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Captivate with an animated video

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It shouldn’t be a massive surprise that animation has caught on as a key creative and promotional tool in the music industry – and stayed popular ever since.

After all, animation offers both aesthetic appeal and practical advantages, often epitomising the escapist and the fantastical, and sometimes simply making more sense – such as during the recent pandemic, when lockdowns made in-person video shoots trickier or even impossible to execute.

Whatever your circumstances and expectations might be when it comes to your animation project, Creative Commission can help make it possible. Our platform makes it quick and easy for managers and record labels to find skilled and experienced freelance animators.

What should be included in an animation brief?

As with any other kind of creative brief when you are seeking to work with an animator or filmmaker, your animation brief will need to touch on certain fundamentals.

Those will include an overview of your project and its scope, as well as information about what kinds of animated visuals you would like to use in the video, what audiences the video will be aimed at, and perhaps some examples of existing animated videos that inspire you.

Your animation brief will also need to detail the deliverables from the project, the dates these will be expected, and your budget. The more information you can provide at this stage, the better the structure and sense of direction the project is likely to have.

Complete guide to animations

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Our Animation Briefs

Our Top Animators

Creative Commission comprises a network of thousands of freelance professionals from across the world, with many of these specialising in animation. Below are the current leading animators making up our network; why not reach out to them today about your own project?

Profile picture for user Oriane Rondeau

cine1080

Hull, UK

Creates original digital content, from CGI animation and video game cinematics to complex VFX.

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Profile picture for user Skateaway Pictures

YMSanimation

Exeter, UK

Award winning team of creative animators, that work in 2D, motion graphics, 3D and stop motion.

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Profile picture for user Neil Whitman

Neil Whitman

East Sussex, UK

Award-winning animator specialising in music promos, lyric videos and social content.

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Profile picture for user Jordan Martin

Jordan Martin

Bristol, UK

From producing full music videos and campaigns to short creative edits for socials.

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animatingsophie

Qianwen Yu

IL, United States

Animator, director, illustrator, and artist with clients including Sony Music, Armada and Warner Chappell.

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Profile picture for user YesPlease

Matt Pilcher

London, UK

London-based agency produces digital content and specialise in interactive and disruptive content.

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Four stages to follow in creating an animated video

Animation can be a world of possibility for creatives and the music labels, managers and artists who benefit from their work. But what steps will you have to go through with your hired freelance professional, in order to get your animated video ‘just right’?

1

Undertake research

Bringing together reference materials that inspire you – and from various sources – will help give your animated video project some direction from the earliest stage. It will also inform the animator when they are trying to get a sense of the visual sensibility that you desire for your animated video.

2

Sketch

While different creatives work in different ways, many animators won’t get straight on with the animation or even look at a computer screen. Instead, they might sketch out the characters, to establish what they might broadly look like before turning to a software package like Illustrator or Photoshop.

3

Digitise

The animator you collaborate with might scan the aforementioned paper sketches into their computer, and then complete the line work in a software program. The subsequent addition of colour, shading and texture will allow for the general aesthetic ‘vibe’ of the animated project to start taking form.

4

Animate

Not all animators use the same software for the animation process itself – depending on their own preferences and the nature of the project, a combination of such packages as Adobe Animate, Adobe After Effects and Blender might all be used.

Animation FAQs

Why should you use Creative Commission to find an animator for your project?

We are a comprehensive network of freelance creatives from around the world, which makes it easy for record labels, managers, and other music-industry players to find the talented people they need for their projects. Our direct messaging, shortlisting, rejecting, feedback, and other tools make it all so intuitive and convenient to manage.

What is the relevance of Creative Commission to creators?

If you are an independent professional with skills in animation, joining Creative Commission could be one of the best steps you take to expand your career contacts and opportunities. Our site offers remarkable functionality, including the ability to create a profile and apply for the most attractive animation jobs being offered in the music industry right now.

What animation briefs have previously been posted on Creative Commission?

More than $13 million of creative briefs have been posted on our platform, by thousands of record labels and managers, since we started out in 2013. Over that time, we have hosted animation briefs from some of the best-known names in the music industry, such as Stormzy, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Little Simz, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens.

What commission payments do you charge?

We don’t charge anything at all in terms of commission when you are paying a creative for their work.

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