It is important to have your social media icon to be the same across multiple platforms. This will build trust with clients and create immediate brand recognition. A social media icon that is in motion will set your professional identity apart from other designers, instantly demonstrating that you have skills in motion design.
ASSIGNMENT| Design a social media animated icon for your gmail account. This design shows understanding of the 12 principles of animation as well as graphic design principles. Since gmail might be one of the ways you work with clients after school, it is important to build a cohesive brand for yourself that you can carry across multiple platforms.
Gmail currently accepts square animated gif files for its avatar, but crops them within a circle. Since not all media platforms (Instagram) accept an animated files, it is important that the first frame of your animation be something that is still recognizable and
In addition be being cropped, will also be seen at a very small dimension (sometimes less than 60 pixels in diameter). For this reason the motion graphic must be readable at a small size and utilize color contrast, to be accessible to a multitude users across many platforms.
Also since some platforms will show only the first frame, it is also important that the first frame be interesting and recognizable.\
Since we are just beginning our instruction with After Effects, students are encouraged to work low tech, drawing storyboards by hand, to achieve a proof of concept.
example of a low tech animation, 14 frames handrawn