Motion Design: How to start a project? Guide and 6+ Examples

What is motion design?

According to its definition, motion design is an art, the art of making an animated video by mixing design and animation. For a better understanding, it may be interesting to also give the definition of these two terms.

An animation is a set of images to which an animator has given the illusion of movement. This is exactly the principle of the cartoon.

As for design, it is the true artistic expression. In other words, professional designers give free rein to their imagination to create concepts, settings, objects, shapes, etc.

Entrust the conception and realization of your motion design strategy to a designer carefully selected by Sortlist.

What are the types of motion design?

The discipline of motion design exists in different styles. The graphic designer can offer you to create your short video in :

Animated typography.
Stop motion.
Flat motion.
2D animation.
3D animation.
Interactive video.
Photo motion.

Motion design technique: animated typography

In this form of visual communication, the graphic designer plays a lot on typography.

To deliver a strong message, the professional can also add a touch of storytelling by drawing inspiration from your archive images or royalty-free photos.

Stop motion for the most fascinating content

This technique consists of filming a scene frame by frame to create the illusion of movement. In this sense of image succession, graphic design is similar to cartooning.

Note, however, that here the motion designer uses a camera or a special camera. The objects he films can be made of paper, clay, everyday objects, etc. The motion designer can also use a camera to create the illusion of movement.

Flat motion: the motion design technique with a minimalist style

Flat motion is translated as "flat design" in French. This motion design technique goes straight to the point. Indeed, details are forgotten such as shadows, 3D effects, special effects with flat motion.

The motion designer bases his animation on simple shapes, bright colors and typography games.

2D animation to create a link with its audience

This type of motion design is the most classic. You must even be familiar with 2D animations, as they are cartoons or cartoons.

With the 2D animation technique, it is possible to tell a story, do storytelling, pass on a message... This can be a good way to create a link with your audience.

Graphic animation: 3D animation

3D animation resembles 2D animation with the difference that the former uses computer generated images. The use of 3D animation is recommended to give volume to the images. Otherwise, 3D videos can be made with actors playing in front of a green background. A rather interesting alternative to create a unique universe.

Be aware that 3D animation requires more time for video editing than other motion design techniques.

Interactive video to make your website more dynamic

Integrating interactive videos or animation into your website can be a good way to integrate your marketing communication.

The principle is to insert call to action buttons in one or more of your presentation videos. In this way, viewers become actors and are easily redirected to a customer journey.

Moreover, interactive video can be used outside your website. Newsletters are also ideal for this technique.

The photo motion technique of motion design focusing on emotion

As you might expect, here the motion designer creates an animated video from photos.

For this form of video, the designer enriches the photos with movement, graphics and sound. The emphasis is therefore on aesthetics to tell a story full of emotions.

Photos are very popular in various fields such as tourism, fashion, restaurants...

Save time in the search for your motion graphics agency thanks to Sortlist.

Why make your communication with graphic design?

Image graphics can be interesting to reinforce your marketing and communication efforts. It represents a great content for your website in addition to offering many advantages.

Create a video animation to easily make a lasting impression.

Between reading an article and watching a 2-minute video, the majority of Internet users would choose the second option.

It is important to know that as soon as someone has a few free moments, he will spend them surfing the web. This phenomenon can be observed during a break at work, on public transport, while waiting for a tram...

It is also important to understand that this moment of respite can quickly be interrupted. Therefore, in order to reach a larger market share, it is recommended to communicate by short video or animation.

The objective of a communication is to convey precise information to a target audience. This becomes easier to do with videos of less than 2 minutes. This format also favours memorization and assimilation by your target audience.

Video content can create a buzz on social networks.

With the advent of the Internet, consumers often surf to find information about a product or service. This search is said to help more than half of Internet users make their purchasing decision.

Moreover, when the quality of the video is there and the product or service is attractive, Internet users will share your content on social networks. This phenomenon is even more observable if your products and services are of high quality.

