Simple Yet Effective

One thing that I’ve learned about motion graphics and online animated videos in general, is that you don’t have to be an award winning artists or a master illustrator to make engaging entertaining online media. Some of the best messages and videos out there are that way because there was a clear message and a very simplistic style attached to that message to get the point across. Sometimes the simplest videos can be the most funny, thought provoking or easy on the brain. Here is one of my favourites online animated video series that are done with super simple illustrations. They are very effective without all the bells and whistles of special effects and complicated layouts and visuals. The funny narration also helps, but I think the style that goes with the funny stories is also what gives them their character.

Hope they make you laugh!

Fun simple animation of the adventures of male bonding.

Now that’s Infotainment!

As you can probably tell by now, I am really interested in online video and motion graphics. I find it such a great way to educate people. It takes the best of entertainment: television and film and marries that with education and really cool new technologies and effects. I find it so fascinating and creative all at once.

One of the first ever motion graphic videos I was introduced to during my graphic design education was the story of stuff. I still think the video did such a great job of taking a very complex subject and laying it out for people step by step. Some may think it’s preachy, but I find it not too much so. I think that it does a great job of showing people from extraction through to sale, use and disposal, how ALLLLL the STUFF in our lives affects communities here and abroad. Because this topic is controversial and it also makes us question our own ethics, people don’t like to discuss it. However, this video has been watch over 2 million times on YouTube alone. So people must be listening…

The Story of Stuff Project

Another Great Motion Graphic Video

I hope that you like my previous blog about the video: Man by Steve Cutts. He also has another video that he has done in a similar style to the Man video. It’s also has a great message done in the same humorous tone. The subject matter is not as “harsh” but it still makes the viewer stop and examine their life similar to the way that the Man video does.

I hope you enjoy this one as well.

In the Fall by Steve Cutts

Interactive History

When you think about WWII, you think of long war film documentaries by Time Life and long war novels. The creative agency Secret Location, made a much more interactive way for people to understand the history of WWII. By combining, video, photographics and motion graphics, they were able to re create an online documentary that follows the Allied journey from the D-Day invasion of Normandy to the siege of Berlin.

The site is an extension to the documentary series, D-Day to Victory. The site features interviews of surviving Allied WWII veterans. Users can browse through biographies, artifacts and share their memories of war. Younger users can live through that time through the reenactments and testimonials of the veterans.

D-Day To Victory Interactive Website

Interactive Documentary Website…with hippies!

Another great documentary website that I came across was the documentary site done by an Australian filmmaker Darius Devas on the Goa Hippy Tribe. Darius travelled to Anjuan Beach to shoot a reunion of the original Goa hippies, a very misunderstoon tribe in Australia. Instead of producing a staright documentary film, he instead took over six months of videos to the social media platform.

He then repackaged his documentary into an online experiment to include interviews, galleries and factsheets. It enabled viewers to get much more involoved in the journey themselves and also enabled them to learn more about particular people in the tribe. Viewers get a passport and follow along with the adventures of the Goa Hippie tripe. They are able to collect additional artifacts and information in their backpacks along the way. If had remained just a film, it’s may never have reached as many people or peaked their interest in the way the interactive version has.

Goa Hippie Tribe

Motion, Interaction and Video working together

On the Documentary website: Coal:A Love Story, the storyteller uses a combination of motion graphics, type and high quality video to tell a the complicated love story of the western world’s obsession with coal.

The website hooks you in by asking you to interact with the storyline so that each step of the story drags you in. It’s not just a long documentary film, but rather a series of small films that make up one large story.

Coal:A Love Story

Coal: A Love Story

Coal: A Love Story

Coal: A Love Story

Coal: A Love Story

Coal: A Love Story

Coal: A Love Story

Coal: A Love Story

The designer gets the users attention by having the user interact with the graphics and the simulated laptops to allow you to take part in telling the story.As you move down the page you get to various mini videos, of each different person telling how their lives relate to the story of coal.

It’s a much more exploritory way of looking at a documentary rather than sitting and watching one long film from beginning to end.