Friends, my name is Artyom and I want to tell you about my experience in Motion Design. I began to study in this area in June 2019, it was then, having in my head only beautiful animations of various videos and a wild desire, I began to be actively interested in this. I want to tell you about the process and difficulties when creating a project about the Dota 2 game.
How it all started
Actually, what does Dota 2 have to do with it?
For those who are not in the know. Dota 2 is a computer multiplayer team game in the multiplayer online battle arena genre developed by Valve Corporation. The game is a sequel to DotA, a custom modification map for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne add-on to it.Today, Dota 2 is wildly popular, and there are no analogues in this genre for it, but this is just my opinion. Literally about a month ago, I had an idea, what if I do, a cool video about a game in the style of Motion Desigh.
Motion Desigh is a visual design for video, television and film. It is created mainly by using computer technology. But often there are also works created using the classical techniques of filming on video, mainly combined or animation.
This is exactly the motion that inspired me.
Of course, a lot of video content has been made on the game, but mostly these are movies. I want to do something different, not at all like a movie. So to say, break the templates!
Project start
To visualize and implement the idea, I decided to work in programs that are related to 3D modeling and the ability to animate objects.
For myself, I made the following definition of my project.
A video about Dota is the most modern style of graphics, dynamic, bright and extraordinary.
These are the first sketches that I see in this video, what colors, fonts, characters.
I think that when working in Motion Desigh, it is very important that there is some kind of inspiration in the project. In my case, I love to stick on Vimeo or Behance for the guys' projects. Thus, I enjoy the process.
After everything was formed in my head, I decided to “go to people” and get an opinion of what they wanted to see in such a video (or a video, I got confused myself).
In various sources, I was looking for small communities, showing them my sketches and came to the conclusion - Dota is loved for its action, dynamism and unpredictable development of events. I realized that I have to convey this in my video.
First steps of implementation
Morning. The cup of coffee is already brewed, I open the simulation program and realize that I am a complete zero. An hour later, I just figured out how to create cubes and balls with cylinders.
The first steps of a baby in 3D modeling
Having dropped down for another 30 minutes, I realized that this will not work. Having climbed the forums, I came to the conclusion that in the creation of 3D objects there is an analogy of sketches, that is, first we make cubes with balls, and then everything else. This is called blocking.
Since I draw partly, I decided to first let myself know what I want on paper. Threw in several options, and already had an idea of how to proceed.
Here are my doodles
After sitting for another hour on the forums and in Telegram chats, I started to implement the first scene. It was not an easy matter. The first difficulty was that it was necessary to correctly position the camera, which would follow my "creations". Having achieved the desired result, I proceeded to create the scene itself.
My first experience in 3D and Motion Design
The idea behind this scene is to show each player's role in the game. There are 5 of them, two of them are the same (Almost). In the center there will be a character from the game who is popular for this role, and around him (her) there will be popular items. To this we add various kinds of references to players, events, etc.
And here are a couple more scenes that I did at the time of publication of the article.
Of course, it all looks primitive, but the output will be candy. The main thing is to make a sketch, a concept with the animation of objects that is needed and the movement of the camera. Next, work out the scene in more detail.
Of course there will be other scenes in the video, not just this one. In part 2, I will show in more detail what I "did not create" there.
Summarize
Motion Design is not something simple and once mastered, you need to think over every animation and make. It is not simple!
Everyone who wants to start in this direction will enjoy the results, albeit small. I hope my article gave you at least a little understanding, and the experienced guys laughed heartily and remembered how they started.
I will be very happy to answer everyone's questions, perhaps someone is interested in some other data on style, music, colors, which I did not talk about in the article, because it’s so hard to come up with and cover all the nuances of video development in the field of Motion Design. ...
I will be glad to chat with you in the comments, to hear your opinion and advice. See you!