You may have heard this before, but when it comes to pitching motion design work to clients, reciting industry terminology doesn’t get you the job. You shouldn’t have to feel like you need to oversell your work.
The trick is to pair your pitch with strong imagery, or in this case, styleframes. Styleframes are rendered 2D or 3D still images that determine the look of a motion design piece.
Clients love to stay in the loop. They want to know how your ideas align with their vision, and what that looks like. Styleframes won’t just help you in your pitch; they’ll help you tell stories in more meaningful and impactful ways.
From foundation to final details, Matthew shares insights from his decade of experience as a creative director, animator, and designer.
Learn to tell engaging stories with beautiful imagery. You’ll also learn the technical side of things to apply your styleframes into a 3D environment.
Get clients on board with your ideas before you start producing anything. Styleframes are a fantastic way to give clients insight.
You’ll learn the basic techniques of narrative sequencing, camera framing, perspective, hierarchy, lines, lighting, and contrast.
Learn how to use mood boards to communicate preliminary ideas. Here you’ll understand how to curate images to define your target aesthetic before you design.
Find the perfect assets. Learn what search phrases to use– both basic and advanced– to find the assets you need for your mood boards and style frames.
Create a detailed style frame in Photoshop from scratch. You’ll learn simple painting and compositing techniques to design your styleframes. You’ll also learn Matthew’s top tips for speeding up your process, color correction, and adding finishing touches to make your images pop.
You’ll learn the basic techniques of narrative sequencing, camera framing, perspective, hierarchy, lines, lighting, and contrast.
Learn how to use mood boards to communicate preliminary ideas. Here you’ll understand how to curate images to define your target aesthetic before you design.
Find the perfect assets. Learn what search phrases to use– both basic and advanced– to find the assets you need for your mood boards and style frames.
Create a detailed style frame in Photoshop from scratch. You’ll learn simple painting and compositing techniques to design your styleframes. You’ll also learn Matthew’s top tips for speeding up your process, color correction, and adding finishing touches to make your images pop.
You’ll learn the basic techniques of narrative sequencing, camera framing, perspective, hierarchy, lines, lighting, and contrast.
Learn how to use mood boards to communicate preliminary ideas. Here you’ll understand how to curate images to define your target aesthetic before you design.
Find the perfect assets. Learn what search phrases to use– both basic and advanced– to find the assets you need for your mood boards and style frames.
Create a detailed style frame in Photoshop from scratch. You’ll learn simple painting and compositing techniques to design your styleframes. You’ll also learn Matthew’s top tips for speeding up your process, color correction, and adding finishing touches to make your images pop.
You’ll learn the basic techniques of narrative sequencing, camera framing, perspective, hierarchy, lines, lighting, and contrast.
Learn how to use mood boards to communicate preliminary ideas. Here you’ll understand how to curate images to define your target aesthetic before you design.
Find the perfect assets. Learn what search phrases to use– both basic and advanced– to find the assets you need for your mood boards and style frames.
Create a detailed style frame in Photoshop from scratch. You’ll learn simple painting and compositing techniques to design your styleframes. You’ll also learn Matthew’s top tips for speeding up your process, color correction, and adding finishing touches to make your images pop.
What do I mean by that? Let me start from the beginning.
I went to school at ArtCenter and studied graphic design with a focus on motion design. During my time at ArtCenter, I learned what would be the foundation for just about every project I became a part of: narrative sequencing. This is the concept of using images to tell a story and communicate an idea.
Coming out of ArtCenter, I stepped straight into the motion design field and worked on a number of projects, from commercials, music videos, and content.
I’ve had to wear many different hats throughout each project as a designer, animator, and then eventually, creative director. In a sense, I was learning while on the job.
Anyone in motion design knows that visual communication is a pillar of the industry. Before I could even begin to work on projects, I had to pitch ideas and communicate them not only to clients, but internally to the people that I worked with. There, my visual communication skills were put to the test.
How could I use images, combine them with words, and piece the two together to tell a story? To sell an idea? With none other than Styleframes.
Styleframes are just juicy, beautiful, gorgeous images that tells the client or studio you work at exactly where you’re headed. They help dictate the aesthetic and define key moments in the production.
