Creating Motion Graphic Projects on a Budget

When there is talk of motion graphics or videos in any media project, clients immediately begin to worry about escalating budgets. However, if you are able to channel some of your learnings from your student days when you pursued your motion graphic design diploma in Singapore you already know that there are a number of ways to create great animation and videos for your clients without having to burn a hole in their pockets.

 

Processing is an extensive part of creating a good motion graphics design and perhaps the costliest aspect of the project. Here are a few ways in which you can help your client save money and deliver great results on a shoestring.

·         Keeping it Simple

The simpler your motion graphics design, the faster and cheaper it will be to create, and more often than not, the better it will look. Leverage your creative sense to come up with great ideas on how to make the simplest of iterations as against doodling on your PC. Doodling often adds to the complexity of the project, and before you know it, you will have crossed your client’s budget.

·         Repurposing from your Library

As a motion graphics designer it is always beneficial to create a library of some of your best ideas, illustration techniques and designs. So when you are working on a budget or working against a strict deadline all you need to do is repurpose something you have already invested significant time on. There will hundreds if not thousands of amazing designs, concepts and treatments that may have been discarded by other clients but work extremely well for your current project. It is always good to save all your experiments and versions.

·         Rely on your Inspirations

While plagiarising is a strict no-no in the world of design or any other creative field, there is nothing wrong in going back to some of your top inspirations every once in a while. This means that you save time in experimenting with concepts, giving you a chance to start on a strong and already successful foundation. Most often you will find that your end project will be completely different from the one you were inspired from in the first place. However, you saved significant time and thus money for your client.

·         Mixing Media

You will find that some elements are easier to create in real life than on a PC. If you feel that it is going to be cheaper to simply photograph or film certain aspects of your motion graphic design projects, go for it. You will also be able to bring a touch of realism into your assignment enhancing its overall quality.

Before you make any big decisions regarding the project in question, make sure you work closely with your client to understand his or her capacity to spend, the extent to which they are willing to push their budgets and their quality expectations. It will be your job to find the right balance between quality and cost to deliver what your client truly likes.

Motion Graphic Terminology For Students and Professionals

Jargon exists because it makes it easier for people in a particular business to communicate effectively and efficiently. All businesses have their own lingo that helps them work and understand each other. The graphics business isn’t very different at all and your college of motion graphic in Singapore will teach you that.

 

Some of the basic terminology you should know as a graphic designer are:

- Anti-Alias: In order to reduce or prevent rendering of artifacts through the use of color information, which will stimulate a higher screen resolution. This method is called Anti-Alias.

- Alpha Channel/ Matte: Alpha is the fourth channel in 32-bit graphic systems. It comes after RGB and is reserved for transparency information.

- Animatic: To get an idea of the timing of a sequence, a rough animation is used by animators, like a storyboard.

- Codec: It is a video data encoding system for storage, transmission or encryption. It may be lossless or lossy.

- Cel: It is short for celluloid, a transparent plastic sheet used to create hand drawn animations.

- Color Depth: This describes the number of bits used in describing the color properties of one single pixel.

- Clipping Plane: It is the limit at which rendering and visibility stops in 2D and 3D.

- Depth of Field: This is a good shorthand cinematic effect. It refers to the range of distance from the camera allowing the image to remain in clear focus.

- Dynamics: The modeling of physics and physical interactions like collisions in as a system inside an animated scene.

- Exposure: This refers to the number of cels on which the drawing appears, in the scene.

- Exposure Sheet/ Dope Sheet: It is the tabulated breakdown of camera moves, frames, objects and their actions, scene by scene.

- Fall-Off: This is the phenomenon where the strength of light diminishes as it more further away from the source.

- Interpolation: It means filling in unknown data between two values that are known.

- Null: This refers to an invisible object that doesn’t appear in the final render. However, it does have inherent properties and can be used like the other layers in a workflow. (Null refers in VFX and Programming as empty)

- Onion Skinning: is an animation technique where transparent layers representing subsequent animation frames are put together.

- 2K/ 4K: It is related to a digital frame’s horizontal pixel count. 2K – standard for motion pictures and 4K – the future.

