Significance

FIVE: Future

It's time to write FIVE. And as always, the question to explore is:

What has been the impact of this Animator vs Animation video?

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That's a really broad question; let's break it down.

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Perhaps we can start with the video - videos - themselves.

What was significant about the AvA5 videos? Their techniques, mechanics, quality?

Water, smoke, laser effects. Fireball effects, camera effects.

Choreography. Blocking.

Matte painting backgrounds, 3D, full orchestrational soundtrack.

A very compelling story arc.

And so much more.

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AvA5 felt cinematic like nothing else before had.

None of those mechanics or techniques are new to animated content in general, and many had already been done in Alan Becker videos. But those mechanics and techniques in AvA5, did they influence the videos that came afterwards? Of course, only Alan's team would know for certain. But from what we the audience have seen...

AvM Episodes 29 and 30 used 3D elements and matte painting backgrounds.

AvA6 Wanted used actual 3D and built upon AvA5's story.

Scott Buckley's music has become a staple of content since.

AvM Season 3 was a single long arc, an epic story with amazing fights, incredible effects and sound, and music that enhanced everything.

Past and present collide, and together they build the foundation for the future.

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What exactly about story? What was significant about AvA5's story?

Certainly, AvA5 continued the main AvA storyline. But hadn't AvA2, 3, and 4 done the same?

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AvA5 combined old characters and old stories with current characters and current stories. Redefined (one could say retconned) the whereabouts and fates of the "then" characters and gave them a place in the story of "now".

Connection. AvA5 helped connect the entire AvA series in a way that the previous AvA videos hadn't quite achieved - one continuous saga. Past and present collide.

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What about the story within AvA5? What effects did that story have?

Perhaps it was the episodic format.

Although AvA5 was not the first Alan Becker episodic content, it was the first of the AvA series to be split into multiple parts - shorts, as Alan called them - over a long period of time. We had to wait over two years from beginning to end to see the resolution of this arc.

In the time between shorts, we raised questions and wondered what the next short would answer.

The Virabot is a dangerous enemy... and will this mysterious stick figure (The Chosen One?) help?

That must be The Chosen One! Where does this portal lead? What will happen to all of the sticks?

The Dark Lord is alive too! And created the Virabot! What else is he doing?

And so on.

We've seen conflict and deadly peril before - Animation vs. Youtube, at least half of the AvM shorts, and Arcade Games come to mind - what was different about AvA5's?