Top 12 Animated Music Videos You Need to See
A visually stunning symphony of art and music
Animation has been around for a while now and has widely used for different purposes, from marketing to entertainment.
The captivating and sometimes quirky visuals are no longer for children. Adults were also charmed to see animations in movies or even music videos.
As Walt Disney said,
“There is a child in all of us.”
In this post, we’ll show you Breadnbeyond’s version of the ten best-animated music videos you can see on YouTube.
From a-ha to Dire Straits, let’s get animated!
#1. a-ha — Take on Me
This iconic music video from a-ha has a stunning sketchy video effect. It was drawn into a sketchbook and experienced a surreal adventure.
It shows the singer of the band trying to get out of the book.
Using the rotoscope (which originally didn’t involve computers for the special effects) and image tracing technique, the whole music video is dome frame by frame.
For this music video, in particular, around 3000 drawings are drawn. And it took at least 16 weeks to complete all of them.
#2. Radiohead — Paranoid Android
The music video for Paranoid Android is directed and animated by Swedish animator Magnus Carlsson — who’s also the creator of the series Robin.
This one music video is arguably so bizarre yet memorable.
Since Radiohead members were fans of the Robin series, the music video features Robin and his friend Benjamin venturing into the world.
The animation is drawn in a simplistic style that emphasizes bold colors and clear, strong lines. It also uses twisted visuals to represent the dark humor that the song delivers.
#3. Coldplay — Daddy
Puppetry, digitally painted sets, an ocean made from cling, and 2D animations are combined with 2D animation in this Coldplay’s music video.
This video was directed by the incredible Asa Lucander and produced by Aardman Animations.
The girl’s face, as the main character, has no expression. Therefore, the emotions have to lie solely in her body language.
The puppets also carry on a handmade feel and seem like they are just carved out of wood to create a surface full of color and texture.
#4. Yourushika — Say It
Yourushika is a Japanese rock duo that uses animations in almost all of their music videos.
This Say It music video, in particular, used hand-drawn character and combined it with pictures of places as the backgrounds.
The simply-drawn character with white backgrounds is dancing, matching their movements with the beat of the song.
With glitch effects, the character also interacts with the pictures, making it even more unique.
#5. Gorillaz — Feel Good Inc
Since Gorillaz consists of a virtual band with animated members, their music videos are all animated.
Our favorite of all their stunning animated music videos might be this one. It has a smooth balance of CGI and 2D animation.
But that’s not all. Tackling social and political issues, this Feel Good Inc music video offers us compelling, thought-provoking visuals that make us think.
It even got nominated for three categories on2006 Grammy Awards and winning for the Best Pop Collaboration.
#6. The White Stripes — Fell in love with a girl
This animated music video directed by Michel Gondry is smartly and cleverly uses stop motion animation with LEGO bricks. The reactions to the video were extremely positive.
With this creative use of various film techniques, the music video has won three categories at the MTV VMAs. That’s definitely well-deserved since the music video is painstakingly shot frame by frame.
So minimal computer animation is involved, meaning that it takes longer to complete the music video.
#7. Red Hot Chilli Peppers — Californication
Californication music video plays out like video games. It’s, of course, inspired by the Grand Theft Auto Games.
Each of the band’s four members is turned into an animated avatar, meeting at the center of the Earth.
In the form of video games, the characters swim, snowboard, and race an adventure.
The music videos are all made using 3D animation and live-action clips showing the band singing and playing the instruments.
#8. Arctic Monkey — Do I Wanna Know
Their music videos feature simple but unconventional visual techniques. It’s a collection of illustrations, flat animations, waveforms, and perspective effects.
With a mostly black background, the line animations follow the track winding animation so effectively.
The video begins with a pretty simple straight white line that vibrates. Each thick chord ripples through it and grows to a full-color animation.
You’ll see racing cars, flying eagles, and even fish in this music video — which is quite random, but the transition is astonishing.
#9. The Beatles — Come Together
The animation of this music video looks like a 90’s video game. Developed by an illustrator, Albino Blacksheep, the animations for the Come Together music video were made in Flash.
As there’s a touch of 3D elements, it looks like it was rendered a 3D software and published with Flash.
With its vivid color, the video takes us on the psychedelic journey of members of the band dressed exactly like the classic album cover, Abbey Road.
#10. Dire Straits — Money For Nothing
This Grammy-winning hit has an innovative music video that made waves for being one of the first to showcase early computer animation techniques in the television network.
The animation used partially rotoscoped animation in bright neon colors. And it is all done in crude CGI.
It’s not that surprising if this music video won Video of the Year at the third MTV Video Music Awards.
#11. Harry Styles — As It Was
We’re getting a bit more modern. We created this unofficial animated music video for As It Was by Harry Styles.
The inspiration comes from the original music video. We use bold colors and noticeable fonts to make the lyrics easier to read.
#12. Clarx & Moe Aly — Healing
We also created this unofficial animated music video.
The vibrant hue in the color palette resonates with the upbeat melodies without being too overbearing or overwhelming with its vivacity.
There you have it! That has been our pick of the best-animated music video.
Of course, there are still a lot of animated music videos out there that deserve at least an honorable mention — but after all, we can’t include them all in this post.
So, what is your favorite animated music video? Is it already on our list above? Or did we miss it? Tell us in the comment section below!
P.S.: If you ever need help with professionally-designed animated music video production, Breadnbeyond can help! Just hit us up here.
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