Just about any place there are eyes, there is graphic design. You walk into a store and there is signage, packaging, advertising etc. You drive down the street and there are billboards, murals, etc. And have you noticed how often you are looking at a screen such as your phone, tablet, computer or even your tv? If you have an iPhone it will even notify you with a detailed report of your screen viewing habits. Screens have been an obvious place to find graphic design for quite a while given the nature of the graphic design process and the use of the computer. And while motion graphics has been used in the advertising, tv and film industry for quite some time it wasn’t until the advent of higher bandwidth internet and cellular data options along with social media that its use really began to take off.
This demand for motion graphics was the reason I developed the motion graphics courses here at Southern Miss. Motion graphics or “multimedia design” were courses I had taken at my alma mater, was taught at previous institutions that I worked at and has proven itself to be a necessary skillset for young designers looking to enter the workforce. Motion Graphics I is a required course now in our curriculum and Motion Graphics II is offered as an elective.
The first project in the course introduces students to the 12 principles of animation and explores the idea of utilizing those principles to help express a brand through an animation of a logo. You can see some of the past animated logos here. For the second project this year I had my students expand on the ideas of project 1 while also teaching them about rhythm, tempo, and progressive disclosure by having them create a vector animated ad for the logo they animated.
Project 3 for the course introduced the principles of progressive disclosure while also introducing more illustrative and expressive elements through the use of video and raster images. Students did this by creating a TV intro for their favorite book.
Thus far I’ve been really proud of the work these students have created this semester. The way I teach motion graphics is quite intensive due to this being the only course they are required to have on the subject matter so, I try to cover a lot of principles and theory while also introducing them to the software. They began their final projects (a social media ad campaign) last week my fingers are crossed that they can continue to explore and excel!
