New platform Holdframe offers animators’ full project files for others to download and explore

Motionographer editor Joe Donaldson has launched a new file share platform called Holdframe, where budding animators can download and explore the full project files of other animators’ work. The platform features a selection of work from established animators such as Ariel Costa and Kirsten Lepore (with her brilliant film Hi Stranger), available to purchase or download for free – depending on the project – and aims to both educate and offer another source of income for the creative contributors. The majority of the money from each download goes straight to the creative.

Joe explains in a Motionographer article that he came up with the idea for Holdframe when he was working on a project with designer Stephen Kelleher. Having shown curiosity as to how a particular shot was made, Stephen gave Joe access to the work files so he could see exactly the process he went through to create its effects. This set the groundwork for Holdframe, which Joe hopes will offer similar experiences and learnings to other animators.

“There are currently very few options available to those working in our industry where the work itself can create an ongoing and sustained benefit,” Joe writes. “The question seems to be, what resources do we all have that can scale and work for us and have a life of their own?”

“We’ve all experienced the life cycle of a project. It goes online, gets some love, maybe a few opportunities roll in, but after a few months, things go cold and the impact of the project is little more than the occasional spike in traffic or a few likes and follows. Rinse and repeat.

“The idea behind Holdframe is to create a community-centered platform where individuals can buy and sell project files for educational purposes.

“In doing so, we’ll not only be creating a new educational tool for our community to learn from, where individuals can see exactly how real professionals work in real situations, but we’ll also be creating a new source of passive, scalable income for the creators themselves.”

The platform went live on 4 June, with contributors including Andrew Vucko, Audrey Yeo, Sekani Solomon, Elliot Lim, Wednesday Studio, Jordan Scott, Bee Grandinetti, Joyce Ho and Pablo Lozano. Joe tells us: “In the first 24 hours Holdframe has been viewed in over 100 countries and on every continent. There have been close to 4,000 downloads and for the artists involved in the market, they have made what would amount to a night out with a dinner and a movie on the low end of the spectrum, and on the high end a full day rate working in advertising. That’s just the first day and all funded entirely by our community!”