How to Edit Viral SaaS Animations in 2026 (Step-by-step guide) transcript

The SaaS animation style is absolutely dominating Instagram in 2026. And editors are charging one to two thousand dollars per video for this style. So, in this video, I'm going to show you how we created this full viral SaaS trailer from scratch inside of After Effects. This is Ultimate Editors 2.0. It's the fastest and the easiest way to learn video editing in 2026. Inside the program, you'll learn multiple high-quality viral editing styles.

And you'll even unlock the $2,000 per month editor blueprint, making Ultimate Editors 2.0 the best way to learn video editing in 2026. This trailer has six total animation scenes. And because of how advanced this editing style is, we're going to be splitting this tutorial into two parts. In this one, you're going to learn the first three SaaS animations. A minimal SaaS text pop-up animation, a glass UI animation popping from two sides, and a high-end 3D interactive course scene.

By the end of this tutorial, you guys are going to know how to create these animations from scratch by yourself. [music] So, go ahead and download the project files and assets down below, and let's go ahead and dive right in. And by the way, we're building a full SaaS animation style masterclass in Ultimate Editors 2.0 that breaks down this editing style step by step. So, if you want access to that, click the link down below.

Now, the first animation is made up of a soft gradient background with layered shapes for depth, a minimal text pop-up, a centered icon animation, and a smooth shape transition that ties everything together. We're going to break down each and every single element step by step. Background, text, icon, and transition before combining it together to create this full animation. >> So, let's jump straight into it. Starting off, we're in After Effects.

Let's go ahead and drag our voiceover into the composition. The first step is to create the minimal background. So, right click and create a new solid. Drag a gradient ramp on it, and let's color it. Swap the colors, and set the bottom one to a light gray for a subtle look. Right click, add a new shape layer, select the pen tool, and draw a shape just like so. Now, disable the stroke and set the fill to a light purple.

Duplicate the shape layer and drag it backwards like so, and set the color to an even lighter purple. Do the same one more time and just set the color to a darker purple. Now, hold shift, select the shape layers, and precompose them together. Drag a Gaussian blur on it and set the amount to 350. This way the shape layers blend with the background. And also, set the opacity to 50%. Duplicate the precomposed layer, drag a transform effect on it, and set the scale height to 100 and the width to minus 100 to put it on the other side of the composition.

Drag a hue and saturation effect on the duplicated layer and play with the master hue to change the color and then decrease the layer's opacity to 30%. And now, to bring this entire background to life, add a turbulent displace on the precomposed layer, keyframe the evolution, move forward, and set it to four. Copy the turbulent displace, paste it on the precomposed layer above, and drag the keyframe back like so. And now that our background's complete, it's time to animate the text.

Right click and start by adding a new text layer. Write out the word this and set the font type to medium. Click on animate and position. Drop down the position like so and expand the advanced tab. Set the based on function to words and the shape to ramp up and the units to index. Keyframe the end and move it to the beginning and set the end to five. Click on add property, [music] select blur, and set it to 10. Click on add again, opacity, and set it to 30.

Click on add one more time, fill color RGB, and set the color to purple. And this is what you're going to end up with. Duplicate the text, write out is, move it to the right like so, and delete the layer. Right click and create a new null object, parent the text layer to the null object, keyframe the position at the beginning, turn on the grid, move forward, and drag the layers to the left like so. Select the keyframes and go into the speed graph, then start it slow and end it slow.

Move forward again and move them even more to the left. Select the keyframes and do the same to the graph again. Right click and create a shape layer, select the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle like so, center it to the middle and change the color to white and set the roundness to 60. Set the scale to 80 and drag in the Ultimate Editor's logo into After Effects. And speaking of Ultimate Editors, if you want to master this SaaS style step-by-step, you guys know exactly where to find it.

But just go ahead and scale it down, track matte it to the shape layer and duplicate the shape layer and drag it below this layer. Enable the view, enable the stroke and set the stroke color to white and increase it like so. Now, add a drop shadow on this layer and set the distance to 17 and the softness to 40. And set the opacity to 25. Now, add a drop shadow on the other shape layer, set the distance to 20 and the softness to 20 and the opacity to 15.

