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https://vimeo.com/35900918 A friend of mine helped craft this wonderful reel for creative/mographic agency FutureDeluxe Motion Design is the application of design principles to animated media -be it Graphics, Video, Live action, CG. Motion designers go under many guises, the most ubiquitous of which is the Motion Graphics artist -although to say that all we tackle is After Effects and C4D is a woeful understatement. Motion Designers bring together a wide toolkit of capabilities in Graphic Design, video production, 3D modelling and animation, compositing, digital design, programming, copywriting, scripting and layout design to create visually engaging pieces of (generally short form) media. To be a 'T shaped designer' (specialist of one craft, capable at many) is the essence of the Motion Designer's outlook. So, whether it's a film's opening credits, a new shiny digital promotion for the latest sneakers or a lovely car insurance ad revel in the joys of Motion Design! FAQ: Fire away and queue (for answers) Ask away and we'll see what the hive-mind can do for you Q: How do I get a job in Motion Graphics? Polished, punchy showreel showing a breadth and depth in ability alongside the persistence and want to succeed -to take the sugar coating off, expect to either have to do a fair bit of interning or strike it lucky and get a job at a startup/rapidly expanding studio. Greyscale Gorilla has much more authority on this whole subject than I do, listen to this: https://vimeo.com/3140469 Q: How many jobs are there going in Motion Design right now? From the perspective of the UK market (London specifically), business is booming -new studios are popping up month on month and the role of the motion designer is fast expanding in to new areas -whether it's major car manufacturers hiring teams to work in house on interface graphics and design, User Interaction and UX agencies looking for motion designers to put up the glue between Visual Design and User Interaction or the very robust digital agency market looking for animators to put on the books Q: I want to be a motion graphics designer, should I learn program (x, y, z, etc.)? As with all these discussions, there's a set pattern to the answer: There are packages that are in use that are industry standard (After Effects and Cinema 4D), but allegiances change at the drop of a hat -and there are still a sizeable chunk of 3DSMax users still in the gene pool. Stick to learning good design, conceptualisation and production techniques and the technicalities will fall into place. So, lets get together and (rather than twiddling thumbs & reading motionographer while waiting for that render) make a killer little place for discussion of our art! Throw in and if I see any cool content (reels, tips, recommends) I'll throw it up top.
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Aug 23, 2012 21:52
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Stoked on this thread. A while back I started loving with Quartz Composer, which is a pretty awesome program. I wasn't used to the modular aspect of it, coming from a very minor After Effects background. But most of what I find online with QC is VJ stuff (which is actually what I was doing at the time that got me into QC) so I'd be interested to see more unique applications of the software. I don't have much to add at this time, but check out this guy's teaser. Really loving sick compositing using Red Giant's Particular & Colorista: Land Escape Teaser on Vimeo I really don't think he's ever going to finish the full thing, but who knows! I remember reading somewhere that he was inspired by underwater aquatic creatures and movement. Just check it out it's not long. Also, is it normal to make a million comps and trash them all? Because I rarely finish a "little idea I had" anymore 
RizieN fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Aug 24, 2012 |
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Aug 24, 2012 21:36
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Stoked for this thread! I've been getting more requests coming in for more motion graphics work. I'm trying to teach myself. This is the first thing I made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfZGImD22CE  ...I'm hoping it will one day be part of my reel. I'd love some feedback!
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Aug 30, 2012 06:53
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Of course, the week I make this thread it hist crunch time on a major client project and barely visit SA, let alone the rest of the internetRizieN posted:Also, is it normal to make a million comps and trash them all? Because I rarely finish a "little idea I had" anymore I used to do this all the time -I think it stems from a train of thought where a visual idea is what guides a creation, rather than having any kind of structure to put that idea in: You imagine it looking amazing as part of this sequence in your head, build it, and then realise without that context it doesn't really stand on its own legs. Nowadays (in part due to my recent focus on video production until I started this job) I focus a lot more on story, narrative, overarching ideas that then have visual ideas shoehorned into them
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Aug 30, 2012 22:25
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Awesome! I haven't seen too many motion graphics posts around here. I did this piece earlier this year that I'm really proud of: http://vimeo.com/41706317 Hey Poochie, if that's the first thing you made in After Effects that's a hell of a lot better than what mine was. I only make a lot of comps now if I'm not given any direction to go and have a little time to explore. Otherwise due to time/budget I usually have a idea of what I need to do before I dive into After Effects. I'm a big fan of the sports packages, so I love this website: http://www.graphicsmafia.com/
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Sep 5, 2012 02:19
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I really dig the dragon. If I had anything to suggest it might be to study how people in the costumes move about and replicate that but yours isn't half bad. I'm guessing you must've been on a deadline for that one?
