Website Planet interviewed Jumbla MD, Andy Dehnert on Jumbla's global animation journey. Read the full article on WebsitePlanet.com

Jumbla’s Global Animation Journey: Andy Dehnert on Innovation, Collaboration, and the Future of Motion Design

Jumbla was founded in 2011 at a time when 2D animation was emerging as a powerful tool for brands on social media.

Since then, the company has grown into a global powerhouse, offering cutting-edge 2D and 3D animation services across industries like gaming, film, and advertising. In this exclusive interview with Website Planet, Andy Dehnert shares how Jumbla’s studios in Australia and the UK collaborate seamlessly to deliver world-class animation projects.

As the industry evolves with AI and real-time rendering technologies, Jumbla continues to push boundaries, creating visually stunning and impactful motion graphics.

What inspired the founding of Jumbla, and how has the company evolved since 2011?

Jumbla was established back in 2011, as 2D commercial animation was just starting to populate social media. Brands that had previously had no experience with animation were suddenly excited at incorporating it into their marketing communications mix as a fast, effective way to reach their audiences on social media.

Since then, Jumbla Animation Studios has evolved from 2D commercial animation for social media into a full-service 2D / 3D animation studio that provides all types of 2D/3D motion design and 3D CGI animation for a diverse client base, including industries such as computer games, film and series, and advertising.

How do your studios in Australia and the UK collaborate to deliver global animation projects?

It’s about matching the right expertise with the right project. So if a project requires a particular artist that happens to be located on the other side of the world, then our IT and human workflow is set up to handle seamlessly passing work from one artist to another in different countries.

This all happens behind the scenes, so the experience is painless from the client’s perspective, but it means we can access the best artistic and technical talent worldwide, regardless of where the client happens to be based. None of that would have been possible without the advent of numerous cloud-based servers and asset transfer systems.

Can you share a recent project that exemplifies your expertise in 2D and 3D animation?

Here’s a recent 2D project we completed for a home builder in Australia: https://www.jumbla.com/work/simonds-dennis-homes

Here’s a recent 3D motion graphics project we completed for Nacon’s gaming headsets: https://www.jumbla.com/work/nacon-600

What is your approach to creating motion graphics that resonate across diverse industries?

Good design never goes out of fashion. Every brand wants to engage with its customers as effectively as possible, and good design is one of the things that can facilitate that process. So, although all companies are unique and industries can be very different, the same methodical design approach is applied to every project.

This involves an initial step of industry and creative research, a detailed discussion with the client about their brief, look development whereby we’re testing different style approaches, and then story exploration. The client collaborates with the Jumbla Animation Studios production team at every part of the process, and constant feedback is required to ensure our iterations are heading in the right direction.

How do you ensure a balance between creative ambition and client collaboration in your work?

Ultimately, we’re delivering a service to our clients, so it would be remiss of us to discard the client’s opinions. We try to involve the client as much or as little as they would like. There’s always an opportunity to be creatively ambitious on every project, whichever direction the client would like to take it.

Our role is to conceive that special creative solution to their marketing challenge, but we need to work closely with the client to draw out the specifics of that marketing challenge and ensure our creative solution will best fit their brand objectives.

What trends in animation and motion design are you most excited about currently?

On the animation front, AI is the big one here! It feels like it’s just getting started, but already we’re seeing some incredible AI tools that can facilitate the animation process and thereby save clients time and money. For example, AI tools undertake some of the workload in various aspects of the animation pipeline, such as look development, animation locomotion, compositing, rigging, and lighting.

Prior to AI arriving, the development of real-time render engines such as Unreal Engine was a big change, the benefits of which are still being explored. Real-time rendering has allowed animation studios to develop content and, importantly for clients, iterate quickly. This greater flexibility to be able to make changes without necessarily redoing huge amounts of the production pipeline can be a real cost and time saver for clients.