We formulate a general construction that uniformly produces the derived ∞-category of complexes of abelian groups, the ∞-category of derived commutative rings, and the ∞-category of MU-synthetic spectra. The construction is characterized by a universal property, similar to the theory of animation. The three named examples belong to a class of ∞-categories that we call spectral algebraic ∞-categories, and our results rely on general observations about such ∞-categories and how to construct them.