When I first began practicing art, I couldn’t stop filling up sketchbooks (and by filling up I mean a maximum of one drawing attempt a page). I had such an insatiable desire to learn, draw, grow, and waste space (why didn’t I develop the practice of using an entire page earlier!?). I enjoyed the process of looking at reference and translating it to paper. I liked everything I made, and everything I made liked me. It was a glorious time that I look back on with both contentment and horror. Contentment because it’s so good to feel good about what you’re doing. Horror because I was creating cliche anime knock-offs and beginner what-have-you.

Back in the day, I’d look at a cruddy old pencil drawing of my grandpa and think, yes. Yes! You’ve done it again. Mazel Tov. My entire sketchbook was filled moments like these. And I actually showed people the insides of those sketchbooks. People would widen their eyes in amazement before saying, “My god. This cat-girl belongs in an art museum!”. And I believed them. If they were to say that about my sketchbooks today, I would balk. When I draw a likeness and can’t get the curve of the face just so, I collect the kindling for my own burning.

I am energized by the false notion that if I just learn another skill, if I just paint another stroke, I’ll prove I’m not a fraud. In this, I’m not alone. Imposter syndrome plagues up to 70% of the populace at one time or another, driving typically able people to fear being ‘found out’ as a phony. Our failures perceived from another’s vantage point drown out all past praise, submerging the once successful person into a pit of over-compensation. But this assumes success, and of course mine is just good luck.

This attitude prevents me from fully accepting a piece of art for what it is at the time, for who I am as an artist at the time. I have reached the point in my career where art isn’t purely a joy, it is work. And work isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. In fact, for the last half hour I’ve gone back to my second paragraph and waffled between using the word ‘cat-girl’ or ‘magical girl’, though I’m pretty sure no one will care either way. I am pushed forward to write and rewrite to create something that is closer and closer to my current ideal. Yet there is a paralysis that comes with dissatisfaction, and this can stunt growth artistically and personally.

Never Finished, Always Learning

Maybe when we are fully enjoying the act of ‘being an artist’, reworking is something that comes from a place of learning. We are in love with creating, so acknowledging mistakes doesn’t hinder the ego. Yet lately I find the majority of my reworking a piece comes from discontent with my progress or skillset. Working towards achieving a blissful plateau of perfection is a bitter consuming fire. We can look back at nearly everything we’ve ever done and find inaccuracies. To this day I can’t go to my grandmother’s house without internally jumping off a cliff at the sight of an old portrait of mine. The left eye is a smidge bigger than the right. A glaringly obvious smidge. I want to let everyone know that I know the eye is rubbish. I want to make excuses. My own eye for errors or perceived failings is so keen that I live in a state of constant second-guessing. There is always something that can be cleaned up or altered.

But really, the truth is that something can always be revised or reworked. There has never been a perfect art piece or a perfect artist. The nagging inside that drives us forward toward perfection, our own idea of perfection, is something ephemeral. This quality is what makes artistic expression so lovely, and also so frustrating.

It is a beautiful thing to find flaws and fix them. It is also a sort of curse. When we become better artists, we realize just how much further we have to go. I suppose the next time I’m downplaying successes and internalizing inadequacies, I’ll remember Haruki Murakami’s sentiment that covers a multitude of sins:

A Commercial Format

An ‘Explainer video’ is a popular commercial motion picture format that utilizes animation and motion graphics to pitch a product or detail a service. They are commonly character driven and aim to educate the audience. When done properly, they are concise and sum up a company’s value proposition in a creative way. The challenge for most small businesses is the price point. High grade commercial explainer videos can cost 10’s of thousands of dollars per final minute of run time. We’d like to unpack exactly what goes into making one of these videos to give you some insight on the cost.

Behind the Scenes

The first step is understanding the massive amount of expertise, time, and effort that goes into a successful short form narrative such as an explainer video. This will hopefully help you cope with the price tag. Gaining insight into the technical and creative processes can help improve your communication and collaboration with the production studio during the process. Below are the major milestone of production that our studio takes when creating an explainer video for clients.

