By combining extensive experience in the field with an understanding of the principles behind motion, graphic designers can produce work of intelligence and beauty. A principle understood well by Leapfrog Animation, who specialise in motion graphics in Devon and the south west, is that for any sort of graphic design the ultimate purpose is the communication of an idea. In motion design this can mean anything from explaining new concepts through an animated infographic to setting the mood of a TV show in a 30 second intro sequence.
Graphic Design Basics
Lauren Marie, a graphic designer writing for Just Creative, discusses the basics of any design project; including scaling, size and use of colour. Marie points out that every choice you make in design work should be geared towards conveying a core idea. The use of colour, different line thicknesses and shapes, with squares appearing masculine or corporate while curves naturally look more playful or feminine, are design choices that can have a huge impact in motion design.
Simple Motion Techniques
Writing for howdesign.com, James Pannafino introduces 12 basic principles of motion design first identified by leading Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. Techniques such as arcing, ’squash and stretch’ and ‘slow in slow out’ make animated objects move in a way that is more attuned to physical laws and thus is easy on the eye. An object that moves along a straight line at a constant speed before stopping instantly does not mimic a moving object in the real world and so jars with our notions of movement.
Motion Design Solutions
Increasingly businesses are choosing to hire animators to work on their advertising campaigns so that their latest product or idea can be taken to market in a distinctive and innovative way. Professionals in the design field, like motion graphics and animation studio Leapfrog Animation, use their skills and experience to bring techniques like those introduced by Johnston and Thomas into their corporate work.
Since the mid 2000s animation has grown as a marketing tool, with businesses able to market their products in a way that is both cost effective and limitless in potential. Social media platforms provide a low cost way of getting animated content out into the world, where it can be interacted with and shared by a huge media savvy audience.