Animation has come a long way since Steam Boat Willy and the gang. Today, you can simply head over to websites like Vimeo and watch hours of animated content for free. The vast difference in animation styles these days is always impressive, but they way creators utilize and mix these animation mediums is even more impressive. The level of animated video just keeps getting the bar raised. Check out some of these more impressive animated videos from Vimeo recently.

A Single Life

This brilliantly 3D animated short shows us the life of a woman and the record that controls it. This light, quirky look at life offers a good soundtrack and some hilarious visuals, all while telling a quick compelling story. A Single Life was written, directed, and animated by Job, Joris & Marieke and has been toured at over 200 festivals winning 40 awards.

NBAmoji

While this technically might not be an animated short, it’s very entertaining. This is a behind the scenes look at the creation of the basketball players and mascots Stefano Colferai made for the NBA APP, NBAmoji. The video perfectly blends stop motion plasticine figures with real people and objects. If you like the video you can check out more of the NBAmoji’s that Colferai made on his Behance.

Auto Nom

Auto Nom shows the adventures of a classic self-driving german car in an empty city. The 3D rendering is impeccable and the glossy finish of the car is only highlighted by the white and pastel colours of the city. This upbeat alternative world was written, directed, and designed by f°am Studio. Auto Nom explores the playful modern art style with Grand Theft Auto physics and a bubbly pop song for a soundtrack.

Gummy Gas Crisis

Gummy Gas Crisis, by Blirp Studio, feels like less of a movie or short and more like you’re being dragged through a video game console. The story follows space gasman, Ed, who has been tasked with fixing a gas leak caused by his enemy. The vivid colours and always changing camera angles add a dynamic to video game style story telling while maintain the retro aesthetic.

Cat City

This funny short follows a cat as he runs away from home and tries to make it in the big city without his owner. Refreshingly, Cat City is an animated short that uses voice characters. Often under utilized in shorts is voices, lots of shorts tend to rely on sound effects and music to tell their tale. Cat City, by Victoria Vincent, is by no means a poetic display of vocabulary or even great dialogue but the few words actually said really help you get to know that character and become more attached.

CNN Purple

This short doesn’t quite have a storyline like the others but it’s probably the most informative on this list. Colorscope is a series by CNN that has set out to explore our perception of colour across cultures. This specific video obviously refers to the colour purple and gives you some great insights about violet light. This is just the latest video in the series, if you’d like to check out more you can visit CNN Colorscope.

You can check out more great animation videos in one of our other blog posts – Best Animation Shorts & Ads From 2016

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