Update 5/28/13
Not sure if anyone is even checking these anymore, but for Posterity's sake, here's my finalized animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-qPRc-0UXk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 5/1/13
Here`s some progress. I think I`ve kind of nailed down what I want to happen in the animation:
-Stars and moon pop in
-camera pans down to the clouds
-shooting star comes in with kirby riding on top of it
-kirby jumps off the star on to the clouds and the star flies away
Here`s what I have so far (No Kirby yet)

I`m surprised how quickly my AE file has started to become a bit of a mess, looks like I`ll have to learn some better organizational technique.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I want to try to learn motion graphics to quickly try out some visual ideas for games. So I thought I`d start by making a little homage animation to one of my favorite games while I learn after effects, Kirby:

There`s my inspiration image. I want to have some stars flying by and some clouds and nebula moving around subtly, while Kirby (the pink ball creature) floats down hanging from a parasol

April 22: Here`s what I have so far, which is mostly just a test of a shooting star. More to come!