Main principles of Logo Animation

hi everybody it's ihor from motion design school and welcome to another quick lesson on animation theory a lot of you have asked us about creating more videos on logo animation so here's one of them and today we are going to talk about a core thing you should know about creating really stunning logo animations our tutor and course author max kravchenko will tell you about the main animation principles and how they can be applied specifically to logo animations by the way this video is also a part of our logo animation in after effects course that contains all the fundamental theory bases as well as a bunch of advanced animation techniques and practical pro tips you can check this out the link is in the description alright it's enough of me talking i'll give the floor to max hello everyone motion design school here we'll dedicate this lesson to the principles of animation most commonly used to create logos and after effects in the second part of the lesson we'll create a simple but neat animation of a logo revealing i'm sure you've heard about 12 principles of animation they of course apply to logos as well if you need to set a particular character for a logo to convey a mood make animation more expressive you can use all kinds of tricks they make a logo as lively as possible there are situations when animation should look minimal and strict in this case avoid doing something excessive use simple tools it all depends on the duration and complexity of the animation now let's analyze the most commonly used principles to animate logos easings or speed graphs are at the core of good animation most rookie motion designers make a major mistake they make animation linear it looks clumsy and often far from natural always try to avoid linear animations when all elements emerge simultaneously resort to it only when the task requires it smooth animations look better those in which elements appear at a different time accelerating at the beginning and slowing down at the end this applies not only to positional animation but also to other animated parameters nice animation can be improved by adjusting the overall dynamics of the logo elements revealing this is the general easing of the logo reveal although you've animated elements and set up cool graphs the general view the order in what they are displayed and the rhythm they create isn't less important let's take a look at an example with linear and non-linear easing each letter appears by turn at the same speed and with the same interval although they appear smoothly the overall animation of the entire logo looks quite linear and boring in the second animation the elements appear more smoothly and diverse the letters are displayed not in turn but with a slight overlap the same thing with these examples the smooth beginning acceleration and slowing down closer to the end it always looks cool the second principle without which it is impossible to create cool animations is arcs the most natural movements follow an arc trajectory this may apply to a character's limbs or a thrown object there is a rule the greater the speed of an object the straighter its trajectory is very fast movements can follow straight trajectories ping pong for example but at super speed or some mechanical movements now let's see how this principle is applied to logos it doesn't matter whether it is an element a text a character or an animated object they move in an arch squash and stretch is the principle that enables you to control the weight of an object and its density to make it solid as a stone or soft as a rubber ball all this applies to both simple and complex objects don't forget to maintain the volumes if you stretch an object's height you should equally squash its width and vice versa it's not a strict rule but it works great when you have to create realistic animations let's see how it works with logos let's have a look at the first animation an element appears in the composition it is proportionally squashed in the first frame in order to match its stretching and speed in the next frames by the third frame it is stretched but still maintains its proportions at some point it returns to its original form it stretches while falling and squashes as soon as it lands other elements behave the same way when falling they squash a little a paper clip stretches and squashes more to create more expressiveness let's play the animation again here's the next example here the character tosses a briefcase at first it has the original form then it starts stretching proportionally while falling when it lands it squashes maintaining proportions and stretches again but more noticeably when it rebounds to produce a higher contrast the situation with the final balance is the same here are some examples of stretching without maintaining proportions this method allows you to set an interesting style of animation elements are stretched along one of the axes which makes the movements very expressive follow-through and overlapping action these techniques make movements as realistic as possible creating the expression that objects obey the laws of physics you can observe overlapping action when an object starts moving and some of its parts keep on moving by inertia with a delay follow through action means that some parts of the object will continue moving after the object stops it also implies that there are damping oscillations you can observe overlapping action on the example of this animation the cat's tail begins its movement at the base and its tip moves with a delay it works the same way with a character's limbs the arms begin to move at the shoulder then goes the elbow and the hand moves last as a result we get an overlapping action keep in mind that the character's limbs or other objects parts move at different speeds depending on weight size and position and this is how a logo will look without overlapping follow-through action and damping oscillations you must agree it definitely looked better with them anticipation is one of the major aspects impacting the expressive power of action here are some typical examples of character animation based on this principle the character crouches before jumping when preparing to make a throw a character makes a swing this is anticipation the preparatory action opposed to the main action the former can be less significant but it still makes animation more expressive for example in this animation the door opens a little before closing as if gaining acceleration the viewer immediately understands that some action will follow the door slams next the washing machine prepares for quick rotation it works the same way with logos in this animation the chicken swings before eating the worm here's the animation without anticipation the chicken's pack seems unexpected and less natural this piece of cheese also prepares for the bite this logo crouches before jumping this applies to both character logos and more strict or simple ones in such cases anticipation is often used before the object disappears in the first logo you can see how the object shrinks before disappearing in the second on the contrary it grows in the third the letters fly up staging is another animation principle the essence of this principle is to focus the viewer's attention convey a mood a reaction a character's attitude to the story and ensure the storyline consistency to achieve this you need to prioritize properly the main actions take place by turns with small pauses to emphasize a specific moment important objects can be distinguished by light size or detailization let's take a look at some examples what are the main actions of the animation the character appears the dynamite flies in the character reacts it gets scared and tries to put out the fuse and the final action about three to five major scenes are enough for a logo don't confuse the viewer with plenty of simultaneous actions use one clear action at a time to convey the idea in a clear way only the cases when fuss or confusion are what you really need to convey will be an exception let's take a look at another example this logo it is also divided into four bars of animation at the beginning of the animation the main elements appear a ufo flies in and slows down a bit grasping the viewer's attention next it flies into the universe at high speed bounces off the edges and then it gets pushed back out of it at the same time the letters appear ufo scans the letters and a little pause follows the action to focus attention on the original form of the logo in any case it is worth showing the logo in its original form even for a moment disappearance first stars begin flying as if sucked into the center of the universe then the letters begin to follow and finally the ufo as the final element even if you are animating a simpler logo a text one for example keep in mind that you should not display all its elements at the same time otherwise it will be hard for the viewer to focus try to display elements in a certain order or randomly with small offsets these principles will make your animation much cooler use them and your work will be appreciated not only by your parrot and your cat but also by everyone around you they'll recognize you on the streets and you will become a star all right that's it and if you enjoyed this video please give it a like share it with your friends subscribe to our channel and of course don't forget to follow us on social media and see you in the next one you

Channel: Motion Design School

Views: 23,256

Rating: 4.9781423 out of 5

Keywords: 12 basic principles of animation, motion graphics, animation principles, logo animation after effects, logo animation tutorial, motion design school logo animation, motion design school, after effects logo animation

Id: oDdm2WYcXyk

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020