THIS exercise for is you, Graphic Designer.

You will like it.

You’ve probably thought about learning motion design more than once.

You’ve browsed tutorials, saved references, maybe even downloaded After Effects…

But when it comes to actually starting, most designers hit the same wall:

👉 We don’t know what to do first.

That’s where a good exercise helps. Something small, practical, and real.

This one works every time, well, at least from my experience, for any kind of graphic designer. 👨🏻‍💻

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🪧 The exercise: Animate a poster

Yessss, I know, you have seen this many times already. But before skipping, stay just a little more, this is a short one, I promise.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been designing posters for years or just once.

Pick an idea, a band, a party, a fake jazz band event, a picnic at the park for your friends and family (ey, that sounds good), whatever you want, and make a static poster with only this elements:

1. Type (a title, some event info, keep it simple)

2. Shapes (geometric, organic, up to you)

3. (Optional) Use some pattern.

For this one let’s avoid using photos. Just type and form.

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✍️ Step 1: Imagine how it moves

Now ask yourself:

• How would the title appear?

• Would it scale up? Fade in? Come one letter at a time?

• Would the shapes bounce, slide, rotate?

And actually take a paper and try to just sketch what comes to mind, drawings, comments, etc. Just imagine what could happen in the animation phase.

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🎛️ Step 2: Jump into After Effects

If you’ve never used it before, this video is a great place to start:

👉 I’ll Teach You After Effects in 60 Minutes by Ben Marriott
*Shared it before, it’s a really good one.

Inside AE:

• Start animating the main elements first (usually the title, but whatever has the priority regarding its hierarchy)

• Then the supporting elements (shapes, accents)

• Leave backgrounds or patterns for last

Keep it simple. You don’t need fancy plugins, you don’t need to watch another tutorial. Just work with position, scale, and shape layers. You can use opacity too, but let’s avoid that one a bit for now, since it’s tempting to just do everything with opacity.

A tip here, would be to try to work with outlines for the text: Right click on the text, and select the option of ‘Outllines’.

This will give you more control to animate each letter as a shape, and you can keep with the basic transformation (scale, position) on these ones.

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📤 Step 3: Export & share

When it’s ready:

• Export it as an .mp4 or .mov

• Convert to .gif (use ezgif.com if needed), go to the Video to Gif tab.

• Share it below in the comments section! Help yourself with this button:

  *I will be checking this and giving you feedback on what you do.

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🧠 Why (I think) this works

You don’t need more tutorials. You need one thing to try.

This is that thing.

✅ Works for any designer

✅ Helps you think in motion

✅ Gives you a real piece to build from

Even if you just do 30 minutes today and continue later, what you need it’s to start.

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By the way, I think this is a great example of this exercise.

Poster design and animation made by Matei Monoranu

Actually this one was made by Matei Monoranu, a member of the workshop I did a few months ago on creating a personal project.

That workshop will be opening some spots in the -probably- near future.

But! There is actually a Practice Group to:

• 📌 Get 1 creative prompt per month based on fundamentals of design and animation.

• 💬 Slack group to share, comment, and connect.

• ✅ Practice reminders mid-month to help you stay on track.

• 📚 Monthly wrap-up with shared projects to reflect together.

You can join by becoming a paid subscriber below :)