By learning the basic terminology you will ensure you know what you should to. This in turn will allow you to develop your skills as a motion graphics expert and create amazing designs without any hindrances.

Areas where you Should Consider Using Motion Graphics in your Visual Content

Motion graphics is increasingly becoming a common feature in the world of visual designing. Opting to include such graphics into any video allows designers to create similar experiences that viewers would get if they were watching similar videos shot using real cameras in real settings. Commonly used in animation movies and videos, this approach is most popular when trying to communicate with the younger audience.

If you are still not convinced about how your motion graphics design course can come handy to you in your profession, here are a few areas that you must consider–

·         While motion graphics is most often used in children’s feature films, it also finds its use in other sectors. Even if you wish to communicate something serious in a lighter format, the right graphics can be easily employed in social awareness programs, educational material, training, etc.

·         The advertising industry is also leveraging animation and motion graphics in branding products. It is also an effective tool while re branding a product or service that needs to reinvent itself a midst stiff competition. Using your learning’s from your motion graphics design course in the right way can help you effectively demonstrate a new offering or brand to its prospective audience.

·         It has been found that motion graphics is often a lot more effective in attracting attention of an audience than simply still images. A classic example is the fact that children tend to be more appealed by cartoon channels than graphic novels or comic books. Motion graphics is an effective tool to consider when dealing with a group that is known to have a short attention span.

Why Motion Graphics Stumps other Video Creation Options

The cost of production of animation videos when compared to the expense of shooting real videos is rather low. In motion graphic videos, one can make use of animated characters and re purpose backgrounds and other elements with the help of the right software. Shooting real videos include significant overheads in the form of actors, support cast and crew, investment in hiring equipment as well as technicians to manage them.

Furthermore, using motion graphics in animation helps simplify the content, breaking the data up into multiple parts; allowing one to present the information in easily digestible segments. By leveraging the latest technology, businesses, game developers, movie production houses and other organizations and showcase their offering in a much more appealing manner.

Summary

This article discusses the various applications of motion graphics across industries and their prevailing benefits.

After Effects Plug-ins that Every Motion Graphics Designer Must Have

Using plug-ins is an excellent way to add extra functionality to your motion graphics project on After Effects. Regardless of whether you are new at the Motion Graphics game in Singapore or you are a seasoned veteran, here is a list of plug-ins you want to make sure you use to take your skills up a notch –

·         Trap code Particular

This particle system plug-ins enables users to create customized particles such as rain, dust, smoke and clouds on After Effects. This particular plug-in is believed to have better functionality than the in-built feature on After Effects since it makes use of extremely realistic physics. This plug-in helps you create particle based lines, patterns and shapes in a 3D space with great ease.

·         Element 3D V.2

This popular plug-in enable user to upload and make use of 3D models on Adobe after Effects. If you aren't familiar with using modeling software such as Cinema 4D or Maya, this tool helps you easily import and edit 3D models in a quick and efficient manner. This tool works extremely fast and its latest version introduces new features such as lighting presets and ambient occlusion to your imported 3D models.

·         Plexus 2

This tool takes layers and helps break them up into objects that are smaller. With the .obj support this tool allows experts in Motion Graphics from Singapore to import models from most other 3D graphic programs and have them broken up in the 3D Space. These objects can act as forms or containers that can be used by Plexus. This tool allows you to create 3D connect dots design and bezier splines where you can adjust the lines in 3D space.

·         Optical Flare

Lens flares are an excellent route through which you can create visual interest in your scene. While there are a variety of lens flare generators to choose from, most designers swear by this one. This plug-in allows you to create custom flares which work on 3D spaces. These flares are designed to look very realistic and make use of a variety of effects that add to the realism. This tool also comes with a preset library.

In addition to this, plug-ins such as Newton 2, a 2D physics engine; Continuum Complete – a plug-in with hundreds of plug-in effects in one and Twitch, a tool that adds glitch effects to your motion design are extremely popular among designers.

Summary: This article discusses some of the most popular plug-ins you must invest in if you plan on working on a motion graphics project on After Effects.