The landscape of video and motion graphics is evolving at an exhilarating pace, all fueled by artificial intelligence (AI). And it will continue to revolutionize the industry throughout this year.

In this post, we dive into the future of video and motion graphics, to explore the trends that will likely grow, change, and evolve this year. Naturally, most of these trends involve AI and whether you like it or not, it will be a part of your process too.

In motion graphics, the trends have stayed consistent over the years. We expect to see some of the timeless trends getting more popular while making way for new concepts that enhance visual storytelling.

Without further ado, let’s dive in and explore the video trends and motion graphic trends to keep an eye out for this year.

1. Effortless Editing With AI

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Editing videos became effortless with the help of AI. Adobe Premiere Pro and many other popular video editing software introduced cool new AI-powered editing systems last year, including text-based video editing.

Instead of having to scan videos manually to find and edit clips, you can now generate a transcript and edit using the text. Generating clips and scenes is also easier with AI. Enhancing audio and video quality became as simple as clicking a single button.

Things will only get bigger and better this year with Premiere Pro taking the lead on impressive AI-powered tools and features. But many other software are also introducing unique and advanced AI tools that will make video editing easier than ever.

2. AI Voiceovers Replace Voice Actors

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Recording voiceovers for videos has always been a frustrating experience. Even when you manage to get everything right in the first take, there will be some issues with the audio or the mic. Not to mention the costs of hiring voice actors for professional videos.

This is part of the reason why AI voiceovers became so popular last year. Now, all you have to do is copy and paste the script into an app and have it generate the voice track.

These AI voiceover tools are surprisingly realistic and accurate and it’s very difficult to make these AI-voiced videos apart from real voices. In fact, there are now tools that allow you to synthesize your own voice so you don’t have to record voiceovers for your videos ever again.

3. AI Avatars To Replace People

While you’re replacing your voiceovers with AI this year, why not replace yourself with an AI avatar? That way, you can completely automate your video production and even reduce the costs that go into hiring actors as well.

There are already many tools that allow you to generate AI avatars for videos. Even though they are not perfect right now, it won’t be too long before they get more accurate. Tools like HeyGen are already doing a great job of cloning your personality and likeness to generate AI videos.

Soon, there will be AI tools that will let you create videos or even movies with AI actors, reducing production costs and making things way easier to create content with nothing but a laptop.

4. Rise Of Short-Form Videos

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Popularized by TikTok, Shorts became a phenomenal new addition to social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. According to statistics, YouTube Shorts get more than 50 billion views per day.

Shorts and short-form content are much easier to consume, especially on mobile platforms. The vertical video format fits perfectly on mobile devices and they are just easier to scroll through than watching full-length videos.

Short-form videos appear to be the future of video and content creation. And marketers are slowly adopting this trend into their campaigns as well.

5. AI-Generated Videos Are Here

People laughed at the AI-generated videos. They were hilariously bad at generating realistic scenes, humans had way too many fingers, and they often looked nightmare-inducing. That all changed when OpenAI revealed its AI model for generating videos, Sora.

Sora does an incredible job at generating AI videos from text prompts. If someone were to show you the Sora introduction video without telling you it’s AI-generated, it would probably take you a long time to realize it.

There are many other AI video models out there and people are already using them to create wild and weird videos. As fun as they are to look at, it’s important to realize how fast AI-generated videos have improved over the course of a few months. And they will only get even better this year.

Marketers will be able to use AI videos to highlight their businesses, content creators will use AI to generate unique stock footage, and filmmakers will use it to create beautiful scenic shots without having to visit the locations. The opportunities will be endless.

6. Storytelling Is Still King of Marketing

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Every year, people around the world watch the Super Bowl for two reasons: Some watch it for the game and others watch it for the adverts. If you look at some of the most popular Super Bowl ads that generated more views and discussions, you’ll notice that they all have one thing in common—Storytelling!

Storytelling is still the key to creating more memorable, emotional, and impactful content. Whether it’s a TV commercial, social media video, or even a behind-the-scenes video, storytelling gives your content an identity that makes your brand stand out from the crowd. As long as humans have emotions, you can use storytelling to tap into their souls and minds.

7. Liquid-style Animations Takes Over

Motion graphics with liquid-style animations have been popular for quite a while. Their ability to create mesmerizing visuals with fluid animations often brings out a sense of energetic and whimsical vibe in people. This is why we’ve been seeing more and more businesses and marketers use liquid animations in their promo videos.

The fluidity and smoothness of the liquid animations make them more effective at grabbing the attention of the viewer. And using bright and vibrant colors makes them even more attractive. For these reasons, we can expect to see more motion graphic designs using liquid animations this year and probably throughout next year as well.

