Imagine being able to transform boring, static images into dynamic animations that can grab attention, spark imagination and drive engagement! From TV intros and idents to digital billboards and social media ads, being able to create motion graphics is an essential part of your creative digital toolkit. Get ready to unlock the power of motion as we create a movie title zoom sequence using Adobe After Effects. Beginners welcome!
The explainer series starts on 8 October and continues through the month!
The Software
This month our series of explainers uses Adobe After Effects, an application designed for creating motion graphics:
After Effects is a PAID applications. A FREE trial is available, after which ongoing use requires a subscription. For the latest pricing, see Adobe’s current pricing information. If you’ve never used After Effects before, create a free account now, download the trial and let’s get started!
Examples of motion graphics
TV idents (like these classic idents from Channel 4 in the UK) are an example of motion graphics:
Animated movie and TV titles (like this example from the recent BBC series ‘Sherwood’) are motion graphics. This animated ‘Sherwood’ title text is similar to what we’ll create for a dystopian AI movie title sequence in this series.
Entire animations, like this amazing animated photo-movie are motion graphics…
…and we use After Effects to create the animations at the start of every video explainer:
More motion graphics inspiration!
If you’re interested in the evolution of motion graphics, here’s Adobe’s own introduction:
https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/animation/discover/motion-graphics.html
‘Best motion graphics in adverts 2024’:
https://www.yansmedia.com/blog/best-motion-graphics-ads-examples
More brilliant examples of motion graphics!
The movie trailer at the end of this series
Over the course of five explainers we’ll create the animated text title at the end of this trailer for our movie ‘Models: Sentient Shadow’
The five explainers in this series
- Tour the Adobe After Effects interface and create a new composition
- Animate text using built-in animation presets
- Animate text using keyframes and easy ease
- Add an expression to make a video flicker and animate a light flare
- Export the animated composition as an mp4 video
This series is also available as a FREE online course!*
If you’d prefer to work through this series in a short online course format, where you can track your progress and receive a PDF certificate of completion, it will be available from December 2024* on our sister site pixelsofcourse.
*estimated date.
Notes and updates
There are no notes or advisories at this time. This page was last updated in October 2024.
We at pixels.cool are not responsible for the content of any external webpages or software downloaded from third party sites. Any links are included in good faith at the time of writing. All explainer content is compiled in good faith using processes and methods used by the team. Modern software provides users with many ways to accomplish a task, and for reasons of clarity we choose not to refer to multiple options. All computer users must run up to date virus / security software at all times to minimise risks of data loss.
