November 2022 – Character animation

Ben Marriott is my favorite motion designer on YouTube.

Ben Marriott has been designing professionally for 10 years and animating for 7.

In 2020, he decided to say goodbye to the freelance life so he could focus on his own projects, products & teaching on YouTube.

And now he reaches 637,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Here are some Q&A from Ben on the price of motion graphics:

What is the income of a Motion Graphic, 2D animator career in your country?

In Australia that will vary mostly based on your seniority if you’re a junior I would expect rates to start between 40 and 60000 dollars a year, and a senior animator will be getting around 100000.

What’s considered a starting, mid, and “spicy” hourly rate for freelancing in the industry?

Mainly on where you’re located and where your clients are located but generally in Australia starting day rates going to be around 400-450 dollars, For top levels I’d be going to charge 800 plus but you have to be pretty specialized maybe doing some directing as well, offering a lot to get that kind of payment.

And here are some very useful advice from Ben:

Planning your motion graphics project is the most important part of a production workflow.

If you don’t have time to plan storyboards and make detailed animatics, the most effective planning you can do in under a minute is to ask yourself these 3 questions.

But before I show you the questions, if you’ve got the time, I strongly suggest you prepare your project in advance.

Creating work you’re proud of when you’re up against a tight deadline is no easy task, especially when your clients aren’t afraid of changing their minds.

The key to making great work in this situation, and any situation really, is preparation. Being prepared keeps you in control.

However, if time becomes is a luxury in your situation, then you can get started with these 3 questions:

What’s the message this project/scene/shot is trying to convey?

What are the most important elements on-screen we can use to achieve that?

How can we animate them effectively?

These three questions help you not only help you understand better where to focus on, aka spend the most of your time on, consider other options, but most importantly. It gives you reasons to justify your choices.

From my personal point of view, if I want to enter the industry, it is essential to have a good independent portfolio, to let the client know what I can do and what kind of effect I can achieve, it is especially important to have a decent showreel.

I think the overall salary level is up to my expectations, on the one hand, I can prepare my portfolio as a standard to enter an independent studio, on the other hand, I can also pitch my work to freelance platforms like Fiverr as a freelance option.

I think there is a lot of development in this industry and more opportunities in the future in the era of short videos.

My perception of MG animation

MG is often used in the film industry for film credits, logo animation at the end of TVC commercials, as well as in TV packaging for logo interpretation, ID callouts, corner signs, etc.
MG is used in the film industry, at the end of TVC commercials, at the end of logo animations, in TV packaging, in logo renditions, in ID callouts, in corner labels, etc.

In the new Internet industry, such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other social platforms, MG animation is mainly used in product presentation, branding, motion prototyping, client launch pages and other areas.

The production of Motion Design requires a combination of pre-production (PS, AI), post-production (Cinema 4D, After Effects) and other software to work with each other.

Breakdown of occupations in MG animation

In essence, Motion Design is a design category that has been subdivided due to the development of the whole UX industry.

Therefore, in general, 1. the more developed the UX industry is, the greater the demand for motion design.

2. the larger and more complex the product, the more the demand for motion design (PC > Mobile, OS > App).

3. The larger the design team, the clearer the division of labour, the more dedicated motion designers there are.

Many design teams have dedicated motion designers, such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc.

The two levels of function of a motion designer are:

The basic level, which better demonstrates the existing interaction, visual design, conceptual design, service flow, etc. Through motion presentations.

The advanced level, directly involved in the design of the product, the development of the product in the dynamic design style, inspired by the visual design, interaction design and sound design, improve the overall quality of the product and experience.

What I would choose if I would work as motion graphic designer

I personally love to play around with texture, digital arts, remix with different type of style. So, from the perspective of the development of digital art and motion design, Internet companies are my main choice of target, and I would go for something more artistically expressive.

Even though my current skill level may not be sufficient for me to achieve this ambition, I will continue to move in this direction as much as possible in my future studies.

Here are the companies that I have found to be ideal for me.