8. Episodic Videos Boost Retention

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When creating content on similar topics, consider turning it into a video series rather than creating one long-form video. Many creators have found episodic content to be much more effective than publishing individual videos apart from one another.

This is especially effective for YouTube channels. Many users on Reddit confirm that episodic content and videos made as a series work better for discoverability. And it’s also the best way to get your viewers to come back for more.

The key, however, is to create episodic content that stands on its own. Rather than creating a series with numbers like “episode 34”, you need to create interesting episodes that can be enjoyed by anyone who finds them without needing to watch the entire series from the beginning.

9. Long-Form Videos Still Works

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Even though short-form videos are the go-to choice among the younger generations, there is still good demand for long-form videos. The recent growth of podcast channels on YouTube is a good example of that. Even on TikTok, the long-form 10-minute videos have been quite popular over the past few months.

In-depth videos and content offer a bigger opportunity for you to engage with your audience on a much deeper level. If you can maintain the attention of your viewers throughout an hour-long video, you won’t have trouble convincing them to join your tribe.

10. Neo Brutalism Making a Comeback

There’s something about the raw and vibrant aesthetic of the Neo Brutalism trend that makes it hard to look away. The popular graphic design trend someone made its way over to motion graphics and now they are taking over the world of media as well.

The Neo Brutalism vibe is most effective for business and brand content. They help brands stand out with a more authentic look to connect with the audience on a personal level. Of course, the simple color schemes and the creative shapes also help create mesmerizing animations.

11. Silent Videos Making A Comeback

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In 2023 we saw a rise in silent videos on social media platforms. These are videos that don’t have any voiceovers and only consist of captions and subtitles. And they are slowly becoming the standard format for videos that target mobile audiences.

Most people who watch videos on mobile devices watch while traveling, standing in a queue, or crowded places. They prefer to keep volume muted while watching videos and that’s why they prefer these new captioned videos.

This is one of the trends that have a positive impact, allowing you to tap into a new group of audience this year.

12. Realistic 3D Motion Graphics

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Realism is the new theme of motion graphics. Especially with the advancements in AI, it’s getting much easier to generate brilliant motion graphics with realistic 3D visuals.

3D VFX tools like Blender also received significant improvements last year making them capable of producing life-like and ultra-realistic 3D motion graphics. Needless to say, we can expect to see more of those this year as well.

13. Retro Effects Are Still Popular

Reto-style visual effects and motion graphics will only continue to grow in popularity this year and we are not complaining. They are the ideal choice for creating a sense of nostalgia and evoking feel-good emotions.

Seeing cool retro filters, VHS-style distortions, and cyberpunk-themed glitching effects never gets old. These cool effects get featured on everything from YouTube videos to promotional adverts and even wedding videos. And we hope this retro motion graphics trend will never go out of style.

14. Grunge Visual Effects On The Rise

One of the new trends that’s slowly growing in motion graphics is the use of grunge-style visual effects. These effects add a gritty and urban feel to various types of videos, especially for intros and title scenes of videos, and add a raw and unpolished aesthetic.

Today, most content, adverts, and videos look too perfect, smooth, and unrealistic. And that’s part of why this grunge visual effects trend is getting more recognition. It adds imperfections, hand-drawn animations, grainy filters, and texture overlays to deliberately make videos look raw and realistic.

15. Dynamic Transitions To Grab Attention

Video transition effects used to be simple, minimal, and subtle. But that’s going away. Now, videos use more dynamic transition effects to attract the viewer’s attention and maintain it throughout the video.

Dynamic transitions are more than just about connecting two clips, they are also about creating fluid scenes that blend perfectly while also adding a sense of flow to the overall look of the video. Don’t be surprised if you see more videos that use dynamic transitions this year.

16. Histrionic Visuals

This is a motion graphics trend that we didn’t see coming and we certainly didn’t expect it to be this popular. Histrionic visuals are all about creating more expressive and dramatic videos.

This trend involves using rough textured overlays, old-school vintage color palettes, and distorted VHS-style effects to create scenes that evoke strong emotional responses. As a result, this effect is popularly used in videos related to serious topics, such as documentaries.

We also saw a different take on this trend where video editors and animators use histrionic visuals to create pop art and digital futurism-style looks for videos as well.

What’s Next?

We didn’t expect AI to make such a big impact on the way we work and now, somehow, we can’t imagine our lives without it.

It’s hard to guess what kind of an impact AI will have in the video industry this year. It will likely be as mind-blowing as the last year. However, we can be sure of one thing: it’s an exciting time to be working in this industry.