Workflow, Workflow, Workflow

Posted January 17th, 2011 / By Matthew Carlin in Tips

Surprisingly, in this article I’m going to talk about workflow! I thought for this article it would be nice to talk about your motion graphics workflow and how important it is in not only getting work done faster (which means more money!) but also making your motion graphics life easier!

What Do I Mean by Workflow?

Workflow can actually encompass a number of things. It may mean the way you render out your 3D render before you import it into After Effects, using a script or an expression in After Effects to achieve something that would otherwise take you hours to keyframe, doing one part of your project on one machine and another part on another machine that is better suited to the task, or it may even be customizing your program interface so you can do a task in one click rather than 5 clicks. These all form part of your motion graphics workflow.

Ideas to Help Your Worflow

Scripts

One way to help your workflow is to use the various scripts that are available online in both motion graphics applications such as Cinema 4D, Maya and After Effects, but also scripts that are available for operating system such as Mac OS X in the form of automator actions. The will all help either create something in the applications or in OS X’s Automator’s case can help with tedious tasks, such as renaming a bunch of files.

Applications

Applications can also be another way to improve your workflow. Some applications will be more suited to a particular job than another, so you’ll either be able to do a job better or quicker with another application.  Apple’s Final Cut Studio suite is a nice example of this in action. Final Cut Pro does a brilliant job for editing video, but when it comes to editing audio Soundtrack Pro is better suited to this job.  The same goes for colour correction–Final Cut Pro does a good job of colour correction, but Apple’s Color application does a much better job at it. Investigate other applications that might help you, don’t just stick to one just because you know it.

You can also usually customize you interface in your application, this is another way to  help your workflow.

Library of Elements

Something I have started doing recently is organizing a folder on my hard drive with a number of library elements–things I commonly use to help speed up my workflow process.  These elements could be lit scenes or models in a 3D package, an After Effects file with some nice animation in it, or even vectors and other graphic elements which I have created which I’m likely to use again.  You can even use items such as HDRI Light Kit Pro in this library.  It doesn’t just have to be elements that you have created, it may be models, etc. that can be found or purchased online.

Hardware

Have a spare computer lying around?  Put it to good use, if you can! You can potentially use that old machine to help out a render as part of a render cluster, or, if it’s not high powered, how about using that machine just for your admin, leaving your main machine free of the clutter.  Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s totally useless!

One True Workflow?

Is there one true workflow for motion graphics–a perfect sequence of steps?  In my opinion, there isn’t.  There are certainly things which I think every motion designer should learn how to do which will help there workflow, but I don’t think there is a perfect workflow.  Each person works slightly differently, and what might work for one person might not work for another.

I suppose I’ve only really scratched the surface of workflow in this article, but it would be great to expand on this after hearing what other motion designers out there do to help there workflow.  Have you got any tips to help workflow?  What’s your method?

Hi, I’m Matthew Carlin from Nottingham in the United Kingdom. I’ve been writing about motion graphics on Motion Design Love for a while now, as well being a Video Editor and Motion Designer by Day. I probably spend most of my waking hours either doing something with motion graphics or thinking about stuff I can do with motion graphics. I’m looking forward to writing some great articles for Fuel Your Motionography, I hope you’re all looking forward to reading them!