Motion Graphics Design Academy - The Basics Silver Edition Written and published by Timo Fecher | Hirtenstraße 19 | 63768 Hösbach | Germany Copyright © 2017 by Timo Fecher. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for the content of external links to websites of third parties. Responsibility lies solely with the operators of these websites. No infringements were evident to us while writing this book. Should we notice any violation, we will delete the respective link instantly. All trademarks and registered trademarks in this book are the property of their respective holders. Adobe®, After Effects®, Photoshop® and Premiere® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated. www.crossfeyer.com Email:
[email protected] First publication: 2017 Edition: 01
THANK YOU! The creation of this book would not have been possible without the help of many members of the Visual Effects Germany Facebook group and the Crossfeyer newsletter subscribers. Thanks to all of you! You are great! A BIG THANK YOU also goes out to the proofreaders Lena Rücker, Kai Götz, Julia Lindow, Heike Quosdorf, Jennifer Schmitt, Tom Meier, Mario Ercegovac, Andreas Maretzek and Jeremy Ondrey. (You might have noticed (or will notice) that English is not the author’s native language. Even though all of the proofreaders have done their best to find the most severe spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, there are probably some left. Try to catch them all and send them to us (
[email protected]) so that we can improve the book. Thanks for your understanding and help!)
I also want to thank every single person and every company that supported this project with valuable tips and presented this ebook on their platforms: 3D Artist - www.3dartistonline.com CG VIZ Studio - www.cgvizstudio.com Michele Yamazaki Terpstra & Toolfarm - www.toolfarm.com Boundless Blending - www.boundlessblending.com CG Channel - www.cgchannel.com Digital Production - www.digitalproduction.com Oliver Peters, the digitalfilms blog - www.digitalfilms.wordpress.com Tariq Khan & Filmemacher Deutschland - Facebook page Lester Banks - www.lesterbanks.com Mister Horse - www.misterhorse.tv ProVideo Coalition - www.provideocoalition.com
Studio Daily - www.studiodaily.com The Rookies - www.therookies.co Motion Graphics Collective - www.motiongraphicscollective.com AEsweets - www.aesweets.com Eran Stern - www.sternfx.com Marcus Mravik - www.MarcusMravik.com Tobias Vogel - www.tobias.media Artbeats - www.artbeats.com Synfig - www.synfig.org Toon Boom Animation Inc. - www.toonboom.com Maxon Computer GmbH - www.maxon.net
and many more…
Warning: The following ebook (including text and all images) is protected by German copyright law. Any unauthorized editing, reproduction, or distribution is strictly prohibited and illegal. Copyright infringement is investigated by authorities directly in charge. All gender-specific terms refer to both the feminine and the masculine form. I’m not a sexist, racist, terrorist but a little bit of a perfectionist. No animals were harmed during the production of this book.
Contents 1. INTRODUCTION
15
2. BASICS
23
2.1 The four “W”-questions
24
Who is your target group? Why are you doing this? Where is your platform? What are your restrictions?
2.2 The motion graphic commandments Eyecatcher
28
Groups Managing time Asymmetry creates tension Repetitions for recognition Natural and reasonable
2.3 Fire the starting pistol
33
3. PREPARATION
35
3.1 Concept
35
Research Idea Mood board Presentation
3.2 Format and Composition
41
Choose a format Arrange your composition Playing with elements
3.3 Storyboard
4. PRODUCTION 4.1 Get yourself into shape
51
54 55
Shapes and their meanings The visual weight Hold the balance
4.2 The power of imagery
61
Photos The photographic eye Taking the photo Different looks with different imagery Resources File formats
4.3 Confonting writing The mission of text Type classifications Mixing typefaces Legibility Pimp my text Animating text
90
4.4 Narrating with colors
105
The influence of colors The basic science behind it A color’s character The importance of creating contrasts Striving for harmony Some colorful thoughts
4.5 Step by step, layer by layer
121
A short background story One layer to rule them all – A journey to middle ground Foreground your art Final arrangement and compositing
4.6 Move it! Animating your design
138
Keyframe basics Velocity and timing Transformations Effects Camera Interaction The 12 principles Transitions
5. POST-PRODUCTION
173
5.1 Post-processing
175
The perfect imperfections Final coloration
5.2 Rendering
193
5.3 Audio
195
5.4 Presentation
204
6. CONCLUSION
209
In case you would like to have more in-depth information about a specific topic, please watch out for this triangle. It indicates pages where the GOLD EDITION* of this book includes additional content.
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MOTION GRAPHICS DESIGN ACADEMY - THE BASICS © Timo Fecher
1. Introduction We see a square. It rotates and fluently transforms into a logo that is perfectly presented on a background of moving elements. Everything appears to be in harmony. Colors, shapes, movements, sound, typography. Every single detail is loaded with meaning to support a message. It feels like a story from an author whose tools are not limited to words and sentences. A story from a painter whose tools are not limited to brush, canvas and colors, but who has access to another amazing artistic form of expression: the creative world of Motion Graphic Design. What is Motion Design, Motion Graphics, or Motion Graphics Design? For convenience we will stick to the phrase “motion graphics” in this book. It www.crossfeyer.com
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is the art of transforming static elements like graphics, images, texts and logos into moving designs by adding another dimension: time. Great intro, isn’t it? I can imagine that you, dear reader, are now expecting some thoughts on the history of motion graphics. And about
1. Introduction
the fact that artists from various eras always had the ambition to illustrate motion in their paintings. We even know cave paintings from the Stone Age that show people and animals portrayed with several legs to give these illustrations a sense of motion. However, this is not exactly how I want to start this book. I believe you are reading this because you want to improve your own design skills. And you probably do not have endless time and frankly neither do I. I am writing this while sitting in the airport departure lounge waiting to board a plane. To be honest, I think the stern looking lady at the end of the hall will be instructing us to board the flight
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Ancient cave painting showing a jogger with his smartphone
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shortly and I want to at least finish the first chapter of this book before granting the responsibility of my life to a person I have never met before. So this is why we will dive right into the subject, leaving the historical background in the past and dealing with the fear of flying in the future for now. Just for the record: since the first days of mankind, people have
1. Introduction
tried to illustrate motion in static pictures. Nowadays, we have all the techniques needed to create real moving images. All we need to learn is how to deal with designs and how to use our tools the right way to transform our imagination into visual art. Why am I writing this book? More than ten years ago when I began to discover the creative world of motion graphics, I was overwhelmed by its artistic and narrative powers. Never before had I experienced a comparable form of media which is capable of seamlessly uniting meaningful graphics, emotion eliciting sounds and exciting motions into one piece of art. Immediately I needed to become part of this new and
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exciting medium. I immediately started consuming everything I could about this new topic. Unfortunately, the only resources I could find were video tutorials and step by step instructions for specific designs. But I watched and followed every tutorial and created the most beautiful motion graphics imaginable. What I made looked nearly as good as the
1. Introduction
creator’s originals. Tutorials are a great way to learn more about the tools available and become a master. However, there is one thing they do not teach you: how to design. Tutorials have you recreate the designs of great artists who have been kind enough to share their experience with you. But beware! There are also video channels where individuals try to sell motion graphics they have clearly copied from tutorials. They made slight changes to the design, changed the colors and then repackaged it as their own work. People who are new to the industry might possibly never recognize this is in fact an illegal act. Please don’t copy other people’s work.
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Tutorials taught me a lot and I want to thank all artists who share their knowledge with others. But tutorials are just the beginning. Finding more and more repeats of tutorials around the web, but then realizing my designs were also undeniably influenced by these tutorials, I started to
1. Introduction
rethink my personal design process. I decided to change my approach. Instead of thinking “Oh, that’s a great design and there is a step by step tutorial on it I can follow”, I started designing from scratch. There was nothing in front of me but an empty screen. Understand, this was actually pretty scary as it is so much easier to just follow something that is laid out for you! But in order to express your creativity you have to step out of your comfort zone at some point and start working on your own designs. Without direction, using only your own ideas. Be an artist first! During the course of this book I will not go into too much detail on various software and how they work. There are plenty of resources
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available to help you with that. What I really want is for you to view software as a tool; only as a means to an end. In fact, don’t restrict yourself to only one software package. They are all interchangeable in a way, and all do some other things better. Your knowledge about design and how it works is what is not interchangeable. That is why I will
1. Introduction
concentrate on you as an artist and the improvement of your skills. In terms of software: try to see this book as a plugin or an upgrade for yourself and not for your tools. I hope it is compatible with most of you and that there are not too many bugs in it. If you think it needs an update please inform the system administrator. A little bit about me: I’m a filmmaker ever since I can remember. I love telling stories. During my studies in film production and digital media, I got more and more interested in the art of motion graphics that tremendously helped me to improve my moviemaking and storytelling skills. Now I have been a self-employed VFX and motion graphics artist
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for almost ten years and I still love my job. I’ve worked on numerous projects for small companies right up to big and famous movie and game production studios. With my website “Crossfeyer” I want to establish a platform that I would have liked to have while learning the art of visual effects and motion graphics. A platform to support creativity and to
1. Introduction
encourage artists by improving their skills with innovative training. Besides filmmaking, I’m interested in the newest technology trends (Virtual Reality is great!), photography, cooking (coconuts are awesome!) and composing music. Combining my education in art, my studies in the field of media and design, and the knowledge I accomplished from many resources about motion graphics, I developed my own design process. A detailed plan which helps me create my own motion graphics, that carry my personality and are always something special. With my plan as a guide, I have worked on plenty of motion graphics for various projects. Every
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design was one of a kind, individual and with a purpose. For the sake of unique art I decided to share my knowledge and my detailed design process with everyone, to give you, my dear reader, an inside look into what I have learned through my experiences over the last few years. Hopefully this book will save you time and help you through those
1. Introduction
frustrating moments, when you do not know what to do next. May this book give you some thought-provoking impulses and inspire you to create your next unique and amazing motion graphic. Alright then, here we go. We can finally board the plane. Fortunately, the battery of my new laptop is fully charged so I can write the next chapter from above the clouds. In flight mode of course… don’t want to upset those stern employees from the airline… see you there!
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2. Basics So, I have switched my laptop to flight mode and downed a delicious tomato juice. Strange that tomato juice tastes so much different on a plane than on the ground. However, in the first chapter of this book I would like to give you an overview of basic design rules. Many of these rules are not restricted to motion graphics and are commonly used in all kinds of artistic projects. Of course it is not mandatory to follow all of them all the time (especially in the field of art, rules are meant to be broken), but for me these rules have always been a helpful guideline through any design process. We will take a look at the background information you need, outline a step by step plan for your work and determine which are the most important rules you should follow. So let’s dive right in and create some (e)motion(al) graphics!
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2.1 The four “W”-questions
2. Basics | The four “W”-questions
Many artists I know like to jump right into their software and try to create a design without a plan or by copying something they have seen in other videos. Or even worse, they do something similar to a previous job. But this is not what we want to do. We want to build something unique. Something that perfectly fits the message that we want to tell and does not simply look like another design being “inspired” by another video we saw on the internet. And by “inspired” I mean “copied from”. And by “video” I mean “Adobe® After Effects® Tutorial”1 . We want to find our own style and our own individual way to develop designs and animations. Well now, before we launch our design software, there are four “W”- questions I recommend you find an answer to.
1 Adobe® After Effects® is the industry standard and most frequently used software for motion graphics. As I have
said, we are not going too deep into software details but when I refer to software it will usually be Adobe® After Effects®.
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Who is your target group? From the very beginning you need to think about who your audience is.
2. Basics | The four “W”-questions
The target group that is the focus of your work. Why are you doing this? The next question you need to ask is what is the purpose of your design. Where is your platform? The third question you need to think about examines the medium in which your work will be viewed. What are your restrictions? In terms of the last question, you generally have to make a list of all technical specifications, outside influences and artistic restrictions which are not under your control.
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Only after knowing the answers to these questions should you start and develop your project. These factors determine the quality that all the
2. Basics | The four “W”-questions
other elements you work with need to have. Not the most urgent question when you start, but still good to know as soon as possible: What is the output format for the final video. Is the material you are working with (all the design elements, textures, fonts, etc.) protected by copyright or do you (or your client) hold all the rights to them? I assume you know how problematic it might become when using material you do not own. Remember!
There are people
making money by searching the web specifically for copyright infringements. Believing that “nobody will recognize this picture in the background” or “when I change it a little bit it’s technically my own work” is a huge mistake. These materials were created by people who know their own work even after it has been manipulated. So simply do
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only use design elements which have been produced by you, or for which you have written permission or license. We will talk a little more about this along with the resources for design elements you can safely use in a 2. Basics | The four “W”-questions
following chapter. And finally: How much time do you have to work on the motion graphic? What is your deadline? Some answers to the four questions may seem obvious to you. Nevertheless I recommend you write them down anyway. Making a small list with the answers to these questions is the best way to begin the actual design process. And who knows, maybe you will get your first artistic inspiration from this very list!
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2. Basics | The motion graphic commandments
2.2 The motion graphic commandments Being in the creative business of art and graphics – and mainly motion graphics – for more than ten years now, I figured out some significant rules I would always recommend you to follow. These are basic rules for creative work and do not exclusively apply to motion graphics. Look around and do some studying! You will notice that the best designers of the world hold on to these relatively simple guidelines. Try to keep them in mind while building your designs and I promise you will immediately improve your results!
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Eyecatcher
2. Basics | The motion graphic commandments
Let’s start with the eyecatcher that is supposed to attract the attention of your audience and gives them a starting point to look at. This is simple to explain: You need to have something that dominates your design. Something that sticks out of your work and is the first thing the viewer perceives. Groups The second rule I would like to mention is about groups. It is essential that you organize your designs in a useful way. Put together what belongs together, and separate elements that can act alone. Managing time Timing is everything! How long is my motion graphic going to be? How much information do I have to illustrate and what are the most crucial contents? Do I show everything in a row or at the same time? The latter
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is usually not the best idea. How much time do I give every element on
2. Basics | The motion graphic commandments
screen? How long will my graphics take to appear and disappear? How fast do they move? In which order do they appear? Asymmetry creates tension This one is a very old rule and I’ve learned it from my favorite teacher of fine arts. She certainly did not invent it – nature did – but she was the first one to tell me about it. She was the first one trying to persuade me to dismiss my urge to keep symmetry. I loved symmetry, I still do. There is nothing more pleasant than symmetrical designs. But when it comes to creating tension and causing a sensation you have to think out of the perfectly symmetrical box: Asymmetry! Be brave and break the symmetry!
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Repetitions for recognition
2. Basics | The motion graphic commandments
The headline speaks for itself, doesn’t it? But maybe it implies a bit more than you assume: Repetitions, just like the eyecatcher and groups, help your audience to orient themselves in your designs. Stick to a certain color selection or font and use recurring elements! Repeatedly using your elements and styles not only helps your work to be recognized but will also help you to portray yourself as a confident artist who is proud of his works. Natural and reasonable The last rule is about the importance of motion graphics being natural and reasonable. Try to give everything you create a slight amount of imperfection, or variation. Nothing in nature follows exact, strict rules, which distinguishes nature from technology. Do not try to create your designs like a computer would, or there will always be an unpleasant undertone of artificiality in your works.
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2. Basics | The motion graphic commandments
Everything is about telling a story. And your graphic elements are your tools for narrating. So every element must absolutely contribute to telling your message. Dark and cold colors tell different stories than bright and warm colors. Fonts immensely affect your story, as well as the style of your animations. Your message is about velocity? Then adjust your animations to match that theme! Your message is about love? Adjust your colors and fonts! Keep those rules in mind from the beginning, construct your graphics accordingly and you will master the high art of (e)motion(al) graphics. Damn, I love that bracket-thing! Although it’s hard to hit the right keys at the moment. This pilot must either be drunk or he is flying through some serious turbulences. Let’s just hope he is not flying through those turbulences while being drunk.
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2.3 Fire the starting pistol
2. Basics | Fire the starting pistol
A lot of people are always struggling with the questions “how do I start” and “what should I do next” when it comes to a design process. In the following chapters we will go through an exemplary production pipeline that I figured out to be effective for motion graphics. Hopefully this workflow will help you to eliminate time wasting when pondering over your next steps. Roughly speaking I would always suggest these basic principles: Work
Rough drawing of a starting pistol
from background to foreground, from big and relevant elements to small and detailed elements and from static graphics to animated ones. The exception proves the rule! By working that way you will have much faster results that you can show your clients. Your clients will either approve your work and you can start working out the details or they will give you
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instructions to change things or even make you reconsider the whole design. In any case you will save a lot of time while being able to present the look and style of your work in an early stage. But keep in mind that 2. Basics | Fire the starting pistol
these steps depend on each other and that it is sometimes necessary to make adjustments to a previous step. The whole design process can be split up in the great three “p”-words: Preparation, Production and Post-Production. And now prepare for the most important steps of creating exceptional motion graphics. Damn, that tomato juice has given me so much energy, I think I’m going to write during the whole flight.
