From the course: Cinema 4D R18 Essential Training: Motion Graphics

What are motion graphics? - CINEMA 4D Tutorial

From the course: Cinema 4D R18 Essential Training: Motion Graphics

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What are motion graphics?

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- [Instructor] So let's talk about what motion graphics are. Motion graphics are essentially another way of communicating a concept or idea in a way that blends the principles of graphic design and filmmaking through animation techniques. You could take your favorite television show's opening sequence, it's more than likely to contain motion graphics or some form of motion graphics. It could be the kinetic typography used to reveal the credits or the way the logo appears. You may have noticed an increased trend in movies and television shows that rely on motion graphics to drive story elements, such as user interface elements that the cast interact with. You'll observe motion graphics in everyday life from signs and screens at airports, bus, and train stations to screens in shop windows, perhaps on your phone, or watch have motion graphics elements. So no matter what size screen, there really is a vast number of applications for motion graphics. So I mentioned some of the design principles and we can just have a look at some of these. You can think of the quality of line, and this doesn't have to be straight, as well. So we've got these curved ones, shape, size, value and color, texture, alignment, contrast, contrast in value, contrast in color, contrast in shape, and contrast in direction, repetition, here we're using contrast to draw your eye to a specific element giving importance to that element, space, proximity, and those are just some of those things that you can use and should be aware of when creating graphic design. And you can bring those over into your motion graphics projects. So filmmaking is generally about telling a story and filmmaking techniques include cinematograpy, the kind of shot your gonna make, whether it's close and medium, wide, all these different kind of angles, it could be tilted, it could be straight on. And you'd also use lighting, sound, staging, pacing, editorial techniques to tell the story. Animation techniques include timing and spacing, so there's lot of crossover, isn't there? Anticipation, follow through and overlap, easing, and you get that secondary motion, as well, exaggeration, squash and stretch, imagine a ball bouncing down some steps, and you want it to squash and deform as it hits the steps. So tools used by motion graphics artists, well, they've advanced since I've started, but I've always been aware of Photoshop, Illustrator, editing apps like Premier, and After Effects, of course, sometimes referred to Photoshop for film. And knowing the tools are a very important part of being a solid motion graphics artist. It's when I wanted to add another dimension to my skill set, that I looked into incorporating a 3D program. And that's what you're doing now, or at least you're considering it. Well, you've come to the right place, CINEMA 4D has a fantastic set of tools specifically aimed at motion graphics designers called MoGraph, and you can create all sorts of objects and animations using these tools. CINEMA 4D is also deeply integrated with After Effects and the other Adobe apps I mentioned. Therefore, it's the perfect compliment to any motion designer's arsenal of software. So in summary, motion graphics can be applied virtually anywhere on any screen in any format to facilitate the communication of an idea, goal, or story in a way that blends the principles of graphic design and filmmaking through animation techniques.

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