Phase One

1. Exploration – This is the discovery process where we dig into the essence and personality of your brand. We research the target market and develop a customer persona. The product and/or service is broken down to understand the ‘why’ behind what you do.
2. Script – We then translate what we gained through discovery into a heart felt, emotionally packed, and engaging story and write that into a script. This is the backbone of the following creative processes.
3. Pre-Visualization – Style sheets are created with mockups and reference material to start shaping the creative expression and visual tone of the piece. This is were color palette, typography and design style is locked in.
4. Storyboards – Shot by shot thumbnails are sketched in detail as the story starts to come to life.

Phase Two

1. Voice Over Recording – The first concrete step in sound design where voice talent is hired to read the voice over segments of the script. This helps pace the piece for music, animation and editing.
2. Music Score – We prefer to have each piece scored with custom music to ensure seamless cohesion with the script. In other instances, music is selected, licenses, and editing to support the video.
3. Character Illustration – Assuming the story is character driven, this is where the customer persona is brought to life in the form of the main character(s). The high fidelity illustrations are then broken apart and rigged for animation.
4. Element Design – All other design elements such as typography, landscapes, environments and any other motion graphic content is illustrated from scratch to match the visual aesthetic of the video style.

Phase Three

1. Basic Logo Animation – Logo bumpers can range in complexity, but we include a basic animation of the logo to ensure that it fits the piece in a powerful and seamless fashion.
2. Motion Graphics / Animation – All design elements and character are keyframed into motion as we build out the video, shot by shot.
3. Compositing – When including live action shots often times elements will need tracking, camera stabilization, rig removal and other visual effects to help improve the quality and achieve the objective of each shot.
4. Sound Effects Design – Individual sound effects are selected and edited to create a soundscape to represent the environment and mood of each shot.
5. Picture Editing – The animated shots are cut to perfect timing, pacing and length. This is where the full vision of the piece starts to be realized.
6. Color Timing – The final edit is color corrected, shot per shot to help tone the piece to fit a mood. and bring out the target contrast and saturation.
7. Formatting / Export – Important setting such aspect ratio, frame rate, dimensions, and compression are perfected to ensure that the video looks it’s greatest in whatever application you’ll be leveraging.

Closing

The Talent Pool

As you can imagine, each one of these production milestones is an important part of the creative and technical process. Reaching an audience in a relevant and impactful way is no easy task. To tackle such a challenge requires a highly skilled team of professionals in each particular discipline. If one step in the process isn’t done well the entire video can run flat and not hit it’s mark. So here’s a nod to those talented film makers out there…worth their weight in gold.

Need an Explainer Video?

We love creating commercial video content like explainer videos. If you’re interested in hiring us for your next big project then we’d LOVE to hear from you!

To celebrate the day, a couple of years before The Force Awakens was released we thought it would be fun to make a little animation of one of our favorite characters, R2D2, hanging out with a character, BB-8, from the film, The Force Awakens. We may have taken some creative liberties. Be sure to watch the video in HD. Enjoy!

We hope you liked this video as much as we enjoyed making it! Drop us a line if you have ideas on what we should do for our next video. We also make other cool stuff.

May the Fourth Be with You.

In this article we aim to help you differentiate the various applications of online interactive motion content, so that you can be well informed when creating your 2016 marketing budgets. In general, there are two main creative categories of video production: live action and animation. For the purposes of this article we are going to focus on animation, which in our case also encompasses motion graphics. This approach is often a more cost effective and flexible solution when it comes to commercial content.

Let’s jump in so you can have a clear idea of how animation and motion graphics can work for you.

1 Website Elements:

Incorporating subtle movement into a website can be a powerful and impressive method when done tastefully. This includes various interactive content such as motion icons, looping graphical elements, and transitions between pages or banners. Movement such as this can be constantly live, activated by a hover state, or started when the user moves over a certain part of the page. The example below is a sampling of a few motion icons we created. Depending on the complexity, animated elements for a website cost between of $500 – $1,000.

2 Lower Thirds / Title Cards:

This can include anything from the title of a short film to the name of an interviewee. These motion graphics elements use creative typography and motion to help aid in the narrative structure of a piece. These elements are often used in live action commercials, documentaries and narrative films.

3 Social Motion Post:

These are great for event promotions, product announcement, sales, and similar advertisements. This format is perfect for social posts with a runtime of 5-10 seconds and usually playing on a loop. They generally cost between $800 – $2,000

See the Instagram account here.

