Add motion to your videos with animations

Stock animations are pre-animated video clips that you can use in your own video projects. They cover a variety of styles and looks, from simple 2D shapes to complex animated 3D renders. The category is very popular given that animation is always trending in style and can set your video apart from the competition. Discover animated cartoon characters and charts and graphs with a motion design flare. Drop these animations into your project for a custom looking explainer video or commercial. Shutterstock’s royalty free license gives you the ability to use stock footage animations in as many videos as you need. These animations can be used in commercial productions, website videos, social posts, explainer videos, and much more.

Unless you have the budget to hire an animation studio or motion designer to create a custom video, you are likely searching for pre-animated assets and footage to use. Shutterstock has one of the largest royalty free video libraries in the world, with thousands of clips animated by contributors. Animated footage is highly vetted through an approval system, making sure that the best animated content is available in the Shutterstock library. Whether you need a character for explainer videos or captivating visuals for a commercial campaign, you can find millions of animated clips in the Shutterstock footage library. Need a place to start? Browse the curated animation collection on this page. Click any animated video and discover more animations with a similar style and look suggested on the individual product pages.

Shutterstock makes searching for animated videos easy. Need to search for animated backgrounds or dancing characters? Search for exactly what you need. Find millions of clips, including 2D and 3D characters, user interfaces, and cartoons. Even better you can use advanced filters to narrow your results based on length, frame rate, contributor, and more. Need multiple clips that fit the same aesthetic? Each animated video product page offers more clips with a similar style or more work from the same contributing artist. Find one animated clip you like? Click on the contributors name to browse more of their work with other animated clips that can fit your project as well.

Animated footage is engaging and relatable when concepts can be easily explained with movement instead of text heavy paragraphs. The best motion designers and animators focus attention on animated backgrounds and moving elements that compliment messaging or voice overs. While certain words like “Sale” or “New and Improved” can help get a point across, it’s the animation of the text or backgrounds that really capture viewers attention. The use of animation is also globally recognized, where a person in any country speaking any language can understand your message through movement of characters and objects. This gives you a wider reach and furthers your ability to increase engagement internationally.

There are several major categories of animated videos that are constantly trending in popularity. In 2D animation, you will often find animated shapes, traditional cartoon characters, animations that look hand drawn or illustrated, and animated UI/UX that show off website interactions and icons like shopping carts, download and purchase buttons, logins, and search. 2D animations traditionally feature flat colors, through there is a growing trend of characters shaded with gradients and textures. 3D animation includes everything from abstract loops, product shots, graphs and charts, locations and environments, spinning planets, technology driven user interfaces, and animated characters that resemble film, television, or video game characters. 3D animations are either photo-realistic giving off the appearance that they are real spaces and objects, or they push the boundaries of traditional animation with gravity-defying physics and captivating visual movements.