Meet Arshad Peters, our Animator based in South Africa. We caught up with him to find out how he got started in video, what he enjoys and his top tips for newcomers.
Arshad’s been a graphic designer for a decade now, with a national diploma in graphic design from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town. In those years, he’s refined his skills. From crafting corporate identities to tackling brand projects.
Five years ago, Arshad jumped from static to moving images. It’s pushed his creativity to new heights, challenging him to think of motion, visual layout and typography in a completely different way.
Since then, he’s worked on multiple video production projects from fully animated explainers and brand forms to promo content for clients such as FSC, Wiley and DHL.
What do you enjoy about your job as an Animator?
“What I really love about what I do is the process and the techniques. With video, I found that there is no real ceiling to video techniques. So there’s always room for improvement and there’s always room for some sort of self-learning.”
What’s your favourite video project?
“My favourite video that I’ve worked on for Definition would have to be the animated explainer series that we’ve done for FSC. The FSC explainers were one of the first animations where I would try my hand at some character animation.
“I did a bit of research, looked at ways to animate characters. I even looked at the human form and how we move, and how we interact, from facial expressions through to body movement, and how to bring that to life in animation.”
Who’s your dream client?
“My dream client would have to be the Puma sports and lifestyle brand. It’s been around for ages. And the fact that they’ve been around for so long shows the amount of creativity and the amount of innovation that they’ve researched and developed.
“I personally love the brand, so I think working with them would be a great opportunity to really push my creativity. I just really love what they stand for and the way they market and push their products. I think it’s really innovative and I think this is where new ideas and new ways of being creative comes from.”
How has the video industry change in the past five years?
“If I were to look at the way in which video has changed over the last five years, I would say longer form content has now become more popular again. People are looking for the old videos. People are looking for that real feel.
“And what I see trending now is a more personal approach to creating videos and a more vlog style of video coming forward. YouTube still ranks number one, and this shows that this is the type of content that people and consumers are looking for.”
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