How and why did you first get into motion design?
Since a young age, I always loved animation, particularly the silver age of Disney 2D animation and 90s anime. In addition to this I loved editing videos since the early days of YouTube – making anime music videos and video game montages. I went on to study animation at college and eventually at university.
I first started as junior motion designer at A-Ten almost 11 years ago after graduating university. I stayed for 3 and a half years, working my way up to a mid-weight motion designer before eventually pursuing a freelance career. Last year I felt like I missed working within a team and started looking for roles when a position was offered to me back at Article Ten.
Can you walk us through your creative process, from concept to final product?
I’ve always loved the pre-production stages of motion design, from the initial idea phases to brainstorming with the other designers here. I’ll often scribble my own ideas and storyboards to get an idea down and then begin to evolve it with a designed storyboard for the client. After this we hope to get approval from the client and start animating.
Animating will start with an animatic to figure out the length and flow of the video, I’ll then start animating the elements, text and characters. Once this is complete, I like to try and refine the animation where I can, add sound effects and finish the video off.
Is there a particular style of animation that’s your favourite right now?
Overall, I prefer 2D animation, so I look to a lot of Japanese animation studios but generally, I always look at who is pushing the needle creatively – recently that’s Sony Pictures Animation with K-Pop Demon Hunters.
What’s the key to effectively putting a brand’s identity into motion?
I try and consider how the brand is perceived by people, are they a sleek, prestigious brand that requires more rigid movement? Or are they a more lighthearted, eccentric brand where the movement can be bouncier? When you understand that, you can work out how to design and animate for them, whether you want to play it safe and follow guidelines or try and take what is there evolve / elevate it.
What are your design inspirations and who are your design heroes?
Tetsuya Nomura, a character designer for the Final Fantasy series is my ultimate hero! Ultimately, I am inspired by video games and find them to be the pinnacle of creativity in terms of art, design and storytelling. I also love the surreal / visual direction of filmmaker David Lynch.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I’m always playing video games, drawing or spending time with my cats! I also love film photography and collecting records.
Finally, what advice would you give to people looking to move into a motion design role?
Have a solid understanding of the animation principles, filmmaking knowledge – and design understanding too. Be adaptable to changing styles as you’ll be working with different brands all the time who require varying styles of animation.
