The dissemination of scientific knowledge has evolved over the centuries from handwritten manuscripts transcribed and published as physical black and white prints-on-paper, to digital documents in full color available for consultation online. Even if it now primarily relies on digital media, academic publishing still generally adheres to its historical rigid paper-based style—where static content is presented at the ready-to-print letter format. In this paper, we reflect on our experience of authoring a published academic article that embeds an animated figure and discuss the opportunities and caveats of transitioning to such practice at the wider academic literature scale.