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3. Preparation 3.1 Concept Already found answers to the four “W”-questions? Great! You will need them for developing the concept of your motion graphic design. A lot of people begin with the actual design process far too early. This is not what I would recommend you to do. It actually is crucial to have something you can always return to while constructing your graphics. Good preparation and a detailed plan keeps your head clear and allows you to effectively keep track of your next steps. Furthermore, for most jobs it is even mandatory to create an excellent concept. Its quality might actually
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decide about whether or not your client will give you the job. It’s good to learn how to present a design you did not even start to work on!
3. Preparation | Concept
Research The first thing you will need to do is conduct some in-depth research about the subject you are working on. What is it about? What kind of people are involved? For your research, use every tool you have and expend as much effort as you need to understand who exactly has hired you and why. When working with a professional client, the message will be predefined in great detail. Then you “only” have to worry about how to transform that message into a motion graphic design. But if you are also commissioned to find the message yourself (which happens from time to time), then you have to consult your inner storyteller. Find out what fits best to your client and your client’s clients. In any case I would recommend you to do some research about your specific message and
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how it has been used in other types of media in the past. Get inspired by some good movies (from which you know have that message in their theme), or pictures and try to collect some reference material that fits to your message and style. We will need this in the next step. In the end you 3. Preparation | Concept
should be ready to write down a short summary about your research work and your first outcome for the motion graphic design. This summary will be the first tool to help you present your concept to your client. Idea This is where the creative struggle often begins, but there’s no way around the requirements here. You need to have an idea, and it needs to involve the overall style and look of your motion graphic. This is not an easy task. How do I begin? What shall I do first? Those are the questions that artists are most afraid of while sitting in front of an empty piece of paper, an empty canvas, an empty book or an empty glass. Finding a solution
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for the last problem is still the easiest task. A lot of authors struggle with writer’s blocks, especially in the beginning of their creative process. This can also happen to graphic designers. If you don’t have the slightest idea of how to begin, you need to find some inspiration. In the best case you 3. Preparation | Concept
have already done this before working on your project. A good artist is always open to new things. Visit museums, look at architecture, read books, listen to different music genres, go to the cinema, the zoo, a theater, etc. There are millions of places where you can recharge your mind with new inspiration. The strategy behind this is of course NOT to copy someone else’s art (we have already talked about that misdeed), but to find connections between several ideas you like and think might fit to your current project.
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Mood board Mood boards are the first manifestation of your creative ideas in a visual way. They are a collection of elements that help you keep track of your thoughts. Mood boards will become useful for at least two reasons. First 3. Preparation | Concept
of all, they function as an instrument to visualize your ideas to your clients and your co-workers (if you have some). Secondly, they can serve as a record of your initial creative decisions. Mood boards represent the beginning and summarize your inspirations. If you ever come to a dead end, it often helps to go back to the beginning and become re-inspired by it. There are different ways to create mood boards. Find the one that suits you the most and fits your job. A lot of people like to create huge cardboard panels and pin their ideas onto them. This has the advantage that you get something you can actually touch and look at in real life. Designers for print media often do it that way so that their final result
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will also be something you can touch. I prefer a digital mood board because I personally like to use video files and audio within my mood boards. Feel free to use every software you like.
3. Preparation | Concept
Presentation Now with all your research work done and a final written summary of your plans and ideas, as well as a detailed mood board in your hands, you should be ready to present your concept to other people. Whether or not this is crucial for continuing your work (perhaps you already have the design job and do not have to persuade a client to get it) this step is a unique opportunity to observe other people’s reactions to your ideas.
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3.2 Format and Composition
3. Preparation | Format and Composition
Choose a format In this step we will have to make a fundamental decision: What are the exact measurements of the canvas we will use to draw our design on? What is the format of the composition? In most cases it will have the standard aspect ratio of 16:9. This is the most common used format because it matches most of your audience’s screens. If you produce in 16:9 chances are high that your viewers can watch your motion graphics in full screen, with every pixel their devices have to offer. People are accustomed to 16:9 like they are accustomed to the standard format for paper. And that is why changing that format always feels kind of special. From the beginning of human art (and by that I mean a damn long period of time) artists used the proportions of their format to support the
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message of their paintings. They have not been interested in standardized paper sizes or calibrated formats. That was the birth hour of extremely 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
tall pictures, wide ones, round ones, triangular canvases, … each one edging its contents in the best supporting way. I think most motion graphic designers underestimate the power of format. But why? Even when you have the guideline to produce in 16:9, you can still choose another format and in the end put it into a 16:9 framing using black bands (or even white or colored bands). Of course, sometimes you have clear orders to obey but if it is you who decides about the format, I would never just go with the 16:9 format just because it is a generally accepted standard. The proportions of your composition can have an enormous influence on how your final work appears to your audience. The more you go into portrait format, the more dynamic your general look will get. High
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formats are restless. Extreme high formats create the impression that the whole image might fall apart, this suggests a feeling of motion. A lot of 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
professional designers avoid the portrait format in motion graphics because it reminds us of those unprofessional smartphone recordings that emerge when you hold your camera the wrong way. Portrait formats also have the side effect that they leave a lot of blank space on a widescreen device (unless you can hold it vertically of course). However, sometimes the portrait format might be the right choice for your design. The horizontal formats are the most common used formats in the art of motion graphics these days with 16:9 and 21:9 proportions leading the way. These broad formats have a much more passive character because they seem to comfortably rest on the screen. Today they match most people’s viewing patterns. Formats at about 16:9 have established because they are in harmony with the human eyes and are totally comfortable to look at. Personally, I like to use the 21:9 format because it transports that
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feeling of an epic cinema screen. Of course you can also create an even broader widescreen than 21:9 like a panorama view. Force your audience 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
to look around and let them discover the details of your design. With panorama formats you can create remarkably complex worlds. But keep in mind that your audience must be able to follow your designs so mind the timing of your animations! Squarish formats have an extreme balanced and calm character. They represent the stage where portrait formats meet horizontal formats. The classic 4:3 format is nearly a square. If you want to capture, for example, the retro charm of a classic tube TV, 4:3 might be the format of your choice. And again the question: What is the message and the resulting tone of your motion graphic? Choose your format accordingly!
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Arrange your composition In the next step we divide our format into several areas and thus establish 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
the basic, static layout of our composition. By doing this you first need to know what kind of graphical elements you have to prioritize in order to give them more space and a better positioning. Are you planning to transport a clear message through mainly text? Then your text needs to be the primary element. Are you going to tell a story with some animated characters? Then these have to occupy the perfect position. A basic design rule is: Layout follows function! So at first you need to know what you want to tell your audience and then you can outline a first sketch of your layout. I prefer to draw these sketches on real paper, but you can of course also use any software you like. I still would not use your motion graphic software at this point, as it distracts too much from the actual task. And at the beginning it’s always a good idea to work with the most basic tools to keep a clear head.
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Again: This process is just for the basic, static layout! We do not position any elements yet. We just make a first consideration about how to split 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
up our screen into different areas in a meaningful way. This arrangement of areas can either lead to a harmonious or a disharmonious impression of your design. If you want to achieve a harmonious layout, which might well be so in most cases, you can follow two common principles: Symmetry and the golden ratio. When things are symmetrical they are balanced. They occupy the same screen space on both sides of your composition, this leads to harmonic layouts that might even get way too harmonic. In order to build up tension I would recommend to always break up symmetry at some point, but we will talk about developing suspense in a following, incredibly exciting chapter. (See how I actually build up tension for this book? Tension is vital!) Just remember: Symmetry equals harmony!
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Arranging your composition in the proportions of the so called “golden ratio” will also result in well balanced and aesthetic layouts. Two lengths 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
are in the golden ratio if their ratio equals the ratio of both of them together to the longer one (see figure). Many artists and architects have followed the golden ratio for thousands of years. It can be found everywhere: In paintings, in antique statues, in many buildings, in modern design, even in nature! Quantities that are based on that ratio always are aesthetically appealing. The golden ratio is the basis for perfect proportions. Try to use it as often as you can in your designs, and not only when it comes to the basic layout. The sizes of your shapes may profit by the golden ratio or the positioning of your texts and graphical elements.
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Playing with elements “Playing with elements”. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? As if we were able 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
to control the four elements! Hey, this would actually be a great idea for a TV show: Different people control different elements and then they fight against each other! Then a famous director who is known for his great mystery stories with surprising endings would make a movie out of it which will be a massive flop that finally threatens the director’s whole career. That would also be a surprising ending… I want to be part of the fire nation. Where is the lighter I wanna torch something! Just kidding. You know I’m sitting in an airplane, so playing with fire would be rather dangerous. This area is controlled by a pilot who is drunkenly flying through some massive turbulences. We will not play with fire right now. Not yet. In a later chapter we definitely will, so be ready to fetch the extinguisher! For now we will just start playing around with some temporary design elements to get a feeling of where we will position them. These elements do not have to be the final ones of course (we will
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have to keep some work for the production part) so you can use any placeholder you want. For now we are just testing which positioning will 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
work and which we should forget, as part of that it is a good idea to put a layout grid over your composition to subdivide your format into several parts. It is a matter of taste, how detailed you want to make your grid. I would recommend a size that is not too small and not too big. A grid that you can later display in your motion graphic software for example. Your grid may consist of simple squares or rectangles or you might even divide your grid in the golden ratio for extraordinary harmonic arrangements. During the process of positioning elements a grid grants security and prevents chaos, that way you can work much faster and more systematically. When it comes to checking out some arrangements I still like to work with analog tools: After having decided on a format, I would cut it out of a piece of paper, then I would draw some lines on it to divide the format
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into a basic layout and a neatly arranged grid. I would also take a pencil to sketch some shapes, filler texts and placeholders for other graphical 3. Preparation | Format and Composition
elements. Then I cut these elements out to move them around freely on my grid. (For that just press the “c”-key on your keyboard and move the mouse around your piece of paper. Just kidding. Of course I don’t use a mouse to cut out real paper. I use a trackpad! With sharp edges!) Now it’s time to test several positions and arrangements of the elements and to get a feeling for the one that works best according to (you guessed it) the message of the final motion graphic. Then you should have a first impression of how your static design might look like in terms of format, layout and arrangement. If you are going to produce a longer animation with many different arrangements, that shall be transitioned into each other (which normally is the case in motion graphics, except for logo animations, etc.), you should develop an arrangement for each single phase of your animation.
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3.3 Storyboard In the final step of the preparation phase we will have a closer look on
3. Preparation | Storyboard
how our design might look in motion. For this we need to visualize motion and animated elements on a static medium. The headline has already revealed what I am talking about: a storyboard. Storyboards are in many regards just like comics. They consist of a sequence of several images that relate to each other in a comprehensible way. Filmmakers love storyboards! They are the best and easiest tool to plan a scene. Every major change of a shot gets its own little drawing on the storyboard. Many notes and arrows are used to indicate what happens between the several images and which elements are moving, if the context doesn’t make all of that info obvious. There are infinite ways to create a storyboard. Some people create rough scribbles, or even full on
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masterpieces. Others outsource their drawing process to other artists or companies. Some people, mainly the ones with the rough scribbles, like to support their images by many notes and explanations about what they
3. Preparation | Storyboard
had in mind. These notes can be instructions for the camera, reminders for the production department, time designations for the several shots, and so on. I personally like to develop my storyboards on paper (sadly I have to number myself among the people with the rough scribbles), but there is also a lot of software that provides pre-built elements to play around with such as characters, shapes, etc. Of course this software must at least be capable of displaying all of your previous results (format, layout, arrangements). So how do we start with the storyboard? It’s actually pretty simple: We take everything we have so far – and that should be several rough sketches (from the previous chapter) on the format of our choice with basic arrangements of temporary elements – and arrange them in the
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right order of time to get a first base frame for our storyboard. These sketches are the keyframes of our storyboard. Now we need to decide how many images we have to put between these keyframes to achieve a
3. Preparation | Storyboard
sequence of images that is also comprehensible to outsiders. The more images you draw the easier it will be to follow your trains of thought. The storyboard for a motion graphic designer is like the script for a movie director. I know the process of preparation can sometimes be a bit boring, but it is exactly that process that distinguishes professionals from amateurs and beginners. After you’ve gone through this preparation process, you should have a detailed plan that will guide you through the whole production. You’ll always know what to do next which will enable you to create our own, unique motion graphic design.
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4. Production Finally, with your concept and your storyboard at hand, we are now ready to enter the most interesting part of our motion graphic development: The production! As part of this we will first take an indepth look at different graphical elements we can use for our motion graphics and what narrative benefits each one of them has. We will learn about different shapes and their meanings, all kind of footage, fonts and colors. Then we will blend everything together in a meaningful design and finally set everything in motion. Enough introduction – Let’s roll!
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4.1 Get yourself into shape
4. Production | Get yourself into shape
The first thing we need to talk about are shapes. When creating graphical elements that you plan to incorporate into your design, keep in mind that – depending on shape, position and arrangement – different elements emphasize different messages. Similar to the several meanings of formats, shapes can be rather calm right up to exceptionally dynamic.
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Shapes and their meanings
4. Production | Get yourself into shape
The following list shows the basic shapes and their meanings:
Square: balanced, stable, calm
Right-pointing triangle: indicatory, dynamic, propulsive movement
Rhombus: unsettled, unsteady, dynamic, known as danger sign
Left-pointing triangle: indicatory, dynamic, moving backward
Horizontal rectangle: equalized, comfortable, stable, calm
Circle: balanced, closed, stable, symbol of infinity
Vertical rectangle: unstable, tall, dynamic, rising
Oval: unbalanced, unsteady, wobbling
Parallelogram: unstable, collapsing, concurrent
Line: acc. to reading direction either rising, balanced, descending
Standing triangle: stable, balanced, rising, the more pointy the more aggressive
New shapes: usually a combination of basic forms and their meanings
Reverse triangle: unstable, unsteady, active, known as danger sign
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The visual weight Whereas the look of a shape defines its narrative power, the importance
4. Production | Get yourself into shape
of a shape (its so called “visual weight”) is determined by aspects like its position, size, brightness, contrast, complexity, velocity, distance from the center of the image, its actual weight and its color. The object with the most visual weight will normally be the first thing your audience will see. When it comes to building a good eyecatcher (Remember the eyecatcher? Very important!), you should give it as much visual weight as possible. And remember: your eyecatcher does not even need to be the most detailed object. It just has to attract the attention of your audience and to give them a starting point to look at. After that starting point the viewer will look at the object with the second highest
The big circle obviously has more visual weight than the small circle
visual weight, then the third, and so on.
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Hold the balance Talking about the visual weight of elements, what do you think it is also
4. Production | Get yourself into shape
good for? Correct! For counterbalancing your image! Balance is crucial! And you have to make sure that your visual weight is balanced or you will get an unstable composition. Compare your image to a traditional balance scale that is fixed in its center and that moves one of its sides up or down according to the weight of the other side. Your composition follows the same rules. Its visual appeal is depending on its inner balance. So imagine your image only being fixed with a nail in its exact center. In which direction will it turn? If it turns clockwise, then you have too much visual weight on the right side. If it turns counterclockwise, then you have too much visual weight on the left side. If it stays in place (and you haven’t heard of the importance of balance before) you either are a natural talent or you have used two nails to hang it. If your image turns, then try to adjust your visual weight according to the rules we have learned that have an influence on it. Move some objects around, change
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their sizes, brightness, contrast, complexity, velocity, color, their distance from the center (Another analogy to the balance scale! Moving one of its
4. Production | Get yourself into shape
sides towards the pivot point of the balance scale will make that side and its content “lighter”. Yeah, physics!) and so on. While adjusting the visual weight, pay attention to not making everything too symmetrical and that you don’t use too many similar elements. This would make your composition harmonic BUT unfortunately could also get quite boring. Your audience will tire of looking at it quickly. Balanced asymmetry is the key! You need disharmony through different elements and asymmetry to create tension! If there is a big, heavyweight element on the right side for example, use many complex, midsize elements on the left side to compensate for the big element. Nice trick, isn’t it?
