The language of movement

The role of a motion designer is caught in a strange duality. Motion design is a free and abstracted form of visual art – a kinetic expressionism. However, our tools are notoriously complex, demanding a level of granular control that necessitates constant context switching between the technical and the aesthetic. 

The space that must be closed is the gap between the conception of an idea and the reality of its execution.

This tension sits at the heart of every motion piece. The solution for how something is going to be built often dictates what will be built. Heavy and awkward flow slows down ideation and withers our ability to orchestrate beautiful movement. And so the ability to create rigs, setups and systems through code and procedural workflows becomes the key that unlocks the entire frontier of possibilities within the medium. 

Above: A Moho Animation Software demo, illustrating how a 2D rig can be used to reduce the number of levers that have to be pulled to achieve a desired outcome.

Imagine trying to animate a car by manually calculating the pump of each piston or the compression of every spring. It would be an exhausting chore that leaves no room for the feel of the drive. Instead, we build a system, a digital chassis. Now you’re driving the car with the steering wheel and pedals. This technical prep work means that once the vehicle is built, there’s no need to worry about the physics of the axle. We can focus entirely on the feeling of the journey, in the driver's seat rather than the garage.

When a project shifts from exploration to exhausting, repetitive execution, good creative takes a back seat to "good enough".

The space that must be closed is the gap between the conception of an idea and the reality of its execution. The more we can narrow that gap, the easier it is to stay in a flow state and craft movements that express the specific feeling we are trying to capture. The solution lies in technical setups. Whether using a rig or a script, the more we can reduce the number of levers we have to pull to get a desired outcome, the more we can push to find the perfect rhythm. 

Above: Entropico’ short doc Behind the Curtain revealed how Google Cloud helped bring The Wizard of Oz to the Sphere venue in Las Vegas.

The ultimate goal for any complex rig or procedural workflow is to reach a point where interacting with the technology becomes natural. Instead of fighting the software, you are a child again, playing with a box of toys. The controls move intuitively, rigs spring to life, and ideas pour forth. Execution becomes immediate, as does iteration. We create the space to try concept after concept because ideas can be implemented in minutes, not hours. 

Feedback is no longer a daunting thought of lost labour, but a prompt to perfect our craft. Staying in this state of play is the essential fuel for the creative journey. When a project shifts from exploration to exhausting, repetitive execution, good creative takes a back seat to "good enough." 

This is a problem that has plagued traditional 2D animation, where the animation is fully designed in rough, but then must be painstakingly cleaned up and coloured, repetitive work that takes far longer than getting the initial idea onto the page. The software MoHo is starting to break down that workflow, allowing users to create “digital puppets” that look just like hand drawn animation, and the work being produced by houses like Cartoon Saloon and Studio Spud speaks for itself.