THE GREAT ANIMATION ACCELERATION
What’s drawing innovators to all things animated
Six billion video ads are watched online every year. Ninety-five million pieces of media are shared daily on Instagram. To a brand with hopes of pausing the endless scroll, visual impact is mandatory. And in the new pandemic landscape, this demand for impactful creative is being answered more and more often by animating artists.
The conditions are prime for an animation boom.
The Pandemic Workaround
Sixty-two percent (AKA two-thirds) of employed Americans are working from home during the pandemic. That’s a stat that has doubled since mid-March when the crisis cranked up. Quarantine has driven nearly every industry to establish remote workforces and workarounds.
For the marketing and entertainment industries, this look like: halted live-action productions, interim creative captured lo-fi on cell phones and desktop cameras, and a hunger for accessible ways to express compelling stories.
Creative Capacity At The Ready
Animation is a versatile medium. You have control of the variables, and anything is possible—whether it’s simplifying complex ideas, bringing existing material to life in new and memorable ways or inspiring and connecting people with fresh and original storylines. You can use animation to inform, you can use it to entertain, and the best embodiment is when you use it to do both.
With the marketing / entertainment industries locked inside Zoom rooms, we’re turning to animating artists to tell our stories for us. And they can handle it.
Unlike many other industries, the animation sector has seen relatively few layoffs. Studios have stepped up their remote game to respond to the increasing opportunity, from animators carting home equipment and creating top-shelf satellite setups to new software developments that incite creative collaboration from a distance.
Monumental Media Consumption
With people sheltered in the safety of their homes, craving for entertaining and compelling content has never been higher. Our couches are packed and our screens are hungry, with 38% of internet users in the US consuming more broadcast TV and online videos right now than pre-pandemic days.
Higher demand. Talent ready to deploy. A medium with limitless possibility. The animation industry is on the edge of unprecedented creativity. Artists are ready to redraw the boundaries around what’s bold and innovative. Are you in?
EXPERT ANIMATORS WEIGH IN:
TRENDS, TACTICS, AND TOUCHPoiNTS OF THE DECADE.
STUXNET: The Virus that Almost Started WW3, 2011
“This example takes an abstract, invisible subject and uses design to augment the story and make it compelling.
At times the graphics have a one-to-one relationship with the VO, and at other moments the graphics support the story with additional, unspoken information. There are so many design decisions to be made in these spots about composition, typography, metaphor, color and transition. This piece represents a tremendous amount of work, pushing the limits of tools and paying close attention to every design detail.”
— Josh Spivey, Director/3D Generalist
Nike Mercurial Superfly by ManvsMachine, 2014
“This piece combined classic cinematography with the burgeoning democracy of design tools in a way that revolutionized motion graphics storytelling. Never once does this spot tell us how light the shoe is, or how revolutionary the materials are or how stiff the sole is. Yet it makes such a clear statement in the end. The care with which they celebrate the materials and construction became a calling card for Man vs Machine for years and opened the door for designers everywhere to pitch ideas that were more than just features or brand copy.
This was also one of the first of a new generation of motion pieces to lean into complex computer science. The beautiful macro detail and generative art of this piece is still the standard today.”
— Josh Spivey
Out Holding Hands by Daniel Gray for Allstate, 2014
“We are in a time of unprecedented global change, a time that requires a level of communication and understanding we have never needed before. Animation is a universal language. It can take infinite forms and illustrate the human experience in countless ways. When executed with love and empathy, animation can connect the world and move us without ever feeling forced or threatening.
This is one of my favorite animation examples. The piece was totally relatable to me as a Jew, despite the film being about gay men and the feeling of being scared and isolated.”
— Nancy Jacobs, President of Batya Communications. Respected voice in the animation community for 35+ years. Currently representing the team at NoMint
ULTIMUNE by Shiseido x Shishi, 2017
“ShiShi Yamazaki has a super original and riveting hand-painted style, I have never seen anything like her.”
— Nancy Jacobs
Merde by Jonathan Lindgren, 2019
“Jonathan Lindgren’s work will just stop you in your tracks, it's so fresh and gorgeous.”
— Nancy Jacobs
Lightning Bolt Music Video by Caleb Wood, 2020
“This video is such a gorgeous example of how an animator can interpret a sequence of sonic energy that both responds directly to the song and also transcends it with some kind of kinetic alchemy.
I am enchanted by the exquisite effects-style smears, blooms, crackles and explosions. I am mesmerized by his use of the limited palette, the mirroring symmetry of abstract animation, the textured grittiness of the lines and the exquisite-corpse style progression of characters. I am blown away that this masterpiece was made entirely by one artist as far as I can tell. In a time of social distancing and mandatory remote-working, it is awe-inspiring to see a piece like this that one human animator can produce.”
— Lori Damiano, Independent Animator/Illustrator, Assistant Professor of Animated Arts, PNCA
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Written by Jennifer Sherowski, Associate Creative Director at Nemo Design
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