Animation at Creative Studio
Animation is fun and it’s everywhere, so you need one, right? Well, maybe. Live video can handle some things more effectively than animation and vice versa. So before stepping aboard the animation bandwagon, it’s important to consider whether animation is truly the best way to tell your story and engage your students.
Animation’s strengths lie in how it can simplify concepts and explain abstract ideas visually. It also allows for a stylized vision and can be updated and scaled easily. While slower to produce, it is almost limitless in its ability to show virtually anything imaginable. It can be used in conjunction with interactive assets and video to create stellar learning experiences.
View Animations in Portfolio
Typical Animation Workflow
Character Animation
A single or multiple-character–based narrative animation where pre-drawn puppets are animated minimally to create the impression of full animation. The story is timed to Voice Over (VO) and music with Sound Effects (SFX). Limited lip synch may also occur.
Motion Graphics
Motion graphics involves the use of images, forms, text, or similar elements put to motion to help relate and/or clarify a concept. Visual elements range from simple to abstract to highly detailed and technical (as in a blueprint or map with motion elements). Motion graphics may or may not include shape animations, music and sound effects, or be timed to a voice-over (VO).
Motion Comics
Motion Comics are defined by a linear narrative using a combination of images and text capable of being viewed and understood with or without sound. This format effectively and quickly relates a particular concept at a lower cost compared to other narrative methods.
This type of asset simulates the experience of reading a multi-panel graphics-based narrative, with limited to no per-panel motion. The story progresses at a predetermined pace, and particular elements are called out by use of camera language and pacing. Importantly, the viewer is able to pause as needed in order to self-pace.
Animated Illustration
Animated Illustrations are layered illustrations that show the movement of selective elements in order to create a comprehensible demonstration of a concept (e.g., the movement of the bones of the shoulder, the motion of the gears of a clock, or the path of light through a cross-section of the eye).
Whiteboard Animation
Whiteboard animation is a narrative style that portrays the activity of drawing on a whiteboard. It is often used to show speakers as they illustrate the concepts they are presenting.
It may or may not have voiceover (VO) and sound effects. Whiteboard animation may be based on a live-action-filmed drawing or pre-drawn elements assembled with editing software, or a combination of both methods.
Animated GIFs
Assets originally designed as low-frame-rate, small-file-size, fast-delivery animation loops for use on the web. They are often used as spot or vignette explainers to augment and clarify accompanying text, and are ideal for mathematics, chemical formulas, sentence diagramming, and mechanical or biological processes
GIFs can play the role of the conversational “napkin sketch” to help demonstrate an idea and allow an author to “work alongside” a student in a way that is less bandwidth-intensive than other methods. Animated GIFs may use any of the asset-type production methods listed above, and may or may not include photography, video, or conversions of pre-existing Flash content.
3D Modeling & Animation
3D modeling is a technique that utilizes three-dimensional, computer-modeled elements. It allows for presentation of real-world mechanical objects where accuracy of movement and texture detail is required.
It may or may not include character animation in which the characters act in and on a fully modeled, textured, lit, and rendered 3D environment. Production typically requires complex model/character development. Animations may be fluid with a lot of motion, or have simple and repetitive movements. Assets can easily be customized for additional use.