Right click on the UE logo, go to layer styles and click on inner glow. Expand the tab and set the color to white, the size to 90 [music] and decrease the opacity to 21. Select the UE icon and the shape layer below and parent it to the other shape layer. Scale it down and place it like so. Rotate it, keyframe the scale, rotation and position. Move back and drop the position down like so, scale it down and rotate it. And now, to give it some bounce, click on bounce it for position, for scale and finally for rotation.

Move the layers where the animation should start, drag the layers below the null object and parent this shape layer to the null object, go to the last keyframe and adjust the position like so. And now, duplicate this text layer, [music] move the layer over here, change the text to 2.0, move it to the right and change the font type to heavy. Now, add a keyframe on the null object where the text layer starts, move forward and center it like so.

Select the keyframes, go into the speed graph and start it slow and end it slow. >> [music] >> Right click, add a shape layer, move it to where the text starts and using our rectangle tool, create a square just like this. Decrease the stroke, move the shape layer under the text and increase the roundness all the way up. Center the anchor point and scale it up. Now, drag a four color gradient on it to adjust the points like so and set the blend to 25.

Change the colors to white and a light purple to maintain the color scheme, and add a gradient ramp on the 2.0 text layer and adjust the points like so. Change the first color to a dark purple and the second one to a lighter purple, then just parent the shape layer to the null layer. Keyframe the scale and rotation, move back, and start the scale at zero and increase the rotation to minus 14. Finally, press bounce it for rotation, and then select scale and bounce it again.

Duplicate the shape layer, move the layer down, delete the bouncer effect on the foreground gradient, go to the last keyframe and scale it up and change the color to this light pink. >> [music] >> Duplicate it again, scale it up, change the color to a lighter pink, and duplicate it one more time, scale it up and change the color to an even lighter pink, and duplicate it again, scale it up and change the color to a white.

Now, select the shape layers, bring them below the text and icon layers, and holding down shift, select the scale keyframes, go into the speed graph and start them fast and end them slow. Then just extend them like so. Delete the rotation keyframes and delay the layers like this. And now that the entire animation's complete, let's go ahead and work on the transition. Go ahead and keyframe the scale for the shape layer, move forward, and increase it until you fill the screen up.

Select the keyframes and go into the speed graph and start it slow and end it fast. Cut the layers below like this. Now, keyframe the scale for the 2.0 text, move forward, and increase it to 110. Move forward again and set it to zero. Then just bounce the scale. Select the keyframes, go into the speed graph, and just copy my graph. For the shape layer, keyframe the opacity, move forward, and set it to zero. Now, before we move into our second animation, you might feel like what we're covering here is complex [music] and fast.

This is normal. Video editing in 2026 is not simple anymore. Dozens of viral editing styles, motion design, and advanced principles. It's overwhelming. That's why we decided to build the easiest and fastest way to get into video editing and learn the viral editing styles like [music] the SAS style as a complete beginner. Inside Ultimate Editors 2.0, we'll teach you Premiere Pro and After Effects step by step, then we'll break down the four viral editing styles [music] of 2026 in easy courses, the cinematic style, the minimal style, the SAS animation style, and the viral animation breakdowns.

And then, we'll show you the exact plan editors are following to make $2,000 per month with video editing. And beginner editors like you are joining ultimate editors and becoming viral editors in no time, and even going on to making thousands and thousands of dollars with video editing. Look, we will teach you the fundamentals of video editing. We'll guide you step-by-step through the viral editing styles of 2026. [music] We'll teach you how to make money with video editing.

Ultimate Editors 2.0 is the step-by-step way for beginner editors like you to learn viral video editing and make serious money with editing. So, click the link down below, and let's learn the viral editing [music] styles today. Now, with all this being said, the second animation is made up of a UE logo, a soft glass design, simple text, circular layers that reveal the 2026 message, and a smooth transition into the next [music] scene.

We're going to break down every element step-by-step. The UE 2.0 logo, the circular transition, the glass design, animating the glass, the 2026 text reveal, and the transition out before combining them into the final animation. So, let's go ahead and jump straight into it. Go ahead and start by creating a brand new shape layer. Select a rectangle mask and draw a square just like so. Center it and increase the roundness to 88.

