Are Motion Graphics Bootcamps Worth It?

Enrolling in a motion graphics bootcamp provides training in skills for becoming Animators, Motion Graphics Designers, and Video Editors. Motion graphics facilitate designing animated graphics that combine text, sound, motion, and visual effects for commercials, movies, TV shows, YouTube videos, and social media. Skills in motion graphics can also be used for developing content for video games. Training to learn motion graphics can lead to work in a variety of industries, including marketing agencies, tech companies, film studios, and television stations.

What Is Motion Graphics?

Motion graphics is an area of graphics design that involves developing animated digital graphics used in web layouts, apps, film, television, and online media content. Motion graphics include using applications like Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Premier Pro, and Photoshop for being able to create dynamic graphic designs that can help with finding work in today’s competitive digital labor market. Skills with motion graphics can be vital for finding work in several industries, including digital marketing and web design. Training in motion graphics provides options for careers in several areas related to animation and graphic design along with finding work in entertainment, information media, and education.

What Can You Do with Motion Graphics?

Learning motion graphics can open the door to new careers as well as providing Designers with creative growth. Training in software associated with motion graphics can lead to employment in a variety of industries and professions such as web design, video games, television, film, and online advertising. 

Through learning motion graphics, prospective Graphic Designers can create engaging animations that can be included in a portfolio for appealing to potential employers. Tools used for working in motion graphics include Adobe software like After Effects, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Learning these applications can help students find work for designing complex animated graphics that includes digital animations, animated logos, and kinetic typography. Many of these design tools allow Graphic Designers to create complex animation with the skills needed for working in various capacities.

Skills with motion graphics can lead to work in film editing with digital technology used in today’s film and television industries. Knowledge with motion graphics can contribute to finding work as a Motion Graphics Designer, Video Editor, or Animator for developing effects related content. Work in motion graphics can include becoming part of an organization’s design team tasked with developing animated effects or other elements for work in film, television, and digital media. Skills in motion graphics can help with expanding any ambitious Graphic Designer’s skill set for designing and developing animated graphics and kinetic typography.

Why Learn Motion Graphics in a Bootcamp?

Enrolling in a motion graphics bootcamp provides hands-on training that gets new learners familiar with technical concepts that can lead to work in visual design. For anyone considering training in motion graphics, bootcamps offer immersive training within a compact timeframe that gets prospective Motion Graphic Designers ready to step right into a new career through in-person or virtual learning from various education providers.

Bootcamps Compared to College

Ambitious Graphic Designers who are considering training in motion graphics have plenty of options available to them. This includes earning a college degree in graphic design with an emphasis in motion graphic that can lead to a variety of professions. A college degree with motion graphics usually involves majoring in graphic design and can take four years, including general education and science courses at a university as well as theory and history related to design. By contrast, a motion graphics bootcamp offers immersive training in a compact timeframe that typically takes a few weeks or months to complete.

A bootcamp can provide training in motion graphics for working in animation, visual effects, or video editing that can lead to careers as Motion Graphic Designers, Animators, 3D Animators, or Video Editors. Bootcamps provide industry-standard training in motion graphics for creating stand-alone videos, animation, special effects, and animated titles learned from lessons in hands-on projects through a much more compact method of training for becoming a design professional.

Motion graphics produce animated graphic designs that combine text, audio, motion, animation, and visual effects that can be used with social media, YouTube, and commercials. Motion graphics can be used to create content and material used in movies, television shows, advertising, and video games. Skills with motion graphics can lead to working at a film studio or TV station as well as working on websites and social media platforms as an occupation that offers flexibility for working full-time or part-time with an organization or as an independent contractor.

College students can learn motion graphics through a BFA major in graphic design or digital animation for training in various animation and animation-related concepts for learning fundamental principles and techniques. A degree related to motion graphics requires taking courses in traditional animation, 2D animation, 3D animation, and stop motion animation as well as motion graphics. A major in graphic design or digital animation will usually take up to four years for earning an undergraduate degree. The largest hurdle for people already working in graphic design might be finding the time to navigate a rigid college schedule along with tuition, which can get expensive at a traditional university.

By contrast, bootcamps are designed to help students interested in a tech-related graphic design education for balancing being able to work at a current job while training to learn motion graphics to get a better job. Bootcamps provide immersive training for learning motion graphics with a more flexible class schedule at a lower cost than pursuing a college degree. Additionally, while a college degree for learning motion graphics may require enrolling in classes to learn history and theory related to visual design or animation, a bootcamp takes a lean and mean approach to technical training with hands-on projects involving a particular application or procedure for learning about Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, animated logos, or video editing.

Among the difficulties with motion graphics bootcamps when compared to earring a college degree could be with the accelerated timeline. While the condensed timeline is usually considered to be one of the advantages with choosing bootcamps, the limited format may not allow students the opportunity to get used to working with a difficult procedure or with adapting their own approach for handling a particular technique through trial and error. Another drawback could also be that bootcamps might require more work to be done outside of the classroom without as much time available as there might be with a semester length college course. On the other hand, the scheduling and lower costs with bootcamp training may ultimately make it a better choice than attempting a college degree for learning motion graphics.

