Motion design: from simple to complex. What is Motion Design: History, Applications, Tools Motion Designer

Master

Animation Creation - Creation of 2D and 3D Animation and Animation

Professional motion design studio

professional motion design studio (English motion design Studio) provides assistance in the development of projects of any type, complexity, will create modern marketing, corporate graphic video clips, cartoons. The agency team provides a competent approach to work, accounting necessary requirements, making videos using special equipment, software.
Motion design studio If you need to create animation clips, prefer to turn to professionals. You can place an order for a project with the resource manager.

motion graphics

To date, the motion animation agency helps in the development of projects of the most different types, for example, animation is used in cinematography, television, as well as corporate and marketing projects, for compiling screensavers for videos and blogs. By means of a professionally made clip, a favorable image of brands, concerns is formed, as well as an increase in the volume of orders in online stores and websites. Modern graphics of this type are used in movie credits, TV screensavers, when changing frames in a show, and also in animation. But the tool is no less relevant in the marketing segment, it is used in business, for organizing business events, as well as for the development of concerns. The development of modern projects using graphics of any complexity is provided by the studio's specialists. Employees competently approach the creation of videos, cartoons of various types, implement work using professional equipment, software, ensuring high quality work. Modern company motion graphics provides a comprehensive preparation of the concept of projects, as well as competent compilation of video clips, and more. Through professionally designed graphic videos, enterprises achieve an improvement in customer loyalty, as well as an increase in sales and orders.

Ordering a project in a motion design studio

If you need to create a high-quality video, cartoon, prefer to contact the agency, where specialists will help in drawing up the concept, competent development of video clips.
Motion Design Professional motion design studio will ensure the comprehensive development of modern marketing, children's, and other types of commercials, as well as the implementation of video production projects.

Like any creative person, a motion designer needs to look somewhere for fresh ideas and inspiration. Our help will come useful selection of 8 sites that will deserve a place in your bookmarks.

Motiongrapher

Motiongrapher is "the world's mouthpiece in the motion design industry." Excellent resource. Serves as a source of inspiration for creative people from all over the world. Here you will find everything new and interesting in the field of graphics and design:

  • the best works of studios and freelancers;
  • interviews with professional designers.

The project is non-commercial. Motiongrapher is led by professional designers and directors. The site is constantly updated and pleases with high-quality and professional material.

From up north

From up north is an international site for creative people. The curators of the site select the best in the areas of:

  • graphic design;
  • advertising;
  • photos;
  • illustrations;
  • web design;
  • motion graphics;
  • and many others.

The motion graphics gallery is one of the most impressive on this list. Also on the site you can find links to useful resources and articles about outstanding works.

Behance-large and promising platform with many amazing works. It is enough to go to the section you need to make sure of this. But most importantly, the site offers the opportunity to create your own portfolio site, through which you can sell, buy work, share experiences and actively participate in the life of the community.

Vimeo is a service for connoisseurs of high-quality and professional video. The main difference between Vimeo and the popular YouTube video hosting is a serious and creative audience that knows a lot about works and criticism. Recommended section vimeo Staff Picks, with hundreds of carefully selected works motion design moat and film lovers.

Art of the title

Art of the title is a unique resource with a huge library of intros and titles for films, series, cartoons. In addition to the videos themselves on the site, you will find interviews with designers about how this or that project was created: from idea to technical details. An excellent site where you can find a lot of interesting things and draw inspiration.

Motion Graphics Served

Motion Graphics Served is a "subsidiary" project of Behance, entirely dedicated to motion graphics. Work posted here the best professionals Behance.

Inspiration Grid

Inspiration Grid is curated by From Up North. The project is a gallery with the works of talented artists, photographers and designers from around the world. Motion design is represented by the Video & motion category.

Dribbble

Dribbble- social network for designers from all over the world. The platform works on the principle of Twitter, but instead of messages - the so-called shots (shots) - small design samples. Few people know that in addition to static images in the After Effects section, there are many interesting Gifs. The site carefully selects users, therefore, in general, here you can find works of very high quality.

In addition to the sites presented on the network, you can find many other equally useful resources. And don't forget, you can also draw valuable ideas for your own work from works of art, films, music and books.

Good luck and more inspiration!

If you asked me when is it easier to learn motion design, now or 5-10 years ago? I would not be able to answer with certainty.

Previously (5-10 years ago), in order to find information, it was necessary to dig well on the Internet. And then there were only 2-3 sites that published tutorials. Today there is so much information that it is difficult to find the really necessary and important. There are a lot of lessons, a lot of tutorials, so where to start?