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If you want to balance your objects quickly (for example you take a picture of a dog and a flower in front of a blurry background) it is better
4. Production | Get yourself into shape
to not perfectly center your composition on your eyecatcher for the sake of balance. You get a much more exciting and professional look by shifting your shot slightly apart. With the rule of thirds you split the image into three parts horizontally and vertically and therefore get a clear, rough grid. Now you simply have to put your subject on the lines of that grid. This will result in a perfect compromise of balance and tension. I am pretty sure that you are already familiar with that grid. It is a component of most cameras’ viewfinders to simplify the process of composing a shot for the photographer. Quick and easy. In case you only have one object, I would prefer balancing it in the proportions of the golden ratio because the rule of thirds would shift your object too much apart. (Proportions of the rule of thirds: 1:2 (red grid) – Proportions of the golden ratio: 1:1,6 (golden grid) - see figure)
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4.2 The power of imagery
4. Production | The power of imagery
We have now discussed the meanings of different shapes and how to basically arrange them. Remember that these meanings do not only apply to basic forms, but also to much more complex entities that are similar to the basic forms. If a complex building represents the narrative power of a vertical rectangle, then a tent has the meaning of a triangle and an extraordinary fat cat might be compared to a lying oval. No matter how complex and detailed your objects are, they can always be reduced to basic geometrical forms that provide them with a specific message. Now that we know how to deal with shapes, we will take a closer look at the different types of media that we can use within our motion graphics. What different characteristics does each one of them have? Where can I search for media when I don’t want to produce it by myself? Which type of media is perfect for what purpose? The “W”-question “What is your
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goal” now becomes more urgent than ever before, as you now have to decide upon the kind of imagery you will use. In the following chapter I
4. Production | The power of imagery
will describe the advantages of the different types and help you make that decision. A picture paints a thousand words. Let’s use some words to describe some pictures.
Photos The first media I’d like to mention are classic, real photos taken by camera that you can edit the way you like. These pictures can be incorporated into motion graphics in many different ways. They can simply be used as a two-dimensional background for your design or you can cut out certain elements of a photo and use them separately. Another method to work with photos is to cut out their foreground elements and then animate them in front of the background (which at first has to be cleaned up of course). This is an exciting and popular way to get stylized
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motion into a static picture, and this is exactly what we, as motion graphic designers, often have to do: Bringing static pictures (one frame
4. Production | The power of imagery
out of a lost moment) back to life! Photos are one of the most influential elements if you want to give your design a feeling of naturalness and realism – The two factors you will be having trouble with when working with artificial imagery. If you wish to achieve a flat and simplified design (for educational clips, etc.) you may get problems when only working with real photos. Transforming photos into a stylized drawing is a complicated task if you do not want your final work to look like it is being processed by a cheap photo-editor. In this case you might want to chose an option from the graphics category below. Again: It is YOU who has to decide the look of your motion graphic.
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The photographic eye In case you plan to take your own photos I would like to give you a brief
4. Production | The power of imagery
overview of what you should take care of. If you are going to buy photos from other people or libraries, it will help you to evaluate what kind of pictures are suitable for your motion graphics. At first you need to remember one simple rule: There is a huge difference between the human eye and the (let’s call it) photographic eye! The human eye is awfully subjective. The photographic eye is always objective. A good photo is able to evoke emotions within everyone who looks at it. When taking pictures in an emotional scenery, always remember that your audience isn’t there with you. They cannot feel the atmosphere that is around your photo. So try to find ways to capture and present that atmosphere.
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Taking the photo Now you know that evoking emotions and conveying an atmosphere are
4. Production | The power of imagery
the most valuable functions of a good photo. What else do you have to keep in mind when hunting for the perfect image for your motion graphics? I will restrict myself here to the most important things (concerning motion graphics), there are thousands of books with thousands of pages about photography that I don’t want to rehash. Not to mention that I don’t want to write thousands of pages, even though this flight will still take a few hours. Is my laptop getting heavier while I write more and more words? Am I getting heavier while eating more and more of these fantastic snacks the flight attendant brings me every half an hour? They have that incredible coconut flavor. I love coconuts! Am I getting more and more tired while writing? Why is everyone asleep? I hope the pilot doesn’t sleep as well. Something strange is happening on this flight.
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So how do you begin? At first, you should know why you are taking the photo. Will it be the background of your design? Then you should take
4. Production | The power of imagery
care that there is a constant lighting in the scene and that there aren’t too many elements that will distract from the foreground of your design. Do you plan to extract certain elements from your image to use and animate them separately? Then it might be a good idea to take the picture in front of a homogeneous background (a well lighted green-screen in the best case), so that you can extract your subjects easier. Always know what you want to produce before using the camera. It will save you a lot of time! When taking your picture, always concentrate on your subject. Remember the rule of thirds and the golden ration to help you find the perfect framing. Light is one of the most decisive aspects you have to take care of. By changing the position and intensity of your light sources, you can dramatically change the look of your subject. By illuminating your subjects evenly, you will get flat images that might become boring on
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their own, but can have a lot of advantages for further editing. For example, in evenly lit images you can’t see where the light is coming from
4. Production | The power of imagery
because there are faint to no shadows. So if you want to combine several graphical elements and images in your motion graphic, you don’t have to adjust the light source of each individual image to match the other ones. Another form of photos you can use within your designs are textures. Who doesn’t like high-resolution textures? Flat images that depict the beauty of different elements’ structures. Wood, concrete, marble, different metal and so on. I like to use textures as the backgrounds of my designs. And even if I want to have a nearly black background, I almost never use a simple black solid. I always give my backgrounds a subtle structure. Textures are also great for title designs. You simply can’t beat a brushed aluminum title. Altogether, using textures is the best way to give your design much more realism. Their random structure is something you can’t create artificially and if you want to create a natural design, it is
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4. Production | The power of imagery
© Timo Fecher
essential to put as much elements from real life in it as possible. When creating your own textures, make sure that the surfaces are evenly lit and that you shoot them from the right angle. There are also infinite resources where you can get textures from. I personally use a huge library of textures where I can always choose the one that best fits the project I am working on. Having more textures at my disposal gives me the freedom to quickly test different styles.
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This is just a brief overview on how to handle and prepare photos for your motion graphics. There are infinite ways to incorporate such photos
4. Production | The power of imagery
into your work. One of my personal favorites is to take static pictures and give them another level of realism by animating several parts of them. Also, when there is only one picture available, I like to separate its different elements from the background and make the picture threedimensional. Then I animate the different elements and add some more footage to give it even more realism. For me this is one of the most exciting and appealing things a motion graphics designer can do: Giving static photos new life.
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Different looks with different imagery In case you don’t want to use photos in your graphics or that your look
4. Production | The power of imagery
aims at a more minimalist design (which actually is pretty common in motion graphics) there are a lot of other possible types of images you can create and use. Of course everything we have learned so far also applies to these. It is common to combine different looks in order to achieve a completely unique and new style. Creativity knows no limits! Illustrations: Hand-drawn or digitally created graphics, with a real or an abstract look, for either your background or fully animated sequences. At the cost of a more artificial look, with illustrations you can achieve highly emotional designs. Infographics: Commonly used to transfer information with the help of diagrams, charts, graphs, maps, etc. With infographics you can create explanatory animations that impart knowledge to your audience. They
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are often used within flat designs but can also be combined with natural looking elements. With appealing infographics you have the great power
4. Production | The power of imagery
to illustrate complex issues in a way that even people who have never heard of that issue before might be able to understand. Symbols & Icons: Simple graphic representations for a more complex context. Symbols are used to transport a clear message where you don’t have much space. Road signs are symbols; evacuation routes are marked by a symbol; restrooms, and if they’re for women or for men have a symbol; the act of showing your endorsement for a certain post on a well-known social media platform has a symbol, and so on. 3D Renderings: 3D Renderings (of real objects or abstract designs) can give your motion graphics a whole new dimension. Although there are many possibilities to create three-dimensional elements inside your motion graphic software, many designers prefer to work with a separate
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program when it comes to 3D computer generated images. In these programs you have more tools that are geared to modeling, texturing,
4. Production | The power of imagery
animation, etc. How to handle 3D software is a topic that by itself could fill hundreds of books. The basic design principles I mention in this book do, of course, also apply to images with the third dimension. Plugins: Tools that artificially simulate images to your specifications inside the motion graphic software. Plugins are great to help you produce designs that are complicated or even impossible to create from scratch. They can definitely be a time saver. However, a huge disadvantage of plugins is that they are often pretty complicated to handle and that their look – if not tweaked perfectly – sometimes is too artificial. Especially when it comes to particles I prefer to use real recordings of snow, sparks, dust, etc.
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Footage: I’d like to highlight the last type of images you can use within your motion graphic designs by actually underlining it: Natural and
4. Production | The power of imagery
organic footage. This is something I almost always use when I’m not working on flat motion designs. Real footage is real nature captured by a real camera that you can mix with your design: Fire, light, moving liquids, all kind of moving particles, smoke and so on. Combining such footage with your design will give it a feeling of naturalness that cannot be achieved by a computer. Even if you use the most professional software (for example to create artificial fire) you will not be able to represent the feeling of real fire. The prize and the huge efforts you have to make to simulate nature is usually out of proportion with what you can do with footage. And you don’t even have to animate it. There is a reason big Hollywood productions always combine their computer generated images with real footage. There simply is no alternative yet. Even when used very subtly for a final touch, your whole work immediately feels much more natural. As these elements are captured by
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a real camera, combining it with your work will automatically give your motion graphics many camera features that you would normally try to
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simulate artificially (Noise & grain, Flares, etc.). Similar to textures, I don’t chose one element right from the beginning. I like to have a huge library of footage that serves as an inspiration and that is the source from which I can chose several elements to check out different combinations. And since you can combine various elements, you nearly get as many possibilities with footage as with simulated, artificial elements. In every art form people always strive to imitate nature in the best possible way. I personally think that we will never be able to perfectly imitate nature artificially. That simply is a contradiction. So why shouldn’t we just combine real nature with our art?
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Resources Now that you have an overview of all types of graphics that you can use
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within your motion designs, the next big question would be: Where do I get these graphics from? Well, the most simple answer is: create them yourself. Things that you have created from scratch have the huge advantage that they belong to you in every detail. You can use them as often as you like (provided you don’t have a special agreement with your client and that there is not even the smallest element in your graphic that has not been produced by you, like a logo, etc.). However, producing every element on your own might get terribly time-consuming, tedious and expensive. Moreover, not every motion graphic designer has learned the skills for 3D modeling or owns the expensive equipment needed to produce footage. If you are not working within a team of specialists that help you to create everything you need for your design, you should have a look at other
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options where you can get your graphics from. In this context you need to understand that buying and using elements from other artists in no
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way means that your final work will not be unique! Simply see them as the tools you need to use to create your own piece of art by combining many different elements. So where do you get these elements from? From numerous resources on the World Wide Web, of course. There you can find free right up to highly expensive stuff. Without naming particular platforms (just search what you are looking for) I would like to list some options that you will encounter and tell you what I think of them. In general you should always pay attention to these questions: What do I get? What does it cost? What can I do with it? To whom and how long can I show my final work when using a certain element? Option 1: You need some graphics showing different dogs. You type in “dogs” and you find some great pictures of dogs with an image search. You download them and use them within your motion graphic that you
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then upload again to show it to everyone. What a nice motion graphic with dogs! Stop! Actually you should have already stopped before
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downloading these images. Don’t play with fire! And with dogs! Downloading and using images that you do not own is stealing. You are not the owner of these images and so you are not allowed to download, edit, copy, upload, redistribute and especially sell them. It’s like stealing and selling the Mona Lisa. Ever tried to steal and sell the Mona Lisa? In fact I have tried until someone ordered me not to touch the bulletproof glass. Of course you can always ask the holder of rights (and dogs) of such images (for the case you find them) and ask them for permission. If you actually get their permission I would ensure to have it written down on paper and signed by them. And that this written agreement contains every permission you need to edit, copy, upload, redistribute and sell your final work. By the way: I have once written an email to Leonardo DaVinci to ask for permission to use the Mona Lisa in one of my motion
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graphics. Apparently he is pretty busy at the moment. Didn’t get an
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answer yet. Option 2: You search for some graphics showing different dogs and you find some images with a description that sounds something like “free to use”. Great! Let’s do some motion graphics. Caution! I don’t say “stop” but at least I insist on “caution”. Such offers should be examined precisely. Most times you will find in the small print that the one who offers you his graphics (and therefore his time and money) wants something in return. There’s always a fly in the ointment. Don’t rely on somebody simply doing something out of kindheartedness. I, for example, write this ebook to subconsciously persuade you to assist me in my plans for world domination (Important note: have to delete this sentence later).
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In most cases artists are giving away something to become known by more people and to attract attention. By making their art available for
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free, they will almost always ask you a favor in return. You sometimes have to write their names and a link to their websites in the credits of your work or you have to like their social media sites to get the permission to use their creations. Of course this can be a great deal for both the artists (who use this as a form of advertisement) and you (who is allowed to use free material). Both sides are doing the other side a favor. Unfortunately, in a professional production it is sometimes not possible to stick to the rules of the other side. For example if you don’t have the space to present the artist’s name (in TV commercials, etc.) properly. Then again (according to your silent arrangement with the artist) you are not allowed to use his works. Also double-check that “free to use” doesn’t mean that you are only allowed to use the work for non-commercial projects or that it simply means for private use. Moreover it is uncertain if – at some point – the artist will change his mind and suddenly comes
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up with the idea of selling his former free works and therefore changes the conditions of use. That is of course the worst case and won’t happen
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that much but I simply want you to understand that you should always be skeptical towards things that are described as free. If you want to play safe, always insist on a written transfer of rights, that secures your right to use the work of other artists the way you want to. Option 3: The next option are large agencies that have millions of graphics you can buy. These agencies work together with several photographers and artists that want to sell their works to a broad public. Simply type in what you are looking for and you will be confronted with hundreds of elements that you can buy and download from a huge database. The price you have to pay depends on the quality you want to have (an image in a higher resolution costs more than the same image in a lower resolution) and the rights you want to possess. If you buy an image for a non-
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commercial project you have to pay less than buying an image for a commercial project that will be presented around the world. Also, if you
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plan to use the graphics you buy in more than one project there are many different options to choose from. If you want to get a graphic with the best quality possible including the rights to edit, copy and use it in multiple commercial projects, you will probably have to pay the highest price. Here and there I was surprised about how much these agencies wanted me to pay for getting all the rights to use an image. I would recommend you to make yourself familiar with the conditions and prices of several agencies and to compare which rights you get for your money. Always read the small print and don’t get fooled by cheap prices. The latter is normally the amount of money you have to spend on a one-time usage in a private project with the least possible quality. Get familiar with copyrights and related rights and know exactly which rights you need to buy and which ones are redundant for your project. Another payment method offered by graphic agencies works with subscriptions. There you
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have to pay one fixed price per month to get permission to download as many pictures as you like. An all-you-can-eat-option for graphics. Of
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course, there are also different options concerning the rights you will get and normally the amount of graphics you can download is not really unlimited (it seems they are afraid that people download all of the graphics in one day) but high enough for most needs. Personally I am not a huge friend of paid subscriptions (I actually still use a prepaid card for my phone) because I don’t like to be bound to only one agency. In the worst case they don’t have what I am looking for and I have to pay another agency in addition to the subscription. I think that buying graphics from these agencies is a great solution if you are in need of some specific images that you can’t create by yourself. Know what rights and quality you need to have, pay the price, immediately download your graphics and work with them. However, as a basis for my designs, I need a certain amount of graphics with a generic character that I can use again and again in all of my projects. A source of inspiration that doesn’t
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change its rights of use and allows me to work with it in as much projects
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as desired. This is where option number four comes into play. Option 4: Build your own library of generic graphics that you can combine with project-dependent specific graphics. Over the recent years as a motion graphics designer I have built up a huge database of elements that I can use as a basis in every new project I work on. Of course you should always edit and adjust such elements to fit to the current project but you don’t have to build everything from the very beginning. That way you can save a lot of time and a lot of money. There is no better and more efficient way to build a new design. My personal library keeps inspiring me like exciting stories or good music. I don’t have to pay for the elements inside my library, I don’t have to take care of copyrights, I can simply start being creative. So how do you build your library? At first it is necessary to never throw anything away. When creating graphics for a
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design, you should always save these graphics even if they’re not being used in the current project. Memory space is quite cheap these days so
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simply save everything you create, label it and put it in your library. Even if you don’t actually work on a project, you should keep your library in mind and walk around with open eyes. I love photography! Every time I take a picture of something generic, a dog, a tree, fruit, etc., I add these pictures to my library. This alone has prevented me from buying expensive graphics from photographic agencies a lot of times. Occasionally I even go a step further and arrange complex productions to create high-end footage for my library. With my background as a filmmaker and my knowledge about motion graphics, I know what is essential and which aspects have to receive attention to get useful footage. Moving dust, fire, water, light, everything that might be valuable for me in terms of motion graphics and that satisfies my quality standard becomes part of my database. Besides the elements of your library that you create by yourself, I would recommend you to take a look at several
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collections of graphics that you can buy. This might also be the best starting point when you don’t have much time to build your own library
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and soon need some graphics to work with. There are a lot of great resources that you can refer to and due to their enormous content such collections usually all have a much better price-performance ratio than what you get from agencies. Simply take care that by buying a library you get all the relevant rights to use its content and that you’re convinced that its creators have produced it in the best possible way. Then you can add your new collection to your library and you’ll immediately have a great basis to work with. Which library fits you best depends on your needs, your personal style, the look of your projects, the quality you want to achieve and of course the amount of money you are able to pay. But, as said before, for the long term a good library of design elements will always pay off.