Bootcamps Compared to On-Demand Courses

While in-person and live online bootcamps provide an efficient way of learning skills with motion graphics, many people have obligations that may not allow them to participate in a set class schedule. For those people, on-demand (asynchronous) courses offer self-paced tutorials, typically with videos, that students can access at their discretion. Self-paced course allows for flexibility that should fit any work schedule.

The length of time for learning any new skill related to motion graphics will depend on an individual. Some people may have graphic design experience and want to add to their skills through learning the basics of motion graphics through introductory courses for After Effects, Premiere Pro, or other visual design applications that can enhance knowledge and expand skill sets beyond static graphic design for working in video, web design, and digital media. Of course, people with the time can enroll in an in-person or live online full-time or part-time class. However, for people whose schedule doesn’t allow the flexibility for participating with a rigid class schedule, enrolling in an on-demand course offers them a convenient option.

Busy but determined Designers can enroll in an on-demand motion graphics course for being able to fit learning new skills into a busy schedule. For example, Skillshare offers the self-paced Online Motion Graphics Classes that provides training in motion graphics techniques, topics, and tools such as software like Looom, After Effects, and Cinema 4D. This motion graphics and digital animation course aims at beginner-level learners as well as professional Designers hoping to expand their skills set by learning techniques in 2D and 3D animation, character animation, looping animated GIFs, and logos as well as motion graphics. Through this course, students will learn how to create animated illustrations, animated logos, and 3D animations at their own pace and time within the timeframe set for this on-demand class. This course provides training through short hands-on lessons with motion graphics projects. 

On-demand courses are typically less expensive than bootcamps. The biggest drawback with on-demand classes is with the lack of a live instructor for real-time interaction and getting feedback. While there is usually feedback through instant messaging or email, there may not necessarily be opportunities for a live exchange or conversation. And while a virtual bootcamp may seem just as impersonal as on-demand courses due to the distance of an online environment, live online bootcamps offer the opportunity for real-time conversations during class for being able to ask questions and get feedback. While one the benefits of on-demand training allows students to be able to complete assignments whenever they choose, the format may also make them feel more isolated.

Bootcamps Compared to Free Training Options

There are free learning options with motion graphics available from a variety of online education providers. For those who don’t feel quite ready to take on formal training for learning motion graphics that can lead to working in several areas related to visual design, including animation, visual effects, and video editing, online education providers like Coursesity have several free Online Motion Graphics Courses available through its platform. Anyone interested in initiating learning about motion graphics and related software can also take advantage of Udemy’s free Basic Animation in After Effects course or its free Learn Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial. Additionally, Alison’s Free Online Motion Graphics Course can also get the ball rolling for about learning motion graphics.

Noble Desktop also offers free video tutorials related to learning about motion graphics with the Get Started in Motion Graphics seminar, which provides practical insights related to creating animated graphics as well as getting familiar with related software for working in web design, digital marketing, or social media. This free webinar introduces new learners to designing animated graphics to use in a variety of capacities. Other motion graphics related tutorials available through Noble Desktop include the Intro to Adobe After Effects seminar, the Intro to Premiere Pro seminar, the Intro to Adobe Illustrator seminar, the Intro to Cinema 4D Lite seminar, and the Get Started in Video Editing seminar.

People hoping to get familiar with motion graphics can also find plenty of videos on YouTube for learning the fundamentals associated with that area of graphic design with explanations and demonstrations of techniques and procedures. While, of course, many of the YouTube videos are produced by non-professionals, much of their knowledge for offering advice comes from experience through trial and error, which can benefit new learners.

The biggest drawback to free tutorials is that they have a limited scope. While free online tutorials and videos are a good way for becoming familiar with concepts related to motion graphics, these seminars typically provide only a skin-deep immersion into a subject. However, these free seminars can be beneficial for amateurs and hobbyists who are looking for just enough insight to make whatever blog or presentation they’re working on look more professional. 

Learn Motion Graphics Skills with Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop provides training through a variety of motion graphics courses and bootcamps that can train you in animation, visual effects, and video editing that may lead to careers as Animators, Motion Graphic Designers, 3D Animators, or Video Editors. These courses include Noble Desktop’s After Effects Bootcamp with training in an industry-standard motion graphics application for creating stand-online videos, animation, visual effects, and animated titles from lessons with hands-on projects. You can also choose to enroll in the Noble Desktop Motion Graphics Certificate program for training in motion graphics, animation, and video editing for creating visual effects with Adobe After Effects, Maxon Cinema 4D Lite, and Adobe Premiere Pro. There are also options for training related to motion graphics through enrolling in Noble Desktop’s Video Editing Certificate program for skills in video editing, graphic design and audio editing with training in Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Audition.