Strategic Design for Brands Ready to Grow

Neographic Media is a creative studio specializing in brand identity, print design, web development, and digital marketing materials. We curate thoughtful visuals that drive engagement, build trust, and connect brands with their audiences across platforms.

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Category: Animation

  • The Power of Visual Branding Animated Infographic

    The Power of Visual Branding Animated Infographic

    Background

    Infographics are powerful visual aids that either compare things or break down complex information. As static images, infographics can be very engaging, but their large format can make it difficult to read through all of the information, particularly on mobile devices. This case study explores the use of motion graphics to design and animate a one-minute infographic that will move the viewer through its design in order to emphasize important information.

    This project required the use of animation techniques, such as animating with keyframes and the puppet tool in Adobe After Effects. Initially, experimenting with the puppet tool was a very intimidating challenge; however, it significantly contributed to the success of the end results. The final project showcases how motion graphics can effectively optimize infographics for mobile formats through animation.

    The Challenge

    For this project, the primary challenges include turning an already existing infographic into an animation, achieving seamless visual cohesion, and integrating appropriate music and sound effects. Addressing these challenges requires a clear set of goals to ensure the final product captivates viewers and communicates its message effectively.

    Clipboard Icon

    Design Goals

    • 1-Minute Minimum: This time requirement ensures the delivery of substantial information while maintaining brevity to keep viewers both informed and engaged.
    • Cohesive Visual Aesthetics: Ensure all artwork is cohesive and the scene is visually appealing, paying close attention to composition and depth.
    • Smooth Animation: Create seamless transitions and movement to maintain audience engagement.
    • Fades In/Out from Black: Employ a professional fade-in/fade-out technique for a polished start and finish.
    • Audio Components: Incorporate music and sound effects, while also achieving balanced audio levels to complement the visuals.
    • HD 1080 Preset: Build the project to the HD 1080 standard to ensure high-quality video resolution.

    These design goals essentially outline a successful animated infographic, ensuring the final product is both visually stunning and highly engaging for the audience.

    Preexisting Infographic

    For this animated infographic, the foundation was built on a past infographic, The Power of Visual Branding, that laid the groundwork for the story and visuals.

    The infographic that inspired the final animation

    The preexisting infographic not only inspired the animated version but also set the tone for its design and narrative flow. By reimagining core assets through animation, the infographic’s ability to inform and captivate a broader audience is greatly enhanced.

    Design Solution

    The completed animated infographic was published on the Neographic Media YouTube channel, showcasing a new format for infographics that is optimized for mobile devices.

    The development of this project was divided into three key stages, each playing a critical role in achieving its visual and narrative objectives:

    • Storyboarding: Establishing the narrative and planning the visual flow.
    • Creating Assets: Designing the each components to define the animation’s visual style.
    • Animating: Bringing static visuals to life with keyframing and seamless transitions.

    Each stage presented unique challenges and opportunities for creative refinement, which are explored further in the following subsections.

    Storyboarding

    Throughout the design process, several aspects from the initial storyboard evolved through iteration, ultimately enhance the final outcome. For instance, the final animation includes several assets not featured in the storyboard.

    However, the storyboard effectively outlines the visual and narrative objectives, particularly in the animation of the Memorability section. This approach enhances the playful tone, guides viewers seamlessly through the animation, and maintains their engagement throughout.

    Creating Assets

    All visual graphics for this project were created using Adobe Illustrator, with the color palette inspired by the original still infographic. Fun Fact: the green and purple featured in the design are the official colors of Neographic Media. These intentional aesthetic choices not only establish a cohesive visual connection to the original design but also Neographic Media as a brand.

    Animating

    Achieving smooth animation required extensive keyframing and experimentation. The process involved thoughtful timing and transitions to ensure that static 2D graphics felt lively and dynamic. Each adjustment played a vital role in bringing the visuals to life. The end result was an engaging animation with fluid motion graphics that enhanced the visual storytelling and successfully met the project’s creative goals.

