From Unusual Storytelling to New Minimalism: 6 Innovative Animation Trends
By: Dana Kachan
Tags: Videos, Design, Motion Design, Animation, Innovation

From Unusual Storytelling to New Minimalism: 6 Innovative Animation Trends

It’s a brief overview of the animation styles that can inspire you to think about the future, evolution and growth. They have become my inspiration, and I hope you’ll find yours among them too. Dana Kachan Follow Feb 21 · 5 min read

Brand Asset by Design@BBVA

The animation is the dynamic and beautiful energy that makes the product visually impressive and the brand stronger. Many may wonder how to stand out on the modern web if more and more companies start using animated videos for their promotion. I would suggest following your inner call to innovate and setting your own trends in everything you do.

Although this article features the six most amazing and innovative animation styles that I discovered in today’s digital landscape, it also encourages brands and creators to give birth to new trends. The industry waits for your own innovation.

What is innovation? It is the idea caught from the “Space” Internet by the future-thinking creator and implemented for our world to see. In this article, I would like to introduce six innovative animation ideas by talented creators. These motion design styles and trends have become my recent inspiration. I really hope you’ll enjoy them too.

Unusual Storytelling

What I have found out is that many modern marketing videos are visually great but… they lack the power of the concept behind the visual. People love a beautiful cover, that’s undeniable. But they also want the idea behind nice animations. To be “beautiful” for the brand is not enough to stand out today. You should also tell a great story that catches the audience’s attention, drives impressions and creates intrigue around your idea.

Here the power of storytelling unveils its beautiful meaning. The more unusual, witty and simultaneously simple your story is, the more engaging the animation world you can build around it. A great story combined with minimalistic animations might be a successful choice for brands in terms of audience engagement. One of my favorite examples is an animated teaser for a new adventure game Tohu by Explain Ninja. It’s a simple story, which makes you want to learn what’s next by playing this game.

Text as a Character

The text doesn’t only tell a story. It can also illustrate it. The text can become the main character, the environment, and the story itself. The so-called “broken text” animation trend is another excellent example of unusual storytelling mentioned above. It was crystallized into a separate visual tendency embracing new animation videos. It breathes with freshness and simplicity. And this style definitely engages, as it’s something special that you can meet very rarely in modern commercials.

What’s the most impressive about this animation style is that the text brings a double meaning here: visual and informative. It plays with reality inside the video by breaking all objects into categories and placing them in fun contexts. This animation style helps us understand that many things can be much simpler in our lives than we used to think about them.

I loved this video so much for the idea of depicting society as a wordcloud with syllables making the word ‘humans’ inside it. All with their goals and dreams, they hustle in the crowd creating visually beautiful chaos. I find it a great visualization of social equity.

Surreal Animation

The world might be different. Where we’re now is just an intersection of various realities and times. We’re one small point in the eternity and infinity of the Universe. It is the main motif and mood of modern surreal animation. Indeed, this style mixes realities and images from different epochs and cultures into a fantastic collage. Started by Salvador Dali, surrealism has much evolved into a dynamic substance that blows our minds with the most incompatible combinations and surprising contexts.

Controlled Substance by Jay Sprogell

Mix of Live Action + Animation

What if life was mixed with a cartoon? That would be something very new. Imagine real-life trees with animated birds, the real-life sky with animated aliens, the real-life human with animated wings. Imagine… since the imagination is our unlimited source of innovation. It’s where the impossible acquires a more realistic shape and gets the potential to come true.

The idea of mixing live-action and animation styles is very exciting. What seems impossible in a live-action becomes possible in the animation. Below, you can see a beautiful shot of Crown Royal’s commercial that combines both styles.

Image credit: Golden Wolf/Crown Royal

Sophisticated VFX

The most widely used in consumer electronics commercials, sophisticated visual effects are getting broader leverage in other areas too today. Beautiful color transitions, macro effects, the change of states in slow motion, paying particular attention to the play of shades and lights, and many more impressive visual effects can enrich modern commercials. Combined with minimalistic backgrounds and classical music, sophisticated VFX adds the feel of the future and innovation to videos. Here is one great example of a video with complex VFX.

New Minimalism

Minimalism is timeless. It’s a powerful art practice that leaves some space for the viewer’s imagination. The key peculiarity of new minimalism is applying contemporary visual effects, gradient color transitions, and futuristic textures. I was impressed by this “alive” fabric depicted in the new animation video by Peter Tomaszewicz. The idea of new minimalism in animation can serve brands as a great way to present their products or promote events.

Wrapping Up: Dynamic Beauty Embodied in Animation

Beauty can be static and dynamic. Sometimes, it’s hyper-dynamic like the sports car engine. The animation is a perfect way to communicate this feeling and mood to the audience. The smart combination of these animation trends can turn your company’s commercial into a masterpiece that breathes with innovation. Hopefully, you will find some inspiration in these animation works and styles. People strive to experience freshness. You can give it to them.