As a video producer, your job is to tell a story with your videos in a way that the viewer understands. Whether your video is of the history of a country or about World War II, there has to be some elements in the video that makes it believable. And the best way to portray something that is already impossible or too expensive to create it yourself is to utilize animation and motion graphics. From animating title text to enhancing scenes with special effects, motion graphics and animations have given video producers the power and freedom to effectively express their vision, no matter how extravagant.

This is why having a good animation and motion graphics library is essential to all good video productions. Seeing that there are so many animation and motion graphics marketplaces available, here are some guidelines that will help you make an informed purchasing decision when building up your library, no matter where you get your animations and motion graphics from.

Getting Started

Purchasing motion graphics templates works exactly like purchasing stock footage, only the file contains a pre-rendered animation instead of video footage. Some examples of motion graphics include abstract elements like wipes, lines and transitions to more advanced elements like the human body or a vehicle. These templates include placeholders for you to add your own footage, text or stills to customize the template to fit your video productions.

Things To Look Out For

  • When building your library, try not to be too specific in animations you search for. You will be working on videos with many different concepts over the course of your job. So broaden your search and get things you not only need now, but for later as well. Your goal is to build a complete library.
  • As videos nowadays are all in High Definition (HD) quality, you should always get clips that are also in HD quality, unless you are intentionally looking for Standard Definition (SD) quality clips.
  • Be sure to check if the clip is interlaced or progressive, as this is important if you plan to resize the clip to fit your video production. Also, if the clip you intend to purchase comes in different sizes and ratios, then get them all. This will allow you to use the appropriate clip videos of different sizes and ratios without having to resize them.

Common Types Of Licensing

Rights Managed

Motion graphics templates under the Rights Managed licensing plan are sold on a per-use basis and have restrictions towards the extent of use in a specific project or production. When you purchase Rights Managed motion graphics templates, you may also be required to explain how you plan to use it (e.g. purpose of production, duration of usage and the intended use of the content).

Royalty Free

The more user-friendly and generally cheaper alternative to Rights Managed licensing, Royalty Free motion graphics templates are charged on a one time basis based on the type of format required, and buyers can use it for multiple times for multiple purposes without needing to pay extra royalties. However, you may not give them away or sell them as a package or individual clips.

Long Term Investment

Animations and motion graphics used in video productions today are very realistic. Before purchasing, ask yourself if the template will still be useful years from now. This is important especially if you’re spending serious money on these templates, as you want them to have a long shelf life. Changes in the things we see everyday, like a mobile phone or a computer, even the way we dress, might not make an impact on us in person. But it is important that the template you buy of a phone for example, has to be one with the latest and most updated version of the phone there is to make sure your video is accurate.

Motion graphics templates provides video producers with endless opportunities for minimum cost. All you need to do is to know what you are looking for, where to find it, how you will achieve it and then go ahead to customize it for your own video productions. Graphics and animations are able to set the difference between a “normal-looking” video and a creative production, so be sure to give this wonderful resource a try.

Buying Animations and Motion Graphics from MotionElements

MotionElements offers a library of elements for practically any type of project, including matte and green screen animations for you to composite over your work among many other elements. Simply select the clips you want by adding them to your cart where you then log in to your account and checkout by paying via credit card or Paypal payments. After the transaction is successful, the download link to your selected clips will be sent to your email address you provided at the payment transaction and the clips will be instantly available for download.