Mastering the art of motion design with animation guru Ben Marriott

In the world of motion design and animation, few names shine as brightly as that of Ben Marriott. If you’re a fan of mind-bending animations or masterful motion design tutorials, you’ve likely stumbled upon his work—and if you haven’t, get ready to become a fan!

As a freelance motion designer, illustrator, and educator based in Sydney, Australia, Ben is renowned online as the master of modern motion design. His work perfectly captures the spirit of today’s motion design trends, blending artistic experimentation with technical precision to inspire a new generation of creators.

“Animation is still magic to me,” says Ben. “The fact that I can think of something, draw it, and then bring it to life on the screen never gets old.” 

Ben has become a YouTube sensation thanks to his vast portfolio of entertaining yet informative After Effects tutorials, which cover everything from animating logos to creating retro video effects. With over 700,000 subscribers, Ben’s channel has become a go-to resource for aspiring motion designers worldwide to learn new techniques and hone their skills.

“I found animation intimidating when I first started,” Ben explains. “Even when I was having fun, it took years before I was comfortable. It always felt like other animators were privy to some secret knowledge I didn’t have, but that wasn’t true. I make all of my tutorials and courses to remove as much of the initial struggles and show that anyone can make great animated work with the essential tools.”

Want to learn motion design from the master? In this exclusive interview, we chatted to Ben about how he developed his influential animation style, his creative process, and his top tips for aspiring motion designers. Whether you’re a seasoned animator, an aspiring creator, or simply someone who appreciates the magic of motion, dive into the dynamic world of motion design through the lens of one of its most respected experts. You’ll also pick up some useful After Effects tips and creative inspiration along the way!

I started in graphic design. I did a design degree at UNSW, and by the end, I realized I didn’t like design very much; it was too many rectangles and text boxes and dragging them about. So I figured I’d try illustration – I wanted to draw and make stuff. I did that for a couple of years, but it wasn’t until I got hired to animate something and dug into After Effects that I discovered my passion for motion design. Motion design is where graphic design, illustration, and animation meet – and that’s where I’m comfortable. 

I’m self-taught in After Effects, but I learned on YouTube just like everyone else. I watched every tutorial that they had back then: Video Copilot, Mount Mograph, Jake Pyle, Evan Abrams. 

After learning more about animation, I started working with an illustration agency. The agency started getting more animation jobs because Instagram, Facebook, and a lot of online advertising started prioritizing video. Because I knew motion design, I kept being given these jobs and, over time, became a much better animator. 

My channel is about design, animation, and having fun learning them. I started my YouTube channel during my second year of freelancing. My first year had gone pretty well, and I’d gotten a lot of consistent clients, but I was like, “Okay, well, what’s going to be the next thing?” There was only so high I could raise my day rate before I had nowhere else to go! I also wanted to work on more exciting projects, and I thought the best way to do that was to get my name out there through social media. 

I started sharing my knowledge, which at the time was niche, intermediate After Effects skills. The first tutorial I made was about animating grain – I noticed there weren’t many good tutorials on how to make grain, so I tried to fill that gap. People responded to it, and I enjoyed making it – so I kept going. 

My style developed from the process of animation. Before I learned animation, my technique was much more handmade and less vector-like. I’d hand-ink illustrations, scan in textures, and apply those to the animation. But since learning After Effects, it’s a lot easier to animate vector elements. It’s taken years to find a workflow that makes vector animations look handmade and textured. That’s one of the reasons I have so much texture and grain in my work, as I’m trying to match the style of my original handmade illustrations.

Something I struggled with getting to grips with After Effects was the graph editor (a tool that allows you to control the precise speed of an element). When I first started, I learned what Easy Ease was, and I was like, this is great! So I bought a couple of easing plugins that helped a lot – they enabled me to avoid the arduous part of the process so I could make attractive animations in a couple of clicks. 

But that inevitably meant there was a ceiling for how good my work could be. For a year or so, my work plateaued – I could combine scenes and make it look pretty good, but nothing flowed smoothly. I couldn’t get that bespoke smooth, snapping motion that I’d seen elsewhere. I was like, how are they doing it?

So I decided to go on what I call “a plugin diet” for two or three months. I uninstalled my plugins and just did everything inside the graph editor. I learned the speed graph and the value graph – and there’s an immediate hurdle to understanding what it’s doing. There was a mentality of, “That’s too hard. I’m just not going to do it.” But once you figure out how it works, the other side is a lot easier, and it opens up endless possibilities of what you can make using the graph editor.

It was a struggle to overcome, but once I did, it was the most significant jump in skill I’ve experienced since learning After Effects.

