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.

Dive into the world of mobile VFX with Divesh Naidoo on this week's podcast. Discover Simulon, the app revolutionizing VFX by bringing it to your phone. It's not about replacing your tools but enhancing your creative process. Perfect for both skeptics and enthusiasts, this episode is a candid, nerdy exploration of new possibilities in VFX.

Discover Procreate Dreams, the revolutionary 2D animation app from the creators of the legendary Procreate. We got on the line with James Cuda and Claire D'Este, the minds behind this game-changing software. Explore the journey from Procreate's humble beginnings to the iPad Pro revolution and the birth of Procreate Dreams.

Join us as we dive into the art of creative business development with Joe Nash, the ex-Director of Business Strategy at Buck. Joe dishes it out on building strong relationships, matching clients with perfect creative solutions, and mastering the business side of the evolving creative industry.

Get ready to fuel your mograph and animation skillset with the epic reboot of our hottest beginner courses: After Effects Kickstart and Cinema 4D Basecamp! Mark your calendars – classes kick off on January 8th.

Motion Designers Dan Maurer & Kris Bargen of Cart and Horse show you why Unreal Engine is the next generation mograph tool you’ve been waiting for. Sure, Unreal is crazy fast at rendering 3D graphics, but that’s just the beginning. This video shows you 5 reasons Unreal should be your next 3D application.

Join us as we dive into the inspiring journey of Austin Bauwen, the self-taught mograph mastermind behind Ravie Studio. From humble YouTube tutorial beginnings to working with big-name brands, discover the secrets behind the rapid rise of this North Carolina-based motion design studio.

Want to learn how to create an animated, blinking eyeball in After Effects? Want to give it a spooky vibe? If you answered yes to both of those questions (and we know you did), this is the motion graphics tutorial for you!

Learn the secret to creating advanced 3d type in Cinema 4D with this in-depth video tutorial on multi-dimensional typography.

In this week’s School of Motion Podcast, our Director of Community, Brittany Wardell interviews the founders of two studios leading the charge on Inclusivity in the motion design industry.

In this video, Jonathan Winbush will show you some of the awesome new additions to Quixel Megascans including preanimated trees and show how to quickly create a forest using the Foliage Brush in Unreal Engine 5.

The winners of are SOMtember contest are in! Thank you to everyone who participated!

Isometric imagery is everywhere - video games, animation, motion design and more. If you’ve ever tried to create your own, you know it can be surprisingly challenging. In this video, Mahmoud Fawzy shows you how to easily design and animate isometric text and logos, using some of the new 3D features in After effects. You’ll be up and running with Isometric designs in no time flat! (see what we did there?)

Get ready for a family-share sized portion of awesomeness in this C4D + After Effects tutorial by Graham Hutchins! You’ll learn how to 3D camera track in C4D, how to create a dynamic particle system that rains tacos (or whatever 3D object you want) onto the ground, and how to believably composite your CG elements with live action. Don’t forget to tip your waiter!

It’s that time of year where Maxon jumps all the way ahead to the year 2024 for it’s latest Cinema 4D update. Headlined by the updated rigid body simulation system and Redshift finally being anointed as the default renderer, C4D 2024 includes a bunch of quality of life features including dramatic increases to the interactive performance of Cinema 4D.

In this interview, Joey chats with Ordinary Folk’s Jorge and Avi about the design of this project. They’ll also go pretty deep into the weeds about how they manage client projects, how their design process works, and how to get a job at Ordinary Folk.

Luke Starkie on how he got into the gaming industry and his work on some of the best-selling video games ever made.

In this episode of The School of Motion Podcast, Joey interviews director/motion Designer Justin C. Harder, who has worked on title design for Deadpool, SNL, Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World, and Amazing Spider-Man 2, with incredible clients that include Disney, Nike, MTV, Apple and much MUCH more.

With the tools mentioned in this video, you can speed up your client work and design workflow by extreme measures.

Adobe has added a new and more flexible way to integrate 3D text into your After Effects projects!

Sometimes motion graphics may look relatively easy, but there are so many steps along the way to complete any project. Let’s dive into the five-stage process from client brief to final deliverable.

Character animation is a staple of motion design work. While you may not be making a full-length film or television show, you still have to consider design, rigging, and animation.

Merging 2D and 3D animation is one of the most popular styles in motion design these days. With this pro-level workflow, learn how to merge your Adobe Animate animations with your Cinema 4D renders in After Effects.

