My Experience as a Motion Designer...
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 28 май 2024
- Thanks to Rive for sponsoring this video. Start designing and animating interactive graphics today.
rive.io/3zKh5om
In this video, I answer your questions about the motion design industry, my experiences, dealing with clients, day rates, salaries, and challenging feedback. Please let me know your worst/strangest client feedback to include in the next Q&A video.
❤ Learn advanced animation skills in my Master Motion Design course:
www.benmarriott.com
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:07 What is the income of a Motion Designer?
00:45 What are the starting, mid & senior day rates for a Motion Designer?
02:18 How to talk money with clients
03:19 How well do big motion design studios pay?
04:09 Worst experience working with a client
05:32 Make interactive motion graphics with Rive
06:58 How will Artificial Intelligence affect the design industry?
08:07 What is the worst part of Motion Design?
09:08 Finding a good work-life balance
10:06 Are Showreels necessary?
10:50 Working for unethical companies
11:10 Motion Design Union
11:36 Art College vs Online Courses
12:27 Release date for Motion Foundation
12:37 How to explain Motion Design
12:54 Keeping motivated when overwhelmed or with creative block
13:06 Sales and Discounts
13:24 The limits of a motion design career
13:27 Where does my sense of humor come from?
13:33 Am I happy?
13:37 What is my dog (Kimchi) up to?
13:46 Tattoos?
13:48 Social Media and Stress
14:01 Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
❤ My Motion Design Foundation course will be released later this year, please feel free to let me know if you'd like me to include anything in the course before I finish recording:
forms.gle/f2X8U4whmoUiYbQY6
Funniest feedback I've recieved; Back when I was working in Soho (I'm now Sydney based) I had a group of clients standing behind me in the studio. I hit preview and ran through the animation on screen, I let it run a couple of times and then stopped it and turned to see what they thought. Then, after a pause, one of them says "I like the bit in the middle, but I don't like all these grey boxes you have put around it". Their fellow clients nodded in agreement. "What grey boxes?" I said, then they pointed around the screen - "These grey boxes.". They were refering to After Effects's interface ;) Not really a lot you can say to that.
haha, well at least that's easy to fix.
To be fair adobe could definetly do better
@@BenMarriott It taught me; Always preview full-screen.
That's incredible!
@@noiythoz7498 How do you do that? Is there a short-cut?
On a flat rate project, I worked an extra day to incorporate feedback that severely clashed with the music. The client said 'It's much better now, but when are you gonna send me a version with audio?' It turns out they had their speakers off and subsequently agreed the first version was better after hearing it with audio.
Someone once said to me if you're too busy as a freelancer then you probably arn't charging enough! I think it is very true. Great video Ben.
My worst client experience was working on a Walmart ad with an motion graphic company. The director shut me down during a zoom meeting with the agency when I tried to ask questions about what they wanted for the animation. Also wasn't sure if it was sexist or ageist, but I definitely felt a tone difference when he talked to me verse my male colleagues.
Worst client experience for me: a fairly big name, well know record label. They came to me asking for my specific style on a project, and even pulled examples from my portfolio, asking me to re-create an approach I had done in the past. So color me surprised when, after receiving the first round of exports, they told me the videos were "not at all what they expected" and "way off the mark."
I ended up doing back-and-forth revisions with them for nearly a month, until the project barely looked like what they had initially asked for. On top of that, they were 3 months late on paying me, only doing so after I threatened to take them to small claims court. Yikes!
On top of all that -- they still occasionally come back to me for work, which I have yet to take them up on 😉
Footnotes:
- These are based on my experiences, your results may vary
- For extra clarification: The best place to find you day rates to is to ask experienced freelancers in you local area
- ozanimate.com has an amazing survey about rates/salaries in Aus, but there website was down when I made this. Hopefully it's back up soon. ozanimate.com/3d/2017-industry-survey-results/
- It's possible to figure out the sequences these were filmed in by tracking the volume of tea in my mug. But it's not recommended.
