Starting the Motion Graphics Designers Project
So somebody wants you to do a motion graphics designers project, and you’re sitting there thinking, what the happens next? Did I make a mistake accepting this job because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing? This article is going to go through the step-by-step process from concept to completion of an animation or motion design job in a way that minimizes the chances of any issues coming up between you and the client or in the project itself.
Step 1: Getting a Client
Obviously, the first step is you need to get a project or a job in; you need a client. Oh, right, I’ve done quite a few article already on seeing how to get clients, grow your network, sit your rates, stuff like that, so a link to those articles here and in the description of this article because this article is going to focus on what happens after you’ve gotten your client.
Managing Deadlines and Client Happiness
Now that you have a job that you need to do, what is the process you go through to achieve all your deadlines, make sure your client is happy, and make sure you’re happy? I’ve got this client who’s looking for somebody to design a logo for their business, which is a coffee shop named Selassium Coffee Bar.
Step 2: Interpreting the Brief and Questions
Now, first, you need to understand the specifics and parameters of your client’s requirements. You do not want to misunderstand or under quote here.
I like to actually have a little document, a questionnaire that I send out to my clients as soon as I get a request for a quote, and it’s got all the relevant questions there in the document already, so I don’t need to go and type out new questions every single time I get a client.
And once they’ve filled out those questions and sent the document back to me, I now have a nice little document that I can refer back to so I don’t have to go searching through my mails every time I need to double check something that they told me.
Questions to Ask Clients
So these are the questions that I tend to ask: I do offer both 2D and 3D services, so I ask them what they expect from, do they want something 2D or do they want something in 3D? Sometimes they’ll already have the designs and the elements, and they’ll just send those to you and expect you to animate them. Nice!
But other times, they’ll expect you to create everything from scratch yourself. Also, no, so you do need to clarify that from the beginning as well.
Additional Client Details to Clarify
You also need to find out if they have a specific duration that the animated clip needs to be and things like if they wanted to lube or to animate on and off depending on what the animation actually is, what format and resolution they needed in, target audience, what platforms and purposes they’re using it for, like if it’s just for social media or if it’s going to be on their website.
If they need different aspect ratios for different platforms as well because obviously Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, they have different aspect ratios that they need.
Brand References and Personality
You also need to find out if they have reference images or animations that they like and ask for keywords that they feel describe their brand and the feeling or brand personality they want to communicate.
This information should be included in their CI guide, which is a Corporate Identity or Brand Identity document, which is basically a document about the brand’s identity.
It’s about their tone of voice; it’s things like color palettes, fonts, typefaces, anything like that that you might need to design something for their company.
Budgets, Deadlines, and Contracts
Of course, budgets and deadlines or time frames are extremely important too, along with how many rounds of feedback they get included in that quote, and you should also discuss things like a deposit, your rates, and a contract which protects both of you.
I’ve included a link in the description of this article to a standard freelance contract that you can download and adapt to your needs.
Logo Type Determination
If your client wants you to design a logo like this client wants from me, you also need to determine what kind of logo they want: do they want an abstract one, letter mark, word mark, that kind of thing?
Of course, sometimes they’ll have no idea, and it’s up to you as the creative professional to then guide them and help them to find out what it is that they want.
Asking for References
So it’s really important to ask them for references and find out exactly what it is about those references that they like so you can draw inspiration from that information and come up with something that they’re going to love.
This applies not only to logo design but also to the animation or the motion graphics designers that you’re going to do, any visual work that you’re going to do for a client.
Really, you need to get differences from them and understand exactly what from those references appeals to them.
Deposits and Starting Work
So once you’ve got all this relevant info and you’ve got your deposit sitting nice and cozy in your bank account or in your PayPal, and this is really important, guys: do not start working until you have your deposit because there are some shady characters out there, and you don’t want to have gone and wasted your time doing all this preliminary work and then the client ghosts you.
So make sure you have your deposit first before you start working.
Step 3: Brainstorming
But once you do, you need to get Step 3: brainstorming started on brainstorming.
Now maybe graphic design is not your strong point, maybe you prefer to focus on the Motion Graphics Designers and motion side of things, maybe you’ve got too many other projects on your plate right now, whatever the case, that’s chill too, man.
You can outsource your design work; you can use platforms like PNG or Fiverr or Upwork to get the design work done, and you’ll basically be acting as the creative director, giving the designer you hire all the relevant info and making sure that they hit the mark with regards to what your client is expecting.
Outsourcing Design Work
If you do decide to go this route, make sure you factor that into your quote because you’re hiring somebody else to do your design work for you; you need to be able to pay them, obviously.
