Animation evolution: where's the industry heading?

In the animation industry, it's not just about styleframes, keyframes, and glossy 3D tori, although they play a big part. It's about how artists feel their work, how they digitally meet and connect, and staying updated on tools and fresh style trends. That's why we've tasked our keenest foresight member to keep us informed and inspired. Our founder + Creative Director Riccardo Albertini gives us some insights into where animation industry is heading to.

As a motion designer that lived through the golden age, when everything seemed revolutionary and every day you were eagerly waiting the next Motionographer article to pop up, I witnessed several shifts in the industry and saw it changing under my own eyes.

More and more talented young individuals showed up and Instagram became all of sudden the platform where to begin your daily discovery routine, more studios involved frame by frame in their projects, 3D started to appear as part of the fundamental skills and, more recently, VR and AI have become a subject we can’t ignore anymore.

Whew! That’s a lot of stuff for a single article… Let’s get started!

A new generation of 3D artists

3D seemed like something for the ultra technical person knowing a lot of nerdy aspects of a software or either something only huge studios could pull off, due to the enormous amount of know-how required and workforce needed.

A couple of years ago, thanks to Blender (and thanks to Youtube and its invaluable tutorials) the illustration community was finally ready to attempt to turn their once 2D flat drawings into something new, perhaps commonplace but at the same time revolutionary: 3D flat illustrations (how would you call these?).

This generated a totally new branch of artists in the world of motion design, when most of the illustrators felt like adding depth to their process, would create a totally new feel to their artworks. It’s now becoming more and more common to see illustrators include 3D skills in their resume, of course, these are not your typical nerdy person (or are they?) and most of their 3D compositions work best when seen from a specific angle. It makes sense, they’re still working as 2D illustrators after all. Take a look at the great work by Holly Szczypka for example.

These works can now be animated in a way only motion designers would do, treating these 3D pieces as bidimensional, in a bidimensional space, but adding all the personality and acting only such kind of animator can do, with its simplicity and focus on the final result: the screen is still flat after all.

Don’t get me wrong, 3D can still be complex, expensive and… 3D, it’s just more accessible and, at the same time, this new kind of style has become more commonly accepted in pop culture and in the world of advertising.

There’s no such thing as too much inspiration! - Or is there? -

It’s hard not to spend valuable time on Instagram scrolling your feed to be blasted by crazily well done animation loops, incredible new trendsetting styles and wonderful projects put together by a new studio or freelancer you didn’t even know existed.

I like it and… I hate it at the same time. Well, not really, but it feels like being a pioneer in the world of motion graphics has become a more difficult task than it used to be, due to the amount of wonderful content posted every single day by the talented people populating the platform and, you’re there witnessing it continuously, so much that at one point you start to feel numb about it, desensitized to even the most beautiful thing, because there’s really too much.

Hopefully, someone will think of a new way to digest this content based on your interest and what you like, without feeding you with hundreds of things each day, doing the community a great favour.

AI: the new player

Yes, AI is kind of a baddy here, I get it and I don’t really like copyrighted content to be used this way, but as a technology enthusiast I can’t deny things are starting to get more and more interesting.

A lot of tools are popping around the web, each of them with their unique features such as upscaling, image generation and even a motion design tool, similar to after effects, right in your browser.

I hope that, without using content without consent, we will be allowed to play with these tools in a new, safe and different way, that will be helpful for the workers as much as respectful of people’s work.

LinkedIn now

Well, now I’m here myself, but I used to think LinkedIn was a cool place for boomers and dad jokes, in the meanwhile I became a dad myself and LinkedIn has slowly turned into a great social platform where sharing your work and tests is commonly accepted, opinions are listened and commented to, you can organize meetups at events and, in general, it feels very much like a well put together space for your animator curiosity and eager desire for more interesting content.

While Instagram puts the best stuff in your face the whole time, LinkedIn also suggests you more indie stuff, gives you the ability to read what the big names in the industry think and to also read how the community reacts.

I foresee more and more motion artists fall in love with the platform and form a great community.

Complex is cool, but where is simplicity?

Again, because of the quantity of content popping up in our feeds, a lot of what is processed is being compared and learned from. This means a lot of works are getting bigger and more complex day by day.

It is actually quite cool to be able to see this happening before our own eyes, the studios growing and producing more and more complex things as their experience grows, but I honestly miss the simplicity of the old times.

I personally love both sides of the coin, but I believe that, because we’re so used to seeing complex and big content, being able to pull off amazing, while simple and clean works out of big projects, is really a big feat.

We still try to do simpler things from time to time, if it’s possible, and we really enjoy the freedom of a lightweight project. It allows for a lot of experimentation.

Are we going to see more and more works of simplification in the future? In a way I hope so, to better differentiate the market and see a broader range of styles.

Motion design studios at the drive-in

It’s happening, the big names in the industry have finally landed on the big screen.

The most obvious being BUCK with their incredible work for sony’s Spiderman: across the spiderverse and their episode for Love, death and robots or the team at Golden Wolf working for Netflix on the Monkey king but many others happened to be involved with other big productions… once independent and unknown to the masses are now garnering stardom like fame.

It’s amazing to see how cinema has influenced commercial animation through the years and how, in fact, motion design is slowly making its way into movies, as more and more people are getting used to that kind of language.

Another close experience was receiving two requests as Rocketpanda for projects destined to be included directly in films or documentaries last year. Whether it was opening titles or animations for entire sections of the film, it shows how the world of motion is no longer confined solely to commerce but is evolving into a true artistic sector, with new and fascinating perspectives.

Let’s keep moving!

Honestly it’s been a wild ride until now, it’s really hard to foresee what will happen in the future of our industry, but I expect new languages, unexpected and beautiful trends and a lot of AI.

We could delve into many other topics because trying to encapsulate an industry like this in a few points is quite limiting, but these are some of the themes that we've found ourselves discussing the most in recent months, whether at our desks or over a meal. One positive aspect worth mentioning: we talk about new tools, we discuss projects and recent works, but more and more, we talk about the people and artists behind them. My final wish for this industry is precisely this – more creators at the forefront, with their stories to tell. What do you think?

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