Meinart Animation, Raugyklos Gatvė 21A, Vilnius (2026)

14/05/2026

🔥 HOT interview - Ainis Karpavičius, interactive animator

Animation in advertising follows completely different rules than animation in films.

For more than 15 years, Ainis has worked on thousands of animated banners, interactive projects, games, and film-related content - learning how to catch attention in just a few seconds.

We asked him a few questions.

1. What makes animation work differently in banners compared to animated films?

An animated banner is basically a one or two-frame message that hits you unexpectedly, when you’re not even prepared to watch anything in the first place. Most of the time the viewer isn’t in “watching mode” at all, so your job is to catch their attention instantly and make them realize the message is actually meant for them. That’s why banner animation often relies on stronger, more aggressive motion and really precise timing.

And banners in general are heavily limited by technical restrictions, so it’s always a challenge to fit all the information, design, and style into one tiny space.

2. How has banner design changed over the last 15 years?

Back in the day banners were just pure chaos - blink blink boom, tons of stuff happening everywhere, a million different styles, crazy interactions. You’d animate things just because it was fun. Even if there were technical limitations, people somehow still found ways around them, so creatively you could pretty much throw anything into a banner - video interactions, mini games, whatever you wanted.

Those banners also took way longer to make. Nowadays, if you really push yourself, you can build an entire banner campaign with all formats in a single day. Back then you could easily spend a couple of weeks on one.

But around 2015, when everything moved from Flash to HTML5, things changed completely. Suddenly there were strict limitations, and a lot of effects became harder to pull off. Since then, banners have become much simpler overall, partly because of the technology, but also because people’s attention spans and browsing habits changed a lot.

3. What is the biggest mistake brands make in digital advertising?

Probably the biggest mistake brands make is putting too many messages into one banner. Especially nowadays, when users are experienced internet browsers and scroll through things insanely fast. Your banner might only get one second of attention, so if you’re trying to show 3–5 different frames and messages, there’s basically no chance the user will actually process any of it.

4. What makes interactive content actually engaging?

With interactive content, people want some kind of result or reward. The content itself has to be interesting, engaging, and make you curious. If the user gets confused or doesn’t immediately understand what’s going on or what they’re supposed to do, then the interactive part has already failed.

Sometimes you actually need a bit of simplicity. Instead of building some complicated mini game, a simple hover effect can be enough if it’s done right.

5. After working on thousands of banners and animated projects, what still excites you creatively?

I still get excited to see what kind of challenge the next project will bring. Agencies aren’t as wild with ideas as they used to be, but from time to time something fun still shows up.

And since HTML5 has pretty strict limitations, it’s always satisfying to somehow squeeze in things that technically shouldn’t even fit - compressing impossible amounts of KB into a tiny file size, while still making the animation feel smooth, well timed, and polished.

12/05/2026

⭐ We’re still incredibly happy that our animated film TEN was nominated at the Nacionaliniai kino apdovanojimai „Sidabrinė gervė“ in the Best Animated Film category.

Wanted to share another small piece of the film with you.

Directed by Šarūnas Vyštartas.
Produced by Akvilė Bliujūtė - Janušė and Meinardas Valkevičius.

10/05/2026

🐸 A few frames from “KŪMUTĖ RAUDONPILVĖ” - a gentle little story from the PASAULIUKAI world. 🌿🎵

07/05/2026

🔥 HOT interview - Beatričė Kairytė, illustrator

Commercial illustration is not just about making something look good - it’s about finding the right visual language for every project and every client.

Today, we talked with our illustrator Beatrice about style, commercial projects, dream clients, and the challenges behind adapting to different creative worlds.

1. What’s the biggest difference between commercial and personal illustration?

In commercial projects there are always certain boundaries – brand guidelines, tone, and clear frameworks you need to follow. It’s more about adapting and delivering a specific goal. Personal work, on the other hand, gives full freedom to experiment, explore different styles, and try new ways of drawing. From my experience, I find it very valuable to work with both – each type of project teaches different things, and switching between them helps reset my mind and brings in fresh ideas. They require solving different kinds of problems, which keeps the process dynamic.

2. How do you adapt your style to different clients?

I adapt through research and communication – I discuss with my amazing project manager Rūta Jogėlaitė, who helps me better understand the client and their needs. We exchange ideas, and I go deeper into the brand, its tone, and how it wants to be perceived. Then I translate that into visual decisions: color, form, and overall mood. I always approach projects through my own visual language, but I adjust emphasis depending on what best serves the idea. I also like to add small personal touches when it fits – for example, I sometimes draw characters writing or sketching with their left hand, as a subtle reference to my surname, Kairytė – which means left.

3. What makes a commercial illustration actually work?

It starts with clearly understanding the goal and the audience. Once that’s defined, stylistic decisions become more intentional. A strong commercial illustration catches attention, communicates the message quickly, and feels visually aligned with the overall project without overcomplicating it.

4. What would your dream project look like?

My dream project would have a strong concept and creative freedom – where illustration doesn’t just support the story but actually shapes it. It could be a world-class music video, a fashion brand collaboration, or something related to promoting artistic work. Visually, I’d imagine a more loose, less defined style – slightly chaotic, fairy-like, imperfectly perfect, and a bit edgy. Lately, I’ve been really drawn to exploring that direction – moving away from overly clean visuals and towards more expressive, raw forms.

5. What has been your favorite project at our studio and why?

“Kultūros pasas” – I like its simplicity and how the animation blends with the illustration style. Everything feels cohesive, like all elements naturally fall into place. It was also a project with a different style than I usually work in – more playful and animation-driven, with geometric forms and exaggerated character proportions. I really enjoyed stepping outside my usual style and trying something different – it felt less predictable and more fun. Overall, I’m drawn to minimalism, but I notice my work often moves between two directions – either clean, aesthetic minimalism or a more expressive, almost maximalist approach.