Character design is one of the most rewarding and fun processes in the motion design world. It becomes even more fun and rewarding when you learn to animate them. Here’s how.

Blender isn’t as intimidating as it may seem. In fact, we’ll show you how to make your first character all in one video, even if you’ve never opened blender before.

Custom paths in After Effects is a bit of a drag (literally, you have to do lots of dragging). Luckily, someone made a tool that makes it so much easier.

Motion Design and Animation have become a huge part of web and UI design. LottieFiles is a big part of that. Here’s how to get started.

As intimidating as they may be, learning how to use Geometry Nodes will unlock a whole new world in Blender. Here’s a quick beginner level set-up that can get you started.

With this AI tool you can dream up entire worlds new horizons with just a few moments and an imaginative prompt.

With AI news continuing to dominate the worldwide news-cycle, one wonders, “What do motion designers specifically get out of all this?” Here are some of our favorite AI tools for Motion Design.

Rainfall Films’ Sam Balcomb explains the process behind their award-winning fantasy short.

After Effects is now 30 years old, but it still has plenty of gas left in the tank. If you want to learn, there is no better time than now.

Here are three ways you can find clients on LinkedIn using the front door, the back door, and the secret side door.

Here are the steps to bring any 3D scene from your app of choice into Unreal Engine to real-time rendering.

Blender and Unreal Engine are two free-to-use tools powerful on their own, but when they work together they're truly magical.

Our dear friend, Caleb Ward, from Curious Refuge joins us on this episode of the School of Motion Podcast and talks shop on their recent viral success with two AI Wes Anderson inspired trailers for Star Wars and Lord of The Rings.

Get your scene out of Cinema 4D and into Unreal Engine without losing all the hard work you’ve already done.

Maxon has been on fire with their new Cinema 4D features and with this one, no one will be complaining about inflation. In this video, EJ Hassenfratz runs through the functionality of this new tool that is sure to pump you up!

Maxon has just announced their spring 2023 updates to the Maxon One subscription. Every tool from Cinema 4D and Redshift to ZBrush and Universe scored some new features that will make creating just a bit easier and faster.

Have you ever thought about the 3D world building magic behind the blockbuster Avatar series? Meleah Maynard interviews 3D Artist and painter Dylan Cole on his concept wizardry and journey in creating immersive worlds beyond imagination for films such as Daredevil and Lord of The Rings and Avatar.

Wanting to work faster in After Effects and Premiere? The Essential Graphics Panel is about to become your best friend, whether you’re using or creating Motion Graphics Templates (aka Mogrts), or just looking for ways to streamline your work within After Effects. Kyle Hamrick is back to show you the ins and out of this often underutilized feature.

Is 3D character rigging always hard and complex? 3D Character rigging is an important step that is often overlooked by 3D artists due to it's perceived complexity. In this article, EJ Hassenfratz breaks down how rigging doesn't have to mean Pixar level complex character rigs, but a discipline that can be super accessible. From simple rigs made from deformers to joint chains, this article will show you why 3D rigging should be a part of any 3D artists skillset!

Some artists think that rigging is stingingly painful. We think that’s a load of beeswax! That’s why we’ve enlisted 3D character artist Can Erduman to show you how easy rigging characters can bee as he walks you through rigging your very first character in Cinema 4D! I don’t know about you, but we think this video will get a lot of buzz!

Blender 3D is a powerful and versatile software for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering. (Oh and did you know that is is free??) However, it has a reputation for being challenging for beginners to learn due to its steep learning curve and complex interface. In this article, we will explore the difficulty of learning Blender 3D and what resources are available to help people get started.

Wanting to design and animate your very own logo, but not sure where to start? In this tutorial, Matthew Corrales guides you through the process of finding an idea, refining the design in Adobe Illustrator and animating in After Effects.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 😎

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Are you stuck grinding on low-level projects? Do you want to attract bigger clients and larger contracts? How exactly can you go from a $4k quote to a $20k quote? Shea Lord is here to show you the path.

How do you design a title sequence that conjures the spirit of a movie while still existing outside of it? Perception took this challenge while working on the new Disney Pixar movie "Lightyear."

Climint Canal of Clim Studio believes personal projects are where you can explore new concepts, perfect your skills, and experiment with difficult techniques. In this video, he shares an exploration of how to art direct concepts and timing in order to enhance your overall animation.

Get up and running with some of Cinema4D's Extrude tools, turning 2D vectors into 3D render-ready artwork.

