“A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.” - Jane McGonigal, author, researcher, designer By now, gamification has to be the corporate world’s worst-kept secret. As a tool for [...]

For countless businesses, the office, warehouse, an outdoor plot - or any other premises - is irreplaceable; it’s the very nerve centre of operations. Sadly, however, no physical location is ever truly free from fire hazards, and sometimes, the worst can happen. It only takes a spark to start a fire (or wildfire) that can [...]

Most people have a very specific idea of what a ‘gamer’ is; the term usually conjures up a specific image in the mind. But the reality of today’s gamer couldn’t be more different, with the prevalence of mobile games and pandemic living having a huge impact on shifting the demographics of who a gamer is. [...]

In the words of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company and one of the 20th century’s most successful business people, “the only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay.” Indeed, the business value of an effective training program, and the implementation of [...]

Enterprise is, for better or worse, the energy that makes our consumer world go round. Businesses come in all shapes and sizes, selling all manner of different products and services, catering to every conceivable market demographic. But of the almost 5.6 million companies in the UK, and the 213 million that are estimated to exist [...]

Immersive VR training can be used to construct riskless environments, accelerate onboarding processes, and vastly improve ROI; and yet, only just over a quarter of all businesses are currently using VR to train employees (Finances Online). At Sliced Bread Animation, we've developed a number of high-quality VR training projects for our clients, helping to create [...]

The pharmaceutical industry has an extensive reach. However, large companies within this sector do not have a strong brand perception with the public. One of the challenges pharmaceutical companies need to overcome is communication. For the most part, pharma communication is the existing paradigm that is neither informative, engaging or memorable. So what can companies [...]

No matter your sector or industry, engaging your users is the first step on the path to success; fail to inspire, captivate and arrest people, and any subsequent efforts to make sales (or even be noticed) will be in vain - or, at least, significantly hindered. Our modern world is populated by human beings, consumers [...]

Video content now makes up a huge part of what it means to be online, and more than even before, businesses are finding new ways to interact with new audiences through video production. With social media platforms like TikTok encouraging such a rapid turnover of video content, it’s not surprising that companies are quickly slotting [...]

To those who don’t play video games, the concept might seem strange. Video games appear to be just another way to waste time, however a huge amount of the gaming industry is driven by storytelling. Just like books and films, many games tell in depth, complex and emotional stories, with games such as The Last [...]

Studies looking at the neurodiverse effects of video gaming found that purpose-designed game learning could be used as a treatment for children with learning difficulties. Researchers discovered that video games increase attention, reduce hyperactivity and nullify impulsivity - symptoms that are commonly associated with conditions such as autism and ADHD. Neurological conditions not only impede [...]

Gone are the days of cumbersomely explaining concepts via long-winded emails, or worse, in a hastily thrown-together PowerPoint presentation. The digital world has moved on in leaps and bounds, and with it, we possess a far more sophisticated and potent method of messaging at our fingertips. In this day and age, with the aid of [...]

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) became mainstream this year. The furore around the top-performing NFTs has captured the public imagination. Many of these unique tokens are already collector’s items. The NFT marketplace took off with the introduction of 10,000 software-generated “CryptoPunks” which netted the creators of the punk-style characters over $1 billion. Since then NFT collectables have exploded. [...]

Augmented reality (AR) is an increasingly growing trend that is permeating numerous aspects of our life. It has multiple uses that inform, inspire and entertain. In a nutshell, AR can provide data in real-time that influences decision making. The technology allows users to visualise the real world with a digital augmentation overlay making for an [...]

The adoption of augmented reality (AR) as a corporate training tool is proving to be an effective approach. AR fosters faster learning, helps to improve soft skills, optimises workflow, reduces training material, saves time and enhances engagement. AR training tools in a corporate environment can be executed via a mobile device such as a smartphone [...]

With animation software becoming easily accessible for nearly everyone with a computer or smartphone at hand, everyone can have a go at creating animation. Many online courses are available to get you either started in animation or equip you with the professional knowledge to truly let your talent sparkle. With all those technical advances it [...]