“Have you seen ads? The things that move in ads … I do that” is verbatim what I tell people 😂
Thanks Ben for being such an exemplary voice in the industry. You really strike the perfect balance of being a stone-cold professional while maintaining that sense of humor and joy we all got into the creative field for in the first place! Keep it up!
Thanks Jef! I struggle to keep that balance in the videos, so I’m glad that’s coming through. Business up front, party at the back 😌
Great video Ben!! Thanks for taking the time to answer everyone’s questions, this is super helpful! What an awesome community 🤩💥
Thanks Ben for this insightful video!
I've just started working full-time as a graphic/motion design recently and it's really great to hear these experiences!
Thanks for your encouragement Ben! You are a legend.
While working full-time, I had a client who was just not satisfied with how their animation was coming together. (It was basically a glorified PowerPoint, and they had supplied all the layouts) They could just not articulate their feedback very well. I think I'm pretty good at clarifying feedback through questions but it just wasn't getting anywhere with this one client. Eventually our company allowed the client to sit over my shoulder while I animated. I left that company soon after 😃
ben thank you for everything, your the reason I got in motion graphic 4 years ago ... keep up the good work and know that you really inspire a lot of people
Ben I have been follwing your journey since 2020 and I always get so excited when you post something, but at the same time, when you don't post something, it makes me happy too because it makes me think you are busy working on client projects or maybe something personal, and to me thats the reailty of the freelance life. Contsantly battling between all the things you have to get done and prioritizing. I started my freelance journey as an animator and motion designer when the pandemic hit and am just now starting to scale my business and get the word out and you have REALLY been a huge inspiration and point of guidance for me personally. I think imposter syndrome is something that we will always have to deal with and mentally push away. I really appreciate your candor and willingness to share your sucess and your struggles. You are not just an amazing animator and content creator, you are also a motivator and inspiration to a large community of others as well, and we are all in this together. Wishing you continued sucess always. Adam.
thank you for your honest answers, very helpful!!!
Loved this video. Been subbed since the early early days and just bought your course. Looking forward to digging in! Thanks for all you do!
Great video, Ben. Love these Q&A posts. Looking forward to the next one!
Ben I'm a motion designer from IRAN and I just wanted to thank you for all your efforts and passionate comments. Been following you for years, not just as a tutor, but a Mentor as well. Thanks mate and best wishes.
Thanks a lot, Ben. Really great to hear all of that.
Keep up the sterling work.
I once had a client literally call me and my team stupid because we couldn't read their minds. They wanted something "new" with this specific request, but they hated every proposal, after countless, nonstop rounds of changes over two weeks, they video came out exactly as it started.
Thank you Ben! I love whenever I see a new video from you (I also love the Kimchi features!)
Great video, and very honest answers! Keep up the good work, your tutorials are really helpful and inspiring.
As always a pleasure to listen and watch your videos.
Thanks Lorcan! I really appreciate the support. I hope this one was useful :)
Hi Ben. Cheers from Perú. You have been my main source of inspiration for years. I really appreciate your work and time :) Thank you!!
Your attitude, encouragement, and perspective are comforting. I’m ready to turn on my light sabre and lead the charge another day
Thank you! As long as it's not red I highly encourage it.
Rest assured…it’s purple
ur precious
Great stuff Ben. Thank you!!!
The last point is a really good one. There's a lot to be learnt in just playing around without worrying too much about ending up with a completed project to post. Being comfortable with just scrapping the project after 6 hours of playing around in after effects is better than clinging on to every little thing you do in the hopes of being able to post it on social media.
Rates have increased significantly during the pandemic. Accepting low rates only hurts us all. When I left regular freelancing in 2020 because I found a client that would pay me as a vendor, I was getting $850+ day rates in NY, and I’m not nearly as good a designer as Ben. All I am is incredibly reliable.
