The objective of this thesis is to reflect on the animated documentary. An audiovisual product that mixes both documentary and animation and is redefining the role of the design in the production of new media. We also show that the animated documentary rekindled a series of debates and reflections related to documentary s theory and realism concepts in animation. Our main premise is that the documentary has always appropriated of technology in order to allow experimentation, and the animated documentary, in 3D, is the way to appropriate itself of digital technologies. To prove this hypothesis, we show how the trial of the technology occurred in documentary s history at different times, more precisely during the periods of the early cinema, the vanguards and the British School – from 1900 to 1930, the 1960 s and the 1990 s (new media). What concern us is to investigate this relationship between the means of production used in the making of documentary movies – having this denomination or not – and ways of representation and styles resulting from the technology of each period, which we intend to outline briefly. The Design is present in both two aspects: in the means of production – for its tradition related to the development of technologies and tools to make production viable – and in the ways of representation, since the aesthetic references of animation cinema came from the graphic arts (comics, illustration, etc.). This also explains, partially, the absence of animation in cinema s theory, an aspect that we question, showing how animation is included in Deleuze s cinema s theory. Finally, we develop a case study of an emblematic animated documentary, for its approach to the 3D technology. Chris Landreth s Ryan (2004) is a synthesis of potential of the animated documentary as technological experimentation, narrative intensity and non-figurative aesthetic, in a unique reference to the painter Francis Bacon.