Animation’s massive visual presence in today’s content-driven world is inescapable. It’s all around us— in every type and form of content shown on mobile devices, billboards, television, digital signages and more. Many businesses rely on the power of animation as part of their marketing and advertising efforts to boost their brand and influence. If you’re planning to level up your visual content using animation for your small business, this post is your ultimate guide to hiring animators for your motion design project.
Before we get into the details, let’s step back a little and get to know more about what animation is and how your business or brand can benefit from it. Next, we’ll find out how to hire the right animators for your project and look at the factors that determine the cost of hiring these professional digital artists.
What Is Animation?
Animation, in simplest terms, is a technique to manipulate still figures as moving images. Did you ever do the stick figure or flipbook animation on a notepad in your childhood? That’s probably your first experience creating animation. Animation has a colourful history dating back to the Stone Age when the Paleolithic people learned how to make primitive animations of human and animal figures by drawing in cave walls and using flames to make the images appear to move.
Professionally, animation isn’t just applying one kind of technique. It’s the broader umbrella term that has many different types. As a creative agency, we specialise in motion graphics, especially for video content. So, we’ll narrow down our focus to this type of animation.
Used interchangeably with motion graphics but with notable distinctions, we can consider motion design to be a discipline that applies a combination of graphic design elements and animation. Motion design uses graphic design principles to moving audiovisual content such as film, TV, video, animated texts, etc. by applying animation and visual effects.
What Is The Importance Of Motion Design?
We can consider motion design to be a form of visual communication. Motion designers are able to manipulate the moving graphic elements and sound in audiovisual content in order to tell a story. Essentially, businesses can take advantage of motion design in marketing and sales campaigns. Training and explainer videos, social media content and improving the user experience (UI) in digital media are some of the products of motion design.
Motion design can be found in the following areas:
- Education
- Advertising
- Websites
- Point of Sale
- Title Design
- Animated Logos
Types Of Animation Techniques
Going back to animation, let’s take a quick look at its two most commonly known types:
- 2D Animation
2D animation is vector-based and falls under the category of traditional animation. The only dimensions present in the characters or drawings are width and height. Technically speaking, it uses vectors instead of pixels (JPG, GIF, BMP) to manipulate the element in a two-dimensional space. 2D animation can be created by filming hand-drawn images on a two-dimensional surface. Learn more about 2D Animators For Hire here - 3D Animation
3D animation is the manipulation of computer-generated objects to move through a three-dimensional environment. 3D animators are responsible for bringing weight and timing into the character or object that will feel realistic and fluid in the real world. Aside from CGI-based 3D animation, stop motion is an alternative technique that 3D animators can create. The team captures a physical object’s various poses, claymation or puppet, through photography and 3D animators will work on those assets to make the objects move in a three-dimensional space using 3D software. Learn more about 3D Animators For Hire here.
Benefits of Working with Professional Animators with Motion Graphic Design Focus
Your business can’t go wrong if you’re hiring a professional animator or motion graphics agency. In general, 2D and 3D animators and motion designers have vast skills to design and manipulate the elements associated with their specialisation. An individual can offer to do both or specialise in a specific animation task for more high-profile projects. They know how to use multiple advanced graphic design software in order to deliver their projects.
In today’s competitive talent landscape, we can also describe them as a hybrid kind because they can create effective visual communication projects in a business context in an array of industries such as finance, healthcare and agriculture to mention a few.
Here are some of the benefits of hiring a team of professional animators:
- They already have an effective and organised workflow they follow gathered from years of experience.
- They are up-to-date with the latest technologies related to motion graphics and digital media to improve their knowledge and skills
- They know how to communicate with clients and deliver what they want without compromising their creativity and performance.
- They know what appeals to the audience.
Hiring the Right Animators for Your Motion Design Project
According to statistics, most animators and motion graphic designers have bachelor’s (74%), Associate (12%) and Master’s (9%) degrees. In addition, 72% of them work in private companies. If you don’t know how or where to start with hiring talent that will help elevate your branding and content, here are several tips to hire the right person for your motion design project.
- Review their creative portfolio
- Did the artist present an updated project reel?
- Does the project have a clear explanation and was able to execute and deliver the message effectively?
- Was the artist able to provide case studies to show the result of their work?
Ask them to walk you through their process
The motion designer should be able to talk about their process with ease during the interview. How familiar are they with the software tools? What other motion graphic design skills or knowledge do they have that sets them apart from other applicants? What’s the most challenging project they handled and how were they able to deliver?
Ask them about their willingness to collaborate
Collaboration is one of the key processes for a successful project. Are they comfortable working with a team? How do they manage feedback and constructive criticism?
Reliability
Creating animation is inevitably time-consuming. Will they be able to meet the deadlines set by the client? Are they accessible or easy to reach if clarifications and other urgent matters related to the project arise?
Hiring in-house talent for your business can be overwhelming. But at the same time, they will become strongly familiar with your brand inside and out. Hiring an agency, on the other hand, frees business owners on the cost of keeping an in-house motion designer on their payroll. When looking to hire professional animators, whether freelancers or partnering with an agency, business owners must consider the experience, resources and location– where the artist or agency is based. You should also be upfront in asking about their salary expectations.
Hiring a motion design agency means:
- You can expect high-quality work from a team of experts
- Working with a team take time to study and analyse your brand, product, service and audience
- They have the expertise and resources to help you launch a big campaign
Many creative studios offer end-to-end animation and motion graphic services to deliver all kinds of solutions. On the other hand, some studios only specialise in one form or type of medium. Also, If you’re concerned about pricing, choose a partner with an affordable and flexible pricing model. Motion The Agency is known to specialise in animated videos for different businesses delivered on any platform. They have monthly package offers that allow clients to access multiple forms of media.
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