r/MotionDesign

Hey motion designers,

I've been thinking about something lately.

People often say that if you want to build a business, one of the fastest ways is to work under someone who's already building one. You learn from their experience, avoid many of their mistakes, and grow much faster.

It's similar to how a parent spends years learning hard lessons, but their child can learn many of those same lessons in a much shorter time because someone has already been through the journey.

That's the idea behind my question.

I'm currently learning motion design and Premiere Pro, but I don't want to spend years making the same avoidable mistakes that others have already made.

I know that if I put in enough hours, I'll eventually become good at the software. That's just a matter of time and practice.

What I really want to learn is everything beyond the software—the things that only come from real experience.

Time is becoming more valuable every day, and the competition is growing rapidly. I'm trying to learn smarter, not just harder.

So I wanted to ask those of you who've been in the industry for a while.

What is one mistake that cost you months or even years?

What is something you wish someone had told you when you were just starting?

What skill, mindset, habit, or approach accelerated your growth the most?

If you could mentor your younger self for one day, what advice would you give that would've saved the most time?

I'm not looking for shortcuts because I know mastery takes time.

I'm looking for the lessons that don't come from tutorials. The lessons you only learn through real-world experience.

I'd rather learn from people who've already walked this path than spend years repeating the same mistakes.

I'd genuinely appreciate any advice or stories you can share.

I’ve been posting my experience with motion design tools with no intention of promotion. I paid the beta license with my hard earned money and wanted to share what is like to explore new tools(even in its preview, beta build)

The reactions are different but I’m not sure what to take from the ones that either try frame my sharing as a promotion. If we want alternative tools from AE because of its notorious subscription plan, wouldn’t it be great to have data and experience shared to perceive we have alternatives or soon to be alternatives?

OC I get people getting frustrated with post that cover themselves as a free plugin or a feedback requesting post just to end up being promotion driven ones.

But if we are that against promotion, I’m not why we’re yearning for a tool that respects designers when clearly Adobe isn’t. We suffered bugs, problems while we’re paying monthly and it is strange to see people showing hostility toward new tools. We could take a look and share at least to let devs to present something different or that could be an alternative not pushing them out.

When people share their work I’m not sure why people aren’t complaining about AE being a potential promotion when sharing some experience with beta build tool being shown as a suspect of promotion.

Do we really want something different or new that respects designers for motion design?

Just got hit with the "AI should be cheap, right?" conversation again and I need a sanity check.

I'm a freelance motion designer. Mostly product promos, brand spots, social content. I started layering AI tools into my workflow about 6 months ago to speed up B-roll, motion tests, and short stylized clips.

New client wants a 30 second AI ad. They came back with: "can you do this for $200? AI is fast, right?" I get where the assumption comes from, but the actual cost is not just typing a prompt and exporting a finished spot. here's how I broke it down before quoting. not claiming these numbers are universal — this is just how it has looked on my last few small brand / product jobs.

compute / generation cost every usable clip still takes retries. For a straightforward 30 second spot, I'm usually building it from a few shorter pieces, not one perfect 30 second generation. A usable 5-10 second section might take a few attempts if the brief is simple, and a lot more if there is a specific character, product label, hand movement, or brand detail that has to stay consistent. failed generations still cost something, even when the output is unusable.

For short stylized clips, I've been testing DomoAI Animate with Seedance 2.0. The cost benefit is not that AI makes everything cheap. It's that when the first frame is clean, I can usually get a usable 5-10s motion test with fewer throwaway generations. still counts as work though. i still have to prep the source image, reject broken outputs, check for logo / hand / face drift, and cut the usable pieces into the actual spot. On my last few projects, compute alone was not the biggest cost, but it also was not zero. It was enough that I have to include it somewhere in the quote.

time / labor, the part clients never see iteration is not just typing prompts. it's: watching every output picking the best frames noting what needs to be re-prompted regenerating with adjusted prompts checking hand / face / logo drift matching the brand palette compositing AI clips with real footage, graphics, or text cutting around weird frames handling revision rounds because the AI did not nail it on take one A "30 second AI ad" sounds like 30 seconds. realistically, I'm still looking at something like 10-15 hours of labor once I include testing, cleanup, edit, export, feedback, and revision buffer.

where I landed My floor for this brief ended up around $800 for a 30s AI-assisted spot. that included: compute / generation costs source image prep editing and cleanup time revision buffer usage / licensing check if they want paid media delivery the normal freelance overhead that does not disappear just because AI is involved When I explained it that way, the conversation got a lot more normal. The client did not suddenly love the number, but at least we were not pretending the tool subscription was the whole production cost.