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File formats No matter where you get your graphics from, you should always take care
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of using the right file formats. Concerning images you have to distinguish between pixel files and vector graphics. Pixel files are best for photorealistic images. These images are built out of tiny little dots, the pixels. Each pixel has its location and a specific color value. The amount of pixels being used within an image defines its resolution. A pixel file can’t be upscaled without losing quality. If you upscale a pixel file too much, you will start seeing the several dots it is made of, which is normally nothing you want to see. For motion graphics I recommend using files with about 150 pixels per inch (ppi). For comparison: In print the standard is 300ppi. When working with pixel files I like to use, and recommend, the TIFF format, which doesn’t compress the image and therefore maintains the best quality. With TIFF you can also save an alpha channel (areas inside
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your image that have a certain amount of transparency) within your file. The same applies to the PNG format. For final output JPEG is the most
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common format. With its much smaller file size it is perfect for transferring it via internet and saving space. Within the production pipeline I would never use JPEG because every time you export an image as JPEG, you will lose quality. The same applies to video formats, which are also pixel files. Within the production pipeline I always work with uncompressed material. Because a video is nothing but a sequence of images (30 frames per second for example), you could, for instance, use an uncompressed TIFF sequence as a format or any kind of RAW-footage. Because uncompressed video files can get really, really big I’d say that in some cases it is okay to work with slightly compressed formats like the ProRes format or the PhotoJPEG format. These are also commonly used to transfer big clips like footage from libraries. For the final output of your motion graphic
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that can be sent to your clients, I recommend the compressed MOV format with a h.264 codec or a WMV. But there are hundreds of
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different codecs out there and I’m sure there are even better ones than these. Concerning the final output you always have to find a good balance of file size and quality. Of course it is important not to use any unknown codecs or formats that your client’s computers can’t read with their standard media players. The other type of images are vector graphics. These graphics do not consist of small dots, but are mathematically defined by paths. Several locations for anchor points and lines linking them together can form any kind of shape that can be filled with color information. Vector graphics can be upscaled with no loss in quality, and because of their structure they even have a much smaller file size. They are normally used for logos, symbols and all kind of graphics that are not photo-realistic. The vector type is normally not suitable for photo-realistic images.
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The great thing about vector graphics is that you can create them without
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worrying too much about how you will use them later. No matter if you will place such a graphic in the background, or scale it up until it fills the whole screen, you will always have the best quality, free of artifacts. That’s why vector graphics are favored by most motion graphic designers. You can animate them without permanently checking if their resolution is high enough for a specific movement or transition. The standard format for vector graphics is the EPS format, which is of course uncompressed. This is just a short overview of the formats I personally like to use. Again, I’m not saying these are the best ones but over the years this is what I have used consistently and it has worked pretty well. Enough of that technical stuff. Let’s go back to designing.
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4.3 Confonting writing
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The mission of text Besides your graphics, words and texts are the most decisive elements of your motion design. Text should inform and provide your audience with clear messages and instructions. Depending on the kind of motion graphic you are planning to create, text elements can be your most essential objects, or they can have more of a supportive character and describe your other elements. What will be the mission of your text? Will it be informative? Will it alert? Frighten? Amuse? Impress? No matter what function your words and texts have, they always have one thing in common: they must be readable without problems. Furthermore, your text is a form of visual communication and the look of your words and texts has to support your overall theme. Never underestimate the impact of typography and try to understand different typefaces’ character. Also
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try to create elements of recognition within your design by using a good and recognizable typeface several times and in different positions. When working on a project for a specific company you will have to get used to 4. Production | Confonting writing
the fact that most companies have their own set of typefaces that have to be used in every work representing that company. This is also an attempt of a brand to achieve recognition through typefaces. What follows now is a basic overview of typography. Nevertheless, typography is vital! Typefaces have a character and incredible influence! And never ever choose a typeface randomly! Also never choose an airline randomly! This flight is getting more and more awkward. Everyone is sleeping and after having ordered no less than six (maybe eight) of those delicious coconut snacks, the flight attendant has kindly reminded me that I might have eaten enough of them, and if I wouldn’t want to take a nap, too. It’s in the middle of the night. But I have to write. I have to tell you the secrets of typography. I’m barely tired and I have enough energy to work for
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another ten hours at least. As long as I can find the right font, everything
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is fine.
Type classifications There are millions of different typefaces and every font has a distinct character. Some are gallant, serious, elegant or classy. Others are dynamic, intrusive or aggressive. Plenty others are cheery, happy, funny and non-serious. Don’t believe me? Well, that’s perhaps down to the fact that I’m writing with this font right now. A type from the latter category. Wait … Much better! Now we can be
serious again, if we have ever been. Ok, every typeface has its own character and you shouldn’t use a type that is inappropriate concerning your project. That’s why kindergarteners don’t use blackletter type styles (we’ll talk about these terms in a second), law courts don’t use decorative
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type styles, and warnings usually shouldn’t use funny types. It simply wouldn’t fit and would distort the message that someone wants to spread.
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Even if the content of the message is unambiguous. Different typefaces have different shapes, different proportions, different case sensitivities, and they can have a completely different look. There are a lot of different systems that people have used to try and categorize all of these typefaces. Because there are so many of them with similar looks, and plenty of them are exceptional ones, designers have invented remarkably complex classification systems with sub-categories so that every typeface perfectly fits into a group. Because this might go too far, we will only have a rough look at the most relevant classes. Type classifications are useful when you have to decide for a typeface and when it comes to comparing and mixing different typefaces. Let’s have a look at the most basic type classifications:
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Typefaces with serifs dignified, serious, elegant, calm, subtle, restrained, sometimes powerful
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and expressive
Sans serif
tidy, clean, objective, modern, sometimes dominant, loud and heavy
Script typefaces elegant, dynamic, friendly, sometimes childish and non-serious
Blackletter old, dark, strong, dominant, epic, powerful
Monospaced serious, formal
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Decorative Typefaces
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from exciting, aggressive, cheery, happy, funny and non-serious everything is possible Pixel Typefaces artificial, playful
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Mixing typefaces When mixing typefaces, their differences have to be obvious! If there are only slight differences, the mix will be discordant, which will also have an 4. Production | Confonting writing
influence on the legibility of your text. Roughly said, a serif and a sans serif in combination always works well. They have a different style and create a good contrast. The more the style of two typefaces differs from each other, the higher your chances will be that you have found a harmonic mix. Simply try out some combinations and show them to an audience. If they can’t even recognize a difference between two typefaces, you have found a great example for a bad mix that lacks contrast. Perhaps even looks wrong and odd. Over time you will get a sense for which mixes work and which mixes are a cruel mistake. As a broad rule I’d say that mixing more than three typefaces is also a mistake and will end up in chaos. Using two typefaces normally is more than enough. Three is also still fine if you have found a good mixture. Four is already adventurous. So if it’s not a stylistic device to use a whole pile of
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typefaces (for example to visually transport a sense of variety) I would rather choose two aesthetic typefaces that perfectly fit together, instead of
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three or even more that can’t stand each other.
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Legibility One of the most crucial aspects concerning typography is to achieve a balance out of legibility and the (hopefully) extraordinary design of your 4. Production | Confonting writing
words. You may have the world’s most beautiful typeface but your motion graphic will still be a flop if nobody can decode your words. You also have to consider that your words have to attract attention in order to compete with your other design elements and therefore have to be visually stunning, which might affect legibility negatively. So what we have to balance is good legibility on the one hand and an appealing design on the other hand. What should we keep in mind to maintain good legibility? Needless to say that the first big factor that decides about legibility is the typeface itself and its size. The bigger your letters, the higher the chances that your audience can read everything. But be attentive not to exaggerate the sizes. Large, full-screen words always tend to be inelegant,
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intrusive and much too striking. This might be what you want to achieve sometimes, but it’s normally not the best way to gain the attention of your audience. What you also have to keep in mind is that you can’t use 4. Production | Confonting writing
every typeface at every size. Especially thin sans serif typefaces are perfectly readable in a smaller size. This might be your choice if you want to have an elegant and classy look. If you make a thin typeface really big, your words will become highly unstable and will get lost on the screen. If you plan to have big words, a bold typeface with thick strokes might be much more purposeful. Changing the tracking (the distance between the letters of a word) can also influence legibility. If it is too small, it might be that your letters blend into each other and can’t be perceived as individual symbols anymore. On the other hand, if you have too much tracking, your words will seem to fall apart and the eyes of your audience will be too busy collecting the letters like spilled marbles.
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Other aspects that have an influence on the legibility is the position of your text elements, the contrast between your text and your background 4. Production | Confonting writing
and of course the animations. Fast moving words attract attention but are not as legible as slow or static text. Give your audience time! Try to predict how they will behave and how they will look at your design. Find the best way to lead them through your work so that they can read and understand everything.
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Pimp my text Now let’s take a look at some possibilities around how to make simple text more appealing. Especially when you have a complex design with 4. Production | Confonting writing
more than just a basic background, it is imperative that your text elements have the ability to cope with your other design elements, and that they don’t get lost in your composition. There are hundreds of ways to make text more prominent. From simple design adjustments to complex effects. Your imagination is the only limit. But be careful! Depending on what you want to tell, you shouldn’t exaggerate the usage of effects. Less is more! We get confronted by much too intrusive designs every day. On TV, on the internet, on the streets, everywhere. Advertisers are trying to gain attention by all available means. That’s why they often come up with loud and aggressive title designs that have been created using every effect imaginable. Effects are tools to generate eyecatchers. So mixing up as much effects as possible has to be the best way to create the perfect eyecatcher, isn’t it? Nope! In my opinion it is much more
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important for every effect you use to serve a special purpose. And that purpose primarily is to underline your overall message and only secondarily to create an eyecatcher. For the simple reason that they get 4. Production | Confonting writing
confronted by such effects every single day, I think most people have become immune to effects that try to attract their attention. People aren’t stupid. The majority likes being entertained and informed by exciting stories that they can relate to. So for maximum effect, use only plausible and supporting effects! These are some simple, yet effective examples:
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Animating text With animations we can support the eye-catching character of text. However, intrusive and confusing animations can also make your design 4. Production | Confonting writing
descend into chaos. Just as the different typefaces have different characters and different meanings, animations can also have a meaning and an impact on the audience. This meaning should always support the character of your typeface and the overall theme of your design. An animation that shows letters appearing like they are being written with a typewriter, will best work with monospaced typefaces. Animating letters like they are being written by hand works best with script typefaces. And animating letters with a spooky blur effect works best with a typeface that fits to a horror or mystery genre. Try to understand the meaning and effect of motion to achieve the most expressive designs. Animating the upscaling of a text for example gives
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the viewer the impression as if the text is coming closer. It gets bigger and bigger as if it’s going to pop out of the screen at any moment.
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If you animate the position of your text, another influential aspect would be the direction in which your text is heading. Does it move from the bottom left to the upper right corner? If so, your text gets more of an offensive character. It seems to climb up. And (according to our reading direction) it moves forward. Imagine your text running up a hill in order to win a race. Of course, we will learn more about animations in the animation section of this book.
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4.4 Narrating with colors
4. Production | Narrating with colors
Let’s talk about colors! You can have the best composition with marvelous design elements, great typography and convincing motion. Nevertheless, your motion graphic will still be a failure if the colors you have used don’t fit together or don’t support the overall message of your design. Colors are important! Their impact on your audience shouldn’t be taken lightly. Although not everyone is a professional in color theory, almost everyone has a subjective opinion towards colorations, which has a huge influence on the success of your work. This is going to be colorful!
The influence of colors Different colors exert different influences on their spectators. They can evoke emotions and can contribute to support a certain feeling. That’s
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why the effects of colors are so essential for every art form. The way a color influences the viewer depends on several facts: the personal
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relationship to a color, the viewer’s cultural, political and religious background and of course the viewer’s age. What else do you have to keep in mind while working with colors? Color temperature, the arrangement of colors and how much color is being applied are all factors that play an important role. Balance out your colors! Warm colors have more visual weight than cold colors. So if you create a cold, blue area on just one side of your design, you could balance your composition with a warm element on the other side. And, according to the rules of visual weight, the warm element can be much smaller than the cold one and still achieve a balance. That way you can try out different arrangements and judge them by their visual weights.
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While combining different colors within your design, you should keep in mind that consequently you also combine the different meanings of these
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colors. Therefore, a combination of two, three or even more colors always tells another story than the usage of just one color would.
The basic science behind it It actually is a science. The science of color theory. You could study it for years and still there would be even more to learn about it. Thousands of artists, psychologists, biologists and uncountable other smart people have written books and have built up theories about how people perceive colors and what influence they have on us. As part of such reflections, people have created many systems that illustrate and arrange colors in a meaningful way and show their relationship between each other. You need to know that there is still no perfect color system that considers every single aspect of colors. Some systems display the psychological
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influence of colors, others are restricted to technological aspects and the rest of the systems prioritize the artistic usage of colors. Some systems are
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complex while others are pretty simple to understand. To describe a color, we normally use terms like hue, lightness, and saturation. Hue defines the basic type of color like red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, or magenta. Lightness describes the amount of white or black within a color and saturation the intensity of a color from gray. All three values work together to create every individual color. Now that we know how to basically generate 16.7 million colors, I’d like to present you a color system that helps you organize, compare and combine colors in a comprehensible way: The classic color wheel. A lot of color systems use that so called “color wheel” as the base of their illustrations that display the relationships between the primary colors (the unmixed colors – the basis of every system – in our case these are
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red, green and blue), the secondary colors (a mixture of two primary colors – yellow, cyan, magenta) and the tertiary colors (a mixture of a
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primary color and a secondary color or two secondary colors).
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The color wheel is a great tool to see how colors merge into each other. It is also being used to display color harmonies (as we will learn in a few
4. Production | Narrating with colors
paragraphs) and to find complementary colors. Complementary colors are colors that are facing one another in the wheel. Red and cyan, green and magenta, blue and yellow are examples for complementary colors. Placing such colors next to each other results in an remarkably strong contrast that is commonly used in nearly every art form to create exciting compositions and aesthetic looks. Mixing two complementary colors will always result in white or a shade of gray.
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A color’s character Each color has its own character comparable to the personality of a
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person. So we basically have a Mr. Blue, Ms. Green, Ms. Red, Mr. Pink, etc. While Mr. Blue has a cold but relaxing character, Ms. Red is warm, ambitious and passionate. Usually Ms. Green is hopeful and fresh while Mr. Pink can be unusually expressive. At first we have the hue, which is of course fundamentally essential for a color’s character. But not only the hue has an influence. Also, the lightness and the saturation of a hue affect a color’s message. A bright blue with a high saturation has a much more friendly and optimistic character than a dark blue with less saturation. Darker colors can be threatening but also very elegant. Declining the saturation of a pure color also reduces the strength of its main character. Therefore, it becomes much more universally usable.
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Another vital aspect that affects the personality of a color is its relationship to other colors. and mixing colors will also mix their
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personalities. If you mix a warm red color with a bright yellow, you will get an orange that radiates the warmth of red while having the bright character of yellow. When not actually mixing colors together but arranging them into the same composition, two colors can also affect and support each other. In this context you need to consider the size of the area of a color and its saturation. For example a desaturated blue area next to the color orange will make the orange appear even warmer, brighter and louder. The desaturated and subtle blue area supports the character of the orange. Placing orange next to yellow will define orange as the warmer color. Placing orange next to red will define orange as the colder color. The surrounding colors of a color are as relevant for the character of a color as the color’s own settings.
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The quantity of a color also plays a crucial part. Larger areas of one color
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will of course give the character of that color much more power and assertiveness. Smaller areas are weaker and less dominant. That’s why I like to balance out the visual weight and power of large areas with less bright and desaturated colors. Within small areas I often use stronger, brighter and more saturated colors. Nice trick, isn’t it? For now we will finally have a closer look at the character attributes of the eight most influential colors. Because the perception of colors depends on every person’s personality and the environment that person lives in, this should only be looked upon as the result of the surveys I’ve made for this book. It is a summary of many opinions and reflects a lot of studies from art theory, but it is of course not generally valid for everyone around the world.
