50+ motion design resources for creative workers

Animation is no longer prominent only in film and television. If you will closely observe, it is present in many platforms, including websites, mobile and web apps, and in social media among many others. 

To many people, motion graphic design is all about having moving characters in a show or any content. Actually, there are many elements that are involved in creating animated designs. Technically, it is a combination of motion, graphics, and design elements that work together to present a narrative. Common examples of this type of graphic animations are films, videos, animated texts, and web-based apps.

Designers have to ensure that they have on their hands a variety of tools to create motion graphics. It is essential to get trained in this particular graphics-creation style because there are a lot of technical aspects to look into before you can create motion graphics. Just like any other industry, there are plenty of challenges that must be successfully hurdled prior to mastering this unique art.

Why is Motion Graphics Design Important?

Because of the fierce competition between brands, quality content is a must and it must be both eye-catching and has easily digestible information to match the energetic environment on the Internet.

Motion graphics are a welcome addition to the growing number of content styles that is embraced by Internet users. The MIT conducted research and later recognized how the brain is able to process visual information faster than plain text. Visuals have become critical in sending out brand visuals and, unlike still imagery, motion graphics are proven to be more effective in catching attention within milliseconds of being seen by the audience.

Several motion graphic design applications in marketing include traditional ads wherein motion designs are included in online and television video commercials; promo videos such as viral videos, testimonials, and case studies; explainer videos that aim to give an overview about products, services, business processes, and tutorials; and social media videos that are created especially to help engage followers across social media platforms.

Tools & Resources for Motion Designers

The use of motion design is generally for creating impactful content. It is a strategy wherein the audience is offered more than just still imagery or plain texts. Animated graphics, like videos, are more engaging because they are able to entertain and give information in less time. Unlike videos, however, it is easier and more cost-effective to produce motion graphics. This is most especially true if you are aided with the right motion design resources and tools.

Whether you are a professional designer or is still a beginner at creating motion graphics, you will find this list of over 50 resources and tools that would give you an edge to be creative at motion graphics design:

Poly Haven

A great resource for 3D assets that would elevate your motion graphic designs.

No need to sign up or pay for anything to use Poly Haven. Just browse the website for high-quality 3D assets, download what you need, and use them without worries. The assets are copyright-free so you can use them for both personal and commercial purposes.

CGTrader

CGTrader is a huge platform where modelers, animators, 3D print professionals, and other skilled specialists collaborate. There are over 40,000 3D freelancers in this network so you can easily find one who can help you out with your project. 

Whether you are hiring or looking for a 3D project to work on, CGTrader is the place to go. It has a dedicated workspace for you to manage everything in your account. You can work on multiple projects, create invoices, track conversations, share files and more in one place.

Turbosquid

A collection of 3D models in multiple formats. The skilled team provides 3D models that follow the technical modeling quality standards. This means that the 3D models produced will meet any professional production needs in all types of industries.

Turbosquid has a straightforward interface to search for specific assets that you need. Just click on the drop-down menu for the type of file and keywords that you want to search for.

Adobe Animate

This software allows designers to animate just about anything in their design. You can bring cartoons and banners to life, create custom animated avatars, make lively infographics, and publish them into multiple formats. You can also use it to explore other artists and gain access to exclusive livestream events to inspire you.

The software has powerful illustrations and animation features and tools that would let you start designing right from the app. There are helpful tutorials that will guide you through the basic tools.

Adobe Color

A simple color scheme and palette builder, Adobe Color is a nifty tool that can be used to create a customized color theme for your design project.

All that you need to start is to generate a color wheel or pick colors throughout the Extract Theme tab. After that, save your palette in the Creative Cloud then use it on a variety of Adobe products and CC Libraries.

AE Reference

Motion designers need to keep abreast with new trends in the industry. AE Reference gives a weekly 5 minute roundup of every trick and tips that you will need to improve your designs.

You only need to subscribe on the website to start receiving tips and tricks on your inbox. Yes, it is that simple.

AE Tools and Presets

This collection of tools and presets to get your creative juice flowing and create stunning designs. This set covers everything from typewriter animation preset, 3D after effects, 3D mouse cursor, and more.

Just click on the project file/ preset tab to download the resources.

Adobe Ae

Adobe After Effects is both a motion graphics and visual effects software to make it easier to animate credits, create beautiful transitions, change scene settings, and more. Its tools are designed to produce outstanding motion designs from scratch or use presets.

You need to add After Effects to the Creative Cloud in order to utilize all of its features. You can start creating from your own concept or use presets to kickoff your design and have the best results.

aescripts

This website works as a marketplace for After Effects scripts and tools. You may choose from thousands of assets that will augment your skills in creating unique designs using Adobe Ae.

Easily browse through the categories to find what you need. The site also offers a dedicated support page where you can learn more about the tools and other resources, and discuss with other users on the forums.

