As our MGFX team grows and expands into new territories, we wanted to give you an insight into its talent. Who is behind the scenes, conjuring up our motion graphics magic? To kick us off, meet Mike Howie, Senior Motion Graphics Artist. With over eleven years in the industry, working on UI and and motion graphics for projects ranging from Halo Infinite to Mortal Kombat 11, he brings refined expertise and knowledge to the team. Read on to learn more about him and discover his work!
Who or what inspired you to get into the art of MGFX?
Getting into mograph was a natural follow on from my initial years of graphic design and user interface work. Watching Video CoPilot videos to help learn After Effects was probably the main source of inspiration in a practical sense. I realised that creating cool motion work was very achievable and something that would help boost my overall creativity.
And who inspires you now?
There are so many inspiring artists and companies out there that do this type of work, including Revenant, which was one of the reasons I wanted to work here! I still find that there are certain IP’s and projects over recent years that I constantly come back to as reference points. The Alien franchise, for example, is a big one as the design language is just iconic and holds up so well.
What would your dream project look like?
It’s a bit cliché but a great sci-fi project like Star Wars is the ultimate dream gig, right? Ideally in something that gets people talking about how cool the visuals are. I’m also a big James Bond fan, so that’s another franchise I’d love to be involved in! There’s plenty of instances in these types of stories that has scope to create cool MGFX and screen graphics.
The industry is changing more than ever right now. How do you see MGFX helping to shape the future of animation and VFX?
MGFX is advancing all the time. There’s always new plugins, tech and program updates that continue to allow new possibilities. From a project standpoint, there is very often a need to help bridge that gap across different mediums. Creating a final product can often require mograph to help bring it all together, either as part of the core visuals or as an additional element of polish.
Dive further into Mike’s work on ArtStation, and Vimeo.