Motion Graphics Designer Certifications

If you’d like to have an objective yardstick to measure your abilities with Adobe After Effects, the most fundamental of motion graphics software, you may be interested in the Adobe Certified Professional examination. If you pass it, you’ll obtain a credential that shows the world that you can be depended upon to know how to use the software when you arrive in the workplace. Diplomas and certificates play their very important roles, but there is something to be said in favor of something that establishes your After Effects bona fides in a thoroughly unequivocal manner. 

What is a Motion Graphics Designer?

Motion graphics shouldn’t be confused with character animation (such as you see in classic Disney movies.) Motion graphics are, rather, graphic design elements to which animators give the illusion of life. Although motion graphics existed before the 1950s, that decade is when the field came into its own, originally through the medium of animated main-title sequences for motion pictures.

The openings of Billy Wilder’s The Seven-Year Itch (1955) and Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) are prime examples of the groundbreaking sequences that set the tone for the movie to come. Both are the work of this type of animation’s key pioneer, Saul Bass. The two opening sequences combine kinetic typography, graphic devices, and drawn images. The result is opening credits that grab the audience’s attention. Bass’ tour de force was the six-minute end credit sequence for Michael Todd’s Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), which provides an entire synopsis of the movie in the form of kinetic sketches while the names of the actors with cameo roles in the film go by. It remains the ne plus ultra of end credits.

As far as the ne plus ultra of motion graphics at the start of a movie is concerned, the palm probably goes to the original Star Wars movie (recte: A New Hope.) The celebrated crawl that runs from the bottom of the screen to an imagined vanishing point in the middle of the screen was designed by Dan Perri, although the technique that held audiences spellbound for a minute and a half in 1977 actually dates back to the 1930s and both the Flash Gordon serials and Cecil B. De Mille’s Union Pacific, in which the disappearing crawl is superimposed on a pair of railway tracks.

In 1977, George Lucas had no choice but to lay the titles out on the floor and run the camera over them. With the subsequent advent of computer animation, such processes could be done virtually at the click of a mouse (and, in fact, the original Star Wars titles were redone using the new technology for later releases.) The ability to create computer-generated images with programs such as Adobe After Effects has completely transformed the motion graphics design industry. Creators now have a virtually unlimited toolbox at their disposal, and the days of awkwardly moving the camera to create the illusion of moving titles are long gone. Whereas the bounds of the possible were the problem faced by Motion Graphics Designers in the days of Saul Bass, the problem today is one of not doing too much and making sure the technology doesn’t become an end in itself. (A good example of doing an enormous amount with the available technology while still creating something satisfying and intelligible is the main title sequences for HBO’s Game of Thrones.)

Behind these little visual miracles sits the Motion Graphics Designer, who exists at the junction of graphic design and animation. To be good at this job, you need the graphic designer’s eye and sense of the visually attractive as well as the ability to operate the software software such as Adobe After Effects. The Motion Graphics Designer is responsible for both the vision and the execution, which are two very different processes, one that often requires traditional artists’ media, and one that calls for a computer. As a result, you’re unlikely to get bored being a Motion Graphics Designer.

Do I Need a Degree to Become a Motion Graphics Designer?

The basic educational requirement for a Motion Graphics Designer is a bachelor’s degree, generally in either computer graphics or art. Four years is the time between Olympiads or presidential elections, and it’s a long time, especially for young people. Your time spent in college should equip you with a wide spectrum of knowledge in more than just your area of specialization, but four years will also give you plenty of time to hone your computer graphics skills. That doesn't alter the reality that getting a four-year degree is definitely a leisurely way to make your entrée into the field of motion design.

A less leisurely approach would be to enroll in a certificate program that will concentrate on exactly the skills you’ll need to break into the motion graphics business. You won’t get the same kind of education you’d get if you were in a four-year degree program, but you will learn the baseline skills all Motion Graphics Designers must have. A large part of your energies will be expended learning the sine qua non of motion graphics programming, Adobe After Effects. You’ll learn other things, as well, but you won’t have to worry about writing five-page papers on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Both routes have much to recommend them. If you can afford a four-year education without saddling yourself with debt for the rest of your life, there are ample good reasons for going to college. On the other hand, if college isn’t readily feasible (or the debt you’ll incur will put both a millstone and an albatross around your neck until your last day on Earth), the non-degree certificate program at a good professional school will make a great deal more sense. Time is also a factor: if you have four years which you can’t put to better use, again, college makes sense. If you’re in a hurry to join the workforce because you need money to indulge caprices such as food, clothing, and a roof over your head, on the other hand, college may not be for you.

