Democratizing Animation

Marketers know that few tools are as effective in engaging your audience as a well-crafted animation. Traditionally, however, this type of material has been extremely labor-intensive – and therefore costly – to produce.

Yet LottieFiles is a company looking to change all that with its open-source tool that allows animators to spend less time learning and deploying complex code and more time crafting captivating content that will wow users and increase conversion rates.

LottieFiles allows designers to spend less time learning and deploying complex code and more time crafting captivating content
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Lottiefiles is a lightweight, interactive, and scalable animation format that allows for customization without having to code, build and render bulky files from scratch. In fact, Lottie files are, on average, 600% smaller than other popular animation formats such GIFs, allowing for a much faster, more responsive, and therefore engaging user experience (UX).

Lottie files are on average 600% smaller than GIFs, allowing for a much faster, responsive, and engaging user experience
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Popular apps such as Airbnb and Duolingo have wholeheartedly embraced this user-friendliness. Use cases for Lottie animations range from app loading and wait screes to gamification and user onboarding, as well a vast array of websites and apps looking to serve meaningful content to their users, according to LottieFiles CTO Nattu Adnan

“LottieFiles has helped hundreds of thousands of developers and designers from over 65,000 global fortune companies like Netflix, Disney, Google and Amazon to ship interactive animation faster and more effectively,” adds the company’s Co-Founder and CEO Kshitij Minglani.

Augmenting Reality

AR (Augmented Reality) has been steadily gathering momentum in recent years, and it is easy to see why. Merging the physical and digital worlds is an exciting proposition that opens up a whole world of possibilities for users, and the companies hoping to reach and keep them engaged.

From new ways of experiencing art to enabling customers to realistically try products before committing to a purchase, Augmented Reality is becoming ever more pervasive across an incredibly broad swathe of industries.

Augmented Reality is becoming ever more pervasive across an incredibly broad swathe of industries.
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“Research shows that AR will evolve from one-off ‘surprise and delight’ moments to provide everyday utility and practical value, right across the consumer journey.  This could include helping people visualize how products look in their home, locating products in-store through wayfinding applications, or getting more out of a product post-purchase through usage guidance,” explains Jeremy Pounder, Futures Director at Mindshare UK

One example of how it is possible for innovative companies to bring their customers the best of both worlds by creating Omnichannel experiences is Canadian start-up StickerYou which offers customized, die-cut stickers online, but also maintains a physical shop where customers can touch and feel the merchandise.

“The broader trend in retail, particularly among millennials, is a shift in focus from products toward experiences. For this reason, many customers still choose to visit a physical shop even if it may be more convenient to order the item online, explains StickerYou Founder and President, Andrew Witkin. “For retailers, this presents an opportunity to leverage technology to literally augment the value of their products for their customers,” he concludes.

Meeting Virtually

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic became the catalyst for what we now know as a socially distanced “new normal,” technology had been pushing us towards having more of our interactions in virtual environments.

From virtual live comedy shows to professional poker tournaments, people had started to not only accept the premise of hosting their familiar interactions and experiences in immersive virtual worlds.

Technology has been pushing us towards having more of our interactions in virtual environments
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Given the continuation of the pandemic, however, we have seen most events in the global conference calendar going virtual in some way or another, including one of the biggest highlights in the tech circuit – South by Southwest (SXSW) which is held in Austin, Texas in March.

SXSW Online 2021 included a variety of online meetings, sessions, musical performances, and many attempts at virtually recreating the interactive experience of SXSW.

As Tech Trends correspondent Laura Kobylecky reports, the world of virtual Austin exists within VRChat, an online, virtual reality, social platform which added a layer of immersion and interactivity to this year’s online conference and left her feeling as if she’d really attended the event.

Tech Trends’  Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance their brand’s digital strategy with immersive and emerging technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a technology journalist, communications consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Top UI/UX Trends for 2021 appeared first on Tech Trends.

The question of how Virtual Reality will transform creative industries such as Film is a big one, but Cannes certainly seemed like an appropriate place to tackle it.