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© Timo Fecher
RED
ORANGE
YELLOW
GREEN
BLUE
PURPLE
WHITE
BLACK
Positive Fire, Passion Love Heat Energy Courage Strength Power
Positive Warmth Optimism Activism Success Fun Happiness Attraction Creativity Enthusiasm Determination
Positive Brightness Energy Friendliness Emotionality Optimism Wealth Intellect Truth Sunshine
Positive Health Balance Life Hope Growth Harmony Nature Fertility Safety Peace
Positive Stability Truth Loyalty Faith Trust Sky Water Wisdom Intelligence Duty
Positive Nobility Serenity Royalty Ambition Luxury Tenderness Wealth Magic
Positive Light Innocence Virginity Purity Cleanliness Goodness Ease Perfection Restart Success
Positive Power Authority Elegance Dignity Formality Prestige Glamour Security Efficiency
Negative Aggression Blood Anger Violence Jealousy War Danger Rage
Negative Cheapness Frivolity
Negative Greed Envy Avarice Egoism Deception Cowardice Jealousy Instability
Negative Inexperience Laziness Poison Jealousy
Negative Cold Depression Aloofness Unfriendliness
Negative Superstition Catastrophe Solitude Decadence Suppression
Negative Sterility Emptiness Anonymity Coldness
Negative Darkness Death Grief Pain Evil Mystery Fear Menace Submission
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The importance of creating contrasts Even more important than the meaning of your colors is to create
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contrasts within your image. Contrasts create tension and – to exaggerate – make things visible in the first place. Only with the help of contrasts you can differentiate your elements from each other. Almost every picture has a minimum amount of contrast. An example of an image without contrast? A plain color field. Or white text on white background. Or a perfectly black cat in front of a black sky. Monotonous. Colorless. It’s like a song with zero volume. Or an action movie about gigantic fighting robots with no story. I think you got the point. Because we (normally) don’t want to produce boring, plain color fields (just as we shouldn’t want to produce a movie with no story) we have to establish exciting contrasts. This can be done in many different ways. According to the Swiss painter, designer, writer and theorist Johannes Itten, there can be seven different contrasts among colors:
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1. Contrast of hue (combination of colors in their purest form) 1.
2. Light-dark contrast (combination of colors with different lightness 4. Production | Narrating with colors
and different tone values)
2.
3. Cold-warm contrast (combination of cold and warm colors)
3.
4. Complementary contrast (combination of complementary colors) 4.
5. Simultaneous contrast (a color perception that forces the eye to automatically see a color’s complementary color even when it’s not there) 6. Contrast of quality (saturation) (combination of pure, luminous, intense, saturated colors and impure, desaturated colors) 7. Contrast of quantity (combination of colored areas that have
5.
6.
7.
different sizes)
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Striving for harmony Now that we have a basic knowledge about colors and the different
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contrasts, we can have a look at which colors harmoniously work together and not against each other. As a basic rule I’d recommend you to use one to three main colors. Four at the absolute maximum. Less is more! Rather learn how to utilize two or at most three different colors harmoniously than descending into chaos with too many colors. Everything should start with your key color. The one color that represents your whole design. In most cases this color can either be chosen by you (then you should chose a color that matches the message of your work) or it is defined by your client’s corporate identity (usually this is the main color of a company’s logo). Once you have determined your key color, you can start playing around with some color harmonies and test which one works best for your purposes. Remember: Everything is based on your key color! Choose it wisely! Your key color will
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dominate the coloration of your design. All other colors should have more of a supportive character to emphasize certain elements and to help
4. Production | Narrating with colors
your key color being more prominent. Here are the nine most important color harmonies:
Monochromatic
Analogous
Split-complementary
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Warm color dominance
Triadic
Cold color dominance
Rectangle
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Complementary
Square
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Some colorful thoughts I’d always begin by testing some combinations with variations of your
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key color’s complementary color. Don’t just use these colors in their purest forms! Play with their saturation and their lightness! Combinations of pure colors will, in most cases, be much too aggressive. Sometimes it can be very effective to make slight changes to the hue of your colors to find the perfect color scheme. Experiment with different variations! Test your possibilities! Keep in mind that you might need an eye-catching key color, a more unobtrusive and subtle color for larger areas like your background, supporting colors, and colors for highlighting elements. Don’t use a completely different color for each purpose. Rather, try to use subtle shades of your key color and avoid using too many colors in their purest and brightest form. Varying the lightness and saturation of a color is as necessary as the color’s hue when it comes to creating harmony. The
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picture shows two shapes with the exact same hues. While the left one is an awful color combination, the right one seems to be perfectly balanced.
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This was achieved by simply changing the saturation and lightness of the colors of the left picture. Keep in mind that your background color shouldn’t distract from the colors being used in the foreground, especially within text. Legibility is crucial! By establishing good contrasts with colors, you can create tension and make your design stick out. By using the same color for several elements you can unite these elements, even if they’re not arranged next to each other. In the end you should have your final color palette from which you can choose your colors in the following design process.
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4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
4.5 Step by step, layer by layer Let’s summarize what we have so far: We have an idea, a story we want to tell, we have some mood boards, a storyboard, we have collected the elements we need to tell our story, we have chosen typefaces that represent our message, and a color palette that matches with the personality of our design. Hopefully we haven’t forgotten to eat and drink something while doing all this. I prefer coffee and a piece of cherry pie. Or a coconut. Allow yourself something special once a day! Every day is the last day before tomorrow. And who knows what will happen tomorrow? I am currently writing a book while being asleep on a plane. Who can say how this is going to end? Subconsciously I have heard some abnormal noises while being asleep and suddenly I somehow have felt like falling from a drop tower. But it was much more intense than the feeling you have while falling from a drop tower. And do you know any
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drop towers where you get wet at the end of the ride? Me neither. I really have to wake up! At least the battery of my laptop is still working 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
remarkably well. Back to the topic: Now the time has come to put everything together. Fire up the motion graphic software of your choice, create a new project with the format you have chosen, and then throw everything (pictures, drawings, footage, text objects, renderings, NOT your coffee!) in there. This will create a beautiful chaos. But we stop at nothing! The first thing we should do is to organize all of our elements in a useful way. I like to create some folders inside my software to achieve some basic structure: Sort your elements by “titles”, “renderings”, “footage”, “images”, “compositions”, “color fields”, etc. Now we can start building our design step by step and layer by layer. During that process we don’t think about how everything will be animated yet. That is the next big step. For now we will only concentrate on building one or more static designs that
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could even gain a design award while not being moved for a single pixel. I like to start this process by subdividing the design into three parts: 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
background (the base of your design), middle ground (the layer that contains the most valuable elements and information) and foreground (the optional layer that completes the picture and gives depth to the design). By doing this I can ensure to keep order and that my designs will automatically have some depth. If you want to animate a camera in three-dimensional space in a later step, having sorted all your elements into background, middle ground and foreground will further give you a lot of advantages and speed up your workflow. In the following I will give you an overview on how I construct my designs from back to front or from bottom to top (from the layer’s point of view). When using software specific terms or operations in the following chapters, I always refer to Adobe® After Effects® because it’s the most common motion graphic software. However, I’m sure that the majority of techniques I’ll describe can also be applied to any other animation software.
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A short background story It is probably a matter of taste how to build your design but I personally 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
like to begin with the background, then arrange the middle ground and finally care about the foreground. Somehow this order seems natural to me. And of course I don’t limit myself to only three layers. These three layers simply represent many more layers. I use that classification to keep order and to organize my designs. Everything starts with the background. I know, a lot of designers will now start screaming “but you have to start with the eyecatcher – and therefore the middle ground – everything else has to be built around that” but because I normally have a pretty detailed vision and plan right from the beginning, I personally like to build my design like I would build a sandwich. From bottom to top. And if there’s a conflict between my eyecatcher and the layer behind it, I can still adjust the background at any time (the same applies to the sandwich: if the eyecatcher is a nice piece of Swiss cheese and the background is dry bread, I can still make adjustments to that bread afterwards or probably
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exchange it completely for another nice piece of Swiss cheese. There’s nothing better than two nice pieces of Swiss cheese. I think this 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
metaphor is losing credibility. Let’s move on and don’t get too cheesy!). The bread is the base of your sandwich. Excuse me! The background is the base of your motion graphic. The personality of your motion graphic design has to be present within your background. There are infinite possibilities on how your background could look. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t put the most appealing elements you have into the background. It has to support the middle ground and not to steal the show.Also, use rather subtle and desaturated colors in your background to prepare the stage for the middle ground. Make your background win an award for best supporting character, with the most interesting back-story!
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One layer to rule them all – A journey to middle ground Now that we have grounded the canvas and created the base, we can start 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
painting. Let’s enter the stage of our main characters: The middle ground. This layer contains the most important elements you need to show in order to tell your story. These can be text objects, animated shapes, symbols, infographics, drawings, renderings, pictures, footage (full-screen or cropped) and so on. You have to make sure that your audience always focuses on the middle ground. Therefore it is of utmost importance to make elements of the middle ground clearly visible. Again, the middle ground should be different from the background for contrast. Effects that might be visually stunning can often diminish the visibility of the elements they are applied to. To test the degree of legibility and the general visibility of the middle ground I always show my work to some people that are not familiar with the project. Uninvolved viewers are a great way to learn aspects about your work you wouldn’t even dream of.
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Before arranging the elements of the middle ground, you should activate several markers on the screen that show the borders of the workspace. For 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
the sake of visibility, I’d always leave some safety distance between substantial elements and the actual border of the frame. This is essential! What might be visible on your own screen can disappear under the border of your viewer’s screen. I don’t want to tell you that you should place your elements exactly in the middle of your frame – that would be counterproductive concerning a lot of design aspects – but I’d like to
Title / Action Safe
warn you that the devices of your viewers can be unpredictable traps. And that’s why you should preventively plan in sufficient buffer. When it comes to arranging your graphical elements, some rules from the first chapters will become relevant. First, place your elements just as you have done roughly in your storyboard. Then you can go more into detail. Start with your eyecatcher. As we have learned, this doesn’t have to be the element with the most information in it. It is the element that
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attracts the viewer’s attention and gives his eyes a starting point to look at. From this point on his eyes will “travel” through your whole design. 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
That’s why the position of your eyecatcher is so important. Positioning the eyecatcher exactly in the middle of your composition forces the viewer’s eyes to walk around the eyecatcher in order to see the whole image. This can result in a pretty interesting look but it can have the disadvantage that your audience needs much more time to scan the whole image. If you place your eyecatcher within the right or especially left half of your image, the viewer will need a lot less time to see everything because your design now follows the basic reading directions. Once you have found the perfect position for your eyecatcher, play around with several arrangements of your remaining elements. By doing this, try to predict in which order your viewers will see your elements and if that order matches the way you want to present your design. Especially when you have several text objects, you need to know in which order
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your viewers will read them. The combination of the two text objects “coming soon” and “to a theatre near you” will sound pretty strange and 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
might even change its meaning if your audience at first reads “a theatre near you” and then “coming soon”. That’s why huge passages of text are usually arranged in classic textual form that the reader is used to from books and newspapers. That way you can be pretty sure about the reading direction of your audience and still highlight elements by adjusting their scale, color, typeface, etc. Also try to remember the importance of groups and repetitions while arranging your elements for the middle ground! Now is the time to make use of what we have learned in the first chapters. Elements that belong together in terms of content should be clearly grouped. For the case that you can’t do this by arranging them next to each other, do this by giving them striking resemblance concerning their look and style. The eyes of your audience will then automatically group these elements together.
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Also, take care to equip your design with repetitive design elements that provide your motion graphic with a high value of recognition. With that 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
in mind, you should test out several different arrangements. Give yourself the time you need to find the best design. It is essential that you don’t hastily decide with which arrangement you will proceed. Keep several possibilities and take a look at them again after having a break from the design work. After distancing yourself from your work you will always have a much clearer view on what you have done and you might see things that you haven’t noticed while being in the actual process of designing. When judging your several possibilities, keep an eye on the amount of tension every arrangement evokes. Symmetry gives your design a character of stability but can also have a touch of boredom. Asymmetry creates tension but can throw your design out of balance. The same applies to contrasts. Remember the basic rules of visual weight? Great
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how everything repeats itself, isn’t it? Find the perfect compromise of tension and balance! Adjust the exact position, scale, rotation, color, 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
saturation, lightness, opacity, complexity, etc. of every single element until you have found an arrangement that feels balanced, well-structured and tension-filled at the same time. I don’t want to bore you with the same things again and again, but I hope you understand how crucial such basics are for every single design process. In our examples we have a simple, metallic title that fits on the dark, foggy texture. We use a more complex title design for the arrangement with the blurry, colorful background, and in front of the unobtrusive color fields, we can establish a much more complex animation of different shapes.
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Foreground your art The foreground is the final topping of your design pizza. It is the cherry 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
on the cake. Or the cherry on the pizza. To be honest, you don’t necessarily need that cherry (especially on a pizza) but it’s always a nice thing to have one. Damn, I’m hungry. The foreground completes the composition. As I’ve tried to tell you with my “foodaphor” there is not really a need for a foreground and a lot of designs don’t even have one (on the contrary you always have a background, even when it’s simply black). If you have a lot of complex information within your middle ground, it might actually be a good idea to go without a foreground or reduce the elements in the foreground to a minimum. If you want to create a minimalist motion graphic, it is certainly also worth considering not to use a foreground. When it comes to motion graphic designs with less middle ground
Without the leaves in the foreground, this picture would be less interesting
information (for example a simple title design or a logo animation), the
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use of a foreground can totally increase the artistic value of your work. I love foregrounds! I know a lot of examples where foregrounds were the 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
only reason a design could convince me. Also, every good photographer and filmmaker knows how to make use of the artistic power of foregrounds. Foregrounds produce the impression of depth. They can give your design a whole new dimension. They create tension and excitement. Last but not least please keep in mind that you are not restricted to only background, middle ground, and foreground. Like a famous pirate once said: this division “is more what you’d call 'guidelines' than actual rules”. It’s like a great story in a book. You have to establish twists that surprise the readers and that makes them want to continue reading… Oh my God! What has happened?! Sorry, I have to pause for a moment.
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Final arrangement and compositing Day 335. I’m still sitting on that damn island. It is both a beautiful and 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
extremely dangerous place to be. It is mysterious. Full of secrets. I want to explore that exotic island but my right leg is still stuck under that gigantic 24GB RAM Quad Core Processor gaming laptop with 4k antiglare monitor and a strikingly powerful battery. I’m sick of eating these coconuts that randomly land beside my head. It is somehow ironic. These coconuts keep me alive, but they could also kill me instantly when hitting me. Looks like all good and bad things come from above. It is an unbearable situation. But actually I should be happy that it’s at least an unBEARable situation. Bears can become incredibly dangerous! Meeting a bear could become difficult to bear. DiCaprio would agree! For almost one year I’m sitting here. Trapped. The battery of the laptop weighs heavily on my right leg. I’m wondering why it’s still not empty. After all these days of trying to call for help and writing this book it has only lost half of its capacity. My only hope to survive this wicked situation is that
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when I will finally have finished this book, the battery is empty and therefore light enough to be lifted. I really shouldn’t have skipped leg day 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
that often. Why am I telling you this? Well, I think that someday all of this will make sense and I will finally understand why all of this has happened to me. Someday all of these strange incidents, all of these pieces will transform into a meaningful overview. A final arrangement. Speaking of final arrangements, we have now reached the point when all comes together: let’s assemble our final static design and put our backgrounds, middle grounds and foregrounds on top of each other. In order to get a homogenous design, we first have to prepare our graphical elements by getting rid of everything that shouldn’t be part of them, especially their backgrounds. If your elements don’t already have an alpha channel (that contains information about where the image is transparent – usually in the
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background), there are several techniques you can use to get rid of your
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element’s backgrounds: masking, keying, blending modes, etc. With these techniques we can finally put our arrangements together and have a look at our composition without disturbing backgrounds or semitransparent elements. What does your arrangement look like? Is there a feeling of depth? If not, play with the sizes of your elements. Big elements seem to be closer to the viewer than small elements. Try to blur objects in the background and in the foreground. This will also help you to create the illusion of depth. Is there enough contrast between your middle ground and your other layers? Is your text legible? Do the colors fit together according to the rules we have learned? Now is the time to blend everything together and give your static design its final touch. A nice trick that helps you create a seamless compositing is to work with light. Light leaks, lens flares (of course not too much lens flares, J.J.!), volumetric light effects, etc. help your design to become more natural
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and homogeneous. Light effects can be placed above your layers, in the background or even outside of your composition so that you can only 4. Production | Step by step, layer by layer
feel the presence of light by its light rays. I like to compare light within motion graphic designs with the glass in front of a picture frame. It makes your image shiny, powerful and its the final touch that holds everything together.
