Will Generative AI replace Motion Designers?

The AI Bros are telling you that “Your industry is COOKED”. One friend is saying that they're looking for backup work, just incase. Client budgets are squeezed and there are hundreds of designers competing for a booking.

How screwed are we? Will Generative AI replace Motion Designers?

If you’re in the Motion scene, you’ve probably come across Jake in Motion’s video:

I Tested the AI That Wants to Replace Motion Designers. 

In the video, Jake tests Higgsfield’s Vibe Motion feature. It’s well worth a watch. Higgsfield promises Apple-style Motion and visuals that make a seasoned designer cartoon-style gulp with one single prompt.

I watched the entire video, and his results are definitely something. He wasn't approached by Higgsfield before making the video either.

It takes around 4-5 minutes to generate a super-basic logo or text animation.

If, after five minutes, you’re not entirely happy with the result, then there’s little you can do to amend it. We’re talking the kind of results you’d expect if you’ve just started to learn After Effects. 

There are some basic effects, like adding a glow, or changing colours. Fine. But you won’t really be complying with any brand guidelines or keep consistency across multiple animations. It’s something of a slot machine when it comes to what you’re going to get.

Most AI tools will cost around $10-$15 a month. Which seems super-afforable on paper when compared with $60 for the Adobe Suite. I worked at a company that pirated their Adobe software but paid a subscription for OpenArt - I didn’t stay there long. Their approach was purely cost-saving. But credits soon started to run out. Even on the most expensive Gen AI plan, you’re going to be topping up credits if you’re generating everyday.

Most Gen AI videos are made up of several shots stitched together, and each finished video will have a graveyard of shots that never ended up being used, but still cost credits. Gen AI gets expensive quickly, which is why I always give clients a heads up when they ask for it. 

Give someone a few Youtube tutorials from Jake himself or Ben Marriot, and they’d be producing better results than Higgsfield, and actually be able to edit their animation. You cannot in your right  mind charge a client for the level of Motion you get with this feature, as you’ll be burning through a lot of credits and sometimes hours to get anything near-presentable. 

This level of Motion is fine for a personal channel, a small independent business, whatever else. But it does lack almost all of the basic animation principles that sets Motion apart from Powerpoint animation. 

You can’t really prompt any easing, anticipation or exaggeration into Higgsfield, ChatGPT or whatever else is out there. These principles (which there are twelve of) do take years of experience to get right, and then you’ve got composition, colour theory and narrative top of that. 

Producing industry-level Motion takes time and constant exploration. And no two motion designers are equal. The freelancer who charges £500 a day vs somebody who charges £250 are backed up with different levels of experience and skillsets. Both designers should still be able to fill their calendar with bookings. Which designer that gets hired is down to project scope, art direction and budget. 

What prompted Motion promises on the box is great, but we’ve opened that box and taken a look at what’s inside. And for now, it’s just quicker and cheaper to just get someone who knows what they're doing on After Effects. 

Maybe in a few years time, anybody with a subscription will be making Buff Motion-level work with prompts, but who knows. We could also all be slaves to robots by then.

For now, happy keyframing!

Check out my Motion here!