Set the fill to gradient and change the first color to white and the second color to a very light pink. Adjust the gradient points like so, and increase the stroke to 20 [music] and drag a drop shadow onto it. Set the distance to 15 and the softness to 45 and the opacity to seven. [music] Right-click, create a new text layer, and write out UE. Set the font type to black and decrease the pacing like so. Scale it up, align it, and drag a four-color gradient to it.

Adjust the points in the corners, change the first color to a pink, the second color to a purple, and the third color to an orange, and the last color to a light blue. Then, just play with the colors a little bit more until you end up with this. Drag a CC light sweep onto the text layer, center it, and set the sweep intensity to zero. Move the angle to the left and set the edge thickness to three and the edge intensity to 75.

Then, drag a Deep Glow onto the text layer and set the threshold mode to luminance and set the threshold to 82 and the exposure to 0.5. And now, to animate it, parent the text layer to the shape layer, scale it down, and move back. Set the keyframe for the position, scale, and rotation for the previous shape layer. Move forward, drag it down, scale it up, and set the rotation to zero. This is so that we can match the other logo.

Select the keyframe, go into the speed graph, and start it slow and end it fast. Keyframe the scale, rotation, and position for the new shape layer. Increase the rotation, scale it up, and move it up like so. Move forward and drag the position down, scale it up, and set the rotation to zero. Then, bounce the scale, position, and rotation. Keyframe the opacity for the previous UE logo, move forward, and set it to zero.

Keyframe the opacity for the UE text layer, go back, and set it to zero. This way, we're going to have a much smoother animation, and this is the animation we end up with. Now that our logo UI is complete, it's time to dive into creating the glass. So, right click and add in a new shape layer. Select the rectangle tool and draw a stretched rectangle like so. Go into the gradient editor and add a bunch of colors by clicking here.

Then, go into each one of them and play with the color variation, but make sure to stick to the same light color scheme. Drag the gradient points like so and set the stroke to 10 pixels and increase the roundness. Duplicate the shape layer and add a flip effect onto it. Set the scale height to 100 and then the scale width to minus 100. Add a linear wipe effect onto the shape layer and set the angle to minus 90 to wipe the completion to 60 [music] and the feather to 95.

Copy the linear wipe and paste it on the other shape layer. Then, just change the angle like so and set the opacity to 50 for both of the layers. Select the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle like so. >> [music] >> Center it, increase the roundness, and go into the gradient editor. Select the points, delete them like so, but make sure you have these two over here. Change the last two colors to a light purple, adjust the gradient points like so, and disable the stroke.

Duplicate the UI text layer, bring it up, and set the parents to none. Change the text to fastest, [music] scale it down, and move it up. Adjust the four-color gradient points from the text layer and add them in this icon. Move it over here, copy the effects from the text layer, and paste them onto the icon. Adjust the gradient points like so, and play with the colors until you end up with this. Now, set the light sweep center to the icon center, and move the layers to the right like so.

And now, to create the glass UI, duplicate the placeholder shape layer and bring it up. Set the gradient ramp to fill and change the color to black. Right-click and add an inner glow. Expand the tab and set the color to white and increase the size. Create an adjustment layer, drag a Gaussian blur on it, set the blurriness to 100, and track matte it to the shape layer, and click on this little icon here. Track matte the icon to the shape layer and enable the layer back.

Then, drag a brightness and contrast onto the adjustment layer and decrease the brightness. Add a displacement map on the adjustment layer, set the displacement map to the shape layer below, and set the horizontal displacement and the vertical displacement to minus 30. Add a transform effect onto the adjustment layer and set the scale to 120 and move it above the displacement map. Duplicate the fastest text, delete the light sweep, and the deep glow, scale it, and move it up.

Track matte it to the shape layer and go to the last opacity keyframe and set it to 25. Add a gradient ramp on it and delete the four-color gradient and adjust the gradient points like so. Duplicate the icon, move it to the right, delete all the effects from it, add a gradient ramp, and adjust the points like so, and decrease the opacity. And now, scale it up, adjust its position, then hold down shift, select all these layers, and parent them to this layer.

Now, move the shape layer's position to the left, select all the UI layers, duplicating them, bring them up, move the position to the right, and delete the layers like so. Now, change the main text to easiest and the shadow as well. Adjust the four-color gradient points and play with the colors until you end up with this. Change the placeholder's color to this light blue and add in this new icon. Drag the icon below the adjustment layer and change its position like so.

