Take a look at the industry a decade ago, and you'll see that motion design was quite a young space. Since then, it has become a fast-growing community counting hundreds of thousands of practitioners.
Motion designers are now involved in projects such as advertisements, blockbuster video games, UI/UX design, AR and VR experiences, and more. At the same time, they have become sought after in more traditional art settings as well.
With so much growth happening in such a short amount of time, we all wonder what's next for this creative industry. What exactly is this type of design, and how did it become such a rapidly growing space? Read this article to find out.
Table of contents:
What is motion design?
Motion design has become an important part of a graphic designer's toolkit during the past few years. Since many traditional graphic projects now include digital components, motion design has become a key skill for creating motion graphics.
To create compelling motion graphics, designers need to be able to manipulate both time and space. Many tools are available to today's designers – for example, Adobe After Effects – allow users to create and modify graphics over time. Other tools include Maxon Cinema4D or ICE of Softimage, known for having integrated motion graphics tools.
Where do motion designers acquire their skills? They are trained in traditional graphic design and have learned to integrate the elements of time, sound, and space into their existing skill set. Some designers have backgrounds in film or animation but more often come from traditional graphic design backgrounds.
What are motion graphics?
A motion system can come in a variety of forms. Some are entirely animated, and others incorporate live-action video and/or photography. The latter is often used for data visualizations and may include animation overlays such as icons, illustrations, and explanatory text used to complement and enhance people's understanding of the content.
Depending on the goals they wish to achieve, businesses can choose from different types of motion graphics. A popular choice among marketing teams is explainer motion graphics used to show how a product, process, or concept works via a child element and parent element.
Note that UX design works hand in hand with motion design. Motion design improves the user experience tremendously and is used across desktop computers, tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, etc.
The impact of motion design on UX
Motion design, including animation and effects, helps create easy-to-use, enjoyable user interfaces. It plays an essential role in enhancing the user journey and can add a powerful option for visual storytelling.
However, taking control of animations and transitions as part of interaction design may gradually increase the complexity of the UI and demands more of the designer's time. Implementing motion design effectively increases engagement, improves various aspects of user interactions and user journey, and meets user expectations.
An app with well-designed multiple elements demonstrates the relationships between UI elements to enable easier navigation. Designers can use animated icons, illustrations, and logos to create a clear information hierarchy and communicate with users better.
Motion design – example use cases
Demonstrating interactions
Designers can use 2D character animations to create a unique, high-converting video demonstrating how users interact with your brand's digital products. Animated videos offer all the benefits of motion design in a nutshell.
For example, a business can create animated videos that employ several different types of 2D character animations, including motion graphics, cartoon animations, virtual-reality animations, digital, stop-motion animations, and 2D character animations.
Generating emotions
Adding motion design to express a user interface's personality elicits a greater emotional response in users than static visuals. Effective motion design emphasizes the personality of the user interface rather than its visual identity and has a stronger impact on users' behavior and emotions.
Fluid and responsive motion
Current user interfaces are often not very fluid, frequently slow to load, and incomplete to use. A good user interface should provide instant feedback when the user hovers over an object – for instance, animation. Web and mobile applications need to deliver an uninterrupted experience – and this is where motion design can help a lot.
Flawless transitions
Motion design has become increasingly important for all interactive media and can be used to entertain or distract users. For example, a loading animation can hold the attention of the user and make them wait more patiently to use a web application, delivering a fun and engaging experience.
Motion design trends for 2022
Minimalistic color palette
Today's trend is telling a visual story using only a few primary colors instead of a rich palette with many semi-tones. This has also become one of the hottest digital illustration trends.
Animation with restricted colors looks straightforward and sophisticated. It is a sort of challenge for an artist to use only several colors to reveal the mood and character of the illustration.
Despite the limited palette, a masterfully made animation can look very appealing. Such animations often stand out with a slight feeling of retro and nostalgia.
Mixing 2D and 3D
2D and 3D art are combined in many videos designed recently. Motion designers say that bringing together 2D and 3D makes their work more enjoyable for customers while adding a particular style to it. One example of mixing the two is inserting 2D overlays with movement.
Kinetic typography
Another key trend in the future of motion design. Artists used to be afraid to experiment with fonts, but they have now started challenging that approach and come up with some great results.
It seems kinetic typography goes beyond the limits of traditional typography and encourages stretching and distorting letters. People like it, and e-commerce companies are using it to improve their brands, make them memorable, and demonstrate their performance – all through animated videos with kinetic typography.
Morphing
Morphing refers to a technique applied in film, video or animation that seamlessly changes one image or shape into another through a transition. Increasingly widespread today, the concept of morphing characters, logos, images and other objects in a video is becoming a visual magnet that keeps viewers' attention and inspires them to watch it until the end.
This technique is particularly useful for website animation since it helps keep web visitors' eyes on the page and increases their time spent on the website. They work well for search engine optimization – Google boosts websites that are engaging enough to require users' active attention longer than the average webpage in the same category.
Grain
Grain is a technique artists use to add texture to their work. The grain effect creates an appearance of natural, real-world surfaces and textures, and it breathes life into illustrations.
Animated videos with grain come across as more authentic than other videos, and brands that use this technology build a reputation for homemade quality and creativity.
Vertical animations
In 2022, we will see vertical motion graphics as one of the most significant trends in the field. TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook – all have one thing in common: they let people consume media products vertically.
Most people don't bother to turn their phones or tablets horizontally to see a video or a photo. This has resulted in the popularity of vertical videos for Instagram stories, TikTok, and Facebook ads businesses are using to drive awareness and engagement.
Wrap up
Animation and motion graphics have become powerful tools for creative advertising and marketing. Marketers now have a whole new way to present products and services in the modern digital space.
2022 is the year of significant beginnings and breakthroughs in various fields of life and global industries. Animation and motion design trends are also affected by these positive societal changes. Video design trends don't stop their evolution; they are very responsive to global events and reflect them.
Hopefully, these motion design trends we predict will be popular in 2022 will also inspire you to deploy design innovation in videos to increase your brand engagement.
Are you planning to use motion design? Or have you already implemented it in a project? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
If you're a company looking for a software development partner to build your new product from consulting, through design, to coding – reach out to us!
