School of Motion Podcast

Motion Graphics covers a huge range of skills... Like design, animation, editing, directing, 3D, and much more. There’s a lot of work that goes into one piece, and often there’s a huge team behind some of the best work out there. But occasionally you’ll find a Unicorn in this industry, someone who can do a lot more than just design or animate. In this episode of our Podcast we talk to Onur Senturk, a Turkish born director who is best known for his work on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo titles. Onur’s skills are not limited to directing alone, he also designs, animates, and he understands the most technical parts of using 3D software. In this interview Joey digs into Onur’s brain and tries to figure out how he comes up with the incredible visuals that he's known for, and how he juggles the conceptual and creative side of this field with the really technical side. They get into the nitty gritty of what it's like to direct for Motion Graphics, working all over the world, and even how much you can make being a director for MoGraph. If you're curious what it's like to direct in this industry you will get a ton out of this episode. Check out the show notes for this episode here: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/beyond-the-dragon-tattoo-directing-for-mograph-onur-senturk

Have you ever wanted to work with no pants on… No commuting, no clients, just you and your creativity cranking out cool stuff and then making tutorials. Sounds like the dream, right? It totally is, and School of Motion is not the only place where that dream is a reality. There are quite a few places with people making a living off of tutorials including our good buddy Nick Campbell, founder of Greyscalegorilla. In this episode Nick goes deep into what it’s like making a living off of creating amazing tutorials and other products to help the MoGraph community. He tells the story of how Greyscalegorilla got its start, how he built it into what it is today, and gives some great practical advice on how to take the leap into starting your own business. Hint: It’s not as simple as sitting in your PJ’s making cool stuff. Check out this episode on our site: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/how-to-be-a-greyscale-gorilla-nick-campbell

DP's are like real-world 3D artists. Think about it. They have to take a three-dimensional world and use cameras and lights and objects and people to produce an image that is two-dimensional. It's a difficult task, and anyone who's ever opened up Cinema 4D understands the challenge in using 3D tools to create an image that isn't 3D. Mike Pecci is a master of his craft. He's a Director and D.P. who has been creating stunning imagery for clients as varied as Bose and Killswitch Engage. In this episode of our podcast Mike talks about ways to think about camera and lighting (among other things) that have helped him learn to hone his image-making ability. All of this knowledge can be translated into 3D, and if you use Cinema 4D you're going to want to take notes. Check out the show notes here: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/lighting-and-camera-tips-from-a-master-dp-mike-pecci

Design sure is hard, ain't it? That's one of the reasons we built Design Bootcamp. In that course we dig into the principles of design but, more importantly, how to apply those principles in the real world. Knowing color theory is great, but when you're looking at a blank screen in Photoshop it's not enough to know what a triad color scheme is... you need to have some tricks up your sleeve to make the design process happen on your client's schedule. Part of the Design Bootcamp experience is the course podcast. All of our big courses have them, and we interview some of the industry's best artists so we can dig as much knowledge and as many workflow tips as possible out of them. Normally registered students of these courses get to hear these episodes, but we wanted to share some of the amazing content with you. In this episode, we've compiled some of the best tips from over 12 hours of Design Bootcamp podcast audio. You'll hear from Kevin Dart, Joe Donaldson, Bee Grandinetti, Ryan Moore and Andrew Brown of Gretel, Erica Gorochow, and My Tran. Check the show notes for links to their work, and check out Design Bootcamp for the full podcast series and an incredible Design education. Check out the show notes here: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/design-tips-from-designers

We’ve all been there… You’re working on a project in After Effects and BAM, brick wall. After Effects just doesn’t have the feature that you need. It’s times like this that we all turn to places like aescripts + aeplugins, and to the real MoGraph heros, the plugin and script developers. They create the tools that we Motion Designers need to get our jobs done, or maybe just make our lives easier. If you’ve ever used an AE plugin, script, or expression you’re going to want to check out this interview with Zack Lovatt. You might not know him by name, but you probably know some of the tools that he’s worked on, like Flow and Explode Shape Layers. In this episode of our Podcast Joey gets the inside scoop on what it’s like to be a plugin developer for After Effects. They talk about everything you could want to know about becoming a developer, from how to get started to how much you can make (hint; it’s more than just beer money), and even what the future of developing tools for After Effects might look like. Check out this episode on our site: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/how-much-do-after-effects- script-developers-make-a-chat-with-zack-lovatt

