Flat style
We use flat style when bold color and graphic quality best express dynamic content. Dial up the overlapping fills of color unique to this bold and graphic style for more vibrancy or tone them down for more subtle applications. Whether abstract or literal, still or in motion, flat style illustrations bring more personality to the canvas.
Examples in use
Animation
The flat style’s reliance on simple, bold silhouettes allows for more expressive performances and evocative motion.
Tips
- Shapes should stay true to the original design. Be careful of custom path animation and rely on position, rotation and scale.
- Although more involved performances are encouraged, avoid exaggeration, bounces and smears.
- Consider working at higher—though proportional—resolutions to ensure crisp, clean shapes and extra precision when aligning elements.
Performance
In contrast to the particular limitations of line style, flat illustration is well-suited to more nuanced and organic character performances. However, this style still requires fine attention to geometry and detail to ensure the integrity of graphic forms.
Transparency
Unless intentionally designed for this effect, long, ponderous fades will create unwanted intersections and confusing overlaps that run contrary to the bold, clean vernacular of flat style. Lean toward confident, productive fades that minimize the appearance of unintended shapes.
Use solid color to maintain clean graphic shapes.
Avoid transparency, overlapping shapes and intersections.
Translation
Flat style lends itself to richer, more elaborate designs and performances. Typically, this style requires action to be more focused and specific to a limited scope of elements, while broader motions that affect the entire canvas—camera moves—will quickly become distracting and disorienting. Any camera movement should be simple, decisive and applied with discretion.
Stick to simple, decisive camera movements.
Avoid complex, distracting camera movements.
Adaptation
Illustrations may need to be modified to become technically feasible animations. For example, some complex gradients may be prohibitively difficult to animate cleanly and may need to be subtly simplified. Where possible, both illustrator and animator should collaborate on modifying a design without diluting the intention or fidelity of the original illustration.
Complex gradient shading
Adapted shading for animation