‘Takeoff with Motion Graphics’ workshop was a blast!

By Belinda Ivey of KarBel Multimedia

Motion graphic workshop at SND CLT 2017 is a wrap!

I, along with Terence Oliver — a motion graphics professor at the University of North Carolina — wrapped up our rocket-themed motion graphics workshop this past Friday, April 21 at the Society of News Design annual workshop in Charlotte, N.C. We had a full session with more than 30 attendees!

Astronaut fuel!

To go along with our rocket-themed workshop, we provided a little “astronaut fuel” — a goodie bag with Pop Rocks candy and a toy rocket — for our attendees as an appreciation for coming to the workshop. Attendees were grouped by the color of their Pop Rocks candy later on in the hands-on part of the session.

Inspiration and the road to motion graphics

We split our 90-minute workshop into two parts. The first part was a presentation that included an introduction to motion graphics, their popularity and how they can increase the reach of visual stories online. We also shared our own personal journeys, and how we each transitioned with motion graphics from the newsroom to entrepreneurship and teaching. We each shared the first video that inspired each of our journeys. My inspiration was the end credits from “The Other Guys” movie (video below) that was a brilliant motion graphic explaining the 2008 banking crisis and relevant statistics with large banks and the NYPD pension plan. I was hooked with the motion graphics’ cool animated stats and simple animated visuals. A short time later, I produced my very first motion graphic explaining Florida’s foreclosure process based on the design of the accompanying print infographic I created for a business enterprise story.

Lets get hands-on

The second part sorted the attendees into 4 collaborative teams to storyboard a motion graphic based on a script Terence provided from an older project. Using sticky notes, each team brainstormed ideas and drew out their storyboards for a simple motion graphic commercial. Each group then presented their ideas at the end of the session.

Thank you!

I would like to thank everyone that came to the workshop. You made the session great and we hope you left inspired and ready to create amazing animations. I always enjoy meeting creative people and getting inspired by their thoughts and ideas. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did.

Special thanks to Terence Oliver for being a great partner and amazing mentor. And a big shout-out to Adobe for providing some sweet swag for our attendees. I made sure to get the T-shirts, cups and frisbee for my own family.

I look forward to continuing these motion graphic workshops in the future. Hope to see you at the next one!

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