TOOLS of the TRADE the Best Animation and Motion Graphics Software to Learn
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TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Best Animation and Motion Graphics Software to Learn PROFESSIONAL MOGRAPH APPS If you’re new to the world of Motion Graphics you might be overwhelmed with the amount of animation software to learn. It seems like every month there is a new software that comes onto the scene and promises to revolutionize the way in which Motion Graphic designers do their work. The fact is, it takes months (if not years) to learn an animation software, so if you pick the wrong one you could literally be wasting significant chunks of your life trying to learn a sub-par application. THE ESSENTIALS These are, of course, not every software in the Motion Graphic Design industry, but they do represent essential applications that you should know in order to prepare yourself for whatever Motion Graphic project a client may throw your way. PHOTOSHOP Price: Part of the Creative Cloud ($50 a month) If something is ‘Photoshopped’ it is understood that an image has been retouched or altered in some way. However, this only scratches the surface of what is possible in this program. Photoshop is about as versatile as a creative software can be, and for a Motion Graphic Designer a working knowledge of Photoshop and it’s features is key. In practical day-to-day use a Motion Designer can use Photoshop to: • Create Matte Paintings • Edit Textures • Design Storyboards • Stitch Images Together • Create a GIF • Layout Cel Animations • Rotoscope This list could easily be over 100 examples long… As a Motion Graphic artist the biggest value of using Photoshop over other photo-editing software is the fact that it integrates so well with the rest of the Adobe Creative Cloud. You can very easily import Photoshop documents into After Effects and vice- versa. The good news is Photoshop is incredibly easy to start using. Just start with a few basic tutorials and move-on from there. Once you have a good handle on the basics you can take your design skills to the next level with Design Bootcamp. TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Best Animation and Motion Graphics Software to Learn This tutorial will teach you everything you need to know to get started with animation in Photoshop! ILLUSTRATOR Price: Part of the Creative Cloud ($50 a month) Adobe Illustrator is similar, yet entirely different in function to Photoshop. While Photoshop deals with bitmap (pixel-based) editing, Illustrator is a vector editing software. If you’re not already familiar with the term, a vector image is simply a file that can be infinitely scaled up without pixelating. This is, of course, very important when designing logos, shape objects, and vector background that will be used in your Motion Graphics workflow. Awesome Adobe Illustrator work from Fraser Davidson. Similar to Photoshop, Illustrator files can very easily be imported into After Effects for animation. If you decide you want to change the look of a logo you can save the file in Illustrator and it will automatically update in AE. AFTER EFFECTS Price: Part of the Creative Cloud ($50 a month) Let’s not beat around the bush here, the most important software to master as a Motion Graphic artist is Adobe After Effects. While you can certainly create motion design projects in other software, there is no single program more versatile and essential to a modern Motion Graphics workflow than After Effects. TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Best Animation and Motion Graphics Software to Learn After Effects is a 2.5D animation software. This means you can do virtually any animation you want as long as it doesn’t involve 3D modeling (although there are some exceptions to this rule). In general After Effects is the primary software used to animate and composite all of your Motion Graphic work together once you’ve designed the storyboards and elements in Photoshop and Illustrator. The following video created for our Explainer Camp was animated in After Effects by Bee Grandinetti. School of Motion: Explainer Camp - Bee Grandinetti There are literally hundreds of features that make After Effects the perfect software for MoGraph artists, but the most important would have to be: The Effects Browser, Timeline, and Composition Panel. The Effects Browser is a panel featuring hundreds of effects and presets that you can easily drag-and-drop onto layers (shapes, images, video, etc.) in your timeline. These effects can do a lot of different things, from color grading your video to creating particle emitters. Effects are incredibly fun to mess around with in After Effects. Nothing beats simply importing a video in After Effects and dropping effects on it to see what each one does. Example of The Effects Browser TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Best Animation and Motion Graphics Software to Learn The Timeline in After Effects isn’t like a normal timeline that you may have used in a video editing software. The After Effects timeline is the place where all of your elements will be organized. After Effects uses a layer based system where the layers on top are above the layers below. Think of a stack of papers. The timeline in After Effects is where you will set keyframes and time your animations. Most of your time as a Motion Graphic Artist will be spent perfecting your animation in the After Effects timeline. The Timeline is shown here. The Composition Panel is what makes After Effects so special and user-friendly. The Composition Panel gives you the ability to see your video in real-time. A project in After Effects feels like an artist’s canvas because of the composition panel. It would be folly to try to create a comprehensive list of all of the potential uses for After Effects, but so you get an idea for what is possible we’ve put together a super short list of creative possibilities: • Character Animation • Simulation Effects • Logo Reveals • Template Creation • Title Animation • Slideshow Design • 3D Compositing • UX/UI Design Mockups • Motion Tracking • Web Design Mockups • Object Removal • Explainer Videos • VFX • Kinetic Typography Once you’re done animating your project in After Effects you can export a finished video and send it to a video editing software to add it to the rest of your project. TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Best Animation and Motion Graphics Software to Learn PREMIERE PRO Price: Part of the Creative Cloud ($50 a month) Premiere Pro, like all of the other software up to this point, is included in the Creative Cloud. For a while there was a lot of debate in the Motion Design industry about which software was the best for compiling all of your work together. Software like Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, and Avid Media Composer can all be used to create a finished video once you’re done using After Effects. However, in recent years Adobe has made great strides to integrate After Effects and Premiere together making Premiere more essential for Motion Designers and Video Editors alike. Premiere Pro has tons of advanced color tools and scopes for professional video editing work. Premiere Pro is simply a video editing software. It’s functionality and utility extend far beyond the scope of Motion Design, but practically speaking a Motion Designer will use Premiere Pro to edit their video together and add sound effects and music to their video. Premiere is probably not very different from other video editing software you might have used in the past, but the number of features included in Premiere far exceeds any entry-level video editing software on the market. This tutorial shows you how to use the Essential Graphics Panel in Adobe Premiere Pro to edit after Effects Templates. Premiere is almost twice as popular as it’s closest competitor and used in Motion Design studios around the world. A lot of people argue about video editing software, so save yourself the headache and just start learning Premiere. TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Best Animation and Motion Graphics Software to Learn INTERMEDIATE CINEMA 4D Price: $3,495 (yeah... you read that right) Once you’ve got your toes wet with After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere, it’s time to jump into the world of 3D. For most Motion Graphic artists the software of choice is Cinema 4D. Compared to other 3D modeling software (Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, etc.) Cinema 4D is very user friendly. It’s not inconceivable for you to be able to sit down right now, watch a tutorial, and create something in Cinema 4D. Cinema 4D is used extensively in the Motion Graphics world for modeling, animation, and simulation effects. It’s important to stress the word ‘Motion Graphics’ here. While you certainly will find studios all over Hollywood using C4D, it’s far more common for major studios to use applications like Maya for professional-level VFX work. CINEMA 4D Demo Reel Cinema 4D is also compatible with a few different GPU accelerated render engines that allow you to render out higher-quality 3D models faster on your computer. The most popular render engine in Cinema 4D is Octane. Octane is a third-party engine, which means you will need to purchase it separately from the built-in engines inside of C4D. TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Best Animation and Motion Graphics Software to Learn MOCHA AE Price: Part of the Creative Cloud ($50 a month) Another fantastic tool to get accustomed to is Mocha AE. Mocha is a planar based tracking system, which basically means it tracks motion beyond simply tracking a cluster of pixels. This makes Mocha extremely powerful for Motion Artists who are interested in performing screen replacements, object removals, or rotoscoping.