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What Does a Motion Graphics Designer Do?

By YaShekia King
Updated May 17, 2024
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Motion graphics designers are individuals who put together online and video content that feature animations and visual effects. The graphics can appear on television, computers, and even mobile devices, and are helpful for providing entertainment and promoting companies. Designers in the motion graphics field typically need to complete four-year bachelor’s degree programs in graphic design and visual arts as well as gain industry experience. They must be able to develop innovative ideas for moving content and then coordinate projects that involve multiple people. In addition, these professionals keep track of past design ideas in addition to learning new concepts in the industry.

An important responsibility of a motion graphics designer is to create videos that are attractive and support a company’s business goals. For instance, he or she might create videos that market his or her company’s products or services. The motion graphics designer therefore must be creative when developing video concepts and have a thorough understanding of his or her company’s mission and product offerings. Employers also require motion graphics artists to have experience in a variety of video editing and filmmaking software as well as three-dimensional modeling and animation tools.

Bringing employees together and collaborating with them effectively is another responsibility of a designer. A motion graphics designer has to have solid interpersonal skills for coordinating projects with other designers as well as photographers and writers. In addition, he or she must understand project budget requirements established by company account executives and make sure that projects are completed on schedule. Solid organizational skills thus are invaluable for a motion graphics designer. Designers additionally need to have solid written and verbal communication skills for communicating with clients throughout an entire project.

Maintaining records of completed graphics projects additionally constitutes a designer’s job. Motions graphics creators need to be able keep their companies’ internal libraries of motion graphics content up-to-date. This is important so that companies to do not duplicate past graphics efforts and instead ensure that the video content remains as original and imaginative as possible to keep target audiences interested.

People who create moving graphics must stay current on trends in this constantly changing industry as well. For this reason, a motion graphics designer should regularly complete continuing education courses and participate in seminars to learn about new design concepts and tools. These types of training opportunities are available through colleges and universities as well as visual arts industry conferences.

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Discussion Comments

By Hazali — On May 16, 2014

In the last paragraph, I really like how it mentions that the designers need to keep themselves updated on the latest trends and designs. Technology is always advancing, and what's new one day could become second rate in a few years.

For example, have you ever had a time where you were impressed by graphics used in a commercial, but came back to it years later, and were surprised at how shoddy it looked?

By RoyalSpyder — On May 16, 2014

@Euroxati - I can see where you're getting at, but ultimately, they're not the same thing.

Here's a better example of what the article's discussing. Let's say that someone was trying to create an advertisement for a movie, TV show, or commercial. They could hire someone to make a really flashy video/advertisement which featured a lot of special effects, sure to get the viewers attention. Of course though, that's only one of many examples.

I hope this helps.

By Euroxati — On May 15, 2014

In relation to this article topic, would this happen to be the same thing as someone who does motion capture? For those who don't know, it's when a characters movements (usually in a movie) are motioned and censored after the actor. It's a pretty interesting process.

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