Motion is applied to illustrations with the intent of enhancing the learning content by guiding learners through complicated problems, telling meaningful stories, and focusing the student's attention on specific elements at crucial moments in the video. It helps learners better understand the concepts by showing them instead of just telling them.
At eCornell our Motion Design is:
Purposeful
Our Motion Design doesn’t obscure or distract from the content. Motion is uniquely effective in its ability to sequentially explain ideas and focus on what's important. Too many moving pieces can confuse and overwhelm. Instead, add motion to only what’s necessary to get the point across while leaving other parts static.
Concise
Craft your animation to be straightforward and succinct in how it conveys our content. The more you try to pack in, the longer, more complicated, and more ineffective the animation will become.
Simple
Our motion design style aims to reach all students by communicating with the clearest visual language. Remove the unnecessary visual clutter to create a clear and simple experience. Add motion to only what's vital to understanding the content. Don’t overcomplicate it — our motion is used to enhance meaning and the user experience.
Consistent
Consistency defines our framework for how we present information and make it understood. It is foundational to creating a sense of continuity, reason and purpose.
As the last step in the animation process the Motion Designer is in a unique position with unique responsibilities. In addition to being an animator, they are a problem solver with a great deal of influence on the overall effectiveness of our product. Previously undetected issues with audio, video, typos, etc. must be addressed at this stage. The Motion Designers should take it upon themselves to make needed corrections if possible or bring the issue to the attention of the Art & Animation Supervisor.
Generally speaking, the Illustrator provides information describing the intended motion(s) and timing that will form the animation. It is the Motion Designer's duty to apply this motion, evaluate the effectiveness of the animation and make minor adjustments to increase its overall effectiveness. Any perceived necessary changes to the actual content must be brought to the attention on the Instructional Designer prior to any changes being made.
Creative (Art & Accessibility) decisions are the responsibility of the Illustrator, ID, & Art Director. The Motion Designer is expected to utilize scale, position, movement, etc. to draw attention to specific elements at appropriate moments during the animations. Remember that animation is a creative process with the ultimate goal of enhancing the students’ ability to understand the information being presented. With that in mind, Motion Designers are encouraged to explore variations in support of that goal while still respecting the established guidelines and best practices.
Motion Design Course Template
The Motion Design Template is the starting point for each video. Make sure to start each AE project with the most recent Motion Design Course Template.
How to use the template:
The template is broken down into sample comps to be used for basic layout information, text examples, and icon motion/sizing examples.
Layout positioning
The layout is limited to the four X position options which are represented in “Screen Position Null” (top layer)
Faculty video
(bottom layer) X position is connected to the “Screen Position Null” and must remain so.
text motion ( Text Template )
Within the template there are examples that represent common layouts and motion but variations will be provided in artboards from time to time. Best practice is to emulate the sample motion as closely as possible with each variation.
icon motion/sizing
Within the template there are several “Icon Circle” layers that represent common sizing and positioning of icons. Best practice is to utilize the provided Icon Circle (contains a radial wipe and sizing) to initially introduce the icon. Scale the artwork contained inside the circle (provided by Illustrator in an artboard) from 0 to 100 with “Ease and Wizz” plugin set to “Back out, Expo in”.