    Conclusions

    This project showcases my ability to transform a static infographic into an engaging animated piece, demonstrating a solid understanding of design principles and animation techniques. Through thoughtful storyboarding, asset creation, and seamless animation, I was able to enhance the original design while maintaining a strong connection to the brand identity of Neographic Media.

    The challenges I faced throughout the process provided valuable learning opportunities that improved my technical skills in Adobe Illustrator and After Effects. Ultimately, this project is a testament to my ability to bring creative ideas to life, work through challenges, and produce high-quality visual content.

    Like what you see?

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  • Shooting a Stop Motion Title Sequence Youtube

    Shooting a Stop Motion Title Sequence Youtube

    Background

    This project focused on creating a title sequence for a how-to YouTube tutorial that gets viewers excited for the following video. This case study explores the process behind the development of the stop motion title sequence, using key techniques such as keyframing, time remapping, layer masking, and track-matting.

    Design Challenge

    The primary challenge was to produce title sequence for a YouTube tutorial while adhering to several technical and creative requirements. Key aspects of the challenge included:

    Title Sequence Objectives

    • Video Length: A duration between :30 seconds.
    • Title: Intentional type treatment and animation for how-to video title.
    • Credits: A minimum of three individual credits.
    • Skills: Demonstrate mastery of Adobe After Effects.
    • Visual Aesthetics: Must effectively complement the attached how-to tutorial.
    • Music: Appropriate music that complements the visuals.
    • HD 1080 Preset: Build the project to the HD 1080 standard to ensure high-quality video resolution.

    Solution

    Stop Motion Studio Logo
    Stop Motion Studio

    After two scrapped storyboards of including animated assets, stop motion was the idea settled on. This was the perfect fit for the animated sequence, considering that it was going to precede a how to tutorial about how to make a bouquet of flowers, complement the visuals.

    Shooting

    Stop motion was shot over the course of multiple days. A huge challenge during this part of the process was achieving consistent lighting over the course of multiple days, having to break down the set up between days. All images were shot using the Stop Motion Studio mobile application, which comes with an onion skin feature that really helped make the stop motion come to life.

    Day 1

    Started with the end of the stop motion sequence since the flowers were a living subject from the YouTube tutorial itself, it was important to shoot before they frayed from the lights or wilted from the lack of water.

    Day 2

    The ribbon sequence was the focus on the second day of shooting. Working with the tri-roll of ribbon, however, proved challenging due to its narrow width, causing the lines to roll back frequently.

    The ribbon color in this photo differs from the final title sequence, as this was a failed attempt to workaround issues with the tri-roll. The black ribbon did not work out since it clashed with the sequence’s aesthetic and struggled to remain upright due to its cardboard roll.

    Day 3

    The stop motion content from Days 1 and 2 turned out to not be :30 seconds worth of frames. This required quick thinking to make the deadline for this title sequence. On this day, the calendar and gift boxes were shot in the photo studio. This ended up working out perfectly in the end to hold the first credit of the sequence.

    Animating

    The animation for the title sequence was done using Adobe After Effects. involved a lot of track mattes and key frames to mask the objects and create the illusion that the text added post-production is interacting with the objects in the images.

    Screenshot of After Effects window, showing off extensive keyframing
    After Effects keyframing

    Conclusions

    This project really pushed my skillset as a graphic designer. Although I have had experience with stop motion in previous projects, it was nothing too extensive. The final title sequence strengthened my experience with keyframing, time remapping, layer masking, and track-matting in Adobe After Effects.

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    Explore our blog page for additional case studies and projects that showcase impressive graphic design and visual storytelling.

  • Froggy Frills Animated Diorama Using After Effects

    Froggy Frills Animated Diorama Using After Effects

    Background

    This case study explores the creation of a diorama-style animation using Adobe After Effects, where 2D assets are arranged to create a 3D effect. This project required mastering key techniques, such as keyframing and manipulating layers in 3D space, while navigating the software’s complex interface.