4 Motion Log:

Adding motion to a logo can dramatically improve the the professionalism of video content. Creating a motion logo is no easy task, it’s arguably as complex as the logo creation itself since every aspect of the motion should re-communicate the essence and persona of the brand. These are commonly referred to as bumpers as they are often added to the beginning and the end of video content. This is highly recommended for any brand that has video content accessible to their audiences as it really improves the professionalism of a video. These types of motion graphics are roughly 3-5 seconds in length with an average a cost between of $1,000 – $2,000.

5 User Interface Animation:

This is a powerful way to introduce users to an interactive interface such as a mobile app. It can easily be composited over live action footage or be a stand alone. This technique is pretty universal and can be utilized for such things as: promotional videos, crowdfunding campaigns, and tutorial videos to improve customer service. These can have a wide price range based on length and complexity but generally land between $3,000 – $8,000.

6 Explainer Video:

This is a particularly popular commercial style video that is designed to help explain a product or service. It is effective for introducing new products, introducing customers to an app or user interface, directly informing audiences and overviewing the value proposition of a service. These tend to be 30 – 90 seconds in length and generally cost between $4,000 – $9,000.

7 Commercial Animation Video:

This high grade commercial video content can take many forms but involves intense creative writing, animation, sound design, and editing with highly refined motion graphics and animation. In our opinion, this is among the best ways to reach an audience, create brand loyalty, and emotionally engage with your clientele. These videos are best used within a online marketing campaign through social media or other networks such as YouTube advertisements. With a running time of 30 – 90 seconds these cost between $5,000 – $15,000.

Our Expertise

We hope this gave you a solid understanding of your options when utilizing online video and to how best reach your audience. Animation and motion graphics is our expertise, so please don’t hesitate to take advantage of our free consultation. We’re more than happy to help you talk it through, explore your options and determine what type of motion content works best for your business.

Interested in Working with Us?

If you’re interested in hiring us for your next big project then we’d LOVE to hear from you!

^[1] Cisco, “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2014-2019 White Paper,”http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/ip-ngn-ip-next-generation-network/white_paper_c11-481360.html

Let me start by admitting that I’m a fan of motion picture. That is what my degree is in and what I’ve been doing professionally for the past 11 years. Placing that bias aside as much as possible I’m here to tell you, or remind you, that video content can drastically improve your marketing strategy. You probably don’t need me to tell you that peoples’ attention spans are low and bounce rates are high. Who can blame them?

We are constantly barraged with content and most of it just isn’t that good. People are forced to filter out the noise in order to simply stay sane. Users are bombarded with information and simply don’t have the time to pay attention to it all. So how do we reach them in a relevant and valuable way? Well, to put it simple… story!

Story is how we engage our audience in a deep emotional way. We all crave a good story. This is how we reach our audience and leave a deep impression. Its how we powerfully express and what we do and why we do it. And it is how we can provide value and build relationship.

The Power of Motion

Story is the key. The question then is, what is the most effective way to tell a story? Well we wouldn’t have written this article if we didn’t think we had the answer. Videos! Moving pictures have dazzled audiences since 1650 and proven its value ever since.

We’ve come a long way since the magic lantern, the phenakistoscope and the zoetrope. We can have the capability to reach across the globe by publishing on video content platform. Here are a few statistics to give you some perspective on the value of video:

• One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words^[1].
• 59% of senior executives prefer watching a video rather than reading text and 65% of them visit the vendor’s site after viewing.^[2]
• U.S. Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos online during the month^[3]
• 92% of video views on mobile devices share the video with other^[4]
• 70% of marketing professionals have reported that video converts better than all other mediums^[5]
• Homepage videos increase conversion rates by 20%^[6]
• Conversion rates can improve 80% when video is used on a landing page^[7]
• 80% of the World’s traffic will be video by 2019^[8]

Get Moving

Motion content is among the most consumable type of content on the web. It notoriously out-performs written content, and proves to be much more engaging than static images and designs.

Think about the last time you researched an application, product or service, or compared competitors. It’s likely that you watched a video explaining their product or service if it was available. From the user’s standpoint it’s downright the easiest and most effective way to understand what the product, service or company is all about. From the company perspective it is arguably the most cost-effective way to build a relationship, emotionally interact with your audience and to reach them in an incredibly engaging way.