If you’re new to After Effects in 2023 and want to get into motion design, the top advice I would give is to start with the end in mind. When I first started with After Effects, I’d get excited and just create stuff until something happened, but the result was never as good as I hoped for.

Start with a project you want to replicate and work backward from there. Once you’ve got an idea of what you want to create, you can fill in the blanks. For example, if you don’t know how to get something to move upwards, figure it out. If you want to create a retro effect, watch a retro effect tutorial. The more you do this, the more skills you’ll add to your tool belt. 

For motion designers who want to stand out and present their work on social media, I think the best thing you can do is put as much of yourself into the content you’re creating. If you’re a motion designer showing off cool stuff you’ve made for clients, that’s great. But try to inject your personality into your personal projects, your written content, and what you’re showing in your work. You’re not just showing off your skills or how to use the software; try to tell a story, even if it’s just a short five-second loop. 

Highlight your original ideas because there will always be someone better than you with the technical skills. You can’t compete with that because you’re always going to lose. If you focus on injecting as much of your personality and unique ideas into your work as possible, that’s where you’ll have the most success. 

A skill I’m focusing on at the moment in my animation and tutorials is creating a cohesive story throughout the video. I want to ensure I’m not just animating to show off to other animators or flex my skills but to convey a consistent message that people understand. Whether I’m trying to elicit a laugh or explain something, I want to elevate that with my animation and use it to create an experience or send a message rather than just slapping a story on afterward.

In my recent videos on YouTube, I’ve also tried to use my motion-design skills to make my videos a better viewing experience. For example, in my recent ‘animating the worst logos’ video, I paid particular attention to presenting the video as a whole package, such as the graphics between the tutorial sections. For that video, the animations I was instructing on took about two days to complete, whereas the motion designs featured in the video itself took three or four days.

Coming up with ideas can take time and effort. I have a massive list that’s at least several hundred ideas long, but I often lose interest by the time I get to them. A lot of my ideas come from places you wouldn’t expect. Sometimes, watching other tutorials can inspire unique ideas. For instance, I might take a tutorial called “How to make this in Photoshop” and show how to animate it.

What makes my content stand out in the crowded tutorial market on YouTube is that I put a lot of effort into the designs. The more people see professional techniques by studios they like applied to real projects, the more they can latch onto the technical skills. You can teach the same thing on either a basic shape or a sleek design – but one of them is a little more appealing.

When working with clients, it’s crucial to put as much work into pre-production as possible. It makes everything smoother down the line. When I was just starting in animation, I would create some designs, animate them, and send them to the client just for them to say, “We don’t like this and that.” 

Since working with many companies and clients, I’ve learned to prioritize pre-production so that, by the time you show the client the final animation, they know what to expect. Create storyboards and design concepts early on and get them approved by the client so that by the time you’re animating, you don’t have to make those hard creative decisions about how it will look.

This workflow has also helped me with the structure of my own animations and tutorials. For example, if I want to post a video every Thursday, I must have it scripted and recorded by this date. If there’s a sponsor, I must get client approval by Monday. If it needs to be edited the week before, I must have a script written ten days beforehand. Thoroughly planning out my pre-production process means that each video has a specific amount of time attached, and I’m not struggling to get everything done in the final hours. 

I’ve learned so much from teaching animation, mainly proper workflow. When I’m showing someone else how to do something, I’m a lot more conscious of setting a good example of how to set up a file, how to label your layers, how to set up your folders, etc. Whereas if I’m just doing it for myself, it doesn’t matter – no one is looking, I can be as messy as I want. That changed when I started working with others and realized that it’s essential to keep your projects tidy.

I also try to find a balance between making content that’s educational and entertaining. I want my content to be fun because part of the reason why we all get into motion design is to enjoy it and have a great time watching it. But, for my viewers who want to learn about animation, I also want it to be valuable.

I have a lot more fun in the process of making entertaining videos, meaning I’m willing to spend more time on them. I’ve learned that enjoying the process is one thing I can control – especially as I work for myself. If I’m not enjoying what I’m doing, I’ve only got myself to blame. So, I’m always looking for ways to make it as much fun as possible and make this a sustainable career. 

The best way to cure a creative block is to lower the bar as much as possible and permit yourself to make the worst thing imaginable. That way, there are no expectations for you to create something good, and you can play with ideas as they come and not feel pressure. Once you’ve made 50 bad ideas, I guarantee one will be good.

And that’s a wrap! We hope you enjoyed getting to know motion design master, Ben Marriott. While you’re here, check out these great interviews with Aussie creative icon Beci Orpin, world-renowned designer Jessica Walsh, and Photoshop expert Benny Productions. Or check out a ton of video templates & motion graphics on Envato Elements today!