It's really varies on where you and your clients located and costs of living there. In my country you could get junior artist for 1k$ / month, and senior between 2-4k$. I guess living in Australia is expensive, but not as in NY (you're literally poor with less than 100k$/year from what i've heard - may be wrong of course)
Where did your sense of humor come from.... "My insecurites and need to deflect" ... 🤣 - I've not heard a more relatable answer in a long time. Great video all up though, I just felt the need to highlight that. Looking well Ben!
Wow, you're amazing. Awesome video with a lot of introspection. Pls keep including the goofs btw, the breakup from serious to comical here and there makes your charm shine :)
Thanks for the share! Trully inspiring & funny to watch
Great insights as always BM... I think I'm about 8 years as a full time freelancers now in NYC... Came from a "traditional" art background doing shows etc. so majority of my clients were also creatives but slowly more and more corporate clients have come about... My biggest advice for anyone going into freelance would be learn marketing and business just as much as how to push the buttons in particular softwares... Style will get you more work than program knowledge... but at the end of the day you are also an independent contractor and I feel sometimes/ most times you have to become a salesperson and that is the hardest part about my job since I am more of a creative... Worst experiences would be the flakiness of clients and the constant excuses about budgets alongside most clients assume we push a few buttons then a Pixar film plops out in a few days... I find myself repeating myself constantly about render times and blah blah blah... If one more person tells me to send them 3D files to render on their Macbook to save money I think I might go back to university for sanitation... hahaha... As for AI... be worried anyone who is just starting out... I have only even known about it for a year and speed of its progress is extremely fascinating and frightening all at the same time...
Hey thanks for answering :) It was inspirational!
Totally agree on the most difficult part - Agree on Design. Sometimes clients have an exact picture in their head and its really hard to tell them that picture needs to be changed (its rather to complicated and do not fit into the budget or my own skills or their "design" is bad)
I am here because of Kimchi! hahaha! Of course not, but it's one of the reasons haha! great video, Ben, and awesome questions! So happy to see my colleagues here
Love u wrk Ben! tnks for the all this years to the motion craft
Thanks Ben, you always boost my mood) My worst clients were people from mobile application that let me go for 12 round of amendments that was all about their own text ))
great answers - thanks for sharing
Thanks for the video!
Thanks mate, very haelpful.. as always!
Thanks Ben, some useful bits there!
Baffled about your no sale policy, feels a tad harsh but can understand its your perogative.
I’ve worked for 4 or so Buck level studios as freelance - they all paid the rate I requested with out pushback, I worked w them all on several occasions. Just state your rate plainly- “thanks so much for reaching out, my day rate is $xxx, my weekend rate is 1.5x. Looking forward to working with you!” Be honest w yourself about your skill level and charge accordingly. US ranges; Jr400, mid500, sr700+, art direction 800-1000, cd or ultra specialized 1200+.
Thanks man. You're what I call a designer, who is talented and knows things and doesn't keep them to himself.(as far as I see😜)
Thanks Ben!
We love you Ben!!!!!
We love you too Emonee!!!!
Thank Universe for Ben Marriott
Hi Ben, Thanks for the reassuring tips from your experience and your social media tip is very good and true. I think finding your own rhythm is the key to less performance stress and in regards to feedback, I try limit it to 4 different sources and integrate 50% of the feed back and keep 50% of my own opinion, then I have managed to maintain my style.. At the moment i am getting heavy criticism for an educational animation for teachers of English in primary school and kindergarten here in Germany..."You can't throw a Grandma onto the roof of a camper" was the feed back...ok maybe she's right but this teacher had never met my Grandma!.. And anyway I think it is funny and children think that too also, but I will change it alittle, to make a compromise, but Grandma will land on the roof:) just differently... Thanks Ben best wishes...look forward to watching more.
ITS REALLY WORKED LOL THANK YOU DUDE
Thanks Ben
From reading the comments, the most common bad experience with clients is feedback.
Client: "I don't like this (offers no other information as to why or what they'd like changed)" sends a tingle down every freelancer's spine.
Rive looks cool!