After Effects is not Motion Design yet

For many, motion design is associated with Adobe program after effects. And this is not surprising, because it is one of the most popular and convenient programs to create animation. To tell the truth, it does not matter what program you will work in, Flash, Photoshop, After Effects or others, what matters is how harmoniously and tasty you can create animation. Software is just a tool with which the artist's idea is realized.

Learn the basics of design

The first thing I recommend is to learn the basics of graphic design, to lay the foundation upon which a strong understanding and taste in motion design will be built. To learn the software, you need to spend several months or even weeks, but to cultivate a taste and learn the theory - this can already take much more time. Of course, it is important to study everything in parallel. But pay special attention to the laws and bases in design.

When I started studying motion, I started with mastering After Effects, and to tell the truth, it could not be called motion design, it was more like moving objects in chaos :-). But by studying the work of graphic designers and professional motion designers, I began to understand what works and how.
What design theory do I need to know.

1. Color

It is important to understand how to choose and combine colors correctly. A common mistake beginners make is the lack of a single color palette in the project, which results in disharmony in the frame. You need to understand and know the psychology of color, what is the difference between warm and cold colors, how a certain color affects a person.

2. Composition

This is the foundation of foundations in motion design. Knowledge of composition will help you make each frame interesting and harmonious, you will learn to distinguish the main from the secondary. You need to know what the golden ratio is, perspectives, what types of perspectives exist, how to correctly position objects. In the study of composition, the analysis of paintings by artists, the analysis of the work of graphic designers will greatly help.

Additionally, it is important to know

In addition to the three basics, it is important to know other important things. I recommend learning the 12 Animation Principles. This will help you create more dynamic and memorable videos:

It is also important to know, since motion design is as close as possible to video and cinema, and you need to know what parts the story is built from and how to influence the viewer. I recommend several books:

Mitt "Cinema Between Hell and Heaven"
Million Dollar Story

In addition, knowing the basics of photography and filming will be a big plus for you. Knowledge of aperture, focal length, shutter speed. What is the difference between a long lens and a wide angle lens. All this will give you a strong foundation and will serve as an excellent support when creating animation.

Do not forget to visit exhibitions, galleries. Watch and see what and how works in art.
I hope this article will be useful to you and will become a starting point in the mysterious world of motion. Next, I will tell you what software you need to know for motion design and where to start, but already in practice.

Analyze work:

If you're serious about getting into motion design, this skill will help you solidify what you've learned. Every time you see work that inspires or hooks you, ask yourself questions like:

– How harmonious the image looks in terms of composition

– What fonts were used, how they fit together

What methods does he use

Get an inspiration library

It is very important to collect useful and inspiring materials in one place. It can be a separate folder on your computer, an album on pinterest, or a notebook on evernote. The advantage of the latter option is the smart sorting of files - you can create notebooks, individual notes and assign them certain tags. And all this can be viewed from your phone, browser or laptop.

Proper sorting of the found information will help you easily find the videos, photos or illustrations you need. In this way, you will educate your taste and understand what you like and what is beautiful and cool in motion design for you.

Get into the habit of finding 1-2 inspirational videos or images every day and adding them to your library. In 30 days you will have 30-60 cool works that will serve as a source of inspiration.

Also write in the comments what topics you would be interested in learning about motion design, and perhaps in the near future you will receive answers to them.

Movement can explain what static cannot show. Let's talk about motion design.

What is motion design

As soon as a static frame starts to move, it becomes a graphic animation, an animated picture, but not a motion design. When
the image comes to life and additional meaning appears - that's when we talk about motion design.

The product of motion design is a video-story told in time. Creating such a video, even a very short one, is a laborious and costly task.

The profession of a motion designer combines a huge amount of skills, knowledge and skills. This is a designer orchestra: screenwriter, artist, director, cameraman, editor, producer, sound designer and even a programmer.

History of occurrence

Motion design as we know it today owes its existence to nearly 200 years of animation history. Many of the techniques invented then are actively used by motion designers to this day.

Start

1825

Thaumatrope is a toy based on an optical illusion: when a circle with two drawings applied from different sides rotates quickly, they are perceived as one. It was especially popular during the Victorian era. A possible inventor of the thaumatrope is the English physician John Ayrton Paris.

An example of a thaumatrope. Ichabod Crane toy from Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow

1832

The phenakistiscope is a laboratory device for demonstrating moving patterns, the design of which is based on the persistence - the inertia of human vision. The inventor of the phenakistiscope is Joseph Plateau. Almost simultaneously with the Plateau, Simon von Stampfer invented an apparatus very similar to the phenakistiscope and called it the stroboscope.

