Motion design, commonly referred to as motion graphics is the term used for when we see graphics (illustration, lines, shapes, colour), typography (words, headlines, body copy), imagery (photography and scanned images) and 3D elements move around on screen.
Sometimes motion design or motion graphics is referred to as animation. While this is technically true (since a motion designer's method to move elements is via animation), 'animation' traditionally refers to the technique used to create film such as Cinderella, Toy Story or Minions. Think Pixar, classic Disney, anime and is usually about characters and story. A whole world brought to life frame by frame.
On the other hand, motion design is the fusing together of the combination of static designed elements, created by a graphic designer and setting them all in motion. It's usually about communication. Explaining an idea, branding a product, guiding a user, or just making something look great for anything between 5 seconds to 2 minutes. When I make anything move on screen it's always to communicate an idea, offer, event or generate emotion and set the tone for an audience.
Motion designers aren't typically animating animals or characters with feelings and a backstory. We're animating a chart that builds itself on screen, a logo that assembles out of nothing, or text that lands in perfect rhythm with a voiceover and audio track.
There's plenty of overlap of course. I know lots of motion designers who dabble in character work, and plenty of animators who do brand stuff on the side.
My clients are typically based in FMCG, Finance, Fintech and Pharma. Most of the time I'm requested to create motion graphics to highlight campaigns on social media, internally for in-house teams, during events using client's branding and to promote new products.
You've probably seen motion design fifty times today already and have no idea what the medium's called:
Long before 'motion graphics' was a phrase, experimental filmmakers in the 1920s were animating shape and colour just to see what would happen. The discipline's roots trace back to the abstract animated films made by artists like Walther Ruttmann, Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, and Oskar Fischinger. No clients, just people treating colour and shape like instruments in an orchestra.
One of my favourite motion designers for film is Saul Bass. He showed up and ruined boring movie credits forever. With Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955, Bass pioneered the notion that opening credits didn't have to be a static list of names. They set the entire emotional tone of a film before it even started. A few years later he'd go on to design the main titles for three of Hitchcock's most famous films Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho, between 1958 and 1960. Without knowing it, he'd invented 'the cool opening credits sequence' as a thing.
The actual term 'motion graphics' dates to 1960. Animator John Whitney launched a studio called Motion Graphics, Inc. to produce animated titles and logos, which connected experimental film with commercial broadcast work. TV broadcasters were doing something similar around the same time. The BBC had designers like Bernard Lodge on staff from 1959 on, creating some of the earliest Doctor Who title sequences.
Then home computing arrived which made animation and motion design more accessible to me and many others. I was no longer confined to only learning at work using Quantel's Hal Express and Paintbox. The Company of Science and Art (CoSA), founded in Providence, Rhode Island in 1990, shipped the first version of the category-defining desktop animation and compositing program After Effects in January 1993 (my own motion design software of choice). Later that year, they got bought by Aldus Corporation, which was itself swallowed by Adobe Systems in 1994.
After Effects is still the main motion design tool across broadcasting, events, advertising, social media and pretty much anywhere you watch moving pixels. Although many other programs now exist including Cavalry, Rive and Moho the opportunity for me and so many others to learn the fundamentals of motion design was presented by After Effects.
So the whole picture goes something like this:
Experimental art film
Movie title sequences
An industry with an actual name
Software that democratised it
The tiny animated details hiding in every app on your phone.
A very neat summary for something most people don't even realise has a name.
Great graphic design always comes before great motion design (design before motion is my favourite mantra). In my opinion, if you're not working from designs created by someone who knows what they're doing, then no amount of motion design is going to make those pixels look good.
That initial static design has to be effective on it's own before anything starts to move - you can't build the house without solid foundations.
So I always start with a solid design, whether it's created by myself or by an in-house graphic designer. Once that's locked down, here are a few questions I ask my clients before I start pushing pixels around the screen:
What is your goal for the project?
Is it, for example:
Brand awareness?
Call to action?
Services offer?
Explain a complex idea?
Visualise data clearly?
Set the tone for the event?
Promote a product?
Once these details have been nailed, I'll then ask from this exhaustive list based on...
What needs to be delivered?
How many videos or assets are required?
