Image via Complex Original
Videos can breathe dynamic energy into works of art by giving them an added dimensionality. Whether a piece stars with pen on paper, mounds of clay, drops of water, or even lines on a computer, when it comes together as an animated video, it takes on a whole new life. From a short video that imagines a world made entirely from iconic logos to a stop-motion video composed of office supplies, we've rounded up some of The Best Animated Art on Vimeo. Check out how these artists push the possibilities of the medium to create entirely original works of art.
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Logorama
Creator: H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, and Ludovic Houplain
Year: 2009
Logorama illustrates our obsession with consumer culture by creating a world where everything is made up of familiar logos. The highly acclaimed animation was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. In 2010, it opened at the Sundance Film Festival and won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
Somewhere
Creator: Nicolas Ménard
Year: 2013
Somewhere is an animated short created by a first year student at London's Royal College of Art. A video narrative about love and loss, separation and longing, Somewhere makes use of a striking color palette in its depiction of a physically and emotionally disarmed astronaut.
Mmkit
Creator: Austin Motion Artists Group
Year: 2014
This trippy video is wild enough to melt your brain. It's the killer product of a 48-hour animation challenge, in which 14 teams of Austin-based studios and freelancers participated and collaborated. The guiding theme was "The Ecstatic Energy of Geometry."
Cinematics
Creator: Pier Paolo
Year: 2014
This loveable animated short presents a one-minute history of film. It features characters from classic movies, including everyone from Darth Vader to Charlie Chaplin. Even death-by-light-saber looks adorable in this video.
Selfie
Creator: Andy Martin
Year: 2014
This 60-second animated clip is a cautionary tale about self-obsession, narcissism, and the dangers of excessive selfie-taking. Or, at least, it reveals the destructiveness of selfies on this tiny cartoon creature.
MUTO
Creator: Blu
Year: 2009
Known for his timelapse videos of his graffiti creations, the street artist Blu brings another work to life with MUTO. Filmed in in Buenos Aires and Baden, Switzerland, this video follows the journey of a many-armed man as he moves across walls.
Rabbit and Deer / Nyuszi és Őz
Creator: Péter Vácz
Year: 2013
The video above is the trailer for Rabbit and Deer, a story about the friendship between a rabbit and a deer. Both exist in 2D until the deer finds his way into the third dimension. Using drawings and stop motion, Vácz tells the story of these two creatures' adventure across space.
Cachoeira
Creator: Rodrigo EBA!
Year: 2011
Relying not drawings or digital animations, this video is one of a kind. Instead, the animated scenes in this stop-motion short are made entirely out of drops of water.
Twin Peaks Illustrated
Creator: Martin Woutisseth
Year: 2014
This video contains impressive animations inspired by David Lynch and Mark Frost's cult TV show Twin Peaks. It's remarkable that new projects about the show are still being produced, despite the fact that it's been off the air for decades.
Ah
Creator: Lee Sunghwan of Studio Shelter
Year: 2011
This animated short is made out of colorful LEGO blocks that are meant to resemble the actions of people. The plot can be difficult to discern sometimes, but the animation is enough to hold up the video on its own.
A Girl Named Elastika
Creator: Guillaume Blanchet
Year: 2014
This ingenious stop-motion short uses office supplies, like thumbtacks and rubber bands, on a small bulletin board as its narrative instrument. It chronicles the story of a girl who leaves her home and finds a journey filled with thumbtack adventures.
Tiny Worlds
Creator: Rushes
Year: 2014
Watch the urban landscape come to life in this delightful computer-generated animation about what happens to litter on the streets when no one is looking.
Nowhere Near Here
Creator: Pahnl
Year: 2010
Combining light with over 200 stencils and long-exposure photographs, this stop-motion animation uses street art in an unconventional way to tell a story about a dog running around the city at night. It took over 300 hours to make the video.
Polygonn
Creator: Ben Aston and Nick Black
Year: 2014
This music video by director Ben Aston and animator Nick Black is made out of 2,500 individual hand-drawn illustrations, which Black came up with by tracing each frame from original live action footage onto paper. He uses a technique called "rotoscoping," with 12 drawings representing one second of footage.
Graffiti Technica Reel 2014
Creator: Graffiti Technica
Year: 2014
Unlike traditional forms of spraypaint or stencil graffiti, the graffiti designs and lettering in this video are three-dimensional digital creations, animated and placed in real world locations. The video explores a new way of thinking about street art.
Broken Fingaz
Creator: Tant and Unga
Year: 2011
This graffiti stop-motion is the first animated clip from Tant and Unga of the Broken Fingaz Crew, a team of graffiti artists from Israel. This video brings their artwork to life and features the artists themselves interacting with their art on a rooftop space. One of the artists even hovers a few feet above the ground.
Paint Showers
Creator: Miguel Jiron
Year: 2012
This otherworldly animated short is made out of photographed sequences of paint drips and splashes that are set to the sounds of rain. The result is a storm of color from the cosmos of paint.