Motion design: what is it and what is it for?

1. Definition

Motion Design is a contraction of Motion Graphics Design. It therefore includes the notion of motion and graphic design (shapes, typography, layout, composition).

Motion design is the art of setting graphics in motion.

There's an industrial dimension to the term "design": it applies to meeting a need that is often commercial.

Motion design, by definition, brings inanimate objects to life.
And moving attracts the eye.
This discipline therefore helps to communicate a message in a much more powerful way.

Is an animated film motion design?

It's like comparing illustration and graphic design: the two disciplines are very different in their approach, but the former can be used to enhance the latter.

Illustration is designed to move and tell a story, while graphic design is designed to deliver information. But there's nothing to stop you using emotion and storytelling to deliver that information.

An animated film doesn't fall into the category of motion design per se, but the same techniques can be used to deliver an animated message.

2. A little history

The term "motion graphics" was coined in the late 1950s with the arrival of the first computers. But if we consider animated forms and typography, the beginnings of motion design go back much further.

The beginnings of cinema

The first animated forms were created by experimenters such as Walther Ruttmann, Hans Richter and Oskar Fischinger in the 1920s.

Shortly afterwards, the logos of major film studios such as Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox came to life on cinema screens.

But it was the arrival of animated credits that marked the true beginnings of the discipline of motion graphics design with Saul Bass. His credits include The Man With The Golden Arm and Vertigo.

Maurice Binder is another pioneer of animated credits, known for his James Bond credits.

The beginnings of the computer and television

Saul Bass enlists the help of John Whitney, an ingenious machine tinkerer, to create the opening credits for Vertigo.

He set up his own company, Motion Graphics Inc. in 1961, and popularized the name. To launch the company, he created a demo tape, Catalog, demonstrating all the capabilities of his machines. You can see all kinds of shapes animated on a computer screen. For the time, it was highly innovative.

As for television, it is creating new needs, such as animated visual identities for TV channels, and advertising. A vast playground for motion designers.

Internet and personal computers

The arrival of the Internet has enabled videos to be distributed on a massive scale, and demand has grown over time.

Today, TikTok and Instagram are the kings of streaming vertical video, and Netflix is the king of streaming series and videos. This makes it possible to capture the attention of a very large number of people, and deliver video messages to a highly qualified target.

Motion design has thus become a highly prized discipline among communications agencies and marketing players in general. Companies are now even integrating a department dedicated to this discipline.

For a more in-depth article on the history of motion design, you can read this other article I wrote.

3. Why motion design?

The smartphone has (almost) replaced the paper newspaper. Animated graphics have become a natural extension of static graphic design. As a result, it enables many things, such as :

• Explaining complex ideas in a simple way. The KurzgesagtYouTube channel produces exciting short documentaries on a variety of subjects
• Promote your products or services on social networks, or on TV with advertising. The animated graphic format is very popular with marketing teams, as it can significantly multiply audience engagement on social networks. Here's an example of an explainer video promoting Webflow
• Introduce a documentary or film with engaging credits that immediately set the mood with polished animation. Here's an example from Severance, whose surrealistic atmosphere is perfectly captured in these credits.
• Dress up videos by integrating consistent graphic elements, from titles to guest presentations (called "synths" in motion design jargon). In fact, we're starting to see the emergence of graphic charters dedicated to video. Here's an example of a TV identity by César Pelizer for MTV.
• Enhance the user experience in applications and websites. Small animations of buttons, screens or icons help orient the eye and contribute to the fine understanding of the application. For example, Apple's graphic guide for iOS interfaces.

4. What skills are needed and how can they be acquired?

The skills

Motion design is a discipline that demands varied and complex skills. It requires a mastery of both design and animation. What's more, a complete project is often carried out in a team, with each member mastering a complementary skill.

Here are just a few examples:

• Typography: it's widely used in motion graphics design, and it's essential to know at least the basics: the different categories, a bit of history and how they feel.
• Composition: to guide the eye, prioritize information, make text legible and images captivating.
• Colors: a knowledge of the color wheel, complementary colors and values helps to give the right energy to an image.
• Animation: knowing how to animate a walking cycle, understanding the 12 principles of animation laid down by Walt Disney's collaborators and adapting them to motion design, understanding the notions of speed and knowing when to apply them, understanding the relationships between key images (such as timing and spacing).
• Storytelling: knowing how to tell stories, how to place the right elements at the right moments in a story to keep the viewer captivated.
• Music and sound: know how to work with music, synchronize an animation, add audio sounds to a film, vary volumes
• Technology: the software used is often complex and requires a certain investment before it can be mastered, especially 3D software.

Places to learn

The schools

Schools have the advantage of allowing you to meet other passionate students and build a network for your future career. The teachers are motivated and can talk you through a lot if you ask the right questions.

They often have free licenses for students. And these schools also give you the opportunity to work on personal projects on your own or with others, which will undoubtedly be a very solid foundation for your professional life.

On the other hand, they can be expensive, and the different levels in a class can sometimes slow down the progress you'd like to see.

Here are a few schools to consider:

• Les Gobelins Les Gobelins: this school is world-renowned for its highly selective and in-demand animation training. Training in motion design is much less so, but remains highly qualitative.
• LISAAAs a former jury member, the projects that come out are very interesting. It's a solid school with a proven track record.
• E-artsup the teaching staff are quite renowned and located in very good boutiques, which can help you find the right first experiences.
• Digital Campus I don't know this school very well, but their diplomas are state-certified, which in itself makes it interesting.

