I want to learn to make motion graphics. Is After Effects a good way in? Whats a good way yo begin learning it?

After Effects indeed. If you find you like compositing more than animating you can learn Nuke, but if you're just getting in, AE is what you want to learn.

Lynda is only good if you know nothing and even then it's boring as shit. They will show you where things are located in any program and walk you through basic functionality. But honestly beyond that I find their tutorials incredibly slow and fragmented. They don't really teach you how to use different parts of a program together. Instead of Lynda, I would recommend some of the more project based tutorials, like fxphd or motionworks. They are a little more expensive, but way more helpful.

I've been pushing pixels with AE since it had a dongle, and it's amazing the amount of resources available. You could easily spend your time bouncing around just trying to figure out where to start. The oldest and longest lasting resources I know of are the Meyers. They cover the basics well, and they have a boat load of free posts on the http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_keyframes/. Remember, it's motion graphics; you'll want to understand the foundations of design, typography, and motion. The fancy can wait. Grab some books on typography, basic graphic design, and cinematography. Motion graphics is a pretty big tent, and some people get blinded by the technology. A pencil and paper is great place to start working on your projects. You don't need to know how to parent to a null object, or what codec to render out to before you start designing. Making a storyboard and generating ideas is a great place to start. Download the Adobe trial. Get in there, and make a mess. You can't actually break anything. Just make sure to save lots of versions of comps, label your layers, have fun, and don't stay up all night.

Also check out the tutorials at http://podcasts.creativecow.net/after-effects-tutorials-podcast if you decide to go with After Effects. There are a lot of tutorials in an easy to digest short format. Good luck and have fun!

Seconding Video Copilot (start with the http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/). Video Copilot is written by Andrew Kramer, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3135304/ you may have seen around.

Video Copilot is a great resource, and Andrew Kramer is charming enough to keep you interested in the videos even when things are a little dull.

Seconding the Meyers: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0240814150/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ is a wonderful and comprehensive entry.

This was in my RSS reader, and I thought of this question. It's a list of http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2012/02/after-effects-basics-tutorials-by-andrew-devis.html.