HOW To Learn Motion Design In 2024 From ZERO

I'm going to take my last N9 years of experience learning motion design to give you a full stepbystep beginner's guide to how I would learn it if I was to start over if you can get these first few steps right I promise you you will have a much easier time learning motion design let's talk about the software that you need to get started now the industry standard for 2D work is Adobe After Effects along with this you'll probably need to learn the basics of at least Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop they all into great with each other and you'll need them to create and prepare your assets and artwork for your motion design projects for 3D there's quite a lot of choice in the software you might want to use a few years ago you'd probably be laughed out the door if you said you were a 3D artist using blender however blender has come such a long way and now it's a pretty powerful tool and because it's free and open source there's so many tutorials out there to help get you started but we'll come on to learning things in just a moment you also have the choice of Cinema 4D which is also a huge fan favorite it's used in a lot of 3D studios and is kind of an industry standard in some ways again there's plenty of resources and courses available to help get you started with Cinema 4D including their own online training manual however the downside to Cinema 4D is it can be quite pricely particularly if you're paying monthly for it as well now the cream of the crop Falls to Houdini all of your favorite films with those crazy simulations water fire whatever it might be have all probably been made using Houdini however there is a downside to this software and it's not the price as it will only cost you $300 for an individual license which will last you a year which is incredibly cheap for 3D software the real downside to Houdini is its learning curve it is very very steep it's node-based and has no handholding so while it is extremely difficult to learn it does offer the most potential and most control over everything in your projects ultimately the choice between blender Cinema 4 and Houdini will come down to your own personal goals your budget and the type of work you want to do all of them offer a free trial so you can check them all out and experiment with them to see which best aligns with your preferences and your needs so let's get to how you actually learn motion design and how you actually start making stuff now let's start with University in my opinion you absolutely do not need to go to university to become a good motion designer while you can it is very expensive and based on the course I did I couldn't really justify that cost there's so many good courses and learning resources available now that I could have better spent the money on instead of being thousands of pounds in debt and having to learn the majority of the things all on my own anyway there are plenty of other options available now and a lot of people don't really care if you have a degree or not it's all backed up by how good your work is and the type of person that you are so if you don't go to university where can you actually learn now most packages will offer some free introductory training on their website and a lot of people seem to skip this but it's a great way to help get you started and up and running with the basics of any software naturally like most people and myself you'll go to the next best free option which will be YouTube there's plenty on here and tutorials for all different kinds of skill levels including my channel so be sure to hit that subscribe button if you want to see more after effects tutorials however you might quickly find out that your missing bits of knowledge or quickly hit a skill ceiling with some of the tutorials on YouTube which can lead to the feeling of not progressing and it's not a place you want to be that's why I'd recommend you try out today's video sponsor skillshare skillshare is the largest online learning community for creatives with thousands of classes led by industry professionals across animation illustration design freelance productivity and way more skillshare has honestly helped me throughout my own career as I thrive with project-based learning the best thing with skillshare is if you're not sure where to start it has you covered with learning paths learning paths are handpick classes meant to be taken in order that build on one another to reinforce the skills that you're learning and don't just think therefore beginners either there's something for everyone with more advanced if you're further along in your journey I personally took the Adobe Illustrator master your creative techniques learning path as I'm really trying to improve on my own illustration and design I really enjoyed learning how to harmonize my color palettes and take a deep dive into create Ing gradients and using masks more creatively in illustrator which is something that's always been a sticking point for me now once you complete a class you're able to share your project with other members of the community and receive further inspiration and feed feedback from creatives just like you to help give you a head start the first 500 people to use my link in the description will get a on month free trial of skillshare with skillshare offering so much incredible free value you really don't want to miss out now when it comes to choosing what to learn aside from skill shares learning paths you really want to learn the basics always learn the basics understanding the fundamentals is so important learning how things work why they work and understanding the key elements that make up a good motion piece is absolutely vital to being a good motion designer your timing and something known as easing are probably the two most important that I would recommend this is still something I focus on heavily in all my projects as it really sets you apart from being a beginner to someone who is way more advanced also do not make the same mistake as what I did for years and only focus on motion Graphics understanding graphic design and graphic design principles can have a huge impact on your work and compositions and the main thing I'd suggest is don't lock yourself in too quickly to one style I'd recommend experimenting with anything and everything as naturally over time you'll begin to find what you're good at and what you enjoy the most it's a huge learning process and there's so many different Avenues you can go down that you might enjoy more than one another so now you have the basics we really need to discuss what's next and how you progress even further because let's be honest no one actually likes their work after they finished it and they feel everything can be so much better don't worry you're not alone in that but by this point you'll probably have some of your own work from tutorials that hopefully you've experimented with and improved on for yourself and with this you've shown a willingness to learn and get started which could help you get an internship in a studio now a lot of the time these can be un paid but you might get lucky in your area and find one that's paid in this instance it really depends on your circumstances if you can afford to go and paid for a bit of extra learning if it's a reputable Studio it really could be worth that sacrifice in return for the knowledge that you will gain but you really need to be careful it's not just someone taking advantage of you and looking for free work as I've been in that position before and I really wouldn't want it to happen to you however one of the fastest ways you can learn is being around people way better than you and asking all the questions you can it really is invaluable and will speed up your learning process so much more now another way to really progress and arguably one of the best and something that I've definitely neglected for years is with personal projects personal projects are where you can really learn and begin to understand the software that you're using you'll no doubt run into problems of your own and need to figure out how to solve it and sometimes Google will be the answer but other times you'll just need to play around with it until it works and in doing that that process and that understanding will begin to stick with you if you do this over and over and try to make each personal project you do that little bit better you'll be so surprised at how quickly you've actually progressed in such a short time now you can watch this video next to see how I approach my personal projects from start to finish and I'll break down the full animation for you as well

Channel: Motion By Scott

Views: 66,988

Keywords: motion design, motion graphics, freelance motion designer, after effects for beginners, motion graphics for beginners, motion graphics after effects, after effects beginner to advanced, after effects, after effects tutorial, motion design tutorial, motion design tips, beginners guide to motion design, motion graphics tutorial for beginners

Id: UQtOde5--ak

Length: 8min 26sec (506 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 17 2024