Copy all the effects from the lighting icon, paste them on the hand, and delete the lighting icon. Track mat the hand icon into the placeholder and play with the colors as well until you end up with something like this. Set the light sweep to the center and change the direction to the right. Duplicate the hand icon, delete all the effects, move it to the right, copy the gradient ramp from the lighting shadow layer, and paste it on the hand, [music] then delete the lightning shadow.

Set the blending mode to darken, change the gradient ramp to this orange, and set the opacity to 30. For the text easiest, set the light sweep to the center here, and this is the design we end up with. Now, go ahead and push the UI glass layers to the right and let's begin animating. Keyframe the transition completion for the gradient layers, move back and start them at 100. Then select the keyframes, go into the speed graph, start them fast and end them slow.

Delay the layers and this is what we end up with. Moving on to the UI glass, select the first UI layers, drag them over here, select the icon and the icon's shadow, keyframe the position, move back and start the shadow to the right and the icon to the left. Then, just bounce them. Keyframe the scale for the text shadow, move it forward and start it by scaling it down. Then, just bounce it as well. For the placeholder, keyframe the position, move it forward, start it at the left, and bounce it.

Keyframe the rotation as well, move it forward, and rotate it like so, and bounce the keyframes. And finally, for an extra touch, delay the layers like so. For the other UI glass, select the layers and drag them over here. Keyframe the position for the text layer and then scale for the icon and the shadow. Scale down the shadow and the icon, move the text up and bounce it, and then also bounce the scale keyframes for the icons.

Keyframe the position and the rotation for the placeholder, move them forward, start it at the left, rotate it like so, and then bounce the position and rotation. And finally, just delay the layers and parent the icon with the shadow to the placeholder. And this is what we end up with. And now that animation [music] two is complete, it's time to build the transition between animation two and animation three. So, select these two text layers, duplicate them and bring them over here.

Change the text to 2026 and the word 2026, change the font type to black. Align them in the middle like so, create a new shape layer, and select your ellipse tool and draw a big circle like so. Center it and change the gradient fill and set its color to the slight purple. Keyframe the scale and increase it until you fill up the whole screen. Go back and start it at zero. Select the keyframes and then start it slow and end it fast.

Track mat the shape layer to the 2026 text layer, enable the layer, duplicate the shape layer again, delay it, and change the color to a lighter pink. Duplicate it again, delay it, and change the color to an even lighter pink, and remove the track mat. Duplicate it one more time, delay it, and change the color, duplicate it again, delay it, and change the color to white. Select the shape layers and move them below the text layers, and then just select all the layers, cut them, and extend only the white layer.

And now that the second animation's complete and we've transitioned into the third animation, it's finally time to move into our third animation. Now, if you made it this far, you're not just casually watching, you're clearly someone who's interested in becoming a great editor and making money with editing. The truth is, mastering an editing style like the SAS animation style is just one piece of the puzzle. In order to make [music] money in 2026 as a video editor, it has to be a little bit different.

You need to understand how you can build a high-quality personal brand around video editing, and you need to understand how you can send out premium outreach messages that get you clients. And ultimately, you need to learn the secret strategy that video editors like you are using in order to make $2,000 per month with video editing. If you want to learn all of that, we're covering all of it inside of our $2,000 per month editor blueprint, [music] and this is just one of the courses that you can get access to inside of Ultimate Editors.

So, go ahead and click the link down below, and I'll see you guys inside. Now, the third animation is made up of a clean course layout design, animated course pop-ups, a custom cursor, interactive hover effects, and subtle camera movements that tie everything together. We're going to break down every single element step by step, setting up the scene layout using a screenshot, animating the course pop-ups, designing the cursor, animating the cursor, making the courses interactive with it, and finally adding camera movement before combining everything into the final animation.

[music] So, let's go ahead and jump straight into it. First, duplicate the white shape layer and drag it above the text and delay it like this. Select the text layer and track matte it to the shape layer that we just duplicated. Click on this little white box to invert the matte and select these color shape layers from the top, key frame the opacity and move forward and set it to zero. Now, add a Gaussian blur to the layer above the text and set it to 130.

