What is motion graphics? Crafting impactful, moving visuals 

A picture is worth a thousand words. But an animated one? Even more. Motion graphics graced cinemas and TV, transforming boring film credits or title sequences into exciting ones. Nowadays, we see them everywhere, from adverts to web design, games, shopping menus in stores, and even our favorite internet memes.

Motion graphics capture the essence of a moment, transforming static ideas into a complete visual and auditory experience. Ready to explore? Dip your toes into its definition, fundamentals, benefits, and what to look for when working with a motion graphics design expert.

This format has given creative professionals a new and engaging way to tell stories in less than a few minutes.

Motion graphics became popular in the 1950s when pioneers like Pablo Ferro and Norman McLaren began experimenting with traditional animation. As technology progressed, they were able to create dynamic, kinetic visuals that captivated audiences. Today, motion graphics has become a niche industry, allowing designers to push the boundaries of 2D and 3D animation.

Traditional animation and motion graphics use movement to tell a story or a message. But, the two have key differences that can help you use them effectively.

When should you use traditional animation or motion graphics?

Your choice between traditional animation and motion graphics heavily depends on your purpose. 

Traditional animation excels at storytelling, as seen in Disney's fairy tale classics, like Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. The meticulously crafted characters evoke emotional depth and nostalgia.

Conversely, motion graphics are well-suited for quickly conveying concepts or information more interestingly and dynamically. Their focus is on clarity and visual appeal rather than in-depth narratives. Motion graphics can make complex ideas more accessible and engaging for the audience.

Illustrations, typography, icons, logos, colors, shapes, and movement or animation work together to create a dynamic and compelling motion graphics design that moves people and conveys messages in a jiff. Here's how.

Illustrations

Illustrations make information more visually engaging and memorable. For example, someone seeking instructions on using a product is far more likely to recall and comprehend an animated explainer video than a static, text-heavy poster.

Illustrations allow designers to break down complex ideas in an accessible, emotive way. An animated info clip or brand video can showcase a company's personality, setting the tone for the audience and capturing their attention more effectively than a motionless visual.

Typography

Typography allows creatives to play with letters and words to make messages more legible and aesthetically pleasing. Bigger and bolder text naturally draws the eye first, while round, modern sans-serif fonts create a friendly, contemporary vibe. In contrast, defined serif fonts convey a more formal, traditional aesthetic.

Fonts combined with creative animation can evoke specific emotions and feelings in your audience. Techniques like kinetic typography, where text animates to express ideas, demonstrate the expressive potential of typography in motion graphics.

Icons

Icons in motion graphics create uncluttered visuals that convey information at a glance. For instance, a simple arrow pointing right instantly communicates to the viewer that they should proceed forward, while an arrow pointing left signals they should go back.

Animated icons are especially effective, as the sense of movement adds an oomph to the visuals and increases the likelihood of engagement. An example is a bouncing notification icon that prompts users to open and read their messages. Aside from guiding user actions, animated icons establish a visual hierarchy.

Logos

Logos encapsulate an organization or an individual through a badge, emblem, or a mark that stands out and is easy to remember. While a well-designed, still logo can be an attention grabber, a moving one brings a brand to life. Motion graphics have given rise to 3D logo animation, where they seem to pop out of the screen or spin and are accompanied by sounds like a whoosh or a ding.

Check out some of our favorite animated logos below!

Colors

Colors do more than make your visuals look pretty and interesting. They appeal to emotions. Warm colors like red represent excitement and eagerness and even stimulate the appetite. Cold colors like blue and green often evoke calmness and tranquility. They also symbolize trust and safety.

Colors can elevate your motion graphics when creating realistic scenes or a modern and dynamic feel. For example, if you're watching a funny scene in an animated film, the color grading would lean toward a vibrant tone, amplifying the visuals and influencing viewers' moods. 

Shapes

Like icons, shapes represent ideas or characters that help your audience understand your story or message. They also create different moods and feelings, like how circles and rounded shapes elicit warmth and comfort. This emotional connection makes shapes in motion graphics more interesting.

Motion designers use various tools to achieve their desired output. Let's examine some of the most popular and reliable options on the market.

Adobe after effects

Adobe After Effects is a pioneering and industry-standard software for motion graphics and other visual design needs. Its robust toolset makes it versatile for 2D and 3D motion graphic works.

After Effects excels in creating animated text and typography, composting, keyframing, and AI-powered content-aware fill. It is great for designers looking for all-in-one software with deep integration with other Adobe products. Because of its extensive capabilities, it is also accessible for beginners while providing advanced tools for professional designers. If you need more help, users are welcome to explore tutorials and articles related to design.

