Motion graphics in Dubai are no longer a premium add-on — they are the primary format on the screens your audience actually watches. Instagram Reels, TikTok, Dubai Metro digital panels, mall DOOH networks, and YouTube pre-roll all demand motion-first content produced to a standard that competes with global brands. Plexi produces motion graphics that are on-brand, on-brief, and built for the platforms UAE audiences use.
Why static design is no longer enough
Dubai is a high-intensity visual market — a city built on commerce, events, and spectacle sets a high ambient standard for visual output. Static images tend to under-perform motion on the platform metrics brands watch most closely — reach, engagement, and save rate — so a feed of still frames usually leaves reach on the table.
The problem for most UAE businesses is not budget — motion design tools have never been more accessible. The problem is brand consistency. Animated content that does not match the quality and language of the static brand ends up weakening both. A premium brand identity paired with a motion graphic that looks like a free After Effects template achieves negative brand effect.
Motion graphics services Plexi produces
Animated logo sting
A 3–5 second animation of your logo mark, designed for use as a video intro, stinger between content segments, and sign-off on social content. Produced in multiple formats: transparent ProRes 4444 or PNG-sequence MOV for overlaying on footage, MP4 with brand-colour background, and a seamless loop version for digital displays. Arabic variant included as standard. An animated sting works best when it is built directly on the logo design construction — the same geometry, weight, and clear-space rules — so the motion feels like the mark breathing rather than a separate effect.
Social media motion templates
Editable motion templates for Instagram Reels, Stories, and TikTok — designed in After Effects with expression controls that allow your team to swap text, imagery, and colour without breaking the animation. Typically delivered as a set of 5–8 templates covering announcement, promotion, testimonial, and product-showcase formats, each exported at the correct aspect ratio with text kept inside platform safe zones.
Explainer video
A 60–90 second animated explanation of a product, service, or process. Covers script development, storyboard, motion design, and final render with voiceover. Particularly effective for SaaS products, fintech, and B2B services where the offer requires more than a tagline to communicate. Arabic and English versions available from one production run.
Kinetic typography and title sequences
Text-driven animation where the words carry the message — used for quote reels, statistic call-outs, lyric-style promos, event opens, and title sequences that top-and-tail longer video. Kinetic type is where an animated brand typeface earns its keep: pacing, entrance, and emphasis are choreographed to the read, not bolted on afterwards.
Brand launch film
A 30–90 second cinematic brand film for a new brand launch, product introduction, or brand refresh announcement. Combines motion graphics, typography animation, and optionally live footage. Used across social, YouTube, trade events, and internal communications.
Digital OOH content
Content sized and formatted for the specific screen network: Dubai Metro line screens, mall digital panels, and outdoor roadside billboards. Loop-ready, silent-design-first, and delivered in the codec and bitrate the network operator requires. See the production notes below for how DOOH differs from screen-first content.
UI micro-animations
Lottie-format animations for web and app interfaces — loading states, success and error feedback, empty states, and onboarding illustrations. Designed to the interaction patterns of the product and delivered as resolution-independent JSON for developer implementation, so the file stays a few kilobytes rather than a heavy video.
Choosing between 2D and 3D motion graphics
The single decision that shapes budget, timeline, and revision cost is whether a project is 2D or 3D. Most commercial motion work does not need 3D — 2D communicates faster, revises cheaper, and carries a brand system more cleanly. 3D earns its cost only when the message depends on realistic depth, material, or physical space. The table below is the framework we use to steer that call before a project is scoped.
| Dimension | 2D motion graphics | 3D motion graphics |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Explainers, social reels, animated logos, UI, infographics, kinetic type | Product visualisation, architectural walk-throughs, realistic materials, hero brand films |
| Production time | Faster — days to a few weeks | Longer — modelling, texturing, lighting, and rendering add weeks |
| Revision cost | Lower — vector layers adjust quickly | Higher — changed scenes must be re-rendered |
| Typical toolset | After Effects, Illustrator, Lottie | Cinema 4D or Blender, plus compositing |
| Main cost driver | Complexity and length of animation | Scene complexity, realism, render time |
| Plexi delivery | Produced in-house | Scoped with specialist 3D partner studios |
We are honest about the boundary: 2D, kinetic typography, and compositing are core in-house craft; heavy 3D product or architectural work is scoped with vetted partner studios so the render quality matches the concept rather than stretching a generalist.