Photo: Donata Šiaudvytytė

05/05/2026

🐸 A short animated excerpt from “KŪMUTĖ RAUDONPILVĖ” - a gentle story from the PASAULIUKAI world. 🌿🎵 Inspired by a rare frog living in Lithuania, it invites kids to discover nature and learn to care for it.

⭐ PASAULIUKAI is a children’s music and animation project created together with Saulės Kliošas - building a warm and playful world for kids. 🎶

Watch the full song on the official YouTube channel.

03/05/2026

🐓🐦‍🔥🏰 A few frames from our animated retelling of the BASILISK legend. A creature hidden beneath the city walls - part of Vilnius Legends.

30/04/2026

🔥 HOT interview - Martyna Striukaitė, illustrator

Every animated film starts with a drawing. Today, a short conversation with one of our key illustrators. We talked about style, inspiration, and how a film’s visual language is created.

1. How would you describe your visual style?

My visual style is, I would say, somewhat darker, which is why I especially enjoy projects with heavier themes and historical subject matter. I like natural colors and more realistic proportions, but also admire the ability to caricature characters and am trying to master that skill myself. However, when working in an animation studio, I have to constantly adapt my style to the project, which is often a challenge that makes the work more interesting.

2. Where do you usually find inspiration for your illustrations?

Quite often in other illustrators’ works, and sometimes in films, there are scenes that, if you pause them, look like a painting. At one point I even had a folder where I collected such scenes for inspiration. I also find inspiration for drawing environments in some video games. And of course, in real life—the surroundings are full of assistance for drawing: perfect perspective, right colors, naturally arranged compositions, and when you get stuck drawing a certain body part, you can always look at yourself.

3. How do you approach creating a visual world for a film?

For me, this process varies a bit depending on the project. In some cases, I immediately have a vision of how things will look, while other times I really have to work to “feel” it. I often try to immerse myself in the mood of the film, and from that the dominant color and even the style emerge naturally. For example, I consider whether the story is told through the environments or through the characters, how important their emotions are and what kind they are, and if they’re heavy, how to convey them subtly.

4. What is the hardest part of illustrating for animation?

Always thinking about how it will move. Everything has to not only look good, but also be drawn right, with animation in mind. Still have to remind myself sometimes to draw not just within the frame, but beyond its boundaries as well, so there’s a sense that you can “look around” within the illustration. Every time I’m amazed by how much movement animators manage to extract from my illustrations—even from details I didn’t expect to move.

5. Which project or work are you most proud of and why?

A few projects. First of all, I’m proud to have worked on the film TEN, directed by our talented animator Šarūnas Vyštartas. Both the film’s theme and its colors and its story feel close to me, and I also improved my ability to draw environments, having been mentored by a very cool illustrator (Gediminas Skyrius). I’m also proud of my project about Balys Sruoga—a difficult subject that pushed me to make more interesting creative decisions in order not to diminish the character’s experiences and traumas. And I’m proud to currently be working on an animated series for adults which, as a fan of such genre I believe, has the potential to be seen by a wider audience.

6. When do you feel like a drawing really works?

When, after finishing an illustration, I switch to watching something visually beautiful to refresh my eyes, and then come back to it and it still looks good to me—that means it worked. Sometimes I just really need to step away, even leave it until the next day when possible, as my eyes get used to looking at the same thing for too long and become either the harshest critic or the most indifferent judge.

29/04/2026

⭐ TEN is nominated at the Nacionaliniai kino apdovanojimai „Sidabrinė gervė“ in the Best Animated Film category.

Directed by Šarūnas Vyštartas.
Produced by Akvilė Bliujūtė - Janušė and Meinardas Valkevičius.

A film like this doesn’t happen overnight. We lived with it for four years. Now it is reaching audiences and finding its place in people’s hearts. It means a lot to see it recognized by the jury as well.

👏 This is Šarūnas’ directorial debut. We’re really proud of him.

Congratulations to all fellow nominees.

28/04/2026

🐓🐦‍🔥🏰 What if a single glance could be deadly?

Deep beneath the old walls of Vilnius Bastion, legend tells of a terrifying creature that once lived in the darkness - the BASILISK, a monster whose gaze could kill instantly.

In this short animated story we revisit one of the darkest and most thrilling legends of Vilnius - a tale of fear, courage, and a clever way the monster was finally defeated.

For this project we continued developing a visually distinctive ANIMATED storytelling approach, inspired by puppet and shadow theatre, to create a darker and more atmospheric interpretation of the legend.

The film is part of the unique artistic initiative “1001 Legends”, which brings together twelve of the most important legends of Vilnius in a single artwork.

This week we’ll also share a short interview with the project’s art director about the illustrations behind these stories.

🎵 Special thanks to our partners DROPAUDIO for the sound design that helped bring this story to life.

All three animated legends are shared in the comments.

26/04/2026

🎬 A few storyboard frames from Kakė Makė / Nelly Jelly movie. After the script, this is the first real step, turning the story into images and starting to see the film come alive. Big thanks to Vytis Snarskis for helping shape these moments.

⭐ This week we’re celebrating 3 years since the film reached both cinema screens and homes.

24/04/2026

🐾 A small action can change a life.

This short film, created together with VšĮ Penkta koja, is dedicated to animals waiting for care and a home. The last days are here to donate 1.2% of your income tax - an easy way to help.

Meinart Animation

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