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Want to start animating but not sure where to start? Or just looking for inspiration for your next animation project?
Below is a list of Linearity Academy tutorials with step-by-step instructions on creating engaging animated visuals for social media, ads, and announcements—or to populate your portfolio.
These ideas are also perfect for you if you're a design student or teacher looking for animation exercises to learn new skills.
Jumpstart your creative ideas with Linearity Curve and Linearity Move
1. Turn static designs into animations
A quick and easy way to create new animations is to take existing designs and add movement to them. This increases the chances of your target audience taking note of your designs and leads to more engagement and clicks.
Do you have a client logo or static social post you'd like to put into motion? You can animate any static design with Linearity Move's Auto Animate feature.
Bring your existing designs and illustrations to life. Watch our Auto Animate tutorial below:
2. Make a looping animated GIF
GIFs have made a big comeback since the 80s, and not only for sharing funny moments from our favorite series. Designers and marketers use GIFs in a variety of ways to communicate and entertain their clients and audiences.
An animated GIF has a specific aesthetic and requires some skill to get the seamless loop just right.
Try creating your own short and shareable animations by following our easy GIF export steps in the tutorial below:
3. Morph shapes and colors
One of the easiest and most underrated ways to make static designs more visually appealing is to add shape and color morphing.
Linearity Move's smart animation features can intuitively blend complex shapes from one keyframe to the other. Try out this creative animation idea below by following our step-by-step tutorial on morphing:
4. Animate UI designs for apps
Do you have ideas for user interfaces or static UI/UX wireframes that you'd like to animate for a presentation? Import your designs into Move and make them come alive with our easy-to-use Timeline and Keyframe features.
Watch the tutorial video below to follow Linearity's Senior Designer Maddy as she creates animated UI elements on an iPad:
5. Rotate different shapes
You can use shapes in so many ways to tell a story. With Linearity Move, you can adjust the pivot point on any shape to rotate it on an axis.
To understand the power of this feature, you need to put it into practice and see how it adds dynamic movement to your animation.
Follow the tutorial below, which shows you how to make interesting rotating shapes to create momentum and a sense of excitement. You can experiment with moving the pivot points to take it to the next level.
Ready to create brand assets that pack a punch?
Visit our Academy for free marketing design courses.
6. Animate photo cut-outs
Here's a creative idea for turning static raster graphics like photos into eye-catching animated visuals.
Take an image like a full-length portrait of a fashionably dressed person and use masking techniques to cut it into circular shapes. Then, you can rotate the shapes in opposite directions to create a psychedelic animated visual that will capture attention.
Follow the steps in the animated photo tutorial below to get this animation effect:
7. Make animated icons
Want to make some versatile assets for a range of branding and marketing use cases? Try this simple animation idea.
Design a handful of bespoke branded icons and animate them using Move's Animation Presets or Keyframes.
Take your icons to the next level with our easy-to-follow icon animation tutorial below:
8. Animate logos
Another animation idea that's essential for creating a standout design portfolio. Logo animations showcase a designer's true skill and talent—you can tell much more of a story with an animated logo than a static one.
Start your journey with this simple logo animation tutorial:
9. Make a Spotify canvas visual
Did you know you can add animated visuals of 3–8 seconds long to music published on Spotify? They have a 16:9 portrait aspect ratio optimized for mobile viewing to enhance the listening experience.
Are you ready to try your hand at making a Spotify canvas visual? Jumpstart your ideas with one of these free animated templates:
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10. Create dancing text
Animate text to attract your audience’s attention and show off your design and animation skills. It's much easier than you think, especially when using Linearity Move.
Get your text moving with the eye-catching design below. Follow Maddy's creative process to animate any text-based design project.
Take your design career to the next level
Motion graphics is no longer only for those who studied animation. Animation software also doesn't have to be tricky to learn and use.
Linearity Move is also seamlessly integrated with our powerful design software, Linearity Curve, and other design software like Figma. This means our software suite can handle all your design needs from concept to execution.
Are you ready to try new and innovative design and animation software? Get started for free below, or check out our special pricing options.
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Sharné McDonald
Sharné is a contributing writer for the Linearity Blog. She has 10+ years' experience in graphic design and marketing and holds a Master's degree in Art Education.
