Insight into the industry

                   
For her documentary, “Off the Record,” Laura Sans interviewed a wide range of creative professionals — including notable motion folks like Danny Yount and Man vs Machine’s Mike Alderson; graphic designers like Jessica Walsh and Erik Spiekermann; and harder-to-pin-down artists like Joshua Davis and Jon Burgerman.

Organized in chapters, the film touches on technology, trends and artistic motivation in terms that are honest and inspiring.



Motion graphics can be seen in just about every thing from television, movies, commercials and more. Whether you are a beginner or advanced motion graphics artist there are a set of skills that you should have in order to become a great motion designer. In this article you will find 10 of the most vital skills that any motion designer needs to push their work to the next level, and help them excel in their career.

Graphic Design Skills

This one may seem like a no brainer, but it still needs to be pointed out because it is of the utmost importance to a motion designer. After all motion design is essentially bringing graphic elements to life through animation. Giving yourself that knowledge of graphic design can really help push your motion design work. Especially if you are freelance, where most often you will be asked to not only make the elements move, but to also create them.

Sure, you may be working at a studio where your job is to take elements a graphic designer created and make a moving motion graphics piece. That being said, you can never predict the types of projects you will be on, and knowing how to not only move the 2D elements, but also create them is vital to your success.

Traditional Art Skills

Having knowledge of traditional art is very helpful during your design process and can give you an eye for the best way to communicate your motion design to the audience.

During most motion graphics pieces it’s always easier to sketch out your ideas on paper than it is to build it in the computer only to find out that it’s not working. Sketches can be done much faster, allowing you to quickly brainstorm different ideas, ultimately speeding up your workflow. You also won’t feel as bad if you have to toss an idea since you didn’t have to spend much time on it.

An Understanding of Animation

As a motion designer you need to be able to bring 2D elements to life through movement. To do this you must use animation, animation in motion graphics is more than just setting a few key frames. You also need to have a strong foundation in the fundamentals of animation and how things should move in order to create appealing work.

The principles of animation apply just as much to you as they do a character animator. You need to be able to know where to exaggerate, where to ease in or out, or what type of timing works best. You might have the greatest design, but if it is not animated well it can make your motion design piece fall flat.

3D Design Skills

3D elements have found their way into motion design, and they are being used more and more. You can find it in a 3D logo, an intro to a TV show, a commercial and more. As a motion designer you need to have this skill set in order to be able to keep up with the changing industry.

There is a wealth of 3D applications to choose from, it’s up to you to take the time to learn one. You should not be limiting yourself to just 2D motion design, expand your knowledge into 3D and it will open up more opportunities for you.



An Understanding of Typography

Typography is heavily utilized in motion design, and often times the driving force behind the motion graphic. For example, a motion design may only use type to convey the product, company or service to the viewer. In fact, typography is so important we’ve created an entire article on it.

Since type is so prominent you need to have an understanding of typography; what elements make up a typeface, what compliments a design, and what is the easiest for the audience to be able to read. The right typeface can send your motion design to the next level.

Creative Thinking

Your job as a motion designer is to bring a graphic element to life; it’s also your job to know the best way to do this. You may be working with very little information from a client and the idea may not be clear. This is where creativity comes into play, being able to take a simple idea and turn it into a complex and appealing motion design piece.

Technical Skills

This day and age motion graphics are all done on computers, so it’s important that you have the technical skills to be able to adapt to new products and systems. There are numerous programs that a motion graphics artist must master in order to excel in the industry. You should be able to hit the ground running when presented with a new project and not be held back by your technical skills.

Interpersonal Communication

Even though this skill doesn’t pertain to your actual design skills, it is still just as important. Great motion designs always start with communication, this can mean with a client, or your creative director. A motion designer needs to be able to articulate their ideas and concepts to clients or employers clearly. As well as any concerns or changes they may have.

Clients are typically not designers, so it’s up to you to communicate your ideas to them in a way that’s understandable and clear.

