Marketers ignore the ever-growing power of video at their peril. A recent survey found that 97% of marketers say that video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service and 76% say it has helped them increase sales. Many of those brands have used animation to create compelling videos, as it offers greater versatility than live video and has the capability of explaining complicated concepts through engaging visuals in a short space of time.
Some businesses dismiss animation as not being ‘serious’ and believe it undermines the power of their message, but, whilst it is a medium often associated with slapstick fun, it has the power to evoke emotions in the viewer just as effectively as traditional live film, inspiring, thoughtful, sad, serious or downright hilarious. Indeed, animation has a lot of tricks up its sleeve that can actually enhance brand narrative and its emotional impact.
Animation works so well because it has limitless potential in terms of stylistic approaches which allows your video to play with concept and design without restriction: your imagination is the only limit. Everything can be experimented with, from something basic like colour, up to something apparently fixed and complex like the very laws of physics. Some of the other advantages that animation has over conventional film making for creating brand videos include:
A small budget can produce a big vision
Conventional filmmaking is always constrained by budget, whereas animation is only limited by the parameters of your idea. For example, if you want to represent hundreds, thousands or even millions of people using traditional filmmaking techniques you’d have to have the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster, whereas it can be easily and cheaply achieved using animation.
Any location is possible
Exotic or dangerous locations pose all sorts of problems in terms of everything from budget to health and safety if you’re relying on conventional filmmaking. However, if you use animation you can set your film anywhere you like, from an underwater paradise to the moon, as it can easily be drawn, rendered or made by the animator and brought to life.
The laws of nature can be disregarded
As mentioned previously, even the laws of physics can be disregarded if you choose to make your video using animation. Real world filming is constrained by everything from inclement weather right up to gravity, whereas animation can tear up the rulebook and do whatever it likes. This allows you to create all sorts of weird and wonderful worlds and situations, with the only barrier being your own creativity.
Complex ideas can be easily explained
Animation allows complex or abstract ideas to come alive visually, which makes them easier to grasp than text or a talking head can. It is especially useful when trying to explain a tricky concept in layman's terms, and can package something that is intangible or theoretical into an easily understandable format.
Memorable characters can be created
Do you remember Tony the Tiger? The Meerkats? The angry Peperami? The chances are you recall these famous animated characters much better than the style or content of any of the adverts they featured in. A specifically designed animated character will embody your brand more successfully than a live actor ever could, but creating one isn’t easy. The personality of your character needs to chime exactly with the personality of your brand for this to be a success.
Visualised voiceovers explain things clearly
Of course, your animated video doesn’t have to feature a character to successfully convey your brand message. Instead, animation can be used alongside a voiceover to illustrate the points that are being made. This can be especially effective when used for presentations that could be boring if not created with some imagination, for instance instructional videos or demonstrations.
So, it’s clear that animation is a versatile medium that can be deployed by marketers to get their point across to great effect. It engages people quickly and powerfully, is cost effective and can help you create a world that is completely on brand and reinforces your message in every way possible. If you’re considering animation for your next video, you have various different styles at your disposal. Here’s an overview of each of the most popular, to help you decide which one will fit best with your brand film messaging.
2D Animation
2D animation is the traditional method of animation and has existed since the late 1800s. 2D stands for two-dimensional, meaning that the artist creates images in a two-dimensional, or ‘flat’, format. One still drawing is followed by another still drawing in a slightly different pose and so on and so on for 24 frames and the illusion of fluid movement is produced.
Originally artists produced pencil drawings of every frame of the film, which were then painted onto clear plastic sheets called cels. Each of the cels was photographed one at a time over a hand painted background image and the images were run together to create a film. In the digital age, most 2D animation involves computer software at some stage, whether it is creating background images, colouring cels or doing every single element of the animation process in the computer.
3D Animation
3D animation, often referred to as Computer Generated Imaging (CGI), adds the dimension of depth, which creates a very dynamic and adaptable animated environment and allows the creation of realistic characters, settings, objects and textures. Things created in 3D animation exist in an X,Y, Z world and can be treated almost like a physical object. Different textures and lighting can make the object appear solid and the camera can be moved to look at it from above or below.
Source: https://galleryroulette.com/disney/heres-what-the-disney-princesses-look-like-in-2d-vs-3d/
3D animation is created entirely within a computer, but is actually theoretically similar to stop motion animation. The characters are digitally modelled within the program and then given a ‘skeleton’ allowing the animator to pose the models in a series of shots to create a frame. Each frame is then rendered, a process that can be very time consuming. Toy Story, released in 1995, was the first feature length 3D animated film and it is now an incredibly popular animation style, featured in high-grossing films such as Frozen, Shrek and Moana.
Stop Motion Animation
Stop motion animation, also known as stop frame animation, is done by moving an object in small increments and filming a frame each time. When all the frames are played in sequence, movement is produced. This makes the process of producing stop motion animation very long, as the object can only be moved a tiny amount each time if a fluid-looking movement is to be produced. Puppets and clay figures are commonly used in stop motion animation as they can be easily manipulated and repositioned, but almost any object can be animated using this technique.
Stop motion animation has been around since the Victorian times and has most famously been used in classics such as Jason and the Argonauts, Wallace and Gromit and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Most recently Wes Anderson made use of the charming and whimsical qualities of stop motion animation to produce his Oscar-nominated film Dogs.
Motion Graphics
Motion graphics is animation, but using text, shapes and graphic images rather than drawings: essentially it is animated graphic design. Rather than centring the action around characters and settings, motion graphics concentrates on conveying information through simple visuals and effective copy, supported by music or voiceover. Motion graphics are perfect if your company has a formal or professional tone, or if you have hard information to convey in a way that is memorable and engaging. Motion graphics are the best way to deal with data such as numbers, charts and graphs or if you need to clearly explain complicated information. This type of animation can lack the human touch that many brands rely on, but can be combined with an appealing character to make it more relatable.
Whiteboard Animations
Whiteboard animation is a technique which shows the viewer static images being hand drawn on the screen by an illustrator using pens or markers. This type of video is often known as an ‘explainer’ and usually has a narrator to help the images come to life for the viewer.
Whiteboard animations can convey information quickly and simply and effectively maintains the viewer’s attention, with a study by psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman finding that people who watched a whiteboard animation remembered 15% more information than people who watched a standard ‘talking head’ one. This is believed to be down to the fact that when we see a talking head-style film, we focus our attention on the person who is speaking, rather than what they are saying. Animated whiteboard films allow us instead to see images that enhance the verbal message, rather than distract from it.
The power of animation to convey your brand message is huge, and the options for how you want to convey that message are limited only by your imagination. Animation can tell stories of all shapes and sizes, and create whole worlds on a limited budget. If you’ve previously dismissed animation as being too frivolous for your brand or business, it’s time to think again and consider animation as an important part of your digital content output.