The real cost of AI video software is not the subscription. It's everything after the subscription: failed generations, review time, cleanup, editing, revisions, and making the final thing safe enough to actually send to a client.

curious how other freelancers are quoting this right now. Are you pricing AI video as a cheaper production tier, or are you treating it like normal motion work with a different cost structure?

AI picked the style, transitions, voiceover and music for a promo video on its own, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Tried letting AI make a promo video end to end recently. gave it a landing page url and nothing else. it chose the visual style, the pacing, the transitions, the voice, even the BGM, and output the video in ~3min.

The quality isn't the surprising part (some scenes are good, some are clearly ai). what got me is that taste - the part I always assumed was the human half of motion design - just got decided. and the choices weren't random, they mostly made sense.

Curious what people here think. Is creative direction actually the last human part of this, or is that wishful thinking too?

elevenlabs-motionflare

Hello, i'm asking this for a friend so if i seem to be lacking info in this field, i'm sorry in advance. He's a self taught editor, uses da Vinci resolve, currently learning motion graphics online via some self tutoring.

He's a drop out and doesn't hold any degree in this field, though he knows a lot, and has recently been struggling to get good clients or placements cuz almost anywhere he applies for asks him for a degree certificate.

So he is specifically looking for a 6 months motion graphics 'certificate course' that is reasonably priced for what they offer and has good industrial connections or to help him land better placements/ clients.

If you have personnel experience with any of the institutes, do let me know.

He doesn't have a preference: online/offline/indian/global any would do just the degree should be worth his time and help him attract better clients.

Hi everyone,

I'm in the early stages of building a motion graphics agency focused on explainer videos, SaaS product demos, and AI-related animations.

I'm confident in improving the creative side, but I'm trying to figure out the business side—specifically how to consistently find those first few clients.

I'd love to hear from people who have been in the same position:

• How did you land your first paying clients?
• Which outreach methods actually worked for you (cold email, LinkedIn, referrals, Upwork, X, networking, etc.)?
• Did you specialize in one niche from the beginning, or did you take any project you could get?
• At what point did you start getting inbound inquiries instead of chasing every lead?
• If you were starting over today with no clients, what would you focus on during your first 90 days?

I'm not looking for clients or trying to promote my agency—I'm genuinely interested in learning from people who've already gone through this stage. There are so many different opinions online that it's hard to know what actually works in practice.

I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences, including things that didn't work as expected or mistakes you wish you'd avoided.

Thanks in advance! 🙂

Hey r/motiongraphics (or wherever fits best),

I’ve been editing in DaVinci Resolve for about 2 years now and have been using Fusion as my primary compositing/motion tool. About 6 months ago I discovered SaaS motion design the clean UI animations, product explainers, onboarding flows and I immediately knew that’s the direction I want to take my career.

The problem? I have no idea how to structure my path forward and I feel like I’m spinning my wheels.

Where I’m at:
I can do basic motion work in Fusion but I don’t come from a design background. When I try to create something original, I go completely blank. I don’t know where to start visually color, layout, typography none of it comes naturally yet. I can execute if I have a reference, but I can’t originate.

The questions keeping me up at night:

1. Should I invest time in learning expressions in Fusion, or is that the wrong tool for SaaS motion design entirely? Should I be in After Effects instead?

2. How do I actually learn design fundamentals as someone who’s been purely on the technical/editing side? Where do I even start?

3. Is there a realistic roadmap from “can operate the tools” to “employable SaaS motion designer”?

4. Are there any senior motion designers or studios open to taking on someone as a mentee or offering an informal apprenticeship? I’m willing to work hard,I just need guidance from someone who’s been through this.

What I’m looking for:
Not just tool tutorials. I’ve watched plenty of those. I need to understand how to think like a designer, how to build a portfolio that’s relevant to SaaS companies, and whether I’m even in the right ecosystem with Fusion.

If you’ve made this transition — from technical editor to motion designer — I’d love to hear your path. And if you’re someone who mentors or takes on junior help, I’m genuinely open to that conversation.

Thanks in advance 🙏