    Early challenges, including coordinating multiple layers and ensuring smooth movement within the 3D space, were addressed through a combination of trial and error and hands-on practice. The final polished animation showcases how motion graphics can effectively enhance visual storytelling by entering 3D space to achieve a greater sense of depth.

    The Challenge

    This design challenge revolves around creating and animating a diorama scene within Adobe After Effects to practice working in 3D space. Not only does this project emphasize technical skills in animation but also development of compelling visual storytelling.

    Design Goals

    • 15-Second Time Limit: This strict time constraint reflects real-world advertising scenarios, where companies purchase a specific amount of airtime, and any content exceeding the time limit would be cut off.
    • Keyframe at Least 15 Elements: Demonstrate a strong understanding of keyframing techniques in After Effects.
    • Visual Aesthetics: Ensure all artwork is cohesive and the scene is visually appealing, paying close attention to composition and depth.
    • Smooth Animation: Create seamless transitions and movement to maintain audience engagement.
    • Opening and Closing “Curtain” Effect: Use this trick to ease viewers in and out of the animation while paying respect to the animation’s theme.
    • Fades In/Out from Black: Employ a professional fade-in/fade-out technique for a polished start and finish.
    • Audio Components: Incorporate music and sound effects, while also achieving balanced audio levels to complement the visuals.
    • HD 1080 Preset: Build the project to the HD 1080 standard to ensure high-quality video resolution.

    These objectives ultimately served as the framework for creative and technical aspects of this project, requiring careful attention to both visual and auditory components.

    Project Timeline

    This timeline outlines the key phases of the project, defining the process from initial concept development to the final animation over a 3-week period.

    The following section delves into the final design solution that was developed to meet the project goals and bring the diorama to life.

    Design Solution

    The final design solution was posted on the Neographic Media YouTube account:

    The process of developing this diorama-style animation was broken down into key stages, each contributing to the project’s overall visual and narrative goals:

    • Storyboarding: Establishing the narrative and visual flow.
    • Creating Assets: Designing the individual components to establish the diorama’s style.
    • Animating: Breathing life into the still visuals through keyframing and smooth transitions.

    Each phase came with its own set of challenges and opportunities for creative refinement, explained in the following subsections.

    Storyboarding

    Throughout the design process, several elements evolved through iteration to enhance the final outcome. For example, adjustments to pacing led to the removal of certain audio cues that were initially planned, but ultimately disrupted the flow of the animation.

    However, the storyboard effectively lays out the visual and narrative goals, particularly through creative choices like using flowers to open and close the scene, acting as the curtain that frames the animation. This decision adds to the whimsical tone and connects the beginning and end in a cohesive way.

    Creating Assets

    All visual assets were created and edited using Adobe Illustrator. To further connect the final animation to a real-life diorama, a pencil stroke style and roughen effect was applied to achieve a more hand-crafted, textured look.

    A bright and cheery color palette was chosen to add a child-like touch, complementing the diorama theme. Overall, these intentional aesthetic choices helped reinforce the playful and whimsical nature of the final animation.

    Animating

    Achieving smooth animation required extensive keyframing and experimentation. The process involved thoughtful timing and transitions to ensure that static 2D graphics felt lively and dynamic. Each adjustment played a vital role in bringing the visuals to life.

    The end result was an engaging animation with fluid motion graphics that enhanced the visual storytelling and successfully met the project’s creative goals.

    Conclusions

    This project ultimately served as a solid introduction into both the creative and technical aspects animation, offering valuable experience into the craft. The focus on smooth transitions and fluid animations required careful attention to timing and keyframing, ensuring that the motion remained natural and engaging. Additionally, the requirement to incorporate both visual and audio components enhanced the final product’s overall polish, reinforcing the importance of sound design in animation. Ultimately, this project not only reinforced animation skills but also emphasized the importance of utilizing both visual and auditorial elements to effectively engage viewers.

    Like what you see?

    Explore our blog page for additional case studies and projects that showcase impressive graphic design and visual storytelling.