🏌️‍♂️ List of resources to start in Motion Design today

Whether it's Branding, UI or Marketing

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It’s not rare that, when starting to dive on what is motion design, and how to get started, we see ourselves surrounded by options, tools and courses, and it’s hard to define what is actually the best for us at that moment.

That is why I’m creating this list of resources based on different contexts/starting points/interests.

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Quick orientation: If you want a 4‑minute primer before diving in, read ⤵️

👁 Do you want to get into motion? Get over here

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And there is a resource within the post, that I think it’s a good one if you already have tested some motion design but don’t know where you are at:

⚡ Motion Skill Audit Worksheet

I will be focusing in 3 major paths that graphic designers tend to work at.

🔹 Branding
🔹 UI
🔹 Marketing

The common point of all of 3 are starting to see just the surface of the animation principles, which are quite well explained in this graph:

Then, regarding software, there are a few general categories and standards for each.

🛠️ Tools

In general, the standard in 2D Motion Design it’s Adobe After Effects.

It’s by now a big as an elephant tool, that it has grown over the years mixing a wide range of disciplines that cross there within the audiovisual world. As VFX, some Editing, and animation as the main thing.

On the 3D world, I would say there are two main *for a general approach to 3D. As they are Blender (the one that, in my opinion, seems to be growing the fastest), an open source software, a rarity in this field. That it’s becoming a great tool for many outcomes.

And Cinema 4D which has been a standard for many years. And the one I see other colleagues dedicated to 3D always know how to use.

Then you can check others for more specific type of work, as Houdini for example, for all things that are simulations.

In general, I would say that these are the main ones in the 2D/3D aspects.

Summarizing

• In 2D Motion Design the standard is Adobe After Effects.

• In 3D, Blender, an open‑source software, is growing the fastest and becoming a great tool for many outcomes.

• Cinema 4D has been a standard for many years and colleagues dedicated to 3D always know how to use it.

• Houdini is ideal for simulations.

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New specialised tools

• Rive for UI and 2D interaction.

• Spline for 3D on web

• Cavalry for node‑based generative work.

*All of them worth a look.

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The most important thing aren’t the tools, but knowing the principles and what you need from them. Start with a basic tutorial (no more than 1 hr) and then carry on with challenges.

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Ask yourself what type of work you would like to do in motion and what work you are actually doing as a designer right now.

A general introduction… That’s all you need.

Don’t try to surround yourself within a software. You just need a general introduction of the tools, the basics, and then some easy exercise to start applying them.

Theory of a tool without putting them into practice it just doesn’t make sense.

Here a few of the ones I’ve mentioned:

For After Effects

For Cavalry

For Rive

🔸 Branding

So, in this case you work defining or updating brands.

Trying to find a voice in motion it could be a whole career path in itself.

Regarding tools, you will probably end up using After Effects at some point, so it’s useful to just have some practice using the tool.

Then I recommend you to tackle specific projects. Like the examples you can see on this video by Dawn Creative where they explain their own process.

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🔸 UI

Then for you, UI designer, that are all the time thinking in functionality, the user experience, loading times, etc, etc. I would recommend to start by checking Rive.

Yes, Lottie, it’s probably still the standard for many web/app experiences. And that is why you have a quick introduction over here:

But I don’t see it developing better than Rive, that is why is my recommendation.

Still, I will let you two different exercises/tutorials that attend both directions.

If you start with AE, check first the introduction of the recommendation above and then come back to these by Jake Pomper.

And if you want to give Rive a go, check this School of Motion take on some basic exercises with Rive that will leave you going:

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✳️ Want some company and direction while you practice? The Practice File gives you one short monthly brief, a mid-month check-in and a private Slack space for feedback.

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🔸 Marketing

And then, you, marketing designer. I mean, for a lack of a better term. But the one who is working with marketing campaigns, these might be on social media, commercial ads, or others.

I know it’s a long shot, because you might be focused in different tasks, as banners, or even in charge of a small explainer video.

This will depend on your focus, but again, After Effects for 2d motion might be your best solution by now.

Although apart from what I recommended as a starting point, I would recommend you to dive deeper into more figurative motion design.

This is a good start if you are thinking about explainer videos. Understanding how you would bring a scene you did in Illustrator (similar process in Figma if you export a PDF file).

Also you might want to check the basics of text from Nick Greenwalt

And then, I would try some Audrey’s suggestions on projects that can be a good way to get you unstuck on ‘what to do;’

Still not sure where to start at?

Well, here you have a no-brainer to just jump at the first article I’ve shared all the way to the top ⬆️ or, if you have some basic experience, continue going straight away into exercises on this post ⤵️

Go little by little. It’s common that we want to animate a full 30 second video and if we don’t have experience it can be too much. Think about a basic sketch or storyboard, think in scenes, go from there.

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And hopefully these helps with to start walking those first steps. 🙌🏻

Bear in mind that is a new skillset, and should be more exciting than frightening. Go project by project, don’t try to soak a whole set of tools at first.

It’s like trying to watch 100 tutorials for using a drill.

I mean you check what you need at the time.

But I’m 100% sure that if you are consistent and doing things regularly within the year, you will be adding a few pieces with some motion to your portfolio :)