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    The latest motion design and animation trends, tips, and tutorials.

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    School of Motion Course Credentials

    Show off your badges with School of Motion's new verified credentials! The most important part of your education is preparing you for the real world, but bragging rights are great too. That's why we're now offering verified credential badges with your completed courses.

    News

    Titanfall New Frontiers

    The bridge between motion design and gaming is becoming increasingly more apparent with artists using real time game engines like Unreal Engine 5 to create stunning 3D content. In this article Michael Maher interviews film maker Caleb Chamberlain on how he created a passion project trailer for the smash hit video game: Titanfall New Frontiers and how Unreal Engine, Blender, Adobe After Effects and some visual effects magic using the Red Giant suite got the job done.

    3D
    Compositing / VFX
    Tutorial

    Building the Ultimate After Effects Computer

    How do you make After Effects run fast? We teamed up with Puget Systems and Adobe to develop the fastest computer for After Effects.

    Hardware
    Podcast

    AI: An Artist’s Friend or Foe? Discussion with Dan Jeffries, CIO of Stability.ai (Stable Diffusion)

    Joey sits down with Daniel Jeffries, CIO of Stability AI, to discuss the real-world use cases of artificial intelligence in art and motion design.

    All
    Podcast

    2022 Year in Review

    What even is motion design anymore? Joey Korenman is joined by EJ Hassenfratz, Kyle Hamrick, Ryan Summers, and an all-star lineup of studio owners & industry experts for their hottest takes on this year’s burning questions.

    News
    Article

    The School of Motion Alumni Holiday Card 2022

    Over 70 School of Motion Current and Former Students Collaborated on the Annual Animated Alumni Holiday Card Video!

    Animation
    Inspiration
    Article

    12 Days of MoGraph Giveaways 2022

    It’s the reason for the season – School of Motion’s 12 Days of MoGraph giveaway! What’s on the prize list this year? It’s motion graphics galore, from generous gift cards to popular courses to year-long software subscriptions.

    News
    Inspiration
    Article

    What are the Differences between the Jobs of an Animator and a Motion Designer?

    What are the differences between the jobs of an animator and a motion designer? The main difference is the type of projects they work on, the specific skills and techniques they use, and the career path and job outlook for each profession. Both careers involve creating moving images and graphics, but the specific tasks and responsibilities can vary.

    Career Advice
    Animation
    Tutorial

    How to Create Viral VFX

    In this tutorial, we will recreate one of Peter Quinn's amazing VFX social media videos. We'll go through the entire process from filming, compositing and to final looping magic. Buckle up cause it's gonna be a ride 😎

    Compositing / VFX
    Tutorial

    3D Character Design in Adobe Illustrator

    Turn your 2D art into 3D! Learn how easy it is to turn 2D vector art into 3D character designs in Illustrator! Learn how to map 2D textures onto your 3D models in Illustrator and discover how to export your 3D character to other 3D applications like Adobe Stager, Blender or Cinema 4D! 3D is a super important skill to learn and Illustrator makes it easy for any 2D artist to enter the world of 3D.

    3D
    Article

    Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 Deals for Motion Designers

    Get out your wishlist. We've gathered our favorite Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for motion graphics artists!

    News
    Article

    Fire, Smoke, Crowds and Explosions

    From humble beginnings to award winning video games, ActionVFX has found it's place in the VFX world with Fusion, Nuke and After Effects Artists using their asset libraries.

    Compositing / VFX
    Tutorial

    Getting Started with Pyro Fire Simulation | Cinema 4D 2023.1 Update

    Cinema 4D 2023.1 introduces Pyro, the new fire simulation system that allows you to create fire and smoke simulations easily in C4D! That’s right, the new C4D particle based simulation system now has the ability to generate fire simulations and you can finally unleash your inner pyromaniac -natively- inside of C4D. In this video, EJ walks you through how to use Pyro, how to render with Redshift and how to create more stylized smoke and fire along with his thoughts on Pyro.