In any event, you will need to have some kind of formal education in motion graphics if you’re to find a job in the field. Teaching yourself to use After Effects is very nice, but, without a diploma or a certificate to back up your claims of knowledge, your resume is not going to make it past the initial step in the application tracking system (ATS) that governs just about every HR department in the country.

Do Certifications Matter for Motion Graphics Designers?

Some tech fields (cybersecurity is a good example) require that people being considered for professional roles be certified in this, that or the other technology. Motion graphics design isn’t one such field, and you can certainly make a career without being an Adobe Certified anything. You very likely won’t not get hired because you don’t have it. On the other hand, you can only help your case for employment by being certified. You’ve got nothing to lose besides the fee for the exam, and the resulting digital badge will certainly look nice on your LinkedIn profile.

Certifications vs. Certificates: What’s the Difference?

Certifications and certificates shouldn’t be confused with each other, regardless of their shared etymology. In the world of education (and of tech education in particular), a certificate is what you receive for completing a course of study. It’s basically the same thing as a diploma, only it results from a non-degree program, such as you’d find in a school specializing in training motion graphics designers. Any thorough training program you go through is going to confer a certificate at its conclusion, whence the term certificate program.

A certification, on the other hand, is what you receive when you pass an exam, such as the Adobe Certified Professional. It’s a means of measuring your knowledge objectively and demonstrating how firm your grasp is on the material covered by the test. Adobe makes Certified Professional exams available for most of its main products, and the third-party provider Certiport is responsible for both composing the exams and administering them. A fee must change hands in order to take the exam, which is conducted like any other important exam, proctor and all. Do note that Adobe strongly recommends 150 hours of hands-on work (in whatever form) with a given program before you take the test.

How to Get Certified as a Motion Graphics Designer

The procedure for taking one of the Adobe Certified Professional exams is fairly straightforward, and is the same for all the exams the company offers. After racking up 150 hours of experience using the program, you put yourself in Certiport’s hands. Certiport accepts payment of the exam fee (although not exorbitant, it’s also not nominal) through its online store, which also sells instructional materials and practice exams. You can take the exam either online from the comfort of home or in a Certiport test center; either way, the exam is proctored. You schedule the exam at the time you pay for it.

The test is divided into two parts, the first of which is a set of largely multiple-choice questions, and the second of which is actual practical activities using the software. The exam takes 50 minutes to complete, and you receive your results instantaneously. You may retake the exam as many times as you like, although there is a waiting period between attempts, and you must pay the fee anew each time you take the exam.

Top Certifications & Certificates for Motion Graphics Designer

The Adobe Certified Professional exam in Visual Effects and Motion Graphics Using Adobe After Effects is the gold standard certification for people starting out their careers. Note that Adobe also offers what it calls a specialty credential in Video Design if you pass the Premiere Pro (video editing software) exam as well as the After Effects one. That will give you an impressive gallery of digital badges to exhibit on your LinkedIn profile, and show the world that you know your way around the most-used motion graphics software on the market.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a certificate program in After Effects, you’ll find one at Noble Desktop. The school offers a Motion Graphics Certificate both in-person in New York and online anywhere that the wifi’s decent. The course includes an introduction to Premiere Pro as well as in-depth study of After Effects. You’ll emerge with a certificate and the ability, not only to create animations, but to edit them as well. Also included is training in Cinema 4D Lite, which, despite the name, is actually a 3D animation modeling program. A more extended version of this certificate program is to be had in the form of the Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate program, which includes everything listed above, plus advanced classes in Premiere Pro and a module in which you’ll learn to use Audition, Adobe’s sound editing software. Both these programs also include the time and necessary guidance to create an eye-catching portfolio.

Above and beyond that, you’ll receive a number of 1-to-1 mentoring sessions, which you can elect to use however you like, from clarifying anything that wasn’t clear in class to advice on how to prepare for the job market. You’ll also get a free retake option, access to classroom recordings, should you need to go over something again, and Noble’s proprietary workbooks and classroom materials, which are yours to keep after you complete your studies.