Bringing Animation to the News

Animation is everywhere, from movies, cartoons, television shows, music videos, etc., there is rarely anything you can't find animated. Today, even the news is becoming animated. Next Media is a Hong Kong based company, with gossip-like newspapers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Recently, Next Media has gained a pretty strong following for its news cartoons. The cartoons are short animated segment, usually funny and a little racy, that provide visual narrative for major stories. And to them, nothing is more major than New York City news.

Next Media recently jumped head first into the New York City news circuit, opening Next Media Animation on West 46th street. Next Media Animation started Big Apple Daily, a New York news site that promises "a crisp new perspective to your local news" and "fast, accurate, and engaging animations.

Chris Vespoli and Alex Shih are the only two people at the Next Media Animation office. Every weekday Vespoli and Shih look through tabloids and news sites for the juiciest stories with no available video. Then, after the two confer with editors in Italy, they write a script and collect source material. Vespoli then records a narrative and sends it electronically to Taiwan where a three hour production process takes place, from storyboards to the final editing. The production is done in an assembly line style that creates model figures and real-looking backgrounds. Next media is confident that Big Apple Daily will "convince people that animation is a way to convey news".