Nuke is the better tool... ...for compositing. After Effects is king in many areas (like animation) that are important to us Motion Designers, but Nuke is a far more powerful tool for compositing things like VFX and 3D passes. Now, as a Motion Designer you might think that knowing compositing is a waste of your time, but if you’ve hung around School of Motion long enough you know that compositing is a super important skill that every MoGrapher should know at least a little bit of. Not only will you be able to land more jobs, you’ll also be able to think like a compositor which is a very valuable skill to have in your arsenal. Compositing Pro-Tips from a Master. In this episode of our Podcast Joey is going to pick the brain of Hugo Guerra, who is an absolute compositing genius. Hugo is so good at what he does that he ran the entire Nuke division at The Mill in London. He also has a YouTube channel called Hugo’s Desk where he shows you how to composite like a pro. Hugo drops a TON of knowledge bombs in this one and by the end of it you’ll be itching to dive deep into the compositing world, and maybe even learn some Nuke yourself. Check out this episode on our site: http://www.schoolofmotion.com/smoke-without-fire-compositing-pro-tips-hugo-guerra/

There is a TON of MoGraph work out there. If you’re only checking it out at places like Motionographer (who we love very dearly), you’re only seeing the tip of a massive MoGraph iceberg. Our goal here at School of Motion is to expose you to as many sides of the industry as possible, not just the work that big MoGraph studios are putting out. Let’s talk Television…. In this podcast episode Joey talks to the very funny and extremely passionate husband and wife duo, Joke and Biagio. They run Joke Productions, a small studio that does unscripted TV programs, which is a very broad genre of film that covers everything from reality TV shows like Jersey Shore to documentaries. Over the years these two have worked on all manner of unscripted film for networks like MTV, Oxygen, NBC, CNN, and many more. With all of that experience they give us a ton of insight into the process of producing unscripted television. They also have some very solid, actionable advice that you can use right away to break into the TV production word; from getting booked doing MoGraph for TV shows to designing with a kit mentality. Check out this episode on our site: http://www.schoolofmotion.com/going-unscripted-world-producing-reality-tv/

When it comes to location L.A. is undoubtedly the best place for a motion designer to network and thrive, but that’s not to say that studios in other parts of the country are doing less-cool work. One great example is the team at Digital Kitchen. For years Digital Kitchen has been churning out incredible work and they just added one of the best MoGraph creative directors, Ryan Summers, to their team. Ryan’s passions and hard-work have led him to work on projects for Guillermo Del Toro, Starbucks, and National Geographic, among many other incredibly cool clients. In this podcast episode Joey sat down with Ryan to discuss how he rose to the top of the MoGraph world. Ryan takes us on a journey from his upbringing in South Chicago, to his freelance career in L.A., to his homecoming at Digital Kitchen. This episode is packed full of helpful info and tips for freelancers and aspiring motion designers. Check out this episode on our site: http://www.schoolofmotion.com/do-creative-directors-actually- create-anything-with-ryan-summers/

As a motion designer NAB isn't just a conference, it's really a rite of passage. With over 100,000 attendees there is no bigger platform to network with people from around the industry. It's an insanely huge event, and if you've never been to it you're going to want to listen to this Podcast. In this episode Amy, Joey, and Caleb talk all things NAB and Vegas giving you all the tips and tricks you need to know to make it through Vegas (mostly) unscathed. Check out this episode on our site: http://www.schoolofmotion.com/nab-2017-motion-design/

Think back to the last time you cut a reel... It probably went something like this. You sat in front of the computer, picked out that perfect track of music, found all of your projects, brought them into After Effects, and then you had to make a TON of decisions.... What shot do I chose? When do I cut? Is there a better shot for this? Did I cut that too soon? What beat of the music do I cut on? Is that shot too long? Does that shot look good next to that other one? Is that shot too slow? There's no expression or plugin to help you cut a good reel. You need to learn how to... Think like an Editor. We've got a new Podcast episode ready for your ears featuring Mike Radtke, the Editor Extraordinaire from Digital Kitchen. This time Joey plays devils advocate to really dig into why we need editors in our industry, why MoGraphers don't do both jobs, and what a MoGrapher can learn from the editing world to get better at their own craft. Check out this episode on our site: http://www.schoolofmotion.com/why-do-we-need-editors/