Originality

It can be easy to follow trends, and jump on a particular style or look that is being used. This can make your work resemble all the rest and you won’t stand out. Think of your style as your signature, with every project you encounter you have a chance to imprint this signature style into the minds of the audience, making it memorable and your own. Every motion designer should have their own style. Of course this can take a long time to develop, but you will grow into your own style. For example, look at Tim Burton, his artwork is very unique and the moment you see one of his sketches you recognize it as his own.

Parsons

23rd November 2015 

I have recently just come back on a trip to New York. While i was there i took a visit to Parsons School Of Design which is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is one of the seven colleges of The New School. Parsons was the first school in the United States to offer programs in fashion design, advertising, interior design, and graphic design. Parsons offers 13 undergraduate bachelor's programs and 17 graduate master's programs, and it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious art and design schools in the world. It is currently ranked as the #1 art and design school in the United States and #2 in the world, just behind the Royal College of Art in London.

Parsons has a renowned fashion design program and has educated some of the most respected designers in the industry including Donna Karan (founder of DKNY), Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Tom Ford, Anna Sui, Jason Wu, Narciso Rodriguez, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (founders of Proenza Schouler), Isaac Mizrahi, Derek Lam, Prabal Gurung, and Jenna Lyons (President and Creative Director of J.Crew).

While i was there i had a tour of the college and work spaces and was shown some examples of work and their briefing timetables and how they work through projects. I had a talk with the head of department.

New School is a private institution that was founded in 1919. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 6,695 and its setting is urban. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. New School's ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 127. Its tuition and fees are $42,977 (2015-16).

some of the courses that off animation and motion graphics within the programme:

            

Kuntzel + Deygas

25th November 2015



Kuntzel and Deygas's memorable and idiosyncratic title sequence to Steven Spielberg's comedy drama thriller Catch Me if You Can (2002), starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, depicting the career of the world's most successful con artist, Frank Abagnale Jr.. The slender Lowreyesque figures run through environments that symbolise key plot points from the film, and are accompanied by John Williams' floaty, 1960s jazz-era score. The title design credit is discreetly featured in the shelf, while the papers blow past the pursuer's face. Kuntzel and Deygas are a pair of visual artists who live and work in paris.
Kuntzel + Deygas stylistically transpose the handmade design of Saul Bass using decidedly modern means.

Interview with Kuntzel and Deygas about this opening sequence for catch me if you can :

What was your approach to directing the opening credit sequence and how did you go about developing the “stamp style” animation?

In order to capture the spirit of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, we chose to employ a creative process that did not resort to the use of high technology. We used the same techniques as the film’s protagonist, by imagining the characters in stamp form, made from the same cutters as those used in the film by Frank Abagnale Jr. We wanted to preserve that crudeness.

Rubber Stamps:

Even though Spielberg has made significant use of modern technology in recent times, we realized that high tech did not mesh with this film. Beneath his powerful style and incredible technique, we understood that we had to surprise him by heading towards something that reclaims the “artist’s” work. What mattered was not our know-how but the emotion that we could transmit to a simple thing.

The original stamps, that we created in a few hours, are those that exist in the final product. The magic of the first try was not altered. The force of the sketch remained. That seemed to cohere with the Spielberg spirit. When it was time to sync our title sequence with his film, we asked him to send us some images from his Avid or via the Internet, but we also received an actual piece of film because he edits his films the old-fashioned way, on a Moviola.

The color palette does so much to set the feel of the jet setting era in which the film takes place. Was there an intentionality to the colors that you selected and if so, what materials did you reference?

The film takes place in the 1960s and Spielberg desired for us to transplant the audience into a varied universe, with a bit of chic and a sense of drama (certainly not a humorous cartoon). We decided to take on the same approach as those who created title sequences during that era: as if we were in that era, working amongst colleagues. Not in terms of technological means, but in terms of philosophy. We wanted to deliver a personal creation that has our mark, that works in contrast to studio title sequences in which the artist’s hand is less visible. We wish to have the audience of this film rediscover a paradise lost.