Words of wisdom!
Something I found useful about Uni was the dreaded group project. It sucks when someone wants to sleep in and not participate, but also a reality in the industry too. So you learn to take on more work loads and manage your time / divvy up work amongst other members. They also help you learn constructive criticism of others' work and take on criticism too. But still, I'm not sure if it's worth the HECS debt and maybe you can just learn that stuff on the job too...
Spicy rate! haha I'm going to start using that. "You need to charge a spicy rate!"
If they're not sweatin' it's not spicy enough!
@@BenMarriott 100% 😅I'm off to think about how to put this in my next video. 😂
Thank you, good content. Would like to ask your opinion on the first half of 2024? Last year was my worst year ever. Thank you again.
love you ben
Oh you're too kind :)
I was working with a client who wanted to use stock video in an animation but (surprise surprise) didn’t want to pay for anything! So i was using pexels to find all of them, which is fine but you don’t have a lot of choice. I spent hours trying to find videos that fit exactly what they wanted, with the right lighting, right amount of ‘corporateness’ only for them to say they didn’t like them and to find more. I found more and again they didn’t like them and told me to find more that were different lighting and more corporate but not too corporate and don’t have it looking like a stock video oh and can the model be a young adult but not looking like a student.
If you want stock video that’s that specific then pay for it you cheap bastards!
I’m glad all the communication on my end went through the producer because I just wanted to tell them to fuck off and find it themselves lol
Had the same experience, but with music. Was making these short infographic animations and the client wanted music. He actually said "Can't we have some music like Kygo and Avicii makes?" But he didn't want to pay for it....
Haha love the 'uber driver' motion design description, mine is pretty much the same, I have resolved to say "It's a hybrid of graphic design and animation"
Strangest feedback I got was early on in my career when I was freelancing and editing a ton of music videos. It was for a fairly talented artist, been featured on BBC, etc. so overall it was a good project. However right before sign off, her band manager asked if at the end of the video "can we make her smile more please?". We only had one usable take and I explained that we can't change the footage, and he kicked off calling me an amateur and tried to refuse paying us. We never worked with him again 😅
Why not use liquify effect thingies?
Ps: ima beginner btw
I want to start in Motion Design but I can't wait any longer!!! How can I start until you finish the course? Any other course? Advice?
Love kimchi. best intern for labeling layer
I haven't had many really bad client experiences, just ones like:
Me: Ok I'm going to RAM preview it now. It'll play through really slowly while it loads it into the memory, then play normally after that.
Client: Ok.
Three seconds later...
Client: Why's it so slow?
Such a quality lad he did not get the what the dog doin meme
Stay pure, Ben
Oh goddam it, that's actually hilarious. Purity gone
I'm thinking to learn and take on motion design work ( as a new freelancer but trained frame by frame character animator) as it seems to be more in demand. i've been watching for a while but is there any suggestions on were to start/ what to expect?
I have been working for 8+ years as a motion designer and I barely earn $20K a year (this year is shaping up to be $17-18K).
I honestly feel so ashamed about it that I try to dodge the question when speaking to other motion designers, especially since I cannot afford a place of my own.
I'm also 30+, therefore I can't go as a junior in a studio; kinda feel like I failed my whole motion design career and I don't have an other 10 years to try an other approach.
have you tried marketing through tiktok/instagram? you have so much work now i'm sure there's tons of content you could make to market yourself to more clients :)
You can apply for senior roles, you have the experience. My advice would be too make a really good showreel and apply for a senior roles even if it scares you. It's amazing what you can do when the job demand it!
Honestly just start asking for a lot more money and be confident about it. You may think you're not worth that much, but that's for the client to decide and if they end up going for it then everyone's happy. You might lose some cheaper clients, but other clients will most likely negotiate and you'd still be making more than your old rate. Also if your work is up to snuff you can probably just apply for senior positions.
Ooh dude, in Argentina if a motion designer do like 20k a year he can buy the entire country in acouple of years.