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4.6 Move it! Animating your design Motion graphic design is graphic design combined with movement and audio. With the factor of time you can add a fourth dimension to your art! This is the chapter that everyone has been waiting for. We are now entering the world of motion and animation. A world of manifold opportunities. A world that demands technical and artistic understanding of what we are doing. The possibility of animating graphics is what makes our art unique. It is the logical consequence of the evolution of graphic design. You might have noticed that I have saved this topic for the ultimate climax of this book. Of course I have done this for a reason. You can only be a good motion graphic designer if you are a great designer. You can only be a good spaceship pilot if you are a great pilot. You can only be a good serial killer if you are a … you got the
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point. So please do me a favor and learn the basics of static design first
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and then proceed to animation. First things first. Did you learn the basics? Or did you skip all the other chapters? I’m warning you! I’ll notice if you haven’t done your homework. Ready? Okay. Before we begin I’d like to mention some things. If you’re a beginner, I’d recommend you to work with the sequence we have learned. So at first build your static design and then animate everything. If you have completely understood every aspect of the motion graphic design process, you can also go a step further and tweak your design while you are already in the animation process. Or you can animate your middle ground and only then begin to design your background. This can also have one or two advantages. The sequence of work steps I have given to you is a guideline. A logical order of tasks. Once you have gained some experience, feel free to find your own sequence. For example, I like to make some animation tests before I begin to build my design. On the
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basis of these tests I can adjust the perfect position and scale of elements.
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Also, I can make sure that later moving objects don’t crash into each other. Or you can also build your design in black and white, animate everything and afterwards begin to add color. This might be a good way to concentrate on the arrangement of elements and the animation at first. I can’t tell you what your personal, most efficient way to work is. I can only make suggestions. We can roughly classify the different types of motion in three categories: We call the behavior of the protagonist (the most essential object of your scene) the “action”. The feedback that other objects give to the action of the protagonist is the “reaction”. With “background action” (animations that don’t directly have an influence on the protagonist) we support the naturalness of the motion graphic and make it more lively.
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Keyframe basics
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The term “animation” describes the act of bringing something to life. We do this by allowing our graphical elements to move and to change their look over time. We literally breathe life into a static design. Everything that defines our static design can be animated: the positions of our elements, their scale, their shape, rotation, color, every value that is used to set up a certain effect and so on. Some of these values are qualified for being animated (for example the position of an element), others should normally remain constant (for example the hue of a color). To put it in a coconutshell: An animation is a variation of a value – describing a certain property of a graphical element – over time. With so called “keyframes” we determine the exact value of an element’s property at an exact time. The time between two keyframes is automatically filled with values that blend the two positions together. Take a look at the following pictures to understand what I mean. Once again I will use Adobe® After Effects®specific terms and screenshots for a better understanding.
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We have a layer showing a coconut (Believe me this is a coconut. The left half of it is outside of the composition). The cursor for the time is at 0 seconds. We set the first keyframe for the position of the coconut while its x-position is at 0 by clicking the stopwatch symbol2. [We’ll ignore the y-position (to the right of the x-position) because it will stay the same during that example.] This creates the first keyframe and activates the keyframe system. The position value now knows that there is some serious stuff going on. In this case the keyframe saves two values: the position (0) and the time (0 seconds).
2
The stopwatch symbol is After Effects®-specific. A red dot is another common symbol.
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Now we move our cursor to 2 seconds. The coconut stays in its position for we still have only one keyframe. However, by changing the position value, another keyframe is automatically generated at 2 seconds. The new position is saved within that new keyframe. Now our coconut remains on the right border of our composition once the cursor reaches the 2 second
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mark. The second keyframe has saved these two values: The position
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(3840) and the time (2 seconds).
What happens between the two keyframes? Exactly! The coconut automatically moves from the left to the right side of the composition. For example, when the cursor reaches the 1 second mark, the coconut will be exactly in the middle of the screen. It will be there even if there is
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no keyframe. Every position value between the two values that you have
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determined is automatically generated by the software. And now you can also see that it is in fact a coconut. Just in case you didn’t believe me before.
What we have created now is one of the most basic animations. A 2 second motion graphic of a coconut moving from one side to another.
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And this process can be applied to every other value of your design. It is the basic principle of every animation. A keyframe saves a time and another value that influences your graphical elements. Get familiar with the functionality of keyframes. Play around with them. I think this is something that you have to try out. That whole process sounds much more complicated than it actually is. Here are some examples to help you getting familiar with keyframes:
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A coconut is growing between 00:01:00 and 00:03:00.
A coconut is being faded in between 00:00:00 and 00:01:00.
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A coconut is moving from top left to the bottom right corner while being upscaled in between 00:00:00 and 00:01:00. By combining the animation of two different values you can drastically improve the look of your final animation. Animations can support each other. Imagine an object moving incredibly fast from A to B. You can support that fast movement by stretching (animating the scale unproportionally) that object while it is moving and by compressing it while it is slowing down.
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Velocity and timing
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Timing is everything and you should see time as one of your most important tools to influence your motion graphics. You are not creating a static design for a newspaper, where the viewer decides about the amount of time he is looking at it. You are the one who is responsible for the timing! Use time as a stylistic element. If you have to communicate a message via text, keep in mind that you determine the reading speed of your viewers and that even slow readers should be able to understand the whole message of your work. Never assume that your audience will pause and rewind your motion graphic when they miss something. In most cases your viewers won’t give you a second chance. When animating your design, always give your audience enough time to understand every piece of information. Furthermore, to create tension, it is once again crucial to establish contrasts. Contrasts in velocity and timing. Try to confront slow areas of your design (or whole sequences) with fast moving elements. An animated car seems to be much faster when passing by slowly moving
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snails. A furious title design seems to be much more powerful when it
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appears after a calm sequence. The interaction of different velocity and timing determines the dynamic of your motion graphics! By dragging and dropping keyframes you can influence the exact beginning and end of your animation and you can change its velocity. By moving the keyframes closer together your animation will become faster. Moving the keyframes apart will make it slower. This can be helpful when searching for the perfect timing of your final animation.
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In our example we have animated the coconut from a position in the bottom half of the screen to a position in the upper half from 00:01:00 to 00:02:00. Moving the right keyframe to the left (00:01:10) will automatically make the whole animation a lot faster because the coconut now only has 10 frames to get to its final position instead of 1 second. Also pay attention to the dots on the motion path and how their number has decreased by speeding up the animation.
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Transformations
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The most famous values to be animated are probably the ones within the transform section of your layer. There you can animate the x- and yposition of your element (plus the z-position if you are working in 3D space), its anchor point, the proportional or unproportional scale of your layer, its rotation (or orientation in 3D space) and its opacity. By animating your elements they become your living actors, whose job is to convey emotions that support the message of your design. With simple movements you can already create feelings of happiness, sadness, grief, anger, love, surprise, etc. The animator is much like a movie director. He tells his protagonists how to behave in a scene in order to support the overall message. With the following animation techniques you can have an enormous influence on the behavior of your protagonists.
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First of all, let’s talk about the position. With the position values you can
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animate the x- and the y-position of your layer or both at the same time. That way you have full control over the movements of your graphical elements. You can bring them to life by letting them slightly move within your arrangement or you can reveal whole elements by animating their position from somewhere outside your arrangement to their final position inside the arrangement. You can even animate whole text passages in a yellow typeface that summarize a story that has happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, and let them roll by the screen. The possibilities are unlimited. If you decide to let your elements move in a certain direction, you need to understand that different directions have different narrative meanings. An object that is moving from left to right is moving forward (according to our reading direction). This movement stands for the future. An object that is moving from right to left is moving backwards. This represents the
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past. Objects that are animated bottom-up are rising. This direction is a
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symbol for strength and activity and has a pretty positive connotation. A movement top-down represents a downfall. You can also combine these directions and create interesting diagonal movements. Moving your objects from bottom left to top right creates the illusion of strength, attack and health. Your objects now seem to be climbing up a hill. Moving them from top left to the bottom right is much more depressive. Instead of climbing your elements now seem to be falling down a hill. If you show two objects in succession that move in the same direction you create the illusion that these two objects hunt each other. If they move in the opposite direction, they either seem to distance themselves or approach one another. Mind these rules and apply them to your animations and your audience will subconsciously understand what you are trying to tell them without directly telling them.
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Next, we are going to take a look at animations concerning the scale of
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your graphical elements. You can either scale your objects proportionally or unproportionally. The latter will distort your elements. Animating the scale of your objects to make them bigger over time will highlight the affected objects. They will grow and seem to get closer to the viewer. This animation technique makes elements powerful! They become strong and confident. They don’t have to hide away. Animating objects to become smaller over time will evoke the exact opposite. Graphical elements that are shrinking seem to move away from the viewer. They are shy and scared and try to escape the spotlight. They are approaching the background of your design. Keep that in mind while judging the depth effect of your work. We don’t want elements from the middle ground to collide with the background. A famous animation (that is well known from trailer titles) is to downscale a title from supersize to its final size within only a few frames. This will create the impression as if the title is crashing down heavily onto the screen. A powerful and eye-catching
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effect. Hollywood loves that effect. Combine this effect with a few lens
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flares and the next blockbuster about an alien invasion is ready to hit cinemas. Back to the theory: the anchor point of your layer is the origin from which the scale is applied to your objects. Normally that anchor point is in the center of your objects. If you want the scale to proceed from another position you can move the anchor point in After Effects® with the “pan behind tool”. Keep in mind that if the anchor point is on the left side of your objects, upscaling these will also move the objects rightwards. This can become pretty confusing. So normally the best thing to do is to leave the anchor point in the center of your objects. Scaling a graphical element only horizontally or vertically over time can support the statement that something becomes wider, bolder, that it melts or slumps down. The opposite might be that your objects are
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thinning down or getting compressed. Sometimes this can create
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awesome effects when applied to shapes or appropriate photos. At this point, I’d like to warn you again of distorting the proportions of text. In most cases distorting text will look unprofessional and always reminds me of cheap animation presets. Within the intros of old tv shows you can also regularly see distorted text. If that retro style is what you want to achieve, feel free to distort your text. But don’t blame me for not having warned you. Let’s take a closer look at what happens to your objects if you animate their rotation value. Rotations are always a sign of restlessness and imbalance. If an object evenly performs full rotations this can also be a metaphor for a tireless clockwork. Also a mechanical undertone comes with that last association. If something rotates clockwise it is moving forward and into the future. It is dynamic and aspiring. If something is moving counterclockwise it is moving backwards into the past. This has a
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much more pessimistic meaning. Objects rotate around their anchor
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point. If you want your object to turn on its own axis (its visual center), the anchor point has to be in the center of the object. If you want an object to rotate around another spot, you have to place the anchor point on exactly that spot. For example, if you want to animate the watch hand of a clock, the anchor point shouldn’t be in the middle of your watch hand but on the end of it that is being placed in the middle of the clock (see figure). That way you can perfectly animate the watch hand and make as many journeys through time as you like. Just make sure to not
The anchor point
meet the younger version of yourself in the past or the universe might collapse. The last value that can be animated inside the transform section is the opacity of your layer. Animating the opacity of an object is the most widely used technique to reveal it to the viewer. The opacity is being specified in percent. 0% means that the layer is completely transparent.
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100% means that the layer is completely opaque. If you have set a layer
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to another value than 100% while building your static design (for example 70%), keep in mind that you shouldn’t animate it from 0% to 100% but from 0% to 70% to reveal it. Sometimes I like to animate several layers at once (you can click on several layers and then apply the same animation to all of them) and then I accidentally also animate the 70% layer to 100%. I know, I should be more attentive. Speaking of animating several layers at once: If you have clicked on several layers in After Effects®, you can make changes to all of them at the same time. Imagine there are two objects with different positions. One on the left side of your composition and the other one on the right side. By dragging the value slider for the position, the arrangement of the two objects will stay the same. They are moving as a whole. That way you can make changes to the position of these two objects. The object on the left will remain left and the object on the right will remain right. However, by typing in a value for the position, that value will be applied to both
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objects. Now the two have the same position. Try to remember that
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difference.
Effects Now that we have looked at the simple standard animations, let’s take a brief look at some other things that can be animated with keyframes. For example, colors. Every attribute that defines a color can be animated. The hue, the lightness, the saturation. By changing the color of an object you can create eye-catching effects. And keep in mind that you are not just limited to consistent color fields. You can also animate the colors of a gradient. Or change the colors of a photo or footage. By animating the amount of blur that is being applied to a graphical element you can, for example, improve the transitions between several objects. While an object is being faded out, gradually increase the
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amount of blur on that object. This will add a foggy and mysterious look
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to the object while it vanishes. A blur is always linked with secrets, mystery and suspense. Remember that you can also blur something only in one direction (horizontally or vertically)? A popular approach to this is to let the blur value change constantly with a high frequency within a small range. This creates some kind of nervous flickering. Applied to a title design (for the sake of legibility this effect is usually applied to a copy of the whole title that is arranged behind the actual title) this effect radiates strife, inner conflicts, disturbance and discomfort. You have probably seen this or a modification of this effect in many horror movies. Vertical blurs can look like scratches! Mysterious, little scratches on a dark and cold wall. I don’t want to think about that now… That’s too creepy. But you see, this is perfect for the horror genre.
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Let’s move on to distortion effects. For the sake of simplicity, I will class
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every process that changes the original shape of a graphical element among these distortion effects. There are thousands of possibilities to distort an object and to animate the distortion With the mesh warp effect you can … well, believe it or not, distort a mesh! While a mesh is being displayed above your objects, you can distort these by dragging and dropping the edges of the several squares. Your objects will behave as if they are liquid and will follow the direction in which you drag the edges. Animating a so called turbulent displacement is a quick and easy way to distort your image wavelike. It gives your objects a look as if they are underwater. Don’t expect too much from this effect – it doesn’t come close to the look of real water or a particle simulation of water – but for simple motion graphics and especially in combination with footage of
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Turbulent displacement in combination with footage of real water
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real water, you can achieve fairly decent results with that effect. The last effect from the distortion category that I’d like to mention is After Effect’s puppet pin tool. This tool is perfect for character animations. A powerful tool! How does this work? At first you have to tell your software where the joints of your character are by setting pins on them. Then you can move these pins around and the object gets distorted accordingly. Masks can also be animated. You can animate the position of a mask, its opacity, expansion, the amount of feathering on its borders and the exact shape of your mask. By animating the position and shape of a mask you can, for example, apply an effect to only a certain area of a moving image. The famous one-color-effect can be done with animated masks. Let’s move on to some effects that you can use to automatically simulate
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more complex movements that can’t be animated by hand. Particles are a
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good example here. If you want to create flying snowflakes, bubbles, balloons or sparks, you can use a particle simulator that helps you with that job. However, usually I prefer to use real footage of snow, sparks, bubbles, rain, etc. than artificial particle simulations. The latter will never reach the richness of detail and beauty of real and natural footage.
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Camera
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If you are working in three-dimensional space with a virtual camera, you get a whole range of new possibilities to animate your design with the help of that camera. You can actually move the camera around your design like you would with a real device. At first there are the more obvious settings like the camera’s position, its point of interest, orientation or rotation that gives you full control over your shots. Animate these settings and you can create professional camera movements, dolly shots, pan shots, etc. Instead of animating several elements into your static shot, sometimes it might be worth considering to animate your camera’s point of interest (the point the camera is geared to) to your static elements in 3D space to present them successively. Experiment with the camera. Recap the ideas you have had while creating your storyboard and adjust your shots accordingly. Show your camera works to other people to prove their credibility (of the camera, not the people. Perhaps also the people). Roll it!
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Interaction
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Now I’d like to talk about the possibility of letting your graphical elements interact with each other. Until now we have only talked about animating single objects and what meanings a certain movement can have. Let’s transfer this knowledge to more objects that do either move the same way or in a completely different way. Objects that have the same animation (for example, they are all moving from left to right) seem to belong together even if they are not within a graphical group or have the same look. Remember the importance of groups! This is another way (we haven’t heard of yet) to create groups! You can characterize moving elements with the help of other moving elements. It’s like those stupid characters in movies that make the intelligent characters appear even more intelligent. Elements that are moving slowly make faster objects look much faster than they are. By downscaling an object, the objects next to it seem to get bigger and vice
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versa. Objects that rotate around other objects provide these other
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objects with much more importance. They now seem to be the center of a large system. Like the sun for our solar system or the TV for our home. Objects that converge seem to attract each other, objects that drift apart need time to think about their relationship. What I also like to do is to make objects in the background move slower than objects within the middle ground. Foreground objects have the maximum speed. Compare this to the cars you see while waiting as a pedestrian at the traffic lights. The cars that are far away seem to be much slower than the cars that are passing by directly in front of you. That way you can emphasize the three-dimensional depth of your motion graphic even if you are not working in 3D space and with a camera. Animating something has the meaning of making something alive. Living things interact with each other. Apply this principle to your work!
