Can you make a living as a Freelance Motion Graphic Designer?

First thing first, let me introduce myself. My name is Laurentiu, I'm a Motion Graphics Designer with 7 years experience, based in Denmark.

Now, to give you a straight answer: YES, you can. Now don't leave, wait, wait... There's more to it than it meets the eye. Let me give you the full story on how I got into Motion Graphics Design.

Back in 2013, while I was in my 11th grade in high-school, I was looking for ways to make money online, I was 17 and was really eager to make my own pocket money. I tried different small things like doing online surveys, tried different "Money Making" APPS, but nothing actually worked.

Until I found Fiverr, it was a totally new concept for me, I couldn't believe people could make small tasks online in exchange for a Fiverr (5 Dollars). Back then, there was this software called Prezi. It was something new, an alternative for Powerpoint. I remember I did a pretty nice Prezi for a school assignment and my class loved it. Then I thought to myself, why not make a Prezi for clients, but as I knew Video Animation / Explainer Videos were booming, I posted a gig on Fiverr, saying that I'll make a 30 seconds video presentation for just $5. And it worked! I got my very first sale! I still remember to this day how excited I was for having my very first $5 order!

I was so happy! It was huge for the 17 year old me, especially in 2013 when Social Media wasn't even that strongly established as now, so having that one client order from me seemed crazy! I ran to my mom and told her about it, she was skeptical about it, she couldn't understand how some random man out in the world, payed a 17 old teenager over the internet, $5, to make him a video for his company. It was such a foreign thought! And it was! I was shocked too, haha. Didn't expect it would work.

I still have the symbolical $5 bill that client payed me, even tho, Fiverr took their cut so I was left with $4, but still! Here, check this out!

Yes, I should definitely frame it! Anyways, fast forward 4 months in, and I managed to gather $500! It was amazing! On my birthday, I withdrew the money and upgraded from my very old rusty PC (Intel Pentium Celeron, 1.2 GHz, 256 MB RAM), to my very first, full paid by my own money, rocket laptop for that time! I was thrilled! My mother wasn't so happy I spent all my $500 on a laptop, but then it proved very useful later on.

That's how it started. Then I started learning animation on my own, watching tutorials on YouTube, mostly by MoGraph and others, but fast forward another year and here I am, moving from Fiverr to another platform, Freelancer.com , a bigger platform with more opportunities.

Here, I managed to move up my rates as well, as there were clients with bigger budget that could afford a more complex animation. I would say that the first 2 years of my freelance career were mostly about learning how to deal with clients, than improving myself.

It's hard to work as a freelancer, besides the fact that you'll need to learn to manage your time properly, know when you're most creative and take advantage of that, know when you're in full-procrastinating-mode and try to fight it, so you don't end up with 10 hours left before deadline, and so on.

But it was a good switch, even tho, after not even 3-5 months, I had to make another switch, because that platform became way competitive and it was flooded by new freelancers that sold themselves cheap, I'd say. I don't have anything against that, as I was having myself low rates too, but in a fast emerging industry such as animation, where budgets weren't so popular and business owners didn't know how to estimate and appreciate a Motion Graphic Designer's work, they were falling for the cheap prices trap.

And I said bye-bye Freelancer.com and welcome to my new 'home', the website called PeoplePerHour, also short as PPH. Here is where I really started to flourish as a Motion Graphic Designer and receive bigger projects.

It was also a very helpful platform, especially after I just moved to a foreign country, where I currently live, Denmark. As it was a really expensive country to live in, PeoplePerHour actually helped me pay my bills and multi-task being a freelancer and a student at the time.

For the reference sake, without me coming accros as bragging, I'd like to share my earnings from PPH in the past 5 years:

Well, some may say, but ~£341 ($441) / month it's not much. No, it's not much, but I wasn't just working here, I was also having clients from my own website, my own portfolio I've built. You can check the link below.

Portfolio: www.miketoonstudio.com

PS: If you wish to create your own website, I recommend you BlueHost, they have some affordable packages and an easy to use Control Panel to install your website (I use Wordpress, by the way). Definitely check it out.

Now to get back to the story, no, it wasn't a crazy amount, for but the student me in 2014, it was enough to have my normal daily life. It wasn't easy, as it wasn't meant to be easy and I wasn't expected to be easy either, but it made me who I am today and for that I'm grateful.

Now I have several income streams, besides the one from the Motion Graphics Jobs I do on a weekly basis. I've got recurring customers that come even after 3-4 years, they come back for more animations, I was always focusing on 100% customer satisfaction, therefore I've learned the hard way that working with people it's one of the hardest jobs on the planet, no matter what industry you're in.

It had it's ups and downs, some great clients that you just had a blast working with, but then some crazy ones that either changed their mind about everything on the last 100 meters, or being so pushy as messaging me on Skype at 6 AM if I started working, when I was deeply asleep. I was a night owl back then, and worked until 4 AM, but now I started taking more care about my health, and you should too!

Health is the most important, guys, when being a freelancer. You tend to work late hours, neglect your body signals that you should take it easy, have bad eating habits and so on. Being a freelancer in general means being on a lonely right, and that can affect your mental health too, but I should make another article about that too!

Always take care of your health, both physical and mental health!

By the way, for those of you interested on my setup, check it out below:

Now, I'm not an expect by any means, even tho I have 7 years (I personally count only 5 as true professional working years, the first 2 were more like a learning curve), but I've also worked indirectly with some cool brands such as Google, SEAT, MINI, Warner Bros Games, Heinz, DoorDash, Degree (US version of Europe's Rexona) and Gillette.

Coming back to the main question of the article: Can you make a living as a Freelance Motion Graphics Designer? Again, the quick answer is: YES!

The long answer is: Yes, you can, but you'll need to be willing to take each experience as a step towards your future self and if you're a newbie on this field, consider working on some free projects for clients, but don't sell yourself too cheap either! You have to find the balance here, it's hard to tell which project for which client deserves a 'FREE' price-tag and which doesn't, it's up to you to asses the situation and see what are your options. After all, working constantly for free won't pay the bills!

Some other free work that you can do, that can skyrocket your carrier can be projects you're passionate about, as those tend to have the most creativity, because you LOVE the subject! So do it, do that smooth jump animation you've been literally dreaming at night, or animate your previous dream (that you can remember some of it, haha). Just do what makes you giggle. Within yourself. Meaning you just love it that you'd wake up everyday for it.

As a conclusion for this article, be patient and you'll get there soon enough! Do it in your own timing, some might get there faster, some slower, but you will get there. I'd like to end it on a quote that really resonates with me, by a person I quite admire for his passion and determination to do what he loves:

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking."

Steve Jobs