GUIDES & TIPS

Tips and terminology for working with animation  

Motion is a great tool in crafting stories that connect, whether on screen, in person or out in the wild.

Whatever you're creating, be it an experience, a campaign, product launch, your organisation’s story or simply enhancing your comms with a touch of movement, there are a few things you'll want to think about. No two projects are the same, but we’ve put together the 5 main stages to help you get started, from the idea to final delivery.

––

Stage 1: Developing the idea

The first step is to shape your concept, script and creative vision. What story are you telling and what’s the best way to do this? Be on the look out for great examples to help communicate this. (check out the Grand Motion page for a bunch of our artists work).

• What do you need the result to do for you, what is the purpose?
•  Who are you trying to speak to? Getting the right tone is a powerful step with motion. Will you need to bring someone in to help craft the narrative and script?
• Where will they see it? E.g. on your website, elsewhere online, social media, in-person at an event, on a billboard. Or perhaps a mixture. Will this inform the brief in any way?

There are also a few practical things to consider –

• Size, resolution and file types.
• Optimum length of animation.
• Edits or variations for different formats and platforms.
• Sound, music or voice over.
• Will you need subtitles or translations?
• Delivery deadline and milestones along the way. 

Stage 2: Selecting the creatives

Who do you need to bring together to achieve the result you’re looking for? More often than not, this may be a mixture of some or all of the below depending on the right tone, aesthetic and approach. 

Director: This might be you, a creative agency or an illustrator or animator. Directors may be involved in script writing, but on the whole will be the ones realising the concept and narrative creatively and visually.  

Illustrator: It is common to select an illustrator to create the visuals based on their style and approach, and pair them with an animator for the movement. Some illustrators can also animate their own work. 

Animator: Motion studios or animators will have different approaches, styles and skillsets, but can also be brought on board to make static illustrations move. 

Sound Designer: If you require sound effects (SFX) or bespoke music, a sound designer is a great addition to the team. Alternatively music tracks can be licensed from track libraries and cut to the film by the animator.  

Voice Over Artist (VO): A professional, a celebrity, an actor or an important person to the story. Getting the right tone and energy for your audience and concept are important. 

Stage 3: Animation production

This is where ideas become reality. There are a number of steps and depending on the complexity of your project you may be able to skip some.

Stage 4: Sound production

Sound can bring everything together, completing the mood and elevating the narrative. It's added once the animation is otherwised finished, cut to fit with the movement, and mixed to make sure the levels are spot on. 

Although this comes at the end of the production process, you will need to consider music and sound in stages 1-3. Bespoke pieces will need to be briefed along side the animation production and will typically call for 2 rounds of feedback. 

Stage 5: Final Delivery

The final piece, in all its glory, will need preparing and exporting out in the formats and sizes you specified at the start, ready to roll out for your project. Allow 1-2 days in the schedule for the animator to do this, as it can sometimes take some time depending on the complexity and length. 

You're now ready to put your story out into the world. Tada!

www.grandmatter.com/animation

Illustrations by Thomas Hedger

Read More

London

New York