The Art of Motion Graphics Design

While many of us may be good directors, photographers, or editors, it’s not a given that we are also good graphic designers. Most editors certainly understand the mechanics and techniques of developing designs and visual effects composites, but that doesn’t by default include a tasteful sense of design. Combining just the right typeface with the proper balance within a frame can often be elusive, whereas it’s second nature to a professional graphic designer.

German motion designer and visual effects artist Timo Fecher aims to correct that, or at least expose a wider audience to the rules and tools that embody good design. Fecher has developed the Crossfeyer website promoting a free e-mail newsletter for online training. A key component of this is his free eBook Motion Graphics Design Academy – The Basics, which he is giving away to subscribers (free) for the balance of this year. His intent is then to publish the book next year for purchase.

I’ve had a chance to read through an advanced copy of the eBook. I find it to be an excellent primer for people who want to understand basic design principles.  The chapters cover animation, shapes, composition, typography, and more.

Feyer spells out his goals for the book this way, “The Motion Graphics Design Academy is for people who want to learn more about the basics of design, animation, and project design. It’s for newcomers, graphic designers who want to add a new dimension to their art, everyone dealing with digital image processing, and especially all kinds of filmmakers who want to improve their movies, trailers, title sequences, video clips, and commercials. The goal of the eBook is to give its readers a profound background knowledge about design and animation principles and to improve their artistic skills. Software and plug-ins are changing constantly. But all that theory about storytelling, animation, color, typefaces, composition and compositing will stay the same.”

Like any learning tool, it won’t automatically make you a great artist, but it will give you the guidelines to create appealing design that will enhance your next production.

©2017 Oliver Peters

A quarter-century for Premiere Pro

I don’t normally plug a manufacturer’s promotional marketing events, but this one seems especially noteworthy. At the end of last year, Adobe Premiere Pro hit its 25th anniversary. It launched in November 1991 as simply Premiere and has gone through numerous iterations – from Premiere to Premiere Pro, CS and now CC. Premiere Pro in all of its versions has always been a popular piece of software by the number of units in the field. However, it’s only been in recent years that this NLE has attracted the attention and respect of top tier editors. And along with that, a legion of editors who now consider it their “go to” editing application. So, this event seems too good not to pass along.

To commemorate this quarter-century milestone, Adobe is kicking off Premiere Pro’s 25th Anniversary today. Adobe is celebrating through a special contest with the help of Imagine Dragons. The Grammy-winning band has teamed up with Adobe to give fans and aspiring producers the chance to co-create a music video. In an industry first, Imagine Dragons is offering total access to the raw footage shot from their music video of Believer, which was posted on YouTube March 7. At this writing, it’s already garnered over seven million views.

Integrating these video clips, fans can cut their own version using Premiere Pro (and Creative Cloud) to enter Adobe’s Make the Cut contest. Entries will be judged by a panel of industry pros, including Angus Wall (Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Kirk Baxter (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl), Bill Fox (Straight Outta Compton, Hustle & Flow, Band of Brothers), Matt Eastin (director for Believer), Vinnie Hobbs, an award-winning music video editor who has worked with Kendrick Lamar and Britney Spears, Imagine Dragons and Ann Lewnes (Adobe CMO).

The winner of the contest will claim a Grand Prize of $25,000. Adobe will also award bonus prizes of $1,000 each and a year-long Creative Cloud subscription in four special categories:

Fan Favorite: The most liked video by fans on the Adobe Creative Cloud Channel on YouTube.

Most Unexpected: No specific criteria, but knock their socks off.

Best Young Creator: The best up and coming editor under 25 years old.

Best Short Form: The most impressive video that’s 30-60 seconds long.

Finally, one special bonus prize of $2,500, a year-long subscription to Creative Cloud, and 25 Adobe Stock credits, will go to the cut with the best use of supplied Adobe Stock clips.

If you’re up for the challenge, head over to Adobe’s Make the Cut contest website for more details and to enter.

From the site: “Download exclusive, uncut music video footage and work with Adobe Premiere Pro CC to create your own edit of the video for their new hit song Believer. You’ll have 25 days to make your cut and show the world your editing chops—deadline is April 8th.” Good luck!

EDIT: The contest has closed and you can vote for a fan favorite among the Top 25 Finalists here.

©2017 Oliver Peters