^{[1] James McQuivey, “How Video Will Take Over The World,” https://www.forrester.com/How+Video+Will+Take+Over+The+World/fulltext/-/E-res44199, (July 15, 2010)
[2] “Video in the C-Suite: Executives Embrace the Non-Text Web,” Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/video_in_the_csuite/, (December, 2010)
[3] Andrew Lipsman, “U.S. Internet Users Viewed 10 Billion Videos Online in Record-Breaking Month of December, According to comScore Video Metrix,” https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2008/02/US-Online-Video-Usage
[4] Invodo, “Invodo Video Statistics The Marketers Summary,” http://www.invodo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Invodo_Video_Statistics_The_Marketers_Summary.pdf
[5] Tyler Lessard, “2015 Will Be the Year of Video Marketing,” http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/26719/2015-will-be-the-year-of-video-marketing
[6] Andrew Angus, “Why Explainer Videos Increase Conversion Rates by 20%,” http://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/explainer-videos-increase-conversions/
[7] Unbounce, “The Benefits of Using Video on Landing Pages,” http://unbounce.com/landing-page-articles/the-benefits-of-using-video-on-landing-pages/
[8] Cisco, “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2014-2019 White Paper,”http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/ip-ngn-ip-next-generation-network/white_paper_c11-481360.html}

We had the pleasure of creating the logo and website for Erin O’Neill, an incredibly talented singer/song-writer. Erin needed a way to easily share her upcoming gig schedule with fans, link to her new album for sale, and a way to share samples of her music so we built an easy to use WordPress based site for her. For the site logo, we decided to combine the pizzaz of the roaring ’20s with something sharp and modern from today. Check out both the site and new logo over at erinomusic.com.

A Voice Worth Listening To

If you’ve never heard of Erin or listened to her music then you’re missing out. Check out the video below from her YouTube account to get an idea of why she’s someone to keep an eye on.

Antonym Films is the bright and bold new commercial production company to hit the San Francisco Bay area. We recently had the honor of designing their website to coincide with the official company launch! Lead by a three incredibly talented heavy hitters in the advertising, photography and motion picture world this team of storytellers might just take over the world.

The Details

A minimalistic yet sophisticated approach was taken with all aspects of the visual design and user interface. With a seamless full width paradigm, we aggressively cut out all traces of fat, giving people a taste of the brand essence without overwhelming them with content.

With WordPress used for the backend, the client can easily update important sections on their own. The site has a fully responsive design and markup so that it looks and functions properly on any device, and it’s optimized for speedy load times.  We’re excited to have gotten to participate with the launch of antonym films and look forward to seeing what they do next!

Do you like goofy illustrated monsters? How about cheesy lines from famous films? Well we combined them so we hope you said yes to both of those!

We’re starting up a new series we call ‘Monsters Quoting Movies’ and we wanted to share. Watch the video and enjoy!

Process

Snapshot — character design to cheesy line quoting in no time:

1. Character Design – We started with some basic concepts for this monster but wanted to keep them friendly. Mostly, we wanted a monster that was what we imagined a “fuzzy purple people eater” would look like without the people eating.
2. Sound Design – The sound for this one has to be one of the worst lines from a good film we’ve ever heard. It’s from American Beauty (1999) and it’s, seriously, like a figurative car wreck of a line from a script (not included: the bit about the trash bag).
3. Animation – The main motion here is the lip sync but several other subtle movements needed to be introduced to express the character’s personality such as eye movement, body positioning, and movement. We’re especially happy with the awkwardness conveyed.

We believe in hard-work, perseverance, and community; the sorts of things that seem to fit well with the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day. It’s not just a day to get drunk and be merry (though we won’t turn down a pint a Guinness after hours to celebrate the day with friends). It’s a day to celebrate the underdog. It’s a day to celebrate Ireland and its culture. We think it’s also a day to celebrate creating your own luck. Enjoy the video we put together below and share it with a friend today.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Make your own luck.

So, as an excuse to collaborate with him we offered to animate his clean and classic signature logo…and here it is! (Editor’s note: We animated Sam’s logo completely on our own. He did not hire us or specifically ask us to create this. It was merely an exercise we did for fun for an illustrator whose work we enjoy.)

I think Sam was pleased with the results.

This is exactly why we love animation…if executed properly it brings to life an already amazing design.

If you are interested in collaborating with Sam you can reach him here: sam@samlarson.com. You can also learn more about him in this article by Everyday Carry.