2024-In-Review, Part 02: Studio Spotlight
As we continue the 2024 review, here's the studios we found and followed.
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👋🏻 WHAT’S A STUDIO, REALLY?2024 was another year where the line between studios, collectives, and freelancers with a solid rolodex blurred to the point of almost all merging together. We saw studios launch, close, rename, and rebrand – and 2025 sees no sign of it stopping. So before we get too far into ‘25, may we present the 2024 Keys & Curves Studio Spotlight!
ANIMATION STATION
Characterful.
Studio La Cachette: The team behind PRIMAL and some of the best anthology work in LOVE DEATH ROBOTS and STAR WARS: Visions, we loved their trailer for The Rogue Prince Of Persia and found ourselves celebrating the 1 year anniversary of their animated series Le College Noir. Check out this great 45 minute+ dive into the origins of the studio while we all wait patiently for PRIMAL Season 03 to launch later this year!
Threadwood Animation: a husband and wife stopmotion team that produced MAGICAL CAT, a ridiculously fun series of Youtube claymation shorts about, you guessed it, a magical cat 🤣
Petrick: The studio behind one of our fave little projects, TODODO – the studio goes super deep when it comes to combining 2D and 3D in a really bouncy and colorful way that builds on an established brand.
Blender Studio: The content creation arm of Blender was working overtime this year, with their PROJECT GOLD short documented on YT and a whole series of development pieces that tested out what’s possible with the new Grease Pencil tools – and you can support them and get production files, deep dives into process and a whole more for the price of a couple coffees a month.
Made By Radio: Fun, funky, and weird in the best way possible, a lot of their character work reminds us of early MTV animation
Armchair Productions: Sydney-based animation studio specializing in in character work (with some MOHO stuff!) and their own animated series on Youtube.
WIZZ: 2024 seemed to be the year our hearts were in Paris as so many studios flow through that city, and Wizz is right at the epicenter of that work. Their 2024 Wrapped reel has more work than we can mention, but the JUICEWORLD | Fortnite spot, Adolescence series, and Nike Ranger AF3 spots were on repeat throughout the year.
MOTION MACHINES.
Shape Layers. Type Animators. Glows and Glints.
Yeti Pictures: Every year, Tony Zagoraios and crew seem to make a piece that stays lodged in out brains the entire year – but ‘24 saw YETI releasing multiple memorable spots that we’re still thinking about, including: Google Chromebook, Coca-Cola Reborn, and ESPECIALLY their Miniwood short!
Cub Studio: Possibly the most prolific studio of 2024, Cub is constantly posting new work as well as explorations both personal and professional. Whether it’s 3D-printed stop-motion, old school 8-bit brawlers, or superdeformed studio mates, CUB is full of style.
Noodle Animation: Hometown heroes from Chicago, Noodle has an identifiable style not only in their designs across character, brand, and type – but also a signature style to their motion. A playful sense of humor that can bounce between refined products, flat motion, and loopy characters – check out their reel as well as their studio project, ORIGIN.
Motto: A brand-building studio with motion built into it’s DNA – their work is something to be studied by more motion designers in terms of how to be viewing brand work alongside your motion design in 2025.
Váscolo Studio: A studio that can do bold hand-drawn character work, top notch tech-focused motion design, and photoreal 3D rendering feels like a throwback to the classic days of do-it-all mograph shops, but VASCOLO is cutting edge contemporary Plus, we just love their flaming WacomPen loading animation 🤩
Proper: home to absolutely beautiful brand-focused storytelling that has stunningly realistic renders but even more impressively kinetic camera movements and compositions. Their YETI GOBOX spot eschews the normally refined renders of product spots for something wildly energetic yet completely on-point for the brand: a spot that could ONLY be achieved through animation yet is authentic and believable to the brand. One of our faves of the year!
Clim Studio: Home of our favorite rebrand of the year, CLIM’s vibrant work reflects the new studio identity perfectly. Clim’s rnage is ridiculous, serving up on-trend looks across the entire motion design spectrum, from product renders that can go cinematically moody or charmingly relaxing, along with one of our favorite character designs of the year.
Know someone that should spend some time in our Spotlight? Let us know who!
That’s a wrap for today – later this week I’ll be sending out our favorite tools, techniques, and training. Until then, keep on slinging those keys and riding the curves! 🤩