Lately, I have noticed an increase in multimedia projects that utilize motion graphics and animation to visually depict a story. While this medium has been used for years in the film industry, I would argue that it has been mostly underutilized in our field until now. Using Adobe After Effects, producers can either combine animation within a traditional video format, or use motion graphics as the entire video.
In my quest to read everything related to multimedia and interactivity in preparation for my master’s thesis, I came across this excellent Q&A with UNC assistant professor Alberto Cairo titled, “Animated infographics and online storytelling: Words from the wise.” Although this interview was initially published in the Online Journalism Review in 2007, arguably all of his statements still hold true today. If you missed this article, make sure to read it now to get some great infographics inspiration from one of the best in the field.
Step graphics are a type of interactive presentation, which present a variety of graphics organized sequentially in steps or nodes. Illustrations, 3D models, animations and explanatory text can all be combined across a variety of frames to tell a story. Best used for successive information, these presentations excel at breaking down complex information into visual, digestible bites for users to learn at their own pace.
Designer Aaron Koblin blew me away with his data visualization efforts to display U.S. flight patterns. Using FAA data, Koblin animated a variety of maps to allow users to come up with their own assumptions from the data. This is a great example of how an otherwise overwhelming amount of data can truly tell a story through graphics, design and animation. For those curious about the back-end, Adobe After Effects and/or Maya was used to create this visualization.
National Geographic’s “Mapping memory in 3D” combines great 3D production with interactivity to simplify the complexity of the brain. It garnered an “Award of Excellence” at SNDies, and was certainly well-deserved!