Holla Creative are extremely excited to be able to announce that we created an animated lyric music video for the one and only Liam Payne, previously of One Direction fame! Click on the video below to see it on Liam Payne’s official YouTube channel – with over a quarter of a million views in its first 2 weeks!

Liam Payne’s newest single has just been released and along with the track itself comes the inevitable music video and lyric video. (For those that don’t know, a ‘lyric video’ is an accompanying video to the main live-action video, that has all the lyrics coming up in time with the song so that you can learn them!) Usually, lyric videos are animated to stand apart from the main music video and feature all manner of crazy and creative visual styles and themes.

Liam’s Record label wanted something illustrated, pop-art and comic-styled so they searched around and found Holla! They had some ideas, but we worked with them to suggest how the narrative would play out, how the lyrics would become part of the artwork, and tweaked some of the visuals. They loved our ideas, so we proceeded to create a storyboard to plot out the general flow and look of the video. Then came the fun part, the animation itself! We used our industry-standard, top-of-the-line motion-graphics tools and in-house talent to create a popping and flowing fusion of hand-drawn illustrations and dynamic animation. Our illustrator worked tirelessly for 2 weeks in July to create every image you can see in the video, by hand-drawing them digitally with a tablet and stylus. Then our animation team got to work, bringing the images to life in time with the song using digital animation techniques.

The label were extremely happy with the results and we heard through them that Liam really loved it too! This was all great but the song wasn’t out yet, and wouldn’t be out until late September! So we had to stay quiet for a couple of months while Liam and his team built the hype for the big release. Finally the big day came, the song came out to much acclaim and so did the two music videos, it was pretty exciting to be a part of the big launch! Liam’s fans seemed to absolutely love the video and we have had nothing but glowing positive feedback since its release!

So what does this mean for you, reader of this blog? Well, motion-graphics is a medium that is rapidly growing in this increasingly digital and web-based world of communication. Video is the preferred way for people to interact with content right now but filming can be costly and can take time to organise shoots, book locations and pay actors. Motion-graphics provides a cost effective way to bring video content to your website, social media channels or screen, and the best bit is, you can do anything with it! Whether you want to tell a story, promote or advertise a product, or concisely convey some information or data, motion graphics can often be the best solution.

Animation and Motion-graphics are not restricted only to music videos with big-name artists, but working on a high-profile project like this has proven Holla’s professionalism with sensitive IP, our ability to work to crazy music-industry pressures and deadlines, and also our skill in creating something creative and dynamic in a short timescale at an affordable price.

So why not get in contact with your idea for an animated video, we’d love to have a chat with you!