Cinema 4D

Another equally accessible and flexible tool is Cinema 4D. While After Effects is known for its 2D compositing and visual effects, Cinema 4D focuses on 3D animation and modeling applications that complement it perfectly. Professional motion designers love its MoGraph module, a toolset with effectors allowing users to manipulate clones easily.

In addition, it has a plain effector for changing position and scale, a random effector, a shader effector for adding animated noises and textured grayscale, a formula effector for more precise transformations, and a sound effector for manipulating audio into animation. And if you want to integrate it with the Adobe ecosystem, you can certainly do so with Cinema 4D.

Adobe illustrator

As the industry standard for vector-based design, Illustrator empowers designers to craft clean, high-quality graphic designs that maintain their fidelity at any size. It allows users to create logos, icons, and illustrations without losing quality. Everything is scalable, perfect if you work with multiple formats and channels. And since it is an Adobe product, it is easy to streamline your motion graphics work between Illustrator and apps like After Effects. 

Blender

Suppose you're looking for a motion graphics tool that does the job but doesn't want to splurge. Try Blender. It is an open-source animation software that can handle 2D and 3D motion graphics needs. Additionally, Blender has an expansive and tight-knit user community for support.

Technical animation tools proficiency

Skilled motion graphics designers must be proficient with industry-standard animation and video tools. Key software like Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D, and Autodesk Maya are essential for 2D and 3D animation, video editing, and visual effects.

You can create a skills test featuring specific motion graphics tasks to assess a designer's technical abilities. Ask candidates to complete challenges using tools like After Effects and explain their process and design choices in their graphic design. This will help you identify designers who are comfortable with the technical side of the job.

Aesthetic sense, storytelling, and composition knowledge

In addition to technical skills, motion graphics designers must have a strong aesthetic sense and storytelling abilities.

Aesthetic sense is having a keen eye for color, typography, and composition. Storytelling skills enable designers to use animation, pacing, and other techniques to explain an idea and communicate a straightforward narrative. Compositional knowledge allows designers to arrange elements within the frame in a way that guides the viewer's eye and creates visual interest.

An effective way to assess this is to ask motion designers for a portfolio or a compilation of their work that reveals their creative process and skill level.

Team player and effective communicator

Motion designers often work with people from different departments and cater to clients who are non-designers. Hence, being a good collaborator is a must for working efficiently. A motion designer who can communicate well also avoids miscommunication and forgoes technical jargon to present complex ideas. Finally, it is essential that a designer can take constructive feedback positively and be open to engaging in dialogues that can fuel professional growth.

Creative problem-solvers

Working in motion design involves constantly solving unique challenges. It requires experimentation to find or create the right effects to add visual depth. Clients also change their minds a lot! And resources can be limited.

Motion designers must be creative problem solvers who can quickly adapt to changes. They also constantly stay curious, exploring different styles and methods of animating to keep their work fresh and interesting.

Overcrowded scenes

Motion design can make the artist eager to play with and layer multiple design elements. This can quickly result in a chaotic look, where people don't know where to turn their attention. Movements can look cluttered and cramped, which makes for overwhelming work.

That said, less is more! The design process should start with identifying and clarifying goals. Determine focal points and the hierarchy of information that you want to present. Use negative space to give visual elements room to breathe.

Animation effects overload

Learning when to time your movements or animations so that not everything moves all at once is crucial in motion design. Imagine using spins, blurs, and other transitions while texts and sounds explode in the background.

You can avoid this by knowing which movements to prioritize and creating an order similar to a domino, where pieces fall nicely and neatly. This leads to smoother overall visuals, making them easy on the eyes. You also don't need significant effects all the time, so mix it up and aim for a balanced animation. 

Poor color/font choices

Have you encountered an animation where the texts are hard to read, and colors seem to fade in the background? Or worse, the visual elements clash!

Your choice of font and colors can make or break your desired output. Too many fonts can disrupt the visual hierarchy and highlight the wrong points. Light-colored text on a light-colored background results in low contrast. This makes everything feel off, as it does not align with the overall mood or personality you were aiming for.

A simple trick is to pick your primary colors, ideally three at most, and ensure they create a nice contrast. The colors of your choice should also match the mood you want to set and adapt well to different screen devices.

Legibility is a priority for fonts, so choose readable, movement-friendly fonts. Experiment with font sizes, but remember that the bigger, the better.

Motion graphics are here to stay. The advancement of technology opens up limitless possibilities for creating an interactive and immersive user experience.

Motion graphics have also become more accessible than ever, with AI tools leading the way in producing hyper-realistic animations quickly. With the increasing demand for content highlighting captivating stories and the expanding creative freedom, motion graphics help individuals, businesses, and other organizations get ahead. 

And you can, too! You need to work with a trusty team of motion designers. If you’re wondering how to level up your website and apps with motion graphics, contact a UI/UX design company.