School of Motion Explainer Camp
Client
Burmuda
Role
Concept, design, animation, sound design
When learning motion design, YouTube tutorials and free project downloads will only take you so far. I wanted to go deeper and learn as much about the motion design process as possible. So, I made an investment in myself and enrolled in an online course called Explainer Camp by School of Motion. This course took me through the entire explainer video process, using simulated client briefs, phone calls, and real feedback from teaching assistants. “From script to final render,” in the words of course instructor, Jake Bartlett. This course taught me so much and I am so excited to be able to share it with the world.
Keep it brief
For my simulated project, I chose to work for Bermuda, a pre-revenue startup aimed at building the “Uber of Boats.” Their mission is to help boat owners earn extra money by renting out their unused boats using a developing smartphone app. Their plan was to produce a commercial to several large investment firms in an effort to secure Series A funding for their app. They came to me with a script, logo, and brand colors, but an otherwise open brief.
Conceptualization
After listening to the first simulated call and learning as much about client’s goals as possible, I began thinking of ways to effectively explain their message using simple metaphors. During this time I was also thinking about the look and feel I wanted for the final animation. I used mind mapping exercises to narrow down my list of metaphors to things like “boat,” “captain,” “search,” “the day they sell the boat,” etc. At the end of this phase I presented a treatment and moodboards to my pretend client. Once I realized that an origami boat could also be a pirate’s hat, it was smooth sailing from there.
Preproduction
Before I could start animating I needed to provide my client a general idea of what the final animation would be like using sketches, styleframes, an animatic, and a boardimatic. Animation can take a long time and it is a very labor intensive process. It was important for me to get approval from my client on each step before moving on to the next. Deciding how the animation can look from the get-go will save a lot of valuable time the animating starts.
Things got a little sketchy
First, I sketched out the animation in my head using a storyboard template provided by School of Motion. I’m not the best drawer, but that’s okay. What is most important is getting the idea from inside your head onto paper.
Animatic
After roughly sketching out my ideas on paper, I cleaned up the sketches in Photoshop before adding them to the animatic along with my rough voice over and the music I planned to use.
Storyboards
Once the animatic was approved, I was able to move onto design. These storyboards helped me show the client what colors, shapes, textures I wanted to use in the final piece.
