Learn how to create successful and powerful animation

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The Jungle Book

Animation can dramatically increase reach and engagement of your marketing campaigns. We know this as our most successful digital marketing campaigns have included animation, reflecting the quality of the show. To explore this subject, Emily and Liam, whose work you can see here, have written their views on animation. Furthermore, they discuss why animation is important to plan into any successful marketing strategy.

Why is animation increasingly used on websites  and social media?

Animated content works across all social platforms and your website. Additionally, it is very versatile and engaging; livening up infographics, title treatments and videos, amongst others. It is forty times more likely to get shared on social media than other content. Also, it is more eye-catching and, if used correctly, gets your information across in a fast, digestible way.

What should you consider when creating an animation brief?

When briefing for an animation it’s very helpful for both you and the animation team to have visual references. Although, you should of course trust the company you are working with, it’s vital to be clear with your ideas and clear visuals will help you with this.  Additionally, be realistic with your budget and expectations. These factors will largely dictate what’s achievable within a given time frame. If you increase the budget half way through, the team may miss a potential opportunity or if you expect multiple animated factors and the designer has gone for a cleaner look not knowing your wishes, the project will end with dissatisfaction and confusion. Be excited about the idea and get all the parties equally as excited as you to make the content, allowing the animator to offer up their thoughts throughout the project.

What do you want to get from this animation and what information will you need?

Animation is used in many different ways, so firstly figure out what you want to say and what the purpose of the piece is. For instance, if you need to convey a lot of information and data in a single film then you might want to consider animating an Infographic. This could be through Kinetic Typography (or moving text) in your infographic to help with presenting facts or statistics.

Every good animator wants to give motion a reason. When we talk about animating we are really talking about giving something life. Too much life in a piece will prove distracting, taking away from the message you’re trying to convey. Too little animation and the image will not stand out. Therefore, at the start decide what your message is and what information the audience needs to see to understand it.

Bigger is not always better

We often suggest a humbler approach to animation. If budgets and time constraints are tight there are still lots of great options that you can consider. For instance, one of the more recent projects we worked on with HdK was The Jungle Book. Although the tiger face is an intricate animation, the simpler glowing fire around the title treatment was also very eye-catching. This kind of work often transforms the look and feel of text and is more cost-effective than other options.

As experienced animators, used to working with various budgets and time-frames, we have these conversations as soon as we start a project.

We hope this article has given you an insight into animation and perhaps inspired you to use this technology more in your own campaigns. If you have any further questions then get in touch with Hans or the HdK team, we hope to work with you in the future!

 

Liam and Emily - Animators