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Sep 6, 2012 16:28
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korusan posted:I really dig the dragon. If I had anything to suggest it might be to study how people in the costumes move about and replicate that but yours isn't half bad. I'm guessing you must've been on a deadline for that one? He made it with vector art in Illustrator and animated it on cards procedurally on a path in After Effects. He wasn't going for the level/style of animation you're describing, unless you're suggesting that he maybe could have shimmied it up and down some more as it went along its path.
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Sep 7, 2012 05:04
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OK...so as of Friday, I'm unemployed and working on my reel full-time. Here's my reel from last year: http://chellescreations.net/motiondemo.html So far my goals for my new reel are this: To add a custom "demo reel" animation/title graphic To sync my transitions and animations to my music To combine my 3D character animation and motion graphics into one demo...I don't know why I had two separate demo reels before, it was stupid. I've got a rough cut right now without the intro animation, but I think I want to do a few new pieces to fill out my reel and pull some of the pieces I have in there, so if anyone has suggestions on skills they think I need to show off, I'd love to hear them. My reel tends to be kinda heavy on the illustration/2D animation side so I'm probably going to try and do some 3D logo animations. Particularly since I have Element to play around with now.  I just don't want to end up getting another Multimedia job where I end up being in Powerpoint all day, so I want to make sure I get this right. Please feel free to critique the old reel too. My last job didn't give me a whole lot of opportunity to create anything new, so most of that stuff is still going on my reel, so I'll always take critiques. Also, Xiao, I love the dragon. I think you did a really nice job on it!
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Sep 12, 2012 22:48
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I really, really hate this guy: https://vimeo.com/40006163 He hosted his project file and it's absolutely ridiculous. Layer after layer after layer in precomp after precomp. No heavy reliance on glintzy plug-ins, just straight up keyframing. It's stunning. Time to throw away my computer
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Oct 25, 2012 17:14
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Electric Crayon posted:I really, really hate this guy: That's pretty drat impressive. Shows an absolute solid understanding of the principles of animation. On another note I just purchased the entire Element 3D Studio Bundle from Video Copilot. I'm excited. First project I get to use it on? A Cash for Gold commercial! Oh advertising... how you have your ups and downs.
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Oct 25, 2012 17:24
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 https://vimeo.com/51880450 Reposting this in here more for the sake of having content for the thread (though I see it has been spectacularly bumped). Can't wait to to dig through that source file. I'm using my last year in school to do motion and nothing but. It's kind of hard to decide what to do next when you can do basically anything you want, though. I may end up doing another title sequence (although I have two already, but it's a huge part of what I'd like to do after I graduate). Maybe some TV bumpers/idents?
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Oct 25, 2012 17:55
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redjenova posted:
I'm not sure the source file on that project would be that involved. It's just pan & scans over still artwork on different z-depths with some grungy multiplied layers added for texture. Maybe some track mattes added? It is pretty, though. For your final year, maybe you could do a complete graphics package for a show you like? Open, close, lower thirds, idents? That was one of my better school projects. Or maybe a kinetic typography piece if that's still a popular thing.
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Oct 25, 2012 18:22
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Oh, haha whoops! That's MY file actually. I was talking about the source file that you posted! Super basic in essentials, like you said. That's a good idea for a final project. I kind of hate kinetic type, honestly. It screams 'student project' to me and I've never really been that interested in doing one beyond learning the basics of After Effects. Graduation's coming up crazy fast so I'd like to have as much as I can that seems practical more than anything else, maybe take an opportunity to learn more 3D programs.
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Oct 25, 2012 18:28
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Ha, my bad. I'm glad people are finally over kinetic type. One project is cute but man, they get tedious after a while. edit: for content since I love bumping this thread today so much...here's my demo reel. I really need to go back and polish this. https://vimeo.com/18303077 I fall into the trap of getting super excited over recently finished pieces that honestly aren't very good and adding them to the reel. Also I probably need to add more 2D work to it. Electric Crayon fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Oct 25, 2012 |
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Oct 25, 2012 18:32
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I think more people should post things to look at. Here's something I made the other day. https://vimeo.com/53498700 Was pretty fun to make. I'd like to get into motion more.
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Nov 15, 2012 12:08
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raging bullwinkle posted:I think more people should post things to look at. That's really nice! Are you using any scripts for the easing? And are those AE shape layers? Because I still haven't gotten the hang of shape layers, and usually revert back to using masked solids since I feel I have better control of the shapes then. Also, you should add some sound.
