Design Graphics software

When you are ready to start your journey to becoming a motion designer there will be numerous programs that you’ll encounter. A great motion designer has a wide range of tools at their disposal that they can utilize for any of their projects. Not only do you need a great […]

When you are ready to start your journey to becoming a motion designer there will be numerous programs that you’ll encounter. A great motion designer has a wide range of tools at their disposal that they can utilize for any of their projects. Not only do you need a great artistic eye as a motion designer, but you also need to master these tools. Let’s go over some of the most important software packages that you will need to know for motion graphics.

After Effects
After Effects (commonly referred to as AE) is the flagship program for motion graphics. It allows users to animate, alter and composite media in 2D and 3D space. 2D designs created in a program like Illustrator can be brought in, animated and manipulated to create a motion graphics piece. Because After Effects is created by it shares a lot of similarities and integration features with their other software.

Not only can you work with 2D elements if After Effects, but you can also work with 3D elements as well. Objects and scenes from popular 3D applications can be used directly as footage inside of After Effects.
If you can imagine an effect, After Effects can most likely help you create it. There are hundreds of built-in plug-ins as well as third party plug-ins that let you extend your effects with things like particles, blurs and a whole lot more.

Photoshop
At its core, Photoshop is a photo editing software, but its capabilities go far beyond that. This software is used among nearly every 2D or 3D computer graphics pipeline and motion designers are no exception. With Photoshop you can do things like resize images that are too big, cut out images from photographs that can be used in your motion graphics work as well as create great designs with advanced tools and filters. Like After Effects, Photoshop is developed by and is part of the .

Illustrator
While Photoshop excels at pixel-based imagery, Illustrator is an advanced from Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Illustrator includes a wide range of design tools that can be essential to your motion graphics work. It has very powerful and sophisticated vector drawing tools, as well as advanced type tools that are great for creating graphics for your motion designs.

A motion designer’s job is to bring elements into a cohesive moving design whether it be an intro, a commercial or advertisement so it’s no surprise that you’ll need to master the 2D programs used to create the initial elements before they are animated. Together, Photoshop and Illustrator are two design programs that you’ll most likely be creating or exporting designs out of to use in the staple motion design program After Effects.