Frustrated and would hope you guys give me some pointers on animation node

I have a plan of making something grand, I’m breaking down everything into chew-able pieces. The first tiny project is to make a cube simply sliding from point A to point B with stretching and squashing effect to it. I’m using animation node because I want to learn motion graphics and I’m having the hardest time figuring out why the node does what it does. I have been reading the documentations for animation node but still confused. To be completely honest as a newbie I feel like I just jumped into the deepest part of the ocean instead learning how to swim first. I want to find tutorials or maybe even a paying course that teaches you motion graphics from the basic. Most animation tutorial on Youtube utilizes rig or animated characters, the “other” motion graphic tutorials doesn’t use animation node just the normal time line and graph editor. I’m lost and frustrated, what suppose be made in a day is now taking me weeks. I’m rushing into things and want to slow down, but I don’t know where to start because all the newbie stuff that I found doesn’t really fit into what I want to do.

I would say, get on youtube and do some searches, there is a huge wealth of knowledge on there about Blender, but be careful how you search. Look say specifically for “Blender Animation Node” and see if anything pops up. To start work, first, you must start, so just pick something, anything, as your starting point and work from there.

Hi!
I’m a newbie and have just finished my first 3D animation video. There’s just so much to learn, isn’t there?

But I never used Animation Nodes at all (or any other ‘add-on’ for that matter) - although I will now add it to my list of things to investigate!

Have you mastered keyframes? You can achieve everything you want (… waits to be corrected!) with keyframing as these are the basis of any(?) animation.

Try to learn the basics first and that way you will probably better understand why the ‘add-ons’ have been designed to make life simpler…

That’s actually one of the issue I’m having because all the animation node tutorial I watched never once showed the timeline or key framing, it just works and I’m having problems understand why it does what it does. The documentation aren’t exactly the most informative.

I watched multiple tutorial on this topic and it seems like I’m starting in the middle instead of the beginning for newbies. But when I learn about newbie stuff like timeline or keyframe and rewatch the tutorials none of them have anything to do with those things. This is why I’m frustrated because I feel there is a major disconnection between animating in Blender with timeline/keyframe and Animation Node.

I’m going to go back at the documentation again and hopefully something click this time. Thanks for the suggestions, you and Mr Bloke.