We'll soon move beyond current limitations of AR AND VR into Blended and Mixed Reality Experiences
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So in between attending red carpet screenings, gawking at mega yachts and indulging in some celebrity spotting (Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell and Mads Mikkelsen all in one day!) I attended a series of talks and panels hosted by HP, most of which revolved around the interplay between technology and creativity, with VR being a hot topic.

“Believe me, when we are looking at VR today we are looking at the punch cards of our generation. We are operating in DOS 3.0,” said Shane Wall, HP’s Chief Technology Officer and head of HP Labs, which also happens to be the world’s longest standing corporate research labs.

Yes, he concedes, there are limitations with both AR and VR technologies – Virtual Reality can feel isolating as it shuts out the outside world and there are issues with display and field of view with Augmented Reality, but those are the limitations of today, and we will move beyond that, perhaps much more quickly than we might think.

“These are the pieces that will create the clay with which we’ll build the experiences of tomorrow, experiences we can’t yet imagine today.”

HP has been the technology partner for the Cannes Film Festival for the past 14 years, but you can trace back the company’s filmic pedigree as far back as 1937, when Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard worked with the Walt Disney company to provide them with audio oscillators that were later used in the first screenings of Fantasia, showcasing some seriously ground-breaking sound design technology for the time.

And that model of co-creating products with large-scale creative partners is one they carry on to this day according to Kate Swanborg from DreamWorks, which has been an end-to-end HP studio for more than 15 years. In an industry where even the most minute variations in colour standards are deemed unacceptable (you better believe there’s such a think as “Shrek green”) the studio found it increasingly difficult to get displays that were affordable at scale, yet maintained that all-important colour accuracy. HP worked with DreamWorks to co-develop the product they needed, and the resulting DreamColor display went on to become such an industry benchmark that it was awarded a Scientific and Engineering Oscar in 2015.

HP has been the technology partner for the Cannes Film Festival for the past 14 years, but you can trace back the company’s filmic pedigree as far back as 1937
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“It gives our artists a spectrum that matches their creative palette,” Swanborg continues, explaining the fundamental role that technology plays in the studio’s creative workflow.

“We’re a bunch of artists, but the reality for filmmakers, specially those who work in animation, is that behind the scenes and under the hood, what we make is data,” she says, revealing that DreamWorks generates around half a billion digital files every month.

“People often express surprise at the fact we don’t use ‘creative computers’ at which point I always respectfully point out that computers aren’t creative, people are, and what our people need is the very best technology to enable their creativity,” she concludes.

And that relationship between technology and creativity is something that will become more ingrained as a new generation of digital natives joins the workforce. Companies like Microsoft – with whom HP also partners – have also put the focus firmly on creativity-enabling with its Fall Creators Update recently announced at the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle.

SVP Immersive Media at Technicolor Marcie Jastrow, says VR is a perfect example of technology and art coming together. In her talk she highlighted six key factors she believed would converge to make VR into the mass-market entertainment experiences of the future. These included not only creating high-quality native content, but ensuring that this content had a strong storytelling backbone, was disruptive, had “episodic cadence,” (what is known in tech talk as “stickiness”) and provides a user experience that is both intuitive and comfortable.

VR is a perfect example of technology and art coming together
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She further stressed that developing the immersive media such as VR to its full potential would require a lot of collaboration and was not something that any one company could achieve on its own.

And the fruit that such collaborations bear was on display there in the form of the Tree experience, created by New Reality Company in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance. HP provided filmmakers Milica Zec and Winslow Porter with z640 workstations that allowed them to play the experience consistently at film festivals around the world after premiering at Sundance earlier this year.

As I experience life through the eyes of a tree – from a seedling to towering hundreds of feet above the canopy of the Peruvian rainforest– I also smell the damp earth and feel the heat as I meet my end in a forest fire
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The experience uses haptic devices to send subtle – and not so subtle – rumblings and vibrations through my feet as I stand on a mat, and via the small backpack I’m wearing. As I experience life through the eyes of a tree – from a seedling to towering hundreds of feet above the canopy of the Peruvian rainforest– I also smell the damp earth and feel the heat as I meet my end in a forest fire. Many people cry at that point, and I admit to feeling quite emotional myself.

