What are motion graphics? Animated text, numbers and charts, and when a card beats a screen recording
Motion graphics are animated graphic design: text, numbers, charts and shapes that move to explain something, with no camera and no characters. In a short narrated video, motion graphics carry the beats that footage cannot show, such as a total, a trend, a comparison or a sequence of steps.
This guide is for someone with numbers to get across, say a biotech founder who has to present a platform and its figures in ninety seconds. It covers the animated cards PageToVid has, how they move, when we pick a card over a recording, and a real 91-second product film told almost entirely in cards.
MolForge, an AI drug-discovery platform (molforge.ai): a 91-second, 16:9 film of 14 written scenes and 175 words. Nine are animated cards (a statement, a title card, a count-up stat card, a two-column compare, a big number, two grids, pricing, a closing line), between two site images and three AI clips.
What counts as motion graphics, and what does not
The term covers any design element that moves to carry information: kinetic typography, an animated chart, a number counting up, a logo reveal. Character animation (a cartoon person acting a scene) is not motion graphics, and neither is footage, including a screen recording. Motion graphics are designed, not filmed, and built to make one idea readable in a few seconds.
In a narrated film the job is narrow: the voice says a sentence, and the card shows the one thing in it the eye should hold on to. If the card shows something the voice does not mention, the viewer keeps neither. Our planner's rule is "show, then say".
The animated cards a PageToVid film can use
A scene is drawn as one of 21 scene visuals. Apart from images and galleries, they are motion-graphic cards, and each has its own built-in movement on top of its entrance:
- Numbers. A stat card shows two to four figures that tick up from zero, staggered. A big number counts up one hero figure. A counter crosses out an old value and pops the new one ("3 hours" to "3 minutes"). Count-ups use the film's own number convention, so a French "1,13" counts to one point one three, not to 113.
- Data. A chart grows its bars from two to six data points. Meters fill labelled bars to a percentage. A table reveals row by row.
- Structure. A timeline draws a connector between numbered steps. A checklist stacks ticks and crosses. A compare card splits the screen between the old way and the better one. A grid, pricing cards and a logo strip cover features, plans and partners.
- Voices. A quote, a testimonial with a star rating, and a chat thread whose bubbles arrive one at a time.
- Text. A statement is one bold line animated word by word, and a title card opens a film or a chapter. A before/after card wipes one picture across another.
Entrances come in two families. The statement card takes more than forty word-by-word text motions, including a kinetic set that draws something besides the word: a highlighter band behind each word, a slam that lands with a shake, an outline that fills, a typewriter caret. Other cards take one of more than thirty block entrances (a wipe, an iris, a slow Ken Burns drift), and no motion repeats inside one film. A problem beat can also get a red vignette and a slight shake, a win a warm glow.
Choosing the card for your data
Pick the visual from the shape of what you are saying, not from what looks impressive. The planner works from a similar mapping when it writes a storyboard from a page.
| What you want to say | Card | Keep it to |
|---|---|---|
One headline figure | Big number | One value, a label, an optional line underneath |
Two to four figures side by side | Stat | Short labels; three at most in 9:16 |
A before and after of one metric | Counter | Two display values and a label |
A trend over time | Chart | Up to six bars, four in 9:16 |
Shares of a whole | Meters | Up to five bars, four in 9:16 |
A process or a timeline | Timeline | Three to six steps |
Us against the old way | Compare | Three lines a side in 9:16 |
One sentence that must land | Statement | One line, no paragraph |
Worked example: the MolForge film
This film presents MolForge, an AI platform for drug discovery (molforge.ai). It is our own storyboard, written with create_animation: 14 scenes, 175 words, 91 seconds in 16:9.
An AI clip of a chemist at night opens on “Drug discovery can take more than a decade.” A statement card asks “What if your R&D moved at the speed of AI?” and a title card names the product. A stat card headed “Figures from molforge.ai” counts up 92M+ compounds, 100M patents and 276M papers, each one spoken by the voice. A compare card splits the screen between two tools, IP Radar and Lit Radar, three lines each. A big number, “< 30 s”, counts up under “Results in under thirty seconds”. Two grids list six tools and four audiences, a pricing card shows the plans, and a statement closes on “Try MolForge free.”
Nine cards, two site images and three AI clips keep a feature-heavy script from becoming a slide deck. Worth copying: the figures card names its source on screen, and the compare card sets two products side by side, not only old against new. What we would change: scenes 10 to 12 are three cards in a row, and the pace sags; a site image between the two grids would break the run.
When a card beats a recording, and when it does not
A card wins when the idea has no picture: a total, a percentage, a trend, a comparison, a process. A recording wins whenever the thing can be shown working: a search typed into the real box, the real pricing grid, a click that gets an answer. Viewers believe a product they watched work; a card they only read.
So a film made from a website keeps a floor of real recordings, because a card replaces its scene's recording. In 16:9, at least half the scenes (rounded up) are recordings, one of them in the first two. In 9:16 it is one scene in four, never fewer than two in a film of four scenes or more, and each recording needs a subject (a click, a typed search, a zoom onto one element), not a bare scroll. An article film has no floor, and a create_animation film has no site to show, so it can be all cards. Our explainer brief adds: one motion graphic per abstract idea, never two in a row.
How to make a data film with motion graphics
This is how the MolForge film was built, and it works for any set of figures you hold.
Collect sourced figures
Take every number from one source you can name, and say so on the card: the MolForge stat card is headed “Figures from molforge.ai”. When we plan a film from a page, our check flags any figure the page does not state.
Give each figure its own scene
One idea per scene. A scene of about eight to fifteen words is long enough for one figure and the sentence that explains it.
Pick the card from the data's shape
Use the table above: a trend is a chart, a share is meters, one total is a big number. Give every number card a headline of two to six words.
Say what the card shows
A voice reading three figures over a card that shows none of them is a defect our check flags on films planned from a page. Put the figures on the card.
Break the run of cards
Between data scenes, put a picture: a page image, a recording or, on a paid plan, an AI clip. Then render a free draft and check the pacing.
Written with create_animation, the film costs one render, 40 credits; each house AI clip adds 311 credits on a paid plan. Pricing has the plans and one-off film passes, and the storyboard guide shows how the scenes are laid out.
When not to use PageToVid for motion graphics
Our cards are templates you fill with data, not a design tool. If you need a custom logo animation, character animation, 3D or a brand-specific transition, hire a motion designer working in a tool like After Effects. If readers should explore the data themselves, an interactive chart on the page serves them better than a video. And if your film is mainly a presenter talking with a few titles, a presenter-led tool may suit you; our comparisons set out the trade-offs. For turning articles into films, see article to video.
Turn your website into a video — free
Paste the page you want filmed. PageToVid writes the script, films the real site, records the voice and renders the MP4.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between motion graphics and animation?
Motion graphics animate design elements such as text, numbers, charts and shapes to carry information. Animation in the broader sense includes character animation, where drawn or modelled figures act out a story.
Can I make a motion graphics video without a designer?
For data and explainer cards, yes. You write the scenes and the figures, pick a card for each, and the film is animated, voiced and captioned. Custom illustration and logo animation still need a designer.
Should a product video use motion graphics or a screen recording?
Both, in proportion. Show the product working in recordings and use cards for the numbers around it. A landscape film made from a website keeps at least half its scenes as recordings.