When I went through school for 3D, at one point they had us choose a specialty.  I chose 3D modeling, others chose animation, or concept design, and then there were a few who chose Motion Graphics.  Motion graphics is an interesting combination of part graphic designer, part 3D animator, and part VFX artist.  This combination leads to interesting graphic sequences, usually synchronized to audio.

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3D for Motion Graphics

Cinema 4D is a very popular 3D package for motion graphic artists, also known as mograph artists.  3D software is important for mograph artists so they can transform their normally 2D graphic design layouts and add interest to the piece with everything from 3D camera moves, to extruding models and particle effects.  While Cinema 4D is very popular amongst motion graphic artists, other 3D software packages like Maya, 3ds Max, and Aftereffects are also heavily used in the industry.

Graphic Design in Motion Graphics

Probably the single strongest attribute a motion graphics artist needs is in graphic design.  Strong typography and layout and composition skills are essential to creating dynamic designs.  Designs often start out as static graphic images so they start out with strong sense of composition, contrast, etc.  Sometimes the designs are typographic in nature like these posters made for Mother’s Day in collaboration with P&G.

Image Source: youthdesigner.com

Sometimes those same typographic style posters are then animated and synchronized to music, to create a more dynamic presentation.  Take for example, graphic design student, Simi Zeko and his university project involving the creation of a typographic film to be shown between events at The World Between (museum of the circus).

“I (Simi) chose to create a series of animated posters as an introduction to the museum.”

Motion Graphics in Film

Motion graphics can be used for film in many different capacities.  Sometimes the motion graphics are used within a film to represent a fake brand that would have a commercial like we see in real life.  The most common use of motion graphics in film is in the opening and closing credits of a film.  Pioneers like Kyle Cooper who created the opening credits for the film Seven, brought an element of story telling to what used to be just a listing of names of those involved with the creation of the film.  Even an earlier example combining animation and text in opening credits was one of my favorite films growing up, Disney’s 101 Dalmatians.  Watching these opening credits after going through art school and realizing the film came out in 1961 always impresses me that much more.

“A film which embraces modernism and a gutsy graphic style never attempted before or since.  It is almost surreal to remember that this movie is over 50 years old!”

I digress slightly.  The point is that motion graphics have become more common as technology and software for creating them have become more accessible and cheaper to create sequences.  I would also argue that since the success of films like Seven that now it is almost a requirement for films to include a creatively produced opening credits involving motion graphics.

Sites like motionographer are great for keeping track of all the great work being produced in the motion graphics industry. Now even more so with films like the Iron Man series where the combination of VFX and motion graphics create a dynamic visual combination that make films better, motion graphics artists are in high demand, and have a wide variety of skills they must bring to the job.

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