Effects are an important part of a video. From backgrounds to motion graphics or animated elements, these effects make your videos look more professional and enticing. You can find free or low-cost images, art, text, and more if you know where to look.
What Are Motion Graphics?
The term motion graphics refers to text that moves. Movement and sound add interest to the story a video is telling by intensifying the message and capturing the attention of the audience. It can also give important information like the title or end credits. Motion graphics are usually added after the video clips have been chosen and put together into the final sequence.
What is Animation?
While motion graphics deal with moving text, animation is about other elements that move. Not only is animation used in films but also in many other places, including websites, social media, and advertisements. Animation is used to entertain, inform, and tell a story. Animators use software tools to create films or animated elements for advertising agencies, film studios, and gaming companies.
What is Stock?
Stock refers to effects that creators have made available for free or at a low cost. The term usually means generic video footage that is inserted between the main subject clips. Shots of the landscape and nature, people walking, or buildings are common stock images.
Why Use Stock?
Using stock in your video projects can save you time. Why reinvent the wheel if someone else has provided a perfectly serviceable wheel for you to use? Being able to drop in animated text or graphics without having to create them yourself frees you up for more complicated things.
Some Issues with Stock
There are some things to watch out for when using stock. Depending upon the license, anyone can use it, so the effects are not unique, but this isn’t as much of a problem with effects as it is with video footage.
Types of Effects
There are several common types of effects that you can add to a video to make it more interesting and professional-looking.
- Animated text—Movement attracts the eye and when letters and words move, people notice. You can also convey emotion through animated text.
- Transitions—Transitions are the way one video sequence moves into another. The most commonly used transitions are fading in and out, dissolving, wiping, panning, and zooming.
- Filters—Applying filters can change the color of the video and set an emotional tone.
- Animation Plug-ins—Animation is fun and making things move is interesting, so these are good effects to use when you can.
- Overlays—Overlay effects can add depth and interest to a video. Effects like smoke, dust, or fog add a different touch.
Sites Offering Free and Low-Cost Effects
There are numerous sites offering free stock video that you can use, even in commercial projects. Some of these listed below have a premium option that allows you more downloads than the free versions.
- Pixabay has over 2.4 million stock videos, images, and music suitable for use in video projects. This is shared, copyright-free content that can be used in commercial content when you join Pixabay and accept the license agreement.
- Videvo has more than 500,000 clips, motion graphics, video templates, sound effects, and music tracks available to use for free. The content is licensed under Videvo’s Attribution License or Creative Commons 3.0, and you can use them in multiple projects without having to pay again. Many of the clips are free, although there are premium levels that you can subscribe to.
- Vecteezy has free vector art to add to videos.
- Free3D offers free 3D models to add to videos, infographics, and games. Choose from many categories including characters, vehicles, weapons, nature, architecture, and food.
- Hollywood Camera Work offers greenscreen plates and motion tracking plates for you to use to practice special effects. You can use the clips any way you want, but the creators point out that they are fine for practice, but not really high enough quality to include in a video.
- AA VFXprovides motion backgrounds for videos through something they call Unique Individual Content Creation (UICC). Chosen clips are re-rendered to create a clean, unique copy that will not have any copyright issues and you won’t have to worry that your video will be taken down.
- Mixkit has free video templates for Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve.
Training to Be a Motion Graphics Designer
If you are interested in changing careers and working in motion graphics or animation, it’s a good idea to take some classes. There is no formal education necessary, although most Motion Graphics Designers have bachelor’s degrees. You can become a Motion Graphics Designer through self-study and tutorials, but taking classes is a more efficient way to gain these skills. You can choose from in-person classes at colleges or training programs, or sign up for online classes, certificate programs, and bootcamps. Some companies provide on-the-job training but having some familiarity with the field is a definite plus.
You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn Adobe After Effects and other relevant software. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a technical field like motion graphics design is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run for a few weeks to a few months and will cover video editing in much more depth than tutorials can. Another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality sample video portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
It’s easy to learn motion graphics design and start a new career. Check out Noble Desktop’s motion graphics courses. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online motion graphics courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other courses in motion graphics in your area.