Animating graphic elements, an inexpensive discipline

The direction and production of a video with real actors has a higher cost than a video made in motion design. Indeed, this form of graphic design is simpler in its production and therefore less expensive.

On the other hand, it is important to note that the price of this marketing communication depends on several factors. In particular, special effects, hand-made motion graphics, etc., are not as expensive.

Motion design makes it possible to share complex information

This is probably one of the most attractive advantages of motion design. It is the possibility to make a lot of information quickly accessible.

In fact, it is this set of sounds and images that makes the content comprehensible to everyone. It also works in your favour to explain the functioning of a product that requires the use of new technology.

Opt for Sortlist and get in touch with agencies specialized in graphic design, image and movement art.

How to do motion design?

Improving your visual identity and increasing the visibility of your brand is necessary for the sustainability of your business. To this end, you may wish to adopt a graphic design strategy. This is a most interesting and enlightened choice, as it is one of the new trends in communication marketing. Here are the steps to follow to reach your audience with this discipline.

Establish a set of specifications to better visualize your motion design project

The first thing to do to bring your motion design video idea to life is to draw up a set of specifications. Among other things, it will contain all the information about your needs and avoid mentioning points that can waste the motion designer's time. This brief should include :

Your objective.
The minimum and maximum duration of the motion design.
The target or audience you are aiming at.
The graphic and written elements of your brand identity.

On this last point, it is imperative to include all your visual elements, values, vision, etc. in the specifications. And this, in order to ensure consistency of communication.

Write the script for the video to be shot

The next step in motion design is to write a script. Basically, to complete it, you write the text to be recited by voice-over and/or subtitles.

To ensure the consistency of your script, the motion designer :

Respects the expected duration of your motion design video.
Think about the animation style, for example a 3D motion design animation, a 2D animation...
Conveys your message and adapts the sound according to the objective of the video animation.
Respect the recommended tone.

Create the storyboard of your motion design project

The creation of a storyboard is the logical continuation of the script, as it is its pictorial version. More precisely, it is a PDF document detailing the different screens of the motion design. This facilitates the transition to animation.

Points to remember to make a good storyboard :

Detail as much as possible how the screens of the motion design come to life.
Mention next to each screen the phase of the associated script.
Sequence the speech so that it fits within the limit of 10 signs.

You can entrust your storyboard to the expertise of a motion designer or an art director for a better rendering.

Creation of graphic elements faithful to its visual universe

Once these first steps have been completed, you can move on to the digital creation of the graphic elements.

These elements will represent your brand image and will now become part of your visual universe. It is therefore recommended that you take time to create them.

Animating the elements created to bring the message to life

Here you enter the heart of motion design. Among other things, you assemble all the images created in the previous step and give them movement.

Dynamize the motion design video by giving it sound. A visual message like a motion design video becomes more attractive when it has sound. In addition, sound effects make it easier to understand and remember.

As a sound package, a professional can use music, voice-over or sound design. Note that you can use several of these techniques for a better result.

Adding subtitles to ensure accessibility of the video animation

Adding subtitles to your corporate presentation video allows the hearing impaired to understand your message. Which is a good thing if these people are among your targets.

On the other hand, subtitles remain interesting if you plan to post your video on social networks. Indeed, users often consume their data to watch videos without sound.

Make a compilation of the video files

Compiling the files of your video is the last thing the motion designer has to do. He does this by exporting the content in different formats:

MP4.
AVI.
MOV.
Low and high definition.

Finally, it sends them to you and you are ready to broadcast your production on your website, tik tok and social networks.

Guarantee the views of your animations by collaborating with one of our web animation agencies.

How to use motion design in your business strategy?

You know that motion design also called motion graphic is a set of techniques offering animations of graphic elements in a video format. It is truly an art that follows stages of creation and that evolves over time.

Currently, this audiovisual production is proving to be a privileged tool in the communication strategy of companies for the many advantages it provides. Here are the different ways of using motion design.

