EXPERT
Eloi Champagne
Technical Director, Animation Studio
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Trend 1 / 9
Extended Creativity
In the coming years, Extended Reality (XR) tools will have a significant impact on the creative process in almost every field where human creativity is key. It will influence how creators work, where they work and how they share their end products. 2021 is the year we will see more evidence of this.
XR will enable independent creators and studios to be nimbler and more collaborative. VR applications in particular, combined with other real-time production tools, will facilitate the story development process and the pre-production of animated films and other types of projects.
Visual storytellers and content creators will be able to work in ways that are more artist-friendly, leading to better products faster and more cost effectively.
Through initiatives like the ONFB XP lab, the NFB Animation Studio is actively experimenting with tools and workflows that are going to simplify critical steps in previz and facilitate the creation of animatics or prototypes.
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XR will enable independent creators and studios to be nimbler and more collaborative.
STUDIO
National Film Board of Canada
THEME
Importance of creative expression
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Sugar Creative
Baobab Studios
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EXPERT
Maureen Fan
CEO
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The rise of connected experiences meets the return of a hand-crafted look
With the success of virtual concerts in 2020, studios and audiences will embrace the next generation of interactive real-time performances, even as real-world events re-emerge. In virtual festivals, sports, performances – audiences will feel more connected, by being a part of these unique, animated worlds.
During this exciting animation renaissance, animators are experimenting with different a look and feel for their projects – one that feels more personal.
Wolfwalkers and Klaus show audience’s love for hand-drawn animation. Sony Picture Animation’s Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse explored graphical comic book ink. Audiences feel they can reach out and touch the scrapbook world of Dreamworks’ Trolls and Netflix’s The Willoughbys or the paper cut-out world of Baobab’s Baba Yaga.
First generation CG animated films today are starting to show their age. However, these real-world projects will stand the test of time. These new looks will excite artists and audiences alike. The art will drive technologists to engineer solutions that allow creative experimentation.
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Animators are experimenting with different a look and feel for their projects – one that feels more personal.
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Art will drive technologists to engineer solutions that allow creative experimentation.
STUDIO
Baobab Studios
THEME
Importance of creative expression
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National Film Board of Canada
eyecandylab Corp.
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EXPERT
Robin Sho Moser
Lucy Trang Nguyen
CEO
VP Business Development
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Trend 3 / 9
Adding AR as the next layer of storytelling - and monetization
Video entertainment will become a truly connected experience - a system of interconnected devices within the user's vicinity, using an augmented reality (AR) interface to control, consume and interact with content. This trend is already growing in public recognition, as an Emmy® nomination in the outstanding innovation category for our last project shows.
More Connected: Initial trials connecting devices with TV via QR-codes, allowing viewers to transact on the content, have proven successful. We’re now enabling devices like TVs, phones, and AR glasses to become seamlessly interconnected in a bi-directional manner.
More Social: Co-viewing and making content shareable, enjoyable with friends and family through avatars, and enabling viewer participation will continue to gain relevance.
More Interactive: Inviting viewers to interact with AR content on either the storytelling layer or the commerce layer will become a new revenue stream for media companies.
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Video entertainment will become a truly connected experience.
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We believe AR will be the glue that links video with richer content – for storytelling and monetization.
STUDIO
eyecandylab Corp.
THEME
Immersive entertainment
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Baobab Studios
Factory 42
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EXPERT
Stephen Stewart
Chief Technology Officer
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Trend 4 / 9
Content is King – but creativity will reign
The COVID pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation process in many industries, and demonstrated that agile, digital-first organizations are most able to adapt to these changes.
The pace of technology advancements in the XR industries continues to accelerate, with the physical and digital worlds coming ever closer together. Agencies who push the boundaries of storytelling with ever-advancing tools are discovering they can take consumers to new worlds of enhanced reality – new worlds that, without XR, they’d never be able to visit in person.
The old adage of “content is king” remains – and in 2021, the importance of creativity, and the tools to enable more people to flex their creative muscles, will not only be as relevant as ever – but will also continue to grow.
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Agencies who push the boundaries of storytelling...can take consumers to new worlds of enhanced reality.
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The old adage of “content is king” remains.
STUDIO
Factory 42
THEME
Importance of creative expression
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eyecandylab Corp.
Fictioneers
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EXPERT
Susan Cummings
Co-Founder
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Trend 5 / 9
Getting people back out into the world
This year will be all about the joyous and compelling reasons to get people back out again to public indoor and outdoor locations as we look to restart the world as we knew it before 2020.
To get people into museums, on to boats, into shopping malls, back to the beach -- meaning the re-emergence of the reasons we used to go, that we’ve missed.
But it’s also going to mean exploring a whole new set of reasons to invite people back into the real world, including location-based augmented and mixed reality experiences which can be quickly and easily placed as differentiators for those locations as they compete for footfall.
People will begin to re-discover the world around them. Experiences will give memorable and lasting ways to explore what’s around them.
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This year will be all about the joyous and compelling reasons to get people back out again.