Sometimes the only thing you need to maximize your workflow is an understanding of shortcut keys, so we've made the ultimate guide just for you. Stretch those fingers, because it's time to dive into the most important hot keys for Cinema 4D.

What happens when you reach the limit of your skillset? Do you accept that this is the peak of your career, or do you push yourself beyond your limits and climb to even greater heights?

Fraser Davidson and Cub Studio developed Super Jonny 150k as an action-packed, 16-bit world chock full of character animation, effects, and nostalgia. In this teaser clip, learn a few 3D shading tricks to enhance your After Effects projects.

Getting started in ZBrush can be intimidating, but it is a powerful tool for designing and polishing 3D models. We're going to familiarize you with the interface, learn the key tools of the trade, and show you how to complete your first project.

Working closely with the team at Microsoft Design, VFX Studio Tendril conceptualized, designed, and executed a complete refresh of over 1800 smileys, people, animals, objects and symbols. We asked Cofounder and Creative Director Alexander “Xande” Torres, Creative Director Leo Mateus and Lead Modeler Flavio Diniz to tell us about the challenges and rewards of this complex project.

If you want to hear what a real VO session sounds like, then you've come to the right place! In this podcast you'll get to be a fly on the wall for a VO session lead by Jake and Joey. Along the way Joey is going to be dropping some golden nuggets of VO directing advice to help you direct VO like a pro the next time you need to.

If you want to learn a 3D program for design and animation, there are many strong competitors on the market. But if you had to choose, which offers the best experience and the most versatility? We're comparing Cinema 4D to Blender to see which program will work best for you.

What happens when you grab a pen and paper and let your creativity take the wheel? Sofie Lee discusses how free-writing a poem led to her amazing animation, Dream.

Something’s Awry Productions is a family-run animation studio known for creating whimsical, intelligently funny, 3D-animated content from a “slightly awry perspective.” We talked with Kris Theorin, the studio’s lead animation director, about their most recent release, a 3D-animated short film called “Grump in the Night.”

A behind-the-scenes look at how our Creative Director Kyle Hamrick created motion graphics elements for an exciting collaborative film project with Valentina Vee, Ryan Connolly & Jon Brandon Cruz. The team made use of Frame.io for Creative Cloud and the Camera to Cloud feature to create this short film trailer from 4 different locations on a very short deadline.

What does it take to build a legendary career? A LOT of legwork. Director/Illustrator Aaron Ray talks about his work and journey through motion design, and shares his fresh perspective on the industry.

We are witnessing the dawn of computer-generated artwork, but how good is it really? Can Midjourney, Dall-E, and others really affect the industry? Well let's dive in and see what we can create!

What happens when two talented artists turn their passion into a viral fan-fiction video? You get Knights of Ren, a love letter to Star Wars that showcases what's possible with Cinema 4D and Redshift.

Unreal Engine 5 is amazing for far more than just creating video games. From Hollywood to Twitch, look at the incredible versatility of this real-time render engine.

What happens if you take an unpolished render from Cinema 4D and bring it into After Effects? Turns out, you can create some stunning, stylized compositions using common tools. Jordan Bergren has the tips you need to take your work in a new direction.

Creating a title sequence is no easy task. How did Penny Nederlander and Shine combined 2D and 3D to get just the right look for Disney's "The Mysterious Benedict Society?" You'll have to read to find out.

How can a passion project turn into a game changer? Will your pursuit of new skills and talent lead to brand recognition? We talked with Kevin and Theresa from Chromoshphere about Yuki-7 and Unreal Engine.

School of Motion just acquired MoGraph Mentor! What does this mean for you, for the future, and for our amazing community?

Digital artists are gaining international renown in the NFT space, but there are so many new faces to learn. How can you decide which artists you want to support? We asked Emonee LaRussa to share her top ten artists on the NFT scene.

Looking for the best sites to find free and paid 3D models? We did the legwork for you.

Looking to design simple 3D characters in Cinema 4D? Today, we’re going to focus on creating a stylized character in Cinema 4D, and talking about the tools and techniques you can use to enhance the originality of your character!

Learn how Wes Cockx and Nando Costa visualized Microsoft's new Fluent User Interface.

What do NFTs really mean for the future of our industry? We have Buck's Justin Cone here to discuss what's coming next.

Want a sneak peek at an amazing Holdframe Workshop? Echoic X Ident is a jam-packed animation made by Nidia Dias for Echoic Audio. The 11-second ident is bursting with particle sims, graphic compositions, and bold colors, and is a brilliant display of Nidia’s voice and vision.