Animation has increasingly become a popular medium for advertising and marketing. From in-app animation to animated explainer videos, people are coming onboard with animation because they understand how effective the medium is for different businesses. Animation has paved a way where products & services can now be presented more engagingly than how it was done previously.
Keeping this in mind, each year businesses try to innovate by going beyond traditional animation to keep things interesting. Under this scenario, there are a couple of new trends in animation that we can hope for in 2022. We have listed out a few that we think will make the cut for the coming year. Do let us know if we have missed out on any of your favourites or any trend that you’re particularly looking forward to. Let’s dive right in and see what trends would constitute the best animated explainer videos in 2022.
A hybrid of 2D and 3D | Best Animated Explainer Videos
Recently, the already popular 2D animation has been combined with 3D elements to give videos a unique look and to engage the viewers better. We see it becoming a bigger trend in the coming months, as this trend makes it easier for animators to not commit to just one style of animation. This technique of combining the two forms of animation gives scope for both large-scale and small-scale projects.
3D
3D is becoming more popular by the day. As technology advances, it takes less time to render 3D elements and create an animated explainer video. Businesses also emphasize on using it to communicate in a more immersive way with their customers. 3D is increasingly used in games as well as product designing and development. It gives a clearer picture of what the product will look like once manufactured, as it is an excellent tool to visualise complex design structures.
Thin line animation
Thin line animation gives a simple and minimalistic design to elements. The thin lines can help define a shape, draw the audience’s eye to a particular imagery and even influence their mood. This kind of animation gives a hand-drawn effect to characters and is also popularly used in icons. The thin line icons are animated to provide micro-interaction to the users. This style is distinctive and gives a fresh look to 2D animated explainer videos.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is rapidly becoming more popular among people for its immersive experience. VR was once upon a time used solely in the gaming community for virtual sports and arcade games. But now it has slowly trickled down into mainstream industry where it is used to make high-quality professional videos. With the constant advancement in technology and how people are more inclined towards having a very lifelike experience, we see VR growing into a huge phenomenon next year.
Grain
Grain is a design preference that more and more artists are adopting because of the authentic feel that it adds to their visuals. The grain texture gives a realistic and natural feel to the objects, thus bringing the objects closer to the real-world textures. This style of animation stands apart from the rest and can provide a captivating visual experience. Some animated explainer video company opt for grain to give a creative homemade look to their videos.
Morphing
Morphing involves a frame-by-frame process where the object is broken down into different shapes and then brought together to blend into the object. It is also an effective tool in transitioning from one element to another. Morphing transitions are a cool visualisation technique for the audience to be entertained. It can be used for transitioning into logos, images, etc.
Liquid motion
Liquid motion is like morphing. It is also brought together to blend as the object. The only difference with liquid motion is that the shapes that blend together are in the form of liquid splash. They are basically abstract splash elements that combine to create a distinctive shape. This gives the animation a unique and attractive style that keeps the audience engaged.
Vertical animation
As mobile phone users are increasing by the day, the videos have to be made to fit into these displays. Especially since people spend more time on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, they are increasingly looking for vertical content where they don’t have to alter the display orientation. Keeping this in mind, many brands have begun creating vertical animation to establish their online presence and make it easy for their audience to consume their information. Vertical animation can be used to create animated explainer videos free to be displayed on mobile phones.
Kinetic Typography
Kinetic typography has and will always be an interesting type of animation. It allows animators to play with fonts and do something unconventional rather than stick to the traditional uses of fonts. Safe to say, it’s one among the favourites for the audience as it lets them be entertained while absorbing important information. This also makes the entire experience more memorable for them. Websites and apps that use kinetic typography show higher performance as they draw in more people than your average websites. Some of the best animated explainer videos of 2021 used kinetic typography.
Restricted colour palette
Another major trend that we can see being carried forward into the following year is the use of a restricted colour palette instead of using a palette with many, many colours. The restricted colour palette sticks to a particular theme and provides aesthetically pleasing visuals for the audience. The colours chosen for the palette can focus on a particular type of emotion and enhance upon it. This look gives a very sophisticated finish to the animated video.
2021 has passed by in a blink of an eye, and we hope things look better for 2022, both in reality and in animations. As our perception of beauty constantly evolves, animation trends also evolve. That being said, we hope our list of animation trends for 2022 are useful for all the artists out there who are looking to change things up. There are a variety of trends that you can use based on the industry. Go through the list and see what works best for you. And who knows, these trends might even inspire you to create the best animated explainer videos.