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The 12 principles
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Now we’re going to take a short look at the famous and important 12 principles that will help you to drastically improve the credibility of your animations. These principles have first been presented by the famous animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston in their book “Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life” (576 p.) from 1981 (published by Abbeville Press). Write it down on your christmas gift list! It is often called the bible of animation and it is highly recommended for everyone who wants to become a specialized animator! Although some of the following principles and techniques make more sense when being applied to classical, hand-drawn character animations, they aren’t less relevant for modern motion graphics that are produced with all of these new animation techniques and softwares. Softwares and the techniques that define HOW we create animations will change permanently. The principles WHY our animations should follow some basic rules will stay the same forever.
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© Timo Fecher
01. “Squash and Stretch” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) By squashing and stretching parts of a moving object, we can indicate its volume and weight, which makes the movement much more realistic.
07. “Arcs” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) Nothing follows an exact straight line (except movements that are caused by mechanical systems). Everything follows an arc or is at least slightly curved.
02. “Anticipation” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) This is used to initialize an action of a character or an object and to prepare the audience for what is about to happen.
08. “Secondary Action” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) This is used to add more life to a scene and to support the main action. The swinging arm of a walking character is an example.
03. “Staging” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) This principle is about the importance of correctly illustrating the most essential elements of your scene, that are necessary to tell your story.
09. “Timing” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) More drawings between keyframes result in a slow and smooth animation while less drawings make the action much faster and more dynamic.
04. “Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) You can either draw every single image one after another or you can create several key frames first and then draw all the intermediate images.
10. “Exaggeration” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) Sometimes you need to exaggerate certain animations by making them more extreme and intense in order to make them look more realistic.
05. “Follow Through and Overlapping Action” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) When the main part of a moving object or character stops, its smaller parts still continue to move before they come to a halt.
11. “Solid drawing” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) Every object also needs to work in three dimensional space. The animator has to know every detail of the objects or characters he wants to animate.
06. “Slow In and Slow Out” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) No action in real life starts with the same speed as it continues to move and then stops.
12. “Appeal” (Thomas & Johnston, 1981) Every character and animation needs to have appeal. Not only the friendly ones. This is similar to the charisma of an actor.
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Transitions
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If you are working on a more complex motion graphic with more than just one arrangement or scene, then it might be good to know some possibilities how to get from one scene to another. Let’s have a look at the most common transitions (originally from film editing) and their individual meanings. A cut is the most basic transition from one scene to another. The first scene or shot ends and the second one begins immediately. Quick and easy. A fade transition can be used if we want to show that time has passed or if we want to make a smoother transition than a hard cut. The last frames of a shot dissolve, while the first frames of the next shot gradually appear at the same time. With a wipe you can also show that a lot of time has passed but in a much more eye-catching way. The end of the first scene gets wiped away and reveals the start of the next scene. In motion graphics this is actually a pretty common way to start new scenes while aesthetically combining two arrangements.
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This was a whole bunch of possibilities and rules about how to animate
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your design and how to connect your scenes. And I can promise you that we have only just scratched the surface. You now have a basic overview of animations and their meanings. We have learned that, theoretically, you can animate every value that defines a design and that a good animation should not only be visually appealing, but also needs to support the meaning of your motion graphic. Use effects responsibly and adjust their settings to create your own, unique style. The animation is what distinguishes a motion graphics designer from a “normal” designer. Experiment with animations. You need to get a feel for motion. This isn’t something that can be learned within one day. It is a long process of trial and error. Show your work to other people. They will provide you with new ideas and inspiration. Play with your audience’s perception to create suspense! Sometimes it’s better to just hint at something that might happen and not directly show it. In most cases people are more interested in things they can’t see. Use that psychological fact to your advantage.
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Plan your animations with simple sketches! Let your elements interact
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with each other! Give your animations as much naturalness as possible by imitating real life. We now have an animated motion graphic. Are we finished? Can we upload our design and wait for some great comments? No! My battery is still not low enough. Speaking with the words of filmmakers we have only finished the production part. Let’s enter the post-production! The final process, where your rough stone will hopefully become a bright diamond. Let your design shine bright like a diamond in a sky full of stars so that everyone can see its halo! I’m afraid something must have influenced this last sentence fundamentally. I certainly have to find out what that is. But first things first: the next step will be all about that bass… I mean all about adding the final touch to your art.
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5. Post-production We’ll fix that in the post! Those of you who have ever witnessed a movie production know exactly what that means. They can be exceedingly stressful. Everything has to be planned perfectly and the whole film crew has to stick to a precise schedule in order to meet their deadline. If they can’t finish the production in time or make mistakes, the consequences can become incredibly expensive. That is why – with the help of modern post-processing techniques – it has become a common strategy to rather stick to the schedule and leave mistakes in the scenes while filming and then fix scenes that didn’t went as expected in the post-production. Sadly, that is not always the best solution but perhaps the best reasonable compromise that can be made. I have called this chapter “postproduction”, because I want to maintain the parallels between making a www.crossfeyer.com
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movie and the production of a motion graphic. I don’t want to encourage you to see the post-production as a possibility to fix mistakes you have done during the production phase! I would like you to see this process as it originally was meant to be: To enhance and finalize your work. In motion graphic designs you have the great advantage that – if you have 5. Post-production
cleverly organized your project – you can always return to the production phase to make changes. Use that opportunity to your advantage and try not to fix or hide mistakes in the post. Let’s change “We’ll fix that in the post” to “We’ll improve that in the post”!
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5.1 Post-processing
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Now let’s have a look at how we can finally tweak our motion graphic to make it better than all of these motion graphics that have already been called finished after the production phase. Keep in mind that the suitability of some of these techniques depend on the look and style of your work. I personally prefer to make natural and realistic motion graphic designs. That is why most of the following techniques are predestined to achieve that look. If you are, for example, working on a minimalist, deliberately artificial design with cartoonish animations, you probably shouldn’t use techniques that improve realism. It is always your responsibility as an artist to decide what suits your design best. We assume no liability for damages by using inappropriate techniques for a specific style. Nor will we assume liability for damages by coconuts of any botanical classification.
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The perfect imperfections Although the processes of making a movie and producing a motion
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graphic have many things in common, I think that there is at least one aspect that is extremely different. When filming a movie, a professional film crew will always strive after perfection. Everything has to be clean and technically at the highest stage. The pursuit of perfect lighting conditions, perfect camera movements, perfect makeup, perfect CGI are only a few examples of how modern movie productions try to achieve their perfect look. I assume that you have already seen movies where this perfection has unfortunately led to a terribly artificial look as a side effect. In my opinion this artificial look doesn’t always fit the style of a movie and the producers would have done well by not exaggerating the perfection. If you don’t know what I mean, just take at Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth hexalogy and compare “The Lord of the Rings” with “The Hobbit” movies. While the style of the first trilogy supports the genre of a fantasy movie pretty well, I think that the perfect and clean look of the
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second trilogy is much too artificial and more suitable for a science fiction film. But this is another topic. My point is that filmmakers always
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fight against imperfections in their footage, while good motion graphic designers should deliberately create imperfections. And I’ll tell you why: what we create is artificial by nature (I know this sounds strange). We manipulate pixels. We technically generate images with the help of a machine. And what is produced by a machine can initially only look artificial. Can only be perfect. That is why – contrary to the filmmaker – we have to fight perfection. So, unless you are working on a design that shall deliberately have an artificial look, you should always try to make your design look natural and organic in order to make it plausible for your audience and to smother the fact that it has been created by a computer. Give your design some naturalness by using elements from the real world! Don’t constrain yourself to techniques that only try to simulate natural behaviors. You cannot recreate nature digitally. That is a
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contradiction in itself. To sum it up: Create imperfections to achieve the
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perfect motion graphic! So how can we provide our motion graphic with some naturalness? Let’s have a look at some useful techniques. At first, digitally created graphics always look too clean. It’s all about adding some defects, randomness and other characteristics of nature to your static design and animations. The first thing I’d like to mention here is that you should avoid flat-looking elements and especially elements with large areas of the same color. Again: if you plan to create a design that demands a flat look, you are good to go with that style. But if you want to achieve a more natural and realistic look, I would try to avoid it. Nothing in real life consists of only one plain color. There are always at least slight color changes in the surface of an object.
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Another valuable aspect is to work with light. Light is everywhere. In real life it decides about what we can see and what remains hidden in the
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dark. With light effects you can enhance the realism of your design and make your elements and layers blend together nicely. It might not be obvious at first sight but light can also have a very diverse character. It can be warm, it can be cold. It can be shy, aggressive, subtle, intrusive, etc. Use these characteristics to support the message of your motion graphic! There are many different types of light effects that do all serve a specific purpose. These are only a few examples: Lens flares: who doesn’t know lens flares? What was formerly an unwanted artifact (caused by unavoidable inaccuracies in the lens of a camera) is currently a common stylistic device to highlight elements, make them bright and shiny and to add an organic layer on top of a design. The look of a lens flare is defined by the light source, its position and the type of lens that is being used to capture the lens flare.
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Light trails: light trails can be produced with fast moving light sources.
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The resulting trails are extremely aesthetic and can for example be used to underline or to surround elements. Light trails can be created with particle systems or with real light sources. This is an intrusive effect that cannot be weakened easily. So use it with caution and only if that style matches your design. Light rays: a foggy or dusty atmosphere can make the rays that emit from a light source visible. The result is a volumetric light that can transfer the dense atmosphere from which it originates onto your motion graphic. Furthermore moving light rays can also add life to your art. Light rays from above always have a godlike character. Elements that are positioned beneath such light rays get pointed out. In contradistinction to the fast moving light trails, light rays are normally much more comforting and subtle.
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Reflections: light that is being reflected on shiny objects creates beautiful images: Light reflections. The unique combination of sharp and blurred
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elements is the key feature of that effect. Apply light reflections to your design to give it a special and artistic look. Light speed: other than light trails (that develop from moving light sources), a light speed effect can be created by moving the camera itself. This is a famous effect for transitions between two scenes to show that time has passed quickly. To include that feeling of speed you can also try to blend a light speed effect on top of your whole design or into a certain element. Light leaks: some of you might know a subcategory of this effect as the classic film burn effect. It is the effect that appears when light (or even fire) mistakenly enters your lens or movie projector. What once was an unwanted technical fault is now a popular stylistic element. Depending
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on the exact style and especially the speed of the light leak it can make your image either smooth or nervous and strained. You can use light
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leaks to give your image character and to define certain parts of it. Bokeh light: other than the previous light effects, bokeh light is normally used in the background of a design. Exceptions confirm the rule. Footage of bokeh light shows unsharp light sources or reflective objects. They can be static or they can be in motion. Bokeh light is defined by the light sources themselves and by the type of lens (and its aperture) that captures the light. Because of its blurred and subtle character it can be used to highlight the elements that are positioned in front of it.
As you might have noticed some of these effects are originally image artifacts that traditional cinematographers would always try to avoid. But
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as I have explained before, we can use these artifacts to enhance our designs. And because we use these intentionally, no one can ever blame
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us for having worked improperly. One thing these light effects all have in common: they give your design a final, natural structure and can be used to highlight your work. Depending on the complexity of the light effect you are using, the final result can be either decent (you can of course also subtle the effect by lowering the opacity of a light effect or by blurring it) or it can be completely different to your original design. Use light effects with caution! They can have an enormous influence on the final look of your design and therefore the message you want to tell. Use light effects that support your message and don’t change it. Adjust the effects concerning their color, opacity, sharpness, etc. so that they fit to the look you are planning to create. There are different approaches on how to apply light to motion graphics. You can digitally create light effects either by hand or with the help of several plug-ins or you can use recordings of real light. With the first two options you have more control over the
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exact look and animation of your light effects but you will never come close to the look and feel of a natural recording of light. I personally have
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produced a lot of footage showing different light situations that I like to use again and again within my designs. With the help of different blending modes you can transfer the natural characteristics of light into your motion graphics and therefore add an organic layer of realism. And even if you don’t want to show the light directly you can illustrate its presence by allowing your graphical elements to cast shadows. This will highlight your elements and give your whole design much more depth. Rethink your design during the final steps of post-production and consider how to improve the look of individual elements, their synergy and your motion graphic in its entirety.
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Another vital aspect to achieve a credible motion graphic design is to simulate the characteristics of a real camera. Your audience is used to the
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behavior of a camera and also people that have nothing to do with the film industry subconsciously connect what they see through a good virtual camera to things they know from the real world. A clever motion graphic designer would use this aspect to furthermore add realism to his work.
Without camera characteristics
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Just like it’s important to add some imperfections to your static design, you should also make the animations of your motion graphic less linear
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and artificial. Take a look at your animations. Do your objects move like they would do in real life? Do they behave physically correct? Or do they look like being generated by a machine? What is being produced by a computer looks technical and mechanical unless you put a lot of effort into making it dynamic and natural. And that is exactly your task in the post-processing of your animations. Try to humanize your animations and take care that your design is always in motion! If there is nothing moving in the middle ground, establish some motion in the background and foreground. Never let your design come to a deadlock! Nature is always in motion. Motion graphics should always be in motion. Incorporate material of real life to quickly enhance your design while setting it in constant motion. Footage of moving liquids and flying particles have turned out to be an effective way to increase the realism of motion graphics. Their natural and random behavior is exactly what we
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need to give our design that final touch of credibility. I always work with real life footage. Even by using such footage very subtle in the
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background of your work you can dramatically increase the quality of your design. I think the road to success is to combine clever handmade animations with real life movements from natural footage. That way you can for example transport your message via animated text objects inside a real natural environment. Footage can also have an inspiring effect. By imitating the movements of the real life recordings you can quickly transfer that natural behavior on your animated objects. I think a motion graphic designer needs that kind of inspiration and the random behavior of real footage. We don’t work with a static medium. We work with a medium that changes over time. We cannot control every single frame so why shouldn’t we let nature do that job for us? It’s not all about just imitating nature. We can also incorporate nature directly into our design. This is the most effective way to make motion graphics credible and natural.
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Final coloration In the chapter about colors we have talked about the different meanings
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of colors and which colors fit together and which don’t. This chapter was about the coloration of your individual graphical elements. In the course of the final coloration we will talk about how to improve the colors of your design as a whole. We are now ready for the final touch of our motion graphic. The last step before we can finally render our clip. This step is immensely significant for modern moving image productions. Actually, the colorist is a profession of its own but most motion graphic designers will also have to take care of that job. I sometimes notice that people get confused with the two terms “color correction” and “color
Original image
grading”. The difference is actually pretty simple: “Color correction” describes the process of repairing the colors of footage to make the work of the cinematographer look perfect. This involves especially the correction of skin color tones and the adjustment of the shadows, midtones and highlights of the image. Another important aspect in the
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course of color correction is to make sure that the colors of the image do not exceed broadcast limits. This may not be of much importance if you
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work on a design for a private video channel, but if you work on a commercial project for TV or even for a movie, you have to make sure that the colors of your motion graphic are within a certain color space. To sum up, you can say that color correction is a pretty technical process whereas “Color grading” describes a significantly more creative process.
Color corrected image
While color grading an image you make decisions about its look and final style. You certainly know a lot of movies where color grading plays a huge part in creating a certain mood and adjusting the essential character of the image. In that regard, color grading is much like the score of a movie. It has to support the story and its usage always has to be justified. To make the difference between color correction and color grading even more obvious: most people do both things regularly with their
Color grading
smartphones. They color correct their photos if they are for example too
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dark and they color grade them with these hip filters that we all know from that one famous app. Remember: the one process is for correcting
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the image, the other one is for stylizing it. Both are essential! In motion graphic designs we also need to take care of color correction and color grading. Admittedly we normally don’t need to correct footage to the extent that it is done for movies, but we need to care about some aspects: the individual graphical elements of our motion graphic must fit together in terms of colors, the overall coloration has to comply with broadcast limits and should work on different monitor types and the color grading has to support the message that we want to tell. There are a whole lot of ways and tools to adjust the coloration of your work. My personal favorites in After Effects® are levels, curves, tint, hue/ saturation, tritone and the photo filter.
