A Helpful Guide to Choosing an Animation Style
The Right Animation
Here at Blueforest Studios, we’ve been doing video production in Raleigh, North Carolina for a long time. And, we’ve realized that animation is here to stay and it seems like it is getting even more popular. So, if you have asked yourself, “Is animation right for my business?” and answered “yes,” you are in the right place. We have compiled some of our favorite animation projects over the last year. There is a huge variety of animation styles out there but what is most important is to pick the style that best speaks to your audience and your brand story. It can also be hard to know how to describe a particular style, so we will show you. We’ve found the best way to know the right animation style is to find examples that you like. Then we will use those animation styles as a reference. Take the time to find what you like. Just like Pablo Picasso said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
The Secret Formula
There are many ways to create 2D and 3D animations, and this is how we make ours. Most of the animation work done at Blueforest Studios is through Adobe After Effects with some help from plugins. We also use Photoshop and Illustrator to create the assets that are animated in After Effects. In the end, you shouldn’t worry about having the correct method in mind of how to make it happen, leave that to us. Finding the style that fits best is key.
Pick Your Style
There are so many different animation styles out there ranging from a vector based clean-cut look to a more hand-drawn pencil style and everything in between. Some of our animations are vector style animations with a grain layer added to the top to bring all of the elements together. Here is a clip from a project with CPESN to promote community pharmacies. Notice how the texture of the blue background. The sleek design is very symmetric and pleasing to watch.
You may also find this vector style of animation used for ScottMadden to be bright clean and modern. This was for a project about Shared Services with ScottMadden. We used a visual metaphor of going on an ocean journey to depict the topic of the video. The shipping containers on the ship float around in a playful manner organizing themselves like so. Both the animations above and below are a vector style of animation, but give a different feel and mood for the video.
This next animation was a vector style animation for a company called Pre-Switch. They make power converters that are used in electric cars and other high voltage applications. During this section, we were talking about the history of electricity and how it spread across the world. That’s a map of NYC. The blue lines flow out into the city similar to the flowing of electricity.
Hand-Drawn Style
This is another ScottMadden animation completely different from the one above. This animation story is about data security. We used a visual metaphor of a security guard protecting a priceless artifact in a museum and data thieves trying to break in an steal it. Most of the elements were hand drawn in Photoshop. The sketch marks and shading add a level of roughness to the scene. There are so many different styles of animation out there and the team at Blueforest Studios are ready for any idea our clients have. That’s the fun part about animation, you can create your own world.
Here we have another form of hand-drawn animation called Whiteboard animation. Whiteboard is simple and easy to digest as the viewer. There is less going on which allows the viewer to stay focused on the topic of the video. This is 2D animation and is one of the most popular ways to show explainer videos. This would be a great style of animation for educational videos.
Let’s do this together!
If you have an animation project in mind but you just don’t know where to start. Reach out to Blueforest Studios and we can bring your idea to life. We will help you get from start to finish and help tell your brand story (we really like brand storytelling). Check out our full animation reel.
If you are interested in talking about an animation video for your company, fill out our video personality quiz, or email our creative director, Ammon.
Blueforest Studios is a Raleigh, North Carolina Video Production company.