I’ve had the honor of being the manager of the Adobe After Effects User Group for 6 years (2013-2019). It’s been a blast and I’ve thrown a bunch of Adobe sponsored events as well as animation-themed Design Week events and meetups in Portland. I’ve since passed on the reins to local PDX animation studio, Deep Sky Studios.
![](https://jamalqutub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/welcome_2017-1024x683.jpg)
Reel Review / 2013
The first event was a reel review with a panel of local judges picking their favorite Student, Professional, and Studio reels.
![](https://jamalqutub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/dwp-nimpsy-art-txt-1024x1024.jpg)
AEmoji / 2014
Participants were given random emojis as the inspirational theme for their videos or animations.
![](https://jamalqutub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/14_AEmoji-681x1024.jpg)
Alphabest / 2016
Participants were given a random letter and had to come up with one word as the title and theme of their videos or animations.
![](https://jamalqutub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/16_Alphabest-1200x1800-1-683x1024.jpg)
DrAEms / 2017
Participants had to come up with dream-inspired animations.
![](https://jamalqutub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/17_Draems.png)
CuriOsity / 2018
Participants had to come up with a single word with the letter “O” along with two colors to create their video or animation.
![](https://jamalqutub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/18_Curiosity-683x1024.jpg)
Retrospective / 2019
We showed off a highlight reel featuring the best of the last 5 years.
![](https://jamalqutub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/DXNelQtC-1024x640.png)