So, what is animation?
The term animation is used to describe a series of still images or illustrations joined together to form a fast paced sequence; giving viewers the illusion of movement. Animated videos are becoming increasingly popular in this modern day and age. Explainers are one of the best ways for companies to get short and informative messages across to an audience and can be used for learning, training/educating, and promoting videos across many social media platforms. Did you know that 93% of marketers said that they got ‘high quality leads’ with the help of social media videos?
We help a range of clients across multiple industries communicate and connect with their audiences through the medium of film, video and animation production, whether they’ve been looking for an infographic to help with marketing, promotional web video animations and trailers for blogs and websites, or even if they want a fully animated music video. We’ve been lucky enough to work as a production agency for some true corporate giants, including UBS, IBM and ForgeRock, from story to screen, collaborating with them every step of the way by creating engaging, innovative and effective content. Over the last couple of years we have created various animated video productions for our clients. Check out our animation showreel below!
The main stages of animation video production:
There are a few essential steps when it comes to creating and designing any type of animated video production or web video animation. As part of our services, we keep in touch regularly with the companies we call our clients, asking them for feedback after every step to ensure we are moving in the right direction. This is usually how our animated video production schedule tends to go when you decide to work with our agency:
• Scriptwriting – Whether you’re creating promotional content for a product or a corporate training video to be watched by your employees, we want to make sure we have the correct tone of voice. This is because it’s really important for the language and style of voiceover artist to represent your brand.
• Styleframes and Designs – When working with you, we’ll decide on a design approach that is on-brand, engaging, and will be easily recognised to help with marketing and brand awareness. We will usually get inspiration from your brand guidelines, any websites you own, reference videos you like, and other assets your company may already have.
• Storyboarding Once a design approach has been chosen, using your script, we’ll create a storyboard so you can see exactly what visuals will be accompanying the voiceover to get a feel for how your final video will look.
• Animating – The next step is to start animating! This is the exciting part where we bring all our previous work to life to create an edit of your video, and you’ll get to see the animated music video, infographics, or web video animation you’ve been imagining start to appear on screen.
• Post-production (sound design etc) – Depending on the approach, time frame and budget, we may add a little bit of sound design and secondary animation to give your video that extra bit of spice!
Endless options
There are many different types of animation that can be used to make training and educational or promotional content for companies and their websites, and below are some of the most common ones we use for video and animation production here at DreamingFish. 2D is a form of vector-based animation using digital illustrations or hand drawn tools in order to produce innovative and creative drawings. Similarly to 2D, 3D animation also brings flat and static drawings or vectors to life by using features like CGI which makes characters appear more realistic. Stop motion is a very hands on style of animation. Unlike with 2D and 3D, stop motion works with using and adjusting the position of physical objects in every frame. This gives the objects the illusion that they are moving by themselves!
Why choose explainer animations?
How do you quickly get across information to an audience that will keep them hooked on what you’re saying? Usually lasting around 60-90 seconds, animated explainer videos are a great way of turning tedious data and information into something more engaging. Businesses in the UK usually use animated explainer videos to showcase their services, a product demo or launch.
Did you know that 85% of the population are influenced by watching explainer videos? Explainer animated videos are a very important marketing tool and therefore an essential element to developing your business or helping your agency flourish! Due to the recent Coronavirus pandemic, many live events and conferences have been replaced with virtual events, which are slowly becoming the ‘new normal’ for companies across the globe. This has seen a rise in businesses using animated explainer videos as a way to engage with their audiences, showing off that latest product or highlighting their newest services. Watch the 2D/3D hybrid explainer animation we created for Home Noir below:
Popular animation software
We work with a range of different animation programs to bring our creations to life and carry out production services for clients. The animation style of the project will determine what program we will use to create it, but the most common softwares are After Effects, Cinema 4D, Premiere Pro and Blender.
Voiceovers and music
Much like video production, animated videos (whether corporate or not), need some type of background music to tie the overall production together. Upbeat music mixes well with quick and snap video transitions and can massively help keep your audiences engaged for longer. You can even have a fully animated music video, if that’s what you’re looking for! Voiceovers also lend themselves well with animated explainer videos and infographics as they help with storytelling and presenting information. If a picture can paint a thousand words, imagine how many video can! Ps. it’s a lot more…Looking for an animated video for your UK business? Get in touch with us today!
