Motion Graphics Designer Job Outlook

The career forecast for Motion Graphics Designers is definitely sanguine, with predictions of good job growth, a sizable amount of jobs currently available, and attractive salary figures across the country. Motion graphics design doesn’t quite lead the band of promising tech jobs, but it is definitely more of a growth industry than traditional graphic design. Certainly, if you want to make a career in graphic design today, you should take the digital career route, which, until AI puts everyone out of a job, should continue to be a growth field that can keep you steadily employed.

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.

What is the Job Outlook for Graphic Design?

Somewhere between good and very good. There are other fields (most of them tech-related) that are growing by leaps and bounds, while motion graphics design is set to grow a little slower than that. There is still a positive job growth forecast, along with healthy salaries available at present, so seeking to make a career in motion design is a thoroughly recommendable option.

Job Outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for the year 2023 place total employment of what they term Special Effects Artists and Animators (which includes Motion Designers along with quite a few other professions) at 73,300. That’s obviously a tiny sliver of an American workforce that consists of 167.8 million souls, but nobody ever said that motion design wasn’t a specialized field. You’re obviously not going to be applying to the same jobs as 167 million people, or even 73,000, since not all special effects artists and animators are motion graphics designers, so there are good chances of securing employment in the field both at present and in the foreseeable future.

Future Growth

Those same BLS figures project 4% growth in the overall sector for the years 2023-33, which is roughly the same as the growth forecast for all jobs. The news could be better, therefore, but it could also be considerably worse, and the sector is set to provide some 3600 new jobs over the decade.

Ongoing consumer demand is anticipated for animation for motion pictures and television special effects, as well as for video games (there will be a continuing demand for increasingly realistic games), which is good news for motion designers. On the other hand, the BLS doesn’t discount the possibility that AI might “dampen demand for this occupation.” Of course, much the same can be said for any creative position these days.

Incidentally and very arguably, the key to holding onto a job in the face of the onward march of AI is to learn to use AI to your creative advantage. The current wisdom is that AI isn’t coming for your job…but the people who can use AI are.

Industries

The principal industries in which motion designers work are (again, according to BLS figures) spread thinly across a number of fields, showing that there are opportunities for motion designers in everything from machinery manufacturing to state and local governments. The sectors that show significant participation of special effects artists and animators are motion picture and sound recording industries (16.3%), publishers and content creators (7.3%) and software publishers (6.0%). Another 8.6% of the motion graphics workforce is occupied in professional, scientific and technical services. Those numbers, you’ll realize, don’t add up to anything near 100%. The missing figure is the 59.5% of the animation workforce that is self-employed. Motion design is definitely a field for freelancers, with all the pluses and minuses that come with that: you get a greater degree of freedom than salaried workers, but the price of that freedom is the lack of a regular paycheck.

Salary

Still using BLS figures, the 2023 median salary for Special Effects Artists and Animators is nearly $100,000 per annum, a healthy number indeed. That’s the median, which means that 50% of all people employed in the sector make less than that figure. On the bright side, 50% of the people employed in the sector make more than $100,000 a year. The range of 80% of the salaries (i.e., eliminating the top and bottom 10% of outliers) is $57,000 to $170,000. Choosing the state with the greatest amount of people employed in the field, California, the median jumps to $130,000 per year. Of those people, 10% make less than $75,000 and 10% make more than $194,000. Other states with large concentrations of people in this field and their median salaries are New York at $100,000, Texas at $86,000 and Washington at $103,000.

How Do I Find a Motion Graphics Designer Job?

Finding a job in the motion graphics field is, to a certain extent, like finding any other. You’re going to have to look at the pons asinorum of job seeking today, Indeed, simply because of the volume of jobs (and scams) to be seen on that platform. Indeed searches can be discouraging indeed, but you’ll have to put up with them, and you may come up trumps after all. Just remember to submit a carefully tailored resume with each application and hope it gets past the application tracking system (ATS) that any employer advertising on Indeed is going to use, simply because of the sheer number of applications their postings attract. You might also consider LinkedIn (since you’ll need to have a LinkedIn profile regardless), although it’s generally not considered the best resource for mograph jobs.

In addition to that rather grim forecast (and, in all honesty, people do find jobs on Indeed), there are sites devoted to either creative talent in general, or to motion graphics professionals in particular. These are definitely worth researching, and include Behance (no relation to the pop singer), Motionographer, and the job boards hosted by the School of Motion. Among these, Behance offers you a chance to exhibit your portfolio for all to see. You’ll be facing less but stiffer competition on these sites, but you’ll also find postings to which you’ll be better suited than some of the more general ones to be found on Indeed.

Learn the Skills to Become a Motion Graphics Designer at Noble Desktop

If you’ve decided that you want to make a career designing motion graphics, you’re going to need training, most particularly in the program that’s going to sit at the heart of your professional labors, Adobe After Effects. Noble Desktop, a well-known design and IT school based in New York City, can help you to become a motion graphics designer without a degree. Noble can teach you what you need to know with its Motion Graphics Certificate program, which includes instruction in After Effects, its sister video editing program Premiere Pro, and the 3D modeling program Cinema 4D. You’ll also have ample time and support to devote to the development of your professional portfolio. There is an even more thorough option, the Video Editing and Motion Graphics Certificate program, which includes everything in the Motion Graphics Certificate program, but is augmented by classroom modules in Adobe Audition, Adobe Photoshop, and state-of-the-art instruction in AI for Video & Motion Graphics. (The AI class is available separately, too.)

Both certificate programs include a number of 1-to-1 sessions with an experienced mentor who can assist you with everything from classroom matters to laying down a battle plan for the job market. You’ll also get a free retake option, be able to consult recordings of every classroom session, and receive fully live and fully hands-on instruction that will have you learning by doing rather than just sitting there like a lump trying to make sense out of video tutorials. You’ll be the recipient of Noble Desktop’s proprietary classroom materials and workbooks, which will be yours to keep for future reference. You’ll also earn a New York State-licensed certificate for your labors at the end of the course, which you can exhibit on your all-important LinkedIn profile.