Advice on Logo/Animation creation?

Hello the forum,

I'm a tiny youtuber and I've been devising both a logo for my channel and an intro animation to place at the beginning of my videos. I commissioned the basic design to be created on freelancer.com and am very happy with the outcome.

So I currently have the logo, which is flat and from a frontal perspective, exactly as this text is. The goal is to have it made three dimensional, with each letter and part of the logo about as deep as they are wide, with the impression that it is made from strong, dense, steel, but maintaining the frontal perspective. (Imagine a series of rings placed on a desk and viewed from directly above.)

The idea for the animation is to have each individual letter and segment of the symbol come flying in from off-screen, crashing together to form the completed logo, then perhaps something to signify completion.

But, my question; Do I take the original design to another graphic designer and have them make it three dimensional? Adding the depth, texture, and weight that I'm after? Or do I reach out to an animator capable of creating the intro I'm interested in, as they will likely have to render and model each individual piece to complete it? Or do I need to do both, in that order?

I intend to commission all the work required, and price isn't really an issue, I am just not sure which route would be best as I know very little about graphic design and the methods people use to create such things, and I would really appreciate some advice.

Thanks for your time!

I'd shop around for animators first, approach one or two who you feel are a good fit and discuss what you want. They should be able to tell you what they need in terms of raw files to put the animation together. They may need additional files, they may be able to amend them themselves. If they need work doing to the logo prior and cannot do it themselves, then you may have to speak to your original designer (or a different designer completely) to get what they need made up.

I think a lot depends on the logo.
Do you have the original design file in vectors or just a flat image?

If it's flat and rasters (like a JPG) it will most likely need to be re-drawn to get the separate elements that an animator would need.
By the sound of it you're wanting it done in 3D and if so then you'll be needing someone that can animate using a 3D package rather than something like After Effects.

Thanks for the replies.

The problem with shopping around for an specific animator/designer is that freelancer.com doesn't really have any way to reach out to and talk to people without setting up a job description, providing the funds, and guaranteeing someone will receive them at the end of the project. I have no problem paying people for their work, but I just need to make sure I'm doing it in the right order so I don't end up needing to backtrack.

I have the logo as the original .psd, a .png with no backround, and a clear .jpg.

https://postimg.org/image/g26471fgt/

I've changed the colors a little on the top image, and I want them to look like the bottom image except from a frontal perspective, as you can see that one has been slanted.

You could approach animators outside of freelancer, check out some sites like Vimeo for quality work. Check out their work, email them, chat the project through and if you're happy, pay a 50% deposit and the rest when the work is completed. That's pretty standard. I wouldn't pay everything up front, and as a designer, I wouldn't expect anyone to. 50/50 is pretty fair on both ends.

PSD format could be a problem depending on how large or small it was made. Vector format is the only format logos should be created in as they allow you to scale them up and down without losing quality. It's also handy for animation as the vectors can be manipulated directly in After Effects, giving the animator much more freedom and speeding everything up. If the PSD is large enough, you may get away with being able to animate it, but a vector version would definitely make things easier.

I always recommend anyone walk away from a designer who's talking about providing a logo in PSD format. This shows inexperience and often leads to problems later on. In a nutshell, it's a clear sign the designer is either an amateur, simply doesn't know what they're doing or both.

Alright, some good advice.

I've personally never heard of the Vector format before, but as I've said.. totally inexperienced in this field. This logo design was the first time I've ever commissioned any kind of graphic design, and freelancer.com seemed to be fairly well known and recommended.

Even if the .psd is not suitable and the design needs to be recreated/vectored, I am still glad to have it on paper as a starting point, and don't consider it a loss.

I will definitely check out Vimeo and see if I can find some people willing/capable of doing the work I'm after.

Thanks for the information and direction.

This is the problem with using online sites who crowdsource solutions - you often get inexperienced people chancing their arm.

You have been unfortunate to get caught up in this, and as a result you don't have a vector logo.

You may feel that you've got a good starting point, and that's ok - however, we have plenty of talented reputable designers on the forums, you can commission any of us by posting in the Jobs section.

Let us know if you need any help.

Do a search for vectors vs rasters and it'll explain the difference.

Rasters (PSD, JPG, PNG) are made up from pixels and don't scale up well.
Vectors are mathematical shapes and will scale to any size.

As has been said, that is the problem with crowdsourcing sites.
At least you have a design you're happy with but you're going to need to get someone to draw it as vectors but that shouldn't be a biggie as the image is quite hi-res.

Interesting. I've done some research on the difference between vectors and rasters and now properly understand why vectors are superior.

I had expected some difficulty to occur when working through a crowdsourcing site, but I just had no idea how else to begin.

When you talk about the Jobs section of this website, are you referring to this page? http://www.graphicdesignforums.co.uk/forums/tenders-services-required-forum.12/ Alot of the content in that page seems to correlate, and I can't find something specifically called 'Jobs.'

Is it difficult to convert what I have into a vector? Could I, once vectored, also seek the 3D and Animation portions of my request on this forum?

I 'think' that's the right page but a Mod should be able to tell you for sure.

The raster/vector thing is amongst the least understood things in design.
I used to have to re-draw logos that people had grabbed from their web-sites to make them good for print that were SO small and pixelated, once zoomed in on you could hardly tell what they were.

Yours is pretty hi-res and made of pretty simple shapes so it's not a big job. Maybe a couple of hours.

A word of advice.
If you do put it up on the tenders thread, please check that the member is reputable and doesn't have a very low post count.
There are a lot of people that join the forum to spam and you may end up in a similar situation as before.

Is it just as easy to work on a .vector as it is a .png? That's the last question I would like an answer to before I move forward. It seems that the answer is yes, but I'd like to know for sure as I have no idea how to edit .vector files.

To edit the actual vector file you will need a vector package like Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer (cheap) or Inkscape (free).

As long as the vector file is set up and layered correctly then you'll be able to import it into an animation package like After Effects.
You can do more with a vector file as it's not lossy and doesn't degrade when enlarged.

Ideally, it's best to open the vector image in the application that created it. As with different softwares it handles layers, compound paths, masks, colours, etc. in all different ways.