Online Course: Business Processes for Motion Designers

Freelancing as a motion designer or running your own motion design business isn't easy, but there's one thing that can really help that's often overlooked: business processes.

This online course for motion designers aims to show you just how useful business processes can be throughout the entire motion design process.

Throughout 7 chapters, the online course covers vital processes, tools, and procedures you can use throughout all areas of a motion design project: from initial contact, right up to animation sign-off, and even how to handle late paying clients.

Implementing some simple business processes means you can spend more time on the good stuff and focus on animation, not admin.

The course also includes the motion design business starter pack templates AND our guide on how to write an explainer video script all worth £45.

£199 (VAT/Taxes calculated on checkout)

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About the lecturer

Hey I’m Tom from Made by Loop, and I’ve been a full time freelancer for about 8 years or so now, I actually started freelancing back when I was in University, so I’ve been freelancing in some form for around 14 years or so now.

It’s not all been plain sailing over the years, and I’ve had to learn some things the hard way, I certainly know that freelancing isn’t easy.

That’s why with this course, I want to teach you about the importance of business processes. Now, I know what you’re thinking, I can feel your eyelids drooping at the sound of the business speak… but trust me, having the right procedures in place for freelancing and running your own business can make a world of difference and save so many headaches down the line.

So, in this course we’re going to cover some procedures and processes that help throughout the duration of a motion design project, from initial contact, to invoicing, and then right up to sign-off and sending the files over. I'll also cover the processes I use for chasing payments when clients don't pay on time, and how to help stop this from happening in the first place.

These are the processes I use in my day to day freelance life, and they’ve saved me a lot of time, and hassle over the years, so hopefully you’ll benefit from implementing some too.

Course Structure

The online course contains 7 chapters, each with an online video lecture you can stream and follow along with whenever you like.

Course Chapters:

Chapter 1: Organised Emails
Chapter 2: Crafting a Proposal
Chapter 3: The New Client Process
Chapter 4: Files, Folders, and Backups
Chapter 5: Project Management
Chapter 6: Sign-off
Chapter 7: Payments

Added Extras

Included in the online course are all the templates from the motion design business starter pack and our guide on how to write an explainer video script all worth £45

Additional Illustrator and After Effects Project templates are also included in the course.

The course also includes a collection of Example Email Templates for you to use and customised, each template is designed to give you an idea of how to respond to clients in certain situations throughout a motion design course.

Who is the course for?

The business processes for motion designers online course has been designed primarily for freelancers and small studio owners. It doesn't matter if you're thinking about going freelance, just starting out, or if you've been doing things a while the course has something to offer all levels of experience.

If you're in the motion design business, and still feel a bit like you're winging things from project to project, maybe the imposter syndrome just won't go away - then this course is for you. The processes set out in the course not only help a project run more smoothly, they also bring with them an added confidence when dealing with clients and managing projects.

Chapters 1 - 3

Chapter 1: Organised Emails

The opening chapter deals with a couple of vital processes for handling your business emails, since this is where a lot of the back and forth between clients actually takes place it's an important starting point.

Chapter 2: Proposals

Proposals are a vital tool for winning new work, in this chapter we cover some processes and techniques for gathering key information from the client. We also run through a couple of different options for creating proposals, and how we then integrate sending the proposal with our email techniques from chapter 1.

Chapter 3: The New Client Process

Once your new client has accepted your proposal, it's almost time to get to work - but before you go diving in, it's important to get some key things sorted first. In this chapter we look at the processes for introducing your client to the overall motion design workflow, we look at creating a statement of work, the benefits of a contract, and crucially: sorting the initial deposit invoice.

Chapters 4 - 7

Chapter 4: Files, Folders, and Backups

If this looks familiar: design-one-final-FINAL-FINAL_45.aep then you definitely need a new process for managing your files and folders. This chapter covers filenames, folder structures, and how to keep your After Effects project files organised too.

Chapter 5: Managing a project

This chapter introduces processes for keeping track of your time, and why it's important to do so, it also looks at an example project management tool to keep your project tasks organised, and finally we look at a neat and efficient way to manage project feedback from clients.

Chapter 6: Sign-off

This chapter covers the process for receiving sign-off from your clients throughout the different stages of a motion design project. It's a vital part of the overall project workflow, and can really help keep projects on track and avoid any unwanted scope-creep.

Chapter 7: Payments

Of course everyone loves to be paid for the work they do, unfortunately a lot of freelancers and small businesses still run in to issues around money and late payments. This chapter runs through the processes you can use to protect against late paying clients. It also runs through a sample approach for what to do should you find yourself with a late paying client.

Resources Included

Throughout the course there are a number of documents, templates, and additional resources for you to customise and use in your projects.

Template files

The course includes all the Motion Design Business Starter Pack Templates worth £35 when bought individually.

There's also a Freelance Rate card template included which is a nicely designed way of letting agencies know what your rate is, along with additional information like your payment terms or travel requirements.

A sample After Effects project you can use for all new projects you work on is included in the course too. This new project template comes with a specific folder structure that's explained in Chapter 4 that really helps keep your projects organised.

Feedback documents

In Chapter 5 we look at gathering feedback from clients, in order to do this in an organised and efficient manner, the course includes three sample design review form templates for you to use with your own clients.

Sample Email Responses

When you're freelance or own your own studio, dealing with clients is something you need to master. Sometimes it may be tricky to know what to say to a client in certain situations, let's say they want to haggle on your price for example. That's why the course includes a selection of sample email responses for some of the common situations that may arise throughout your projects.

Business resources for motion designers

The business of motion design goes far beyond After Effects and animation programs. Our collection of business resources for motion designers are designed to help with the admin side of motion design, like making a motion design proposal, as well as helping with the creative side of things like how to write an explainer video script.