Taiwanese company uses tech to animate the news

Next Media Animation (NMA) is a multimedia agency that presents the news with animations. The company broadcasts these clips on television stations and online to reach a global audience. Each week, the company covers events that encompass breaking news, technology updates, science, health, and featured news broadcasts. The company uses 3D software to create the animated sequences.

In 2009, Next Media Animation received worldwide recognition for its viral animated version of Tiger Woods’ car crash. This video received over 3 million views within the first two days of its release. Since then, the company has launched many viral videos, racking an average of 40 million views per month on YouTube.
 

Next Media specializes in digitally producing projects that require the concept to storyboard, 3D modeling to production treatment. The team of designers construct 3D models of the characters and objects that will appear in the video.  Customized software has been produced by NMA, including a database of clothing and body parts for the characters. Once the storyboard has been laid out, Next Media Animation uses motion capture technology with real-life actors to perform the necessary scenes. The actors’ motion is captured, and then converted into animated motion on the created 3D character.

The animation process that Next Media has mastered is extremely complicated. The team of 200 animators uses high-definition technology to complete entire clips in less than 3 hours. This relatively short turnover time is crucial in the fast-paced world of media. Within hours of a news story breaking, the company needs to immediately produce a video in an effort to make it trend. Jimmy Lai, the founder of New Media, hopes to be able to create videos within minutes for more instantaneous results in real-time. 

Next Media Animation’s list of clients has expanded since its start in 2009. Media bases of the likes of Yahoo News, MSN, and Reuters, are some of its biggest partners. These digital outlets contract Next Media Animation to create virtual simulated videos of events like train crashes or oil spills.
 
Story via NPR