As a designer, you need to be able to use the tools at your disposal to create an image that communicates the key points of your vision. When you’re selling an idea, it’s extremely important that the image communicates, looks beautiful, and the viewer looking at it understands what you’re trying to tell them.
Styleframes combine the power of Photoshop, photo compositing, and mixing different elements together to create a moment in time that represents what the final outcome of the production will be.
If you go to design school, and you’re enrolled in a motion design program, they should be teaching you this stuff. The unfortunate truth is that not all of them do, and not all of them do it well.
But that’s where this course steps in. You will learn to clearly show the vision of your idea. You’ll be able to deliver highly rendered, quality, beautiful moments in time that help you sell your vision.
Working in this industry, we know that time is precious for everyone. When you get the opportunity to pitch your idea and share it with someone—be it a client or studio—and ultimately sell it, you want to make sure you do it right.
My hope is that when you finish the Styleframes course, you will seize every opportunity to pitch ideas, communicate them in a clear and engaging way, and produce amazing stories that sell.
This course gives you the tools and techniques to stand out among your peers, tell vivid stories, and create visuals that clearly communicate your ideas:
From foundation to final details, Matthew shares insights from his decade of experience as a creative director, animator, and designer.
Learn to tell engaging stories with beautiful imagery. You’ll also learn the technical side of things to apply your styleframes into a 3D environment.
Get clients on board with your ideas before you start producing anything. Styleframes are a fantastic way to give clients insight.
You’ll learn the basic techniques of narrative sequencing, camera framing, perspective, hierarchy, lines, lighting, and contrast.
Learn how to use mood boards to communicate preliminary ideas. Here you’ll understand how to curate images to define your target aesthetic before you design.
Find the perfect assets. Learn what search phrases to use– both basic and advanced– to find the assets you need for your mood boards and style frames.
Create a detailed style frame in Photoshop from scratch. You’ll learn simple painting and compositing techniques to design your styleframes. You’ll also learn Matthew’s top tips for speeding up your process, color correction, and adding finishing touches to make your images pop.
You’ll learn the basic techniques of narrative sequencing, camera framing, perspective, hierarchy, lines, lighting, and contrast.
Learn how to use mood boards to communicate preliminary ideas. Here you’ll understand how to curate images to define your target aesthetic before you design.
Find the perfect assets. Learn what search phrases to use– both basic and advanced– to find the assets you need for your mood boards and style frames.
Create a detailed style frame in Photoshop from scratch. You’ll learn simple painting and compositing techniques to design your styleframes. You’ll also learn Matthew’s top tips for speeding up your process, color correction, and adding finishing touches to make your images pop.
You’ll learn the basic techniques of narrative sequencing, camera framing, perspective, hierarchy, lines, lighting, and contrast.
Learn how to use mood boards to communicate preliminary ideas. Here you’ll understand how to curate images to define your target aesthetic before you design.
Find the perfect assets. Learn what search phrases to use– both basic and advanced– to find the assets you need for your mood boards and style frames.
Create a detailed style frame in Photoshop from scratch. You’ll learn simple painting and compositing techniques to design your styleframes. You’ll also learn Matthew’s top tips for speeding up your process, color correction, and adding finishing touches to make your images pop.
In each video lesson, Chris will teach you about typographic principles, the history of type, and how to apply the fundamentals across your design work.
Practice what you've learned in the video lectures to push your skills further. Do the homework as many times as you need to fully grasp the material.
See how Chris makes improvements to previous students’ work using typographic principles. Then, take notes of how you can apply these same techniques to your own work.
See your designs take on a whole new shape and meaning as you move through the course. Start to feel comfortable and confident with typography.
Your enrollment includes access to our private Slack channel and an invitation to Circle. Connect and keep learning with your instructor, Chris Do, and Typography students around the world.
I learned more about typography in this course than during my BA in graphic design. This gives me confidence that I can make effective layouts and better design of any kind. I also felt I was part of a community, who learned together. Once a week for seven weeks, Chris critiqued our submitted layouts and this motivated us to put knowledge into practice and submit our work. This course is the best investment I've made in myself in becoming a better graphic designer. And I've invested in a lot of courses and books.
This course gives you the tools and techniques to stand out among your peers, tell vivid stories, and create visuals that clearly communicate your ideas:
Create dynamic styleframes that tell compelling stories, and take your motion design to the next level.