Why Character Animation Works So Well for Brands

There’s a reason we keep coming back to characters.

People remember people. Or creatures. Or weird little animated things with enormous heads and questionable footwear.

A well-designed character can give a brand something that a product shot, logo or beautifully designed graphic sometimes can't: personality.

At Cub Studio, character animation has been at the heart of what we do for more than a decade. We've created characters for brands, broadcasters, sports organisations, agencies, comedians and digital products, working across 2D, 3D and interactive animation.

But good character animation isn't simply about making a character move.

It's about making them feel alive.

What is character animation?

Character animation is the art of bringing an illustrated, designed or modelled character to life through movement and performance.

That might mean a traditional frame-by-frame animation, a carefully rigged 2D character, a 3D model, or an interactive character designed to respond to what a user does.

The technology can vary enormously.

The principle doesn't.

The character needs to feel like someone.

A raised eyebrow. A badly timed shrug. A tiny look of panic. A ridiculous walk. The pause before a punchline.

Those little details are often what make a character memorable.

Why do brands use character animation?

Characters give brands a personality that can be difficult to achieve with traditional advertising.

They can make complicated subjects easier to understand. They can make technical products more approachable. They can create humour where appropriate. And they can give audiences something to recognise and return to.

A character can become a visual shorthand for an entire brand.

That's particularly useful when a brand needs to communicate repeatedly across different channels.

The same character might appear in a campaign film, a social animation, an app, a website, a product experience or a series of short-form pieces.

Suddenly, you're not just making individual animations.

You're building a character system.

Character animation isn't just cartoons

One of our favourite things about character animation is how broad it can be.

It can be beautifully designed and restrained.

It can be ridiculous.

It can be cinematic.

It can be technical.

It can be charming.

It can even be almost invisible.

We've created character-led work for entertainment, education, advertising, sports and digital products. Our portfolio includes work for ESPN, HelloFresh, HomeServe, MasterClass and other major brands and talent.

The character simply needs to be right for the story.

From 2D character animation to 3D

There isn't one correct way to animate a character.

For some projects, 2D animation gives us the flexibility and graphic quality we're looking for.

For others, 3D opens up a completely different visual language, allowing us to build characters that can move through a more dimensional world.

And sometimes the answer is something in between.

The important thing isn't choosing 2D or 3D because one happens to be fashionable.

It's choosing the approach that makes the character work.

Characters are becoming interactive

There's another interesting shift happening in character animation.

Characters aren't necessarily ending when the film ends.

We're increasingly creating animation for digital products, apps, websites and interactive experiences, using technologies such as Lottie and Rive to bring characters into products and interfaces.

That means a character can react to a user, respond to an action or become part of the product itself.

The animation becomes less like a film and more like a living part of the experience.

We've been creating Lottie character animation for years, including animated characters, UI elements, emojis and digital experiences.

What makes a great animated character?

For us, it comes down to three things.

Design.

You should be able to recognise the character instantly.

Personality.

You should understand something about them before they've even said a word.

Performance.

The animation should reveal who they are.

That's where great character animation gets really interesting.

Two characters can perform exactly the same action and tell completely different stories.

A confident character walks into a room differently from a nervous one.

A smug character smiles differently from a genuinely happy one.

The animation is the performance.

Character animation for brands, agencies and beyond

Whether you're developing a brand mascot, creating an advertising campaign, explaining a complicated product or building a character for an interactive experience, character animation can give your idea a personality people remember.

At Cub Studio, we create character animation for brands, agencies, broadcasters, sports organisations and digital products — from initial character design and development through to animation and delivery.

And yes, we still really like making things walk around.

It's basically our job.

If you've got a character that needs bringing to life, we'd love to meet them.