Different Types of Animation - How to Choose What’s Best

When it comes to your web design, animation is a feature that you may want to consider throughout your site. There are many benefits of using animation on various aspects of your site, with the main benefit being that it makes it more engaging for the users. It allows you to really grab the attention of your customers whilst they are browsing your website, making them engage with certain aspects of it than you can make stand out. Whilst it also allows you to portray your messages in a range of new and exciting ways.

But there are many different types of animation out there, how could you know which route to go down? As web designers, we understand how confusing it can be because surely animation is just animation, right? Here, we’ll share the various styles of animation with you, allowing you to have a clearer idea of the type of cool, funky animation you might just be looking for.

2D Animation
The original animation that still definitely holds a place online! 2D animation is the most traditional style of animation, it allows for a freestyle, hand-drawn effect to tell stories and/or create characters that can be displayed on your website. As time has moved on, it no longer is only about the freehand styles, but now utilises vectors (pre-made graphics) that can be manipulated to do whatever the user likes; change size, colour, disappear, reappear - there are so many options available!

3D Animation
As you’re probably aware, 3D has revolutionised not only the online world but the tv and film world also. Although they are a lot more difficult to create and manipulate, but the end effect can look incredible. This type of animation is particularly popular with the creation of short films, so could be a fantastic option if you are looking to use video on your website. This is particularly popular with interior design/landscaping as it allows the creation of a virtual space that the user can to some extent, place themselves in.

Motion Graphics
Where motion graphics come into consideration are the likes of explainer videos, opening credits, promotional videos and animated logos. They tend to work by animating various elements such as images, texts, videos. They can work great if you need something simple adding to existing content and can be as simple as making text enter a video and then leave again.

Whiteboard Animation
If you must explain something to your website users, whether it’s you needing to explain your line of work or you have to break something down as part of a resource, whiteboard animation can be a brilliant option. Its simple design can have super effective results as it allows the audience to maintain focus without being too fancy and distracting and is done by simply filming someone draw on a whiteboard.

It can be hard to know when the right time is to use animation and it doesn’t just have to be used in videos that are uploaded to your website. You can use animation techniques to entice clicks on certain elements of your web page and this can be as simple as making your ‘Add to Cart’ button shake when a user is close by. You can also use animation throughout your site navigation and make it so that when user’s scroll down your website, different elements enter in various ways to make the experience.

Eager to see how animation can work in your web design? You can get in touch today and let’s discuss the project that you have in mind and how we can help translate it onto your own website.