Summary
Who is Ariel Costa?
Even if you haven’t heard Ariel Costa’s name, you’ve probably seen his work. Also known as BlinkMyBrain, Ariel is an Emmy-award-winning creator and animator. He’s worked with Marvel, Spotify, Adidas, Warner, Focus Films, Netflix, The New York Times, and many other mammoth brands.
He’s a major player in the music industry too, having designed visual concepts for Panic at the Disco, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and 30 Seconds to Mars. He’s also animated and directed music videos for Green Day, Led Zeppelin, Mastadon, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Ariel has a unique approach to animation. He blends analog and digital collage, mixed media, and motion graphics to create his signature and instantly recognizable style.
With 15 years in the industry, Ariel sees it as his duty to not only keep up with the latest technological developments, but spearhead the way they are used. This means he’s literally changed the animation game and continues to do so with his thirst for exploration and innovation and his never-ending ability to think outside the box creatively and technically. He creates fantastical creatures that move in unexpected ways, backdropped by weird and wonderful graphics in color combinations most people would never dream of. Just take a look at his portfolio, and you’ll see what we mean.
That’s why we’re beyond delighted to share Ariel’s motion graphics collection, available exclusively on Motion Array.
Ariel has designed easy-to-use, drag-and-drop templates using his distinctive style. With this collection, he’s setting a new standard in design and direction for motion graphics, and taking these increasingly popular tools to the next level.
We caught up with Ariel to find out more about his journey, process, inspirations, and milestones, and gain valuable insight into his ground-breaking new motion graphics collection.
The early spark: From clay figures to collage monsters
Ariel Costa was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. His passion for motion graphics started young — and it came in the form of clay. “I loved action figures growing up,” Ariel says, chatting from his studio in São Paulo. “My parents couldn’t afford the most expensive action figures, but with clay, I could create my own.”
Ariel discovered clay at the age of 7, and when he was 10, his father gifted him a VHS camcorder. “I started creating stop motion here and there,” he says. “It was basic, but to me it was magical.”
Around that time, Ariel started cutting images out of old magazines to create collages. “I was combining faces and bodies to create monsters and creatures out of paper,” he says. “That was the first sign that one day I would be working in this.”
Ariel’s parents and teachers admired his art but didn’t see it as a viable career path. “They thought I should be a lawyer or something, but not an animator,” Ariel remembers. “I don’t think they thought that was a possibility.”
From college to collage
Determined to follow his passion, Ariel attended college in São Paulo in 2004 to study Media Arts. His plan was to become a live-action director, but a happy accident led him to take up an internship in the motion graphics department.
“It was a way for me to get paid and use their equipment,” he says. “But I felt something different. With live-action, you need to rely on a bunch of people. But I could do animation by myself, so I learned After Effects and found that my true passion was animation.”
Brazil has a long history with collage. Many of the city’s street artists use a style called “Lambe lambe,” popular in the late ‘90s and 200s, which takes elements from pop art, surrealism, and collage.
“I still don’t know what the name for this style is in English,” Ariel says. “But it’s a bunch of posters that you cut out and create your own characters and then glue onto a wall. It’s very popular with street artists in Brazil.”
So collage is part of Ariel’s roots, and he brought that surreal, colorful, unapologetic style with him when he moved to the USA after college. He joined a studio called Buck, where he worked for two years before he felt an overwhelming urge to build something of his own. So in 20xx, he launched BlinkMyBrain. “It was very colorful, artsy, design-led, and beautiful,” he says. “The visuals were wild, and not something you saw in the animation industry at the time.”
An employee at Warner Music saw Ariel’s portfolio project and was so impressed he asked if Ariel might be interested in creating a music video for Green Day. “And that blew up the entire thing,” Ariel says.
Ariel designed the lyric video for Green Day’s track “Bang Bang,” which led to a commission with Led Zeppelin, which led to dozens more projects with artists and brands. “That’s when my parents were like, okay, you can pay your bills with animation,” Ariel laughs.