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Nov 15, 2012 13:44
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rear end cobra posted:That's really nice! Are you using any scripts for the easing? And are those AE shape layers? Because I still haven't gotten the hang of shape layers, and usually revert back to using masked solids since I feel I have better control of the shapes then. Thanks dude! No scripts. I just drag the handles way out there. The layers are almost all imported PSD files. If you import a PSD file it brings it in as a comp and preserves all your layers. Saves a lot of screwing around.
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Nov 15, 2012 14:45
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raging bullwinkle posted:I think more people should post things to look at. Looks like you have a pretty good knack for it. Nice work! edit: Speaking of expressions, this one is by far my favorite to use when I'm working on something that calls for a lighter fare. It gives movements a bubbly bounce and saves me a ton of time so I don't have to keyframe everything. hey look at this thing posted:amp = .1; You can adjust the integers for amp, frequency and decay to give something more weight, a more elastic bounce, or what have you. It's fun to mess around with. Electric Crayon fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Nov 15, 2012 |
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Nov 15, 2012 16:28
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Yea that was really smooth and nice. Liked it a lot. I guess I'll post something, for content's sake, but it's just AE 101 basics, nothing special. I made an intro for a video I shot of my friend's band, The Harlequins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbTUNi4er8Y It's just the first ten seconds, but I think the band is bad rear end so if you like 60s psychedelic rock crossed with some grunge go ahead and listen to a few songs. It was based on a poster that they had made for the show: 
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Nov 15, 2012 17:32
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raging bullwinkle posted:I think more people should post things to look at. How long did it take you to make this? This is exactly what I'd love to learn how to do. If you've got any tips on how you made it or the transitions or anything I would love to hear it. I really like stuff like this and it's really slick.
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Nov 16, 2012 19:15
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redjenova posted:How long did it take you to make this? Thanks dude! I'd love to tell you how I made it. I'll just preface this by saying I have no training in motion, and I haven't been doing this for very long. Everything I know I've learned either from online tutorials or from screwing around in AE. If you're hoping there's some sort of secret, there really isn't one (that I know of -- if anyone reading this knows any secrets, please tell me). It's all just layers being either moved, scaled, rotated, or masked in/out. With that out of the way, I'll lead you through what I loosely refer to as my 'process'. What should I make? This step took the longest. The biggest thing I took away from this project is how important it is to keep making decisions and moving forward. Once I decided what I would be making, I moved onto the sketching phase. The sketching phase This step also took a long time. I tried to plan out every letter and its transition very early on. At the letter 'N' I got bored and moved into Illustrator to start making the assets that would eventually be brought into AE.  Oh, that would be cool, wouldn't it Drawing the assets What I should have done with this phase is illustrate all the letters first, then make sure they look good next to each other, and then plan out the transitions. Instead, I drew the letter "O" and the letter "N" and then brought them into AE so I could get started animating straight away.  gently caress yeah, let's animate these suckas - me, way too early in the process A mixture of making assets and animating those assets This was the final step. I really should have planned out everything first. In Illustrator I would make little boards for each letter and then go straight into AE to try them out. Eventually I somehow finished.  At the time I thought this was the dumbest poo poo ever, but then I showed people and they liked it. Animating People tell me I have an 'eye' for this stuff, but it really just comes from watching a lot of things on Vimeo. The biggest tip I could give you would be to download videos off Vimeo (or wherever), bring them into either Quicktime or Photoshop (apparently Photoshop can import and scrub through video, I only found this out recently), and then go through your favourite parts frame by frame. Count how many frames it takes them to go from X to Y, etc.. You'll be surprised how much action happens in such a short amount of time, and how much you can learn just by paying attention. You'll also want to bone up on basic animation principles, like anticipation and that thing where a person's hair will keep moving forward after their body comes to rest. Pretty much all the amateurs I see on Vimeo pay no attention to this stuff, and it shows. Transitions My transitions aren't seamless animations. They all have a seam. If I need to have a square turn into a circle, I just rotate the square quickly and make it bulge a bit before cutting to a circle. It's just stupid tricks like that done with care that make transitions work. That's how I made it in broad terms. If I completely skipped what you wanted to hear about, or you'd like me to go into detail about some technical aspect, let me know. I'm sure there are other people reading the thread who want to know the same stuff you want to know.
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Nov 19, 2012 13:05
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Also I'd like to point out that you are shining example of "the program is just a tool." What makes that thing really pop, in my opinion, is that you have a fantastic eye for design and color and pacing.