School of Motion Podcasts

If you are the type who learns and gets inspired by listening to the experts, then this podcast is for you. The podcast features designers, animators, producers, and other related professionals to discuss the latest trends and technologies in motion graphics.

Simply search for this podcast channel on the Apple Podcasts directory.

Mograph

This is a great resource of forums that discuss everything about the art and business aspects of the motion graphics industry. Established motion designers also share their works which are nice for inspiration.

Join the discussion boards, ask questions, and learn from the experts.

 After Effect Command IDs

It is a searchable library of Command IDs in all After Effects versions. Command IDs are important because they serve as backups for when you cannot accomplish any operation from the provided API.

Search for a specific command on the Viewer then wait for the system to identify and organize the Command IDs with the corresponding names.

Animator’s Survival Kit

This book is considered to be the ultimate manual of all methods, formulas, and principals involved in computer animation. It is authored by Richard Williams who is considered to be a true innovator who has three Academy Awards wins.

Get hold of this 392-page book from the link and get ready to be amazed at how an animator creates a masterpiece.

Ben Marriott

A Youtube channel where a freelancer shares tutorials about motion graphic design and animation.

Subscribe to this channel and get detailed tutorials about various techniques in designing motion graphics. You can also discuss in the comments section and ask questions.

Blender 3D

An open source software designed to support the designer community with an entire suite of tools and resources to create 3D assets.

The software has all the tools that you need for rigging, animation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, game creation, and more. You can also integrate the API so that you can customize the application and add specialized tools.

Cartoon Animation

This book by Preston Blair has all the techniques that you need to draw and animate cartoon characters. It explains and demonstrates how cartoon animations are made.

Learn the knowledge and skills that every animator should be equipped after buying this book from the link.

Chris Zachary

This Youtube channel is a no-nonsense tutorial resource for motion designers.Follow the tutorials available to hone your skills in motion graphic design.

Cinema 4D

It is a 3D computer animation, modeling, stimulation, and rendering software necessary to optimize your workflow. 

Cinema 4D has a variety of tools that designers can use to turn pictures into 3D models, make use of polygons to craft any models, or even create organic models using intuitive sculpting tools.

Designspiration

This site will serve as an inspiration resource for a variety of design and art projects. Inspire creativity from the available collections and save it on your own mood board.

Evan Abrams

This Youtube channel has a ton of tutorials about using Adobe After Effects. Explore Evan’s content to watch a variety of content that will fit beginners and advanced motion graphics designers alike.

Element Supply Co

ESC has motion graphic design tools that are designed by industry professionals. Explore ESC’s collection of scripts, plugins  and packs to aid your design project.

Good Boy Ninja

It is a cheat sheet for expressions, tools, and scripts needed for motion graphics design projects using Adobe After Effects.

Click on the Expression Cheatsheet tab to open the page that is full of handy AE expressions.

Lesterbanks

This is a blog that covers everything about motion graphics designing. Explore the blog for tutorials regarding motion graphics creation.

Motion Design School

A collection of motion graphics design courses, masterclasses, and scripts. Enrol in any of the available courses and learn from the masters themselves. Gain knowledge and insights that will improve your practice.

Motion Developer

A collection of articles that is great if you are looking for ways to improve animation workflows.

Learn everything that you need to improve your skills from the massive collection of articles, tutorials, and other materials that are useful for both animators and developers.

Notion

It is a digital workspace where you can collaborate with your team and move as one towards finishing every project.

Visually navigate content using the variety of tools available so you never have to forget important elements in your project.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a simple tool to browse, collect, and organize inspirations for future projects. Pinterest works like any social media where you get to see a feed with content that is related to all your interests.

Skillshare

Skillshare is a wide network of professionals and experts who are willing to showcase their skills and offer classes so that you may learn from them.

Browse through thousands of portfolios and schedule when you can watch and learn your chosen courses.

The Freelance Manifesto

This book is like the ultimate field guide for aspiring motion designers. The School of Motion founder himself, Joey Korenmanis the author and he takes you on a wonderful journey in motion graphics design as a freelancer.

Redesign yourself, unlock all your potentials, and discover how you can be the best freelance motion graphics designer with the help of this book.

Ukramedia

A Youtube channel with great content about everything that you can do using Adobe After Effects. This is a must-see channel if you are after short tutorials that has plenty of information to offer.

Choose among easy to follow, practical, and quick video tutorials about producing motion graphic designs.

Workbench

This Youtube channel about motion graphics is intended for advanced users. Rationales are provided so that you really learn what goes behind every design and not just merely watching and applying the techniques that are shown on the videos.

Learn about professional ways to create using After Effects, Cinema 4D and other tools through the tutorial videos on this channel.

Zack Lovatt’s Scriptlets

It is a collection of useful scripts that you can add to After Effects. Choose from among the available scripts then download it on your computer. Run the script file and use it!

