Cass Productions: Beyond the screen

How using 2D animation can benefit your organisation

The use of 2D animation in a business or organisation can be extremely beneficial. Animated visuals are particularly effective at capturing attention, enhancing engagement, and reinforcing your message in a compelling way. Put simply animated videos simplify complex ideas in a way that is easy for your audience to understand.

THE PROJECT

Our client for this project was UKRI (UK Research and Innovation)

The aim of this animation was to explain the Technology Missions Fund which is designed to accelerate technological development by investing in the sectors of artificial intelligence, engineering biology, future telecommunications, and quantum technologies. 

Through the animated video, they wanted to illustrate how UKRI supports the emergence and development of technologies that have the potential to positively impact our society and economy.

CONCEPT & PLANNING

The key aim was to produce an explainer animation that portrayed the Technology Missions Fund in an engaging, creative, and interesting way. The first step in this process, once we receive the script, is to develop a storyboard.

This stage allows us to visualise the subject matter in a compelling and informative way. Given that this project focuses on how UKRI supports technological development across various sectors, it’s essential that each sector is clearly represented throughout the storyboard. Additionally, this phase is crucial for planning the technical aspects, including seamless transitions between scenes.

For storyboarding, we use Storyboarder, a free tool from Wonder Unit that has significantly streamlined our storyboard creation process. Its integration with Photoshop allows us to work within a familiar program while enjoying the flexibility Storyboarder provides. With features like drag-and-drop scene rearrangement and the ability to quickly add or remove sections, we can easily make adjustments, saving us time and enhancing workflow efficiency. This setup makes the entire storyboarding process smoother and more adaptable to changes.

DESIGN & STYLE

Building on the established crisp vector style from a previous UKRI animation, we enhanced and evolved the visuals.

By adding depth through layered scenes and creating more detailed assets, we enriched the overall visual experience. The clean 2D illustrations and refined colour palette effectively complemented the technical subject matter. While a fixed colour palette can sometimes be limiting, in this instance, utilising various shades created a cohesive and unified aesthetic.

With this animation we decided to create the assets using Adobe Illustrator, to give us the ability to work in a vector format. Working in vector allows us to create sharp, scalable graphics that retain quality at any resolution, ensuring the final animation looks polished across different screen sizes. Once the assets are created in Illustrator, they seamlessly integrate into Adobe After Effects for animation. With some scenes you may want to convert Illustrator assets into shapes within After Effects. This method allows you to manipulate specific points on the shape in ways that aren’t possible when working with the original Illustrator files.

This approach streamlines our workflow and maximises quality, enabling us to create visually engaging animations that maintain a professional and cohesive look from start to finish. 
  • 2D animation, animated video, Illustration

We focused on maintaining a smooth flow from one scene to another, either through seamless transitions or by using elements from the previous scene to transition into the next. Our goal was to minimise cuts, ensuring a cohesive pace and a fluid narrative throughout.

To create the animation in After Effects, we start by creating a clear folder structure to keep everything streamlined and accessible. For this project, our folder setup included “01. Assets,” “02. Comps,” and “03. VO,” with additional subfolders for specific elements as needed. Once the assets have been imported from Illustrator we can start the 3D animation. To do this we use keyframes in After Effects to bring characters and objects to life, precisely positioning each movement to achieve the desired animation.

The final product was a visually engaging animation that clearly showcased how UKRI supports the emergence and development of technologies that have the potential to positively impact our society and economy.

See how our multi-talented team can bring your vision to life. Check out our portfolio for more examples of our work.