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Motion Graphics Animation

When appropriate, the use of animation can engage your audience, clarify your message and promote your service.

Motion graphics is a type of animation that sets vector illustrations, text, and other graphic design elements in motion, bringing a character, chart, or brand asset to life. This type of animation can improve clarity and provide emphasis to content that is sometimes difficult to digest as text.

Animation allows us to tell stories and communicate emotions and ideas in a way that is somewhat universally easier to perceive. It can help your audience understand a concept in a way that sometimes writing and live-action cannot and can be illustrated in a way that is inclusive and engaging to the widest of audiences.


Examples

Short 6-20 Second Animations

Motion graphics can be used to communicate your brand or simplify complex emotions and ideas. A few seconds of motion graphics can clarify your message in a visually appealing way. For example, this 16 second Ohio State University Sesquicentennial animation(link is external) depicts words used to describe the university's vision, goals, mission, and values. These short animations can be used to promote understanding of a concept or brand via email and social media platforms or as bumpers to break up topics and content within videos or presentations.


Narrative 1-2 Minute Animations

Motion graphics can also be used to explain processes and craft narratives, such as this Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks animation. Dry content can be made more dynamic and reach a larger audience. Due to the effort involved in these narrative animations, it’s not recommended for concepts that may change within 6-9 months which would cause the animation to become quickly outdated or obsolete.


Process 

  1. First, start by contacting your MarComm representative with your needs, audience, and intended outcome or purpose. Please keep in mind that narrative animations should be no more than 1-2 minutes in length and bumper animations should be no more than 6-20 seconds. The longer narrative animation process can take anywhere from one to several months depending on length, complexity, number of edits, and the workload queue.
  1. Your rep will help you determine if animation is the right medium to help you meet your goals and where and how the animation can be most useful to your audience: social media, resource centers, web pages, news articles, presentations. If time, resources or subject matter do not permit or warrant animation, an infographic can be a great alternative.
  1. If a narrative animation will help meet your needs, your rep will work with you to ensure that the correct audience and outcome are addressed in the script.  
  1. Once the script has been finalized and approved by both you and your rep, your rep will provide it to Web and Design to create the storyboard which can take between 3-6 hours depending on the complexity and length of the script. 
  1. You and your rep will need to approve the script and storyboard before the animation process can begin. The approved storyboard illustrations will then need to be broken down into their individual components so each scene can be animated separately. 
  1. Once the animation process begins, the timeline will depend on the length of the content and the number and complexity of the edits you and/or your rep request. 
  1. If your animation requires a voiceover, you will need to decide who will be reading the script. Your rep will put them in touch with Media Services to provide support or to create the voiceover for you. Media Services will provide the audio files to Web and Design where the animator will synchronize the audio with the motion graphics. If any script changes are required, this process will need to be repeated which will add to the timeline. 
  1. The animator will then synchronize the animation with the voiceover narration while following the approved storyboard which can take between 2-4 hours. 
  1. Once the audio is synchronized with the brand-approved visuals, the video file will be submitted to you and your rep for final approval. 
  1. Once you have approved the final video file, a thumbnail, captions, and a transcript will be uploaded to the appropriate platform and channel. 
  1. Your MarComm rep will then work with Web and Design to embed the video and transcript into the appropriate places to meet your goals.