How ChatGPT Can Spark Animation Creativity and Improve the Customer Experience

Rico Boas, Shafakat Reshamvala, Mitsu Yajima

Animation is a key component of captivating and engaging users. It’s not just about eye-catching designs; it’s about creating intuitive, user-friendly experiences. While once a novelty, animation is now an essential part of digital design.

Crafting high-quality animations is both an art and a science. Mastering this process requires a high level of technical expertise. The more complex the design, the more time it takes to bring it to life. Larger file sizes also come with the risk of slower page load times, diminishing user satisfaction. Consider this: a four-second delay in page loading can drive away 40% of your audience.

So, how can teams accelerate the design workflow, unlock creativity, and create the best user experience?

At Apply Digital, we’re redefining the animation process through innovative AI applications. This post delves into our unique approach to creating captivating micro-interactions that delight and surprise our users.

The Animation Process

Designing lifelike animation is a complex and time-consuming process. Utilizing tools like After Effects, animators have to set keyframes and animate elements frame by frame. This process has specific constraints, such as efficiency, creative limitations, and accuracy.

These factors are important to consider because animations need to accurately mimic the laws of physics. Recreating natural movements, whether it’s the ripple of water or the simple bounce of a ball, requires creativity and a deep understanding of physics. While expertise can guide designers to use the correct mathematical expressions and produce realistic animations, it’s not always a straightforward process. For instance, designers need to know the right equation and how to apply it intuitively. The challenge is to make this skill level more accessible to a broader range of designers.

Depending on the complexity, it can take around 2 to 6 weeks to design and animate just one minute of motion graphics. Given this timeline, there’s an apparent opportunity to innovate and accelerate the process.

Enter artificial intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT. In particular, AI and language learning models (LLMs) have opened new avenues for approaching complex animations. These tools allow us to translate artistic concepts into efficient, accurate, and adaptable animations without compromising the creative essence.

At the core of this transformation is an After Effects feature known as Expression. In short, it allows designers to create animation via equations that dictate motion. Using ChatGPT alongside this feature, our team is moving towards a coding and math-based approach to animation.

The Impact

• Accessibility: ChatGPT demystifies Expression, making it accessible to designers who are less experienced with equations. This expands the creative capabilities of our entire design team.
• Creativity and Adaptability: Designers can rapidly prototype and adjust animations in response to evolving project requirements. This agility encourages taking more creative risks, recognizing adjustments can be made swiftly and efficiently.
• Efficiency: The AI-generated code we’ve created is smaller and more efficient, resulting in smoother and lighter animations — a reduction from 3MB to a mere 150KB. This also means faster loading times, which is particularly important for mobile experiences.

It’s important to note that ChatGPT and the integration into After Effects aren’t perfect. They’re not a replacement for a designer’s creative expertise and there is still a need for expert motion refinement, especially because these tools are constantly evolving.

Conclusion

Our team has explored how ChatGPT can create efficiencies in animation production, spark creativity, and enhance the user experience through faster load times and smooth animations. As we continue to embrace AI in our workflows, stay tuned for future updates on how teams across Apply Digital are leveraging this transformative technology.