What is the length of videos?
What is your deadline?
Where will they live? (social, broadcast, trade show, homepage etc...)
Will brand or accompanying assets be supplied (imagery, designs, stock video, logo, fonts, colour refs etc...)
Are subtitles required?
Is a story board supplied or required?
Is a script required? Who will produce it?
Is a voice over required?
Is an audio track required?
Who is my point of contact?
There will be one round of amends. Do you require more?
How quickly can you supply feedback (the quicker it’s delivered the sooner the project is completed)?
Is there anything you’ve seen that you’d like to reference in terms of visual style for the animation?
This pretty much sums up my pre-production process for how I make anything move. It ensures that I know exactly what I'm producing and how it fits into the clients' branding, funnel and desired outcome.
I can then get my hands dirty with the fun motion design work...
Most motion designers, whether a 2D or 3D designer (or both), use at least one of these software tools:
Adobe After Effects
Cavalry
Rive
Moho
Cinema 4D
Blender
Many more exist. Other tools such as editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro) and design software (Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop) go hand-in-hand in a motion designer's toolset.
I've used After Effects and Premiere interchangeably for the last 20 years, as well as their design tools. Adobe have made it much more easier over the years to work quickly with all their software releases.
The platform your motion design work sits on also dictates what you use to build it with. Interactive animation for web and mobile is typically built in Rive and Lottie.
But the majority of people in the industry will use After Effects for their motion design work.
As I developed my career in motion graphics, I learned to focus on building certain skills and practices with the software. It's not just about being technically advanced. These habits are the ones I've put in place over the years:
Put in the hours.
To master motion graphics, I realised that I had to be prepared to spend long hours learning the software and reading up to understand the principles of design and animation. My learning never ends, there's always a new technique, script or plug-in to try out which may make my work more efficient and eye catching for the client.
Just do something.
That said, you should experiment with basic designs as soon as you have that limited knowledge. Don’t try to know everything before you start work, it’s just not possible and could hinder your development.
Learn from the best.
From films and ad campaigns, there’s so much incredible motion graphic design to explore. I learned by studying the opening credits of films like Vertigo designed by Saul Bass, for example.
Find your style.
I nearly didn't add this heading - I've heard many people say you should find your style but really this depends on who you want to serve. Many motion designers have their own unique approach and signature look. This can get picked up by advertisers and producers wishing to use your style in their productions. I'm more of a generalist and prefer to work within a client's branding. It may help to think about what inspired you to try motion design in the first place. I was mesmerised by Channel4 and BBC2 idents as a kid before the term motion design existed (still am) so a good place to start would be to go by your gut feeling.
Know the principles of animation.
Without understanding Disney's 12 principles of animation, my motion graphics work would look dull and lifeless. I threw myself into principles including squash and stretch, anticipation and timing to really add organic movement to my work. The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams is a great place to start.
Understand export formats.
It's not enough to be able to animate graphics well. Once your timeline is complete, you then need to export to the correct format for the platform your work lives on. I usually export films to one of 2 formats: .mpg (H264) or .mov (Quicktime pro-res) formats for animation from After Effects. Although knowledge of static formats works well too especially when you need to re-import a still frame from your timeline into your project.
There's so much more knowledge readily available to new starters in the industry compared to when I started in 2000. Follow tutorials on YouTube and Instagram, it's all free. My advice would be to throw yourself into the program of your choice and just start.
We're drowning in content nowadays and attention spans are measured in seconds. Motion catches the eye in a way a static images just can't. It can explain something complicated faster than a paragraph of text ever could which is why you'll watch a 30-second explainer video before you'll read a page of instructions. And it gives products a sense of personality: the difference between an app that feels cheap and one that feels genuinely nice to use often comes down to a hundred tiny motion details you never consciously clock.
Motion design can add meaning, impart knowledge, give personality and clear instruction to a simple message that is otherwise ignored if that message were stuffed into a 100 page pdf document that nobody reads. That's the reason I started out in motion design and why I'm still amazed at it's capabilities today.
If you want your brand or product to be recognised during its next promotion or campaign, have a look at the possibilities of what I can help with on my reel and drop me a line.