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Nov 19, 2012 16:24
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Honestly I think it's just little things like how smooth everything is and specific transitions that jumped out at me. Are you just animating a ton of masks most of the time? Like the reveal of the tongue on the S? I use after effects a ton and am trying to go into motion design but this particular type of animation is hard to pin down tutorials for. Mostly it's particle generator poo poo and how to make fake 3D logos. Drives me nuts when I'm trying to figure out how to do something that isn't those things.
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Nov 19, 2012 18:22
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Do you ever search for motion typography tutorials? I know there are a few out there that have good tips for that kind of stuff, the tutorial might not be exactly what you want, but you'll learn some useful things just browsing through it.
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Nov 19, 2012 23:45
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Yeah, but I've learned pretty much all I can from them. Most tutorials of that kind are so basic. It's the really complicated, quick animations I'm interested in learning more about.
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Nov 20, 2012 00:32
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redjenova posted:Are you just animating a ton of masks most of the time? Like the reveal of the tongue on the S?  A black circle with a radial wipe applied to it (made transparent for the purposes of this tutorial). When you set the tongue layer to use the black circle as an alpha track matte, you will only see the part of the tongue that the black shape covers. As for the smoothness of the animation, it's mostly just the classic 'slow in, slow out' trick. You should be using AE's motion editor to tweak the easing on your keyframes. The other thing you should be thinking about is the principle of "follow through and overlapping action" (thanks Google). Use plenty of that and your animations will look smooth. If I skipped over anything that you would have preferred to hear more about, tell me and I'll elaborate. BonoMan posted:Also I'd like to point out that you are shining example of "the program is just a tool."
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Nov 20, 2012 14:07
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This is awesome! I never guessed it would be a simple solution like that because it looks so good. And I don't play around nearly enough with the graph editor, thanks for reminding me about that, haha. I really appreciate the write-up, I love the video. The only other thing that jumps out at me is the circle of the O turning into that oblong shape that is the first part of the N. Is that also done just animating masks? Seriously, thank you again. I keep watching it when I come in this thread and it's jealousy inducing!
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Nov 20, 2012 16:54
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I was looking at your Vimeo, Bullwinkle, and wanted to know how you animated this one: http://vimeo.com/30658120 Are some of those 3D renders?
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Nov 20, 2012 16:59
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redjenova posted:The only other thing that jumps out at me is the circle of the O turning into that oblong shape that is the first part of the N. Is that also done just animating masks?  These two frames are where the switch happens. Tricking peoples eyes is way easier than creating the effect for real. (Also, thanks for the kind words!) RizieN posted:I was looking at your Vimeo, Bullwinkle, and wanted to know how you animated this one: http://vimeo.com/30658120
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Nov 21, 2012 09:47
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I guess I really need to get my hands dirty and learn this 3D nonsense to do some of the stuff I really want to do. Thanks! I'll definitely be checking that tutorial out when I get home.
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Nov 21, 2012 19:49
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My big question, whenever I watch pieces similar to yours, is that nice soft shading. How did you go about creating that? Is all that shading done on the shape originally inside of Illustrator? Or did you use some sort of drop shadow effect in AE? Edit: From the look of things it looks like you mainly just used a feathered mask, but on some of them did you also use a mask expansion setting to give it a little more definition at the darkest point? Dr.McButtcheeks fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Nov 22, 2012 |
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Nov 22, 2012 02:18
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Dr.McButtcheeks posted:My big question, whenever I watch pieces similar to yours, is that nice soft shading. How did you go about creating that? Is all that shading done on the shape originally inside of Illustrator? Or did you use some sort of drop shadow effect in AE? I don't know what he uses, but I often use two instances of the drop shadow effect (not the drop shadow layer style) to achieve that look. It's hard to get that "shadow is soft until it gets near where the object meets the ground/wall then it gets sharper and darker" look with just one shadow. Use one to achiever the softer look and one to achieve the closer/sharper look. You can also start working blurs in there to get an added layer of control.
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Nov 22, 2012 02:32
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raging bullwinkle posted:It's actually much simpler. I squashed the circle inwards and then switched to the oblong.  Thank you so much for posting this. It's so simple but I feel like I'd never have figured it out on my own. Crazy.
