What to include in an animation brief?
When it comes to animation, the possibilities are endless. It can be used to simplify abstract and complex information, making it perfect for explainer videos or eLearning. With animation you have more freedom compared to traditional video, you can include multiple locations and characters, and visually present information and data.
If you’re looking to commission an animation, but not sure of what to include in the brief, we’ve compiled a list of considerations for your project.
What type of animation do you want to create?
This is the first question we ask that helps to inform the entire brief. There are different types of animations, from training animations to explainer animations. If you’re not sure of the type of animation you want, try thinking about what you hope to achieve with the animation project.
Who is the target audience?
Once you define what type of animation you want to create, it’s time to think who the animation is aimed at. Are you making this animation for new customers, existing customers, or is it for your staff?
What is the objective of the animation?
Knowing the objective of the animations helps to inform the animation script. The objective could be key messages that you want to deliver to your target audience, information you want to help your audience to understand, or you may want to convey the benefits of your product or service.
Do you have a preferred animation style?
We can create animations in a broad range of styles, ranging from corporate, cartoony, to more technical and scientific. If you’re not sure of the style you want, we are happy to advise on this based on your animation’s objective and target audience. Alternatively, you could look at our existing videos to get inspiration of styles.
How long should the animation be?
The length of the animation to inform the length and required budget for the project. This all depends on the type of animation you’re looking to create, for homepage animations we recommend they are between 90 and 120 seconds, and for more in-depth explainer animations we recommend they are a maximum of 3 to 4 minutes.
What information should the animation include?
When it comes to writing the animation script, the more information you can provide to us the better. This could include background information about your business or service, or any data that you want to showcase in the animation.
Should the animation feature any existing assets?
As well as the information you want to include in the animation, are there any existing assets you want to include? These could be design elements such as your logo, icons, and web designs, or media assets such as existing animations, videos, images and infographics.
Should the animation follow your brand guidelines?
Do you have formal brand guidelines that the animation should adhere to? If not, you can provide us with a link to your website or other business materials that we can use as guidance for colours and fonts.
Will the animation need a voiceover?
Many of our animations feature a voiceover as this is the easiest way of conveying information quickly. The only exceptions to this are animations designed for expos or social media feeds where the audio may be disabled. If your animation requires a voiceover, we can source a voiceover artist. Let us now if you have any preferences for the voiceover, such as age, gender, accent and style.
Where will the animation be hosted?
Where will you host the final animation? Will it be uploaded to your website, shared on your social media feed, or shown at an event? Our default file format for animations is HD (1920 x 1080) mp4, but we can provide the animation file in different formats depending on your needs.
Do you have a deadline for the animation?
An important consideration for the animation brief is your project deadline. If you need the animation for a specific date, such as an event or product launch, we’ll need to know this upfront to confirm whether we can deliver the project within that timeframe.
Who is responsible for sign-off?
One area that can impact the delivery of an animation project is the sign-off. Do you know who in your organisation needs to provide sign-off for this project? Your legal team, or senior internal stakeholders could potentially cause delays in sign-off that can lead to missed deadlines.
What is your project budget?
Once we know what kind of animation you’re looking to create, we can provide you with a cost and time estimation. Knowing how much budget you have up front helps up to know whether we can realistically deliver on your animation project brief.
We hope that this has given you an idea of what to include when developing an animation brief. If you have any questions, or if you think there’s anything we’ve missed, please contact us at info@hyperfinemedia.co.uk.