Inside Ariel’s creative brain
Ariel says his creative process is similar to any design project. “First, we need to understand the client’s needs because we are problem solvers,” Ariel says. “Then we do research, select visuals and elements, and create a consistent environment. Everything needs to have a purpose.”
Ariel either independently sources his imagery or creates it himself. “When working with clients, we need to ensure the footage is licensed,’ he says. “So I use my camera, my studio, and I browse images in the public domain, or I use Motion Array.”
He’s used Motion Array across his creative projects for years now but recommends it to beginners, too. “I usually tell people who are just getting started to use it,” he says. “It’s a great place to get inspiration, and once you download the assets, you can see how the artists created it.”
Ariel himself loves to download typography from Motion Array, open the project in After Effects, and put his own spin on it. “It saves time, and it’s an amazing way to learn,” he says.
In this fast-moving industry, Ariel believes it’s his duty as an animator to always keep up with the latest trends. “We’re like doctors,” he says. “We have to keep learning the industry because technology shifts all the time.”
Why Ariel’s collaboration with Motion Array is a game-changer
Ariel’s motion graphics collection is part of a new chapter for Motion Array. Drag-and-drop templates are hugely popular within the community because of the speed at which they can transform a project, and over the last few years, we’ve been expanding our drag-and-drop motion graphics.
They aren’t just convenient for new designers learning the ropes — they can also save established creative directors time when faced with a tight deadline. You simply drag the ready-made animations into your timeline and edit them to fit your aesthetic.
But pairing this ease and usability with original art from one of the world’s most prolific animators is something the industry hasn’t yet seen before. And with this collection, Ariel raises the bar.
“These templates make life super easy for animators and video creators, and people who are just starting who aren’t familiar with After Effects,” Ariel says.
Ariel was given total freedom to create whatever he wanted. The new collection includes a series of 14 clips of surreal, abstract, and intriguing characters, icons, doodles, and objects in Ariel’s signature style.
In this collection, you’ll find a man in a suit with a yellow smiley face for a head, surreal mountain scenery, a man with a pin head wearing only a puffer jacket, a range of bouncing shapes and wildly imaginative backgrounds, all of it so bold and colorful it’ll make your head spin.
Motion Array often works with internationally renowned designers and animators. In 2024, we collaborated with Madrid-based artist, illustrator, and designer David Milan to create a collection of colorful templates and motion graphics. There are several exciting collaborations in the works, for later this year.
“I wanted to be a little more abstract with this project,” Ariel says. “I thought it was important to use elements from Motion Array, so I used a beautiful 3D typography from the website and added my textures.”
Download the Pack
Ariel created a commercial to announce the new collection, with all sound design sourced from Artlist. The advert, a collage of a male figure walking through a range of weird and wonderful backgrounds and shapes, highlights the collection’s versatility, and Ariel hopes it encourages creators to think outside the box and try something new.
“These tools are right there for you to use,” Ariel says. “They speed up your workflow so you can focus on creating content.”
Ariel’s advice: Break rules. Be bold. Get weird.
Ariel’s key piece of advice for the Motion Array community is to be bold, constantly push your boundaries, and try new things.
“Just do it,” he says. “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The fear of making mistakes creates a blockage. But when we try different things and get out of our comfort zones, we can create something really powerful and it teaches us how to grow. So go and do crazy stuff.”
Ariel recently moved from Los Angeles back to his hometown of São Paulo. He’s in the process of building his studio and settling back into the city where it all began, and he hopes for many more collaborations with Motion Array in the future.
“I enjoy what people have to say about this project,” he says. “It’s been beautifully accepted by the industry. I’ve received a lot of great comments, and that feels amazing because I’ve put so much love into this.”
Ready to level up your visuals? Dive into Ariel Costa’s new motion graphics collection here, only on Motion Array.