It’s all part of what HP calls “Blended Reality” (which sounds akin to Microsoft’s Mixed Reality concept) and it is indeed a very powerful tool in creating a sense of connection and empathy with nature, something that has also been explored by researchers at Stanford University.

The true gift of VR is that ability to connect with your audience
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Wall believes that the way Tree brings in all the different senses lays the groundwork for something quite profound in the industry: “It’s the first visualization I see of activities we’ve had at HP labs for a while, which is how you move from the headset into creating total body, fully sensory immersive experiences.”

“That is the true gift of VR, that ability to immediately connect with your audience,” agrees Zec. Yet Porter stresses that in order to deliver that they first had to overcome some basic technical challenges. “As soon as we got the experience into the headset we noticed we were dropping at below 45 frames a second and immediately everyone got nauseated.”

Being particularly prone to VR simulator sickness myself I could see how that could derail the whole experience, but with the HP workstations and Quadro P6000 graphics cards they were able to speed up the frame rate to average over 90, which indeed felt much more comfortable.

At this stage it very much feels like you’re building the bridge and going over it at full speed at the same time
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The speed at which the technology is advancing is dizzying according to Porter. “At this stage it very much feels like you’re building the bridge and going over it at full speed at the same time.”

“The changes we’re going to see over the next ten or twenty years will be profound,” agrees Wall. “The phone of tomorrow, that little glass slab upon which we stare on average 137 times a day in 30 years will not be 30 times more powerful, it will be a billion times more powerful. And when you have that power kind of processing capability, your ability to create experiences that truly amaze will become the center of what film is,” he concludes.

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Blending Realities to Reinvent Filmmaking appeared first on Tech Trends.

Some fans had the chance to contribute to the voiceover and have their artwork incorporated into the animation as a painting in the Moominhouse.

A campaign to fund an innovative Moomin animation TV series raised more than US$250,000 – over 127% of its initial target –  from 3,701 superfans. Supporters received perks ranging form postcards to an all-inclusive trip to Finland to visit the Moominworld theme park, Söderskär’s lighthouse and the Moomin Museum in Tampere.

We want the animation to be 3D because the books are so atmospheric
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The Gutsy Animations team behind the project includes creative director and executive producer Marika Makaroff; Oscar-winning director Steve Box; BAFTA-winning producer John Woolley and Emmy-winning writing duo Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler. They will now start development of a cutting-edge 2D/3D hybrid technique, where characters are rendered in 3D in an environment with some 2D illustrative or painterly elements.

“We want the animation to be 3D in large part because the books are so atmospheric. As a reader, you can really sense the environment – it’s an important part of Tove’s work.” Explains director Steve Box. “3D will allow us to create a lighting and an atmosphere that has that same effect. We want to show the depth of feeling and experience within the original stories, but to retain a sense of the graphic/illustrative look of the original books. It’s something I’ve struggled to find any other examples of, which I think is because it has been so difficult to do before now. Thankfully, technology is catching up with these kinds of ambitions and the capability is now here.”

The much-loved creation of novelist, painter, illustrator and comic book artist Tove Jansson, Moomintroll is one of Finland’s biggest cultural exports with the original books having been translated into over 50 languages and the previous animation broadcast in 124 territories.

“Even though we are all familiar with the characters, this will be the first time they will have been created in 3D for the moving image. As anyone who has been handed 2D artwork and had to translate it into three dimensions will tell you, it’s not a straightforward process,” Explains producer John Wooley. “We spent a long time analysing the characters and identifying what drives them emotionally, what their strengths are and, just as importantly, what their flaws are. This will be reflected in the characters’ body language and consequently how they are rigged and animated.”

The production company already have buyers lining up to show the finished product, with Finnish public broadcaster Yle appropriately being the first one to sign an agreement to broadcast the first two series of thirteen episodes in spring 2019. They are also in talks with major networks in the UK, US and Japan, where Moomintroll is also very popular.

