INTRODUCTION
Motion design is a form of graphic design which uses its design principles in film making or any other visual medium through the uses of various animation techniques. Simply, graphic design put it in to motion. Graphic design on its own uses imagery to convey the message. Some well incorporated motion can emphasize that message by adding energy and visual interest. It can be used to convey the message and even it will be the message itself.
Motion design is essentially bringing graphic elements to life through animation. The knowledge of graphic design can really help push your motion design work. Especially if you are a freelance, where most often you will be asked to not only make the elements move, but to also create them.
TRADITIONAL ART SKILLS
The knowledge of traditional art is very helpful during your design process and it can give you an eye for the best way to communicate your motion design to the audience.
ANIMATION – MOTION DESIGN
As a motion designer you need to be able to bring 2D elements to life through movement. To do, you must use animation, animation in motion graphics is more than just setting a key frames. You should have a strong basement in the fundamentals of animation and how the things should move in order to create appealing work.
The animation principles should apply as they do in character animation. You must know where to exaggerate, where to ease in or out, the timing etc.. if you have a greatest design work but it might not animated well it will make your motion design collapse.
3D Skills
3D plays a very important role in motion design and the uses are being used effectively in every part of the design such as 3D logos, Title cards, intros and more. As a motion designer you must have these skills to develop your design.
TYPOGRAPHY
Typography is one of the important elements of motion design and is heavily utilized. Motion design may only use type to convey the product, company to the viewer. Type is so prominent you need to have an understanding of typography design compliments, easiest font or readable font for the audience. The right use of these skills and typeface lead your motion design to the higher level.
COLOUR THEORY
Using of colours in motion design is very important. As a motion designer you need to have a strong understanding of colour theory and colour psychology which conveys different moods and feelings. You need to give your colour choice a lot of thought.
When creating motion design for your production, you can keep these things in your mind:
- Timing: whatever the elements you choose, they need to move, shake at the right timing. Viewers can tell when something comes in late or early, so you need to get it right
- Duration: Just like in video production, flashing an image on screen too quickly can be jarring and may not get the message across. Leaving the graphic element on the screen too long can cause the audience to lose their interest.
- Tempo: The speed of your repeated motions and music is critical. Any sort of rhythm will create a certain effect and it is very important to match the beat to the rhythm.
- Transition: changing the scene from one another. The transition should match your subject matter so your audience stays immersed in your story.
- Natural Movement: Motion design movements should be organic and natural. The more the motions match our expectations of the movement, the more convincing and engaging your audience.
In Normal real time movie, the title card or spinning typography credits, title logos are the examples of motion graphic design. This art form has been there for many decades but it taken another level in modern times in terms of technical advance.
Film industry uses motion graphics with the help of computer programs which is more powerful and available. In recent times, the most used motion design or title animation effects software is Adobe After effects which is purely visual effects software which allows people to create and modify graphics and also it enables third party plug-ins for the use of motion graphics. Adobe flash also mainly used motion graphics software for web. These motion graphic design software uses several tools and process. Software involves several techniques to integrate tools to create motion graphics design. There are also some other packages in open source, which are gaining more features and adepts in order to use in a motion graphic design workflow. Software like Adobe after effects and 3-D software like Maya, cinema 4D let the users to integrate videos, effects, sounds to create and modify graphics. The techniques are purely dependent on the designer.