Cut the 2026 text layer, copy the color from this shape layer, and paste it on the [music] text to change its color. Cut the background layers and bring them up to here. Duplicate the shape layer above the text, move it above the background layers, track matte the background layers to the shape layer, drag the community course images into [music] After Effects, and let's begin working on it. Scale it down and start duplicating it 10 times.

Then using your rectangle tool, break down the UI like so. First, I cropped the top UI bar, then started breaking down each course image [music] one by one. Make sure to change the layer once you've masked something out. Select your background solid and set the gradient ramp colors to the UI image using your drop tool and disable any leftover images that you duplicated. Then for these blurred out background colors, set their opacity to 10.

Drag a rough and edges effect on the course image, increase the edge sharpness to 10, and decrease the fractal influence and increase the border to 20. Now, copy it and paste it on the other UI layers. This is going to make the borders round. Select all of the UI layers, key frame their position, move back, and select only the course images without the search bar, and start them down. Move forward, key frame the scale as well, move back, [music] center the anchor point, scale them down, and then just bounce the position and the scale.

For the search bar, start it up, then bounce the position, select all the layers, key frame the opacity, move back, and start it at zero. Now, just delay the layers so they don't start at the same time, and this is what you end up with. Select all the layers and enable the 3D, drag in your cursor icon, and add a gradient ramp to it. Set the first color to a light gray, add the drop shadow effect onto the cursor, set the opacity to 100, >> [music] >> and the distance to 11, and adjust the direction like this, and change the color to a dark gray, and then turn it into 3D.

Now, scale it down and increase the Y rotation to 4 and the X rotation [music] to minus 7. Drag the Z position closer, scale it down, and move it back to the right. Keyframe the position and all the rotations, move forward and change its position to the right. Increase the Z and Y rotation and decrease the X rotation, and then move it to the right a little bit more. And before going into the speed graph, don't mind the other keyframes cuz I ended up deleting them.

[music] Select the position keyframes and go into your speed graph, start it slow and end it slow. Now, create a new null object, enable the 3D, and parent your cursor to it. [music] Keyframe the position and all the rotations, move forward, move it to the right, and decrease the X, Y, and Z rotation. Select the position, go into the speed graph, start it slow and end it slow. Select the rotation keyframes from the cursor, go into your speed graph, and do the same graph.

[music] Select the rotation keyframes from the null object, go into your speed graph, and do the same graph again. And now, to make your course images interact with the cursor, keyframe the scale for this course image before the cursor interacts with it, move forward, scale it up, move forward again for when the cursor leaves this course image, place a keyframe, move forward, and scale it back down. Now, do the same for the other course image, [music] scale it up when the cursor interacts with it, and when it leaves, scale it back down.

And do the same again for the other course image. Now, to add more spice to this cursor interaction, keyframe the orientation for the first course image, move forward, increase the Y orientation, move forward again, increase it, move forward, and set it back to zero. Do the same to the other two course icons while the cursor interacts with them, and this is what you end up with. Finally, it's time to top everything off with camera movement.

Create a new one-node camera and cut it to where [music] the cursor comes in. Move the orientation up, increase the Z position closer to the UI, and move it down. Keyframe the position, move the keyframe back, and drop the position down to the bottom, and move the keyframe at the end of the camera. [music] For the other camera, increase the Z position closer to the UI, and move it to the left so. Finally, keyframe the position, move it at the beginning, go to the end, and move it to [music] the right.

And just like that, ladies and gentlemen, you have completed animation one, animation two, and animation three in this amazing SAS [music] style. Now, this is only part one of a two-part series. So, make sure you stay tuned for part two, and you keep following along as this is going to teach you so many advanced effects about the SAS animation style. And again, if you guys feel like we're moving too fast, [music] it's just so that these tutorials aren't overwhelming and are fun to watch for you.

If you want to learn everything step-by-step and get access to the breakdowns that explain everything in a beginner-friendly level, then join Ultimate Editors 2.0 because there I'm going to take my time and explain everything step-by-step. That being said, I'll see you guys in the next video. Thank you so much for watching in this one, and go ahead and click on part two so that you can continue this tutorial and keep learning about the SAS animation style.