Animation - Straple

RESEARCH: Our most important task was finding a simple, yet engaging way to communicate a complex service. We needed something that follows or compliments the brand guidelines and speaks to the key audience.

Several soundtracks used for Straple animation

SOUNDTRACK: With this video, we knew we wanted to let the music dictate the pace of the piece so the team gathered to listen to soundtracks together. We let the tracks inspire us and we came out of it with 3 different tracks and 3 different directions for the story.

SCRIPT: We wrote 3 scripts to fit the soundtracks, each with a different narrative style. One abstract piece, one inspired by atomic design, and one focusing on brand positioning. We timed the words to the music and presented the videos for review.

Animation sketches for Straple with storyboard

STORYBOARD: Once we chose a direction for the video, it was time to figure out the visuals. We gathered together, mapped out the entire story to the script, with pen and paper and laid it out. This gives everyone a strong idea of how the story will play out visually.

6 SECOND SAMPLE: During the storyboarding process, we also picked a 6 second section to animate in full. This gives everyone a preview of how the entire animation will look like. Colours, movement, style, music and VO are all reviewed at this stage and tweaked if need be.

Example user flow of Straple of different social platforms

STORYBOARD VS FINAL: You can see how much of the storyboard is reflected in the final animation. We go through many alterations during the storyboard phase as it’s a lot easier and more cost-effective to change things early on than it is to do so during the animation process.

FIRST CUT AND FINAL CUT: Once we had the script, style, storyboard and VO signed off, we started working on the first cut, which is the first edit of the entire video. We then reviewed its timing, flow and message once more, before finally creating and delivering the final cut.

Watch the final animation.

KEY TEAM MEMBERS

Iulia

She / her. Iulia is Rusty Monkey’s animation, illustration and 3D expert. Responsible for making everything beautiful, she also dabbles in graphic design and UX design. Among her credits is an animated music video for local parody heavy metal band Evil Scarecrow. A talented artist, she showcases her work on her Instagram channel. She usually spends most of her time in some random corner of the house with a drawing tablet and a pen, scribbling away. Cat obsessed. Professional house plant killer. Autumn lover. Maker of things.

See their work

PROJECT

A project can help you reach your goals quickly and cost-efficiently. We run our projects using Wagile project management.

PROJECT TIMELINE

Stage 1

Style, direction and soundtrack

Stage 2

Script, storyboard and asset creation

Stage 3

6 second sample

Stage 4

First cut

Stage 5

Final cut

THE CLIENT

Gravita, a full-service agency who collaborates with teams to build brands, products and experiences that have a meaningful impact.

THE GOAL

Gravita needed a cool way to introduce their users to their new product, Straple, a design and development suite for start-ups.

THE SOLUTION

We opted for a simple animation to communicate a top-level message using graphics inspired by the product with a VO.

Animation is one of the best ways to communicate new products and services because it makes it easy to convey complex information in an engaging way.

THE TEAM

Our creative guild, led by our animation expert Iulia.

THEY SAID

"The Team at Rusty Monkey supported our new product launch by creating compelling story driven video ads. The whole process was a joy, feeling very much a part of the process and being truly collaborative.

Our Team would highly recommend Rusty Monkey and no doubt will collaborate again with them in the future."

-- Benn Raistrick, Gravita