Blending 3D and 2D: Is it Time for Animation’s Next Great JUMP?
Animation has always been the art of the surreal. Invariably, on some level, the best pieces of animated work succeed in taking us out of our lived realities and towards something new - dreamlike worlds which captivate us for the duration of their runtimes.
Watching JUMP, a spellbinding and psychedelic new animation from Tonic DNA, makes for a timely reminder of that central truth. Animation is technically impressive when striving for photorealism - but its pursuit of surrealism is downright magical.
JUMP, with its kaleidoscopic hues and beautifully sharp flourishes, is also arriving at a moment where its distinctive blend of 2D and 3D animation feels perfectly-timed.
As Wiley Townsend, the studio’s 3D animation supervisor, puts it: “Every twenty years or so, there’s a cycle. Once something becomes the norm - which I think 3D CGI probably now is - there’s an appetite for something new. Something which can open the door to whatever is coming next”.
There’s an argument to suggest that the opening of that particular door happened back in 2018. Viewers won’t need to get far into the trailer to JUMP to see how Sony and Marvel’s original Into the Spiderverse movie - alongside its very recent and very successful sequel - have served as inspiration. And, as members of the Tonic team explain, it’s a comparison they’re happy to invite.
“Spiderverse is what got people seriously thinking outside the box in terms of render style”, notes Malcom Sutherland, JUMP’s animation director. “A lot of people had been wanting to use that kind of style, but until 2018 nobody had found a way to do it successfully. But now, the door is open to so much more to be built on top of it. We could be looking at a watershed moment in animation”.
And, as JUMP’s unique style suggests, the results of this watershed moment could be mind-bending. Reflecting on how Tonic might continue to build on JUMP, creative strategist Jay Mark Caplan notes that “it would be really cool if a future iteration left audiences totally unsure of how it was made”.
But, already, there’s an element of that sense of wonder present within JUMP. As Malcolm goes on to explain, the psychedelic and otherworldly nature of this animation style is no accident. “To me, one of the major elements of something that is ‘psychedelic’ is the blurring of boundaries'', he says. “It’s not a rigid form of consciousness, and it’s not a rigid form of movement that you see on-screen. It’s such a pure form of animation in that way, giving you this ability to transcend reality for just a few moments”.
As well as its unique animation style, however, there’s something else about JUMP which makes it perfectly-timed in 2023: It’s storytelling. In that respect, the team at Tonic looked beyond the world of animation for inspiration - to the universally acclaimed Everything Everywhere All At Once.
“EEAAO felt like a really important film in terms of its fractured-storytelling approach to narrative”, notes Wiley. “That’s something that influenced JUMP, as well - how these almost otherworldly, psychedelic approaches can help stories to land more powerfully”.
Listening to the Tonic team explain this, it feels undeniable that there is something about our cultural moment that means these kinds of experimental, multiverse-inspired stories are landing particularly hard.
It’s a kind of cultural alchemy which serves to help JUMP stick the landing, so to speak. A perfect storm of technological advancements in animation, a widespread desire for a new kind of storytelling, and Tonic DNA’s unique blend of experience and talent have converged to create something that’s perfectly at home in today’s world.
The latter element shouldn’t be underestimated. Another remarkable aspect to JUMP is that, astonishingly, the Tonic team took the project from ideation to near-completion in just two months.
“We have a really agile team in which people are incredibly creative and solution-oriented”, says Malcolm. “There’s super-talented artists across every position. And that allows us to problem-solve at such a quick pace that we could identify solutions before they became big speed bumps in the road”.
Those capabilities mean that Tonic is well-placed to continue building on JUMP as its own piece of intellectual property in the near future. Excitingly, that means this is far from the last we’re going to see of this animation style.
“The more it breaks with the laws of our world, the more fun and engaging it becomes”, notes 3D generalist Lisandre Thériault. “ It's not an ode to accuracy anymore, it's an interpretation of life. It allows me to create whilst trusting my own feelings instead of photo references”.
Overwhelmingly, there’s a sense that this is a style whose moment has arrived. It’s fitting, then, that JUMP is part of a leap forward in animation and storytelling.