General view of the phenakistoscope

1833

Zootrope is a device for demonstrating moving pictures, the design of which is based on the inertia of human vision. The inventor of the zootrope is considered to be William George Horner.

Zootrope

1876

Emil Reynaud improved the zootrope by connecting it to a magic lantern, which made it possible to view moving pictures not by one person, but by several at the same time.

In honor of the first showing of Reynaud's "glowing pantomimes" in 1892, October 28 is celebrated as International Animation Day. The holiday was approved by ASIF in 2002.

Reynaud began to use a permanent set, drawing it separately from the characters and transferring it to the screen through a separate magic lantern. He was the first to synchronize image and sound, and he also composed the musical accompaniment for his films himself.

Raynaud applied some techniques that became the basis of animation technology. Among them - separate drawing of characters and scenery.

Cinema

Silent Cinema

1895

The year of the official birth of cinema. The public paid sessions of the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere turned out to be the most popular and commercially successful than all other undertakings, which is why Lumiere is considered to be the founders of cinematography.

Sound cinematography

1927

The first full-length film in history with a synchronous speech soundtrack in 1927 was the musical film The Jazz Singer, created using the Whitephone technology with sound on a gramophone record.

Latest trends

Cinematography was the medium in which motion design was born, it developed significantly in the 50s in the United States, thanks to designers such as Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Pablo Ferro. At that time, animated titles and logos began to appear on television. So there was a turning point: animation ceased to be exclusively a tool for entertainment and received functional tasks.

Applications of motion design in life

Cinema

The main application is titles and futuristic interfaces. Titles can be considered the progenitor of such a modern trend as motion identity.

Video clips

Advertising

Motion is used everywhere in it. Emotional videos with a short but capacious plot, designed for emotional perception.

Presentations

Video content is gradually replacing all other types of content. It's easier to watch a tutorial video than to read a manual. Movement is more interesting than static, it fascinates and addictive. They try to use videos everywhere: in presentations, reports, lessons, explanations of working with services.

3D mapping

This is a laser show where the facades of buildings act as a “screen” for a 3D projection - at the same time, the geometry of the building, its architecture and location are played out.

interactive design

This is a fairly new direction, a symbiosis of design, programming and show. Interactivity helps to make user interfaces expressive and easy to use. Motion design is one of the most popular areas today. Applicable in the following areas:

  • creation of icons;
  • preloaders;
  • microinteractions;
  • video backgrounds;
  • prototypes;
  • case design;
  • presentations.

Website interface animation example by Sergey Gurov

Professional software

In order to create cool motion projects, you need special software. A motion designer has a wide range of tools in his arsenal, from basic design tools to highly specialized ones. These tools are used in all of the above areas of motion design, from cinema to the web.

Adobe Photoshop

A popular and powerful tool that is part of the Creative Cloud line of Adobe products and is perfectly integrated with them.

What might be useful for:

  • creation of Matte Painting;
  • texture editing;
  • combining images;
  • GIF creation;
  • overlay frame-by-frame animation;
  • rotoscoping (framing frame by frame).

Adobe Illustrator

Software to work with vector images. It is mainly used to create logos, vector illustrations and backgrounds for further use in motion graphics. Just like Photoshop, it integrates easily, for example, with After Effects.

after effects

Perhaps one of the most important programs for mastering motion design. After Effects is a 2.5D animation program.

Features of After Effects:

  • logo animation;
  • character animation;
  • 3D compositing;
  • motion tracking (motion tracking);
  • deleting objects;
  • UX/UI design;
  • creating training videos and presentations;
  • simulation effects;
  • animated slide shows;
  • kinetic typography;
  • visual effects.

Motion designer(motion - “movement”) is engaged in the creation of motion graphics, which is 2D graphics in motion, in other words, the animation design of static images. The profession is suitable for those who are interested in drawing, drafting and computer science (see choosing a profession for interest in school subjects).

Motion graphics combine video, audio and text into a single animated story. Three channels of information transmission are simultaneously used - image, sound, text. In combination, they have a stronger effect on the emotional perception of the viewer: the text attracts attention, and the sound and graphics are imprinted in the memory in a vivid way. The main task of motion graphics is to attract and hold attention, informing users about the product as much as possible.

Motion graphics, unlike a cartoon or video, do not have a complete and complete plot, but briefly express any idea or concept. To convert a static image to a dynamic one, apply different ways animations, video and audio effects, graphic design tools.