I like Pangea because the designers are professionals; they’ve been vetted, so you don’t have to worry about hiring someone who might not be the most dependable or who might not have their own work on their profile as sometimes happens with Fiverr.
Plus, with Pangea there’s a 24 to 48 hour delivery on the projects, so it’s time efficient, and when you have a lot of jobs going on that you need design work for, if you go for the flat rate plan, it ends up being really cost effective.
They also have a marketplace which operates similarly to Fiverr where you can’t hire designers for a once off project if you’re not into the whole flat rate plan thing.
So if you want to give Pangea a try, there’s a code in the description of this article that’ll get you 15% off.
Doing the Design Yourself
If you are doing the designs yourself, start out with brainstorming and thumbnailing rough sketches to develop a solid concept before you start fully fleshing it out.
Gather some references and inspiration, maybe make a little mood board for initial design yourself.
I like to present the client with three initial options, pretty much just how I got these beautiful options from my designer Andre on this project.
It was so simple, learn quick!
I sent the brief out with references and picked a few styles that I liked and got allocated the designer in no time and got these options literally that same day.
She really knocked it out at the park, and there was very little feedback to give up these designs because she understood the brief so well the first time around.
I sent these concepts to the client and got feedback on which one they wanted to go ahead with and what changes they’d like before moving forward.
There was another round of small changes after the initial round, and then we were good to go.
Moving to Storyboarding
Once your client is happy with the logo or initial design and they’ve signed it off, you can inform them that you’re going to storyboarding be going on to the next step in the process, which is storyboarding and thumbnailing for motion.
Here, I’m figuring out what will and won’t work with the vibe that I’m going for on this animation.
It needs to be smooth, soothing, reflecting the meaning of the name Solacium.
I’m avoiding anything too high energy or cartoonish.
I’ll send a more polished storyboard than the sketchy thumbnails from my planning with descriptions of the motion, and once the client approves that, it’ll be time for the animatic if I’m doing one.
I won’t always make an animatic; sometimes it’s just not necessary if it’s a really simple animation, but sometimes if the motion is a little bit more complex or I feel like the client would really understand things from just the storyboard, then I will make an animatic.
Prepping Assets for Animation
Once your client is happy with your storyboard and your animatic, if you prep the assets, did decide to send them one, it’s now time to start prepping your assets for animation.
You want to make sure everything is clipped before you actually start animating so that you’re not hopping between your design software and your animation software and having to go back and forth without being able to concentrate solely on the animation process once you’ve started it.
So you want to make sure that your design files are all prepped, ready for you to go and just animate smoothly from there on.
Working with Adobe Illustrator Files
This logo was designed in Adobe Illustrator, which I specifically requested so that it would be vector and I’d be able to work with it without having to worry about pixelating all the limitations that come with raster images.
But I do still need to go into the file and layer it because currently, all the elements are on one layer, and I need them to be on their own separate layers.
If I had done the design myself, I would have just preemptively worked in these to save me having to go back and do this.
I’m also making sure to actually name the layers so I’ll have an easier time animating it.
Nothing is worse than a bunch of layers named layer 1, layer 2, layer 3.
Animation Process Begins
Animation steps till infinity, announce time for the fun stuff: the animating.
If you have an animatic, this is where you’ll work as closely to the timing of the animatic as possible, but if you didn’t do one, this is where you’re going to work out your timing.
This first draft of the animation is sent to the client with a request for feedback.
It’s a good idea to let your client know that this is a first draft and you’re still going to do some polishing up alongside whatever feedback they give you, just so that they don’t freak out if they think that this is the final animation that you’re sending them and they expected a lot more from it.
Fortunately, my client was really happy with what I did, and they said that they trusted me to just polish it up as necessary, but sometimes you might go through several rounds of revisions and changes with your clients.
So polishing means tweaking any timing issues you might still see, any places where you might need some ease in and out, follow through or anticipation, and any other small effect you might want to add to give that little extra bit of magic.
Final Delivery and Closing the Job
So I sent that off, and my client was super happy with the final product.
I asked them if they had any final changes he wanted to make.
It’s always good to check with them before you close off the job, and they didn’t, so I sent the invoice and the final packaged files, which also includes the open file of the logo so that they can use that and resize it at will for whatever they need it for.
And I also sent the logo in a few different sizes for different applications like for email signatures, website, and high-res as well as the final high-res animation.
Communication is Key
And that’s the process I go through on a job for motion graphics designers.
If you follow the steps in this process, you should hopefully not come up against any issues with your client or with the progression of your project because every step is rooted in communication.
Communication is key when it comes to clients.
Thanks and Closing
That’s it for today.