Many people believe that creativity is a special gift, only granted to a few geniuses out there. A widely held belief still is that the ordinary person can’t possibly come up with something original or new, as they simply don’t have a special talent like drawing skills, artistic understanding or poetic expression to name a [...]

Animated explain videos are an effective medium for corporate videos. The majority of people prefer to watch a video than read manuals and FAQs. Videos also make sense from a time management perspective. We’ve previously discussed how animated videos can help to make your internal comms more interesting. However, we’ve noticed the scripts for explainer videos [...]

What is Hand Tracking? Hand tracking has become an integral feature within recent generations of immersive technology and Virtual Reality (VR) devices. With the widespread adoption of this feature, engineers and developers are faced with a list of opportunities and challenges to tackle, most of which are related to human usage.  So what is hand [...]

If you’ve read our previous blog about revealing a character’s emotions by bringing their eyes to life, you might be interested in how this quick animation was done. We’ve therefore prepared a little tutorial that you can hopefully follow easily. It introduces you to two helpful tools of mine that really speed up my animation [...]

It’s a great advancement of our times that nearly anyone with a designer's eye and some feel for motion graphics can now get their hands on animation software without the need to be able to draw properly … but, what is the secret of really breathing life into your character? Knowing how a character needs [...]

Animation is becoming increasingly widespread in online learning. The benefits of animation in eLearning environments is well documented; animated content is fun, engaging, motivational and enhances memory recall. With Covid-19 forcing school children and university students to study from home, teachers are finding it difficult to keep on top of the amount of content they need [...]

If you’re honest with yourself, the content on your internal communications platform is boring. Nobody is reading them. There could actually be a rack of reasons why your employees don’t read your intercoms but the main reason is a lack of engaging content. The problem most companies will encounter when internal communications are ignored are mistakes - and [...]

Employees and customers are hungry for information. However, for businesses to communicate effectively, it is the core questions of what, how and why that brings clarity. Explaining the “why” with animation enforces understanding and builds trust. Moreover, people are more willing to respond in a positive way when they can comprehend the purpose behind their actions. The other challenge [...]

Continuing on from Part 1 and Part 2. Disney v Warner Bros  The Golden Age of animation began in the early 1920’s and continues today. Disney was the first to transform cartoon characters into stars with the likes of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.  The shades of Mickey Mouse first appeared in 1922 when Hugh Harman [...]

So continuing on from Part 1, Animated pictures made significant strides in the early 20th-Century. The first animated film was a series of funny faces created with stop-motion photography.  However, the foundations of animation as we know it today were laid two years later with the 1908 film, Fantasmagorie. The French artist Emile Cohl created the [...]

Those of you old enough to remember pre-millennium animation will have noticed the rapid improvement of animated films over the last 30 years. Today, 3D animation can be rendered with such accuracy it’s difficult to distinguish animated characters from real-life actors. It’s taken animators a little over 400 years to get to accomplish such an [...]

Gamification changes the way employees interact and engage with their work and their co-workers. Because gamification makes learning interactive, the mechanics improves employee engagement and inspires collaboration by encouraging co-workers to interact and share. The essence of gamification is a rewards system. It works by eroding users with in-game feedback and proactive messages. featuring the [...]

Stories are integral to, if not the very definition of the human experience, learning, and culture. It is said that human beings have evolved to understand their existence in terms of the structure within spoken or written accounts of connected events, with narrative being the mechanism through which we have come to construct reality and [...]

The 3D animation industry is becoming increasingly popular and firms are crying out for skilled animators. There are numerous opportunities for outsourcing, employment, revenue generation, and business growth. However, in order to make a career or an animation project profitable, animators have to be skilled in creating high-quality animation fast. Respectable animators should aim for [...]

It is said that creating and developing a game takes a whole village, but getting your game in front of players does not have to be an equally arduous task. There are a number of options for self publishing games with Unity3D. Getting player feedback as quickly as possible is vital for the game iteration [...]

Imagine opening your eyes to find yourself behind the controls of an aircraft, with no clue as to what any of the lights, buttons, and switches mean or do. Yet there they are, blinking, waiting to respond to your inputs even though you do not know what is expected of you. Now imagine another scenario [...]