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Nov 22, 2012 04:32
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Dr.McButtcheeks posted:My big question, whenever I watch pieces similar to yours, is that nice soft shading. How did you go about creating that? Is all that shading done on the shape originally inside of Illustrator? Or did you use some sort of drop shadow effect in AE? BonoMan posted:You can also start working blurs in there to get an added layer of control. The problem I have is that I want the shadow to only affect a single layer. I don't want it to fall on the background. As far as I know, a drop shadow can't do this. My method for applying a drop shadow to a single comp/layer (please suggest a better one, I'm begging you) 1) find the comp that you'd like to cast a shadow, and duplicate it 2) give the newly duplicated comp a tint (the color you want your shadow to be) 3) add a gaussian blur to your new shadow comp (however soft you'd like your shadow to be) 4) duplicate the comp that you want the shadow to fall on 5) give the duplicated comp a black tint (so we can use it as an alpha matte) 6) use the black-tinted comp as an alpha matte for the gaussian blurred shadow layer Tedious as gently caress. And if you end up changing the animations in one of the comps it throws everything off. Would be easier if you could create instances of comps (like smart objects in Photoshop, which automatically update across the board but can have different effects applied to them. Is there such a thing?) but there really must be a better way. Any help with this would be much appreciated! redjenova posted:
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Nov 22, 2012 10:39
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raging bullwinkle posted:
Your Transparent Toggle button. Right by the Track Matte option drop down. Essentially you'll have your bottom layer. Your middle layer which casts the shadow and has the transparency matte option toggled to ON. However.. not only does this make the parts of the shadow that aren't cast onto the object invisible... it also makes the parts of the shadow caster that don't overlap the lower object invisible as well. SO just duplicate the top object and turn transp toggle off and drop shadow off. It should look like this:  It's nowhere near as complicated as I make it sound. Takes just a few seconds. You'll have to pre-compose the layers though so the transp matte doesn't get affected by everything else going on in your comp.
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Nov 22, 2012 22:57
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BonoMan posted:Your Transparent Toggle button. Right by the Track Matte option drop down. Thanks so much for this dude! I knew there must have been a better way. I guess I just wasn't plugging the right terms into Google.
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Nov 25, 2012 11:02
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raging bullwinkle posted:I think more people should post things to look at. Did you have to follow a TutsPlus video for some of these techniques? Apparently my company has had a premium account for a while (and never bothered to tell me..the guy that could use it the most). I logged on and saw a video really similar to this in style so it was just making me wonder. edit: It's the "Morphing Simple Summer Shapes" tutorial. edit 2: which, holy god, is the worst tutorial ever. I hope the quality improves on this site. BonoMan fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Dec 6, 2012 |
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Dec 6, 2012 18:22
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BonoMan posted:Did you have to follow a TutsPlus video for some of these techniques? Apparently my company has had a premium account for a while (and never bothered to tell me..the guy that could use it the most). I logged on and saw a video really similar to this in style so it was just making me wonder. I haven't seen that tutorial, but the video it copies (this one https://vimeo.com/46616230, which is far superior to the tutorial recreation, by the way) was a huge inspiration and part of my reference library for the project. I'm not sure what the tutorial contains, but it can't be much more than teaching you about the graph editor, masks, keyframes, etc. I think if you were to step through the original video frame by frame you'd be able to figure out how it was done. If you see something you can't figure out, post it here. I bet one of us could give you a solution. Also, the beauty of the original video comes from the awesome transitions, the smoothness, and the timing. I don't think the tutorial covers any of those things. raging bullwinkle fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Dec 9, 2012 |
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Dec 9, 2012 06:09
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raging bullwinkle posted:I haven't seen that tutorial, but the video it copies (this one https://vimeo.com/46616230, which is far superior to the tutorial recreation, by the way) was a huge inspiration and part of my reference library for the project. I'm not sure what the tutorial contains, but it can't be much more than teaching you about the graph editor, masks, keyframes, etc. I think if you were to step through the original video frame by frame you'd be able to figure out how it was done. If you see something you can't figure out, post it here. I bet one of us could give you a solution. Yeah I was just perusing the site and came across it and it felt similar to yours. I wasn't really "taking" the tutorial or anything (I did watch a minute or two of it and I think "tutorial" is being generous). I feel confident enough in my abilities to recreate most of that. I didn't, however, know that the video wasn't an original of the tutorial maker. Huh!
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Dec 9, 2012 11:21
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BonoMan posted:I didn't, however, know that the video wasn't an original of the tutorial maker. Huh! Ha, yeah, I thought that was weird too. I wonder what they pay for a 'premium' tutorial. I know their normal rate is $150 per video. I don't think many people would bother recreating that animation and then making a tutorial about it for $150.
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Dec 9, 2012 12:34
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