World of Expressions

You may consider it as a crash course about expressions. Learn about what expressions are, when and how you can use it in your designs.

Choose from the short videos that detail specific topics about expressions.

Timelord

A tool that is designed to make a motion graphic designer’s job a lot easier but still produce awesome results.

Animate with it by adding drawn elements in After Effects or use it as a full frame-by frame pipeline.

Joysticks’ n Sliders

This is a pose-based rigging system that you can use for After Effects. Create a joystick controller to animate 3D characters by setting five consecutive key frames that represent the extremes of the design.

Coolors

It is a fast color palette generator to create beautiful color schemes for any project.

Create palettes in seconds with its revolutionary palette generator tool. What you basically do is choose from among the colors then save or export it for use.

Evernote

Basically a digital notepad to organize notes, tasks, and schedule so you never have to second-guess what needs to be done in your current project. This tool is quite handy because everything can be sync in all devices, ensuring that you never miss any important task.

Add texts, audio files, PDFs, documents, and other related stuff so that you will be reminded about deadlines.

Greyscalegorilla

This podcast is an entertaining venue to discuss everything about motion graphics design, 3D rendering, Cinema 4D, and other related topics.

Subscribe and listen to this podcast channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and Youtube.

Motion Hatch

A bi-weekly show to improve your workflows and gain insights about how to manage a business related to the motion graphics design industry. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Maxon C4D Quick Tips

This Youtube channel provides useful tips and tricks in using Cinema 4D in usually less than three minutes per video.

Browse through the number of quick tutorials and how-to videos or subscribe on the channel for updates.

Domestika

This site is a large community of creative people that offers a variety of courses for motion graphics design and other related concepts.

Browse Domestika’s wide array of online courses from various categories, areas, and software.

Never Not Working

This is an inspiring blog with lots of eye-catching motion designs. Relax and fill your eyeballs with soothing motion graphics that are designed to inspire you to create your own.

Motionographer

This site is a useful resource for aspiring visual storytellers to hone their skills and showcase their outstanding projects with other creative people in the industry. Take inspiration from the posted contents that are submitted by talented artists in the community.

Screen Movie Caps

Never run out of ideas when creating movie design titles as this site has hundreds of examples for you to take inspiration from. Choose from the available content by fine-tuning the filters according to genre, series, and quality.

 Art of the Title

Impress the audience right from the start and use this resource to create remarkable credits sequences. Be inspired from among the high-quality credits sequences posted on the page.

Vfxer

The husband and wife team of Simon and Claire created this resource to give aspiring motion graphics artists inspiration and access to visual effects news, Cinema 4D tutorials, and other free stuff. Explore the site for articles, pre-fractured 3D models, and more.

Toolfarm

This site has all the cool After Effects tools, plugins, and templates that you need. Check out the website and explore AE tutorials, plugins, and freebies that will help you hone your craft.

Motion Graphics Exchange

It is a great resource for tips, presets, scripts and expressions. Using this site is easy, you just need to search by category or topic and you will be presented with plenty of options.

 Motionworks

This is a huge resource of motion graphics design projects where free training is also offered on site. Most of the tutorials are already on their Youtube channel.

Wine After Coffee

This site has a collection of videos about motion and animation design. Browse through the channel’s over 5000 videos and learn a thing or two from the great content.

Division05

This Youtube channel is a nifty resource for those who are interested with designing motion graphics. Get inspired to create your own mind-blowing designs from the videos that highlight tutorials for motion graphics.

Top 5 Motion Design Blogs 

In order to keep abreast with everything that evolves in the motion graphics design world, what you need are credible resources to give you relevant information. The following blogs are highly recommended as they are regularly updated and discuss significant issues related to motion graphics design:

AE Tuts

The tutorials library of this blog is consistently growing so it is not puzzling why it suddenly became popular among the creative industry. Aside from lots of information, it also provides sources for presets, freebies, and other stuff for free.

Video Hive 

As the official blog of the motion graphic design elements online marketplace, VideoHive is full of techniques and tips on how you can create better outputs.

AE Portal News

This is the most updated resource for everything about Adobe After Effects. There are also AE tutorials and extensive insights about AE.

ProLost

This blog is a helpful resource for tips, photography insights, and the HD video aspects of the latest DSLR cameras.

The Hypa Blog

This blog discusses all about Cinema 4D and how it can be used across many motion graphics design applications.

Start Learning...

It can be frustrating at times to be in a creative industry that involves motion graphics. There are too many talented designers that you need to compete with. On top of this, the tools of the trade continuously improve and you sometimes fail to get updated with what’s new in the industry.

When it comes to motion design, it is a must to be creative at all times. It is a good thing that there are these tools and resources that can aid you in your journey of becoming one of the best motion graphics designers in this era.

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