In another of our subjects we had to create that business that we have always wanted to have, in my case it was an interior design and graphic design studio. Part of the work was to think on how the business could be promoted and how the general concept could be explained to potential customers. With this in mind, I wanted to create a video that would show to a potential customer or just anyone, how was a normal day in a designer’s life, specially working on a deadline, and how, after a lot of work, something amazing was created.
In the beginning the idea only contemplated showing the process of decorating a room, but it was also important to show the struggle and the process a designer undergoes. For me, it is not easy to find the correct idea, but when it clicks, everything just flows, and the process goes through many stages, happiness, excitement, stress, tiredness, etc. At the end, being able to see what you created and what you thought in the beginning, makes the whole process worth it.
Now it was a matter of knowing how to put this into a video. I thought of taking pictures of myself during the process and then redecorating a room. In this case I was going to use still motion to create the video, but I wanted to do something different, I wanted to explore new techniques and just have fun. I wanted to show the process of redecorating a room but making it fun, with lots of effects.
By taking the time to read a little bit more of animation and change in motion, I realized that, as any other design theme, it has trends that are affected and conditioned by the actual conditions of the world.
In this case, the type of content that could be produced for animation and change in motion were affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Live action shooting was not safe or even possible, and so, many designers had to create other types of animations, look for other techniques that would allow them to tell a story and send a message to customers, with a creative and innovative content.
The following are some of those trends that helped me shape my concept (https://www.created.academy/resources/motion-and-animation-design-trends-in-2021/):
Minimalist and line art styles: The pandemic and the crisis the world encountered in 2020 made the lives of everyone become simpler. Motion design is showing this with animation styles that involve very fine line art. In my concept I wanted to include this, use very fine lines and a very limited colour scheme.
With this I intended two things: the first one was showing that my design aesthetic is very clean and that I am not afraid to use colour to convey a specific message.
The second was to create more interest through the audio and the effects on each element. By creating simple objects but by introducing crazy effects, the element on its own became a masterpiece of the video. In some sort of way, it is the same with the design of every space, that specific element has a reason for it to be there, every single element is important on its own, even if its just a book or an artwork. With different effects, the element was emphasized and given importance.
That is why, the normal elements, such as the floor and the walls are simple effects, but as the elements are put into place, the effects start becoming more fun and crazier.
Illustration: I have always been interested in Illustration, but I’m not the best hand drawer. With the use of programs such as Procreate and Illustrator, this started to become something more achievable for me. In motion graphics, with all COVID restrictions, creating characters that are illustrated and animated by using effects, started to become more popular. New characters, sceneries and moods can be created without the need of working with other people.
In my case, I used vector animation to create my characters, my scenery, and my concept. I chose this kind of animation because I knew that some effects could distort the image if it was in pixels, but being a vector, this was not going to happen. This was possible thanks to the option After Effects has of working with AI files and working with them as vectors.
Hybrid techniques: This is a trend that I wanted to explore a bit more, but the lack of time didn’t allow me to. In the beginning I wanted to combine two different styles. Having the illustration with the vector animation but also live video. The beginning of the concept would be represented with live video, actual footage of the designer and then it would morph with the illustrations. This can be something to work on later and with more time.
Vertical animations: This is another trend that I would like to explore more, especially knowing that many people use their phones to look at people’s brands, not everyone uses a computer to search for a brand. With the use of vertical animations, the same concept and the same message can be given through Instagram, TikTok or Facebook.
In the next blog post I will discuss more the actual process of creating the video.
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