What are Motion Graphics?
Motion graphics are essentially a type of animation and considered as animated graphic design elements. It involves using visual elements such as images, text, shapes to make an animation which conveys any particular message, story, information in a high-quality and engaging manner. Motion graphics has several component which includes: it enhances the visual communication that helps to visualize the concepts through the animation. The visualization of the animation causes the increasing in comprehension. These Motion graphics consists of the movement of designed elements such as logos, shapes, text, and illustrations which makes high-quality engaging visual that resonates with the audience. The motion graphics generally used in corporate videos and educational purposes. It conveys the particular information or promote ideas and products effectively to the audience.
What is Animation?
The process of making the illusion of motion and change by continuously displaying a sequence of images of frames is called animation. It consists of objects, characters, and scenes through a series of transformation. Animation is generally used for storytelling, explaining the complex topics and ideas that a difficult to explain. The animation made them easy to understand to the audience. It is an art that evokes the emotions, convey information and entertain the audience in a various ways. There are various styles of animation which includes, hand drawn animation, computer generated imagery, 2D and 3D animation and much more.
Difference between Motion Graphics and Animation
Animation and Motion graphics have various differences, some of them are given below:
- Content and Elements: The motion graphics uses icons, shapes, logs, texts, and movement of the these elements to explain any concept to the audience while on the other hand animation consists of making, products, characters, environments and scene that focuses on the movement and interaction.
- Application and Usage: Motion graphics are mostly used for advertising, instructional and marketing purposes which convey the information and concepts while the animation is used in corporate videos, movie games, TV shows and much more.
- Purpose and Focus: Motion graphics is totally focuses on communication through the visuals by explaining the concepts and purpose to the audience. It relates with the elements to communicate through the specific idea or message.
Similarities between Motion Graphics and Animation
Motion graphics and Animation has a lot of similarities despite the differences. The similarities between animation and motion graphics are given below:
- Creation Process: Both animation and motion graphics require a process of designing, planning, and execution through the movement. Both involve conceptualization, storyboarding, designing, animation, and editing.
- Visual Medium: Both motion graphics and animation are visual mediums that involve creating moving images to convey a message, tell a story, or present information.
- Digital Tools and software: They both often use similar animation software and digital tools for, making animation such as Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D, Maya, or other animation software, although the techniques within these programs might different.
- Keyframe Animation: Both motion graphics and animation relies on the animation rules like keyframing, timing, and ease to make movement and transitions.
- Engagement: Both motion graphics and animation aims to engage the audience through the engaging visuals that captures their attention and communicates effectively.
The animation tends to focus on storytelling, narrative and character development while the motion graphics is mostly emphasis on the visual communication by using graphic elements to convey the information and explanation of concepts in a direct and engaging manner.
How to Make Animation
1. Script Making
The script is considered as a foundation of the video because a high-quality animated video does not make any impact without a well-written script. The first step in making an animated video is to have a clear understanding of the overall story that you are going to make. Once you have the story in mind, it is essential to have a well-written script that shows all the steps of the animated story. It will make it easier to follow, scene by scene, according to the script.
2. Storyboard
A storyboard is a step in which the script converts into a drawing. It’s a visualization of the whole story such as where the character comes from? Where does it go? Where’s the camera etc. Moreover, it visualizes the entire project before the actual production begins. There are multiple software like After Effects, pencil 2D, and Adobe Character Animator that helps to make all types of animated characters. Additionally, it conveys all the animation’s story, scenes, visuals, and transitions.
Making a storyboard for animation can be time-consuming, but it is crucial for making animated videos. There are multiple types of storyboards, and some of them are:
- Thumbnail storyboard
- Animated storyboard
- Sketched storyboard
- Layout storyboard
- Flowchart storyboard
Follow these steps to draw on storyboard:
- After writing the script, use drawing tools like rectangles, pens, erasers, and brushes to draw the background of the video.
- The last task is to design characters. The software has many custom characters (mentioned in the first step). Make a layer, separate it, and prepare the chosen character for animation.
3. Animate
In animating the video, the best thing is that there is no need for any tool to animate the video. The same software will enable you to animate the video. For animating the video, various steps are crucial to learn, such as:
- What are motion tweens and shapes tweens.
- The difference between the frame and key frames.
- How to apply the frames, key frames, motion tweens, and shape tweens to loop the different parts of the character to give a realistic touch to animated video.
- Animation of the character.
- Test the animation and adjust.
4. Add Music or voiceover
An animated video feels boring without adding music in the background. Adding a voiceover or background music can enhance the viewer’s experience and convey the message more effectively. Additionally, background music can help the viewers to understand the complex ideas.
- To add music into the video, it is essential to know the audience’s musical tastes, such as mostly children like funny music.
- To add the voiceover, it can be added by syncing the voiceover according to the visuals. Make sure the voiceover matches perfectly with the visuals of the video.
- The voiceover can be generated through the software as well. If you do not want to add your voice to the video, generate the voiceover using software and add it to the video.
After adding the narration, the video is ready to publish. Make a final version and all the necessary corrections. If everything is fine, the last step is to publish and promote the video through social media platforms.
Design Process for Motion Graphics
The design for motion graphics involve several processes to make high-quality engaging animated content.
- Objective: Identify the objective of the motion graphic. Observe it, whether it’s meant to explain a concept, information, or enhance a project’s quality.
- Conceptualization and Planning: Outline the key ideas or messages to be conveyed in the video. Make a clear understanding regarding the content and how animation can communicate it.
- Storyboarding or Scripting: Plan the sequence of visuals or outline the script to guide the flow of motion graphics. Explain the scenes, transitions, and elements needed to effectively convey the message.
- Design and Visual Elements: Make the elements such as text, logos, icons, shapes, images, or illustrations that will be animated. Make sure the consistency in design to convey the right information.
- Animation Making: Use any animation software (e.g., After Effects, Blender). Apply motion, transitions, and effects to animate the visuals that based on the storyboard or script.
- Audio Integration: Add sound effects, music, or voiceovers to the visuals. Audio integration enhances the impact of the motion graphics and helps to convey the message effectively.