As motion graphics artists, we often have editors volunteer that they don’t think of themselves as being creative (despite working in the field of storytelling). This can be particularly distressing when they are asked to take on more and more of the graphic chores of a project.
As a half-German Virgo engineer, Chris in particular doesn’t buy the idea that you either born creative or not – it is something that can be learned, or at least improved through study and practice. Indeed, he put together a ~50 minute webinar on the subject for Moviola.com (a great resource themselves) a couple of years ago; we’d like to share it again as a way to help you kick off a new year of improving your personal craft.
In this webinar, Chris moves from a study on creativity released by Adobe, to reviewing basic design concepts, to putting them to work in quick tutorials in After Effects. He recommends books on color (including a quick demo of Adobe Color – then known as Kuler), and lays out a variety of actions that can help unlock creativity, from studying to creative play to taking better care of yourself. He deals with the subject of creative stealing, and ends by talking about how both of us have made a move into fine art – still using the tools we create motion graphics with – as an antidote to dealing with clients. Enjoy:
‘Learn to be Creative’ Resource Links
There’s a number of links mentioned throughout the webinar; we collected them below as clickable links in the order they appear in the video:
book: The Simple Secret to Better Painting
book: The End of Print
Liquid Abstracts stock footage library
Nature Abstracts stock footage library
Promax/BDA schedule of upcoming conferences
motion graphics web site lists:
Steve Jobs interview snippet on “great artists steal”
CNET article expanding the on Jobs quote above