Table of Content:
Introduction
In the ever-evolving world of digital art and animation, staying ahead with the latest tools is essential for creating stunning visuals and captivating motion graphics. As we dive into 2024, motion designers and animators have a plethora of advanced software and technologies at their disposal. From industry-leading programs to innovative new platforms, this guide explores the best tools that can elevate your projects to new heights, including cutting-edge 3D motion graphic capabilities that will redefine your creative potential.
Cavalry
Imagine creating animations without relying on third-party plugins. Discover Cavalry for yourself!
Launched in 2019 as a start-up in Manchester, Cavalry is quickly becoming a powerful 2D animation software. Its founders describe it as “a secret weapon for some of the world’s best design studios and motion graphic companies.”
Highly customizable and fast to produce, Cavalry lets you design 2D animations in real-time for advertising, mobile, data visualization, web, broadcast, UI, generative art, experiential, games, and more.
“The industry was crying out for a tool that was real-time and procedural,” say the founders. Cavalry enables you to mix procedural workflows with traditional techniques, resulting in an easy and playful creative process.
With Cavalry, there’s no need for endless After Effects plugins. Instead, you get extensive customization options, such as rig control, text animation, duplicator, magic easing, rubber hose, data import, Lottie export, and much more.
Cavalry has already earned the trust of giants like Amazon, Google, Pentagram, Dumbar, and Buck.
If you want to try it out, here’s some good news! Cavalry offers a Starter option, allowing you to get acquainted with the tool and use most of its features for free forever. It provides real-time feedback and requires no credit card.
For advanced settings, you can opt for the Professional plan, priced at just RM 72/month. This includes dynamic rendering, audio export, and more—totally worth it!
Spline
Let’s dive into the innovative real-time tool that will elevate your 3D animations to the next level—Spline!
Founded in 2020 by Alejandro Leon, this Latin American start-up raised seed funding to provide designers, developers, and creators around the globe with a groundbreaking 3D design platform. We’re thrilled that they did!
“3D design has historically been complex and inaccessible for designers. Spline aims to fix that,” says its founder. The tool has quickly developed, continuously adding new, breathtaking features. It now serves tens of thousands of monthly users, primarily in the U.S.
Spline allows you to create and animate 3D objects, edit materials, add interactivity, and control the outcome of your 3D design work. This 3D tool is perfect for your workflow if you frequently design mockups, 3D stills and animations, landing pages, or anything else in 3D.
You’ll find essential features such as 3D modeling, animation, material layers, 3D sculpting, game and physics controls, and real-time collaboration. You can create and export team projects, code, templates, and much more in real time.
Spline is already trusted by industry giants like Amazon, Google, Shopify, Meta, Scale, and others. Users also praise its intuitive interface, which doesn’t require onboarding tutorials and is reminiscent of Figma!
The tool offers a free basic version for personal use, allowing you to get acquainted with Spline and create unlimited projects. The Super version, costing $24/month, unlocks new features such as sound and material libraries, AI texture generation, and more. This makes it an ideal choice for any motion graphics studio looking to enhance their 3D capabilities.
Womp
Another 3D tool worth exploring is Womp. Beginner-friendly and easy to use, Womp offers a range of tools for your 3D projects, allowing you to achieve professional results with ease!
This Brooklyn-based startup raised funds to help designers worldwide. “I discovered the barriers that currently existed: the software was difficult to use, expensive, and resource-heavy in terms of computing power. So, I set out to uncover what people would need to interact with 3D software more intuitively, using artificial intelligence,” says Gabriela Trueba, the founder of Womp.
With Womp, you can not only create a 3D model from scratch but also customize thousands of assets made by other editors. To help beginners quickly get into modeling, Womp provides fun mini-games to teach the basics and get you started.
Womp is web-based and runs on cloud servers, so you don’t need a high-end computer to create your models.
The free version of Womp gives you access to basic materials such as glass, metal, and shiny. You can export models in .stl and .obj formats up to 4K and remix community creations. The Pro version costs $9.99/month and additionally allows you to apply community super materials, export 3D meshes, upload your own typefaces, and more!
This makes Womp an excellent choice for any motion design agency looking to enhance its 3D capabilities with an intuitive and accessible tool.
Fable
Fable is a cutting-edge, AI-powered tool for design and animation. The company invested over three years into developing Fable and successfully raised $22.4 million in funding to implement innovative features.
This tool allows you to generate and customize objects with precision prompts and influence sliders, use animation to guide generations, and create and animate 2D and 3D graphics from scratch. “We’re at a unique moment in time where cloud-based software is proving that the future of creative work is not only happening in a browser but is thriving,” say the founders.
The free version of Fable allows you to create projects up to 30 seconds long. The Pro version, costing $12/month, extends this limit to a total of 5 minutes of projects and includes additional features such as custom fonts and templates, and the ability to export videos in 4K.
Fable is an ideal choice for any motion graphics agency looking to leverage AI and cloud-based software to enhance their design and animation capabilities.
Conclusion
The motion design industry is rapidly evolving, driven by advancements in AI and real-time web-based services. These new technologies mean that creators no longer have to depend solely on traditional tools like After Effects or spend years mastering animation and motion design techniques. AI-powered tools and real-time platforms now enable anyone with a creative idea to bring it to life swiftly and efficiently. The paths to creativity are now wide open!
Contact us to us to learn how AI-powered tools and real-time platforms can transform your motion design projects and open new paths to creativity!