My Motion Design Workflow in 2026: Tools, Process, and AI

My motion design workflow looks almost nothing like it did three years ago. The core principles are the same - clarity, timing, craft - but the tools and how I use them have changed significantly. Here's how I actually approach projects in 2026.

Pre-Production: Visual Research and Moodboarding

I spend a long time in pre-production. Before I touch any design tool, I'm generating images on Krea to explore color vibes, atmosphere, and visual direction. I also check out Cosmos for inspiration. From there I start building a moodboard with pieces of things I like and want to absorb into my work. Not full references - fragments. A color palette from one thing, a texture from another, a layout idea from something else entirely. The goal is to collect enough raw material that the direction becomes obvious before I start designing.

Design: Figma is Home

I spend most of my time in Figma. It used to be Illustrator, but that's a thing of the past. Figma became my go-to for all design choices - trying new things before committing to animation, exploring typography, layout, color. Even for putting together storyboards, it's just a natural way to work.

And knowing that I use Overlord, it makes it incredibly easy to bring everything from Figma to After Effects. The handoff is seamless, and I don't lose fidelity in the process. That pipeline alone probably saves me hours per project.

Music: Suno Changed the Game

Suno has proven that I can have fun with music. I'm no expert in music at all, and it's always been a challenge to find the right track. But now I can figure out ways to play with tunes that could elevate my motion work. Being able to generate and iterate on music ideas quickly means the audio and visual can develop together instead of bolting a track on at the end.

Animation: Blocking, Components, Templates

I start with story images for blocking - getting the feeling of timing right before I animate anything. Then I start animating components: title texts, inputs, buttons, cards, transitions. Everything gets built as individual pieces first.

After these foundations are in place, I identify opportunities for automation and scalability. Most of the time, the piece I'm working on will need to live in other dimensions - marketing, social, different aspect ratios. So I spend time putting together a template at this stage that I can reuse later.

And whenever possible, there's a way to make it happen with expressions. That means less animating by hand, which is faster, cleaner, and easier to tweak. We don't need to spend ages on revisions when the motion logic lives in code. If you're curious about getting started with expressions, I wrote a beginner's guide to After Effects expressions.

Rendering and Exporting: Think About It Early

Usually rendering is an afterthought, but I like to take action from the beginning - especially when it comes to resizing and versioning.

I came up with a personal canvas size of 1920x3414. Super odd, but hear me out. Working at this size, I can handle multiple output dimensions simultaneously. I get to export 1920x1080 for standard landscape, scale down to 1080x1920 for vertical, or crop to 1080x1350 for Meta campaigns. I'm simplifying this a lot, but that's basically the theory. Planning for multiple deliverables from day one means I'm not scrambling to resize everything at the end of a project.

How Has My Workflow Changed in 2026?

The biggest shift is AI weaving into every stage of the process.

More visual experimentation with Krea, Midjourney, and Nano Banana. The exploration phase is faster and wider than ever before. I can test visual directions in minutes that would have taken hours to mock up.

Claude Code became the extended arm of my motion operation. I can set up workflows in no time - the ability to batch create videos, input real-time data to motion templates for export, set up a render engine so I can free up my workstation. Even for my wildest requests for expressions and scripts. It's like having a technical co-pilot that never gets tired.

I'm also being more intentional with colors, micro details in animation, and a cleaner approach to my videos overall. The work is getting tighter, not busier.

We're in a time where tools are more accessible and everything feels within reach. But we can be our own blockers. Our minds still need to figure out what exactly to do with all of this. So as long as we can still see things in motion inside our heads, we'll have a better time converting that vision into the final video.