Don’t use InDesign for Motion Graphics.
I'm back at it and wanted to put a wee post together for my clients coming to me for Motion Graphics work and sending over files. Motion and animation are lengthy processes; rigging, set-up, and animation take time. I’ve found that many of my clients come from a graphic design background, and the wrong file setup can add to time better spent on motion. It's never a big issue, but I have had a few people ask why something in the project isn't aligned correctly or an asset/colour is slightly different. Don’t get me wrong, these are often minor issues, but over a big project, they can add up.
How does it play out?
The steps are usually taking an InDesign file > exporting a PDF > opening it in Illustrator > Going through and releasing countless clipping masks, and finding clipping masks that need to be set correctly (small text/icons on a logo and gradients could be lost here) > checking the colour profile > ungrouping shapes and text (text as well is usually imported as shapes, this makes editing the content harder) > redoing gradients if required > rebuilding the document entirely > then finally importing that to After Effects.
The Simple solution is to ask if the end product needs to go online and/or be animated, then use Illustrator.
I’m usually sent Adobe Indesign files or PDFs at the start of the project. My hot tip is that if it’s going to be animated, you need to use Adobe Illustrator. I have used InDesign, it is quite a familiar tool with most graphic designers, but it is built in a very unintuitive way when it comes to rendering those vector graphics; the program is built to handle documents that are set up for printing and even changing from CMYK to RGB can often change how a project looks if you've ever tried to make a gradient work, you already know the pain.
Honestly, my clients are great, and I’m hoping a post like this helps to avoid those really small issues we all encounter. Going from Illustrator and even Photoshop is never a real issue to a Motion Graphics designer. And hopefully InDesign will catch up some day, but for now it’s just not up to par.
