if it is there please let me know…
There is a monthly one called See No Evil in London.
a friend and I started a motion graphics group in Milwaukee, WI called Mograph Milwaukee
http://www.mographmilwaukee.net
What is this See No Evil Evan? I’m in London and have not heard of it. Is there a website?
I’ve started a Detroit area motion graphics group also coinciding with the Detroit chapter of ACM Siggraph.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=159762574143
We need one in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
We definitly need some of these user groups in Europe! Not talking about Italy, I might think about starting one in Rome though…
If anyone is interested please contact me!
ciao
I know this is an old post, but it’s worth a shot… I am going to start an AE group in Atlanta this year. If anyone sees this in the Atlanta area and is interested, please shoot me an email. And if you don’t live in the Atlanta area, and you wouldn’t mind, please tweet my intentions and my username, @silvercamera. Thanks!
just tweeted it for you
A new motion graphics user group just started up in Las Vegas! Check us out: http://www.meetup.com/motiongraphicsLV/events/16973478/