Motion Graphics

2D Elements are just formed of x and y axis so the image is flat and you can not see around it. In this video of 2D cubes you can tell they are just 2d because you can only see one face of the shape and not all the way round the shape http://videohive.net/item/2d-cubes/4642018

3D Elements are formed of x and y and z axis to give the image dimension so you can see all the way around it. In this video you can see all round the shape so it shows you they are 3D, they also use light and shadow to give a more realistic 3D effect http://vimeo.com/46422200

Mattes is the way of controlling transparency elements. In this video you can see the colour and the transparency of the writing changes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnkBApo255Q

Alpha Channels are components that represent transparency of a colour, it is used to determine how pixels are blended with other pixels. In this video we see how the text is one component and it is put over the top of the background which is another component but you can still see the background image around the text https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDtxfiaGRx0

Keyframes show the beginning and end of a flowing transitional video, usually of animations. For example in this video key frames would be used at the start of each new solid colour and they would blend between them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXIjtlobrgs

Layers are created in videos so that it is easier to edit and adjust single parts of them, this means you can build up your video of backgrounds and foreground and change them at anytime. It can also be used to make an image look more 3D by cutting one picture into layers and changing the ratio of them. In this video all these comments and background solids would be different layers but edited together to make one final video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XcBbN8qB_w

Composite Modes are used to determine how 2 layers are blended into each other. For example in the images below we see how 2 images can be blended together to create one image.