If you’re looking for creative inspiration, you’ve come to the right place. These seven 2D animations are oozing with style and technical prowess
We’ve scoured the internet to bring you a collection of stellar 2D animation that we think will get your creative juices flowing. When you get through with this article, be sure to visit this collection of top-notch 2D animation we shared earlier in the year!
1. Blend
Created By: Sander van Dijk (Animation Director)
Why It’s Awesome: Blend’s wonderfully smooth animation matches the tone of the event they’re promoting. This is an interesting 2D video that’s fairly simple in execution, yet wonderfully effective in message. The video is a great example of consistent design telling a unified story.
2. Lucky Charms “Diamond Dancers”
Created By: 2veinte
Why It’s Awesome: Created for Lucky Charms, this is a fun example of cartoon-style animation in a commercial context. Likely heavily influenced by Adventure Time, the 2D animation in this commercial — a cool blend of complex color theory and simple shapes — is really well done.
3. Original / Short
Created By: Vucko
Why It’s Awesome: Vucko utilizes well-designed vector art and smooth animation to tell an inspirational story in a super-effective way. The connections between different elements are powerful and work well to help tell the story of originality in a clean way. While the animation here isn’t incredibly difficult, the video’s effective pacing and tempo are what really stand out.
4. The Story of a Story
Created By: BRIKK
Why It’s Awesome: In this amazing animation from BRIKK, we watch as a narrative comes together in a fluid and complex way that combines 3D and 2D elements. If you listen to the narration, you gain a sense of exactly how BRIKK developed this short and their many other animations.
5. Wild & Woolly
Created By: 2veinte
Why It’s Awesome: Started as a passion project, Wild & Wooly blends contrasting colors and fluid transitions to tell the story of several characters as they move along the path of life toward eventual death.
6. Mike Edel’s The Closer
Created By: Mike Edel
Why It’s Awesome: This Vimeo Staff Pick is a great example of vector-crafted animation that utilizes several techniques. While the piece has a blend of 3D and 2D animation, everything plays fluidly; one element never stands out above another. Created by singer/songwriter Mike Edel and a crew of gifted animators, this short tells a very moving true story based on Edel’s life experiences.
7. Lovaganza 2015
Created By: Colin Hesterly
Why It’s Awesome: This promotional piece is a perfect example of knowing your audience and your client. Multiple elements are used to connect the action in a single panning shot. Lovaganza is a festival that celebrates global unity and the sharing of creative content from diverse backgrounds. In order to effectively share that ideology, Hesterly and his animation crew took several elements from around the world and connected them together in one continuous shot.