I once got feedback that said the design looked 'too much like the storyboard' also had some footage that had been shot on a rainy day and they asked me to 'make it sunny'. Maybe that's one thing that AI can help with in the future aha.
hi ben hope you alright i have a question how much time do u think a begginer would take before he makes a penny out of his work and what is your advice as steps to be followed by a begginer in the first of learning journey, love ur videos keep going ❤️
worst/funniest feedback ive gotten:
us to director: hey can you give us any kind of reference for the animation style you're looking for? anything visually to help describe what we want?
director: guys, I can't give you any reference, because this style of animation has never been done before.
the final product was not so groundbreaking unfortunately.
Juicy thumbnail as well!
Had to get a juice plugin for photoshop to get it to that level
@@BenMarriott jajajaja cool, mind sharing?
Please do an AI related video about motion graphics, Im currently transitioning from graphics design to animation and would love to hear more about this from someone/people who work in the industry!
what's the name of the font you used for the titles in this vid? beautiful font :)
Kiester :) Glad you like the new addition!
Don't know if it qualifies as a client, but I worked for the biggest publisher and the most selling magazine in my country for many years. As I was working on a layout for a story, the lead editor at the company came over and started giving me design changes. This was a first and very unusual. He was good at leading the journalist team, but had no business giving feedback on design choices. So he says "Change this and move that" - different orders that made no sense at all from a designers perspective , and I say "Sure, give me 40 minutes and I'll fix it". Well, he comes back after an hour and I ask him if it looks better now? He says that everything looks much better. I had not changes one single thing on the spread. Not *one* thing. That day I learned to trust my instincts and go with what I feel are the best design choices.
Worst client I've gotten: a public sector infrastructure company in my country needed an animation for the construction process of a project they were trying to win. There were some red flags at the beginning (shuffling meeting schedules randomly, one zoom meeting where they called from a billiards bar), but initially the project went okay and they paid the 50% upfront as normal. Suddenly, halfway through the project when I showed progress my PIC sent very upset messages telling me everything is wrong. When I asked him what was wrong, he kept evading the topic and telling me he'll send me a list of revisions the next day. I asked every day, and he would always evade until at one point he just stopped answering. I got a decent sum out of it, but still was frustrating.
Later on I found out from one of my friends who worked public sector that these government-owned companies basically use freelancers to throw excess funds at (and get a little kickback) during the time of year I got hired, so they get a bigger budget the following year.
amazing
Had a client say that they were afraid to launch the project I had been working for a month on because they said it would risk fuelling international conflict between Kosovo and Serbia because of a scene using a map. They launched it and took it down within 15 min.
Curious what you have to say about AI, all I've heard is very optimistic stuff like "Wow, it's going to be such an interesting tool to use in concept art", where as I'm concerned the concept art department will no longer exist because the big wigs shuttered it and opted to use JUST the AI art as is.
Crazy it's seemingly the most human thing, our creative industries, that have been targeted by AI first.
Hardest & most interesting puzzle to solve
Weirdest feedback I got was asking for me to microscope on the image? I thought they meant to zoom in..like most of us would think but they actually wanted a microscope in the motion design I was designing.
This wasn't a medical company job this was a job for a dj client.
Meanwile in CIS, junior motion designer will get 7500-8000$ per year :)
We want a tutorial! Awesome video tho.
As an animator and motion designer what's the best option? Job or freelancing 🤔🤔
As a very broad statement.. a job first. So you can learn the inner working and process of production then when you're confident in your skills and want a more flexible situation jumping into freelance. I would have floundered if I had gone straight into freelance and not had the security to make mistakes with the buffer of a team and company around me. Others might thrive starting out on there own though.
@@BenMarriott OHH Thanks a lot Ben
Client feedback encounter. Did not like the result I'd gotten to so insisted on sitting with me and wanted to interactively have me tweak all sorts of settings, speeds, colours etc. After a few hours of them aimlessly wandering, we arrived back at more or less what I'd created initially. What clients don't realize is for every one result they see, we animators have tried a dozen or so options that didn't work and every change is made for a reason. Certain things don't work and we know to avoid them in the first place. The customer is not always right.
