We all enjoy the lovely cinematics of animated movies from places like Pixar, Disney, and Dreamworks. We marvel at the process they’ve created that takes fantastical stories, characters, and locations out of what seems like, thin air. Animation is eyepopping and draws attention, no matter what age you are!

Animation isn’t reserved for just the big companies. Did you know that we here at Fuzzy Duck use the same process in our animations? It’s true! We may not make movie-length features (yet) but that doesn’t mean the process of animation is any less robust!

The Idea

It all starts with an idea and the drive to start.

Script

Now that the idea has been born, it’s time to flesh it out! Utilizing the film script is usually the easiest way to estimate how long the animation will be. One page roughly equals one minute, so if you want to keep an animation under 2 minutes, you keep it under 2 pages. It is common to go through many drafts in this stage before going to visuals since this phase is the easiest to change!

Concept Design

Next comes the overall look and feel of the animation. An artist or group of artists will design characters, objects, locations, anything that needs to be visually represented. Many sketches will be tossed around, tweaked, edited or completely redrawn in order to get the right look. This is where branding truly starts to take shape.

Storyboards

Storyboards are where the designs and script come together as one to test the visual flow of the story being told. Panels will be added, taken away or edited and this is where any issues with design can start showing so the concepts can be fixed. Different marks are used on the panels to represent camera motions and movement directions.

Voice Over

The final storyboards and script are then sent to a voice actor(s) to record any dialogue or narration that the project needs. This part will help time the animation. The script is revisited if the duration is too long or too short.

Animation

And now the magic of motion truly begins. There are many different processes to use in this stage depending on the animation style chosen. However, there are basics that traverse over all of them. Place all of the objects in your scene, then roughly animate the items and characters to time out the piece.

After everything is accounted for, it is time to revisit each piece and polish all the movement. Adding flares like follow-through, squash, stretch, and bounce to make everything feel more alive.

Composition

After the animation is complete, the final step is compositing it all together! Audio, final color and light touchups, timing tweaks, and audio join together and are rendered out as one video and ready to post on social media, your website, or tradeshow!

Animation is a fun, attention-grabbing way to pull an audience in. Humans are very visual and animated ads, especially for more abstract products or services, can help a great deal in your brand being remembered.

Final Animated Video

Are you interested in having an animation created for your business?

Fuzzy Duck excels in creating eye-catching animations designed to showcase your business through explainer videos, social media animations, branded transitions, or animated corporate logos. We offer FREE consultations! Just give us a call at: 952-449-6800 or click the button below to fill out the Connect Form!