“We knew that a new television series would be hugely popular with Moomin fans, but we are completed bowled over by the excitement and enthusiasm that we’ve seen in response to the campaign,” says Marika Makaroff, CEO of Gutsy Animations. “We will now be able to give fans what they deserve – which is the most faithful Moomin animation there has ever been. We won’t shy away from the complexity and depth found in Tove Jansson’s original stories and the result will be a beautiful and heartfelt series that appeals to the whole family. We will be sharing new visual concepts, behind-the-scenes stories and clips as the production progresses and are so excited to take fans on this journey with us.”

The animation is being developed with the full support of Moomin Characters, the business set up by Tove Jansson and her brother Lars to manage the Moomin brand. To this day Moomin Characters is run by family members with Sophia Jansson, Lars’s daughter and Tove’s niece, as Chairman of the Board and Creative Director. Sophia said: “Tove gave the inhabitants of Moominvalley the values of tolerance, love, respect, friendship and bravery – which are needed in today’s world more than ever. We’re very excited to have a wonderful team who shares these values bringing Moomin to life in a new way for fans young and old.”

The animation is being developed with the support of Tove Jansson's Moomin Characters
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“As we wanted to have a Nordic influence in the visual development, we’ve been working with the Piñata team, based in Helsinki. They have an understanding of the changing nature of light across the seasons in the Nordic region that Steve and I don’t have,” adds Woolley. “We needed to communicate a surreal quality as well as an emotional subtlety in Tove Jansson’s work with a visual language of equal sophistication. A fully 3D built world with generic volumetric lighting wasn’t going to do that so we had to come up with something new.  The characters and foreground elements will be built in 3D but we will make extensive use of matte paintings much like backdrops in a theatre. The characters will then be surfaced and lit sympathetically with the environments.”

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Crowdfunding Brings Moomin to Life in 3D appeared first on Tech Trends.

Filmmakers are fast recognising the amazing potential of VR as a storytelling medium, yet so far the experiences they created have been universally short.

There are a few reasons for that, including high production costs and issues around motion sickness that many people experience with prolonged immersion.

“There are very few experiences in this world that are worth 100% of your time and attention, and that’s one of the reasons why VR experiences tend to be shorter right now,” says Timoni West, Lead Designer at Unity’s research arm Unity Labs. “There’s no way to check your phone in VR, it’s very hard to find your drink if you’ve misplaced it. VR demands most of your attention, and there is nothing else out there that does that except maybe a newborn child.”

But while we probably won’t start watching feature-length films in VR until we solve these issues – and VR hardware advances make it possible to comfortably wear the headsets for extended periods of time – there’s nothing to stop some creative cross-pollination between Hollywood and VR happening in the meantime. In fact, the first such big-league partnership has just been announced:

Filmmakers are fast recognising the amazing potential of VR as a storytelling medium
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I want INVASION! to be the next Toy Story
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Baobab Studios is looking to turn its award-winning experience INVASION! into a feature film
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Roth Kirschenbaum Films is headed by Jeffrey Kirschenbaum (former Universal co-president) and Joe Roth, a producer specializing in giving unusual twists to classic children’s tales such as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Huntsman with Kristen Stewart and Angelina Jolie’s misunderstood bad fairy in Maleficent.

“VR has great storytelling power,” says Baobab’s Eric Darnell, who will write the script, and is no newbie to Hollywood himself, having grossed $2.5B box office from work on Antz and Madagascar films.

VR has great storytelling power
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So it’s fair to say they have big ambitions for the project:

“I want INVASION! to be the next Toy Story,” confirms Roth, “It struck an emotional chord.”

“The immersive beauty of INVASION! opened our eyes to fertile ground for new IP with amazing new characters,” adds Kirschenbaum.

I can see what they mean. When I eagerly unboxed my Samsung Gear VR a few months back, INVASION was the first experience I tried, and I was immediately captivated by the clumsy aliens trying to destroy the earth and the bunnies (one of which you embody) who do their best to stop them. I wasn’t alone. The experience won praise at Tribeca and Cannes and has consistently been a top download on Oculus, Samsung and Hulu.

VR is set to claim its place in the creative ecosystem
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VR is certainly set to claim its place in the creative ecosystem, and we shall be watching with interest to see how that pans out.

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Will VR Give Us the Next Toy Story? appeared first on Tech Trends.