Oberthur Demonstrates the Art of Animation with New Security Thread

As covered in last month’s Currency News, in the Spring of 2023 Oberthur Fiduciaire took out a majority stake in Rolling Optics, which was founded in 2005 with solid technical background from research at the Ångström Laboratory at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Since 2002, Rolling Optics has been developing its own micro-optical technology within the micro-optics field, enabling an incredible and crystal-clear 3D effect which it says is virtually impossible to copy. It has around 50 granted patents protecting its own technology and, says Oberthur, today supplies some of the most secure visual anti-counterfeit solution in the world.

Oberthur and Rolling Optics have been actively cooperating since May 2023 to develop a new high-security premium thread called Anima™, which is suitable for all banknote denominations and which they state offers spectacular movement features.

Anima is a lenticular-based micro- optics thread that offers a very easily identifiable dynamic effect. The result is instant recognition through various dynamic features with tailor made customer designs.

Anima is broken down into a lenticular array to dynamise a custom micro-image for each thread, with the engineers preparing the elements so that the effect achieved is optimal for a clean, crisp, and dynamic look.

The effects are 100% customisable and it is available in most colours, between 3mm and 6mm in width and can include stunning animation effects.

Furthermore, the integrated optical elements eliminate issues of thread soiling and allow varnishing of the banknote.

According to the two companies, whereas many security features have developed into beacon-like big and bold effects, Anima has been designed to balance all the needs and purposes of a security thread in a more intricate and complementary way.

‘On the one hand, it provides clear and fast movement effects easy to describe and communicate with the public. On the other hand, Anima, as the name indicates, can also bring life into a banknote by telling a dynamic story and access a higher level of engagement with the audience.’ 

The artwork for Anima threads can be built up by design blocks, normally with two functional motifs interplaying with the windows in the banknote in such a way that the two respective features will always be in full display somewhere on the banknote. One of the design blocks would preferably contain a distinct movement effect to catch attention on distance, whereas the other design block would offer the possibility of displaying a dynamic animated sequence upon tilting the note and thereby adding the narrative dimension of the security feature.

The materialisation of Anima with such visual precision, meanwhile, depends on exceptionally high quality and resolution in origination and manufacturing, something that Rolling Optics can deliver through its ability to print the highest resolution imagery in the world in combination with the best-in-class optics and materials science.

In addition to Anima, Oberthur’s other premium threads include Relief™ (offering unique 3D effects combined with colour shifting liquid crystals) and Pulsar™ (which provides optically variable effects based on micro-optic technology).