Deliverable specs by platform
Motion that looks right in the studio can fail on the destination if it is exported at the wrong ratio, codec, or frame rate — text drifts under a platform’s UI, a DOOH panel rejects the file, or a logo sting has no transparency to sit over footage. We export a master and then platform-specific cuts to the specs below rather than posting one file everywhere.
| Destination | Aspect ratio | Resolution | Format / codec | Delivery note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reels / TikTok / Shorts | 9:16 | 1080×1920 | H.264 MP4 | Keep type inside safe zones clear of platform UI |
| Instagram / LinkedIn feed | 4:5 or 1:1 | 1080×1350 or 1080×1080 | H.264 MP4 | Portrait and square claim more feed height |
| YouTube pre-roll / landscape | 16:9 | 1920×1080 up to 4K | H.264 delivery, ProRes master | First 5 seconds must hold before the skip |
| Animated logo sting | Matches host video | Matches host video | ProRes 4444 or PNG sequence (alpha) + MP4 | Transparent version for overlaying on footage |
| Web / app UI | Component-dependent | Vector | Lottie JSON (+ MP4/WebM fallback) | Tiny file, resolution-independent, dev-ready |
| Dubai DOOH | Per network | Per network spec | H.264 MP4 at network bitrate | Silent, loop-ready, high-contrast for daylight |
How motion extends a brand identity
Motion earns its keep when it makes an existing brand identity move in character — the same palette, typeface, and graphic language, now with timing added. Deviate from the system and the animation reads as a different brand.
The part that is specific to motion is deciding how the identity behaves in time: how the logo resolves, how type enters and exits, and the easing and pacing signature that, done well, becomes as recognisable as the colour. Where Plexi built the identity that motion signature is already implied by the source files; where you bring an outside identity, we set those rules from your brand guidelines at project start (the wider in-house onboarding model is described on the branding and graphic design pillar). The concrete win either way: a launch film, a social cut, and a web micro-interaction all share one motion signature instead of three teams inventing easing curves independently.
Animating Arabic and bilingual content
Animating Arabic well is not a matter of swapping the English text and re-rendering. Because the script runs right-to-left and its letters join, words are usually revealed as whole units rather than letter-by-letter — cut a connected word mid-reveal and it reads as broken, not animated. Layouts mirror for RTL, numerals are set Eastern or Western to match the brand, and the whole composition rebalances: a lower-third, a call-to-action, or a logo lockup that sits left in English often belongs right in Arabic.
Timing matters as much as layout. Arabic voiceover frequently runs longer than the English equivalent for the same message, so we storyboard to the longer read and design scenes that hold both languages, then produce the two versions in a single production run. That reuses the animation build, keeps EN and AR visually identical, and avoids paying to animate the same piece twice.
Producing for Dubai’s out-of-home screen networks
Digital out-of-home is a different discipline from screen-first content, and it is where a lot of otherwise-good motion falls over. Viewers pass a Metro-platform or roadside screen in seconds, usually with no audio and often in bright daylight, so DOOH content is designed silent by default, built to loop seamlessly, and set in high-contrast type large enough to read at distance. The message has to land in the first beat, not build to a payoff.
On the technical side, each operator publishes its own resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and file-length limits, and panels vary in aspect ratio between Metro screens, mall networks, and outdoor billboards. We collect the exact specification for the booked network at project start and master to it — a compliant H.264 MP4 at the operator’s stated settings — rather than delivering a generic export the network will reject. Where a campaign runs across several networks, we version the same concept to each panel’s ratio instead of letterboxing one file everywhere.
Our production pipeline
Every project moves through the same stages, and the order is deliberate — the cheapest place to change a motion piece is before a single keyframe is set.
- Brief and references — objectives, audience, platform destinations, brand assets, and reference clips that define the target quality bar.
- Script (explainers) — a 90-second-maximum script written to first-time-viewer clarity, locked before design begins.
- Storyboard and style frames — the look, pacing, and key moments approved as stills. Concept changes here cost a fraction of changes after animation is underway.
- Animation — built in Adobe After Effects, with expression-driven controls where the client needs editable social templates.
- Sound design, voiceover, and music — English and Arabic voiceover through vetted UAE-market talent, and music licensed and cleared for commercial use across YouTube, Meta, and TikTok.
- Review — two rounds of edits, each working from a single grouped set of notes so the cut tightens with every pass instead of swinging back and forth.
- Delivery — a master file plus platform-specific and DOOH-compliant exports, named and organised for handover.
Complex 3D motion (product visualisation, architectural renders) is scoped with partner studios at the brief stage so timeline and cost are known up front rather than discovered mid-project.
What a motion project costs to make
Motion in Dubai is most often priced per finished minute of animation, then adjusted for the factors that actually move the effort. The biggest is 2D versus 3D — a rendered 3D scene can cost several times a comparable 2D one. After that: total runtime, the number of revision rounds, voiceover and how many language versions you need, music licensing, whether you want editable templates or a single locked render, and DOOH versioning across multiple screen networks. Understanding these drivers up front is how you avoid paying for realism or length the message does not need.
Because runtime and dimension dominate, the honest way to price motion is per finished minute against a defined 2D-or-3D spec — a five-second logo sting and a multi-scene bilingual explainer share almost nothing but the software. The pricing overview sets out how those minutes and levers roll up into a figure.
Ready to move? Send your brief through the contact form along with two or three reference clips that show the quality bar you are aiming at — a target length, the platforms it is going on, and whether you need both Arabic and English decide most of the scope on their own.