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Location-based experiences...can be quickly and easily placed as differentiators for locations as they compete for footfall.
STUDIO
Fictioneers
THEME
The real world
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Factory 42
Sky
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EXPERT
Matt McCartney
Head of Immersive Technology
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Trend 6 / 9
Immersive Broadcast Wars
With the broadcast marketplace getting ever more crowded, this year media companies will need to find new ways of elevating their content above their competitors in the battle for eyeballs.
Immersive technology powered by games engines like Unity will be key to their success, providing broadcasters with rich, engaging features such as volumetric performance presentation, data overlays, synchronized co-viewing and gamification, and allowing these companies to work with both their traditional content types plus fully immersive content streams using 180 and 360 degree camera technology.
These features are going to be even more important as AR smartwear comes to market over the next few years. With this new hardware, in combination with 5G and cloud computing, media consumption – indeed, data consumption – will take on entirely new dimensions.
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This year media companies will need to find new ways of elevating their content above their competitors in the battle for eyeballs.
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With new (AR) hardware, in combination with 5G and cloud computing, media consumption – indeed, data consumption – will take on entirely new dimensions.
STUDIO
Sky
THEME
Immersive entertainment
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Fictioneers
The Mill
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EXPERT
Sally Reynolds
Creative Director
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Trend 7 / 9
Innovation and evolution accelerate during times of conditional change, scant resources or stress.
The largest trend lifting the entire film and linear production supply chain right now is Virtual Production. It’s changing how we write for the content itself, to how we run pre-pro and how we film, through to paradigm-changing real-time VFX and post pipelines.
No sooner are we developing Virtual Events than we are already thinking ahead to how these platforms flow back into augmenting in-person physical destinations down the road.
And beyond utility, XR will increasingly offer key ecosystems for brands to get right, in order to engage their end customers.
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The largest trend lifting the entire film and linear production supply chain right now is Virtual Production.
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Beyond utility, XR will increasingly offer key ecosystems for brands to get right, in order to engage their end customers.
STUDIO
The Mill
THEME
Immersive entertainment
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Sky
USA Today Network
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EXPERT
Ray Soto
Director, Emerging Tech
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Trend 8 / 9
Audiences will expect new forms of technology-driven storytelling
Last year proved to be an amazing year for interactive storytelling within the media and journalism industry.
From local to national, the industry’s audience engaged with interactive projects that explored complex topics in ways that had never been done before. From augmented reality to interacting with complex data visualizations in 3D, audiences will continue to expect new forms of technology-driven stories in 2021.
To meet audience needs for premium content experiences, organizations will develop a stronger culture of experimentation and rapid iteration. Teams with non-traditional journalism backgrounds will be created to develop interactive content that resonates with a growing diverse and tech-savvy audience.
This will be an exciting year for an industry that is eager to evolve with technology, but it will also prove to be one of its most challenging.
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Organizations will develop a stronger culture of experimentation and rapid iteration.
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From augmented reality to complex data visualizations in 3D, audiences will expect new forms of technology-driven stories in 2021.
STUDIO
USA Today Network
THEME
Enhanced storytelling
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The Mill
Sugar Creative
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EXPERT
Will Humphrey
Director, Creative Innovattion
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Trend 9 / 9
Traveling within time, space, and the imagination will become a central element of experiences
What's really exciting as we transition out of slowdowns into a newly restarted world is the ability for smaller teams and even individual creators to do more with their craft, and deliver more value for their clients.
As a studio we've seen deliverables continue to multiply and expand. What used to be one 30 second spot for television is now a dozen deliverables spread across multiple platforms, mediums, and aspect ratios. We've been asked to deliver AR stickers, 360/VR films, and even small interactive experiences alongside our traditionally animated spots.
Unity is such an interesting platform right now in advertising, because it allows for the creation of all these different deliverables, all in one place.
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Users [will have] the ability to experience imagined stories and factual content that travel within time, space, and the imagination.
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The conversation around immersive technology will change in the next year from ‘what does it do?’ to ‘what is it saying?’
STUDIO
Sugar
Creative
THEME
Immersive entertainment
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USA Today Network
National Film Board of Canada
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XR / LBE
Extended
Creativity
National Film Board of Canada
Learn more
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National Film Board of Canada
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The rise of connected experiences meets the return of a hand-crafted look
Baobab Studios
Learn more
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Baobab Studios
Learn more
Adding AR as the next layer of storytelling - and monetization
eyecandylab Corp.
Learn more
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eyecandylab Corp.
Learn more
Content is King – but creativity will reign
Factory 42
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Factory 42
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Getting people back out into the world
Fictioneers
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Fictioneers
Learn more
Immersive
Broadcast Wars
Sky
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Sky
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Innovation and evolution accelerate during times of change or stress
The Mill
Learn more
+
The Mill
Learn more
Audiences will expect new forms of technology-driven storytelling
USA Today Network
Learn more
+
USA Today Network
Learn more
Traveling within time, space, and the imagination will become a central element of experiences
Sugar Creative
Learn more
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Sugar Creative
Learn more
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