    Animation
    3D
    Compositing / VFX
    Tutorial

    How To Use Track Mattes in After Effects

    The 2023 update to After Effects made track mattes friendlier to use and much more versatile, so if ever there was a time to learn how to use track mattes in After Effects, that time is now. Track mattes are a super-powerful feature that may not be widely understood by a lot of After Effects users, but at least for you, that changes *today.* Don’t know the difference between a mask and a matte? Never had to worry about an alpha channel or luminance values? That’s ok; we’ve got you. Join us on a matte-tastic journey through what a matte is, why you should use it, and all the creative ways you can take advantage of this cool tool in your own work.

    Compositing / VFX
    Design
    Tutorial

    Design Hacks for Video Editors: Composing a Title Card

    In this video, you'll learn a simple process to design compelling titles that don't rely on presets or templates. Building on the things you learned in the first 2 videos in this series, you'll learn how to use grid layouts in After Effects, how to use stabilization, roto, and keying to clean up footage, and how to lay out type using the Rule of Thirds. This video is jam-packed, so buckle up.

    Compositing / VFX
    Design
    Tips & Tricks
    Tutorial

    Design Hacks for Video Editors: Typography Tips

    Choosing fonts and laying out type can be daunting for video editors who don't have a design background. The good news is: With a few simple rules, you can create type layouts that are beautiful, clear, and that make you look like you know exactly what you're doing.

    Design
    Tips & Tricks
    Tutorial

    Design Hacks for Video Editors: Choosing Colors

    Learn to choose colors that work well together in with design tip for video editors. Value structure is a concept that can help anyone learn to control their colors in a mathematical way, making it much easier to create designs that pop and lead the viewer's eye precisely.

    Tips & Tricks
    Design
    Article

    Behind the Scenes of "Everything Everywhere All at Once"

    Behind the Scenes of “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” How six artists worked from home to create hundreds of impressive visual effects for a crazy sci-fi adventure.

    3D
    Compositing / VFX
    Career Advice
    Tutorial

    New Features in After Effects 2023!

    After Effects 2023 just dropped, and there's a slew of new features. Some are long-awaited quality of life improvements, and some are major-league-holy-crap game changers! Let's explore both.

    News
    Animation
    Tutorial

    Designing once for Multiple Screen Sizes in After Effects

    Download our FREE After Effects template and learn how to design once, then deliver in multiple aspect ratios in After Effect. These tips will save you from having to redesign your artwork for various screens, saving you an insane amount of time.

    Animation
    Tips & Tricks
    Tutorial

    Cinema 4D 2023's New Cloth System is AMAZING!

    The new cloth system in Cinema 4D 2023 is a massive improvement over the old one. It's faster, more powerful, and part of a unified simulation framework that will be utilized more and more in the future. In this tutorial, EJ Hassenfratz shows you some of the powerful features in the new cloth system.

    3D
    Tutorial

    10 Hacky After Effects Tricks to Improve your Renders

    10 After Effects tricks from industry pros to help you make your renders better when you're short on time and inspiration. These are battle-tested effects stacks and hacks that will come in handy on almost any project.

    Animation
    Design
    Tips & Tricks
    Tutorial

    How to Get Adobe to Buy you for $20 Billion, in 3 Easy Steps!

    Adobe recently acquired Figma for $20 billion. Why did they pay so much, and what does this mean for motion designers? Let's explore the significance of the Figma deal, and talk about how it affects you.

    News
    Article

    Big News About our Course Prices

    Over the years, we've always strived to be the premium option for learning to do animation, design, 3D, or visual effects. We've also tried very hard to make education accessible to more people in more places. These two goals are difficult to balance, and we feel that we could be doing a better job. So we're doing something about it.

    News
    Article

    Free Tools to Start Up Your Freelance Art Business

    Standing up your own business is a challenge, but there are a ton of affordable (even free) tools that can make your life so much easier. Freelance designer and art director Sherene Strausberg is here to show you a few tricks to get started.

    Inspiration
    Article

    Keeping Time Through History

    How would you approach a project that needs to show the illustrious history of one of the world's premier timepiece manufacturers? This is the kind of video that makes—or breaks—your brand, so no pressure. Fortunately for Italian-based Taxfreefilm, their brilliant idea arrived just in time.

    Inspiration
    Tutorial

    Harnessing the Power of AI Art

    AI art programs such as Midjourney and Dall-E sure are impressive, but how do they really work? What do you need to know to get the most out of them, and how can they be used by artists, animators, and designers? We brought in John LePore to find out.

    Inspiration