Steve McCarthy

What actually is motion design? What does a motion designer do? For a while now I've been considering what I actually have to offer, and whether describing myself as a "motion designer" really makes sense. These days it seems my staple diet of creating explainer videos just doesn't fill the fridge any more, and so I've needed to adapt my work to the point where I no longer feel like "motion designer" really sums it up properly. But I think in reality, the definition of what a "motion designer" does has transformed too.

I mean, has it really transformed? Was it ever as static as it sometimes seems to be? When I first learned about motion graphics in my Bachelors at Sheffield Hallam circa 2009, one example that our lecturer showed us was some software that a designer had created that displayed her emails as microbes that would swim around and eat each other. I think they had different colours based on urgency, sender, date etc. I can't fully remember and I'd be amazed if I could ever find it again now. But the point is that it wasn't just some explainer video or nicely animated buttons. Motion design has never been just "animated graphic design". That just happened to have been the most visible form of it over the last few years.

RIP explainer videos (2007 - 2020).

Lately I feel like explainer videos have fallen out of fashion. For a long time they were the bread and butter of the motion industry, but I think there have been some major changes in how we use the internet, how we access services, and how we share content. We now consume more video content than ever, but the focus is on short-form vertical video, and algorithms push us to include real people with real faces rather than flashy animation. Even on the websites and in the apps where explainer videos typically sat, there's been a drive towards more interactive tutorials, high quality video, real human connection; building web experiences that engage the user on a different level.

The industry really has shifted away from this format. I knew this; my work has shifted too, I just hadn't really noticed it because it happened so gradually and naturally. But I honestly can't say I've made a full length explainer video in years. There's just such little demand for it.

After Effects' crown slips.

The tools are changing too. Which is a good thing, but it comes with challenges. It's about time that Adobe's monopoly over the industry was broken up; sure there had been lots of amazing developments over the years, and Adobe still plays a central role in my work and I do love a lot of their products (Have you seen Project Neo!?) But it's so good to see new technologies and new apps emerging. Rive of course has exploded onto the scene, offering tools to create interactive web native motion graphics, Unreal Engine is trialling it's new motion graphics tools as it demonstrates it's far more than a game engine, even Cinema 4D and other 3D designers will have noticed Spline arriving on the scene.

Even within the web designer scene - an area I've flirted with over the years - the major players are seeing some competition. I'd been building websites with WordPress and Elementor for a while, but this website is built with Webflow. Other site builders like Wix and Squarespace have really come into their own; what once looked like amateur tools are now creating beautiful websites that easily rival the best WordPress sites, but they're also still very easy for amateurs to use.

The elephAInt in the room.

Obviously I can't write this whole post without mentioning AI. Personally I'm still very unsure about the technology. Besides the concerns about content theft, it's also just generating so damn fast that I don't even know what to do with it. Or if I even want to do anything with it. I think it's a depressing state of the world when creative processes - the most human acts which should be enjoyable. meaningful, even spiritual - are reduced to type prompts to churn out images to attempt to fill the bottomless void that is social media's algorithmic demands. But I'll not get started.

I'm interested to see the tools I use integrating this technology, I want to see AI function as an assistant to the creative process, but the fact that we could see the entire process replaced in such a way is not something that fills me with optimism.

Learning. Always learning.

All of this has left me re-evaluating my own work, my skills, and what I have to offer potential clients. Defining that has always been something of a challenge, and it's constantly changing and I'm always open for trying new things. But I felt it would be beneficial to try to pin it down a little more. I currently have a number of courses in progress that focus on different technologies. From three.js to Unreal to Houdini to Ableton, I'm exploring new ways to create ... stuff ... and finding new ways to use these tools. Of course, learning the technology is really just one part of it, the rest is finding new ideas and projects so that I can actually flex my creative muscles, so in between tutorials I'm working on personal projects to explore my design skills effectively.

What the hell am I doing!?

And so I have to ask myself, what can I actually offer to my clients? What does a "motion designer" actually do? Am I a motion designer? Or am I some sort of multi-disciplinary creative? Do I have to call myself (ugh) a "content creator"? So to give you (and myself) some ideas, here's a list of what I currently offer, and what I'm working towards being able to offer in the future.

Explainer videos and animation (of course)

They might not be so common any more, but they're still an option and something I enjoy creating. You can find plenty of examples in my portfolio.

Video editing

Editing has really become the biggest chunk of my work load over the last couple of years. Perhaps that's just down to the clients I work with, but I think it also reflects a shift in what people want. Either way, I'm editing videos for all sorts of social media content, presentations and more.

Web design

Historically I've only ever really done this for myself, but I've become pretty proficient with WordPress and Webflow, so I'd love to offer this to more people.

Games design

This is something I'd really like to work towards, but I'm looking forward to digging into this deeper. I've dipped into Unreal and Unity a number of times over the years, but there's so much to explore here, and I've got a few ideas for fun projects

3D web applications

Three.js and Spline offer some really exciting features, and WebGL now means that websites can harness the power of GPUs to offer experiences that match up with even some high end games. There's so much potential here; from product visualisers and customisers to storytelling and creative tools. Given the power of codeless web editors today, I think this could be a niche that will really offer opportunities to stand out.

Installations and live experiences

This is one I'd really love to play with a lot more. The power of tools like Unreal Engine offers opportunities to enhance real life experiences. That could be educational tools for museums and exhibitions, or it could be generative live visuals for music performances, or it could be a million other things. I'm very keen to give this a go.

And of course, I'm still making music.

This was more of a focus on my design work but of course, my music always lives right there alongside, and the two often overlap and likely will do a lot more in the future. I'm working on some new music projects at the moment, and I've always found that such projects are great opportunities to develop some personal design projects too. I haven't been offering my music skills in any commercial capacity - mostly because I don't know a thing about production - but maybe that will change in the future.

Now to actually do it.

So, it's time to get creating. If you'd like to see what I get up to from here, don't forget to follow me on Instagram and/or LinkedIn where I'll be posting regular updates about my learning, about the projects I'm working on, and plenty more musings and mutterings.