3, 2, 1: YouTube Countdowns use eclectic animation styles to add anticipation to live online events

Few things capture the exhilarating feeling of embarking on a new frontier like a countdown. There’s nothing like being in a room, filled with friends, family or even strangers, and feeling united by a drumroll, synchronised chant and fixed eyes almost sweating with avidity. In those few moments that pleasantly feel like forever, we usher in fresh beginnings and stand on the precipice of change. And that’s what YouTube harnesses in its recently launched YouTube Countdowns, a series of videos created to garner excitement around its live content.

Created in collaboration with a number of artists and studios, YouTube Countdowns prelude the platform’s exclusive premieres, hosted across a diverse pool of channels by its growing range of video creators. The series of countdowns are developed for the viewer, which ostensibly feels like a blast from the past, but is fresh for its focus on the audience’s growing desire for tailored live experiences and the creators’ desire to stand out. Prior to its launch, audiences were left to countdown using their own clocks while staring at a blank YouTube page before the live content began. And, creators – no matter the number of subscribers – found it hard to customise their premiere in a way that would keep their audience engaged.

Representing the breadth of content on YouTube is no easy feat, so when starting the project the YouTube creative team approached it from the perspective of giving its creators options that would complement their content. “That meant not simply looking at different art styles, but also different mediums,” Chris Bettig, creative director at YouTube tells us. They commissioned traditional animation, 3D animation and stop motion, with tools ranging from Blender to good old pencil and paper.

Andrew Lebov, animation director over at Youtube, explains that constructing the countdown library “was a multiyear process, where we briefed artists rather informally”. As the scope of the project and creativity on the site grew, so did the guidelines for creating the videos. This brought about challenges such as balancing the nurturing of the artists’ voice and style, and meeting the needs of the countdown. But, the animation director sees it as quite a “lucky” result, as the artists “adapted and delivered work that challenged not only our thinking around the program, but they also effectively elevated the work of the ‘countdown artists’ that came after them.”

Artists had some important parameters to adhere to, such as legibility, and the ability to adapt to different formats (from 16:9 to square), as well as custom audio. But largely, the brief was quite conceptually loose. It had to give the general feeling that time was passing, for example. “We looked at the top types of premieres that creators were wanting to launch, extrapolated the themes – ‘gentle’, ‘cinematic’, ‘ambient’ – and chose the artists whose work was a close match,” Chris shares. “The brief was open and we really tried our best to reinforce that we were hiring these artists because we love their work,” he adds.

Andrew was initially drawn to the work of one of the countdown artists, Arina Shabanova, because of its calming themes. “The countdown she produced imagines a peaceful, natural setting with thoughtful character interactions that reads as a series of playful vignettes.” Arina’s contribution is certainly traditional and would possibly be used by creators building a community centred around self-help, development or even those around storytelling, art or nature.

This theme of creating visuals that are both easily associated with its thriving communities, yet adaptable across a wide range, is a key aspect of many of the countdown videos. Take Réka Busci’s, for example, which takes the viewer through a motion experience of her abstract paintings. “Réka works in so many styles, so at first I was curious to see what direction she would go in,” the animation director shares. The process saw her go from a treated video experiment to expanding her painting style into an animation, which is a testament to the freedom that the creative team allowed the artists. As such “the countdown turned out to be something that is both alien and familiar, with a heavy dose of vintage influence,” Andrew adds.

All things considered, it’s not amiss to say that YouTube as a platform has revolutionised the way we interact with video media. Neither is it wild to suggest that they would still lead in this realm without customised countdowns. But it holds close the sacred nature of the live experience in a time when our viewing habits are more independent than ever, while also being open to these very habits developing in the future. As the team have been growing the library slowly over the years, they see no reason to halt the creation and adaptation of its countdown videos, merely because of its launch. “As user needs arise, we will always adapt and grow experiences to meet those needs,” says Chris. “We measure success by how widely our creators use each countdown. We seek feedback from the creators and viewers on how this can be expanded into the future,” Jason adds. And that's what makes YouTube Countdowns so special, the team understand that creators and fans across will always find a way to communicate and the countdown will long be a ritual to usher in the new, so they offer both parties something more – the opportunity to feel deeply connected and seen.