When Nodomotion Founder and Director Manuel Muñoz Acuña studied audiovisual communication in the early 2000s, animation had still not landed in Chile. He specialized in video editing and post-production before discovering the emerging art of motion graphics, which formed the foundation on which he later built his studio.

“This was how I began my research: by combining design elements with my audiovisual expertise, I managed to earn my first paychecks through simple requests such as logo animation or banners for video editing,” Muñoz says.

He went on to work as a video editor for a university and a television channel, as he continued experimenting with personal projects. Until, he got his big break and Nodomotion was born.

The studio, based in Quilpué, Chile, was created around two values: flexibility and communication.

“We adapt to each customer regardless of the size of their project and we are interested in working hand-in-hand with them, offering our collaboration at all times, even after having delivered the approved final piece,” says Muñoz. “Also, we design in all formats so that customers can generate versions for various devices and platforms they require to integrate.”

The studio’s latest refresh of its logo features a capital “N” inside a box.

“The box represents a dialogue bubble and seeks to bring us closer to the idea of communication, whether between our agency and customers, or by presenting graphic animation as a powerful communication tool, and not just an aesthetic means of introducing a company,” says Muñoz.

First Steps

Nodomotion was launched when Muñoz took on a project for Canal 13 that focused on the graphic elements of a promo for a casting call for season two of reality show Amor Ciego (Blind Love).

“At the time, there were not a lot of graphic promos on television, and the few that existed were for ad campaigns, or were being produced abroad,” says Muñoz. “You wouldn’t normally see proposals without live-action images of people, or interactions between graphics and text, so what we presented was a quite freeing promo.”

“[Canal 13] asked for something that looked new, that had graphics and that combined photography and audiovisual images. They sent me the logo and said ‘play with it.’” This freedom to innovate extended to the voiceover, which closes with the reminder that “anything can happen in Blind Love.”

“With this work, I realized that I didn’t have to be in Santiago de Chile or the country’s metropolitan area to develop and deliver a quality piece,” says Muñoz.

Since 2008, Nodomotion has operated as a studio focused on animating graphic elements, as well as developing more projects for Canal 13.

One such project was the branding for reality show Generaciones cruzadas (Cross Generations), a competition series in which two generations of the same family lived in two different houses to demonstrate the day-to-day differences between the younger and older members.

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“The idea was that a crossing of the generations was present in the branding, so I proposed approaching it from the concept of DNA, which was related to the format,” says Ariel Cava, CEO of Atento! Producciones Audiovisuales and who at the time was head of post-production for Canal 13’s reality shows.

As a result, the piece depicts a moving DNA strand that changes from green to red, and intertwines just like parents and children in the program.

“Generaciones Cruzadas was part of a series of reality shows produced over several consecutive years, so the concept of color was important,” says Cava. Red, black and yellow had already been used for other programs. So I thought green would be a differentiating element from the previous years. And the contrast with red was the result of Nodomotion’s artistic contribution.”

The studio also has worked for Mega channel on a campaign for the reality show Amor a Prueba (Love on Trial).

“Mega had only defined its logo, and asked us to work with a particular texture and color palette to design the backgrounds, banners and bumpers. We created cut-out characters using chroma key,” says Muñoz.

Nodomotion also adapted graphics for franchises, such as Canal 13’s El Hormiguero (Ant’s Nest), a talk show in which Nodomotion replaced Spanish talent with Chilean talent in the promo, and Mega’s , and Mega’s adaptation of Salta a la vista—a version of Odd One In— developed for Endemol.

New Horizons

Nodomotion is currently in the process of expanding its portfolio beyond television.

“We realize graphic animation is no longer used only for TV programs or advertising spots. We aim to become more diversified by providing our services to other areas, such as marketing, social media and online advertising,” says Muñoz.

The studio also is immersed in the development of corporate educational videos such as, the following 2015 spot for Look App.

“I think this is an important piece, because at that time it implied an improvement in the technique of these types of videos, focusing on stronger graphics and characters that combine to create more entertaining and modern results. Our goal was to raise the level of what we were doing, and we succeeded,” Muñoz says.

Another example is a project for Negociar, in which the customer wanted to publicize what a consulting firm does.

Nodomotion also created a video for Mercado Ripley, one of Chile’s largest retailers.

“The concept of an online marketplace where individuals or small businesses could sell their products, was just emerging at that time,” says Muñoz “On the one hand, our customer wanted to communicate that they had this new service, and on the other hand, they wanted to create an established look that was friendly and instilled confidence.”

Nodomotion also has focused on producing materials for concerts, conferences and other types of events requiring videos displayed on large screens. The studio recently worked on the graphics for CDF’s Gala del Fútbol Chileno (Chilean Football Gala), designing the backgrounds for the set.

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To define the style, Nodomotion chose blue as the main color, pulling from the channel’s corporate palette. It also incorporated a series of lines disposed diagonally which, in turn, formed rectangles.

“All the lines come from the logo they gave us. We used them to fill the background, but without overloading it, because the lines looked much thicker on air. We took the square, for example, and made it appear as a kind of maze,” says Muñoz.

His experience in the language of animation has instilled valuable lessons about work methods and discipline that he carries with him.

“The work has to be developed in an organized way, step by step,” Muñoz says. “It ends up being a method that you incorporate into your daily life.”

Version español: Creative Review: Nodomotion

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