Creativity for Dummies

Inspiration can be hard a lot of times. What do I do when I can't think of a design for a motion graphic, I turn to a couple of websites for help!

1. Youtube

A simple Youtube search of "after effects..." and whatever else you want, will give you a plethera of results that you can view. A lot of times too, there are tutorials that can help you learn how to make the graphic. I find myself going between a lot different videos, pulling aspects of each video until I get my final result.

2. VideoHive

What is Videohive? Videohive is a website that sells all kinds of high quality motion graphics. While I don't advocate the purchasing of graphic templates, I think they're a great resource to get some ideas of what you want to do. They have everything from simple looking animations, to complex designs. After spending only 10 minutes on this website, I'm sure anybody could get a good idea of something they want to do.

3. Motionspire

This one should be pretty self-explanitory. Motionspire is a hub to show inspirational graphics, animations, videos, etc. from all around the web! I've only recently discovered this website, but oh man, I already love it! It's simple to use interface, and easy to navigate gallery make this website a great addition for anyone looking for ideas. 10/10, would recommend.


Now these are only a couple of the many websites out there for you to use, but I thought I should share the places that I personally go to.

Videohive Templates

I was browsing some football related animations, and I came across a Videohive After Effects template that was designed to be an easy download allowing anyone to update the text on the animation to personalize the animation to their specific needs. Videohive is a website that is powered by Envato, and they do a lot of templates like this for anyone interested in looking at their downloads.

This specific template I saw was created to be an animation used to introduce a high school foootball team. They used particles of grass blades flying up from the text falling down onto it on a football field, and it is a pretty impressive animation. It's easy to see why someone would want to download it instead of spending so much time creating something themselves, particularly if they were less After Effects-savvy.

Other project files and templates by Videohive can be found here.

VideoHive

VideoHive is a site which allows you to sell and purchase royalty-free video footage and motion graphics. The items can be previewed on the site before they are purchased. Basic items start out costing just a couple of dollars. Authors of the material make 50-70% of each item sold. This site seems to be a great way to acquire intricate or specialized graphics at an affordable price. The website is: http://videohive.net/category/motion-graphics