First-Ever Animated COVID Face Mask

What is the world's first animated face mask? Yannis Konstantinidis, the Creative Director and founder of NOMINT, has combined art, function and safety in an inspiring animated project to benefit the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Launching in conjunction with Giving Tuesday, Yannis banded with animators and directors to produce the world’s first animated mask. The ‘animated’ mask actually comprises several stop-motion animations from 400 unique cloth masks, animated together to create the illusion of a mask with a parade of colorful moving images. Proceeds from sales of the works of art and functional non-medical grade masks will be donated to the hospital, supporting their imperative medical support and research for children, the latter of which has been halted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Masks can be purchased and additional donations to the charity can be made on the projects Indiegogo campaign. All animators and directors delivered the animations that would make the 400+ frames for the stop-motion piece to Yannis, one for each mask, who adapted the 2D animations to the unique mask layout. He considered a myriad of potential mask materials, printing processes, assembly, and more, to craft the most durable, colorful and usable mask for this artistic experiment. He prioritized vibrant, whimsical animation sequences, aiming for pieces that would instill hope and positivity. After reformatting the animations and printing on masks, they were next assembled using a denim outer layer and cotton inner lining, before being filmed in sequence to bring the illustrations to animated life.