I’ve only begun adding motion graphics to my design practice over the last year. I’ve edited a few product teaser videos, podcasts and logo animations. This list is curated based on what’s been most useful to me as I continue to learn and grow.

 

 

 

This book on traditional 2D animation is very useful for theory and general concepts like storyboarding, anticipation, squash/stretch. A quick summary of the basic transitions helps me during planning phases.

 

 

Invideo is a freemium video editing software with a lot of editable templates, The user interface is intuitive, but lacks the precision of a more advanced software. It’s a good place to start and paid plans are relatively affordable.

 

 

Understanding the limits of video online with a handy guide for updated social media video sizes, is helpful before you start. It’s not strictly necessary for web formats, but I found this article outlining why certain frame rates exist fascinating.

 

 

 

If you are already using LinkedIn Learning, this tutorial on motion graphics for social media provided a solid foundation in After Effects. School of Motion has been very helpful in general, including their list of shortcuts and five tools for beginners.

 

 

A superb video editing primer, long, but worth it from Valentina Vee, courtesy of Adobe. This article explains Premiere keyboard shortcuts with a video and a charming infographic and a well-organized list. There’s a new speech to text feature in Premiere Pro that I haven’t tested at the time of this writing, but it should allow relatively accurate auto-captioning, making videos more accessible.

 

 

There are a lot of things you can do in premiere to make your audio dialog better, as well as 5 tips to make syncing, music and levels easier. 

 

 

It’s as important as starting. Here’s a good run-through of the basics of Adobe Media Encoder. This video explained the main categories of presets, so that if I need to go further in-depth, I can.

 

 

I’ll end with one last invaluable resource. Another set of eyes. If your animation is popping weird or the text is too fast, a fresh perspective is essential. After I’ve been working with the same copy all day, I forget how long it takes to parse it. I’ve found that a headline should be up for 3-5s, more or less, but your mileage may vary.

 

 

 

Amy is a graphic designer and technical illustrator. She loves the chaos and variety of working in-house. Amy is currently the Graphic & Multimedia Designer at Mercatus Technologies, an end-to-end grocery eCommerce platform. She became an RGD in Fall 2020. Her portfolio of design, illustration and motion graphics is available at amyjanzen.com.