The Chai Shop That Stopped Me Mid Scroll And What It Taught Me About Motion Graphics

I remember the first time I saw a small chai shop in my city post an animated reel on Instagram. It wasn't fancy. Just their logo moving, some text sliding in, a few colors popping. But I stopped scrolling. And I never stop scrolling.

I spent like 20 minutes trying to figure out how they did it. That's when I realized I had been seriously underestimating this whole thing. Honestly it was a little embarrassing. I had been calling myself a creative person for two years at that point.

Motion catches your eye before your brain even decides to pay attention. Simple biology.

Most creative students I know learned Canva. Some picked up Photoshop. And then they hit a wall. Jobs weren't coming. Clients weren't responding. The portfolio looked fine but nothing was happening.

The gap is usually motion. Static design is the baseline now, not the thing that gets you noticed. I was stuck in that same place. Thought knowing design tools was enough. Took me way too long to figure out it wasn't.

There's a local clothing boutique I know. Small setup, maybe 10 employees. They started using simple animated videos for their Instagram promotions. Nothing cinematic. Just their products moving on screen, some text sliding in, smooth transitions. Within a few months people started recognizing the brand around town. Inquiries picked up. Not because they spent heavily on ads. Because their content looked like it belonged next to the big brands.

Someone made those videos. That's the job. And that kind of work is everywhere right now. Restaurants posting animated menus. Startups running 15 second brand videos as ads. E commerce pages using product animations instead of plain photos. Real work, real clients, real money.

The two tools that run this industry are Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro. After Effects handles animation and motion design. Premiere Pro handles editing and production. Together they cover almost everything a brand needs, from Instagram reels to full branding videos to digital ads.

They look scary at first. I opened After Effects the first time and genuinely had no idea where to even click. Closed it and watched TV instead. But two weeks of actual practice and things start clicking. Two months of real project work and you have a portfolio worth showing.

Static design is like a photograph on a wall. Motion design is like a fish tank in that same wall. Both are visuals. But one of them you keep looking back at. That's the difference you're selling when you learn this skill.

Career wise this opens up more directions than most people expect going in.

Motion designer at a digital agency is the obvious one. But there's also freelancing for brands that need social media video content, working as a video editor with motion skills at a production house, getting into UI animation by combining it with design knowledge, or just building your own client base and working from wherever you want.

Murthalla P.M trained in Kottakkal and is now freelancing as a motion graphic designer internationally while managing another professional role at the same time. That's not a lucky exception. That's what a solid motion skill actually gives you when you build it properly.

YouTube tutorials are how most people start. I did too. Watched probably 80 hours of After Effects content and still couldn't deliver a real project without panicking. Still had to Google basic things mid client call which was not a great feeling.

The difference between tutorial watching and actual training shows up fast. Real deadlines, real feedback, real briefs. That's what builds the speed and confidence that clients and employers actually care about.

At SkilzHub in Kottakkal the Motion Graphics program runs 2 months with a 1 month internship after. Agency based which means actual projects from day one, not dummy assignments sitting in a folder nobody looks at. The kind of training I wish existed when I was closing After Effects and watching TV instead.

One more thing worth knowing. Not all motion is good motion. I've seen brands animate everything on screen and it just looks exhausting to watch. Movement needs a reason behind it. One word appearing at the right moment hits harder than a whole screen going crazy. You only really learn that by doing it wrong a few times and sitting with why it didn't work. That process moves a lot faster when someone experienced is watching and telling you where it went wrong.

The chai shop stopped me mid scroll. The boutique got new customers without spending heavily on ads. Both just decided to try something that moved.

You don't need a massive budget to start this. You just need to actually start.

If you're in Malappuram and want to see what the training looks like before committing to anything, SkilzHub Kottakkal has a free demo session you can book first.

Check out the Motion Graphics course here →