Before committing yourself to a training course, find out who the teachers are and whether their work appeals to you. And check whether the course is listed in France Compétences, which will give you a state diploma on completion.

Online courses

Online courses are a great way to improve your skills at your own pace and meet other enthusiasts. What's more, they're a lot cheaper than going to school. But they do require discipline and autonomy.

Here are a few online courses I'd recommend. They are in English, but to be honest, it is thanks to them that I have greatly improved my level in this language:

• School of Motion The School of Motion: well explained courses, followed by an assistant who gives you live feedback on your work. The community is very active. I've even met several of them in real life.
• Motion Science Motion Science: courses more oriented towards film credits, typography and design, but with a very cinematic style. This course complements the previous one. A small but active community
• Visual Design Lab Visual Design Lab: a highly original, playful approach to design that pushes you to your limits. What's more, Carey Smith, the course's mentor, is pretty funny and the training is strangely playful.
• Motion Design School Motion Design School: a school whose courses are very comprehensive but much more technical. They are true experts in their field, but are a little less pedagogical than the previous ones.

In my opinion, a good online course is one that has a mentor for the exercises and an active community, which is the case for all the masterclasses mentioned.

The techniques

Motion design is not a technique, nor a style. It's a discipline that can be expressed in many different ways:

• Traditional animation, or frame-by-frame: this is a technique used in traditional cartoons such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, where all the images are drawn.
• Computer-assisted animation: this uses the computer to calculate the images between two distant images. This is the most widely used technique today. It is much faster than the previous technique, but leads to a very different style.
• 3D: this technique requires the use of complex software. With it, you can rotate around an object in space without having to redraw it. Producing a 3D film can take much longer. The style created by this technique is often highly identifiable (as in this example by Lucas Zanotto). 3D is also used to simulate reality, or to integrate it into filmed sequences. The 3D generated then blends into the ambience of the film.
• Stop-motion: these are animations of physical objects, such as dolls or modeling clay. This is the technique used on Wallace and Gromit, for example.

To learn more about the different techniques, I've detailed each of themin other blog posts.

The tools

The tools used often lead to particular styles. Here are some of the most common:

• Adobe After Effects the essential tool for all motion designers. It lets you create computer-assisted animations
• Adobe Animate allows you to create frame-by-frame animations with a flat color design style
• Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop: best known for its photo retouching tools, it has become an excellent drawing tool. It has now been enriched with a video system that allows these images to be set in motion, more textured and closer to traditional animation. Caroline Attia and Kyle T. Webster work wonders with this software
• Adobe Illustrator combined with certain after effects plug-ins, it allows you to create easily animated vector illustrations for the web and mobile applications.
• Cinema 4D The intuitive, high-quality 3D software. Widely used by 3d motion designers
• Blender3d software that does the same thing as Cinema 4d, but less intuitively. This software has the merit of being open source, but still very professional. An excellent introduction to 3d.

This list is far from exhaustive, but with it you can be sure of making a (very good) animated film.

It's also possible with Excel, but let's just say it takes a little longer (which is why this list is not exhaustive).

Finding inspiration

Inspiration is everywhere, on your table, in your street, on the reflection of the tomato on your plate. And the best inspiration you'll find may not be in your discipline.

Nevertheless, to get an idea of what's going on in the world of motion design, here are a few resources you might enjoy.

Recognized studios

Here are a few international studios to (re)discover that I really like:

• Buck: you have to admit, the Americans are pretty good. Buck must be one of the most renowned motion design studios in the world.
• Illo: an Italian studio with a distinctive, unmistakable style
• Blackmeal: one of France's biggest studios
• 17 Mars: French agency specializing in 3D
• The Mill: an unmistakable international 3D and special effects studio
• Giant Ant: studio in Vancouver, Canada
• Odd Fellows: American studio
• IV: American studio

Dedicated social networks

Vimeo

Vimeo is a video platform known for the quality of its videos. They've chosen to showcase short films and independent movies, much to our delight.

Here are a few links to which you can return regularly:

• Vimeo Staff Picks: the best of Vimeo, chosen by them
• The Animation category, featuring animated films in a variety of techniques
• The Mograph selection in the previous category is particularly suited to motion design.
• The Animation Channel, the best of animation on the web
• Stash Media is an online magazine featuring the best in motion design, VFX and animation.
• Motionographer is an online institution that has raised the profile of this discipline worldwide. Every year, they reward the best of the best with the Motion Design Awards.
• The Wine After Coffee channel, which is a little less updated today but contains quite a few nuggets.

Behance

Behance contains the largest number of the best international creatives. I've even found a few freelance assignments there.

Every day, someone from their company (a curator) looks at the projects and selects the best ones to feature on the platform.

You'll find some particularly inspiring films on this page dedicated to motion design.

Communities

They enable direct exchanges with other motion designers in spaces dedicated to the discipline, and usually private.

Here are two of them, which will be more than enough to discuss in French:

• Motion Café The most active of French-speaking communities. Not to be missed.
• Motion Designers Francophone (or Motion Beer): recently moved to Discord, where you'll find lots of answers to your questions. Click here to register (limited link)

Conclusion

Motion design is a vast artistic discipline, complex to implement and requiring advanced technical skills, and that's what makes it so exciting.

At the same time, our lives are increasingly filled with moving images. Demand is therefore very high. Let's keep this discipline rich and interesting by always creating the best!