Whether it’s a thrilling, fast-paced tale of adventure or a simple, heartwarming tale, the best stories are the result of extensive planning.
Good stories weren’t just made by chance, you know.
Whether it’s a thrilling, fast-paced tale of adventure, or a simple heartwarming tale, the best stories are the result of extensive planning.
There’s the task of coming up with a concept in the first place. Then, there’s all the work that goes into crafting a narrative, and shaping its introduction, the obstacle in the middle (where you keep your audience on tenterhooks), and the joyful moment of resolution that concludes it all.
What’s more, even after all these question marks are figured out, you have to ensure that all the key moments are timed to perfection. Engagement has to be held from the beginning right through to the end. This means keeping the momentum going, while also confirming that the plot is easy for viewers to follow.
It’s a lot of points to cover. And that is, precisely, why animation storyboards are such an invaluable addition to a campaign.
An animation storyboard is, in essence, a detailed visual layout of the plan for your animation.
Story boarding is the final step before the illustration and animation begin. As a result, storyboards are designed to provide a full outline of the animation, its characters and its narrative plot.
The animation storyboard will feature a series of panels, each filled with a rough illustration. These should cover each of the animation's key scenes in order, while also giving the team that is working on the project a strong sense of what the final result will look and feel like. The end result is not dissimilar to a roughly-drawn comic strip.
Using an animation storyboard saves teams significant time and money. Animation and illustration are both lengthy processes. So, by adding the pre-step of creating and presenting an animation storyboard, all the invested parties can visualise the content and provide their feedback, before it has been illustrated and animated. This means that changes can be made far more quickly, easily and, therefore, cheaply.
To this aim, animation storyboards give reviewers a very comprehensive understanding of the entire animation proposal. This includes the characters (both their design and their personas), backgrounds and setting, the scenes and storyline, pacing, the narrative arc, camera angles and frame compositions, and how the key messages will be communicated.
As a result, animation storyboards are a fantastic way to get detailed and accurate feedback, ensuring reviewers get a clear sense of the designer’s vision.
They are also ideally suited to engaging with any clients, stakeholders and other team members. Equally, this clear layout helps the marketing and creative teams to fine-tune their design and concept.
Then, once amends have been made and approved, storyboards can be used by the illustration, animation and voiceover teams, to achieve a precise, sleek piece of content.
In order for a storyboard to achieve all the benefits listed above, it should include the following key components:
Finalising the storyboard - finally, take in any amends that have been requested, and finalise the storyboard. Then, it is ready to send over to your illustrators and animators.
Having a storyboard unlocks a wide range of advantages for the animation process. These span everything from improving the precision of your storytelling, to getting a clearer estimation of costs.
The main benefits of creating and sharing an animation storyboard include:
As you can see, although they are simple on the surface, storyboards form the foundation of a successful animation project.
Animation storyboards play a pivotal role in securing strong storytelling, seamless design, and engaging narratives, while also fuelling clearer communication, and achieving more precise and valuable feedback sessions.
In short, they are the crux of securing the highest quality end result, which utilises all the inputs, ideas and talents of your team.
OK Social is a motion graphic studio, specialising in the creation of powerful, engaging animations. In practice, this means that we help clients - spanning a huge range of industries, products and services - to design memorable branded content, which is precisely geared to achieve all their core KPIs.
Don’t want to take our word for it? It’s for these reasons that we’re the trusted motion graphic studio of some of the world’s largest brands, including the likes of Coca-Cola, the BBC, Deliveroo and Ford. To find out more about our animation services, and how they can be used to enhance your marketing strategies, our talented team are on hand to help.
I’m Jack, the Motion Director here at OK Social. I’ve been working in the world of motion design and animation for nearly 10 years. I had the pleasure of working with leading agencies and brands around the world, such as Samsung, Ford, Shell, Deliveroo, and Starbucks, to name a few.
From a young age, I’ve always been interested in animation, from making stop-motion films in my room as a kid to learning animation on my first computer. It started as a passion and still is to this day. Part of what I do now is more than just animation. I help craft the narratives of the stories we tell to ensure they make an impact to the audience and remain worthy of their attention.
So how do I do that? It starts with asking the right questions, leading to solving the right problems. First, diagnose what the problem is. Then, we can start to see if we can help. I believe that communication plays a key role in delivering a smooth and successful project. Looking into the future, I’m excited to expand my knowledge into creating more engaging stories that make a difference.