Revitalize your brand image through the production of animated content

Nowadays almost everyone communicates regularly via the internet. This may already be the case for your company, but relying on graphics and motion animation can boost the visibility of your brand image.

Indeed, filmed content, when it is dynamic, playful and short, easily attracts the attention of Internet users. All the more so as it allows you to convey a message or an emotion for your e-commerce site as well as for social networks.

Using motion design to present a product or a service

Depending on your needs and objectives in animation, the specialist in image motion production can broadcast your content on different media.

During the creation process, the professional ensures that the content is simple, accessible and educational to guarantee the audience's understanding of the product or service presented.

The motion designer also ensures that your company is easily recognizable.

Communicate clearly and forcefully

In the digital age, the attention of potential customers is in high demand. It is therefore important to adapt to this evolution and to focus on the creation of strong and striking visual content. Motion design proves to be an ideal tool for this.

All the more so since image communication can make use of various special effects in order to make the internet user's eyes light up.

Finally, thanks to motion design, you can easily explain to the general public the interest of your products or services, or even explain their functionality.

Boost your Google referencing with a design animation

Appearing in Google's first results page is a long-term task. To this end, in addition to SEO and SEA techniques, rely on motion design. It is important to know that video platforms like YouTube are also used for searching. This one in particular is very popular among Internet users.

You may have noticed that in some cases, Google offers YouTube videos corresponding to the query in its results. In fact, it's easier to appear in the top YouTube search results than it is on Google.

As a result, you can start producing motion designs to host on YouTube. Then integrate them into your web pages to optimize your SEO.

Optimize your internal communication

If the production of a motion design animation is mainly used for external communication, you have every right to use it for your internal communication. For example for :

Internal training.
Employee awareness of certain practices.
Announcing new measures.
Presenting a new strategy.

This is a more fun way to update data and share new information.

Find in a few clicks a motion design professional through Sortlist.

Why entrust your motion design strategy to an agency?

At first glance, it seems rather simple to integrate motion design into a communication strategy. However, in order to obtain more than satisfactory results, it is preferable to entrust this task to a graphic designer. Even more so if you are unfamiliar with technical terms such as "motion tracking", "after effects" or "motion design after effect".

A professional graphic designer knows the meaning of all the technical terms in motion design. It also saves you time in learning a graphic design tool such as Adobe after effects. Moreover, as an artist, he is expected to be regularly inspired by graphic design.

The icing on the cake is the fact that he takes into account all the data related to your image to produce a motion design video that is faithful to your world.

If you are convinced that you have everything to gain by collaborating with an animation professional, all you have to do is find the right one. Sortlist saves you time on this point. Our platform brings together the most talented motion design agencies. Fill out our form to get in touch with the ideal agency for your animated video project.

How to find a motion design or graphic design agency at Sortlist?

In order for Sortlist to help you find the right motion graphic agency, you first need to fill out our form.

The form is used to collect your needs and describe your project. A member of our team will then contact you to ensure the final details. It is after these steps that we will search our database of the motion graphics agencies most likely to make your animation a success.

Please note that the agencies we will propose will be located in your area.

What information do I need to provide in the Sortlist form?

Send us all the information related to your project. The more detailed your graphic design project is, the better.

We will also need additional information such as the name of your company, your telephone number, your email address, etc. Rest assured, each of the information we need has a field reserved for it in our brief.

How do I choose my art and graphic design agency from the Sortlist?

The list we will provide you with contains a maximum of 5 motion design agencies. Once you have this document in hand, you can compare them, see their achievements and chat with them.

If you are impressed by one in particular or by the quality of their work, you can collaborate with them. Please inform us of the signing of the contract as soon as possible.

What to do if you decide to collaborate with a motion design agency that is not on the list provided?

The list we provide is not binding. In case you don't like any of the proposed agencies, you are free to continue your search for a professional animator on Sortlist.

Complete Guide on Motion Design in 2021