All good animations start with a great strategy. Whether you’re making a film as part of a wider campaign, or it’s a standalone explainer, we’re here to make developing an animation easy and help you get the best results for your investment. We believe that at the heart of all great projects is a strong partnership. So to make sure that your animation is a success, we first need to get to know you and understand the problem that this project will help solve.

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Before we start talking about creative approaches or finalising budgets, it’s important we develop a strategy for your animation. This could be in the form of a simple half an hour kick-off meeting, all the way through to a workshop day to discuss the ins and outs of our process and how you can use animation across your marketing. Here’s why this important step sets us on the road to success.

Purpose

By taking a step back from the end outcome, we can focus on finding a solution to your communication challenges. It might be that animation isn’t what you need at all, or the type of animation is different to what you first imagined. We’ll find out what you want your audience to think, feel and do after watching. Then using our expertise in animation and telling stories, work together to devise the strategy to deliver this.

Budget

If you have a budget in mind, we’ll work together to decide how to get the most out of it. Is a social campaign most important or would a longer explainer be better for your audience? If you’re new to animation and you have no idea what budget to allocate, we can help you work this out based on what you need and what’s best for your business. An honest, open conversation makes sure we all have the same vision right from the start.

Brand consistency

We get to understand your bigger brand picture. Not only your tone of voice and brand personality but also the context around the film. We’ll consider where best for the film to play out as well as the other content you have surrounding this message, for example, a web page, a social campaign or an event. Through this, we make sure that what we deliver sits within your wider marketing plan. This also gives us an opportunity to see where different assets and animations could complement other parts of the campaign, for example developing a set of consistent character designs.

Delivering value

We’ll also make sure you get a greater return on investment. Planning at an early stage gives you more content that you can use for longer, across more channels. By looking at the bigger picture, we can deliver value, not just in the short term but long term too. This focus means we make sure your budget works as hard as possible for you and delivers results.

Pause

 

After we’ve discussed and put together the animation strategy, we can plot out the deliverables that best suit. Then we’ll develop a creative approach that will delight audiences and stakeholders alike. Ultimately we want to create something that delivers the aims and ambitions of your project, on budget – and make your life easier in the process. Whether you’ve never commissioned animation before, or you’re a seasoned pro, whatever stage you’re at in the process, get in touch to book a call and we can get started working out your strategy.

How about some more updates?

Everybody’s welcome at Little Motel

At the heart of our boutique motion and animation studio is a passion to connect and understand our clients. We’re a small team of dynamic and skilled people delivering campaign changing outcomes. Working together, the partnerships we forge with our clients are effective and long-term.

Let’s start something

Get your project moving

Before we bring your message to life with magical motion, we always create style frames and mood boards for all of our projects.

All animations are different. Everything we create is bespoke for you and your brand. And style frames make sure everyone’s on the same page, right from the start. Here’s why we think it’s a crucial step in the process:

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Style frames are a perfect visual reference and guide for the overall look and feel of the animation. They help establish the creative approach, so you can see the colour palette and textures, as well as character, icon or typography style.

It’s also an early chance to get your feedback. Style frames bring the proposed visual concept to life so you can feedback and changes can be implemented.

They help with the creative process. We can explore different visual approaches and make decisions based on brand guidelines, target audience, project objectives and aesthetics. Style frames help us refine and finalise the visual direction before getting stuck into full storyboard production.

explainer animation studio motion graphics leeds yorkshire charity non-profit

We’re firm believers that investing time in creating style frames can save significant resources in the long run. By defining the visual style early on, we can avoid major revisions during the animation production phase.

Easier for you. Easier for us. More cost-effective production all around, with even better results. Everyone’s happy.

explainer animation studio motion graphics leeds yorkshire charity non-profit

How about some more updates?

Everybody’s welcome at Little Motel

At the heart of our boutique motion and animation studio is a passion to connect and understand our clients. We’re a small team of dynamic and skilled people delivering campaign changing outcomes. Working together, the partnerships we forge with our clients are effective and long-term.

Let’s start something

Get your project moving

The team made their first visit to Manchester Animation Festival this year for a day of inspiration and insight into all things animation.

We kicked things off with a panel session called ‘How to Pitch’.  Featuring industry professionals from BBC, BFI, Karrot animation and animation director J.P. Vine, it offered great insight into pitching for TV with a hugely inspirational panel of experts. We picked up some great tips to help improve our pitches in general, as well as an insight into the world of commissioning children’s animation. We loved the idea of “pitching for feedback, not solely for commissions”. Stressing the importance of presenting yourself confidently and your ideas clearly, but more importantly listening to and implementing the feedback you get to make your idea stronger.

We also got a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Aardman’s Lloyd of the Flies. We were excited to see the workings from initial concept all the way through to 50+ 11 minute episodes. It was interesting to see how they mixed a hybrid of 3D and 2D animation. This is something we’ve talked lots about trying to implement more of, so to see the pipeline was inspiring and gave us lots of food for thought.

Our final session was the ‘Animation Mixtape’. Having an hour to sit down and watch a collection of animated short films in the cinema setting was great. It’s not often the team get to dedicate that kind of time, in that kind of environment to just watch short films and be inspired. Our joint pick for favourite animation of the festival was ‘Ice Merchants’ directed by João Gonzalez.

All in all, it was excellent to spend a day with the team away from the computers, full of inspiration. We can’t wait for next year!

How about some more updates?

Everybody’s welcome at Little Motel

At the heart of our boutique motion and animation studio is a passion to connect and understand our clients. We’re a small team of dynamic and skilled people delivering campaign changing outcomes. Working together, the partnerships we forge with our clients are effective and long-term.

Let’s start something

Get your project moving

The team made their first visit to Manchester Animation Festival this year for a day of inspiration and insight into all things animation.

We kicked things off with a panel session called ‘How to Pitch’.  Featuring industry professionals from BBC, BFI, Karrot animation and animation director J.P. Vine, it offered great insight into pitching for TV with a hugely inspirational panel of experts. We picked up some great tips to help improve our pitches in general, as well as an insight into the world of commissioning children’s animation. We loved the idea of “pitching for feedback, not solely for commissions”. Stressing the importance of presenting yourself confidently and your ideas clearly, but more importantly listening to and implementing the feedback you get to make your idea stronger.

We also got a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Aardman’s Lloyd of the Flies. We were excited to see the workings from initial concept all the way through to 50+ 11 minute episodes. It was interesting to see how they mixed a hybrid of 3D and 2D animation. This is something we’ve talked lots about trying to implement more of, so to see the pipeline was inspiring and gave us lots of food for thought.

Our final session was the ‘Animation Mixtape’. Having an hour to sit down and watch a collection of animated short films in the cinema setting was great. It’s not often the team get to dedicate that kind of time, in that kind of environment to just watch short films and be inspired. Our joint pick for favourite animation of the festival was ‘Ice Merchants’ directed by João Gonzalez.

All in all, it was excellent to spend a day with the team away from the computers, full of inspiration. We can’t wait for next year!

How about some more updates?

Everybody’s welcome at Little Motel

At the heart of our boutique motion and animation studio is a passion to connect and understand our clients. We’re a small team of dynamic and skilled people delivering campaign changing outcomes. Working together, the partnerships we forge with our clients are effective and long-term.

Let’s start something

Get your project moving