Further tips: Excise the word "simple" from any brief. Clients do not want "simple". They want cool & engaging. They use the word "simple" because they're trying to talk down the budget.
The biggest curse of payments is the "30-day delay" when you need the cash. At the very beginning, know their payment terms and include a surcharge of 10% for 30-days payment turnaround. Its amazing how clients can suddenly pay sooner to avoid that surcharge.
I think most important question should be: "how do I get the first client"
Do you think Ae can make anime? If it does, please make a video tutorial about this. You have my appreciation♥️
I was hoping someone asked about the impostor syndrome. Sometimes I see your videos and I feel like I'm not doing enough, don't get me wrong I love all the things you do and how you encourage people to keep creating, but I always question myself if someday I could have the same skills
It's the last question
Dunder Mifflin could use a motion designer
Hi, Ben I wanted to ask something too. Do studios hire people for remote working from other countries?
Yes, I worked on a few jobs at Buck with other freelancers in London and Vancouver.
11:36 Actually reminds me of a question I've been thinking about lately, Is it mandatory to have a art degree/bachelor's degree to get work in the industry? Or Is it possible to get work after learning from online courses?
Not mandatory at all. I’ve never been asked about qualifications. Your work and reputation as a good person to work with are all that matter.
@@BenMarriott I see, thank you so much! Can't wait for your new course!
Funny how in portugal junior Motion Designers are struggling to hit the minimum salary which rounds to about 700 € a month
I just found an AI that can operate after effects and respond to notes! honestly wild
What?! how on earth... what's it called? :D
@@BenMarriott and in its free time it can do your laundry
Damn Ben is based
Adding Based motion designer to my resume
@8:00 - Why do you think Stock Photography won't be needed first?
Dall-e 2 and similar image generative AI are pretty darn good at generating a photographic image based on a text prompt, that could remove the need to have a photographer or subject at all.
so its not a question but can you make a video on how i can be effective cause i work 9 hours a day in a company as a graphic comp artist i get 3 days (9 hour wach day) to complete a project which is like 4 - 6 minutes of motion graphic work ( some still art works asre done by other people in the team) , so can ou please make a video to show every possible wa to make your workflow faster (i am an junior artist so i dont have much experience i have like 1 year of professional experience)
Thank you so much for this! I don't have much to add aside from to say that when dealing with imposter syndrome, I always just ask myself: "Are you even good enough to have imposter syndrome?"
We are technically covered by the MEAA here in AU. but tbh I've never felt like they give a shit about our tiny niche. Outwardly they are very journalism and traditional media focused.
Worst client feedback; change of team at a state government agency so we had to re-colour an explainer so it couldn't be associated with the old team. after 3 months of working on it and waiting for final sign off.
Worst moral: getting hired to do one job freelance at a big agency, and then being asked to work on smoking ads for singapor halfway through the booking. I wont touch gambling or smoking clients.
$400-$450 for a daily rate as a freelancer starting out??! Wow! That’s like double what you’d realistically get in the UK!
That was my starting rate in NY in 2005. Don’t let them tell you they can’t afford more, especially not now. No one succeeds when we let them lowball us. You’re worth more!
@@priceblythe212 Appreciate the reply and the supportive advice! I guess we all fall into the trap of, am I worth the amount I want to ask for? And the if I ask for too much then I could end up with nothing worries 😅
stopping at 4:38 gives the impression that kaihin30 made this comment :)
You should watch "A.I Art + ARTISTS: How Our Jobs ARE Changing" by Manu Mercurial
It's a great video showing the state of AI image generators and what it could mean for artist
My experience as a motion designer: find a company that pays you salary. If your plans are to freelance with the limits of Upwork.. well my friend... ur skwwd!
But what is that font in the titles? :)
Kiester :)