The colours signal geographical and temporal transitions. The silhouettes stem from our own graphic vocabulary with a sixties twist so it adheres to the subject matter. We decided to employ them here for their symbolic force. The silhouette evokes a character we all ignore — the hero is a trickster. Those are in fact hand-carved stamps, animated in a traditional manner on paper by hand. That “handmade” aspect belongs to title sequences of that era.
Embedding such lovely handmade animations into a precise, down-to-the-millimetre décor on a computer served as a bridge between the past and the present. The audience was able to taste a remnant of that past through the visual comfort of which they are used to today.

Olivier Kuntzel and Florence Deygas, both designers and illustrators, established their "narrative" graphic design under the name of KUNTZEL+DEYGAS in 1990. Together or separately, they tell their preferences for encounters, the methods and the unedited projects, the territories to cultivate, the stories to tell. (Collective exhibitions Ici Paris Beaubourg and Moma 1990; The Strength of art the Grand Palais 2006; D&AD award on 2004). the development of their art
Olivier Kuntzel


A graduate of Decorative arts Olivier de Serre in visual communications, Olivier is, since the beginning of the eighties, one of the pioneers of digital graphic imaging in France. Very quickly, he also became one of the first designers to associate it to an analogical way of expression. In 1988, he became famous with “Tapi dans l’ombre”, a video and object installation at Beaubourg. Olivier explores the fields of drawing, design and production, for the pleasure of the eye or the art of visual communication. Florence Deygas


Graduate of Gobelins school in Animated Film imaging, Florence entered the field of fashion illustration with success. She became one of the major faces of the « elegant drawing » (collaborations with Big, Japanese Vogue, Colette, Yves Saint-Laurent fragrances, Bourjois from 1998 to 2001, collective exhibition Traits Très Mode, several credits in fashion and history of fashion books). Florence explores the fields of drawing, illustration, screenplays and narration, in a very personal and communicative way.

Playground

Cinema

Kuntzel+Deygas are the authors of the mythical opening credits of Catch Me If You Can, by Steven Spielberg (2003), alternative titel sequence of the opening of The Pink Panther (2006), opening title of the movie Le Petit Nicolas (2009).

Objects

Kuntzel+Deygas like and transform things: they found optical illusions in the Glass Harcourt of Baccarat and used it in "Praxinoscope"(2004). They push aside the routines, tell new and unedited stories and "prêtes à porter" (narration in 14 Lacoste polos 2007).

Luxury

Kuntzel+Deygas embody these narrators, a bit surrealistic (Veuve Clicquot Trait d’esprit epistolary and calligraphic history, since 2003 / since 2004, collaborations between Baccarat, Le Bon Marché, Jaeger-Lecoultre, Azzaro Couture, Diptyque, and their characters The Doll and her Bear).

The Beauty and her Beast
The unique undulating line of the Beauty (by Deygas) is placed next to the encircled and bold drawing of the Beast (by Kuntzel). The Bear is “a man that no longer exists", feminine, intense and romantic. The Doll is a "weak woman" like we like them, free and imperceptible. Each one plays their own character.

Video 2004 Paradisiens; multimedia intervention at Baccarat, Designers Day; 2008 Invitation by Le Bon Marché for collaborations with Jaeger-Lecoultre (show Reverso), the Japanese jeweller Ahkah (necklaces), Azzaro couture (trench coat, perfume, scarf and bag), and Diptyque (pair of candles, fragrance and graphic creation).

Animation for this:

 

More Interview questions with Kuntzel and Deygas:



What is your collaborative process like? Who does what on a project like this?

When we develop a project, we don’t both do the same thing; each one of us has their own specialities. For instance on a shoot, we’re not both behind the camera. When we draw, we’re not both holding the pencil even though we both can draw. Our field of action is not still, it’s always on the move, and its limits are always floating.

