Explainer - Mombi
2020
2020
Briefing
In the beginning of the year 2020 I applied to a School of Motion course "Explainer Camp" to further build my skillset and polish the craft around explainer videos.
The final assignment for this intense, three-months course was to animate a 30 second brand film for a fictional brand. I selected the brief for 'Mombi', a fictitious, Google-like technology company, whose brand ethos is “Making the Miraculous Ordinary.” The process would involve all aspects from concepting, creating mood boards, storyboards, animatics, styleframes, boardomatics, first pass animation to final render.
The final assignment for this intense, three-months course was to animate a 30 second brand film for a fictional brand. I selected the brief for 'Mombi', a fictitious, Google-like technology company, whose brand ethos is “Making the Miraculous Ordinary.” The process would involve all aspects from concepting, creating mood boards, storyboards, animatics, styleframes, boardomatics, first pass animation to final render.
Process
The course structure described pretty well how a project like this had to be handled in terms of production steps. This gave great insights and although I had already produced a dozen explainer videos at this point, the importance of preproduction and communication with the client really stood out. Creating Moodboards, Sketches, Styleframes and an animatic are all equally important steps in the process to ensure the client is happy at all times.
The creation of moodboard is really important step in terms of style research. I initially presented three different visual concepts for this project.
Due to project constraints I went for a minimal style with thin outlines, strong geometric shapes that focus on a strong composition. Some effects like Depth of field and glows are introduced here as well.
With the visuals already in mind I began to sketch scenes according to the script. Scene by Scene I had to think of how to use visual metaphors that enhance the voice-over and properly tell the story of the company.
The visuals become part of the voice. Everything needs to be in unity to perfect an explainer. At no point the viewer may get lost or irritated. Thats why a coherent style, matching visuals and animation are so important.
The visuals become part of the voice. Everything needs to be in unity to perfect an explainer. At no point the viewer may get lost or irritated. Thats why a coherent style, matching visuals and animation are so important.
Creating an animatic was a crucial step in the production, although the visuals are just sketches at this point, the timing can be figured out. Adding sound-fx and music holds the video together and already gives you a good overall feel of the motion. At this point it is also really easy to make changes and adjust the timing if requested by the client.
When the styleframes were done it was time for my favorite part, animation. Especially with simple shapes as in this example you can put a lot of love to the motion in order to make them special and express different feelings just by the way these dots travel the screen. To me that is always a fascinating thing to see.
With the final animation and voice-over in place it was time to add the music, sound-fx and master everything together in premiere. This step is really about bringing everything together and making the whole piece feel more engaging.
"Love this piece, Tobias! It's great work. Congrats!!"
- Van Velvet, Technical Assistant / Teacher at School of Motion
THANKS FOR WATCHING!