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A basic workflow might be to begin by desaturating the whole image. That way you can have more control over the individual colors. Then you
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can adjust the contrast and the black and white tones of your image with a curve or level adjustment. If you want to emphasize a certain color or reduce one, use the individual color channels of the curve effect. Then you can blend a colored gradient on top of your image to give it a warm, cold or stylized character or tint your image. Finally, I always add another hue/saturation effect to once more control the saturation of the image. I do this because I tend to add too much color while adjusting the individual color channels. With another adjustment of the saturation you can counteract that problem and make sure that your final image doesn’t have too much saturation. The so called primary color correction describes the process of making global changes to your image. Adjustments to only a specific area of your design is called the secondary color correction.
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Keep in mind that your colors should always support the message of your
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work. Don’t just use filters because they look cool, and don’t try to imitate other people’s styles. I have seen thousands of examples where people have tried to copy the look of their favorite movie. Imitating another person’s style may be a good way to learn the techniques and tools they have used. But it should never be your goal to always look at other pieces of art and then try to do something similar. Find the tools and techniques you are comfortable with and then develop your own, unique style. Ignore people that say “oh, that design reminds me of …”! There will always be similarities to other people’s art. But as long as you haven’t imitated these deliberately, your style and art belongs to you. I’d bet my right leg that this is the best way to succeed as an artist if it wasn’t still trapped under that palm tree. Ok, let’s just bet that palm tree.
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5.2 Rendering Welcome to that unusually exciting and most creative topic of all! Irony 5. Post-production | Rendering
mode: off! Rendering might not be everyone’s favorite topic (neither is it mine) but as it is an essential part of the production of a motion graphic, we need to at least talk very quickly about the basics of rendering. I am definitely not that kind of computer nerd – sorry, I’ve meant highly specialized computer expert – who knows about the pros and cons of every single video format and their perfect settings. (I’m still a nerd. But not a computer nerd. Rather a dinosaur nerd). So let me briefly show you how I prepare my motion graphics for distribution. To render a composition in After Effects®, you first have to add it to the render queue. There you can adjust all necessary settings and then click “render”. You can also render your After Effects® project with the Adobe® Media Encoder that allows some more adjustments. Things like the
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The render queue
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frame rate and the resolution of your design are normally predefined by the settings you have made to your composition in the very beginning. Unless you have the clear demand of your customer to render with other
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settings or you want to deliberately have a final clip with a smaller file size, the frame rate and resolution should stay the same within the render settings. There are two approaches to rendering: 1. Uncompressed rendering results in the best possible quality at the cost of a large file size. I personally like to render uncompressed material as a sequence of single, numbered frames: for example a TIFF sequence or a PNG sequence. 2. Compressed renderings can have much smaller file sizes at the cost of picture quality. Here I like to use the QuickTime format with a H.264 video codec (can be adjusted within the format options) for compression.
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5.3 Audio What’s that noise? That rustling foliage drives me crazy. And from time
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to time I can hear something that I’d most likely describe as some kind of roaring. That this roaring must be pretty far away is the only thing that calms me down a bit. Especially at night, the acoustic surrounding on this island can be quite impressive. The combination of the rushing sea, gentle wind and the deadly sound of falling coconuts lets me totally forget about the faraway roaring and the fact that I’m still stranded on that lost place. I must finish this book. It’s the only way! Wait! The roaring is coming closer. Audio is important! In fact a video clip is composed of two things: 50% moving images and 50% audio. Now you may ask why this chapter doesn’t occupy 50% of this book. Quick answer: because this book is for
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the ones who create the moving images. The ones that produce the audio are in most cases completely other people with different qualifications. They are those cool guys who want to be rockstars but are much better in mixing sound effects together to create exciting and atmospheric audio 5. Post-production | Audio
tracks. In a professional production workflow we have specialized motion graphic designers and professional sound designers that add the magic of audio to the motion graphic. You can’t be a professional in both disciplines. (Unless you’re an immortal vampire, but let’s just assume that is not the case). However, I know that – especially within smaller companies or one man companies – it is not completely unlikely that the motion graphic designer himself also has to take care of the audio from time to time or that he at least has to evaluate the audio track of the sound designer. That is why I have decided to also give you some quick tips on that interesting topic.
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Did I mention that audio is important? I’m sure you know that already. Just think of your favorite vampire-werewolf-romance and try to imagine it with the sounds of a science fiction movie. That’s not possible, is it? We connect certain audio tracks we have heard directly with the images we 5. Post-production | Audio
have seen. That is the beauty of film. Two completely different media are combined to tell a story and to become one unique piece of art. We can’t imagine one without the other. They support each other. And that is exactly what we need to take care of while creating or evaluating the sounds for our motion graphics. The sound effects have to support the motion and animation to make them even more credible. The audio basically consists of the following audio types: the sound effects for your graphical elements (like movements), the atmospheric background sound of your scene (ambience), the music of your design and sometimes a voice-over.
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It is essential that the personalities of the sounds that you use are compatible with the character of the motion graphic. If you have created a funny, cartoonish motion graphic you shouldn’t use the most soft and calm sounds that you can find. If you have created more of an abstract 5. Post-production | Audio
design, it might be a good idea to also use abstract and artificial sound effects or modified recordings. The sound effects for big graphical elements should of course be louder and therefore more powerful than the sounds for smaller objects. Faster moving objects are louder than slowly moving objects. Big and fat titles that explode out of the background and jump into the foreground can go to the limit. Remember: Movements, actions and any other kind of animation always look exceedingly more intense when being accompanied by the right sound. The mixing of these sounds is extremely important. There shouldn’t be too much sound effects at once and there
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shouldn’t be silence for too long. You have to build a dynamic and exciting soundscape. As soon as you have all the sound effects together, you may notice that 5. Post-production | Audio
there are still passages without sounds. That is where atmospheric sounds come into play. More than once or twice I have already mentioned the importance of imitating real life if you want to achieve a credible design. This also refers to the audio of your work. Let’s assume we are not inside a soundproof room and let’s also assume we are not reading this book in outer space (which would be pretty cool). Then you have to agree that you can permanently hear something. There is always some kind of sound that our ears receive. Even at night, when the windows are closed and the neighbor has stopped doing neighborly things, there is always a sound in the room. That is what I would call the background sound or the atmospheric sound, that also has to be present within your motion graphics. And again it is totally pending on your work what kind of
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atmospheric sound you need. It can be the recording of street noise if the story of your motion graphic design takes place outside on the street, it can be the recording of a forest if the theme of your work has to do something with nature, it can be a totally abstract or artificial sound if 5. Post-production | Audio
your motion graphic is positioned in an abstract surrounding. No matter what kind of background sound you choose, you need to make sure that it is present throughout the whole clip and that it doesn’t interfere your sound effects. Contrary to your sound effects, the atmospheric sound doesn’t need to be particularly dynamic and its volume should remain relatively constant. It is there to support the sound effects, to fill the gaps between the sound effects, to stabilize them and to add realism to your work. Now we need to have the perfect music for our motion graphic design. More than anything else music can influence the feelings of your audience. That is why the decision for the right music is so essential.
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Music provides your motion graphic with character. It is your task to decide which character your design needs in order to be able to tell your story. For music is also a matter of taste, unfortunately there are no simple rules that can help you chose the right music that your audience 5. Post-production | Audio
will like. I can only encourage you to chose a music that YOU like and that represents the feelings of your design. When working with a voice-over (for example, to explain something that is hard to understand on the basis of graphics only), you need to differentiate two approaches. The voice-over artist can either record his voice after you have produced your motion graphic or you can animate your design on the basis of the voice recording. In any case, timing plays a crucial role. When the voice recording is done afterwards, you have to give the voice-over artist enough time to convey his message. When the voice recording is done earlier, you should inform the voice-over artist about the pace of the animation you are planning to create. The voice
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recordings then have an extreme influence on the speed of your animations. Which strategy is the right one usually depends on the project.
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In the end you have to mix the sound effects, the atmospheric background sound, the music and maybe your voice-over together to a final audio track. This isn’t a simple task. With compressors, equalizers and many other tools, the professional audio designer masters a final mix. This was just a normal approach to creating an audio design. Of course there are infinite other ways to do this. You might as well use music to support the movements of your objects. Or perhaps your objects are even animated on the basis of music. You can also make a minimalist sound design without atmospheric sounds. It all depends on the style of your motion graphic and your vision. The possibilities are endless. Just remember the importance of having a motion graphic design and an
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audio design that work together and that support each other. In the best case people will automatically see your images when hearing only the sound and automatically hear the sound when seeing only the pictures. The two elements need to be connected. They are one. Never 5. Post-production | Audio
underestimate the power of audio and the enormous influence it can have on your art.
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5.4 Presentation
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The end of this book is approaching and I can feel the laptop on my leg getting lighter and lighter. Or maybe I am getting stronger? Does eating coconuts while writing make you stronger? If so, I might have found the next big fitness trend. My next book will probably have the title “This is (coco)nuts!”. But I am running off the topic. Again. We have now entered the final stage of our motion graphic design production. And “stage” is an extremely suitable word here, because now it is all about presenting your work to other people. These people might be your colleagues, your clients your family or friends. The people you ask for advice before publishing your work or passing it for further editing. It is important to show your art to others before it is being published. Other people (and by that I mean people who work in the same industry as well as people who have nothing to do with it) see your work with different
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eyes. They are the only ones that can tell you if your motion graphic is comprehensible and if other people can follow your trains of thought. As the creator of something you gradually loose the objective impression on 5. Post-production | Presentation
it. You know every single detail you have built into your design and you know your titles by heart. You don’t even have to read them anymore to know what they tell. This can become dangerous. Your audience doesn’t know anything about your work and you have to make sure that you give them enough time and a clear design that they can easily understand. That is why it’s so valuable to test the functionality of your motion graphic with other people before it gets published. Honest people that don’t know anything about the project (or motion graphics in general) are the best test objects! They can tell you what they think, what they like and don’t like about your work and which parts they don’t understand. Write down that information! If your test objects have criticized your design, don’t panic! Design is always a matter of
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taste. That is something you don’t necessarily have to change. However, if they have criticized the legibility or overall comprehensibility of your design, the warning bells should start ringing in your head. For the case 5. Post-production | Presentation
that at least two different people have found fault with the comprehensibility, you should step back and rethink your work. Don’t explain your motion graphic to your test audience. That is essential for the next steps. Check the timing of your animations, the legibility of your titles and the overall comprehensibility of your story. Correct the aspects your audience has criticized. Then present your work again to the same people. Do they still have problems understanding what you want to tell? Also present that new version of your design to completely new people. It is the first impression that counts! People that have seen your work before may have a false perception of your work for they already see it for the second time. Once you have earned only good feedback, your motion graphic is ready to be published.
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Keep in mind that your work isn’t done yet after having published your work. The next big thing to do would be to promote it. You may have created the best motion graphic design. It is still of no advantage to you, 5. Post-production | Presentation
if nobody sees it. You should at least promote your work on your homepage and your video channel. Maybe a famous blogger helps you to promote your work by writing a short article about your art. Also forums for CG artists or social media groups are great to show your work and to receive lots of useful feedback by other artists. This feedback is indispensable for you! It helps you become a better artist and to improve your skills dramatically. Once you have created some motion graphics, it is also important to prepare your showreel. This showreel should be a compilation of your best works. It shouldn’t be too long (one or two minutes is totally fine) and it should show that you are an artist that can deal with various styles and techniques. With so called breakdowns you can show your audience how much work you have put in a design by presenting the individual layers of your composition one after another.
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This is also a common technique to prove what you have actually done on a specific design (especially when you have worked together with other people). Don’t underestimate the influence of the music you use in 5. Post-production | Presentation
your showreel! The music shouldn’t be too intrusive and distracting and should encourage your images. A good showreel with a length of two minutes must feel like a showreel of only one minute. It has to be stunning, exciting, spectacular and all the other adjectives that describe cool things. With a good showreel that you can present to the world and especially your clients, you will gain other people’s trust in your work. In the best case they will love what you do and give you your next job. And then the whole process starts from scratch. Congratulations! You have successfully entered the great circle of motion graphic design productions.
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6. Conclusion Congratulations! You have read the whole book! You are now part of an exclusive circle of motion graphic designers, that have both knowledge about classical design theory and modern animation techniques! (You are also part of an exclusive circle of people who have at least read one book). Now use this knowledge to create your own, unique motion graphics and then a showreel that isn’t just a copy of someone else’s tutorial and that reflects your own artistic style. A style that defines you as an artist. And that is all that matters. It is neither that fancy new plug-in that will make you famous nor having worked on a project for a famous company. These are things that might help you to succeed with your art but they aren’t essential. Just start to create something by yourself. Something you can
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be proud of. Something that belongs to you and that will make other people remember you. Telling a good story is the most valuable mission of a good motion graphic. And you now know the basic theory of how to accomplish that
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mission. As you have seen, it is not an impossible mission. If you are a complete beginner: “Learning by doing” should be your daily goal. Follow the steps we have learned and then try to find your own routine. Start your work without any computer. Write down the story you want to tell and make simple sketches. Only then choose a software and transform your vision into visible images. Show your work to other people and especially professionals from the industry that can give you valuable tips. If you would call yourself already an amateur with good software skills: I hope this book has given you something new to think about. I’m afraid
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that particularly the classical theory about design is something more and more people like to ignore. But as you have seen (or as you may have already known), it is not that complicated or boring and it helps you to improve your work! I deliberately didn’t mention too much detail about softwares and how to achieve specific effects. That’s something that will
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always change. In a year the techniques and plug-ins we’d call revolutionary today will already be outdated. Nothing develops as fast as computers and software. But all that classical theory about storytelling, shapes, color, typefaces and the basics of animation will stay the same. Forever. They have existed many, many years ago and they will definitely still exist in the distant future. In times when we don’t use mouses or trackpads anymore and control everything with the power of our thoughts, there will be tools and techniques to create our motion holographies that we can’t even think of yet (because we still need to learn how to control everything with the power of thoughts). But guess what will still be highly topical in these futuristic times: classical design
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theory and the book “This is (coco)nuts”! And that is why it’s so important to learn all that classical theory at first, before even choosing a software. To those of you who are established professionals of the motion graphic
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industry: Why did you even read this book?! Just kidding! I hope you agree with me and I would be thrilled if you had also learned one or more new things. If you have some further advices for those from the other two groups, feel free to contact me anytime and we’ll find a way to tell them. I believe that this whole industry would extremely benefit from a more open policy of communication. Let’s make the first move. To those of you who are interested in buying a new laptop: I have that overly powerful work machine. It’s a bit heavy but once the battery is completely drained, I hope I can finally lift it. It won’t be long until it
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happens. Only a few more words to write. Then I can finally leave this island and go home. And the moral of this story is to attend to the importance of a story. It is the basis of your motion graphic. Nothing should ever be done for no
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reason. In order to tell a credible story that your audience accepts, you have to make sure that your motion graphic has a certain amount of realism. Make your animations as natural as possible! Avoid movements that look like they are being produced by a computer (unless this is what you need in order to tell your story). Use as much real techniques and material from the real world as possible! Nothing can add the same amount of realism to your art than reality itself. So make use of all those possible techniques to combine your story, powerful software and real nature to your own unique art. Now it is on you! You have access to every artistic form of expression imaginable. You are part of the creative
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world of motion graphics. Don’t imitate others and find your own style. And most importantly: Love what you’re doing! Continue reading on my blog at www.crossfeyer.com to get more valuable insights to the creative world of visual effects and motion graphics. If you haven’t done already (before downloading this ebook) 6. Conclusion
you should also subscribe to the Crossfeyer newsletter to receive regular updates and valuable tips and tricks! If you enjoyed reading this book and would like to have a more in-depth look into the production of motion graphics, please check out our Gold Edition of the Motion Graphics Design Academy. This version includes 200 pages additional content, a useful production checklist and a written tutorial for our ebook trailer. You can find a link to more info about the Gold Edition at the bottom of this page. Cheers!
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Embarrassing and therefore unsubscripted epilog So let me try to lift that laptop. It might finally work. I can finally leave that island! I can feel the heavy battery getting lighter and lighter. Wait! What’s going on? Who is that stern-looking lady in front of me holding my laptop? Why is she telling me to immediately enter the plane? Did I actually fall asleep before even entering the plane? “Ma’am, I’m so sorry, but I’m a little bit confused. May I ask you an important question?” The lady looks at me as if she thinks I’m crazy. She waits a long time before allowing me to ask: . . .
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. . . . . . “Do you serve coconuts during the flight?“
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For more information visit: www.crossfeyer.com
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