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How To Be a Motion Graphics Artist

Greetings, all. My name is Alan Shisko, and I’m a freelance motion graphics artist based out of Toronto, Canada. I’m pleased to have been asked to contribute to the ProVideo Coalition community, and I look forward to many and varied posts on the subject of motion graphics design.

By way of introduction, I might first invite you to take a look at my reel here. If you’d like to dig a little deeper into the work that I do, you’ll find a fairly complete catalog of recent work here.

For my first post, I’d like to address the question of “how to get started” in this industry (that is, motion graphic design). I often get emails (and even phone calls) from people who are looking for a leg up. They’ve done a bit of research, seen some reels, know what they’d like to accomplish and are interested in getting started. But they haven’t a clue where to begin.

It’s a very tricky question to address, and I think it’d be best to begin with how I got started in this industry. It’s a bit lengthy, and if you want to skip the verbose back story, just pop down to the last paragraph or two.

I’ve always been a visual person. I’ve also got what I consider to be a strong sense of depth, space and geometry. When sitting around, for some reason I often find myself finding all of the angles in the room (like the ceiling, or a banister or some such thing) and continue the lines to visualize where they might intersect, and how it might look. I bring this up first, because I believe that folks either do or don’t have an aptitude for certain things. That said, it is certainly possible to achieve anything through sheer perseverance, but in my life, I like to pursue things that are ‘easy’ and that don’t drive me into the ground. I COULD become a good gardener, for instance, but generations of plants would suffer. So, take a look at motion graphics and ask yourself if you CAN do it, not just whether you WANT to do it. Do you ‘live’ in a visual world?

As a youngster, I had an innate desire to create imagery. I designed my very first logo for my rock band (“Cast Iron”) when I was 13 using letraset and black markers: honestly, I think it still looks kind of good, even if it does read as “Last Prom”! I bought my first still camera (a Nikon FG) in Grade 12, and then discovered a dusty old darkroom behind the chemistry lab. I still remember the magic of seeing that very first black and white image appear in the chemical muck. It was truly a revelation, and one which stays with me to this day. This led to my considering my post-secondary school options. Having dropped Calculus in Gr. 13, architecture (another of my loves) was out, as was a career in medicine (bit of a flight of fancy, that). One night, I happened to overhear a friend talking about his plans to attend the Film program at York University here in Toronto. It clicked: Film! That’s exactly what I wanted to do, but hadn’t given it a thought- I figured that the only place you could ‘learn’ filmmaking was in California! I applied, was accepted and off I went.

And now to the question of schooling, and it’s value in an artistic career. I graduated with an honours BFA in Film Production in 1991. In retrospect, I’d say that my five years in University was “OK”. It certainly gave me an opportunity to experiment to a certain degree, but that said you can only experiment so much when you’ve got a $30,000 production budget (with your parents as ‘executive producers’), a very small crew (some of whom were dependable, while some weren’t) and not much of a clue what you’re doing technically. I dreamt of being a cinematographer. I could load a mag in total darkness in no time, and I read the ASC manual before going to sleep. Oh, and mistakes: I could (and did) make lots and lots of mistakes in school. What I found I truly lacked, though, was a compulsive, burning desire to make movies. I discovered that the whole filmic process was too gargantuan for me to contemplate. I felt a strong desire to ‘downsize’, to find something that I could do on my own.

I went back to photography. I can’t overemphasize the value of having a great teacher. Everybody has had their favorite teachers, and at York, mine was a fellow named Jack Dale. I took several photography classes with him and he, more than anyone else, fired up what I call my ‘visuality’. I had truly found my calling. Upon graduation, I hung out my shingle as a freelance photographer, specializing in portraiture and photography for the arts (dance and theater companies, for the most part). The early nineties, however, were a pretty slim time in my neck of the woods. Gigs were few and far between. I assisted with Renzo, an established pro photographer, and even he was having a very hard time making a go of it. The day finally came when my brother (who worked in the video production industry) said that he had a better offer, and wanted to know if I’d be interested in taking over his position as in-house video producer for a large explosives corporation. I remember the day I resolved to accept the position. I truly thought I was turning my back on my dream (photography) and my life (starving artist).

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Thank you so much Alan. This is exactly what I needed to read. In fact, I’m already partially down this road as I’m working part time at a local video house and volunteering for work with a few others. Its a little painful financially, but school (for film or motion graphics) is not an option. Although I will be taking your advice and going through some general art classes.

Thanks again. This gives me further confidence and solid ideas to help me succeed. When I do, if I end up any where close to where you work, lunch is on me.

Louie

Posted by Louie Ambriz  on  09/26  at  08:33 AM

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Thanks for the kind words, Louie, and best of luck!

Posted by Alan Shisko  on  09/26  at  12:35 PM

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Thank you Allen for all your great information. Very helpful indeed. I have a boring computer job but I have decided to change my occupation and start doing motion graphics and video editing. thanks again.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  09/29  at  04:39 AM

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