Motion designer is a new, demanded and promising profession. Modern television, internet, mobile applications, advertising, games widely use the possibilities of motion graphics. Animation graphics are ideal for presenting ideas to business partners, visualizing business models, illustrating company goals.

Motion design benefits:

  1. Conciseness, speed of delivery, and clear content are indispensable factors for business advertising in a time-constrained environment.
  2. Large capacity and easy to digest - a short video contains the main idea that defines the concept, large volume information.
  3. Instead of boring text - a spectacular and stylish video. The vast majority of users prefer a video picture to text, which is why motion graphics are so in demand.

Features of the profession

To create effective animation, in addition to talent and inspiration, you need to do the following:

  • determine the target audience for which motion graphics are created - animated images will be completely different for a training center, for example, and for a large production holding;
  • clearly define the goals and style of the project, present the final result of the animation and, in accordance with this, choose technologies, tools and tools for creating motion graphics;
  • develop terms of reference, which clearly spell out the requirements for the project: the main idea, product information, the duration of the video and intro, deadlines, payment methods, etc.;
  • for productive work, before starting animation in Adobe After Effects, you must first create a sketch, the so-called storyboard of each scene;
  • in the process of creating animation, it is necessary to observe the correct organizational structure for layers, photos and other elements;
  • not get carried away with the visual capabilities of After Effects, clogging the animation with excessive effects that interfere with the perception of the main idea of ​​the video. Motion graphics are designed to convey key idea and the main concept, and this should be made as clear, simple and understandable as possible.

Pros and cons of the profession

pros

  • Demand for the profession
  • The lack of competition in the motion design profession on this moment. In 2-3 years the situation will change due to the popularity of the profession.
  • High pay
  • Creative, interesting work

Minuses

  • due to the novelty of the profession, an insufficient number of educational centers;
  • possible customer dissatisfaction with the results of the work.

Where to work as a motion designer

Television - creating titles, screensavers, subtitles, designing screensavers for programs.

Cinema — creation of openings, trailers, teasers, titles, screensavers.

Media - creating videos for entertainment, news and educational programs.

Business structures — development of presentations and infographics for conferences, websites, advertising of products and services.

The education system - the possibilities of motion graphics allow you to intelligibly explain the most complex scientific problems to the audience.

entertainment industry.

Important qualities

A motion designer is a highly specialized specialist with a wide range of skills.

Personal qualities:

  • Creativity
  • Artistic ability
  • aesthetic taste
  • Sense of style, harmony and symmetry
  • Ability to work with information: search, analysis, application
  • Ability to work in a team
  • Ability to stay on trend
  • Commitment to continuous learning of new technologies, programs and tools
  • Ability to clearly and simply convey the main idea to the audience
  • Analytical mind in terms of analyzing your own work

Professional skills

Knowledge of the basics of graphic design - color (color theory), composition, typography (artistic and expressive text design)

Knowledge of the basics of screenwriting

Fluency graphic programs and video editors:

Programs for working with graphics:

  • Adobe Photoshop;
  • Adobe Illustrator;
  • Adobe Flash.

Video processing software:

  • Adobe After Effects;
  • Autodesk Combustion;
  • Adobe Premiere Pro;
  • Nuke;
  • Apple motion.

Programs for the development of 3D graphics and animation:

  • Autodesk Maya;
  • Autodesk 3ds Max;
  • blender;
  • Light Wave 3D;
  • Cinema 4D.

Motion designer training

Self-education is of great importance for the improvement in the profession.

Motion designer - new profession. There are currently no training programs for this profession in Russian universities. There are training courses on the Russian market:

You will gain practical skills in the main areas of motion design, get acquainted with tools, modeling and animation. After completing the entire program, you will be able to apply for the position of motion designer. The course is a combination of theory and practice. You complete your homework, then access to new unique content on the topic opens up. Three to five hours a week is enough.

Salary

Salary as of 01/20/2020

Russia 20000—150000 ₽

Moscow 70000—130000 ₽

According to the portal hh.ru, a novice motion designer can count on a salary of 60 thousand rubles. per month. Specialists of a more advanced level receive many times more, depending on work experience and skills.

Career steps and prospects

Career prospects for a motion designer are associated with advanced training within the profession, as well as in the system of continuous professional education in order to achieve higher qualifications and gain authority from specialists.

The first motion designer is considered to be director and graphic designer Saul Bass, who in the 1960s created motion graphics for movie titles. At that time, the creation of motion graphics was a very expensive and time-consuming process. But with the emergence and development of computers and the Internet, the art of motion design has become simpler, extremely popular and in demand.

Video: What is Motion Design?