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5 Animation Tips

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Jorge R

This document provides 5 animation tips to improve motion design skills in minutes. It recommends creating an animatic or storyboards before starting a project to establish visual cohesion and flow. It also suggests staying organized by labeling layers and assets. Key animation principles to learn include the 12 principles of animation, with squash and stretch and easing being particularly important. Relying too heavily on plugins should be avoided in favor of problem solving with basic tools. Motion blur is not generally useful for motion design and can hide poor animation.

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5 Animation Tips

Uploaded by

Jorge R
31 views3 pages
This document provides 5 animation tips to improve motion design skills in minutes. It recommends creating an animatic or storyboards before starting a project to establish visual cohesion and flow. It also suggests staying organized by labeling layers and assets. Key animation principles to learn include the 12 principles of animation, with squash and stretch and easing being particularly important. Relying too heavily on plugins should be avoided in favor of problem solving with basic tools. Motion blur is not generally useful for motion design and can hide poor animation.

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This document provides 5 animation tips to improve motion design skills in minutes. It recommends creating an animatic or storyboards before starting a project to establish visual cohesion and flow. It also suggests staying organized by labeling layers and assets. Key animation principles to learn include the 12 principles of animation, with squash and stretch and easing being particularly important. Relying too heavily on plugins should be avoided in favor of problem solving with basic tools. Motion blur is not generally useful for motion design and can hide poor animation.

Copyright:

© All Rights Reserved
Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
31 views3 pages

5 Animation Tips

Uploaded by

Jorge R
This document provides 5 animation tips to improve motion design skills in minutes. It recommends creating an animatic or storyboards before starting a project to establish visual cohesion and flow. It also suggests staying organized by labeling layers and assets. Key animation principles to learn include the 12 principles of animation, with squash and stretch and easing being particularly important. Relying too heavily on plugins should be avoided in favor of problem solving with basic tools. Motion blur is not generally useful for motion design and can hide poor animation.

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5 ANIMATION TIPS

Better Animation Skills in Minutes.

MOGRAPH HACKS
At School of Motion we know that the trick to become a world-class Motion Designer is to work your butt off. There’s no way

around it … However, if you’re new to the Motion Design world there are definitely a few tips and techniques that you can use

to get started on the right foot. Here’s a few of our favorites.

1. MAKE A PLAN - ANIMATIC / STORYBOARDS


When you want to create a MoGraph project you might be tempted to simply hop into After Effects and get to work.

Unfortunately, if you use this ‘run-and-gun’ technique your project will inevitably lack visual cohesion and flow.

Instead, try creating a simple storyboard and animatic before you begin your MoGraph project. A storyboard is simply a series

of still images featuring the design of key parts of your video. An Animatic is just a crude animated series of storyboards that

outlines how your project will look when completed. By creating an Animatic you can get an idea for what your final project

will look like before you start animating. You won’t regret it.

2. STAY ORGANIZED
It can be really easy to have a disorganized project when working in Motion Design. It’s not uncommon to have hundreds of

layers in your project. As a result, it is essential that you organize and label all of the assets and layers in your project. This can

literally save you hours. Plus, you’ll want to make sure your project is easy to navigate if you share it with others.

3. ANIMATION PRINCIPLES
Motion Design isn’t a new industry. For years animators and MoGraph artists have been perfecting the craft and over time they

have created a series of rules and principles that can help you become a better animator. The most popular set of rules is the ‘12

Principles of Animation’. You could literally spend your entire career trying to master these principles, but it only takes a few

minutes to learn what each of them are.


5 ANIMATION TIPS
Better Animation Skills in Minutes.

Squash and Stretch is just one of the 12 Principles of Animation, but it is probably the most important one to learn, especially if

you are new to Motion Design. The principle of Squash and Stretch is simple, if an object comes in contact with another object

there is a natural expanding and contracting that happens. Without this principle all of your animated characters, letters, or

shapes would look like they were made of concrete, which doesn’t look right.

The best way to practice Squash and Stretch is to put your skills to the test with a simple ball bouncing exercise. Try to animate a

ball bouncing on the floor. It may sound easy, but after a few frustrating hours of trying to perfect a bounce you’ll realize why an

artist with a good Squash and Stretch sense is so valuable in Hollywood. In the tutorial below Joey teaches you the basics of the

Squash and Stretch technique.


5 ANIMATION TIPS
Better Animation Skills in Minutes.

4. EASING
Another great principle to learn is Easing, which is just a fancy way of saying smoothing your movements. In most applications

easing is achieved via a Graph Editor. If you’re not familiar with it already, a Graph Editor is a tool that gives users a visual

representation for the movement in their composition. By default movements in a composition will be consistent and linear

resulting in harsh stops and starts. Instead, it is much preferable to use the Graph Editor to create a hill-like graph (see video

below). If you do this you will immediately see that your animation become more organic and smooth. It’s like sprinkling fairy

dust on your keyframes.

5. DON’T OVER-RELY ON PLUGINS


Let’s not beat around the bush here, Plugins are friggin’ awesome. Having the ability to make realistic fire, 3D text, and JJ

Abrams style lens flares in only a few minutes is incredible, but it can be really easy for someone new to the Motion Design

industry to rely waaayyy too heavily on third-party plugins. Seriously, if we had a nickel for every poorly animated MoGraph

project with a lens flare, we might have enough to buy Optical Flares (zinger).

Instead, focus on simplicity. Make sure your story isn’t getting lost in the clutter and if you can’t get your scene to look right, try

problem solving with the tools you have available to you. Sure a lens flare can make your project look cool, but does it really

make sense in a 2D explainer video?

(BONUS) TURN OFF MOTION BLUR


Motion Blur is a liar. You may think that the secret to getting good animations is to simply turn on the Motion Blur button, but be

warned! Motion Blur isn’t usually a great tool for Motion Designers. Instead Motion Blur can be a crutch that newbie designers

use to hide poor animation. Just take a look at the work of the biggest MoGraph studios, you’ll rarely see Motion Blur. So the next

time you’re thinking about hitting that Motion Blur button, don’t.

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