taskTHREE: motion graphics

Starting from drawing with pencils and rulers, graphic design has come a long way. The shift was drastic - from hand drawn letterforms to introduction of design softwares to webpages and now to 3D animation.

The scope of motion graphics are vast. Starting with movie titles and credits, commercials, video games, 2D and 3D animation, cartoons, medical and flight simulations.. the list is endless. We see moving images in all forms around us. It is such a common sight, that we fail to even notice it sometimes. Letters can jump and twirl, billboards can have talking cartoons and even street signage today is motion based!

The combination of graphic with movement and sound has resulted in the creation of motion graphics. They are an integral part of the design industry and almost all media based communication today has motion graphics in some form or the other. The development of 3D softwares have only facilitated the growth of motion graphic design. There is a large demand for animation designers everywhere. Still images almost have seem to lose their charm to the moving image. 

In the competitive world of the moving image, there are many designers and design studios worth mention. It's not like the 50's anymore where a pioneer like Saul Bass could be singled out. There were and still are many unsung heros who have contributed to the field.

So to name a few studios which have been doing fantastic work over the past years is simply trying to pick the needle(s) from the incredibly large and tremendously talented haystack.

My first encounter with the moving image was in India when MTV decided to revamp its logo and present their new 'cool' image. Many design studios around the world handle their account and a few are mentioned below.

CRITICA

With its genesis in only 2005, Critica, based in Singapore, is an award-winning graphic and animation studio. They have clients such as CNN, AXN, MTV, Hallmark, Ogilvy and Mather and Lowe. They have a fabulous body of work to boast of. Although their showreel is unavailable on YouTube, the following link is a must watch to see their plethora of motion work and appreciate their brilliantly creative minds also showing that they have so much potential.

Critica Studio Showreel

THANK YOU

A Copenhagen based motion graphic studio, they have a vast variety of work ranging from branding to commercial videos and short films.

Their website is: thankyou studio

Thank You Showreel 07

Channel V in India came up with their very first animated mascot (of sorts) called Simpu. He speaks Hindi and is a funny cartoon and there have been several videos based on him. It was done by Vaibhav Studios.

Channel V mascot Simpu

Animation designer Dhimant Vyas, India, has done the title sequence for the hindi hit movie Taare Zameen Par in 2007. It was a starting point of Indian cinema accepting and creating in-house animation. The sequence is incredibly cute suiting the theme of the movie as it is about a child, and creates the right mood to start off with. It is very imaginative using clay animation and captures the essence of the the protagonist Ishaan, almost already defining him and every child. (The movie is a must watch! And you would probably understand this better after reading a synopsis of the movie at: TZP Synopsis)

Taare Zameen Par animation

Thus, while this highlights only a few of the design studios involved with motion graphics, the scope for the same is limitless. It is going to become easier to create the moving image with the rapid advancement in technology (softwares). It already has extended its wings into all possible communication channels with iconized text messages, they say that the time isn't far when we get our morning newspapers on thin computer screens!