We can switch parts depending on how much affinity we have for the project. If a project requires Olivier’s graphic design skills, then I will do all the things around the graphic design, taking on direction for instance. This role sharing has no defined rules, but is necessary so that each one of us can express ourselves 100% on one point and not 50% on each detail.

Tell us a little bit about Kuntzel + Deygas.

Florence Deygas: Olivier graduated from Olivier de Serres Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art (ENSAAMA), in visual communication. Then he started to work for advertising agencies as an art director, but was soon attracted to making creations for himself, and in a more independent way. I graduated from Gobelins L’Ecole de L’image, studying film animation. My school was not at all theoretical, which suited me perfectly. After studying theatre and being a self-taught illustrator, I needed to learn real skills, to learn how to use some tools. The theory side, I preferred to study on my own.

Olivier Kuntzel and Florence Deygas:

Aaron Benitez And Vissual effects

Friday 4th December




 This is an advice video that shows some examples of motion graphics and VFX. In the video Aaron Benitez is talking about how to get started in the industry what programme are best to use and what programmes larger companies use etc and briefly discusses how to get a foot in the door of getting work in the industry. He shows some inspiring clips from films of how the VFX have changed the way the pictures looks and talks about some of his own experiences of being in the industry and working on projects. 
Aaron Benitez moved to Los Angeles to become a music video director and always had a passion for using visual effects in his music videos. After 2 years of directing he started making tutorials to helps others. He has over 10 million tutorial viewers on youtube and he specialises in after effects and cinema 4D. He has also done motion graphics freelance work for disney and hollywood records. 

after watching this video and finding some inspiring and amazing transformation examples of VFX manipulation i then looked for some other examples out of my own interest in the subject and found this video showing a compilation of the VFX that went into the harry potter films. I have watched these films in my own time before and so it was very interesting to see how it was all made and to find out just how much VFX went into the film. Some things that i wouldn't have even thought were so. 

Lazer Cutter Trial (NEW WAY OF WORKING)

13/11/15


Lazer Cutting:

for this small side project we have been given the opportunity to experiment with the laser cutter to explore a new way of making work to come.

Eric Standley: 




Gabriel Schama

Laster cutting tools were developed for industrial manufacturing, but that didn’t deter artist Gabriel Schama from adopting the tech and giving the age-old art of woodcutting a digital upgrade.

Schama says he used to work exclusively in cut paper, spending weeks and hundreds of x-acto blades carving out a single design. Shifting his process to the digital realm, he says, has allowed him to open his work up a great deal in terms of depth and complexity. He draws inspiration from a wide range of sources, including Buddhist mandalas, Persian rugs, and baroque church ceilings.

Some Examples Of His Work:

Nando Costa: 

(The New America)

A Pacific Northwest artist becomes infatuated with the process of laser engraving wood and hatches a plan for a stop motion animation featuring hundreds of engraved maple blocks that can later be mailed as rewards to his project’s Kickstarter donors.The sort of project a guy with his skills and experience could have knocked out in a couple of months had the chosen materials been magic markers or clay.

Two years and some 800 wood blocks later, The New America is finally available for viewing, all two minutes and 37 seconds of it. Costa describes the abstract storyline as “a union between concepts and experiments born during the Situationist movement and real life events experienced during the last few years in American society. Particularly the duality between the economic downturn and the shift in values and beliefs of many citizens.”
                       
This video shows how this technique can be applied to motion design to make an incredible and breath taking animation that has taken perseverance and patience.

Andre Maat:
(woodoo)
                     
WOODOO from Andre Maat on Vimeo.

Another example of the use of laser cutting in animation is this video woodoo by andre maat. For this video he wanted to play with the shape and consistency of wood and bring it to life. He used stop motion to do this and lots of different shapes of wood in order to make them look as though they are moving

I have decided for this small project that i want to try and create a mandala style pice using the laser cutter.
I found some interesting shapes that would be fairly easy to make on the laser however:

What i managed to create:

           

Shadow pictures of the mandala:

Shadow pictures on a coloured background: